Saying Goodbye To Our Cherry Tree

It was a hot afternoon in August 2020. The doorbell rang. An arborist from the City introduced himself and told us that they were doing an annual pruning and one of his crew thought our tree may need to be removed due to rotting. He showed us that at least three branches had rot problems. He said that he ordinarily just leaves a letter at the door and does not speak to homeowners. We expressed how sad we were to see the tree go. It keeps the air cool around our house in the summer. Trees act as natural air conditioners, and we were aware of this. He said we would have about a week to say goodbye. So I took the image above one day after we finished a family run.

This is a wild cherry tree, very unique for this area for its species and size. Every March it has white blossoms and it produces tiny red black cherries with a large pit inside. I tried eating one once, and it is mostly pit, but the fruit tasted decent.

Only five days later, the tree removal crew arrived. The man with the chainsaw said he was an arborist. He estimated the tree to be around 75 years old, which would mean that this tree pre-dated the development of this entire neighbourhood. My neighbourhood is the least historic in this city, having been developed last! In 1959, the city's first shopping mall opened in my large block. Currently it is being developed into a second downtown-type area, with over a dozen residential towers reaching their fingers into the sky and blotting out the sun and dwarfing the surrounding family single homes.

The green arrow shows the location of the tree in 1958. Before development, this area was once home to the Vancouver Gun Club's rifle range.

Above: Image taken after the crew finished the first day, mostly removing the greenery from the southwest corner of the tree. The next day, the majority of the work was done, leaving nothing but the trunk and treeless branches.

The third and final day. Every day we were heartsick watching the tree being meticulously chopped. I created a time lapse video which you can view here.

I feel sickened with the death of the tree. Every year when we came home from our March vacation, the tree would be there, welcoming us home. The tree sheltered our house as the sun set in the west, keeping our house cool through some hot summers. Our house felt like it was set in the middle of a park.

The City of Vancouver has 22.5% coverage by the tree canopy. For many years, homeowners were removing trees on their private property, leading to a deforestation of the city. The trees helped decrease carbon in the atmosphere and regulate the air temperature, as well as preventing soil erosion. In 2014, the City amended the bylaws to require property owners to obtain a special permit before removing trees from homeowner's property.

Above image: My area, Oakridge, had only 15% canopy cover. There is no shade for pedestrians or runners so it makes the neighbourhood less liveable and decreases the chances for developing the community, meeting your neighbours on your evening walk. The nearby Tisdall Park must serve that purpose, and even then, the canopy cover does not fully cover the walking path.

Image: cross section from the beloved tree. The centre appears to have heart rot, but that will not kill the tree, as the bark and outer layers of the tree can sustain it. The diameter is 30.5 to 31.5 inches, and this is not the base of the tree, but is part of the main trunk.

Wild cherry wood is the most desirable wood for furniture. The grain is straight and it is resistant to rot.

Above images: Top - before. Bottom - after. What my front yard looks like without the tree. Truly shocking.

Goodbye, dear cherry tree. You will be sorely missed.

 

Cat Friendly Plants

To clean the air in my home, I wanted to buy plants. However, I share the house with two cats, who have a tendency to eat my plants.

What to do.

Which plants are best at cleaning the air? From NASA's list:

Back in the late ‘80s, NASA was looking for ways to detoxify the air in its space stations. So it conducted a study to determine the most effective plants for filtering the air of toxic agents and converting carbon dioxide to oxygen. In 1989, their results were published in a clean air study that provided a definitive list of the plants that are most effective at cleaning indoor air. The report also suggested having at least one plant per every hundred square feet of home or office space.

Here is that list:

Dwarf Date Palm *
Boston Fern *
Kimberley Queen Fern ?
Spider Plant *
Chinese Evergreen 
Bamboo Palm *
Weeping Fig
Devil's Ivy
Flamingo Lily
Lilyturf *
Broadleaf Lady Palm ?
Barberton Daisy *
Cornstalk Dracaena
English Ivy
Variegated Snake Plant
Red-Edged Dracaena
Peace Lily
Florist's Chrysanthemum

I checked the list of these plants against the list of toxic and non-toxic (to cats) plant list from the ASPCA. I crossed out those which were toxic and marked non-toxic plants with an asterix (*). Where I was uncertain about the toxicity, I marked those with a question mark (?).

So here is a short list with the best non-toxic cleaning plants and images to help you with your shopping:

Dwarf Date Palm *
Boston Fern *
Kimberley Queen Fern ?
Spider Plant *
Bamboo Palm *
Lilyturf *
Broadleaf Lady Palm ?
Barberton Daisy *

Happy cat friendly plant shopping!

Raised Bed Garden Watering

It's been months since I bought the wrong watering kit for my garden.  Yesterday, in a fit of energy, I finally returned the wrong and got the right.

This is the right one, from Lee Valley.  The cost is $26.50.

Here is the instruction sheet.

Sounds easy right?  Well it actually was easy!  From start to finish, it took 40 minutes, which includes time to look for pants to wear, so, um, it really took maybe 35 minutes.

