Free Ebooks 6-27-2015

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Fiction

Homemade Laundry Soap & Inflation?

So, do you use store-bought or homemade laundry detergent?

I'm addicted to the homemade, and have been using it exclusively for about 2 years now. I have been having mixed feelings about the companies who make Fels-Naptha and Zote soap tho.  I remember when I first started making my homemade soap, the cost of a bar was $0.97.  I went to buy it the other day and the cost is now $1.97!!  Really???  Inflation has went up a whole DOLLAR?!?  I think not!!  I know it's a supply & demand issue, with so many people now purchasing it to make homemade.  So... my cheap frugal self went in search of my grandmother's old school lye & lard laundry soap recipe.....

and I found it!!  

I'll be adding bars of it to my Etsy store here, so keep an eye out!! :)

I found this darlin’ Wash Day instruction on the internet and thought it gave a great perspective on what the homemaker in the early 1900’s had to go through just to do a load of laundry! Now I understand the meaning of “Wash Day”. It took the whole day!

ADVICE TO A 1912 BRIDE

Years ago a Kentucky grandmother gave a bride the following recipe for washing clothes (misspelled words and all) :

Bild fire in back yard to heet kettle of rainwater.
Set tubs so smoke won’t blow in eyes if wind is pert.
Shave one hole cake lie soap in boilin water.
Sort things, make three piles. 1 pile white. 1 pile cullord. 1 pile work britches and rags.
To make starch stur flour in cold water to smooth then thin down with boilin water.
Rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, then boil. Rub cullord but don’t boil — just rench and starch.
Take white things out of kettle with broom stick handle then rench, blew and starch.
Spred tee towels on grass.
Hang old rags on fence.
Pour rench water in flower bed.
Scrub porch with hot soapy water.
Turn tubs upside down.
Go put on cleen dress, smooth hair with side combs, brew cup of tee — set and rest a spell and count your blessins.

I just just love the 1951 Whirlpool ad!!  It's even more neat for me as I WORK at Whirlpool now building dryers. LOL

My Early Blight Struggle.... It Begins Again

And it begins....

The Struggle.

I don't know if I posted about my plight last year with this awful early blight on my tomatoes or not, but it's beginning already this year.  *Sigh*

I lost over 6 plants and I'd venture to guess almost 2/3 of my total harvest because I just couldn't keep up with it.  Honestly I didn't try very hard either... I wasn't sure if it was truly blight or not so I kept hoping that it would just "come out of it" on it's own.  All my hoping did NOTHING.  LOL

So this year, I have already found it attacking my poor tomato plants.  Mind you, I have my tomatoes in bottom watering planters this year, because I was hoping that not having water laying on the leaves would keep the blight at bay.  Nope.

So I started researching what exactly early blight is, and how to treat it so that I don't lose my harvest this year.

Tomato blight, in its different forms, is a disease that attacks a plant’s foliage, stems, and even fruit.

Early blight (one form of tomato blight) is caused by a fungus,Alternaria solani, which over-winters in the soil and infected plants. Affected plants underproduce. Leaves may drop, leaving fruit open to sunscald.

Early blight’s Latin name is sometimes confused with a form of tomato rot, alternaria, a different tomato problem altogether. To muddle matters further, early blight is occasionally mistaken for Septoria leaf spot because the two diseases infect tomatoes at the same time.

Dark, concentric spots (brown to black), ¼ - ½” in diameter, form on lower leaves and stems. Early blight is marked by tell-tale rings.

Fruit can also be affected; spots often begin near stem of fruit

Lower leaves turn yellow and drop

Rotate crops. Early blight remains active for a year. Spores can be dormant in the soil for several years.

Plant disease-resistant hybrids to strengthen your plant’s chances of being blight-free.

Plant tomatoes in a raised bed to improve drainage and prevent diseases from spreading.

Give tomato plants extra space (more than 24 inches) to let air to move among leaves and keep them dry.

Water the soil – not the plants – to prevent splashing. Avoid overhead watering.

Mulch with black plastic or landscape fabric to prevent fungus from spreading up onto leaves.

Stake tomato plants for better circulation.

Remove and destroy affected plants at the end of the season.

Ok..  now I'm informed.  So how am I personally choosing to deal with this??

I chose to use planters in order to change the watering method and avoid water laying on the leaves.  They are staked/caged properly within these planters so that they can grow properly.

What I'm concluding here is that either my dirt or my water (damn city processed & treated stuff that I have to deal with) is highly susceptible to fungus.  I kinda already knew that since I get random mushrooms and toadstools growing in the dumbest spots in my yard.  

