Recycling old clothing...

do you know of anywhere I can recycle old clothes (mostly t-shirts and such that are too worn for donating)? I have to think there is some sort of textiles recycling somewhere, but I haven't found anything yet. 

Monica

Thanks Jenny...

So we built our first compost bin/pile.  Thanks Jenny for the great article.  If you haven't read it Jenny wrote a very informative article for "beginner composters",  http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=1323.  

We split some grasses from my mother and planted them around so as they grow they may hide a little so as to not "offend" my neighbors.  It is right by their back patio!  Having fun!

Cleaning Recipies

All you need is baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, mineral oil, and liquid dish washing soap ..
See http://www.thrifty-mom.com/houseclean/cleaningrecipes1.htm

Easy way to remove ticks...

This method is great because it works in those places where it's sometimes difficult to get to the tweezers between toes, in the middle of the head full of hair, etc. Apply a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball. Cover the tick with the soap-soaked cotton ball and swab it for a few seconds (15- 20). The tick will come out on its own and be stuck to the cotton ball when you lift it away. This technique has worked every time this person used it and it's much less traumatic for the person (or pet).

wherein i talk about toilet paper

while having a mildly popular blog/journal whatever this thing is, one might assume that in real life i am just as outgoing, forthcoming, whatever other adjective you might apply here. true and not true. naturally im going to be much more outspoken about things that in real life i would shy away from unless provoked and i felt safe doing so. i am not one of those people who browbeats people with ideas. wholly useless are such tactics of convincing. walking the walk, now that is how to get things done. here i will stress that i am a constant work in progress and by no means claim that i "walk the walk" in every aspect. whoah no.

it starts simply enough with an interest in environmentalism, conservation, what have you, and then some years later you're sitting in your cabin off the grid thinking gee, that happened rather unexpectedly. that really sums me up. had i no children i wished to socialize, community i felt wedded to, husband who's job necessitated a reasonable commute i could see me living in that cabin off the grid. well so long as i had wireless internet so i could still play scrabble online. lol. it just happens so slow that that i dont even think of some of the stuff that we do in our every day lives as (these are real words people have used to describe such things) "primitive", "weird", "radical", "brave", or "gross". much less powerful words have been used too but those are the ones that i seriously scratch my head at. maybe radical applies. for i do feel that growing your own food, taking charge of your health and well being, etc is a radical idea.

crunchy chicken did a challenge, and has been for some time now, about using cloth toilet paper in lieu of traditional paper. i felt a little silly signing up because we already do this and have for about 2 years now (an approximate monetary savings of about $400!) but i really wanted to throw my weight behind a positive thing. here are some stats that really blew my mind from her site.

According to Charmin, consumers on average use 8.6 sheets per trip to the bathroom. That's a total of 57 sheets per day and an annual total of 20,805 sheets. There are 230 million adults in the U.S., each averaging a roll and a half per week. Since each roll of toilet paper averages about .5 a pound of paper, that's about 40 pounds of TP per year.

That equals 4,600,000 tons of TP used each year. And that's just from adults. To take the calculation even further, if all U.S. adults used only Charmin toilet paper or the like (aka "virgin fiber" with 0% recycled content or post-consumer waste), the environmental cost is approximately (not including the issues with Dioxin):

- 78.2 million trees
- 1.35 million tons of air pollution
- 32 trillion gallons of water
- 2.1 trillion gallons of oil
- 18.75 trillion Kilowatt hours of energy

also dont be afraid to come to my house and be forced to wipe like a dirty hippy. (though we encourage it!) we keep a roll for guests in the bathroom at all times.

Diatomaceous Earth

Diatomaceous Earth is something I discovered when we thought we brought home 'bed bugs' about a year, ago from a trip. This amazing product is put into our food to rid our flour, etc, from parasites. It is also called 'fossil shell flour' and is safe to put in food (make sure you get food grade). This is put into animals food all the time to keep flies away and parasites away. We ALL have parasites in us from food, etc. This is also a great plant insecticide! It can be bought with a pump that sifts it unto the plant.    It can also be taken with water as a parasite cleanse! 

google it and read all about it! It is amazing!

Cheers! Rosie

Involving our children...

"The power of God is present at all places, even in the tiniest leaf... God is currently and personally present in the wilderness, in the garden, and in the field."

Martin Luther

So i am slowly trying to discover ways that make sense for our family to help in taking care of our environment and ourselves.  There are so many things we can all do and it can very often feel overwhelming and cause us to feel guilty.  But I believe what is important is to educate ourselves (as we have time) and to implement what works for our individual families.  With three children, 3 and under, my husband and i are all about simplicity.  I truly do not want anything in my home that i don't really need, so much less to take care of and worry about (good reason to freecycle or provide a borrow/trade system, which i hope we can do through this blog).  And i am all about taking things slowly, one thing at a time.  This allows me to spend more time with my family enjoying simple things, like literally smelling the roses (or lilacs!).  Excuse me if i am sounding silly!  But i would love to talk about what we all do to teach our children about how we can take care of the earth and how we can better take care of our bodies.  As i have stated earlier we have started out very simply... first with recycling.   On our recycling trash can in our house, isabella and i cut out a recycling symbol and pictures of items that can be recycled and taped them on.  I printed them off of the internet and the pictures were actually geared toward children.  Because she was part of the process she has taken ownership of it and teaches fiona which items she can recycle by looking at the pictures on the trash can.  We have also enjoyed teaching them where their food comes from.  In the summer we go to the farmer's market every saturday to pick up our CSA share.  This gives us the opportunity to discuss each fruit and vegetable and where it came from, in addition to all of the other products at the market.  It is a lot of fun!  If you are not familiar with a CSA (community supported agriculture) check out www.localharvest.org.  CSA's give you an opportunity to buy a share of a local farm and receive those crops each week.  They literally dig them up that morning and bring them into "town" to you.  This way you can eat seasonally, locally and most often organically.  Is there anything better?  Well i guess if you grow it all in your backyard...  which will never happen with me.  Except for an herb garden and the occasional tomato plant i have no clue.  

So now that i have gone on and on I would love to hear what you all do!