After removing tape from the coiled rolls of hose, I grabbed a pair of scissors to cut the feeder hose to length.  I fretted that it would be hard to uncoil the hose, but it wasn't too bad.

1.  Attach header hose to hose/faucet connector.

2.  Attach hose/faucet connector to faucet, which is off!  This helps to straighten out the header hose, which miraculously became straight after attaching to the faucet.

3.  Lay out your header hose.  I led the hose right to  my garden and lay it along the edge of the long wall.

I decided to use all 5 included sprinklers for my 12 foot bed by putting a sprinkler in every two feet.

For each sprinkler:

1.  Punch a hole in the Header Hose using the Hole Punch.  This compresses the Hose but eventually the Hole Punch will make it through.  You can plump up the Hose after you've inserted the feeder tube by re-shaping it with your fingers.

2.  Each Spectrum Spike has an end connector attached it (picture below, my thumb and forefinger are holding on to the end connector.  Twist it off.  

3.  Push the slanted end into the punched hole.  It may click into place.

4.  Cut a length of Feeder Tube.  It runs between the Header Hose and your Spectrum Spike.  I needed about 2 feet to reach the centre of my bed.  You will need five of these for the five Spectrum Spikes.  I ended up making some too long.

5.  Attach Feeder Tube to the end connector attached to the Header Hose.

6.  Attach the Feeder Hose to the Spectrum Spike and push the Spectrum Spike into the soil.

7.  Attach the End Connector to the Header Hose.

Done!  Unfortunately, my plants are too tall at this stage for the sprinklers.  The maximum height of the plants for the sprinklers is 12 inches.  I should have installed it a long time ago.  So I have been eating the leaves in the way of the sprinkler, but there are quite a few outer edge spots that the sprinkler won't reach, simply because there are plants in the way.

Here are the sprinklers in action.  Adjust the sprinkler output by screwing/unscrewing the top cap of the sprinkler.

Consulting with a Gardening Guru

A garden that screams "My gardener is absolutely clueless."

Who could resist?  An offer from my friend to have his gardening guru friend come and take a look at my garden?  Larry is someone with experience since childhood in the ways of growing things, and was one of the folks in charge of BARAGA, a huge community garden in Burnaby.  I first heard about Larry when my friend offered me some leftover leek seedlings just waiting for a home.

Larry's leek seedlings

I was curious about what Larry would say about my garden, the type of garden which screams, "My gardener is absolutely clueless."

The first thing he noticed was the lack of irrigation.  I sheepishly explained that I water the garden by standing there with a hose.  He suggested a tube system, 25 feet, with 16 emitters placed every 2 feet, plus a pressure relief valve, or to avoid turning on the water full blast.  I took his suggestion and headed to Lee Valley and picked up the $34 Fence Mount Sprinkler Kit, because it was the only thing I saw online.  Later I found that there were definitely more options when I did a search for irrigation.  There is a specific Raised Garden Bed kit, which is cheaper at $28 than $33 and does not require my purchasing mounting clips.  I've got to go back and make the exchange soon!

We went through the different vegetables planted in my SFG.

I had carrots still in the ground from last year.  He said that carrots are biennial and that once they flowered, they would turn woody and be no longer good to eat.  Well, thank goodness my kids plucked most of the carrots out (without my permission) a few weeks ago.  The carrots are only just beginning to flower this week, the middle of May.

As for my leftover kale, once it flowers I need to pluck off the flower and it will continue to taste all right, but I should soon yank it out.

Tomatoes should be chosen on the time to maturity.  Our growing season is not very long and tomatoes need warm weather to come to maturity, so I should aim for 60 days as a maximum time requirement.  Days to maturity can be tricky: it is not from when you plant the seed, but from when the plant first comes up that you count the days to maturity.  The gold nugget variety is not as flavourful as the sun gold.

As for my horrendous beets, which seem to develop lush tops but skinny roots, he suggested not to plant too early.  Early April is as early as it gets.

Foreground: Beets.  Background: Spinach.

He chuckled at my zucchini, asking whether I knew how much room it would take up, since I planted its square right next to my mizuna square.  Yes, I was aware that it would soon take over a huge space in the garden, but I figured the quick growing mizuna might make it to a big enough size before the zucchini went Godzilla on me.  He said it would take FOUR square feet when grown, which I confirm is the case from my plant last year.

From front to back: zucchini, mizuna, peas.

We discussed aphid control.  Last year my broccoli was rendered inedible by aphids and cabbage white larvae.  He said that depending on how adventurous you are, you can blast them off with water and they will often not come back or get drowned.  Best are baby ladybugs--to be obtained from vacant lots with lots of flowers.  Unfortunately we noted that in my area, with lots starting over $1M, that vacant lots are fairly rare!  The baby ladybugs like eating nectar from flowers.  If I bought adult ladybugs, they would *maybe* eat some aphids before they flew away to someone else's garden!

