Girl Power Found in Unclogging the Dishwasher

I woke up to standing water in the dishwasher and because my property management company is slightly less than awesome, I knew we were in for another round of phone tag and weeks of waiting to get a service visit.

Turns out there was an easy solution. And although I found out how easy it is to unmount the appliance, learn from me: the first check does not require moving the appliance at all.

(I think you still should turn off the power at the breaker on the outlet or the main breaker box before messing with issues of standing water around an electrical appliance though.)

Just under the sink and find the hose that drains the dishwasher to the main pipe.

Loosen the clamp, wiggle the hose off and see if anything is blocking the passage. I knew I had it right just by pulling off the hose because I could hear the water moving. I was able to remove the food jam with some tweezers.


While you have that hose off you can run the dishwasher (start a cycle to run the water, then cancel it to drain) and let the hose drain into a bucket to see that the blockage is clear. It's a happy moment.

Last step running those tweezers through a hot sanitizing cycle to rinse out the congealed oil and gook from the standing water incident.

Ultimate preventative first step, don't feed husbands pistachios in the shell :)

Blue Beetle Permaculture Studio: Composting and more

Blue Beetle Permaculture Studio: Composting and more: *Rain Alert* We just had a good steady rain overnight! One of my priorities this year is to work on adding organic material to the vegeta...

Extractions

Working on some good fragrances for the DePaul Urban Farming Organization soap-making workshop coming up this Wednesday! 
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=932637353413382&set=gm.751040671648729&type=1&theater

When I dismantled my gardens last autumn I stuffed a bunch of different herbs into jars, really cramming in the plant material. Then filled each jar to the top with vodka, capped, shook them and stored them in a cool, dark cupboard. I periodically shook the jars throughout the last couple of months and am now extracting the liquid to use as fragrances for soap.

Straining the plant material using a pestle to mash out all the liquid.

Also using some fruit extractions I made from peels and rinds. I'm really excited about the pineapple, it worked really well!

I also tried extracting some herbs in oil. I'm not sure I can really smell the herbs after 3 months but I'll see what others think (I'm impaired with a cold currently so my olfactory abilities are off). I used aromatics like sage and thyme. I would like to find a good extraction method alternative to alcohol for the flavors that are overwhelmed by the alcohol and to minimize the alcohol "fumes" that are always present even in really successful extractions. So far freezing has not been useful as a separation method for me to help decrease the undesired effects of the alcohol. 

Please leave me a comment if you have suggestions or have had luck with a particular extraction method.

We used the extracts for the DePaul Urban Farming Organization's Soap Making Workshop.

**UPDATE**: Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

FORMULA ADJUSTMENT:

I've altered my recipe a bit after deciding the dishes were not getting clean enough. Noticing sodium carbonate was the first ingredient in seventh generation's dishwasher detergent, I doubled the amount in mine.

2 cups Washing soda (sodium carbonate) per 1 cup Borax.

I'm still using 1/2 cup citric and 1/2 cup salt but the next test will be increasing the citric acid b/c there's still some slight residue coming out on the glassware - I'm not convinced about the vinegar handling the rinse so I would like to try and give it a boost with the acid to lower pH. 

Stay tuned... or try your own mix and let me know what works (and doesn't) for you!

Urban Homesteading: Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

I love the smell of Mrs. Meyers products but hate the extra cost!

A move for frugality and for what I call the Triple C (consumer chemical control), my name for demanding more of myself for chemical-enviro responsibility and for trying to use my purchasing power to advocate more corporate responsibility.

I've taken dishwasher detergent to a DIY level.

There's also a terrific Mr. Wizard feeling with the  only kind of chemistry I ever thought was fun: household cleaning supplies.

Let's bring some science into the chore list!


Recipe:
1 Borax: 1 Washing Soda: 0.5 Kosher salt: 0.5 Citric Acid
Example for 3 cups total detergent

•  1 cup Borax
•  1 cup Washing Soda
•  1/2 cup Kosher Salt
•  1/2 cup Citric Acid
• 1 tupperware container to use for storage

Mix and store! Recommended use is 1-2 tablespoons per load.
You may want to purchase a tablespoon to keep in the container.

For more information on the ingredients including where to find them as well as the chemical and environmental back stories, keep reading below!

Borax -

Long praised for it's green cleaning ability, borax has been a household cleaning agent for hundreds of years. Those familiar with the product joke about it's seemingly endless usefulness around the house from brightening, whitening, softening to insecticidal and fungicidal duties Borax is definitely a traditional non-toxic powerhouse of housekeeping. I knew I could feel good about using it for dish cleaning but as a mineral I was concerned about the environmental impact it has when it is extracted for commercial use. Rest easy, it terms of the main brand (only brand I've ever seen) the company gets a green check for using environmentally responsible mining techniques that do not worsen the already strained water supplies of the Western US. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-green-are-boron-cleansers/
So as long as the reporting and regulation information is concerned, Borax seems like a totally responsible consumer  choice.


Washing Soda - NOT baking soda!

Washing soda is sodium carbonate Na2CO3 (as compared to baking soda, which is sodium bicarbonate NaHCO3). Washing soda has a higher pH (around 11) and can be very good for removing greases, oils, and wines. The alkalinity also helps cleaning agents work more efficiently by reacting with calcium and magnesium that may be present in hard water.

