Trying to get my mansions green, After I’ve Grey Gardens seen

I realized this morning, we’ve been a car-free family for 7 years now. I should be one skinny bitch with all that walking & biking done in 7 years. Something doesn’t quite add up there.

This morning  I walked the littlest one to school, as I do almost every morning,with the exception of days when the Daddy-Man is available to do so & lets me lounge at home.. It is exactly 1/2 mile from our house to the school. It shouldn’t be a long walk in terms of time but I usually have some pokey little boy with me, milking the walk for all it’s worth. He must stop frequently to give Mr Acorn back his lost “hat”, jump from tree stump to tree stump (over the imaginary boiling hot lava below) , make fences from pine cones and have lengthy conversations with Raven, a dog who lives on our route.Among other things.

Also on our usual route to school, we often witness another family’s morning routine. This is what triggered my 7-yr-car-free-realization/reflection this morning. As the school came into sight, we had to pause for this obscene behemoth of a SUV to back out of it’s driveway. It eased out onto the street and crawled slowly the 100 yards or so to the school parking lot. We ambled along,nearly keeping pace with it, as it couldn’t drive faster than school zone speed & also had to be observant of  walking children & cars dropping children off. It pulls into the parking lot and one small child springs from the back seat and (quite capably) runs for the door. She carries her backpack with ease, since she hasn’t yet reached the jr high my twins attend (those poor girls need a crane to lift the backpacks they carry to & from school ).

Walking behind us this morning was a family that lives miles out of town. On most morning, the dad drives into town, parks by the coffee shop & walks the mile to school with his offspring. “Beautiful morning !” ,he says to me. I agree and we walk into the school to commence the drop-off.

On some mornings, if the child-to-school transfer goes quickly (like this morning), I’m lucky enough to see the SUV Mom climb back into her vehicle and drive the 100 or so yards back home.  Priceless.

I thought back to the time before we were car-free. Were we so frivolous  with our drives? I don’t recall that we were. Before I met my husband, I hadn’t actually ever owned a car so  it was already my habit to think of walking or biking first, driving if that wasn’t an option .Driving the distance of a football field to get somewhere? I don’t think that would have happened.   Before our move into town where we live now, we lived 2 miles outside of town. This was when we first became car-free. It wasn’t even difficult then. 2 miles is nothing to bicycle and if you need or want something in town bad enough,it isn’t a far walk either.

The transition from our rural life to town life was difficult, even if it did move us closer (as in,right ON) the bus route and within short walking distance to everything. We came from a house surrounded by acres of fields & woods to a 4,000 sq ft house with a tiny commercial space in part of the downstairs,  smack dab in the center of Main St.  ,with a backyard the size of a postage stamp. It overlooks the creek that flows through town & has a scant wooded area in back and for that, we were thankful. The evening sounds of crickets & frogs in the pond were replaced with drunk patrons from the neighboring bar &  traffic. We craved our natural green spaces intensely.

Soon after we moved in, we found ourselves in the center of a turf war. Our driveway. Tenants from neighboring apartment building, employees & patrons from neighboring businesses – all seemed to think our driveway was fair game to park in. I spent the first few months that we lived here chasing cars from our driveway & trying to find creative ways to keep them out. One day, some man said,”Well, you don’t even have a car!” and that was all it took to make me get serious about claiming car-free territory.

The family bikes , our own pedal-powered motorcade, became a very visible presence in the driveway. Flower pots blocked the end off ,as a barrier (and at first, one lost it’s poor life to someone who tried in vain to pull into the driveway). In the shady corner, a table & chairs with marigolds growing in mugs I rescued from a curb-side free pile. In every other available space,an array of containers & flower pots holding everything from vegetables,herbs & flowers – even sunflowers- made an appearance.

I tried to make the message as clear as possible : This is not a driveway. This is our green space among nothing but hard,gray pavement. This is our paved garden, a less upscale Grey Gardens without the cats & crazy ladies. People got the message.

We intended for this building set in the center of a place that has never felt natural to me to be temporary housing but we’ve been discussing the possibility of owning it. The current landlord is pretty receptive to this idea, understandably. The building is over 120 years old and is showing it’s age, especially with a family of 7 ( soon to be 8 ) taking up residence in it. And as much work that needs to be done on the inside, the thing I want to do most of all is tear up the stupid,ugly pavement and reclaim the soil beneath.

 

[blog title from: "Grey Gardens", Rufus Wainwright ]

The Eco Reading Challenge

Finally, I’ve decided on which books I’ll be reading for The Eco Reading Challenge.

