Eliminate mosquitoes naturally
Along the same lines of my last post, here are some tips from Natural Home on getting rid of mosquitoes without using sprays with chemicals. Tip No. 5 suggests growing plants that naturally repel mosquitoes. Aaron and I do grow citronella in our backyard hangout area already, but this article suggests even more plants to help with the problem: “geranium, lemon balm, catnip, basil, lemon thyme, and lemongrass.”
Here’s another oh-so-simple solution that I’ve never thought about:
“Blow them away. Set a fan on your deck, patio, or porch. Mosquitoes don’t fly well through wind.”
This may make the area even nicer, considering the hot summers we experience in Austin. Imagine this: A cool breeze blows the scents of citronella and lemon balm by as you sit under the canopy in the backyard sipping a cool cocktail. Sigh!
Homemade solutions for eliminating house flies
Natural Home has a feature today about homemade, non-chemical solutions to insect pests that proliferate in the Summer. Aaron and I have definitely had problems with some of the pests–fleas and flies, specifically. The article does suggest some natural remedies for fleas, but I’m ignoring it because my dog Binx is really allergic to fleas. I have to use chemicals to control fleas or Binx has bad health effects.
But I’d definitely try this solution for flies in the house:
House flies
Place sachets of crushed mint, bay leaf, clove or eucalyptus around the house to repel flies. You can also make your own flypaper. Mix 1⁄4 cup corn syrup, 1 tablespoon granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon brown sugar in a small bowl. Cut strips of brown kraft paper and soak in the sugar mixture. Let dry overnight. To hang, poke a small hole at the top of each strip and hang with string.
Fruits of his labor
Aaron has harvested the first tomatoes of the season, and their flavors are incredible. In this basket are consueto genevese, st. pierre, martin, black crim, and Amish paste tomatoes.
My homemade cleaner recipes
Mix together effective, nontoxic homemade cleaners using ordinary ingredients you probably already have around the house.
I’ve been using homemade household cleaners for about a year now. I’ve found several benefits to making my own cleaners: my family saves money, we avoid exposure to chemicals, and my recipes work just as well as store-bought cleaners. Mixing up these formulas only takes a couple of minutes and you probably already have the ingredients laying around the house. I developed these three recipes after getting inspiration from Natural Home magazine, one of my subscriptions.
Laundry whitener
- Recycled jug of some kind
- 1 cup hydrogen peroxide
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 12 cups water
This one is simple. Mix all the ingredients together in your jug. I use a recycled white-vinegar jug. You can use this laundry whitener just like bleach when you’re washing your whites. I add about 1 cup for a full load of laundry.
Counter cleaner
- Recycled spray bottle
- Water
- Vinegar
- Dish soap
- Essential oils
Fill your spray bottle halfway with water. Top if off with vinegar. Squirt a small amount of dish soap in the bottle (about 1 teaspoon). Add 20 drops of your essential oil. I enjoy mine with 10 drops lavender and 10 drops orange. Give it a good shake and use it just like store-bought cleaners to shine up your kitchen and bathroom counters.
Tub scrub
- Large mason jar
- Baking soda
- Water
- Dish soap
- Essential oils
Fill the mason jar half way with the baking soda. Top it off with water. Squirt about 1 tablespoon of dish soap in the mixture. Add 20 drops of essential oil. Again, I like mine with lavender and orange. Stir the mixture with a spoon until the baking soda is suspended in the water (you need to stir before each use, since the baking soda separates at the bottom). Use this cleaner to scrub your kitchen and bathroom sinks, the bathtubs and the toilets.
Sorting out the pecking order
Today Aaron and I decided to go buy two more chickens. We’ve been so happy caring for the five we have because having fresh eggs in your backyard is so satisfying. And the chickens themselves always make us laugh.
When we brought our new chickens home, a couple of hens from our flock started chasing one of them around pecking at her. This is a natural thing–Like many animals, chicken groups create hierarchies based on dominance and submissiveness. The chicken who was getting picked on was the smallest and was noticeably freaked out.
We hope it won’t take too long for the new chickens to blend into their place on the pecking order. It’s hard seeing one of them getting bullied, but as long as she’s not seriously injured, it’s best not to intervene.
Mutant eggs
Double yolk chicken egg
I’m nearly 30 years old and all my life I’ve never seen an egg like this. That’s a testament to our industrial food culture, because apparently, chickens lay mutant eggs all the time. But commercial egg farmers remove the odd eggs before taking their product to market.
Aaron and I got backyard chickens in November 2010. We waited until January to get our first egg. And what an egg it was! The thing was HUGE…About double the size of a regular egg. The next morning Aaron cracked it into the pan and we were completely shocked to see it had two yolks. Twins.
Loving the Texas climate
Aaron and I brought in our Fall harvest a couple of weeks ago. Our eyes bugged out as we took in the tomatoes, peppers, green beans and butternut squash. The Texas climate can be annoying at times. Just this weekend, it got up to 80 on Saturday and then dropped to the 40s on Sunday. It’s difficult to dress for that type of weather. But thanks to the Texas climate, our season for tomatoes and peppers is much longer than in other places in the country. Recently, our first overnight freeze changed things and reminded us it’s actually beginning to creep into winter. Aaron took down the green bean and tomato plants…Now they live in the compost pile. We still have a lot of lettuces, greens, celery, carrots and some other stuff to look forward to.
Our next task is to learn how to pickle our peppers and can our tomatoes. We have way more than we can use before they go bad.
Trying not to patronize growing factory farms
TreeHugger published an article detailing a study by Food and Water Watch about the growth of factory farms in the U.S. The numbers of farms went down, but the size of the remaining farms has grown 20 percent when you consider the numbers of livestock. These types of farms tax the environment because of the large amounts of animal wastes. They’re also a danger to public health because of the risk of contamination.
Aaron and I have been growing vegetables in our backyard all year. Our harvest this summer and fall was impressive, although we still need to buy some produce from grocery stores. We still buy all our meat from the store, which certainly includes meat from factory farms. We’re not in a position to own livestock, so that’s not going to change in the near future. However, we did just buy six chickens to produce our own eggs! I guess you can only do the best you can.
EASY energy savings
Mother Earth News has an amazing article about eight really cheap, really easy things you can do to save money on your energy bill. The author spent about $400 to make energy efficiency upgrades, and ended up saving $907 on his energy bill that year. It’s a pretty good, quick return on investment. Here’s the rundown list of the upgrades. Go check the article for in-depth explanations of each one.
Video on chemicals in cosmetics
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