This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you.
The line between afternoon and evening is a little blurred on the farm. I define evening as supper and after. So that usually starts around 7pm. Making the evening short and the afternoon time long.
We try to eat supper as a family, sometimes that means taking supper to the field and riding a few rounds with daddy. After supper, the dishes are cleared, and the kitchen cleaned up. The kids usually have a bit of play time with Daddy before bed.
I make sure the kitchen is clean and ready for breakfast the next morning. I have found that keeping the kitchen, my room and bath tidy help me to focus and deal with the rest of the house as needed. Those three rooms are the first and last rooms I see every day.
Kids are headed to bed around 8:30p, with teeth brushing, pjs, and stories. After the baby is asleep, I slip outside to check the animals. The evenings are so cool and is a lovely time to take in the air, relax, and enjoy the stars.
I make sure all the birds are in the hen house, the ducks are notorious for trying to stay out all night. Take a quick walk around making sure all the waters are filled up and picking up any eggs I missed earlier. When there are baby chicks in the nursery, I peek on them and check the temperature in the barn, adjusting the heat lamps as needed.
Once all the animals are settled, I head to the house. It is usually dark by now. Sometimes stopping to gaze at the Milky Way on the way, it is so clear in the summertime here.
After the evening walk though, I tend to plug my phone in and not look at it unless needed. I have found avoiding the screen for an hour before bed helps me fall asleep faster. I clean up whatever didn’t happen before the kid’s bedtime and get ready for bed. Typically, I’ll read for a little bit before falling asleep.
The evening is short, but a good evening routine sets us up better for a good start to the morning. At least usually.
As I've grown in my journey as an entrepreneur, mom, gardener, and livestock owner, I struggled to find a planner that met my needs and kept me organized. So I MADE MY OWN. You can take a look at it on the link blow and buy it on amazon below
Don't want the whole calendar part? I got you! I pulled the gardening and animal care pages out and put them in a book all their own.
Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Helping Your Family Homestead for Food group! This community is for the Mommas, looking to stay home and raise their kids, but unsure how to keep everyone fed and make ends meet. I share tips from my journey from the office, to half the income and feeding my family from home, while maintaining good nourishing food. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.
Starting to garden doesn't have to be hard! I gathered all the tips I've learned over my gardening learning curve and made them into a simple course to jump start your gardening your life.
Supporting Your Family Naturally From the Inside Out community!! This community is for the Mommas, looking to Support Your Family from Nature for Wellness. Tips range from nutrition, herbals, detoxing, natural cleaning, and essential oils. Basically all the things I’ve learned slowly over the past 5+ years if my journey. We have moved off Facebook, so to better serve our community and be able to discuss openly option for providing for your family in the best way possible.
Join the FREE Community
Join the FREE Community
I've had 3 very different pregnancies. After the first traumatic birth, I learned better and how to care for my body naturally and prevent common pregnancy and birth problems before they arise. This quick course will get you the tools you need to have a naturally healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My first pregnancy I had a normal western medicine all the things pregnancy. My second? I flipped to completely natural, no medicine. Bonus: Preventing Preeclampsia Without the Aspirin & Healing from Birth Trauma
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For more on wellness tips click here:
For more on homesteading on your budget click here:
For more simple DIY updates click here:
A Summer Afternoon on our Farmstead
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you.
If you’ve ever been on a farm, you know there is no siesta time in the summer. There should be though. After lunch play time happens for the kids. Usually back outside, we basically live out there in the summer. I work a bit more in the gardens, usually harvesting, or on a project as able in the heat.
Mid afternoon is nap time! The most glorious time of the day for momma. The baby for sure goes down for a nap. The middle child sometimes. It is heavenly if they all take a nap at the same time. I can power out computer work, or the jobs I cannot safely do with them, while they nap.
On the supper hot days, I will often load the kids up and run errands. Paying bills, going to the feed store, getting groceries, parts run, anything to stay where it’s cool for a while.
After naps, play in the yard continues. Usually, water is involved somehow. I water the flowers around the house, clean out the dogs’ pool and the water table, then refill them. If the big kids want in the pool, I find something I can do pool side. Snaping beans, washing veggies, braiding garlic, etc. Occasionally I’ll even grab a book and read it.
