a post about compost

by Stacy of Little Blue Hen

One of the simplest things I do that applies to all areas of my home is composting. Compost is simply letting your biodegradable trash decay naturally instead of sticking it in a landfill where it can’t actually break down. Composting can drastically reduce your trash output (and possibly trash bill), and also results in nutrient-rich fertilizer for your houseplants and garden. It does not, as many websites would have you believe, require expensive equipment or fancy systems. It can, but all you need is some type of receptacle and some biodegradable waste.

How large a receptacle is up to you. I live in an apartment with no yard, so I compost in a 30-gallon storage tub. Here is my composting assistant helping me set it up:

Note: Cats are not compostable. We’ll get to that later.

We drilled some holes in the sides for ventilation, slapped the lid on it, and put it on the porch. Voila. If you have a yard, you may just have a compost heap, or a large box. Check with your city or county laws as many have requirements for composting — and some offer free or discounted compost bins!

After you have a bin, you need to fill it with stuff. What kind of stuff? The basic ingredients are air, water, and food. Air? Check. Water? Easy to add (compost should feel like a wrung-out sponge). Food? There are a few types, often called “browns” (high in carbon) and “greens” (high in nitrogen). The obvious: fruit and vegetable scraps, weeds and garden trimmings, lawn clippings. Less obvious: paper towel tubes, dryer lint, horse manure, shredded newspaper and office paper, sawdust, tea leaves and coffee grounds, eggshells, egg cartons. Big no-nos: human or pet waste, any dairy or meat scraps and bones. The list gets a bit more stringent if you want to use the compost as fertilizer for edible gardens.

Another thing you can add is worms. Compost worms (normal earthworms won’t work) eat the microorganisms that help break down the waste materials and produce castings much faster than the normal decaying process.

Now what? You wait. Give the bin a good stir to aerate all layers of the pile. Let nature take its course. You can be very attentive and check often, or leave it alone to do its thing. Just check to make sure it doesn’t dry out and that your balance isn’t too far off as that can lead to pests and very unpleasant smells. A good compost heap shouldn’t stink.

In a few months, you’ll have dark, rich black compost. A few spoonfuls are great food for your houseplants. You can also use it in the garden as virtually free organic fertilizer.

Here are some starter sites with more complete information:

• Composting 101
• How to Compost
• Composting Info from the EPA
• Compost Guide from VegWeb

On my kitchen counter I keep a stainless steel compost pail (similar to this one from Target, but I got mine at Marshalls for $15) with a charcoal filter to collect kitchen scraps for the week. We used to use an old yogurt container but we upgraded – the filter also keeps the smell down. Many people collect the week’s scraps in a container in the freezer which eliminates pests and odors, and helps break the cells down for faster decomposition. About once a week I empty the pail into our bin and cover it with the contents of the paper shredder to prevent flies on the patio. We also have red composting worms which chomp through all that waste as fast as they can wriggle.

It’s so easy. Best of all, we don’t have to take out the garbage as often. It’s also a great activity for kids — playing in dirt, seeing worms, gardening, and reducing trash!

Are you still here? Sorry, that got a little long. That’s the very basics; I am no expert. Any other major tips? I know several of the other authors here compost. Do you?

Scrubbin

This past weekend we went to a costume party at Ronnie’s sister’s house.  Michelle and Lea are an inspiration to good housekeeping and decorating savvy.  Despite 8 cats and two kids, I have never walked into their home to find it dirty or cluttered.  Do not know how they do it; upon returning home the following afternoon, I was inspired to clean and organize.

My journey into natural cleaning (without commercial chemicals) began with Rhonda Jean’s blog, down–to–earth; this is not a review of her blog.  =)  She has some great, green, cleaning recipes and it is her liquid laundry soap that we use.  She also inspired me to knit dish clothes, repurposed old towels into cleaning clothes and use baking soda and vinegar to clean.  Ronnie does not mind the detergent and other natural cleaning, he does mind NOT having bleach in the house.  I have had no problems cleaning with baking soda & vinegar;  He believes he needs bleach to get rid of the stains that collect around the kitchen faucet – Mexican tile that has been sealed yet seems to collect stains none-the-less.

In the bathroom I use baking soda to clean the tub and sink, and vinegar and baking soda in the toilet bowl.  Laundry gets a 1/4c of the home detergent with vinegar in the downy ball; when these clothes dry, there is no after vinegar smell.  Clothes are either hung up outside or on inside drying racks – the exception to this are sheets; if it is not nice outside, into the dryer they go.

There are many, MANY bloggers out there that have different cleaning recipes – check ‘em out and find one that works for you.  Trying to use a regime that does not fit into your schedule  or comfort level results in frustration and stagnation.  Clean and be happy!

