Laundry Detergent

This is a recipe for laundry detergent I recently tried with much success... oddly enough, my clothes smelled cleaner than usual after using this.

It's quite simple to make and will cost you fractions of pennies per load. My cost for one batch of this (about 12 liters of detergent - or around 4 regular bottles of store bought detergent at $4.99 on sale) was .68 cents - that's .17 cents/bottle!!!

Plus, you will no longer be putting those harsh chemicals they put in laundry detergent into the water, thus having less impact on the environment and your wallet.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent



You Need:

• 3.1 oz bar Ivory soap (Ivory is a natural pure soap perfect for cleaning)
• 1 cup Borax
• ½ cup Washing Soda
• 3 gallons + 5 cups Water
• 4-5 Gallon container
• Grater, knife, or blender
• Large Pot
• Long stirring stick or spoon (for 5 gallon container)

Directions:

1. Shave/grate/process the soap and place in the pot with 5 cups of water.
2. Heat the water until it is just about to boil and stir until the soap is completely melted.
3. Pour 3 gallons of hot water into the 5 gallon container.
4. Pour the soap and water mixture into the 5 gallon container and stir until well blended.
5. Add the 1/2 cup washing soda and stir until dissolved. Repeat with the cup of borax.
6. Once all of the soap shavings are melted, pour the mixture into the 5-gallon container and stir.
7. Now you may add essential oils for fragrance if you wish (lavender would be a good one).
8. The mixture should look like hot soapy water. You can either cover the container now and let it sit out of the way overnight, or you can pour the mixture into smaller containers (I use recycled store bought laundry detergent bottles and cat litter containers), cover, and let sit overnight.
9. The next day it should be cooled and gelled. It will be lumpy and watery. It's ready to use.
10. Add 1/2 cup of mixture per load of laundry just like you normally would - I just use the laundry bottle lid.

Here's the recipe for Powdered Laundry Detergent, probably a better choice for those who don't have room to store 12 liters worth. I haven't tried this yet, but when I do I will let you all know how it worked. Recipe makes enough for 32 loads.

Homemade Powdered Laundry Detergent



You Need:

• 2/3 bar Laundry Soap (equivalent of 1 cup grated) - you can use the bars of laundry soap they sell at the grocery store or you can use the Ivory soap.
• ½ Cup Borax
• ½ Cup Washing Soda
• Grater or blender
  
• Container large enough to hold 2 cups of laundry detergent

Directions:

1. Grate or blend the bar soap.
2. Add the ½ cup of Borax and ½ cup of washing soda.
3. Shake /mix well.
4. Add one tablespoon of mixture per load, more for very dirty clothes.

-Love Marylin.

Ditch The Fridge

This is a great article by Andrea Pelosa from the Vancouver Observer about how the fridge is not necessarily a necessity.

At the very least, this is great advice to use when there's a power outage.

Ditch The Fridge - http://www.thevancouverobserver.com/show533a/


The less we need to rely on, the better off we are.


-Love Marylin.

The Human Footprint

A Nick Watts Documentary made in 2007 examining the amount of products consumed in a lifetime and the impact it has on the environment.

The Hunt For Meat II

Saturday morning at the market proved to be a little more difficult than I imagined: I mean, how do you politely ask someone if they mis-treat their livestock?

I suppose you don't, and I'm not very good with verbalizing my thoughts, but this is important to me - I'm on a mission!

I was quite pleased to find that the very first person I approached was indeed selling beef that spent most of it's time outdoors, grass and grain fed.



The slightly higher cost for his cuts are very much worth it (for all creatures involved, I'd say).

So Goddess bless the farmers market! It's very much worth checking yours out:

Farmers Markets Ontario
Canada's Guide To Farmers Markets

Next week I'll talk with some of the other meat sellers and see just how many of them are following good practices, but from now on, I know where I'm getting my meat.

-Love Marylin.

Challenge: The Hunt For Meat

I'm on the hunt for meat!

I do believe there is nothing wrong with eating meat, in general, it is the way we get our meat that is horribly wrong.

Hunting was a good method: you put forth effort into obtaining the animal (especially back when guns weren't used and the animal had a fighting chance), you use all of the animal, and you give thanks to the animal for dying to feed and clothe your family.



Most importantly, no waste and no cruelty. Not like the grocery stores where meat is thrown out if not purchased. No practices like the ones we saw in the 'Meet Your Meat' video from the last post.



You hunted what you needed and you used it all up. It was more appreciated.

Hence the most obvious source in my Hunt For Meat would be hunting it myself, but that is out of the question as I don't drive so I couldn't get to places where hunting is permitted. Also, I don't know how to use a weapon and I'm extremely against guns so I wouldn't own one.

The next most obvious choice than, would be obtaining my meat from someone who does hunt. I don't know anyone who hunts, but I'm keeping this option open.

After that, it seems my choice would be to find meat from a farm where the animal was not treated in a cruel way: where the animal gets plenty of time outside and plenty of good food so it can at least have a better quality of life before it gives that up to feed us.



