Go Graywater

I have recently started making another step to making our household more environmentally savvy, using graywater. What is graywater? Graywater is the wastewater that comes from our baths, showers, dishwashing and laundering. It turns out that all the water we are sending down the drain, is actually quite useful.

If you are using natural, biodegradable soaps for washing, you can use what would ordinarily be wastewater, for watering your garden. It turns out that most natural soaps actually contain minerals that are beneficial to plants such as phosphorous, potassium and nitrogen. It is important to note that certain plants can be very sensitive to soaps but most are ok. In fact, these soaps can help to keep plant-damaging insects at bay such as aphids.

I have known about graywater for a long time. I just never integrated its use into our household. I owe it all to my dear friend Lisa who took my baby's bathtub out to our yard and watered my newly planted cherry tree with the finished bathwater. Strangely, it makes me feel good to take the little bathtub out to my garden and water from it. A small step to lessening our footprint on the Earth, but a step nonetheless.

All of this got me thinking about other ways to easily use graywater in our home. There are a couple of great summer ideas that even your kids can get involved in and learn a little about graywater themselves.

1) Don't dump out the kiddie pool. Instead of just dumping the water out of the pool at the end of the day to be refilled the next day, get your watering can and fill it from the pool to water your garden. My twins love helping with this as they have their own mini watering cans.

2)Don't dump the infant tub down the drain. As I mentioned above, use this water for your garden or a tree.

3) Have a bath outside. My girls love having a bath outside in the summer. Use a kiddie pool, or even a large rubbermaid container and then water with the leftovers.

Share your graywater ideas with us. Post your ideas and you will be entered to win our favourite natural bathtime must haves, DermaMed Bubble Bath and a DermaMed Shampoo. You have until July 15th to post your ideas. Please give us your email address so we can contact you if you win, or check back on this entry on the 16th to see if you are the winner and contact us.

Earth's Best Diapers

In the fall we discovered Earth's Best Diapers at the Baby Purity Conference in Vancouver. I later blogged about the diapers and was unimpressed at the time. This was due to a lack of knowledge on the part of the rep who told us that the diapers were gel free. We cut open the diaper and found gel. We since had contact with another rep who gave us all of the manufacturing information on the diapers and this rep's product knowledge was much better. After receiving this information, we fully endorse and love the product! We are happy that we are able to carry this fabulous brand of diapers now that we know that they are a wonderful natural alternative. In fact, they are the new favourite in our homes thanks to their superior fit. 

Caring for Stainless Steel Water Bottles

After a disappointing discovery the other day, that there was rust at the bottom of my daughter's Klean Kanteen water bottle, I called the manufacturer and got a great lesson in stainless steel water bottle care. Turns out the rust was my fault so I thought I would post this so no one else does what I did.

While Stainless Steel is supposed to be...well...stainless. It turns out that while it is resistant to rusting, it can indeed rust under the right circumstances. If you leave water in your bottle for an extended period of time, if you leave juice in your bottle for an extended period of time, if you don't dry your bottle right away after washing, these are all ways to get rust spots. I got mine from a bottle that rolled under the front seat of the car and spent a warm day with juice in it. Oops.

Here are some tips for caring for your stainless steel water bottle:

1) Care for a new bottle- When you get a brand new stainless bottle, a great trick to get rid of the metallic taste is to soak it in water and vinegar overnight at a 50-50 ratio. The vinegar will prevent rusting.

2) The best cleaning products for a stainless steel water bottle include distilled vinegar or baking soda.

3)To clean those hard-to-reach parts of your bottle, put in raw rice and vinegar and shake well.

4) Never use anything abrasive to clean a stainless water bottle such as a stiff brush, an SOS pad or even some microfibres as they can scratch the bottle.

5) Never leave water and especially juice or soda in your bottle for an extended period of time as it can cause rusting.

If you find that your bottle has some rust spots, obviously you don't want to use the commonly used chemical cleaners you find at the store since you will be drinking out of it. Here is a recipe of common household supplies that you can try:

1) Fill your sink with warm water, and add a cup of baking soda. Place the bottle in the sink and let it soak for several hours. Overnight would be a good time.

