I really don't think that I will be writing here anymore. I just don't have much interest in blogging anymore. It's not that interesting to me anymore and from my traffic source on the blog it has been obvious for some time that I have someone reading who really...well, I don't know why you want to bother. When I said I was done, I meant it.
Sometimes we go through situations where we realize we are a better person when a certain person is not in our life than we are with them in our life. That's how I feel. A clean break was for the best and honestly it was like ten pounds were lifted off of each of my shoulders. There's no need for you to come here and care to see what I'm doing in my life. I certainly don't seek you out to do that.
So, to my sweet subscribers, thanks and it's been fun. I wish you well. This is good-bye! :0)
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Playing nursemaid to sick chicks
I had been contemplating adding a few more chickens to my flock. Not many, just perhaps a couple of new ones. I had not yet decided 100% if this was something I wanted to do or not. I was still in the thinking stages of it. But then, on Tuesday evening I got a knock at the door. A young woman who I don't really know personally - I just know she lives near me - was standing there. She said she knew that I raise chickens and she had three baby chicks that she wanted to get rid of. Long story (very long) short, she had gotten chicks "for Easter" without knowing how to care for them and they were very, very sick. There was a fourth one but it had died. She wanted me to take the remaining ones so she wouldn't have to worry with them anymore.
I can assure you I have a very long and detailed soapbox attached to people who are like this with animals, but I shall spare you.
I asked to see the chicks as they were at her house. She said that was fine so we headed over to her home. While on the way there I learned she had had them for five days and had only fed them worms. When I got there I found three chicks, maybe 8 days old, in a plastic tub walking around in and covered with their own filth, with no bedding (can we say spraddle leg?), no food, no water (they were literally drinking the pee and poop in the tub), and no heat lamp or heat source whatsoever.
I wanted to increase my flock just a little bit. But not like this. And I pretty much knew I was looking at 2 white rock crosses and one easter egger. They were not the breeds that I wanted. I did the neck test and if it holds true I also knew I may be looking at only one hen and two roos. I didn't want any more roos.
Not like this, Lord. Please?
But what could I do? This woman obviously knew nothing about baby chickens except that they were cute...before she got a hold of them. And she didn't show any interest in learning. I knew if I left them there with her they would starve or die in some other unsavory manner. And I just don't have the heart to let that happen if I can stop it.
Ok Lord, like this then.
I took the chicks home and my son and I quickly got to work. First order of business was getting a heat lamp over them. You should have seen the almost immediate relief they had when I turned it on. You could physically see them relax a bit. Then I gave them fresh bedding to walk on. Next I gave them some sugar water and cooked up a bit of cream of wheat to tide them over until I could get home from TSC with some chick feed. It was when I was showing them where the water was (they actually didn't know how to eat or drink, it took them a while to figure it out) that I realized we had more problems than just possible pneumonia from being cold and starvation. All of their crops were **horribly** swollen. And I do mean horribly. One was so bad the swelling wrapped all the way around it's shoulder area to it's back. Their skin was tight and red and hot in the swollen areas.
See that red swollen area to the right of it's neck? The pictures don't do justice to how bad it was.
Well, great. I didn't know if they had a bunch of worms stuck in there or what.
I quickly ran to the store to get the few supplies I needed for them that I didn't have on hand. Got back home and set to work. I medicated their water with Corid and Duramycin. I also put apple cider vinegar and olive oil in their water. The ACV goes a long way to keeping chickens healthy and I knew they needed the olive oil for their poor crops. I made sure they had plenty of chick grit too. I massaged their poor, swollen, quite sore I'm sure crops. I checked them again before bed, massaging their crops once more.
I honestly didn't think they would live.
I got up early the next morning to find 3 active little peeps. Their crops were still swollen but were visibly smaller and softer. (Relieved sigh.) I gave them each small doses of olive oil with a teeny tiny syringe. Massaged their crops. Kept their water medicated and grit readily available.
By yesterday my son was telling me he was certain we could save them and that they would live. I was starting to think him right but didn't want him to get his hopes up too much lest we still lose them. I needed to change their bedding out so while I did that he tucked them into his t-shirt held up at the bottom hammock style and walked them around the yard in the sun. They enjoyed their little field trip and eventually all three fell asleep.
As of this writing, their little crops are still a tad bit swollen but light years better from where we were just 48 hours ago. They are active and for all intents and purposes are acting like normal, healthy chicks. Honestly, they probably would not have survived another night with that woman.
So I have some new chicks. Not what I wanted or how I wanted them but that's how life goes most times, yes? If any are female, I'll count it a victory and will be content regardless of their breed. If any are roosters, well...I'll raise them right and they'll be happy chickens who will only have one bad day from here on out. Honestly, my meat birds only ever have one bad day. I don't know any people who can say that, lol!
So that's what I've been up to this week. :0) I'll share some "after" pics of them soon.
Good day everyone and God bless ~~
Monday, March 12, 2012
I shouldn't complain...must be doing something right
My kids are really close in age. They are often mistaken for twins. My son is 14 and daughter is 15. I often say that this makes them be both best friends and worst enemies and that status can change from one minute to the next without notice. But for the most part, they get a long great.
Sometimes...too great. They have been known to keep each other thoroughly distracted and entertained while we are trying to do school work. I'll get them settled back in only to have them derail each other a moment later. It usually goes something like this...
They'll be working on their separate subjects and one will read something interesting and want to share it with the other. So they read aloud to their sibling. And then that starts a conversation about what they read....and then the conversation just starts to naturally lead from one thing to the next. Before I know it, they're both over in left field and I've got to drag them back. I'll get them quiet and working again...perhaps leave the room to do some laundry or something and the next thing I know I hear two voices belting out some silly song at the top of their lungs.
This evening I separated them - son to the kitchen, daughter to the living room. So I'm cooking supper with my son working at the table and the next thing I know here comes lil sister (who in reality is the big sister but she's just so dang tiny we all call her little) with her books to the table to sit next to brother cause she just can't stand it.
Lol, honestly I refuse to jinx myself by complaining about how good my kids get along!! I've seen the alternative in other families and I'll definitely take what I've got. But honestly on days like today...it's like they share a brain or something. They know exactly what the other is thinking and what just the right thing to say is to get a giggle out of their sibling. It's actually quite interesting to see them in action together. But it does make our school day about twice as long as it otherwise would be!
Sigh...my kids. I love 'em.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Canning Lids
There are certain things about living in a Mennonite community that can really be advantageous.
I was able to get these beautiful tomatoes this morning. See that bag behind them on the left? That is the best salt. It's not normal table salt but it's a sea salt that the Mennonites in this area sell. Love that stuff.
But my best deal of the day was 8 dozen canning jar lids for just at $13.
These bags hold 4 dozen each. At a "normal" store purchasing canning lids, we pay around here $3 and some change for one dozen lids. But I can buy 4 dozen lids from the Mennonites for $6 and some change. Can't beat that! So I went ahead and bought 8 dozen today.
I got a few other things while I was there. A gallon of raw milk for one thing. I *love* having real milk to use. I got about 2/3 of a pint of cream off of it.
I'll be making butter from that tomorrow. And whatever milk drains out during the butter making process will be buttermilk and put back to go in my baked goods.
Real milk, real butter and lots of canning lids. It was a good day. ;-)
Friday, March 9, 2012
Interesting trip to the store....
I went to town today for a stock up trip. I was almost solely concentrating on stock up items of staples. I shop at Aldi's which makes it easy because I can simply grab flats of items. I've been bulk size shopping for years, so I'm fairly impervious to any strange looks I might get by other shoppers when they see my buggy. But today something happened that made me chuckle a bit. I was checking out and the lady behind me had a gallon of milk and about three more items. I'm huffing and puffing away as I load the belt with flats, full boxes, and one bulk package of 40 pounds of flour - 8 five pound bags that had not yet been cut open to be "sold separately." Since they were still packaged I could just pick them all up together. Saves effort for me.
Anyway, after a bit the lady behind me said, "You're shopping like I do most of the time." My ears perked up and I wondered if she was a bulk shopper too. I answered, "Really? That's nice because you never know when someone is going to look at you like you're crazy for doing this." She then said, "Yeah, I completely understand. I shop for hundreds of people."
I looked at her. She looked at me...seemingly expecting me to confirm that I too was shopping for that many.
(Insert sound of crickets chirping here...)
I smiled at her and turned around to finish loading the belt with my flats full of items.
At this point, she looked like she did think I was crazy, lol.
Oh well, that's fine with me. Some women like shoes. I happen to like dry goods.
;-)
Good day everyone and God bless.
