Many of you wrote me giving me great advice which I am taking to heart.  Some of the advice had to do with the issue of debt and lifestyle.  I must clear up that no one short of the person who camps in a tent, kills his food with a hand made bow, and cooks over an open fire can out do us when it comes to thriftiness and not spending money.  Our issue is not that we have a problem of spending money we dont have - not anymore that is - the issue is the damage was done back in 2001 when we got married and started down the wrong path in the first place.  Place on top of that a State University bill (which is now payed off) and a Technical College (which I owe $25,000) and a house that isnt worth what we owe on it and we have a recipe for financial stress.  Thank God we have payed off all our credit card debt which was incurred way back in 2001.  Those things were cut up long ago. We spend only cash because when you can see it disappear I feel it makes you spend less.

All that said many more things we do everyday which I am choosing not to air on the web that we do to make things as cheap as possible.  Our Electric bill rarely goes above $35 a month (not telling you why) and our heat and cooking are supplied by woodstove (with the occasional aid of an electric counter top oven.  We do not use gas and only have  the “Local Only” plan on our phone and we use a calling card to call all our long distance calls.  If we cant afford the calling card we dont call.  Plain and simple.

I dont see too many more places to save (short of cutting out the improvements to the land such as the barn of which most of that was free wood anyway).

Changing gears here, I have been reading that Bread Builder book (the one I got at Christmas) and while there is a lot of information in it, unless you have a deductive reasoning mind you wont get much from it.  It doesnt really tell you how to make bread, just explains all the steps.  So far I haven’t found a step by step anything.  You have to read the whole thing then read it again to figure out what you are supposed to do.

That being said, I did figure out how to make my own Leaven start from it.  It took me about two weeks of meticulous care to get it working. At some point I plan on uploading a step by step procedure and putting it under the Homesteading skills but for now I want to perfect it a bit.

This morning (Saturday) finally was able to bake some bread after a day and a half of letting the bread rise and then doubling it and rising again and then adding to it again and then prooffing and blah blah.  I will explain it in the article when I get it done but for now I just give you generalities.  All I used was Whole Wheat flour, water, and this leaven (made of Whole Wheat/Sorghum flour and water).  Thats it!  How much more self sustaining is that!  No store bought goods needed.  You could add salt if want but I didnt.

I started at 5:30am this morning baking and made these great loaves and they taste great!

Mmmmmm!  Goooood!

One of the loafs I made with Cinnamon and Sugar on top just for fun.  Havent tried that one yet.  Ended up with 5 loaves and 6 rolls out of 2 bags of flour plus some of my sorghum flour.

Anyway just thought I would let you all see a success - small one as it may be - that has finally occured.  Take care and thanks for all your comments and emails.

God Bless.