Broccoli, put in two seeds.  I will cut off the top of the smaller one.  Beet from last year in the square with the broccoli.

I could also spray the broccoli with BT, or squish the eggs of the cabbage whites.

My rhubarb was looking very sad and yellow.  He suggested that a hilling a pile of compost around the plant is the best thing.  Not being that into rhubarb, I'll take this under advisement.  Ha!

I bought a male and female kiwi plant pair which are supposed to bear fruit after three years, but this being my third year, they look fairly sickly.  The leaves are eaten away almost to nothing every year.  I need to come out at night to see what is eating the leaves.  It could be weevils, slugs, or pill bugs.  If weevils, I could knock them off at night (11-12 pm) and into a container of water.  I also need to learn how to prune the thing to promote fruit.

My blueberry bushes must have the dead branches cut off or they will continue to draw nutrients.  I need to cut them back 1/4 or 1/3 to help it grow back stronger.

My first year planting baby bok choy.  Boy, do these grow fast... I only planted the seeds a week ago, and they mature in 21 days.

This whole consultation took only 30 minutes.

Larry has started up his own blog at Larry's Organic Garden where you can read up more detail of his extensive experience.  You might want to contact Larry for some advice about your own garden.

Soy Milk Machines: Pioneer Woman Rides Again!

I've been having possible hot flashes lately. I say possible because I'm not sure if they really are hot flashes, and my internal factory still turns out eggs as regularly as always. It was the newspaper article that finally spurred me to make my own soy milk and put on my Pioneer Woman hat again. Heck, I grow my own vegetables, make my own bread. Might as well make ma own soy milk! Yeeha!


Why Soy Milk?

In a nutshell, I intend to drink a ton of soy milk to help with my hot flashes. Here is an excerpt from the influential article in the Globe and Mail (now I print excerpts because the articles disappear from the internet over time):

"...according to the most comprehensive study to date, eating two servings of soy foods a day may help reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes. ...The interest in soy for hot flashes began when researchers noticed only about 10 per cent of Asian women experience menopausal symptoms. It’s been speculated that Asian women are less likely to have hot flashes due to their high soy consumption.


Soy protein contains isoflavones, natural compounds that can bind weakly to certain estrogen receptors in the body. In so doing, soy isoflavones might help compensate for declining estrogen levels that accompany menopause and offer some relief for hot flashes.

Until now, the evidence for soy has been inconclusive, with some studies showing benefit and others finding no effect.

The current report, published online in Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Association, reviewed 19 randomized controlled trials that enrolled more than 1,200 women taking soy isoflavone extracts (not soy foods) or placebos.


When all studies were combined, there was a clear and consistent positive effect for isoflavones.

Compared to taking placebos, consuming at least 54 milligrams daily for six weeks to a year reduced hot flash frequency by 20 per cent and the severity by 26 per cent.

Women who took isoflavones for at least 12 weeks experienced a threefold greater reduction in hot flashes than women who consumed isoflavones for a shorter duration.

Isoflavone supplements with higher levels of genistein – one of the two main types of isoflavones in soybeans – were the most effective at easing hot flashes.

Genistein is the primary isoflavone found in soy foods as well as soybeans, suggesting that adding soy to your diet, or using supplements made from whole soybeans, may work better than synthetic isoflavone supplements.

The fact that isoflavones act like a weak form of estrogen in the body concerns some women, particularly those at high risk for breast cancer. That’s because certain risk factors for breast cancer are related to the length of time breast cells are exposed to the body’s own circulating estrogen. It’s thought that estrogen can promote the growth of breast cancer cells.

However, studies suggest that consuming soy reduces breast cancer risk in Asian populations. In Western women, soy has not been shown to increase or decrease risk. (Western women may not consume enough soy isoflavones to lower breast cancer risk.) Recent studies have also linked a higher intake of soy foods such as tofu, soy beverages and soy flour with a lower risk of breast cancer recurrence.

Soybeans are worth adding to your diet even if you don’t have hot flashes. They’re high in protein, low in saturated fat and offer fibre, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants."


How Much Soy Do I Need Every Day?


The article cites 54 mg daily for at least 12 weeks to reduce hot flashes. According to another article by Dr. Weil, one cup of soy milk contains four to 10 grams of soy protein, and 20 to 40 mg of isoflavones. Penn State University cites 10 mg per 100 mL or 25 mg per 250 mL (1 cup) of soy milk. Since soy milk is made of water and soy beans, likely the variance is due to the dilution.

Roughly, I should drink two cups (500 mL) and a bit a day. Of course, the soy can be taken in other forms such as tofu or edamame. But drinking soy milk is fairly easy to do.

Penn State University cautions against too much soy: Isoflavones are weak estrogens. More is not better. Scientists are worried that these could have bad effects if eaten in large amounts for long periods of time. The safe range of intake is 35–55 milligrams a day. Some suggest an upper limit of 100 milligrams per day.


Why Make Soy Milk at Home?

