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.
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.
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.
The most important nutrient to any animal is water. Having clean water is important to health too. Dirty water encourages bacterial growth, parasites, and bug larva growth. Animals also tend to not drink the dirty water as well. There are several ways to help keep your animal’s water clean.
For big stock tanks goldfish work well to keep bug larva, especially mosquitoes and algae build up down. You will still have to clean the algae out, but you can typically go longer between cleanings.
Have waters only big enough for the animals to empty in 1 day. Most bacteria, algae, and such grows in stale water that has been sitting. I have several different size waters for different age groups and seasons. The adult flock will go through 5 gallons on a hot day, but only maybe 3 when its cooler. The young birds will go through about 3-4 gallons and the new Guinea chicks about 2 gallons. The horses I decreased their stock tank size so the water would be refreshed more frequently. So far, I haven’t had the algae build up on that tank that I usually have.
About once a week, in the summer, I go though and clean all the waters out. Take a scrub brush and make sure the sides come clean. Spray the tanks out good with the hose and refill them. In the fall I make sure the tanks are really clean on the last forecast warm day. Over winter not much grows, but I will clean them if I get a warm day over the 2-3 months of freezing weather.
Once algae starts building up, it’s really difficult to keep the tanks clean again. There are some things you can do to help though. For plastic tanks you can use vinegar on the inside of the waterer, let it sit then scrub and rinse. Do NOT use vinegar on metal a waterer though, you will start it rusting. For my tanks I like to use my plant based all-purpose Thieves cleaner. I will usually just use the concentrate for waters, splashed on the edges and let it run down. Then scrub it in and rinse well.
Clean water is important even for your animals, but easy maintains is also important to busy lives.
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.
I originally wanted chickens and guineas for the bug control they offered when free ranged. Our property has to many trees to make a simple movable pen for them as well. The first year wasn’t a problem. By the time the chicks were old enough to let out of the pen, the plants were established enough they didn’t bother them.
The second year though….they tried to destroy everything planted. Now its not really the plants they were interested in, but the fresh dirt and bugs. But in the process, they would dig up and scatter any plant or seed in the area. Before I go into how to chicken proof your garden, lets talk a little on the messages the chickens get when it comes to gardens.
A chicken’s brain is quite simple. Dirt = Bugs = want to eat that. Fresh dug dirt = easy to find bugs. Mulch = delicious bugs. As far as fences go, you got to make sure it’s a hole free one, because a chicken sees dirt or fresh mulch behind a fence and thinks “she’s depriving me of the best food, and I must have it!”
Now that you understand the reasoning behind a chicken’s motives, how can you protect your plants, while still free ranging the chickens. A simple hoop of chicken wire over the plants won’t work. I tried that, they figured out they could sit on in, smash it down and still eat the greens under the wire. Hail fence or welded wire is stronger, and may work for a bit, but I never tried it.
For raised beds, putting an 18-inch-tall hail fence with 1x1 squares has done the trick. I didn’t even have to put a top on it for the seedlings. The raised beds are 12 inches off the ground plus the 18-inch hail fence. Why this keeps them out, I’m not sure as they will jump/fly 4 feet onto a barrel then over the 6-foot nursery pen fence. But it has been up for months, and no one has offered to try and get in the beds. 18 inches is also low enough you can still reach in and garden easily. 
Electric fence is a method that surprised me. It’s not fail proof by any means, but does work for smaller areas you are trying to establish before letting everything run through. To electric fence for chicken (works for raccoons and dogs too) place one wire about 2 inches off the ground and the top wire about 12 inches off the ground. The problem with this is as soon as it is dead, they are all over it. And some still get smart and run through really fast.
PVC frames work ok, but I had a really hard time keeping them sturdy, in place, and the netting attached. If looks are something for you, they can be a bit of an eye sore.
The simple solution you would think would be chicken wire around the garden, but alas not so. I had a 4-foot chicken wire fence around my garden for several years before chickens for rabbits, and the chickens saw that as a simple exercise and jumped the fence or found holes in the bottom and slipped under. If you can support it doubled it could work, but the bottom doesn’t hold up to lawn mowers and weed eaters.
The best fence for a permanent area, is hail fence. The hail fence is stronger and build to last better than chicken wire. We chose 2x4 openings 4 foot high, doubled, with a top for our garden. Why the top? Because I also run guineas and have seen them easily perch on top of the swings right next to the garden. At this point I’m not taking chances and build a beautiful fortress.
Whatever method you decide to use, make sure you always shut the gate. They find an open gate in about 10 minutes from across the acreage.
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.
Kids on a farm or homestead are a big thing to worry about. Many of the day-to-day tasks can be dangerous for kids. So, what do you do with them when you, the adult, are out caring for the animals or tending the gardens? Usually, they are right there with me. The older kids, walking age and up, are helping or playing nearby. The baby is on a blanket, in the stroller, or pack in play. As they become mobile, they enjoy playing close to me as well.
