Archive for June, 2009
June 30, 2009
· Filed under Environmental Detox, Health Care, Herb Recipes, diy · Tagged cigarettes, crafts, habit, handmade, healing, herbs, homemade, how to, natural, plants, recipes, tobacco
Making homemade herbal tobacco may be a good idea these days with cigarette taxes going through the roof and people trying to quit. Herbal tobacco is not as addictive as leaf tobacco and can be used to help wean the habit off of cigarettes and then easily just stop. In my next post, I am going to address herbs that can be used to help with nicotine withdrawal. If you combine herbal tobacco as a substitute for commercial cigarettes and also use the right herbs to help ease the pains of withdrawal, you might be able to quit painlessly And, as a bonus, herbal tobacco is lot less expensive and nobody’s taxing herbs right now.
So if you’d like to take a stab at making some herbal tobacco and rolling up your own smokes, then I have a few recipes for you to try. Do not be fooled into thinking that smoking herbs is going to be any better for you in the long run because drawing smoke into your lungs on a consistent basis is bad no matter what. So you should stop doing it as soon as you get off the hard stuff. Try to use the most natural rolling papers you can find or smoke the stuff in pipes. You could make cigars out of herbs but it would be a tricky thing, drying out leaves in a consistent manner, curing them and then rolling them into logs. It’s possible but it takes talent.
And remember that tobacco is actually a herb, as well. It has been used throughout history in many a manner, even as a healing property. So it is not inherently evil. However, the addictive properties of many herbs, which include poppies, datura (jimson weed), marijuana, salvia, naked ladies and deadly nightshade (belladonna) as well as tobacco, should be fair warning to treat them with respect and not abuse. They can do wonderful things under the right conditions and for the right reasons, but they all have the ability to turn you into a slave. So treat herbs with care and these herbs, in particular, with a lot of care. Do not overdo.
So if you are ready to take a shot at herbal tobacco, then here are the recipes. And next week I promise to post the herbs you can take at the same time to help quell the nicotine cravings.
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June 22, 2009
· Filed under Hobbies & Crafts, Home and Garden, diy, gifts · Tagged crafts, diy, foraging, green, handmade, how to, natural, plants, projects, wreath
Summer Wreath Project: Sunflower
This is a design of my own that I came up with a few years back and have made every other year or so since. It is a really pretty wreath when finished and it brightens up any room. It doesn’t involve a lot of expensive ingredients and all of it is easy to find in craft stores and even Wal-Mart. Cheer up the sunroom this year with this lovely wreath.
What you will need:
Large Eucalyptus Leaves
Yarrow
Lemon Leaves
Floral Wire
Wire Wreath Base (the larger the better!)
Cattails or Bottlebrush Anthers
Spanish Moss
Floral Picks
Floral Glue
Simple Instructions:
Using floral glue or hot glue gun, grab handfuls of the Spanish Moss and attach it to the wire frame with the glue. Bunch it so that it does not stick out of the sides or straggle. Also pad it down (taking out extra if need be) to make it lay flat and not be “bumpy”. Wire it in if need be to make it lay flat. But also make sure it is thick and covers the wire frame completely. I have found that wrapping the bunches of moss and the wire frame over with the floral wire helps to make it even and tight.
Next, sort out the large Eucalyptus Leaves and bunch them together in a group of 4 of 5. Wire them together and then tack them to the wire frame. Tack bunches closely together all around the frame so that it covers the frame. Allow the leaves to point in different directions to give the wreath a full and fluffy look.
Group together the anthers in bunches of 5 and wire together as a group. Tie in two groups of 5 anthers on each side of the wreath, measuring on average 1/4 length from the top and the bottom of the wreath sides. Make them even to the eye. You should have two bunches of anthers on each side. See photo for clarity.
Plug in the large Yarrow heads at the very top and very bottom of the wreath. Make sure they are balanced and then wire them in. Push Lemon leaves in behind the Yarrow all the way around to make them look like Sunflowers. Glue them in with the glue gun or floral glue or use the floral picks.
The finished wreath smells fantastic and looks gorgeous when fresh. It dries gracefully as well, I have one that is several years old that is still hanging. This wreath loses its smell about every 2 years so it’s a good idea to make a new one every so often. Have fun!
Technorati Tags: crafts, diy, foraging, green, handmade, how to, natural, plants, projects, wreath
June 15, 2009
· Filed under Environmental Detox, Home and Garden, Personal Care · Tagged chemicals, cleaning, eco, green, health, non toxic, products, safe, shopping, toxic, washing
I have done a lot of posts in the past that have covered the area of cleaning the home and doing it in an environmentally safe and non toxic fashion. But there is always more to discuss, as the concept of cleaning goes beyond just scrubbing the tub and scraping the stove. You also clean your clothes, your body and the outside area of your residence. In truth, all of this cleaning requires chemicals of various kinds and even the stuff you are sudsing up with in the shower can be toxic both to the planet and to you.