;-)
Good day everyone and God bless.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Homemade Bread Recipe & Other Happenings
Yesterday was bread baking day. I have tried many bread recipes over the years but could never find one that satisfied my family's pesky tastes. Until I found this one. It's perfect. I toast it for breakfast - the old fashioned way on the stove instead of a toaster - it tastes so much better that way. We use it for sandwiches and many times, one person or another will just go cut off a piece and slather it in butter and eat it for a snack. This is definitely a keeper recipe. (I'll share it at the end of this post.)
In other news, things are still chugging along towards springtime here in Tennessee. I'm still working on getting the gardens ready and I'm really enjoying it. I'm pretty excited because this weekend we're removing two more trees from our backyard. One of them has been aggravating me since we moved here because it shades an area where I really need full sun. And it's coming down on Sunday morning!! Like I said, I'm really excited. I like shade and will still have a lot of shaded ground for sitting in and to shade the animals, but this one tree in the garden area has needed to go for so long. The other one we're taking down is dead and leaning. It's obvious that it's going to fall and when it does, it's going to fall directly on top of my back fence. We just put that fence in last year and I don't want to see a section of it smooshed. So down it comes. With both of them gone, things are really going to shape up back there the way I've wanted them to be for a long time. It's a good feeling.
I also think I may have found myself a small greenhouse. From what I can tell in the pictures, it's big enough to walk into and be able to turn around in pretty good. So it's small, but not one of those greenhouses that aren't more than a covered shelf. I'm going to look at it this weekend and if I like it, I'll be coming home with it. I truly need one so I hope this one will be a fit for me.
I've been going to physical therapy twice a week. My right shoulder and the main tendons running down both of my arms are injured. :-( This really puts a damper on how much I can do at a time. I was telling my husband today that what I want to do is work harder and longer and get things done faster without having to slow down or stop because of pain or physical limitations. He basically told me (in a loving, humorous way) that I'm not a spring chick anymore and those days are over, lol. He said that I've already had my share of those days and didn't even realize it at the time. Ain't it the truth?! It drives me nuts to have to stop working when I don't want to stop. Or work the way I want to only to be left sore and tired long afterwards because of it. But...oh well. I shall carry on even if I have to eat the elephant only one bite at a time.
Have a great day everyone and God bless. ~~
Homestead Bread
4 C. bread flour, divided
2 C. all purpose flour
2 pkg. active dry yeast
3 tsp. salt
2 C. water
1/2 C. unsalted butter
1/4 C. honey
1 large egg, beaten
Spray a large bowl with cooking spray and set aside. Spray 2 bread pans with cooking spray and set aside.
In a separate large bowl, combine 3 C. bread flour, all purpose flour, yeast and salt. In a small saucepan, combine water, butter and honey. Heat over medium heat until mixture registers 120* on a thermometer. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture; add water mixture. Add egg. Beat at low speed with dough hooks 2 minutes. (This is what the recipe says, but I find it's better to just work it with my hands.) Add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface and knead 6-8 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic. Place in prepared bowl, turning to coat. Cover and let rise 1 hour.
Punch down and divide in half. Place in pans. Cover and let rise another hour. Preheat oven to 325* and bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pans then remove and finish cooling on a wire rack.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Spring time is a'comin!!!
I don't know about you, but there's something about getting up in the morning and setting straight to work - physical work - that is just so energizing! Our weather has finally broke, making it time to get outside and get to setting things straight that were left to go a bit wild over the colder months. I worked on my strawberry patch today. It was a mess and a half, let me tell you. Why is it that the roots of the weeds always seem to go deeper than the weeds of the good stuff? But such is life I guess, no matter if we're talking about ourselves or our garden. Let a weed go and it will choke out the good things around it.
I ended up with two big buckets full of weeds that I dumped out in the chicken yard for the chickens to sort through and make sense out of. When I left them, they were having a fine time doing just that. I gathered eggs and then came inside. Threw one load of laundry in and by that time, I was hungry! So a plate of scrambled eggs and hashbrowns later, I feel much better.
The rest of my agenda for today will look something like this:
* homeschooling...it never really ends
* bake bread - I've got two loaves to make up from my Amish starter and one loaf of white for sandwiches
* more laundry...that never ends either
* garden plans - my son is going to put in a 3 Sisters Garden this year and we need to sit down and flesh out our plans for it.
* this evening I'd like to get back outside and work in the garden some more - lots to do in that garden in the coming weeks!
Saturday, March 3, 2012
After the storms, a calm
Our area was caught right in the middle of all the storm madness yesterday. We were very blessed and lucky to have weathered it without incident. Those to the North and South of us weren't so lucky. So as I said, we were very blessed.
I haven't blogged in forever. If there is such a thing as blogger's writer's block, I think I've had it. I've had so many things I have wanted to share but then when I sit down to actually write it out...it all sounds so insignificant and why even bother sharing? Which when the coin is flipped to the other side, I love to read blogs about other people's every day lives. Their recipes and school projects and the dog that got loose. Those things don't register as insignificant to me when I am the reader. So, I'm plowing through my hesitations at writing and will share my day with you.
Today is my son's birthday. My youngest. My baby. Except in the past few months my baby has grown taller than me. And he turned 14 today. Where does the time go??
This was his cake. We did one of those photo transfer cakes. Very neat. He chose a picture from a computer game, lol. Yep, that sounds like my son. Our local bakery did it and did a very good job! It's a chocolate cake which is great because I had been pining for a chocolate fix for about two days now.
Other than birthday celebrations, we had critter chores to attend to today. I once had an ER nurse tell me that disease and pestilence didn't care if it was a holiday. Well, neither do chickens. Holidays, birthdays...it makes no difference to them. And today was the first pretty day after days of rain and storms and ick so we took advantage of the sun and cleaned out the chicken coop and run. By the time we were done, it was time for showers all around because we smelled like...well, you can figure it out. But nonetheless, it's very nice to have that particular chore done and taken care of for a while.
I'm hoping the weather is agreeable this week because I need to get out and get the garden beds cleaned out and taken care of. They've been on their own for some time now during the winter weather and it's time for me once again to go out and take charge of them. At least all the rain we've had will make the weeding process easier and that is always a plus in my book.
So that was my simple day. My baby gained another year and our chickens got their digs cleaned out. Sounds like a pretty good day to me.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Putting raw milk on your soil
I thought this article was very interesting. Just another reason to sing the praises of raw milk!
Finally, An article featuring the attributes/observations on applying raw milk to the soil.
Mon, 2010-03-08
"This article appeared in the March 10, 2010, issue of the Unterrified Democrat, a weekly newspaper published in Linn, Mo., since 1866. In addition to writing for the paper, Voss raises registered South Poll cattle on pathetically poor grass that he is trying desperately to improve.”
Nebraska dairyman applies raw milk to pastures and watches the grass grow
An Illinois steel-company executive turned Nebraska dairyman has stumbled onto an amazingly low-cost way to grow high-quality grass – and probably even crops – on depleted soil.
Can raw milk make grass grow? More specifically, can one application of three gallons of raw milk on an acre of land produce a large amount of grass?
The answer to both questions is yes.
Call it the Nebraska Plan or call it the raw milk strategy or call it downright amazing, but the fact is Nebraska dairyman David Wetzel is producing high-quality grass by applying raw milk to his fields and a Nebraska Extension agent has confirmed the dairyman’s accomplishments.
David Wetzel is not your ordinary dairyman, nor is Terry Gompert your ordinary Extension agent. Ten years ago Wetzel was winding up a five-year stint as the vice president of an Illinois steel company and felt the need to get out of the corporate rat race. At first he and his wife thought they would purchase a resort, but he then decided on a farm because he liked to work with his hands. The Wetzels bought a 320 acre farm in Page, Neb., in the northeast part of the state, and moved to the farm on New Year’s Day in 2000.
“We had to figure out what to do with the farm,” Wetzel said, “so we took a class from Terry Gompert.” They were advised to start a grass-based dairy and that’s what they did. “There’s no money in farming unless you’re huge,” Wetzel said, or unless the farmer develops specialty products, which is what they did.
In their business, the Wetzels used the fats in the milk and the skim milk was a waste product. “We had a lot of extra skim milk and we started dumping it on our fields,” Wetzel said. “At first we had a tank and drove it up and down the fields with the spout open. Later we borrowed a neighbor’s sprayer.”
Sometime in the winter of 2002 they had arranged to have some soil samples taken by a fertilizer company and on the day company employees arrived to do the sampling, it was 15 below zero. To their astonishment they discovered the probe went right into the soil in the fields where raw milk had been applied. In other fields the probe would not penetrate at all.
“I didn’t realize what we had,” Wetzel said. “I had an inkling something was going on and I thought it was probably the right thing to do.” For a number of years he continued to apply the milk the same way he had been doing, but in recent years he has had a local fertilizer company spray a mixture that includes liquid molasses and liquid fish, as well as raw milk. In addition he spreads 100 to 200 pounds of lime each year.
