Two Frog Home

We made a trip to Costco a few nights ago.  It had been a while and we couldn’t avoid it anymore.  I generally pick up things like laundry soap, dish soap, organic soy milk, cat food, kitty litter, and much more.  I keep a price book (and have for a very long time) and while we were picking up items I noticed that everything and I mean everything had gone up in price some as little as 40 cents and others as much as $3. 

In Montana, fireworks are legal and this time of year there seems to be a stand selling fireworks every half mile or so along the main roads / highways.  Saturday when we went for our hike, we met our friends at a gas station before heading to the trailhead.  The friends were running a bit late and we watched the fireworks stand across the street – in 20 minutes not one customer came by.  I notice the stands I drive past on my commute are similarly empty, in years past I remember lines outside these stands.  I also don’t hear them going off as much as in previous years in my neighborhood.  By now, I expect to be hearing them going off quite frequently and can only think of a handful of firecrackers that I’ve heard in the last week or so. 

Both these little stories, tell me a little something about our local economy and perhaps the economy at large.  I know there have been many layoffs and a few lumber mill closures.  I know folks are scared, hurting, and looking for answers.  I know my neighbors are taking gardening and food preservation more seriously.  I know because my classes are selling out – classes a few years ago that barely had enough students to hold.  I know because classes are dehydrating on being put on and selling out, gardening seminars that I’ve taught and attended have been so well attended as to catch the organizers without enough seating.  I know because I see gardens in yards that haven’t had them in the 9 previous summers I’ve lived here.

It is interesting from a community perspective and I hope I do well in helping my neighbors in the classes I present (for a fee) and in my willingness to answer questions and help out (for free).  All of this, however; has me thinking towards our home as well.  What can I do better or differently in the face of rising costs?  What have I been doing right and what have I let slip, because we can afford “it”?  These questions are deeply interesting to me from both a personal level and from a community perspective, because what I figure out, I can share.

An example, I’ve never made my own laundry soap.  I have tons of recipes for it, I know plenty of people who have and continue to do so, but its just one of those things I decided I didn’t want to put time into when Costco sold a soap I liked very much and we could easily afford.  However, that soap is the item that went up $3 in about 3 months time.  I’m going to re-visit those recipes, check prices on the necessary ingredients, and decide which is the more frugal choice.  If making my own is cheaper than the soap I like from Costco, then I’ll find the time to start making my own, if not I’ll continue buying from Costco (or other store if Costco isn’t the cheapest). 

I’m on the lookout for more wild edibles than ever before and hoping to learn much more about them so I get collect more than the obvious.  This is partly wrapped up in a waste not, want not philosophy, but its also a frugal choice that is healthy for our bodies.  I’m working hard to eat every edible leaf, root, seed, or fruit that comes from our garden.  I’ll preserving when its time for that too.  I’m trying to get to stuff before it bolts and am doing my best to save as much as my own seed as possible.

I’m not sure where we’re headed as a local economy or a more global one for that matter.  It’s not a matter of worrying about the end of the world so much as it is a matter of being a good steward of everything that has been given to me.  I’ll do my best in these endeavors and as always I look forward to learning from everyone who visits here as well.