The perfect cup of tea

Congratulations to One Acre Homestead.  You are the winner of the Tea Time contest and will be receiving your Tea Care Package from me shortly!

Now, for a mini-class in “tea” making.

Supplies you will need:

¨     Teapot or other means of heating water (glass or stainless steel are preferable as other metals can react with the herbs)

¨     Strainer, mesh tea bag, tea ball, cheesecloth or other means of straining out the herbs

¨     Tea cup (you can also use a mason jar which can be easily closed during the steeping process)

¨     Mason jars or other storage containers

¨     Honey or other sweetener (if desired)

Tea:

A tea is made by steeping a small amount of herbs (1-2 tsp.) in hot water for a few minutes.  This is commonly how commercial teas are made, and most commonly what we make at home.  If you want a little more bang from your herbal teas, leave it in the water for 10 minutes instead of 2, and cover it up while it’s steeping to keep the good stuff from evaporating off.

For medicinal benefits from our water preparations, we generally look to Infusions and Decoctions.  These are both basically teas that are left to steep longer, extracting more of the medicinal properties of the herbs.

Infusion:

Infusions are generally made from the aerial parts of plants (leaves, flowers, fruits) and those parts with volatile oils (fennel seed and valerian root are examples). An infusion can be made hot or cold (called a maceration).

A hot infusion:

• Bring water to a boil.
• Measure out 1 Tablespoon of dried herb, or 2 Tbsp. fresh herbs.
• Pour one cup of boiling water over your herbs and steep, covered.
• For aromatic plants steep for 10-15 minutes’ for non-aromatic leaves and flowers steep for 30-60 minutes; for woody plants and soft roots steep 1-4 hours.
• Strain and squeeze out the plant parts, sweeten if you like, and enjoy your herbal infusion!

A cold infusion or Maceration:

• Measure out 1 Tablespoon of dried herb, or 2 Tbsp. fresh herbs.
• Pour one cup of cold water over your herbs and steep, covered for 1-4 hours, or even over night.
• Strain and squeeze out the plant parts, sweeten if you like, and enjoy your herbal infusion!

Decoction:

Decoctions are made from roots, barks and non-aromatic seeds.

• Place one ounce of herb in a pot and cover with 1 quart of cold water.
• Cover the pot and bring the water to a boil.
• Lower the heat and simmer the herbs for 20-30 minutes (longer if you are working with a lot of hard, woody herbs).
• Take off the heat and allow the decoction to cool a temperature tolerable to touch.
• Strain and squeeze out the plant parts, sweeten if you like, and enjoy your herbal decoction!

Teas, Infusions and Decoctions are for immediate use and should be kept for no longer than 24 hours (in the refrigerator) before discarding.

Mixing up your own perfect blend of herbal teas takes time and experience.  It’s not that it’s hard to do, it’s just that you need to get to know your herbs, their flavors, smells, and how they affect you.  If you are new to herbs, there are lots of herbalists out there who are creating fun herbal tea blends that you can start experimenting with.  Blessed Botanicals and  Summit and Spice Tea Company are a nice place to start looking for your perfect tea (no, I don’t get any kick backs from them.  I just like their stuff)

Have fun!

Daily Do’s

Over the past few months of summer, we have fallen into a wonderful routine!  The kids sleep in, sometimes until 9:30!  I get up and get the day started, play in the garden or knit a little.  My daughter and I have tea time with our leisurely breakfast, and we spend our days playing and learning.  It’s been a wonderfully relaxed, but busy summer.

My 6 year old started back to school this past week and I realized that over the summer we’ve also fallen out of the routine of some things.  She has stopped brushing her hair in the mornings, leading to wavy balls of knots.  She has forgotten to brush her teeth many mornings and with genetics like ours we need all the brushing we can get.

She also wants a pet of her own, to which I replied “if you can show me that you will take care of a pet on a daily basis without any reminder… I’ll think about it”.  So, she has started feeding the cats and dog.  All of this got me thinking about how often I have to write list of things I need to remind others to do… “Don’t forget to water the plants.  Don’t forget to write thank you notes for your gifts.  Don’t forget to make your doctors appt.” (Yes honey, I’m talking about you!)  In an effort to reduce my own energy output, I’ve decided to create a “Daily Do” chart.  This one will be focused on my daughter’s chores/things she wants to be reminded of.

So, I took a trip to the local craft store and got a magnetic dry erase board and some flexible magnetic sheets (you can draw on them and cut them out), and some jeweled stickers (because every girl needs her bling!).  You certainly don’t need to buy anything new… you can improvise with paper, tape, sticky notes, thumb tacks… whatever you’ve got.  We already had colored pencils and sparkle tape (more bling!) at home.