It's never too early to start teaching your child how important it is for them not only listen, but also obey. Our kids have been taught from a very young age that there are times when if they don’t do what you say right away then bad things might happen and this leads into our next point: helping around the farm with work or animals as well as gardening in order teach responsibility.
Are they forced to help? All day no. But they are expected to help with some of the chores. Simple chores like filling waters and collecting eggs are easy ways for them to help and lighten my chore load a bit. Once chores are done, they can play in the area I am working in.
Boundaries have been set up, and firmly enforced, as to where they are allowed to be. As they have gotten older and more aware of the dangers, they have been allowed a greater area. They breach the boundary; they must stay by my side.
The kids love being able to help out in the garden and with animals. I find a job they can do that is simple, like holding tools for me while I work or pulling weeds alongside their mama! Both older children are expert weeders too - at 3 & 5 years old we've found these tasks perfect for them because it is easy to learn, get one on one time with mom, and they can leave easily when they are ready to play.
It takes time and training, but it is well worth it when they enjoy helping you. Tagging along and being included in your life. In summary, train your children young to listen and obey. Give them age-appropriate specific tasks to help you out. Set specific boundaries for where kids can safely play in the area you are working.
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.
Do you ever worry about where your next meal is going to come from? Many moms do, and that's why food security is a hot topic. But what if I told you that you could bring food security right into your own home? It's true! You can start by growing your own fruits and vegetables. Not only will you know where your food is coming from, but you'll also save money on groceries. Interested in learning more? Keep reading!
First what is food security and why should you be concerned about it. From the Oxford dictionary, “food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.” According to the USDA, in 2020 10.5% of family’s were food insecure. With todays rising food costs, inflation, supply chain disruptions, food security is about to become harder.
What can you do about it? Take steps to grow your own food. No matter where you live, you can grow some of your own food. Even in an apartment. There are hydrophobic food towers now that work well for this and can grow an amazing amount of food. A balcony can house a small raised bed and grow more. I highly recommend the square foot gardening method if space is limited.
If you have a yard, even a small one, and city ordinance allows you can also have some chickens and or bees. This will give you a source of protein and a sweetener as well as help your garden be more productive.
You can start reducing your reliance on processed foods even before your garden is ready to harvest. Whole foods, like fresh and frozen vegetables, fruit, potatoes, squash, are good sources of nutrient. They are minimally processed, if at all. Start shopping the outside of the store instead of the middle isles. As you start to eat less processed foods, you’ll find you don’t eat as much or crave the boxed meals. Why? Because your body is being fed with for that nourishes your body instead of just filling it up. This will also help you save money at the store.
Buying in bulk when possible is hands done the best was to purchase the food you need. It keeps your pantry full, and helps your pocket book in the long run. But how do you store or preserve fresh produce for long periods of time? Some like squash and potatoes can be placed in the basement where it is cool and dry and keep for months. Check them occasionally, but I’ve had squash and potatoes in my basement all winter. Most fruits and vegetables you can vacuum seal and freeze. Vacuum sealing is the best, and fastest, way to preserve the nutritional value of the the food. Some, like carrots, need to be blanched before freezing, but something like Brussels sprouts do not.
One of my favorite meals to make that is nutrient packed and easy is the one pan roasted medley.
Take a meat, chicken breasts is a favorite, place on large baking pan.
Drizzle with oil, salt, rosemary, pepper, and garlic.
Add veggies, sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower are fantastic.
Bake at 350 until meat is done. Usually at least 30 min
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.
You walk into the greenhouse to purchase plants or open the seed catalog and stare. What to buy? It’s the big question every winter for seeds and every spring when its time to buy plants. The other is how did I just spend that much?!
First, think about what your family eats on a regular basis. Make a list if you need to. For my family, we plow through lettuce and spinach in the spring/summer. Tomatoes are huge for all the pasta and tacos we eat year-round. Kidney beans, not so much. So, it makes sense for me to grow tomatoes but not kidney beans. As your taste pallet expands, your garden can as well. I started buying a few random vegetables in the store to see how everyone liked them before I went to all the effort to grow, harvest, and preserve them. One surprising vegetable I found the kids liked was Brussel sprouts. Who would have thought!
Next, are you in a growing zone that will allow you to grow that vegetable or fruit? Just because your family consumes a lot of a vegetable or fruit, doesn’t mean you will be able to successfully grow it. We love oranges and pineapple, but here in 5b that’s not possible to grow. But we can grow apples and strawberries.
Finally, how much time is required to grow, harvest, and preserve the food? There are some things that just do not make sense for me to grow with the time I have. For example, peas or kidney beans. The amount of time it takes to harvest the beans is not worth my time. I can buy the same quality cheaper in the store. Peas we love, the amount of time to preserve the peas not so much. I do grow peas, but only enough to consume fresh.
The advantage of growing your own food is to reduce the grocery bill. So, you want to grow what your family will actually eat and what your time allows for.
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:
How do you respectfully raise animals knowing you will harvest them for food? The animal lover in me has asked this question time after time. It came to surface again this week as we harvested our beloved Turkey named Tom. And will surface again in a month I’m sure when we harvest the chickens I purchased for meat.