Dr. Weil's article says this:

"Soy milk provides all the benefits of cow's milk, without the milk protein (casein), which can increase mucus production and irritate the immune system in some people, and milk sugar (lactose), which can cause digestive distress if you lack the enzyme that breaks it down.

Soy milk is made by soaking dried beans in water, grinding them, heating them in water, pressing them, and straining the milk. Soy milk makers for home use are widely available, and people who use them say fresh, homemade soy milk is much better tasting than packaged products. And it will have no additives."

These are the reasons as I see them:

1. It tastes better;
2. There are no additives;
3. It is better for the environment avoiding packaging and transport of the heavy liquid to your grocery store and home; and
4. It is cheaper.

Let's look at reasons 2 and 4.


There are No Additives

So Nice organic unsweetened fortified "soy beverage" has the following ingredients, other than water and soybeans:

• tricalcium phosphate: Likely added as a Calcium supplement.
• natural flavour: Huh? What natural flavour is this referring to?
• salt
• carrageenan: Derived from seaweed, a thickening gel agent.
• sodium bicarbonate: Um, baking soda. Yum!
• zinc gluconate: Usually a dietary supplement (Zinc). 
• ascorbic acid: Vitamin C. An antioxidant food additive.
• niacin: Vitamin B3
• pantothenate: Vitamin B5
• riboflavin: Vitamin B2
• vitamin B6
• vitamin A palmitate
• thiamine: Vitamin B1
• folacin: Vitamin B9, folic acid
• vitamin D2
• vitamin B12

This is like having soy milk plus a vitamin pill. If that's what you want, great, but I read that vitamins taken as supplements have dubious benefits. Like this?

From the article: Women taking multivitamins don’t live longer than those who get their nutrients from food alone, according to a U.S. study that found they in fact appear to have slightly higher death rates... “There is very little evidence showing that common dietary supplements would be beneficial in prevention of major chronic diseases,” said Jaakko Mursu of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, who worked on the study.

“Unless you are deficient, there is hardly any reason to take them,” he told Reuters Health.


It is Cheaper

I bought non-GMO organic soybeans for about $2.63/kg or $1.19/pound. This works out to $0.20 for each batch, a batch being 1400 mL of finished soymilk. This is $0.14/L.

The machine which I purchased based on reviews and recommendations was the SoyaPower Plus. Reviews here, here, and here. I bought it for $110 (all inclusive) from SanLinx through Amazon, because Amazon offered $10 off and a 2 year warranty. Based on online reviews, I can expect it to last for around 5 years of regular use. Yearly cost is $22, not counting electricity.

I need to make 540 mL to get 54 mg recommended isoflavones per day, so each batch of 1400 mL lasts me 2.6 days. So, I would need to use the machine at least twice a week, lowering the cost per batch for the machine. Each year I need 140 batches, so the machine cost per batch is $0.16.

Total cost is $0.30/L. $2.69 for 946 mL for organic unsweetened enriched soy milk, brand Natur-A, which is $2.84/L. Not sure whether it is worth the premium for the "enrichment.".


What About My Time?  Time is Money!


It takes very little time.  Making a batch involves:

Measuring dry soybeans, rinsing and soaking them in water to rehydrate them;
Waiting 8-10 hours (overnight) for rehydration;
Filling the machine with water;
Pouring out the excess water from the rinsed beans and pouring beans into the machine;
Pressing a button and waiting 15 minutes for cycle to end; and
Cleaning the machine and sieve (8 minutes);
Waiting for the soy milk to cool and pouring into containers.

Active preparation and cleanup time is about 20 minutes for a novice. Maybe you can beat my time?


Where to Buy Soybeans?

I searched in vain for a Canadian supplier of organic soybeans. If you know of one, please comment below. There are many growers in Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba, but I could not find any in BC. None of the growers online appeared to retail to the Canadian public, but cater to overseas sales, particularly Japan.

Canadians can buy from US online supplier laurabeans.com, $60 for 20 pounds, which includes postage. That is $3/pound, which is cheaper than my local supplier (Choices) at $3.17/pound!!! The beans are different even visually, but I will leave the blind taste test for another post.

I will post another article on where to buy soybeans when I run out of my current $6 supply, which according to my calculations, should be in 26 days! For reference, I actually measured out the soybeans I bought using the supplied measuring cup from my machine and figured out that it takes 78 g to make one batch (1400 mL) of soymilk.

The Lorax, Oilsands, and SUVs

On Sunday we made the trip to the local stadiumplex to see Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax."  I'd been alerted by one of my friends that the Lorax had been used to flog Mazda SUVs as being "truffula tree friendly", likely causing Dr. Seuss to spin in his grave.  The Mazda SUV is a gas powered vehicle, not an electric or even a hybrid vehicle, and it...  is... an... ***SUV!!!***



And most recently, the Lorax was used to promote Mazda SUVs in visits to elementary schools, with $1000 going to participating schools.  The kids are asked to convince their parents to take them for a test drive of the flogged car so that $25 will be donated by Mazda to the National Education Association.

