HYDROGEN PEROXIDE MAGIC!

HYDROGEN PEROXIDE MAGIC!

Ever since I started using Hydrogen Peroxide to get rid of armpit stains, to clean cookie sheets, as a miracle cleaner in my kitchen and bathroom, and to make my own “oxi clean”…I ALWAYS have at least one bottle of the stuff under my kitchen sink, under my bathroom sink, AND in the laundry room. This stuff is amazingly versatile!

But it wasn’t until recently, after doing some IN DEPTH research on the subject, that I came to realize what a “miracle substance” hydrogen peroxide really is! It’s safe, it’s readily available, it’s cheap, and best of all, it WORKS! It works for a LOT of stuff!

Hydrogen peroxide should really be called oxygen water, since it is basically the same chemical make up as water but with an extra oxygen atom (H2O2). Because of this it breaks down quickly and harmlessly into oxygen and water.

Some other interesting facts about hydrogen peroxide:

It is found in all living material.
Your white blood cells naturally produce hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to fight bacteria and infections.
Fruit and vegetables naturally produce hydrogen peroxide. This is one of the reasons why it is so healthy to eat fresh fruit and vegetables.
It is found in massive dosages in the mother’s first milk, called colostrum, and is transferred to the baby to boost their immune system.
It is found in rain water because some of the H20 in the atmosphere receives an additional oxygen atom from the ozone (O3) and this H2O2 makes plants grow faster.
Next to Apple Cider Vinegar, hydrogen peroxide ranks up there as one of the best household remedies.

Besides the obvious (cleansing wounds), did you know that it is probably the best remedy to dissolve ear wax? Brighten dingy floors? Add natural highlights to your hair? Improve your plants root systems? The list goes on and on!

There are SO many uses for this stuff that I’ve started replacing the cap on the hydrogen peroxide bottle with a sprayer because it’s easier and faster to use that way.

I have compiled a rather impressive list of uses for 3% hydrogen peroxide that I hope will have you as thrilled and bewildered as I was!

Wash vegetables and fruits with hydrogen peroxide to remove dirt and pesticides. Add 1/4 cup of H2O2 to a sink of cold water. After washing, rinse thoroughly with cool water.

In the dishwasher, add 2 oz. to your regular detergent for a sanitizing boost. Also, beef up your regular dish soap by adding roughly 2 ounces of 3% H2O2 to the bottle.

Use hydrogen peroxide as a mouthwash to freshen breath. It kills the bacteria that causes halitosis. Use a 50/50 mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water.

Use baking soda and hydrogen peroxide to make a paste for brushing teeth. Helps with early stages of gingivitis as it kills bacteria. Mixed with salt and baking soda, hydrogen peroxide works as a whitening toothpaste.

Soak your toothbrush in hydrogen peroxide between uses to keep it clean and prevent the transfer of germs. This is particularly helpful when you or someone in your family has a cold or the flu.

Clean your cutting board and countertop. Let everything bubble for a few minutes, then scrub and rinse clean. (I’ve been using it for this a LOT lately!)

Wipe out your refrigerator and dishwasher. Because it’s non-toxic, it’s great for cleaning places that store food and dishes.

Clean your sponges. Soak them for 10 minutes in a 50/50 mixture of hydrogen peroxide and warm water in a shallow dish. Rinse the sponges thoroughly afterward.

Remove baked-on crud from pots and pans. Combine hydrogen peroxide with enough baking soda to make a paste, then rub onto the dirty pan and let it sit for a while. Come back later with a scrubby sponge and some warm water, and the baked-on stains will lift right off.

Whiten bathtub grout. First dry the tub thoroughly, then spray it liberally with hydrogen peroxide. Let it sit — it may bubble slightly — for a little while, then come back and scrub the grout with an old toothbrush. You may have to repeat the process a few times.

Clean the toilet bowl. Pour half a cup of hydrogen peroxide into the toilet bowl, let stand for 20 minutes, then scrub clean.

