Sock Monsters

My dad had a bunch of wool work socks that he stopped wearing. They were just sitting around the house, so I asked him if I could take them. He gladly gave me probably close to 10 pairs.

What can one possibly do with old, wool socks?

SOCK MONSTERS!

This is such a great way to use any ol’ socks (especially the left ones that have no matching right pair.)

For my first one, I used an old pair of toe socks because I wanted a crazy colourful one. I was going to send it to my cousin (who’s 10) for christmas, but River fell in love with it first, so I’ll just make some more.

This is a picture of the crazy one that River calls Coraline.

This one is Norm, he’s not done yet. I need to get some more stuffing so I can do his tail and arms.

These will make some awesome gifts for christmas because they’re home made and so cute!

I’ll post more as they’re made!

Food Bank Meeting

I had a meeting today with The Food Bank and it went pretty well. Well, as in they are interested in my aquaponics idea but due to bureaucracy there isn’t a way to implement them as yet.

Harumph.

I’m feeling a little frustrated because we have the answers, the systems, to make more food available to people but, no one wants to listen. The age old dilemma.

Why aren’t there training programs to teach people how to grow their own food? Create their own compost to put back into their system? Why aren’t there more people willing to grow their own crops, or communities that band together to grow food?

When I look out my back window, I can see all the backyards of all my neighbours. I see the grass, and the hedges that separate us, and I wonder why we don’t all band together as a community, get rid of all the fencing, and create our own urban farm/food forest? The kids would have a wonderful place to play, the dogs could roam (or we could build a separate place for them) so we could have chickens and pigs and goats. A food forest that fruits from spring into fall and can feed this little community.

This is the backyard space I’m talking about. This is a picture from Google Earth

I just wonder how receptive people would be to this idea. If I designed it, would my neighbours love the idea? Hate it? I just don’t understand why we have these tiny little individual spaces when we could merge them and have one great big space. We could have a common area, with benches or log furniture. A veritable food forest and a greenhouse for year-round growing.

Why are people going hungry in Ottawa? There is more than enough land, more than enough resources and people to volunteer and more than enough land to feed people. This is a travesty and although I feel the food bank is such an amazing organization, more could be done to get food to people who need it.

I was told to get a hold of Just Food and pitch my idea to them. Apparently they have more land, and an easier place to set up  and it would be better to work with them. It would also be great as a teaching center for people. I would be able to affect more change for the food bank by working with Just Food.

Next Tuesday I’m holding a PPO (Permaculture Project Ottawa) meeting to get some of these details ironed out before we approach Just Food. In case you’re wondering, as part of our Permaculture Design Course, Just Food was one of the clients that our class had to do a design project for. Two groups did the Lest B. Pearson school project (I was in one of them) and two groups did Just Food. All the presentations were amazing, and I look forward to the PPO meeting so we can (hopefully) work on the Just Food project.

Cardboard Castle

Maddy came over to visit today and we took a little walk. On the way down the street, we found a giant cardboard box. It was big enough that I could almost stand in it. I’ve read online that there’s a company that actually sells pre-made rocket ships and castles (I don’t remember where) out of cardboard boxes. Why pay for that when I can make it myself?

Maddy helped me cut it out, and then worked on a treasure box for the kids! This is what we did this afternoon! When the girls got home from school, River put on her princess dress and tons of fun ensued!

We didn’t have any duct tape, so we ended up using yarn to sew some of the castle together.

 

 

Laundry Soap and Hankies

The home made laundry soap is a stellar success! I can’t believe how amazing my clothes smell. I’ve done 5 loads of laundry with it (I swear my husband thinks I’ve been replaced by body snatchers) and as I’m folding I smell the items first. My husband looked over at me while I was folding and said, ‘well, you sure are pleased with yourself!’ I am! I love the fresh scent! They’re also ridiculously soft, which surprises me. I’ve never used fabric softener on my clothes before, but I imagine this is what they would feel like if I did.

It doesn’t work on stains though. Rowan (my 2-year-old son) decided to wear his dinner of avocado and tomato sauce on his white shirt. I pre-washed it with washing soda and warm water and then threw it in the wash. A lot of the stains did come out, but the big main one didn’t. It’s okay though, that shirt was getting too small for him anyway.

Alright, so I have a dilemma.

In the effort to live a more sustainable life, and it being cold season, I think handkerchiefs are the MOST disgusting thing IN THE WORLD. I mean, you blow your big, goobery snots all over the cloth, and then stick it back in your pocket!?  Only to use it again!? What happens when you have a giant loogey!?!?! Ugh, so gross. My question is, how can I get away from kleenex/toilet paper for my nose-wiping/blowing needs and not be as nasty as to keep cold wet boogers in my pocket (even if they are all wrapped up in a hankie)? Also, I am completely unapologetic about this point. When I see people wiping their noses on a cloth hankie, I actually cringe…and then, when they inevitably put it back in their pocket, it makes me gag. Seriously. And I don’t just gag for anyone.

