Seed Starting and Hitler's Regime

So I'm not sure what exactly was going down at Lowe's last week, but apparently somebody had it out for the seeds.

Poor seeds.

Luckily, Hubbie and I were able to rescue some of them, and bring them home on a grand new adventure. I wanted to start my seeds ahead of time inside, so they'd have a chance to get good and strong while the weather took it's (sweet, sweet) time warming up. If you haven't noticed, the weather in Georgia can only be compared to the temperament of a teenage girl, what with the ups and downs and random tornados and ice storms, followed by beautiful balmy days. Crazy.

So last week I started my seeds! I opted to try out the fun little Jiffy pods... which I know isn't as authentic and crunchy as I could've gone. However, I think that if Laura Ingalls was with us today, she'd be up for trying out the trendy new gardening options too. So there.

We added 7 cups of warm water to the tray, and the kiddos puffed right up into gorgeous little seed houses, just waiting to fulfill their seed-y (as in planting, not underbelly) purposes!

I ended up doing two to three pods of each seed type, because I want variety coming out of our porch garden (and I couldn't decide between seeds...), plus this is a learning experience, and I'm sure I'll learn lots about narrowing my focus... should be fun.

All week I've been misting them with water, and moving the covered trays in a musical chairs dance around the living room, trying to catch the few hours of sunshine we get. And things are hap-pen-ing!

One thing I've learned already is that when the seedlings get super leggy (but not in a positive Giselle kind of way), it means they're not getting enough sun. They're streeeeetching out, searching for that sun. Poor seeds... Apparently, there's no coming back for those, so I needed to thin the herd a little, and give some of the shorter guys a chance.

Check out that swiss chard, though! Gorgeous gams! But too leggy for it's own good...

Rather than pulling the seedlings out and risking damage to the other root systems in the same pod, I cut them off at soil level. Each pod has three or four seeds planted in it, but will only play host to one seedling in the end, so while this winnowing was necessary...

It just felt so wrong! Seriously guys, I felt super barbaric by the end of things. I know it was for the plants' own good and all, and that we're trying to grow strong, hearty plants with deep roots and a solid future... but to just snip them off! *sob*

Matters are not helped by the fact that I'm reading Hitler's Furies, by Wendy Lower, right now, which talks about the roles that German women played during the Nazi regime. It put my head in a weird place to begin with, and them I'm trying to explain to the seeds that I'm cutting them off for the good of all... yikes. 

Anyway, the seeds are doing great, though the dill is a bust so far. We may have to try again on that one. I need to figure out a Jiffy pod alternative... while they're super fun, they're also one-hit wonders. I could buy more pods... or I could try something a little more sustainable. I think that's more in line with what we're trying to go for here anyway. Things to ponder! 

Easy DIY Coffee Scrub... Because Who Doesn't Need More Coffee?

Guys, I love coffee. I have more cups of coffee in a day than I am willing to admit to. The sweet, sweet nectar of life is a daily staple in our household, which means that we have a lot of coffee grounds. As I was cleaning out our french press today, I got to thinking...

It just seemed awful wasteful to dump them down the drain. What else could I do with them? I know that coffee grounds make a great addition to compost piles, but I do not have one of those just yet. I doubt my neighbors would appreciate it right now... I was reading the other day about the benefits of caffeine in everything from cellulite reduction to anti-inflammatory-ness. Plus, it's a natural antioxidant. Cool, right?

Just the smell of coffee alone is supposed to help reduce nausea and anxious thoughts... Well, sign me up. I decided to whip up (tra la la) a coffee scrub to bring all those benefits into my morning shower. Morning coffee, morning shower... happy thoughts everywhere. Scrubs are great because they exfoliate while moisturizing skin, help to release toxins, and increase blood flow. I opted to use both olive and coconut oil in with my scrub, since I love what they both bring to the table. 

I also opted for salt rather than sugar, because I feel like sugar scrubs are, like, so over. 

Sea salt, guys. It's the wave of the future.

I combined my leftover coffee grounds from this morning along with a tablespoon each of sea salt, olive oil, and coconut oil.

I mixed it all up, and stored it in a bitty mason jar. What is it about tiny things that are just so cute? If you get a chance, check out "Too Cute" on Animal Planet. Three hours later, you'll be sitting in a puddle of your own drool, utterly relaxed and blissfully calm.

I am happy to report that the scrub smells divine (if you like coffee, that is), and feels delicious. However, be aware that this is a scrub with oil in it. It's not the rinse-off-squeaky-clean kind of feel, it's more the rinse-off-towel-dry-then-lay-around-naked-for-an-hour-while-the-oil-soaks-into-your-skin-leaving-you-silky-smooth-and-sensuous kind of feel. Guys, I looked around, and this stuff is crazy expensive. How much better to make it yourself, with a few ingredients sitting in your pantry, and then spend that money on more important things... like more coffee?

