Share Your Life Hacks!

[George the original one]

6 mil black plastic sheeting to kill everything before turning area into a garden bed. Also useful for keeping clay garden bed dry enough for early tilling if you live in a rainy winter climate. Fold/roll up and store for later use.

[BecaS]

Susswein, George the original one, that is awesome. We drove through some of those places on our way via car from Mt. Rainier to Mt. St. Helen. It was almost magical to drive through that pristine forest and see families who were just off road, camping by a stream in tents, truck campers, trailers, etc. all self-sufficient for whatever time they were camping, cooking over their campfires. Really, really pretty.

We were also aware of some BLM land on which people camped in southern Utah, in the desert. We were actually out there in an off-grid lodge but we didn't see anyone camping at that time. That was also gorgeous.

We have some National Forest land in the western/southwestern part of the state that's available for off grid camping. I will confess that we've not yet investigated it.

I'm sitting here doing the math in my head, calculating whether we'd have the towing capacity, GVWR in the tow vehicle for the added tongue weight on the hitch, and GCWR in the tow vehicle to get over the mountains and into National Forest land if we added a full tank of fresh water, an extra battery and a small genny.

We should; IIRC we calculated our SUV's capacity using full loads on the trailer in various realistic scenarios, where we'd be likely to travel.

At one point I remember doing the math for crossing the Rockies (not like that's imminent) but figuring out what our cargo capacity would be while allowing enough performance margin for higher altitudes. We can do it, but not with a full cargo load on board. We'd have to be conservative about our cargo but we usually are. I wouldn't load the trailer full to its GVWR with cargo and/or water and try to cross the Rockies.

Dang it! Now I want to camp off grid in SW VA! SEE WHAT YOU STARTED, SUSSWEIN and GEORGE! To both of you: Where is your favorite place to camp?

[susswein]

Too many different places to pick just one, but I spend a lot of time in the san rafael swell area in southern utah because it's just a few hours away. Farther afield, just about anywhere in Alaska or Baja. I took a 2 month roadtrip to Alaska a few years ago and camped for free every single night.

[George the original one]

If you're camping, there's no need for the trailer or generator or battery. That's just taking the city with you. Picnic grounds and rest areas will provide potable water, so you only need a few gallons for several days and refill as needed.

Way back in time, about 1973, there were a couple nights spent camping in the Ozarks in October that was pretty special. Was part of a month-long car trip from Portland to Yellowstone to New Orleans to Brownsville to Albuquerque to Grand Canyon and back to Portland.

Lately I spend a night or two every year camping in the Middle Santiam Wilderness since it's a little far for a daytrip. August is good for watching Persied meteor shower. Have enjoyed time along the Deschutes River, near Fossil (lower John Day River), upper John Day River, Alvord Desert, Blue River, Oakridge vicinity, anywhere on the coast...

[BecaS]

Here's where Beca makes a confession:

We've had some really awesome tent camping trips in which I was very comfortable. I mean, air mattress. Really comfortable. Not roughing it.

That being said, there have been enough weird things that have happened, not to us but within our sphere of awareness, that I strongly prefer sleeping behind a closed and locked door.

Statistics are overwhelming that whatever it is won't happen to me. I know that. Statistics won't matter if it does happen to me. I know that as well.

A lot of times we use our trailer as a mobile hotel room. It costs plenty to haul it down the road but it's still tons cheaper than flying and renting hotel rooms. Also, bedbugs. NOT.

We do still use it for "camping" although with a refrigerator, a hot water bathroom, a propane oven, a DC fan and a furnace, I refer to even off-grid camping as "glamping." (Heck, I'm trying to remember now just how off grid we've been with the trailer... we were certainly off grid in our tent and in our pop ups, but I don't think we've done any off grid camping in the trailer- that must be corrected!)

Also our state parks in VA are so nice, so very very nice, that it's kind of hard to break away from them.

BTW, I've been cooking all afternoon in preparation for several days of visiting with friends. I thought about you, KevinW, as I moved through the meal prep.

Celery and potatoes that needed to be used up, along with left over spaghetti noodles were incorporated into salads: potato salad and tomato bacon pasta salad. The potatoes boiled along with the eggs for the potato salad. Bacon was fried and set aside; a good amount of bacon grease remained in the pan and was used to fry up salmon cakes for tonight's dinner and for later this week.

I used rolled oats as binder in the salmon cakes, along with eggs, spices, mayonnaise, a splash of lemon juice and a bit of left over onion from the fridge that needed to be used up. Grape tomatoes from the fridge, the above mentioned celery, bacon, mayonnaise, ranch dressing, a little sugar, salt, pepper, granulated garlic, dried Italian herbs and a splash of red wine vinegar were mixed with the left over spaghetti noodles for the tomato bacon salad.

