A new look at Jack and Jill, Looking to the past for answers

Lately I have been thinking about how people lived in the past, and how they were naturally more environmentally conscious than we are now because so much less was available. Machines weren't being made for household use yet, chemical companies weren't bombarding us with as many products and grocery stores had maybe one item available for cleaning. Might it have been vinegar? Or baking soda (which I'm finding cleans my sinks way better than the 7th Generation spray I was using)?

Surely, you've heard this:

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.

Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.

But have you heard the second stanza?

Then up Jack got and off did trot as fast as he could caper,

to old Dame Dob who patched his knob with vinegar and brown paper.

Why? Because vinegar is antiseptic, and it's been around for quite awhile. There are articles all over the web about this and vinegar's other myriad of uses. I mentioned once before that I am on a path to discover all the lovely things vinegar can do and what it can replace in my home: cleaning products, beauty products and things I can't imagine yet, but looking online can give me direction. I just have to try some of these myself.

One thing I thought it might work with is getting rid of ants. Since the weather has turned warmer, ants have invaded our kitchen and trying to keep them off the countertops and now the floor has not been fun. I looked online and several people said that vinegar can help. I tried it but it doesn't really help. It helps clean the floor, it gets rid of the ants for awhile, but then they return - not immediately, but eventually.

I've been thinking about how my lifestyle has changed lately, hanging clothes instead of machine drying them (by the way, our gas bill was reduced by over $100 the month after I started doing this), holding onto kitchen scraps for the compost, being more conscientious about what I buy and use, and wondering how all of us could look to the past to see how people lived in order to live more in line with the environment today. I'd like to ask anyone reading this right now to think about any "green" thing you do in your life that is not much different than how your grandmother or grandfather (or further back) might have done. Or better yet, something that you remember your grandparents doing that was better for the environment than a current norm. Please send me a comment about anything you come up with.

I think our predecessors were onto something.

Natural dyes: vinegar try-out #1

lovey-dove

I imagine this post could have been handier if posted on Friday, but it wasn't until Saturday that I was inspired to see how dark I could dye some eggs using only what I had in the fridge and freezer, with a little help from my new friend vinegar. I boiled the papery skin of purple onions (rich brownish maroon result), then some coffee grounds (brown, not terribly dark), tumeric (a nice ochre result), blueberries (faded indigo), tangerine peel (nada), chard/parsley/spinach (nada, but I read spinach produces a nice green, I think I just didn't use enough of it), and cranberries (a light pink).

I boiled each of these items in a little pot with just enough water to get some color and pour into a peanut-butter jar but not enough water to dilute the color too much. I boiled each for 10-15 minutes, strained the liquid into a jar and added 2-3 tablespoons of white vinegar. It was not an exact process by any means. After boiling the eggs, I dropped 1-2 eggs in each jar of dye mixture and let them sit the rest of Saturday and overnight. On Sunday when I took them out, they each had a filmy substance that was brightly colored, but I rinsed them off, and with exception to the onion skin mixture, they all faded. The colors were still really nice though, earthy-pastelly tones and I found a new use for vinegar! Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead on Sunday morning and I wasn't able to take these pictures until Monday morning, so they faded a bit again because they were drier.

My favorite is the onion skin which not only produced the strongest color but also some really neat designs on the egg. I also liked the turmeric, which I have had stained on my skin after a toe-stubbing incident. Turmeric mixed with egg as a topical treatment is a home remedy which is supposed to reduce swelling. By the way, I used brown eggs - I would imagine that using these natural dyes on white eggs would be that much more brilliant! I hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Going green gradually

clothes hanging near tricycle

It is raining now, in Northern California, and these showers are greatly needed. The old adage goes, "April showers bring May flowers," but I can't help but think of how this will bring on more mosquitoes as well. Uplifting, I know, but last night at the play park, my son was attacked by mosquitoes. So were we, but I just saw him standing there surrounded by monstrous mosquitoes.

At the zoo a few days ago, I was looking at a display about how frogs are disappearing and dying off because of so many pollutants that contaminate our environment. Their skin is apparently too thin to withstand the onslaught of everything that we put out there. The question is then asked, if all the frogs disappear, what will become of their predators and their prey?

Indeed, what? And that is why I am picturing these mosquitoes. I am wondering if something has become of their predators...larger insects, small amphibians and what not, perhaps dying due to some environmental pollutant? Am I contributing to this in any way? If so, how can I change that action to something positive? I have said before that my son, god-willing, will live another 80 some-odd years on this planet, and already I can see the difference in our local environment since my own childhood. Hotter summers and more mosquitoes are just the tip of the iceberg. Change from us as individuals needs to happen quickly, before that see-saw has tipped too far in the wrong direction. Slowly but surely, I am making changes. I can only hope that everyone else is too.

I have two great sites I visit regularly. One is the blog (listed on My Blog List in the sidebar as well) of my friend , Cheryl, called The Well-Rounded Child. Cheryl is a wonderful advocate and resource for changing your ways and going green gradually. This post of hers called, "Why Greenify?" has wonderful info on basic steps to take on changing our ways when it comes to food, household cleaners and body products. Also on my sidebar under "Places I Like To Go In Digi-land" is Healthy Child, Healthy World -go here and click on the "5 Steps" box to see what you can do in your own home to make some changes. It is also a great resource.

My next project is to see how much I can do with vinegar!