Just Use Less!

Kirsty Pollock wrote:My cat produces more garbage than I do. No joke. My non-recycling is 99% kitty litter and my plastic and metal recycling is mostly cat food cans (and in winter, frozen vegetable plastic bags).

* He doesn't seem to "go" outside and pees 5x a day
* I have a closed cesspit and can't dump kitty litter there due to toxoplasmosis risk to my land, and probably unpumpability by the city sh!t-wagon.
* Dry food (which might come in paper bags) is bad for cats, and despite that he just appeared from the "wild" I think he's a hopeless hunter, but he's still only a "teenager" maybe he will improve. Someday I'll keep poultry and rabbits and then he can eat those instead!

The wood shavings that stock feeders sell is a great cat litter. It has a natural deodoriser and if fully compostable. I put the collections on my compost heap.
Feeding cats raw meat and bones, their natural diet, reduces the amount of poop and keeps them much healthier so they pee less.

jackie woolston wrote:My grandmother grew up on a homestead in the Lakota Territory. The family had a small sod cabin. Water was scarce where they were. She told me that to conserve water, at the end of every meal, everyone would wipe their plates/bowls  clean with a piece of bread, then turn them upside down on the table. Ready for the next meal. She lived to be a sharp 102.  HMMM?

It's important to KNOW what's dangerous, not just to us, but to our planet. So it's about being responsible. I'm very picky what I buy new and prefer to use salvage yards and secondhand shops. Natural products have to prove they are by giving me certification numbers or a list of ingredients that I understand.

Such a great thread with wonderful ideas!

By altering my cleaning methods, I have been able to eliminate thousands of dollars from my budget and probably hundreds of pounds of waste. Using baking soda and vinegar for nearly every cleaning purpose (kitchen, laundry, bathroom, floors and carpets, windows, even eliminating driveway "weeds", etc.).  But, buying gallons of vinegar and boxes of baking soda can still generate cost and waste. As an alternative to my alternative (using the permaculture mindset), I am hoping to make my own baking soda and vinegar!

Vinegar: learning how to make kombucha vinegar (since I make Kombucha anyway).
https://gippslandunwrapped.com/2016/07/29/homemade-kombucha-vinegar/

Baking Soda: learning how to make Potash or Pearlash
https://cavemanchemistry.com/oldcave/projects/potash/
https://www.5acresandadream.com/2016/01/baking-with-wood-ash-part-3-results.html

I am a big proponent of thrift shops and dumpster diving. It is amazing what folks throw away: good Stainless steel pots and pans, tools that just need a lot of TLC. You can also make a lot of things with parts that folks throw away, like bicycle wheels.
Good coats, socks etc can be found at Goodwill too

This might be my first post on the forum, but this is an issue I've been drawn to all my life.

For me the question isn't how to use less. It has always been about how to NEED less.

Until 7 years ago, I lived, on average, in 43 places in 57 years in 8 states plus another country. That doesn't even include the wandering and hanging out and couch surfing in more states in my late teens. Even raising kids could mean moving every year or two within the same town. I owned a back-pack of clothes, and a small box of books, and at age 24 gained a footlocker truck with some household things. I owned only those things until I gave birth to my first child at age 28.

Reason #1 for NEED LESS: who wants to keep packing, moving, and unpacking countless unnecessary boxes?

I worked through college and it was then that I learned Reason #2 for NEED LESS: I didn't like working as much as I liked not working.

When I baked a cake with my grandmother, we didn't use a mixer; we used a big spoon. I never whisked an egg with a whisk; I had a fork. I never saw a plastic garbage bag until I moved into my own place when I was 17 years old. There are so many things we take for granted that we need. We don't. We once lived without them - in our lifetime actually.

I just never understood the point of getting a mixer if I had a spoon, or a whisk if I had a fork. I didn't want to trade my time for money to buy things I didn't need.

And that became my life, really. I worked for what I needed which never took 40 hours a week and I played the rest of the time. I read and sewed and spent time with my kids and friends. I foraged and made plant medicines. I learned stuff all the time.