My Green Book List

1. Unbowed:A Memoir by Wangari Maathai

2.Make Room! Make Room!, Harry Harrison

3. A Sand County Almanac , Aldo Leopold

4. Green Thoughts by Eleanor Perenyi

5. American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau , edited by Bill McKibben,Foreward by Al Gore

My Green Act

We recycle and compost everything that can be and what’s left in our actual garbage is 90% packaging…and anyone who has known me long enough knows, this is a major pet peeve of mine.. We  do a pretty good job at reducing  the amount of non-recyclable, non-biodegradable packaging that comes into our house but I think we can still do better.  So, that’s my goal : To reduce our household waste that results from packaging by either not bringing it into our house or if it does come into the house, finding a way to reuse it. We put out one large bag of garbage every 2 weeks. I’d like that to be down to at least once a month  the end of the summer. Yes, one bag of garbage per month for our family of 7. I can hear you scoffing  but I’ll show you! *pumps fist in the air*

Did you really think i was ready to give up my one remaining disposable paper product I use?  Sorry – the toilet paper is here to stay

I hope you die,and I hope i die,too

Media Whoreishness

( or, “What I’ve been listening to,reading,watching)

1. Tutorial on “How To Make Whipped Cream Soap” from ZAJA
2. Charlie & Lola both reading and watching on dvd
3. Bones, Season 1 Temperance Brennan is easily the most annoying TV protagonist ever.
4. The Cat Empire, So Many Nights
5. Run Fatboy Run
6. Installing a Radiant Floor Heat System
7. Making papercrete
8. Video about cob houses
9. “Right is Wrong”,by  Graveyard Swedish guys who obviously like Black Sabbath and the result is awesome
10. So,Your Tiny Black Heart is Broken -songs for those of us not so into Valentine’s Day
11. Polo:The Runaway Book – a wordless book we’ve been “reading”.
12. The Weekly Feminist Reader
13. Inkspell – having a harder time getting into the sequel to Inkheart
14. Study: Brain Substance may halt Alzheimers
15. Justin Timberlake @ the Grammys just following up on all the comments on Twitter that were all like, “ZOMG, Justin Timberlake is so hot”

[blog title from "No Children", The Mountain Goats]

Jupiter’s Recipes: Homemade Laundry Detergent

I have to confess – my nose is a little bit out of joint. Those who used to read my old now-deleted blogs seem to miss two things: some story I wrote about my kids chasing each other through the house pretending to be zombies or hunting zombies (I can’t remember which  but it seems to be referred to as That Zombie Story…With Your Kids…And You On The Toilet..)  and my recipe for laundry detergent.

5 years of blogging and those were my greatest hits?  Jeezus, I suck!

Someday,I’ll figure out what I did w/ the Zombie Story. The recipe is easier. I’ve made this detergent so many times, I could tell you off the top of my head how to make it.

What You Need

2 ½ gallon bucket to mix and store the detergent

½ bar of fels naptha soap

1 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

Water

Optional: liquid fragrance (non-oily) or scented soaps for scent

What You Do

1. Grate the soap with a normal kitchen grater into a saucepan. TIP: Pick up an extra grater at a yard sale or thrift store  and designate this your soap grater.The soap does not rinse well and it’s kind of nasty to eat soapy-flavored mac and cheese.It’s a good idea to use a separate saucepan for this too.
2. Put enough water in the pan w/ the soap to just cover the gratings. Heat on medium,stirring occasionally until all the soap is melted.
3. Fill your bucket with hot water and add the Super Washing Soda  and melted soap. Stir to blend
4. Use about 1 cup per wash load.

When a new batch is made, it’s nothing but liquid but it is still fine to use right away.As it sits, it will have a thicker consistency.

The fels naptha does not smell bad as a detergent in my opinion, but sometimes I add little odds and ends of scented fancy soaps that don’t seem to have much purpose but sit in a soap dish and look pretty. The fels naptha seems to be a very gentle soap once it’s in detergent form and has worked great for myself and even the kids, who have extremely sensitive skin.

It’s ok to use liquid fragrance (like those you can buy at craft stores for soap making) but don’t use anything oily. It will stain or leave a residue on your clothing.

You can also use this same recipe with other detergent bar soaps and even a Baby Laundry Detergent version using your favorite baby soap. Just substitute the fels naptha with a soap of your choice.

I have been able to find fels naptha & Super Washing Soda easily at the grocery store (I shop at Wegman’s ) but if you can’t find them in your local grocery store, ask them to order it for you. If your grocery store sells Dial (the parent company of fels naptha) or Arm & Hammer products, this should be a piece of cake. Or, if that fails, just order them online.

Why On Earth Would You MAKE Detergent When You Can Buy It?!

Oh, I have a ton of reasons. Mainly ,it’s because I’m cheap frugal. I do laundry for 7 people. I can make 2 ½ gallons of detergent for somewhere around the $1.00 mark. Actually, I think it works out to be LESS than $1  per 2 ½ gallons.  It works just as well (or maybe even better) than any store bought detergent.

