Most nights we go for a walk after dinner and the majority of the time we walk through a new neighbourhood that is being built. Lately I have noticed the increase in piles of crap laying all over the place. Mostly it is bricks, coffee cups, siding, stone and broken up concrete. I have hopes that someone sorts this and sends the bricks, siding and stone to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Hell there are 2 within 20 minutes of here! But I really do not think that is happening. I have emailed the builders who are involved in this neighbourhood to see what they do with their waste. It will be interesting to see what they say.

It has made me wonder about how much waste was being produced by each new home being built. Because based on the size of the piles it is either a crap load or a shit ton. And why is there so much waste? Surely they know roughly how many brick Model XYZ needs and that Lot #54 and #49 picked the same brick so the skids can be shared between the 2 houses?

Have you built a new home? Any insight into what happened with the leftover waste?

I probably have the worst game plan for the farmers market. I see others who clearly have plans and are on a mission. I am not nearly as together as they are and I am sure it reflects in the total amount that I pay for things. I start out wanting to walk up the main row to check out the prices and then decide who has the best prices and produce but it never really ends up that way. It is hard to keep 30+ vendors straight in your head when you just want to get some yummy produce. Plus I was totally distracted by the fact that all I could think about was getting some fresh squeezed lemonade.

We walked up the first part of the main row and I finally gave up trying to find the best price for strawberries. Everyone had them and the prices were all over the place. To make matters worse I made the mistake of looking at the flyer's before we went so I knew that strawberries (from the US) were on sale for $1 this week. So as we walked by booths I couldn't help but look at the prices and think about the number of additional strawberries I could get for that price if I bought them at the grocery store. I will admit it did make me question if we should buy some or just go to the grocery store and get them for cheap. But all it takes is one look at the local strawberries and the decision becomes very easy. Nothing can compare to the taste of a local Ontario strawberry. So while I may not have gotten as many berries today I got the best of the best.

After picking up our strawberries we went on the hunt for the rest of the items on our list. We hit a booth we normally shop at and picked up peppers and tomatoes. Prices were fantastic and the produce was all local. As I was paying I could hear the vendor across from them yelling our about their corn. This booth pisses me off every time we go because their prices are so frickin low. But you see they are not selling local produce...they are selling imported produce. Basically it is the grocery store in the market. We skip them every single time because it is imply not the booth we want to support. I do have to wonder if the people shopping there realize that they are not buying local.

Some of the booth operators have made it easy to determine if we want to buy from them. They clearly indicate where their food is coming from. Some are even going to the extent of saying how many kilometers their farm is from the market. That is why we bought our sweet peas from one vendor. Yes they were more expensive but their farm was less than 10km from the market.

When we finished walking the main aisle we had bought strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, sweet peas, asparagus, lettuce and green onions. I made a beeline for the fresh squeezed lemonade and then we circled around past the million vendors selling Crocs, sheets and As Seen on TV products. We wandered by the scary clowns who were making balloon spidermen and headed back towards the truck to head home.

I have pretty much been eating strawberries ever since (there are some sitting in my wine glass right now). I have no regrets about spending three times the amount on strawberries today because these one's are the kind that when you bite into them your eyes roll back into your head and you wish that you could just marry it and have its babies.

Kiss My Face Kids Toothpaste - 3

I am addicted to flyer's.

They come Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night but I make sure to save them until Saturday morning. I sit down with my cup of tea and go through them. Okay not all of them...Future Shop can go to hell so I don't even look at their flyer anymore.  I fold down the corner of the pages marking the items that I want to buy buy 99.6519% of the time never go to purchase. Then I leave them in a pile that starts on the couch and then migrates to the kitchen table and then they arrive on the credenza. Finally they end up in the recycling bin....usually the day the new flyer's come.

While I love this Saturday morning ritual I find myself questioning the point when I really don't use them for anything (other than the odd one lining my compost bin). Each year the flyer industry in Canada contributes over 1 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually. That is a hell of a lot of emissions for this small ritual of mine.

I have been looking into this for a little while to figure out what my options are. If only I could pick the flyer's that I really want to see. Yes I know I can see them online but it is hard to go cold turkey yo!  Anyways, what I have discovered is that in Canada there is no real way to opt out of the flyer's. Websites suggest contacting retailers but they are not the one's who are dropping the flyer's on my doorstep. I have also read that you can contact each individual company that creates the bundles of flyer's but I have serious doubts about the delivery person will know to not drop them off at our house.

Here is what I may do with the newspapers instead of just throwing them in the recycling bin.

Hello!! Totally business casual right???

I feel like I am living in my own personal Jumanji. This year I decided that enough was enough and I was going to win the war with The Vine. It has gone from 'well that is nice' to 'it really fills in that side of the house' to 'OMG it is growing inside the fireplace vent and up the downspout to the eaves trough' to 'the gloves are coming off bitch, you will be mine'.  I spent 4 hours one day trying to get rid of it. It filled 4 large yard waste paper bags. And I didn't get it all...because today I noticed it was regrowing again. I sustained ant bites and scratches all over my arms that made me look like an emo cutter and that fucker came back.