I don’t feel as though I have many pet-peeves, but this one really squicks me out. Please, someone, help me find a solution!

 

 

Homemade Laundry Soap

A while ago I couldn’t find any recipe for homemade laundry soap that didn’t include castille soap. I couldn’t find it anywhere, and by then I’d lost the gumption to go further with it.

Well, my friends, I just made the soap and so far, it turned out wonderfully.

If you’d like to make a go at homemade laundry soap, feel free to follow this recipe.

• 1 5 gallon bucket
• 1 bar of soap (I used a locally made soap by Urban Forest (I buy it from the lady at the farmer’s market! You can use sunlight, or a coconut oil or glycerin based soap bar. The one I used is an all-purpose soap bar made from coconut oil.)
• 2 cups of Borax
• 2 cups Washing Soda (NOT baking soda)
• Lots and lots of drops of citrus and lavender essential oils

Grate the bar of soap either in a food processor or with a hand grater. Take a big soup pot and fill it 3/4 with water and bring to a boil. Pour in the grated soap and boil until it’s all melted. Bring stove down to a simmer. Slowly add 2 cups of borax, then 2 cups washing soda and stir constantly until it’s all dissolved. Add the essential oil, stir.

Put a couple of cups of warm water into the 5 gallon bucket. Add your soap solution to the bucket, and continue to fill with warm water until the bucket is full.

At this point, I took some of the mixture and poured it into an old laundry detergent bottle I had.

Shake the bottle or stir the solution in the bucket before you use it. Use 1/4 cup in the laundry and use vinegar in the rinse cycle to help completely dissolve the soap. I’ve also heard it helps prevent your clothes from looking grungy, so we’ll see.

Let it sit for 24 hours so it can congeal. Mine is congealing right now and I’ll be able to use it tomorrow afternoon. Mind you, I’m terribly impatient and probably won’t be able to contain myself until then, so I’m going to go do a load of laundry now…something I’m sure my husband would weep to hear.

Make Do and Mend

I read an article last night in the UK Permaculture magazine about mending and making do. Back in the old days, when someone had a hole in their sock, they would mend it. Now, if someone has a hole in their sock, they throw it out and buy new ones.

Transition Town Totnes, in England, hosts skill-led seminars in baking bread, *sock-darning, kitting and crocheting.

*(I have no idea what that means, but wiki tells me: Darning is a sewing technique for repairing holes or worn areas in fabric or knitting using needle and thread alone. It is often done by hand, but it is also possible to darn with a sewing machine. Hand darning employs the darning stitch, a simple running stich in which the thread is “woven” in rows along the grain of the fabric, with the stitcher reversing direction at the end of each row, and then filling in the framework thus created, as if weaving. Darning is a traditional method for repairing fabric damage or holes that do not run along a seam, and where patching is impractical or would create discomfort for the wearer, such as on the heel of a sock.)

I recently took up crocheting, and while I’m not that great at it, I’ve made a scarf and some leg warmers for my daughter, one leg warmer for myself, and a wrist warmer for my other daughter and I’m about half way through making the second one. It’s a lot of fun and yarn isn’t terribly expensive.

I think it would be fun to get the older generation involved in these same sorts of activities here in Ottawa. I think it would be good too, to get my grandmother involved. She has skills she can teach people. She taught me (a long time ago) how to knit. My mom taught me how to crochet and so far I’m loving it.

It would be a shame to lose these skills. I think there are more and more people who are willing to learn. I’m going to contact Transition Ottawa and see if they would like to host a ‘Stitch n Bitch’, and ask some of the older people to get involved. I feel like this could bridge a gap between the generations that’s ever-widening with the advent of computers and the internet.

I wouldn’t mind learning how to darn socks. God knows I go through enough of them during the winter time!

What I’m Doing

Just thought I’d share a bit about what I’m doing right now to do my part. I also want to premise this by saying that I am in no way perfect, and I know there are more things I could be doing but for right now, I’m doing what’s feasible for my family. Also, if you have any suggestions for other things that I could be doing to help the environment, don’t hesitate to comment!

I recently started a vermicompost in my kitchen. Last winter I used to have one that I kept in the basement, but I found it tedious going up and down the stairs to dump the waste. I also found that it filled up pretty quickly, so now I’m using a really huge recycling bin (about triple the size of the one I used last year). I have a clear lid for the top, and since the container is pretty huge, I’m not too worried about there being too much light.

