signs of the times

Just bought one of these babies for doing the laundry. You can re-use the wash water for maybe three loads and THEN drain it into your garden. Hot dog.

Also got a start on the hydroponics. Not AQUAPONICS quite yet but working toward that. Yard sale netted a nice little setup adequate for eight tomato plants [that's a lot of tomatoes; I might decide to diversify a bit on that] for $25 WITH the timer. Wahoo.

Matt called today and tells me that a friend of his had mentioned that she’s noticed that everywhere she goes shopping there are signs saying “NOT TAKING APPLICATIONS.”  

She’s going to start taking pictures of those signs.

I’ve become the traveling grandmother, spending winters on the East coast with my daughter, where my “rent” helps her with heating bills, child care, etc. and summers in Arizona with my son, which helps him with cooling bills and child care. Meanwhile, sharing food and shelter costs helps us all, and I get to play a more active role in my grandchildren’s lives. Luckily, my job is conducted over the net, so I can work wherever. I’ll be leaving New Jersey for Arizona soon, at the end of March. My son and I have some ambitious plans for setting up an aquaponics system in his back yard and getting a few chickens for eggs.

My intention, anyway. This spring I’ll be planting a bunch of veggies and hoping for them to grow. I’ll be in the desert, so that means growing in pots, but it can be e. Making my seed and supplies list now.

Make your own laundry detergent.

One bar of brown soap (Fels Naphtha)

One cup of borax

One cup of washing soda

Grate the brown soap with a cheese grater, then mix in food processor with the borax and washing soda. TWO TABLESPOONS does a full load of laundry. (Just start out with a little hot water to dissolve the soap, then you can switch over to warm/cold.)

We’ve been using this for many months now, and it works just fine. I’ve lost track of how much money we’ve saved over buying manufactured detergents.

‘‘American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009’’.

1 SEC. 1114. REQUIRED PARTICIPATION IN E-VERIFY PRO2
GRAM.
3 None of the funds made available in this Act may
4 be used to enter into a contract with an entity that does
5 not participate in the E-verify program described in sec6
tion 401(b) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immi7
grant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1324a note).

My oldest son, who works at a deli and was working six days a week, has been out of work since Christmas. My daughter, who works at the same deli and was working five days a week, this past week worked only one day. She “wasn’t needed” otherwise. Her husband, in construction, has been laid off for five months. Another son is in IT and doing okay, but did recently take a 20% “temporary” cut in pay. It’s pretty ugly out there, but we knew that, eh?