Consider first the washing of clothes. Did you know that only the toilet wastes more water than the washing machine in the average household? It’s that wasteful… and expensive! And as that water drains out, it takes with it the chemicals from your laundry detergent. This means they end up in the drinking water supply and how do they clean drinking water? With chlorine and other chemicals, all of which amplify the toxicity of the detergents you use. While popular, name brand detergents do a great job cleaning your clothes, they also do major damage in the environment. They also have an effect on you and your family, either on the front end where they contact your flesh through the wearing of the washed clothing… or on the other end where they end up in your glass.
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June 10, 2009
· Filed under Environmental Detox, Natural Remedies, diy · Tagged chemicals, cleaning, cosmetics, health, how to, non toxic, products, safe, shopping, toxic
If I was going to eliminate only the worst toxic stuff from my world because, let’s say, it was too expensive, complicated or uncomfortable to work my way through ALL of it, then which ones would I choose? How would I know which ones were the worst and how would I find them in that pile of junk I have around me that I’ve become dependent upon and used to? Well, I know that this is a daunting task and it could take a novice years to get up to snuff, as well as taking many months to work the bad stuff out and to find new.
So knowing this and thinking about how people are, I thought it might be a good idea to give a list that people could write down, print out or record for future reference. A simple enough list to be added to the grocery and household shopping lists. So I came up with a “worst chemicals in the world” type of list with the names they go by on the labels you read so that you can snoop them out in your buying expeditions. I also give a short description of what they do and why there are bad for you so that you can understand that this is important. So get your pen, open your text document or start the voice recorder. Here they are:
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June 8, 2009
· Filed under conservation · Tagged conservation, ecology, oceans, saving, sea
From The Ocean Project:
The world’s oceans cover more than 70% of our planet’s surface and the rich web of life they support is the result of hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Nomadic peoples were collecting shellfish and harvesting fish long before the dawn of settled agriculture. Great human civilizations, from the Egyptians to the Polynesians relied on the sea for commerce and transport, and now, at the end of the Twentieth Century, our fate is as tied to the oceans as ever. We still rely on fish for a significant portion of our daily protein needs, and more than $500 billion of the world’s economy is tied to ocean-based industries such as coastal tourism and shipping. Perhaps most important, this vast mass of water acts to help regulate the global climate and to ensure that a constant flow of vital nutrients is cycled throughout the biosphere.
But all is not well in the sea. Increased pressures from overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution and the introduction of invasive alien species have combined in recent decades to threaten the diversity of life in estuaries, coastal waters and oceans. Now a new threat, global warming, is making itself felt, and its impacts could be devastating for life in the sea.
There can be no doubt that our world is getting warmer. 1998 was the hottest year since accurate records began in the 1840s, and ten of the hottest years have occurred during the last 15 years. By examining growth rings from trees and ice cores drilled in Antarctica, scientists have determined that the past decade was the warmest in more than four centuries, and that the current rate of warming is probably unprecedented in at least 10,000 years. In 1992, the more than 2500 scientists comprising the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that the warming is caused at least in part by emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel use. As the world warms, the outlook for marine wildlife looks bleak unless we can turn down the heat by reducing concentrations of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere.
The startling changes already beginning to affect marine life may turn out to be merely the tip of iceberg. Global warming is predicted to worsen rapidly, with average annual temperatures expected to increase by about 3 degrees C by the middle of the next century. Changes of this speed and magnitude could set off a chain reaction in marine ecosystems with truly appalling consequences for life in the sea and for human communities that depend on it. However, if we act now to reduce carbon pollution from the dirtiest power stations and from vehicle exhausts, we stand a good chance of slowing the warming and helping to save a healthy ocean for future generations.
To read more about this serious issue, go to: The Facts .
To sign a petition for the U.N. to designate this day, June 8, as World Oceans Day worldwide go HERE .
June 2, 2009
· Filed under Home and Garden, conservation, diy, recycling · Tagged annuals, conservation, diy, flowers, gardening, herbs, how to, perennials, propagation, recycling, seeds, sowing, sustainable, wildflowers
Here’s an idea! Plant your garden in with plants that self sow. This will save you money on seeds, on the time spent replanting and make the entire process sustainable over the long term. I am sure you are asking yourself, what plants are these and are they worth planting? Well, I think you’d be surprised to find that many of them are desirable plants, both perennial and annual, and lots of them are flowers. Also among the numbers are herbs and wildflowers, both not only contributory to the beauty and aroma of your garden space but also an addition to your culinary selections. Some of them are used in remedies I have written about on this blog.
The easy propagation of these plants are what make them so magical. Plant it and nurture once only and a new crop of seedlings appear year after year, every single spring, without much more help from you. A lazy gardeners dream! Most of them need some nurturing after first planting, including watering, mulching, weeding and watching for bugs. But once they are in place their part of the garden morphs in a way, becoming a perfect bed for future generations. Oh, joy!
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