Homemade Facial Scrub

Ingredients
1 Lemon
1 dish of organic yogurt
Salt

(they didn’t provide specific measurements, so play around with them)

Best to use when you first get out of a warm shower due to all pores being open.

Homemade Facial Mask (anti-aging)

Ingredients
6 tsp of Evening Primrose Oil
1 tsp of melted honey (still warm)
2 drops of neroli essential oil
2 drops of mandarine essential oil
2 drops of orange essential oil
Enough Ground Almond to make a smooth paste (about two teaspoons)

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, add enough ground almond to make a smooth paste, and apply as needed. Leave on for at least 20 minutes, rinse with warm water.

My weekend was spent being productive. I love the feeling of completing tasks and getting them out of the way. It’s almost addicting, and often problematic, mainly because I will disappoint myself if I do not finish all the tasks I set for myself.

So I am learning that smaller daily and weekly todo lists are most beneficial.

My father picked up some more baby keets (baby guinea hens) on Saturday. We had a bunch about a year and a half ago, but something carried most of them off. I will probably have my father pick up a few more next weekend, and a few extras to donate to Highland Farms if I can afford it.

Incidentally, and since this was recently brought up on not only the naturalliving livejournal community, but also the naturalists guild for ADF, but guinea hens are by far the best tick preventative available, as it is their main meal course. At first our neighbors were fairly uninterested in our guineas, and sometimes even upset that they were running around their yard. But once they realized they hadn’t seen a tick all summer, they all now enjoy the company of our feathered friends.

Article Here.

Slowly I run away from meat even more.

I picked up a canister of Dead Sea Salt for the little patch on my knee, and because Dead Sea Salt and Sunlight are the two highest recommended natural treatments for this little condition I’ve come across.

Little did I realize that it was putting salt in an open sore. But after several dips into the salty water, the pain became more tolerable. The skin already feels much softer and less agitated. So I will try this for a few more weeks.

The instructions said I should put 2lb of salt into a bathtub and soak for 20 minutes, and to do this 3 times a week. No way. Too expensive. Not to mention mine is a minor case, and I feel sorry for anyone else that has this in various places.

My dearest friend Melissa, who I’ve known for probably 4 years or so now, has a recipe for what is called the “Devil’s Smoothie”. This is a smoothie designed to battle the onslaught of an upcoming cold. And since I am currently coming down with a cold, I thought I’d share her post on the Devil’s Smoothie (note, pictures and such are on her post, I’m just repeating the recipe itself)
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I had an appointment today to see a skin specialist regarding a problem I’ve been having on the same knee that I tore the ligament in (which, btw, is doing VERY well). I showed up on time for my appointment, because they had mailed me the paperwork 2 months ago when I made the appointment, so I could submit it early. Which I was happy to do, because I remember when I worked at the Vet and we had new patients show up on time for their appointments, but didn’t realize they needed 15 minutes to prepare new patient paperwork.

But they lost the paperwork. So I had to fill it out again anyway.

When the doctor came in, he took a very brief glance at my knee, and by brief I mean I pulled my leg up, he took all of 1 second to look at it and immediately said he knew what it was and how to treat. I had enough time to ask a question or two, such as what causes it, to which he replied that no one knows. And he made sure to mention that it dates back as far as the bible, and our first hints to the problem were in the “bible.” By this time I noticed he kept staring at a necklace I was wearing and seemed very cold towards me. It wasn’t anything overly questionable, it was a yak bone necklace shaped like a claw with some Tibetan writing carved into one side and a skeletal fish on the other.

After he wrote a few things on my chart, he handed my folder to me with a prescription and got up and left. I made a joking comment about that being the fastest visit I’ve ever been on, and he mumbled something as he walked away from me and into his next appointment. I felt fairly put off, but didn’t really care, I just wanted to know what it was so I could figure out how to treat it. He prescribed Olux E Foam, but I don’t intend to fill it just yet. I want to see what I can do on my own now that I know what it is.

Luckily my case is very mild, is only on my knee, and just looks like a callous.

From the intarweb:

Psoriasis is a non-contagious skin condition that shows itself through patches of red areas or silvery scales that appear on the legs, knees, arms, elbows, scalp, ears, and back. Toes and fingernails can also be affected by losing their shine and developing ridges and pits. This condition is linked to rapid growth of the outer layer of skin, and is often hereditary. The growths of skin cells never mature and go through an entire growth cycle, leaving patchy, scaly, immature areas of the skin. The affected area tends to spread. The condition is characterized by a series of flare-ups and remissions, and usually strikes between the ages of 15 and 25. It can be triggered by anything that can inflame the skin; stress, illness, sunburn or any kind of laceration of the skin (like cuts, injury, or surgery) as well as poison ivy or bacterial infection. Although the underlying cause is not known, it is known that an unhealthy immune system plays a role in psoriasis, as well as a possible faulty utilization of fat. Toxins in the colon can also aid in psoriasis development. There are many natural ways that can aid in preventing and controlling psoriasis.

Here are a few:

Natural Treatments
EMU Oil
Castor Oil
Sunlight and Sea Water (Dead Sea is preferable) most recommended
Avocado Oil
Cashew nut oil
Buttermilk
Vitamin E
Goldenseal Extract (alcohol free)
Ginger Bath
Hot Epsom Salt Bath (goes with the sea water affect I imagine)
Mudpacks to absorb toxins
Cabbage Leaves compresses
Lecithin
Aloe Vera gel and garlic oil
Cashew nut oil
Wheat germ oil and castor oil
2 drops of calendula oil and one drop of oregano oil to one small cup of olive oil.
Marigold lotion - Boil 4 marigold heads in 4 cups of water for two minutes. Allow it to cool and then apply it on the affected area. Add lemon juice or cider vinegar to the rinsing water for a thorough wash.

Ayurvedic Supplements / applications
Neem Guard
Liverol Strong
Neem ka Tail (Oil)
Chalmungra Oil (Tubrak)

As posted by: Treehugger

Babies can be one of the most contributing factors to waste in landfills, just from disposable diaper usage. Every baby will use approximately 6,000 diapers in their lifetime, and compare that to the amount of babies that are born every day.

Treehugger.com provides a very good list of things you can do in order to lighten your babies footprints on the earth. They’ll thank you.
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Farming is definitely a full-time job. You don’t realize it until you’re the one doing all the work everyday after getting home from an 8 hour office job. It’s more than just feeding and watering the animals, which in itself takes a hefty amount of time when you have 80 chickens, 50 rabbits, etc, but everything else combined. Fixing broken cages, keeping up with the health of your animals, keeping the babies warm.

I gathered 6 dozen eggs this morning. That’s a lot of goddamn eggs.

Trying to do this while fumbling around in the dark is not the best scenario either. And none of this is counting the crop portion of farming, and we don’t even have a big place.

At the very least, it puts things into perspective when I do eventually have the ranch that I want with the animals and crops that I’d like to have. What amount of time am I going to need to take care of that and make an income? Will I have to be a housewife in order to make sure everything is done that needs to be? What happens if kids are thrown into the picture? Kids are a full-time job in itself.

But for now it’s fun.