MONEY SAVER - Using stuff in your kitchen to clean with

Okay, so I like my house to smell like fresh air and newly cleaned linens as much as the next person but the reality is that between two (soon to be three) large dogs and two outdoor enthusiasts, keeping things stink-free is a bit more difficult then I'd imagined. Well no, I knew it would be hard so I guess I'm finally and openly admitting that man, it's hard to keep up with all the dirt we drag in! And with no signs of slowing down, I needed to start exploring cheaper and more environmentally friendly cleaning supplies. A big one that I've discovered is vinegar! Yes, vinegar, the stuff that helps make cucumbers into pickles also helps degrease your oven and remove static from your laundry. Not only is it cheap but it does just about anything! Though I've yet to use it as a wood cleaner, I have used it on my bathroom tiles (avoid the grout guys, it's a sad day when you have to re-grout your bathroom), my kitchen counter, in my washing machine to a) clean the washing machine b) act as a natural fabric softener.

So you're probably thinking, "your house doesn't smell like dogs anymore, it smiles like a salad." But no, it's not true. Once the vinegar has dried, it leaves no scent and if you do want a scent, you can add a few of those concentrated scent drops available at your local co-op or health food store.

Another kitchen item that's really useful is Apple Cider Vinegar. When I was still down at LSU my old roomies and I discovered some of the perks of ACV including that it is a metabolism booster (one tablespoon a day is supposed to increase your metabolism) and helps soften your dogs coat as well as prevent the pesky flea.

Oh and while we are on the subject of fleas...try Borax or Moth Balls. I used moth balls when I vacuum to not only help with the neutralizing odors but also to kill all those determine flea eggs. I just put a couple of moth balls in my vacuum and remove them when I'm done. And Borax is another one of those miracle household items that you can kill fleas with, scrub your counters and your floors with, and drop it in your laundry to boost the colors and reduce static.

All of these items can be found at your neighborhood grocery.

Peace out,

B'Belli

Ascending 6 inches sheet of ice

How do you do it? Okay, at first I was literally clawing my way up the hill and just hoping that I could hurl my body into a pile of snow if things got a little too slick. Then, after some investigating, I invested in these:




They're called ice cleats, and to be honest, I feel like I could walk up the side of an ice burg in these things.



However, winter roads don't just present the issue of ice. Sometime we've got snow too so that's when I turn to these lil' guys:

The Cadillac of snow shoes if you will; these MSR Lightning Ascent 25 snowshoes have turned out to be a TRUE life saver! I purchased them after explaining that not only would I be experiencing my first Idaho winter, but my first real winter in general.

So far so good! I'll keep y'all posted about how well these winter tools continue to work!

Peace out,

B'Belli

Before and After Pictures - the first of many

Good morning!

As you know we've been working diligently at getting the house "winterized" and then all of a sudden, winter was upon us. So now we've just been working, literally, through snow, ice, sleet, fog and whatever other intense weather an Idaho winter has to offer. The locals weren't kidding when they all smiled at me teasing, "you haven't experience a winter here yet have you?"

(ABOVE) The photo to the left was snapped when we first purchased the property so the beginning of August. The photo to the right was shot several weeks into October.

(ABOVE) Again, the photo on the left was snapped in the first couple of weeks of August and the photo to the right was snapped the second week of December, after the first snow. At this time, we only had about 8 inches. Since then, we have had as much as 5 feet! But with the crazy weather, a lot of that has melted off and now we're hiking up a 6 inch sheet of ice to get home from work everyday.

PEACE Out for now,

B'Belli.

What's All this Blogging Business About?

So after bouncing between this blog and my other blog, I've come to one conclusion - what's everyone blogging about? And where? I initially abandoned this site for a less complex, more "user" friendly site and have subsequently decided that was a bad idea. So I guess I'll try and keep up with both...and actually do it this time. Yeah, that'll be my New Year's resolution along with losing weight and saving the planet one plastic bottle at a time, I will also commit to writing and recording my activies more consistently. I'll also work on the picture thing...as in taking more.

And just for good measure, check this out:

It's an areal view of the property. In the bottom corner is the "Lake House" and up the road is the "Road House."

PEACE

Just Thinkin'

Even though you want to be a free loving hippie who can carelessly toss about the peace sign and laugh in the face of "the man," sometimes our obligations overshadow our intentions and before you know it, you're running right along side the rest of the herd.

Before picking up and "peace'ing" out, I'd like to point out the irony encapsulating a government that has set up so many safety nets for its citizens that failure should truly not be an option. We are a society federally obligated to taking care of its weakest members, but and yes I'm going to get all philosophical on you for a moment, what was the last thing you did for your community beyond handing over a percentage of your paycheck?

That's it.

Be back to tell you all about how I get my power from the sun!

Peace for now.

Up and Up and Up it Goes

We started off with a grocery list of renovations, new construction and generally speaking, changes that needed to be made to the property in order to make it as tolerable as possible for my first winter.

Our list went a little something like this (in no particular order):

- Power - convert 700watt system to 2400watt system

- Water - rainwater catchment, gray water system, well, tap a spring

- Laundry - energy star washing machine

- Toilet - composting toilet; centralized system or self contained unit?

- Garden - flatten/develop enough garden space to provide veggies and fruits, build greenhouse for off-season growing

- Kitchen - stove, dishwasher, larger sink, larger fridge, freezer, cabinets

Almost two months after the creation of our original list, we have made some headway!