Gompert, the extension agent that suggested Wetzel start a grass-based dairy, had always been nearby – literally. The two are neighbors and talk frequently. It was in 2005 that Gompert, with the help of university soils specialist Charles Shapiro and weed specialist Stevan Kenzevic, conducted a test to determine the effectiveness of what Wetzel had been doing.
That the raw milk had a big impact on the pasture was never in doubt, according to Gompert. “You could see by both the color and the volume of the grass that there was a big increase in production.” In the test the raw milk was sprayed on at four different rates – 3, 5, 10 and 20 gallons per acre – on four separate tracts of land. At the 3-gallon rate 17 gallons of water were mixed with the milk, while the 20-gallon rate was straight milk. Surprisingly the test showed no difference between the 3-, 5-, 10- and 20-gallon rates.
The test began with the spraying of the milk in mid-May, with mid-April being a reasonable target date here in central Missouri. Forty-five days later the 16 plots were clipped and an extra 1200 pounds of grass on a dry matter basis were shown to have been grown on the treated versus non-treated land. That’s phenomenal, but possibly even more amazing is the fact the porosity of the soil – that is, the ability to absorb water and air – was found to have doubled.
So what’s going on? Gompert and Wetzel are both convinced what we have here is microbial action. “When raw milk is applied to land that has been abused, it feeds what is left of the microbes, plus it introduces microbes to the soil,” Wetzel explained, adding that “In my calculations it is much more profitable (to put milk on his pastures) than to sell to any co-op for the price they are paying.”
Wetzel’s Observations
Wetzel has been applying raw milk to his fields for 10 years, and during that time has made the following observations:
* Raw milk can be sprayed on the ground or the grass; either will work.
* Spraying milk on land causes grasshoppers to disappear. The theory is that insects do not bother healthy plants, which are defined by how much sugar is in the plants. Insects (including grasshoppers) do not have a pancreas so they cannot process sugar. Milk is a wonderful source of sugar and the grasshoppers cannot handle the sugar. They die or leave as fast as their little hoppers can take them.
* Theory why milk works. The air is 78% nitrogen. God did not put this in the air for us but rather the plants. Raw milk feeds microbes/bugs in the soil. What do microbes need for growth? Protein, sugar, water, heat. Raw milk has one of the most complete amino acid (protein) structures known in a food. Raw milk has one of the best sugar complexes known in a food, including the natural enzyme structure to utilize these sugars. For explosive microbe growth the microbes utilize vitamin B and enzymes. What do you give a cow when the cow’s rumen is not functioning on all cylinders (the microbes are not working)? Many will give a vitamin B shot (natural farmers will give a mouthful of raw milk yogurt). Vitamin B is a super duper microbe stimulant. There is not a food that is more potent in the complete vitamin B complex than raw milk (this complex is destroyed with pasteurization). Raw milk is one of the best sources for enzymes, which break down food into more usable forms for both plants and microbes. (Again, pasteurization destroys enzyme systems.)
* Sodium in the soil is reduced by half. I assume this reflects damage from chemicals is broken down/cleaned up by the microbes and or enzymes.
* If you choose to buy raw milk from a neighbor to spread on your land, consider offering the farmer double or triple what he is paid to sell to the local dairy plant. Reward the dairy farmer as this will start a conversation and stir the pot. The cost for the milk, even at double or triple the price of conventional marketing, is still a very cheap soil enhancer.
* Encourage all to use their imagination to grow the potential applications of raw milk in agriculture, horticulture and the like – even industrial uses – possibly waste water treatment.
Microbes
The purpose of this story is to convince farmers and livestock producers in this area to look into the possibility of using raw milk, compost tea, earthworm castings tea, liquid fish or sea minerals or some combination thereof to boost production at an affordable cost. It’s my experience that people in the Midwest are to a great extent unaware of the benefits of microbes. If the first part of this story has caught your attention and you intend to consider the use of raw milk or any of the other methods, you need to learn about microbes and the best way I have discovered is a book co-authored by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis, Teaming with Microbes.
In this story I cannot go into detail about microbes, the miniscule little critters that exist in abundance in good soil. There are four principal types of microbes – bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes. To get an example of their size, consider that there are a billion bacteria in one teaspoon of good soil. The role of microbes is to consume carbon, along with other minerals and nutrients, and these are stored in their cells until their ultimate release for use by plants. Microbes also store water, which make them drought-fighters as well.
I realize this is an inadequate description, but you need to read the book.
Brix
Brix is another concept that is not widely understood in the middle of the country. Brix is the measure of the sugar content of a plant (that’s an oversimplification but good enough for this article) and is measured by a device called a refractometer. If your grass has a brix of 1, that’s cause for nightmares. Our grass is routinely a 1. Clover and johnsongrass might on occasion measure 4 or 5 in the middle of the afternoon on a bright, sunny day. That’s deplorable for plants that should be double or triple that figure.
It’s not just our farm that has grass that’s not fit to feed livestock. I communicate frequently with three young cattlemen from this area – Jeremia Markway, Bruce Shanks and Chris Boeckmann – and they have the same problem. Last summer we were singing the blues over lunch and decided our refractometers must be broken. Someone came up with the idea of measuring sugar water. We tried it. Boom. The refractometer measured 26. Our equipment wasn’t broken, only our grass.
About three months ago Markway discovered a short article on what Wetzel and Gompert had been doing in Nebraska with raw milk. He emailed the article to me and that’s what got me to do this story. An interesting thing is what Markway discovered about the impact of raw milk on brix levels. He has a milk cow and took some of her milk, mixed with water and sprayed on his pastures with a small hand sprayer. Where he sprayed, the brix level of the grass was raised to a level of 10. That’s a great start and was good news to Wetzel and Gompert, who had not been measuring the brix levels of Wetzel’s grass.
Compost Tea
Raw milk is not the only thing that will improve soil. Compost tea is a liquid made by running compost through a “brewer,” a device somewhat akin to a fish tank, in that oxygen is added to the water containing the compost and this action flushes the microbes out of the compost into the water. The resulting liquid is a “tea” that can be sprayed on pastures and crops, to their great benefit.
Two men that make extensive use of compost tea are Mark Sturges and David Herringshaw. These two have never met and until recently had not even heard of each other.
Sturges lives in western Oregon near the coast and for 10 years has had a business spraying compost tea on vineyards, cranberry bogs, fruit and nut trees and pastures. Sturges adds malt extract, kelp and seas minerals to his tea, and if he is spraying pastures, he adds molasses to build the bacteria content.
Herringshaw lives in the near-desert southeast part of Oregon at an elevation of 4,100 feet. He uses compost tea on his own land and has the brix level of his pasture and hay ground up to 22. That’s tantamount to feeding corn. Herringshaw attributes the high brix to the compost tea and also sea minerals, which he applies at the same time. He uses nothing else.
I have seen the compost Sturges produces. It is so alive it literally moves. I have not seen the compost Herringshaw makes at the other end of the state. I can only imagine how good it might be. He fortifies it with raw milk.
Think for a second what Wetzel said about using your imagination to grow the applications for raw milk. Herringshaw has already used his imagination.
Earthworm Castings Tea
This tea is identical to compost tea except that worm poop is substituted for compost. Almost everyone thinks tea from earthworm castings is great stuff, and some even think this tea is superior to compost tea. Earthworm castings are known to suppress certain diseases of grass and some people think the use of castings might suppress harmful bacteria such as staph and E. coli.
There is a story going around that a university was having problems with athletes getting staph infections from burns sustained on grass practice fields and the university stopped applying chemicals to the grass and instead turned to worm castings and solved the problem. I spent two weeks trying to track down this story and at this point I don’t believe it is true. Maybe someone will prove me wrong.
I did, however, come across an interesting situation in St. Louis County, Mo., where the Parkway school district turned to earthworm castings in lieu of commercial fertilizer. The groundskeeper there is Matt Jenne, who prior to coming to St. Louis was a golf course superintendent in Florida. While working in Florida he noticed earthworms had built up their castings on the greens. They picked up the castings as part of cutting the grass, and then piled the grass-castings mixture and let it compost, after which they used it with great success on new grass and bare spots. To feed the life they had in the soil, they applied molasses once a month with their irrigation system.
When he got to St. Louis Jenne decided to go with worm castings on two football fields, applying between half a ton and a ton per field. The castings are applied dry and work best when the field has been aerated.
Jenne may have an explanation for the staph infection story. He says that artificial turf causes staph and the only way this can be controlled is to disinfect the artificial turf.
Here in Osage County earthworm castings are available at Eisterhold Brothers on U.S. 63 between Westphalia and Freeburg. Unfortunately they have decided to close their business when their current supply runs out.
