Hello everyone! It has been a minute since I've had the time to post - I'm keeping busy with what seems to be never ending research (not that that is a bad thing).
We have also been busy with getting our garden sprouted. It's exciting to see all of our future produce sprouting! :)
There is so much that I have learned over the past week that I want to share with y'all, but I am going to try to make it last through a couple of posts so as to not overwhelm you with information.
Before I go on, I want to say that I am not a medical doctor, nor do I have any training in the medical field. I went to college for two years and would have my associate's degree, except that I failed pilates. Oh yes, pilates. But that is a story for another day. My point - I have a yearning to learn as much as I can about natural health and sustaining life like our ancestors did (and to save money!). I despise the way that many Americans live today, dependent on pharmaceuticals and corporations. I feel that a return to growing our own food, making our own products, and using natural remedies is not only better for our pocketbooks, but also for our society as a whole. Please do not take what I say as absolute truth, I will give links to where I have gleaned the information I have found and I encourage you to research for yourself. My goal is to inspire you to question what is normal and maybe make some of these changes for yourself. I just know how powerful this return to what is natural has been in my own life.
This post is going to cover some topics that seem to be all over the spectrum but in reality relate to two topics - intestinal health and laundry detergent. Some concerns were raised to me by a friend of a friend about the safety of the laundry detergent that I made, so I have spent many hours researching the products that I used (specifically borax and Fels Naptha). The intestinal health topics relate to the natural steps we are taking to (hopefully) treat my sweet husband's Crohn's flare up. Here we go!
A, B, C's of Going Greener
Aloe Vera - Aloe Vera is a succulent plant that has been used in natural medicine for thousands of years. The origin is unknown, but is believed to be Northern Africa. I am sure that every one of you have used the green aloe vera gel from the store for sunburn or other burns, but aloe is good for more than that. True aloe vera gel comes from the middle of the plant and has the consistency of snot. It is primarily water, caught in a matrix of... good stuff. I know that that sounds incredibly scientific but you can look aloe up online to find more information about it. Aloe is known for being soothing and healing and eating the gel can be extremely beneficial for Crohn's patients. HOWEVER - and this is important - the JUICE of the aloe leaf can cause diarrhea. It is important to use as fresh as possible aloe vera gel if you will be eating it. We are lucky enough to have a successful aloe plant that I have been harvesting over the past 2 days with great success. It takes a little bit of time and precision but the fact that it seems to be working makes it worth it! I found the directions for harvesting aloe gel here. I can safely say that fresh aloe smells horrible and my husband can attest that it does not taste very good either. The recommended dose of fresh aloe gel for Crohn's is 4 oz. a day. I have been starting small - yesterday with 1/2 oz and today with a full ounce - blended in a blender with a small amount of fruit juice to see what happens. I have been really careful to drain as much of the reddish juice out of the aloe leaf before "fileting" it so we don't get the crappy (ha ha ha... great pun, I know) side effects.
Borax - Borax is sodium borate or sodium tetraborate and is mined from old sea beds around the world. It is not the most eco pretty compound, however, it is better than the typical chemical pollutants that are used in cleaning supplies and detergents, so it is often considered "green". I spent a couple of hours researching borax before I came across this article by fellow blogger Crunchy Betty. I recommend this article to anyone questioning whether to use borax or not. What follows is a synopsis of that article. Borax is a basic salt, mined from the ground. As with most compounds, scientists have tweaked it to form other compounds, in this case, reacting it with an acid to make boric acid. Borax is NOT the same as boric acid. Boric acid is permeative whereas borax is not. Most studies that have been done on "borax" have actually been done on 'borax or boric acid', no differentiation has been made between the two, so there is not much reliable data on the true safety of pure borax. Borax itself is a mild skin irritant and should not be eaten or inhaled in large quantities, the skin irritation can likely be explained by the fact that it is extremely alkaline. It has been linked to reproductive problems in rats BUT the rats were fed EXTREME amounts of borax. Just as too much salt or baking soda would be toxic to you, too much borax is toxic. However, borax is not accumulative, if a small amount does permeate your skin, it will not be stored in your body and reach toxic levels. It is classified by MSDS as non carcinogenic and a 1 out of 4 for health, meaning that it is a mild chemical. Also, boron, which is related to borax, is an essential mineral. From what you have just read, it is really just a personal choice as to whether you want to use borax or not. I feel that out of all of the chemicals out there, using borax in washing detergent or as an insecticide, or using it to clean my home is the better choice. I will be careful in the future to handle it while using gloves and respirator just to be safe, but overall I am not concerned.
