Real Simple's List of Natural Cleaning Products And How Feeding Everyone Will Save The World

Real Simple is the new magazine for the way you desire to live today. You'll find useful solutions to streamline the ways you manage your life. Systems for reducing clutter, saving time, and reducing stress. Each issue will inspire ideas about home, food, money, clothes, health, work, family, and holidays.

You get 12 issues of Real Simple for $18.00...that's 67% off the cover price.

Time To Shine (Naturally)

It's time for Spring cleaning, but you can forget those expensive cleaners. Did you know that you can do wonders with vinegar, table salt, toothpaste, baking soda, and lemon juice? All are household staples, cheap, and baby/toddler safe. Why expose children to any more chemicals than they already breath from the air.

Here's a bonus tip that Real Simple didn't mention...I did learn a secret recipe for window cleaner from a car detailer a few years back. Use 1 part vinegar + 1 part rubbing alcohol + 2 parts water; it disenfects, leaves no residue and zero streaks. It seems counter intuitive, but use an old newspaper to wipe, just like the article suggests in Real Simple.

You can view a few of their natural cleaning tips from their article online.

So Many Mouths To Feed Now...Where Will It All Come From?

For the past two weekends I've been getting out in the garden. Not only am I trying to teach my son the basics of growing and caring for your own food, but I also secretly use it as a source of personal meditation. Coincidentally, I saw a short piece on NBC Nightly News last week about how to the purchase of seeds is rising rapidly from consumers lately. They state that one family can invest $200 in their garden and see a return of several thousand dollars in produce! It looks like I'm not the only one out there in the garden these days.

My wife just got a new subscription to Mother Earth News, and while I enjoyed the tips on planting seasons for different types of vegetables, there was one other interesting article that caught my eye.  There was a great piece on Planning for a Sustainable Human Future . The part that amazed me most was visual chart of the Earth's population growth from 15,000 BC through 2009 (unfortunately, it's not shown on the online article). Anyway, did you know that the Earth's population was well under 1 billion people until the late 1700's? This means that in the past 300 years we've gone from 1 billion to 6.7 billion people with the onset of the industrial revolution.

It makes you wonder where all that food is going to come from as we continue to get bigger. Here in America it's easy to take our decadence for granted, but Third World countries continue to struggle to produce enough food to feed their families. 

Isn't that their problem and not ours?

You might think so at first blush until you watch this video from the TED Conference.  Your eyes will be opened to why it is so important to make sure that everyone has plenty of food, and that these food sources are begotten in a sanitary way, otherwise it eventually affects all of us!

Speaking of American decadence, I was pleased to see a great essay in TIME magazine about the End of Excess.  It speaks to our dismay as a Nation having to cope with the end of a 30 year financial winning streak.  If anything it is a great lesson on how history tends to repeat itself, the positive note is that we have been through this before and come out fine on the other end as long as we put the effort into making things better along the way.  You can read it here online.

Best Fishing Baits For 2009

It's early Spring and the rivers are thawing; the fishing bug might be gnawing at you outdoor types pretty bad by now. This month's Field and Stream has a great article for you on 112 battle tested lures for bagging great fish in North American interior waters.

Whether you are looking to hook a large mouth bass, walleye, pike, trout, or crappie, pages 48 through 57 of the March 2009 issue will give you the best lure of the job at hand. After finding out what you need, you might want to check out lurenet.com to upgrade your tackle box this year.

A subscription for 12 issues of Field and Stream is only $11.97 right now - that's 75% off the cover price!

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