Method A Solution

I like the Method brand and use it but TBH is not associated with the company
that manufacturers the Method brand. 

While I do make cleaning products at home there are a few I purchase. A shower scrub to help cut grim in my shower and sinks, a floor soap (that has lasted 3 years), and hand & dish soap. Readily available at most stores I shop at is the Method brand. Best of all I find it affordable among the "green" products. Now I am not going to tell you it is the cleanest (greenest) product on the market because I haven't bothered to look into it that information. I am selfishly avoiding not wanting to feel bad if it really isn't the greenest choice. It is what I can afford and I feel better then buying Dawn (sorry Dawn).

Now I have all the more reason to like that I occasionally purchase the Method products. One of my favorite news feeds is Treehugger.com. When Wade lets me sit and read a news article on the computer I usually find something interesting or informative from Treehugger. Today was no different. I learned How Method Turns Plastic Pollution in the Ocean Into Bottles. Sweet!

You probably know how there are these ridiculously large floating plastic fields in the middle of our oceans. Well before I wrote this I didn't realize that there were FIVE large ones. I only really knew of one (The Great Pacific Garbage Patch). Regardless it is a really big problem and the question is... what to do about them? And what in the world can this little blue house do about them? We try not to buy plastic. All plastic 2 litters and gallon milk jugs and juice bottles are kept in the green house and animal buildings for watering and planting seeds. I wash all zip lock freezer bags and reuse several times. I keep my glass bottles and reuse as much as possible. We recycle (OK not in the house because of space for bins issue) but out of the house whenever possible! How much more can we do?

Well it turns out that from now on by buying Method products I am doing more. For every Method product I buy I now take 15 grams of plastic out of the ocean. Baby steps you say? Yup. But what a neat, innovative, and creative solution. Please read about how Method and their partners developed a whole new method of recycling the brittle and decaying plastic bottles floating out into the ocean and are using them to make a new high quality plastic bottle. A bottle claimed to be 100 percent post-consumer HDPE with 25% being from those floating trash fields. Neat! Can you tell I am a sucker for doing things better and doing things right? Like we should have been doing all along. Mankind I think God is smiling at your industriousness for this moment. Bravo. Let's keep doing more.

Holding

Summer is a busy time of year for just about anyone I imagine. For me with a little one it has been near impossible to find time to sit in front of the computer to blog and read blogs. Jackie and I talk often about that. We want to do more in the warm sunny months for our lovely little blog but this year that just wasn't to be. Please hold with us. Soon there will be snow storms and cloud cover. Time with hot mugs of coffee or chocolate are just around the corner. Babies will nap, houses will be clean, projects put to rest and the blog will take life again. I can't wait to show you what we have been talking about...

Good Food Friday : Tuna Cabonara

This is my absolute favorite fast supper.  I honestly can not believe I haven't shared this with you!  It comes together super quick with staples I'm sure you already have in your kitchen and even being a pasta dish I packs in a ton of protein.  My only complaint is that this dish can be awfully "beige" and colorless so please do your eyes a favor and add the veggies!

My usual recipe for this makes enough for our seven but the ingredients are totally flexible.  You really can't go wrong.

Tuna Cabonara

Ingredients:

• pasta
• tuna
• onions
• red bell pepper (optional, in fact most times I don't have this but its great for color)
• fresh parsley (again optional but great for presentation)
• Parmesan cheese (fresh grated) 
• eggs, beaten
• salt
• oil or butter

Directions:

• Boil pasta in salted water until al dente. 
• While pasta is boiling, saute onion and peppers in oil or butter.  When veggies are softened, added canned strained tuna.  Cook until warm throughout.
• Have cheese grated and eggs beaten
• Drain pasta, but do not rinse.    Toss pasta into the tuna mixture and quickly toss with eggs and cheese.  The residual heat from the pasta will cook the eggs and melt the cheese.  
• Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and stir in parsley.  Serve immediately. 

I usually let the number of cans of tuna dictate the beaten eggs.  In our house, it is three cans of tuna to three eggs.  See, plenty of protein.  This recipe always makes it.  No matter what I have on hand I can pull this one off.  No peppers?  How about peas?  No spaghetti?  Substitute rice.  Just don't skip the cheese or eggs.   The combine and become the creamy sauce.

Becoming a Redneck

Someone said the oddest thing to me a couple days ago. I was told by this person that I had surprised them. That growing up they never thought I would change so much marrying a redneck and all. I sat back surprised that my worst fear had been confirmed. I was now a redneck, not just in my imagination but in how other people perceived me as well. It left me completely unsettled. Yes. My husband has a bit of redneck in him. I appreciate that, accept that, and let him be who he is, but excuse me for saying so... I don't want to be a redneck. 

I told Gary as we drove home that day about my experience. Trying not to cry I told him that I now look the part of redneck and I didn't like it. That is when Gary looked into the situation and explained to me better than I could have imagined what that person really meant. I envision "redneck" the same way you might. Do a Google search for images "redneck" and that is pretty much where my stereotype leads me. What that person meant was perhaps "redneck" a little but it was more "homesteader" or "urban farmer". No one would have imagined (including myself) that I would one day have chickens in my backyard or that I would be raising cages full of rabbits so I could eat them. Not that I think I would have been against those things as a younger person but it was so foreign, so out of this world, so unthinkable. No one I knew or that person knew or even Gary's family knew was doing or talking about doing what we are trying to do now. 

That doesn't mean that others weren't being urban farmers or eating local or raising their own food. These movements have been around for a while. It was just not a part of my world. It certainly makes since to me. I think I was drawn to "it" years ago before I knew what "it" was. Who knows, if I had know that farming could look like this in high school it could have changed the course of my life. You can't speak about roads you never were on. 

However, I sat back in my seat thinking about what Gary had said. We were doing something that amazes and surprises our relatives and friends. Maybe they think we are crazy or maybe not but maybe being perceived as a redneck isn't so very bad after all.

Living Off the Land

Just for fun... how much land do you need?

I loved this graphic and found it interesting to think about. We are no where near living off our 1/2 acre but we are slowly moving towards that. If disaster hit tomorrow? I think we would still be very unprepared although not as much as those who may live around us. I hope we could continue to get into a position to stay afloat in such a situation and perhaps help others along the way.

Visit the website for more information and to better read the details on the graphic. What are your thoughts? How much land do you need? Are you living off the land?