While reading Michael Perry’s book Coop, it struck me that our goal to grow blueberry pies in our yard may require much more work than I’m willing to do for that far off benefit. No, I don’t think that genetic engineers can produce a bush that fruits whole wheat pie crusts sprinkled with sweetener and stuffed with blueberries. I prefer my ingredients from heritage versions of plants anyway. But the growing of blueberries appears to require not only clearing of our overgrown landscaping, but bed prep to boot.

I’m mostly fine with the clearing part other than the fact that it will leave far too little vegetation between myself and the road noise rising from pavement both near and not so far. The ash trees that shade the area are destined to fall prey to the emerald ash bore anyway, so they may as well become a source of firewood or full dimension lumber before infestation. That’s part of why the solar hot water panels to their North and West made sense in spite of what the solar site assessment showed. The question for me is, how can I avoid all of that bending and digging that creates good fertile ground. Thanks to recent wanderings across the pages of Mr. Perry’s most recent book, I’m reconsidering the use of chickens as weeders and tillers of soil in the form of a chicken tractor. I see a road trip to the Restore in my near future.

Now before you go and contact your animal rights persons to let them know I’ve gone bonkers, what Mr. Perry describes is a mobile cage in which young chickens do their natural foraging for worms, insects, and vegetation. Their scratching effectively tills the soil while they get a fresh plot of ground to feed from. The chickens fertilize the soil, doing what comes naturally following their consumption of worms, insects and vegetation. The entire prospect is a win-win. The tricky part is for the chickens to visit long enough to effectively do the garden prep. So, by building a chicken “tractor” cage that will keep them safe, and then sliding it along the ground into positions where garden beds are to be formed, one can avoid the tilling of soil “man”ually.

There is some risk here, since it involves the use of chickens. Somewhere, one has to come by a number of chickens for a long enough period of time to do the square footage required for the bed. Our customary dimensions are 5 feet wide so we can do most of the weeding and harvesting without trampling upon roots. But then again, there is the care of the chickens, and what you do with them once they have dug your blueberry beds…

One of the concurrent story lines in Coop involves the construction of a chicken coop during the acquisition of chicks and construction of the chicken tractor. I defer to our poultry expert, Kirk on the startup of urban chicken rearing. He’s on his second year. Send encouragement, and perhaps he’ll share some of his expertise. Now, what do they have at that Restore that could become a chicken tractor?

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We’ve used the special shampoo everyday.  We used the hair oil a couple of times at the beginning.  And I used the hair tonic when we were in a bit of a hurry and needed to get the combing done rather quickly.  I just spritzed it on the hair so that it was wet and easier to comb through.  The good thing about the tonic is that it can be left in, since it’s just water and the essential oil mix.  I’m hoping it will serve as a deterrent if we come into contact with others who have critters.

We’ve been pretty clean each time we’ve combed during this last week of craziness.  I would say that we probably had the infestation pretty much under control by the end of the 4th day.  But we still wanted to be sure.  The second week, we went to a once a day combing, even though all the advice out there says you should comb twice a day for two weeks.

This is going to be my protocol if we should be visited by these critters again:

1. use the above-mentioned hair oil twice in the first 24 hours
2. wash that oil out with the above-mentioned shampoo
3. comb (if you leave conditioner in, or at least use a conditioner after the shampoo it makes this easier)
4. each morning of the first week, spritz with the above-mentioned hair tonic and comb
5. each evening, wash with the shampoo and comb
6. comb twice per day the first week
7. comb once per day the second week, using the shampoo each day
8. I don’t honestly know if I think all the laundering was worth it.  But we did have a houseful of clean bedding and clothing, so maybe just for that it was a good thing.

So, 60% of people who have lice don’t know it.  Lice are only itchy and bothersome, not really a disease.  Many of the treatments out there are quite toxic and can have devastating consequences.  To me, buying a pesticide containing shampoo is about the equivalent of using nuclear weapons when a bit of diplomacy will do.  I’m not going to go so far as to say I’m grateful that we had lice, but it’s really been an eye-opening and educational experience.  And we did have a lot of family together time–talking and reading books–while we were doing all that combing.

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It’s getting easier now, we have this combing routine down pretty well.  We did miss one combing on the morning of the 4th day when I got called to a birth.  When we combed that night, we thought we’d find lots, but we really didn’t.

The boys in our house consented, even asked, to have their hair cut.  All the websites say that cutting the hair is not necessary, and especially not to shame a child by cutting the hair extremely.  But my Eastern European practical genes are saying that this would be so much easier with a shorter cut.  So the boys got a tasteful trim that has made the combing less painful and tedious.  I did think briefly of that scene in The Education of Little Tree when the people at the Indian school shave the boy’s head and spritz him all over with heaven-only-knows-what.

