Farm Fresh Eggs, Raw Local Honey and Essential Oils for Excellent Health!

You all know I'm all about keeping bees, chickens and milk goats, I'm all about all-natural, heirloom, home-made, do-it-yourself, make-it-yourself, grow-it-yourself, local-made, small-business, let's-keep-our-own-power-and-not-give-it-away, etc.etc.etc. In that spirit, I've been using essential oils for several years now, I make the vast majority of my home-cleaning and personal care products myself, and essential oils are a big part of those recipes. I'd tried several different brands of essential oils, and they all worked pretty much the same, and I thought that's just how well they all worked-NOT so! When I started using the Young Living brand of oils, I immediately saw a big, big difference in the way all my products performed...but what really blew my mind was how amazingly they perform as Over The Counter medications!

 

I have chronic pain in my neck and shoulder area from herniated discs (horse-wreck, car-wreck, snowmachine-wreck, who knows how it happened lol!) I've gone to chiropractors, masseuses, and taken all kinds of OTC's for the pain and stiffness-and it all helped, some. THEN I got my oils and starting rubbing PanAway on my neck every day...the oils work just a few minutes after contact, and I had temporary relief from the pain and stiffness right away. I started using it every night before bed, and it continued to feel better every day...then I ran out of my PanAway oil and didn't use any oils on my neck...in just a few days my neck was as stiff and sore as ever-I panicked because it was still several days before my next order of PanAway oil was scheduled to arrive, so I did a little research on the oils and started using Valor on my neck every night-and viola! my neck is way better again! Is my neck 100% better? Does it feel like I'm in my 20's again? Can I look completely over my right shoulder? No, but it is at least 80% better-I don't wake up in the middle of the night with my neck aching because I've slept 'wrong', I don't have to take Aleve during the day because my neck is hurting, I don't have a band of pain from my neck to my hip 24/7/365...yes ma'am, I'll take it!

The next thing the oils did that blew my mind was saving the life of one of my chickens! I had a chicken that had been a little listless and peaked looking for a few weeks...nothing serious, no sign of what might be wrong with her, but just not herself-then she took a turn for the worse and within two days, I knew I had a 'dead chicken walking'. I don't know what it is that happens, but I've had several chickens die with the same kind of symptoms over the past 3.5 years...nothing I've ever tried has made any difference once they get that 'dead chicken walking' look. So, since I figured we had nothing to lose, we put her in a little kennel by herself in the mud-room, and I dosed her water with a couple of drops of Thieves and Purification in her water-she rallied right away, and in a few days was laying eggs again!

 

Of course, I won't doctor my chickens, or any of my animals with anything I wouldn't use on myself-and I definitely wouldn't ingest any non-food grade substances-not only are the Young Living oils food grade, they are Therapeutic grade oils, which is HUGE...that's why the huge difference between the Young Living oils all the other oils I've used...

And here's another thing that sold me on these oils-their philosophy. "Anything that goes on your body should be safe enough to go in your body."                                        AND                                             "There should never be an exchange. For instance, you should not have to take something for your heart that destroys your liver."                      YES and YES!

 
One of my personal goals is to replace my medicine cabinet OTC's with essential oils...after 6 weeks of using the oils, I can honestly tell you I haven't reached for an OTC yet! I'm sure we all know that OTC's are not-so-good to really-bad for us...but we also know that if something's hurting, we're not gonna care about long term liver damage, etc in that moment, we just want the thing to go AWAY, so we pop an OTC-with the oils, you don't have to make the choice between long-term health and being pain-free right now!

Over the past 3.5 years I've created  (with MUCH help and support from Giant of course) a small business to sell what I personally am passionate about and  believe in; pure, local honey from our beehives, farm-fresh eggs laid by our free-range hens, our adorable dairy goats for milking; things that are good for our health and our earth!

 

 

SO,

 after a lot of thought and research, I've decided to add selling the Young Living oils to my Kindred Spirits Farm business. I'm so into these oils and what they can do for everyone, there are so so many positives and virtually no negatives-just like pure, fresh honey, eggs and milk, that's how good I feel about these oils! Email me, message me, Facebook me, call me, skywrite, passenger pigeon, whichever way you want to get in touch with me if you have any questions at all, I'm happy to talk about any of my pet projects all day long long lol! Until next time, here's to our health, and happytrails!