Copaiba - Copaiba is an oleoresin that is tapped from a group of Copaifera trees in the Amazon basin. Copaiba oil is steam distilled from the resin and is used to relieve pain and digestive discomforts, regulate immune response, and combat inflammation. I am SO excited to get some and start using it for aches and pains and for my hubby's tummy. I have heard nothing but great feedback about it. I will have more information in my next post but alas, it seems that I can't sit still long enough to finish this post between taking care of animals, housework, and my poor sick sweetheart. I apologize for this but hope you all will understand! It is my goal to finish this post tomorrow.
I wish all of you the best and be well. :)
Well, it finally happened. I made soap. And let me tell all of you, for someone who thought they knew what they were doing, but in the long run did not really have a clue, I think I did alright. I learned from it and I ended up with around 4.1 lbs of finished product. Because the purpose of this blog is to share both my successes and not-successes, I am going to start at the beginning with what I did, show some pictures, then share what I have learned since then. It may be a bit lengthy but hopefully will keep all of you from making the same mistakes that I made!
Undertaking the Great Soap Making Task
To begin, I found a recipe and watched a tutorial on FIMBY.TOUGAS.net (the link from my previous post). The recipe was easy
1 LB 2 OZ water
6.5 OZ lye
3 LBS lard
I substituted organic, non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening (aka - palm oil) for the lard. I decided that I would add tea tree and eucalyptus to my soap so it would smell good and have some antibacterial/anti-fungal properties. I also wanted to add some green tea extract because, well, I had made some and it is an antioxidant, if we end up using this soap in a shampoo it could be beneficial.
Ingredients for my first batch of soap
I followed FIMBY's recipe and instructions found here. I measured out the lye and water (right under the exhaust fan since it is about 7 degrees out and I am NOT going to open a window!), mixed them together and began melting the fat. I didn't wait for them to both fall to 110 degrees, I began mixing when they were about 160 degrees.
Mmmm. Fat.
Lye and water solution, thermometer and mixing spoon. The solution has gone clear which means that the harmful fumes are gone and it is safe to breath around it.
We are doing this on a budget so we did not invest the $30 for a good hand blender, instead I used a drill (power tools!) and paint stirrer. This seemed to do well but in the future, because I am a novice, I will probably get the blender so I'm a bit closer to the mixture and can see the slight changes in the mixture during saponification better.
As you can see, this method is also a bit messier as there is no guard above the stirrer.
You are looking for your soap to reach "trace" - trace is where the mixture thickens and you can begin to trace a design into the top of your soap. Further research has also said that when the mixture gets smooth and glossy, you have reached trace. Trace is also when you add your essential oils and/or other additives - herbs, etc - to the mixture.
After adding essential oils and mixing the soap for a bit longer, I poured it into an old box that I lined with a bag - a cheap and "green" mold! Then I covered it with a towel to retain the heat (heat is part of the reaction that changes lye and fat into soap).
What a fancy soap maker I am!
I allowed the soap to harden for 24 hours, I won't lie, I peeked about 5 times, and then I cut it. When I took it out of the bag, it was opaque white and really crumbly. It also seemed a bit soft to me, it reminded me of goat cheese. I cut it regardless into 5 oz bricks and put it on a wire rack to cure for the next 3 to 4 weeks.
It isn't the prettiest block I have ever seen, but it's mine!
My bars of soap. As you can see, they look like goat cheese and crumble like goat cheese... maybe I made that instead?
