Aunt Debbi"s Garden

Winter Sprouts

2013-01-26T19:00:00.000-08:00

I know it is winter, but I want to garden NOW. There is a little bit of stuff out there including onions, garlic, cabbages and Brussels sprouts, but I want more. My boss gave me a homemade seed sprouting set up for my birthday . This includes a cool old Mason jar, the collar to the Mason jar and a square of tulle. She shared plain radish seeds and a salad mix of broccoli, radish and alfalfa seeds. We have already started and finished on "crop" of radish sprouts and are now three days into another batch. Since the middle Manimal (sorry they grew out of monkeyhood) will not stay out of them, I started another jar this afternoon. So now I have both plan radish sprouts and the salad mix growing in my cupboard. Sweet right, gardening indoors and in the dark.

Here are the steps. It is beyond easy. Get a clean canning jar with a collar and a piece of tulle. If you can't find a canning jar a regular glass jar will work just use a rubber band instead of the collar. Find some seeds to sprout. We bought ours at a local natural food market. I also have seeds I've saved from the garden including broccoli, collards and Chinese greens that I will sprout soon. Put about a tablespoon or so of seeds in the bottom of the jar and let them soak in a little water for about an hour. Cover the top of the jar with the tulle and secure it with the canning collar a sturdy rubber band. Drain off the water pretty well and put the jar in a cool dark place like a cupboard. Wait. In a day they will be germinating. In about four days you can eat them, although they will be a little crunchy, which I like. In five to six days they are ready to go. Don't save them for special, you want to eat them young and fresh. .

Changes

2012-09-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

Today was the second to last day of my short career at a local garden center. Ron's Organics is a great place to work and I will miss it, however, a full-time job at the library opened up for me and I can't let that opportunity slip by. Plus, I got a little overexcited about the fall seed order and I'm a little afraid they may call the mental health authorities.

Because I was working two jobs and mostly seven days a week during the busy season, my spring/summer garden suffered. It did okay, but nothing to brag about. I was gardening vicariously through the garden center customers and my friend, Brenda Gardner-Newby. More about her later. No, I didn't make up that name.

Today I left the garden center a little early. This gave me plenty of daylight to get some of the fall garden put in. I planted broccoli, cabbage and Brussels sprout plants. I started broccoli raab, an heirloom broccoli called Di Cicco, and collard green seeds. These will be transplanted in about six weeks.

Over the weekend, I put in my garlic. I also took another shot at artichokes and quinoa. I had limited success with quinoa a few years ago. I have managed to keep a relative of artichoke, cardoon, alive for many years. I figure if I can't grow a thistle, I better get a new ~~obsession~~ hobby.

Tonight, I am going through my seed box and finding everything else I can grow in my garden this winter. I intend to plant every inch of it. I want to have enough to share with friends, family and maybe even a local food pantry.

Happy Fall Everyone.

Don't forget to grow your garlic.

Nasty Little @#$%^@#s

2012-08-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

You may or may not know, North Texas is in the middle of a West Nile epidemic. There have been 207 confirmed cases and ten deaths in Dallas County according to NBC Channel 5. One of the fatalities was a gentleman who lived in my work-hometown. The City of Dallas is planning an areal spray program. I hate to think of all the poor innocent bugs that are going to get wiped out when that starts. I am very concerned about honey bees. We NEED our honey bees.

The way I handle the mosquito situation at Casa Debbi is mosquito dunks. The dunks contain Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis. Let's just call that BTi, mkay? BTi is a bacteria that is toxic to mosquito and black fly larvae. You simply place a dunk in standing water, say your rain barrels, and the BTi takes care of the larvae. So if you live in an area where West Nile virus is a problem or mosquitoes just make you mad, get some mosquito dunks and kill those wiggly little babies.

Read more on this at The Texas Triffid Ranch.

Gardening ADD

2012-05-05T14:01:00.003-07:00

I'm pretty sure I have ADD. I've been wandering around outside in my garden and inside my home. I started out trying to get a raised vegetable bed planted. Then I needed compost. In order to get compost, I had to hire help. Help does not have ADD and the compost is coming along nicely. Then I was going to make compost tea, but saw a caterpillar. Of course I had to find my camera and post a picture of the caterpillar on Facebook. Suddenly, I couldn't remember the task at hand. Compost employee, a.k.a. Middle Monkey, gently reminds me I am supposed to be making compost tea. He might have used the words scatter brains. I make the compost tea and decide a friend really needs some rabbit poo. Compost employee bags up the poo. I take the poo inside, remember my glass of water and put the poo down. Spend the next 10 minutes hunting for a bag of poo. Decide that I need to spray some weeds (don't worry all I use is vinegar and orange oil) and make up spray. Go spray 1/4 of the weeds, get bored and come back inside. Waste 15 minutes on the Internet. At that point, I actually weeded the raised bed. It was a miracle. No, the raised bed is not planted yet. I'm blaming the compost employee.

Happy Spring.

2012-04-27T07:42:00.000-07:00

I'm out this morning doing a having a little pruning and planting therapy. I am stunned at the things that didn't die last summer. My viburnum, mock orange and Maggie rose have all returned from the dead. The only thing I know for sure that didn't make it was a very large prostrate rosemary. I will miss it so.

This year I'm going to try a small watermelon called Minnesota Midget. Four seeds in containers and five in the ground. I hope it works because we need short tomato vines for our small garden. We don't want another repeat of "The Attack of the Giant Pumpkin Vine."

Hope all your gardens are growing well.

Happy Spring.

and here is a present for Our Friend Ben.

Indoor Garlic

2012-02-05T15:45:00.000-08:00

Last year, I did not grow enough garlic. It is almost impossible to grow enough garlic. This year I think I did better and will certainly let them stay in the ground longer to develop better cloves. Anyhow, I did grow garlic indoors last year. Very simple. All you need is a nice, small container, three or so garlic cloves, good potting soil and a bright spot to put it, like the kitchen window. Pot ups the garlic cloves pointy end up, water the potting soil and wait. You will be amazed how fast this stuff grows. To use it, just clip what you need off the green tops. Don't forget to use it, it gets leggy fast. The taste is actually a little more intense than garlic cloves. Enjoy.

BTW garlic from the grocery store is just fine. That is what I used in the picture above.

Smaller Pants

2012-01-31T12:13:00.000-08:00

I haven't lost any measurable weight in the last month. The last date I measured weight loss was New Years Day. I did, however, lose a pant size. Back on April 1st 2010, I was a size sixteen. Today, I am in a size ten. My goal size is an eight. Pretty happy about this.

To jump start a little more weight loss, I made cabbage soup today.

2 cups shredded cabbage
1 celery stalk
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1/2 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon Chicken
3 cups water
Olive oil
Cider vinegar
Hot sauce (think Tabasco) but mine is homemade
Sesame seed oil
Olive oil
Saute the vegetables in olive oil until soft. Add the Better than Bouillon and water. The other ingredients are to taste so have at it.

Mine is so good it is making my nose run.

So Help Me, I'll Turn off the Comments if Y'all Act Ugly

2012-01-28T19:16:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of anger in the garden blogging community about a certain nonprofit and a certain corporation hooking up. I don't have ties to either organization and am not here to comment on them. I am going to voice my opinion about pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer.

I am an organic gardener. I have been since I was 12 years old and my dad made me sick putting a synthetic pesticide on my first little vegetable garden. I have used organic pesticides off and on and now only use soap and diatomaceous earth and only when I absolutely have to. I have found that it is smarter to plant when the bugs are not active. Tomatoes in the spring/early summer before the red spider mites show up and squash and beans in late summer/early fall after the squash bugs have moved on. Your results may vary. This way I hope not even to need soap next year. The DE is used as needed against fire ants. Fire ants are from the devil. I don't know of one single pesticide organic or synthetic that only kill one kind of bug. If it can kill your cabbage looper it can kill your butterfly caterpillars. I want my butterflies to live here, make babies here and let those babies eat my passion vine. I also want bees to come and visit my flowers. I want lady bugs to eat the aphids. I want to want praying mantis, but they sort of scare me. Look up and one of them is staring at me like I might be good for lunch. Shudder.

The only herbicides I use are my own two hands and mulch.

Fertilizers I love me some fertilizer. I use blood meal, bone meal, bat guano and liquid fish. These are great products that don't reek of ammonia. Well, the bat guano reeks of ammonia. And here is where I take a stand, ANY of these things can pollute if they are used incorrectly. Algae in our lakes doesn't care if that nitrogen is organic or not. Nitrogen is nitrogen is nitrogen. I take extreme care in making sure I use my products properly and keep it out of the water. Never never never intentional fertilize before a rain event. Don't dump anything down the drain. Never over fertilize. Make sure I water it in well when I do.

Finally, compost compost compost. Make it, turn it , use it. Good for the garden and the landfill.

Winter Herbs for North Texas

2012-01-24T15:37:00.000-08:00

We have rain yipeee. Making spaghetti for dinner tonight and needed herbs regardless of the rain. Yes, I was the crazy person cutting herbs in the rain.

The herbs I was able to harvest fresh for the sauce were Mexican mint marigold and oregano. I grow both regular oregano and golden oregano. The golden is just for looks. Mexican mint marigold tastes a lot like tarragon. I've actually seen it labeled Texas tarragon in some garden centers. I have basil that I put up back in late summer and garlic I put up last spring. These are the four must have herbs for our sauce. I also use the leaves of garlic that is growing in the garden during the winter, once I run out of whatever garlic I put up in the spring. This doesn't appear to effect the garlic cloves at all. I will also grow some garlic on my windowsill here for the next few months until the garlic in the garden is ready to pull.

I'm grateful that we are able to grow some of our food at this time of year because of our mild winters. When it is freezing cold in February, I wil most likely not be so enthusiastic.

Short list of herbs that grow well in the winter in north Texas
Garlic
Onions
Mexican mint marigold
Oregano
Cilantro

Can you grow herbs at this time of year? If so, what kind?

Monkey Talk

2012-01-20T06:23:00.000-08:00

Conversation with previously sick monkey. "I thought you were sick, why are your eating a taco?" "I was sick, I'm not now. I'm going to eat this taco." Me "Okay, you are ready to go to school tomorrow." Him, "No, I'm sick" Me "so you are not going to eat that taco?" Him, "No so I get to stay home. " Me, "I'm going to eat the last taco". Him, "No you aren't. I guess I'm going to school."

Storing Endive

2012-01-18T17:19:00.000-08:00

I saw a Pinterest pin that showed how to make salad ahead in a mason jar. The information said that as long as the dressing didn't touch the lettuce it would stay good for several days. I have endive growing like crazy this year. I picked a little more than we needed for our salad about ten days ago, cut up the excess and put it in a mason jar. I expected to use it in just a couple of days. Well, the usual happened. The monkeys shoved it behind a gallon of milk and a bottle of BBQ sauce and I forgot about it. This afternoon, I discovered it. It was surprisingly still pretty fresh, at least the top half. So I am cutting up another couple of heads, putting one jar in our fridge and one jar in the fridge at work. This time, I promise not to forget about it.

Rain

2012-01-09T11:30:00.000-08:00

It has been raining since about midnight last night. There is standing water in the yard and garden. It is the most beautiful sight. We have had such a dry year. Everyone is on water restrictions. Some worse than others because of zebra muscles in Lake Texoma.

The animals are not nearly as excited about the rain as their mama. The manx are giving me dirty looks. It seems that they think I caused the rain. (wish I had that super power). Abby stood by the backdoor to be let out, took a few steps into the yard and got a "forget this" look on her face and came back in.

Here is hoping this helps fill up our lakes.

Dear 2011

2011-12-31T13:30:00.000-08:00

Dear 2011,

It was a mixed bag. Manly was on blood thinners for half the year. We didn't find out that the blood clot had cleared until September. Finding out that he no longer had the blood clot was the biggest surprise blessing of the year. The doctors told us he would probably have it for life. We are so grateful this is over. The silver lining in this is that it made us truly appreciate our health and each other.

We also found out that all three of the boys and I have a weird type of diabetes called MODY2. Nothing to do for it but watchful waiting and limiting simple carbohydrates in our diet. My doctor does not feel that my blood sugar levels are high enough, at this point, to prescribe medication. There is no approved medication for children. Although this is not good news, it did cause me to make some major changes in my own life. On April Fool's Day, I changed my diet. I now eat mostly lean protein, dairy and vegetables. This keeps my blood sugar in a healthy range. Over the last nine months, I have lost 33 lbs. This is a very very good thing. This fall I also began jog/walking or wogging ;) and yoga.

The horrible drought took all the pleasure out of my summer and fall garden this year. We have had rain recently, so I am enjoying my winter garden. Here is hoping that this next year the drought breaks completely.

I want to focus on the good and not the bad. May 2012 bring more blessings and fewer stressful situations. I am going to forge ahead into the new year with focus and intent to parent my best, show gratitude for the love and support of a good man and create the best life I can for all of us.

Goodbye, 2011.

Aunt Debbi

Oh, and I intend to get my sense of humor back here on this silly little blog :)

Asian Greens Soup

2011-12-28T13:08:00.000-08:00

I have some sort of Asian green that comes up in my garden every year when the weather cools down. I usually just cut it and share it with my coworker, Kathy. Today, I decided to make myself some Asian greens soup. Simple as can be and yummy.

Handful of greens chopped
1 teaspoon chicken Better than Boullion
2 cups of water
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Make chicken broth, wilt the greens in it, add the lemon juice and enjoy.

Now I will go outside and plant some Swiss chard.

Cabbage Fail

2011-12-27T19:06:00.000-08:00

For some crazy reason, my cabbages are not growing. I have allowed the volunteer endive to grow with them. Maybe that is the problem. I am also trying to grow them in the containers that were home to the awesome tomato plants early this summer. Maybe that is the problem. Anyway, I'm going to try to locate some new cabbage plants and try again. Maybe start some from seed it I can find them. Stupid cabbage.

Cold Weather Gardening

2011-12-20T13:07:00.000-08:00

My winter garden is doing okay. Tried Brussels sprouts for the first time. They look pitiful The broccoli is okay, but the cabbage is not doing too well. Gave everyone some fertilizer this afternoon and hopefully they will buck up.

The volunteer plants are doing fine fine fine. I have lots of cilantro, endive and lettuces. The elephant garlic is about 18 inches tall and ready for me to eat some. I was really worried about the garlic because the bulbs stay in the ground dormant all summer. Because of the drought, I couldn't water properly this year. I was afraid they had completely dried out and died, but they are just fine.

I'm going to make an effort to be more of a presence here. I got so discouraged when Manly was sick that everything just seemed too hard. Then the horrible heat and drought of last summer sucked the life out of gardening here in Texas. I'm still dealing with a little apathy towards things I generally love. This too shall pass. The Monkeys are healthy, I am losing weight and Manly's blood clot has finally cleared. Count blessings.

Rebuilding

2011-09-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

This has been the worst summer heat and drought wise since 1980 here in Texas. My garden suffered major damage because we could not keep enough water on it. I am afraid I have lost two hardy hibiscus and I know I've lost at least two antique roses most likely a third. The City of Tiny Town Texas also decided to start a major road construction project on the streets bordering our house. The mess is indescribable. I've never seen this much fine, silt-like dust in my life.

Between the heat, drought and construction I sort of just gave up on the vegetable garden this summer. The only things that survived were the pepper plants. Everything else just died including my amazing tomato jungle. It has been heartbreaking.

We had our first major rain in months last night. We got at least an inch of rain, probably a little more. Unfortunately, I did not have all of my rain barrel taps shut and one of the barrels was blown over before it could fill up. All I managed to catch was 55 gallons in one of the tanks. STINKS.

The weather has cooled off considerably yesterday so I was back out in the garden full force. I payed for it this morning when I could barely get out of bed I hurt so bad. The cure for that soreness was more gardening of course. An hour of weeding and I am all loosened up.

As I look around our area I see so many dead trees and shrubs. It is going to take a lot to get our landscape back in shape. This is one of the reasons I am so happy that Michael Nolan and Laura Mathews started The Regrow Together Project. It is a worldwide effort to help gardeners who have lost or been harmed by our crazy weather be it from drought, flood, heat wave, hurricane or tornado. Obviously, my efforts will be to help those who have been harmed by our extremely hot dry summer. Please join us in helping gardeners worldwide regrow from natural disasters. We are all in this together.

No More Slime

2011-07-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

I love fried okra. I dearly dearly love fried okra. Now, I am really not supposed to eat fried anything, but especially breaded fried things. I cannot stand okra cooked any other way than fried or pickled. At least that was the case until the Best Boss in the Universe ran across a Cajun dude at her sisters house. Mr. Cajun Man told her that you can saute okra in olive oil until it quits sliming and it is quite good . Mr. Cajun Man was right. The okra stays slimy for a few minutes and then it just sort of cooks off. With a little garlic and some crushed tomatoes it was sooooooo good.

Where I Go On and On About My Tomatoes

2011-06-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

We have tomatoes, lots and lots of tomatoes. I wish I was one of those organized persons who weighed their harvest and could give you an exact amount on my tomato bounty.  That's probably never going to happen.

I am turning the extra fruit into canned salsa. Finally read up a little on it and it turns out my sauce wasn't keeping because tomatoes are not acidic enough by themselves. That is why my previous attempts at canned tomatoes spoiled.  It will be wonderful to open up a can of summer salsa in the middle of next winter.

I have a few varieties of tomatoes that came from the seed swap with Monica Milla of  Garden Faerie's Musings. This first mistake I made was misreading the varieties and making up new names for a couple of the tomatoes. Avivvi is actually Aviuri and Ladano de Panicchio is actually Ladino di Panocchia. Found my errors when looking up my varieties and on Tatiana's Tomato Base. There is one that has not been identified yet. It is round and flat, barely lobed and orange mottled in color. I can't for the life of me figure out what it is. Nothing Mons has suggested sounds like any type of seed I've had. Wonder if something crossed. The second mistake I made was labeling them with wooden markers, which faded. Why, oh why can't I remember to just label the containers with a grease pencil or china marker.

The best producer so far has been Gajo de Melon, which has given me lots of cute, pink, cherry tomatoes. The next best seems like it is going to be the mystery tomato, although it does appear to have an issue with blossom end rot. The Aviuri, Green Zebra and Turks Mutt are all giving me enough fruit to make it worth my time to plant them again. Better Boy and Early Girl both are doing okay, but nothing special. Who was that crazy man who compared heirlooms tomatoes to losers? Of my ten tomato plants, four of them are hybrids and they are producing the scrawniest yields.

The Monkeys have been eating tomatoes whole with a little sprinkle of salt. At first I was afraid they were going eat them all before I could make salsa. I caught the Teenage Monkey with one of the first big ripe tomatoes in his room. That's right, my kid was sneaking a tomato.

I can't praise the container in the ground method of growing tomatoes enough. If you want to see how, go here.

Happy Summer Everyone

Squash Happiness

2011-06-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

My garden is going gangbusters this years. The raised beds are wonderful and very productive. The container in ground in raised bed tomato experiment has been a fantastic success. I ate so many perfectly ripe tomatoes today that my lips hurt.

Me behind the Tomato Jungle

My squash is doing fine as well. Usually the squash bugs get them, but this year the pumpkin vines have worked great as traps and I've been able to manage the bug situation. The vines really are just beginning to produce, but The Best Boss in the World has plenty of squash now and she is sharing.

Today I ate yellow squash and Noonday onions sauteed in butter again. Yummy. It is so simple - just saute the onions in a little butter on low heat until they are slightly brown and add the squash. Cook until the squash is tender and eat it up.

I am also making zucchini with tomatoes again. Saute the onions add zucchini and tomato sauce as well as a little brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Cook until the zucchini is tender and again, eat it up.

More recipes to follow as the squash rolls in :)

Pumpkin Blossoms are Good Eatin

2011-05-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

I have let a bunch of pumpkins over grown the garden again. I'm allowing it, not because I expect to get great pumpkins. I'm allowing it because the pumpkin vines are great squash bug traps and I am eating the pumpkin blossoms.

The pumpkin leaves seem to confuse the squash bugs. They are mostly laying their eggs on top of the leaves instead of safely underneath. I've just been cutting off the infested leaves and throwing them in fire pit to be burned. One clutch of eggs did hatch. I just lifted up the big leave and sprayed them all down with soapy water. They were very dead very quick. I'm hoping this activity will give my actual squash plants a fighting chance.

I remember making fried squash blossoms last year and they were yummy. Because of the diagnosis of MODY 2 diabetes, I have been on a very strict ADA diet for the past nine weeks. I decided to try to fry the pumpkin blossoms with beaten egg whites instead of breading them. The results tasted good, but were far to greasy. I may make them with breading for Manly and the Monkeys, but I'll keep out of it myself.

A better alternative for me was pumpkin blossom soup. Just chicken stock, chopped up pumpkin blossoms and a little lemon juice. Easy peazy. I will put the soup through the food processor next time to smooth it out. The texture of the blossoms was a little too spiky.

Today I made a Noonday onion, pumpkin blossom, pepper, cheese and bacon frittata. It was extra yummy. The pepper and blossoms were from my garden, the eggs were from local chickens and the onions from Noonday, Texas. The only things not local were the bacon and cheese. I think I can find local sources for those for next time :)

Anybody else eating out of the garden yet?

Terrific Tomatoes

2011-05-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

I'm having a wonderful year in regards to tomatoes. In past years, they have been hit or miss because of the weather and rainfall. This year, I switched the back half of the vegetable/flower garden to three large raised beds and two smaller side raised beds. One of the side beds has large pots of citrus trees sitting in it instead of being planted. We are in the middle of a deck demolition and I needed the storage worse than the vegetable planting space.

I read and saw pictures somewhere on the interweb about growing tomatoes in containers sunk into a raised beds. I've tried every which way I can think of to keep the water near the roots of my tomato plants instead of running off somewhere useless. There were a bunch of abandoned 3 gallon plant containers junking up my potting bench, so I decided to give the sunken container contraptions a shot.

First thing - Cut the bottom out of the containers. This is hard. My trusty Felco pruners got it started, but I ended up have to saw them out with a serrated steak knife.

Second thing - Dig a hole inside of the raised bed and sink a pot into the hole leaving about 3 to 4 inches of pot above the soil level. Repeat until all pots are buried.

Third thing - Plant tomato seedlings in the pots with potting mix and compost.

Forth thing - Water each individual pot. Repeat as needed.

Fifth thing - Fertilize once a week with liquid fertilizer. I'm using fish emulsion this year, but prefer Hastagrow. (Hastagrow doesn't stink as much).

The results have been stunning. My tiny seedlings planted April 1st have already outgrown my very large tomato cages. I've already eaten two ripe tomatoes. The plants are healthy, disease free and covered in blooms. The water stays right in their root zone and I believe the containers are helping keep soil from splashing up on the leaves of the plants.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=227427107271616&set=a.101457723201889.3475.100000129845205&type=1

Aunt Debbi Visits the Texas Triffid Ranch and Lives to Tell about it.

2011-04-26T15:02:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, I took a trip with Baby Monkey to visit Paul Riddell at his home aka the Texas Triffid Ranch. We spent a lovely afternoon with Paul and his beautiful wife Carolyn who Paul sweetly refers to as The Czarina. My only regret of the afternoon was that I did not have enough time to check out Carolyn’s handcrafted jewelry. I did spy one very pretty piece on the dining room table and barely managed to fight off the urge to snatch it, kidding….sort of.

Paul’s ~~obsession with~~ knowledge of carnivorous plants is amazing. He showed us his greenhouse his other greenhouse, his composting bin, his container collection and his nemesis - The Arrogant Tree Rat (squirrel). Baby Monkey happily ran the squirrel off one time, but we are positive it will be back to dig in Paul’s containers.

The real stars of the show were the carnivorous plants. I can’t say that I remember the particulars about each variety, because the information was coming at me fast and furious. The man knows his flesh eating plants. Baby Monkey was mesmerized. I don’t think I have ever seen him that still and focused. We were lucky enough to come when some of the pitcher plants were blooming. The blooms are very interesting. They are shaped in a way that forces pollinators to come into them wander around a little, get pollen on them and then get back out, sort of like bug a maze.

Paul has graciously agreed to come speak to our young library patrons during our Summer Reading Program. After watching my little man completely enthralled by the descriptions of these fascinating plants, I know Paul will be a big hit with the library kids.

The purpose of my trip was actually to pick up a bag of bat guano. Bat guano is excellent plant fertilizer. It also smells funny. I am told it is a very bad idea to inhale any of the dust, so I won’t. Paul volunteers at Bat World, and scooped me up this bag of crap there. I’ve never been more grateful. Look at the print on the bag, cute right?

Fuzzy Picture of a Bag of Bat Guano

Keeping it Clean

2011-04-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

I made my own dishwasher powder, liquid dish soap and laundry powder this morning. I took the advice of a couple of friends, Cindy Wagner and Michael Nolan , and mixed up the concoctions.

The first thing I did was explode half a bar of Zote soap in the microwave. This was very fun and much easier than shredding it. Next time I will cut it into several smaller pieces to speed up the process.

The dishwasher powder was 1 cup borax, 1 cup baking soda, 1/4 cup washing soda and a few drops of orange oil shook up together in a Mason jar. There is no actual soap in this recipe. Worked great on my first load of dishes. I do put white vinegar in the rinse aid dispenser in the dishwasher door. This keeps the glasses and such from looking cloudy. Love some sparkly wine glasses :)

The liquid dish soap was about a cup of exploded Zote soap 1/2 cup of borax and a tablespoon or so of washing soda dissolved in boiling water. Next time, I am going to make it a little thicker. It worked great, but I am going to get used to the lack of suds.

The laundry powder was the rest of that bar of exploded soap, 2 cups of borax and 1/2 cup of washing soda all mixed up with a blender. I put a little vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser. The laundry came out nice and clean.

What kind of earth friendly cleaners do you like?

Happy Earth Day

Austin's Quilt

2011-04-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

I started this quilt at 4:00 Friday afternoon. Just put the last stitch in the binding at 9:30 Sunday night.