You want to know the worst part? The previous owners planted this vine. If only I had a time machine...I would kick their ass.

Today I pulled up what has to be easily 1.8273 million miles of root and I am left with 3 massive root balls that will take some sort of jack hammer/back hoe/TNT to get rid of. My neighbour told me that pouring boiling water on the roots will kill the plant and it will never grow again. So I did that today and we shall see if it works. I have my doubts so my challenge this week will be to find a way to naturally get rid of this vine once and for all. I will win this war!!!

Okay friends...what should I add to my list of ideas battle plans to get rid of this thing?

I decided to review both the Live Clean Shampoo and Conditioner in one review because my experience with them is exactly the same.

I had my eye on these two products for awhile but did not buy them because I found them to be very expensive. But then they went on sale and I picked them up to try out. Going forward I would only buy the shampoo and conditioner if they were on sale because of the cost.

I liked how they worked initially. I found I needed more shampoo than I was used to using but otherwise I thought they yielded good results. My hair didn't feel greasy and was easy to manage. But about two months into using them I found that it was like they just were not getting my hair clean anymore. I felt like I had constant frizz and a serious case of 'big hair'. I finally got so frustrated that I resorted to using 'traditional' shampoo and conditioner and the results made me want to make out with my hair. So soft, straight and awesome.  I asked around and found that I am not the only one who has experienced this with eco-friendly hair products so it certainly is not limited to Live Clean products.

Tis the camping season and it is every campers opportunity to do leave as little of an impact as possible. I have read lots of slogans and motto's this week including 'take nothing but pictures...leave nothing but footprints' and 'pack it in, pack it out'...well that just makes me sing 'pack it up, pack it in, let it begin....jump around....jump around' .

Here are 10 things you can do to ensure that your camping trip is low impact and responsible.

1. Recycle - Some campgrounds do offer recycling but if yours doesn't then take your recyclables home with you. Bring a special box or paper bag and just throw everything into it to take back home. For paper and cardboard use it to start your fire at night.

2. Follow the firewood policy - Firewood can contain pests which are not native to the area you are camping and could harm the habitat at the park. Watch for firewood policies at your campground and follow them! Also, don't chop down tree's in the forest around you for fire wood. Even pick up the fallen wood off of the ground can be bad. Those trees and branches provide rich nutrients for the growing forests.

3. Don't feed the animals - When wild animals are fed by humans they can become dependant on that food source and then when it is gone they can struggle to get back into their old habits of having to search and hunt for food.

4. Camp in designated areas - Camp sites are predetermined for a reason. Don't hack your way into the bush and create your own private area off of the camp site. Staying within the boundaries of the site will help to preserve the forests for future generations.

5. Pitching your tent - When tents are continuously put in the same spot on the site it will eventually wear the grass down until it no longer grows. Look for the worn out area's and put your tent elsewhere. This will help to give that area time to regenerate. If you are camping somewhere without predetermined campsites then ensure you do not put your tent up on fragile vegetation. Look for durable ground with as little vegetation as possible.

6. Use the fire pit - The fire pit is predetermined for a reason. Use it and do not create your own. If you hate where it is located in your site then think about looking for another site at the campground. By using the fire pit you protect the forests from fires and you also protect the campsite from looking like a gopher laden lawn.

7. Wash smart - Whether you are washing yourself, your clothes or your dishes ensure you use minimal water and biodegradable soaps. Wash dishes and clothes in a bucket or bin rather than under the tap. This will reduce your water consumption. Get a dish bag that is a mesh type material (non plastic if possible) and hang your dishes to dry!

8. Take it with you - Take your garbage with you. Either dispose of it in the proper bins at the campground or if none are available take it home with you. Plan ahead and think about what you are taking with you. I like to pre pack things in reusable containers so I do not have a bunch of packaging to dispose of.

9. Stay on the trail - When hiking ensure that you stay on the trails. If there are no trails then tread lightly and make sure that you aren't trailblazing a path in the woods. You want it to be like you were never there.

10. Smores - Yes smores. It is irresponsible to camp and not have smores. Really it should be illegal.

Over the past week I have been trying out several different methods to get rid of ants. Some were successful and some just made the ants angry. I started out just concentrating on the outdoors but several days ago a line of ants marched one by one from our front door to a chunk of cookie that B left on the floor. So I will highlight the indoor techniques I used.

Hot Water - Sure it works and kills the ants as you pour it onto them. But it was not long lasting. Any ants that did not instantly die came back with a vengeance and rebuilt their hills even higher. I am sure there are dart boards with my face on them somewhere in there.

