Quick Links

*** Pictures *** Videos *** DIY *** About Me

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Pssst, don't tell anyone...

Wanna know a secret about PB? It's shocking but true, and you have to promise on your honor not to tell anyone. PB drinks instant coffee. There, I said it. I drink it too, every now and again, maybe 2X a week during the cold months, almost never during the warm months. PB drinks it, by the drinking glass full, all day long, he drinks it like most people drink soda. or we we in the south like to say, coke (not Coke, we call all carbonated soft drinks coke, with a little c, you ask "Do you want a coke?", the answer is "Yes", then you ask "What kind of coke do you want?"). All that just to say that PB drinks a lot of instant coffee. He likes his on the sweet side, one spoon of coffee (Folgers is his first choice), 2-3 spoons of non-dairy creamer and 3-4 spoons of sugar, I'm not talking about small spoons either, we are talking big spoons.

Now I suppose it's only fair that I tell you a secret about myself, again you must promise not to tell a soul. I wear reading glasses, well I guess that anyone who knows me already knows that, I kinda like it though, I'm at the age where no one says "ohhhh, you got new glasses", I think they look kinda cute on me too. After buying one pair from the store, I quickly decided that I needed to get a backup pair, I know you have seen someone running around looking for their glasses, I didn't want to paint that picture of myself, so I purchased several pair and have them strategically planted around the sky castle, I can almost always put my hands on a pair in short order. I also purposely got different colors (same style) so that everyone would get used to seeing me in a different set from time to time, can't let people get too used to seeing me in just one pair. Oh and anytime you see a middle aged to older person touch the top of their head and then next the front collar of their shirt, it's a safe bet that they are looking for their glasses. :)

Let's see, what other secret can I tell... OK, here's one, I eat peanut butter out of the jar, yes it's shocking but true, I don't usually want a sandwich but I'll want some little something, so I'll grab a butter knife, fork or spoon and dig away, yes, I double dip. Not to worry, I always have a new jar in case I have guests who happen to want a peanut butter sandwich. I don't do that with anything else, no I don't drink the milk out of the jug or anything else like that, it's just the peanut butter.

So now I sit here with my cup of instant coffee, sweetened with sugar and NIDO instant whole milk, I just finished a piece of cake, I'm looking longingly at the jar of peanut butter and wondering where my glasses are, I bid you goodnight.


All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Rosy Laundry

Things in the laundry department are smelling very rosy, I just made another batch of homemade laundry soap, I usually make it with a non-scented bar soap, often I use Kirk's Castile Bar Soap, or even Ivory bar soap. The last time I needed to make up a new batch, I didn't have (read-couldn't find) any of the Kirk's or Ivory, but I did have a bunch of Bee & Flower bar soap. This soaps have a strong scent that lasts for a while on your skin, so I decided to try that. The one I like best is the sandalwood scent, they also have rose, jasmine, ginseng, and bouquet. When I sent the sandalwood bar soap through the food processor, the scent was amazing. I mixed it in equal parts with borax and washing soda then used it on the laundry. I was thoroughly amazed to find that the scent lasted through the wash and after the clothes were dry. It had become very mild, it was not at all strong, it's not like someone is going to ask you what perfume you are wearing, but the clothes did smell great. PS, these soaps are very inexpensive, especially for how luxurious they feel!

The next time I went to the grocery store, I bought several more bars of this soap, I picked out my favorite sandalwood scent and the rose scent. The rose scent reminds me of my mother, she really loved the smell of roses, the only perfume she would wear was Roses Roses by Avon. I used the last of my last batch of sandalwood scented laundry soap today, so I decided to make the new batch of homemade laundry soap from the rose scented bars. I can't wait to try that on my next batch of laundry, I think I'll wash my bedding soon. 

For those who don't have the recipe I use for the homemade laundry soap, here it is:

  • bar soap (grated fine)
  • washing soda (not baking soda)
  • borax

I take the bar soap and run it through my food processor with the grating blade, I remove the grating blade and replace it with the chopping blade and I chop the soap even finer. I then add an equal amount of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda and 20 Mule Team Borax, I don't measure, I just eyeball it, I put the lid back on the food processor and whiz it all together. When you open the lid, be careful not to breath the fine dust, in fact doing this outside is even better. I pour this into a container with a lid, I use 1-3 tablespoons per load, this doesn't sound like enough, but it gets my clothes and laundry very clean. This will not suds up, bubbles are not what cleans your stuff anyhow. Adding more to your laundry will not get your clothes any cleaner, in fact it make it harder to get completely rinsed, so stick with 3 tablespoons. This will work just fine in HE washers too. Some people like to take a further step and make this into liquid laundry soap, I don't bother, it takes up much less room in the powdered state, and since I grind mine so fine, it always dissolves just fine for me.

