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So it is now the time of year when we have to de-clutter and de-funk our winter homes and turn them bright and shiny! The best way to do that is to go to the store, pick up numerous plastic bottles (that we will not re-use and of course you need a different product for each different job) that have chemically colored and scented, flammable liquids inside them and start spraying them all over our homes to breathe in and touch. NOT! What we can do instead is be lean and green about our clean! Lean meaning you will be using ingredients already found in most homes (or can be easily obtained nearby) that cost a fraction of what the ready-to-use cleaners cost, and green because it is chemical free and safe for you to use around your family and pets AND you will be re-using old plastic or glass sprayers and bottles! Duh! Just a few to start with! All purpose cleaner: white vinegar that you add essential oils of tea tree and/or lavender and/or sweet orange to. That's it?? That's it!! The picture below shows a mason jar with organic orange peels soaking in the vinegar. Hey, we eat oranges anyway so why not use the peel! The orange oil will help with the grease cutting - I let that infuse for about two weeks and then I just add a drop or three of tea tree essential oil for the antibacterial and antifungal properties. Done! This can be used in the kitchen and bathroom. Super cheap AND it works! Fabric softener: This is used in place of those dryer sheets that have who-knows-what on them. There is a spot in your washer machine for liquid fabric softener and you just put it in before you start your load! Just take that same white vinegar (getting it now? Buy the huge jugs of the stuff!) and add lavender and/or tea tree essential oil drops to it and keep in near your machine. Yay, done! Toilet bowl cleaner: Yes, you have to clean that too. I know you all love those silly little blue things that cling onto your bowl and "wash" your toilet for you but do you know what is in it? Eww....really? Instead, just sprinkle some baking soda (yes this stuff that you bake with that also comes in HUGE bags for cheap) into the bowl and dump some of that fabulous white vinegar into it and watch it bubble up! So cool...this is Camile's job. Let it sit for about 15 minutes and the take your toilet brush and scrub around for one minute. Poof! Done! Welcome to the world of chemical-free, easy breathing cleaning for the spring! More to follow...  
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Here are some pictures of the new crew in the garden. It was their first trip outside and apparently did not move around much but they will get used to it! Pretty soon they will be out of my house and out in the world... :( We do seem to have one rooster, who I hope turns out well. We hold him a lot to get him used to people. Enjoy the pictures!     Marti, Chris, Perky, Snowball, Zoe and Domino
Apparently even dried up lavender puts you to sleep! NO, that is not a pine cone, that is Zoe! Zoe also seems to like Wilson, our scarecrow! That is our Gnome - he does not have a name yet.... I had always scoffed at the thought of a bread machine...why let a machine make a loaf of bread when it can easily be done quickly by hand? Ha! That is until I made many loaves of brick-like substances that I tried to pass off as whole wheat bread to my family. Dan may have secretly found it necessary to get a machine so a gently-used one arrived at our home on Tuesday. We have since made two loaves of bread which have been perfect. Our first one was a white loaf (tried it out for the first time and did not want to waste precious whole wheat flour so I tried plain old white first) and I just made a whole wheat with molasses this morning. It is so easy and so quick and I do not have to buy bread anymore. It has a timer and many features that should fill our needs quite well and pay for itself in no time! Time to get creative!!!!    |
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February 2024
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