After the salmon cakes were finished frying, half were refrigerated and half went into one of the small crockpots in my dual crockpot/buffet server on "warm" to hold for dinner.

The salmon infused bacon grease was poured over the dog's kibble (along with a stray piece of bacon that somehow always gets into the pan for the puppy <:3~.) What dog wouldn't love salmon infused bacon grease over his kibble?

Four small boiled potatoes were set aside; the remaining boiled potatoes were chopped, the hard boiled eggs were peeled and crushed, and this was mixed with the chopped celery and chopped homemade sweet pickles with mayo, mustard and spices for potato salad.

In the second small crockpot in the dual crockpot/buffet server, I mixed a drained can of green beans, a can of stewed tomatoes, a spoonful of brown sugar, a splash of red wine vinegar, granulated garlic and a slice of bacon. I topped this mixture with the four small boiled potatoes and set the crockpot on "low." We have some leftover cooked squash from the garden in the fridge. Voila! Dinner! plus a huge chunk of the pot luck styled cooking we'll share with friends. (I have some more cooking to do- there will be more protein in there to balance the carbs.)

I'm resting for a moment, but when I get up I'll hit the kitchen again: a few straggler pecan cookies will be crushed and mixed with butter for a cookie crumb crust, and some creamed cheese that needs to be used up plus the crumb crust will be made up into mini cheesecakes in cupcake tins. We'll top those with cherry pie filling because we have it on hand and that's easy. (There's enough cooking going on right now without messing with a special topping.)

I have some left over ripened bananas that will join with other left over bananas from the freezer to become banana bread. If I'm going to fire up the oven to bake mini cheese cakes, I'm going to use that electricity and that heat to bake something else as well.

The browned ends of the celery, a few blemishes from the potatoes (I leave the majority of the skins on potatoes, even in potato salad) the banana peels and the egg shells went into the composter. The cans from the beans, the stewed tomatoes and the salmon went into the recycling bin.

There is very, very little waste from all of this cooking!

[KevinW]

Windex --- try recipe #3 (or #4 which = #3 + denatured alcohol)
The way I understand hacking in the hacker sense---and I may be wrong---is a clever change of an existing system to somehow improve that system. For instance, a software hacker takes existing source code and adds/modifies a feature to solve a problem.

I see this as different from computer engineering which is the construction of a solution to a problem from scratch.

@jacob: The way "hacker" is used in Silicon Valley is like you describe, hacker vs. engineer. But the focus here isn't on modifying vs. creating. An engineer takes a systematic approach to solve a known problem. A "hacker" (in SV) skips important steps, doesn't think about all the details and is therefore a lot faster. The point of this is that (according to SV mythology) you can't engineer a solution if you don't know what the problem is exactly, so "hacking" let's you throw together a quick solution to test if you're down the right path or if you're wasting your time. Later, you'll get an engineer and to it right, once you've got paying customers and such.

Huh. That wiki definition is different than what I thought. I always thought a hack was a better version of a bodge.

IMO definition 2 in the jargon ( http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hack.html ) file corresponds closest to how I've heard "hack" used in the software industry:

2. n. An incredibly good, and perhaps very time-consuming, piece of work that produces exactly what is needed.

I would add that "exactly what is needed" means nothing less and nothing more, sort of in the way that a Genie grants wishes literally as they are asked, nothing less and nothing more. You know, you wish to be rich and the Genie turns you into a billionaire on his death bed --- "all you said was rich, and you're rich, right?". In software terms, a hack does everything necessary to meet a current need, but neglects longer term considerations such as adaptability, portability, documentation, ease of maintenance by anyone other than the original author, etc. It might be a work of genius but its scope is limited. By contrast "engineering" seeks to uphold principles such as reliability, sound design, reusability, scalability, economy of maintenance over the entire lifestyle, etc., which is probably the "proper" thing to do, but takes longer to produce.

Essentially the hack--engineering axis is almost the same thing as the expediency--craftsmanship axis.

[George the original one]

@KevinW nailed it. That's the distinction that's been in my mind.

[Hildred]

As someone who does a lot of driving, one of the best things I ever did was cutting my speed from 70 to 60 (saving about 15% on fuel) and increasing my drive time. The extra time spent in the car isn't wasted though. I upload podcasts and books to my phone, and listen to them through earphones while on the road.

[JohnnyH]

Lot's here (Avoiding Domestic Drudgery):
viewtopic.php?p=29504#p29504

"tips" become less relevant as you approach [0] your optimal simplicity. IE: The more stuff and complications the more "hacks" you can apply... My consumer friends literally spend 1-2 man hours per day keeping their counter-tops clear. Meanwhile, I spend less than 1 hr cleaning a month (this might need increased ).