Remove stains from clothing, curtains, and tablecloths. Hydrogen peroxide can be used as a pre-treater for stains — just soak the stain for a little while in 3% hydrogen peroxide before tossing into the laundry. You can also add a cup of peroxide to a regular load of whites to boost brightness. It’s a green alternative to bleach, and works just as well.

Brighten dingy floors. Combine half a cup of hydrogen peroxide with one gallon of hot water, then go to town on your flooring. Because it’s so mild, it’s safe for any floor type, and there’s no need to rinse.

Clean kids’ toys and play areas. Hydrogen peroxide is a safe cleaner to use around kids, or anyone with respiratory problems, because it’s not a lung irritant. Spray toys, toy boxes, doorknobs, and anything else your kids touch on a regular basis.

Help out your plants. To ward off fungus, add a little hydrogen peroxide to your spray bottle the next time you’re spritzing plants.

Add natural highlights to your hair. Dilute the hydrogen peroxide so the solution is 50% peroxide and 50% water. Spray the solution on wet hair to create subtle, natural highlights.

According to alternative therapy practitioners, adding half a bottle of hydrogen peroxide to a warm bath can help detoxify the body. Some are skeptical of this claim, but a bath is always a nice way to relax and the addition of hydrogen peroxide will leave you – and the tub – squeaky clean!

Spray a solution of 1/2 cup water and 1 tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide on leftover salad, drain, cover and refrigerate. This will prevent wilting and better preserve your salad.

Sanitize your kids’ lunch boxes/bags.

Dab hydrogen peroxide on pimples or acne to help clear skin.

Hydrogen peroxide helps to sprout seeds for new plantings. Use a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution once a day and spritz the seed every time you re-moisten. You can also use a mixture of 1 part hydrogen peroxide to 32 parts water to improve your plants’ root system.

Remove yellowing from lace curtains or tablecloths. Fill a sink with cold water and a 2 cups of 3% hydrogen peroxide. Soak for at least an hour, rinse in cold water and air dry.

Use it to remove ear wax. Use a solution of 3% with olive or almond oil. Add a couple drops of oil first then H2O2. After a few minutes, tilt head to remove solution and wax.

Helps with foot fungus. Spray a 50/50 mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water on them (especially the toes) every night and let dry. Or try soaking your feet in a peroxide solution to help soften calluses and corns, and disinfect minor cuts.

Spray down the shower with hydrogen peroxide to kill bacteria and viruses.

Use 1 pint of 3% hydrogen peroxide to a gallon of water to clean humidifiers and steamers.

Wash shower curtains with hydrogen peroxide to remove mildew and soap scum. Place curtains in machine with a bath towel and your regular detergent. Add 1 cup full strength 3% hydrogen peroxide to the rinse cycle.

Use for towels that have become musty smelling. 1/2 cup Peroxide and 1/2 cup vinegar let stand for 15 minutes wash as normal. Gets rid of the smell.

Use hydrogen peroxide to control fungi present in aquariums. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt your fish. Use sparingly for this purpose.

De-skunking solution. Combine 1 quart 3% H2O2, 1/4 cup baking soda, 1 teaspoon Dawn dish detergent, 2 quarts warm water.

Elder's Meditation of the Day September 18

Elder's Meditation of the Day September 18
"I walk in and out of many worlds."
--Joy Harjo, CREEK/CHEROKEE
In my mind are many dwellings. Each of the dwellings we create ourselves - the house of anger, the house of despair, the house of self pity, the house of indifference, the house of negative, the house of positive, the house of hope, the house of joy, the house of peace, the house of enthusiasm, the house of cooperation, the house of giving. Each of these houses we visit each day. We can stay in any house for as long as we want. We can leave these mental houses any time we wish. We create the dwelling, we stay in the dwelling, we leave the dwelling whenever we wish. We can create new rooms, new houses. Whenever we enter these dwellings, this becomes our world until we leave for another. What world will we live in today?

