Random Thoughts

What a beautiful day it is today!  I had planned to get out in the garden early, to sow more spinach and chard, and cucumbers.  The cucumber plants have been eaten by some varmint and I managed to only save two, which are now protected in wire cages, from the beast.  So I need to plant more, and am thankful it’s not too late.

However, it’s 1:15 pm and I haven’t done it yet!  Why not, you may well ask?  I keep scratching my head at the answer – it feels like I have done nothing today, but in reality, I’ve done a fair amount.  Just to help myself feel better, I’m going to list what I can remember of the things I’ve done today, and maybe it will look like a lot and I’ll feel redeemed.

Hmmm…let’s see.

I stripped the sheets off our bed and gathered the clothing strewn around the boys’ room and took it all to the basement to wash.  I then found a load of clean, wrinkled clothes in the dryer.  Apparently Scott did a small load of laundry while I was gone to CT on Sunday.  Took that upstairs and put it with the unfolded laundry still sitting in my room from the end of last week.

Inexplicably, I found that this would be a good time to clean off the table in the guest room (which has been holding huge piles of wool scraps for a winter quilt) to photograph the table.  I’m thinking of trying to sell it.  It’s a beautiful solid maple table I made years ago with a VT woodworker, with breadboard ends and tapered legs, 8 feet long, in case any of you would like to buy it, hahaha).  Of course I haven’t yet photographed it, but the piles have moved.

I made our morning oatmeal (different preparation for each of us!) and sat down to eat with the boys.  Then I washed a big load of dishes, since I did not do them last night.

I folded the two clean loads of laundry, and washed the sheets and hung them out to dry and started another load!  I had to make up a quick batch of laundry soap before starting that second load, but that doesn’t take very long.

I picked up a bunch of toys in the kids’ room, and sat down to read 5 or 6 Magic School Bus books and one Star Wars comics to the boys.

I washed and refilled the hummingbird feeder and bird bath.

I called our neighbor to see if he’d come over with his truck on Saturday and haul a ton of construction debris (from last year, yes!) to the dump on Saturday.

I played with legos with the boys for a few minutes and helped them clean up their marble run pieces.

I cleaned up some cat puke (you’re welcome).

I cut up a dozen or so boxes from the basement to pieces that were a suitable size to fit in our recycling bin, which gets picked up on Thursday.  Phew, now I can walk through part of the basement.  I also hauled an old, falling apart dresser to the curb in hopes that someone will stop and take it away.  This is surprisingly effective most of the time, so I hope it works today.

I picked a bucket full of lettuce and brought it in to put in a sink full of water to make the bugs fall off!

I made a picnic lunch and took it outside to eat with the boys in the sunshine.  We had a really nice picnic!

I put away a bunch of containers that had held my vegetable starts, back they go to the basement shelf until next winter!

I tossed a bunch of rotting garlic that I dug up last night onto the compost pile.  I emptied and washed our compost bucket from the kitchen and sat it on the lawn in the sun to deodorize it!

I responded to my husband’s email about car woes and his upcoming business trip.

I chatted with my neighbor while Alec brought her her wrapped coins that he had counted and wrapped for her as a “job”.  He has been asking her for work to do in his quest to earn money for Legos and other toys.  She is so gracious about finding useful things to do that she is willing to pay a small sum for.  We have the best neighbors.

And that’s brought us to now.  I have a small person standing next to me requesting food again, so I better wrap this up!  I’ll have to publish and read to see whether I think I’ve accomplished more than I thought I had.  Next I am hoping Scott will come home to work here while I go out for a bike ride.  We’ll see.

How’s your day shaping up?

Mostly photos, a few words.

Bare feet…little and less little:

This look is so Jonas (but what did he do with his glasses?):

Garlic, uncovered to soak in the sun:

The bikes are back out!

A familiar scene (when did this boy get so big?!)

A dinosaur with working parts (I forget which one this is, but he knows):

We made capes the other day – superhero for Jonas, Jedi style for Alec:

Boys exploring, playing, in their element:

He loves tools:

When spring disappears for a few days (brrr…it’s wintery out today!) what do I do?  Bring it back, of course, with some green for the inside!

Have a great weekend, everyone!  I need to get back to that paint can!

It all started with floor cleaner.  We had put down a new floor in the kitchen of the condo, and the manufacturer recommended their own cleaning product for it.  Go figure.  It was a “no-rinse” formula, and as I was mopping the floor with it, I could not help but notice the smell.  At the time, Alec was about ready to start crawling, and I just kept thinking “it can’t be good for him to crawl around breathing this stuff in and getting it on his hands.”   And my quest for something healthier began.  Now, I can’t think of a commercial cleaner that finds its way into the house, unless it’s something that Scott has in the workshop for cleaning car or bike parts.  Nasty stuff.

Here are my hints/recipes, in no particular order…

All purpose cleaning spray – vinegar and water.  I am not sure of the ratio – I just wing it, but it could be around 50/50.