During the high heat days 95+ feel days, I walk down to the barns and check the animals, making sure no one is overheating, everyone still has cold water. Sometimes I’ll mist the pens or add ice to waters or hose the horses off. Most of the chickens are under the trees where there is shade and a bit of breeze. The water birds are having the time of their life in the water then to the shade and back again.
Afternoon chores involve picking up all the eggs, maybe going on an egg hunt. Refilling waters and double-checking feeders. I set alarms on my phone to remind me when it is chore time and when it is time to go start supper. Otherwise, I get busy working on something and soon its dark and everyone is hangry.
Afternoons tend to be much more laid back and variable than our mornings. Mostly because I have designed it that way. I stack our daily activities in the morning, giving us the freedom to do whatever is needed in the afternoon.
As I've grown in my journey as an entrepreneur, mom, gardener, and livestock owner, I struggled to find a planner that met my needs and kept me organized. So I MADE MY OWN. You can take a look at it on the link blow and buy it on amazon below
Don't want the whole calendar part? I got you! I pulled the gardening and animal care pages out and put them in a book all their own.
Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Helping Your Family Homestead for Food group! This community is for the Mommas, looking to stay home and raise their kids, but unsure how to keep everyone fed and make ends meet. I share tips from my journey from the office, to half the income and feeding my family from home, while maintaining good nourishing food. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.
Starting to garden doesn't have to be hard! I gathered all the tips I've learned over my gardening learning curve and made them into a simple course to jump start your gardening your life.
Supporting Your Family Naturally From the Inside Out community!! This community is for the Mommas, looking to Support Your Family from Nature for Wellness. Tips range from nutrition, herbals, detoxing, natural cleaning, and essential oils. Basically all the things I’ve learned slowly over the past 5+ years if my journey. We have moved off Facebook, so to better serve our community and be able to discuss openly option for providing for your family in the best way possible.
Join the FREE Community
Join the FREE Community
I've had 3 very different pregnancies. After the first traumatic birth, I learned better and how to care for my body naturally and prevent common pregnancy and birth problems before they arise. This quick course will get you the tools you need to have a naturally healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My first pregnancy I had a normal western medicine all the things pregnancy. My second? I flipped to completely natural, no medicine. Bonus: Preventing Preeclampsia Without the Aspirin & Healing from Birth Trauma
Click here to get the stories straight to your email:
For more on wellness tips click here:
For more on homesteading on your budget click here:
For more simple DIY updates click here:
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you.
Mornings on our farmstead can be peaceful, but are often crazy, especially in the summertime. I’d like to say I, momma, rise with the sun ready to take on the day. I slip out to enjoy a walk around the gardens, picking a few things for breakfast and watch the sun rise with a lovely cup of coffee, before returning to accomplish a few work things before the kids rise. Then calmly care for the critters after breakfast.
Truth is that hasn’t happened in well over a year now. The baby from last year is almost 1 now. That pregnancy forced me to slow down and change things, sleeping in was one way I handled things. The longer the kids slept the shorter the time I had to remind, argue, and console without picking the older two up. I couldn’t physically do a lot and the longer I slept the less time I had to fill in the day and find ways to distract myself from what I wanted to do.
Postpartum happened, then I got really sick. Like spend 9 days in the hospital sick. My body wasn’t in great shape anyway it that wrecked what was left of it. Winter, I limped along trying to get back into me and heal my body. Still allowing sleeping in and ignoring my own alarm. Can you see the pattern yet? Overwhelm, anxiety, depression?
I’m slowly getting better now, but mornings are still a struggle for us. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to rise with the sun again like I used to. But for now, I’m learning grace in the journey.
Here’s what our morning’s really look like. I snooze the alarm several times, if I hear it at all, finally crawling out of bed when the baby insists I get up, because she is ready to play and have a clean diaper. The big kids are up shortly after, while I finish waking up in the bathroom, checking emails and notifications. I quickly make breakfast while trying to usher kids through the bathroom and convince the middle child clothes are required. Usually also sending messages.