Just a thought.

Mmm... more coffee...

The Time I Failed To Make A Candle Out Of An Orange

So one of the tasks this month in The Weekend Homesteader was to focus on emergency lighting. In my (*cough* obsessive *cough*) research on the topic, I came across the concept of creating a candle out of an orange. Health-conscious folks that we are, we tend to have produce around, so I thought it'd be a great substitute should another snow-pocalyspe hit the area.

It wasn't.

This is the story of how I failed to make a candle out of an orange.

In theory, it made a lot of sense.

You start by slicing the orange in half. Then remove the innards of the orange for a tasty snack, taking care to leave the pithy stem intact. Even if you screw up on the first half, you luckily have another half with which to try again. There's a lemonade and lemons analogy in there somewhere.

This will be your wick.

...of failure.

Now fill your orange candle with olive oil, and allow the wick to soak it up for a few minutes.

Or twenty.

During this time, you can use the other half of your orange to create a cutesy top for your candle, cutting an air hole out of it.

Or you can use this time to empty the dishwasher and cut up the bell peppers for dinner. Guess which one I did?

At this point, you can start trying to light your orange candle!

What an excellent opportunity to practice perseverance.

You may actually get said orange candle to light for a moment! Amazingly, the smell of burning citrus is not as homey or comforting as one may think it would be.

Inevitably, however, my orange candle failed.

Maybe it was the kind of orange I used, or the pithy-ness of my pithy wick, but my orange candle was an epic failure.

Definitely not the best plan for emergency lighting.

Back to the candle drawing board.

The Dirt On My New Laundry Detergent

Between college and grad school, Hubbie and I spent two years working with a student ministry. While there, we got to take the Strengths Test from StrengthsFinder 2.0, by Tim Roth. One of my top five was Achiever, in which I take great satisfaction from being busy, productive, and accomplishing things with excellence. When we decided that I would stay home with Kiddo, I became determined to Achieve homemaking! Today's experiment is evidence of me Achieving the crap out of my little apartment homestead... because why else would someone take time to make something that you can buy at every grocery and big box store on the planet?

That's right, kids. Today, I made laundry detergent.

In an ongoing effort to squeeze five and a half quarters out of every penny to our name, making our own detergent helps fulfill that margin. Plus, the stuff from the store contains all kinds of really ugly chemicals, sulfates, and fragrances that are super not excellent for our heavenly vessels. The homemade stuff, though, only has three ingredients (four if you count water. Save the whales!). 

Borax (NOT BORIC ACID) is comprised of sodium, boron, oxygen, and water, and is what you find in the fancy-pants (re: expensive) green detergents that help keep the lights on at Whole Foods.

Washing Soda (NOT BAKING SODA), or sodium carbonate for the Sheldon's of the world, is just salt and limestone. This also fits nicely into our crunchy granola manifesto.

I used Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps in Lavender, partly so I wouldn't have to add essential oils (I don't have high-grade ones... yet...), and also because they're super fancy organic / fair-trade / happy for everyone soaps. Guys, every dollar that you spend supports something somewhere, so make sure you're supporting causes that are ethical. Nobody likes child labor... except for war lords. Don't be a war lord.

I used the recipe that's available on a thousand other green-minded blogs, converting and twisting absolutely nothing to make it my own. (If it's not broke...)

I can offer tips, though. Stay tuned for tips.

Okay, so first I grated up the soap so it would dissolve easily into the water. I've read that you can also use a food processor for this, but I killed mine while making Kiddo his food, so I just used elbow grease... It kind of looks like mozzarella, no?

Dissolve the soap in 8 cups of water (or 2 quarts, depending on where in the world Carmen Sandiego finds you). Your goal here is a delightful pot of Soap Soup. 

Stir. Please don't forget to stir, even if the baby wakes up and demands to be removed from his poop-infused diaper. Keep going back to stir... just don't leave said baby on the changing table. That's not safe.

Now you're going to need a bucket. Supposedly you can find them free at benevolent bakeries, I got mine for a song (and a buck fifty) at Walmart.

In said bucket, combine a cup each of Borax and Washing Soda with 4 1/2 gallons (72 cups or 18 quarts... Mad Math, guys) of PIPING hot water. For the record, my Borax box gave Fort Knox a run for it's money, and brought back PTSD episodes related to first grade milk cartons.