WordlessWednesday-rainbow brite

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch; Part XLVIII

 It is finally, finally time to get the garden going! We put in seeds last week, and will put bedding plants in Memorial Day-you never know, it could still frost around here! Love this pic, it looks like Rusty the Horse is trying to give Giant a kiss...he's been lonely out there by himself all winter lol!

And wonder of wonders, our asparagus is coming up! I've never tried to grow asparagus before, and I really didn't believe that tiny bit of grassy looking stuff could survive through the winter and come back! I'm so excited to eat asparagus from our garden! I know this probably looks a little pitiful to you peeps that live in more temperate climates, but at 7000 feet, this is what spring looks like...I'm just glad there's not snow on the ground while we're putting seeds in lol!

My non-maternity ward group of goats got out of their pen the other day...I busted them hanging around down at the North 40 chicken coops...

and now they've seen me standing on the deck taking pictures of them...

they'll either do one of two things now...they'll either panic and run back to their pen, or they'll run towards me for food, it's anyone's guess-what will they do?



Dolly, who will always be a bottle baby in her own head, and thinks that maybe, just maybe, this time she'll get to have another bottle leads the charge with Baby Holly close on her heels!

Dolly is making her 'maaa-maaa-maaa' sounds the whole time, and looking at me just begging for a bottle-it's really cute, but not cute enough to give her a bottle lol!

 

So she decides to eat the tree instead...which is one of the very reasons that goats have to be in a pen instead of left out to do as they please lol!

This picture is kind of like a Bev Doolittle painting...only not. lol! Until next time, happytrails!

 

 

 

Quote of the Week

"My friends are my estate."       Emily Dickinson

Come On In and Set a Spell Fowl Doings

W found these tiny little bantam eggs in the hay manger in the barn, so cute!

 

These are the 4 bantams left from Broody's last hatch...until just the other day, we thought there were only 3 of them, one of the hens has been missing for quite a while, and she just showed up out of the blue the other day-I'm guessing she's been somewhere brooding...

 

When they're not roosting in the rafters of the barn, the bantams hang around the back of the barn with the goats, or on the side of the barn where we've got extra equipment stored-see kind of in front of the tire on the right? Yep, that's our little ermine friend in his brown summer clothes...I'm guessing this is where the little hen has been brooding...and also might be why she's not brooding anymore-if this guy found her eggs, he'd eat them for sure!

There, I cropped it down so you can see him better...yeah, I'm thinking he might be responsible for the little bantam hen's return to GenPop!

In other chicken news, this crazy black chicken that was at death's door a few weeks ago continues to improve-I thought she was a goner for sure, so I brought her up from the barn flock and doctored her with some of my YL essential oil-Thieves and Purification, a couple drops of each in her water...and in 2 days time, she was like a different chicken! I can't believe that not only did she NOT die, she's already laying eggs again!!! That stuff is miraculous I tell you! I'm going to put half a dozen drops in everyone's water just to help them shake off any chicken issues they may have developed over the winter and make sure everyone is at optimal health...hey, it works for me and Giant, why not the chickens too? The more I use these oils, the more I lovelovelove them!

So last weekend we're working in the garden, coming and going in and out of the house...I noticed Ozzie was pretty nosy about what was going on inside the house, so I decided to just leave the door open, and see what happened...

He not only invited himself right in...

He invited Archimedes right in too!

They proceeded to stomp right in on their fuzzy feather feet (which they didn't even bother to wipe on the mat before they came in!) and check out the entire house...

I happened to be getting eggs ready to take to the market where I sell them; Archimedes was quite interested in that procedure and wanted to know what happened to her eggs-I told her that her eggs are so special I don't sell them at all, we keep them for ourselves...she seemed pleased, but who really knows with chickens?

Gus was only a little nonplussed at the situation, Orchid who is afraid of the Bantams was hiding between my legs the entire time, and NOT happy with the prospect that now those scary chickens might start living inside the house!

