Poo-Free Challenge Week 2 Update

6/20/12 – It seems as though all the product has finally washed out but I used extra shampoo to do it. My poor hair is the texture of straw! I am going to make a new batch with ½ tbs of baking soda instead to see if my hair will be less dry.

Poo-Free Challenge Week 1 Update

First poo-free washes with NJ well water and minimal humidity:

6/14/12 – I had a hard time applying both “shampoo” and “conditioner”. Hopefully it will be easier with my honey bottles back home. Oddly enough, I didn't find the lack of lather all that disconcerting. I'm attributing this to the fact my mother's shower has no water pressure so not having to fight the battle of rinsing shampoo or conditioner out of my hair was a blessing. I think I might have splashed some of the baking soda mixture on more then just my ends because my hair seems a little dry. Hard to tell when it's still drying, though.

Taming the 'fro: 30 day poo-free challenge

For those of you who do not know me personally, I have struggled with problem hair my whole life.  As a child I suffered from seborrheic dermatitis. I was forced to use prescription shampoos that smelled bad and burned my eyes to the point where my mom would wash my hair in the sink for me. 

A vacation so close I can smell it!

I just have to make it through Monday.  That's what I keep telling myself.  Monday is the first day of my much needed vacation from reality.  Work, responsibilities, and life in general are getting me down (along with rainy days and most Mondays).  Thankfully, my yearly pilgrimage to NJ is quickly approaching.

New Jersey?!? Yes, New Jersey.  No, not "The Shore." Quite the opposite, actually.  Most people (wrongly) associate NJ with factories, Guidos with bad fake tans and low IQ's, and over-populated commercialized boardwalks.  Let me assure you, if all of NJ were like that, I would not choose it as my vacation destination.  The area of the state that I spent my summers as a kid (and a couple weeks every year as an adult) is located in the northwest corner near where Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York meet.  There's trees. There's birds. There's squirrels. Lets bless them all until we get farshikkert. Oops sorry, that was my token Robin Hood Men in Tights reference of the day.  

Anyway, in the mountains, on a lake, sits a little cottage.  Inside this cottage lives my mother, whose father lived in it before her.  The yard is filled with tiger lilies, hosta lilies, pines, and oaks. This little cottage is surrounded by other little cottages, that over the years have housed my childhood friends. The street is not paved, nor is the driveway.  The nearest mall is 45 minutes, and if you want a movie theater with more then 2 screens or a bowling alley you'll have to go to the next town over. 

I long to hear the rocks crunch under my feet, smell the clean fresh air through the trees, and the damp smell of the lake.  I want to pick wild raspberries and blue berries off their bushes and stuff them in my mouth without washing them or checking for bugs (mmm... protein).  I want to eat sweet Jersey corn and fresh Jersey tomatoes.  I can't wait to shop for nectarines, plums, and Rainier cherries at the corner fruit stand.

Like every year, I will spend the majority of my week off perched on the deck overlooking the lake.  I will hear the whispers of my childhood in the breeze.  I can already hear the Perry kids yell, "SPUD" and us all arguing over whose turn it is to trek through the swamp to find the baseball.  I will see ghosts of us jumping off the banana float into the water to chase away the horseflies and all of us eating peanut butter and fluff sandwiches at the picnic table in the Perry's yard.  Or perhaps I will see the Bell's and I tipping over a canoe so we can share secrets in the air pocketed underneath it.  The memories are almost haunting in a place like Lake Owassa.  So many generations of kids have come and gone and so little has changed.  

It's impossible not to feel the energy of nature when you are surrounded by the beauty of the lake.  It will, no doubt, be the ultimate hippie recharge that I so desperately need.  Pictures of this vacation will follow!

Double, Double Toil and Trouble...

My recent obsession with homemade cleaners happened innocently enough.  Adam's 3 year old son, Christian, can hold his own playing DS or Wii but can barely hold a pencil, let alone color in the lines.  To capitalize on his current, "I wanna help" stage, I bought him his own spray bottle so he could help me clean the kitchen after dinner.  It didn't seem right for me to let him play around with the chemicals found in most household cleaners so I googled homemade glass cleaner recipes.  Low and behold, there was a whole homemade cleaner movement I was not aware of!

What started as a way to help a 3 year old with his motor skills turned into a passion!  My first glass cleaner was a simple mixture of white vinegar and water.  Christian wasn't a fan of the smell but it worked fine.  After making my first successful batch I spent an entire evening on the computer and found a bunch of recipes I simply had to try! 

Conveniently, I was almost out of Windex antibacterial, so I knew I needed a multipurpose cleaner with disinfectant properties, an improved glass cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner (since I was low on that as well), and I've never been satisfied by any of the dishwasher detergents I've tried so I wanted to try another option for that as well.

Here are all the ingredients you'll ever need to make your own cleaners!