I'm currently on the hunt for this now and I've been asking alot of questions, which brings me to this response from PETA, the organization that produced the 'Meet Your Meat' video.

I asked them since they are huge advocates for animal rights, if they would know where I could look to find meat where the animals were not treated cruelly:

Dear Ms. Houle,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with PETA. We appreciate the opportunity to respond. While PETA is willing to applaud any steps that farmers and ranchers take to improve the welfare of the animals for whom they are responsible, we also know that there is no truly humane way to "harvest" food from animals.

The sheer number of animals required to feed America's current meat habit makes individual attention to their wants and needs impossible. Although we agree that eating food from animals is a personal choice, as an animal protection group, PETA cannot in good conscience condone or encourage the killing of animals for their flesh, just as the American Cancer Society, for example, could not reasonably encourage the "choice" of cigarette smoking.

For us to promote the purchase of any kind of meat would imply that we endorse the use of animals for food "production," instead of recognizing that animals deserve consideration of their own best interests—regardless of whether they are useful to humans. Ultimately, there is the simple moral principle that we do not have the right to manipulate and kill animals for our own purposes. Animals do not belong to us, and their lives are just as precious to them as ours are to us.

A society that eats animals will always view them as possessions, products, and commodities, as opposed to individuals with feelings, families, and friendships. And as long as people view animals as objects, widespread institutionalized abuse is destined to continue. The best thing anyone can do to help animals is to not eat them. Humans don’t require meat and other food from animals to live—and, in fact, we are better off without it. We have so many choices as consumers today that there’s simply no reason to continue to raise and slaughter animals for food.

To learn more about why a vegetarian diet is the best choice for animals, humans and our environment, please visit http://www.GoVeg.com.

Thanks again for writing and for your concern for animals.

Sincerely,

The PETA Staff

http://www.SupportPETA.com

I was really surprised at this response.

Though they may not advocate eating animals, period, you would think that if they care that much about animal welfare, they would prefer those of us who still want to eat meat to eat meat where the animals were not tortured.

Maybe I'm naive, but this is how I feel.

I'm certainly not at all against vegetarianism, that is not the issue at all, I just believe that meat-eaters have the same right to eat meat as vegetarians have to not eat meat.

Anyway, I'll be off to the Farmer's Market tomorrow morning to question all the meat vendors there.

Wish me luck!

We'll see where my Hunt for Meat leads and what meat production's impact is on the environment in upcoming posts.

-Love Marylin.

Challenge: One Bag A Month

Since I've begun completely recycling and composting, I've noticed a very obvious benefit: where I would usually end up with at least two full green trash bags to throw in the garbage each month, I now only fill up one plastic grocery bag with trash.*



*That's for a single gal with a cat. That would be harder for a household with more people or a family, so perhaps it would go that it's one grocery bag per person.

I wait and wait and wait for the trash bag to fill up, but it just never seems to happen - it's quite amazing!

This is instant gratification: I can see how much less I am putting in the landfill and I love it.

So this is my goal from now on - no more than one plastic grocery bag of actual trash per month will leave my apartment.



Once you're recycling, composting, etc., you begin to notice the things that are left-over and have to go into the trash bag. This is when you can pin-point some of your actual impact and possibly correct some of your problems...

The challenge for me is my cat - he poops, lol. His poopies are not recyclable, compostable (according to my local authorities), or reusable (as far as I know).

Although I'm sure George's super poopies could somehow be turned into some powerful fuel, I've yet to discover how, so until then, I have no choice but to trash them.



I don't feel horrible about this because I'm sure, being poopies, they can easily biodegrade back into the earth, but there are two remaining trash culprits I don't feel so good about:

Plastics. Certain food wrappers, product packaging, etc.

I can certainly decrease these by buying less food with non-recyclable packaging, though things like my All Bran Bars and Crispy Delights will be hard to get over.



As for product packaging, I rarely purchase anything as it is and the majority of what I do purchase is stuff I need. What would be the best solution there?



Cigarette Butts.



Those chemical laden little buggers are a big problem that I feel bad for perpetuating. They are not recyclable or compostable and they do a real number on the land and water.



Since discovering this information, I no longer throw my butts on the street when I'm finished smoking (which has caused me to notice the need for alot more public ashtrays). I currently extinguish and stick my butt in my purse until I get home.



Now, keeping said butts in a secure trash bag rather than on the streets does go a long way toward helping the problem, but there must be even better solutions.

(Yes I realize not smoking at all would be the best solution, but that in itself is another long post/story that will eventually be tackled)

So there we have it. One bag a month is the new rule.

Are you up for that challenge too?

-Love Marylin.

How Do You Honour?

I was surprised to find, after doing a quick keyword search on witchvox.com, that there are very few environmental resources listed.

This kind of angered me because this site is the go-to site for most Pagans with access to a computer: you could definitely say it represents us in a large way.

