New Manufacturing Regulations

I am, as you're probably well aware by now, a huge proponent of shopping used.  Thrift stores, junk shops, pawn shops, and garage sales:  If they have what I want, I'm buying it.  Over the past few years, we've suffered through a scary number of issues dealing with lead and other dangerous chemicals being found in children's toys and clothing, most of those incidents dealing with toys/clothing manufactured overseas.  This past fall, Congress did something about it, though without consulting manufacturing industry experts and without the hearings and testimony that normally accompany sweeping changes in policy.  I call it "see, we're doing something," without taking the time to make that "something" practical and effective.

The resulting new regulations, which are scheduled to go into effect on 1 February 2009 are broad, vague, and outrageously expensive.  They require rigorous testing of ANYTHING that a child 12 years or younger might come in contact with.  They also dramatically reduce the tolerance of lead in these items.   The current allowable standard for lead is 600 ppm.  Come 1 February, the new standard will be *90* ppm.  This, in and of itself is a good thing.  There is a lot of lead floating around and lead does cause developmental delays in young children.  Reducing their exposure is an excellent public health strategy.  

However, the new regulations are *not* retroactive at this time.  This means anything made prior to 1 February 2009 cannot be sold legally because it hasn't undergone the new test procedures.  Further, they apply to items manufactured overseas AND domestically, at all levels of production, from work at home moms to huge corporations.  

The new regulations require testing of absolutely anything a child 12 and younger might come in contact with.  This includes obvious items like children's clothing and toys.  But it also includes buttons, snaps, and zippers.  It includes things like pianos.

Third, the new regulations do not allow for third party testing; defined in the following way.  A sewing factory cannot take the manufacturer of purchased fabric at their word that the fabric tests within the allowable limits.  The sewing factory has to test the fabric themselves.  They also have to test all notions (snaps, buttons, zippers, interfacing, elastic, bows, lace, etc) themselves.  I suspect this is out of fear that at each stop along the way, a manufactured item could pick up lead from the environment.

Finally, the testing required by these new regulations is insanely expensive.  An example I came across last night is that it costs a clothing manufacturer $30,000 to test lead in ten pieces of clothing in three different colors (30 pieces all together).  And that's just for lead.  The other chemicals that have to be tested for are 3 times as expensive!

these regs affect me on a somewhat personal level.  My parents run two businesses.  The Strip Shop, which does furniture refinishing and barely runs in the black and Neff's Piano Shop, which sells a full range of pianos from low costs used pianos to high end imports and keeps them in business.  If these new regulations actually go into, and stay in, effect, my parents will have to test every piano they buy direct from the factory and they will no longer be able to sell used pianos because the used ones were not manufactured with the new tolerances in mind.  The expense of testing alone will probably put the shop out of business.  Even if they can afford that testing, they'll lose a large percentage of their market because not everyone can afford the expensive pianos they showcase in the front window.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would say the new regulations were brought in precisely to force people to buy from large corporations instead of bypassing the system to buy at garage sales (illegal if one wishes to stringently enforce the code), through WAHM's (how many WAHM's can afford the testing?), and thrift shops (selling clothes and toys made before the new regs went into effect, oh my!).  Since the corporations directly or indirectly support both major political parties, it would be in the best interest of the government to boost the profit of these corporations to ensure that the parties get further monetary support.

Please please please contact your representatives in office and explain to them why these regs are a very bad idea!

Steamer

A steamer, in coffeehouse parlance, is basically hot milk with or without flavoring added to it.  A steamer generally requires the use of a steam wand, which is attached to an espresso machine.  Now an inexpensive espresso machine can be had for under fifty bucks and will make you coffee, espresso, all manner of coffee drinks, and steamers.  But maybe you don't like coffee, already own a coffee machine and are unwilling to buy a new one, or you just don't want to buy any appliances right now.  I understand.  I've devoted great thought to the following recipe, meaning I thought it up on the fly one night and it worked and now I'm all proud of myself.

