Fall has arrived, recipes for fall cleaning, thoughts and hopes

 It's official! This morning is crisp and cool, second pot of coffee morning. But oh so nice for sleeping in past normal time. The sun is shining, it''s a beautiful day, and the leaves have red tinges and yellow showing on some. What a great time of the year to get out and see the beauty painted just for our eyes.  It's been a mixed bag week, my daughter in law is battling some health issues, hope she is on the up side now, she gave us a scare.   I have already begun the fall cleaning, have bags of clothes for the Goodwill or someone, and every closet cleaned out.  The rest of the house needs a good vacuuming, my belt broke and I have not been to town to get a new one yet, sure will be glad to get it fixed again. And the light in the frig burned out, never realized how dark it is in there, even with the door open. Time to change batteries in the smoke alarms too, so glad my son can do that for me. Otherwise, I am just doing my regular cleaning, and have some ideas to share.  If you still think it takes clorox or harsh cleaners, nope. Here is a total disinfecting cleaner.  For about a buck at the store you can buy a big empty spray bottle. Wash it well, then put 2 cups of water, 1 cup of white vinegar, 25 drops of rosemary essential oil and 25 drops of fir essential oil  in the bottle , shake, spray and clean any surface.,  I would sub tea tree oil for the fir oil, as I keep it on hand and know it is a disinfecting agent.  Okay, now you can do bathroom and kitchen surfaces with no fumes or harmful stuff.   My grandson used to sell Kirby vacuums, he told his mom that to get even tough stains (pet, icky stuff) off carpets,  make a solution of 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol and 1 teaspoon of Dawn,  spray, let settle in, brush lightly then let dry, or if you are cleaning carpets, go ahead and clean, , spots should all be gone.   I am  a very old fashioned person, brought up in an era of being respectful of others, holding my tongue  a good share of the time and following my religious upbringing. It is so painful to see the "United" States being so divided.  While I did not vote for Trump, he is our president and should be respected. The riots, fighting, shootings are horrific and if we don;t learn to co-exist in better harmony, we may end up with a civil war right here in our own country.  We are meant to be our brothers keeper, and reach out a hand to help anyone, no matter, race, religion or political views.  The more we push this aside, the more  bad things keep happening. Earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, rock slides,  it seems more and more horrific things occur on a daily basis.  It would be so nice to see people try and care for one another, instead of what we do see these days.  Football players disrespecting our country and it's flag, politicians using our bucks for travel, maybe even the president doing that, come on, we can do better. What has happened to honesty, ethics, morals?  Ok, no more soap box, just wanted to put in my two cents worth. I hope you are having a wonderful,fall,  complete with corn mazes, pumpkins, pie etc. Fill your home and heart with warm scents and feelings.  And love. Til next time, peace.

I am a wannabe, and a great recipe for cleaning your toilet tank

  For about 7 years now, I have been growing , and learning to use herbs, trees, and even weeds to make skin care and health care items.  I am very picky about using organics, and no parabans, chemicals fake colors or scents.  If you read labels on any product you buy, shampoo, toothpaste, body wash, etc, you find long lists of stuff you never heard of.   For example, L'Oreal recently put out an aloe gel face lotion, with about 50 ingredients. I read through it and picked the useful ones, aloe, glycerin, vitamin E and lavender essential oil, and make my own now. It's wonderful and soothing and a little tightening.  My studies  give me access to several plant magazine articles, webcasts and classes. I learned last week that I could be considered  a Wortcunner.  This is an AngloSaxon term for wort, herb, and cunner, learner.   Of course it can also denote a person with occult powers. I have been accused of witch craft, but do not fancy myself a witch. Nor am I anywhere as proficient as I would like to be, but keep learning about the use of herbs every day. At the moment, I have Firewater cough syrup brewing on the cupboard, a jar of Calendula flowers steeping on the window sill, and yesterday I whupped up a batch of Lavender, Vitamin E lip balm.  One of my favorite items is Pine Salve, it's a long process to make, but has amazing pain easing abilities, have family and friend in NE that love the stuff, even have used it for shingles pain.  My household cleaning items are a gallon jug of white vinegar, a BIG box of baking soda, several pounds,  Borax, essential oils, alcohol and peroxide. From these, you can make disinfectants that are not harmful to your health and they keep your home fresh and clean.  The recipe today is this, in a bowl mix 1/2 cup of baking soda., 1/3 cup citric acid  {for canning fruit, found in the canning supply area) and 1 teaspoon of Dawn dish detergent. With your fingers, mix til it feels like wet sand. Pack into molds, ice cube trays about half full or cupcake liners, the small ones work if you don't have others. Let it dry for several days, it gets very hard. Drop one in the toilet tank, after fizzing stops, let it stand for as long as possible, I left mine for over an hour.  Wow, it cleans stuff out really well.   Flush, store  tablets in an airtight container(sandwich bag will do.)  Fall is officially here, tho its turned quite warm again, not complaining, I love this warm weather.  Not looking forward to being stuck inside this winter while Mother Nature  hands out  frost and cold.  But each season has a purpose, for renewing the earth. I am blessed with a wonderful family,lots of good friends and many projects to keep me busy.,  I wish you the same, a happy fulfilled life.  Chase your dreams, you are never to old to learn new things. Happy Fall!

Fall, storms, gunk cleaning recipe

T

The weather has changed. Instead of sweat and humidity, it has cooled off. Mornings are around 50 degrees, and afternoons  near 70. Love it, very comfy. Sleeping with a blanket  again is nice, and days are just right. My containers on the deck still are giving me lettuce, peppers, tomatoes and herbs. So a salad is still part of supper. It's been sad to watch the events hitting this world lately, and do you notice they are all "the worst ever" occurrences, hurricane Harvey, now Irma, the earthquake in Mexico,the fires in Oregon and Washington and California,  kind of makes me wonder what's next.  It's still calm and serene on the mountain, tho we should be getting some fallout from Irma early in the week, looks like rain, and maybe a little breeze, nothing like others have suffered through.  Some of our leaves have red edges, the hummers are tanking up on nectar right now, not sure if they are getting ready for Irma, or the cool weather has them thinking of heading south. Not a good time for that. Since I switched them to organic sugar water, I can hardly keep up with filling the feeder, they really like that stuff. I watch a dozen at a time fussing over who will get to have some. They are amazing little creatures, sad to know they are dying, like the bees and butterflies, from the stuff we spray our crops with.   Ran across a recipe to clean gunky tile, floors, shower walls etc.  The original recipe calls for 3 cups of water,, 1/2 cup  of baking soda, 1/3 cup of lemon juice, and 1/4 cup of white vinegar, whisked together and put into a spray bottle or applied with a brush.  To my liking, this is way too soupy.I would go with 3/4 cup of baking soda, 2 Tablespoons each of lemon juice and white vinegar, and enough water to create a thick paste, then brushed on. Let it sit 20 minutes or more, then rinse off.   Starting a pot of chili today, the first of the season. We are expecting only 60s for highs by the first of the week, so looking for something warm , comfort food.  The last 2 weeks I have emptied out and cleaned every one of the 6 closets in my house, 3 walk in bedroom ones, a walk in linen one in the bathroom and a pantry in the kitchen. Have done some cleaning before, but not to this extent. Except for one closet, with carpet, all the others got a steam cleaning on the floors and all the shelf's wiped down.  Kind of thinking about storm windows  but hoping for some warmer weather  yet, not ready for cold.  For the first time in all the years here, I have no pears to can. Weird.  But in a way, no cramped hands from endless hours of peeling and chopping. Mixed blessing. Hope you have a good week, and no storms blow your way. Stay well.