Vinegar Vs Laundry Soap

I'd been thinking about alternates to laundry soap, and had started experimenting with making my own from usual products and things I can grow.

Not long ago, I decided to look into my car's trunk. It had been a while - still packed from the last time I'd moved. Big mistake. I should have emptied it a long while ago. I have a very old car, 1984, and at some point over the last year or so, the sealing around the trunk had loosened, or perhaps disintegrated. The year or so of rains and heavy snow had leaked into the trunk and ruined much of what was there. Some things had to be tossed, and some tools still have to be cleaned. I had a large bag of my clothing in it, now moldy, so decided to figure out if they were salvagable.

I did that today.

The moldy clothes went into the washer. All except for 1 that is hand clean only; that's for tomorrow. I filled the washer with cool water, and added vinegar (antiseptic, antibacterial). About a cup of vinegar. I did two cycles of it, then an extra rinse with just water.

The clothes are now hanging on our two bathroom's curtain rods, drying on hangers. They don't smell like vinegar (or soap!), but look and feel clean.

I'm learning how to make vinegar, plus I'm storing lots until I've gotten the hang of the process. Vinegar has lots of uses, both with cooking and cleaning. This is a definite skill I gotta have.

Learning How to Make Candles

When I was a kid, my mom and us girls would make candles during Christmas breaks. We'd melt the wax, add scent and color, pour into tomato paste cans, anxiously wait to unmold and trim wicks. I loved doing this project, and can't understand why I haven't gotten back to it.

I bought a kit to re-learn how last Winter. I did take it out of the box, but never did anything with it. A few months ago, I bought more supplies, including a big block of wax, some scents and colors. With our moving upheaval, I never got around to it.

This Winter, as we search for our permanent mini-farm/homestead, I WILL make candles. I'll start out with that big ole block of wax, but when we get settled on our mini-farm and get things going, I'll be harvesting bayberries and beeswax for wax, fiber from our angora bunny or from cotton plants for wicks, and natural scents and colors.

Any tips for making functional (not necessarily decorative) candles from home-grown and home-harvested products would be very much appreciated!

Dried Banana Slices Vs Bunny

I bought some dried banana slices recently to see if our Angora bunny would eat them if we were stuck indoors for a lengthy period of time (think blizzard or flu outbreak) and if we weren't able to get fresh raw veggies and fruit.

I'd been giving our bunny 1 or 2 dried slices a day. This morning, I gave her a handful. Do NOT ever do that! I'm gonna repeat that... DO NOT give a bunny more than 1 or 2 dried banana slices. Why?

Because it made her very VERY hyper! Before long, she was running circles around in her cage and panting heavily. I gave her a big bowl of water, talked calmly to her, let her out to thump and run around our home, and gave her space and time. And hay. Lots of hay.

It took about an hour (maybe a little more) before she stopped panting heavily and running around. She's calm now, but I can tell she remembers how she was feeling because of the bananas. Unfortunately, she would still eat some if I gave them to her.

We're holding back carrots, her usual evening treat, and just giving her spinach in addition to her pellets and hay. We'll return to fresh apple and banana slices tomorrow morning. I don't ever want to go through that again.

Lesson learned.

Spinning Fiber to Yarn

I'm a hopeless clutz. I am having such troubles not only harvesting the fiber from our angora rabbit, but also spinning. So I found a book at Amazon.com that I ordered. Just happens to be written by Maggie Casey who owns Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in Boulder, Colorado! I talked with her this afternoon, asking her what a hopeless clutz should first do to learn to spin.

Basically, she said start with wool, because the fibers are more forgiving and angora is a little more slippery.

Second, one should try all different kinds of spinning, from the drop spindle to different spinning wheels.

When I can afford it, I think I'll take one of her classes.

Blanca Bunny intro

Did I mention we were getting a French Angora rabbit? Well, we did. Unfortunately, it was during our house-selling-and-moving upheaval time. Now that we're settling in, I think she will too.

We call her Blanca because she's pure write, a "ruby-eyed white French Angora". Blanca is Spanish for white.

She was born June 14 2009 so she was about 3 months old when we brought her home. Very scared and nervous, having never been away from other rabbits before, and not out of her crate-home very often.

Angora rabbits need a higher protein than most rabbits because the protein helps to make better fiber (fur) which will be good for spinning into yarn. We feed her "Manapro Grow" rabbit pellets and hay (just bought a year's supply, costing only $27!). She also gets ABC-S (apples, bananas, carrots, spinach), and gets a papaya tablet every other day to prevent woolblock.

I'm learning everything I can about raising Angora bunnies so that when we move to our actual homestead, we can have a small herd of them. I plan to spin the fiber into yarn, and either use the yarn to crochet or knit, or sell the yarn. It's not easy, tho. I still have a lot to learn, especially about handling her and removing her fiber (which is done WITHOUT killing her!).

BTW... I've made a test "wick" using some of her fiber, and it is definitely possible to make a candle-wick with angora fiber. It's an expensive situation but would do in a pinch if I were to run out of wicks.

p.s. I'll add a picture of the bunny when I can!