homemade drain declogger

I washed all four dogs in our bath tub...more than once. Well, it finally was clogged beyond clogged. It took three days to drain completely and it left behind a film of slime and hair. It was so nasty. The picture below doesn't show the nastiness very well...which is good because it would be very embarrassing.

If you know me, you know I dislike chemicals and avoid them whenever possible. I found a recipe online for drain cleaner. It's super simple. You pour a 1/4 cup of baking soda down the drain, then follow that (slowly) by 1/4 cup white vinegar.

It was so bad at first that the baking soda had nowhere to go! I did that a few times. It broke down the clog enough that I was able to actually get some of it out. I did the baking soda thing one more time. (Now that's a more embarrassing picture.) It foams up a lot!

Then, I followed that with a pot of boiling water. It drained immediately! I never had that good of a success with Draino! They say that if you do that once a month, you shouldn't ever get clogs again...with my long hair and the dog's fur, I really need to do that!

Five minutes after I cleared the clog, my tub was nice and clean! It's a miracle!!!

Adam loves me, this I know, for the clothesline told me so!

Adam is so good to me! There are so many projects that need his attention. Some are for the house (main living area), some of for the business and some personal. When he was still working for NCR, and didn't have much free time, he still managed to do little things for me that he thought I would appreciate. I am not an outwardly emotional person and I know he's always disappointed when I don't give him an enthusiastic response to something but he still does it anyway and I love seeing the smile on his face when he shows it to me and explains it all to me. Whenever he finishes a project for me, I am always amazed at how selfless he can be with his precious time. I, sad to say, am not so selfless. I am pretty stingy with my time. I try not to be but it just doesn't come so natural to me as it seems to for him. Last weekend, when we were working on the fence, we talked about our future plans for the side yard. I mentioned (as I mentioned in the past to him) that this was the most logical spot in our yard for a clothesline. You can't really see it from the road , the neighbors on one side could only see it if they came out of their house and around to that side of their yard (this is the side of the house we just put the fence up on) and no one borders us on the backside so. When I got home on Tuesday, I think it was, Adam was in the driveway working on building the clothesline poles!The next day, they were set in the ground with cement. I was told I couldn't use them until Saturday and I was very excited to get to use them. Unfortunately, the cement didn't set for some reason so I didn't get to use them yet. This view is from the back woods, looking through the dog pen. (Excuse the blue mess up top, please.) Monday, after work, I was planning on going to a nearby park with hiking trails with Olympia, a friend of mine, to do a test hike with loaded backpacks to see how we will do with a full load for a weekend backpacking trip we'll be doing this upcoming fall. She called me early morning and told me she had gotten a stomach virus and wouldn't be able to make it after all which freed up my evening. Adam told me we could work on resetting the poles when I got home. So I took the evening off of biking and walking the dogs for a good cause. ;o) Here's the upper post. Adam built it with a handy dandy table for folding or for setting the basket on. The table's not level though so that will need some minor tweaking. Tucker spent quite a bit of time supervising us from the deck. He was very concerned that I was home but not within reach of him. Adam drilled the holes with the fence post auger, we leveled off the poles and had to put guy lines on them in all four directions to make sure they set level. We mixed the cement and dumped it into the holes but we only had enough cement for half of each pole. Well, we decided that was a good thing because it would give the cement in the bottom a chance to dry a bit before the rest of the load got dumped in the next evening. By the time we got everything cleaned up and put away, it was 9:30 and we hadn't eaten or cooked so Adam ordered a pizza from Papa John's. Tonight, I was going to ride my bike after work before we got down to business finishing off filling the holes with cement. But Adam decided that while we were going to be getting stuff dirty with cement, he might as well set the posts for the fence we'll be putting in near the clothesline...the one we weren't able to get done the night we put up the one in our neighbor's yard. I strained my neck at work and can't look up when bending over so it turned out that I wouldn't be able to bike today after all anyway so that's precisely the position I have to be in to bike. Good thing because we were working much longer than I planned on. We took quite a bit of time leveling off the the fence line and marking it all out...figuring out the angle for the gate, where to put it. That all took quite some time. Finally, Adam drilled 2 of the fence post holes and it was already dark when we were mixing up the cement. We filled up those two holes as well as topping off the clothesline holes. We still have 3 holes to drill and fill but we already know where they're going at least so, in theory, it shouldn't take more than a couple hours. Our theories on time are usually proven wrong though. Now, this weekend, I will be hanging something and getting great pleasure by watching them blow in the breeze! Working on this project with him has shown me just how much time each project can really take....and it makes me appreciate him even more for all he's willing to do to improve the house and yard. I know that a clothesline was probably on the very bottom of his list of things to do (especially since he doesn't even like having his clothes line dried because of the stiffness factor) but he did it anyway, to make me happy and it took a lot of his time. He didn't complain and I really do appreciate it! Thanks so much Adam, I love you too!