Vinegar - This had instant results where all ants that came into contact with the vinegar died. A few ants did survive and rebuilt their hills but there was not nearly as many ants that remained as there was with the hot water technique.

Cornmeal - I poured it right on top of the ant hills. Those ants must love polenta because they ate it right up and never came back. It took longer to work initially (as in it is not instant) but the results were permanent.

Overall I would say that using cornmeal was the best method of getting rid of ants outdoors. Just make sure you do it when there is no chance of rain or else it will not work. Vinegar does work as well but my neighbour said when he uses this technique it kills his grass. So that is something to keep in mind too.

Cinnamon - See the problem with this is that I put a line of it by the front door where I swear those fuckers are getting in. But I think what I did was trap the one's that were already in the house inside and then made it so that the one's outside still came in, then saw the cinnamon and got all OMGWTFCINNAMON and instead of leaving then went under the base boards and around the cinnamon. Tricky buggers.

Cornmeal - I poured it along the path they were taking but these evil geniuses just went around it! I did see some going for it and then taking some away with them so it obviously did work but not nearly as effective as when used directly on a hill.

Steam Mop - Seriously. I steam mopped the crap out of them. If they survived the cornmeal then they did not survive the steam mop.

Okay so not as good of results as the outdoor techniques. There are still ants inside but not the army of them I happened upon when I came downstairs Monday morning. I will try cinnamon outside the house where I think they are coming in once all this rain stops.

Last week we were out for a walk and as we approached this one house a man walked down to the edge of his driveway with a spray can of doom. I knew exactly what he was about to do. Ants...ants are everywhere and I knew that he was going to spray them with whatever was in that can. My mind raced but everything was in slow motion. Him at the end of the drive shaking the can preparing to release its toxic contents. Us approaching step by step with B in his stroller right at the same level he was spraying. He saw us coming and he didn't stop. People stop frickin mowing there lawns when we walk by just in case something launches out of the mower but no not this guy with his canister of death. He was all set to spray right when B would have been right beside him.

So we stopped short. We waited until he was done and I felt the urge to not only tell him about some natural remedies but to also fan the air as we walked by so that B wouldn't inhale any of the lingering fumes.

Yes I understand that some people still want to use chemicals. But do some people really not care about who is around them when they are using them? Or maybe they just don't care if it isn't their kid? Or maybe they are just asses.

Cosmetic Safety Database Rating

Burt's Bees Diaper Ointment - 1

I am very happy with this rating compared to what we first used (Aveeno Diaper Cream) which rates a 4.

The product was expensive ($12.99) but it has lasted us for almost a year now so a little does go a long way. Completely worth the cost in my books.

Today is World Environment Day. A day that doesn't seem to get as much local fanfare as say Earth Day or Earth Hour. To be completely honest I didn't even know when it was until I entered a blogging contest last month. What I like about World Environment Day is it is an opportunity to learn about a topic that impacts everyone. This year it was our forests.

I hope everyone spent some time outside today. We spent the afternoon at a conservation area for our nieces birthday party. Today 2 large trees provided us some much needed shade from the hot sun. Their leaves fluttered in the breeze and branches held up a Hello Kitty pinata.

Check out photos from WED in India here.

What did you do today? Did you even hear anything about WED?

I love this time of year...okay I love every time of year that does not involve freezing rain, miles of snow and ridiculous wind. Here is what I love about Spring.

Opening the windows - There is something about that first day that you crack open the windows in your home after a long cold winter. The smell of the spring air wafting through the house, the sound of birds chirping and kids playing. The downside of course is the dust (and cat fur) that gets kicked up from the breeze. The upside is B stares at the little particles and points and yells 'oh no!!!'

Smells - Like fresh cut grass, hot dog roasting on a fire and an approaching rain storm. Actually combine 1 and 3 and I am in heaven. There is the smell of sparklers and fireworks, tents that have been packed up since the fall and freshly blooming flowers.

Camping - We love to camp and try to go as often as we can. And by camp I mean in tents...sleeping on the ground. We have taken B 2 times so far and he is also a fan. I love the first night when you get to your site and your friends are there and you quickly put up your tents so you can sit down and enjoy the fire and SMORES. I love the relaxing days where you do whatever you want and there is no real urgency or deadlines. I love the stories we create about the creepy neighbour in the site beside us (seriously Wolf Man was terrifying).

Walks - We go for a walk nearly every day now. We have many options on routes to take and lately we have been walking through the trail in the woods and then into a new neighbourhood being built. Mostly we are looking for front door ideas! I love how B points to everything and loudly tells us what it is. BIRD!!! PRPPY!!! RUCK!!!

Gardening - Last year we started a veggie garden and I fell in love. Now I enjoy spending my free time out in our yard weeding or planting. I'm starting to take some pride in it and really look forward to planting a new and larger veggie garden this year and also planting a lot more plant gardens.