While waiting for the movie to begin, the pre-show included a piece on Canadian innovation.  A series of vignettes of famous Canadian inventions were shown, including, WHAT THE?  Extraction technology for oilsands!!!  To promote the company which develops the extraction technology!  The Once-ler lives again, a greedy industrialist.

And finally, I wondered what happens to the 3D glasses after we throw them in the recycling bin?  Well, wonder no more.  There are various fates for the glasses.  It turns out that industry leader Real 3D  transports the glasses to a facility in Los Angeles, where the glasses are washed and checked for damage before re-packaging them in plastic.  It might not be a bad idea to keep your 3D glasses--the person taking tickets told me to.  Then I can use the glasses at the next 3D show I see and it won't have to take a vacation to Disneyland before it makes it back to anyone's face.  Real 3D was originally disposable, and recycling finally began in 2008.

Prevent Diaper Rash

And now for something completely different...

This one doesn't even fit in with my blog. Well, sort of does. It helps people. It is a green idea. But I didn't do any research for this. My kids have long grown out of diapers, but I am writing this for you, if you're here from a Google search, because I don't think my method is common knowledge, and if I can save just one baby from getting diaper rash, then all the hours I've spent on this blog over the years are worth it.

Forget diaper rash creams, diaper wipes, vaseline, whatever. Here is how to prevent diaper rash.

1. If your baby has peed: Remove diaper. Put on new diaper. That's it. You're done. Put the baby down.
2. If your baby has pooed: Remove diaper. Rinse your baby's bum under the tap with warm water. DO NOT USE SOAP. Pat dry with clean cloth. I use small cloths I bought in bulk from Walmart (see the picture above). Put on new diaper.
3. When your baby has a bath, then you are free to use whatever baby soap you normally use.
4. Learn the signs of when they're having a poop: child concentrating or whatever your child does, so you can change their diaper right away after a poo.

How did I come up with this?

My eldest had diaper rash. Once. We were on vacation and my parents-in-law were watching her. They did not notice she had pooped. When I am taking care of her, I notice right away. In fact, I could always tell exactly when she was pooping. She would look like she was concentrating and pause whatever she was doing. And then the smell. But it seems grandparents have no sense of smell, nor do they notice anything.

So she must have been in her dirty diaper for some time when I discovered it. That was when she got her one and only case of diaper rash. What a nightmare it was... she would scream every time we tried to clean her behind. Can you imagine putting water on an open sore? I would cry every time I had to change her diaper when she had the rash. It didn't last long. I had her with no diaper on until it healed.

My second child never had diaper rash. Never.

What I did differently with the second is that I did not rinse her bum off when she peed, only when she pooed. And I also did not use soap, except when bathing her. I did not use diaper creams, Vaseline, or whatever. The idea behind this is to toughen up her skin naturally. It worked so well that she never once had diaper rash, saving me from buying expensive creams, diaper wipes, and tears.

Please don't use diaper wipes. Environmentally unfriendly, and not kind to baby's bottom. Use them only when you know you will not have access to a tap with warm water. Having two children, I bought a total of two boxes of wipes, and only finished one of them.

Does it matter what kind of diapers you use? I experimented with cloth diapers, but most of the time I used disposables. I used Huggies for daytime and Pampers for nighttime, since the Huggies caught poo better, and the Pampers absorbed better at night.

For that matter, we used the bare minimum for diapers too. I toilet trained them at the ages of 22 and 25 months. It only took 3 days for them to learn, using my method, modified from the extensive research I did. And they night trained themselves. But that'll be another blog post, depending on the response for this one.

Guilt Free Hair Colouring: Part 2, Colora Henna Creme

First, I have to laugh at the name of this product. Creme? As in creme brulee? As in, French cream? There is nothing better to make something sound classier by making it French, n'est-ce pas? Also, this one claims to be a "hair color & conditioner". Wow.

The box claims that this has no ammonia and no peroxide. There is a picture of the henna producing plant on the cover. I wouldn't exactly call it all natural, though. Here is the ingredient list:

Water, Henna Extract, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Cocoamphoproprionate, Dowicil 200. May also contain solvent black 5, disperse blue 1, basic violet 14, basic yellow 15.

I would be more inclined to do a test for an allergic reaction with this "henna."

The instructions are much simpler. Shampoo and towel dry, apply the "creme", cover with a plastic cap for one hour or more, then rinse thoroughly. Simplicity itself. The whole process took about 1.5 hours. For the simplicity alone, I preferred this "henna." But when I had to henna my hair again, I chose the messy Light Mountain "Color the Gray!" option.

Here is why. The Colora did not smell and washed out easily, but a few days later I went swimming. It turned the inside of my white silicon cap light brown! I could not wash the colour off my cap, and months later, despite exposure to chlorine, my cap was never quite be the same white it used to be. With the chemical additives with multisyllabic names and the unknown "solvent black 5", I wasn't exactly sure WHAT was going into my hair. This product is a compromise between real henna and chemical commercial dyes. The box claims to be "coloring your hair with organic colors". I don't know how organic "basic violet 14" is.

