Farmhouse floor cleaning

What does a vegan do to house clean?

Especially dirty farmhouse floors? Or old nom-vegan ovens.

Some of the easiest natural cleanups are made with a mix of white Vinegar and baking soda, Castile soap and hot water help with a mop.

 Essential oils like thyme, lavender, tea tree oil, oregano, cinnamon, and mint or wintergreen can add to clearing the area of spider and mouse traffic. These creatures are well aware of gardening EO tactics, so changing up what is diffused or added to a rinse bucket.  But noone wants their home to smell like a sanitized Philadelphia train station. So change up once in a while.

Disclaimer: Deep cleaning for ultra dirty grime-- the following instructions are for heavily soiled carpets that have reached the end of their life.

Very warm to Hot water in carpet cleaning tanks helps to loosen dirt in carpet fibers. It also helps to emulsify any esse tial oils added.

And after a couple initial passes, rinsing once with some Cruelty-free  bleach alternatives mixed in the rinse bucket. 

Cleaning ground in dirt from outside takes time and water. Estimate About 1gallon of warm or hot water per square foot. And to take your time to let the enzymes, detergent, and bleach alternative work in for 30-40seconds before suctioning it out of the carpet. It is a slow process, 1.5-2hours for 6-10square feet of heavily matted medium to high pile plush carpet.  But it can rewind the carpet back to "I think I need to start saving for a new carpet" look of a clean yet matted and maybe slightly discolored. Especially if the house is no longer in pristine "entertaining guests mode" and exited to "survivalist earthy"  mode. 

Steps are the worst. And it gets worse if you have beautiful wood floors waiting to be refinished under the dirty mess on top of it. The more water used can cause water damage below wood floors. So it's really important to take the time to suction all moisture possible out of the carpet and the spongey foam under it. And add fans to help dry it out for at least 36-48hours.

Some carpets are already discolored (ie., Silvery Gray dining room carpet to orange from spot cleaner is unsightly) from "heavy duty spot cleaners for pet messes" 

If the carpet is really pet and shoe dirty;- doing a final rinse with colorfast bleach oxygen alternative can help make the next light or normal cleaning  improve your deep cleaning.  There are no sponsored products here and only a scoop is needed for a gallon pass.

 If it's hardcore dirt and discoloration is no concern- using 1/4cup of  straight liquid Hydrogen peroxide $0.99-$2.50/ pint  can also up it and get rid of some parasites and germs. The carpet may brighten up more the next time you do a normal cleaning. 

Deep cleaning takes time and patience-- it's an "easy" job otherwise. So wear protective ear wear. 

Low pile carpets may seem cleaner than higher pile carpets until you start cleaning them. The dark brown water probably won't run near soapy clear till the second cleaning day.

Just remember nearly every single  chemical in the USA has a history of being tested on lab animals. 

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Hawaii in need of Bird Baths

My Buddhist perspective;- I'd like to see shopping centres installed cooled bird baths in cool, shaded outdoor places for the migratory and displaced birds & small wildlife. Since most of the Developed world has shuffled in asphalt acreage for natural yardage,  birds are unable to find fresh water sources. The obvious downfall being that someone puts poison in the water to kill the birds. It's a no-win situation for the Birds.
I was just sitting at the coffee gallery table and a desperate gecko ran up to my iced coffee mug 3x with my hand on the cup. The gecko licked the water droplets off the side. I set an ice cube out on the table where the gecko's purple younger lapped up some cool water droplets to beat the Hawaiian heat.

Gecko Leaving the scene after lapping up melted ice droplets.

Tsunami - Warm Climate

Surviving in a tsunami disaster zone after a tsunami;- doesn't necesarily mean you will want to follow general rules of camping. I went to Thailand 2004 to do civilian re-con of business partnerships after .

I did not bring a tent, I was able to rent one when we got to an encampment. This is what I used to survive and not contract Malaria #1 threat due to pooled water and moderate summer climate.

TSUNAMI DISASTER - CIVILIAN RE-CON PACK 1 Month. 
1. tiny bottle of Deet - used 1x on the trip and did not reapply;- due to info that the mosquito count was out of control with dead bodies, flooding, and people running for the mountains. Most areas were quarantined by the time we arrived at BKK. My travel partner for 4 days went all natural and slept in a tent. He had contracted Malaria by the 3rd day;- 1st night out of the city he had over 150 bites on him as the tent body heat attracted the mosquitoes that snuck in through the tent fabrics.
2. 7 yards heavy duty mosquito netting  - wrapped myself in it to go to sleep in the open on the ground. I probably looked like a dead body.
3. Camp mat for sleeping
4. 1 med sized internal frame Backpack 
5. Katydyn Kayak water bottle - I retrieved water from a natural stream. My hiking partner scolded me and then had an eye opener as the Government was siphoning water to water trucks just a terrace above us at the waterfall. They don't even treat the water there, so my personal filtration was better.
6. Chlorine- tiny bottle of POTABLE Water drops (chlorinated)- i put about 5-9 drops in each 50+gal barrel and it had people quietly running to the water barrels.
7. EO Frankinsence - my natural bug deterrent/ first aid kit 
8. Patagonia Atom sack - keep critical items on me with a day or 2 of Cliff Bars & passport
9. Light stick- battery powered - less noticible than a flashligh & provided safety while walking along roads at night. Enabled me to hitch rides for me and my travel companions in the dark.
10. Clothes lightweight & easy to wash and hang dry by hand. Cotton clothes had to be left behind so I brought my volunteer t-shirts ( I had a huge XXL duffel of them and packed as many as I could) Cotton is more pourous and carry more organisms, and needs detergent to be cleaned. Synthetics are better to wash in natural non-detergent soaps as they don't break down the oils;- also Synthetic clothes dry faster.

2004 Survival FOOD:
I ate grain back then & my pack was identical to someone else randomly going another direction at the airport. Our Cliff bars were stored in the same place, so I thought TSA got aggravating enough to swap out the flavors I liked for flavors I did not care for.
1. a case of Cliff Bars
2. packets of steel cut oatmeal (in flavors)
The encampment I stayed at for most of a month allowed campers to fish on their own and bring it back to the kitchen. I am vegan & allergic to shellfish;- so I ate my oatmeal each morning with a fresh banana smoothie. I had 1 meal of mostly rice, and 1 large bowl of coconut/vegetable soup each day. I actually felt great. There was somone on a bicycle who started to stop by with ziploc bags full of veggies, fish, cooked meats for sale. I was partial to the fresh peanuts for protein. We also got some fresh coconut milk and coconut, as well as using a moped for a day;- trying to get ketchup (which had become scarce). Liquor & Coffee was the easiest to obtain aka - least desirable.