I have an acre and a small wonky (but sound) cottage, hens, a growing food forest. I forage for food and medicine. I read books from the library all the time. I've never had a cell phone. I just never bought into normal life. I stayed living like my grandparents raised me to for the most part.

So my advice for using less is need less to start. Use reusables instead of disposables but don't buy into every alternative either. There was a huge movement for making or buying cloth produce bags for awhile. I never even used produce bags. It all just went in the cart and then in my tote!

If you don't know how to live without garbage bags or toilet paper, it will be hard to do so if you ever have to. But these were not always things you could buy so people did live without them. They did something simpler. Too often we start looking for alternatives and get just as materialistic, trying to replace the undesirable with the new "simpler" or "homemade" desirable. But it's still just the same amount of stuff.

What I know is: if you need less, you work less and when times get hard, you seamlessly carry on not having to give up much because you know how to live without all the dependence on so many things. So Reason #3: life is easier.

An old lady's 2 cents.

I got turned on to "visible mending" a little over a year ago, and I wish I would have gotten into it years ago. It's a creative way to prolong the longevity of clothing (possibly indefinitely) while adding beauty and character at the same time. If you're not familiar with it, check out Kate Sekules book, "Mend!", or just Google "visible mending".

So far, I have mended moth holes in 3 merino sweaters, patched holes in 4 pairs of pants (2 were for friends), and appliqued patches over two shirt that had gotten stains on them.

The other good thing about visible mending is you can use leftover yarn from knitting projects (or neighbors' leftovers), or unravel and re-use yarn from sweaters and socks that are beyond mending.

My latest acquisition is a large loom, and I intend to make rugs, runners, placemats, etc, from cotton items that have become too degraded or damaged to mend.

I also enjoy the process of hand stitching. It's a slow but rewarding process, and a nice way to wind down at the end of the day, and a great project for the slower winter months. But most importantly, a mended item is one less article of clothing going to landfill, and it lessens the demand for new items, which usually carry a high environmental tax.

Yes, we have something called Front Porch Forum which is online and comes to you if you sign up via email.  It is like a newsletter of items of interest.
It often has listings of missing cats or whether someone could recommend a good plumber, but it is also a way to get rid of stuff.  I've unloaded tons of things I no longer need, and I've gotten some really good stuff, too: a free birdbath and dozens of mason jars, for example.  I think it is in multiple states.
I'm sure if you are unfamiliar with it, you could do a Google search. It is one of the best emails I receive each day...aside from this one, of course!

Thomas Dean wrote:I'm a fan of the new "buy nothing" groups that are popping up on Facebook.  The downside: I think that there are a bunch of "takers" on the group.  However, I frequently dumpster dive, and I sometimes find odd things that just need a home.  If I don't want to go to the hassle of trying to sell them for a couple of bucks (mostly for my time investment), I can find community members who want the things.  I've also made new friends in the community this way.  

I can only imagine how many mattresses our family has saved from being thrown into landfills.  We only sleep on plant based, hull filled mattresses so after the life of the mattress is over we can simply use the filling to mulch our organic veg garden.  We continue this theme throughout the house, only using natural fillings for our comfort.  It's nice to know that we can compost all the fillings in our furniture, knowing they do not contain any forever chemicals that could be harmful to our health.

Hemp Hull (aka a Hemp Sand Mattress) and buckwheat hull pod mattresses last a very long time, provide a better quality grounded sleep and buckwheat hulls are naturally fire resistant so they don't need flame retardant chemicals added to them like in petroleum based foams.

Scottie Chapman wrote:My latest acquisition is a large loom, and I intend to make rugs, runners, placemats, etc, from cotton items that have become too degraded or damaged to mend.

When my loom was set up years ago, I made a lot of rag rugs. 30+ years later, I've still got 4 in daily use. I've never had that long a life out of purchased area rugs. I do admit that the kitchen one is showing its age... I should mend it a little.