Breakfast we also listen to a devotional, well half listen anyway, while reminding the kids to eat or they will be hangry later and pulling the baby off the table and pinning her plate to the table. Hurriedly I rush kids to finish eating so we can go outside and feed animals before it gets too hot. Goal is 8:30 its usually closer to 9:30 or 10.
Now rushing to feed and water all the animals. Checking to make sure everyone is ok. It’s already hot and I haven’t even checked any of the gardens yet. Check my planner, what area was I supposed to work in today? Ok head to the garden and quickly weed, check moisture, harvest what needs picked. The kids are running around playing with the dogs or baking in their mud kitchen.
Pretty soon my phone is going off reminding me to go make lunch. I snooze or dismiss and do just one more quick thing before heading into make lunch and eat. Its now 1pm.
Seriously, mornings go so much better when I just get up and have the time to start my day right with a little God time, work before breakfast, instead of while making it. Prep food for the day before kids, then we can enjoy the slower pace doing chores and the kids help more because I’m running at their pace not the rushed pace.
As I've grown in my journey as an entrepreneur, mom, gardener, and livestock owner, I struggled to find a planner that met my needs and kept me organized. So I MADE MY OWN. You can take a look at it on the link blow and buy it on amazon below
Don't want the whole calendar part? I got you! I pulled the gardening and animal care pages out and put them in a book all their own.
Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Helping Your Family Homestead for Food group! This community is for the Mommas, looking to stay home and raise their kids, but unsure how to keep everyone fed and make ends meet. I share tips from my journey from the office, to half the income and feeding my family from home, while maintaining good nourishing food. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.
Starting to garden doesn't have to be hard! I gathered all the tips I've learned over my gardening learning curve and made them into a simple course to jump start your gardening your life.
Supporting Your Family Naturally From the Inside Out community!! This community is for the Mommas, looking to Support Your Family from Nature for Wellness. Tips range from nutrition, herbals, detoxing, natural cleaning, and essential oils. Basically all the things I’ve learned slowly over the past 5+ years if my journey. We have moved off Facebook, so to better serve our community and be able to discuss openly option for providing for your family in the best way possible.
Join the FREE Community
Join the FREE Community
I've had 3 very different pregnancies. After the first traumatic birth, I learned better and how to care for my body naturally and prevent common pregnancy and birth problems before they arise. This quick course will get you the tools you need to have a naturally healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My first pregnancy I had a normal western medicine all the things pregnancy. My second? I flipped to completely natural, no medicine. Bonus: Preventing Preeclampsia Without the Aspirin & Healing from Birth Trauma
Click here to get the stories straight to your email:
For more on wellness tips click here:
For more on homesteading on your budget click here:
For more simple DIY updates click here:
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you.
At this point most of us have had to water the garden at least once. Was it manageable? Could it be better? Depending on where you live how judicious you need to be with water. There are different methods that have their own advantages and disadvantages.
If conserving water usage is a big one for you, a drip line is the way you will want to go. Drip lines deposit the water close to the ground at the base of the plant, so the water gets exactly where it needs to be, and no were else. You can even plum them up for raised beds by running the pipe along the base of the bed, then a hose up to the surface. These can be pricy to install the first time, but worth it in the amount of time saved watering individual plants and water saved. Make sure to have a drain or flush valve at the end for water to escape once the freezing temperatures arrive.
Hand watering is the cheapest and most water conserving method. Unless of course you have a 5- and 3-year-old running the hose. Then all bets are off. This works well for small beds or garden patches close to the house or hose. They are perfect for seedlings as well but can be difficult to get enough water to the plants as they mature. You can also control where the water lands to some extent and water the base of the plant avoiding getting wet leaves.
Broad cast sprinkler is probably the easiest method to cover a large area. The downside is you can lose quite a bit to evaporation, you will get the leaves wet, and will probably water the leaves and lawn a little. The big benefit is you can set it and walk away.
To get the proper amount of water to the plants, set a timer on your phone. You can also buy automatic water shut offs, but I have never actually tried them.
When plants are small seedlings, they need water frequently until their roots develop and can handle a bit of stress. Seedlings will need water about every 1-2 days depending on heat, wind, etc. Just make sure the top doesn’t dry out too much. Bigger plants can do with a good soaking about once a week.