Fish
Liquid fish or fish fertilizer is another product that has been successfully applied to pastures. Teddy Gentry, the founder of South Poll cattle, has been using a fish product for years and is pleased with the results. It seems especially beneficial in fighting the effects of a drought. Gentry mixes the fish with liquid calcium and is thinking about adding sea minerals to his mixture.
Sea Minerals
Sea minerals might be the best way to improve poor or depleted soils. We all know that a large deer in Iowa will weigh 100 pounds more than a large deer from that part of Missouri south of the Missouri River. Many people ascribe the difference to the mineral level of the soils. It’s difficult – if not impossible – to produce high-quality grass on soil that is no properly mineralized. It took Herringshaw years to get his grass to the 22 brix level and he is convinced he would not have gotten there without the seal minerals. Herringshaw prefers Redmond salt, while Sturges uses Sea-90. Sturges applies his sea minerals as a spray, along with compost tea. Herringshaw makes both dry and spray applications. He estimates he has broadcast approximately 85 pounds of Redmond salt per acre since he started using that product. This is in addition to what he has sprayed on. For both Sturges and Herringshaw a foliar application is one pound or less per acre.
Another individual that makes extensive use of sea minerals is Doug Gunnink of Gaylord, Minn. Gunnink produces high-brix grass for his grass-fed beef operation by the foliar application of liquid fish and sea minerals. He also tests his grass and adds those minerals that are in short supply in his pastures, whether boron, sulfur, copper or some other mineral.
Fish hydrolysate, Gunnink explained, is the entire fish ground up and then preserved with phosphoric or sulfuric acid. If the preservative is phosphoric acid, the phosphorus “bumps up the Brix,” he said, adding that “phosphorus gives grass power.” High-brix grass produces more organic matter, which in turn holds more water, Gunnink explained, stating that a 1% increase in organic matter will hold an additional 53,000 gallons of water per acre. “Organic matter is the sponge that holds water for dry spells.”
The organic matter also holds the nutrients that plants need.
Conventional Fertilizers
This story is not meant to be a war on conventional fertilizers. The late Dr. Maynard Murray, the pioneer that first advocated use of sea minerals, said there is a place for conventional N, P and K. We do, however, need to come up with better ways to use them. Bill Totemeier, a friend in southeast Iowa that is a commercial hay producer, uses ammonium sulfate rather than ammonium nitrate because the former is much more earthworm-friendly. He applies fertilizer two or three times per year in smaller amounts rather one large application in the spring. This reduces the shock to the microbes.
Houston-area rancher Tom McGrady spread ammonium sulfate on his ryegrass pasture in early March. In his area ammonium nitrate is no longer available. That may be a good thing.
For Row Crop Farmers
Row crop farmers can also benefit greatly from some of these practices. Lowenfels, who co-authored the book on microbes, urges anyone who uses herbicides or insecticides to soon thereafter apply compost tea to increase the microbe population that was probably greatly reduced by the chemical spray. Fish would also work in this situation.
For the busy grain guy, there are companies that make products ready to go into the sprayer. One such firm is AgriEnergy Resources. Mike Wyatt, an independent consultant that works with AgriEnergy, has helped me gain some insight into world of microbes.
Hunters
If you want bigger deer like you read about in Iowa and Illinois, the methods set out in this article should be used on your hunting land, especially the food plots. Animals are clearly attracted to plants that have been treated with sea salt. And they also choose high-brix plants over those with low brix levels.
My Experience
I know Terry Gompert personally. He’s the real deal. In 2007 he organized a high-stock-density grazing seminar in as remote an area of northeast Nebraska as you can find and attracted over 200 people. Included among that crew were Jeremia Markway and me. Based on my knowledge of and respect for Gompert and the results Markway experiences just down the road from us, why wouldn’t I be willing to try this? To me it’s a no-brainer. I’ve made arrangements to buy milk from Alfred Brandt, who lives just south of Linn, and Chamois MFA has agreed to spray 50 or 100 acres in mid-April. A 1,000 gallon tank containing 150 gallons of raw milk and 850 gallons of water will provide the perfect ratio of three gallons of milk and 17 gallons of water, which applied at the rate of 20 gallons per acre will cover 50 acres. I hope to get over at least 100 acres. Whether we include something with the milk – such as fish, molasses or earthworm casting tea – is a decision we haven’t made at this time.
We are also going to broadcast one ton of sea salt at a rate of 20 pounds per acre.
Conclusion
For years I’ve been a dung beetle fanatic, thinking that I needed dung beetles to build my soil. I’ve probably been wrong in this regard. I now think I need to build my soil and the dung beetles will come. Dr. James Nardi, in his classic work Life in the Soil, describes dung beetles as picky eaters. That may seem strange, but my experience convinces me his assessment is totally accurate. I hope – and I do believe this will happen – dung beetles will choose to come to our farm because we have upgraded the food supply.
Finally, An article featuring the attributes/observations on applying raw milk to the soil.
Mon, 2010-03-08
"This article appeared in the March 10, 2010, issue of the Unterrified Democrat, a weekly newspaper published in Linn, Mo., since 1866. In addition to writing for the paper, Voss raises registered South Poll cattle on pathetically poor grass that he is trying desperately to improve.”
Nebraska dairyman applies raw milk to pastures and watches the grass grow
An Illinois steel-company executive turned Nebraska dairyman has stumbled onto an amazingly low-cost way to grow high-quality grass – and probably even crops – on depleted soil.
Can raw milk make grass grow? More specifically, can one application of three gallons of raw milk on an acre of land produce a large amount of grass?
The answer to both questions is yes.
Call it the Nebraska Plan or call it the raw milk strategy or call it downright amazing, but the fact is Nebraska dairyman David Wetzel is producing high-quality grass by applying raw milk to his fields and a Nebraska Extension agent has confirmed the dairyman’s accomplishments.
David Wetzel is not your ordinary dairyman, nor is Terry Gompert your ordinary Extension agent. Ten years ago Wetzel was winding up a five-year stint as the vice president of an Illinois steel company and felt the need to get out of the corporate rat race. At first he and his wife thought they would purchase a resort, but he then decided on a farm because he liked to work with his hands. The Wetzels bought a 320 acre farm in Page, Neb., in the northeast part of the state, and moved to the farm on New Year’s Day in 2000.
“We had to figure out what to do with the farm,” Wetzel said, “so we took a class from Terry Gompert.” They were advised to start a grass-based dairy and that’s what they did. “There’s no money in farming unless you’re huge,” Wetzel said, or unless the farmer develops specialty products, which is what they did.
In their business, the Wetzels used the fats in the milk and the skim milk was a waste product. “We had a lot of extra skim milk and we started dumping it on our fields,” Wetzel said. “At first we had a tank and drove it up and down the fields with the spout open. Later we borrowed a neighbor’s sprayer.”
Sometime in the winter of 2002 they had arranged to have some soil samples taken by a fertilizer company and on the day company employees arrived to do the sampling, it was 15 below zero. To their astonishment they discovered the probe went right into the soil in the fields where raw milk had been applied. In other fields the probe would not penetrate at all.
“I didn’t realize what we had,” Wetzel said. “I had an inkling something was going on and I thought it was probably the right thing to do.” For a number of years he continued to apply the milk the same way he had been doing, but in recent years he has had a local fertilizer company spray a mixture that includes liquid molasses and liquid fish, as well as raw milk. In addition he spreads 100 to 200 pounds of lime each year.
Gompert, the extension agent that suggested Wetzel start a grass-based dairy, had always been nearby – literally. The two are neighbors and talk frequently. It was in 2005 that Gompert, with the help of university soils specialist Charles Shapiro and weed specialist Stevan Kenzevic, conducted a test to determine the effectiveness of what Wetzel had been doing.
That the raw milk had a big impact on the pasture was never in doubt, according to Gompert. “You could see by both the color and the volume of the grass that there was a big increase in production.” In the test the raw milk was sprayed on at four different rates – 3, 5, 10 and 20 gallons per acre – on four separate tracts of land. At the 3-gallon rate 17 gallons of water were mixed with the milk, while the 20-gallon rate was straight milk. Surprisingly the test showed no difference between the 3-, 5-, 10- and 20-gallon rates.
The test began with the spraying of the milk in mid-May, with mid-April being a reasonable target date here in central Missouri. Forty-five days later the 16 plots were clipped and an extra 1200 pounds of grass on a dry matter basis were shown to have been grown on the treated versus non-treated land. That’s phenomenal, but possibly even more amazing is the fact the porosity of the soil – that is, the ability to absorb water and air – was found to have doubled.
