Minimal Monday

Another summer project that we started this week started after listening to Farmer Boy. It is called Minimal Mondays. We started this week with not using electricity. We taped all the light switches and hot water taps so that we couldn't use them. We restricted the opening of the frig to three times. (There was much moaning when one of the children accidentally opened it for no good reason!) I shouldn't have to say it, but we didn't use the furnace either. Our weird weather made that a little harder than we thought. The kids had a great time. They enjoyed most heating the water outside and cooking on the propane stove. They grilled dinner and washed dishes by hand in water they had heated. It was amazing how having no tech gave them more time to play outside. We did projects and finished school. We had made bread the day before so it was a bit like Almonzo's dinner. We had grilled chicken and potatoes and corn cooked outside. We made soup and sandwiches and ate lots of fresh fruit. All the kids thought food tasted better cooked outside. When my sweetheart came home, he was a little disappointed that we wouldn't let him use the hot water. So we used the big pot that came with the turkey frier to heat water. Amazingly, that was enough hot water to make a very nice tub. The rest of us bird bathed with the canning pot full of water. We all appreciated running hot water by the end of the night. We used the kerosene lamps to light the house once the sun set. They were pretty smelly and didn't light a very big part of the room. The hardest part for all of us was the lack of light. We didn't realize how dark our house was. The kitchen was particularly dark. I think I want a solar tube now. Even during the day, the only room with truly adequate light was the living room. The kids didn't even like using the main bathroom because it was to dark and would go to the restroom upstairs. Come to think about it, they didn't mention the outhouse in the story. We learned that when we do this again, which they are all excited to do, even my sweetheart, we want to get a few things. First of all we need batteries, we had no radio and only one of the flashlights had any battery left. It happened to be the cow flashlight that mooed every time you turned it on. We also want a lantern. Something bright enough to light up the main room. The kids have a list of things they want to try to go without. They want to try no running water, staying outside all day and not using the frig at all. So it will sorta be like camping here at the house. (If anyone knows me, that is as close as I would like to get!) They then want to try it for 2 then 3 and then more days. I'm not so sure how that will work. We are going to make an oven and try cooking in that and using a solar heater if we ever get any sun. We also read about a hobo stove. We want to try that just because it has the word hobo in it ^.^