This article was published in the Silver City Daily Press/Independent in August 2015, the first in my new monthly series Thinking about Home-Making. (Isn’t that a quaint title!)  I’m happy to return to regular writing about regular things!

A blissful, naked man or woman lifts an ecstatic face in a steamy shower while soap bubbles slide seductively down the body.

Soap is normal, good, and decent, right?  Not necessarily.

Soap strips the skin of its natural oil, which helps protect us from bacteria, viruses, fungi, mold, yeast, and toxic chemicals in the air.  There’s no good reason to remove this natural protection, and many reasons to leave it in place.

But that doesn’t mean we have to leave the dirt, sweat, other skin exudations, and dead skin cells on our bodies – not at all!  The simple application of water and something to scrub with – a brush, a wash cloth, or a loofah – will do an excellent job at removing those while leaving the natural oil behind.

There’s a growing minority of people who’ve committed the cultural heresy of questioning the overuse of soap – and in the process healed skin conditions that seemed un-healable.

We might have shouted our discoveries to the world, but no.  It’s a touchy thing, to talk about bathing, but let’s talk about it.

The most important thing in the shower is to remove dead skin cells, natural exudations, and dirt.  Removing dead skin cells actually reduces wrinkles, and also removes critical habitat for bacteria and other microscopic life forms.  Using friction instead of soap removes those invisible undesirables, while leaving our natural skin oil intact, which protects our skin and allows it to heal naturally.

Heretics have discovered that eliminating soap also eliminates the need for lotion to replace the natural oils they just sent down the drain.  Armpits, scrubbed fresh of dead skin cells, suddenly have less odor.  Even athlete’s foot conditions cleared up entirely when pumiced and left otherwise alone or helped with a mild herbal medicine.

More intimate areas?  Try it and see.  Water and a careful hand can get you squeaky-clean and naturally in balance and healthy.  There’s really no need to strip our skin of its Goddess-given protection anywhere on our bodies!  ‘Nuff said.  (Except:  I feel sorry for women and men with sometimes chronic infections, entirely unnecessary, with healing so simple, easy, and very money saving.)

If foregoing soap seems “too dirty,” imagine:  soap stripping your skin, your pores exposed to germs in the air, cells invaded, skin’s pH changed, systems weakened, germs growing while skin tries to produce more protective oil, germs growing, excreting their stink.  Or:  natural oil protecting healthy skin, keeping those germs in balance.

Recently, I conversed with Barb Fila, who makes natural, organic artisan soaps in Silver City, who didn’t bat an eye when I began to tell my story.  “I don’t use much soap either,” she told me, to my surprise.

Together we concluded:  Use soap on hands as often as necessary, and sparingly or rarely other places.  And buy organic soaps that feed the skin, not stress it.  And buying from a local maker is even better, as the money stays in our community, and you trust the soap maker.

Finally, the fun stuff:  Shall we buy peppermint soap?  Oatmeal?  Lavender?  Or something else exotic, like chocolate-mint, or fig leaf?  Some bars might attract us by their aroma or emotional associations, but many soaps serve specific needs.

For hand-washing, lavender has ancient history, as it’s mildly antibiotic, but not so heavy-duty as to encourage your household germs to mutate and become more virulent.

Tea tree oil (melaluca) soap is more seriously antibacterial, but one should avoid going heavy-duty, as frequent use may encourage germs to mutate, as evidence indicates the common industrial antibacterial soaps are doing these days – not to mention those chemicals disrupting our immune systems and adding toxins to our world.

Peppermint stimulates circulation for tired feet.

And our faces love the nourishment of oatmeal bars.

Now that I use less than 1/10th the soap I used to use, I not only feel better, but I estimate I’ve saved $7,500 on organic lotion these last three decades, and more on soap, medicines and doctor visits.   

Today, it’s easy to live frugally and still enjoy the luxury of a quality bar of organic, exotic, natural, healing soap – used in moderation.

~

(Yes, there’s so much more to say on this subject, but I’m limited to 600 words.)

Some of you know me as simply a Sun Oven distributor.  So I’ll put on that hat today….

The current special – now extended – saves you 40% on the Dehydrating and Preparedness Accessory Package when you purchase a new Sun Oven.

