Chiot's Run

Non-Toxic Cleaning: Doing the Dishes

Susy — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:45:27 +0000

Here at Chiot’s Run we typically wash dishes by hand. My dishwasher control panel went out about a year ago and we decided it was faster to wash everything the old fashioned way. I mix castile soap in a foaming soap dispenser (see instructions here) and use a Twist compostable sponge. I also keep a parmesan cheese shaker with baking soda at the sink for sprinkling in any pots and pans that need a good scrubbing.

Like most people, I have a collection of various bottle brushes and stainless steel scrubbers for kitchen and household cleaning. They certainly come in handy for washing water bottles and hummingbird feeders!

Scrubbing the dishes by hand really doesn’t take much longer that loading and unloading the dishwasher, at least for us here. We wash them as soon as we’re finished cooking/eating and then they’re done. No saving up a sink full of dishes here – one of my biggest annoyances is dirty dishes on the counter. I don’t want to see them. Having the dishes all washed and put away right away is also a great benefit to hand washing, no waiting for hours for the dishwasher to wash and no noise either.

What would the non-toxic cleaning series be without a proper automatic dishwashing detergent recommendation? So I ordered a new control panel and a new seal from Repair Clinic and the dishwasher was fixed for a fraction of what it would cost to replace it.

Up until a year ago when the dishwasher kicked the bucket, I used Ecover Automatic Dishwashing Detergent and was fairly happy. I purchased a container of Tropical Traditions Detergent Detergent with Enzymes, but the dishwasher died before I could use it.

It was used for the first load and I must say, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Tropical Traditions detergent*. The first time I used it I was amazed at how spotless the dishes came out. We have hard water and the dishes have never come out this clean, ever. I’ve washed a few more loads with it and it has performed just as well each time.

What goes in my rinse aid dispenser? White vinegar, citrus infused if I have it. Even with our very hard water, it seems to work just as well as the store-bought varieties at a fraction of the cost!

I do use the high heat wash setting on my dishwasher. Since our diet includes lots of butter, whole milk and other high fat foods, the high heat setting is needed to help dissolve all the residue on the plates. The low-temp simply doesn’t work.

If your dishwasher isn’t doing a great job cleaning the dishes, think about cleaning it. Once a year, we take apart our dishwasher and clean all the parts, this keeps it cleaning perfectly. I can always tell when it’s needing a good cleaning. This step is especially important if you don’t clean all the food off of your dishes before loading it. You’ll also extend the life of your dishwasher saving you money if you take the time to perform yearly maintenance.

Even though my dishwasher is now fixed, I’ll continue doing most of the dishes by hand. For me it’s a great way to get some down time, I really enjoy looking at the tulip hillside and the woods while I clean. There are claims that washing dishes by hand uses more energy/water, but I have not found this to be the case. My electric bit went down when we started doing dishes by hand.

Do you do dishes by hand or with an automatic dishwasher?

*Disclaimer – I do have an affiliate program with Tropical Traditions, if you click through my blog to make your first purchase they give me a gift certificate. Rest assured, I have been spending my hard earned cash and recommending Tropical Traditions long before they offered a program like this.

NON-TOXIC CLEANING SERIES
Stocking Your Non-Toxic Cleaning Kit
Learning to Love Castile Soap
Make Your Own: Foaming Soap
Make Your Own: Infused Vinegar
Make Your Own: Multi-Purpose Cleaner
Make Your Own: Color Safe Oxygen Bleach
Homemade Whitening Scouring Scrub
Friday Favorite: Charlie’s Soap
Friday Favorite: Twist Sponges
and more to come

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Sprucing up the Fairy Garden

Susy — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:45:34 +0000

Remember when I put together a Fairy Gardening Kit with my nieces & nephew last fall? A few of the plants didn’t make it through the winter, so we purchased some plants last Monday at the greenhouse. Yesterday, I met them at my mom’s and we spruced up the Fairy Garden for the coming season.

The Fairy Garden had a rough winter and only one of the tiny plants had survived. That’s OK though, the kids were not discouraged and it’s a good lesson to learn. Plants don’t always survive. We pulled everything out, mixed some chicken manure into the soil and set off designing and planting our new fairy garden.

It has been a funny process since we put together this garden. Fairy Gardening liked the video so much, they hired me to make a few more videos for them and to manage their social media. We haven’t officially launched the campaign, but keep checking as in the coming weeks I’ll be blogging at Fairy Gardening a few days a month as well as posting fun fairy gardening stuff to the Fairy Gardenin facebook page.