Archimedes had  good long look at all the décor-she didn't say anything, but somehow, I felt judged...

Gus growled at Archimedes a little, and she was all like 'Oh no you DIDn't'...Gus didn't growl at her again lol!

I asked them if they'd mind staying on the wood floor and not coming in on the carpet, because, well you know, chickens are proponents of 'when ya gotta go, you gotta go'...

Apparently Ozzie took offense, because he spun around on his little feathered feet, and said 'come on Archimedes, we are OUTTA here'

If your feet are ever covered in feathers, just try to remember that stomping away angrily on your big feathered feet just looks silly and cute, and you may get laughed at, injuring your dignity even further...

They weren't quite so put out that they didn't stop and have a few bites of dog food on their way out the door though...

But once they were done with their little dog food snack, they were like 'yeah, we're outta here lady!'

And out they stomped on their silly feathered feet. Next time you entertain chickens in your home, make sure you don't offend them by not letting them on the carpeted areas of the house...also some dirt to scratch in and some corn scattered around would probably be nice touches to make your guests feel more at home...until next time, happy entertaining, and happytrails!

2013 Week by Week-weeks 16 & 17

Weeks 16 and 17 are done and April is finished and in the books! Love to see the whole months worth of photos, ephemera and memories bursting out of their folders!

For this layout, I stacked 3 photos on the right hand side of the page and made a photo strip of Orchid's new trick on the left hand side. The photo strip lifts up, and the journaling is written underneath, journaling reads: 1. Kyle and Orchid's circus trick-Orchid is supposed to jump through Kyles legs for the treat... 2. But Orchid is too fat to jump thru and she gets high-centered lol! She is very food motivated (her little tongue is sticking out in anticipation) so she perseveres! 3. Almost thru! She's so close to the treat she can almost taste it! 4. Ta-Da! The Big Finish! Wild Applause! I added fringe to the side of the photo strip, and a Heidi Swapp Mistables banner topped with a vintage paper banner for the top of the layout.

I used label style washi tape and alpha stamps to make the title "Take Your Tiny to Work Day"  An arrow points to a Tim Holtz label on the photo of Kyle which reads 'bossman' and I wrote 'you are not the boss of me' on the bottom of the photo lol! Arrows and labels also point to Baby Pistol and his Baby Daddy Winston. Journaling is in the envelope under the photo of Pistol and reads: "I had a Dr's. appt about 20 minutes from Kyle's office, so I just went into his office with him and hung out til it was time for my appt. We stopped at the Coffee Cabin in Parker for coffee (Kyle) and Chai Tea (Me)-I felt so grown up lol! I also got to experience the killer traffic Giant has to deal with twice a day, five days a week, poor guy...I hope he knows that I appreciate how hard he works! We went back to his office for a while after my appt so he could get some more work done. We left early, about 2:30 and as we were leaving we started hearing the first news about the Boston Marathon Bombing-so horrible and scary! When we got home though Lola had a baby boy, Pistol! I always worry about Lola having babies because she's so little-she is bigger than I ever thought she'd get, but is still small-I think that's why she always just has one baby when the N.D. norm is 2 or 3. Anyway, he'd been born for a while before we got home-full, round tummy and playing with the other kids. I said 'what a little pistol you are' and it stuck! It snowed again on Tuesday and got really cold...again! Glad for the moisture, but ready for it to come in rain form! We were both pretty sore after our first yoga, but stuck with it this week-we're getting more limber! I made shrimp Pad Thai and it was a big hit with Giant! Weekend was a little chilly and breezy, cleaned the mud-room, picked Maya up from Drivers Ed on Saturday, great week!

Got some excellent photos when it was nice over the weekend, so I let those be the star of this layout! I added a small piece of leftover floral paper, vintage sheet music and a quote torn from a magazine for the title-quote reads' few occupations accommodate the sweet rhythm of farm life: sweat in the summer ad rejuvenation in the winter.' Photo corners, a sticker and a piece of ephemera finish this layout.

