So here are a few natural remedies that are 100% safe for people, pets, and planet.

1. Cornmeal. Leave small piles where the ants come. It’ll keep them away for about 2 weeks until their cousins return, but yes – it kills them. So, if you have issues with killing ants keep reading.
2. Vinegar. It’s a natural ant repellent. Put some in a spray bottle and spray where you see the little buggers.
3. Chalk. Draw a line and the ants won’t cross it.
4. Pepper – cayenne or black. Sprinkle some wherever ants are coming in, and they’ll stop coming. Just remember to re-sprinkle after you sweep or mop!
5. Cinnamon. Just like pepper – for whatever reason, ants don’t do cinnamon.

Now for a little announcement. Come back one week from today – we’ll have a book review and a giveaway! You won’t want to miss it on Monday the 15th.

What do you say? Can going green help your wallet? When I look at ‘eco-friendly’ products on the market I tend to be a little put off by the price. As a mother of 3, it just seems easier to buy store brand mac & cheese for $0.48/box than to put up the cash for organic or ‘all-natural’ mac & cheese at an astounding $1.59/box. ‘Green’ toys are more expensive, ‘green’ cleaning products are usually 20-30% more expensive than their conventional counterparts. So, is going green just a luxury for the upwardly mobile?

If we get to the heart of it, it can go either way. The focus is really on a few fundamentals, and the balance of those fundamentals is what sways the price either up or down. Let’s break it down a bit.

1.  Consume less. The heartbeat of the green movement, or at least it should be, is to consume less, waste less, use less. Reduce your impact on the world around you. Check out the Stuff video that we love so much. Consuming less means using the library instead of buying books; finding ways to use every part of what you have – like cooking up the pumpkins you bought as halloween decorations; reusing and repurposing rather than chunking and replacing. It’s buying more ‘classic’ clothes that will remain stylish for multiple seasons instead of jumping on the latest trend. And consuming less certainly costs much less.
   1. An integral part of consuming less is consuming less new merchandise. When it’s time to get a new hoozamawhatzit, check out second hand stores, Craigslist, and freecycle. The less you purchase new items, the more you salvage from landfills, and the less you feed the Stuff cycle.
   2. Another part of consuming less is being intentional about energy and other resources you use. It’s about turning off lights when they’re not in use, consolidating errands into fewer trips, and maybe purchasing a power-saving electric strip for your appliances. This is where you hear about eco-friendly light bulbs and things like that. Small cost upfront, large savings to come.
2. Go natural. Aim for pesticide-free products that are closer to their original form, not laden with chemicals and synthetic substances. Unfortunately, this is where we see a lot of the rising cost for green merchandise and services. Natural, sustainable resources are exponentially more costly than man-made alternatives. Pesticide-free sugar cane is way more expensive than high fructose corn syrup, so that drives up the cost of all products that use natural sweeteners as opposed to HFCS. It’s difficult for farmers to gain the ‘organic’ seal for their products, and they have to pass that cost on to the consumer. Natural fertilizers are more expensive than pesticides and chemicals, and that’s where we see the lion’s share of the premium for ‘green’ products. Do you really need elephant poop paper? Sure, it’s green and it’s cool (and it’s a really clever way of repurposing) but balance your need to be trendy with your budget and see what comes out ahead.
3. Go local. Buying local includes everything from locally farmed produce to shopping in the mom and pop stores instead of big box stores. Often this entails a higher price too. Big box stores can reduce their prices based on the volume they sell. Mom and pop stores don’t have that luxury. At the same time, if you can find the time to shop around you may be rewarded lower prices locally on quality goods. Also, mom and pop stores tend to take care of their ‘regulars’ through loyalty programs. Take advantage of some of those and you may find yourself saving more than you think.
4. Go fair. The last bit of the ‘green’ movement (and often the most unsung) is the justice side of things. Fair trade, responsibly sourced items from women’s co-ops often carry the heaviest price of all the ‘green’ initiatives. Virtually everyone tries to save money on labor, and fair trade goods ensure that farmers, producers, and artisans receive a fair wage for their work, enjoy reasonable work conditions, and have opportunities for education, clean water, and other ‘luxuries’ of that sort. Fair trade is taking over coffee, high end chocolate, and making its way into home goods, apparel, and even the wine industry.

In summary, if you’re looking to green on a shoestring, the place to start isn’t with grass-fed beef and a bamboo wardrobe. Start by consuming less, shopping locally, and creatively repurposing and reusing. Instead of buying tupperware, keep those glass jars from spaghetti sauce and pimentos. Be intentional about purchasing things that will last for more than one season, and recognize that sometimes an up-front purchase (like light-bulbs or a high efficiency water heater) will save you enough money in the long run to make them worth while.

Check out the blogs there – you’ll probably find a few new ones you’ll like – I know I did!

If you have kids you’ll want to head over there and enter the giveaway.  And while you’re there, check out her other posts – she’s got a great thing going on there.