Heat up some water.  You don't want it to boil but you do want little bubbles forming along the sides and bottom.  Put dry milk powder in a mug.  You need 3 tablespoons of powder for 1 cup of water so adjust accordingly to the size of your mug.  Add any flavoring you desire.  The coffeehouse standard is 1 oz (2 Tablespoons) flavoring for 12 ounces of liquid.  I find this too sweet and generally use about 1 Tablespoon flavoring for 12 oz mugs.  My favorite flavoring is honey.  Molasses and sorghum syrup are yummy also.  If you use homemade syrup or coffeehouse syrups (Torani et al) make sure the flavoring goes in BEFORE the hot water.  Many of these syrups curdle if added after the liquid.  Okay, you've got powdered milk and flavoring in your mug.  Now add the hot water, stir and enjoy.  If you've had a coffeehouse steamer, you'll be amazed at the similarity to the real thing.  If you've never had, you're getting something as good or better for pennies on the dollar.

Bonus Tip of the week:  If you drink milk, big tins of powder can be infinitely cheaper than liquid milk.  However, it depends on what you buy, what your family likes, and where you shop.  Here in the US, about the only option available is skim dry milk, packaged by the name brands as well as generics.  Problem is, skim milk is not suitable for young children, which Yeled is.  But, go to a decent sized Hispanic grocery store and you will find NIDO (a Nestle subsidiary if you care about the on going Nestle boycott) and the interesting thing about Nido is that it is dry WHOLE milk.  At Rancho Liborio, the giant (reusable*****) tin costs $12.99 and makes 14 quarts.  Three and a half gallons of liquid whole milk cost around $16 so I'm easily saving three bucks.  Mixed up, it tastes just like liquid whole milk and doesn't have that dreadful reconsituited milk taste you get with the skim version.

Double Bonus Tip:  Cook with your milk instead of drinking it.  Milk goes MUCH further cooked into food than it does chugged down by the glass.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Since late fall, I've been collecting seed catalogues, with plans to grow a balcony vegetable bonanza this upcoming summer.  I just got my latest catalogue this week and I literally cannot put it down.  I've put in my order but I still flip through the thing at least twice a day.

This is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  It's an *incredible* catalogue.  They have heirloom varieties from all over the world, and I mean that in the most literal sense of the phrase.  They have varieties that aren't even being grown in their native countries any more!  And even if heirloom, rare garden species aren't your thing, this catalogue is well worth getting (it's free) for the photographs alone.  The owner of Baker Creek is also a stunningly competent amateur photographer and his work is liberally sprinkled throughout the pages.

I don't agree with their politics but I'm also not a huge fan of modern hybrid garden seed.  I'm very thankful for companies like Baker Creek who are keeping non hybrid seed in circulation.

Bay Rum Procedure

Bay Rum is, of course, *the* classic men's after shave.  It's one of very few that Ranger Daddy likes and now I know how to make it.  Yay!  I have never been so excited to go to a liqueur store and buy cheap spirit.  Here's how it works.

1)  Buy a big bag of bay leaves.  Hint:  Asian food stores sell big bags of these for small bucks.

2)  Break up the leaves and put them in a jar that has a tight lid.  Add any other aromatics you like.  Whole vanilla bean and citrus rind are excellent choices.

3)  Pour enough cheap dark rum into the jar to cover all the stuff.  Screw on the lid and put in a cool dark spot for thirty days.  Mark the date on the calendar and DO NOT TOUCH until the appointed day.

5)  Spend the next month looking for fancy pretty bottles (best are ones with narrow necks) to pour your finished product into.

6)  On the appointed day, pour the rum through a strainer and into a second jar (or through strainer, into a funnel, and into fancy bottles).  Discard the aromatics.  Seal the bottles tightly and place strategically where you'll remember (or your husband will) to use after shaving.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm

A Shaving Light Bulb Moment

Ranger Daddy and I had a mutual light bulb moment yesterday.  Over the course of the next month or so (during which our current stockpile of safety razors will run out) we are going to invest in the equipment necessary for each of us to have, and know how to use, straight razor.  Making the decision was easy.  It's fairly obvious that safety razors toss an awful lot of garbage into the trash, even if two adults each use just one per week.

