wise woman deodorant

Just like angry chickens, only...different.
Im an alpha male woman. I can pong when the going gets tough. its not nice. I used to hate 'natural' deodorants; no aluminium, tea tree, crystal, rock, organic yaddah yaddah yaddah. None of them worked like the nasty ones did. So i used the nasty ones. Until about a year ago when i saw angry chickens post on her home made pong purger and her declaration that she too was an alpha male kinda woman, who also ponged. Sister! "If it works for her maybe it will work for me too?". So I started making my own and its brilliant. No pong. No sweat. B2 declares it the best ever, I didnt even suggest she use it, she just started and declared in a kinda surprised way that it really works. It does. Its so simple and i get to put to good use the lovely little huon pine box my step dad made for me when i was a teenager from mill scraps collected on holiday in Tasmania(lid missing in pic). I just run the deodorant down to its last scrapings and then whip up a new batch. It takes, oh, about one minute.

Angry's recipe
3 tablespoons shea butter
2 tablespoons cocoa butter
3 tablespoons bicarbonate of soda
2 tablespoons cornflour
essential oil, I used Jurliques' Wise Woman blend
2 vitamin E oil caplets, squeezed ( i dont do this)

Put ingredients together in a glass pot/jug/bowl, except the essential oil, and zap in a microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute or melt in a double boiler. Add essential oil. Stir until mixed and lumps removed. Pot up into container. Thats it. The longest part will probably be sourcing the butters.I sourced some organic, fair trade shea butter and cocoa butter from RAW Organique, an organic online store based in Melbourne.

The deodorant sets firm into a moist chalky texture and its used by pinching up a small piece and rolling it around under your pit until its all worked in. Give it a shot. No plastic. No fuss. No smell!

lazy gardening tips

What does a lazy gardeners saved seeds from last season look like?
...someting like this!

This technique requires no washing, stripping, drying or sorting of sloppy seed and pulp! Plop mashed insides, in this case tomato ( works for cucumbers, zucchini...sloppy seeds) on paper towels, spread somewhat, leave to dry in cool dry spot. Fold and store or leave in piled stack. Write on each towel what type of seeds they are. When ready to plant out, chop paper towel into small bits and plant out seed/s (with piece of towel is ok). Voila! easy seed saving for lazy gardners. Works every time.

Ready to go today were last years best producers; yellow pear, green zebra, black russian and a pink 'somethingorother' (i just labelled that one 'pink' obviously thinking at the time that the rest of the name would be obvious when planting time came!). The weather does tend to push you outside at this time of year. The winter vege patches really need some serious attention dont they? straggling old sorry things they are at this time of they year.. I did attempt weeding and general prepping on most of the patches today but small person issues hindered the whole hog happenning -what else? and at one point nearly rolled himself sideways over the edge of a 2m dry stone wall and onto the driveway, how he managed such a feat under and behind the grapefruit and mandarin i dont know but small people have a way of doing the seemingly impossible don't they?, and quickly!

I did however manage to weed a carrot, beetroot and tomato bed and de-rocket the cabbage patch. I found a few cabbages that i had cut back ready to pull from last season , but didnt, and they have sprouted two leaders on either side of the cut and are producing small heads in each. A bi-annual cabbage! Extra perfect for the lazy gardner, but the ones i planted out a few months ago are really looking quite good, the 'foil' of rocket forest surrounding them really keeps the pests at bay as they cant see the leaves well when they fly over looking for cabbage! Brilliant companion planting.

Another lazy gardning trick that is a stroke of engineering brilliance is leaving last summers' bean stalks on the bamboo trellising we use. The old winding thick stalks provide the perfect easy grip surface for the new seasons peas on the rather slippery bamboo. Pea anti-skid, free. The peas i put in a few months ago have survived the onslaught of winter slugs and are now a good 2 ft tall.

Didnt quite get around to potting up the tomato seeds...