To Allison Dey,
Great post, and your reasons #2  &  #3  for using less are words to live by.
I especially agree with the sentiment that it's not about replacing everything with something green, it's more about using and needing less to slow down the resource consumption and waste disposal.
Rick

I recycle everything possible.
Plastic jars that food comes in gets washed and re used to store beans, rice etc. (I make sure they are made of food safe plastic)
Plastic mesh that onions come in get put in a box for future use. They can hold dryer lint and hung from a tree for the birds to line their nests for example, or they can hold a handful of candy with a ribbon around them for tree ornaments or basket fillers on holidays. No end to the ideas for them.
I am currently on my 7th year of sheepskin boots that I have worn the soles down to leaky holes on them but the tops are still oh so warm! I just went to my local hardware store and bought some very flexible caulking and re-soled my shoes. I have done this three times so far and it works just fine.
I purchase long dresses from thrift shops and they serve as foils against the wind during the winter when I wear warm sweats under them along with these boots. Rarely does anyone know I am wearing sweats under these dresses but I get to be very comfy at almost no cost.
Thrift shops for the win I say!

Lynne Cim wrote:I can only imagine how many mattresses our family has saved from being thrown into landfills.  We only sleep on plant based, hull filled mattresses so after the life of the mattress is over we can simply use the filling to mulch our organic veg garden.  We continue this theme throughout the house, only using natural fillings for our comfort.  It's nice to know that we can compost all the fillings in our furniture, knowing they do not contain any forever chemicals that could be harmful to our health.
Hemp Hull (aka a Hemp Sand Mattress) and buckwheat hull pod mattresses last a very long time, provide a better quality grounded sleep and buckwheat hulls are naturally fire resistant so they don't need flame retardant chemicals added to them like in petroleum based foams.

To boot, I heard that hemp facilitates sleep, so that's a two for!

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:

Lynne Cim wrote:I can only imagine how many mattresses our family has saved from being thrown into landfills.  We only sleep on plant based, hull filled mattresses so after the life of the mattress is over we can simply use the filling to mulch our organic veg garden.  We continue this theme throughout the house, only using natural fillings for our comfort.  It's nice to know that we can compost all the fillings in our furniture, knowing they do not contain any forever chemicals that could be harmful to our health.
Hemp Hull (aka a Hemp Sand Mattress) and buckwheat hull pod mattresses last a very long time, provide a better quality grounded sleep and buckwheat hulls are naturally fire resistant so they don't need flame retardant chemicals added to them like in petroleum based foams.

To boot, I heard that hemp facilitates sleep, so that's a two for!

Oh Cécile I would love to know if you have the source handy for where you heard that info!  Would love to know the science behind this better sleep!   I do feel I sleep so much deeper on hemp hulls and others have told me they feel there is something more going on besides just the comfort aspect of their hemp hull mattress

jackie woolston wrote:My grandmother grew up on a homestead in the Lakota Territory. The family had a small sod cabin. Water was scarce where they were. She told me that to conserve water, at the end of every meal, everyone would wipe their plates/bowls  clean with a piece of bread, then turn them upside down on the table. Ready for the next meal. She lived to be a sharp 102.  HMMM?

This is brilliant and very much in line with how we live. No, we wash our dishes, but that simplicity is key.

Scottie Chapman wrote:I got turned on to "visible mending" a little over a year ago, and I wish I would have gotten into it years ago. It's a creative way to prolong the longevity of clothing (possibly indefinitely) while adding beauty and character at the same time. If you're not familiar with it, check out Kate Sekules book, "Mend!", or just Google "visible mending".

So far, I have mended moth holes in 3 merino sweaters, patched holes in 4 pairs of pants (2 were for friends), and appliqued patches over two shirt that had gotten stains on them.

I applaud you for hand stitching. It's my favorite thing to do besides read. I treated myself recently to this book: Creative Visible Mending for knitwear by Flora Collingwood-Norris. A quick look at her website and you'll fall in love with her skills. The images are just gorgeous. I use these methods on woven fabrics also. I've been hand mending since I was a child.

If you like the book, it can be bought in the US from North House Folk School. Saves on buying and shipping from the UK by tens of dollars.

