Yes. I have been reading a lot about that in light of their lawsuits against the EPA.

That makes sense. That's why I was thinking it would be cost prohibitive. We had a whole house system at our house in San Antonio. I didn't even know "under sink" filters existed.

Thank you for the recommendation! Did you have to install a separate faucet? I'd have to put a hole in my quartz. I'm trying to find one that will work with my current faucet. Does such a thing exist?

RO isn't as expensive as I thought! I think I can do this! lol

Off to google the cost of RO installation...

Check out Native Habitat Project (Kyle Lybarger), and you won't worry as much about some trees being cut. 😉 My grocery delivery is Kroger. They don't have stores here--just a distribution center for delivery. I wish they would do paper or cardboard boxes.

I do most of those things already, but I do still buy some produce that is bagged in plastic. It's really hard to cut ALL of it out, but I can do better. One thing that has been bothering me is my grocery delivery. It comes in non reusable plastic bags. I wish they would offer an alternative. I plan to contact customer service and see if anything is in the works on that.

What can we do? I just recently read something about all of this elsewhere. I think it was about water quality though--not specifically plastics. And I think the gist of it was that our water filters are inadequate to remove things like nano plastics and the increasing amount of pharmaceuticals in water.

I think I will deconstruct a Luzianne tea bag and weigh the loose tea. We just make 2 quarts at a time.

I didn’t know about tea bags either! I may have to try loose tea.

“All four co-authors interviewed said they were cutting back on their bottled water use after they conduced**** the study.” REALLY???? Just now??? 😡 I mean…I am not innocent. I drink stuff bottled in plastic occasionally because it’s impossible to avoid, but this has been on my radar for a L O N G time. If for no other reason than I’m horrified at all of the plastics going to landfills and worse—the oceans. I guess they were okay with our oceans being polluted until they realized it might be infiltrating their own cells. Good grief. 😕 ****I copy and pasted the quote. That’s their typo lol. That’s some sloppy editing. Now I need to verify all of this before I get too riled up.

Skeptical of this until I verify some stuff, but…. This is why I won’t buy fleece anymore. 😡 I was in Target tonight looking for a sweatshirt. I was sticking my hand up every shirt because I can tell immediately whether it’s a natural fiber or not.. It’s all fleece from plastics. Disgusting. It’s not even comfortable after a few washes! It pills up. Nasty stuff. There’s no escaping it as far as I can tell. Maybe some well water is safer???? But well water has other contaminants. I admit that I didn’t read both articles. Too sleepy atm. I’ll read tomorrow for sure. I wish I could say thanks for sharing, but sometimes I’d rather be oblivious.

My sister had similar experiences years ago. Crowds triggered it. It was related to anxiety/panic disorder. I hope he’s okay now. It’s scary for everyone involved. I’ve experienced it myself—when I was in high school and college, I would sometimes pass out from getting a shot. I learned to head it off before it got to the point of passing out.

Interesting. I’m not familiar with the company, but that’s a very unfortunate turn of events. Not sure where the failure was.

I think I figured out what my garlic needs. It's a hard neck variety, so apparently I am supposed to wait for the scapes to curl. Then top them.

It does really well in an Aerogarden. Almost too well. The lights are so bright that they want to bloom a little too quickly. It also grows too tall for my regular Harvest model—so basically requires a lot of pruning. I just planted some more, and I think I’ll transplant to pots this time.

We finished our our basement several years ago, and I cannot imagine life without those spaces! The guest bedroom and bath is great for isolating COVID patients. 😜 Amenities you never thought you’d need in 2019. Our only TV is in the den down there. It’s a daylight basement so there’s a large double window in the bedroom and a door to the patio and backyard. We did make the mistake of using carpet in most of it. We just recently pulled it up and put down LVP. Dh did that. We hired out the framing, drywall, ceiling, trim, and tile work. I did caulking and painting. Dh installed the bath vanity and toilet. The tub was already there—we just had to do the tile surround and faucets. There are still things that need touch ups, but I got sick and life went on pause for a few years. Just now getting back to those finishing touches. My only advice is don’t do carpet. I hope you love it as much as we do!

Greetings and Happy New Year! I was offline for the holidays mostly. The last of the adult children left just this past Tuesday. Her classes started Wednesday. So back to just Dh, youngest dd, me, and the pets. I’m growing garlic for the first time, and it looks great. dh (( thought))) he was doing me a favor by blowing all the leaves off of my raised beds to tidy up for our guests. I can see exactly how well the garlic is growing now. 😉 I’ll have to fix that before our big freeze next week. The only other stuff out there is turnips and a few lettuce varieties. A few days ago I planted 3 Aerogardens. I love those things. Unfortunately, so do aphids. They’ve been sitting empty since well before Christmas, and I sanitized everything. Fingers crossed. I scrubbed down the shelves, the walls, my other plant lights… I tossed the 2 pepper plants I had planned to over winter because of that. Just not worth it. Should I give my garlic a trim before this hard freeze? Any precautions other than mulching?

I’m living vicariously through y’all. No blizzard here since ‘93. 🙂 This all sounds exciting!

This is exactly the info I have been looking for—thanks!

That’s exciting that you are getting close! This is a really good question. My husband was really wanting to retire early for awhile—which would be wonderful, but I’d ask…well what are you going to do? He would blow me off. “Idk—I can’t think about that now. Why does it matter?” He’d actually get really agitated about it. For me it was a fun question to ponder. For him it was some sort of burden. I think we both figured out that his desire for early retirement might not be the panacea he thought it would be. He has been working hard to have a better work/life balance and reduce stress. He’s much happier. I still hope he can retire early, so I’m also curious to hear from others.

Really? That’s interesting. Most of the AI diets I’ve read about (which isn’t many admittedly) really emphasize “eating the rainbow” “aim for 9 cups of veggies per day”—stuff like that. I guess it just depends on who/what we’re exposed to. And I tend to gravitate towards Mediterranean type diets, so I haven’t been inclined to read much about purely meat based diets. I think it’s amazing and wonderful when it (meat based) works for someone, but I guess I’m not sick enough to give up veggies and pasta. Some people say they can eat in a very restrictive way/protocol, and they are able to come off of their meds. I’m doing okay on my meds, so I don’t have the motivation to get off of them. If my meds weren’t helping though, I’d definitely be more motivated to try an extreme diet—which may be what’s happening with Scarlett’s friend.

I am very aware of the blue zones. 🙂 I’m not promoting or arguing for any particular way of eating. lol I was just explaining my comparison. 🙂 There are plenty of plant based folks in the longevity groups, too. I didn’t make that clear in my post. I became interested in this after my autoimmune diagnosis. I do think it’s interesting to follow their progress. Many of them get extensive bloodwork every few months to monitor their biological age. So I do believe now more than I did before that this is an individual thing. When someone is 70 years old and their bloodwork and body composition is that of a 38 year old, I’m going to say to him/her…all that fish, beef, and kimchi is working really well for you! Well done! Except not your beef lol. Beef should never be eaten well done. 😉

I was going to suggest the laundry stripping idea, too. Also, look into Lume deodorant. I haven’t noticed it staining anything. I’ve been using it for a few years. It definitely prevents/controls odor. But it is not an antiperspirant, so…that’s the only drawback for me.

That is the cutest!!