Second Life for an Indispensable Tool

Dentists recommend replacing toothbrushes at least every three months, sooner if the bristles begin showing signs of wear. (Those with braces likely see fraying and fractured bristles much sooner.) The bristles, once worn, lose their effectiveness – new toothbrushes apparently remove plaque up to 30% better. Worse, tatty toothbrushes are likely to cause damage to delicate gum tissues. Dentists also caution early toothbrush replacement after experiencing viral illnesses such as cold or flu. The warm, wet environment in most bathrooms make them excellent breeding grounds for germs, bacteria, and fungi, and particularly on an instrument which rarely, if ever, gets its own cleaning. 

I don't argue the points made – good health is beyond price. What bothers me is throwing away all that plastic, especially while the brushes "must still be good for something" – my thrift-mantra. So, rather than toss viable brushes, each gets second-life (once thoroughly cleaned and sanitized.) Slightly frayed toothbrushes are softer than most utility brushes and, because of their small size, are perfect for scrubbing household crevices without scratching surfaces. Their varying sizes, shapes, and bristle densities, make each toothbrush suitable for particular tasks.

Here's a Baker's dozen of toothbrush re-uses hubby and I have discovered:

1. Household crevice-cleaning (medium- to hard-bristled, regular or denture-head, one per relevant cleaner to prevent unsafe chemical mixing.)
   
2. Small appliance care and cleaning (sewing machine, mixer, food processor)
   
3. Silver- and flatware cleaning (soft-bristled)
   
4. Jewellery cleaning (soft-bristled)
   
5. Personal care (small, children's toothbrushes work well as eyebrow & eyelash brushes, though regular sanitation is crucial.)
   
6. Finger- or toe-nail care
   
7. Hair-dye brush applicator
   
8. Pet care: cleaning and combing sensitive areas such as face & ears
   
9. Shoe care: polish or sealant applicator
   
10. Shop implement (automotive, carpentry and metal-work)
    
11. Gun (breach) cleaning – hubby says the shape of certain denture brushes make them ideal
    
12. Fossil-hunting & rock-hounding: cleaning tool
    
13. Cleaning fishing lures & tackle
    

Ideally, toothbrushes would be made of recyclable plastics so they needn't end up in the landfill. Sadly – at least where I live – that's not yet the case. Until that day comes, our toothbrushes only end up in the landfill when thoroughly depleted. In fact, a few still survive twenty-five years of second-life, doing gentle service and being frequently cleaned.

What are your favourite re-uses of this indispensable tool? Please leave a comment sharing your own handy hint(s)!

Roses Like Coffee, Too!

Record snowfall landed in the village of Cache Creek, yet as I stare out our front window all I see is that pathetic old rosebush. It's looking especially sad at this time of year. Something in my perverse nature refuses to acknowledge the snow rolls ploughed along the roadside beyond it. Stubbornly, I focus on that rosebush, inherited upon our recent move, and wonder how to restore its health.



I did some research. Apparently, roses like a good dose of coffee almost as much as I do. It's good to know roses and I have something else, other than chocolate, we both go well with. To my surprise, there are many acid-loving plants in the garden (like rhubarb) which benefit from varying quantities of coffee grounds mixed with their top soil. Not only do the grounds feed the plant a steady, low-dose acid, they also deter slugs. Coffee grounds in the garden have become such a popular trend, Starbucks (see: Composting) is now doling out bags of the stuff.



I'm too…thrifty to spend so much on my caffeine addiction…or its compost. There are plenty of coffee grounds at home. Until now, I've avoided putting most of it in the regular compost – I read that too many coffee grounds creates acidic imbalance in the compost pile. For use in the garden, coffee grounds require some easy, though separate preparation. They must be completely dried before storing in an air-tight container:

• Line a sheet-pan with parchment.
  
• Spread the wet coffee grounds (from a full pot of coffee) on the parchment paper.
  
  
  
  
  
• Set the sheet-pan in a warm, dry place. Stir occasionally.
  
• It will take several days to a week, depending on humidity levels, to thoroughly dry the grounds.
  

Given the total area I wish to supplement with coffee grounds, it will require months of steady preparation to store enough dried coffee grounds. This is my first batch of twenty or more and I estimate it will take as many weeks to gather enough coffee grounds for all the acid-loving areas in our new, yet dilapidated, garden.