The package, for $32.70 (instead of $65 or more) includes:

* Multi-Level Dehydrating & Baking Rack Set (set of 3 racks w/1 roll parchment paper)

* Two Easy-Stack Pots w/interchangeable enamel and glass lids [this set is my personal favorite]

* Multi-Fuel Water Pasteurizing Indicator (WAPI) (read more about it and the other accessories here)

* Two Loaf Pans

* Computer CD featuring 600 recipes, videos and much more

Since the cook pots (my favorite) cost $25, and the WAPI ($9) is an essential survival item (with or without a Sun Oven), it’s like getting two loaf pans and dehydrating racks for free!  Price good through October 31st.

Purchasing is easy:

Just email jean7eisenhower@gmail.com, and I’ll have you sent an invoice from PayPal, which you can pay with a credit card, debit card, or PayPal account!

My Sun Oven cost is the lowest the company allows:  just $294.00 ($261.15 + $32.85 shipping within the continental US).

The Sun Oven with the Dehydrating and Preparedness Package, valid through October 31, totals $326.70, plus tax if you live in New Mexico, none if you don’t.

(This special has been so well-received, there’s a 7-day delay between ordering and shipping.)

Also, be sure to check out the accessory page, to read about the WAPI and other accessories – including cookbooks and a programmable meat-thermometer!

Even in winter, solar ovens cook!

They will cook a little more slowly because of the lower angle of the sun reaching the northern hemisphere, but not because of colder temperatures, even with snow on the ground.

I regularly cook in my Sun Oven all year round.

Because it’s fun, and it’s good to be called outdoors a few times a day, good for the soul.

Just sent to me with one word:  Wow!

I agree:

http://lovehasnolabels.com/

I just created a new page on my site and thought I’d share it in a post with you.

In 2001, during my hermit years, I took my first “primitive skills” course – a week-long experience of learning to find food, create shelter, chip stones, make other tools, make fire, make traps, capture lizards to cook and eat, and much more.

Later, I’d use my fire-making bow to temporarily display the purses below (more on them in a moment).

In 2002, I found two rattlesnakes killed on a road near my home, and skinned and tanned them to use in art.

The first I attempted to honor in this medicine shield, but after displaying it in galleries in Bisbee and Tucson, Arizona, from 2002-2005, I disassembled it and ritually buried most of the pieces.  (I’ll post the full story about it soon.)

The second road-killed snake I honored in the special purses and medicine bags above.  Thirteen large bags were created, and eight small medicine bags, each unique and made of reclaimed silk, rayon, cotton, gold glass beads, and other natural materials.

(The last two large bags are in the Southwest Fiber Arts Collective retail gallery, The Common Thread, in Silver City, New Mexico.)

In 2006, I attended my second week-long course and learned to tan a hide, make moccasins, make sandals, make a pipe, felt wool, craft a gourd bowl, carve a wooden spoon, gather the materials to prepare and spin rope, and more, some pictured here.

My first felted purse, made in 2006, was decorated with a spiral of the natural secondary colors of the wool.  Over time, it became moth-eaten, so I composted it into the garden, unfortunately never photographed.

Later I made a beautiful felted wool hat, also never photographed, which was lost or stolen one night – which I mention in case someone in Silver City has found it.  Off-white strands I pulled from the natural brown wool and used to create a subtle, organic spiral design on the front of a lovely-textured, perfectly-fitted, natural brown, hand-felted, hand-sewn pill-box hat – that I still mourn the loss of today.

But I’ll make another!  Recently, I was gifted with two large tubs of natural wool, which I plan to turn into more hats and purses this year.  And, of course, I’ll post them when I do.

Much of my work, obviously, is only semi-primitive, such as the snake skin above – cured with glycerine.  The same is true of these last two items.

Back in the 1980s, I hand-crafted a (semi-) primitively-fired clay pot (fired in sawdust in an aerated steel can).  It’s glazed only with its own “slip” (the lightest clay that rises to the top layer when mixed in water), then hand-rubbed before firing, and finished with mineral oil.  I didn’t harvest my own clay for this, but I hope to do more of that soon.

In my 2006 week-long course, I made a pipe bowl of sacred red clay (the clay is only found on one reservation in the US, and is released under strict conditions by the medicine people of that tribe, so I was very honored to be allowed to receive this).  I carved it by hand from a square chunk of the relatively-soft stone, and added a flame design all around.  At home, I walked through my beloved mesquites and asked permission from one to take its branch, which I drilled (with a modern tool) and attached to the bowl with pitch glue and covered the joint with leather.  It works very well and shows its use.

