SOLAR CELL PHONE CHARGING STATION

Our apartment just put this station in the pool area...

It's sponsored by one of the local power companies.

There are cables running down the center pole that are for various devices, including phones, tablets and e-readers.

Cell Phone Solar Power Charging Station

And it's all powered by the sun!  

Yep, the three "wings" at the top are solar panels and charge batteries inside the pole.  What a brilliant idea this is.  We love to see little things like this...it's the little things that eventually add up to bigger things and slowly, the world gets a bit 'greener'.  We'd love one of these at the farm, LOL!

GREEN OFFICE BUILDING IN HOUSTON

When I was standing in line recently at a local farmers market in downtown Houston, I was glancing around at this office building and got to wondering "what are those things on on the roof?"  So I had to do some research and found the following:

This is the City of Houston's Permitting Center building.  It was a 1920's rice warehouse that they rehabbed into a usable modern space.  There are awesome features inside, including light shafts for natural lighting, showers for employees that bike to work, and a green bike loaner program that allows employees to borrow bikes for short errands during the work day.  

But the neatest part is the roof.  The objects on the roof are urban wind turbines (by Honeywell).  They are connected to a weather station on the ground that can control them based on weather conditions.

Honeywell Urban Wind Turbine

And what you can't see from the ground is that that in addition to the wind turbines, the roof is covered in solar panels.  This building is completely self powered and sells energy back to the grid.

Solar and wind, Houston building, image courtesy of CityofHouston.gov

It's nice to see city buildings do this, we just wish there were more.  We would love to have solar and/or wind at the farm.  We have researched options and it might be viable for us, in time.  We've actually thought about doing it in parts, perhaps powering the barn and shed with solar first.  And maybe a solar panel and battery set up in the garden area.  If nothing else immediately, we will choose solar operating lighting for different parts of the property.

As for wind, not sure how to incorporate that but we're looking at options.  

It's a beautiful weekend here, cold (30's/40's) but sunny and clear.  We are sending warm wishes (and stay safe) to those in the NE United States who are enduring the wrath of Winter Storm Jonas...

WOOL DRYER BALLS REVIEW

We were recently sent some items to review.  The first of these are eco-friendly wool dryer balls and came to us courtesy of "Double Up Farm".  They are handmade from the wool of their Romney sheep.  

The direct link to them on ETSY is HERE 

You simply toss all three of them into your dryer with your wet clothing and turn it on to your normal setting.

Let them tumble around.  I even caught one on camera through the glass front of our dryer as it was spinning around doing its thing.  

After you are done, you can just leave the in your dryer as we did here, so they are ready for the next load.  This keeps you from forgetting the next time around. 

Double Up Farm All Natural Wool Dryer Balls

They say a set is good for about 500 loads of laundry.  That's about 3 cents per load...definitely much cheaper than buying and throwing away regular sheets.

They come in a package of three in a handmade bag that we'll find another use for as well (we're keeping the balls in the dryer all the time).  We don't like to use fabric softener sheets because they have chemicals and usually a scent that is sometimes off-putting. Double Up Farm will add essential oil scent to these if you wish but they come standard with no scent.  Hmm, come to think of it, a lavender set might be nice for sheets and pillowcases!

We wish there was a way to convey how soft the items were when they came out of the dryer.  Our towels and t-shirts were much softer than they had been before.  It was a noticeable difference.  And if you are wondering if any wool fibers or hairs were released, nope, we had some black dress socks that always seem to attract random fibers and they were free of wool.  No chemicals, no fake smell, and best of all, no waste to throw away when done.  The best of living green!

I'm sure that as we use them week after week in our laundry, they will only makes things softer.  We can't wait to watch (and feel) that happen.  These will definitely be on our list from now on.

So a huge shout out and thank you to DOUBLE UP FARM.  Please stop by their website or their ETSY SHOP and say hello.  And pick up some all natural wool dryer balls, you won't regret it.  

LEMON JUICE AND VINEGAR FIRE ANT KILLER

 EQUAL PARTS:

Several of you asked about the Fire Ant killer I used, it's a simple mixture of lemon juice and vinegar poured over the ant mound.  It's all natural and has worked well for us. I poured about 2 cups total over the large mound we had.  Hope it helps!

