DIY coffee starter kits or logs

Good morning my friends! Today I woke up to the wonderful sound of thunder and rain pounding on my bedroom window. What a glorious sound! Spring is coming, people. The days are growing just a bit longer, the temperatures aren’t dipping quite as low (thank goodness for that; our wood pile is nearly gone); we aren’t needing to wear quite as many scarves, hats and gloves as we were a few weeks ago. The trees are beginning to get buds (I purchased several fruit trees and planted them last year. I looked at them a few days ago and saw tiny leaf buds at the end of them. This was a rough winter for many of us…I don’t know when was the last time I greeted Spring with such joy.

Well, as close as Spring is, it’s not quite here yet. This means some of us will still need to use our fireplaces, wood stoves or even fire pits. With the Springtime weather comes a lot of rain and wet logs. I mentioned yesterday how you can use some old candle wax to start a fire easily. Today, I’m going to talk about making coffee ground starter kits, suing materials you would normally just toss out. This is a fun project to do with the kids on rainy days. I wouldn’t have them near the grease or wax when it’s melted, but even little ones can help use a spoon to pack the coffee grounds. Enough teasing you…let’s get this project started!!

DIY Coffee Log or Starter Kit

materials needed:

old, used coffee grounds (you can even use the filter it was used with, for a wick) You can either use ones that you have saved, or stop by your local coffee shop, like Starbucks or Panera Bread Company. Just ask for the used coffee grounds; they are more than happy to give the used ones away. You’ll need about 4-6 cups of grounds.

wax leftover from candles (or use fresh candles, broken crayons, Gulf wax for canning etc) You’ll need about a 8 oz of wax to make one log. If you do not have wax, used cooking grease will work just as well. It does not need to be melted for as long, however, in the oven.

a few tablespoons of corn syrup, or molasses or maple syrup (this is to help bind the material together.)

An old bread loaf pan, or other oven-safe baking pan; preferably in the shape of a loaf, for the mold. A cake pan can be used as well, if you do not have a loaf pan handy. It just needs to be about an inch or more, deep. If you do not have a bread loaf pan, then you can use large soup cans or a large metal coffee can.

First, spread the used coffee grounds on a cookie sheet with raised edges; take the wax and chop it into large chunks. Put the wax into an oven safe pan to melt. You can use old soup cans to melt the wax in as well, or a metal oven-safe mixing bowl. Drizzle the syrup or molasses onto the wax. If using grease, just pile the grease into a deep oven-safe bowl or oven-safe dish.

Place the coffee grounds and the wax into an oven. Turn the oven to about 150-200 deg F and let the grounds dry out thoroughly. Stir the grounds every once in a while. It will take about 30-45 min for the grounds to dry, depending on how wet they were when you first put them into the oven. If using grease, you want it at the point it just starts to melt, not at the bubbling stage. If using grease, put the bowl into the oven at the last five or so minutes, before you take the dried coffee grounds out.

When the wax is completely melted, stir the syrup and wax mixture. Use a metal spoon, not a plastic one, since the plastic one will melt. Add about a half-cup of coffee grounds to the wax mixture and stir. Keep adding the grounds and stirring until the grounds are completely incorporated. It may bubble a bit, but that is the moisture in the coffee grounds reacting to the hot syrup. Scoop the grounds-wax mixture into the pan using a large metal spoon until the pan is about half-way full. Fold the dried, used filters in half and pack the grounds around it, so that a piece of the filter remains visible. Several of the filters can be used for this. These are your wicks. Keep adding the grounds-wax mixture to the loaf pan. When the pan is nearly full, using the back of your spoon, pack the coffee grounds into the pan, so there are no air gaps. You can also use a piece of waxed paper to lay over the top and using the heel of your hand, pack the grounds into the loaf pan, making sure to pack the corners. Once the coffee mixture is good and packed, let the pan sit out  for 24 hours or at least overnight.

After the grounds have set, using a plastic spatula, scrape the edges of the loaf pan to separate the “log” from the pan. You may have to put a dishcloth underneath it and bang it on the counter a few times to encourage the “log” to release it’s grip. Once it is free, you can use it in your fireplace or wood stove. Put some smaller logs around it, light the coffee filter wicks and enjoy! It may not last for two or so hours, but it’s enough to help get a fire started and start drying out the wood you put into the fireplace.

For a DIT starter kit, you will need:

wax (like leftover scraps of candles, crayons about 3 oz of wax is needed, or the equivalent of around 24 crayons) or a few ounces of used cooking grease.

used coffee grounds (about 2 cups)

a few tablespoons of corn syrup, maple syrup or molasses (as a binding agent)

a cardboard egg carton (if none is handy, you can use a muffin tin with paper muffin cups. You can also use custard cups and use the filter as the paper cup holder.

First, spread the coffee grounds on a cookie sheet with edges, just as you would to make a log. In an oven-safe baking dish, or a metal soup can, drizzle the corn syrup over the wax. Place the grounds and the wax into the oven and heat the oven to about 200 deg F for about 35-40 min, stirring the grounds occasionally. If using grease, put the grease and syrup into a deep oven-safe mixing bowl or deep oven-safe pan and put into the oven to melt for the last five minutes, until you remove the grounds from the oven. You don’t want the grease bubbling, just at the point it starts to liquify.

