Yucca Shampoo – Make your own

Some of the Yucca flowers in my yard.

For hundreds of years, the southwest Native Americans used the dry root of the Yucca plant for shampoo. During the 1970's it was the “in” thing for everyone to buy shampoo with yucca in it. The yucca plant does leave the hair looking shinny and beautiful. This is because the Yucca root contains a natural saponin which softly lathers when used with water. It helps to prevent dandruff and some say that it helps to prevent hair loss. Now days though, it can be rather difficult to find commercially made shampoo that has Yucca in it. 

The Yucca plant.

Making shampoo from the yucca plant is not difficult at all. To do so:

1. Dig up a small to medium size plant.
2. Remove all dirt and chop the the roots into manageable size pieces. (About 1 inch cubes seems to work best for me.)
3. Peel off the brown outside layer of the root, cutting off the hairlike extensions..
4. Use a hammer or rock to pulverize the root pieces into the pulp. You know you have smashed them enough when the pieces turn from white to light yellow.
5. Your shampoo is now finished. You can either freeze it or dehydrate it for later use. To deydrate it, place onto a cookie sheet and place into 225 F degree oven for an hour or two or until all the moisture has evaporated and the root no longer feels sticky.. Or you can dehydrate by allowing to set in the sun. Store in a dry, cool place in an air tight container. If you freeze it, allow to thaw before attempting to use.
6. To use: Put a small amount into a bag made out of cheesecloth. Close the bag and wet it. Squeeze the bag with yucca root to dispense the lather onto your hair. Wash as you normally do.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Homemade Mosquito Repellent

It is that time of the year again...stick your head outside the door and you will probably get bitten by a mosquito. Unless, of course, you either spray yourself with a commercial insect repellent, or you spray yourself with a homemade (usually healthier alternative) repellent.

There are a lot of recipes online for insect repellant, but the three that seem to work the best for me, can be found at Yahoo Voices , You have three different recipes to choose from.

Another idea is to incorporate plants in your landscaping that repel mosquitoes.  Eartheasy Blog has a list of five easy to grow plants that help to repel mosquitoes.

Some of the other things that you can do to help prevent mosquitoes from biting you are:

• Wear white colored clothing
• Don't allow standing water to become stagnant. Clean out birdbaths daily and remove things like discarded car tires or other items where moisture and rain collects in your yard.
• Keep your grass, hedges, and other vegetation, mowed and trimmed. 

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Freezing Fruits

Fruit that I put into the freezer today. (Click onto image for the details.)  I ended up freezing 4 pints sour cherries, 10 pints of rhubarb, and 4 pints total of mulberries. It was an awesome day. Thanks for viewing and visiting my blog.

Blog Update and Jury Duty

Some of the flowers blooming today in my yard.

I know that it has been almost a week since I blogged last, but I will try next week to start blogging again more often. I have just been really busy here of late. For the first time in my life I was summoned for jury duty and I had a lot of things to get done on the homestead before I had to report for jury duty. Now I have mulberries to get made into jelly, rhubarb to put up, and several other projects to do yet this week.

While I did not get seated as a juror, I was interviewed as potential juror for a local case in our county. I guess that it had been highly publicized case at the time the incident happened, but I didn't remember hearing anything about it. Because some of the stuff that was involved in this case, the defense attorney was quizzing the potential jurors about their tv viewing habits and where they get their news. The following is the dialog between the defense attorney and myself while being interviewed as a potential juror:

 Defense Attorney: Do you watch any criminal shows on tv?
 Me: no
 Defense Attorney: What do you watch on tv?
 Me: The weather
 Defense Attorney: (in total disbelief) Nothing else?
 Me: No
 Defense Attorney: Where do you get your news from?
 Me: the internet
 Defense Attorney: Do you go online often?
 Me: Yes
 Defense Attorney: You don't watch tv but you go online? Why is that Ms.__(my name)__?
 Me: Because all my friends live in my computer and I trust **them**.
 (Courtroom erupts in laughter for about 5 minutes...even the judge was laughing)
 Defense Attorney: Let's try that again Ms __(my name)__, where online do you get your news from?
 Me: Facebook
 (Again the courtroom erupts in laughter...this time the judge was laughing so hard she had tears running down her face)
 End of questioning for me.  

<lol> Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

DIY Weed Killer Recipe

There are many ways to get rid of weeds in your yard and garden. The number one way of course is to master the art of weed pulling. This is especially efficient and less like likely to kill the plants, like spray weed killers do, that you want to keep in your garden or yard. Simply pull the weeds and discard them.

There are places though that are hard to reach which make it difficult to pull the weeds. For example, in the cracks of sidewalks, in driveways, or in gravel. It is important to get those weeds out because leaving them there can destroy the cement and cause for costly repairs or replacement. Using a spray weed killer in these places is the best thing to do.

We used to use Roundup® and it worked very well. But several times we would run out of the stuff and have to either make an extra trip to buy more or just wait until the next time we went to the store. Neither one of those options were working out well for us. So we started to make our own, and in my opinion, it seems to do just as well as the commercial brand stuff.

