Part of living self-sufficiently includes managing your health as much as possible. I’m not especially fond of going to the doctor if I can avoid it, so I try to use natural remedies as much as possible. My personal choices are herbs and essential oils in most cases. In my way of thinking, essential oils are an extension of herbalism. They are all plant medicine.
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There are a few little clumps of snow on the ground and there is always a chance for more where we live, but Spring is near and on the farm, that means babies! In our case, we put eggs in the incubators. Soon we’ll have chicken and quail chicks. Again.
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On my quest to make as much of our own stuff as possible, I started making my own laundry soap. It isn’t difficult. You’ve probably seen recipes for it before.
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We really have a lot of birds. And I am not talking about the wild ones either (though we really have a lot of wild birds, too). I am talking about birds on our homestead. I think they are taking over.
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I used to really hate garden gnomes. A few years back, I wrote an article about whimsical garden decorations, which of course included garden gnomes. And they were pretty bad. I couldn’t figure out why people liked them. Continue reading
A couple of weekends ago, we were really getting a bunch of stuff done around the homestead. As a result, I was feeling pretty rough. It doesn’t take much to wear me out and that is usually accompanied by pain, so I try to be careful not to over do it, but sometimes…
Anyhow, we decided to relax on the porch. Jeff likes to put out bird feeders and we both enjoy seeing what birds come to visit them. We even enjoy the “plain” sparrows. All of them are so much fun to watch.
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I have really been having a hard time the last month or so. I have been feeling lousy, for one thing. And for another thing, it seems like everything has been going wrong.
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I am so overdue on writing this post. I have been feeling pretty cruddy the last couple of weeks so I am behind on stuff. But, today is the day! This book rocks and I need to tell y’all about it.
So I met Celeste via email when I was setting up interviews on an article I was doing for a client. It took me a while to realize she was the same Celeste Longacre that writes for The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Duh! Just so happens I made the connection the same day her book arrived in the mail. Continue reading
So I finally made the lavender lemonade that my daughter posted on my Facebook page. The recipe was on the Healthy Holistic Living website. When the essential oils I ordered came in, I couldn’t wait to make this, but I had too much work to do, so it had to wait until today. Finally.
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Some times I feel like I am in the kitchen all day long. I’m not complaining. I enjoy cooking, even if I end up achy from being on my feet all day.
Recently, I received a cookbook to review called Tasting the Seasons by Kerry Dunnington. It’s a cookbook designed to help readers make great meals with seasonal foods, including some you may never have thought of. Have you ever tried sweet potato leaves?
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The Practical Homestead 