On June 19th and 20th the GREAT HUDSON RIVER REVIVAL
A Music & Environmental Festival
will be held at Croton Point Park in Croton On Hudson, NY http://www.clearwater.org/festival/
Besides volunteering for this outstanding event, this year I will have a craft booth…soooooooo…..
Come and visit me, JUST JO in the “Juried Craft” Section..
Here are a few things I will be offering for sale.
Hope to see you there!!!!
I think we are all ready for that wonderful time of year…S-P-R-I-N-G!!!!!!
We really have been hit hard by mother nature this past winter, but hold on, before you know it the birds will be singing, the buds will be budding and the sun will be shinning.
Besides shedding our winter layers, there is another part of Spring that is not so fun, but a tradition most of us adhere to. Spring CLEANING!! Not something that I look forward to, but if cleaner windows mean the sun can shine brighter into my little speck on the world, then here we go.
1 cup Washing soda (different from baking soda) you can find it in the laundry aisle.
1 cup Borax
4 Gallons Water
Chop, or grate the soap into small parts. On the stove-top bring 1 gallon of water to a boil. Once it boils add the soap flakes. Stir until all is melted.
While waiting for the water to come to a boil, add 3 gallons of water to a large bucket. Add the washing soda and borax.
Once the soap has melted carefully pour into the bucket with the other mixture. Stir to mix completely. Add essential oils
Let set overnight. Your detergent will become gel like. Mix once in a while before using.
Fabric Softener Option:
Vinegar is a natural fabric softener. Use 1/2 cup in the wash cycle. (But don’t use bleach at the same time—mixing vinegar and bleach may create toxic fumes.)
We had a family BBQ, and I am happy to report that we came very close to zero waste. How?? Instead of paper plates and cups we used REAL dishes!! I actually pulled out the china that I got as a wedding gift; we used it once in the past 27 years. When my 25 year old son saw it on the counter top and asked “Where did this come from?” I was convinced that even though this is not a fancy schmancy event, (which is when the special china comes out right?) this was perfect, so what if one piece breaks? Make mosiacs!!! Better to use it now, then some day dig it out of the box, barely used and give it away.
How did we do it? For the plates, we added the china to our everyday dishes. Since we had steak, I broke out the steak knives. For cold drinks, anything that came in a bottle like beer, gets recycled, we had some home brewed beer, so that is an even better way to recycle the bottles. For all the other drinks, iced tea, soda etc ,I pulled out the mason, pickle, salsa, and peanut butter jars, which we use as our daily glasses. Straws….bamboo of course. For hot drinks, the coffee cups from the kitchen cabinet, added to the china coffee cups. Since I only have a 12 cup coffee maker, I used some old thermos’ I had (either family hand me downs or tag sale finds) to serve the coffee out of.
For our cutlery I had purchased forks and spoons made out of potato starch, which you can throw in the compost, but you can also run them through the dishwasher, so you can re use them plenty of times, and then when you can’t any more….to the worms! Napkins-cloth, I use old t shirts and cut them with pinking shears.
When it was time for dessert I had to stop and think for a second, the cookies we made, easy to serve, but the fruit salad, hmmmm…then I opened up my cabinet and AH HA!!…yogurt cups!!! I was wondering what I was going to do with them 
The food waste gets composted, the chicken bones I froze and will make stock out of. So the only thing we had to throw out was the packaging from the meats, which included styrofroam, which really gets my goat. I am mad at myself for even buying it, but what are you going to do?
As far as clean up, when we have a gathering, we usually end up in the kitchen, so clean up really isn’t so bad. Everyone helps, and cleaning is hardly noticed with all the socializing.
Almost Zero waste!! Ahh someday maybe….
ZERO!!
I have wanted a tumbling compost bin for some time now. John had planned on building one for me awhile ago, but too many things have gotten in the way. So while he was at work, and all of my (4) sons where off to wherever 20 something’s go off to, I decided I was going build this thing…now!! After scouting the internet and getting a few ideas from different composters, I had a plan in this little mind of mine, and set off on my mission. Now, of course in my Just Jo fashion, I had to use stuff that was around the house, I’ll be gosh darned if I am going to go buy something when I have so many resources right here.
