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.

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.