Lots of great ideas!
I’ve been doing many things to reduce waste.
I buy in bulk when I can, and repackage into glass that I have saved.
I save most the glass they comes into our home.
I purposely try not to buy anything in plastic.
I buy my clothes from thrift shops, and I will only buy 100% natural fibers- I’m trying to avoid all  artificial sh..
I avoid artificial fragrances! They are bad for you and the earth. Think of all the waist and water pollution resulting from fragrances.
I use glass containers and mason jars to store leftovers.
It finally occurred to me that I could use less when I make bread or pie…
I bought a  couple of glass cake domes from goodwill. No more waist in keeping these fresh.

This is a picture of some of my tinctures. Only some barks and the Hawthorn berries were purchased and one specialized fresh plant (Pitcher Plant). The rest I grow or wildcrafted. I do use old jars for these; I get jars from neighbors now and then if I need them.

I switched to dehydrating almost all our stored food. One way we use less is not having a freezer. A freezer would be nice but
1) the fridge is using the only heavy-duty outlet the house has and
2) I don't want to lose all my food in a power outage and
3) I don't want to rent food storage from the electric company every single day of my life.

Dehydrating is done mostly by the wood stove. I do have a couple of second-hand electric dehydrators and use them only in spring and summer for eggs and some fruit when we aren't heating with the fire.

I took the picture to show how pretty they are in the jars, but normally there a couple of shelves of all potatoes and one of cabbage and one of fruit, etc. That way I can keep an eye on how much we have and how much we need to replace next winter.

You could also say we use less food because we eat so simply. So we use less food, rarely pharmacy medicine, no vitamins (they're in the food), and less electricity to preserve and store our food, and less space.

We did use more new jars set up, that's true, but once I bought them, they'll be reused over and over again. Even the lids can be vacuum-sealed over an over unlike canning where you need a new lid each time. I highly recommend dehydrating over canning or freezing if you have money, space, and fuel considerations.

Not sure if the pictures will show up. I've never done this here.

Allison, your comment about not renting food storage from the electric company for the rest of your life, struck me like an epiphany! What up insightful thought, that most people probably never think about.
Our household has also moved away from canning and it's high-tech sealing methods and expense, both in materials and energy.
We currently dry, apples, green beans, green and hot peppers, sweet corn, tomatoes, herbs, and swiss chard.
Here's another method of storage that's probably very unusual that we just started doing the last few years.
We pull our cabbages from the garden just before Frost, then we bring them in and put them in the root cellar. However when put into The Root cellar we heal them in, or simply put, bury the roots.
The cabbages still think they're in the garden, and every couple of weeks I cut off a head for household use. The Roots stay in the ground and  begin sprouting small leaves again. The Root cellar is cold enough that the roots should survive the winter, and also vernalize (a period of sustained cold), which will prepare them for going to seed next summer, when replanted in the spring.
Fresh picked cabbage in January in Minnesota isn't the norm!
There are probably many preservation methods out there that haven't been revived or haven't been thought up yet, that require no outside intervention.

Rich Rayburn wrote:Allison, your comment about not renting food storage from the electric company for the rest of your life, struck me like an epiphany! What up insightful thought, that most people probably never think about.
Our household has also moved away from canning and it's high-tech sealing methods and expense, both in materials and energy.
We currently dry, apples, green beans, green and hot peppers, sweet corn, tomatoes, herbs, and swiss chard.
Here's another method of storage that's probably very unusual that we just started doing the last few years.
We pull our cabbages from the garden just before Frost, then we bring them in and put them in the root cellar. However when put into The Root cellar we heal them in, or simply put, bury the roots.
The cabbages still think they're in the garden, and every couple of weeks I cut off a head for household use. The Roots stay in the ground and  begin sprouting small leaves again. The Root cellar is cold enough that the roots should survive the winter, and also vernalize (a period of sustained cold), which will prepare them for going to seed next summer, when replanted in the spring.
Fresh picked cabbage in January in Minnesota isn't the norm!
There are probably many preservation methods out there that haven't been revived or haven't been thought up yet, that require no outside intervention.