If you’ve got kids and want to help them learn to love gardening fairy gardening is the perfect way. My nieces and nephews are fascinated with the fairy garden and always have to water it and monitor it when they go to my mom’s.

I’m hoping to put in a fairy garden in my outdoor garden someday, what a fun thing to do in a little nook. It’s also a great way to keep those low-growing plants in one place and reduces the risk of them being overshadowed and overtaken by larger plants.

What great things have you learned captivate kids when it comes to gardening? Have you ever seen a fairy garden?

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Radishes – MMM?

Susy — Mon, 14 May 2012 08:45:00 +0000

I must admit, I’m not really a big fan of radishes. It’s not that I hate them, they’re grown in the gardens of Chiot’s Run every year and we eat all the ones we grow. So why do I grow them? Because they’re quick, you can seed them and be eating them almost a month later, lettuce is barely this quick to reach harvest.

This year I’m growing ‘French Breakfast’ for the first time and I really like it. My other favorite is ‘Pink Beauty’ (we’ll use the work “favorite” loosely here).

What’s one thing you don’t particularly like but still grow in your garden?

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Quote of the Day: Thalassa Cruso

Susy — Sun, 13 May 2012 08:45:09 +0000

Gardeners should love what they own & own what they love; but their gardens should never own them, there will be no pleasure in them if they do.

-Thalassa Cruso (Making Things Grow Outdoors)

I thought this quote was quite fitting. There once was a time when I was trying to get way too much done when it came to the garden. One day I realized “it’s not a race”. I didn’t have to get an entire orchard planted in one summer, or to fill every flowerbed with plants the first year.

After realizing this my gardening has taken a much slower pace. I still spend countless hours each week in the garden, but I don’t get stressed out if I don’t get something accomplished that I was hoping to get done.

As a result, gardening is much more relaxing. I can enjoy the simple pleasure of slowly weeding a flowerbed without worrying if I’ll have time to install a hedge of roses or not. When I get time, I’ll have a hedge of roses, until then, I’ll relish the fresh cleanly weeded flowerbed.

What pace do you typically maintain as a gardener?

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Burning the Midnight Oil

Susy — Sat, 12 May 2012 08:45:59 +0000

Mr Chiots and I were up late working on the kitchen. A few months ago we purchased some butcher block for the counters and finally had some time this weekend to tackle this project.

Here’s what our kitchen looked like yesterday morning:

Don’t let the photos fool you, the laminate countertops were in pretty shabby condition. Since our home has an open floor plan, there’s no hiding it.

We started this project after dinner last night, tackling the demolition of the old countertops first. We tried to salvage them, but in the end we had to cut through them to get them off. There was no way they were going to fit it through the door.

I like to take advantage of projects like this to do some serious cleaning, especially in those nooks and crannies, like the area under the stove. I don’t think I’ve pulled out the stove since we installed the hardwood floors 5 years ago. I found a good amount of cat hair, a few furry mice (the cat toy variety), coffee beans, and a few milk rings (also cat toys). I was actually surprised there wasn’t more under here.

I’ve always dreamed of having soapstone counters, but for now butcher block will do. This project wasn’t very expensive and it will make a world of difference. Stay tuned for photos of the finshed product, no doubt they’ll be featured in the non-toxic kitchen cleaning post coming up soon.

What’s your dream kitchen counter surface?

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247 E Mohawk Drive

Susy — Fri, 11 May 2012 08:45:15 +0000

Yep, that’s my address. I purchased some house numbers a while ago with plans to put them on the front door. Then I got nervous and didn’t want to drill holes in the door. Earlier this week, we decided to make a plaque to hang on the front porch since it’s all spruced up and looking lovely.

Originally we were going to buy some wood, but then we remembered that we had some beautiful maple that was milled from one of those trees we had taken down last spring. First we thought about painting it, but then decided the light maple would be perfect as is.

Mr Chiots cut the perfect size board, complete with a slightly beveled edge. He gave it a good sanding, though not enough to make it furniture smooth. We wanted to still have some texture. Then I gave it a few coats of organic boiled linseed oil.

After it was dry, I attached the number, added the eye hooks, and wrote a small description on the back. Hopefully whoever has this house after us will find this little treasure when they take the number down.

Mr Chiots and I were laughing that they’ll probably take it down because they think it’s ugly then they’ll feel bad since it’s got history.