As someone who does a lot of driving, one of the best things I ever did was cutting my speed from 70 to 60 (saving about 15% on fuel) and increasing my drive time. The extra time spent in the car isn't wasted though. I upload podcasts and books to my phone, and listen to them through earphones while on the road.

This varies from car to car... My commuter car gets optimal gas mileage at about 63, meanwhile my truck reaches peak mpg efficiency at about 48.

I also share the belief that many truly good "life hacks" are merely simplification or setting things up to be mutually beneficial. I believe that they'll nearly all fit into certain categories of improvement types. Some examples:
- 5S principles for organization and simplifying,
- SMED or similar principles for reducing 'wasted time' (maximizing location to reduce travel time, doing things in better order or at better frequency
- Living in accordance with nature for improving health

I think it might be more interesting to discuss these principles in detail (in other threads **). The actual application (deciding on the details and how we actually do things) is often better left to the individual. By optimizing things myself, I get good at optimization and creative thinking (on top of the actual improvement)

** I've already been meaning to make threads on certain principles (Pareto, root cause & action level, others) and now I have some more to add to the list

Great post, I agree with everything... And I'd really like a thread(s) about these principles!

[BecaS]

Best stain remover ever: liquid (hand washing, not machine washing) dish detergent. Most stains on clothing are food-related; dish detergent is designed to work on food and grease. Thus liquid dish detergent works well on grease related stains.

We use Costco's store brand, Kirkland, and buy it in the gallon jug. We put it in the soap dispenser in the kitchen sink and in the soap dispensers in the bathrooms. Getting undressed to get in the shower- have a stain on your clothes? Pre-treat it immediately. I've never had a problem (no secondary staining, no bleaching, no fading, etc.) with putting dish detergent on a stain then throwing the article of clothing in the washer with other dirty clothes, and letting it sit there for however many days until the washer tub is full and we are ready to wash a load. (Go easy on this, be conservative on the amount of dish detergent you use on clothing stains if you have a high efficiency washer- you don't want too much soap in your HE washer.)

We use Dawn dish detergent in the trailer to keep the holding tanks clean. Using Dawn for washing dishes in the trailer keeps the gray tank walls from building up grease and odor. We do use black tank deodorizing/dissolving chemicals, but we also use a little water softener and a little Dawn in the black tank to keep gunk from building up on the tank walls and on the tank level sensors. Dawn really does break down grease and gunk. Our tanks don't smell and our tank sensors are pretty accurate. (Gunk on tank level sensors cause them to read incorrectly and this is a common problem.) I'd use Dawn in the house as well for the sake of simplicity but it is typically a little more expensive per ounce unless Costco has Dawn is on sale. Ergo I reserve the Dawn for the trailer to get the best use for the cost.

Liquid dish detergent is my go to soap for scrubbing/mopping kitchen floors and kitchen counters. A little bit goes a long way. It cuts through grease and dirt like nothing else I've used in the kitchen- and we use/live in my kitchen.

The homemade shower spray recipes that I've tried with which I've been satisfied typically have a few drops of dish detergent, often specifically Dawn dish detergent, to break down grease and oils.

I do enjoy using a handful of specific cleaners for specific purposes in the name of disinfecting and/or ease of use and time savings. If I ever decide to stop using those products, if in the name of simplicity and costs savings I decided to trim my products, I'd probably use liquid dish detergent in the place of almost everything else.

[Pedal2Petal]

2 things I have done over the past month that have helped bring my daily spending down to 23$/day from 26$/day.

#1, I asked for a hair cutting kit for christmas which my fiance uses to cut my hair. With a buzzer style hair cutter, it is very easy to cut men's hair. She did a perfect job the first time, which was actually quite surprising. She cut it again yesterday and went a little short right around the ears but in a week it will grow out a bit and won't be noticeable.

#2, I have started making small batch wine at home using this very simple 1-minute wine recipe. http://fivegallonideas.com/1-minute-wine-recipe/

[BecaS]

Pedal2Petal, good for you on the home haircuts. You will save so much money over time with that. Haircuts haven't gotten any cheaper in the 25 years since we started cutting hair at home.

I was looking at our empty wine bottles today. I'm considering pear wine this year. It's been a few years since we made wine. We make five gallon batches and seriously, it takes us YEARS to drink it. I use synthetic stoppers as opposed to cork stoppers. The synthetic corks hold up better than cork, and if we have to store the bottles upright, the synthetic corks won't dry out and fail.

I made pear wine a few years ago, in the fall. We kept the carboy in a spare room that was cooler than the rest of the house. It sat in the carboy for a good long time, and it looked like it was done fermenting, that it had hit the attenuation point. I will admit that I didn't take specific gravities in that batch- not the best idea, as you will see.