My garden is divided into 5 areas. Now that it is established, each area is watered once a week and receives a good 3–4-hour soaking. I aim for morning, that way the leaves are all dry by night fall, to avoid mildew.
As I've grown in my journey as an entrepreneur, mom, gardener, and livestock owner, I struggled to find a planner that met my needs and kept me organized. So I MADE MY OWN. You can take a look at it on the link blow and buy it on amazon below
Don't want the whole calendar part? I got you! I pulled the gardening and animal care pages out and put them in a book all their own.
Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Helping Your Family Homestead for Food group! This community is for the Mommas, looking to stay home and raise their kids, but unsure how to keep everyone fed and make ends meet. I share tips from my journey from the office, to half the income and feeding my family from home, while maintaining good nourishing food. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.
Starting to garden doesn't have to be hard! I gathered all the tips I've learned over my gardening learning curve and made them into a simple course to jump start your gardening your life.
Supporting Your Family Naturally From the Inside Out community!! This community is for the Mommas, looking to Support Your Family from Nature for Wellness. Tips range from nutrition, herbals, detoxing, natural cleaning, and essential oils. Basically all the things I’ve learned slowly over the past 5+ years if my journey. We have moved off Facebook, so to better serve our community and be able to discuss openly option for providing for your family in the best way possible.
Join the FREE Community
Join the FREE Community
I've had 3 very different pregnancies. After the first traumatic birth, I learned better and how to care for my body naturally and prevent common pregnancy and birth problems before they arise. This quick course will get you the tools you need to have a naturally healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My first pregnancy I had a normal western medicine all the things pregnancy. My second? I flipped to completely natural, no medicine. Bonus: Preventing Preeclampsia Without the Aspirin & Healing from Birth Trauma
Click here to get the stories straight to your email:
For more on wellness tips click here:
For more on homesteading on your budget click here:
For more simple DIY updates click here:
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you.
One ingredient we use a lot in soups and other dishes is bone broth. I’ll be honest it used to scare me to make it. We use it in place of store-bought bouillon or stock. Why? No fillers, or preservatives. More real nutrients and its better for you. The good news is it is easy to make.
You will need bones, I like to keep species the same. A crock pot, or roster. Glass canning jars for storage. Below is an outline of the basic ingredients. You can change the flavor up by adding different vegetables or herbs. If you have some vegetables about to go bad, throw them in the pot with the bones!
4 pounds of bones (about 4 chicken carcass bones)
1-2 Onions
2T apple cider vinegar or 3T Braggs
3 Celery Stalks chopped
3 Carrots chopped
Sea salt and pepper
4 cloves garlic
2” knob of ginger
2 bay leaves
3 springs Thyme
3 springs parsley
Place all the ingredients in a crock pot or roaster. Add water until everything is covered. Simmer on low, about 200 degrees in a roaster, for 24-48 hours. Stir and skim the fat occasionally.
Remove the solids. Remove the bones from the vegetables and meat. Place the vegetables and meat in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the blended food back to the broth and stir. This will make the broth very thick. If you want a thinner broth, do not add as much blended solids back.
You can also remove the bones and use an immersion blender to blend the remaining solids.
You can freeze the broth in freezer containers, leaving 2 inch head space, or can using the directions below.
Add the broth into sterilized pressure canning jars, leaving 1 inch head space.
Wipe the rims clean and place lids on. I like to use the reusable canning lids from Tattler.
Place hot jars into the pressure canner and fill with water until water is 2 inches above the jars.
Process jars at 11 pounds psi for 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts.
As I've grown in my journey as an entrepreneur, mom, gardener, and livestock owner, I struggled to find a planner that met my needs and kept me organized. So I MADE MY OWN. You can take a look at it on the link blow and buy it on amazon below
Don't want the whole calendar part? I got you! I pulled the gardening and animal care pages out and put them in a book all their own.
Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Helping Your Family Homestead for Food group! This community is for the Mommas, looking to stay home and raise their kids, but unsure how to keep everyone fed and make ends meet. I share tips from my journey from the office, to half the income and feeding my family from home, while maintaining good nourishing food. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.