Stir... preferably with a spoon that's long enough to reach the bottom of your bucket... or stop halfway in the filling process and scrape up all the powdery goodness that's gotten compressed at the bottom. Basically, avoid sticking your hand in the bucket of PIPING HOT SOAPY WATER. Just take my word for it...

Combine your Soap Soup with piping hot magma borax/soda water. Stir some more.

Let everything cool a bit and then stick a cover on that sucker. The last thing you need is the cats knocking over five gallons of soapy mess. At this point, you're going to want to let the detergent hang out overnight, so it has a chance to thicken / congeal / get a little gross. Then, ta-daaaaaaa...

Detergent! Use 1/2 cup for normal loads, or a full cup for literally every load of laundry done in my house. (I have a baby, he makes messes All. The. Time.)

For the economically vigilant among us, let's break down and crunch the numbers. (Why are we so violent towards numbers? Maybe this negative attitude we've adopted is why the entire rest of the world is better than us at math.)

Borax: 76 oz for $3.97, or $0.42 / bucket

Washing Soda: 55 oz for $3.24, or $0.47 / bucket

Fair-Trade Happy Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap: $4.22 / bar, or $4.22 / bucket 

...all together, $5.11 for the bucket of detergent.

We have a five-gallon bucket, and if we assume a full cup per load of laundry (though most people probably use less... not everyone is as filthy as we are), we can assume our bucket gives us 80 loads of laundry (160 for the non-snot-encrusted masses). 

So, we're spending $0.06 per load for our 80 loads, even less for our less-soiled loads! Compare that to the $0.15 average cost per load for store-bought detergent, and I'd call a savings of almost two-thirds a win.

Guys.

How cool is that? I made my own detergent today! I love projects allow me to treat my family better while being frugal... Best of both worlds. I really feel like I Achieved something today!

Potato Nightmares and Mood Lighting

Last night I had nightmares about potatoes.

I had spent quite a disproportionate amount of time yesterday researching various gardening topics, like what I can grow in my climate and in my space and with my sun. I determined that this year's container garden is going to include herbs, like basil, rosemary, and cilantro, as well as vegetables: tomatoes, beets, swiss chard, kale, spinach, broccoli, and cucumbers. I'm forgoing the potato barrel and tea garden, but I will be delving into the world of sprouts and possibly a lemon tree, if I can find a dwarf one.

Combine all that newfound knowledge with some potent cold medication (thanks for the delightful sickness, winter), and I was tossing and turning with visions of super sized spuds dancing through my brain...

But really.

The Weekend Homesteader and I may be at a parting of ways, though. I excitedly opened it to February, thinking that a new month would bring about fun new challenges to embark upon. First week's task? Planting berries. I cannot put a berry patch on my porch, though the railings could make interesting trellises... hmm... file that away for possible tomato plan? I also considered those topsy-turvy late night infomercial things for tomatoes, taking our space vertical... but I digress.

No berries.

Plus, the author details how many berries won't yield anything the first year. I understand the need to pay it forward with gardening and all, but I need results, people! The idea of caring for the plant for the next three years before getting anything back sounds like a "down the road" kind of task.

The next task talks about stocking up on dried goods, buying in bulk, etc. Now, this I can sink my teeth into. I think I have a little latent doomsday prepper hiding out in the back of my brain somewhere. I love the idea of grinding my own flour, and coming home with 4,000 pound bags of beans from Sam's Club. (And really, after braving Sam's Club on a Saturday, I'd like to go back as little as possible.)

Did I mention I live in an apartment?

With two other people?

And cats?

Alas, my square footage for bulk buying is rivaled only by my square footage for gardening. So while I may pick up a few extra boxes of spaghetti while they're on sale down at the Food Lion, and we may or may not have some extra gallons of water stashed at the back of the closet, the 4,000,000 pounds of beans will have to wait.

Third task of February... backup lighting!

Sexy, right? Super exciting. We are presented the options of solar-powered flashlights, headlamps, and lanterns, and generators for the overachievers. What TWH fails to realize, however, is that I grew up camping. I am flush with headlamps and lanterns, not to mention mood-lighting candles. But, my little head wheels got to turning, and I have crafted an extra credit assignment for myself.

We will make candles! (I have made fire!)

A quick Google search reveals that there are a plethora (heyyyy, 8th grade english class) of options for crafting my own candles, including an apparently heated debate of paraffin vs. soy vs. beeswax. However, since beeswax is all-natural and has air purifying qualities (thanks, wikihow), that seems to be the best fit for our crunchy granola manifesto.

...also, did you know you can make a candle out of an orange?!?

Get excited, y'all. Good things are coming... and they smell citrus-y!