Figuring Out Why I Had Goat Cheese Instead of Soap
Needless to say, I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my undertakings. I HATE failure, even my first time. So I was a little disappointed when my soap was not quite up to par. I don't think that it is too far off from what it should be and only time will tell if it will form hard bars, but I still don't think it is perfect. So I did some more research.
According to Miller's Homemade Soap, soft and crumbly soap that leaves and oily residue when smooshed means that it was inadequately mixed and saponified OR the mixture lost too much heat during mixing.
Saponified? Saponification? I had NO idea what these terms meant, so I looked them up. Saponification is the process that produces soap. I realized that by some voodoo trickery, I had been duped into doing chemistry in my kitchen... and I hate chemistry. Soap is the byproduct of the reaction between an acid (fat) and a base (a hydroxide, whether is is NaOH [sodium hydroxide, or lye] or KOH [potassium hydroxide, or potash]) and saponification is what that reaction is called. Heat is involved and is very important in this reaction turning out properly. What is more... soap is supposed to "gel" before it hardens, this is a key step to knowing if your soap is going to turn out or not.
I also learned about SAP values or (in layman's terms) how much lye it takes to saponify a specific fat. It is different for every one! Majestic Mountain Sage has one that has been recommended by many sites, it is the one that I will use in the future.
Troubleshooting
So what did I learn from all of this?
1. KNOW YOUR SAP VALUES!
2. Mix soap by hand or with a hand blender to make sure that you reach trace before your soap loses too much heat and becomes crumbly. You can use a paint stirrer for bigger batches but it is best to use a blender so you can see the small changes in the mixture.
3. Take breaks while mixing with an electric apparatus to make sure that you have not reached a false trace. Real trace will not re-liquify when you stop mixing. Continue to mix with the apparatus turned off to see what the true thickness and state of the mixture is.
4. You want the mixture to be deeper when you are mixing it, not spread out thinly. This way it retains heat better and does not draw air into the soap.
5. Vegetable based soap ingredients should be at about 110 degrees before mixing.
6. (this one is cool) Use a digital thermometer to take the temperature of the soap mixture right after adding the lye to the fat. Take the temperature again shortly after beginning to mix. A 2-3 degree increase is supposedly a reliable predictor of the soap being ready to pour, according to Miller Handmade Soaps. 5 degrees means that visible trace is present.
7. About 30 minutes after pouring the soap into the mold, check to see if the middle has gone clear and looks like gel. You want to see the soap gel out to the corners of the mold, this means that saponification has taken place. At gel, open your box or mold to allow some heat to escape, once the soap starts to turn opaque again, close the mold again and cover to retain heat for the remainder of the 24 hours.
8. YOU CAN REMELT SOAP! If your soap does not turn out and you think you can troubleshoot it, rather than waste the ingredients, re-melt it and re-blend it, re-pour it and re-set it. Re-cut it and it should be ready to use immediately.
So, what am I planning on doing with 4 lbs of moderately successful soap? I am going to let it cure for a few weeks (ie - 2 weeks) and see if it has hardened any and if it seems less crumbly. If so, then I will let it continue to cure and then use it. If it does not seem any better, then I will melt it down again and start over.
I am glad that I was able to make this batch and learn from my mistakes but, in all honesty, I wish I could report back to you all as Super Woman and say that it was a complete success. I know that this is just a slight bump in the road and it will get easier over time but... aw man!!! I will keep you all updated on what comes of this batch and what I end up doing. Hopefully this will keep y'all from making my same mistakes!
I also made my first batch of green tea kombucha tonight and fed our worms, and took pictures of all of it for a future post. I am anxious to see if the kombucha turns out because I used an old unopened bottle of it as starter. I don't see why I get so upset when I fail, I tend to experiment with everything I do which means a greater chance of failure... you'd think I would learn! ;)
Everyone have a wonderful weekend and be well. Thank you for reading and as always, I am open to any criticisms of the blog. I want to hear your thoughts and ideas, what you guys would like to read, etc. There are a lot of exciting possibilities on the horizon, let's work together to manifest these things and start a green/living like a 1840's homestead revolution! :)
Well, all of the ingredients for making laundry detergent came in yesterday, once I got home from work I opened it all and made a batch.
