Making My Own Laundry Soap

Ingredients

Like many of us, I want to get the best value for my money with the items I need to purchase for my home.  Plus I want to know what is in them.  Same goes for my laundry soap.  Knowing that when I purchase liquid laundry detergent, I am paying for mostly water does not make me happy.  I have water.  Comes right out of the faucet in the kitchen.  So I looked around to see what homemade laundry soap recipes there were out there.  Most seemed to be the same ingredients, just a little different in the amount of each item added.  I experimented some and came up with what worked for me.  The ingredients are basically the same, just made it easier for myself to use whole boxes or containers of product instead of cups, like most of the recipes call for.

Homemade Laundry Soap

1 box (76 oz) 20 Mule Team Borax
1 box (55 oz) Washing Soda
2 box (16 oz ea) Baking Soda
2 tubs (16 oz ea) oxy boost
6 bars (grated) laundry soap (ie Fels-Napths, Zote or Colgate)

Grate the bars of laundry soap using a hand held grater or your food processor.  Put all the ingredients in something large enough to mix well and then transfer to a storage container.  Use 1/4 cup for each load of laundry.  From everything I have read, this can be used in a high efficiency washer, but check with the manufacturer if you are unsure.~

I live in an area where the ground water is not the best quality, being surrounded by swamp, sound and ocean water.  My towels were like sandpaper on my skin, even using fabric softener.  Using this homemade laundry soap, they are fluffier then ever and so soft.  I even quit using liquid fabric softener and only use dryer sheets and things are still softer and smell so much better.  In general, everything comes out cleaner than ever.

This lasted me 4 months.  I was only washing for myself, but I wash the animal blankets and pet beds once a week, in addition to washing the entire bed linens once a week also.  To make this, the ingredients cost me about $17, but this is going to depend on where you live and what stores you have available.  Where I live the cost of living is rather high, because the area is considered a vacation destination.  And the variety of stores is limited, in addition to the selection within the stores are limited.  I have to go to four different stores to get everything I need. 

I hope this works for you and your clothes come out as clean as mine.

Spring Is Here

Well, Spring is finally here.  And it's time to get the garden tools out again.  It is such an exciting time of year, the birth of new seeds and the beginning of regrowth from the established vegetation.  Time to pull the winter weeds and till up the garden plots to get ready for new plants. 

Soon, I will have to make final decisions what vegetables I want to set out this year.  I am already developing ideas for new small vegetable garden beds.  I am successful with small raised beds instead of one large plowed garden area.  Because of my health, such a traditional garden would overwhelm me and I may loose interest.  With the small beds, I can successfully take care of one at a time and feel successful.

I have reset my strawberries from a place I had them on the ground to a long planter set on the railing on the back porch.  This way, they can grow and the berries will hang over the planters and are easily accessible from the kitchen by way of the back door.  I got this inspiration from a picture of a strawberry farm where they had the plants in what appeared to be rain gutter in very long lengths, held up by polls and 3 rows up. 

I have also put out some cool weather greens; spinach, mesculin and kale.  Here in coastal North Carolina, these greens wilt like a delicate southern belle in the hot humid days.  I want to try my hand a brussel sprouts this year.  I remember them from my childhood and long rows in the family garden.  Frozen ones are not as enticing as fresh grown from your own garden. 

So time to get my garden journal out and look over last years successes and missteps, and plan for this years bountiful harvest.

Full Moons of August-2012

Well August is upon us.  And this year the month of August will bring us not one, but two full moons.

The first full moon this month is August 1 and is referred to as the Sturgeon Moon.  This comes from the Algonquian Indians who lived around the Great Lakes of North America and is the basis for the Farmers Almanac moon names.  During this full moon, the sturgeon of the lakes were more easily caught.  Other names for the full moon of August are:

• Wyrt Moon - Wiccan
• Lightening Moon - Pagan
• Grain Moon - English
• Dog Moon - Colonial American
• Dispute Moon - Celtic
• Fruit Moon - Cherokee
• Women's Moon - Choctaw
• Green Corn Moon
• Red Moon - because of the reddish hue it has sometimes

The energies associated with the August full moon are ones of abundance, agriculture and marriage.  This is the time to begin collecting and harvesting herbs and storing them for the year to come.  This is the time to do any magic to help yourself in accomplishing goals and enjoying the benefits of your hard work. This is also a time to help others who have given their permission to do so.

The second full moon of the month is on August 31.  Most people believe the meaning of a Blue Moon is the second full moon within a month, which happens, on average, every 2.7 years.  The historically correct meaning of a Blue Moon is, the third full moon of four occurring within a season.  With July, August and September being the season of the Summer Solstice, the second full moon in August should meet that definition.  People like to use the phrase "once in a blue moon" to refer to something that does not happen very often.