Along with gathering toilet paper rolls and newspapers , this is one more easy preparation for gardening I enjoy. Any project, however humble, that temporarily takes my mind off the snow rolls and icy sidewalks, and onto thinking about warmer, sunnier days to come, well, that's my kind of hobby!

A Long-Term Resolution

A couple weeks ago, I read a thought-provoking article "I Don't Recycle" written by Ronnie Citron-Fink and published by Care2.com. While I don't know the particular "editor of a well-known national magazine" Citron-Fink mentions, I've met many like her and they're represented by every gender, age, and ethnicity. They all have excuses. Some have suggested recycling is low-class or only done by "tree-huggers" – intimating it's unwarranted, merely the product of unreasonable fear. Some cite the loss of coveted space and time, or extraordinary effort, or hindering commitment, or the possibility of dirty hands.

Let's face it; recycling is not sexy, nor fun. It takes room to organize. It takes time. And, there's no direct reimbursement or remuneration for one's effort.

But, why should incentives be required for participation? Recyclables take no more space than the usual garbage, if disposed of regularly. In fact, since many recycled items are broken down, rinsed, flattened and/or folded, those materials take less space and smell better than regular garbage. Once a system is in place in the household, very little extra time is needed to sort and organize waste that would otherwise be sent to a landfill.

I've heard recycling-abstainers say there's "nothing in it" for them. That depends on perspective. In my view, there's tremendous compensation for recycling. Its ultimate value is priceless. The problem is, delayed reward – clearly a death-knell for a modern society hopelessly addicted to instant gratification.

The reward I speak of would be claimed by our children and our children's children. It may yet be possible for them to
live in an untainted environment if efforts are made today. Our pretty blue planet, like any living organism, could survive the overly-exhaustive stressors we place on it, and remain healthy (viable for human occupation) for generations to come. But, all depends on whether humanity deems recycling a worthy enough investment in a future they won't personally see, and whether we then make the time and put in real effort to fully implement this hygienic practice.

This, after all, is what recycling is: global hygiene. Humans no longer drop food peelings on the floor or toss broken dishes in a pile outside the door. As the self-proclaimed intellectual species, we've discovered it can be dangerously unhealthy to live as our cave-dwelling ancestors did, "fouling the nest" with all the waste involved in everyday living. Recycling merely refines discoveries made, over centuries, by people like Louis Pasteur and many others who strove to raise the quality of life for all by teaching simple sanitary routines.

And what could be simpler than rinsing out a soda bottle and then throwing it in a recycling bin instead of the garbage? That nominal effort, alone, could help prevent some of the 2,500,000 plastic bottles Americans use every hour (Recycling Revolution.com, recycling-facts) from ending their days in an already over-taxed landfill or one of many garbage patches floating on the world's oceans.

If you're already a recycler, thank you. You've made a wise and responsible choice, and are doing what you're able to make this world a better place. We can only hope future generations never fully appreciate how dire the situation once was.

If you don't yet recycle, it's time to embrace reality. Recycling is no longer an option. It's necessity. Now is the perfect time for a long-term resolution to contribute some of your own selfless action. Together, we may just enable humanity's survival on this one-in-a-million planet.


 

Yule Blog

This blog will be short. My son and his young family are coming for the holidays and I've been hopping. As their arrival draws closer, excitement builds and it's difficult to focus on anything else.

Most of the remaining preparations involve food and drink so you'll understand why I thought to share a recipe today. As I was sorting through the many traditional and seasonal-favourites recipes, deciding on menu-plans, I came across this hot drink mix. It's tasty, easy to make, and relatively economical.

Cinnamon-Mocha drink mix

1	Cup	Sugar
½	Cup	Instant coffee or espresso powder
½	Cup	Cocoa powder, unsweetened
1	Tsp	Cinnamon

Directions:

Combine sugar, coffee, cocoa and cinnamon in a blender and process, stirring once or twice, until mixture is well blended and a fine powder. Store in air tight container.

To Serve:

Put 2-3 heaping teaspoons of mixture in a mug and fill with hot milk (or boiling water for a lighter drink.) Top with a dollop of whipping cream, if desired, and add a sprinkle of cinnamon.

For those of you looking for do-it-yourself ideas for the holiday season, you might find something to pique your interest on one of my favourite television shows by BBC-UK called Victorian Christmas. Their web-site offers instructions on twenty-five traditional projects.

As for me, it's back to our yuletide preparations – Danish cookies will fragrance our home tonight.

Until next time, I wish you and yours a very happy holiday season!