It took me about 30 minutes from start to finish, this is includes me putting the excess borax and washing sodas into jars and making labels for them, so I would say that making a batch takes 15 to 20 minutes of pretty easy work.
I like to give credit where credit is due, what got me interested in "making my own" (or DIY-ing it, whichever you prefer to call it) was a class I took in high school. We read through this book and did a workbook that the late Bonnie Morrell of Woodstock, GA had written. While I no longer share the religious sentiments of the "program", if you will, I still believe in the relevance of the lifestyle that it introduced me to. In the 8 years that have passed since that class, I have gone back and forth between living a healthier life and living a SAD (Standard American Diet) type of life. One of our wedding presents was the things to get started with making our own flour and bread, something that I loved doing when I was younger. When I started making our bread, I refocused on living a healthy lifestyle and began to think about what else I could make for us that could save both our health and wallet. I began to hear about people making their own laundry detergent and how easy it was and how much cheaper it was. I was intrigued! I started following links that I found on Facebook and I came across this site.
I started scanning her articles about soap making and skincare products and I was hooked. I spent 8 hours that night reading and watching tutorials and making lists of recipes that I wanted to try to make.
The next day I showed my husband the findings and he seemed somewhat skeptical, as anyone would be when they found out that their wife wants $300 to make soap and lotion. So I sat down and for 12 hours looked up MORE recipes and did price comparisons between product sites, finding out what the cheapest recipes would be, down to the price per use, and comparing all of this data to the products we were currently using. It was exhausting but amazing, I found that we would be saving over half on most products by making our own AND the products would be greener and healthier than the ones we buy at the store.
I presented this to my sweetie along with a list of products we could make, in the order that we were going to run out of them. We decided that to bite off little chunks of making our own so we would not waste the drawerfuls of lotions and soaps that we already have on hand. The first thing we needed was laundry detergent. I got this recipe from FIMBY.TOUGAS (the previous link):
1 cup Arm and Hammer Washing Soda
1 cup borax
1 bar Fels Naptha soap, grated
This recipe costs $9.26 (AHHH!) per batch ($0.18/load), the washing soda should last for a little over 8 batches, borax for 9 batches, and you need 5.5 oz of soap per recipe.
I found a recipe (on FIMBY) for a simple cleaning soap and decided to find out what the cost of making a batch would be. I found that a single batch would cost around $16.61, making the cost per 5.5 oz bar $1.43.
Fels Naptha was not available in ANY of our local Walmarts or other grocery stores (and local for us means a 30 mile radius) so we had to order it online. It was $3.90 without shipping, about $7 when all was said and done. So, making our own soap is DRASTICALLY cheaper than buying it! A batch of laundry detergent made using homemade soap is only $3.69 ($0.07/load). Compare this to the store brand detergent with horrible chemicals in it at about $6.50 with about 15 less uses ($0.20/load) than the homemade stuff. Ay!
I will be making my first batch of simple soap tomorrow (hopefully) and it will need to cure for 3-4 weeks before I can use it. Once we do, we will save $.13 per load of laundry but until then, $0.02 per load. Every little bit counts!
Enough with the numbers, here is my pictorial of making laundry detergent!
All of the ingredients for a batch of detergent. I used old pickle jars that I deodorized to hold the excess ingredients so they don't cake or become smelly.
Grated Fels Naptha bar. It looks like cheddar cheese! The label has a warning that that soap may irritate skin, to be on the safe side I wore a pair of rubber gloves.
After this step, you put all of the ingredients into a food processor and "chop" it into a powder. I left my processor on for about 1 minute, in the future I will probably let it go for a little longer so the soap shreds become a bit smaller.
The finished product! I hope that I don't regret putting it into a glass jar, but our last container of laundry detergent was thrown away accidentally and I didn't want to use a plastic container.
As you can see, you only need to use 1 tablespoon of detergent for a regular load of laundry, 2 tablespoons for a dirty load. I have already tested it out and I love the results! Our clothes look clean and don't really have a scent, once we run out of fabric softener I will start using apple cider vinegar and a few drops of essential oil in the bleach dispenser. Once I try this I will let you all know what I think! We had some soiled linens from our bad animals (ok,they aren't bad, just ornery) that I washed with 1 tbsp. of detergent, they are drying now but didn't smell bad when I was putting them in the dryer. If 1 tbsp deodorized and cleaned them then I am impressed!