Finally my seven-year-old moccasins, of naturally-tanned deer hide, hand-sewn with sinew (and modern needle), and decorated with (modern) glass beads.

A new dragonfly emerges from its exuvia (former body, hardened):

What a smile!

This was just before it took off into the elderberry tree above the pond where it no doubt spent the last few years as a nymph swimming around.  Days later we had the honor of helping a friend pass into the next realm, and also learned that the dragonfly was his totem.  And dragonflies are also guardians of the portals to the other worlds.

Wrote years ago, edited a bit this morning, and reposted now.

My experience, philosophy, and how-to suggestions

I’ve been involved in three barter clubs off-and-on over almost thirty years.

Back in the mid-1980s, I was invited to help launch a barter club.  Inspired by a small book on the theory, I applied my public relations and organizing skills to the effort, spending significant hours with a small team of folks for many months, turning into a few years, brainstorming, planning, promoting, organizing, publishing, and maintaining operations.

But the idea barely got off the ground.  We sought the reasons, and found two major problems, neither to do with our organization, but to do with member demographic and buyer psychology:  1)  we had too many astrology readers, young healers, and such, and too few car mechanics and those with similar, culturally-essential “hard” goods and skills; and 2) people said they realized they were uncomfortable about going into “barter debt,” and therefore few could sell to those reluctant buyers.

We did what we could to attract more of the rare type of trader, and dealt with the oddly-different psychology of debt in the barter world by talking and writing about it and encouraging each other in various ways, such as barter parties.  The system still never got much traction, we volunteers felt the futility of our efforts, and eventually the trading group folded.

A decade later, I joined another barter club, already operating, though barely, begun by younger folks with slightly different ideas.  I remained uninvolved in operations, and it too soon folded.

Then I moved to Silver City and joined my third barter club in 2006 or 2007, consisting of more folks about my age.  I was encouraged that it had been operating for a few years, but at the first meeting I attended, it was announced that no one wanted the few volunteer jobs, and the people who currently held the jobs were suggesting the barter club close.

Since the vast majority wanted to close it down, I joined them – and I shared with the group an idea I’d had the week before.  I thought I finally understood the problem:

Barter clubs are made up of people, some of whom we know well and trust, and some of whom we know faintly but whom we’re required to trust whether we like it or not, because they’re in the club.  

Though no one wanted to voice those words in those months we probed the club for their reasons for wanting to fold, I believe my theory is logical and reasonable, and the cause is certainly unconscious and not what good, idealistic people want to admit about themselves:  they didn’t quite trust it and didn’t know why.  And even if they trusted every single person there that day, they knew that tomorrow someone new could join and that would change everything.

That, I decided, was the problem.

Bartering should be practiced, I now believe, not in defined circles, but in a vast number of overlapping networks – each person their own individual barter club network, designed perfectly to match their needs and trusted friends and acquaintances, whether a large group or small.

And to address the “hard goods” issue:  each person has the chance of working with their own car mechanic!

Each person’s network can be managed much like a checking account, with individualized promissory notes recording each transaction:  Simple, old-fashioned IOU’s.  

Everyone understands the concept.  By using them, we revive a bit of simpler-time, old-fashioned history.

Having explained this idea to the former local club those many years ago, I realize I have not bartered as much in these intervening years, even with my own barter notes at the ready, as I know I’m philosophically inclined to.

And the few barters I have made in the last few years quickly devolved – and I realize now, in this case, devolution can be a good thing – into simple gifting.  And this may be a positive outcome, even though it wasn’t my stated goal.  But it’s not the only outcome.

But let’s continue with this goal of bartering.

One friend and I began by using the method I’ll describe below, which got us comfortable with the idea of doing for others without receiving American dollars, “Federal Reserve notes,” in exchange.  With that new comfort, we suddenly found ourselves willing to let go of the accounting entirely – and we transcended barter and entered the “gift economy,” based on what one person needed and whether we had the time and energy for it.

Even though I’m not using the promissory note system of bartering at this time, I still believe the idea is extremely important, and I will almost certainly use the note system again when I need to buy or sell something and gifting doesn’t feel exactly right for any number of reasons.

Whenever the economy crashes, which could be any day, this idea could prepare us to keep at least some aspects of our local economy moving without a lot of massive organizing.

It’s simple and flexible.  Each person can choose what’s right for them, bartering with few or many, giving things away or “paying it forward,” knowing it’ll all come back around somehow, and we’re reclaiming an ancient rite – the right to exchange goods and services with friends and acquaintances with no system or mediator in between.

