End Times Speculation Part VII

[Muzhik]

Mamacita, Thanks! Some more info:

1. Fels-Naptha soap bar REALLY works well, and as you noted is excellent for people who get itchy using other soaps or detergents. Contrary to its name, it does NOT contain napthalene, the primary ingredient in mothballs.
2. Zote is pretty much the same thing and in America is found mostly in Spanish-speaking areas.
3. Try to avoid moisturizing bars, because the oils can leave spots on clothing. Ivory is excellent in this recipe.
4. Most "soap bars" on the market are detergent rather than soap. While these bars can be used for laundry, you should not use them for anything else. If you are careful and use a bar that is clearly marked SOAP, such as Ivory, Fels-Naptha, or Kirk's Hardwater Castile, then you can use this stuff to wash dishes as well. (Cleaners that have detergent in them cannot be marketed or sold as soap.) If you have an automatic dishwasher, use either citric acid or vinegar to keep spots from forming.
5. Check the boxes and web sites for Borax and Washing soda. You'd be amazed at what you can do with these products, and they work very well.
6. Places to look to buy Borax and washing soda: The laundry aisle of your grocery store, laundry aisle of Wal-Mart, Target, etc. At your local hardware store.
7. Some people who have had problems finding washing soda have substituted "Oxy-clean". While they are very happy with the results, you must be careful and add it last because it will foam up A LOT when you mix it with the Borax. One woman reported her husband laughing as the mixture foamed over the side of her bucket; but he doesn't laugh now that his laundry is cleaner.
8. If you have a new high efficiency (HE) washing machine, you may notice a musty smell developing in your machine. This is because the seals are extremely efficient, so that the washer can't dry out completely after each use. First, run an empty load through your machine using vinegar. After that, keep the door of your machine open after each use to ensure it dries properly.
9. If you have an HE washer, try washing some towels without using any soap. Check after the agitator has been running for a few minutes. If you see soap bubble in the water, then you're using too much soap.

Have fun saving money!

[Muzhik]

Originally Posted by DawnInTexas

Northern Lights over Iceland:

http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/sci...nd/?test=faces

Muzhik: Why would this be? I mean, is it an increase-compared to normal at this time? Is it due to the volcano?

God Bless.
+Peace In Christ.
Love, Dawn

As far as I can tell, there's no increase in the Northern Lights activity. Northern lights come about from the interaction between material ejected from the sun and the Earth's magnetic field. It is unrelated to the volcano. And those pictures look really, really pretty!

[Hiskid1973]

Originally Posted by Muzhik

As far as I can tell, there's no increase in the Northern Lights activity. Northern lights come about from the interaction between material ejected from the sun and the Earth's magnetic field. It is unrelated to the volcano. And those pictures look really, really pretty!

They showed some pretty cool looking pictures of all the lightning taking place during those eruptions...Seems somehow the eruptions spawn the lightning strikes.

http://www.examiner.com/x-25803-Natu...jokull-volcano

[mamacita]

Originally Posted by Muzhik

Mamacita, Thanks! Some more info:

1. Fels-Naptha soap bar REALLY works well, and as you noted is excellent for people who get itchy using other soaps or detergents. Contrary to its name, it does NOT contain napthalene, the primary ingredient in mothballs.
2. Zote is pretty much the same thing and in America is found mostly in Spanish-speaking areas.
3. Try to avoid moisturizing bars, because the oils can leave spots on clothing. Ivory is excellent in this recipe.
4. Most "soap bars" on the market are detergent rather than soap. While these bars can be used for laundry, you should not use them for anything else. If you are careful and use a bar that is clearly marked SOAP, such as Ivory, Fels-Naptha, or Kirk's Hardwater Castile, then you can use this stuff to wash dishes as well. (Cleaners that have detergent in them cannot be marketed or sold as soap.) If you have an automatic dishwasher, use either citric acid or vinegar to keep spots from forming.
5. Check the boxes and web sites for Borax and Washing soda. You'd be amazed at what you can do with these products, and they work very well.
6. Places to look to buy Borax and washing soda: The laundry aisle of your grocery store, laundry aisle of Wal-Mart, Target, etc. At your local hardware store.
7. Some people who have had problems finding washing soda have substituted "Oxy-clean". While they are very happy with the results, you must be careful and add it last because it will foam up A LOT when you mix it with the Borax. One woman reported her husband laughing as the mixture foamed over the side of her bucket; but he doesn't laugh now that his laundry is cleaner.
8. If you have a new high efficiency (HE) washing machine, you may notice a musty smell developing in your machine. This is because the seals are extremely efficient, so that the washer can't dry out completely after each use. First, run an empty load through your machine using vinegar. After that, keep the door of your machine open after each use to ensure it dries properly.
9. If you have an HE washer, try washing some towels without using any soap. Check after the agitator has been running for a few minutes. If you see soap bubble in the water, then you're using too much soap.