This hair, however, has been long for some time, and the fine toothed comb is a painful process with curly locks.  We trimmed a little bit off the ends, but the combing still takes quite a long time.

long hair, sectioned off for the combing

The combing procedure is to section off the hair, comb through the section and then pin it up so that you know you combed that part.

I’m willing to do this work, though it’s tiring, and it means that a lot of things haven’t gotten done for the holidays.  But when I read stories like this, I know that the time is well spent.

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After the thrill of having the school nurse declare us nit free, I made the mistake of thinking we could back off a little bit.  So, yesterday evening we delayed the combing procedure a little longer than we should, and then discovered a few more nits than we had seen in the morning.  Ok, kiddos, everybody gets oiled up again.  Maybe the oil should be a nightly thing for a while.

spikey do with mama made oil

I also decided that the hair tonic (the water with the essential oils) would be a leave-in product.  So, the new procedure is this:

1. at night apply the oil, allow it to remain on the hair at least 1 hour.
2. shampoo with the doctored up shampoo to get the oil out.
3. comb
4. in the morning, at least wet the hair or shampoo if needed (in case all the oil didn’t come out the night before)
5. comb
6. spray with hair tonic and leave in.

This morning, the situation looked pretty good for most of us.  Some still had a few little empty egg casings in our hair, but we’ll be doing a good combing tonight.

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Well, we got a clean bill of health from the school nurse this morning.  She seemed rather amazed that she found no live lice, and not a nit on my kids.  We’re not out of the woods, yet.  The recommendation is using the nit comb on each person twice per day for a total of 14 days.   I’m feeling hopeful and up to the challenge today, whereas 48 hours ago I was practically despondent.

So, the plan is to use the oil treatment again this weekend, and then next week.  And we will wash with the shampoo once per day for the next two weeks.  Hopefully, this combined with the combing will do the trick.

This has really changed some things in our home, at least temporarily.  And it’s striking me that many of these things are choices that we made long ago in the interest of greenness, and being frugal.

1. Bath towels have become a single use item, and then they get washed.  I realize that this is the way many people handle towels, but we have always had folks use their towels for at least a couple of times before washing.  It saves water, energy, and time.  Each person in the house has their own collection of towels (a different color for each person), so that’s helping out in the “keep it to yourself” philosophy we’ve had to adopt with the lice in the house.
2. A lot more showers and shampoos have been happening.  Normally, only a few of us shower every single day.  The littles (who have sensitive skin and are prone to eczema) usually only bathe about once or twice a week.  I’m usually an every other day person myself, as I also have dry, eczema-prone skin.  We’ve used a lot of hot water in the last two days, and have even run out of the hot stuff a time or two.  This is pretty incredible since we have 100 gallons of water in reserve with the solar hot water system. I realize that perhaps people will think that this minimal bathing routine is what got us into this mess in the first place, but honestly, it’s served us well for 17 years, so I can’t think that one event of lice should change our mind that it’s an ok practice.
3. We keep the heat in our house fairly low most of the time with a programmable thermostat, and snuggle up together under throw blankets when we read together or watch TV.  With all of the blankets and throw pillows requiring laundering, and the prospect of re-infecting each other, all this togetherness has been at least temporarily discontinued.  I was sad yesterday to hear my 6 year old ask if it was ok to hug each other.  Even he is seeing his family as a potential source of nits.

A lot of time, I hear comments from people that they might like to live a little greener, but it so expensive to do so.  I think this feeling comes primarily from magazines featuring some celebrity’s eco-friendly home that cost millions, and is all tricked out with the latest and greatest, and some really obscure items to boot.  But really, many of the choices we make in the interest of being green have helped us to save money.  If we save money on everyday things like energy and water usage, we have a little more money to spend on other “green” choices that do cost a little more, like organic food or theraputic essential oils to treat our head lice.  And, I have to say that snuggling under the throw blankets is a habit that has lots of other benefits besides energy saving, and it’s a hard habit to break!

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I have a new appreciation for this saying now that it’s been about 24 hours since finding the first louse in our house.  No, I’m not talking figuratively about anyone living here, but literally about head lice.  There was the original panic (as in, “WHAT is THAT?!?), then the gathering of information (as in put the offending critter in a plastic bag and then start researching on the internet).  Then there was the run around town to purchase nit combs (visiting no less than four stores).  And, since I know most people don’t want to admit much less talk about a lice infestation, I think it’s important to share some of the things that I’ve learned through this affair.

