It is all right. After all, I know that - as is the case with any season - it cannot last forever. A fact, which I suddenly realized is true about the situations in our lives, as well. But that is a musing for another time... *wink*
Things are going well on this end with regard to the transition of seasons, though. I've already sewn the seeds for the red cabbage in the square foot garden... Another experiment, as I've never grown it previously. So, we shall see how that goes...
My tomatoes and sweet peppers had a less than stellar turn out this year. They did yield some "fruit", but not much. Will have to do more in the way of fertilizer next year, I'm thinking. (My IMG says "duh!", but I remind her that it is all a learning experience, and it is better to do this now, than when my family is most dependent upon it, right?)
Another experiment that I took up this week was that of the homemade dishwasher detergent...
We already make our own laundry detergent. (I'll share the recipe at another time for those who don't already know it *wink*) So, I figured that it wouldn't be too difficult and very cost effective, given that we already have the makings for it on hand.
Now, admittedly, DH has tried it in the past, but I wasn't too impressed. We have REALLY hard water here, so filmy residue was a problem. So, we stopped using it. I started using the Cascade gel packs recently, which worked REALLY well, but are SO costly. There just HAD to be a homemade solution...
Using my powers of Google-Fu, I came across a recipe or two that I've been playing with and tweeking this week, and I think I have come up with the secret combination...
In the pre-wash cup, I place the following:
- 1/2 TBSP Borax
- 1/2 TBSP Washing Soda
- 3 Vit C tablets - ground up (Quite a few recipes call for citric acid or Lemon Kool-Aid packets, but after talking with DH, this was an adequate solution for us and something we already had on hand.)
I fill the main cup and the rinse agent reservoir with vinegar. (I usually use white vinegar, but ran out of that the other day, and don't plan to resupply until payday. So, I did use apple cider vinegar because I still had a couple of bottles on hand. It did seem to work just as well, though.)
Maybe it'll work for you! Just remember, though, that it might require a bit of tweaking on your part to get it to work for your particular machine and type of water. Good luck to you!
