Samantha Smith

Hi Richard! I'm Sam. I live in the northeast Arkansas area. I've been interested in visiting East Wind for years now but haven't been able to figure out the logistics. I messaged the child branch a few years ago around the time our daughter was to be born and it didn't work out as becoming new parents was a major challenge! She's 2 now and loves helping in our garden but I still don't know if we could work a visit out with a wee toddler underfoot. Any guidance you can offer? I've been a long-time admirer of the East Wind community and I hope you're all thriving for a very long time to come. Thanks!

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must provide:
  - a before picture of the floor
  - an action shot of you sweeping the floor
  - an after picture of the floor
  - OR a 2-minute video of you doing this

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must provide:
  - a picture of your grain cooking on the stovetop
  - a picture showing your cooked grain that is obviously at least two cups

Cooking 2 cups long grain brown rice with approx 4 cups of water, a pinch of salt, and some bay leaf

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must:
- post a picture of the dirty dishes in the sink
- post a progress picture of the dishes being washed
- post a picture of the completed dishes with obviously less than 3 gallons water used
- describe the soap used, its grey water friendliness, and a link to the verifiable biodegradeable dish soap
- OR post a 2 minute video of you washing the dishes by hand

Here we go! We alternate between handwashing and using the dishwasher in this house but I found the water requirement an interesting challenge, which I want to bring into my daily habits permanently to reduce our consumption. We used Dawn Dish soap which says "biodegradable surfactants". I do not often scrub the cast iron pans with it, they get hot water for the most part.

Disclaimer: there are better soaps on the market for this use, especially for greywater, but this is what we had on hand. I didn't wish to go purchase specific soap for this project (more plastic, more consumption). A screenshot of the website simply says "biodegradable surfactants". The submission above mine was approved using the same soap, so I went with it.

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must:
- one picture of direct peeing on moist soil around a urine loving plant and what the urine loving plant is
- OR two pictures: one of urine being diluted and one of mixture being given to plants

Howdy! First BB submission. This one made me chuckle. Something I've done before but this task had me researching correct dilution methods and ratios. Good to know!