Yes that was kind of mind-blowing for me, too. Not that it's bad to have a freezer. I love them. But I chose to put my money into jars and some extra racks to put around the wood stove instead. A one time investment instead of daily forever.

I love how you are keeping your cabbages! I will try that.

You can also "blanch" dandelion and other greens in boxes of soil over winter, covered, in a basement. They grow slowly providing almost white leaves and very tender. I did this long ago but haven't done it for awhile. The method is described by Euell Gibbons and also Keeping Food Fresh which is an older version of the Terre Vivante farmers newer food preservation book.

Dehydrating is so easy. I string dry turnips, zucchini, and mushrooms without any special preparation. You can dry apples without dipping in lemon. I prefer using lemon, but if you live in the north and can't grow lemons and think that's the ONLY way you know how to dry your apples, then what's going to happen if there are no lemons available? If I don't have any lemon juice, at least I'm not stopped in my tracks having reached the end of my knowledge base. There are very few foods that I blanch before dehydrating.

Maybe that's why I've always been so attracted to a "use less" lifestyle. The simpler the system, the easier it is to accomplish and manage. And there's less dependence which is really important to me.

Have you tried risen bread without any yeast or leavening at all? I use a method I saw described on the Townsend's historical YouTube channel. They called it "sour loaf" and you basically are using just the natural yeasts in the air. It's not a bread loaf, just a small personal round loaf, but it works! We do it all winter with dark rye and white flour. I'm not big on bread but my husband loves it so I might make several at a time for the week and we just grab one for the meal for us both. Still waiting for hubby to make me a bread bowl though. Maybe after the new chicken coop gets built. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J1PNDnqsfA

Wow! Allison's post hit me right between the eyes! Dehydrating rather than canning!. That is genius.
I must say that while I have a dehydrator, I've been shy about dehydrating *everything*. Tomatoes, mushrooms, Stevia, yes. but not too much for other things. My main problem is that I fear that the food will not *reconstitute* quite right and I will have wasted all that time.
I need to check how to do that right.

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote: My main problem is that I fear that the food will not *reconstitute* quite right and I will have wasted all that time. I need to check how to do that right.

I find there is definitely a texture difference between dried food and frozen food. How I plan to use the food is a factor. Cooking the food before drying sometimes gives a better texture. Experimenting with small amounts seems like a good idea.

Also, some ecosystems, (read mine!!!) aren't as drying friendly as others. I live where the humidity is almost always high.

That said, I'll be interested in how consistent the results are with the rocket mass supported food dryer they built at Wheaton Labs.

Jay Angler wrote:

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote: My main problem is that I fear that the food will not *reconstitute* quite right and I will have wasted all that time. I need to check how to do that right.

I find there is definitely a texture difference between dried food and frozen food. How I plan to use the food is a factor. Cooking the food before drying sometimes gives a better texture. Experimenting with small amounts seems like a good idea.
Also, some ecosystems, (read mine!!!) aren't as drying friendly as others. I live where the humidity is almost always high.
That said, I'll be interested in how consistent the results are with the rocket mass supported food dryer they built at Wheaton Labs.

Indeed, Jay: Freezing tends to break the walls of a cell whereas just drying remove the moisture from inside the cell but does not necessarily break the cell walls. Hmmm...
So cooking it before drying it. Definitely *blanching* before drying might give better results. Maybe that is the idea behind blanching ?
I'll have to try that.
Thanks I have not tried recently to make jerky. I probably should try again, this time cutting the meat in smaller pieces, maybe sweetening the meat a bit.
I did taste a commercial dried string bean that was really good, as an out of hand snack. It was really dry but a bit of salt make it really tasty.

I stopped buying Kleenex tissues, instead I use good old fashioned handkerchiefs, they work much better too.
Another thing I do is that I keep cloth napkins in the car.
And naturally I use cloth  napkins at home in stead of paper. Plus I’ve made some too.
I have a whole bunch of kitchen
Towels ( hand me downs and thrift shop finds)to keep me from using paper
towels.
I try hard to think first and set myself up for success.
I find such joy in making decisions like these.