WARNING: Only spray this solution on the plants that you want to get rid of. It is not discriminatory and will kill all plants that it is sprayed on. You might want to use the stream setting on the nozzle of your spray bottle to keep better control of exactly which plants the solution is being sprayed onto.

Weed Killer Recipe

2 cups vinegar

3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

2 Tablespoons Rubbing Alcohol

2 teaspoons dish soap

Mix and pour into a spray bottle. Put top onto bottle and spray onto weeds. Some people dilute the mixture by adding 2 ounces of water, but I use it full strength.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Lesson from a Rose

Heirloom tea rose from my garden.

This morning I picked the tea rose pictured above from one of my rose bushes in my yard. While this may seem trite and mundane thing to do, certainly not something to blog about, it taught me a wonderful lesson about what homesteading is all about. It taught me that homesteading is not only about something that we do for ourselves for today, but that it also is about being a bridge to the past and the future. It is our belief that life will go on long after we are gone.

The rose is from a start from a bush that my great-grandmother planted around 100 years ago. Last summer, I brought a start from that bush to my homestead in suburbs and this summer it has several blooms which give off a wonderful aroma around my yard. Along with that fragrance came a wonderful lesson.

No doubt when my great-grandmother planted the rose, she wasn't thinking about others that might enjoy it. She probably planted it for just as a pretty thing to help brighten up the farm. To her it was probably a small and insignificant thing to do. Yet, today, I am enjoying the fruits of her labor as I look at and smell that rose. And every time I do, I think of her and smile a smile of gratitude for what she did. Later on today, her great-great-great grandchildren will also be enjoying something that came from what she did. The lesson this rose teaches is that something that one does that may seem so insignificant and small at the time, but can bring so much joy and happiness to countless number of people for generations to come.

While you are working on your gardens, fruit trees, or doing other things around your homestead., take satisfaction in that not only are you doing it for yourself, or a “just in case” thing, but instead you might be doing something that will bring joy to, or providing food for, others in the long and distant future. You will be bridging the past with the future because you are taking the time to homestead. To learn the ways of the past and bring it into the present world. It may not seem like much today, but who knows what impact it will have on others. For that, we are indeed a very blessed and privileged people.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Margarine Recipe Made from Powdered Milk – Make Your Own

I have found that there is no need to buy margarine at the store, when it is so easy to make your own. Not to mention healthier for you and cheaper. In my humble opinion, homemade margarine tastes a lot better as well.

Shirley's Notes:

• I used vegetable oil only because it was the handiest for me. As far as I know, any kind of cooking oil can be used. Of course the type of oil that you use will affect the taste of the margarine.
• I haven't tried this, but you could add herbs to the end product.
• I have used this in cooking and for spreading. I have not tried it in baking yet so I don't know if it would work or not for that.
• If you want your margarine yellow, but are opposed to food dyes, you can still get a yellow tint to your margarine by grating a carrot and simmering it in milk until the milk turns yellow. Replace the 6 tablespoons of water in the recipe with 6 tablespoons of the yellow milk.

Recipe:

7 Tablespoons powdered milk

6 Tablespoons water

½ teaspoon salt

12 ½ oz (375 ml) cooking oil

Yellow food coloring (optional)

Place powdered milk, water, salt, and food coloring (if desired) into a bowl. Using a mixer, beat until mixture has thicken and is smooth.

Slowly add oil to mixture while continuously beating the mixture. Beat at high speed until the margarine ends up being thick and smooth like store bought margarine. If it isn't thick enough, just add a little more powered milk to achieve the correct consistency.

Store in refrigerator. Yield: About 1 ¾ pounds

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Liquid Laundry Detergent – Make Your Own

It is no secret that laundry detergent is getting expensive. Right now, where we live at, the cheapest laundry detergent that we can buy costs $6.25 for 40 loads. If I make it myself, it costs around $3.25 for around 180 + loads. (Cost may vary depending on the prices where you live at.) It is very simple to make and works just as well as the commercial brands.

What You Will Need:

• 4+ cups hot tap water
• 1 bar Fels-Naptha soap
• 1 cup Washing soda (not baking soda)
• ½ cup borax
• large pot
• 5 gallon pail with lid
• large stirring spoon
• hand grater or a sharp knife
• Empty laundry detergent bottle
• Measuring cup

What to do:

1. Unwrap the Fels-Naptha soap and allow to air dry for two or three days. This will make it easier to grate the soap so that it won't gunk up your grater.
2. Grate, or if using the sharp knife finely whittle, the bar of soap. Place soap into pan and add 4 cups of water. Continually stir mixture over medium low heat until the soap is melted.
3. Fill the 5 gallon pail half full with hot tap water. Add melted soap mixture, washing soda, and borax. Mix until well blended. Then, fill bucket to top with more hot water. Cover, and allow to sit over night to thicken.
4. Next morning, fill an empty laundry dispenser half ful with soap and then fill it the rest of way with water.
5. Yield is 10 gallons.

To Use:

• Shake the bottle of soap each time before using
• Top load washers use 5/8 cup per load
• Front load washers use ¼ cup per load

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)