From The Clothes Line: Elegant Survival of Your Clothing

The Clothes Line, an Elegant Survival Original, Copyright M-J de Mesterton 2006

Clothes dryers are energy-wasters, and will ruin your clothes as well, through fiber-loss and shrinkage. Hand-washing and line-drying your shirts will extend their lives. I use Zote soap and a microfiber cloth to rub dirt out of cuffs and collars. Underarms need special attention, too. I use a microfibre cloth instead of a brush because it is more gentle on the fabric, while strong enough to grab what I like to call “café crud” from cuffs. You don’t need a fancy contraption for clothes-drying; a five-dollar investment in a clothesline from Walmart, and a packet of wooden clothespins for about three dollars will do. Having a couple of trees to hold your clothesline at each end is lucky indeed, but in their absence, wooden posts can be installed.

When travelling, pack a small piece of Zote or Octagon bar-soap for hand-washing dainties and shirts in your quarters. The shower is a nice place to hang them; they will likely dry overnight, and probably not need ironing.  You might pack a couple of clothes-pins as well.

The sun and Zote soap both act as  fabric-brighteners, and your clothes will have a clean, fresh scent if treated to a sun-bath.

~~Copyright M-J de Mesterton, 2009

Elegant Survival: Conserving Water

Conserving Water

Flowering in the Desert, copyright M-J de Mesterton 2007

The price of water is going up, and its availability in some locations is scarce. There are some things you can do to keep whatever water you do have from going down the drain in vain.Bathing usually uses less water than showering. Whether you bathe or shower, keeping the drain plugged will allow you to use this “gray water” later for other purposes.

Use the bath water to give your outdoor plants a drink. They especially like Epsom salts, a time-honored fertilizer in England.

Use a large, gallon-sized pitcher of bath water to flush your toilet. Pouring it down fast creates a flush; sometimes you will want to do this twice. A tubful of water can constitute twenty or more flushes. It works great.

While running water to get it hot, fill pitchers, glasses, any empty vessels you have handy until the water gets hot enough to use, saving the cooler water for drinking later.

Water doesn’t grow on trees!

Photo and Conservation Tips Copyright M-J de Mesterton, 2008

Press Release Received Today from Planet Resource Recovery

Now that ‘Drill, Baby, Drill‘ is an echo of the past, a revolutionary GREEN technology is discovered that will increase America’s oil production by billions of barrels, from right beneath our feet!

[Houston, TX, Nov. 10, 2008] As the hunt continues for new and renewable sources of energy, a remarkable discovery comes out of Texas that will increase America’s present oil production by billions of barrels, and it’s all beneath our feet.

In a step towards reducing, or even ending America’s dependence on foreign oil, a Houston company has announced a revolutionary breakthrough in oil recovery. Planet Resource Recovery, and its amazing GREEN product, PetroLuxusTM have completed nine months of down-hole field tests with low producing [marginal] oil wells. The end result: oil well production increased 2, 3, 4 & 5 times original output (actual studies are available upon request). Oil wells that were once producing 80 barrels per month are now producing 200, 300 and 500 barrels monthly.

Since this announcement appeared in the Houston Chronicle on Sept 3rd, oil producers and investors from across America have been knocking on the door of this publicly-owned grass roots company (pink sheets: PRRY).

For more on this story, go to: www.talkguests.com/petroluxus.htm