1. When you’re feeling weary and not able to gather the strength and energy to make the holidays happen at your house, there’s nothing like a case (or 5 or 6) of head lice to make you wish you were decking the halls, or baking cookies, or even writing out Christmas cards for heavens’s sake, anything, but picking nits out of people’s hair.
2. Most common suggestions are to use a product with an actual pesticide in it.  On your child’s head.  And you’re supposed to leave it there for a certain amount of time.  Now, I’m thinking that if I don’t want to use pesticides on my lawn, is there really a good reason to use them on my child’s scalp?  Lice are nothing more than a nuisance; they carry no diseases, they do not leave you weakened for something else to attack you.  So, I went in search of a cure that didn’t involve pesticides.
3. When you talk to the school nurse, she will tell you that as soon as you use the product with the pesticide, your children can come back to school.  And, if you can’t afford the product, she will give you some, because she has lots.
4. The information that I found on the internet basically said that whether or not you use the pesticide, you will still have to thoroughly comb your child’s hair with a nit comb (a fine-toothed comb) twice per day.  Many people use the pesticide and think they can skip the combing, only to become re-infected once the chemical wears off.
5. There is a LOT of laundry to do if your family becomes infected with lice.  The school nurse said to wash “everything that your child has come into contact with in the last 48 hours.”  That’s a lot of stuff, especially if more that one child is affected.  And it all has to be washed on hot water, and dried on hot for at least 30 minutes.
6. If you happen to notice the infestation on a cloudy, below freezing day, when your solar hot water heater can’t keep up with all of the laundry, you can take your bedding outside and freeze the critters out.  I’m very much appreciating Wisconsin winters today.
7. Spraying or fogging the environment in your home, school, or day care is not recommended.  This is unnecessary exposure of people to yet more pesticides, and lice only really survive on their host.

not even close to all of the bedding

So, after the panic, and the research, and the talking to a few good women (here and here), I came up with a protocol with which I’m comfortable.  The school nurse may think differently, but that’s her problem.

First, I made a hair oil.  I filled an opaque 4 ounce bottle with olive oil.  Then I added 8 drops each of the following essential oils:  sweet thyme oil (Thyme vulgaris L. France), eucalyptus oil (Eucalyptus radiata Australia), and rosemary oil (Rosmarinus officianalis Spain), and 5 drops of Neem oil.  The aromatherapist I consulted with assured me that it was safe for use on children, contrary to the content on the Wiki entry.  Neem is used widely as an anti-bug agent, and though it is an essential oil, it is not lovely smelling.  Fortunately, the other oils are nice, so we all smelled a little like a pot roast for a while.  This oil gets liberally applied to the hair, and sits for at least an hour.  A shower cap comes in handy for this.

non-toxic treatment for lice

Second, we wash out the hair oil with a shampoo I made.  I used Dr. Bronners unscented baby mild liquid soap in the 8 oz bottle and added the same essential oils that I used for the hair oil.

Third, we comb.  And comb, and comb, and comb.  We spritz with a hair tonic made from 6 ounces of water in an opaque spray bottle and the same essential oils that are in the oil and the shampoo.  If the hair dries out and gets hard to comb, we can spritz with this concoction to help with combing.  This is painstaking and time-consuming, but very important to comb, no matter if you use the natural remedies or the pesticide.

We spent the day oiling, washing, and combing through hair–everyone times three.  In between we laundered.  It’s been a tiring day, and hopefully our efforts will pay off.

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It’s amazing what’s available in this country to the thrifty at heart. The other day, I saw a pair of like-new cross country skis with up-to-date bindings for $12 on the rack at our local Good Will Store. By like-new, I’m saying that there were far fewer scratches in them than in my own skis. Here in Wisconsin, it’s not hard at all to find the old 3 pin bindings on a pair of skis that will work as well as when they were made. If you try hard enough, you can find a traditional set of skis, poles, with boots and bindings for less than $50. What you have in the garage may work perfectly fine as well. There are lots of options at places like Play-it-Again Sports as well, still at quite reasonable prices. Cross Country skiing works all of the major muscle groups making it a great cardiovascular exercise that gets you out of the house in Winter. What could be greener than breaking trail on your old pair of cross country skis?