Starting to garden doesn't have to be hard! I gathered all the tips I've learned over my gardening learning curve and made them into a simple course to jump start your gardening your life.
Supporting Your Family Naturally From the Inside Out community!! This community is for the Mommas, looking to Support Your Family from Nature for Wellness. Tips range from nutrition, herbals, detoxing, natural cleaning, and essential oils. Basically all the things I’ve learned slowly over the past 5+ years if my journey. We have moved off Facebook, so to better serve our community and be able to discuss openly option for providing for your family in the best way possible.
Join the FREE Community
Join the FREE Community
I've had 3 very different pregnancies. After the first traumatic birth, I learned better and how to care for my body naturally and prevent common pregnancy and birth problems before they arise. This quick course will get you the tools you need to have a naturally healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My first pregnancy I had a normal western medicine all the things pregnancy. My second? I flipped to completely natural, no medicine. Bonus: Preventing Preeclampsia Without the Aspirin & Healing from Birth Trauma
Click here to get the stories straight to your email:
For more on wellness tips click here:
For more on homesteading on your budget click here:
For more simple DIY updates click here:
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you.
If you are caring for footed animals, eventually you will encounter a foot abscess. Horses tend to be the most likely to both having a foot abscess and developing complications from it. Cattle can also develop foot abscess, as can sheep or goat, but not as commonly. All animals will appear more tender or lame on the affected foot, and the foot will feel hot to the touch. How it is treated after that depends on the animal.
Cloven footed animals, (cattle, sheep, goats, etc.), are fairly simple to treat, if you use antibiotics. If the foot abscess is not treated, it can spread to other tissues, joint, tendon, or bone. If this happens the animal is as good as dead, as treating is very difficult. When in doubt consult a veterinarian with livestock experience. Typically, the antibiotic treatment is a Liquamycin or Biomycin. Most cloven animals are difficult catch and get to stand still long enough to soak a foot. If your animal is that calm, you can use some of the horse treatment methods.
Horses are a bit different. If is much easier to soak a horse foot. It is also much more important to get the infection taken care of. When a horses foot is inflamed, as in the case of an abscess, the laminae (the glue that holds the outside of the foot to the inside), also become inflamed. Sever cases of this turn into laminitis. If this happens to a great extent, the coffin bone will rotate and poke through the sole of the horse’s foot. A horse in this condition will never live a comfortable life and should be humanly euthanized.
To treat a foot abscess, the horse needs to have basic ground manners and be halter broke. If it is not, refer to the cloven animal’s treatment and watch closely. You will need a hoof pick, bucket, Epson salts, cold clean water, a size 3 or bigger diaper (depending on the size of hoof), vet wrap, and duct tape.
First catch the horse and gently lead to a level area close to a water source, a hose is quite helpful here. Clean the horse’s foot out with a hoof pick, then use the hose to rinse the hoof and lower leg. Add ¼ - ½ cup of epson salt to the bucket and fill with water (an ice cream pail works in a pinch). Gently place the horse’s hoof into the bucket of water and carefully hold it there. The first time the horse may jump a bit but should soon relax into the water. The epson salt helps draw the infection out. Soak for 10 minutes or as long as the horse will allow.
The key now is to keep the hoof clean and allow the abscess to drain/work out, this is where the diaper comes in. Place the diaper onto the bottom of the hoof, back of the diaper to the heal of the hoof and fasten around the foot.
Next wrap the foot with vet wrap, over the diaper. You will wrap the foot over the top and bottom of the foot, covering the diaper completely, with multiple layers. If the horse is 3-legged lame, you will want to just order a case of vet wrap. It is good to keep on hand for all animal injuries and works well for human band aids too.
Finally, take the roll of duct tape and wrap over the top and bottom of the foot, just like you did with the vet wrap. You will use at least half the roll. Again, have several rolls on hand.
Depending on how lame the horse is, how frequently you need to repeat. Watch the horse and you will see. At first 1 time per day is probably needed. As the horse improves, you can extend that time. Continue treatment until the horse is no longer lame. If you see no improvement, consult the veterinarian.