And with that, i leave you all. Good luck on making your own detergent, if anyone finds a new recipe or has a tweak that they would like to share, I would love to hear from you! Be well, everyone. :)
Well, it has been a beautiful 38 degree winter day and wouldn't you know it... it's a holiday. I spent the first half of the day on pins and needles, anxiously awaiting the delivery of the rest of my supplies but then realized it was MLK day. Silly me. Luckily UPS still delivers because my eucalyptus oil arrived... now hopefully the tea tree will arrive tomorrow and I can make my first batch of soap. Woohoo!!!
Today was spent doing odd work around the house, my sweetheart built a door for the breezeway to our house (I am so proud of him, it was his first exterior door and it's not too shabby, if I say so myself), he is working on closing up the breeze way and installing a wood burning furnace. We are about 60% done, he has been working hard! We are also painting and wallpapering a window frame to use as art in the house. I am looking forward to finishing it so I can post a picture!
I also organized our seed collection and took stock of what we have and don't have for our summer garden. It's almost germination time! Ahhh... so excited! We will be growing pickling cucumbers, roma and beefsteak tomatoes (hopefully I can convince my hubby to forgo the cherries, I despise picking those!), green beans, carrots, cantaloupe, onions, watermelon, roman broccoli (I can't wait to see those fractal designs!), and a variety of herbs. It will be my first official herb garden, I'm anxious to start seeds now and see if I can get a harvest by summer... we'll see!
Speaking of gardening, we have a surprisingly successful indoor tomato garden. Brad built a frame to hold 5 gallon buckets and transplanted some volunteers from our garden last year. We have been watering them and he meticulously pollinates the blooms with a toothbrush, and this has been the result:
You can also see our gorgeous cactus and wildly successful aloe vera plant. And a puppy and fuzzy tailed kitten. :)
Tomatoes that I actually like to eat!
We have both been a little sniffly lately and can't seem to kick it, I acquired some dulse seaweed from an acquaintance and have been waiting for a chance to use it. Seaweed is rich in iodine and minerals and is great for a healthy energy boost. It is something that I don't know much about, it is on my list of things to research this week. I plan on reporting back in a few posts with more than enough information for y'all though!
This acquaintance used to prepare a seaweed broth and mix it with sesame oil and miso as an afternoon snack when he needed a boost. That is what our dinner tonight will be - healthy, light, and full of nutrients. I was also given dulse seaweed granules that I have used in soups and gravies to give us an extra boost, it looks like pepper and adds a great flavor when used like this! I will take pictures the next time I use it in this manner, y'all won't even notice it. :)
Boiling seaweed.
The entire process, start to finish. The rehydrated seaweed can be used in pickling - YUM - but I put it aside to feed to our worms. I can only imagine how healthy the soil they leave behind from it will be. Here is a link to a great seaweed resource.
With that, I will leave you all. Make yourselves a warm cup of tea and curl up by a fire tonight, and be well. :)
Ooh, a double feature today! I am so amped about getting all of our supplies in the mail but we got a couple inches of snow and hard winds all day yesterday so I imagine that they will be held up a bit. :( IHATEWAITING!!!
Ok, glad I got that out. Today I tried to stay busy by doing some much needed organizing in the kitchen and making a truly remarkable (scoff) and inventive dinner. I really enjoyed organizing today, I find that when I focus and organize and clean a space, especially when it is one that I spend a lot of time in, that I tend to enjoy it more and feel more open and creative within it. I already spend a lot of time in the kitchen and have done a great deal of work in there so far, but today I was able to get it to the place where it feels like home. I am so excited to share!!!
