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.

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.

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!

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.

In an effort to protect us from harmful substances in toys, the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act was passed this year by congress.  The law goes into effect in two months, and will introduce sweeping changes for small mom and pop type toy operations.  These are just the kinds of places I do try to buy from, because I’m fairly well assured of a quality product.  You can read more about the act and what you can do to help here.

What I found was my second brand new untouched book on a green topic in as many visits to the Appleton Public Library. Since this book was placed in circulation nearly a year ago, it makes me a little doubtful about how well Americans are responding to international concerns about global warming. Our economic woes may have a bigger impact on worldwide consumerism than suggestions on how to individually reduce our carbon footprint. But then again, we wear huge blinders when it comes to our assumptions about using automobiles. This author may have found the way to get people’s attention with his argument that much of what keeps Americans from feeling wealthy is their habit of using automobiles. The actual cost of owning a car is about double the car payment. That turns out to be a lot of money considering that the alternative is to pay for something that looses value at 10% to 15% each year.

Now, I’ve long thought that when the price of non-renewable resources becomes high enough, maintstream people will begin using alternatives. But Mr. Balish points out that people have alternatives in the form of public transportation systems if they want to use them. He points out that there is always the rental car if you really need one for a trip not serviced by the transit systems. He goes on to promote the transit systems’ effectiveness by sharing paragraph long testimonials on page after page by people who have sold their cars, and live without them. They rave about the experience of not having to worry about a car, sit in traffic, worry about maintenance, and the many things that they have money for because they don’t own a car. The funny thing is that without exception, they look at the rest of us car dependent Americans as the people who are losing out. I’m talking with my family this holiday about getting rid of a car, and depending upon the Valley Transit System and my bicycle to see how much of a difference it makes for us. Even loosing one set of car related expenses may make a difference for us.

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!

The past two weekends, I’ve been on a mission that is nearly complete. Looking at the remaining cedar bleachers recovered from a school dumpster a few summers past, I had been wondering what lay in store. My trailer and I were over there the moment I saw one dumpster load hauled away. I had already floored a knee wall space of a walk-in closet, decked the crumbling concrete stoop and a concrete patio, and built a matching workbench and potting bench all from the recovered wood. But the remainder had yet to reveal it’s purpose to me, and was waiting in the garage rafters. The pile of boots that reappeared in our entryway as winter dawned became my inspiration. How about a storage bench to collect those annoying boots? Strategic placement just outside the garage entry might also help to keep our socks dry as we travel from one level to another of our split ranch.

A quick search of the web for diy woodworking plans revealed a simple and sturdy boot bench with complete plans for just $5.00. All I needed was some structural lumber to use with the cedar, a hammer, nail setter, circular power hand saw and a saber saw. Shopping carefully, I picked out four recycled 7′ long 2″x4″s at the Restore along with a pair of hinges and a piece of 1/2″ plywood that had once been part of a kitchen cabinet. (I also picked up a pair of unfinished cafe cabinet doors that I’ll use to hide our electrical box when I finish the laundry room next week.) The only thing that didn’t come from recycled materials were the finish nails. I could have used the assorted nails available from the Restore, but in my cold garage the pneumatic finish nailer sure sped up the process. It also makes my lack of skill less apparent. All together, this piece of furniture cost less than $15.00 to build, including the plans. Now that’s a price that only a rummage sale deal or an outright gift could beat.

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.