Paper: The Eco-Friendly Alternative

If you’re like me, you often look for ways to use up less paper. You print on both sides of the paper, reuse the back of used paper, and make sure to put used paper products in the recycling bin.

But thanks to improved technology and vigorous tree-planting efforts, paper is now a very eco-friendly alternative. This infographic tells us why:

An All-Natural Cleaner That Really Works? Yes, Please!

How do you keep your oven door clean and clear?

This problem has plagued me since I made oven baked fried chicken in a cast-iron skillet. And because I don’t use chemical-laden products, my options have been limited. Vinegar and baking soda are great for cleaning almost anything. But greasy oven doors with baked-in gunk? Not so good.

So for the longest time, I put up with an oven door so dirty, I couldn’t clearly see what I was baking.

That is, until I discovered Universal Stone Cleaner.

I’m going to pause from typing now, because, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words:Continue reading

5 Homemaking eBooks for only $7.40 — Today Only!

Do you love eBooks as much as I do?

I used to think they could never replace printed books, which I do still love.

But eBooks don’t take up space on my bookshelves. When waiting with nothing else to do, I have access to dozens of them through my iPhone or iPad.

The best part of all is they’re usually a lot less expensive than their printed counterparts.

If you’re also an eBook junkie, now’s a good time to load up on them.

BundleoftheWeek.com is making available their best-sellers this week only. These popular bundles are available for 24 hours each this week. That’s 5 books for only $7.40 — that’s $1.48 for each eBook!

Today the special offer is the Homemaking Bundle, which includes the following titles:Continue reading

6 Tips for Boosting the Family Income

Unfortunately, the economy is not recovering enough to result in substantial salary increases. According to some sources, salaries were up less than 2% in both 2011 and 2012. This means that many people are turning to income streams beyond their main jobs.

So here are 6 tips for boosting the family income. Some are easier than you’d think! Continue reading

Make Your Own Compost Tea!

If you’re into organic gardening like me, you’ve probably heard or are already using compost tea. I’ve never used it, but I’m about to get started — you’ll learn more about it in this post.

Compost tea is essentially water infused with compost. It has all the beneficial microorganisms and nutrients of compost, but in liquid form, which may be more convenient to apply.

Traditionally, compost tea was just water steeped in compost for a few days. This seemed to work well for gardeners and farmers of old.

Nowadays, though, that way is not recommended. Apparently you can get a lot of non-aerobic microorganisms that way — microorganisms that may not be good for your plants after all. The new, and presumably better, way to make compost tea is to aerate it. While the compost is steeping in the water, the water is being aerated. The aeration and agitation of the water makes the beneficial microorganisms detach from the soil part of the compost to mix in with the water. Afterwards, you apply the compost tea either as a foliar spray or a soil drench.

As you can imagine, you need special equipment to create aerated compost tea. If you Google it, you’ll find dozens of detailed instructions for making your own compost tea brewer.

But some people prefer to get the whole kit and kaboodle and forego with the guesswork. Those people include me. So I approached Titan Controls to let me review their compost tea brewer, the Flo-n-Brew compost tea brewer. They agreed to give me a complimentary compost tea brewing system to review on my blog. I received my Flo-n-Brew recently. Here’s what I got:Continue reading