Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Housekeeping day

Today was a busy, productive day.  I took advantage of the fact that I had a couple days off to start on some housekeeping that should have been done a long time ago. First I transplanted some herb seedlings (cilantro, parsley, and oregano) that I started a couple of weeks ago for the kitchen.  I reused some peat pellets, so I'm not sure how well they'll do, we shall see. I'm obviously only halfway through  in this picture. Forgot to take a picture of the completed task.



Next, I cleaned out my indoor greenhouse and moved it from the warm, dark living room, to the much lighter laundry room. Hopefully that will give the little guys the little extra to make it.


When I cleaned out the greenhouse, I found my pot of seed packets and inventoried what I had. By the looks of it, I'll only need to buy tomato and bell pepper seeds this year, if everything sprouts.  I know it seems awful early to be planning my garden, but one can never plan too much.  My favorite crops so far are my Black Beauty zuchinni and armenian cucumbers.  I've yet to have a very successful tomato or bell pepper crop. Maybe this year will be the year. (Fingers crossed)


By the time I finished with those tasks, the cleaning bug had hit full force. I cleaned out the kitchen cabinets and got rid of  lots of very useful but seldom used kitchen appliances so that I could find the things I actually do use. I'll be posting on our local Freecycle group to give them to some who needs them. If you're not familiar with freecycle, its a wonderful way to keep your things out of the landfill, and find things that you can't buy.  I think most communities have freecycle web groups.

This afternoon, a friend took a drive with me to  look for property.  Seems that land here in central oklahoma is running about $3000-$5000/acre on average.  Now I just need to decide if I want to buy a smaller piece of land and own it, or finance a larger piece of land.  I'm leaning toward owning a smaller piece. The last thing I want to do is sink a bunch of money into something and be at the mercy of the bank if my grooming shop doesn't make it.  (Terrible that I'm planning for possible failure when I haven't even opened shop yet. Not pessimistic, I say. Just realistic.)

This year I plan on making all of my christmas gifts (except for the kids' gifts). I'm hoping to get a start on that Monday with my first batch EVER of hot process soap.I've made cold process, but like the hot process SO much better.  Funny thing, but after I used homeade soap, I can't make myself buy commercial soaps or body wash anymore.  The one thing I don't think I'll ever give up is my shampoo though.  But who knows. Anyone have a great shampoo recipe?.

3 comments:

  1. Yep, that freecycle is great! I'm so glad to see other people using it, too.

    Nope, it isn't too early to start planning a garden. Dave and I are already planning ours and were just talking today about what we need to do now to begin enriching the soil for next year's garden.

    Shampoo.... YES, I have given mine up for homemade, and I will never go back to the chemical laden stuff! I plan to make a specific shampoo bar, soon, to carry in my shop, but I just haven't gotten around to it, yet. I have been using my all-vegetable bar soap (olive, castor, coconut, soybean oils) superfatted a little, with a little of whatever essential oils I am in the mood for. For cold process, make sure you give it a long cure so there is absolutely no lye left to burn your scalp. By using this soap and a diluted vinegar rinse, my hair is ultra clean, shiny, bouncy, and I got my curls and waves that I had as a child back. So much better than store bought. Hope this helps.
    Oh, and for some good recipes, just google 'shampoo bars recipes'.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I googled as you suggested and found a recipe on the Mother Earth News website. I'll give it a try and let you know how it turns out.... after it cures for a long time lol.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's great! I will be looking forward to hearing about it. There is a soap making website that has quite a few recipes for it, but at this moment, I can't think of they site address. When I come back across it, I will send you the link. Maybe I have it in my bookmarks, but that is so full, it could take me awhile to get through it, lol.

    ReplyDelete