Maybe you meant sodium carbonate. Sodium carbonate (washing soda) isn't just a filler. It softens hard water, binding up the calcium and magnesium so that detergents are not inactivated by them. And it adjusts the pH to a level effective for cleaning. I may try Ecover just because I'm kind of compulsive about trying lots of cleaning products. But in real-world conditions of hard water that is not scalding hot, I'd expect better results from OxiClean. I get a 15-pound box of OxiClean at Costco for I think about $12. Ecover around $4-5/lb is a lot more expensive. I'd have to get equal cleaning power from 1/5 the amount by weight to break even, costwise.

Geraldo,,,When you say it takes more fuel and chemicals to produce corn than what the corn is worth, obvously you are following the same investigative reporting procedures as your infamous TV counterpart. I grew up on a 160 acre dairy farm in Greenford,Ohio that was totally self sustaining. Currently I am hobby farming on a small 60 acres farm in Youngstown, Ohio. Lacking the initial startup capital to buy modern farm equipment, we opted to get some basics on the used machinery market, a 1960 Mineapolis Moline 36 drawbar horsepower tractor ($2000), a 1966 ford 20 drawbar horsepower tractor (2.7gal/hr), 3 bottom 16" moldboard plow ($300 new), a tandem 9 ft disc ($50) and a two row John Deere corn planter ($300). The large tractor burns 5gal/hr and plows 6 acres per hour( $.83/acre), discs 12 acres per hour ( $.41/acre). The small tractor plants the corn at 5 acres/hr ($.55/acre) We practice crop rotation by planting corn one year, then timothy and clover hay for two years. The legumes provide a very lucrative cash crop of hay, which we bale in small bales targeted to the individual horse owner market. Five acres of hay will provide enough cash income to provide all the fuel used by our equipment for the entire season. In addition, the legumes replace the nitrogen that is taken out of the soil by the corn thus we have no need of buying fertilizer. (Though the concept of crop rotation is almost abandoned in commercial large scale farming in exchange for no till planting, chemical fertilizers and herbicides, in truth George Washington Carver originated the idea of crop rotation for self sustaining farming before the civil war. While tinkering with my antiquated equipment and outdated farming techniques will in no wise rival the fuel efficiencies of our commermercial counterparts on the mega farms with 200 horsepower diesel tractors, I can still produce an average of 100 bushels to the acre. (100 bu x 56lbs/bu = 5600 pounds of corn.) I currently have contracts to supply corn for home heating fuel through a small co-op of 20 homeowner neighbors. Based upon this little experiment I am discussing with 4 or 5 local farmers who are interested in joining our co-op to have a market for what they do best, produce corn. As a sideline, we are now applying for a Federal Gasohol" permit, which will allow us to own and operate a "Still" to manufacture corn whiskey, which will be used as the primary fuel for all our current gas burning engines. Federal law requires that all the distilled alcohol must be labeled as automotive fuel only, but no doubt someone may get a bit fueled up on a saturday nite tooo.

Hi Dockside - I went through a similar search recently. Our oak floors were badly damaged and the patching, sanding, staining, finishing was going to be a huge, expensive job. On top of that, I don't really like oak floors. A few people suggested that I put in floors that I really like, given the effort, expense, etc. of repairing the oak. I decided I would only do this if I could find something relatively "earth-friendly" to replace the old oak. Good quality bamboo is an option, but it is hardly local, most if not all is shipped from China. Then I remembered a local firm that harvests sunken logs from the Ottawa River (I live in Ottawa, Canada). For decades (over a couple of centuries probably) millions of trees were cut and floated down river to eventually find their way to Europe. Anyway, this company, called Log's End, sends a diver down to carefully bring up the old sunken logs one by one. Then the logs are turned into hard or softwood floors, sometimes into mouldings, furniture, etc. The quality of the wood is outstanding. Anyway, most of the logs are Pine and Birch, some Walnut, some Douglas Fir, etc. We opted to go with 5" width, long-length Birch. I actually live just a one or two minute walk to the Ottawa river, I'm thrilled to know that my floors will be from logs harvested so close to home, from trees that were cut down over a century ago. I'm sure there must be similar ventures near former logging towns all over the US as well, it might be worth looking into. I've pasted a link to the Ottawa company for your reference/info. Good luck. Here is a link that might be useful: Logs End

I am totally put off by the idea of keeping cleaning supplies in the back yard in a yard barn/shed, for the help to use. I can't get past THAT. But anywhoooo first you have to decide if you are most concerned about being "green" or being germ freaky. I am finding in 2016 these concepts are opposed to each other. I have all my bathroom cleaning supplies in a blue caddy and yes the toilet bowl cleaning wand is in it. Do the chemistry--it MOSTLY touches cleaning chemicals. Maybe it depends on the size of the home or the number of bathrooms but one caddy in my hall linen closet fills our needs. Other wise a container of those wipes under the bathroom sink is what many are using for cleaning supplies. To each his own I suppose. I just hope all those wipes are not going into the toilet!!!