HappyChucks   For Families Navigating the Autism Waters

Ah, Springtime. It is absolutely beautiful out right now – warm enough to bask in the sun during the day, but it still cools off nicely at night. It's the perfect time to get outside and... Pull Some Weeds!

I don't know about you, but our yard's a mess right now. All the nice rain we had this winter set up perfect conditions for weeds to grow like crazy – especially in the desert-landscaping sections! I started to pull weeds, using my hands &/or a hoe, but they overwhelmed me after awhile, so I reached for the spray.

I hate spraying RoundUp or other herbicides, since Calvin is so sensitive to chemicals. Not to mention Jonas is still only 3 (for a few more weeks, anyway) and plays back there every day – he's awfully young to be exposed to harmful chemicals.

Last week, on the advice of a friend, I sprayed a section of weeds with White Vinegar. Plain ole, store-brand, $2.99 per gallon, white vinegar. And it worked great! Maybe not quite as fast as RoundUp, but a week later you couldn't tell the difference; the weeds are dead. This week I'll spray vinegar on the rest of the weeds.

I haven't tried using vinegar on weeds growing in the grass, as I'm afraid it will kill the grass, too. Maybe I'll dilute it and try it on a small area..? I've used Weed B Gone (another herbicide) the last couple of years. It works great, but I'd much rather have a natural, non-toxic remedy. If anyone out there has any ideas, please share.

Last fall Cheryl & I made a resolution to find ways to conserve energy around the house; our goal was a 10% reduction in usage, and if we could combine that with some time-shifting, a 20% reduction in our electricity bill.

One of the first things we did was to change the highest-use light bulbs to Compact Flourescent Bulbs. I was nervous about this at first, because I remembered fluorescent bulbs from 20 years ago being noisy and having a weird glow. But that's not the case anymore; I actually like the CFL lighting better than our regular bulbs.

Now we have other concerns – these bulbs contain mercury.. What do we do if a CFL light bulb breaks? And, how do we dispose of them when they burn out without filling the landfills with mercury?

I normally don't write about the same topic on two different blogs, but today I discussed these 2 questions in detail on my real estate blog, and rather than repeating everything, I thought I'd link to it here.