worms, composting, awesome

On Saturday we spent some time in the yard and set up our Worm Factory 360 with 250 red wigglers; a bedding full of coconut fiber, shred newspaper, crumbled pumice, and garden soil; and the first of many food scraps which will become the first of our monthly super rich garden compost harvests - starting in about 90 days. I'm so excited to finally have our worms and the "fancy" system all set up and on our back porch. At first, I had placed it behind the house, but as I read the (unexpectedly long and also unexpectedly interesting) "how-to" book that came with the composter, I realized the back of the house gets too much sun and the shady porch is the place for our worms to get their grub on. 

Adventures in worm keeping has been thrilling so far. Even though I know they probably don't love it, I can't stop checking on them every day, raking back the top layers of food scraps and bedding to make sure they're happily wiggling away below the surface. This is how I found out that they love melon rinds more than carrots or edamame shells. The system will eventually get stacked pretty tall, you add a box at a time as the feeding boxes fill with scraps. Eventually the box on the bottom is compost, ready to harvest, then that box gets emptied and moved to the top and the cycle continues indefinitely.  

As the composting continues I'm excited to see if it's as easy as it sounds to maintain. Keeping the moisture and temperature levels in the right range and making sure the worms have a steady food supply seem to be all there is to it. In a temperate climate like Oregon, I think that's going to be super manageable. 

Last night after dinner Rob threw away the leftover avocado and I like yelled at him, "Rob! Worms!" I looked at him all exasperated and he looked at me like the woman I have become, ha... An awesome lady with cool interests, obviously.

I'm looking forward to getting more serious about gardening and really putting some time and muscle into the back yard. We started 3 types of heirloom tomato from seed and will transplant the first set of starts into the garden probably this weekend. The kids are happy as clams outside and able to help out a bit, run around a bit, and just be dirty and sweaty the way kids should be. It's therapeutic to spend time out there, doing physical work and getting a little Vitamin D, wearing yourself out physically and calming your mind while you get hands on with the earth. 

a DIY: I made my own non-aluminum deodorant (and I smell so good!)

I'm going to start with the "2 Weeks Later" on this post, because I made my deodorant a couple of weeks ago and I've been using it every day since. So, this is not a brag or anything, but I smell great. Honestly. I've been using store (well Amazon) bought non-aluminum deodorant for a while now (Lavanila is just wonderful) and so I got over the fact that we aren't talking about antiperspirant here a long time ago. But your body is meant to sweat, it's good for you, and the aluminum in antiperspirant has been linked to breast cancer (if you think about it you're shaving your armpit, creating tiny cuts, then smearing a known carcinogen onto the area) as well as other illnesses. No thanks. The funny thing I found is that not too long after going off antiperspirant I wasn't sweating as much. Yep, sweating less! With antiperspirant there was always a point in the day where I'd start mega-sweating and end up with pit stains. That hasn't happened to me in so long. I sweat a little bit, the deodorant soaks up the smelliness, and I end the day smelling good and without aluminum smeared near my boobs. All good things.

I've also come to realize that I'm crunchy as fuck. It's true. I spent a good few years saying things to people like, "I'm kind of weird about food," or, "haha yeah I guess I'm on the crunchy side!" ::adorable shrug:: but the truth is that the more I know about the food I eat, the things I smear all over myself and my kids, the more I'm just like, "to hell with this." I suppose a crunchy lifestyle is among the last things that's it's still OK to just make fun of super openly and we're all supposed to laugh and be cool about it, hello truck and beer commercials! But guys... I am uptight. There, I've said it. I have a hard time being super cool about it. Everything in moderation but come on now. Ok, this commercial is funny.

Welp! Has the talking-too-much crazy-eyed chia seed eating lady scared you away yet?

So! Non-aluminum deodorant, it turns out, is incredibly easy to make and it works! This is based off a recipe I got at Crunchy Betty. Here's what you do...

You need
- wooden spoon & mixing bowl OR mortar & pestle if you have one
- 3 deodorant empties
- 1/4 cup baking soda
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- 5 TBSP of coconut oil
- vanilla extract (for smell)
- essential oils (for smell)

Here's what you do

1. Melt your coconut oil down so that it's a liquid. This doesn't take much at all. I did 30 seconds in my microwave at half-power. You just need to get it to it's non-solid, oily state.

2. Mix in your baking soda, corn starch, vanilla extract (I am terrible about measuring, but I used about 1/2 tsp) and essential oils (I used honey buckthorn vitamin C serum because it is the only oil I own; it smells super citrussy and like honey which is awesome).

3. Here is where I'll do better next time. Really mix that stuff up until it's as smooth as possible. My deodorants ended up with the occasional little tiny lump in them which hasn't killed me yet, but it feels a little grainy going on which I will improve on next time.

4. Twist your empties down as low as they'll go. I didn't even clean mine first. And then just pour your batter directly into each, stopping when you get to the top.

5. Put in the fridge to set. It takes a couple of hours.

Done! 
Once set, I've been storing mine in the bathroom just like store bought. I suppose in the thick of summer I might store them in the fridge but for now they've been doing great in the medicine cabinet.

I had my husband smell test me the first few days I used my homemade deodorant. What a champ. And he confirmed, I smell really good. Like end-of-the-day, one application in the morning, and I smell GOOD. Not just non-bad, but good. The deodorant smells like citrus scones or something yummy and so do I. Nice!

Finally, I hear you can add shea butter, avocado oil, argan oil, or aloe to these recipes to get a more soothing, skin-smoothing result. I will try the argan oil next time and just add a bit more of the dry ingredients to offset the additional oil.

ps. Thank you, Brandy (from heart and habit) for getting me started on my deodorant journey and inspiring me in so many ways, as well as sending me deod recipes. I love you, lady.