As a perk, it’s phosphorous-free and pretty friendly to the environment. Also, since you are using the same bucket every time, that reduces waste such as empty plastic detergent bottles.  Yes,plastic is recyclable but the idea is to get to the point where there is NO waste,even if it is recyclable. Also, detergent bottles are very heavy shipped in transit to the grocery store.Heavier items use more fuel to transport. Yes, there still will be truckloads of detergent shipped to stores everyday using valuable resources but the environmental cost  will not figure into your own eco-footprint.

The best benefit I’ve found in this detergent is that it is tough enough for cloth diapers and still gentle enough for sensitive skin.

Biggest Whiny Remark  I’ve Heard Time and Time Again: “But…wahh…I don’t have time to maaake it myself It’s tooooo haaaard ! “

 

Shhh,right now. Yes you do. It takes a commercial break to get it all done. Surely you can give up a potty and snack break to make yourself some detergent while your favorite show is having a commercial break.  It really is not hard or time consuming. At all. No excuses accepted here

Jupiter is sick and half-assing the papermaking tutorial

I’ve been sick way too long and I’m no better today. My plan was to do a paper making tutorial today ,as promised here but I did little else but sleep today (remind me to properly thank the hubby for taking over domestic duties when I’m feeling better).

So,I had thought…ok, so I’ll find a good papermaking tutorial on You Tube!

Now, I know that each “paper maker” has their own way of doing things but I honestly thought the process itself…the basic,fundamentals …were pretty much the same. I guess I was wrong.

My creative process for many things is probably unorthodox.I don’t follow directions.I improvise a lot,especially when I see an easier ( and cheaper) way of doing something. I don’t over think things…I just do.

this video is the closest tutorial I could find to the way I do things:

The biggest exception to how I do things that I see is the drying process. I stack all sheets of paper in a pile (or several piles) to dry. I put something heavy on top to help flatten and squeeze out excess water. If it’s a nice day, a few hours in the sun dries paper quite quickly.

I also use magazines that I intended to recycle anyway instead of newspaper, mostly just because I have more access to junky magazines(thanks,Mom) than newspaper.

Instead of a sponge,I use rags

Also, supplies…

You can make your own papermaking screen and deckle using an old wooden picture frame with the and recycled screen.All my papermaking screens were made for free by salvaging broken picture frames and screens tossed in roadside free piles or the trash (hell yes,I garbage pick!)

To make a screen, simple make sure all glass is removed from a wooden frame. Cut a piece of screen slightly larger than the opening in the frame size. Use a staple gun to secure the screen around the perimeter of the frame, making sure it’s taut and firm.

To make a deckle , just use the same size frame.

When doing custom paper for customers, I found that many people don’t even want straight edges on their handmade paper and rather like that very ragged edge so using a deckle  is completely optional and when making paper with kids, definitely an easier process.

There are a slew of videos on You Tube that show a variety of ways to make paper if you’re interested in seeing other methods  but most of them lost me at their supply list (a mortar and pestle?? For what?) , uses of chemical additives and dyes (I use none,not even a bonding agent) or just making the process much more difficult and complex than it really is (handcutting the paper with scissors? Are you kidding me? The best part of papermaking is the stress relief you get from shredding and ripping up old bills ).

It really is just a very simple process with just 6 Steps.

1, shred paper,put in blender with water and pulverize it.

2. Fill a tub or a bin with warm water and pour your pulverized pulp into it.

3.Dip screen in pulp ,letting pulp cover screen .Let water drain.

4.Flip screen w/ paper pulp side down onto cotton sheeting or whatever you’re drying it on

5.Sponge off as much water from the topside

6.Lift screen.Voila.Sheet of paper.

Oh..one thing that trips some people up when they first start paper making is,which side of the screen to dip into the water. You want the recessed edge down and the side that’s flat facing up.If it’s the other way around, you’ll just be scooping pulp into a sieve and it won’t “couch” (flip off onto the drying sheet) very easily.

AND…I advise picking  up a blender at a yard sale or the thrift shop specifically for papermaking . I would not advise using a blender that you’re totally in love with and don’t want to replace,especially if you plan on doing papermaking frequently. I picked up the blender I’m using now for papermaking at a yard sale for $3.It’s lasted me quite some time but I can tell it’s on it’s last legs.The nice thing is,I’m not going to feel horrible when it dies since it was only a $3 investment .

Jupiter recycles her Netflix mailers

When she sees people leave the post office with the bright red Netflix envelope clasped in their hand, she fights the urge to say,”Hey,whatcha watching tonight?”. Now she just wants to know if she can have the tear-off flap thingy so she can make more Netflix Paper.

Handmade paper made from the tear off flap from accumulated Netflix mailers

Pink w/ speckly bits of red,black & white. It’s very White Stripes.