Once the wax is melted and the grounds are dry, mix the coffee grounds with the wax-syrup (or grease-syrup) mixture. Fold the dried coffee filter in half and then again in half. Put the lower part of the folder coffee filter into the first egg-holder of the carton and using a metal spoon, pack the grounds around the filter, keeping the top part exposed. The coffee filter edges are the wick.

If you are using a muffin tin and paper cups, or the coffee filter itself to contain the grounds, do not fill the cup up all of the way. Other items I have used:

empty cardboard toilet paper tubes which I’d cut in half, so they are short tubes. Stand the tubes up in a muffin tin, or pack them tightly into a cake pan, so they are all standing. Put a small wad of newspaper into each tube and push it down. This will act as a plug on one end. Fill the toilet paper tubes up with the coffee ground-wax mixture, packing the mixture down. Do not fill it all of the way, so the edge of the cardboard tube will act like a wick.

If you use the cardboard egg carton, fill each compartment of the egg carton, packing down the grounds-wax mixture. Allow the grounds mixture to dry overnight.

When a fire is needed, you can break off one of the egg carton plugs, or use a muffin cup or toilet paper roll. Light the coffee filter wick (or edge of the paper or cardboard roll) and place into your fire pit (or fire place, wood stove, campfire, etc.) You may need to use two or three plugs. Add the branches as needed, until you have a fire going.

So now you have it! A way that items that are normally going into our landfill (or composting, as I usually do) are being used further. THAT’S being frugal. My husband says he likes to “pinch a penny until Abe Lincoln screams for mercy,” and that is exactly what we do here in this house. Even throw-away items are recycled (and sometimes our recyclables are recycled, lol.)

So, now that I showed you a few ways to save money by using the “trash” you have around your house, tomorrow we can look at how we can start to organize our house, our mind and our finances. Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it sounds. You know why? We are going to get each other through each day, TOGETHER. You are not alone in this world. Even when you feel like you have nowhere to turn, there is a way out of the dark tunnel. It won’t be night-time forever. The sun will come up…don’t you want to see the sun rise? Even if you can’t find a smile for yourself, find one to give to another…they may have one they can lend you. Tell the lady behind you she can go ahead of you on the line at the grocery store. Give your significant other an extra big kiss, before bed tonight. If your other half is deployed or working late or traveling, then jot a few kind words down on a Post-It note to give to them when they return, or in the next care package you send them. Check with a local underprivileged elementary school and see if you can donate a few boxes of crayons and construction paper, which you can pick up cheaply, at the dollar store. When sitting at a four-way stop, wave to the cars around you to go ahead of you. Walk around the house and grab 5 items you haven’t used in the past month, put them into a bag and drop off at your local Goodwill. Get five articles of clothing you haven’t worn in 6 months, or your children no longer like or fit and donate it. Call or text someone and just say, “I was thinking of you today.” Locate three happy news stories and send them to people who you think need a smile. Put on some music that makes you tap your feet, thump your desk and shimmy in your seat. We will get through our rough times together. We all live and breathe under the same sun, moon and stars, big and small, great and tall. Until next time, dear friends…PEACE!!

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DIY starter logs for fireplaces and woodstoves

Good morning, friends! I hope you all are doing well. I am loving this weather, today. My old Marine room-mate Eve called it, “a postcard from Spring.” (Don’t you LOVE that? She’s a professional writer, so she has an awesome way with words.) The temps today are high of 52 deg. Tomorrow has a 90% chance of thunderstorms and high of 61 deg. (My cousin, Joey, laughs because in all my Facebook posts, at least once a day, I do a full weather report. Maybe in a former life, I was a meteorologist. 🙂 ) Anyway, this weekend the temps are supposed to drop to below freezing again with snow and freezing rain. Bummer. That means the wood stove has to be fired up again.

My hubby, is amazing when it comes to starting a fire in the wood stove. I swear, the man can start a roaring fire with one match and a bunch of wet logs. On the other hand, I can have several dry branches, 15 newspapers, a flamethrower and I’ll still wind up yelling up the stairs and asking Don for help. In fact, when he knows I’m going to attempt to light a fire, he starts hanging chicken and hunks of beef around the room and calling friends saying, “Hey, anyone want a smoked chicken? Smoked beef? Jen’s lighting a fire, so everything should be fully smoked in about 30 minutes.” He also calls our local fire department and informs them the huge amount of black smoke coming from our house ISN’T a fire, but “just my wife attempting to build one,” then he issues gas masks to the kids as they sit back and laugh, while I keep wadding up newspapers and attempting to start the fire. Many times, as I sit there, choking and gasping I remember a story my English teacher had us read in ninth grade by Jack London, “To Build a Fire.” That story haunts me at odd times, not just when I’m struggling to light the fireplace. It’s about a man who is alone on the Yukon and how in -75 degree weather, he struggles to build a fire to save his life. Like all of Jack London’s stories, it’s excellent.

