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!

Home Cooked Meal!

The way to a man's heart my momma told.. was threw his stomach... LOL

But mainly for fussy taste of my family I have been cooking from scratch, getting away from packaged meals. But lately I been seeing in line and hearing on many TV shows that has many benefits. Including saving money and being eco-friendly.

Now that I think about hey it is eco-friendly to cook from scratch.

You are using fresh ingredients at times. No packaging at all... just the fruit or vegetable of your choice. Yes organic is the best but hey you have to do what you gotta do. Frozen is the next best thing and still have larger amounts in just one bag. Which brings up the next point:

Using less packaging.... One envelope equals one meal. Where one box or bag of rice equals many meals!! Plus you can season it any way you want.... If I had kept making those envelopes I would have ever know that adding pineapple to rice can be delicious!! Or that the recipe I found for Spanish rice tastes so much like the "hot sauce rice" of that chicken restaurant we used to go to years ago that now is closed for business..... that everyone would eat like mad crazy people. And not the stuff they ate little of cause it wasn't the best, but ok.....

NO High Fructose Corn Syrup!! Ok maybe if you don't check the labels on our condiment's but still you will use less..... just like the commercial says "ok in small quantities" There is high-fructose corn syrup in packaged chicken nuggets, make chicken strips in your oven, with flour and spices.... or grill it!

Less salt, sugar and or preservatives! You control the amount. Have you ever looked at the label and saw large numbers of sugar or the sodium level???? Goodness sometimes it can be high in sugar things you never would have taught..

Use your leftovers as a lunch for work the next day. Using a reusable container you have a very green and tasty meal. I have noticed that I really do cook a little extra for lunches the next day.... AND I enjoy them more!! I don't have to pick out the peppers or peas.... I just don't put them in!!

Plus this will help save money! Less waste and better for you...

Lost my farmer's market

Farmers’ Market at Stan Hywet is missing in the line up for future events...oh no I am hoping that I can find an other market around here... so far I search the site Local Harvest but it doesn't have the newer markets listed... so I am not sure where I can find them...

The pain of working retail and nights.  There is a farmers market (well there was a market) downtown but it ran in the early afternoons on a Friday, when I work.... I always work on Fridays, it is the start of the week-end and we are busy.....

The best article!

This is the best article I have ever read in my WHOLE ENTIRE ... on Twitpic

OMG! Obama Bin Laden is dead

Obama Bin Laden is dead.... Now mind you I really don't what to diminish the fact that what this means. Yes many reasons can be a loud yea! I really think that the news on our major stations taking 15 minutes to talk to our their reports, waiting for the president to make his speech.  We need to see all the news reels of Obama Bin Laden talking his hate or walking around the desert.... I am so done with the static y phones calls from the news reporter that worked with some ex-president... And how we need to remember 9/11....   We need to remember 9/11??? Excuse me I think most Americans can remember 9/11, most can still remember where they were and what they felt........