Since I don't use chemicals in ANY form in my garden- not even Miracle Grow, I chose to treat the early blight like I do the dusty mildew that attacks my squash and zucchini plants.  Vinegar and water.  Yep.  Vinegar is an antifungal, so I just mix 4 tbsp. with a gallon of water (boiled, distilled or store bought- I REALLY think the water has something to do with this issue) and spray on the plants, making sure to get both the tops and the underside of the leaves thoroughly.  This is AFTER trimming off all of the spotted, affected leaves on the plant.  

Only one of my planters was infected horribly, so it's all trimmed back and treated, and most of the other planters looked fine so far, but I treated with the vinegar mixture as a prevention method.  (You can't be too careful here.)

Do you have early blight already or any fungal issues effecting your garden??

I will keep you updated as to how this protocol works for me.  In the meantime, make sure you comment and let me know what you do to deal with blight or other garden issues.

I Don't Want to Fit In... and Some Awesome Articles!!

There is so much work happening in my home/yard right now.  I officially tilled up about 40% of my yard to grow everything under the sun.  Well, not everything, but the things that I know I will eat & use all summer and can preserve for winter usage also.  I have all the normal veggies planted.

My asparagus harvest was small, but it was expected.  It started coming in and then we got a fluke frost one night that just seemed to kill it off and make it start over.  Ugh.  But, what are ya gonna do?

I had a 4 day weekend from work, and honestly, most long weekends I remember that I work harder at home than I ever do at work. LOL  It's just such mindless monotony in the shop.  I love working at home tho.  It's constant change and I see more reward than just a paycheck.  Someday I'll be able to quit my job and just homestead full time, but I don't see my DH on board with that any time soon..

I love what I do, but I wish I had more support from my city dweller hubby.  I don't want to fit in with this ideal of what we should do with our lives.  I saw a quote, and forgive me for not knowing it verbatim, but it says essentially that we buy into the idea of a mortgage and possessions that we just have to have, and then have to work to pay for the things that we don't have time to enjoy because we are at work paying for them.

I don't want to fit in with that societal "norm".  I just want to do what I want to do. 

Ok... enough with my rant.  I found some awesome posts this week that I just have to share with you all!!

This is a great article to get you ready for garage sale season.  I'm actually attempting to plan my own garage sale too.  I've realized just how much "junk" I have accumulated. LOL

These are just the most adorable things!!  I was just thinking of getting some birdhouses to feed the birds in hopes that maybe they will leave me some of my harvest of strawberries & blackberries this year. (Distraction methods!!)  You can see the tutorial here.

This!!!

This!!

Did anyone else know THIS is a thing!???

OMG.  I cannot wait to try this one out!  I've really started the whole "foraging" movement, not that there is a lot to forage in a subdivision, but hey, gimme credit for trying, ok?

The Montana Homesteader has me SERIOUSLY excited to try this one!!

Find anything good this week??

Let me know!!

I Have the Winter Blues

I haven't been posting nearly enough here, but in my defense, there really isn't a lot going on since it's the middle of winter and there is about a foot of snow sitting on the ground.  

Yep, that's my backyard and garden beds as of this morning.  You can see the leftover kale that I left to see how long it would live after the frost.  I keep meaning to tear it out, but there is always snow out there and I just hate trudging through the snow for no good reason.   The right hand side of the picture shows the asparagus ferns in all their glory.  I will mow those down once the threat of frost is over for the year.  

Apparently, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the last frost date in my part of the world is April 29th.  ???  What??  I'm a member of the old-school mentality that you just DO NOT plant under Mother's Day.  So, I have to decide what to do this year.  Plant early and hope for the best or just go by the almanac and see what happens?  I'd love your thoughts on this if you want to take a second to comment. 

I got a new refrigerator this year at the company's scratch and dent sale.  We got a $3500 fridge for only $900 because there is a dent in the side panel.  Works for me.  Who the heck is gonna see it up against the wall anyhow?  Only problem is that the kitchen layout doesn't leave enough space to accommodate the french door fridge.  So, I had to take out an upper and a lower cabinet in order to make a wide enough space for the darned thing.  I'm still working on fitting the cabinets in, painting them to match the existing cabinets and then I'm going to build a narrow rolling pantry to place in the small gap between the fridge and the wall.  Don't worry... once I'm done, I'll post pictures. :)

But me being me, I have to have more to think about.  It's just not me to not be planning for the next 12 projects. LOL

So, I'm going to start my winter sowing this weekend, and hopefully start to build a system like this....

I found this project at Coach House Crafting and I just love the darn thing.  What better way to grow different herbs and keep them easy to access AND not running wild in the garden beds?  I'm planning on making this as an herb garden on my patio.  Even if it's not dual siding like the one pictured, I'll still have tons of options for herb growing.  :)