There are a million different recipes out there for all of my above mentioned cleaners but these are the recipes I've tried myself:

All Purpose Cleaner

• 1 tsp borax
• 1/2 tsp washing soda
• 1 tsp Castile soap
• 2 cups warm water

I got eucalyptus scented Castile soap so I love the way this cleaner has disinfecting qualities and leaves a fresh scent behind!  My only complaint is it leaves a wet residue.  Not a big deal to either let it dry or wipe it with a dry cloth, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Pretty Much the Best Glass Cleaner EVER

• 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1 tbsp cornstarch (sounds weird I know but do it anyway!)
• 2 cups warm water

Make sure to give this a good shake to redistribute the ingredients before use.  The cornstarch seemed like an odd addition to me but I gave it a try anyway.  All I can say is wow!  It initially wipes on so streaky you'll think I must be crazy to promote it, but give it a second.  It not only gets all the kiddy hand prints, doggy nose prints, and tooth paste off the mirrors and glass, but it dries streak-free!

Toilet Bowl Cleaner

• 1 cup white vinegar (pour in toilet first)
• 1/4 baking soda

This will cause a fizzing reaction just like your old volcano science project did in 3rd grade.  Let it sit for 5 minutes and do it's thing.  When you go to brush the bowl it will fizz up again to help you scrape off the grime.  Works like a charm and has the added benefit of being completely innocuous to your septic tank (if you have one, of course).

Liquid Dishwasher Soap

• 16 cups water (divided)
• 1 1/2 cups washing soda
• 1 cup borax
• 1/2 cup Castile soap

Bring 8 cups of water to a boil and remove from heat.  Stir in other ingredients, one by one, until dissolved.  Add remaining 8 cups of water and stir.  Let cool and store.  This makes about a gallon so feel free to scale down to your needs.  Give it a good shake before use.  It is suppose to become gel-like over time, but I've found that doesn't really happen.  I stored it in two different containers and had one container (a recycled white vinegar jug) gel up fairly nicely and one container (recycled cascade jug) stay watery to this day.  The website I found the recipe on said to use approximately 1 tbsp per load but quite frankly that doesn't seem like nearly enough to me.  I've used probably 3 times that with varying results.  Sometimes everything comes clean, sometimes I find caked on food particles.  Most of the time everything comes out with a haze of soap residue.  The key to minimizing residue is supposedly using straight white vinegar in the rinse cycle (where you would put your jetdry).  I still have leftover jetdry in mine but I top it off with vinegar before each load just for good measure.  I was having residue and food particles with my store bought detergent as well so at least now I'm not only paying less for the same result but also it is less toxic then the store bought stuff.  Another perk is before I could actually taste the detergent on my tupperware when I reheated my lunch in them (gasp!!! microwaving plastic... the horror!!!) but now the milky white residue is tasteless and odorless.  I am going to try and scale down on my quantity of detergent per load and see if there is any improvement.

So, the recipes aren't perfect.  If you find the glass cleaner didn't work as well as I said, don't fret.  Store bought cleaners leave residues that take time to remove.  Try it 2 or 3 times before you write it off.  Obviously the dishwasher detergent has the most room for improvement.  The multipurpose cleaner is awesome for wiping down walls and baseboards.  Just double the batch and put it in a bucket with some towels.  Baseboard cleaning could be a fun chore for the little ones since they are closer to the floor anyway!

There is something inherently satisfying about creating your own cleaners.  It has a mad scientist feel to it that appeals to my inner nerd.  It is also CHEAP!  I found every single ingredient necessary for the recipes at Publix.  The washing soda is in the laundry isle, and the Castile soap is with the beauty products (typically found in the organic/natural soap section).  Giant boxes of baking soda are in the baking isle and white vinegar is with the salad dressing and olive oils.  The most expensive item is the Castile soap.  If you aren't willing to invest too much, buy a small container and the whole lot will probably cost you less then $15 for gallons and gallons worth of potential cleaning products.  Castile soap is also great for bathing.  If you find you aren't into making cleaners anymore you can always put it in your shower and use it as a body wash.  It comes in all kinds of awesome scents to choose from.  Here is a link with more information!

Not satisfied with my recipes and want to learn more?  Here are some links to help you get started on your own homemade cleaner journey:

http://eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm
http://frugallysustainable.com/2011/09/homemade-liquid-dish-soap-that-really/
http://choosingsimplicity.blogspot.com/2012/01/choosing-simplicity-homemade-liquid.html

Happy Trails!!

How Black Thumbs Bare Fruit

Despite my lifelong love of nature I didn't grow up fond of yard work (I'm not a fan of sweating or manual labor), nor did I seem capable of keeping even the hardiest house plant alive for any length of time. A perfect case in point is when I bought a potted palm that was thriving in the indoor section of my local warehouse store. I watered it a couple times a week, and kept it in a sunny spot in my living room. Within the first week of being in my possession it started turning brown around the edges. Then, whole fronds were turning brown and falling off. After a few months of watching it slowly wither away I finally took the plant outside and hoped being outdoors would revive it. No luck. That damn thing was dead as a doornail. Eventually, I got tired of looking at the pitiful reminder of my black thumb and it played it's inevitable role in nature and became compost.

