Here’s an interesting product, FLOAA Dish-sposables.  FLOAA Dish-sposables are biodegradable pet feeding dishes.

At first glance, I thought the idea was very interesting, but then wondered if it was very practical. After all, isn’t washing an existing pet dish more economical and eco-friendly than purchasing disposable dishes?

Then I read a little further and saw the reason for the idea. Apparently the owner is in the habit of rescuing animals, and got tired of using paper plates to feed the various animals. It just didn’t sit right with him using paper plate after paper plate only to toss them in the trash. He found it to be such a waste so he designed these eco-friendly biodegradable food dishes.

Once I gained the proper perspective, I though, “Wow, what a great idea.”

If animals are your business and you tire of having to wash food bowls, or find it impractical to use plastic or metal reusable bowls, FLOAA disposable dishes seem to be a nice alternative. Since the plates are biodegradable, they do just fine in a compost pile (for all of you composters out there).

By the way, if you want to know what FLOAA stands for, it stands for “For the Love of All Animals.” Check ‘em out.

If you have not done so already, I strongly suggest that you take a look at the Consumer World website.  In addition to looking through the website, you should sign up for their newsletter.

Consumer World has a fountain of information that everyone who buys anything should be aware of.  As a result of a link from their site, I recently read an article on how Purina Dog Food reduced the size of their dog food bag from 20 pounds to 18 pounds.  The price?  Well of course the price remained the same.

The folks at Mouse Print attempted on more than one occasion to get an explanation from Purina as to the reason for the downsized portions.  Rather than re-word their findings, check it out for yourself.

Lots of Info

No need for me to say anymore.  Check them out and check out the sites they link to.  If you’re like me, you’ll bookmark the Consumer World as a valuable resource.

I love nature just as much as the next person but there are a few things that really work my nerves. The insatiable hosta munching deer is one of them, second only to flower box and yard destroying squirrel.

Hair to Repel Deer

There are several ways to deter deer from eating your plants (they seem to love hostas). There are store bought deer repellents, but I prefer to use a natural deterrent. A friend of mine uses hair. She takes hair from her brush and spreads it around her plants, sort of like decorating a Christmas tree. I guess the individual’s scent is enough to deter the deer from eating the plants.

That works well as long as weather conditions leave the hair in place. A few windy rainy days means re-decorating the plants with more hair.

The Deterrent that Every House Has Plenty Of

If hair is a scarce commodity in your home like it is in ours (we keep our hair very short), you might have to choose another method. Just like with hair, I’m using a substance that is plentiful. As a matter of fact, I’m 100% sure that every household has this commodity and it’s 100% natural. Deer don’t like urine. Yep, every day ordinary pee.

Last year we didn’t have a deer problem because we allowed Fido to pee wherever he chose; the front yard, side yard or back yard. It didn’t make a difference as long as it wasn’t in the house. It was a wonderful natural deer deterrent.

The upside is that the deer didn’t eat the hosta plants; the downside is that the yard looked like it was a battleground for a serious intergalactic conflict. The dog pee created a plethora of burn spots in the grass.

This year we decided to improve the looks of the lawn and trained Fido to pee in one spot. Our lawn has improved, but the deer have decided to return. So, keeping with the urine theory, we decided to sprinkle urine on the plants.

Outfit the Bathroom

Wait, it’s not as gross as it sounds. All you have to do is keep paper cups in the bathroom. Once every few days, fill one of the cups and sprinkle the urine over the outdoor plants. It will deter the deer.

The only downside is that the urine gets washed away every time it rains so you’ll need to ‘pee’ on your plants after a good soaking. For some reason kids love this deer repellent method…go figure.

Word of warning, do not store urine. Urine has a tendency to develop muscles over time and you may not be strong enough to be able to withstand the odor. Urine is an abundant commodity. Why not put it to good use?

While you’re looking for pest repellents, try this natural mosquito repellent.

It looks like pepper works. In my last post I ranted a bit about squirrels reeking havoc with my plants so I peppered them (the plants, not the squirrels).

This morning, I was hard at work on my laptop and I happened to look up and I saw my archenemy, the squirrel stalking (in that predatory manor that they have when they see a flower box to demolish), towards my flower box. I almost jumped up to get the broom to shoo it away, but I remembered the pepper.

I watched it as it approached the first flower box. The squirrel looked in the dirt, appeared to sniff around a little, then it walked thorough the flower box along the deck railing until it came to the second flowerbox. The squirrel repeated the same behavior. It sniffed, stood there for a while then turned around and slowly retraced its steps.

I’m not sure what the squirrel was thinking, but it sure seemed to be deep in thought. It slowly walked then stopped. It spied other plants I had on the deck. (Darn!!! I didn’t pepper all of the plants, I missed one or two of the smaller ones). I knew for certain this flower box demolisher was going to destroy the two small pepperless flowerpots.

I started to creep towards the broom closet. I knew I was going to have to shoo it away.

