Simple, Effective, Environmental, Economical Cleaning Products

After some research and experiments, we put together some economical home-made environmentally friendly cleaning products.

First, I went and bought some spray bottles from the dollar store. We bought some essential oils: Sage Oil, Cedarwood, and Tea Tree Oil. The basic essential cleaning products are vinegar, borax, baking soda and washing soda.

Making these products was simple and the turned out to be surprisingly effective cleaners. After using the all purpose cleaner for a few weeks the house feels cleaner and more natural.

The Best All Purpose Cleaner:

- 1/2 Cup Vinegar (Great all around cleaning product)
- A few drops of each essential oil (Tea Tree Oil for disinfectant, sage and cedar for odor)
- Fill the bottle with water

The final product has a really soothing and natural smell, cleans great and is really cheap. The biggest expenses are the essential oils, but a little bit goes a long way.

Bathtub Cleaner:

- Scrub with baking soda
- Spray on all purpose cleaner, let soak for an hour
- Scrub Washing soda

Very clean tub. I have been really turned off by the use of bleach, so this is a nice alternative.

Glass Cleaner:

- 1/2 cup vinegar
- Water

Easy, simple, effective.

Haven't had a chance to make the dishwasher detergent yet clothes detergent. Will report back when we do.

Worm Composting!!!

We got worms! They are red and wiggly...hence the name red wigglers. They do more than just wiggle, they facilitate the creation of compost! Worm composting is ideal for indoor urban composting. To put it simply.....You feed the worms your scraps and they poop compost!
Apparently, these red wigglers can eat more than their body weight each day and produce some seriously nutritious compost. The whole process costs very little, since you just need a 5 gallon bin and some newspaper to get started. The most expensive part of the process is the worms, which we bought from the Lower East Side Ecology Center. They also have a very helpful guide to vermiculture. We will spare you the details on the process because many sources provide really good guides on getting started! 2-6 months from now we will be fertilizing the roof deck garden with some potent worm poop!

How does you garden grow?

The roof deck garden is flourishing! Believe it or not we have cherry tomatoes, celebrity tomatoes, beans, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, lettuce, kale, collard greens, zucchini, and broccoli growing on our roof!

We are meticulous waterers, taking turns carrying the bucket up the spiral stairs to the roof each morning. We have already harvested Lettuce, Kale, Collard Greens and the cherry tomatoes are oh so close!

I think if we can grow these plants on our 10x15 roof deck in Jersey City we can grow food anywhere! There is enough room for us to hang out, have dinner, drinks with friends and grow some food. The plants also bring life and greenness to the otherwise gritty urban rooftop.

For anyone who has never grown a vegetable from seed we highly recommended it. It is rewarding. Its like having a new set of babies that grow and change every morning as you water them. Oh and its free, after you buy the containers and the dirt! As for fertilizing we are looking to our red wiggler worms...a red wiggler post to follow.

Comcast can kiss my......

Join our "Quit the Cable" movement! So its been many months since we blogged....it has also been many months since we have paid a cable bill. We are free from the of the corporate web that Comcast has woven! The $100 triple play rapidly became the jacked up $160 triple threat!

So what exactly have we given up for this $160??? Well there are the random surcharges, the tyrannical customer service and the general monopolistic manner in which Comcast operates.... and that doesn't even scratch the surface of the actual content they provide!

Let's not forget the 487 channels. Yes, they provide quite a number of choices..... but I could do without the 17 Starz channels and 10 encores channels playing B movies from 1993 round the clock!

Not only are we Comcast-free, we are commercial-free! Speaking of free...have we mentioned that we have all this free time, now that we don't have cable! So be free....quit the cable!

P.S. Have you heard of this little company called netflix? Well they are offering quite the value on the movie front!

For you "Daily Show" and "The Office" fans..you might want to check out hulu!

If you watch ABC....they offer some of their shows on-line at their website.

These are just some of the "legal" options. Anyone know of any others?

Shomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

There are only a few days left to see some of the world-renowned photos of Moneta Sleet, the Pulitzer Prize Photojournalist. The exhibit at the Shomburg Library on 135th Street and Malcolm X Blvd. has a collection of 80 of Sleet's photographs on display. The photos are divided into four groups; portraits, Africa, the civil rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The exhibit includes the winning photograph of Coretta Scott King with her daughter leaning on her lap at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's funeral.

The library also has a small gallery that periodically rotates pieces from their permanent collection. Works of Wilfredo Lam and Jacob Lawrence among many others are up.

On your way to the photo exhibit as you walk through the atrium you will walk over a beautiful tile floor where the ashes of the writer Langston Hughes rest.

Folk Art Museum

Yesterday we visited the American Folk Art Museum on 53rd and 7th ave in Manhattan. The museum is the lesser-known neighbor of the MOMA. The admission is $9 and well worth it. We managed to avoid the crowds lined up outside the MOMA and enjoyed five floors of whimsical, inspiring art. The place makes you want to make art, because after seeing the self-taught amateurism of folk art, you realize that anyone can create art out of anything.

It is a fun place to go and try to develop a definition of folk art. The museum helps by dividing the displays into four themes-- utility, community, individuality, and symbolism -- all of which are defining characteristics of folk art. Go and enjoy!

A Jersey Gem - South Mountain Reservation

One of the greatest possible ways to spend a Saturday is hiking. It is free exercise that reminds us that we are part of a natural world...oh yeah... and it beats a day at the mall!

So we decided to take advantage of the unseasonably warm, yet eerily unnatural, weather today and go to South Mountain Reservation in Millburn. We followed the suggestion of the New York/New Jersey Trail Conference and took a trail that brought us a panoramic view, a scenic waterfall and some great hiking.

We parked at the Locust Grove parking area, which is literally a stones throw away from the the Millburn Train Station (for you hardcore public transporters!). Although the trails were muddy due to recent precipitation, the high volume of water made for an impressive waterfall. The downside is that trails begin to gradually morph into streams requiring agility and waterproof footwear to navigate. Along the way we came across a variety of terrain including paved trails, narrow rocky trails, as well as, a group of deer led by a large buck. The highlight of the three or four hour hike was definitely the waterfall, which we dubbed the Niagra of New Jersey.

Along the trail we met a great couple and their dog Sasha, a female weimerheimer, who helped us find the waterfall. After three and half hours our legs were spent, so we hit up a local Mexican restaurant, Tinga. We had a well-earned heaping pile of nachos! After a slight detour to Whole Foods we were on the road and heading back to Jersey City totally exhausted, but rejuvenated. It was a great day getting back in touch with nature. For more pictures click here.