Vehicular preparadness

Tonight's car fiasco reminds me of an important tip. ALWAYS have a jug of water in your car, also a flashlight, a blanket and flares. Simple, inexpensive and potentially life saving. You can never be too prepared and tonight my daughter was the recipient of my neglect in having water in the car. My car over heated and she was on a major high way in the middle of the night on her way to work. since many of us don't have the luxury of onstar or AAA, then it is necessary we try and think of every possible thing we can prepare for and be safe because we are prepared.

lines

okay line issue solved. Check back tonight for some herbal specifics....might want to put a pot of spaghetti and meatballs on....tonight it's all about oregano.

Eggciting

Lean and Green tip for today... what to do with those sometimes unavoidable Styrofoam egg cartons. Like it or not, for now Styrofoam is here to stay. Sometimes because of where or how you purchase your eggs, cardboard cartons are just not an option. But..don't throw out that styrofoam one....besides being sent to school to be made into caterpillars, they are a lot of useful reusable options. 1. Bead sorting (yes, as a jewelry and wearable art artist it IS all about the beads for me....) 2. jewelry storage....keep those chains untangled and fits nice in a shallow drawer 3. reusable paint caddy (simply pour a little dollop of your favorite craft paint into the handy little cup shaped holder, for easy clean up just rinse out, dry off and reuse) 4. Lego sorter...or any other little toy items like Barbie shoes, crazy bones,etc. 5. M&M sorting....easy way to eat just your favorite color.... truthfully the ideas are endless and the carton lasts forever....so keep those unavoidable styrofoam containers out of the trash and into your craft room... (meat trays are great for painting as well). as far as the ready tip....hum..well...styrofoam IS an excellent insulator...from heat and cold...I'm sure we could find a need for it say if the power was out and we needed to keep cold foods cold longer...or maybe it could be placed under sleeping bags to protect from ground cold/moisture.... I think that in this case, imagination is almost unlimited, but let's keep that stryofoam out of the dumps...it's not great stuff. hey, I'll be you could fill them with your favorite juice, or tea and make cute little egg shapped ice cubes....hum...or fill each one with water and place a thin slice of lemon in each one for a refreshing pitcher of cold lemon water...yum..one of my favorites...

HERBs ....Glorious Herbs.... Herbs 101...

Herbs....gifts from the gods and goddesses..or the deity of your choice...I'm flexible... Herbs are not only tasty additives bought from McCormick. They are wonderful magical creations. All you need is a little knowledge and a couple of pots, or a patch of dirt in a sunny spot. When you are thinking about growing plants, nothing is easier then herbs. They are truly the gift that keeps giving. They love crappy soil, are mainly drought resistant and not only are tasty additives to our cooking, but have terrific medicinal uses as well for both us and our pets. Now is the time to cut back any growing herbs to about 2 inches (many herbs are perennials and with just a little tlc will come back for years if not decades.). Then I just take the grass/leaf cuttings from the mower bag and make a nice little mound over top. This provides both nutrients and a little extra winter protection. This is one of the few times I bag the grass cuttings and make sure to mow up some of those nutrient rich fall leaves. I like to take the herbs, and tie little bundles together and hang them upside down to dry. (my cats like this also, not only have I hung fun little toys for them, but many herbs such as catnip, catmint, oregano, lemon balm and the mints are tasty to the little furry pests, I mean pets...). I dry about 1/2 of my last harvest. the other 1/2 I put into food bags and vaccum seal them and pop them into the freezer. lean tip....although the initial purchase of a food vaccum sealer seems expensive, it saves thousands of dollars in keeping food fresh, usuable and allows for bulk purchasing, so it is an investment well worth making. The bags can be microwaved (okay, granted, NOT too green there...) or dropping into boiling water to cook your meal right in the bag for quick easy family dinners. so...my favorite easy grow herbs... catnip catmint peppermint oregano greek oregano chinese chives nasturium (not perennial but do reseed if you pluck the seed pods) lemon balm (but WAY invasive so I recommend pot or sectioned garden growing for this) sage tomorrow we'll discuss the "ready" aspect of these herbs and their usuage in more then just meal preparations. What's your favorite herb?

