Chickens and Snow

Chickens and snow don’t mix.

This is our coop.  It is one of those aluminum storage buildings that we retrofitted into a coop.  It works well.

Here are our chickens and guineas being reluctant to enter out into snow land.  They waited until it was all melted before venturing out.

This is Maybe, our Dominique rooster.  He is quite the character and loves to be outside the pen and coop.  Evidently, he doesn’t care about the snow being cold on his feet.

Even the guineas didn’t want to get out in the snow.  Silly birds!

What We’ve Been Up To

It’s been forever since I’ve even been to my own website, much less put anything on it!  Sorry, life just gets in the way and I have to make time for other things.  I am going to try and make time to update more often.  But, in the mean time, this is some of the things that we have been up to.

I have been busy getting rid of this.

Paper clutter!

All this paper came from our HUGE 4 drawer file cabinet.  We recently updated our printer/scanner and I’ve been making the scanner tired   All our files have been put on our computer now, in what I call the ‘virtual file cabinet.’  Now, once I’m completely done, we can move that file cabinet beast out of our house and into somebody elses.

We have also been playing this a lot.

We got Mario Cart for our Wii while my Momma was here right after Christmas.  Even she joined in on the fun!

We had a bunch of snow in January and Big A still wanted to do this.

We cleaned out the bird houses and took this super cute picture of my son.

We’ve been getting a lot of use out of these.

It’s been so rainy and mushy around here.  The kids always are wearing their boots.  Love some boots around here.

Been reading some books.

And obviously taking pictures

I have always said this and I believe it to be true.  Our girl will be the first to visit the ER.  Man, is she fearless.

She races Bryce up to the top of the driveway and races him down.  Bryce is riding without training wheels!

These are just a few of the things that we have been up to.  What have you been up to?

7 Foods So Unsafe Even Farmers Won’t Eat Them – Planet Green

7 Foods So Unsafe Even Farmers Won’t Eat Them – Planet Green.

What Can I Do?

Since I don’t know who my readers are, I am going to cater this post to those who have no idea how to ‘step softly.’  This list is just a start to the many, many ways that you can make a difference.  I will try to blog about these individually . . . uh . . . later.

• Air dry your laundry on a clothesline

• Bake your own bread

• Buy as much organic food as you can

• Eat a vegetarian diet

• Compost all food and yard waste

• Don’t use paper anything, including paper towels, napkins, tissues and if you’re ready– toilet paper

• Use cloth everything, diapers, wipes, tissues, for cleaning, etc

• Use cloth shopping bags

• Eat local and buy local

• Grow food organically—in your own garden

• Keep your thermostat low in the winter and high in the summer

• Recycle everything, or as much as you can

• Use 100% recycled toilet paper, or cloth (see above)

• Use a DivaCup or cloth mama pads

• Use low-flow shower heads

• Use natural yard care practices

• Use a Kleen Kanteen instead of bottled water

• Take one of these to the coffee shop

• Don’t buy disposable items, or single-use items

• Look for less packaging on the things you buy

• Buy more in bulk to reduce packaging

• Store food items in glass containers.  Get rid of your plastic

• Use every side of a piece of paper before you recycle it

• Don’t get a receipt from something you purchase unless you absolutely need it

• Use homemade natural cleaners

• Decrease your amount of garbage

• Use hand dryers in public restrooms instead of paper towels

• Rinse/reuse plastic bags and aluminum foil

• Use glass jars for storing food in fridge and for bulk items

• De-clutter and donate continually.  If you buy something new, get rid of something

• Don’t buy anything new.  Shop at thrift stores

• Use all natural body care products

• Replaced your Teflon stainless steel or cast iron

• Wash only full loads of laundry and wash on cold

This is not an exhaustive list by any means.  These are just ones that I could come up with off the top of my head.  Most of these can be undertaken pretty easily.

Have You Made The Switch Yet?

Okay, so male readers (I don’t think I even have any male readers) no need to continue any further.  I’m warning you . . .

I love my Diva Cup.  My Diva what?  The Diva Cup is a soft, silicone “cup” that is a menstrual alternative to tampons and pads.  It is extremely comfortable, easy to clean and very reliable.  It saves me tons on tampons, pads and pantiliners.  It is latex, chlorine, dye, BPA, phthalate and coloring free.  Did I mention that you can wear it for 12 hours?  Yippee!

If you are looking for an alternative in menstrual products and want to make less impact on the environment–look no further!  Check out these statistics from Diva Cup’s site.

Women, on average, experience a lifetime menstruation span of 41 years (11-52). From use of disposable feminine hygiene, an estimated 12 billion sanitary pads and 7 billion tampons are dumped into the North American environment each year (1998). More than 170,000 tampon applicators were collected along U.S. coastal areas between 1998 and 1999. Our revolutionary, reusable product is a modern, viable alternative to disposable tampons and pads.

Most tampons and pads contain surfactants, adhesives and additives. In addition, most pads contain polyethylene plastic whose production is a pollutant. Also, dioxin, a known carcinogen, is a by-product of the bleaching process of tampons containing rayon. In landfills, many of these substances can leach into the environment (groundwater, streams and lakes) causing serious pollution and health concerns.

Before making the switch to the Diva Cup a year and a half ago, I was already using Natracare’s applicator-free tampons.  They worked great, but I wanted something different.  I wanted to stop putting my chlorine-free, certified organic, 100% cotton , plastic free tampons into the landfill.  I felt like I was making a difference–but I could do more.  I switched to the Diva Cup and haven’t looked back.

The Diva Cup leaks very little.  If it is adjusted and inserted correctly, there is NO leakage.  A lot of women don’t even use backup at all.  I do choose to occasionally use some handmade mama cloth pantiliners that I purchased off Etsy.  They are organic hemp/undyed cotton, so soft and very comfortable.

You may be thinking, “That’s gross!”  Well . . . at first it is a little messy . . . I do admit that.  There is a learning curve, but it is easy to master after a few cycles.  Don’t give up!  Also, there is no odor involved with a Diva Cup.  Supposedly the odor comes from when your period is exposed to air.  Since the Diva Cup is worn inside your body, that doesn’t happen.

Have I convinced you yet?  Are you going to make the switch?