Windows {Spring Cleaning}
Written by ARWB April 2012 Blogger of the Month. Jeanette Larson of Spinning Dreams and Weaving Yarns

Spring ran through the Ozarks very quickly this year. We went from mostly brown winter hills to glossy green dotted with azalea pink, forsythia yellow and dogwood white in less than three weeks. As I opened my windows to enjoy the soft air and peeper frog symphonies, I noticed how dirty the glass was. I couldn’t stand to close them again.

Washing windows is a chore, but the results are so gratifying. We had installed new insulated windows before this winter, and I had never gotten around to cleaning them after we installed them. Suddenly, Spring was here and I had to have clean windows.

While I don’t mind washing windows, I do hate to run to the store, especially on a day I have off work. So, I took stock of my cleaning supplies on hand. We don’t like using and storing chemicals, so the supplies were pretty sparse. I have cleaned windows with soapy water, washing and rinsing and drying until they shine. After all, it works on drinking glasses. But that’s not the easiest way.

I have a friend who uses the windshield wiper fluid made for automobiles. She just fills up a squirt bottle when she refills her car. But I’ve been getting my wiper fluid topped off when I get my oil changed.

My dad has always used white vinegar and newspaper to clean windows.  I had apple cider vinegar and paper towels. We always put our newspaper out for recycling, and besides, our little weekly wouldn’t clean too many windows. I opted to try the cider vinegar. It worked great. I hate to waste paper towels, so I used t-shirt rags.

But, my next challenge was those stickers that talk about the energy efficiency of the windows. They were really stuck on. They’d been on a while at our house and who knows for how long before they got here.

My grandmother often said, “Use it up or wear it out, make it do, or do without.” I bet your grandma did too.

When I moved to the Ozarks, I learned the local version of that saying, “If you ever need anything, just holler and I’ll tell you how you can live without it.”

So, back to the cupboards for something to get those stickers off my windows. I do use google to find housecleaning options, but before I went there, I thought that the anonymous “they” always say peanut butter removes sticky stuff. All we had was all natural, chunky peanut butter, but I grabbed my camera to document this, just in case it worked, and smeared the peanut butter on the back porch window sticker. Then I went to find something to scrape it off.

I figured it was just peanut butter, so I grabbed my favorite kitchen spatula. Just a little bit of scraping, no elbow grease needed, and the sticker was gone. “They” were right again.

 

Now my windows let me look out on the green grass growing bright and strong in the sheep’s grazing paddocks while I’m cooking dinner or doing the dishes. The grass in the one right outside the window is high enough now that we’ll move the sheep over to it tomorrow. They only get a day or two in each paddock, just enough to mow it down to about 3-inches tall. This keeps the grass strong and the weeds at a minimum. As the grass grows more, it may hold them a little longer.

Perhaps tonight I’ll get to watch a lamb-pede as all the little ones race each other while their moms go about the business of mowing the grass. Is that the sheepie version of “Spring Cleaning”?

Jeanette Larson is the craft director at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas.  She writes about Spinning Dreams and Weaving Yarns on her blog www.jenonthefarm.com.