So what’s going on? Gompert and Wetzel are both convinced what we have here is microbial action. “When raw milk is applied to land that has been abused, it feeds what is left of the microbes, plus it introduces microbes to the soil,” Wetzel explained, adding that “In my calculations it is much more profitable (to put milk on his pastures) than to sell to any co-op for the price they are paying.”
Wetzel’s Observations
Wetzel has been applying raw milk to his fields for 10 years, and during that time has made the following observations:
* Raw milk can be sprayed on the ground or the grass; either will work.
* Spraying milk on land causes grasshoppers to disappear. The theory is that insects do not bother healthy plants, which are defined by how much sugar is in the plants. Insects (including grasshoppers) do not have a pancreas so they cannot process sugar. Milk is a wonderful source of sugar and the grasshoppers cannot handle the sugar. They die or leave as fast as their little hoppers can take them.
* Theory why milk works. The air is 78% nitrogen. God did not put this in the air for us but rather the plants. Raw milk feeds microbes/bugs in the soil. What do microbes need for growth? Protein, sugar, water, heat. Raw milk has one of the most complete amino acid (protein) structures known in a food. Raw milk has one of the best sugar complexes known in a food, including the natural enzyme structure to utilize these sugars. For explosive microbe growth the microbes utilize vitamin B and enzymes. What do you give a cow when the cow’s rumen is not functioning on all cylinders (the microbes are not working)? Many will give a vitamin B shot (natural farmers will give a mouthful of raw milk yogurt). Vitamin B is a super duper microbe stimulant. There is not a food that is more potent in the complete vitamin B complex than raw milk (this complex is destroyed with pasteurization). Raw milk is one of the best sources for enzymes, which break down food into more usable forms for both plants and microbes. (Again, pasteurization destroys enzyme systems.)
* Sodium in the soil is reduced by half. I assume this reflects damage from chemicals is broken down/cleaned up by the microbes and or enzymes.
* If you choose to buy raw milk from a neighbor to spread on your land, consider offering the farmer double or triple what he is paid to sell to the local dairy plant. Reward the dairy farmer as this will start a conversation and stir the pot. The cost for the milk, even at double or triple the price of conventional marketing, is still a very cheap soil enhancer.
* Encourage all to use their imagination to grow the potential applications of raw milk in agriculture, horticulture and the like – even industrial uses – possibly waste water treatment.
Microbes
The purpose of this story is to convince farmers and livestock producers in this area to look into the possibility of using raw milk, compost tea, earthworm castings tea, liquid fish or sea minerals or some combination thereof to boost production at an affordable cost. It’s my experience that people in the Midwest are to a great extent unaware of the benefits of microbes. If the first part of this story has caught your attention and you intend to consider the use of raw milk or any of the other methods, you need to learn about microbes and the best way I have discovered is a book co-authored by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis, Teaming with Microbes.
In this story I cannot go into detail about microbes, the miniscule little critters that exist in abundance in good soil. There are four principal types of microbes – bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes. To get an example of their size, consider that there are a billion bacteria in one teaspoon of good soil. The role of microbes is to consume carbon, along with other minerals and nutrients, and these are stored in their cells until their ultimate release for use by plants. Microbes also store water, which make them drought-fighters as well.
I realize this is an inadequate description, but you need to read the book.
Brix
Brix is another concept that is not widely understood in the middle of the country. Brix is the measure of the sugar content of a plant (that’s an oversimplification but good enough for this article) and is measured by a device called a refractometer. If your grass has a brix of 1, that’s cause for nightmares. Our grass is routinely a 1. Clover and johnsongrass might on occasion measure 4 or 5 in the middle of the afternoon on a bright, sunny day. That’s deplorable for plants that should be double or triple that figure.
It’s not just our farm that has grass that’s not fit to feed livestock. I communicate frequently with three young cattlemen from this area – Jeremia Markway, Bruce Shanks and Chris Boeckmann – and they have the same problem. Last summer we were singing the blues over lunch and decided our refractometers must be broken. Someone came up with the idea of measuring sugar water. We tried it. Boom. The refractometer measured 26. Our equipment wasn’t broken, only our grass.
About three months ago Markway discovered a short article on what Wetzel and Gompert had been doing in Nebraska with raw milk. He emailed the article to me and that’s what got me to do this story. An interesting thing is what Markway discovered about the impact of raw milk on brix levels. He has a milk cow and took some of her milk, mixed with water and sprayed on his pastures with a small hand sprayer. Where he sprayed, the brix level of the grass was raised to a level of 10. That’s a great start and was good news to Wetzel and Gompert, who had not been measuring the brix levels of Wetzel’s grass.
Compost Tea
Raw milk is not the only thing that will improve soil. Compost tea is a liquid made by running compost through a “brewer,” a device somewhat akin to a fish tank, in that oxygen is added to the water containing the compost and this action flushes the microbes out of the compost into the water. The resulting liquid is a “tea” that can be sprayed on pastures and crops, to their great benefit.
Two men that make extensive use of compost tea are Mark Sturges and David Herringshaw. These two have never met and until recently had not even heard of each other.
Sturges lives in western Oregon near the coast and for 10 years has had a business spraying compost tea on vineyards, cranberry bogs, fruit and nut trees and pastures. Sturges adds malt extract, kelp and seas minerals to his tea, and if he is spraying pastures, he adds molasses to build the bacteria content.
Herringshaw lives in the near-desert southeast part of Oregon at an elevation of 4,100 feet. He uses compost tea on his own land and has the brix level of his pasture and hay ground up to 22. That’s tantamount to feeding corn. Herringshaw attributes the high brix to the compost tea and also sea minerals, which he applies at the same time. He uses nothing else.
I have seen the compost Sturges produces. It is so alive it literally moves. I have not seen the compost Herringshaw makes at the other end of the state. I can only imagine how good it might be. He fortifies it with raw milk.
Think for a second what Wetzel said about using your imagination to grow the applications for raw milk. Herringshaw has already used his imagination.
Earthworm Castings Tea
This tea is identical to compost tea except that worm poop is substituted for compost. Almost everyone thinks tea from earthworm castings is great stuff, and some even think this tea is superior to compost tea. Earthworm castings are known to suppress certain diseases of grass and some people think the use of castings might suppress harmful bacteria such as staph and E. coli.
There is a story going around that a university was having problems with athletes getting staph infections from burns sustained on grass practice fields and the university stopped applying chemicals to the grass and instead turned to worm castings and solved the problem. I spent two weeks trying to track down this story and at this point I don’t believe it is true. Maybe someone will prove me wrong.
I did, however, come across an interesting situation in St. Louis County, Mo., where the Parkway school district turned to earthworm castings in lieu of commercial fertilizer. The groundskeeper there is Matt Jenne, who prior to coming to St. Louis was a golf course superintendent in Florida. While working in Florida he noticed earthworms had built up their castings on the greens. They picked up the castings as part of cutting the grass, and then piled the grass-castings mixture and let it compost, after which they used it with great success on new grass and bare spots. To feed the life they had in the soil, they applied molasses once a month with their irrigation system.
When he got to St. Louis Jenne decided to go with worm castings on two football fields, applying between half a ton and a ton per field. The castings are applied dry and work best when the field has been aerated.
Jenne may have an explanation for the staph infection story. He says that artificial turf causes staph and the only way this can be controlled is to disinfect the artificial turf.
Here in Osage County earthworm castings are available at Eisterhold Brothers on U.S. 63 between Westphalia and Freeburg. Unfortunately they have decided to close their business when their current supply runs out.
Fish
Liquid fish or fish fertilizer is another product that has been successfully applied to pastures. Teddy Gentry, the founder of South Poll cattle, has been using a fish product for years and is pleased with the results. It seems especially beneficial in fighting the effects of a drought. Gentry mixes the fish with liquid calcium and is thinking about adding sea minerals to his mixture.
Sea Minerals
Sea minerals might be the best way to improve poor or depleted soils. We all know that a large deer in Iowa will weigh 100 pounds more than a large deer from that part of Missouri south of the Missouri River. Many people ascribe the difference to the mineral level of the soils. It’s difficult – if not impossible – to produce high-quality grass on soil that is no properly mineralized. It took Herringshaw years to get his grass to the 22 brix level and he is convinced he would not have gotten there without the seal minerals. Herringshaw prefers Redmond salt, while Sturges uses Sea-90. Sturges applies his sea minerals as a spray, along with compost tea. Herringshaw makes both dry and spray applications. He estimates he has broadcast approximately 85 pounds of Redmond salt per acre since he started using that product. This is in addition to what he has sprayed on. For both Sturges and Herringshaw a foliar application is one pound or less per acre.