As I've grown in my journey as an entrepreneur, mom, gardener, and livestock owner, I struggled to find a planner that met my needs and kept me organized. So I MADE MY OWN. You can take a look at it on the link blow and buy it on amazon below
Don't want the whole calendar part? I got you! I pulled the gardening and animal care pages out and put them in a book all their own.
Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Helping Your Family Homestead for Food group! This community is for the Mommas, looking to stay home and raise their kids, but unsure how to keep everyone fed and make ends meet. I share tips from my journey from the office, to half the income and feeding my family from home, while maintaining good nourishing food. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.
Starting to garden doesn't have to be hard! I gathered all the tips I've learned over my gardening learning curve and made them into a simple course to jump start your gardening your life.
Supporting Your Family Naturally From the Inside Out community!! This community is for the Mommas, looking to Support Your Family from Nature for Wellness. Tips range from nutrition, herbals, detoxing, natural cleaning, and essential oils. Basically all the things I’ve learned slowly over the past 5+ years if my journey. We have moved off Facebook, so to better serve our community and be able to discuss openly option for providing for your family in the best way possible.
Join the FREE Community
Join the FREE Community
I've had 3 very different pregnancies. After the first traumatic birth, I learned better and how to care for my body naturally and prevent common pregnancy and birth problems before they arise. This quick course will get you the tools you need to have a naturally healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My first pregnancy I had a normal western medicine all the things pregnancy. My second? I flipped to completely natural, no medicine. Bonus: Preventing Preeclampsia Without the Aspirin & Healing from Birth Trauma
Click here to get the stories straight to your email:
For more on wellness tips click here:
For more on homesteading on your budget click here:
For more simple DIY updates click here:
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, with NO additional cost to you.
When you have a garden weeding comes with it. There is the tender time between planting and the plants canopying that weeding is a daily job. It is the most tedious and possibly least rewarding part of gardening. However, it is the most important. Neglect the weeding you will not have a garden. Get the plants to the canopy stage and they can usually handle the few weeds that survive.
How do you keep up with all the weeds in that time? There are several strategies, to minimize weeding and keep the weeds manageable. Most of these strategies will work in both in ground gardens and raised beds.
First, plant close together. I know I’m telling you to break the rule on the packet. But seriously plant those rows close enough you can walk between them but that’s it. I usually do 1 foot max. As the plants grow the canopy will close off the sun to the ground between the rows and then weeds will not come up.
Second, mulch and mulch deep! This is not the 1-2 inches to keep water close, but 4-5 inches between the plants and rows. This keeps the weeds down and makes the few that do come up easy to pull.
Third, pick a small area and weed something every day. It doesn’t have to be a large space, but by weeding a little at a time it doesn’t become overwhelming.
For the larger areas that are more open, like in landscaping, there are a few options. The garden hoe works, but the weeds seem to just come back. You can use a strong vinegar and salt spray to knock the weeds back. You will still have to pull them out, but they will be easier to pull. I personally don’t like to spray chemicals to kill the weeds, but that is an option.
Another option is a weed burner. You can get handheld weed burner that literally burns the plant up. You can get electric, or propane powered ones. I prefer this method for my rock and patio areas.
As I've grown in my journey as an entrepreneur, mom, gardener, and livestock owner, I struggled to find a planner that met my needs and kept me organized. So I MADE MY OWN. You can take a look at it on the link blow and buy it on amazon below
Don't want the whole calendar part? I got you! I pulled the gardening and animal care pages out and put them in a book all their own.
Wanting a community to lean into? Join the FREE Helping Your Family Homestead for Food group! This community is for the Mommas, looking to stay home and raise their kids, but unsure how to keep everyone fed and make ends meet. I share tips from my journey from the office, to half the income and feeding my family from home, while maintaining good nourishing food. Tips include: gardening, bulk buying, caning,/preserving, livestock, homesteading, and home remedies. Your family is precious and this group is to help you gain the knowledge and tools to keep your family well and not reliant on outside professionals. Remedies and tips are easy and simple for the busy momma, time is precious after all, including pregnancy, birth, young kids, and illness. Trust your Momma gut again! This community offers the resources + community you need to help get started on your journey and prepare for whatever future you envision.
