Save on Air conditioning bills, spot remover, grand kids

Sorry I missed you last week, but was having an incredible week with my NE kids, youngest son, daughter in law and their two little girls, 18 months and 4 years old. Living alone is ok, I am quite happy with having no demands on my time. Eat , sleep, work when I want and spend my time doing what seems right at the moment. But having a house filled with bubbly, energetic babes, laughing and playing was just wonderful. We did some sightseeing, visited the aquarium in Gatlinburg, and saw the dam and took a drive into NC. All fun. When the week was over and they headed home, this place was as quiet as a tomb. It was a week of memories to stay with me for a long time. Did you know that we (Americans) spend 15 billion dollars a year on air conditioning? And in so doing, we emit 140 million tons of CO2. Not good for our world. There are a lot of things we can do to cut that back. Let the cool air into your home early, then before the sun is high and hot, shut the house up and close your curtains early in the day. Turn off lights, unplug any electric appliances you are not using. Do your laundry and cooking during the cool part of the day. Running the dryer is not a good thing mid day. If you beef up your insulation and weather strip windows and doors, you save even more. I do not use AC, just fans. And if the house gets cool then shut up, most days are bearable. Electricity seems quite pricy these days, and will be going up as the Pres is trying to pass bills against using coal in producing our power, this is supposed to lessen emissions that are causing climate change, but will also increase our bills. Seems we never can win. Guess all we can do is keep trying to be good citizens, and protect our planet as much as we can. Here on our mountain we recycle just about everything but glass, the place we take our trash does not accept that yet. But paper, cardboard, tin and aluminum cans all get sorted out, and food scraps all go into the compost pile. My son seems to have a use for everything possible, his chipper shredder makes mulch for our yard from all the trimmed tree and bush debris. It's nice to know so many things can be repurposed. If you have not tried this yet, I do recommend it. I have had stains from years back on clothes that made them un-wearable anywhere but home, but the stains are now gone with this simple recipe. In a spray bottle put 2 tablespoons of peroxide(hydrogen) and 1 tablespoon of Dawn. Shake, spray, let sit overnight and wash. I usually triple the recipe so I don't have to make it as often. If you are working on improving your health, try adding good fats, like avocados, olives and YES chocolate. These are unsaturated fats, and do your body good. They are called MUFA's. You also need to eat 2 servings a day of fiber rich foods. And if you have eaten things you should not have, add some yellow mustard, (which also helps back pain) spinach, figs sesame seeds or sardines. Night before last we finally got some rain, just over 1/2 inch. I went out early and picked chives and basil, and lettuce. I grow these on my deck railings in long planter boxes that fit over the rail. Keeps the rabbits from eating it before I do. Had a great salad for lunch with some feta cheese added to it. Nice to have fresh produce again, get spoiled. Always tastes so much better than store stuff. Time to head out for some yard work, have a great week, see you next time.