Plantain leaves

So I was doing some research on plantain. The weed, not the banana like fruit. We have a bunch of it growing in our yard. I haven't mowed in about 2 weeks and it needs it...but the chiggers have kept my feet shoe free for a while now so I haven't been able to do. I saw all the plantain and wondered what it was good for because it has to be good for something. Turns out I was right. It is great for all sorts of skin problems like diaper rash, bee stings, bug bites, itchy skin....etc. Someone mentioned that they just take a leaf or two and chew it up then put it on the bug bites. My chigger bites were itching so I ran outside and picked a couple of leaves. Amazing. It almost instantly stopped itching!! This is good stuff! Then I got some hives on my wrist so I ran out and got another leaf for my arm. It took about a full minute to work but it definitely worked. So I looked up a recipe for plantain salve. I will be collecting a bunch of leaves from the plantains this weekend and starting the salve because that is amazing stuff and with all the itching I experience from my hives I will definitely put it to good use! Now I need to find a source of free baby food jars!

Field of plantain...not great pictures since it's dark out, sorry about that. The seed heads are probably familiar to you.

There's a picture of the leaves. You can tell it's plantain because the leaves have several midribs running down the leaf instead of veins forking off the main midrib.

Plantain at work. It does turn the skin slightly green but it's worth it! I just moved it around my foot as needed and it continued to work its magic.

Be gone, you stinkin' hives!

In 2005 (I think) I got a herniated disk in my neck. My neck never really hurt. My limbs were always numb and tingly. My stomach knotted up and tried to detatch itself from the rest of the pipes when I ate, and when I didn't eat, it hurt then too. I was always faint and I couldn't stay awake for very long at a time. My average day looked like this: Wake up. Fill dog's food and water bowls. Get dressed. Get dogs outside. Leave for work and eat on the way to work. Pull over to take a nap. Get to work. Work for a little bit. Take nap. Work for a little bit. Take nap. Eat lunch. Work. Take nap. Work. Drive home. Pull over to take nap. Get home. Say hi to dogs. Climb stairs to the bedroom. Take nap. Feed dogs and me dinner. Go to bed for the night. I wasn't awake much but when I was, everything hurt so much. It was a LOOOOOOOOOONG 5 months!! They found the herniated disk finally and sent me to physical therapy and also sent me to be put in traction a couple times a week to take the pressure of the disk. A few weeks later, everything returned to normal....except 1 thing.

My allergies changed. I am still allergic to sagebrush and cranberries but not cats. I can pet them to my heart's delight now. :o) But I am allergic to something new now. I have no idea what! But whatever it is, it has given me a case of chronic hives. I refused to take allergy medicine for it for about 6 months. I would be covered in hives over more than half my body most of the time. They were itchy too!!! I finally caved in and started taking claratin. It offers some relief but not completely.


One would think that during and after a shower, my skin would feel great, relieved even, after having all the allergens washed off but it has been the opposite for me. My worst cases of hives have been in the shower or directly after it, and also when changing clothes. Because of this, I have started believing that my skin is allergic to the chemicals, preservatives or fragrances used in things like shampoo/conditioner, lotion, deodorant, toothpaste, laundry & dish detergent, face wash and dryer sheets. I could be way off on this but I can't explain that any other way. So, in an attempt to make things better for myself, I have sporadically and temporarily replaced some of those products with more natural products. But since I haven't switched everything at once, I really have no idea.


So my new experiment is to stop using all those items and replace them with fragrance, chemical, preservative free items. Homemade is cheapest so I'll use those when feasible. I have switched to fragrance & chemical free laundry detergent and quit using dryer sheets. I rarely get hives when changing clothes these days. Seems like I'm onto something there. I have unscented lye soap for use in the shower but haven't made the switch to natural shampoo/conditioner or the other things yet but one thing at a time...


This morning, I made up a batch of toothpaste.

I just used some baking soda and added enough water to make a paste. Then I added some peppermint extract. I was supposed to use peppermint oil but didn't have any. I couldn't even taste it even though I added quite a bit by the time I was done. I need to use the oil in the next batch. WOW! You'll be awake by the time you're done brushing your teeth! It's got a severe taste...kind of salty in that it stings like a mouthful of salt. It wasn't my favorite thing to use but I will experiment and get it right and with time will get used to it some. I just put it in a tiny little tupperware container and dipped my brush in get some on the bristles. I've eaten twice since brushing my teeth this morning and my teeth still feel nice and clean.

Hopefully, this experiment gives me the results I am looking for and I'll be free of the allergy medicine once again. I can hope anyway!

Shopping bags

This morning I wentout to pick some more hawthorne berries. I picked for 3 hours and 15 minutes and got just under 5 pounds. I found a tree that wasn't nearly as big as most of the others and had more berries ripe then not. I was able to pick whole clusters instead of one by one. The down side to this tree, however, was that it had many more thorns and they were bigger than in the trees I was picking in yesterday. I have lots of little cuts on my hand that sting when I wash my hands. I went to move a branch and poked myself a good one in my index finger!

The wind was really picking up and gray clouds were moving in pretty quickly so I packed it up and called it a day. It never actually rained but we did get a pretty fierce thunderstorm that had Bear francticaly looking for a hiding place. He finally settled in in the cabinet under the sink. He stayed there well after the storm was over to make sure it was safe.

In the evening, I made a trip to Kimball Junction for some milk (and got a milkshake while I was there). I've been eyeing the reusable shopping bags. I keep telling myself that I'll make some and even come out ahead on the price if I use the $1/yd fabric at Walmart but that hasn't happened so I broke down and bought 7. I never remember to bring old plastic bags but I have this thing that if I pay for something, I'm more likely to make the effort to use it. Now I just have to make a habit of unloading the bags and taking them back to the car.