Vinegar, a Winning Solution

Answers are sometimes found along convoluted paths. Occasionally, if we're really fortunate, those answers travel with friends. Plain white vinegar was just such a result I discovered.

For years, hubby has suffered with a persistent case of eczema, the after effect of plaster casts. He found no ointment to ease the symptoms. Dietary changes had no significant effect. Altering hygiene practices did little to lessen irritation. It seemed he would just have to live with it.

One day, while discussing this issue with my mother, she told me she had stopped using liquid fabric softeners because they were irritating my father's skin. A light bulb came on. Could this be contributing to hubby's problem? Following her example, I switched from liquid softener to dryer sheets and it seemed to help. Hubby's eczema diminished, but it didn't disappear entirely. Winter, the worst season with the wearing of close-fitting long-johns and brutal weather conditions, still aggravated it. I kept searching.

A girlfriend had once mentioned her love of "dryer balls," how eco-friendly they are and how well they soften and fluff fabrics. Always on the look-out for thrifty and ecologically-conscious methods and products, I wanted to try them but, at that time, was unable to find any. Months later, I finally found a set and was impressed by their reasonable price and how well they worked. Better yet, hubby's eczema occurred rarely once I replaced dryer sheets with them.

Then we moved. Cache Creek's water has a much higher mineral content than Vulcan's and soon our laundry showed signs of it. Fabrics felt courser, colours appeared duller, and fibres flattened. Worse, the eczema began acting up again. Something had to be done but having quit commercial fabric softeners I was reluctant to use them again. Aside from the environmental aspects, the possibility they might aggravate hubby's problem kept me searching for other, more natural laundry rinse agents.

Add caption

That search led me to vinegar. Would it really work? Certainly it was more cost-effective than using commercial fabric softeners. I'd often used vinegar for other cleaning and disinfecting purposes, but never thought to add it to laundry. Still, I hesitated, unsure if our clothes and linens would smell like pickles. Realizing the laundry could be re-washed, if need be, I gave vinegar a try.

What a find! With the very first wash, fibres of our favourite bathroom linens loosened and, folded, they had plumped to nearly double the fullness they had before using vinegar. Colours brightened and bedding felt soft and inviting again. Happily, no garments smelled like condiments. From that point on, only white vinegar and those dandy little dryer balls soften our laundry and control static cling – yes, for some reason, vinegar helps control that, too. As the foul weather blusters in, we watch and wait. For more than a month, hubby's worn long-johns and has been working in cold winter weather, yet his shins remain free of irritation. This may finally be the long-sought solution...pardon the pun.

My search to alleviate hubby's eczema began with single-minded purpose. I wasn't particularly seeking thrift or environmentally friendliness when starting the journey. Those dividends were simply travelling companions of the answer discovered down a long and winding trail.


 

Gobble-Gobble

The turkey, with its ill-fated call, has dressed many tables through holiday seasons, past and present.  Increasingly it’s becoming a protein for everyday, also.  Though hubby and I both enjoy turkey, there’s only the two of us now, attempting to eat calorie-wise.  While turkey is a lean protein, most are just too large.  Re-freezing any meat is discouraged so, even if we made soup, there was often waste.  For this reason, we rarely cooked whole frozen turkey and standard prices for store-butchered turkey pieces were expensive enough to make them an infrequent meal option.

Fortunately, whole turkey is now being sold fresh or “air-chilled,” not frozen.    Though this option is still infrequent, it allows us to enjoy turkey more frequently by butchering the fresh bird at home and freezing the various portions.  Our cost of butchering is considerably less than store costs.  The simple table below relates the best prices we found, on October 10, 2010, at which time we bought the whole, air chilled turkey* in this comparison:

Approx.              Cut/Form                        Best price per lb.                    Total                       Whole, fresh *                          Total
pounds                                                       store-butchered             store-butchered            home-butchered               home-butchered
    0           Ground:  Breast meat                   $6.89                             $0                               $2.13                                  $0
    1           Ground:  Leg meat                        $3.99                             $ 3.99                         $2.13                                  $2.13
    3           Drumsticks (2): for soups,
                     casseroles & pizzas                   $2.89                             $ 8.67                         $2.13                                  $6.39
    2           Wings                                             $1.99                             $ 3.98                          $2.13                                 $4.26
    5            Breast roasts (2):  
                      Boneless, skinless                   $6.99                            $34.95                          $2.13                                $10.65
   11                  SUB-TOTALS                                                             $51.59                                                                   $23.43

