End Of Week

I love Friday evenings. All my family are home by 5 and we just sit around  enjoying not having to be anywhere for a few days. As I am writing this my hubby and son are catching up on NBA stuff and NCAA basketball.  I am sitting here in front of my wood stove listening to them arguing over whether something was a foul. The kettle is on the stove and cup of hot tea is in my future.

Its been a crazy week on the urban farm. We started with pretty warm weather, then snow, then temps dropping to 17 and the furnace not working. The boy was sick but even when he started feeling better his medicine cause him to be sick. The hubby had a stomach bug and while we are freezing we are getting texts from the girl who is spending her spring break with my sister with their legs in the sand.

I tried a few new cleaning recipes this week and I am quite pleased with them both. One is for   cleaning wipes and the other a homemade dish soap. I feel so guilty when I use paper towels for cleaning, I love the idea of cleaning wipes but the ones you buy are a little pricey plus all the chemicals that are in them. The dish soap worked great on getting a casserole dish with baked lasagna clean. It has a little bit of fractionized coconut oil in it and it really help soften things stuck to your dishes plus softens your hands.

Dish Soap
1 1/2 cup of cooled boiled water
1 cup of unscented castile soap
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp fractionized coconut oil
12 drops grapefruit oil
8 drops tea tree oil

Put in a pump bottle and give a little shake each time you use. This takes a little getting use to because its not as sudsy as what we are use to but it gets the dishes clean.

Not Clorox Wipes

Rags or buy bar towels at Walmart for $5 for 8 cloths

2 cups water
1/2 cup rubbing alcohol
2 Tablespoons Dawn dish soap ( I haven't completely given up my dawn)
2 Tablespoons ammonia (optional) I did use this but if you do make sure your dawn is the old fashioned kind and does not contain bleach. Ammonia+bleach=fumes)

As you can see in the picture I recycled a large peanut butter container for my wipes and a Mrs Meyers hand soap container for my dish soap. If all my dish soap wont fit in the container I just store it in a mason jar. I do not have a dishwasher so it doesnt take long to use it up.

I hope to get a few pictures of our raised garden beds this weekend. We have several things growing, tomato and pepper seeds started today, onion sets ready to be put out and lots of herbs to get started. Have great weekend.