I can only assume this small percentage of attention to environmental issues is due to alot of lip-service us Pagans pay to our 'Goddess' - we honour her but are we really honouring her? Or are we just lighting candles and saying blessings (which of course is a wonderful way to honour, but we need to do more).



If you're a Pagan, please leave a comment and let me know what you're doing to really honour the goddess, restore my hope perhaps.

I did find something in my search, a website called Activ8 - check out their article The Activist Witch: Finding Your Way to Change the World


-Love Marylin.

Scary Fact: Styrofoam

Styrofoam cups and containers take up to 1 million years to decompose and cannot be recycled.

So what's the point of even producing styrofoam?

$$$$$ What else?

"The production of Styrofoam cups requires less raw materials, labor and utilities than paper cups. Because of difference in resource requirements, the price of Styrofoam coffee cups is approximately a third of the cost of paper coffee cups."

That's lovely, but though it may take fewer resources to produce the stuff...

"It is virtually indestructible. Even though it is made largely of air, it does not biodegrade. A piece of Styrofoam is used once and then lies dormant in a landfill forever."

So it all boils down to the mighty dollar as usual - let's pinch a few pennies for ourselves and leave the mess for our grandchildren to worry about.



Of course there's the health issues...

According to a Foundation for Achievements in Science and Education fact sheet, long term exposure to small quantities of styrene can cause neurotoxic (fatigue, nervousness, difficulty sleeping), hematological (low platelet and hemoglobin values), cytogenetic (chromosomal and lymphatic abnormalities), and carcinogenic effects.

Styrene primarily exhibits its toxicity to humans as a neurotoxin by attacking the central and peripheral nervous systems. The accumulation of these highly lipid-soluble (fat-soluble) materials in the lipid-rich tissues of the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves is correlated with acute or chronic functional impairment of the nervous system.

For example, women exposed to low concentrations of styrene vapors in the workplace are known to have a variety of neurotoxic and menstrual problems. A Russian study of 110 women exposed to styrene vapors at levels about 5 mg/m3 demonstrated menstrual disorders, particularly perturbations of the menstrual cycle and a hypermenorrhea (unusually heavy flow of menses during the menstrual cycle) syndrome. Styrene- exposed women often suffered from metabolic disturbances occurring during pregnancy.

Google Styrofoam and you'll learn a whole lot more, most of which will probably disgust you as much as it disgusts me.

Each year American throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups, enough every year to circle the earth 436 times.



Luckily, there are places that ban the stuff and hopefully that idea will catch on quickly. For now, it's largely an ignored problem - so don't buy the stuff, tell the coffee shop/fast food place to use something else to serve your food/drink in, bring your own mug from home because it's a waste of money and a waste of our Earth.

-Love Marylin.

Drain Cleaner

Environmentally Friendly Drain Cleaner

• 1/2 cup baking soda
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1 gallon boiling water

Pour baking soda down drain, followed by vinegar. Let it foam for a few minutes before pouring the boiling water down the drain.

*I also squirt a bit of lemon juice in with the vinegar.


-Love Marylin.

Frugality

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."

- Hans Hofmann, Introduction to the Bootstrap, 1993

What Frugality Is:

Being frugal means putting very careful thought into any purchases in order to reduce waste and cut-down on unnecessary spending of money that can be used to achieve a more fulfilling purpose

Being frugal means being resourceful: using things you already own in a creative way; taking advantage of money saving opportunities; trading/bartering with others.

Being frugal means not falling into the financial trap that most people walk blindly into: you are in control of your finances, your finances do not cause you major stress, you feel rich with what you have, and you are free to pursue more important goals.

Being frugal means "living simply, so others can simply live."


What Frugality Is Not:

Being frugal does not mean being cheap, it just means not spending blindly.

Being frugal does not mean going without, nothing is sacrificed because the point of it is to be better taken care of.

Being frugal does not mean you don't have anything, it just means you don't have anything you don't need or really want.


What Is The Point?

Frugality and healing the earth go hand in hand: the less you use and the more thoughtful you are about the way you use/reuse things, the less impact you have on damaging the earth and her resources.

Frugality is also a very spiritual practice: it frees you from being weighed down by debt, clutter, and financial worry so that you are more free to live and work on your other goals. It is also spiritual because it gets you more in touch with the land you live on and makes you appreciate the resources it gives you.

And finally, frugality makes you rich! You will just naturally have more money if you practice frugality. Those savings can be used in any way - buying a house, donating to good causes, financing a dream you've always wanted to fulfill.

The fact is, the earth is being raped of all her resources. We are killing the very thing that allows us to live, and as little sense as that makes, it continues to happen - all for money.

We need to stop and no matter what they tell you, your impact does matter.

"With greater emphasis on working to live, not living to work, we are creating awareness for simpler solutions, a more creative existence with healthier, happier longevity, for those brave enough to accept the challenge."

-Tracey Smith

Here's a two part article for more information:

Voluntary Simplicity part 1
Voluntary Simplicity part 2