This house humber is perfect because it’s easily visible from the road now, which is why you put house numbers up. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been searching for someone’s address and couldn’t find house numbers either on the house or the mailbox. We’ve always had a mailbox with huge numbers on it to make it easy for people to find, now this is even better.

Do you display your house number somewhere visible?

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Aloe Hedgehog

Susy — Thu, 10 May 2012 08:45:26 +0000

I’ve been trying to come up with something unique & interesting to put in pots to flank the front door. Our porch is HUGE and unless there are a few pots of plants it looks like a bowling alley. This year, I was considering purchasing a few boxwoods clipped into spheres for this spot. When I was at Buchwalter Greenhouse on Monday with my mom I spotted these aloe ‘Hedgehog’ and knew they’d be perfect.

Our front porch is hot, hot, hot since it gets the afternoon sun. I’d love to do ferns, but they just can’t take the heat. These lovely aloes should thrive up there in those conditions.

These are certainly unique, I’m guess most of my neighbors are going to have petunias and other plants on their front port. Now I just need to find something unique that can take the heat for my hanging baskets.

What’s your favorite front porch plant? Do you have a tough spot in the garden you have trouble finding the perfect plant for?

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Happy Mother’s Day

Susy — Wed, 09 May 2012 08:45:18 +0000

Yesterday, I went over to my mom’s. We picked up my nieces and went to the Buchwalter Greenhouse so they could buy a Mother’s Day gift for their mom (my sister). They also needed to get a few new plants for the Fairy Garden that we made last fall. They really enjoyed walking around the entire greenhouse oohing and ahhing over all the beautiful flowers. They debated and argued over what they wanted to get for their mom.

They finally settled on this lovely hanging basket bursting with lovely flowers. My mom buys it and the kids pay it off with chores at her house. I also purchased the same basket for my mom and it looks great hanging on her front porch.

On the way home we stopped by Hartzler’s Dairy to pick up some ice cream. The kids then spent the afternoon playing outside with a cart my dad built that my sister and I used to play on when we were kids. I think flowers and plants make the perfect gift, you can plant them in the garden, enjoy them on the porch and when the season is over they can become houseplants or go into the compost pile.

Do you enjoy receiving flowers for gifts for Mother’s Day or other holidays?

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New Porch Posts

Susy — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:45:36 +0000

Our front porch posts have needed replaced for quite a while. We never really liked the old ones because they didn’t really fit with the style of our home. They were kind of cottagy and our house is a traditional cape. I always knew what I wanted in their place, but we just never had the time to get them replaced; until this past weekend.

Pre-made porch posts can be quite pricey, hovering around $60-$100 each. We didn’t really like the look of plastic ones either and wanted real wood. Finally, we settled on using wooden 4 x 6 posts with trim detail, which Mr Chiots made some trim from 1 x 6 boards. Everything was primed, caulked and given many coats of crisp white paint. The results were quite nice, not bad since it cost us less than $100 to do all six posts.

They now look fantastic with our freshly painted shutters and foundation. Hopefully in the next couple weeks the rest of the trim and the doors will be painted and the entire project will be finished.

I must admit, the fresh facelift for the house makes the gardens look even better! When all the rest of the outdoor to-do’s are finished I’ll give you a tour of the house and gardens (since so many people have been asking for it).

What is one thing you’ve been wanting to change about your house but haven’t gotten around to it yet?

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Lettuce Explosion

Susy — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:45:36 +0000

Just last week I was looking at my lettuce wondering when it was going to get big enough to harvest. I guess all it needed was a good soaking rain a few days of sunny warm weather. We were away for a few days last week and during the 3 days we were gone things exploded in the garden, especially the lettuce.

My lettuce bed is about 10 foot long by about 4 foot wide and it’s now overflowing with lettuce. Looks like we’ll be eating salads every night for dinner for the coming weeks. No doubt we won’t be able to eat all of this lettuce, so it’s a good think I have a neighbor that will be happy to have some.

I don’t mind all this bounty, I’ve been patiently waiting for this day and made a big batch of salad dressing on Saturday. My salad dressing of choice in the spring is a balsamic vinaigrette made with a dash of maple syrup, garlic, shallots, freshly ground pepper, sea salt, a bit of whole grain mustard, apple cider vinegar and a healthy measure of good olive oil.

Is there anything that has exploded in your garden in the last week? What’s your favorite kind of salad dressing?

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