Homemade Laundry Detergent

I had my hair trimmed today.  My hairdresser and two other ladies in there all use a homemade laundry detergent.  One offered to bring me some and said it doesn't irritate her daughter's skin (my skin is also sensitive).  I told her I was going to try it and wrote down the recipe.
When I got home, I looked it up to see what else was out there.
One site gave a breakdown on how economical it is.  One said how to turn baking soda into washing soda if the baking soda isn't readily available.
The most challenging part for me seems to be that it makes a lot and would require storage containers.

Why Do You Keep Washing My Cheese Pan?

Larry sat down with a cookie sheet of crumbled cheese crisps.  He was pretty annoyed.  He asked, "Why do you keep washing my cheese pan?"
I said, "You leave it on the counter.  When I look to make sure the kitchen looks clean, I clean off the counters."
"But my cheese crisps stick when it's clean.  Do you want me to scrub the skillet you cook eggs in?"
"I don't leave the skillet on the counter."
When I did my visual check last night, his cheese pan wasn't on the counter:)

Getting Plants In

Larry thinks the angel wing begonias would be better if I didn't start them until maybe February.  So I'm taking the baskets into the greenhouse without breaking them off.  They are huge and heavy.  They are hard to get up onto the hooks.  But I'm almost finished.  I'm also taking all the dichondra in so I can try to get more of them started for next spring.  I am going to try to drape some of the long strands onto the starter plugs, pin them down with floral wire I've cut and bent, and just see if I can get a bunch of new ones that way.
I've also gone through my clothes...again...and gotten a bunch to give away.  I'm on my third housecoat from LLBean.  I've gone from 2X to 1X to Reg. Large:)  But my new stuff needs space and I've decided to get rid of more of the old stuff.  It's hard to get rid of stuff that is still good.  But I found somebody who wants it, so that helps.

Knitting Class

Last week was my first knitting class. She showed me how to cast on a knit.  So I knitted a good bit.  I was pretty sure it wasn't very good because it kept getting bigger.  I started with 24 stitches for the width.  Then it was 27.  Then it was 29.  When I noticed it was 29, I just knitted a couple of strands at a time until it was 27 again.
The teacher pulled all of it off, even the stitches I'd cast on.  I don't do it wrong on purpose, but I don't seem very good at it.  My standards aren't very high, either.  I thought about pulling the stitches out, but I didn't think I could get the needle back in.
This may be an inexpensive hobby...I'll just keep knitting the same skein of yarn over and over.  At least I bought brown.  It shouldn't show dirt as I knit it over and over.

Nice Day

I have a cart on the porch that I've been storing plant stuff on.  I had it at school so it had interior varnish on it.  It has started to look ratty so I cleaned it, sanded it, and put exterior varnish on it.  I have found sterilite containers that fit on the shelves.  This will prevent spills from getting on the wood.  Some of the stuff is pretty corrosive.  It at through the varnish that was on it down to the bare wood.  It wouldn't wash or sand off; I had to scrape it off.  So any spills or leaks should go in the plastic containers in the future.  I was very pleased with my efforts.
Then we went to Pebble Isle Marina.  The grill is called Gray Heron Grill and I like the place.  I like the food and sitting on the deck looking at the fish, water, fishermen, and trees beginning to change colors.  I was wearing jeans and polartec.  Larry was wearing shorts and short sleeves.  I asked if he wasn't cold and he agreed it was getting chilly.
Then I dragged some branches to a pile.  We have a lot of branches because of the trees the tree removal guy worked on.  We didn't have him clean up.  Some people who use wood for fire and cooking are going to come get the chunks, but we'll just burn the branches.
Then for dinner we had healthy, delicious stuff.
And Bones was back on for the second show in the new season.
I knitted while watching Bones.  I'm not very good at it.  I think I won't be able to use the excuse, "But it's my first thing," forever.  Maybe I'll get better or find a blind person to give scarves to.

Diet Side Dish

 Larry cooked a roast.  I used the juice from the roast to make this side dish.  I put onion, bell peppers, hot peppers, mushrooms, and 1/4 t xanthum gum in the juice.  I cooked the Dreamfields elbow noodles in a different pot and then combined them when the pasta was cooked. 

I made the spinach quiche several times.  This one has frozen broccoli instead of spinach.  I cut it into eight servings and then eat a serving for whichever meal I want.  It works well for breakfast, lunch, or whatever.

Tree Removal

 This tree was the one I was most worried about.  It could have fallen across the road.  It wasn't dead at the beginning of the summer...but it was almost dead.  The guy used a bucket and dropped the pieces so that nothing was hurt.  My rose strip running parallel to the road wasn't damaged at all.

 This flagstone was the only thing that was hurt.  Larry took the birdbath off of it and just left the stone. 

 This tree has been there for a while because we couldn't figure out how to get it off the little building.

 This is the truck with the bucket.  It has a holder for his chainsaw outside the bucket.  The controls for the bucket are inside the bucket.  I thought he'd need somebody inside the truck to move it, but not.

 He tied a rope around that tree and ran the rope under the tree we wanted off the little building.  As he sliced pieces off the leaning trunk, it got lighter and eventually stood itself back up in the hole the roots had made.

 This one was beside the driveway and just the top of it was dead.  So he took the top out.

I really thought he was going to be standing looking at something destroyed saying, "I didn't mean for it to do that," but he was really good!