I gathered up my material:
- An old garbage can
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Some 2 by 4′s
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A metal pipe
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Clamps
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Bungee cords
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Screws
So…..I dug the holes….the ground of course is extremely wet because of all the freaking rain……I slipped on my BIG BUTT, fell into the mud and IN the hole. So after I picked myself up and brushed myself off, I dug the holes, buried in the 2×4′s, got out John’s power tools…(I have never used any power tools before) ..I used some big kind of saw, proceeded to saw the 2×4′s down, because of course they were too high…I know I should have done this before I buried them…but I never do anything the right way……anyway…I screwed on the clamps for the pole……..drilled holes in the can for drainage and also to put the pole through and
TA DA!!!!!
…we now have a tumbling compost bin!!!!!
I use the bungee cords to hold the top on when we turn it.
Who knows how long this will last, I know it’s primitive, but I did it by myself and am darn proud of it!
We are all aware of the 3 R’s “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” But what impact do these three really have on our planet. Now I am certainly no expert on anything, I just try to use some common sense to get through life. So when Friday comes and the recycling truck arrives in my neighborhood, most of the time they fly right passed my house. Why? Does she NOT recycle? No, that is not the case at all. The thing is, we rarely have a full bin to put out to the curb.
Why you may ask? Because of the first two “R”’s Yup, REDUCE & REUSE! I am not going to lie to you and tell you that it’s easy, it’s not. Every purchase, every choice just needs to be thought out. Yes, it can be time consuming, but for me, the benefits for all of us are worth my time. When you really think about it, the amount of waste that goes into packaging some products is ridiculous.
Once in the supermarket I saw A potato, YES A SINGLE POTATO 
wrapped in plastic, with directions on how to cook in a microwave.
How crazy is that? ….OR… What a brilliant idea?
What a profit the store must be making and think of the convenience for the consumer. Now, think of the packaging, for that one little spud, why? Why does there have to be unnecessary waste created? Where is it going to go? Into the landfill? Or maybe like my municipality and incinerated and the toxins released into the atmosphere for all of us to breath in…all that energy for a convenient meal.
This is just one example of why reducing and reusing is so important to me. Can’t we buy that potato without the plastic wrapped around it? Better yet, let’s buy that potato from our local farmer! Then we save the fuel it may have taken to be transported, perhaps from a different state or country to get to the market, and the fuel it took to make the packaging to wrap the potato, and the satisfaction of knowing who grew it and how it was grown.
More and more people are using re usable grocery bags…YEAH!!!! But let’s do more.
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Let’s find a way to refill our containers.
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Let’s buy only what we need. How many times do we throw out something because it’s gone bad, we most likely bought it on sale, so it was worth it right?
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Let’s designate a cup
at the office for coffee or tea instead of using Styrofoam or paper. Mmmm think of how much better it will taste.
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Let’s use both sides of the paper, & use email for communications and especially for office memos and only print when absolutely necessary.
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Let’s purchase items that will be used more than one time.
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Let’s use refillable containers for water.
”But I recycle my plastic water bottles!” Yes I am sure you do, but recycling uses resources that we could be saving as well.
I am not saying recycling is bad. But if we cut down on the amount of packaging, and we buy things in re usable containers and actually re use them, we will save precious water, fuel, land, and our planet for future generations.
I have dedicated myself to the idea that not everything that is headed to the landfill is just useless junk; in fact I have found that almost everything can indeed be repurposed. With that in mind the products I create were once destined for the landfill.
With a little imagination, some ingenuity, and lots of elbow grease I have created these usable items.
Repurposed with a Purpose and more…..
Here’s just a few…..
Made from material that would otherwise be thrown away. We tie – dyed it, and I embroidered. Voila! A beautiful bag with a message. Or a message bag looking beautiful.
A pair of pants and an unwanted neck tie.
These two bags were made from swatches of discarded interior designer sample books.
This one is every body’s favorite. After feeding my hounds I just couldn’t bear to throw this perfectly useable material out!
More to come…..
Remember to Reduce, Reuse & Recycle!
Please feel free to email -heyjustjo@gmail.com
