Won't you take me to Crunchytown?

Of late I've decided to get greener.  My family and I moved recently from Washington to Montana. In Spokane, we were delighted to have recycling containers beside our city garbage bins.  We didn't know exactly what we could recycle, but if we didn't know we'd just toss it in, and if it remained after pickup day, we knew we couldn't recycle that.  But we could recycle plastic 1 and 2, glass, phone books, cardboard, and batteries.  And aluminum, of course.

When we got back to Montana, I felt like shit every time I threw a plastic or glass container in the trash.  I thought Montana didn't have plastic recycling facilities, but it turns out we do!  It's called Earth First Aid Curbside Recycling, and the prices were reasonable, $14 a month, and they take glass.  So I do plan to do that, but until I get that going, I started collecting my plastics in garbage bags in the garage.  Then I found out that Wal Mart has a plastic recycling bin, right by where the plastic bag recycling is.  (I hate Wal Mart, but sometimes I'm forced by time or money constraints to shop there.  At least they recycle.  Although I had the thought that they just take the bin and dump it into their regular dumpster.  Gah!)  So the other day I loaded that sucker up with two garbage bags full of stuff. 

So I'm trying stuff.  I'm growing things!  I've got a tomato plant, a few different kinds of peppers, strawberries, cilantro, basil, and chives.  My cilantro is totally kicking ass and as soon as those peppers and tomatoes grow I'm gonna make salsa.  I've also got a bunch of flowers that I'm in love with.  Every day I fondle my plants, clucking over them.  I check their greenness and assure them they're doing a great job.

And, I've made my own shampoo and rinse!  I decided this is an easy way to cut down on some of the toxins going into my body, and it would save me money.  But mostly, I did it because of my itchy head.  I've had an itchy scalp for decades.  Not dandruff, just itch.  Then, last fall, my daughter brought home head lice, and the whole family got it.  Trust me when I say after you have head lice, you will NEVER EVER be able to itch your damn head without wondering if they're baaa-aaack.  So my scalp's always been sensitive. Recently, though, it got bad, to the point I was sure the lice were back or that it was a sign my hair was soon going to fall out in chunks.  So I did some online research, looking for ingredients, how folks liked it, what it made your hair feel like, etc.   I shower about every other day, and if I go longer than that, my head really itches and my hair feels greasy.  I wanted to avoid both of these things.  I asked my new bloggy friend, Funky Little EarthChild, a bunch of questions about what I'd learned in my research, and she gave me tips too.  So for the last 10 days or so, here's what I've been using for hair care: