I had Lisa snap this one with my cell phone, lol. Apparantly, Austin couldn't resist the smell of my pipe again. He'll get right in my face to smell it, like he is now. He's gotten in the trash to get at what I clean out of the pipe, and Lisa has caught him several times trying to eat it out of the ashtray! He's not the brightest dog I've ever had by any means, but how can anyone resist that face???? He'll be 9 this year, old age for a bloodhound whose life expectancy is 10-11. We've talked a lot about him and the breed, and when we lose him, we'll have another one. Not a chance we'll EVER have 5 dogs in the house again like we do now, but we'll have another bloodhound for sure, and definitly a beagle. I've had beagles my entire life, other than during and right after my 1st marriage. (about 4 years) Yep, 39 out of 43 years I or dad had beagles, and I'll never be without one. What can I say, we're definitly "dog people"!
Lisa is out shopping again with her Daughter today. She got a few gift cards for Christmas and wanted to get herself some work clothes, and since she hates shopping (especially for clothes) , she took Holly with her. I'm spending the day catching up on laundry while getting some smaller things accomplished that needed attention. I'm really getting used to using this homemade laundry detergent, and have came to love the smell of it. The simple mix of washing soda, fels naptha soap, and borax work great, even on my filty work clothes. We've been making and using it for almost a year now, and have started making and using other things as well, like household cleaners. I'm going to sit here for a bit, enjoy a cup of coffee, and find more resources for homemade cleaners, shampoo's, and hopefully a hair conditioner for Lisa. This is just somewhere for us to start on not buying things packaged in plastic. Sure; shampoo, conditioner and cleaners are cheap at the dollar store, but for each one there ends up being one more plastic bottle in the trash or recycle bin, and thats what we want to try to eliminate. Along with the plastics, we're trying to get rid of any chemical type cleaners and go with simple solutions like using vinegar, baking soda, and others as ingredients. We're going to try the toothpaste one from barb & steve at The Big Red Barn later this week. If anyone has any suggestions, ideas, or recipes for anything, pass 'em along and we'll try it out!
I responded to Tammie's email today about some new birds, and we'll be taking at least one Delaware and 2 Americauna's. I think a flock of 12 will be just fine for us, even though we get more now than we can use. Now that some people at Lisa's work are hooked on fresh eggs, we're going to start selling to them at $2 a dozen. I don't see any of them hesitating on spending 2 bucks on eggs when the stores around here are getting well over $3 a dozen for brown eggs. We're not going to make our fortune at 2 bucks a pop, but it will help absorb the cost of feed, and that's the only concern at all. $13 a 50lb bag at the feed store only works out to selling 6 1/2 dozen eggs, and that will NOT be a problem. We'll just make sure to put a "chicken feed kitty" in the kitchen, and keep that cash there for nothing else. Above and beyond buying feed, the money can go to new coop materials since I'm still uncertain about the layoff my boss mentioned. Though we're concerned about it, we're trying to not let it get to us yet.
5 comments:
I use JR Liggett's shampoo, which comes in a bar wrapped in paper. The shampoo is made from vegetable oil, so no petroleum used in the shampoo and none used to make a plastic bottle either.
I really like the shampoo and find that I don't need any conditioner when I use it like I do with the regular shampoos.
Where can you get Liggetts shampoo at?
I agree about eliminating waste. It only makes sense that if we make more things for ourselves than we don't need to place more stuff into the landfills.
There are recipes for shampoo in Rosemary Gladstar's book called "Family Herbal". Maybe your library has it. If not, I'll post it on my blog. I actually experimented a couple of years ago. No shampooing for a week. Just rinsing my hair with water. I usually wash it every day. After a few days I noticed that my scalp wasn't producing as much oil. Supposedly you can go months without using shampoo (like in the old days). Still, I like to shampoo :-)
Eggs...I bet people would pay $3 per dozen. Our grocery stores charge $4.69 for organic & naturally raised eggs.
Let's hope that a new administration means more work for everyone and people can feel more settled in their lives again.
Barb
Calabrian Soapwort: This rarely found but easy-to-grow bedding plant produces a profusion of small pink flowers on a dense mass of branching stems. Perfect for container arrangements and rock gardens, is great for cleansing. Just crush the flowers with a little water and you've just made yourself an organic, healthy body/hair cleanser. From Seeds of Change, 2009 catalog. 100% certified organic seeds.
Thanks for the tip and welcome Virtual Eve. We have an order ready for SOC, looks like I have to add something else now!
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