George, my understanding of a dynamic accumulator is a plant with deep roots that mines minerals from the soil and stores them in it's leaves. By cutting leaves from the plant and using as mulch you have brought micro-nutrients from deep in the ground and made them available to another plant, such as a fruit tree. If you grow comfrey near the tree, you can chop off part of the comfrey leaves and drop them around the tree to improve the growth of the tree. Sort of like fertilizing and mulching at once without having to haul in anything to do it with. It has long been known that legumes set nitrogen for other plants, and work with the bacteria in the soil, but now there is a good deal of research and information being shared about how trees interact with each other through a fungi net underground. There are several videos available on line and I have linked one below. I have become very interested in the things that Mother Earth seems to do to try to heal herself. For instance, if you have a compacted lawn, dandelions show up. They have roots that go deep and start to open up the soil. I have watched videos lately that show areas in the middle east that have had plants come back that they thought were extinct, and the only action has been to fence off the area from the grazing animals. I seem to have changed the way I look at many things, and am learning that there are a lot more things we can do to help our earth function better. When you have 30 minutes to spare, watch this documentary by John D Liu. I'll bet if you watch it once, you will watch it more than once. It is thought provoking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iJKiFSQLn4 .............Mother needs a little more help from us. Here is a link that might be useful: Suzanne Simard

I also have hard water and use Charlie's Soap, but the truth is, many detergents/soaps don't work well in hard water now that phosphates have been removed from them. Most detergents recommend using MORE than the normal amount if you have hard water and don't use softeners in the wash and the rinse. Another problem is from using COLD water, along with having hard water. Unless specifically designed to be used in cold water, most detergents don't dissolve properly in cold water. Water Temperature Recommendations: HOT (120-140°F) - white and heavily soiled colorfast items WARM (85-105°F) - most loads COLD (65-75°F) - only for bright colors with light soil Cold water below 65°F is not recommended for washing Note: Detergent manufacturers and care labels define cold water as 80-85°F. I doubt if most of us know what the water temperature is - especially in the winter. If the temperature of water in the tub is too cold for your hands, the detergent will not activate and clean effectively. I often think we get caught up in the cold water/save the planet issue, when water temperature is a BIG factor in detergent performance and cleaning ability, not just the detergent. -Grainlady

O.K., here I go again. I got more nuts thanks to Matt from buy soapnuts@yahoo.com. I must say these nuts looked nice, lighter color, somewhat sticky and I was excited again and so I did one load of laundry,which was clean after. The rest of the nuts I used to make the liquid. I followed instructions and when it was done I ended up w/ this brown liquid. It really didn't feel soapy much at all and it is not sudsing at all either. My question is. Should I feel soapiness when I put it on my hand? Should the liquid be brown? And if I don't feel the soapiness, how do I know that tiny amount of the liquid will really clean our laundry? I really like the idea of something natural but this just doesn't look right to me. Please help me w/ this dilema.

sloneby - It hasn't been my experience that the dispensers have broken. My current dispenser is a multiply-resused/recycled Bath and Body one and I've been using the same one where I've refilled it for over two years now. The one in the bath has been at use longer than that and is used much more than the one in the kitchen. It's been my experience that the soap doesn't separate out at all - it stays and even dilution without a problem. It may be worth noting that I don't use an anti-bac soap with the little beads nor do I use a creamy based liquid to make my dilution. The one I've been using the most often has been Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap (Pure Castile Soap with organic oils). It's avaiable scented or unscented (then you can add your own essential oils if you prefer). I've also used other soaps as well when I was out of Dr. Bronner's and needed to mix up a batch. Every once in a while, I need to rinse off the nozzle if it starts to clog up a bit, but I would say that happens maybe once in between a refill, if even that much. In the meantime, I bought one of these. Unfortunately, it's not satin nickle, but it works okay. I get one that matches the color of the room the best and then just use the sleeve over it. Not perfect, but better. I've been thinking of checking into getting some spray paint to see if I can paint over it in a satin finish. Here is a link that might be useful: Bath & Body cover