Starting to garden doesn't have to be hard! I gathered all the tips I've learned over my gardening learning curve and made them into a simple course to jump start your gardening your life.
Supporting Your Family Naturally From the Inside Out community!! This community is for the Mommas, looking to Support Your Family from Nature for Wellness. Tips range from nutrition, herbals, detoxing, natural cleaning, and essential oils. Basically all the things I’ve learned slowly over the past 5+ years if my journey. We have moved off Facebook, so to better serve our community and be able to discuss openly option for providing for your family in the best way possible.
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I've had 3 very different pregnancies. After the first traumatic birth, I learned better and how to care for my body naturally and prevent common pregnancy and birth problems before they arise. This quick course will get you the tools you need to have a naturally healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My first pregnancy I had a normal western medicine all the things pregnancy. My second? I flipped to completely natural, no medicine. Bonus: Preventing Preeclampsia Without the Aspirin & Healing from Birth Trauma
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First off I am not a veterinarian. I have simply been around animals a long time and had my fair share of abscess draining. At some point if you have animals, you will encounter an abscess. Abscess form when an infection starts under the skin and then the body walls it off to protect itself. These happen often from a bit, scratch, or small wound. Large wounds tend to drain and are quickly noticed, therefore delt with and heal without abscess.
The good news is usually abscess are fairly easy to deal with at home as long as they aren’t to big yet. When in doubt or the abscess feels hard, call your veterinarian. To drain an abscess, you will need a syringe, scalpel blade (hooked works best), gentle iodine, and something to shave the area clean. All of these you can typically find at Tractor Supply or Orschlens.
The first thing you want to do is to feel the abscess (called palpating). You are feeling to see if the abscess is hard or soft. Can you feel the edges? Are they defined or not. Does it feel hot to the touch? You are gathering information that will help you decide if a call to a veterinarian or not and where you should place the cut to drain it.
On question people often ask is does draining the abscess hurt the animal? The best example is like popping a pimple. Does it hurt? A little, but the relief feels wonderful. Most of the time the animal doesn’t even move when you make the cut.
First step is to shave the lower part of the abscess where you will cut (called lancing) the abscess. You want to get rid of most if not all the hair in the area that could catch any of the drainage. If drainage builds up, it will close the drain site before the infection is cleared up.
Second at the BOTTOM of the abscess take your scalpel and make an incision. Size is dependent on the size of abscess and animal. However usually ¼ inch is enough. If the skin is too tough, a large gauge (14 g preferred) needle can work to start the drain. At this point you should be able to gently squeeze the top and have stuff drain out the bottom. If it is liquid, you are in luck! The abscess is recent and hasn’t become heavily infected yet. If it is whiter and cheese consistency, The abscess has been incubating for a while and you may want to consult a veterinarian for antibiotics or more thorough flush.
Third, gently massage the abscess from top to bottom working as much of the fluid out as you can. You want to work all edges and almost dig deep into the tissue to scoop the fluid towards the drain.
Fourth, draw up some of the gentle iodine into a syringe. This is the one part that will tend to burn a bit. Much like your mom cleaning out a nasty cut when you were young. Take the tip of the syringe and insert into the opening you made. Gently squeeze the iodine into the abscess and massage up to completely work it into the abscess cavity. Once the syringe is removed, the iodine will run out and that is ok.
Keep an eye on the abscess, but it will slowly heal up. If you see fluid building back up in the abscess, check the drain site. Reopen if necessary. You can make a small incision in the top and wash the cavity with boiled and cooled water. To do this fill your syringe with the water and insert into the top incision. Slowly move the syringe around, while squeezing the water into the abscess. Then flush with gentle iodine in the same manner. This will flush any debris caught in the cavity out the bottom, kill any bacteria, and allow the abscess to then heal.
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I've had 3 very different pregnancies. After the first traumatic birth, I learned better and how to care for my body naturally and prevent common pregnancy and birth problems before they arise. This quick course will get you the tools you need to have a naturally healthy pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My first pregnancy I had a normal western medicine all the things pregnancy. My second? I flipped to completely natural, no medicine. Bonus: Preventing Preeclampsia Without the Aspirin & Healing from Birth Trauma
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For more on wellness tips click here:
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