Dish Regimen

This post is a follow-up to the post I did recently on the laundry regimen. Like before with my homemade laundry soap, my dishwasher soap is an effort towards greater sustainability and affordability. I do not feel as though I have my dish regimen as perfected as my laundry soap is. If any of my readers have suggestions as to how to make it more effective, I am all ears. :)


Here is the ingredient line-up:


Dishwasher Detergent

one cup commercial powder dishwasher detergent

one cup borax

one cup washing soda (not baking soda)

white distilled vinegar

Mix all three powders together, storing in a container with a lid. For each dishwasher load, use one heaping tablespoon in the soap compartment, being sure to close it up, then fill the prewash soap compartment with the white vinegar.


I bought all of my supplies at Winco. For the commercial dishwasher detergent, I looked for the one that I thought was not only worth the money, but also appeared to be the more earth friendly of the choices available. Also, I buy my white distilled vinegar in the largest size so that I can to save even more.

Once again, I am indebted to a friend for this starter recipe. I have made some changes with better results than before, and I will continue to change it to get it just right.

Current Eco Friendly Obsession

My journey with autism in my family has taught me to look at earth conservation in a new light. I believe that many of our current epidemics that effect our children, (such as severe allergies, asthma, and autism,) are brought upon us by the environment, or our lack of care for it.

Here is my current eco friendly obsession. It is housing built from shipping containers. Steel shipping containers come to us in the form of imports. Once we take out the goods, these shipping containers pile up... it is simply not cost effective to send them back. Architects and builders are latching on to the idea of using them as building material. Here are a couple of links I found while searching "shipping container house" on Google. The photos on these links are great.

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/articles/containers.htm


"http://green.yahoo.com/blog/daily_green_news/8/twelve-amazing-shipping-container-houses.html


I made a little preliminary floor plan sketch based on 40' by 8' foot containers, using the method of just laying them on some type of leveled ground/foundation and cutting rooms between them. (And windows and doors, etc.) The really lovely thing about this type of building is that additions are easy to add as your family grows. The containers are all made the same and this makes them easy to stack.



I have all kinds of ideas for my container house should I ever have the opportunity to build one. The containers would be in a semi circle shape, which would shelter a green house that is glassed in the interior. Imagine, garden fresh organic vegetables in the winter! We would use salvaged and refurbished cabinetry, and sustainable bamboo flooring. I am sure there are so many other eco friendly things that can be used to make the container home very comfortable. I just haven't thought of them all or researched them all just yet.

The Toxin Tip and Canaries

When you are looking for the answer to a troubling question, and then you find it, you feel like it fits and you have a clarity of mind that tells you that you have found what you are looking for.

When I was in high school I did a research project on autism because I wanted to learn more about what made my brother the way that he was. At that time the sources I ran into said that the occurrence of autism was 1 in every 800. Just last month I was informed by an Autism Speaks representative that the Center for Disease Control has come out with a statement declaring the occurrence to be every 1 in 97. What an astounding difference! Even if the sources I read in high school were a decade old, and even if you account for better awareness and diagnostic methods in the medical community, there is still a ginormous increase that demands the question of "why?" Why is there a greater occurrence of autism today?

Dr. Bryan Jepson explains in his book, Changing the Course of Autism, that persons who become autistic have a lower toxin tip genetically. The increasing toxicity of our world, (plus medical interventions such as heavy metal containing vaccines,) causes toxin overload on their bodies. Because of their lower toxin resistance their body cannot deplete these toxins, causing autism.

Jenny McCarthy, while not a medical professional, had an interesting analogy in her book, Mother Warriors, that medical professionals specializing in autism use. Miners used to take caged canaries with them in the mines, she says, because the canaries were more sensitive to the lethal gases that could lurk in the mines. When a canary started having problems with the air, the miners would leave the mine quickly. In the sense that they are more sensitive to our toxins, and in the sense that they react first, the precious persons in our lives with autism are functioning as our canaries.

So why does cleaning up our earth matter? I think I just answered that question. In addition to the joy and wonderful abilities they bring to this world, our children are trying to show us what to do. Despite their communication challenges, this message could not be clearer. Let's listen, please.

Conventional Cotton

My journey with autism in my family has taught me to look at earth conservation in a new light. I believe that many diseases, including autism, are brought upon us in part by our environment, or rather, our lack of care for it.

I was playing with google one day and I came up with the stats that only 5% of all crops are cotton, yet 25% of all pesticides/fertilizers are used to produce commercial cotton. Also that the production of three conventional cotton t shirts require the use of one whole pound of pesticides and fertilizers. I am not bothering to cite sources on this one because I found these same stats on MULTIPLE sites.

In my little family we are doing some small things to try to combat this issue. First of all, we shop thrift stores first. Thrift stores have more variety and they are easier on our budget. More importantly, buying second hand prevents use of more harmful chemicals for the creation of a new outfit, and that fact alone gives us so much pride in our thrift store purchases! We do not have any sources of organic clothing in our area as far as our knowledge goes, which is really very sad. If anyone knows of one, or of a good online source, do tell.

Recycling pre loved fabrics is something that I do in my studio and I am very grateful for my family's support in this. I make clothing items out of old worn out fabrics. Recently I made myself a long sleeved t shirt out of afew of my husband's old t shirts that would have gone in the trash. I find using preexisting fabrics to create new fashions very exciting because, once again, reusing fabric prevents the use of harmful chemicals. Some of my creations I post in my etsy shop.