Borax & Washing Soda can both be found in the regular cleaning aisles of grocery and department stores like Target. Just really look around the shelves towards the top and bottom shelves. I found them today next to each other on a bottom shelf under the regular laundry detergent.

Kosher Salt

Shelved with the regular salt in the spice aisle but again, you may have to look around. Check the lower shelves! This is your scrubbing agent to knock off stuck-on food particles during the wash.

Kosher salt lacks iodines and is considered to be a higher purity. Kosher salt is reportedly mined rather than harvested so I think there are all the environmental concerns inherent with mining. However,  the Morton company seems invested in sustainable business practices including a lowered energy use at it's operation facilities and a foundational role in the Morton Arboretum, where fantastic ecological research is conducted and shared with academic, professional, and residential populations.

Citric Acid - This will help keep down any residue that might form on the dishes - contribute to that squeaky clean feeling. Citric acid can be found with canning supplies, sometimes sold as a product called Ball® Fruit-Fresh® Produce Protector  because it prevents oxygenation and therefore browning. My neighborhood store had removed canning supplies so I found a source of citric acid in the spice aisle by checking anything labeled as lemon. I found a lemon spice that had a small number of ingredients, including citric acid and lemon peel. Unfortunately this additive can get creepy depending on your feelings about industrial processes. If you prefer to avoid GMO's, try to find a source in a natural food store otherwise your citric acid may have been produced by genetically modified mold! Even if no GMO's are used, most citric acid is industrially produced using a mold (Aspergillus niger or black mold). While that may seem gross it is a natural metabolic process and no where near as environmentally impacting as mining.

Scent - I was planing on adding lemon zest because I keep it on hand in the freezer. Since my source of citric acid already had lemon in it, scent was already taken care of.

You can also add plain white vinegar as a rinsing agent by putting it directly & undiluted into your rinse again compartment. The acidity of the vinegar, like the citric acid, will help break up the detergent. 

Last Day Indian Summer=Last Chance to Plant Bulbs

For a complete database of planting and full site description: http://myfolia.com/gardens/52043-runges-auto-shop-garden

GOAL: PLANT SPRING BULBS
Planting spring bulbs today. Mostly working in the parkway so I have a squirrel concern. When I purchased the bulb at Anton's, I asked about squirrels and learned tulips are the main attraction for them, Burying them as deep as you can get away with is good to help the problem.

8" was my goal, which seems pretty deep for parkway digging. I also asked at the shop and was told the squirrel action tended to be in a parkway I wasn’t working on, where there are 2 mature hackberry trees. As I dug along, I did find enough squirrel treasure (walnut here, peanut there) to know they are active in the areas where I planted but after a week temps have sunk to freezing at night and I haven’t noticed any bulbs dug up so I’m hoping there’s a bright side to winter’s earlier and harsher tendencies this year.




I was using a crappy trowel I like for these ultra public spaces (lots of saturday traffic with people in and out of the Howard train/bus station). It’s aluminum and I wouldn’t care much if someone walked off with it so I like the low pressure of using that trowel but it isn’t very strong. Digging as much as 8" down was tough (and really I went further where I could because I tried to amend as much soil below planting depth as I could). the trowel handle kept bending. Tim Runge offered to do some welding to reinforce for me while i ran back home to get some gloves and lunch. He did such a cool job! Put a big bolt snug inside the handle underside and welded it. The rest of the afternoon’s digging went much better

:)






Lumbricus terrestris
One interesting event was how the earthworms (Lumbricus / nightcrawler) kept coming up through the grass on the outer circumference of where I was digging just like our earthworm lab where we use the mustard solution to extract and count.

Tried to watch for the worms to put them back into the planting areas because from needing organic matter to structure, this soil can use all the help it can get and I was THRILLED to be seeing the worms.

SOIL HETEROGENEITY
Interesting timing with my classroom lectures this week because in both my classes we’ve talking about soil properties and increased soil heterogeneity in urban areas is a mainstay. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen so much disparity. Around each tree there was clearly a heavy clay side to the north (far side from the curb) and on the south side of the trees I found very sandy soils, no doubt from some disturbance as the gas company made big cuts to lines this past summer and filled in with mostly sand. I added a lot of fallen trees from the maple saplings in any cuts I made with the bulbs and added some top soil where I could. I was working on a Saturday, busy day at the shop, and 2 of the trees are adjacent to where cars pull up. And parking up on the curb is the convention here so I really minimize my time near the curb where there’s any open parking space and try not to spend a lot of time just avoid being a pest to the business.

high clay content (nice long ribbon formation!)

Higher sand content with proximity to curb

To help balance soil heterogeneity I mixed the clay & sandy fills and added purchased soil below the digs to consider the needs for bulb root growth. And then I crossed my fingers and will keep them that way through winter!

For a complete database of planting and full site description: http://myfolia.com/gardens/52043-runges-auto-shop-garden

DePaul Urban Garden: 3, 2, 1, ACTION

DePaul Urban Garden: 3, 2, 1, ACTION: Last Tuesday, DePaul UFO hosted a screening of American Meat , a  Leave It Better  documentary about the current conditions, people, probl...

Portrait of an Urban Gardener

Me in James Park during a Photo Shoot for my Environmental Science Textbook, chapter on Community Gardens
Photo by Brian Hannan

Winter 2012

Lab work wanes

Plant work waxes

Lab to Landscape...

still feels like 
theory & practice
of 

experimental design 

March 7-9: Raised Beds Construction

YWCA, Evanston, IL