Easy Organization
Cabinet Conundrum
When I became the lady of this house there were already cabinet doors missing, food from 2 prior roommates that had pretty different tastes than myself, drawers were a wreck, and the cabinets were all disasters. There were open bags of food, dirt and crumbs caked into the corners, moths, mealworms, and weevils. It was astounding (and disgusting) to me. I tend to become overwhelmed easily so I bit off little bits of the cleaning process at a time.
I began by cleaning out the old food and food that was open, eaten, or had ingredients that I refuse to eat in them. While I cleared the cans and boxes and bags out, I also wiped down inside the drawers and cabinets and cleaned out those dirty corners!
My next task was to find a place for everything. I created a system (a crappy system, but a system nonetheless) for where pots, pans, silverware, appliances, jars, and food went. During this, my super OCD went into overdrive and I was inspired. I took our excess Mason jars (love these things, y'all. We use them as cups, measuring spoons, whatever... they are so handy!) and put anything that was in an open bag or box that I could fit into them, also anything that I had bulk of downstairs.
After filling as many jars as I could fit into the cabinets, I took a small notepad that a friend graciously gave me and made matching labels for each jar, then taped them with packing tape onto the jars. Now my labels are waterproof and can be easily removed whenever I change ingredients.
I LOVE THIS GREEN SOLUTION! Now I have matching storage jars lining my cabinets. Not only do they match, they are airtight, making my food stay fresh for longer, and they are so cute!
Here is a picture:
You can see what is left of my summer canning in the close up:
Soap Scummy Sink
I HATE SOAP SCUM! I get so tired of scrubbing the rim of my sink every time I do the dishes to get the soap residue off from where I put my scrub brush when I am finished with a sinkful. I had made a makeshift soap dish from a Mason lid for this wonderful bar of odor eliminating coffee and vanilla soap I got from Nourish while we were on our honeymoon.
Tonight we ate a dish with mushrooms in it. Mmmm. When I was done chopping them, I had a decent sized plastic mushroom container made from a surprisingly sturdy plastic left over. I washed it out and made it into a small dish caddy, to sit on my counter near the sink and keep the soap scum off of it!
Ooh, another picture:
Drawer Dilemma
Oh, I hope you all LOVE these witty little subtitles. It has taken a lot of thought to come up with such... silly... titles.
We, like every other couple in the US, have a junk drawer. Oh, it makes my skin curl to think about it. I hate it. Phone books jammed in there with rolls of duct tape, dozens of batteries rolling around, scissors... I swear it is dangerous!
Today I went through with an old folder from college and old plastic baggies and organized all of the takeout menu's (that we never use) and coupons and important business cards into the folder and batteries (by type) into the baggies. All of the scissors were collected and corralled in between rolls of tape. No picture of this for y'all but trust me, it looks wonderful!
(trying to) Eat Well on a (crappy) Budget
Well, we are poor. Seriously, we are. We both work part time jobs and try to do side work to fill in the cracks but that really can only go so far. We buy store brand items for pretty much everything and I have been using pretty much everything that we rarely used and had stockpiled in the pantry. It has been kinda fun to mix incredibly diverse foods together just because it is what we had... case in point, last week we had sugared carrots, garlic mashed potatoes, and balsamic baked tilapia because that was what was going bad in our cabinets. It turned out to be so good!
This week my sweet honey's stomach has been hurting, the stress lately is making his Crohn's flair up, so we have a really exciting week of bland food to look forward to. I HATE BLAND!!! Sigh.
Last night we had a somewhat failed attempt at beef and broccoli, I didn't realize that I had gotten a pound and a half of beef rather than half a pound... so I used significantly less broccoli and we had a really nice beef meal.
Tonight my darling had the idea to stretch the leftovers with spaghetti and boil more vegetables in with the spaghetti. I adapted this by pulling out the wok again and working with some special ingredients from a more prosperous time - dried ground ginger and sesame oil and seeds. I made a sesame/ginger/garlic sauce with onions and mushrooms, stirred in more broccoli, meanwhile realizing that we had no spaghetti. We had about 1/2 cup of dried macaroni and 1/4 cup dried whole grain egg noodles. It was party experiment time. I cooked them both together, drained them and added them to the broccoli/sauce mixture, then stirred in the leftover beef from last night.
