Building a Rain Water Collection System

We had the pleasure of exploring a 1910 one room school house that was being re-purposed for small living along with green living. One of the first things I noticed was their rainwater collection system. The owners had put a ridged metal roof on the old schoolhouse and had a gutter system attached to rain water collection barrels. Since this old schoolhouse is on the high desert, rain water is a precious commodity. It was perfect brilliance.
The property had an underground cistern for fresh water, but no other water for the landscape or simple chores. I just fell in love with this little school house not only because of the history but because it fits so well with the tiny house living and green living.




Making a rain water collection system is easy and inexpensive. As you see in the video below it does not take much rain to fill some pretty large containers. Perfect idea for areas like the one room schoolhouse where a thunderstorm might be the only rain for weeks.

Essential Oils for Cleaning

Lately I've been on a cleaning kick. Well, more like making my own cleaning products and then seeing how well they really work kick. I have to say I'm impressed most of the time.

My favorite cleaner this week is used in the kitchen for grease and those finger prints that get all over everything.
You will need :

32oz spray bottle
2 teaspoons of liquid castile soap (or you can melt down a little fels naphtha)
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup of lemon juice (dollar store)
4 cups of water
15 drops of CSE (citrus seed extract) found at health food stores
10 drops of essential oil, lime, lemon or orange
2 teaspoons of borax (found in your laundry section)

While at first the cost might seem higher for the first output, after a while you will see how long each of these ingredients lasts. The oils are a little more spendy right away, but will last a very very long time. In my opinion it's worth getting the liquid castile soap too as there are many other uses for it that I am finding and you can save your Fels Naphtha soap for making home made laundry soap, which I also LOVE.

Amazon has a great starter kit of essential oils for around 30.00. It usually comes with the basic oils. Here is my list of essential oils you should start collecting as they are the basis of a good many cleaning products.

Beginner Cleaning Oils
Citronella
Citrus like lime or lemon or orange
Tea Tree
Wintergreen

Not too bad right? I love the final cost of my cleaning products and I know they will not harm me or my family while I'm cleaning. Plus they smell great and are safe of our environment while also being eco savvy..

Controlling Kitchen Pests

Kitchen pests might be one of the most annoying things to try and rid yourself of. Once those little buggers have found their way in its difficult to deter them. Add your children to the mix and your options just dropped down to a few.
We have had ant problems and moth problems in the recent months and both were more then annoying. We thought a few moths had gotten into the house from letting the dog in and out but soon they were everywhere. We did our best to kill everyone we saw but within weeks they just multiplied. Then we had ants coming in. The first place I went was my pantry. While the ants were not in the pantry I did find the moths. Oh the moths! They were in everything. We had to throw out at least $100 worth of food, anything that was open or clipped shut had moths in it. Everything but canned food was thrown out. It was a hot mess.
We scrubbed, we bombed, we sprinkled cinnamon and cloves and slowly we gained back control of our pantry.

Since then I have learned the power of peppermint and citronella essential oils. These wonder oils, or so I call them drive the pests away and are safe to use in your houseful of children and pets. They smell wonderful to us, but ants, centipedes, earwigs, silverfish, moths and mice hate it!. That just makes me love it even more. These two oils are very inexpensive and just a few drops applied once a month around your kitchen, pantry or where ever the little buggers are hanging out will deter them from coming back.
Quick, easy and safe way to get those kitchen pests packing.