Poplar Hill Happenings

Un-paper your life

First Happy New Year to all of you homesteading enthusiasts!  There has been a disscussion going on at Homesteading Today about how to decrees the amount of paper consumption in our homes.  The following is what my family has done and/or would like to do.  If your interested hop over to HT and search on "un-paper" for the original post.  My response:

Bleach alternative

Last night I wanted to clean up the nasty stains on one of my spatulas.  I remembered that lemon juice will bleach plastics.  So I soaked it overnight and it came out beautiful.  Then I remembered that I have a spot on the tub that molds ALL the time and I needed to clean it so I took the leftover lemon juice from the soak into the bath and applied it to mold.  It did another great job.  So today I went serching for what all lemon juice could do and found this over at Homesteading Today:

BLEACH ALTERNATIVE

2 Cups Hydrogen Peroxide (cheaper the better)
1-1/4 to 1-1/2Cups Lemon Juice (use the real stuff if you can)
12 cups of Water

I haven't tried it yet, but it has got to be a lot healthier than real bleach. 

Happy cleaning, Christine

The cleaning power of cold water

What's your experience?  Bear with me here.....My mother always told me that warm water "set" a stain into clothing and to treat the clothing with cold water first to get the stain out.  Well let me tell you what else I have noticed.  I received some Baker's Secret Bakeware for Christmas and the directions said wash with cold water.  It didn't say wash with cold water the first time you use it, it said wash with cold water.  Well I wasn't real comfortable just washing with cold water so I have been washing with cold water to get the thing clean before I do my dishes then I wash it with the rest of the dishes in my warm soapy water.  Well guess what.  My bake ware has NEVER been cleaner.  I seam to get all the baked on gook off the bake ware with the cold water before I put it into the hot water.  Now the only thing I can think of is that if I was to wash it with hot water while there is baked stuff on there it just continues to bake it on and make it more difficult to come off.  So the cold is good for helping remove baked on food.  Well I thought to myself recently, hmm wouldn't this work with my Farberware pots and pans too?  So last night I used cold water to remove food that was stuck in the pot and it came off easier.  I've always used Comet (my one concession to chemicals lately) to finish off a pot (it prevents further sticking during the next use and make clean up easier), but this cold water clean up is new to me.  Am I just discovering something that many have known for a long time or am I just imagining things?  What is your experience?

Be sure to stop by Poplar Hill Mercantile for country living books and quality new and used goods from our home to yours.

Check out the LAUNDRY day picture!

WOW my photobucket worked!  Here is a picture of Poplar Hill on laundry day sometime in Feburary. 

I love the light colors load on the line!  The pinks, whites, tans and greens are just all so pretty together flapping in the wind. 

On a side note the two wiskey barrel planters on the deck now hold my strawberries and they are beginning to flower!  Andy yes that is a basket ball goal up on the deck.  It gets used mostly in the fall when we have less to do around the 'stead and cooler weather.  Sometimes we play New Years Day game because the temp. might be 30-50 degress.  Perfect for working up a sweat. 

Well now that my photobucket works I'll post more pictures of Poplar Hill Happenings.

Christine

Natural Summer Pest Control

We have two summer pest that are a real problem close to and in the house. 

The first are the wasp!  I was just stung the other day.  My daughter and I just run into the  things even if we are on the look out for them.  Here's how to make your own wasp trap...check out this link for a soda bottle wasp trap.

Second we have fruit fly problems all summer.  Even if we keep everything clean they still show up.  Here are some ideas for fruit fly traps. 

I haven't tried them yet, but when I do I'll report on the usefulness.  If you try them too please blog about it.  Good luck, Christine

Swifter Wash Cloth Verdict

Cleaning Question