Another individual that makes extensive use of sea minerals is Doug Gunnink of Gaylord, Minn. Gunnink produces high-brix grass for his grass-fed beef operation by the foliar application of liquid fish and sea minerals. He also tests his grass and adds those minerals that are in short supply in his pastures, whether boron, sulfur, copper or some other mineral.
Fish hydrolysate, Gunnink explained, is the entire fish ground up and then preserved with phosphoric or sulfuric acid. If the preservative is phosphoric acid, the phosphorus “bumps up the Brix,” he said, adding that “phosphorus gives grass power.” High-brix grass produces more organic matter, which in turn holds more water, Gunnink explained, stating that a 1% increase in organic matter will hold an additional 53,000 gallons of water per acre. “Organic matter is the sponge that holds water for dry spells.”
The organic matter also holds the nutrients that plants need.
Conventional Fertilizers
This story is not meant to be a war on conventional fertilizers. The late Dr. Maynard Murray, the pioneer that first advocated use of sea minerals, said there is a place for conventional N, P and K. We do, however, need to come up with better ways to use them. Bill Totemeier, a friend in southeast Iowa that is a commercial hay producer, uses ammonium sulfate rather than ammonium nitrate because the former is much more earthworm-friendly. He applies fertilizer two or three times per year in smaller amounts rather one large application in the spring. This reduces the shock to the microbes.
Houston-area rancher Tom McGrady spread ammonium sulfate on his ryegrass pasture in early March. In his area ammonium nitrate is no longer available. That may be a good thing.
For Row Crop Farmers
Row crop farmers can also benefit greatly from some of these practices. Lowenfels, who co-authored the book on microbes, urges anyone who uses herbicides or insecticides to soon thereafter apply compost tea to increase the microbe population that was probably greatly reduced by the chemical spray. Fish would also work in this situation.
For the busy grain guy, there are companies that make products ready to go into the sprayer. One such firm is AgriEnergy Resources. Mike Wyatt, an independent consultant that works with AgriEnergy, has helped me gain some insight into world of microbes.
Hunters
If you want bigger deer like you read about in Iowa and Illinois, the methods set out in this article should be used on your hunting land, especially the food plots. Animals are clearly attracted to plants that have been treated with sea salt. And they also choose high-brix plants over those with low brix levels.
My Experience
I know Terry Gompert personally. He’s the real deal. In 2007 he organized a high-stock-density grazing seminar in as remote an area of northeast Nebraska as you can find and attracted over 200 people. Included among that crew were Jeremia Markway and me. Based on my knowledge of and respect for Gompert and the results Markway experiences just down the road from us, why wouldn’t I be willing to try this? To me it’s a no-brainer. I’ve made arrangements to buy milk from Alfred Brandt, who lives just south of Linn, and Chamois MFA has agreed to spray 50 or 100 acres in mid-April. A 1,000 gallon tank containing 150 gallons of raw milk and 850 gallons of water will provide the perfect ratio of three gallons of milk and 17 gallons of water, which applied at the rate of 20 gallons per acre will cover 50 acres. I hope to get over at least 100 acres. Whether we include something with the milk – such as fish, molasses or earthworm casting tea – is a decision we haven’t made at this time.
We are also going to broadcast one ton of sea salt at a rate of 20 pounds per acre.
Conclusion
For years I’ve been a dung beetle fanatic, thinking that I needed dung beetles to build my soil. I’ve probably been wrong in this regard. I now think I need to build my soil and the dung beetles will come. Dr. James Nardi, in his classic work Life in the Soil, describes dung beetles as picky eaters. That may seem strange, but my experience convinces me his assessment is totally accurate. I hope – and I do believe this will happen – dung beetles will choose to come to our farm because we have upgraded the food supply.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Soothing poison oak naturally
Last week I had, unfortunately, a raging case of poison oak. It was bad. Head to toe and no fun at all. I've still got the rash - that is now healing - all over me, but luckily the unending itching did end and all that's left is a bit of healing. But I took the opportunity to take some pictures of one of the things I did to get some relief so I could share it here with you all.
I made a soothing oil/poultice from the leaves of the plantain plant. You can make a poultice of sorts with the leaves of the plantain plant to sooth poison oak, ivy, or sumac.
There are a couple of different kinds of plantain that grow locally around here. The broad leaf and the thinner leaf which is sometimes referred to as "snakeweed."
This is the broadleaf, which is what I have growing in my yard.
The ones I have don't really grow very large so I wanted to get some of the bigger think leaf variety. There happens to be a large field right next to my church, so I took off with a couple of friends and we went plantain picking. I was able to not only get a large amount of leaves to make my oil, I also got one very large and mature thin leaf variety pulled up out of the ground and it is now living happily in my yard.
That's it sticking out of the bag there. :-) The neighbors probably wonder why I have a huge "weed" (to them) growing in my yard that we won't mow over, but I want this plant to stay big and healthy should I need to harvest from it again.
Now, on to the how-to. You want to take the leaves of the plant and tear them off. Wash them and then pat them dry. Now warm up some olive oil on the stove. *Do not get it too hot or it will break down the healing properties of the plant!* We're going for baby bottle warm here. (Yes, my counter is cluttered, but I've got approximately 4 feet of counter space to my name. So there ya go.) Now you want to put your leaves and some oil in the blender. I don't have a blender - it died at the hands of my son - so I use my processor. Works just fine.
You don't want to use too much oil. You want it clumpy, not runny. I also added the stalks of the leaves as you can see here. They have healing properties too and I was so miserable I wanted all that was coming to me. The stalks will make your finished product more fiberous - so if you're planning on eating it, just know that. Yes, you can put this mixture on pasta and eat it to get even more of it in your system.
This is what the finished product looks like. Store it in a lidded container at room temperature. When it's on, don't plan on moving around much. It's messy and you need to keep it on you until it dries and then reapply as many times as you feel it's needed. I sat down and covered myself and the chair in towels and put a thick layer over my arms, then covered that with flour sack towels. I also had it in my scalp really bad so I worked it into my scalp and then put my hair up in a towel to keep it here.
Now, what this is does help soothe. It gives some comfort. It is not a cure. The amount of help you get from it will depend on how bad you have the rash. I had it quite badly so this did help, but there was still discomfort. However, for 24-36 hours after I used this, I could tell a difference between the areas I treated it with and the areas I didn't. My arms and scalp were about to drive me crazy and after I used this, even though those places did still itch, they felt much better than my legs that I didn't treat and didn't have the rash as badly on for the next day and a half.
So, even though this is not a cure it is a comfort measure. And if you ever find yourself in a situation of having one of these rashes and you're not able to get drug store style help or you want something natural instead, this is good to know. When you're that miserable even a little bit of comfort sounds like a very good thing!
I made a soothing oil/poultice from the leaves of the plantain plant. You can make a poultice of sorts with the leaves of the plantain plant to sooth poison oak, ivy, or sumac.
There are a couple of different kinds of plantain that grow locally around here. The broad leaf and the thinner leaf which is sometimes referred to as "snakeweed."
This is the broadleaf, which is what I have growing in my yard.
The ones I have don't really grow very large so I wanted to get some of the bigger think leaf variety. There happens to be a large field right next to my church, so I took off with a couple of friends and we went plantain picking. I was able to not only get a large amount of leaves to make my oil, I also got one very large and mature thin leaf variety pulled up out of the ground and it is now living happily in my yard.
That's it sticking out of the bag there. :-) The neighbors probably wonder why I have a huge "weed" (to them) growing in my yard that we won't mow over, but I want this plant to stay big and healthy should I need to harvest from it again.
Now, on to the how-to. You want to take the leaves of the plant and tear them off. Wash them and then pat them dry. Now warm up some olive oil on the stove. *Do not get it too hot or it will break down the healing properties of the plant!* We're going for baby bottle warm here. (Yes, my counter is cluttered, but I've got approximately 4 feet of counter space to my name. So there ya go.) Now you want to put your leaves and some oil in the blender. I don't have a blender - it died at the hands of my son - so I use my processor. Works just fine.
You don't want to use too much oil. You want it clumpy, not runny. I also added the stalks of the leaves as you can see here. They have healing properties too and I was so miserable I wanted all that was coming to me. The stalks will make your finished product more fiberous - so if you're planning on eating it, just know that. Yes, you can put this mixture on pasta and eat it to get even more of it in your system.
This is what the finished product looks like. Store it in a lidded container at room temperature. When it's on, don't plan on moving around much. It's messy and you need to keep it on you until it dries and then reapply as many times as you feel it's needed. I sat down and covered myself and the chair in towels and put a thick layer over my arms, then covered that with flour sack towels. I also had it in my scalp really bad so I worked it into my scalp and then put my hair up in a towel to keep it here.