2) Mix a 1/4 cup of cream of tartar with two teaspoons of lemon juice in a bowl. Stir into a paste.

3) Apply the cream of tartar paste to your bottle using a soft toothbrush. Scrub gently on the rust spots to avoid scratching the stainless steel.

4) Rinse your bottle using the baking soda and water solution. If the bottle is badly stained, you may want to let it soak again after you have scrubbed it.

5) Wipe any remaining rust away using a wet paper towel, and then dry the bottle until it shines, using a soft rag or polishing cloth.

I got this recipe from ehow.com. It was for flatware but it worked well on the bottle.

Happy drinking!

When to choose organic and when not to bother- save your pennies!

Okay, so I subscribe to Dr. Oz's, www.realage.com, email list. Guilty as charged... I am trying to "Live Life to the Youngest"....

Often I only glimpse at the weekly email I get and occasionally something interesting catches my eye. In this case, it was an article about when to choose organic fruits and vegetables and when not to bother. The premise behind this is that certain foods are exposed to more agrochemicals such as pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers than others so these are the ones you go organic for. By shopping this way, you not only save lots of money, you also have the potential to reduce your family's exposure to pesticides by up to 90%. The fruits and veggies to go organic for are as follows:

Fruits

• peaches
  
• nectarines
  
• strawberries
  
• cherries
  
• apples
  
• pears
• grapes

Vegetables

• spinach
  
• lettuce
  
• potatoes
  
• celery
  
• peppers
  

This is something I have followed myself for some time since I learned about all this when I was in the Agricultural Sciences program at UBC (I am an Agrologist). When shopping, I try to think about how produce might be exposed to chemicals. An example would be bananas. Often very expensive to go organic and while I am sure there are good reasons to buy organic, my logic is that bananas have a very thick peel so as long as I wash it well, I will not be exposed to much in the way of pesticides. Most pesticides used for produce are surface sprays as opposed to systemic so you should be pretty safe. I apply this logic to watermelon, oranges, and melons... you get the idea. 

Another thing to note is that root vegetables are often good "organic" candidates because though you may think that the veggie is safely tucked away beneath the soil,veggies such as potatoes, are top-killed prior to harvesting by spraying with none other than my personal favourite, Round Up. I have first hand experience with potato farming since the farm where my horse lived for years had a large potato operation. We always kept the animals in the barn and kept ourselves off the property in the fall when the brown clouds of spray moved across the land prior to harvest time. Yum! My poor horse was left out once during this and was covered in hives and was in respiratory distress. Who's hungry?!

Hot House products are another good way to go if you are okay with the sustainability issues of greenhouses (a whole other blog in itself). Hot House products are grown without pesticides since it is unsafe to spray in those confines. Greenhouses use integrated pest management such as beneficial insects, insect tape and start with a sterile environment. I often choose Hot House products as my cheap "organic" alternatives.

Food for thought.

Check out the real age website at http://www.realage.com

Our Birthday Contest

Happy birthday to us! Better Baby Bums is celebrating its first birthday! It is hard to believe that what started as an idea has grown to an incredible thriving business in just one year. Corina and I thank you all for making our dream of bringing healthy, safe products to families across Canada come true!

Help us celebrate and you could win free diapers!

Give us your ideas on how to celebrate a child's birthday on the cheap by commenting on this blog post and you could win a diaper cake made from our newest brand of eco-friendly, safe diapers, Earth's Best (equivalent to one pack of diapers). The cake will also be stuffed with other Better Baby Bums goodies like skin care products, water bottles etc. Don't miss this opportunity! You'll tell us the age of your child and we will make the appropriate cake! So give us all those party ideas, we know you're a creative bunch, and help a fellow parent plan a fun, economical brithday for their little one! Examples like craft ideas, party themes, activities etc!!! Contest ends April 30th, 2009. One entry per person and diaper cake can be transferable as a gift for a friend or relative.

Good luck and thanks for helping us celebrate our first birthday!

Jennifer and Corina