80 Degrees, Let's Clean Something!

Yup...an 80 degree day, the first of the year(!), and what do I get a bug up my butt to do?  Clean!  Not only clean, but I just had to go get the supplies I wanted to "properly" do the job!  So, off to the feed store to get horse soap!  Nope, not for a horse, silly, for my windows!  It's something I've wanted to do for 4 years, since we moved into the house...clean the outside of the windows!  What did I get at the feed store you might ask?  Orvus (WA) Paste, of course!  4Hers probably know what I'm talking about, this is the soap they use to make the horses, cows, and little piggies sparkle at the fair!  A little bit goes a really long way too! 

A few things you may have noticed...yes, it does say "Industrial product, not for home use" right there on the label...but technically, I'm not even using it for it's intended purpose (washing horses), so let's ignore that! Also, the "WA" in the middle of the name there...some nimrod, I mean politician, decided phosphates were horribly bad for those of us that live in the state of Washington and got even more nimrods (voters) to agree with him/her! So, they have outlawed the use of Phosphates in our state. Now, I "could" sneak across the "border" to Idaho (it's only a 20 minute drive) and get me some Phosphate laden supplies (Orvus, Dishwasher Soap, Laundry Detergent...), but I'm lazy. I could also get the "good stuff" when I visit Oregon, but who wants to go to a feed store when they're on vacation or visiting friends/family? While I moan about my dishes not getting clean enough without my Phosphates, I didn't notice a difference here, so I'm happy! If you're lucky enough to not live in a "Phosphate free state", you'll want to look for Orvus Paste, it comes in little 1 pound containers like I bought ($7.99 by the way) or in big 5 pound jugs! Depending on how big your house is, how often you clean your windows (apparently once every 4 years for me), and how "often" you want to go buy the stuff...the larger container is a good deal! Also, for cost savings, go with 4 of your friends, buy the big one and stir it all up and take home your 1 pound portion in a Mason Jar! A little bit goes a really long way!

For my windows, I stirred up the little jar (it settles and separates, so stirring is a must) with an ice tea spoon and then glopped about half of the spoon (heaping) into my bucket (a 10L WalMart special), followed by filling the bucket with warm water!  That's all for all the windows in the house!  To clean, first wet windows, don't blast them with the highest power your hose can muster, a gent;e stream will do it, too hard and you can break the seals in your windows (I know from experience)!  Then, with a soft window scrubbing attachment on a pole (or you could brave a ladder, I suppose, I prefer the ground though), scrub away after dipping it in the soapy water!  After a good scrub, and before the soap has a chance to dry, rinse with water until you get a solid sheet of water coming off the window and you can't see anymore soapy bubbles up there!  Then, air dry!  That's it!  I did every window on our house (first and second story windows) in under 40 minutes and that included set up and clean up time!  Of course, now you can really tell I need to clean the insides too...but wow, what a difference getting the outside clean makes!  The 14 inch scrubber attachment fits my skinniest windows perfectly too, any larger and they would be difficult to clean!

Today's cleaning adventure cost $7.99 for the Orvus (plus tax) and $11.94 (plus tax) for the scrubbing attachment.  If I had needed a new pole, that would have been another $35 (plus tax) for a 20' pole!  I have an old pole that I was able to cram the attachment onto and is just long enough for the 5'6" me to reach the top of the second story windows with.  This is an even easier task for two people to do at once, one in charge of the hose and one in charge of scrubbing.  The waterer sprays the window and moves on to pre-wet the next several while the Scrubber cleans the first window.  Then the waterer

I want to share my lunch with you today too!  I had two (they had a coupon for buy one, get one free) Bourbon BBQ Steak Grilled Sandwiches for lunch today!  Of course, I had them keep the bread as I wanted the cheese and just picking everything off means losing the cheese to the bread.  It came piled in a "black bowl", you know, the things the side salads come in.  Actually, it came in two bowls that I combined!  Our Jack in the Box is notorious for thinking "no bun" also means "I don't want the sauce either", so I made sure to ask for my sauce on the side!  On a normal day, I would have either skipped the sugar laden BBQ sauce all together or used only one of the two containers of sauce they brought out.  Today though, my blood sugars have continued to be in the toilet and I was low at lunch!  So, I dumped both containers of sauce on (1/4 cup of BBQ Sauce)!  It didn't help though and I ended up having to chase my meal with a 6 ounce "Fruti King" mini soda...we got the at Win Co and have about 20g carbs (pure sugar) per bottle.  With my blood sugars today, I've had 5 of them today!  Boo!

Here's to better blood sugars and cleaner windows tomorrow!