Friday, April 22, 2016

Darning socks & Young Dogs

This week I went ahead and finally learned how to properly darn a sock, since all but 3 of mine had holes in them. I had just hand sewn a few of the holes together, but it wasn't holding up great. (Check out my resources page for how to darn a sock and other information on sustainable living!)

I actually got most of my socks last year when one of our neighbors in our last apartment complex threw away three double-bagged garbage bags of baby clothes, women's odds and ends, some older kids stuff and some men's stuff. Since the bags were clean and had clothing peeking out, I took them inside and sorted them. I found a gold mine of baby clothes, my socks, and storable kids' clothes to grow into. I took the cotton stuff that was good out, washed it and stored what couldn't be used at the time. 

We don't use more than 10% synthetic hand-me-downs here to avoid plastic wherever possible. I'm too much of a tightwad to buy new organics, but I try to stick to natural fibers and hope that most of the toxins have been washed out by the time I get them. This way we reduce our consumption impact and get free or cheaper natural fiber clothing. It's a fair compromise of values.

Anyway, here are my first attempts at darning as I used the yarn I had and don't care about the ascetics of something that goes in my shoes to absorb sweat, get dirty, and keep my feet warm:

Free socks stay that way for awhile! 

We also had our hot water heater break yesterday morning which is almost 30 years old and has no shut-off valve of its own. So, we have been without running water for a day now and will continue to do so for at least another day when the repair person comes. Since we used our home warranty service, that's the earliest they could come over. Hopefully the home warranty will just replace it in a couple of days. We're not holding our breath for it though.

We also adopted a young dog yesterday. We went to look a couple of days ago, and found a great match. Young dog F is about 8 months old and though they didn't know if he was house trained, he hasn't had an accident yet and does seem to be asking for the door. He's fairly mellow, but is part border collie so has a herding instinct.  This means he walks in front/to the side of us whenever we go somewhere in the house. 

He decided my husband is the alpha and wouldn't eat or drink water until he came home from work. He also wouldn't explore the house until after work. He is in love with my husband and has made his favoritism well known. He is very affectionate and just runs from my toddler's bad behaviors. 

Border collies tend to do great with chickens, but not with rodents. So far "leave it" working with the guinea pig and we plan on keeping future meat rabbits in hutch that he won't be able to see into as the movement seems to be what bothers him. We keep him separate from the other animals at night in the master and he sticks with his human herd otherwise.

Little Urban Greenie





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