I have purchased a stack of wash cloths to use to wipe myself instead of toilet paper. I don’t use them every time I go to the bathroom, but I’m working towards that as a goal. As of yet, I have not been able to convince my family to even try it. They’ll get on board soon enough though, when they see how well it’s working for me. My 9-year-old is the one that gives me the most resistance and I try to not force things on her. She usually comes around on her own though, so I’m not terribly worried.

If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.

I use cloth pads and a menstrual cup. I can’t tell you how amazing a menstrual cup is. For those of you that don’t know what it is, it’s a small, silicone cup that sits inside your vagina, just under the cervix (sometimes the cervix sits in the cup, depending on your anatomy) and it collects your flow. I water down the blood and use it to water my house plants. They grow like crazy. When is comes to menstrual cups, it’s really important to make sure you know your body and where your cervix sits while you’re menstruating so you can determine which size cup will fit you. I use the large Divacup, which I picked up at Pantry Plus, in Orleans. I strongly urge anyone buying one to make sure they’ve done some research first because sometimes it says that women who have had children should get the big one, when really it depends on your body type. I know women who have had children who can only use the small diva, so please do the research.

I’m about to replace paper towels with cloth napkins. I need to get my mom’s sewing machine so I can make them out of my husband’s old undershirts.

The disaster that is my compost needs to be revised. It’s not that big a deal though. A couple of weeks ago I went to a hardware store to pick up some pallets. I got seven, in the hopes of making a double compost container. I didn’t realize that I was only going to have room for a one bin container, but that was fine. Two extra’s ended up being perfect as a lid and the last one was used to reinforce the ‘door’. I leaned four containers together, and voila! A compost bin. I ignored the advice of a couple people who told me I would attract the critters, because really, what do they know? Obviously more than me, because a couple of nights ago my dog got sprayed by skunk who was playing around in the compost.

My revised plan will be to pick up some mesh screening and after nailing the pallets together, staple the screen around them. I’ll also get some hinges and hinge the lid on for extra security. If I have the time, I’ll do it before winter. Otherwise, I’ll have to wait until spring. In the mean time, I throw my green compost material to the worms, and all the seeds and bones, fat, meat and onions and citrus will go into my green bin, where it will stay for the winter. In spring when it thaws, it’ll be used as a compost bed for heavy-feeding plants like pumpkins and squash.

I want to put a 5 gallon bucket under my sink to collect my grey water, but I’ll have to check with my husband first. He might not appreciate me messing around with the pipes under the sink,but we’ll see.

I also want to pump my washing machine water outside, but I suspect that will require a pump and some Earth -working to accomplish. I think that would be a future project. Hopefully.

I plan on getting a pump so I can assemble my aquaponics system. I will take pictures as that develops. For those of you who don’t know what aquaponics is, it’s a closed system that provides edible plants and edible fish without any added input. The fish sit in a large tub and create lots of waste, which is pumped up into the same volumed grow beds. Bacteria convert the plant waste into nitrites, and then into nitrates, which the plants consume. The water is then pumped back to the fish, clean and oxygenated where the cycle begins again. Edible fish, edible plants, a self-sustaining system that can provide you and your family with food all year long. For us that live in cold climates, during the winter is the best time to grow edible plants that don’t require pollination, such as lettuces and spinach.

Alright, that’s all I can think of right now. Oh yeah, and I don’t buy conventional soaps or cleaners. I use completely biodegradable soaps. Next on my list is making my own laundry detergent. I’ve read some great recipes and I seem to have an abundance of 5 gallon buckets (a humanure toilet that didn’t work out) so I can use those to store it in.

I’ll keep you posted when I end up making it!

Introduction

I completed a Permaculture Design Course this past weekend and it changed my life. I learned so much and met an incredible group of people. I can’t wait to get out there and start implementing everything I’ve learned.

I feel it’s up to us to make the difference, to clean up the mess we’ve made of this planet. But big change is hard to make all at once, so if we start small, we can affect the change we want. I want to start within my community, to help the people in need.

The first thing I’ve done is contacted the Ottawa Food Bank. I have some ideas on how to incorporate food production systems to help feed the homeless and so far the Food Bank has seemed receptive. We’re setting up a meeting to discuss some of the ideas I have that I believe will be more sustainable and help the most amount of people.

I’ve never done anything like this before. I’ve never volunteered, I’ve never gone out of my way to help people (friends yes, strangers, no) and now I feel it’s time. It’s time to do what I can to give back. The ethics of permaculture are Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share. I have knowledge, I can help. I want to help the people in my community. I want to teach my children to be part of a community that that values them. We are all living on this planet, we should all do our best to preserve it, and help it grow.

Imagine living in a world where there is no war, no famine. Everyone has a safe place to live, and good food to eat. Groups of people living in harmony together. It sounds like hippy B.S. but it’s not. This is feasible. If we work together, we can make this world a better place.