Creator, no one can determine which dwelling I choose to enter. No one has the power to do so, only me. Let me choose wisely today.

'How Could Anyone Have So Much Hate?' New Kind of Range War in So. Dakota

'How Could Anyone Have So Much Hate?' New Kind of Range War in So. Dakota

Mary Annette Pember

September 16, 2013

“How could anyone have so much hate?” Lori Abdo-Smith says as she shakes her head in dismay.

Abdo-Smith, Yankton Sioux Tribe, was describing the shootings of five of her horses by a non-Native neighbor, Raymond Johanneson. Between sobs, she recalls what happened that July day when four of her beloved horses—or sunkan wakan(holy dogs) in the Dakota language—were killed because they had escaped from their pen and wandered onto a neighbor’s land.

Four of the horses died; one survived but has a bullet lodged in its abdomen. “Some of them weren’t even on his land when he shot them!” Abdo-Smith says through tears. The body of one horse was found in the ditch less than 200 yards from her home, and according to a neighbor who helped carry away the animal’s corpse said there were tire tracks leading up to the body, which strongly suggests the animal was chased and killed deliberately.

In this rugged landscape, farmers and neighbors generally look out for each other and their animals. “We wouldn’t even think of shooting someone’s livestock,” says Kathy Jones, a neighbor and farmer who is of Cherokee descent who adds that it’s not uncommon for animals to wander onto others lands. She says there’s an unspoken agreement among farmers to help return escaped livestock back to its rightful home. “Even horses that have good hay will break out to eat the ‘green stuff,’ or fresh grass,” she says. “Besides, those horses were like pets to Lori and Charlie. It was like shooting someone’s dogs.”

A Message Written in Blood?
The horse is a fundamental element in Dakota culture and spirituality—sunkan wakanplays a central role in religious practices and is described as a miracle coming from a sacred place. Faith Spotted Eagle, an advocate from the Yankton tribe, notes that the commonly held mainstream belief that the horse was first introduced to the Plains tribes by the Spanish is being refuted by archaeologists who have found evidence that the horse was in America far earlier that the appearance of the conquistadors.

That is part of why the shootings of the horses was especially painful for the Abdo-Smith family, which is deeply connected to the traditional Dakota ways. Their home is a place of frequent ceremonies; their horses represent an element of the sacred for them.

Another source of pain is that Abdo-Smith and her husband, Charlie Smith, believe the shootings were motivated by racial intolerance. “[Johanneson’s] always complaining about us Indians getting too much,” she says. “He’s been bragging all over town about how he shot my horses and how happy he is that I am so hurt!”

The horses were shot on July 23, a few days after a heated public meeting between the tribe and county residents about the placement of South Dakota Department of Transportation highway signs that read, “Entering the Yankton Sioux Reservation.” Many residents believe the timing of the shootings is significant. They speculate that Johanneson, known for his public anti-Native statements was pushed over the edge by the appearance of the signs, which many white farmers in the area view as an insult.

The couple would like to see Johanneson prosecuted for a hate-crime. Although Thomas Deadrick, state’s attorney for Charles Mix County, reportedly told the family the case is “moving along,” Johanneson has not been charged with any crime. Phone calls to Deadrick’s office for comment on the case have not been returned.

Johanneson denies there was any malice toward his neighbors, or Natives, behind the shootings. He says the horses had repeatedly escaped their enclosure and damaged his corn crop. “I don’t know what she’s crying about--she’s been warned for the past five years to keep those horses off my property,” he said in a telephone interview. He added that the horses were thin and starving because the couple seldom fed them.

“I didn’t shoot the horses. I shot at them. Guess I must have hit some of them,” he says. “My attorney told me that charges against me have been dropped. She’s trying to make this into a racist deal, but that’s not true. I got problems with her horses, not with her.”

But some residents of Charles Mix County see Johanneson as the embodiment of a community rife with animus toward Native Americans. Tribal members and some white residents describe their neighbors’ resentment towards Native people as an attitude passed down from one generation to the next. “Anger towards Native Americans is percolating under the surface,” says Jones.