Have fun saving money!

I've never used fels naptha (or zote?), that was just what the Duggar family recommends. I found borax at Walmart but ours didn't have washing soda so I did find it at Kroger. When we bought our HE washer, they did tell us to leave the door open between loads to avoid musty smells. Yah, this soap that we make doesn't bubble up at all in our washer, so we've been REALLY fortunate esp. since the 'specialty HE detergents' are sooo pricey!!

[mamacita]

Originally Posted by Muzhik

I'm looking forward to the home-made fabric softener recipes, too. To be honest, I've gone REALLY "simple living" as far as laundry is concerned. After finally getting the driers fixed in my apartment building, the company responsible for them raised the price of doing laundry a dollar a load. Since, when I do laundry, it's a minimum of two loads, that's an extra $6 a month for laundry. And since I'm on unemployment, I really have to watch my expenses.

So what I did was to buy a new plunger for $2 and drilled 6 holes in the rubber around the rubber part, each hole being a little less than 1/4 inch. I took some string and tied it across the bedroom from the air vent to the curtain rod. Now when I do laundry, I throw a teaspoon of detergent into a 5 gallon bucket, add some bleach and some 20-Mule Team Borax (to combat the hard water); I'll fill up the bucket with hot water, throw in some whites, and sit in front of the TV using the modified plunger to agitate the water! I can't plunge too vigorously or the water will splash around. The holes in the plunger let the water pass through and keep the plunger from latching to the bottom of the bucket. After about 20 minutes or two commercial breaks, I'll dump out the soapy water, give each piece a quick squeeze to get out the excess water, then fill up the bucket with clean water and a couple of tablespoons of vinegar. Back to the TV, another 10 minutes, dump, squeeze, and one more 10-minute rinse just because.

This time, I'll be very careful about squeezing out as much water as I can. Then I'll lay the clothes on a towel, roll them up, sit on the rolled towel on a hard chair, then hang the resulting semi-dry laundry over the string stretched across the bedroom. I'll let it dry overnight and put the clean clothes away in the morning.

My lazy side is catching up to me, though. Instead of using the towel, I'm experimenting with just throwing the pieces into the microwave for a couple of minutes before hanging them up to dry. Note that this works only when the clothes are VERY damp, as my children will confirm. (Long, smokey story there...)

So every few days I can do my whites and maybe a shirt or two; once a month I'll use the washing machine just because. The only time I'm using is time I'd be spending stuck in front of the TV, so it all works out.

WOW now that's what I call smart living! Imagine if we lost electricity, THIS is one way to do laundry w/ out power!

[Muzhik]

Originally Posted by mamacita

WOW now that's what I call smart living! Imagine if we lost electricity, THIS is one way to do laundry w/ out power!

Well, it definitely saves money. If I had another $25-30 to spend, I'd buy a mop bucket that has a set of rollers on it that I could use to squeeze the water out. If I had $90 I'd buy this electric do-dad from Amazon that spins the clothes dry for you. But for what I need it to do (which is to keep me in clean underwear), then I've already recouped the $2 I spent on the plunger.

Come to think of it, it might be worth the extra $1.50 to buy a lid for the bucket. By cutting a hole for the plunger handle, then I can plunge much more vigorously and do a much better job getting the clothes clean.

[Hiskid1973]

If we owed our own property I would love to hook up something like this:

http://curbly.com/diy-maven/posts/21...our-sink-water