It also did not seem to last quite as long as the Light Mountain henna. It washed out after maybe six weeks, and my grays become light enough to be noticeable again. This may have also been a result of my colour choice, mahogany, which is the fourth darkest shade. I could have chosen Chestnut, Brown, or Black for darker colour.

For my next move, I may try to find henna in Little India.

Guilt Free Hair Colouring: Part 1

It wasn't long ago that I said that I would never dye my hair. I would age gracefully. Naturally. Well, that was before The Whitening, also known as the day I noticed kinky long white hairs were popping at a rate too fast for my husband to pluck out of my head while I flossed my teeth.

The search was on for a green environmentally friendly non-toxic alternative to conventional hair dyes. A quick Google search turned up henna as a possible alternative. If I was going to do something as vain as hair colouring, I wasn't about to wash chemicals into the drain to achieve it.

Google's top site was Henna for Hair, which linked to www.hennapage.com. Here I learned about henna. To save you reading time, I will summarize.

Henna is derived from a plant with the latin name lawsonia inermis. Henna by itself is a red-orange dye. The range of colours available is made from mixing henna with other ingredients. One ingredient that can be added is indigo, derived from the plant indigofera tinctoria. This is the same dye that is used to make blue jeans blue.

Henna supposedly penetrates the hair shaft and does not simply coat the hair. You should be able to achieve a fairly permanent effect. My experience did not bear out this claim, as I will discuss below.

Not all henna is created equal. The www.hennaforhair.com site recommended that I buy body art quality henna and mix it myself. As a mother of small children, this option sounded like too much trouble. I did learn, however, that I would need to buy around 200g of henna to cover my medium length hair. Long hair would require 300g and short hair would need 100g. Locally, I could expect to find body art quality henna at the local India town. I just couldn't see myself doing this either. "Hello. Do you have any body art quality henna?" It was a fear of the unknown that led me to make a trip to the shopping mall instead.

A trip to the drug store to buy henna turned up... nothing. There were dozens of different kinds of permanent chemical hair dyes with all the big names, but absolutely no henna products, except some henna shampoo. I was dismayed to finally find henna at my local mall in a Health Store. You know, the kind that sells vitamin supplements, fasting plans in a box, and protein supplements for weight lifters in big plastic jars. You know. The kind of place that I would never set foot in under normal circumstances.

There were no hippies, muscle men, or frighteningly emaciated customers in the store the day I searched for henna. Bingo, there were three different kinds of henna mixes! Two were from the "Light Mountain" company of Twin Lakes, Wisconsin. One was called "Color the Gray!", complete with exclamation mark!, priced at $15 CAD. The other did not claim to "Color the Gray!" so I did not seriously consider it. The last remaining product was from the "Colora" company of Little Ferry, New Jersey. It was the "colora henna creme" all in small caps. In fact, everything on the cover of the box was in small caps. There was a reassuring picture of a plant too, plus the reassurance of "no ammonia" and "no peroxide." This was priced at around $10 CAD. Even more convenient, you can also buy the Colora product at www.well.ca, with free shipping. That online store also carries "Hennalucent" which I have not reviewed for this article.



First I gave the Light Mountain Natural Color the Gray! a whirl. I chose Dark Brown. According to the box, the ingredients are henna and indigo leaf powders, "only the pure botanicals listed above and nothing else." Excellent! Opening the box revealed two bags of powder and instructions with plastic gloves and plastic bag attached to it. The box had a strong pleasant perfume-like scent to it. This was NOT what the powder smelled like, when I opened the bags. I can only describe the scent as being like in a Chinese store, like sandalwood.

After reading the instructions, I was a little scared and a lot intimidated. I was working with a semi-permanent dye! I was going to do this alone! I prepared by putting on a full robe made of dark purple fleece and safety pinning a burgundy towel around my neck. I put vaseline on my ears, neck and all around the hairline as suggested in the instructions. I wasn't about to risk having my clothes or skin turn colour from my sloppiness. The entire operation would be done while crouched in my dry big jacuzzi tub.

What I did not do was a test strand. I am not allergic to anything of any significance and I do not have chemically treated hair. I doubted that anything would go wrong.

There are fairly detailed instructions, but here they are in a nutshell. There are two separate powders, labelled "STEP 1" and "STEP 2". You need to mix the powders with boiled distilled water (distilled being highlighted in bold) to the consistency of yogurt in non-metallic bowls and let them sit for a time to "cure." I used filtered tap water, but I felt that the risk of some unforeseen chemical reaction was unlikely with our great local water supply. I used a plastic spoon to mix in glass bowls. Also, to save time you can mix STEP 1 and STEP 2 in separate bowls, rather than doing them in sequence as you require them.