Johannesen, however, insists that he is not prejudiced and the issue of the signs had no impact on his decision to shoot at the horses. “I heard about those signs; it didn’t make no difference to me. I guess [the tribe] thinks this is reservation land. They’re still living back in the 1800’s around here, but they still want all the modern money, free housing, free everything.”

Jones recalls a conversation with Johannesen after his cattle escaped their enclosure and got into her hay field. After she helped him round the animals up, he asked why she was selling hay to the Abdo-Smith family for their horses. According to Jones, Johannesen clearly disapproved of her helping the family. He described the horses as hay-burners. “Raymond is angry at Native people in general, always complaining about the BIA lease prices going up, how our property values will go down because of those signs, and how the tribe is trying to take away our land,” she says.

Tall Signs of Trouble
Earlier this summer, the Yankton Sioux tribe, like many South Dakota tribes, asked the state’s Department of Transportation to erect highway signs flagging Indian land. The signs read, “Entering the Yankton Sioux Reservation.” According to a non-Native farmer who asked that his name be withheld, “That added fuel to the fire. We already know we’re on Indian land; we don’t need any reminders.”

In this mostly farming and ranching community, much of the anti-Native sentiment is about land. Farmers and ranchers often lease land from the Yankton tribe through the Bureau of Indian Affairs land lease program; many complain that the lease prices are too high and that the tribe’s method of leasing the land through a sealed-bid process breeds more distrust and resentment.

Several people, both Native and non-Native, report that after the decision was made to put up the “Welcome” signs, farmers began meeting in barns or local restaurants, where they expressed anger and frustration. A second farmer who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from his neighbors says there was talk of taking actions against Native people and adds, “I’m afraid all this hate and anger will get out of hand.”

Charles Mix County Commissioners contacted the Department of Transportation (DOT) shortly after the signs were erected, indicating that many county residents objected to them. Representatives from the Department, tribe and county commissioners’ office then convened a public meeting to discuss the issue on July 18. During that meeting, county commissioners and others maintained that the Yankton Sioux reservation no longer exists, and therefore there are no boundaries to mark with signs, according to Wesley Hare, tribal transportation planner who says, “This fight between the tribe and white people here has been going on for a long time.”

Hare is referring to years of court cases in which the state of South Dakota and Charles Mix County argued that the Yankton Sioux reservation was disestablished. According to Justice.gov, the case concerning the size and existence of the reservation has been litigated since 1994.

In 2011, however, the Supreme Court upheld the existence of the reservation. Although the court found that the reservation lands had been diminished, it upheld the location of the tribe’s exterior boundaries as established under the original 1853 treaty between the tribe and the U. S. government. According to J. R. LaPlante, South Dakota Governor’s Secretary for Tribal Relations, those at the July 18 meeting seemed to agree that changing the word “Entering” on the signs to “Welcome to… ” would be a good compromise.

Shortly after that meeting, one of the signs was cut down. The DOT replaced it, using metal posts rather than the original wooden ones.

Although the tribe had requested six signs, so far the DOT has erected only three, halting the process until the tribe and county can reach a final agreement on wording, according to Tammy Williams, who works for the DOT. “We see a lot of highway signs getting shot up during hunting season. This is the first time I have ever seen a sign cut down entirely,” she notes.

Thomasina Real Bird, attorney for the Yankton Sioux Nation, thought it odd that the signs stirred up so much debate. “We still see veiled threats that the county doesn’t see [the recognition of the reservation and its boundaries] as ended. They try to push it in any small way that they can.”

Real Bird of the Yankton Sioux Nation, says the tribe sees the signs as far more than boundary markers; they are an expression of pride and of home. “They are identity and cultural markers for us,” she says. “The signs should be seen as a positive contribution to the county.”

