Homemade dishwasher detergent cubes with just four ingredients

Homemade dishwasher detergent cubes with just four ingredients! 

1 Cup Borax, 1 Cup Washing Soda, 1/4 Cup Epsom Salt, Lemon Juice. 

Ingredients:

1 Cup Borax

1 Cup Washing Soda

1/4 Cup Epsom Salt

Lemon Juice

First, start by mixing all the powders together. Make sure they get mixed up good because you want it evenly spread through all the cubes you're going to be making. If you're not sure about the Borax, just eliminate that from the recipe, it won't harm it at all.

When everything was mixed,  put a cup of the powder into a separate bowl and then pour in a little bit of lemon juice. For one cup of powder used 4 tablespoons of lemon juice. You don't want it to be dry but you don't want it soaking wet either. 4 tablespoons made it a little wet and sticky which is exactly what you want.

The lemon juice will foam when it hits the powder. Mix it all in and get it a little sticky. When finished with that, start to add it to the ice cube trays. Put in the amount and pat it down.

Now, when you're all done, set the cubes up on the window sill in the kitchen so that it would get a lot of sun and therefore dry quicker. Letting it sit overnight will make it nice and hard. In the morning flip the trays over and knock the cubs out.

Getting the Garden ready for Spring planting without using Gas, Electricity or Oil powered machines. Off-Grid Goodness!

  While browsing online, I found a good source of tips and information that will help those off-grid or living the "simple life" to save some money and get the garden ready for Spring planting that's just a few months away.

"Once you have the grass mowed and the weeds chopped down, the next step is to break up the soil for planting. Heavy duty tools like a Broadfork can make this job easier. The 20 inch wide fork is specially sharpened to take big bites from the ground. Extra-long 60 inch handles give you lots of leverage to break the soil loose. There’s much less bending over than a hoe requires, and no need to chop or hack at the soil. Best of all, the dirt is left loose and pliable, not packed down by heavy power equipment.

Once the soil is broken up, the next step is to cultivate. Instead of using a bulky gas-powered tiller to over work your soil, you can create a smooth planting bed with an easy-to-use rotary cultivator. To use this tool, you simply push it in front of you as you walk down the rows of your garden. The wheel breaks up the soil and works in your peat moss or compost while you get some exercise.

Once your garden is cultivated, it’s time to plant. To keep your rows nice and straight, just drive a one-foot stake at the end of each row and tie a string between them. Then use the string as a guideline.

Dreading the thought of crawling around on your hands and knees to plant all those seeds? No need if you get yourself an old fashioned corn planter. All you have to do is pour the seeds into the cup on the side, push the steel blade into the ground and squeeze the handles. The seeds will drop right where you want them. It’s a very efficient system and allows you to finish a chore that could take hours in just minutes.

If you want butterflies decorating your garden, once you have the seeds in the ground, plant oregano, borage, catnip and hollyhocks between the rows. The colors and scent attract the beautiful creatures. Butterflies also like bee balm, red carnations and begonias.

After planting your garden the natural way, don’t stop there. Make a pledge to water your vegetable plants by hand every day with a good old-fashioned watering can. And instead of relying on pesticides -- which over time can work their way into the ground-water and damage the environment -- to keep the weeds down, get out there every day with a hoe and pull them up.

To keep bugs away, sprinkle a mixture of garlic power and flour on your plants. It works especially well for cabbage flies, but use it sparingly. The mix will get pasty on the leaves if applied too thickly.

 
( picture gained from here )

OLD TIME GARDEN TIPS

Here’s a trick to keep the woodchucks from stealing carrots from your garden. Fill glass gallon jugs with water and place them around your garden. The woodchucks see their reflections and, apparently thinking it’s another animal, run away. Sounds silly but it works.

If you’d like to force hornets, bees and wasps to move out, try hanging moth cakes on your deck, under the eaves, or anywhere else they like to build their nests. They don’t like the smell so they fly far away and call somewhere else home. "

Article taken from this site.