20 cups     Clear Stock:  remaining carcass weighing approx.
                  4.5 lbs., includes bones, wing tips, neck, back, and
                  some breast meat.                                                                  n/a*                        $0.48*                               $ 9.68
                             TOTALS                                                                   $51.59                                                                  $33.11

Notes:
* For this comparison, all meat-cut/forms are in POUNDS and COST PER POUND.
* Air-Chilled Turkey:  7.06 kg (Approx. 15.5 lbs); $4.69 per kg (Approx. $2.13 per lb); Total cost = $33.11
* Turkey stock is unavailable to us, whether from the butcher, in cans or cartons.
* Turkey-stock cost per cup reflects cost of protein only.

As you can see, our whole turkey cost less than two, comparably sized, store-butchered, boneless, skinless turkey breasts.  The only items which cost us more per pound were the wings.  However the net difference is only $.28 and that was easily subsidized by the savings gained with any of the other cuts/forms.  We prefer not to grind breast meat, but found its store-cost worth noting, particularly odd because it was sold for less than whole breast.  If we had bought all the various cuts, butchered in-store, our $33.11 bird would’ve cost over $50 ...and that’s without stock.

The value of the stock I’ve calculated by subtracting our home-butchered, wrapped meats’ total value ($23.43) from the cost of the whole bird ($33.11), and dividing that result ($9.68) by the 20 cups of gelatinous “liquid gold” we put in the freezer.  Add to that the cost of vegetables, herbs and seasonings, the total cost per cup ranges from $.50 to $.55.  Still an excellent value, particularly as we are unable to buy turkey stock anywhere.

Organic turkey costs more per pound whether store- or home-butchered.  Though higher, organic costs compare similarly to the table above.  If you prefer organic, then the whole bird, dressed at home, still nets the greatest savings.  Its stock is, as always, a flavour-packed bonus.

Now that fresh turkey is occasionally available, it dresses our table much more regularly.  Home-butchery not only saves us money, it provides several meals worth of stock and, ultimately, reduces waste to its least.

Member of the Bored

At this time of year, it's easy to get caught up in the cycles of work, housekeeping, and seasonal preparations. But, all work and no play can make life monotonous. Taking time out to enjoy some fun activity not only revitalizes the spirit, it can help elevate the usual slog. The problem, during fall and winter, is that weather can repel even the most ardent outdoorsmen/women. And, during the holiday season, there are times when budgets squeak at the mere mention of a movie or dinner out. That's when it's time to get creative.

Board games are the usual standby, and for good reason. When families discover their favourite diversion, game night quickly becomes a much anticipated event. It's an excellent opportunity for parents to teach their children in a pleasurable way. Depending on the game, young players can practice reading and counting, or get subtle education in arithmetic, geography, economics, or history. Perhaps the greatest lesson of all is learning good sportsmanship. That's an emotional skill which can carry children (and adults) gracefully through many of life's most challenging moments.

Some electronic games provide the same opportunities for family fun, but here the choices are more limited. Many games are isolating: one player, engrossed in on-screen activity, is not conducive to fellowship. But, there are a few games which engage several players, and some even provide energetic game-play.

Golf-pro hubby

A few years ago, hubby and I were introduced to Wii on a visit to our daughter and her family. What a fantastic invention! It wasn't long after that visit we bought our own console and games. Since then, we've enjoyed year-round golfing. Occasionally, we hit the lanes and go bowling, play ping-pong or tennis, or shoot some pool. And, when life gets frustrating, there's terrific tension relief in pummelling a virtual punching bag. With a wide-ranging variety of multi-player games, there's something for everyone. While I still enjoy our favourite board games, backgammon has never gotten my hibernating buttocks off the couch and engaged in activity.

Though Nintendo blazed the trail with Wii, many gaming platforms now have similar physically-interactive options. The initial cost of these consoles and their software can be expensive, but that cost is relative to how often the unit is used. If hubby and I had paid green fees for the many rounds of golf we've played, the cost of our console and all its games and accessories would pale in comparison. Shooting pool would've involved visiting some very dodgy establishments. Playing tennis would've subjected me to more direct sun than bearable. Wii has enabled us to participate in several activities that, for whatever reason, were previously inaccessible to us. These are values hard to calculate.

So the next time you find yourself a member of the bored, dig out your favourite game – or explore new ones – and enjoy some thrifty fun!