Growing Green

Homemade Laundry detergent

2009-10-20T08:10:00.000-07:00

A friend of a friend blogged about this great homemade laundry detergent. I thought I would give it a try. I have often thought about making my own cleaners and such, just have never gotten around to it. I happened to come across Alyssa's blog right before I went grocery shopping one day, so decided to go ahead and pick up the ingredients. Super easy. Only three ingredients. All of which I found at Fry's. Walmart carries the borax, but not the Super Washing Soda or Fels-Naptha. Here's the recipe:

3 Cups Borax

3 Cups Super Washing Soda

3 Cups Fels-Naptha (approx. 2 bars)*

Mix together and use 2 Tablespoons per load

*I had to cut the soap into small pieces and then put them into a food processor a few at a time. I assume I got them small enough. Didn't really have a choice, they weren't getting much smaller.

I was also out of Shout Stain Remover and when I went to pick up some more I saw that they now have a 99% natural stain remover. I had a coupon and thought I would give it a try.

I've done two loads so far using both products. So far so good. I am thinking about giving them a really good test, you know, taking a white shirt and dousing it with various staining products. I am also attempting to keep track of how many loads I can get out of this batch. I will update on this later.

Allergy Alert!!

2009-10-14T08:20:00.001-07:00

Quick note on the worm bin. I recently checked on my worms and noticed a white mold growing in the bin. After a bit of research, this is normal. What I didn't expect was to have a mold allergy. This past week (after looking in the bin) I have suffered from either bad allergies or a head cold. And every time Cody steps into the office, he starts sneezing. At first I thought it was the seedlings I was growing so moved those outside. Still stuffy, itchy noses and sneezing. Then is dawned on me this morning - it's the mold. SO, I am going to have to move the worms somewhere else. Not sure where. They do best between 55-75 degrees. We are starting to cool down, however this weekend we are supposed to hit 100 degrees again. Ugh. I will keep you posted on if this works for the allergies. Now off to figure out what to do with the worms . . . .

Been a bit busy . . .

2009-10-03T14:04:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry for not posting during the last couple of weeks. My cousin got married last weekend and I was in the wedding, along with my husband and boys. There was allot of preparation that went into it. It was so much fun and absolutely beautiful.

But now, back to business. First, the worms. I ended up purchasing them online at www.thewormwoman.com. I was happy with the outcome. I received an email stating when they would be shipped and when I should receive them. Plus, I had chosen expedited shipping to receive the worms quicker and she went ahead and downgraded it, stating that I would receive them in the same amount of time and didn't need to pay the extra shipping. Always love it when a vendor looks out for you and offers to help save you money. I had my bin, newspaper and scraps all ready to go once I received them. It was a pretty easy process. The bin is sitting under my plant table in our office. No stink or anything. I check on them every couple of days to make sure the bedding is wet enough. I feed them once a week or so. It should take about 3 months before I can harvest the compost.

Next I decided I needed to add a little more light to my seedlings. I purchased two fluorescent lights specifically for plants at Walmart for $10 each. Pretty descent I thought. I rigged it up on a a small shelf and I do believe it has helped. The plants seem to be doing well. I am excited to get them transplanted, but nervous as well. The weather has just started to change and we are finally seeing temps in the 80's. I will continue to prep the area where I want to plant them and introduce them to their new home soon.

(This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, they are even bigger now with more leaves)

Two weekends ago I made it to the downtown Phoenix farmers market. It was so much fun! My first time there and I am excited to go back again. Lot's of locally grown fruits and veggies, grass fed beef, wonderfully homemade tortillas, cute little crafts and so much more. I took the boys with me, so it was a little hard to concentrate or to talk to many of the vendors. The next time I go, I think I will go solo and have a bit more focus. It is important to me that my boys experience it, so they will get to go again too. I think they had fun. The highlight was the GINORMOUS sweet potatoes at one vendor. I had never seen them so huge before. ;-)

Finally, the boys and I have had the most fun watching our caterpillars grow, spin their chrysalides and emerge as beautiful butterflies. We woke this morning to see the painted ladies stretching their wings. I still need to get pictures of them now. I meant to get pictures of them in each stage, but was so busy during their chrysalis stage that I didn't get to. I will get pictures of the butterflies, we are able to enjoy them for a few days inside before we release them out in the garden. I bought some mums to plant outside in hopes of keeping them around a bit longer. We'll see. Big, noisy toddlers may not make our garden the most peaceful . . .

Feeling Frustrated!!

2009-09-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

I have been super excited to start a worm composting bin. I don't really have enough grass or leave clippings to keep up an outside compost pile, so thought I would do a worm bin. I figured it would be cheap and easy. Well, it would be if I could only find the darn worms!!! Apparently bait shops don't carry them. I can order them online, for around $40! Ugh. Any ideas?

Stupid Grower Mistake #1, well maybe #2

2009-09-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, I have made my first mistake. As embarrassing as it is to post it, I guess it wouldn't be honest blogging if I only wrote about the victories. And yes, I will number my mistakes because I know there will be many. That way you can just say, oh, remember SGM #34, and go see what I did and learn from it. ;-) SO, on to SGM #2: As you saw in the last post, I transplanted my little plants from the milk carton to slightly larger containers. I also thought it would be good for the plants to receive a bit of the morning sun. I'm up early enough with the boys that it shouldn't have been a problem. With my hubby chuckling at me, I took my wee ones out for their 2nd day of fun in the sun. And then got busy . . .took oldest to preschool, came home and fed youngest, decided to go to the library . . . . .

COMPLETELY forgot about my little plants!!!