When I thought the wine was done, we bottled it up and put the bottles in the racks. We keep these racks in the cooler room.

In the spring, when the entire house warmed up, guess what happened? The pear wine was NOT done fermenting. The warmer room kicked over fermentation again, and the bottles of pear wine opened fire on the rest of the room.

I ended up pouring it *all* out, because I didn't know what else to do at that point.

I'd like to try pear wine again.

[jacob]

@BecaS - Add potassium sorbate (stabilizer) to the wine to kill the (still) active yeast. In a pinch, Campden tablets will also do the trick.

[BecaS]

Thank you, Jacob!

It's been a few years since I've made wine. I'm in the country right now, and the wine supplies and recipe book are back in town.

This is the book I use the most:

https://www.midwestsupplies.com/winemak ... 4AodcnoApQ

IIRC, we used Campden tablets at the beginning of the process, as a sanitizer, in the fruit during the initial stages. I'm trying to remember- it's been a few years- I think we added the Campden tablets to the crushed fruit and sugar and then added the yeast 24 hours later. Is that right? The Campden tablets had to dissolve and disperse so they wouldn't inhibit the yeast.

And we do add potassium sorbate as a stabilizer, but I can't swear that it was part of the pear wine recipe.

We have a specific gravity meter but it's the old school kind, the hydrometer thingy as opposed to a digital kind, and it makes me nuts. I struggle with reading the scale; I don't use it often enough to keep myself familiarized with the scale or with using it in general. I'd made a few batches of wine by the time I tried the pear wine, and I had made myself comfortable with the idea that I could judge when the wine had stopped fermenting by watching the air lock. When it hadn't bubbled for several days, it was done, right? Right?

We heat the house primarily with a pellet stove in the winter- and of course, pears come in right around Thanksgiving, maybe a couple of weeks before. So the house was cool when I started the pear wine, but not particularly cold. We usually keep the primary fermenter in the kitchen or in the laundry room just in case the initial fermentation is so exuberant that it blows through the lock. (One of my husband's wee heavies blew up a bedroom ceiling.) Once we move to a secondary fermenter, we move the carboy into another room to free up floor space in the kitchen.

Without even thinking about it, I moved the pear wine into a spare room that we were keeping closed, to keep the pellet stove heat in the portion of the house that we occupy the most. And the weather got cooler, and cooler... and eventually the air lock stopped popping.

I waited another week or so, and decided that the pear wine was done, so I bottled it up. Uh huh. I did that.

A specific gravity reading at the beginning and before bottling would have told the truth.

If I try it again, I'm going to leave the secondary in the room with the pellet stove until it stops bubbling in the air lock.

Maybe I'll even take a couple of specific gravity readings. (Really need to get over my reluctance to deal with the hydrometer.) (I kept a salt water aquarium successfully for a couple of years without a skimmer. I had a chunk of live rock in there and I changed the water faithfully. I used a hydrometer- different type- every week successfully without garment rending, hair tearing or gnashing of teeth. Go figure.) (I no longer have that hydrometer. Darn it. But IIRC, I don't think the scale was the same.)

[jennypenny]

I'm enjoying this site...
http://hackaday.com/

More than one new hack pops up in my feed every day. There is a category drop down menu in the right-hand column if you want to browse the site.

[7Wannabe5]

I find that an even cheaper and much prettier alternative to buzz-cutting your own hair (I did try it once) if you are female is to learn how to make a French-braid. Takes just a few minutes each morning to do and just a few minutes each month to maintain with a quick snip trim off the end. Never goes out of style and functions well whether you are mucking about in your veggie patch in overalls or attending free concert in the LBD you scored for $3 at 50% off Ladies Night at the Salvation Army. OTOH, I highly do NOT recommend Dollar Store hair color. One of the few items I choose to buy brand name with double-down coupon deals.

[brighteye]

I have a feeling that I posted this already but my search revealed nothing, so here we go:
When I needed a new wallet I knew exactly what I wanted. Small, durable, not too many compartments, not bulky (fits in front pocket). Definitely not one of those monster wallets/purses that are marketed to women. But even the simple men's wallets were to big for my liking.
So I made my own wallet out of duct tape and now I have exactly the one I wanted. One compartment for coins and bills, one for cards. DIY with the help of instructables.com (lots of models to choose from). All I needed was duct tape, a cutter knife some of my time. The current model (I am on version 2.0) has lasted me 2.5 years already.

[Ego]

Coffee maker cooking....

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/1 ... ext-dinner

[Frugalitifree]

I created a separate thread for this post below. Perhaps it would have been best to post here.

Roasting your coffee beans at home using a popcorn maker. saves a pile of money and is quite a lot of fun. Recommended