High Efficiency: Gale Mills Guest Blogger

This week I am introducing Gale Mills as my guest blogger! Gale is located in Washington County, NE District. Gale has recently bought a new high efficiency (HE) washing machine, and is getting used to it.

Here are her comments on the machine thus far:

Was gone on vacation all of last week had loads of laundry when I got back.  It does cause the clothes to be extremely wrinkled, much more than the traditional washer. I also see some dirt residue at times left on the clothes.  Still wonder how clean they are. Really not crazy about it also takes about an hour for each load to finish and the towels are just as wet as with the older washer.  Have problems with towels getting musty smelling and can’t get it out.

Where does this fit in the Issue Teams?

Environment! The new high efficiency machines are designed to use fewer resources. Yes, they do take some time getting used to and the directions must be followed carefully. They use LESS water, energy, and detergent.

One of the keys to the HE machines is using the right detergent and the right amount of detergent. Using wrong detergent or amount of detergent can actually redeposit soils back onto the clothing, so they are not getting cleaned at all. Click here to see a great resource from the Cleaning Institute about HE machines: http://www.cleaninginstitute.org/assets/1/Page/HE.pdf .

Gale and I want to know...

• What do you think about washing machines? 
• We have a survey ... It will take 2 minutes or less to complete. 
• Link to survey:
  https://okstateches.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_2mhTgNbpUV5AVr7

Thanks!

Gina Peek and guest blogger Gale Mills

Wildfires

Welcome guest blogger Susan Routh! Susan (Grady Co) responded to my note from Sunday. I saw her yesterday at the ABCD in-service and asked her to share her story. Here it is:


Ninnekah Fire:
The Ninnekah Fire was discovered approximately 2:30 p.m. on Friday, August 3rd, south and east of Ninnekah.  In the end, 9,600 acres were burned and one house and one barn were destroyed.  

The homeowners that lost their home are active agriculture producers in Grady County and she is a 50 year member of OHCE. We have been told that the firefighters evacuated many homeowners on Friday evening in that area and the homeowners were not allowed to return until Saturday morning where they saw first-hand the damage.

We have been told of some of the challenges that producers had when trying to negotiate through county roads to get to their homes or pastures during the fire.  Note from GP: I am working on materials about how to protect your home. These are dangerous times.

The Ninnekah community has been very supportive. The first fundraiser is planned to help repair firefighting units on August 19th with a Bar-B-Que dinner. Additional fundraisers will be held to support this family who lost their homes. It is small community who cares for its residents.

Thank you, Susan for the story and the photos. We are all thinking of those who have suffered. The materials that Ag Comm is helping put together will address MANY of the topics touched on here.

As a reminder, weather radios aren't just for weather. The radios will alert you to emergencies within the specified radius. This means if parts of your county are being evacuated, you'll hear about it on your radio. I am going to refer to them as emergency radios from now on in order to emphasize this point.

Issue Teams
We want to prepare Oklahomans for all kinds of disaster and reduce risk. Where does this fit into Issue Teams? The first five people to tell me exactly what issue team and the measurable outcome fits this topic will be entered into a drawing to win a Red Cross emergency radio. Please explain your answer and give one action you think consumers would be willing to take to meet the measurable outcome.

More next week...

GPeek