Anyway, I was telling a friend last year, about how I needed to find a store that was selling the Duraflame starter logs, since most of the local stores were sold out, due to the nasty weather. He replied, “Why? Just make them yourself. I do, every year. It’s easy.” Then he explained how to do it. This is a project that you can do a bit of, as you go along, throughout the year, or you can make them on a rainy day with the kids helping.

DIY Starter Logs

empty toilet paper rolls, or empty paper towel rolls

the ends of candle wax (after the wick has burned down, there is always about a tablespoon or so of wax at the bottom of the container)

lint from your dryer (FINALLY, a use for lint. Preferably lint from only natural materials, like cotton. I don’t use the dryer much, so we don’t have a lot of lint. The reason i say to use only natural materials like cotton is, nylon and polyester, although do not give off much lint, when burned can create carcinogens.) or newspaper ripped into pieces. I have also used dirty tissues, junk mail, cardboard boxes from food items, old schoolwork from the kids. You don’t even need this, you can just fold up the toilet paper rolls and stuff them inside one another.

Here is my tub of toilet paper tubes and other items that are originally rolled around a cardboard tube (like waxed paper; aluminum foil, etc.) I have an empty tissue box that I keep scraps of candles in, chunks of wax from crayons that have been broken so far down and I haven’t the patience to make new crayons from them (yep, I’ll tell you more about that in another post) wax from cheese (like the Bonnie Bell and Baby Bell cheese) etc.

If you don’t have any lint, or really shredded dishcloths (yes, even my shredded dishcloths are used for something) will work, used tissues, junk mail, scraps of paper, newspaper that you shredded into easier, smaller pieces (about 12 inches across, is good). If you lack all of that, you can roll up another tube as I did here and stuff it inside another tube.

I usually save all my tubes throughout the year and stuff them all inside one another, as they are collected. It helps save space, since I may save up close to a hundred over the course of spring through autumn. Then, when it starts to get chilly out and we will be lighting the stove soon, I pull the rolls out from one another and start packing them with stuff.

If you tear up a newspaper, or junk mail, etc, wad it up gently, and stuff it into the center of the cardboard roll. The wax that is left over from candles I will scrape up or if it was a pillar candle, break it into hunks and put a good chunk inside the cardboard roll. Continue to stuff newspaper, or raggedy dishcloths into it. Once it is full, let a small piece stick out, like a tail.

Keep adding paper, or dryer lint or raggedy material into the rolls and adding a chunk of wax with each one, until they are all full.

If I have to melt the wax to get it out of the glass container it was in, I will usually dunk the end of the roll into the melted wax, after it is stuffed. The melted wax dries and hardens and kind of locks the material inside the tube. Make sure if you melt the wax, DO NOT put the glass container into the microwave. Many times the candles have tiny metal prongs at the bottom to hold the wick. NOT a good idea to microwave metal. Using a spoon, scrape the wax out of the original container, so you can have a good look, then using the double boiler method, melt the wax.

Once you have your tubes ready, just prepare the logs as you would, normally. But put one of these amongst the logs. Then, light the tail that is sticking out. You may need two or three of these to assist in starting a fire. Those starter logs that cost almost $10 for about 20 of them are just sawdust and warm wax, that is compressed into a shape. The ones we are making are literally free. Each of the items you are putting into this project is actually an item you would throw away (or recycle.) The cardboard lights easily. The wax melts and helps to hold the flame so it burns longer and thus will ignite the branches and logs easier.

Like several of my posts, this is an item you need to save up for…but not money-wise. Like the suet, which is grease which you would be normally throwing away, stale peanuts, eggshells…all items you normally would throw away, now becomes a winter treat for birds, these starter logs can help you start a fire on those cold nights. Tomorrow, I will show another way for starting a fire, but you’ll have to finish your morning coffee and scrambled eggs, first. (hint, hint.)

Remember to follow me as we journey together in our quest for finding ways to live off the grid, live frugal, turn leftovers into new-overs, organize our lives and our homes.

What have you done to help another person out, today? Perhaps put a quarter into someone’s dryer, at the laundromat, when you see it has stopped turning. Give the paid-for wagon at Aldi to another person, and not ask for a quarter in return. Take a walk at lunchtime and smell the fresh air and notice the clouds. Buy a soda for a co-worker and leave it on their desk in the morning, before they come to work. Bring in a canister of coffee for the coffee pool. Give an extra two or three dollars tip to a waitress. Tell a veteran, “Thank you for serving.” Pull over and give right of way for a funeral procession, or an ambulance, taking a moment of silence for the victim. Buy a few cans of cat or dog food at the supermarket and drop it off at your local animal shelter. Stop by for an hour at a nursing home. Even if you don’t know anyone there, some of them would be so grateful for a visitor, since their own families rarely visit. Better yet, bring your child. Some of the elderly miss their own grandchildren and they can pretend your child is their grandchild. It would make them so happy. Make a simple, easy to heat meal and pack it in freezer-safe containers and bring it to a new mom. These little things can mean so much to another. Have you made another person smile? What was the reason YOU woke up this morning? Until we meet again, my friends, remember we are all living and breathing under the same sun, moon and stars. Be kind to each other, big and small, great and tall. Peace!