There are some ingredients you can add to the mixes:

Condition: 2T yogurt or 1 egg
Golden highlights: use half warm lemon juice or chamomile tea
Golden or copper highlights: 3T vinegar or lemon juice
Enrich brown or red: 1t ginger, allspice, nutmeg or paprika
Enhance brown: replace water with old black very warm coffee

You apply STEP 1 to your clean, towel dried hair in sections (using non-metallic hair clips), cover your hair with the provided plastic cap (which I secured with a wooden clothes pin), and leave it on for up to 15 minutes, checking every 5 minutes, applying "intermittent heat." My heat source was a hair dryer on warm setting. Rinse it out with water, then towel dry it. I read reviews of this product online and read a recommendation to fill the tub with water and immerse my whole head and body in the tub of water to help rinse it out. Afraid of getting dye on my skin, I first rinsed off with the shower spray attachment in the tub before filling the tub with water and lying down in the water.

Now, this whole process is INCREDIBLY MESSY. You've got this slop falling out of your hair in clumps as you keep applying more. There is no way to avoid getting this stuff on your wrists and your face, but I found that if I rinsed soon after slopping it on, it didn't leave much of a mark. A wetted corner of the towel around my neck to wipe off slopped bits worked quite well. The clumps fell everywhere, including all over the tub with some bits ending up on the rim of the tub, who knows how. These were easily rinsed off with some warm water later without staining the white tub surface. Also, you have to remember to rinse off your gloves after you've applied STEP 1 because you'll need them again in STEP 2. I ended up getting water down my plastic gloves (too short!), but my hands didn't stain at all since I rinsed after.

STEP 1 was the henna, I think. STEP 2 was probably the indigo, or at least it was in my case.

STEP 2 is pretty much the same as STEP 1. However, it "could take up to 3 or 4 hours to achieve the desired colour" for STEP 2. Yikes!!!

The whole process took me about 3 hours from start to finish, not including curing the powders, but it could have taken much longer had I not had to hurry off to pick up one of kids from school. I cut short STEP 2 just a wee bit. The rinsing took a considerably long time. I tried to wait until the water rinsed fairly cleear, but this meant filling and refilling the tub at least three times. It never did run absolutely clear, but the first shampoo post-dye would take out the rest of it.

You are asked to avoid washing your hair for at least 24 hours. The henna makes the hair smell like wet hay. It is not entirely unpleasant. This smell lingers for days. I did not see any colour transfer onto my pillow, but I did take the precaution of sleeping on a dark coloured towel unti I had the chance to wash my hair.

The package contained 197g of "100% PURE BOTANICAL HAIR COLOR", which was perfect for my shoulder length hair. There was probably enough for longer hair, if I was more careful about application and slopped less.

So, how did it turn out?

The white hairs appear lighter than the other hairs, but they appear like highlights. What I love about this colouring is that it lasts for around 3 months before the colour fades enough to notice the white hairs again. I have dark brown hair with natural red highlights, and less than 1% white hairs. I know that I had previously written that henna is supposedly permanent, but indigo is less so. Perhaps that explains why the colour does not last until the hairs fall out. The gradual fading means that I never have to touch up my roots. Now, I wash my hair almost daily because I exercise heavily, so the colour might last longer for you.

Despite the mess, I feel that the whole henna process was worth the trouble. Any mess was easily cleaned up by spraying down the bathtub and washing my bathrobe and towel. I also take comfort in knowing that henna is "good" for my hair, unlike commercial chemical dyes. Perhaps you could recruit a friend to do a henna night. That might make it easier. It was certainly challenging to slop on the henna without seeing myself in the mirror.

Next, in Part 2, we look at the Colora Henna Creme.

Killing Flying Insects--the Natural Way

It was my six year old who noticed the canteloupe sized wasp nest under the patio cover. We paid a man with a respirator mask and goggles $70 to soak the nest in a pesticide that foamed and dripped menacingly over our walkway to the garage. He was paid to knock the nest down but said that he would knock it down "if he was in the area" in four or five days. Nice. He proclaimed the wasps were actually hornets.

Now we have discovered more wasp/hornet/jellow jacket thingies flying into a hole over our door to the garage. Every time we open the door we risk letting in some of the flying hazards. So now to find out where to buy an organic thingie killer.

First searches turned up the EcoSmart Wasp and Hornet Killer, which is not available in Canada. I found this out through calling EcoSmart headquarters. Darn. It contains things like mint oils in some type of combination that is deadly to little critters but not kids and pets. Canadian Tire sells the Green Earth Homecare Flying and Crawling Insect Killer, a brand originating in Canada. It is a "botanical insecticide", but I had difficulty finding out exactly what is in it since it was not listed on the product's listing:

http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524443309414&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=282574489838394&bmUID=1246394677712

Here is Green Earth's website: http://www.greenearth.ca/ Sure Gro is the parent company, located in Eastern Canada. They list telephone help at 1-800-268-2806. There is no "Flying and Crawling" insect killer in their current product list. Puzzling. So, has it been phased out of their product line? The Bio-Mist Insect Killer, available in concentrate and non-concentrate forms, lists pyrethrin as its main ingredient. Pyrethrins are derived from Chrysanthemum. A description of pyrethrin is listed here: http://www.greenearth.ca/features/pyrethrins_e.php

"Pyrethrins are powerful contact insecticide causing a rapid paralysis or "knockdown" of the treated insects. This insecticide also has stomach-poison and fumigant action. Pyrethrins are fast acting and effective on a wide range of insects; damage from insects usually stops within minutes of application. Pyrethrins have an acute oral LD50 of 200 mg/kg. Formulated products have low mammalian toxicity. They are not persistent but break down rapidly in sunlight - so there are no residue problems. This permits use on edible crops up to the day before harvest."

