Piper":15ldzig5 said:
skysthelimit":15ldzig5 said:
I understand this, but considering I straighten my hair with lye, dye it black with who knows what, spray quite a bit of bug spray, use lots of shampoo, dish washing liquid, paint with spray/oil paints, use wood stain, degreasers, drano, drink tea (the tannin does act on the inside of the body) and who knows how many other little toxic things, alum is pretty mild compared to all of those. At least the alum never touches my hands.
I don't drink alcohol, soda or smoke, so I guess we balance ourselves as much as we can.
Skysthelimit - You live in the city, with a trash service, that will even pick up your plastic and autumn leaves. When you throw away that empty can of whipped cream, it is gone.
- In the country, many people burn their trash and leaves. Many of the items you talk about using, also come in packaging that does not burn well, may be outright toxic, or might (in the case of some cans) explode when burned.
Trash Service for country farms? Your own truck, and you deliver to the dump.
I understand that, it's not like I've never went anywhere outside of the city. If Chickies doesn't want to use alum because she wants no chemicals that's cool, and there is nothing in my posts that says I don't respect her decisions. Quite the contrary, I have listed several ideas that don't use any chemicals. But alum is my choice, and it's what I am going to use, and I certainly don't need a country girl/city girl lecture to point out anything.
I would have to find a solution to the things I use no matter where I am. If I lived out in the country, the amount of bug spray and pesticides I use would probably double, because there are certainly more bugs and creatures out there. No ticks here, no grubs, no earwigs, haven't seen a ladybug in years. You know that most of the containers I have I reuse over and over until they are no good? Whipped cream bowels make nice food storage, metal cans store nails, make useful scoops, and flower pots. Gallon jugs hold water for bunnies. And there are some things even city trash won't let you put in the garbage. Like paint cans, got a lot of those and I need to be creative with disposal. Twigs and leaves have to be bundled a certain way, and most of the time it's more efficient to burn them, which is what happens here most of the time. I mulch mine from what little trees I have on the property.
I just don't consider alum that hazardous, considering all the other stuff I use. Compared to the lye that I use the straighten my hair every 8 weeks, which can literally burn the skin off of my scalp, alum is more natural, given a choice of solutions to use. To me, using alum is like the argument for natural feeding vs pellets. I add some unwanted chemicals by using pellets, but I don't have the time, space, patience or energy to collect forage for the rabbits. I don't live in the country so I don't have time, space or energy to find these natural items and do it the natural way, so alum is a slightly more natural product, as opposed to chemical OTC tanning creams.
The point is somewhere there is a trade off, and we balance the pollution as best as possible.
