Low-cost presents for homesteaders
If you're looking for a very cheap-to-make present for the
homesteader on your list, you could do much worse than to follow
my mother's lead. She found a pretty tin (probably about
fifty cents at Goodwill), filled it with a box of matches (maybe
$4), then taped the striking papers to the inside of the
lid.
Despite the low cost,
this has been my favorite present in a long time. I used my
tin of matches to light all of our fires last winter, and this
summer pulled it out for a barbecue. I can't say for
sure which is more sustainable --- matches or a lighter --- but
matches produce no non-burnable waste, and keep my fingers further
from the flames, which keeps me happy. The metal container
keeps the matches dry even if I accidentally leave them on the
porch after a cookout, looks pretty, and also makes it safe to
store the matches right by the kindling wood.
Thanks for the great
present, Mom! For everyone else --- what's your favorite,
low-cost, homemade present that you've received recently?
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.
Starting with a wooden sewing box my father and brother made for me for Christmas when I was 8, and a little wooden pointer dog that my brother whittled and then painted for me about 7 yrs later, to a cloth handkerchief box my Granma Tirrell made, and to numerous knitted socks and mittens she also made, I still mostly like the whimsical little creatures you made, Anna (like the little paper mache critter without a tail, and even some scraps of felt cut-outs, like a brown cat; and your robin made of scraps of leaves, glued onto a cardboard...And, remember the cornhusk dolls and the stuffed horses??!)--what a gift your whole childhood and girlhood were to us all! (Remember the puppet dolls? Remember the drawings made from mud, and from poke berries?)
Even tho not completely homemade, your planner was wonderful!
Another beloved and dependable gift from Grandma Tirrell was her chookie boxes made from Christmas cards sewn together, filled with nut cookies made from pignuts, cracked out by her:)
All your wonderful meals are gifts:)