COMPOST TOOLS

What in the heck are these?

Closeup of compost turner and how it works

No, they are not the latest in zombie killing tools from an upcoming episode of The Walking Dead TV show.  No, they are a pair of "Compost Turners" that I bought when we got our bins last month.  They were out at the time and I went ahead and bought them and just picked them up the other day.

Here is how they work:

Compost Turner by Orbis

You push it down into the compost pile, and as it goes in, the hinged end closes so it travels downward into the compost.  Then when you pull up on it, the hinged head opens up and creates resistance so that it mixes the compost, or turns it, as you pull up.  You simply do this several times up and down.  We bought two because we figured we might spend half our time walking back and forth to each compost bin as we forget the turner...plus if one fails, we'll at least have a backup.

Compost Turners at Amazon

These are made by the same company that helped sponsor the bin and rain barrel sale with the city, But at the link above, you can see that several different types are sold via Amazon.  You never know, it could be a neat gift for someone you know that has a compost bin.

DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE BOOK GIVEAWAY.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER. NOW CLOSED

THE EARTH MACHINE COMPOSTER

This is the compost bin that we got at the recent City of Houston sale I blogged about last week.  It is the EARTH MACHINE, which is also sold at many retailers.  We were able to get it via the city for a steeply discounted price and we bought two of them so we could double our fun, ha.

They came packaged like this, the top half inside the bottom half, along with a manual and some earth anchor screws.

It was pretty easy to assemble.  You line up the arrows on the top half with the bottom half and then the tabs snap into place.  All that's left is to snap the door into place and find a spot for it to go.

Once you pick the spot, there are four of these long plastic screws that they call 'earth anchors'.  The are just screwed into the ground and surprisingly, they work really well to stabilize it.

This is where we put them, one in each corner of the back side of the garden area.  They are inside the fence so that they are somewhat more animal resistant.  You can also reach over the top and unscrew the lid to add material to it without having to go in the garden.

The lid has a nice little reminder for composting, "no meat, fats, bones".

Both of them already have some grass clippings, leaves, coffee grounds, and some vegetable scraps we saved during the week in town.  I tore up a small cardboard box and tossed in there as well.  I snapped this picture and then added some more clippings on top.

Beginning compost

We are excited to start our new adventure in composting!

Any tips or advice is always appreciated.

HOUSTON RAIN BARREL AND COMPOST BIN SALE

So today, the City of Houston had a really neat sale.  This group goes around the country and they come up with a deal for the various cities and then sell rain barrels and compost bins at discounted prices to residents.

Above are the two items they had, we got this flyer in our water bill a couple of weeks ago.  We debated on the rain barrel but a) we don't have gutters on the farm house yet and b) I'd really like to make our own.

So we opted for compost bins.  Two of them!

Rain barrel and compost bin sale Houston

So, on an overcast cool morning in the shadow of downtown skyscrapers, people started  showing up. I got there about 15 minutes before the sale started...

Standing room only

...and this was already the line...

People in line for the rain barrel sale

...and it continued down and around the block.  Hundreds of people.  It was really kind of nice to see actually, all these people taking home rain barrels and compost bins.  It's got to start somewhere, right?

Rain barrel and compost bin sale

There were two 18 wheelers filled with the goodies.  It took about an hour to get to the front of the line.  They had a pretty efficient operation going on.

Rain barrels for sale

Rain barrels galore!

Compost bins for sale

Compost bins galore!

And this adorable little one, I would presume, is the next generation!  Actually, there were many kids there, I think that's really nice to see as well.

More on our purchases later!

BEES WAX LUBRICATING COMPOUND BY LUNDMARK

Beeswax Lubricating Compound

Have you all ever used this stuff?  I just discovered it the other day at a local hardware store (mom and pop type store, not the big box type).

I used it on some wood screws and they screwed into the wood perfectly without even drilling a pilot hole first.  I'm going to try it next on a drawer on a piece of furniture that is constantly sticking.  It looks like it has a long list of uses, and I'm looking forward to trying them out.  I like that it's all 100% natural, no chemicals, nothing that will hurt you or the environment. If you can find some, you should try it, it's pretty neat.