First, make sure that your boots fit you. You should wear the socks you will ski in, and walk around in them. You should have space between your toes and the end of the boot, yet your heel should stay in place. If your boots fit comfortably and look like they’ll hold together during an outing, find a pair of skis with bindings that work with your boots, and check the skis for size. To check the skis, stand with all of your weight on one ski with a 3×5, business, or playing card under the ski beneath the binding. If there is resistance to pulling it out from under the ski, it should grip the snow. Next, stand with equal weight on both skis and if the card slides out easily for about a foot of space in front of and behind your boot, they will glide freely after you stride forward. If a shorter space allows the card to slide, you may not get as much glide but will feel more secure. Some skis have more curve and are stiffer than others of the same length. Older models were sized for length by standing with your hand up and picking a pair that reached up to your wrist, then checking the flex of the skis with a card. Newer models are being made shorter with suggested weight ranges in fewer sizes, so the card method is still the most reliable way to check skis to see how well they will work for you on the snow.

Look at the base of the skis to see if they are textured for waxless skiing, and if not, see if you can find some cans of wax, a scraper, and a cork. Scrape off old wax if needed. Apply glide wax on the base at the tips and tails, and then crayon on the proper temperature wax in the kick zone (center 1/3 of the ski). Then rub the wax smooth with the cork, and you will be ready to go!

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During the crazy month that we’ve had with news of banks and bailouts, a piece of legislation was slipped into the bill that encourages employers who provide benefits reimbursing employees for their use of public transportation to also include bicycle commuting expenses as part of their benefit package. Since the legislation tagged this benefit on, and because many companies hire a benefits administrator service, employees may begin seeing this included in their benefits in the near future.

I just want to say, if it helps with the motivation to cycle to work, more power to everyone who pulls their bike out of the garage as a result. In the past three months, I’ve saved 936 pounds of carbon from gasoline emissions, and I’m proud of that. My employer doesn’t have to pay federal taxes, so I won’t be seeing any reimbursement of my related expenses unless the wellness committee talks them into it. But the idea that people are being given this incentive is a positive step, even if it is a small one in terms of economics.

One of the contributers to bikeforums.com provided the following sample letter to his HR department to request that they consider supporting this addition to the tax code…

Human Resources Department,

As I’m sure you are aware, the Congress just passed H.R. 1424 “The Bail-Out Bill” on Capitol Hill. Although this legislation deals primarily with the housing market, there were several other unrelated provisions added to the bill. Among these was a tax incentive for employers who promote the use of bicycles for commuting. The specifics of this tax break are laid out in Sec. 211, “Transportation
fringe benefit to bicycle commuters” under the Transportation and Domestic Fuel Security Provision section but the change is pretty basic. The bill offers a $20 a month tax relief per bicycle commuting employee to cover the cost of any employer reimbursement for reasonable expenses incurred by the employee “for the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment.”

I am interested in finding a way that [Company Name] could implement a program that would allow employees who cyclo-commute to expense less than $20 a month in bike related expenses.

The benefits of an expense reimbursement program for cyclo-commuters include:
• Lower fuel costs on company owned vehicles
• Less required maintenance on company owned vehicles
• Ability of [Company Name] to claim a full $20 per month per eligible employee
when actual expenses are likely to be far less
• Improved employee health which in turn increases employee productivity
• Creates a progressive and environmentally conscious image for the
company

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like additional information about this recent tax code change.

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Back to school with hopes of increasing my commitment to a bike commute, I’ve been searching the web for information and tools. All in the name of more fitness and fun, but less fumes. I purchased a new bike for inspiration, and in order to make it pay off at $0.52/mile, a commuter’s calculator shows that I’ll have to average4 days per week for 7 months on the 12 mile ride in the morning and again in the afternoon. If I hop the bus with their rack and ride program, it will lengthen the time frame some, but not much at $1.50 per trip. While researching this, I found a web site that includes fitness calculators here’s one that includes a variety of fitness activities. You can log your activities and use calculators for free. If you want more services, a nominal annual membership brings the ability to print maps of your route.

<a href=”http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/wi/appleton/249109326611″>09/01/2008 Commute</a><br /><a href=”http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/wi/appleton”>Find more Bike Rides in Appleton, Wisconsin</a>

Update: Through November 11th, the Map My Ride Calculator has added up the mileage so far and reports the following:

Green Stats

Total Workout Days: 63
Distance Traveled: 793.79 mi.
Gas Saved: 44.10 gallons
Money Saved: $153.47
Carbon Offset: 853.8 lbs. of CO2

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How totally cool is this?  As we’ve been working on becoming ‘urban homesteaders‘, I’ve wondered what could be done on a larger scale. I mean, it’s one thing to raise chickens on our 120 x 60ft lot, but it’s entirely another to attempt that same trick in my sister’s 600 square foot Chicago digs.  I have to say though, I’m with Jerry Kaufman (and not just because he’s one of ours) Why does it have to be 30 stories? I’d be delighted to see a 2 or 3 story farm. Start Small. Work out the kinks. THEN dream big!

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