We all want to learn ways to save money and be more self sustaining. We have BackyardRanch home and barn tips to show anyone how. There are also tips to solve every day problems.

BackyardRanch Tips For The Home

Here are some money saving BackyardRanch tips for the home:

• Raise an herb garden and make your own condiments. See our How To’s page.
• Raise guineas as watchdogs and to clean up yard pests. Benefit more by using the guinea eggs.
• Raise chickens for garden fertilizer and eggs. They eat many food scraps and keep away yard pests when allowed to free range.
• Skunk Bath Formula for pets or people if necessary- see our skunk baths page.
• Skunk indoor odor – use bowls of inexpensive coffee grounds (not instant), set in the offensive area. Put fresh bowls out every couple of days and discard the used grounds. Make sure to keep your pets out of the coffee grounds. Vinegar or baking soda can also be used the same way.
• Garbage Disposer odor – put half a lemon down the running disposer and a couple of ice cubes. This will clean and deodorize.
• Coffee Pot stains – scrub the bottom of the pot with ice cubes and salt. You can also run a pot of vinegar and water through the brew cycle to clean the coffee maker. (Make sure to run water through it on the brew cycle a couple of times before making a pot of coffee).
• Formica counter top stains for white counters- apply baking soda or toothpaste to the stain and let set until dry, then clean with soap and water.
• How to clean your cowboy hat – iodized salt and a brush.
• Energy saving tip- install a digital thermostat, set the thermostat to the ideal temperature when you are home and then within 8-10 degrees cooler or warmer (depending on the season) when you are not at home.
• Save money and lessen your plastic consumption – use a water filter that connects directly to your faucet or in a pitcher instead of buying bottled water. Saves money and significantly reduces the plastic left in the landfill. Our filter is a counter top design.
• Don’t use dryer sheets or fabric softener if you or anyone in your family works by spark or flame. The clothes will be flammable. This will also effect the clothes put in the dryer after the fabric softener is used, it coats the dryer.  This includes any occupation welding, electrical, mechanical, etc. A bit of vinegar in the rinse cycle of the washing machine will soften your clothes.
• Turn off the water in the shower after getting wet, soap up, then turn the water back on to rinse. This will cut your water bill for your household.
• Make a dryer filter box for winter months to help heat your home while you do laundry. Disconnect the outside vent and gently pack with newspaper and then a piece or two of duct tape over the vent pipe to seal. Connect the dryer vent hose to a box with filter (these can be homemade or bought), then when you run the dryer, all the heat stays in the house. After winter, disconnect the box and reconnect to the outside vent. This is also good for preventing dryer vent fires, when you change from the box to the vent, you can clean out the expandable vent hose. Dryer lint is VERY flammable, especially if you use fabric softener of any kind.

BackyardRanch Tips For The Barn

Here are some BackyardRanch tips for the barn:

• Livestock feed storage tips- use reclaimed or recycled (clean) barrels. Make sure that they are free of any chemical residue and have good lids. These barrels also work well to store bedding for livestock and pets. Plastic trash cans with lids also work well, but will eventually fall apart.
• Use rain barrels to water your garden, water indoor plants or herb gardens, launder clothes or flush toilets by catching the rain off the roof of your home or barn with guttering and downspouts.
• Use reclaimed building materials and items whenever possible from your local reclaimed store.
• How to keep rodents and small animals away from an area (beware that this effects pets also) sprinkle cayenne pepper on the area. Make sure to wear eye protection, gloves and be upwind from the cayenne while using. You can also use moth balls. This works around the inside of the barn, foundation or crawl space.
• Use vinegar to cut your fly spray in half for your horses. You may have to spray them more often but the spray will go farther cut in half with vinegar. Use cider or white vinegar.
• Hang your mineral blocks and salt blocks in hay nets and tie them to the
  fence, this keeps them from sitting and dissolving in rainwater and snow. If you don’t have a sturdy fence, then an old tire turned inside out with a wood bottom works well to set these blocks in also.
• Clean your livestock trailer and horse trailer floors often and treat them with linseed oil yearly to keep the floors from rottening. See our horse trailer repair floor replacement page part 1 and part 2. Make sure to add the finish roughening additives to the oil or add floor mats to the trailer to add traction and avoid slips and falls.
• Use corn oil or coconut oil to remove cockleburs from horse, livestock and pet hair. See our page on how to remove them.