Now, what this is does help soothe. It gives some comfort. It is not a cure. The amount of help you get from it will depend on how bad you have the rash. I had it quite badly so this did help, but there was still discomfort. However, for 24-36 hours after I used this, I could tell a difference between the areas I treated it with and the areas I didn't. My arms and scalp were about to drive me crazy and after I used this, even though those places did still itch, they felt much better than my legs that I didn't treat and didn't have the rash as badly on for the next day and a half.
So, even though this is not a cure it is a comfort measure. And if you ever find yourself in a situation of having one of these rashes and you're not able to get drug store style help or you want something natural instead, this is good to know. When you're that miserable even a little bit of comfort sounds like a very good thing!
How does your garden grow?
I've got almost all of the garden put in. Just a few more seedlings left that I will have to figure out how to squeeze in there. Right now we have planted: several different heirloom varieties of tomatoes, potatoes, basil, leeks, strawberries, chives, lots of zucchini, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, pie pumkins, two different types of watermelon, blueberries, blackberries, a self pollinating apple tree, and a banana tree.
I'm quite pleased with how the garden is going thus far this year. I'm using some new (to me) organic soil amendments this year and I'm quite pleased with them. Of course, I have the rabbit hay and chicken poop but I'm also using "Mega Fish" and "Mega Sea." The Sea gets used on everything once a week and the Fish gets used every other week. I had heard that it makes things grow bigger and stronger and I have to say that, thus far, that is exactly what is happening! I'm a convert of these products most definitely! It's funny, when you're mixing up the Mega Sea into your water (I use rain water) it actually smells like the sea when you're at the beach! And the Mega Fish smells a bit like...well...fish, lol. But I don't care because I really like what I see it doing for my garden. I get these products from a Bulk Herb Store vendor.
I'm also fixing to start putting together my next order of chicks for meat. I'm trying to time it such that the week that the ones I have outside need to be slaughtered, the ones I will have in the brooder will need to be moved outside. I'm a bit nervous over the endevour as I already have 40 chickens outside and I'm fixing to order about 25 more, lol. But if things go like they should, the last 25 will be in the brooder and won't come out until the first set of 25 meat chickens are no longer in the yard. This is proving to be a very interesting summer, lol.
I'm quite pleased with how the garden is going thus far this year. I'm using some new (to me) organic soil amendments this year and I'm quite pleased with them. Of course, I have the rabbit hay and chicken poop but I'm also using "Mega Fish" and "Mega Sea." The Sea gets used on everything once a week and the Fish gets used every other week. I had heard that it makes things grow bigger and stronger and I have to say that, thus far, that is exactly what is happening! I'm a convert of these products most definitely! It's funny, when you're mixing up the Mega Sea into your water (I use rain water) it actually smells like the sea when you're at the beach! And the Mega Fish smells a bit like...well...fish, lol. But I don't care because I really like what I see it doing for my garden. I get these products from a Bulk Herb Store vendor.
I'm also fixing to start putting together my next order of chicks for meat. I'm trying to time it such that the week that the ones I have outside need to be slaughtered, the ones I will have in the brooder will need to be moved outside. I'm a bit nervous over the endevour as I already have 40 chickens outside and I'm fixing to order about 25 more, lol. But if things go like they should, the last 25 will be in the brooder and won't come out until the first set of 25 meat chickens are no longer in the yard. This is proving to be a very interesting summer, lol.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Doin's at our place
It seems that Mother Nature has enjoyed fretting me at every turn the past few weeks. I have only managed to get about one half of the gardens in because if we have not been having storms we have been having tornadoes and if we haven't been having tornadoes we've been having hail and...you get the picture. All has not been lost as in spite of having weather I have managed to get new berry bushes in, lettuce, spinach, leeks, basil, strawberries, and tomatoes in the ground. Still a good bit to go, but tis nice to at least have that much done. I also managed to get my 30 chicks out of the brooder and in a temporary enclosure outside. Temporary because 23 of them are meat birds and I'm not building an entire coop for critters that will only be with a us a short time. I built a lean-to against our out building. I must say, it has worked quite well even through the storms and tornadic weather.
Simple and basic, yes. But that is generally the way I do things and more often than not things work out to my favor. It's not shown in the picture but the whole thing is covered in bird netting. The lean to is covered in 4 layers of tarps. The dog house, which was sitting around not being used, is a second choice for shelter and where we put their food when it rains.
A third choice for shelter is my old composter. I heartily dislike this thing as a composter. Will never use it as one again. But it works great with some hay and chickens in it. This chicken run is not as much of a fortress as I have for my laying flock but in our area we have been blessed with a minimal amount of predators that are interested in chickens. To date, we have had no issues at all. We will be building a chicken tractor shortly for the 6 easter eggers and 1 dominique in this group and will pull them out to live in it. Then the only thing left is to let the meat birds age and fatten up at bit. As far as meat birds go, they are happy. I did, after all, promise them only one bad day in their life. Sounds a pretty good deal to me - we certainly don't get only one bad day!
So now, if I can only manage to get Mother Nature to stop dumping bucket of water atop my head and blowing twisters my way - I'll get the rest of the garden in!
Simple and basic, yes. But that is generally the way I do things and more often than not things work out to my favor. It's not shown in the picture but the whole thing is covered in bird netting. The lean to is covered in 4 layers of tarps. The dog house, which was sitting around not being used, is a second choice for shelter and where we put their food when it rains.
A third choice for shelter is my old composter. I heartily dislike this thing as a composter. Will never use it as one again. But it works great with some hay and chickens in it. This chicken run is not as much of a fortress as I have for my laying flock but in our area we have been blessed with a minimal amount of predators that are interested in chickens. To date, we have had no issues at all. We will be building a chicken tractor shortly for the 6 easter eggers and 1 dominique in this group and will pull them out to live in it. Then the only thing left is to let the meat birds age and fatten up at bit. As far as meat birds go, they are happy. I did, after all, promise them only one bad day in their life. Sounds a pretty good deal to me - we certainly don't get only one bad day!
So now, if I can only manage to get Mother Nature to stop dumping bucket of water atop my head and blowing twisters my way - I'll get the rest of the garden in!
Friday, April 29, 2011
A chosen, solitary life
I honestly don't know if I chose this life or if it chose me. It makes no difference I suppose as the things that matter deeply to me, aside from my family of course, is the clucking of chickens and the smell of fresh earth ready for planting. My days have a rhythm to them that is old...a rhythm that also belonged to generations before me. The sun comes up, there is feeding to do. It sets and I make certain all are garnered in safely. And in between - well, one never knows. It could be an injured child or rabbit, teaching my kids algebra and the baby chicks where "home" is...and is not, lol. It is gathering eggs, skimming cream off of fresh milk, and attending to seedlings as though they are babes.
I say this is a solitary life because the largest percentage of folks I know simply do not understand. Do not understand why I would want this when it is so different from the life that they so enjoy full of things that are supposed to make their life better. But from where I'm standing it looks like a whole lot of smoke and mirrors. Perhaps it's a beautiful house that somehow makes them feel important or like they have overcome something back in the recesses of their memory. But to me it looks like a monthly mortgage payment that is so big I could pay all my monthly bills with and still have money left over. I'm sure they would turn their nose up at my little clapboard house and say it's fine for someone else but they just couldn't live there. But to me, it's such a beautiful thing because it is mine - 100% lock, stock, and barrel paid for in cash. Truth be told, they don't own their mansion. Much the other way around. They are owned by it - and by the bank. I guess I don't understand them any better than they understand me. I would much rather be free.
So yes, whether I chose this life or if chose me...I don't really know. What I do know is that I am grateful and at peace with the choice.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Be it ever so humble...
I have spent my time since Thursday night with a crowd that gets aflutter at the thought of high heels and new handbags. (Sigh.) This afternoon my son and I escaped for a while and took off to a hunting/camping/wildlife supply store and when I walked through the door I had to laugh a bit, take a deep breath, and say, "Ahhh, now this is more like it." And it was - but twas still not home.
So now I am at the ready and will soon be leaving to go home. My tiny, humble, plain, and busy home. Tis where I belong.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Hamburger helper, homemade style
I like to have a few quick fix meals up my sleeve for busy nights or nights when I'm extra tired. But I don't like paying for the boxed meals and quite honestly, it would take two or three of them to feed my family supper. Even buying the Save A Lot brands, that' s not really cheap. So I looked on the boxes to find what spices were used in the different flavors and now I can make them myself.
Last night we made lasagna flavored homemade hamburger helper. Here's all you have to do to make it at home, from scratch ~ however, most ingredients are "eyeballed." I can't give you exact measurements of the spices but if you're used to cooking from scratch you shouldn't have any problems.