Hints: I don't measure my ingredients, I just eyeball it, one batch typically starts out with 2 bars of soap, once that is grated then ground, I add an approximate equal amount of washing soda and borax (if you had 1 cup of ground soap, then you would add 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup of borax).

Washing soda is not baking soda, though the box looks the same if you buy Arm & Hammer brand.

If you are using your gray water to water your lawn or any other plants you wish to keep, then omit the borax, this will kill your plants, you do not need to alter the amounts of your other ingredients, your clothes will come out just as clean.

You can usually find washing soda and borax in your laundry department at your store, if you can't find it, then ask the store manager to get it for you, or you can get it online.

Use the plainest bar soap possible, you don't want ones with gritty scrubbing stuff, oatmeal, extra moisturizers and such. I like castile soaps, such as Dr Bronner's, Kirk's Castile Bar Soap, I have used Ivory and now the Bee & Flower bar soap. Added scents are fine, but no other additives are needed and might even be a problem. There is also a soap called Zote soap, it is specifically made for laundry, it works pretty well, but I don't care for it too much. There are 2 different kinds of Zote soap, there is white and pink. If you are going to use this brand, get the white bar. The problem with the pink bar is it's moist, when you try to grate it, it becomes gummy, the white soap is dry and much easier to grate. 

If you worry about your whites getting dingy, then you can use liquid bluing. In commercial laundry detergents, they add optical brighteners, you can use liquid bluing to replace this, it was what your grandmother or great grandmother used to keep her whites sparkly white.











All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

I Won and A Great Video

Reader's Digest Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American SkillsThanks so much to Pete over at Patriots Against The NWO for having a great giveaway, I won this book Reader's Digest Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills, it's a great book, I have a copy that I borrowed from a friend, but I couldn't talk her out of the book, not for money or trade, so when I saw that Pete was offering this book as a prize, I jumped at the chance and won, thanks! Oh, BTW Pete has a great invention called a Slinky Jr Shortwave Antenna, check it out on his site. :)

Thanks to everyone who have made their Amazon.com purchases through my links, I have had a lot more orders through my site this month and I am well on my way to getting the keyboard I want, but I still have a ways to go, so keep up the good work everyone, you are helping me more than you will ever realize, this will allow me to practice piano at home so I can get good enough to play piano in church. :-) My goal is to be able to buy this keyboard with the money I earn on line, it's been a struggle to wait, but you know what they say, good things come to those who wait.

Next is a great big DANG, if the rest of us were half as good with a pea-shooter, we wouldn't need a gun to bring dinner home, I'm not knocking guns, but if you don't have one handy, this would certainly work instead. Watch this video, I am amazed at his skill, I love his down to earth manner too, he reminds me of some of the people I know in my neighborhood.





All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Oops...

While looking back at the blogs I posted, I realized that I forgot a very good (internet) friend, someone I have followed, and she has followed me, we have helped each other though some tough times, her blog is filled with care, love, strength, mistakes made (we all make em, don't we...), honesty, courage and lots more, and even though we live fairly close by, we haven't met, yet... I know I will get to meet her someday.

http://idratherbe-ginger.blogspot.com/

Sorry G, I didn't mean to let your link slip through the cracks in my mind... :)

I dug though the bowels of my links and found a site I hadn't visited in a while, forgot how much fun it is to read this one, if you are in need of a good laugh, then go here:
http://www.theredneckmommy.com/
I think the name says it all. LOL



All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Yarns & Such

I so want to make these! And I will, ASAP...

I don't know why the links will not work properly, here is the last video showing the completed boot,
here is the link to the complete set of videos:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=34B41AFD3EA76F94



I am working on a convertible hat, this one plays one after the next.