Kathy Gray wrote:I stopped buying Kleenex tissues, instead I use good old fashioned handkerchiefs, they work much better too.
Another thing I do is that I keep cloth napkins in the car.
And naturally I use cloth  napkins at home in stead of paper. Plus I’ve made some too.
I have a whole bunch of kitchen
Towels ( hand me downs and thrift shop finds)to keep me from using paper
towels.
I try hard to think first and set myself up for success.
I find such joy in making decisions like these.

Good for you, Kathy. To me, the Scotch paper towels are the best for blowing my nose. I have them in the car too. Plus if I'm driving and Nature calls, they are handy for that too [much softer and absorbent than TP]. I won't go as far as reusing cloth towels for toilet paper, but to me, I don't want to compromise on this little critter comfort.

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote: Freezing tends to break the walls of a cell whereas just drying remove the moisture from inside the cell but does not necessarily break the cell walls. Hmmm...  

....Maybe that is the idea behind blanching ?

Drying also breaks down cell walls. All of the following breaks down cell walls which effectively "cooks" food to make it bioavailable:

drying
freezing
fermenting
marinating with oil and fat
heating (cooking)
ethanol extraction

Drying breaks down cell walls because without water to fill out the cells, there is a collapse of pores and cells causing changes in shape and dimension. This stress to cell walls weakens them and causes them to break. It's the very shrinkage that causes cell walls to break.

The idea behind blanching is to 1) make cells more permeable so they dehydrate faster (in some cases) and 2) prevent oxidization of foods like potatoes which turn black when dehydrated without blanching.

I would recommend the Purposeful Pantry blog and YouTube channel for really good dehydration and rehydration info. I don't use all her methods. But she follows good methods for most people.

TOOTHPASTE, ALTERNATIVE.
Many years ago we decided to switch from popular commercial brand toothpaste, filled with all sorts of undecipherable ingredients. We switched to natural toothpaste, of which there are many brands.
After using a particularly popular brand for decades, several things prompted us seeking an alternative.
The cost kept going up , the plastic tubes the paste came in were not practically recyclable, and I noticed some pain near the gum line on several teeth.
After checking the ingredients of this popular "natural" toothpaste,  I found that it contained among other things glycerin and xylitol. Both of these ingredients are sugars, and according to research glycerin is more sugary than sugar.
Grinding sugar into my teeth to help prevent cavities just didn't make sense!
Since baking soda was one of the ingredients in this toothpaste we decided to go with just a moistened toothbrush dipped in plain old baking soda.
We also checked several sources for a toothpaste alternatives and baking soda was one of them.
That was 6 months ago, most of the gum line pain in my teeth disappeared, we no longer despair of what to do with the plastic tubes, and the cost is next to nothing.
A win for teeth, less pain. A win for the environment, less trash.  And a win for the pocketbook, less expense!
Rick

Rich Rayburn wrote:TOOTHPASTE, ALTERNATIVE.
Many years ago we decided to switch from popular commercial brand toothpaste, filled with all sorts of undecipherable ingredients. We switched to natural toothpaste, of which there are many brands.
After using a particularly popular brand for decades, several things prompted us seeking an alternative.
The cost kept going up , the plastic tubes the paste came in were not practically recyclable, and I noticed some pain near the gum line on several teeth.
After checking the ingredients of this popular "natural" toothpaste,  I found that it contained among other things glycerin and xylitol. Both of these ingredients are sugars, and according to research glycerin is more sugary than sugar.
Grinding sugar into my teeth to help prevent cavities just didn't make sense!
Since baking soda was one of the ingredients in this toothpaste we decided to go with just a moistened toothbrush dipped in plain old baking soda.
We also checked several sources for a toothpaste alternatives and baking soda was one of them.
That was 6 months ago, most of the gum line pain in my teeth disappeared, we no longer despair of what to do with the plastic tubes, and the cost is next to nothing.
A win for teeth, less pain. A win for the environment, less trash.  And a win for the pocketbook, less expense!
Rick

What's also interesting is that baking soda is the ingredient in Sensodyne, that claims to reduce pain. Much better to just use the baking soda. It has sooooo many uses.

