Bosom Buddies

This is so cool! My "ladies" have gone through some pretty significant changes in the past 2 years (pregnancy, pumping, deflating, weightloss...) so I have a big collection of bras that don't fit (some I only wore once!) and I feel like an ass throwing perfectly wearable stuff in a landfill. I know some people are pretty weirded out by used unmentionables, but it just doesn't gross me out - I don't know why, but I have always felt like someone somewhere could appreciate free lightly worn undergarments, especially if they are already subsisting on a wink and a prayer. What if you fled your abusive home with just the clothes on your back? What if you were homeless? What if you couldn't always feed your kids, would a new bra be one of your priorities? No. But it would be nice to have SOMETHING.


And I hate throwing good stuff in the trash. It hurts my brain a little, in a "potential to be a hoarder if I weren't so practical and running out of storage space anyways" sort of way.

I'd rather my stuff make it to people who need it than hang around a goodwill not selling too. And I'm not dealing with weirdos on Craigslist, Ebay, or yard sale for this kind of stuff.

So yay for Google, I just stumbled on The Bosom Buddy Program, which lead me to BraRecyclers.com and they have Minnesota drop off sites! Fingers crossed that they are still active, if so it will mean another big bag out of my attic and hopefully to a good cause. Hug the world!

Yay for Poison!

We're winning the weed war!

FINALLY.


Remember it looked like this when I finally gave up on the "natural" remedies and dumped on the weed kill:





Then a week or so later it sorta started to yellow and fade:





And now, this week, I'm proud to say the tides are turning and we appear to have the upper hand! Check out this shriveled mess:
Whoo hoo! TRIUMPH!

I'm not sure yet if I'll still have to rip out the carcases by hand, or if they'll just shrivel to dust and blow away (clearly my preference, though I'm not very hopeful) but at least they're no longer growing and forcing my concrete apart. I think the "bush" in the middle of the driveway was starting to be a driving hazard.

Yay toxic sprays!

Weed War Goes Nuclear

So the previous eco-friendy attemps to subvert the salad growing in my driveway failed miserably. This was made double evident when, in additon to the low, flat weeds, we sprouted a couple of foot-high BUSHES, which can't be good for the concrete.

Clearly, it was time to whip out the big guns.

Poison.
I know, eco-friendly just went totally out of the window here, but it would also suck a mega ton of resources to tear up and replace the driveway when the weeds fragment it into dust.

So, tonight I just about emptied these 32 ounces onto the bushy green strips, and supposedly they should begin to wilt within hours, and die in a couple weeks. Here's hoping!

Weed War: Update from the front lines

Weed casualties are spreading! I woke up today to find mass damage working its way through the bright green invaders, it must have taken a while to soak in. The vinegar smell is also gone, so maybe that means its finally gotten to work. I still think I'll dump a few more gallons, and hopefully avoid having to pull all these little buggers up (its so time consuming and difficult! Those weeds are STRONG!)

Update: Weed War

My driveway still smells like pickles.

My driveway is still full of weeds.

BUT!

Some of them are starting to falter! Take that, evil weeds. See the few sad & shriveled pale weeds dying between the sprouts of healthy burly ones? I consider that somewhat of a triumph. We're going to need a lot more vinegar...

The Vinegar experiment

Our driveway has a few big cracks, and growing out of those cracks WAS a few green weeds, but is now practically a bush. I've watched enough "Life After People" to know that weeds strive for world domination and were we to turn our backs for a moment too long, they'd overrun our society and tear down all our monuments and libraries. (The same show is why I'm terrified of riding the NYC subways under the rivers - it's really interesting, but only feeds your paranoia) So far I've let our weeds get a little head start (I've been busy!) but it was getting close to out of hand. Something had to be done.

I read this post on "The Long Thread" that said you could use vinegar to kill weeds in a more eco-friendly and non-Norm-poison way, so I thought I'd try that. Last night I dumped a full gallon of vinegar on the driveway, pouring it carefully down each row of green and singing a "Happy Death to You!" tune.

My driveway smells like pickles.

My clothes, shoes, and skin smell like pickles.

I really don't like pickles.

I woke up this morning sure I'd find only twisted weed carnage left....but it pretty much looks the same. Of course, the temperature dropped dramatically over night, so maybe they need to slowly cook in the sun? I forgot to snap a picture, but I'll keep you updated if this has any effect...so far I have a bad feeling I'll be stuck ripping up stinky pickled weeds.