Preparation

Make yourself some barter notes which describe the sort of products and services you have to offer.  Imagine a bank check with small-print advertising at the bottom.  You might even add a small photo of yourself up next to your address, so your note might have the chance to be passed along to someone else, like a second-party check.  Then, friends of friends who don’t remember your name might recognize your face and realize they trust you enough to accept your note from their friend.

Think about your circle of friends and who might provide what you need, and consider what you have to offer them.  Tell them about this idea, and pass this article along.

“Suggestions”  for Security

A)  Barter only with people you chose to trust, given your personal situation.

B)  If you think you might pass on a note you receive from one person to another for another trade, like passing on a two-party check, make sure that the note-maker’s contact information is legible and correct on their notes.

C)  If you don’t know someone who wants to barter with you, and especially if they’re new to town:

a)  Ask them to provide you the goods or service first, with you giving them your note, or

b) Ask a mutual trusted friend to create a three-way barter:  The friend who trusts them accepts their note, you accept the known friend’s note, and the stranger gets what they need from you.

(I’ve had repeated experiences of strangers, often sweet young women who seem hip to everything progressive, asking for things, then stealing from me – perhaps a cosmic lesson I’m supposed to learn – so I am now far more cautious than some.  We all have a right to set our own boundaries as we decide is best.)

Nuts and Bolts

1)  Design your promissory notes just like a check – which everyone understands – with your name and contact information legible, and blank lines for date, note number, recipient’s name, memo, and your signature.

2)  Since your notes will one day be redeemed for your goods or services by either the person you’re now handing it to, or by a friend or acquaintance of theirs who might accept it for a subsequent trade, you might make a few notes in common denominations, such as $20s, $10s, or whatever is likely to come back to you for what you have to offer.

3)  On the other hand, if someone brings you back your old note for $40, you can always give them back a new $20 note as change.

4)  To create the second-party note:  On the reverse, where a deposit signature goes on the left-hand end (where second-party notations used to be made on checks more commonly than today), simply write the transaction details briefly, i.e., Signed to Jane Smith, January 1, 2014, for yard work, then your signature.  This can be repeated as many times as there is space on the back.  If a person wants to pass the note on again to a person other than the original maker, but there’s no room on the back, the note can be exchanged with the original maker for a new note.

5) Keep a list of your accounts, listing each note as you issue it.  It’ll track to whom, what for, and the amount, so you always know how much of your “promise” or debt is out there, one day to require your goods or labor, or how much credit you can safely spend!

When your notes are redeemed and returned to you, keep them as proof that they’ve been redeemed.  (In case you worry someone might one day try to reproduce and pass one off – not that I’m that paranoid, but it’s good to consider all possibilities.)

(It often seems that if protective measures aren’t built-in from the beginning, the opening attracts the very thing to exploit it – perhaps a cosmic dynamic, teaching us consciousness?)

6) Because of this possibility, anyone accepting a second-party note should call the maker of the original note to confirm the original maker is still around, is still able to trade their goods and services for their notes, and the two of you confirm the note is good.  The call can be made in a friendly way, for instance, “I’m about to accept, or am considering accepting, a barter note you wrote a year ago to Margaret.  She passed it on to Anna, who passed it to Bob, and now he’s here to spend it.  So, I’m thinking I’ll be bringing it back to you for some mending work soon.”

6)  If you have a shop, display a sign that says you accept barter in the form of promissory notes.  Then have copies of this information to share, as well as your notes to demonstrate.  But be discriminating.  Barter only with whom you choose, and use the rules above.

7)  Consider carrying blank promissory notes – without your name and information on them – and maybe a copy of this article.  Then, whenever you find someone open to the promissory note idea, you’ll be ready to help them make the transaction with little fuss.  Even if they are hesitant at first, you can give them the article and a blank note, and one day they may call you to make a deal.

8)  Remember you can even trade outside your local area, if you know people who travel regularly between their area and yours, and you have mutual friends.

9)  Finally, this may strike some as sacrilegious, but:  Since our notes will look much like checks, and many of us have checks we no longer use because of automatic deduction and debit cards, and these checks already have all the information we want pre-printed on them, we might just black out the bank information and add the words “Promissory Note”!

In short:  No club.  No membership.  No massive bookkeeping.  Only a series of networks, each personally chosen, flexible and ever-changing, potentially ever-growing, of people doing what people have always done to meet their and each other’s needs – bartering.