I am nearly finished with the main body, I've been working on it for quite a while, it does go pretty fast, but it only goes fast when I am working on it, my problem is I don't work on it when I'm at the sky castle, I only work on it when I'm away from home, I just need to get to it and finish it so I can make the Crochet Cocoon Boot Slippers. PB has been eyeballing my yarn stash and politely complaining that I have all this yarn and he has no slippers... I'm not "allowed" to buy anymore yarn until I have something to show for all the yarn I have right now, LOL! I have to tell you, it's hard to walk past the yarn display at the store when I'm in town. I'll post pix of my work when I have it finished.

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Weather and Surfing the Net

Hey ya'll! I'm sitting here looking at a beautiful day, the sun is shining, the sky is clear, the temp is 58° F, we have a slight breeze to go along with all this. We have had weeks of cloudy, partly cloudy or hazy days, very unusual for my area. Between the low to no sun days and the thick layer of dust that has been on my solar panels, I haven't had a full charge on my batteries in weeks. I should have gone up on the roof and dusted the solar panels, but PB has had the ladder on the other side of the sky castle doing work over there, the ladder is bigger than I want to handle, yeah I know, I'm being a wimp. Anyhoo, I chose not to try to move the ladder so the panels haven't been cleaned in quite some time. Fortunately we finally got a good rain last week, it's the first precip in over 100 days, we really needed it, it rained all night, that rain cleaned my solar panels for me, so as of right now, the batteries have a full charge, yeah!!!!!

I love surfing the internet, so you might wonder what websites and blog I read, here is a short list of what I look at everyday, or most everyday:
Of course the first thing I check is my email, though Gmail.com, the other pages that automatically open at the same time are http://www.blogger.com/home,
Google Adsense account (I recommend this if you have a blog, it doesn't make a lot of money, but every little bit helps), http://statcounter.com (this is how I know how many people visit my blogs),
and http://www.off-grid.net/, this is the other site I write for.

I also check the 2 social networking sites, Facebook and RTR, the second one is a conservative social networking site.

Next I work on earning money, I use a couple of Pay to Click sites, I used to belong to about 40 of them, but have narrowed my selections down to the few that actually have something for me to click on everyday, and those that actually pay, I've been paid by each of these companies multiple times.
Wordlinx
Clicksense (This one is the only one I will pay to upgrade, it's worth the money because they have soooo many more clicks for upgraded members)
Hits4pay (this one gives you $10 just to sign up)
Dealsncash (this one gives you $5 to sign up)

I also check on my Amazon.com affiliate page, I use the credit I receive from you, my wonderful readers clicking on the Amazon.com links and buying stuff (it doesn't have to be the stuff from the links either, anything you buy after clicking on a link, I get credit for) I use that credit to purchace things I need and want from Amazon, thanks so much for everyone who has clicked and purchased, every little bit helps! Right now I'm saving my Amazon.com credits to buy a Yamaha YPG-235 76-key Portable Grand Graded-Action USB Keyboard so I can play piano at church.

I check the blogs I read, I don't read every blog everyday, I check though Blogger to see who has written something and if it catches my eye, then I click on the page and read. This is in no particular order the order according to who I follow on Blogger, and I'm sure I missed some, so don't feel bad if yours isn't listed, I'm also not putting down each and every one I follow, just the ones I read most often:
I can't believe that list is so long, I have lots more than I follow, but don't read as often. If you have a blog or site that you think I might be interested in, please post it in your comment.





All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Canyon Wren Perch

We have had a little canyon wren coming in and out of the sky castle, we figured out that he (or she, can't tell, so for now I'll say "he") was coming in and out of the space between the stove pipe and the ceiling. I watched him enter and exit the other day, getting in is pretty easy for him, but getting back out is a little trickier, so PB installed a perch for him to make it easier to get back out.

It's so cute having him in the house, yes he does leave little "presents" for us, fortunately they are very little, but he is doing something constructive for us, he removes the stink bugs that collect in the places where we can't reach to clean them up. Plus the entertainment value of this little wren in the sky castle is priceless. :)

I'll try to get some pix and/or video of this cute little bird next time he's inside. I heard him chirping just a bit ago, I believe he is living under the sky castle, so it shouldn't be long before he is inside again.




Here is a pic of what a canyon wren looks like:

Here is the sound of the canyon wren, on the first one, the narrator says that the canyon wren is 6 inches long, our canyon wrens are a bit smaller than that.

Song and some info:


Just the song:




All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Thoughts...




If life is a garden, and your thoughts the seeds, what are you planting, growing and harvesting? 

Hope it's not weeds...







All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!