It would be even neater if we could sometime get this from our own hives!

REUSING PLASTIC LINEN PACKAGES

If you're like us, you often buy something, maybe a curtain panel or a set of sheets or a table linen of some sort, and they come packaged in those zippered pouches.  After you take out your item, the package probably goes right into the trash.  But why throw out a perfectly good storage item?  

Package almost ready to be used

Case in point, here is a recent package we got.  We bought sheets for the farm (these courtesy of Overstock.com) and so we ended up with two of these nice, heavy plastic packages, complete with a zippered top.  

Empty Package

Simply remove the large cardboard that describes the item or, if there is a smaller one such as this, often in a pocket or pouch on the inside of the package, just turn it around and you can use the blank side for labeling as you desire.  Then, just put anything you'd like to store inside, zip the top closed and you're done.

Tablecloth storage

Here is a large one of ours that we use to keep various tablecloths in that we use for different occasions.  They stay folded up and safely stored away.

Curtain / Valence storage

Here are some smaller ones (I think they originally had small curtains in them), and now we are using them to store window valences that we switch out seasonally over our kitchen window.

Candle Storage

Here is yet another one that contains all the extra candles we use in the dining room candle chandelier.  We have a 2nd one that is full of tea light candles, and you know how hard those are to store away, always falling all over the place.

Keeping them all together in a basket

We often store them in baskets that we keep in cabinets around the house.  The best part of this is that you are using something that would otherwise be destined for a landfill, and because they are almost always zippered, you have safe, dust free storage of whatever you want to put in there.  Plus, being clear, you can immediately see what you have.  Pull them out a year later and they are as good as the day you put them in there.

Usually the bigger the item you buy, the bigger the package you'll get.  Quilts or bedspreads/comforters give you a nice size bag with lots of storage room, maybe for your own homemade quilt or something larger you want to keep stored away.  I use one large one to store all the others until I need them.  That sort of makes them like "nesting packages", LOL!  Then whenever I need one, I know where to look to find the size I need.

It's just a great way to always have the things you need in one place at a moment's notice, safe, clean and ready to be used.  It's frugal AND green!


Hope this helps!

NEW TRASH CAN AND RENEW TRASH BAGS

We found a really nice stainless trashcan on sale the other day and that was something that we didn't have for the farm just yet.  It's really nice, a good size (13 gallon), and has a removable inner bin to keep things clean.

It's funny how finding a location for something so important as a trash can is not very easy in a hew home.  We tried the mudroom first.  Then we moved it around the kitchen about three more times before we found its permanent home.  This is still in the kitchen, but close enough to the guest room, the master bedroom and the living room to be a great central location.  

We also found these awesome new (new to us anyway!) trash bags made by Hefty brand.  They are made with 65% recycled plastic and we love that.
It helps us keep things "green" at the farm.

Slowly but surely, things are falling into place.

HOUSTON WATER RESTRICTIONS LIFTED

We got an email from the City of Houston, saying that because of the recent heavy rains and the cooler weather, they have lifted the water restrictions.

 That's good news of course, though my guess is that it's short lived.  They are talking about the drought continuing into next Summer, so any rains we get until then will just replenish what we lost and not even get us back to the pre-drought levels.  But still, it's good and welcome news.

 In their email, they asked people to voluntarily continue to conserve water and seeing that it's such a precious commodity, I agree 100%.  They sent out a list of tips on water conservation and so I thought I would share.

Every drop is precious

 Ways to use water wisely:

• Keep showers under five minutes.  Water save: 2 to 5 gallons per minute
• Remember to turn off water while brushing your teeth
• Wash only full loads of dishes or clothes
• Replace older model shower heads and faucet aerators with new low-flow models and install low water use toilets
• Inspect toilets for silent leaks by putting food coloring in the toilet tank.  If colored water leaks into the toilet bowl before flushing, water is being lost due to a worn our flapper
• Refrain from washing any vehicle or motorbike unless the dirt poses a driving hazard
• Refrain from washing down any sidewalk, walkway, driveway, parking lot or any other hard surfaced area
• Refrain from filling, refilling, or adding water to any indoor or outdoor swimming pool or spa