OMG it is hot!!

So ya the mid west is getting hit by a heat wave. The humility is high and it is sticky!  I really hate running the air conditioner but I forgot to turn it on the one day and the poor cats threw up everywhere, including my bed  Yuck and of course it was one of those late nights that I was crawling in to bed almost dead on my feet just to have to change the sheets....


I have it set at 77 degrees   So most of the time I turn it off after I get home from work and get the fans in the windows and get fresh air in the house!

But when I come home this little window unit doesn't cool off the whole house, just the living room.  so all the fur babies are in the room.... Most of the time it is the little guy by the air conditioner, with Miss pet me pet me on the couch and psycho on the love seat to the right..... I get home to lazy kitties laying all over the living room.... I leave the back door open and the one pictured Miss pet me pet me loves to go out in the mud room and watch everything outside... Psycho girl loves the kitchen window open.

So now it's in the nineties and it's storming nice for a quiet evening off... Oh well laundry can hang up in the  other room..,

Poison!!

Argggg!!
I had long sleeved shirt on. I washed minute after weeding; not once, but 4 times with Fels-Naptha soap and pour some alcohol over my arms.   I still got the rash of h#ll! I have gotten this rash 3 years straight.... It's painfull with a burning feeling all over my inner arms....

Ok so maybe I should have done this years ago but this year I got some herbicide spray to help kill it???

 I did cut that plant from near the roots before gathering the cut plant into bags..... waiting 5 days till the leaves are wilting and dying.....

Wearing gardening gloves and wearing long sleeves and I still get the rash.... so I got the spray and it still lives.... OMG. It won't go away.....

You know I know what poison ivy looks like... I camp you know.... OMG I thought I knew what poison oak looked like.... I think that is what I might be fighting with.....

But I found out that cutting doesn't stop the oil (urushiol), it will stay even after the plant is dying, and it is in all parts of the d@mn plant..... the leaves, the stems, the hairy crap the plant uses on my house to cling to it and the even roots.... Which I found out is the best way to remove the plant, by diggin up the roots.... the rash takes a couple more days for me which could be because I am getting older but then it can take up to 15 days for some people. but then waking up with half my arm blistered looking feeling like someone poured hot water over it was how I found my rash.....

I also broke down and started to take some antihistamine pills. I am using a cream with calamine lotion in it and I really don't want to inch; it burns and hurts....

But I guess I know now that this what ever poison bush, climbing ivy type horrible stuff is totally got me in pain I will wear some Long washing dishes plastic gloves next year when I need to weed the flower bed!

And to think I have only been dealing with this for 3 days and it seems like a week... It will dry up and I will have my arms back with out the burning feeling.....  off to take a oatmeal bath.......

               

Caution

You tell her Ken!

Poor Barbie she get so many people in a frenzy over her body shape that it isn't healthy for our young girls to compare themselves to. But this time it's her packaging that has Greenpeace and Ken upset.



People flooded Barbies facebook page with comments, Mattel had to block comments.
Ken got his own facebook page

BUT they did listen.

Quote from a press release: "Mattel announced the company is developing a sustainable procurement policy for all of Mattel's product lines which will address the important issue of deforestation. The policy will include requirements for packaging suppliers to commit to sustainable forestry management practices. In addition to addressing current concerns about packaging sourcing, Mattel's policy will also cover other wood-based products in its toy lines, such as paper, books and accessories."

Love can change the world.... And supposedly Ken is taking Barbie on a special date... Maybe to the beautiful rain forest to say hey sweetheart this is what you saved....

Eco-friendly lights

Batteries contain heavy metals like mercury, lead, cadmium, and nickel. When just tossed they will leach into the environment.
So the answer to flashlights and batteries? A hand cranking flashlight. Use your own power to power up a flashlight. I found this very cool flashlight that is also a radio that includes the weather band, a charger for your MP3 player or cell phone. Plus you can charge it with the solar panel! How cool is that. Yeck you could let  the solar panel charge up during the day and then if you stay up late and need some extra power, use the crank!!

how great would that be for camping.  Plus it can come in handy for when the lights go out.... or any type of bad weather....

Plus I have my eye on that lantern  they also have.....

Cooking up Anti-Ant Spray

So Miss Animal Rights now is now dealing with ants in her place. I thought yea I don't miss them... LOL but I don't really miss coming home after work to see the sink filled with dishes cause both girls glazed all night. But she tells me she washes the dishes every morning after Tech goes to work. But she still has ants. I don't get freaked out about them like she does. Guess it is just something you have to deal with every summer.
So guess what I saw this morning? Yep ants, at my house.... so off to find my lemon juice.

Yea I hear/read that ants don't like the taste of lemon or anything citrus. So cleaning with vinegar and/or lemon juice will help get rid of them. It is that you need to keep doing it after all... but I will do that every time I do dishes. Just add some lemon juice to the dish towel and wipe counters. My mudroom is a different story. It get the little buggers all summer and yes the lemon juice works but not for long. I guess that citrus kills the type of fungi the ant eat. Extra bonus with the great smell killing fungi.

One site I found has borax used with jelly. Any flavor jelly will work. The problem is we have cats. Oh yea my one cat the physic one, she loves PBJ. Yep she has been know to steal my sandwich from my plate..... PLUS if you have small children it not a good thing to have borax jelly traps in pop caps all over your house. Cause it can make them sick. Borax can be used in your mop water for the floors, just keep the animals and small children off the floor until it dries. If your kids that are older; you can enlist them to help you keep the pets off the wet floor. "Sweetie I need help keeping Rover off the wet kitchen floor cause it might make him sick" was all I had to say to Miss Animal Rights. She was like that since she could walk....

Now the mudroom isn't air tight that is how they get in I know it..... It is said that you can lay a line of baby powder where they get in to keep them from entering. I also hear coffee grounds can do the same thing.
They don't like the smell of coffee! That just us humans, that need it to wake up... SO hey I got some of them right now in my coffee maker!! But then I will have drink coffee all summer for it is great for my tomato plants and my roses.... Plus roses like citrus peels too....

So in my search I found a site that has a all purpose organic pesticide for inside and out. Gotta love Instructables! Where you use things like onions, hot peppers and garlic to make a pesticide for your plants. Hey it might work on your ants or other nasty crawling pest inside like the article said it works on the pest on your inside plants......

Lucky Mistake

My dad is a extreme couponer...He will find deals and use coupons and get things for a quarter. Many times he will bring the items to me or Miss Animal Rights. But many things he gets on mark down and will pass on to me. So when he found some olive oil for a great price because it was a item that they only had a few left. So he got me some olive oil for a dollar. but then when he brought to my house, I noticed that it was sunflower oil and olive oil.......

So I had to check online to find out is sunflower oil good stuff like extra virgin olive oil???? I found this site: Benefits of Sunflower oil

Wow it has the some great qualities!! PLUS I have been making my own salad dressing but when I put it the refrigerator the olive oil will become solid! So I would have to let it sit out for a little while before I use it.... And having sunflower oil I use for beauty recipes, it doesn't turn solid in the cold.... one more plus for this oil.


So I have the best of all worlds!! Benefits from the extra virgin olive oil. Benefits of sunflower oil.  Plus saving money!  Can't beat that!