It was SO tasty! And we have another lunch and dinner worth of it. Hooray for inventive and (somewhat) healthy eating! [NOTE: I wish our pasta was all whole grain but we are getting to that point, trying to eat what we have first though. And I wish the meat had been organic but again with the budget...]
Here is a look at Yumi Yumi Teriyaki Surprise:
It ain't much to look at but it was good!
Another thing we do to save money is pack lunches. Every night that my darling works, I pack him a lunch, the same things every time (mmmm, variety). A salad with olives and a pickle and a whole grain turkey sandwich. He uses a water bottle that we refill to ~savetheplanet~ and we reuse our plastic bags. I put his dressing in an old ketchup room service bottle (from our micromoon in Chicago).
I love that he is about eating healthy as this lunch is inexpensive, easy to make, and HEALTHY! I make our bread (grinding our own flour! Yum!) and we use turkey or chicken for his meat, mixed salad greens (we are looking into growing our own) and some Sunchips or pita chips.
OOH! Another picture!
Oh, don't mind the gratuitous picture of my marvelous breadmaking equipment - a Nutrimill and woman's best friend, Electrolux Assistent. LOVE THEM!
Well, this has been long, but hopefully entertaining. Thank you all for reading, tell your friends so we can start a discussion about living and learning to live green!
Be well, all of you. :)
I tend to enjoy making lists and am finding that writing this is incredibly awkward for me right now, so I will begin this blog in the most exciting way possible - with lists!
Where I would describe myself right now:
- curious about how to integrate living like a frontiersman (ha ha ha) into a relevant 21st century life... how far is too far? At what point do I begin to sound like a crazy hippie? ;)
- curious about what am I capable of doing, I don't want to exhaust myself with trying to bite off too much.
- I should probably say this again, how far is too far and when do I start to sound like a crazy hippie?!?
- excited about the prospect of becoming more self-reliant as I believe that this is an important tool for this day and age.
- excited about the benefits of making our own products! Also looking forward to having a bigger garden this year and expanding my canning knowledge... and caring for our bees (who will hopefully make it through this crazy winter - the warm temperatures have made them start coming out and it froze and snowed today. I'm sure that it was a rather unpleasant surprise for them).
My goals for this blog are:
- to chronicle my husband and I's growth in becoming greener people.
- to show others my mishaps so they can try to avoid them.
- to entertain?
- to (hopefully) show others how easy it can be to go back to the lifestyle of our ancestors. I feel that if we all became more independent, we would all be better off.
Things that I am proud I achieved in 2011:
- falling in love with my husband
- getting engaged and married :)
- planting my first garden
- learning how to do some yardwork, we got our yard looking beautiful this past summer!
- harvesting our garden
- getting into a beehive for the first time and getting away with no stings
- teaching myself how to preserve food and canning 63 (SUCCESSFUL!)) pints of giardiniera, pickles, and pickled hot peppers.
Things I am looking forward to achieving in 2012:
- beginning to make all of our toiletries and cleaning products
- getting a good honey harvest
- planting a bigger and more extensive garden
- preserving at least double what I preserved last year
Now that I feel a bit more comfortable with this, I can quit the lists. Today we ordered the products we need to make laundry detergent and simple lye soap. The simple soap will be what we use for dish soap, laundry detergent, and any other cleansing product in the future. We also got two essential oils to begin our collection - eucalyptus and tea tree. I am SO EXCITED to make and ((in about a month)) use our homemade scented soap. Our laundry will smell so good!
I spent around 30 hours this week researching recipes for soap, shampoo, conditioner, dish detergent, dishwasher soap, laundry detergent, lotion, lip balm, face soap, face lotion, shaving cream, shaving soap, and deodorant. I also did a price analysis of what it would cost per batch and per use for each of the above recipes and for the store bought products we were using. This is where I got the name of this blog - not only will we be saving ourselves and the planet with making our own products, growing our own food and preserving it, and maintaining our hive, we will be saving money... woohoo!
Look for a future post with the recipes I will be trying and the prices for making a batch, later later posts for how they turn out, pictures, and more! :)