Well, natural fertilizer doesn’t have to be the butt of potty jokes. You can actually use kitchen waste to make your own fertilizer for your yard and garden. Why? You’ll save money and send less to the landfill, reduce your climate footprint, and you’ll be creating your very own concoction – and who doesn’t like to create something new?

It’s easy and more unobtrusive than you probably thought. Sure, you can go out and get yourself a tumbling barrel or some such contraption, but if you’re just starting, a pretty countertop canister will get you started. You’ll want to use a 50/50 mixture of ‘brown’ and ‘green’ organic waste, so here’s what to start with:

Brown Waste: (dry)

• cardboard or unbleached paper (shredded)
• leaves
• woodchips
• grass clippings
• twigs
• unbleached coffee filters

Green Waste: (moist)

• coffee grounds
• egg shells (broken into small pieces)
• fruit and vegetable peels and scraps

Things to avoid:

• Pet waste – could introduce harmful bacteria into your garden
• Animal byproducts (grease, chicken bones or fat, sour milk, etc.) – could attract pests and unwanted visitors

You’ll need to turn it (flip it upside down and then back again) every 3 days, and it’ll decompose faster if you leave it in a warm place. When it’s fully ‘cooked’ or ready to go, it’ll be about half the amount of what you added and it’ll look like good soil. You won’t be able to see the various things you put into it.

Rhubarb leaf tea, that is. Next time you buy some rhubarb to make your fantastic strawberry-rhubarb pie, don’t discard the leaves. Put them in a pot of water, boil them for about 10 minutes, then leave the pot to cool. Now discard the leaves, but put the ‘tea’ into a spray bottle and apply it to your plants! It’ll keep the pests away but keep your garden chemical-free and food-safe.

It’s based on a study done in France that looked at non-agricultural families. This is the first study to test the effects of pesticides and insecticides used in domestic situations, and it found startling results. Even moms who only used pesticides or insecticides once during their pregnancy have children with increased rates of leukemia and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. In fact, the rate increases two-fold. That’s right, children whose mothers used insecticides inside or outside the home during pregnancy were twice as likely to develop hematopoietic cancers.

What qualifies as pesticides or insecticides? Any chemical-based application of insecticide to rid the home, pets, or garden of crawling or flying pests, any herbicidal ‘weed-killer,’ or any fungicide to get rid of mold. The conclusion therein is that pregnant mommies avoid such products both during the pregnancy and preferably while nursing an infant as well. We might draw similar conclusions that if those chemicals are harmful to the developing fetus, they might also cause due harm on anyone with a suppressed immune system – the elderly, children, or the infirm.

Just another reason to take steps toward the organic side of life.

Note: When I googled hematopoietic cancers, I also came across studies linking these specific cancers to pregnant mommies’ use of chemical hair dyes, consumption of aspartame sweetener, and exposure to ethylene oxide (a sterilizing agent).

The four-year review of the pesticide, coined by the EPA as ‘one of the most thorough’ analyses of a pesticide, was conducted by none other than the Tokyo based company that manufactures it. Furthermore, the company’s former CEO is now the administrator in the northwest region of the EPA.

Anyone else smell a rat? Oh, wait, no. That’s what pesticides are for.

For more information, check out the story here.

Cherry juice doesn’t come out of clothes as easily as it slides off my laminate countertops. And a very nice Janie & Jack striped polo has become a casualty of the cherries.

As an afternote, I realized after buying (and feeding my kids) over a pound of (regular) cherries that cherries are, in fact, on the list of the worst offenders for pesticide-laden produce. Maybe I should redo the experiment with organic cherries… and leave the kids topless but fully bibbed.

Joni Mitchell said it best, “…Hey, farmer, farmer, put away that DDT now. Give me spots on my apples, just leave me the birds and the bees, please!…” Now we can add to the birds and the bees line, babies and brains too!

News this week? Babies conceived in the summer months don’t do as well in school as those conceived at other times of the year. Neonatologist Paul Winchester analyzed the scores on standardized tests and found that children who were conceived in June, July, and August were significantly less proficient in language and math. He attributes the effect to high levels of environmental pesticides during the most crucial months of nervous system development. “The pesticides we use to control pests in fields and in our homes and the nitrate we use to fertilize crops and even our lawns are at their highest level in summer,” Winchester says. He suspects that pesticides are causing higher rates of hypothyroidism in pregnant women, a condition known to affect brain development in growing babies. Not only that, pesticides and fertilizers are also blamed for premature and preterm birth.

So, no more makin’ whoopie in the summer time! Well, scratch that. But if you’re pregnant or trying to get pregnant this summer, I’d say it’s high time to start buying organic produce, and limiting the chemicals you use in and around your home. Switch to natural cleaning products (or a natural maid service, like… need I say? Broom Huggers!), see if you can manage your lawn and indoor pest control without pesticides and fertilizers. And most definitely, buy yourself some organic 2% milk (miscarriage rates rise a bit in women who drink skim), and limit your beef intake.