I really love the idea of growing my own food but was hesitant to do so after my previous failures. Thankfully Adam isn't cursed with a black thumb. Last September/October Adam and I built a planter box and started our garden.

This is how we did it:

a rake to de-grass a part of the yard

3 cedar 8' planks (one cut in half)

a roll of weed cloth

a couple bags of sand

bags of manure and top soil

a staple gun

nails and a hammer

We assembled the cedar into a 4' x 8' rectangle and nailed the ends together. Once the box was secure we stapled weed cloth to the bottom making sure to wrap it up and over the sides so when we laid it down there was no way the pesky weeds could sneak in. We cleared a spot of the yard of grass, spread out some sand to help with drainage, and laid our planter box on top. We filled it ¾ of the way full with a mixture of half top soil/half manure, making sure to leave the dirt as loose as possible.

Because we were concerned with water conservation and heard it worked better, we set up drip irrigation for our box. Once all that prep work was done we planted green beans, wax beans, carrots, and onions. The benefit of the raised planter box with weed cloth was that for the first few months we had hardly any weeds to contend with. Even now it isn't difficult to keep in check. Our beans were pitiful, sadly, but the carrots were awesome! For the most part they looked like real carrots and tasted delicious! The onions were a later addition to the garden and are just now starting to bulb.

Right now we have chives, leeks, basil, and mint in old wooden wine boxes we re-purposed from our neighbors trash pile.  All we did there was drill out some holes and nail scrap wood on the bottom of each crate for drainage.  Filled them with a little bit of gravel, and then soil/compost mixture and planted! We also squared off another section of yard and planted some marigolds, zinnias, and cosmos so I could fill my vases with fresh flowers from my garden. We didn't make another raised box so this part of the garden is extremely weedy but it is still dutifully producing beautiful flowers!

Overall I'd say our gardening adventure has been hit or miss. We learned a lot this first planting and hope to improve our yield the next time around. Maybe next year we'll try our hand at broccoli or lettuce or cucumbers or kale, or maybe even asparagus! The possibilities are endless!

In the distance there you can (barely) see the veggie garden and the flower garden behind it.  And the ugly shed and my canoe, of course!  Better pictures to be posted as soon as it stops raining long enough for me to snap some photos!

Next up on the blogging agenda is homemade cleaners!  I'm excited, aren't you?!

A digression from the regularly scheduled programming...

I sat down with every intention of writing about my gardening adventures. I did, in fact, (to be edited and posted at a later date) but it wasn't inspired. I have something else on my mind.

I work in a hospital operating room. Four 10 hour shifts each week. 6:00AM-5:00PM. The entire department has fluorescent lighting in addition to the OR lights used when a surgery is in progress. My facility, in particular, has no windows anywhere in the department. There are times in the winter, that I go days without ever seeing the sun. It is tough for a FL person like me to go that long without recharging my solar batteries.  By the end of the week, I feel drained.

Don't get me wrong, I love my job. I love the great group of people I get to work with every day. We make an excellent team. Most days, my coworkers manage to make a potentially tiring and stressful job fun. In the sage words of Andy (one of the circulating RNs), “If you can't have fun at work, GO HOME!” So that's what I try to do.  I make the best of my job and hope that some day I will win the lotto (that I never play) and not have to spend the better part of my life slaving for the almighty dollar.

I recently subscribed to a blog called Frugally Sustainable. It got me pondering what I would do if I didn't have to worry about money. It would be such a freeing existence to be able to focus entirely on doing things that I love to do.  Now, like many others, I work in order to be able to afford to live.  Life is what I do after work.  A lot of us would jump at the chance to not have to work 40 hours a week in order to pay the bills.  The question is: What would you do with those extra hours?

That's the part I'm having trouble answering.  No 6-5 existence?  Sign me up!  From there, I'm lost.  I love making candles, and homemade cleaners.  I'm an avid outdoors woman and wouldn't mind joining archery and/or skeet leagues.  Would I still love doing all those things if I started making a living off of them?  More then likely, yes.  Do I really think I could make enough to live comfortably doing one or more of the above mentioned hobbies?  Not so much.  

Ever since I started making candles last Christmas I have been repeatedly told I should get on Etsy and try to sell them.  I took a few minutes a couple months back and checked out the competition.  Unbelievable!  So many people are trying to sell their homemade candles, too.  My ego says mine are better (of course!) and unique but my ever present rational side says that the chance for success with a flooded market like that is unlikely.

I'm not a risk taker by nature. I don't function well flying by the seat of my pants.  I'm more of a plodder.  You know the type.  Nose to the grindstone, dependable, reliable, responsible.  So, odds are I will never take the leap to make the above mentioned lifestyle a reality. A girl can dream, though, right?!  Perhaps the more I dwell on it the more I can convince myself it's possible.  Wish me luck!