Home-made Laundry Soap

This is the laundry soap I make. It is extremely economical, as a batch only costs somewhere around $1.50 to make, and last our family of 5, 2 months! That is only 75 cents a month! Does your laundry soap/detergent give you a month's worth of washes for 75 cents?

I have seen this recipe all over the internet, some with slight variations, many just the same. One of the most common variations, is where the person adds some essential oil to give it a scent. But seriously, essential oils can be VERY pricey, and that kind of defeats the purpose of the economy factor in my book. I have been using this for a few years now, and am very happy with it.

To start, you will need a 5 gallon bucket (nothing fancy, recycled/reused is fine! Just start with a clean one.)

Then you will need....


1 cup Borax
1 cup Super Washing Soda
2/3 of a bar of Fels Naptha soap, or 2 bars of Ivory soap.



Grate the soap into an old pot.


Add about 8 cups or so of water, and put the pot on the stove.



Heat the pot with medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until the soap dissolves.

Add in the Borax and Washing Soda


Continue to heat and stir until the additional ingredients are dissolved. DO NOT let this come to a boil!!! If it boils over, you will have a HUGE mess! Just be patient, and use the low/medium heat.

Pour mixture into the bucket, and gradually add enough water until the mixture comes to about 4 inches from the top of the bucket. Stir it up well, and then put a lid on it and leave it alone. After a day or so, you will have a thick jelly substance.



Use it just like you would any other detergent. I use 1/2 to 1 cup per load, depending on how dirty the wash is, but usually around 1/2 cup.

In the Backyard

I thought I would post a couple pics from things "in the backyard."

Every morning, we are entertained by the acrobats that camp-out in the woods.



After chowing-down for a bit, he decided to get a suntan.....
That, or maybe he was getting dizzy from hanging up-side-down.


And the potted garden is doing well.


There's things growing everywhere. Corn, tomatoes, pumpkin, watermelon, cucumbers, peppers, etc, etc.

Our New Home - Moving In

We are beginning to get fairly settled in our new home. I still have some assorted boxes around the house, in corners ;-) - but they are one by one, finding homes, and it is coming together and looking like we really live here now. This is our army housing here.

Our home

No - the yard hasn't been burned. I hauled in some soil and spread it and seed throughout the front yard to get our grass growing. What was there, was blotchy, and more sand than grass, which just wouldn't do. So I'll fix that!

JM enjoys the porch swing


Just inside the door, our classroom


The living room


The kitchen




And the patio....of course covered with a potted garden ;-)


And look what I just found!

That would be a pumpkin in the making!

This summer I will be building some raised beds back there.

The Very Last One

Well, this is it.

The very last one.

The very last egg from our chickens.

I miss you babies!

This'll Make you Cry

The garden is growing amazingly...my corn is already knee-high, and it is only May 10th. The carrots are 8 inches tall.

The beans...




are flowering....as are the peas...


Oh...and another resident...




So what is so bad?

Because this is how I have been spending mother's day.



Tearing it all apart, potting everything I can, and getting ready to mow the whole thing down and plant grass. It is so wrong. So very wrong.

But such is life. Someday, hopefully soon, my husband will retire from the army, and we will buy our own place, and nothing like this will ever happen again.

Two more days until we move.

Boyhood Adventures

What is it about boys, that they continually have to explore every ditch, every hole, every patch of mud, and on and on?

I guess because they are boys, right?

So the other day, my youngest was searching the ditch for the resident bullfrog, but he was no where to be seen. Instead, he saw what at first appeared to be a strange rock....


That is definitely not a rock!


What a face!


Why, it's an Ankylosaurus!


So on to the next adventure......

Down at the road, there is another stream that runs through the woods.

Mr. Adventure took off there the other day to see what he could find.

And he found something alright....here are some of them...



Now, unlike the baby snapping turtle, my youngest had plans for these guys....but Mama made him put back the tiny ones.

What were his plans?

Um....



And before you ask....No, this MamaHen did NOT taste the delicacy!

In the Garden

More pictures of the things that are growing around here.



The garden


Onions


Carrots


Bush Beans


Potatoes


Peas, please!


Pole Beans


One of my raised beds...there are baby plants all over it, mostly herbs


My other raised bed, full of some scarlet runner beans, and two different kinds of carrots.




The other garden section...kidney beans


Pinto Beans


Corn, with watermelons


Pumpkins


Everything here is completely organic, and grown from heirloom seeds..the only exception being the store-bought flowers. I can not tell you how much it upsets me to have to move, and not be able to fully enjoy this. Some of it will be able to be harvested before we go, but much of it will end up being destroyed so I can re-seed the grass.

Thankfully, I planted lots of things in containers....

...which are totally transportable!

Something Lovely

In the midst of all the rotten things that are happening around our home.....I wanted to share with you something lovely.

Friday was the Spring Formal/Prom. It was my daughter's first time going. I was a chaperon and the theme was Japanese Serenade. It was very nice!






These ladies did a demonstration of the "Cherry Blossom Dance"


"Cha-cha slide"


My daughter and her best friend...


They grow up too fast...