Prepare now for Spring

Now is the time that you should start finding leaves in your lawn, driveway and gutters. Some look at leaves as work, a pain. Think of leaves as you did when you were a child...make a big pile of dry ones, and jump in them....It's a great way to reconnect with the child inside. Or connect with your children or grandchildren. Then let's take those wonderful leaves and put them in bin for composting. Many people don't fully appreciate the act of composting. It's true recycling. Taking items and turning them into nutrient rich dirt that glorious tasty fun things can be grown from. New to composting?....it's easy with leaves. Any container will do..an old trash can, even a garbage bag. In the spring the leaves with have broken down releasing nature's nutrients ready for your garden. Want to get a composting bin?...well before you run out and buy one, check out www.freecycle.org in your area, and garage sales... add your banana peels, orange peels, lettuce leaves, apple cores, bones (meat leftovers can be added to a compost pile for regular flowers but better not for veggies)...and the soil will be even better. Yum, I can already taste those tomatoes.....is there anything better then a vine ripe warm tomato right from the garden? (see a favorite recipe at bottom) A great addition for your garden comes at usually no cost as well. Horse or cow manure. Usually the owner of said farm animal will be more then happy for you to come and scoop up a grocery bag or two of wondrous garden food. It can be added to your compost or tilled right in to the soil so it can release it's nutrients all winter long. (Yes cow and horse poo is safe for food gardens, despite what the fear mongers might have you believe otherwise. And Way better for you then chemical fertilizers....) Another lean, green and prepare tip for those who have cats.....Feline pine. Scoop the poop out and it's ready for your garden. Though I like to add it to my compost first simply because of the quantity I have....makes a great addition to the leaves and kitchen scraps. So, composting and preparing your gardens now for spring....lean..(fresh grown veggies are cheap, and nutritionally superior to store bought ones) green...(obviously)and ready...easy to feed yourself and your family if all you need to do is go pick it off the plant. Summer Salad sweet onions (vidalia are my favorites) ripe fresh tomatoes cucumbers white cheddar cheese your favorite dressing (I like italian made with balsamic vinegar ) slice the onions, tomatoes and cukes into medium thick slices (good time to drag that food processor wedding gift out and give it a whorl...) cut the cheese into small bit size cubes add all to shallow dish liberally coat with your dressing of choice (blue cheese and french are also yummy) let marinate for 30 minutes in fridge...serve and enjoy... wonderful for a hot summer day as a meal....terrific anytime as a side.... good for about another day in the fridge, but best fresh...it's really a tasty treat, especially if most of the ingredients are fresh from your garden.

today's tip

Today's tip meets all three of my criteria. It's lean because it is low cost, it's green because it reuses, and it directly deals with being prepared. As I was dragging my recycling buckets to the curb this evening, it occurred to me that the easiest way to have stored water for an emergency would be to simply reuse my milk and soda bottles. Since the "recommended" water for emergencies is a gallon per person, per day, and you should have a two weeks supply on hand, plus extra for washing, and pets, that's a lot of water. Buying it, it can cost $1.00+ a gallon for the cheapo grocery store brand. It took 3 of us about 45 minutes to wash and refill the useful milk and soda bottles.It reduced my recycling from two full buckets to 1/2 a bucket. We rinsed the bottles with a little white vinegar and then plain water before filling just to remove any trace of the original content. we only filled them about 3/4 of the way to the top, because we are going to store them in a crawl space where winter freeze is a possibility. And we all know water expands when it freezes...(physics class?...chemistry?...well, we learned it in high school sometime...) Now a few more weeks and we should have plenty of emergency water stored...cost?....whatever your water company charges per gallon (or the energy costs to run the well pump if you have well ) Way cheaper then purchasing water.

Tips on Green, lean and being ready for anything

In the last few years we've made simple changes that have had wonderful long term effects on our quality of life. Here I am going to share my own and hopefully your times to greener, easier living along with easy and inexpensive tips on emergency preparedness. The key to my tips is that they are easy and inexpensive, because in this economy few of us have money to spare. They will also integrate the lean green and ready so they work together.