Being Green

Dawn is right- my knitting mojo is off so I thought take a break from knitting this week and rest up for the Ravelympics and I would bring up the hottest topic of the net. Going Green... really, it is all about living free.

My parents were farmers from Tennessee so I was raised "green" so to speak. They wasted nothing. Workbasket and Pack O' Fun magazines were a staple in our house. My mother recycled everything!! We had tons of those Styrofoam trays mom reused for everything from bake sale trays to Christmas decorations. Nothing was ever thrown away (do you remember having a silver spray painted Christmas tree made from and old telephone book in your house?)

We grew our own vegetables , froze and canned them. There were never any instant dinner boxes in the cabinet and Chicken Pot Pie was Friday night's Creature Feature treat. The best is the homemade ice cream ( and snow cream too).

I can remember watching my brother's crank the ice cream maker for hours, and I would sit and watch...like it was going to freeze faster or something if I stared at it long enough. My brother still makes ice cream- albeit in an electric maker, and it still tastes better than Breyers. I don't think northern people really appreciate homemade ice cream like those of us with southern roots.

When my kids were growing up, the food dehydrator was in constant use. I made everything from beef jerky to trail mix. And "Homemade baby food" wasn't a fad in my house, it just made more sense.

I can remember when I was small, my middle brother Gary was already very conscious of the environment, even back then, and would only buy recycled stationary ( that was back in the days when people still hand wrote paper letters.) He was actually kind of a snob about it, infact he was a snob about a lot of things.

My mother knew things about household items that the net is all a-buzz about right now. Such as white vinegar... cleans everything, from windows to floors to toilets, how it deodorizes your laundry (great for stinky towels), and it rinses your hair squeaky clean and makes it shiny.

And how baking soda puts out fires, removes caked on burnt stuff on pans, freshens the fridge as well as the drain, and cleans your teeth.

(and for us fair skinned people, I always keep Apple Cider vinegar and aloe on hand for sunburns)

Doesn't it seem like the older we get the more we try to get back to our roots? And isn't it funny how now all the things our grandmothers did are no longer the old fashioned way, but the Green Way. The things I was scoffed at for (at home) and called hillbilly for, are now all the rage. Now I find that very ironic indeed.

I did buy some green cleaners when I moved, but unlike my usual self I did not do the research before I bought. So I am not really confident in the "green" quality yet. It is pet safe and that is the most important. Clorox is making a line called Green Works... kinda seems like an oxymoron doesn't it? Clorox / Green? sounds silly.

It does work pretty good, but I am not impressed with the smell. I would expect it to have a fresher cleaner smell and it doesn't smell like that to me. The cleaning power of the concentrate is pretty amazing. I have to watch that I don't get too much soap in the bucket, a little bit really goes a long way.

And ...I do have my own tote bags for groceries. This is becoming quite the vogue around here so I rarely get "the look" anymore when I tell clerks I have my own bags.

Now being a knitter/crocheter/sewer, one would think I would have made my own bags, but no... I was extravagant and bought the Flip n Tumble bags. Yes they were kinda pricey, but they are great!!! I love being able to wad it up into a little ball, and they do hold a ton of stuff!

I am pretty sure my very frugal mother would have kicked my butt for such an extravagance ...but well, that's just me ;) and I can be frugal somewhere else.

How cute are these!!! I am stylish when I shop and I am saving at least one dinosaur per shopping trip now I am thinking ;)

But see, I make it up by using knitted cloths for cleaning. That boy always said that knitted dish cloths was like washing dishes with an afghan (and would throw them out). Scandalous!! Well guess what dick moe.... I am using afghans to clean my dishes again!

I do use Bio-Degradable poopy bags (because I really don't want a poopy bucket by my patio.) And all of my light bulbs are cork screws!

Is that green enough do you think?? Pretty much, I have always tried to live life by the example my mom and brothers set before me. For me, they were the first "Green" people I ever knew. Since I had a hippy brother and step brother, some things just kinda come natural.

Not too long ago my niece asked " since when do you care about the environment?" and I answered "always", but then I realized that I had become a person of convinces, and it was time to get back to basics.

Of course this post would not be complete without a Brodie shot. The little terrorist has been trying to kill his bed for weeks and had moved his cage out of the corner. Think he was trying to tell me something?? He is graduating to being gated in the kitchen now. I had his Uncle Twiggy move him in there last night while I was at work, and he did very well.


Two more days and it will be the start of Ravelympics and back to knitting. My yarn is wound and patterns ready!