Soft cleaning scrub (I clean the tub/shower surround with this) – Put about 1/3 to 1/2 cup baking soda in a container (I use my leftover yogurt containers for this) and add enough liquid soap to make a somewhat thin paste.  I add a couple drops of tea tree oil to this.  If this is too much for the job at hand, you can add about a teaspoon of glycerine to the mix and it should keep it from drying out.  Just make sure you have a tight fitting lid.  You can get glycerine at the pharmacy.  Liquid soap can be found at the grocery store (in the health food section) or the co-op.  I love the Vermont Soapworks (www.vermontsoap.com) liquid soap.  It comes in a variety of scents.  I get unscented in case I am adding scented essential oils to it.

Toilet Bowl Cleaner – put about 1/2 cup baking soda into the bowl.  Pour in some white vinegar.  Add a generous squirt of liquid soap.  Scrub.  If you have a hard water ring, it can be removed really easily with a pumice stone.

Window Cleaner – vinegar and water.  I just wing it when it comes to the ratio, but most people suggest 4 parts water to 1 part vinegar.  Also recommended but untried by me – you can add a small amount of liquid soap to this if your windows are particularly grimy.  I clean windows with a scubbing sponge and squeegee and then dry the perimeter with a paper towel.  I get no streaks with this method, as long as I’m not cleaning in direct sunlight!  Don’t use newspaper unless you want an incredible mess on your hands.

Floor cleaner - once again, vinegar and water.  I can’t think of a floor surface that this isn’t appropriate for.  Supposedly adding a small amount of skim milk will add shine to wood floors, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Drain cleaner - baking soda and vinegar.  I eyeball the proportions (and I call these recipes! Humph!).  If you have metal pipes, you can follow this with boiling water.  Just don’t do it if you have PVC pipes, or they will melt!

Water spots on wood – can be removed with mayonaise or toothpaste

Freshening cutting boards (ours don’t smell like garlic anymore!) – spray vinegar on them and allow to air dry

Freshening garbage disposal – grind up a lemon.  Anytime I make hummus, I take what’s left of the lemons and toss them down, and it works like a charm!

Laundry detergent, safe for septics – 1c washing soda, 1c borax, 1c grated soap.  I like to use homemade soap or Vermont Soapworks or Dr. Bronners.  I grate the soap in my food processor, which takes only seconds!  You can buy soap flakes, I believe, that would work just as well.  I use about 2 tablespoons per load.

In case you’ve never heard of washing soda – I get it at the grocery store in the laundry section.  It’s packaged by Arm and Hammer.

Dishwashing liquid – finally, a true recipe:

• 1.5 c water
• 3 T liquid soap
• 2t glycerine
• 2T white vinegar
• 1/4 t essential oil (I like lavender)

I keep this in a water bottle (a bike bottle) and use a small amount in a sink full of water or just squirted on the dish sponge.

That’s about all I can think of!

“Rare and doomed is the creature that soils its nest”

Have you heard this, or read it?  I have always been a rabid recycler, known to pick recyclable items out of the public trash and transport them home to recycle them myself, even if I disgust myself in the process.  It just makes me sick to think of what we are doing to our land and sea.  Since having children, perhaps because we consume more, I am more and more aware and upset by this problem.  Please, please, people…

• own/buy/consume less
• recycle everything, and use freecycle
• use reusable bags
• use what you have
• grow your own food
• participate in community supported agriculture/buy local
• plant a tree

I argue with myself a lot over the first issue, particularly when it comes to my children.  My biggest dilemma right now is that I really, really want a swingset in our yard.   You know, the kind with a climbing wall/rope ladder and slide, and swings, and a platform that (at least in our case) usually serves as a pirate ship.  I want this because I know how much my children would enjoy it.   I keep asking myself “why can’t they just go to the public playground?” and my answer is that they can, and they do, but it would also be nice to just go out into the yard and play while I garden, or do yardwork, or whatever.  And we will probably buy one, maybe with our “economy stimulus money” and just maybe I will assuage my guilt with the knowledge that I’m supporting a local business here.  But I still agonize.

Now when I go to the grocery store, I feel guilty for buying cream cheese and yogurt (which my children live on) that comes in plastic containers, because even though our recycling center claims to accept this plastic, I have watched the guy toss the containers while telling me that, in fact, they don’t.  Now I keep as many of them as I can to store our cleaning products (I make ours) or to use as paint cups.  But I have a somewhat limited need for these things.  Now I picture the plastic floating around in the ocean, breaking into smaller and smaller pieces that the fish eat instead of plankton (because there is a lot more of it, and fish have small brains) and feel guilt.

I apologize to those of you who came here expecting a gardening post and instead were subjected to my diatribe.  But in a way, all these things are related.  I garden mostly for the enjoyment of it, both the process and the results.  It does make me happy to know that it helps to support my family, and that it is a skill that is possibly going to be more and more important to have (and to teach my kids) as food shortages and the prices of food grow, and as the safety of our food supply becomes more and more questionable.

Scott told me the other day that he just doesn’t fall for the “one person can change the world” notion, after I gave him my “disappointed” look (that’s what he said, anyway!) - I had asked him to take reusable bags to the grocery store and he refused – but I really disagree.  I hope everyone will use reusable bags, and that grocery stores refuse to supply plastic bags to consumers.  I think if I do, and you do, that we will collectively grow into a majority that does change things.