Brown, But Not Down
“There is a lot of prejudice in this county. It is subtle and doesn’t show itself but [Native] people can see and feel it,” says Hare. According to Hare and local advocate Faith Spotted Eagle, racism against Native people is normalized for many of the area’s white residents, who complain that Native people receive too much support from the government. Spotted Eagle points out, however, that many area farmers and ranchers receive substantial subsidies from the government via the USDA. (From 1995-2012, Johanneson collected $691,955 in USDA subsidies, which averages out to just over $40,000 a year.)

According to Spotted Eagle, many white residents don’t see their attitudes or inequality in the community as racism. For them, it’s simply the way things are. She says Natives and non-Natives, “live in parallel universes here.”

She believes, however, that the new generation is changing. “They don’t like what’s happening, many of them are becoming more worldly. I have hope for the new generation.”

Hare thinks it makes little difference where the signs are placed or the wording written on them. “You got people thinking that because our land is broken up that we’re not here anymore. We still have our language, our culture, our ceremonies, our traditional way of praying. [We are] still here, even though they tried to wipe us off the face of the earth.” He adds with a laugh, “We’re still here, and we’re still brown.”

Read more athttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/09/16/how-could-anyone-have-so-much-hate-new-kind-range-war-so-dakota-151301

-Quanah Parker- Comanche, 1881

Elder's Meditation of the Day September 17

Elder's Meditation of the Day September 17
"The old people must start talking and the young people must start listening."
--Thomas Banyacya, HOPI
We are at a critical time in transferring cultural knowledge and spiritual ways. During the last few years the young people have not been interested in learning the old ways. The only place this knowledge is found is among the Elders. We must encourage the young to visit with the Elders. The adults need to think also about learning the culture. The Elders are getting old and soon will go to the other side. Each of us must pause and think about our individual responsibility to learn the culture and teach this to our young.

Great Spirit, help us to learn and remember the old ways.

For My Father: Culture Matters

For My Father: Culture Matters

The lightning danced across the night sky as the storm clouds rolled in across the mountains. You looked older there, sitting on the ground before me, then you did when I first came to live with you. What did you think that you would accomplish by taking me there? Did you think that if Isaw you smudge and pray that I would follow suit and thank Creator for this life he gave me? Did you think that if I heard you sing your honoring songs that I would lift my voice with yours and join you? Did you think that if you drummed and danced that somehow my soul would move in unison with yours? Did you think that I would forget my friends back home and the good times that they were having while you made me sit on that mountain and listen to your stories about the soldiers; how they came and stole the land and our children and our pride. And do you know that I laughed with all of those who laughed at you for thinking that you could heal my spirit with all of this great knowledge that you thought that you possessed?

But you silenced all of that laughter because here I am and the self loathing has been replaced with self respect. The self doubt has been replaced with confidence. The self mutilation has been replaced with self preservation. The wounds have been replaced with scars. And my laughter at you, my father, has been replaced with honor. Some people say that culture doesn't matter. I know better because our culture saved my life and the one person that no one thought ever deserved me was the only one who ever cared enough to share it with me.

Elder's Meditation of the Day September 15

Elder's Meditation of the Day September 15
"Knowledge is a beautiful thing, but the use of knowledge in a good way is what makes for wisdom. Learning how to use knowledge in a sacred manner, that's wisdom to me. And to me, that's what a true Elder is."
--Sun Bear, CHIPPEWA
We grow in wisdom by developing ourselves according to the four directions of the Medicine Wheel - emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually. Let's say we started drinking and drugging in our teenage years. Our emotional development will stop, but we will grow older physically. We could then develop into an immature adult. As adults we might be acting like we were teenagers. Once we stop drinking or drugging, our emotional development will begin again. We need to grow and nurture ourselves in all four directions. We need to involve the Great Spirit's guidance in our development. That's the only way we become wise individuals and live our lives in harmony and in a sacred way.

Oh Great Spirit, guide my thinking today. Let me walk in a sacred way on the Red Road. Let me be a learner of lessons and give me Your greatest gift - wisdom!