Saturday Morning at Otsego Festival

Mason prepares for the bike parade to start.

Meghan also gets geared up. Almost ready to go.

Meghan rides in the back of a fire truck.

Mason drives the fire truck.

Landon gets a sword from the clown.

Mason chooses a hat from the clown.

Meghan chooses a pretty flower (moms favorite)

FED UP!!

I have HAD it! I am FED up!

I could not bring myself to buy ONE MORE bottle of over-priced, wastefully-packaged laundry detergent. Now, I’m no eco-nazi (far from it), but buying those big bottles of laundry detergent, lugging them home and then turning around and throwing them away was definitely starting to get to me. I mean seriously….what a waste! Not to mention the COST! I won’t do it!

I just happened to come across a picture someone posted on Pinterest of their “Homemade” laundry detergent! Call me naive, but it had never even occurred to me that you could MAKE your own detergent! I did a little research online and decided to give it at try. It turns out it’s actually quite easy and smells wonderful!!

The main thing you have to get used to is it hardly make any suds at all. At first this is a bit unnerving …but the more I read about it online…I realized that “suds” are not what gets our clothes CLEAN. As a matter of fact, as with dish washing liquid, the suds are totally cosmetic and add no cleaning value. Less suds is actually better for our clothes.

I started out tonight making 2 gallons. Here are the ingredients needed.

1 bar grated Fels Naptha soap 1 cup of Borax 1 cup of (arm and hammer) washing soda

Step 1. Grate your bar of soap into your pot.

Step 2. Pour one gallon water into pot with grated soap. Cook until the grated soap dissolves.

Step 3. Add the Borax and washing soda. Bring to a boil. It will coagulate.

Step 4. Turn off the heat. Add 1 gallon of cold water. Stir well.

Step 5. Pour into your container.

Now you have 2 gallons of homemade laundry detergent. I use 1/2 to 1 cup per load depending on how dirty you clothes are. With the prices of detergent being outrageous, I feel really happy every time I make a batch of this.

The Best part: Cost per load is approximately .04!!

Makeover

Who is next?

Brighton Beach

After our trip to Soup Lake, We made a short stop at Brighton Beach to check it out.

This was the first time I had been there. Its very peaceful and pretty. I love the rock beaches. This photo was taken about 2 seconds before Mason slipped off the rock and fell in.

Look at how clear the lake is?

Meghan Loves the water even if its like 30 degrees.

This is Masons "cheese" pose

Landon likes throwing the rocks in, he would be there all day doing it if we let him.

Grandma keeps a eye on the boys

Throwing rocks

Meghan Loves it here and wants to stay.

Trying to feed the ducks sunflower seeds

On our way up to Soup Lake for the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa

Silver Creek Cliff Tunnel

Mighty fine view of Soup Lake

Everyone fishing on the dock

Like Mother, Like Son... Fishing line caught in a tree :>)The kids looking for Buddy the chipmunk at his house.

Buddy knows there is peanuts, he heads out to get to the kids. Meghan feeds him.

The kids wait for him to eat his peanut and come back for more.

Meghan and her dead minnow

Mason with his dead minnow.

(Beauty, aint she?)

Fact: If humans had the physical abilities of mice, they could easily jump over tall buildings in a single bound, out run a speeding bullet, hear a whisper or smell food a mile away, and carve a large totem pole with our front teeth in a normal 8 hour work day.

Their natural enemies include humans, cats, foxes, snakes, owls, hawks, and sometimes dogs.

Did I mention we are now in the market for a cat, fox, snake, owl and hawk?

Last year we decided to store our 12ft pop up camper at the land we purchased in Holyoke MN. Ryan laughed as I emptied all the curtains, cushions and anything that could catch a foul odor during storage. Little did he know, I did the right thing.

We pulled it up in the driveway and proceded to pop it open.

WE HAD BEEN INVATED!

Scattered across the counter tops, floors and beds were these little black rice sized droppings interspersed with acorn shells. Further investigation revealed shredded insulation that had been used to make these nice little cloud soft nests in the drawers and cabinets. We spent the afternoon cleaning out the nests, vacuuming up the acorns and droppings, and disinfecting all of the drawers with a bleach solution. I also patched multiple holes of canvas and and now and forever will be patching screens with needles!!

Our visitors are no longer cute furry little critters with big black eyes nor the cartoon dipected creatures dining on a feast of cheese! No, these were uninvited invaders — enemies of the state trespassing on protected soil!

Ryan has caught one thanks to the help of the kids and we know there is at least 1-2 more that came along for the ride from Holyoke. Traps, poison and Bounce Dryer sheets are not the solution to abating this type of invasion. In the military, a commander will quickly tell you that if you want to win a war, you must know your enemy. Where they sleep, what they eat, how they think, what they value and what weapons they have at their disposal. I knew if I was going to win this war, I must approach it like a true military commander. I must, in my own mind, become a mouse!!! GAME ON RODENTS!

(You must know, I will not be hunting, that is Ryan's job)

The mice in our camper completely soiled the ruffled valance around the top of the camper. I was not going to be cleaning mouse pee out... Gross. We ripped it out completly and I became Martha Stuart....

Do I sew?? Um, absolutely not! But so far, pretty good results. May I ad, its a much updated touch to the 1996 flowered pattern that was in prior.

Check out those pleats!!!

More to come on the revamp.....