What I'm currently most proud of, we have completed our garden area. Remember these pictures:



These photos were snapped the day after we purchased the property for insurance purposes. The area we selected was a natural choice; it is on a south/south west facing slope directly in front of the "Road House" and a short distance from the "Lake House." The previous owner had attempted a garden here but was only living here six months a year so it was quickly over grown and enjoyed by the various wildlife in the area.

After choosing our location, the next big question was, "how are we going to develop this land into enough usable space for a garden that would provide both of us with enough fruits and vegetables during the summer months to avoid having to purchase any?" The answer: build a retaining rock wall, filling in the sloped area with a clay/top soil mixture.

And so we began hauling rocks from local, family owned property every Friday, Saturday, Sunday for about a month. We brought two trucks with us for each haul, an old flatbed Ford and a Toyota Tacoma, filling both to the top. (I'd estimate we probably hauled at least 20 full loads.)


Slowly but surely, we began to see a difference:

It wasn't until we had some visitors that we realized we were DONE! And man, it is pretty spectacular what we accomplished:

"I don't care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don't harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you're never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants." - Zig Ziglar

Look at it! I can't believe we did that!

Now that the retaining wall is completed, we are prepping the soil for a long, hard winter with the hopes of having beautiful "black gold" soil some spring. How are we doing this?

I already mentioned that we used a clay/top soil combo in flattening out the garden area. On top of this, we are adding a 2:1 mixture of top soil and compost that will be mixed as we add it to the garden. We will also add some peat moss and lime (as needed) then we will plant our cover crop. And then hopefully, by March, our soil will be wonderful and ready for planting some veggies!

But what does all of this do to the soil?

Peat Moss - is lighter, fluffier, more pulverise than regular soil. By adding this to your garden soil, you create a different structure in your soil, allowing for great air ventilation and more water retention.

Lime - makes soil more alkaline (less acidic) so in areas where you soil's pH level is less that 6.5, lime is added to reduce the acidity. Most plants enjoy growing in soil that is between 6.5 or 7.0 pH, but there are a few like very acidic soil. (For instance, we will be planting blueberries, which prefer to grow in 4.5 pH - 5.5 pH level.)

Cover Crop - is planted to retain the nutrients in the soil during the winter months. In the spring, this crop will be plowed down and we will plant our vegetables/fruits as normal.

For now, we are focusing on completing the garden and anticipate having the cover crop planted by Sunday. After that, it's on to another item on the list.

Stay tuned to learn how our Solar Power System is upgraded, installed and if it works or not!

Have a great weekend!

PEACE

Take Two - no, seriously

Hello, Hello,

It was brought to my attention that my previous entries don't really reflect....ME. I haven't done a very good job of explaining myself and what I'm doing because I have been so concerned with "appearing" a certain way. I didn't want to share too much, didn't want to not share enough; I didn't want to do this or that...but the long and short of it is it doesn't really matter 'cause I'm throwing all of these self imposed rules out of the window and I'm going to start fresh and hopefully, successfully portray the adventure that I am currently in the midst of.

So here we go again, take two I guess you could say.

I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana and loved it. That city is so deeply integrated into who I am as a person that I cannot even fathom the type of person I would be without all the chaos, love, soul and general appreciation for life that I associate with the city. It is truly a magical place that is not fully appreciated until you've stepped out of your tourist shoes and just explored. It's just amazing!

But while my soul is in New Orleans, my love was in Idaho so off I went, literally onto the unbeaten path. I got an amazing job opportunity, found a cute apartment and quite my old job at an engineering firm. Between my love, the job and the apartment, it was if the stars had aligned and this was it for me, the next step in my big adventure.

So we battened down in my Tahoe: a Uhaul trailer and two dogs were our companions and off we went. 2372.57 miles later, we arrived in Moscow to snow, ice and the realization that I'd just moved 2000+ miles north, to the land of snow...SNOW...we arrived March 26 and it was snowing. I'd traded my Hurricane days in for Snow days and there was no time to adjust.

Several months later we casually went to view a solar power system in real, working order. About a month later, we purchased 21.5 acres on Moscow Mountain, about 5 minutes outside of Moscow. (And in case you didn't put it together, yes, it is the same home that contained the real, working solar power system.)

Our overall goal for the land is to keep it completely off the grid. This means we want to become completely self-sustaining, i.e. carbon neutral.

Carbon Neutral, as defined by Dictionary.com, is "emitting no carbon dioxide into the atmosphere" or "employing a technique to absorb carbon dioxide so it is not emitted."

Want to know what your carbon footprint currently is? And how to reduce it? Check out Conservation International: http://www.conservation.org/act/live_green/carboncalc/Pages/default.aspx?gclid=CJDby7rC1pUCFSQWiQodnD6XXw

At the moment, we are a long way from that {being carbon neutral} but it's an on-going process that we are pretty much discovering the path to as we go. And that's okay.

I hope to use this website as an outlet for what we discover, and as I said in a previous entry, a forum for input, suggestions, comments, etc.

With that said, let this be the first "real" entry. From here, we start a new, fresh, clean slate where I will essentially reveal the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between. This is a brand new adventure that all of you probably know as much about as I do so here we go, together, into "the great unknown" and hopefully, we'll all come out a little wiser. Or if nothing else, a hell of a lot dirtier.
Thank you for everyone who has been following along so far. I hope that things only get better!

PEACE.