These insecticides are usually designed for spraying directly on or into nests. The entrance into our home and the nest is extremely difficult to access as it is located behind the header of the door frame.

Here's a web resource enumerating other alternatives to mainstream pesticides:

http://www.pesticidefreebc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=64&Itemid=120

Update. I bought the Green Earth Flying & Crawling Insect Killer from Canadian Tire for $7, I think it was. That night we removed the packing tape that has been covering the crack on the inside of our house which is a passage to the wasp nest. As my husband went downstairs looking for something, I went downstairs as well to look for a ladder. I heard my visiting brother screaming and running around. I ran upstairs. He was being attacked by a wasp. It flew directly at him for a focussed attack. We take out the trusty dustbuster and vacuum it up. I went up calmly to close the tape, and then another one escaped. I didn't see where it flew. Next thing I knew, I felt pain on my scalp as I was stung on the top of my head, where my hair is parted from a hair clip. I started using my hands to frantically brush out my hair. Now my husband is up, and he and my brother look for the wasp, and they find the still alive wasp on the ground. They squish it.

We re-tape the crack and give up for the night. We also tested the Insect Killer and found that when we attached a straw to it, the killer just dripped out the end of the straw.

Later that night, I take the live wasp out of the dustbuster and put it in a clear plastic bag. I spray the Insect Killer inside. The wasp goes into convulsions but does not die... for a long time.

Next day we called the exterminator. $45 to have him pump our house full of foam and pesticide powder. So much for being green. Over the next few days, my scalp felt positively inflated, and the tension in my scalp was just amazing. I probably looked like Gumby. Die, wasps, die.

Green thoughts

Finally, after six months, my copy of an Inconvenient Truth was ready for pickup at the library. As I folded mountains of warm laundry, I listened to Al's soothing voiceover and watched his famous powerpoint demonstration. My husband did not even bother to join me on the couch, but remained glued to his computer. I think both of us are smug because we feel that we are already sensitive to green issues. I thought I was immune, but instead I just became more guilty about not doing more.



My husband has threatened to buy a minivan to accommodate the butts of any visiting or local grandparents who may happen to need a ride while in town. I've always believed that you should buy a vehicle for its main use, not for the 10% of the time, or the 36.5 days of the year, that you have secondary use for the vehicle. Why buy a SUV when you have never left a paved road in your life, or a minivan when most of the time it's only your family of four, or even worse, just you alone driving the bus?



I do admit, however, that cramming my butt between two child car seats has been an excruciating experience, whenever we are taking a fifth passenger. The problem is that I can't justify driving around a behemoth of a vehicle on a daily basis when the majority of the time, there are only three passengers during the week and four on weekends (and two of them under 40 pounds).



All this made me look into hybrid minivans. Toyota, which has been producing a hybrid minivan since 2001, has not provided any clear indications of when they will be exporting such a vehicle to the North American market. I am guessing as long as people continue to buy the Toyota Sienna, why bother shooting yourself in the foot and sell a model to compete with it, with a lower profit margin. Either that, or some Toyota executive is under a death threat from some hitman for an oil company to stop exporting the hybrids or else... Many people writing in on the issue who propose that with the elevated cost for hybrids, that they are not worth the financial savings, fail to see the reason why some of us want to buy a hybrid. It is not to save money. It is out of environmental awareness. How about a greener planet for our children?



Already, this year I invested in buying a Chariot XL bicycle trailer. In it I can take both of my children up until the age of 7, rain or shine, and pull them behind my mighty mountain bike. Two days of the week, I don't even use my car, thanks to the Chariot. My husband commutes to work on his bicycle, rain or shine, year round. When I'm lugging almost 100 pounds of trailer and fruit of my flesh, I'm getting fit and keeping my conscience clear.



It would be so much easier to be on my bicycle all the time if I didn't have the temptation of a car hulking in my garage, at my disposal, ready to follow my every command. Why can't I drive the three blocks to the library like everyone else without feeling guilty that the bicycle trailer is watching me, ready to swallow up the 95 books I am returning if I would only give it a chance? So what if my children whine and fight in the trailer when it's hot outside, especially when I'm taking waaaaaay too long to climb the hill back from preschool to home? A 5-minute drive easily turns into a 15-minute sweat fest on the bicycle. Being green is inconvenient, that's the truth.