Finding reasonably priced straight razors was a bit of a challenge though.  It took us about ninety minutes with Google last night to find anything decently priced.  It seems that shaving with a straight blade has become something reserved for the upper reaches of wealth and comfort.  For the first hour of our search, the cheapest blade we could find was about $100!  Then we happened upon the brands Krieger and Zeepak.  Both of these companies feature perfectly competent blades running between $13 and $30 dollars.  FYI, the fancy shaving sites such as Classic Shave have nothing but scorn for these cheap blades in their discussion forums.  The derogatory comments smacked of elitism when I saw them last night.  Keep in mind that a razor blade, like a good watch, can only be perfected so far.  At a certain point, you're paying for the finish and detailing, not the blade itself.  One how-to page we read said you shouldn't pay more than $30 for your first blade.  Once you master the learning curve, you can upgrade if you like but start cheap.  

Zeepak also has a complete starter kit (two blades, strop, stone, mug, soap, and brush) for $100.  We're going to get the kit.  We need two blades, minimum, and of course don't have any of the sharpening tools.  We do have a mug and brush (Ranger Daddy has been using soap and brush for going on three years now) but our brush, courtesy of Urban Cowboy, is cheap and falling apart.

So there you have it; yet another way to save big bucks in a small way.  Switch from safety razors to either an electric (Ranger Daddy likes electrics but I hate them with a passion and we need something both of us will like) or a good old fashioned straight blade.

Furniture Polish

I have a couple older wood pieces around the place - a late 50's HiFi set, a similarly aged night table, a somewhat newer, solid oak dinning set.  All of them are used and all have clearly been dying for lack of a good, rehydrating polish.  But my parents run a furniture refinishing shop and I know from growing up around that business that your average over the counter furniture polish is a very bad idea, especially if you have any plans at all to refinish in the future.  All of these older pieces are going to get refinished at some point.  The problem with most commercial polish is that most of them contain silicone to keep dust away.  Silicone gets into the grain of the wood, forever to remain.  You can strip a piece all you want, it will look clean to the eye, but the instant you put new lacquer/varnish/shellac/polyurethane on it, you'll get these oily spots called fish eyes in the trade all over the place.  It isn't pretty and there's literally no way to fix it.

So I've opted for no polish at all rather than risk fish eyes on my solid wood pieces in the future.  Until two days ago when I just happened to stumble upon the easiest furniture polish recipe ever.  I mixed up a batch immediately and gloried in the results.  My good wood furniture looks absolutely beautiful.

The recipe is, 3 parts any oil you happen to have around (I used olive oil but seriously, any vegetable based oil will work) to 1 part lemon juice.  You can put it in a spray bottle, remembering to shake before using, or you can put it in a little jar and upend it over your dusting rag (this was my option since I didn't have any spare spray bottles lying around).  It goes on super easy, absorbs into the wood within a couple minutes, and there are no harsh fumes or artificial scents to foul the air.  I absolutely love this stuff

Practicing Frugality

I'm not sure why this is.  According the the Yahoo article I just read, our nation is in turmoil.  Yet my husband has a good paying job with tremendous job security, we're living within our means, and we're going to try and get a land contract on a nice little house in a decent working class neighborhood in the next few weeks.  I personally do not feel like we're in turmoil.  I actually feel pretty secure.

Here's how we do it:  

1)  One vehicle that we don't have payments on, and which is old enough we don't need to carry full coverage insurance on it.  Liability insurance alone is $56/mo.

2)  Basic cable service plus internet service.  I would love to ditch the cable tv but can't quite justify it on account of Ba'al's mental health.

3)  Our grocery budget is under $150/mo for three adults and one baby.  I shop the bargain grocery stores first, use ethnic stores for "unusual" ingredients, and buy dry goods in bulk.

4)  Everything possible, I make at home.  I can clean my house in its entirety, wash dishes, do laundry, and keep our bodies clean with cornstarch, baking soda, vinegar, and a few other basic household things I buy anyway.

5)  We buy almost nothing prepared.  95% of meals in this house are made completely from scratch, including the bread.

6)  We eat out twice a month and usually for lunch.  Lunch menus are *always* cheaper.

7)  The last movie we went to was in August, at the budget theater where a ticket is $1.50.

Yes it's stingy.  But we like it this way and we feel pretty confident about surviving and living well while doing it.