The truth is, it’s a hard balance. I actually shut down and out for a while, bracing and guarding myself from getting attached. But what happened is I detached from everyone, my horses, the dogs, and even put up guards around my people relationships. I wish I had a solid answer as to what turned things around again, but I really don’t.
It has been months of prayer, intentionally taking the time to spend with animals again, and lots of late nights in the barn with the lambs that started my animal addiction. It didn’t happen overnight, but I have slowly broken down the walls again and opened up.
I still don’t get to close to the animals I know will be harvested in a short time. But that doesn’t stop me from caring for them and giving them the best life I can while they are here.
Truth is everyone dies eventually. Some animals are born to die to feed the rest of the food chain. Take humans out of it and animals would still die to give life and nutrition to others. So I’m going to keep raising them with love and respect. And when it’s time for them to fulfill their purpose and give their nutrients to another, I’m going to make it as quick and painless as possible.
Until next time, I’ll still be Feeding Kids and Critters. ❤️
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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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 idea of living solo, being self-sufficient, and living off the land is appealing to some. But do you need others around you to homestead? Short answer yes, and no.
Do you need someone in close proximity to you, other than those living with you? Not exactly. Having good close neighbors can be extremely helpful when you are living miles from any close town. You can help keep eyes on each other’s place while one is gone for a bit. Because let’s be honest, you will at some point leave your home.
You can also more easily help each other when needed. Like when the animals are out at 10 pm on the neighbor’s lawn. Or you have a predator problem that is challenging both of your property. Having good neighbors in close proximity, makes all these easier to homestead.
However, if you have a bad neighbor, one who doesn’t like animals, doesn’t understand livestock, and is far from helpful, it can be a massive headache. When looking at properties, take the existing neighbors into account.
You can have friends and neighbors at a distance that are still willing to help you out when needed. They just may not be able to arrive in 5 minutes when the cows are out.
Even if you choose to live miles from any other human, at some point in your life you will need someone. Life will take you through a challenge and you need extra help on your property. You take a vacation, and someone must take care of everything while you’re gone. You have a challenge you’ve never had before and need advice.
You need some kind of support system, even if you choose to live at a distance. Either from a distance, available by phone or social media, or physically. Even if you are self-sufficient, you still need people.
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.
To keep roses, or berry bushes healthy, they need to be pruned every year. This trains the bushes how to grow and makes them more productive. The best time to prune the bushes is actually winter or very early spring. All the energy reserves are in the roots at that time and most of the foliage has dropped making it easier to prune. You want to make sure you prune before they start waking up in the spring.
When pruning, first cut all the dead wood back to the base. You will know it is dead wood by cutting into. The dead wood is all brown, green is alive. If you are unsure, cut high to start then lower if needed.
Next you want to take out the branches that cross, as they can damage other canes (the bush branches) and cause disease. After those, remove any small weak growing canes. These are anything smaller than a pencil in diameter.
Finally prune the remaining canes by cutting ¼ - ½” about an outward facing bud eye. This is the small bump where the leaf would meet a stem. This will encourage the bush to grow outward instead on inward, reducing disease. Be sure to look for a bud at least halfway up the cane. If you cut to low and the bush is a hybrid, you will cut it back to the wild-type base. Make your cuts at a 45-degree angle towards the outside of the plant. This allows water to run off, also reducing disease.
Make sure you clean up all the branches and leaves from the base of the plant. If your feeling generous, add a little compost while your there to feed the bushes for the next year. Most bushes are heavy feeders and require quite a bit of nutrition to bloom properly.
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.
Gardening has many benefits. You can grow your own food, have control over how it is grown, receive excellent nutrition, and experience the stress relief a garden can give you. Being in nature, digging in the dirt, breathing in the fresh smells, gives your body and mind a chance to unwind and ground.
Wait what is this thing about grounding? It is electrically reconnecting you to the earth. Our bodies tend to build up positive charge, especially under stress. The surface of the earth is negatively charged. By something as simple as walking barefoot, or digging in the dirt, you allow your body the opportunity to return to neutral charge by letting go of the positive electrical charge. Gardening is an excellent way to ground, while still accomplishing something for the type A personality.
Gardening is also a whole-body work out. Lifting baskets of produce, pulling weeds, digging holes, reaching for produce, pushing a wheelbarrow, are all activities that engage muscles throughout the body to accomplish the task. When you add general yard work, like pruning, or tree trimming, you have more specific exercises that work more of the upper body. Exercise releases endorphins that make us feel good. So, gardening can give you an exercise induced endorphin rush.
The act of growing something from plant to maturing fruit, gives you a sense of accomplishment. Even growing something simple like a pot of herbs, which you can harvest quickly and continually, can produce this feeling. This has a positive affect on your mental health, by giving you a reward.
So, gardening can improve your health emotionally by allowing you to ground yourself, physically through exercise, and mentally through giving you the sense of accomplishment. That is not even mentioning all the nutritional benefits from having truly fresh food.
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:
