Darla is a Genius and I am a Chicken Herder

We went away this weekend! Andrew took the boys on a canoe/camping trip and I and the girls visited with my friend Darla and her daughter (and the young boys; her husband and oldest three went canoeing too.) Anyway, during our visit, the ever industrial Darla made homemade baby wipes using paper towels and a very simple formula. While she was putting them together she remarked that she should make some cleaning wipes to keep in the bathroom; all you need to do is take a paper towel, wipe the counter, the sink and the toilet and voila! Done!

Well, I capitalized on her brilliant idea and now have a container of cleaning wipes in each bathroom... and a 5 year old girl eager to assume the responsibility of the one upstairs! Here is the formula I used:

Solution:

1/3 c White Vinegar

1 2/3 c Water

Nice squirt of Dish Soap

6-8 drops Grapefruit Seed Extract

5 Drops Orange Essential Oil

5 Drops Lemongrass Essential Oil (Obviously, you can use something different, if you want!)

Pour Solution into your container (I used a plastic tupperware container that the 1/2 PT roll fit nicely into)

Cut a paper towel roll in half

Remove the cardboard thingy from the middle (you pull the wipes from the center - ingenious!)

Let paper towels soak up the solution

Clean away!!! (Or find a 5 year old to do it!)

As you can see Darla is a genius.

And I am a chicken herder: this morning after breakfast we all went outside and found that one of the chickens flown the coop, so to speak. Actually, she flew over their "playpen" - the fence to corral them during the day to the specific part of the hogweed infested yard that we want them to peck around in. So Mario (yes, the chicken is a girl, but she has this black mark on her beak that looks just like a mustache) was clucking like crazy, very anxious about being separated from the rest of the girls. I tried to convince her that I was just going to return her to the playpen, but she didn't understand my clucking. So, I had to chase her ALL the way around the fence, stumbling over rocks and fallen trees, tiptoeing around nasty hogweed, around the Ash tree and then FINALLY she ran into the shed where I cornered her and grabbed her!

She, of course, was much relieved... and the kids were much amused.