The squirrel stood there moving its little head from side to side with its nose in the air. It seemed to try to detect which pots had pepper and which ones didn’t. I don’t think the squirrel could tell. I guess it’s a good thing that I just about emptied an entire can of pepper in the plants.

It could be my imagination, but I thought I detected a look of defeat on the squirrels face. I mean, those little beady eyes lowered, the body posture seemed a little less defiant, and the flower box destroyer walked away.

Whooo hooo! Score one for mom!!!

I’m so annoyed with those tiny four-legged garden destroyers that I’m about to scream!

They chew up the lawn, they overturn all of my flowers and they constantly toss the dirt out of my flower boxes.  I caught one squirrel mid dirt toss and I sprayed it with the water hose.  The little bugger took off, and I was left with mud all over the deck.

I’ve read that squirrels don’t like pepper, cayenne or bitter substances.  I guess their palate can’t stand the spicy stuff.  I’m not sure if it works, but I pretty much emptied a can of black pepper in two of my flower boxes.  Hopefully I wont go into sneezing fits every time I play with my flowers.

Although squirrels may look cute, they’re really a gardener’s nuisances.  If you’ve had any luck in deterring squirrels from chewing through your garden, please share your remedy.  I’m just about a wits end.

I keep saying that living green isn’t always easy, but it doesn’t have to be this frustrating.

For pet owners who don’t compost, maybe you should consider recycling your fruit and vegetable peels for your dog.

The other day I was making a batch of carrot, apple, and raisin salad (the only way I can get a vegetable into my daughter). I used untold amounts of organic carrots. After thoroughly washing the carrots, I peeled off the outer skin and proceeded to make the salad.

I looked at the heap of perfectly healthy carrot skins and decided to recycle them by running the skins through the food processor so that I could mix some in with the dog’s food. Fido, being the dog that he is, thought he was having an early Thanksgiving meal. He lapped it up looking for more.

There was such a large amount of carrot skin that I put some of the chopped carrots in the freezer for a later date and some in the fridge for tomorrow’s meal.

Fido was happy and so was I. So, before you throw away certain fruit and vegetable skins, think about recycling them to mix it in your dog’s food. Recycling your peals not only helps to stretch a bag of dog food, but the fruits and vegetables are healthy for your dog and dogs love it.

Word of Caution:

Give Fido a little at a time. Their short digestive tracts can wreak havoc in your household if the food upsets their stomach.

I was in the middle of preparing dinner and realized that I needed more mayo for the meal. I asked my daughter to get me a jar from the pantry. She pulled out three jars of mayonnaise, which were all attached by a three-ringed hard plastic holder that was inserted around the necks of the jars. Similar to the 6 pack holder, but made of a stronger material.

After pulling out the jar of mayo that I needed I put the other two jars back and discarded the plastic three-ring holder. I later came back to find my daughter with a pair of shears attempting to cut the three ringed plastic holder.

A little puzzled I asked her what she was doing? Her reply was, “I’m saving the ducks.”

Being a little dumbfounded and perplexed I didn’t understand where she was coming from so I asked her how was she saving the ducks? Apparently she had just watched the Disney movie Happy Feet. In one of the scenes one of the penguins had a beer container caught around its neck.

That scene, more than any preaching that I could have done, stuck in her mind. As a result, we make it a practice to cut anything that has the plastic harness to protect the ducks (and penguins for that matter).

Out of the mouths of babes.

I want to talk about something that had not dawned on me until I received an e-mail from a concerned reader. Her email expressed a two-fold concern:

1. Was the Arm & Hammer Washing Soda ingredient I call for the in the homemade laundry and dishwashing detergent recipes phosphate free?
2. Is the Arm & Hammer testing process animal cruelty free? In other words, do they engage in animal testing of their products?

After doing some research, I was pleased to be able to inform this reader that yes, in fact Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda is phosphate free, but saddened to inform that they are not a pet friendly company. They do engage in animal testing of their products. Having been made aware of this, I feel this is a fact that I must share with my readers.

The Caring Consumer website maintains a listing of those companies who are pet friendly, and those who are not. This list is updated every three to four months or so.

Now that you are aware of this fact what can you do? Well, the way I see it, you do have options when it comes to making your own homemade laundry and dish detergent. You can either abandon the process of making your own detergent and continue with the store-bought brand (but please check the above websites to see if they are pet friendly and make sure they are phosphate free), or you can try fix what is broken.

To the second option, I am listing the contact information for the owners of Arm & Hammer below. Please call, write or e-mail them and express your concerns. If we all band together we might be able to make a change. After all, that’s why we’re all going blulow. We want to make a change and preserve our environment of which animals are a part.

Church & Dwight
P.O. Box 1625
Horsham, PA 19044-6625
Phone: 609-683-5900 or 800-524-1328
Web Address: http://www.armandhammer.com/
Consumer comment/complaint: www.churchdwight.com/consumer_info/consumer/consumer.asp