I put strips of tape vertically on the dry erase board to mark the 7 days of the week, and horizontally for each “to do”.  We colored pictures of her “daily do’s” on the magnetic paper (seven of each, for each day of the week) and cut them out.  Th pictures correspond with “brush teeth”, “brush hair”, “feed animals”, “practice Tae Kwon Do”, “take a bath”… Whenever she does one of her “to do’s” she moves that magnet to the corresponding day.

Putting on the bling!

Now, each day, she can look at her To Do’s and make sure they have been done, without having to be reminded.  I know that they have charts and things like this at the store, but because she took part in creating it, I think she will be more likely to use it.  Plus, she can add new things when ever she wants.  It doesn’t have to be all about chores… she can make ones for fun accomlishments too… like “Give mommy a big hug!”

Daily Do's

Peachy Tomatoes

At the Ward House we have a large garden which contain heirloom variety veggies.  The fruits of this garden are enjoyed off the vine (or stem) and the rest are canned for the winter.

It was smokin’ in my kitchen Saturday.  Our tomatoes did not do well and those that did, fruited some freaky looking tomatoes.  Not something that could be sliced and placed on a sandwich.  This one pictured is actually pretty.  The others were more bulbous and appeared to be unusable.  What does one do with freaky tomatoes?  We make tomato sauce!  I love my Blue Book Canning booklet and Saturday we made basic tomato sauce.

Now, when we can,  we use a wood cook stove and when that stove get’s hot, one takes advantage of the heat.  We canned 8 pints of tomato sauce and 14  half  pints of peach preserves (ran out of sugar) and four quarts of dill pickles.  The stove was still hoppin when I ran out of materials!

While the cook top was full, we also baked bread and granola.  This can be tricky as the stove heats up to about 450-500 so one really needs to pay attention.  Kitchen timers are a life saver.  That and having my daughter help shell beans, cut peaches, mill tomatoes and clean up; keeps me from acting like a faerie dittle.  Poor Ronnie was finishing one of the bedrooms above the kitchen and had his own sauna going on.

All in all, it was a good day.  Katie’s room is almost finished and Ashley and I were able to spend some quality time together.

The handy homemaker

By Judy of My Freezer is Full

I’m good in the kitchen.  No, really.  I’ve got gadgets galore- some of them much more useful than others- having the right tool for the job makes things go much more quickly.  But when it comes to doing things around the house, having the right tool is also important.  But equally important than having the tools is having the knowledge and willingness to use them.

I’m a firm believer that everyone should have rudimentary knowledge of using common household tools and that every home should have a basic tool kit- even apartment dwellers.  Essentials would be screwdrivers (both phillips and slotted), hammer, slip-joint pliers, a crescent wrench and a power drill (I prefer cordless/rechargeable)  with both regular drill bits and screwdriver bits.  Some would argue with me that a drill is unnecessary but it makes home projects go much more quickly.  I personally would add a level into that tool kit- but that’s just me (have you ever tried to mount a hanging shelf without one?).

I’m not saying that everyone has to be a Jack (or Jill) of all trades but having the knowledge of doing basic home repair is important.  There is something satisfying about being able to fix your own broken window, replace a window screen or fix a leaky faucet.  One of my co-workers was moaning about the bill she received from the plumber recently when she had called about a leaky faucet.  All he did was arrive, tighten down the cold water faucet and then sent her a hefty bill.  I asked her if she had tried to tighten it herself first and she gave me the strangest look. I don’t think that had ever occurred to her that she could even do something like that.

Growing up on a farm, I learned to swing a hammer at an early age and as I got older, I graduated into power tools: band saw, table saw and air wrench.  My husband wasn’t so lucky.  He grew up in the suburbs and his dad was not very handy and preferred to hire someone to do his repairs for him. I’m fortunate that my hubby is very much the ‘do-it-yourself’ type and taught himself lots of home repair techniques.  We’re both continuing our education with our recent home renovations on our new-to-us farmhouse.  I finally got to use our new compound mitre saw with a laser guide.  Pretty cool, huh.

With our recent move, our children have been learning lots as well.  They’re all good with hammers (some more accurate than others), our 15 year old daughter has become quite proficient with using the cordless drill to drive in sheetrock screws and they’ve all been doing framing or helping with it recently.  They know the correct names for tools and have for quite a while.  Even as young children they were the go-fers during projects.

If you’re willing, but don’t know how, there are many places to learn.  Your local home center can be a source of either information or frustration.   Ask questions, visit your local library, go on-line (you’d be amazed at what is on You- Tube) there are a great many step by step tutorials out there.

There are still some things that should be left to professionals or someone who at least knows what they are doing- for safety’s sake.  I’m a good helper when it comes to electrical work but I don’t have the knowledge to do it myself.  That, and the the thought of what could go wrong terrifies me.

In the reality of today’s economy, more people are turning to ‘do it yourself’.  Are you?