My husband uses baking soda for brushing teeth. We've also used wood charcoal. We also use dried horsetail to brush now and then. It is said to remineralize the teeth. It's very high in silica. I also made a tincture of avens root which is an extremely useful mouth rinse. It tastes a lot like Listerine, which is kind of funny. I also use it for toothache when it's from irritated gums as it also has some antibiotic properties. I was able to wildcraft both those plants. The dentist who took over my grandfather's practice told me when I was a kid that toothpaste was completely unnecessary. That proper brushing and flossing were more important.

Allison,  are those Avens you're talking about those little yellow flowers?
And also how do you make that Avens tincture you mentioned.
Like you mentioned modern dentistry is probably mostly a byproduct of modern diet.
If we were eating more in sync with our genetic predisposition, tooth health may not be such an issue.
I find it  unlikely that all of our ancestors for the last 30,000 years all died of toothaches!

About home made toothpaste, yes, baking soda is a good one, plus it does leave your breath smelling fresh, not like a pharmacy.
Concerned by PFAS, I recently adopted a charcoal toothpaste. It did keep my teeth feeling polished, but I had the very bad surprise yesterday when the Hygienist cleaned my teeth: The charcoal was too abrasive and my front teeth especially, at the gumline were getting cavities. It will cost me a pretty penny to get that fixed. It could be that the brush I used was too stiff and that I brushed too vigorously, but the damage to my teeth is severe and I will require at least 2 crowns.
It was "Burt's Bees Charcoal plus whitening". I was surprised because Burt's bees is a reputable company that puts out good products.

Great thread.

I am careful about how much electricity/heat (they're combined in our apartment, we use, because electricity = money and energy.  So I'm particular about turning out lights, only using the amount of heat we need and no more at any given time, etc.  I continue to refine this process, turning off computers when we spend the night elsewhere, unplugging other things that are realistic for me to unplug.

Rich Rayburn wrote:Allison,  are those Avens you're talking about those little yellow flowers?
And also how do you make that Avens tincture you mentioned.
Like you mentioned modern dentistry is probably mostly a byproduct of modern diet.
If we were eating more in sync with our genetic predisposition, tooth health may not be such an issue.
I find it  unlikely that all of our ancestors for the last 30,000 years all died of toothaches!

Even prehistoric remains show broken teeth and other problems though not to the extent modern man seems to have with actual constant rot, like you say, probably from our diet AND the condition of our water. I would think mineralized water from natural sources would have a lot to do with the condition of teeth. We're drinking (most of us anyway) processed water from treatment plants, not well water or rainwater, although those are showing unpleasant chemicals as well now.

Avens can have different colored flowers depending on the variety. Most will find yellow flowers, but mine are white. Still, the leaves and base look the same.

The roots are actually very hairy looking and that's because the root, itself, is a thick but short nub with rootlets branching out all over the place. I wash and clean the whole thing, the primary root (nub) and all the secondary/lateral rootlets. Then I tincture it like anything else, fresh in this case, cut up roughly, fill a jar and cover it with 100 proof vodka, although I use Everclear and cut it by half with water because 1) I can't find 100 proof vodka here and 2) I can't afford to spend twice as much money on even the 80 proof (even if I added a little Everclear to bring it to 100 proof).

I will warn you that using Everclear, even cut in half to make it 100 proof-ish is much more harsh than using a good 100 proof vodka, but it does the trick and it can always be tempered by putting the dose in some warm water and then taking it.

Also if using dried root, you fill the jar only halfway as it will expand some. Photos are from the web.

I was very pleased with the avens used to treat the gum irritation I have between those two teeth. I did use some clove oil, but a couple of time, just put a drop between the teeth to soak down and it felt cooling and calming without the taste of clove annoying me.