I layered a stamped tag and a doily under a photo of Kyle and I with the Yorkies, and me ade a mini book out of a long envelope and leftover patterned papers for the bottom of the layout. Post-it tape (love!) and a Mistables bunting banner on the side of the layout. Journaling is in the envelope and reads: 'It snowed again earlier this week-surprise surprise lol! It warmed up and was beautiful over the weekend though, so we cleaned out the maternity ward and put fresh straw in. We took off the front panel and Kyle scraped it out with the Bobcat. I babysat the baby goats and made sure they didn't go in the barn-I was afraid they'd get run over by the Bobcat-while he scraped out the inside. When he was all done we had a little trouble getting the panel back on, so I got to operate the Bobcat while Giant used his superior height to attach the panel at the top. We caught the sick black chicken and put her in a small kennel and brought her to the mud room. I'm going to treat her with Thieves oil and see if that helps her-can't hurt, because I think she's at death's door now. Hung out on Sunday, did our yoga, took a walk, and had brunch and Bloody Mary's...excellent!

Here's the mini book open. I just folded the leftover pieces of paper together and poked holes into the fold and threaded some butchers twine through to make the book, then glued a photo on each side of each piece of paper-I added a dozen more pics of the baby goats to it-part of the reason I started doing the weekly scrapbook project was to use some of the pics I take, and I still can't use 'em all lol!

For the April folder, I just did some stamping and added a pic of a woman arranging tulips I tore out of a magazine. The Earth Day strip is from the plastic cone around a bunch of flowers I bought, I cut the word strip out and glued it on, I thought it was apropos for April!

The inside cover has a pic of daffodils in the snow I took earlier in the month with a story about spring flowers I got out of the Farmers Almanac and copied onto a transparency, along with a little bunting banner and more Post-it tape. The image on the right side says 'I live in a madhouse ruled by a tiny army that I made myself' that I saw on Facebook and printed out-It made me laugh because it's SO true...chickens, goats, Yorkies, etcetcetc are all the boss of me lol!

And last but not least a photo of adorable Holly on the back of the file folder with an 'arrow' that came off of a dress I bought, with some stamping and a chipboard butterfly to finish it off! Until next time, happy scrapbooking and happytrails!

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch; Part XLVII

Yep, that's right, we celebrated May Day with a snow shower in my neck of the woods! I know we need the moisture, and I'm glad to have it...but rain is moisture too lol!

I did get some pretty cool pix though (har, pun intended lol!) these pretty deer were beside the road picking through the snow to eat the green grass when I went to town...

 

and the fog crept in on little cat feet with the sunrise the next morning...we don't get a lot of fog here and I love when we do!

We got a couple of inches of snow, which was all melted by the end of the next day...

 

and then we got rain, hooray! When I was growing up, it seemed like every summer day it would start clouding up in the late morning, rain for a little while, then clear off in the afternoon-it was awesome, hoping we have a summer like that this year!

We started getting the garden ready for planting-you can't safely plant seeds before Mothers Day or bedding plants before Memorial Day here...

Giant brought chicken poop up from the coop and spread it on top of the soil...

and the chickens helped work it in to the soil-chickens really are worth their weight in gold lol! I didn't notice when I took this pic...but see Gus in the background? Looks like he's coming from the Chicken Little's coop, which is a serious no-no! No dogs allowed in chicken coops!

The baby goats are growing like crazy-they've been out enjoying the beautiful weather. Legacy is the goat in the front part of the picture-see how she's looking?

That's because she sees poor Beetle just wandering by and went and butted him-I just missed getting that pic, darn it! Anyway, poor Beetle wouldn't ever even dream of doing anything at all to one of the goats, but Legacy is NOT having it, and makes him go clear away from the babies...

Goats are complete grain junkies, so it's easy to get them to go where you want them...when it's time to put them back in the maternity ward, you just shake a little grain in a can, and they come running!

All except for little Pistol, who got confused, and kept going back to where he last saw his Mama Lola, even though she was calling and calling him-she wasn't about to go get him though, because that would mean leaving the grain can lol!

He finally got it figured out though, and was reunite with Lola-he was crying 'maaa-maaa-maaa' as soon as he saw her and kept crying the whole time he was running to her-SO SO cute!!! 

I love this picture that Giant took of our sweet mare Etta and the chickens hanging together...       Until next time, happytrails!