I make enough to equal at least two boxes worth. I started out by browning my meat in my skillet. I only used about 1/2 pound of meat though. I was able to stretch it by adding leftover rice from the night before - there was probably about 2 cups worth. Once that was cooked up I added about 2 3/4 cups of hot water and about 2 cups of egg noodles. Then come the spices and thickening agents. For lasagna hamburger helper, they are as follows:
* flour
* corn starch
* dried tomato (put through food processor)
* dried onion
* dried garlic
* cheese powder
Mix it all in, let it come to a boil and then simmer covered for about 15 minutes. Add in some shredded cheese, however much you like. That's all there is to it. We like to top it at the table with parmesan cheese.
If you don't know where to purchase cheese powder, I think you can order it from Honeyville Grains. If not, check out some of the other online bulk grocery stores. I know I've seen it on them before. I can get my cheese powder from the local Mennonite market.
My huge skillet was completely full but by the time they all ate and went back for seconds, it was completely empty. That's the appetites for growing kids and a grown man for you. But the end result was one well fed family and one backwoods momma who didn’t have to stand in the kitchen all evening. Well worth it in my book.
This post is linked to: Barn Hop #9
Last night we made lasagna flavored homemade hamburger helper. Here's all you have to do to make it at home, from scratch ~ however, most ingredients are "eyeballed." I can't give you exact measurements of the spices but if you're used to cooking from scratch you shouldn't have any problems.
I make enough to equal at least two boxes worth. I started out by browning my meat in my skillet. I only used about 1/2 pound of meat though. I was able to stretch it by adding leftover rice from the night before - there was probably about 2 cups worth. Once that was cooked up I added about 2 3/4 cups of hot water and about 2 cups of egg noodles. Then come the spices and thickening agents. For lasagna hamburger helper, they are as follows:
* flour
* corn starch
* dried tomato (put through food processor)
* dried onion
* dried garlic
* cheese powder
Mix it all in, let it come to a boil and then simmer covered for about 15 minutes. Add in some shredded cheese, however much you like. That's all there is to it. We like to top it at the table with parmesan cheese.
If you don't know where to purchase cheese powder, I think you can order it from Honeyville Grains. If not, check out some of the other online bulk grocery stores. I know I've seen it on them before. I can get my cheese powder from the local Mennonite market.
My huge skillet was completely full but by the time they all ate and went back for seconds, it was completely empty. That's the appetites for growing kids and a grown man for you. But the end result was one well fed family and one backwoods momma who didn’t have to stand in the kitchen all evening. Well worth it in my book.
This post is linked to: Barn Hop #9
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Not just for the critters
These are a couple of products we simply could not be without. You see that all purpose pet balm up there? It's the very same stuff as Bag Balm (yes, the stuff they use on cows, among other things.) There is another product marketed as a cracked heel cream that comes in a container much smaller than this one and it's more expensive. Very same stuff. And no, I didn't get it for our pets. Although if needed I would certainly use it on them! But for the most part, these products are for the humans in the house to use. When they say all purpose, they really do mean it. This stuff is great for minor cuts, burns, scrapes, rashes - you name it. Granted, it doesn't smell all that great - but it's not nasty either. It simply smells like...medicine. And if your cut up or burned, that's not so very bad a thing is it?
The other made-for-animals-but-used-by-people product I love is Mane'n'Tail shampoo. I've been using this stuff since I was a little girl. I guess you could say I grew up using it. It seems to work on all hair types and it does a really good job. I even know of one lady who I go to church with who has been having some issues with hair loss. She got started on the Mane'n'Tail and her hair is actually starting to thicken up!
Honestly, if you haven't tried these products, you really should give them a go. Don't be afraid to shop in the pet aisle or the feed store for products for yourself and your family!
*Linked to Farmgirl Friday at Verde Farm.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Day's End
It is day's end and I am ready to be abed. At this time of year I feel like I'm a runner just taking the first paces of a race that is long but knowing that the reward at the end is so great. So much to do - and yet a few months down the road the workload of this month will seem like child's play.
I have a spot where I let all of the rabbit hay collect all winter long and now it is full of dark rich compost ready for the garden. We started layering it in today. I'm going tomorrow to fill the back end of my pickup truck with dirt that will be mixed in with aged chicken poop and rabbit hay and it will simply be lovely. I also have the first sunburn of the season. Today I have put raised beds together, garnered a new egg customer, taken care of chickens, chicks, rabbits, and teenagers. We finished the day off with homemade potato salad and bbq chicken. Spring is here - tis a very good thing.
I have a spot where I let all of the rabbit hay collect all winter long and now it is full of dark rich compost ready for the garden. We started layering it in today. I'm going tomorrow to fill the back end of my pickup truck with dirt that will be mixed in with aged chicken poop and rabbit hay and it will simply be lovely. I also have the first sunburn of the season. Today I have put raised beds together, garnered a new egg customer, taken care of chickens, chicks, rabbits, and teenagers. We finished the day off with homemade potato salad and bbq chicken. Spring is here - tis a very good thing.
Volunteer seedlings
I split open pie pumkins a few times during the cold months and give them to my chickens. They love them. And keeping some variety in their diet during the dark and gray days helps keep pecking to a minimum. I noticed today that I have a few volunteer pie pumkins coming up. The chickens must have missed a few seeds. I gently dug them up and placed them egg shells until I find them a garden spot to move into.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Random snipets of my day
Today has been a pretty good day. No major hiccups over anything. Just a slow, steady rhythm carrying us along. I made a pork roast that turned out wonderful. Cooked slow with oranges and orange juice, garlic, salt, and pepper. I had the oranges laying on top of it during cooking.
Here it is after I pulled it...
I wanted to take some pictures of the chicks now that they are growing and going through their awkward stage. It was quite funny as the flash on the camera totally freaked them out. The picture took at just the right instant to show this little guy in mid-startle.
How funny is that? But with the next picture, they were wise to the ways of the camera.
My favorite lil easter egger...
Love those puffy cheeks! But now tis tired of posing and decided to protest.
All are safely gathered in now for day's end. Goodnight all ~~
*Linking to: Homestead Revival Blog Hop #8
Here it is after I pulled it...
I wanted to take some pictures of the chicks now that they are growing and going through their awkward stage. It was quite funny as the flash on the camera totally freaked them out. The picture took at just the right instant to show this little guy in mid-startle.
How funny is that? But with the next picture, they were wise to the ways of the camera.
My favorite lil easter egger...
Love those puffy cheeks! But now tis tired of posing and decided to protest.
All are safely gathered in now for day's end. Goodnight all ~~
*Linking to: Homestead Revival Blog Hop #8
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Mission Accomplished
I am tired. I have been running around since yesterday working on stocking up, getting supplies, and finding my son the clothing he needs for his speech later this month. He and I went to the city yesterday and headed to the mall (ick) first to try (hope, pray) that I could find him a suit coat at a reasonable price. He really doesn't have any need for such things here where we live. Going to church requires neat and clean. Dressing up for him usually consists of a pair of khakis and a polo. But he has to have a sport coat to go with his khakis for participating in the speech convention.
And I would just like to say, the prices they charge for those things are absolutely obscene. Obscene. I knew it was a long shot, but I wanted to spend no more than $50 or $60. And that's it. So, we get to our first store. I started at what I thought would be the most reasonably priced store in the mall. Hah. We found the suit/sport coats and they wanted $175! Do you know what I could do with $175? Certainly not buying one piece of clothing that will probably only be worn once by a boy who is growing fast and won't fit in it next year at convention time. At this point, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I was wondering if perhaps we could just borrow one from someone we know. But I told my son that we should keep looking and go to another store. We went into store #2 and........BINGO!! $150 sport coats on sale for $60! Perfect. Total score.
I then went to the bulk food store and did some stocking up. I went back out today and did some more. I added everything from shoelaces to canned goods to supplies for building chicken coops to my preps. Got 16 more heirloom tomato seedlings to add to the garden. And now I rest. Tis time to stay home. Much better.
And I would just like to say, the prices they charge for those things are absolutely obscene. Obscene. I knew it was a long shot, but I wanted to spend no more than $50 or $60. And that's it. So, we get to our first store. I started at what I thought would be the most reasonably priced store in the mall. Hah. We found the suit/sport coats and they wanted $175! Do you know what I could do with $175? Certainly not buying one piece of clothing that will probably only be worn once by a boy who is growing fast and won't fit in it next year at convention time. At this point, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I was wondering if perhaps we could just borrow one from someone we know. But I told my son that we should keep looking and go to another store. We went into store #2 and........BINGO!! $150 sport coats on sale for $60! Perfect. Total score.
I then went to the bulk food store and did some stocking up. I went back out today and did some more. I added everything from shoelaces to canned goods to supplies for building chicken coops to my preps. Got 16 more heirloom tomato seedlings to add to the garden. And now I rest. Tis time to stay home. Much better.
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