If you live in AZ, you know that it's still freakin' hot here. There was no way the little ones had a chance. We arrived back at home around 1pm and I realized what I did. Not going to lie to you, set all the kids inside immediately and ran back out to my plants. Who cares if it was past naptime!! My plants!! ( I don't always prioritize like that) It was too late. I think they were goners. Not sure if they would have come back from it or not. I say that because they were shriveled on the outside, but when I pulled them up, the root still seemed healthy. Maybe those of you out there who grow things could tell me. I was pretty bummed. On the bright side, I did replant the seeds and actually wrote down what was planted!! (Which was actually SGM #1 - label your seedlings)

Here's to the 2nd time around!

In the words of Bob the Builder . . .

2009-09-09T18:55:00.000-07:00

REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE!!

In my attempt to create less trash, I am trying to live by Bob's words. So while cutting up strawberries one day, I realized that I could use their containers for the next stage of life for my little baby plants. Now some of you may be thinking, "well, duh!". Be kind and remember that I am raising three little (human) ones and that my brain power isn't always at it's peak. And that I get super stoked over my little discoveries, revelations, whatever they are. While I only used two strawberry containers, I'd like to think that my little reuse will make a difference somehow. . .

Next on the agenda . . .worm bin!! Stay tuned!

Life

2009-09-03T09:29:00.002-07:00

We woke this morning to find something peeking up through it's protective cover. Now, if I could only remember what it was!!! The boys helped me plant our seeds and I meant to go back and write down what was planted where, but forgot. Oh well. I have an idea. It shouldn't be too hard to figure it out. We planted squash, tomatoes and broccoli. We also planted cilantro, but those are in pots. I plan on planting a few more veggies and what not, just wanted to get something started.

I am so excited about these little seedlings and I hope I don't kill them. I so wish that my grandfather, Pa, was still around to help me with this. He always had the best gardens. I have looked online and picked up a pamphlet about what to grow at different times of the year. There was a bit of discrepancy. SO, I'll go with what I think and see what happens.

Where to begin

2009-08-25T19:41:00.001-07:00

First, I want to clarify something from the first post. I mentioned picking up and heading to Oklahoma. I don't want people to think that I am unhappy here in AZ. We are very happy. The biggest reason not to leave AZ (and on the other hand to go to OK) is our family. We have such a great family who love to love on our kids. I couldn't imagine not having that. So, just wanted to clarify.

Now on to the subject at hand. I mentioned in the first post that I have so many thoughts bubbling in my already full brain. (Forgive me if I have trouble coherently expressing them) I've been reading on the importance/benefits of eating organic, buying local, eating grass fed/free range beef, buying eggs from free range chickens, etc. I love the idea of all of it. However, my biggest frustration is the cost to do all of this. We are a family of 5 on a single income. That doesn't leave much room for the cost of eating/buying this way. My mom went to a local farmers market last week and told me about some free range eggs she picked up. I was excited, until she told me she paid $5 a dozen for them. I was a bit shocked. At this point, I am not ready to pay $5 a dozen for eggs. Do I feel a bit guilty about that? A little. But I just remind myself that my goal is to get to a point where I am comfortable about doing what I can within the means that I have. Right now, that doesn't fit and that's OK. I have also decided that it's OK to start small. (Like I said before, I like to dive in deep) For us, that means that I am only buying organic produce to make my sons baby food. I am going to start our garden, but am not planning on a big harvest yet. I do buy a few other items for the kids and myself like Earth's Best's snacks and Stoneyfield yogurt. At the same time, I do buy regular old fruit snacks too. We are not at a point and frankly don't know if we ever will be where everything I buy has to be organic/gluten free/hydrogenated oil free/etc. If you can do that, I think that's great. If you can't or don't even want to, I think that's great too. I am not going to beat myself up over not buying that way or judge anyone else who does or does not do it. That is just our "fit" right now. I would love to hear what your "fit" is and how you handle the financial cost of going green.

Welcome to my newest journey . . .

2009-08-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my newest passion: healthy food, healthy living, healthy earth. And thank you in advance for hanging in there with me as process what being "green" means for myself and my family. I fully encourage participation on this blog. I would love to hear what all of your thoughts and ideas are or maybe what works well for you and your family. I hope that this blog can be a learning place for us all.

A little about me: I am a stay at home mom with three little boys. I have always desired to be a family that eats and lives healthily, but not until recently have I really started to digest what that means. And boy is there allot to digest. I plan on using this blog as a place to help sort out all of the information that I am receiving and hoping for all of your input. At this point, I have SO much new information, ideas and desires. My personality is such that I want to dive DEEP into each idea I get. Which I've learned isn't always the best thing to do. Currently I am reading "Animal, Vegetable Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. (It does take me forever to read a book. Those of you with kids understand, I'm sure.) This book, so far, has been very inspiring. Enough so that if I could, I would drop everything, find a great farm in Oklahoma (that's for you Smalley's!) and start living off of whatever food we could grow. (diving DEEP!) Now, in reality, that is not a good choice for us now. So in the mean time I am going to take another stab at the ole' garden and see what I can produce in our little backyard. That is basically my starting point. Hopefully I will learn and grow. I invite you to join me as I do so and I hope to pass along what I learn. Instead of throwing all of my thoughts at you in this first post, and probably scaring you off, I will update periodically with all of my ramblings. Again, this is an open invite to everyone and anyone who has any great thoughts or ideas about "Growing Green".

Thanks in advance and I hope you enjoy the ride!!!!!

Oh, and I do plan on and can't wait to see Food Inc. and to read Omnivore's Dilemma. Any other great suggestions?

http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/