Walk Beside Me

   It's been busy here on the homestead! The chickens, ducks and goats are growing and doing well. Today, we clean the coops again and work on shearing the goats and adding a divider into the got shed to separate bottomless pits and feed bags. Our oldest goat, a yearling, is at a different farm being bred to a handsome buck. In September or October we will have our first kidding! We are all very excited! We have multiple seedlings in the garden and spring has finally decided to join us.    I wanted to give an update on our Daisy duck. Daisy was attacked by one (or more) of our chickens and had a pretty bad pecking injury on her wing and on her side. We used a combination of honey, lavender and frankincense EO and blue food coloring. It took some time to heal her injuries. We ended up applying the honey mixture five times. Sunny healed with one application of it. Her injuries were localized at her wing. Her flight feather was broken but Daisy had the more severe of the injuries. I

    It is easy to get overwhelmed with cleaning day in and day out on a homestead but it doesn't have to be. Arming yourself with the basic natural products will reduce the amount of cleaning supplies you need and save you money. I use essential oils for everything so it was an easy decision for me to continue to use essential oils when we decided to move to Iowa and give a shot to modern homesteading. This natural, easy, and CHEAP DIY coop spray works wonderful for not only making your coop smell wonderful but also repels insects and kills bacteria. You probably have everything you need right in your kitchen. You will need: A large spray bottle 2c White Vinegar 2c Water 25 drops of lavender essential oil for deodorizing and bacteria control 25 drops of lemongrass essential oil for its antibacterial properties as well as insect repellent Here is my trusted source for essential oils. You will need to shake the bottle each time you use it, spray on the bedding, in nesting

I wanted to save this amazing and simple recipe for flock healer and figured I would put it here in case anyone else could use it. When I started searching for something to put on my duckling when she was pecked raw from a chicken (I am assuming), all I could find was ways to cook a duck. Ha! So maybe when someone else has the same question..you can actually find something useful to keep your bird healthy rather than making it tasty. See my duck injury post here .   This recipe is super simple and you may have most of the ingredients around the house already. You will need: 1/4c Raw Honey : I used a local Grinnell, IA raw honey. 2 drops  Lavender Essential Oil  (this is my trusted source for essential oils) 2 drops  Frankincense Essential Oil 2 drops Blue food coloring Easy right? Just mix in a bowl and use a glove and apply generously on your poultry's wound.      Raw honey has been used for centuries for its amazing antibacterial properties. The best honey to buy is lo

  **This post contains images of an injured animal**    Yesterday was a very busy day on our new homestead. I got done working early on Friday night so I was able to catch up on some sleep, which was great! I woke up on Saturday refreshed, ready to conquer the day.  I made a coffee and two bottles and headed outside to keep the baby goats. I had so much planned. I was going to work on unpacking some of these boxes from our move, work on the fence..and so much more! During morning runs we noticed one of the ducklings had blood on her wing. I examined her and realized she must have broken a flight feather. Flight feathers have blood vessels in them and if broken, sometimes can cause quite a mess. I did not think this was a big deal. So, off to find something around the house to stop the bleeding. I ended up using corn starch which worked wonderfully and immediately. Then we noticed that this was not a localized injury; under her wing was pecked raw. She had been attacked. Since the coo

    Every blog starts out with it; a post about the reason the blog started in the first place. I figured, why not! I am starting this blog because I just have too much going on in my mind all the time. What I want to do each day far surpasses the amount of time, let alone energy, that I actually have each day.  I would like to take a small step back from social media and just focus my effort on blogging more. Social media is EXHAUSTING isn't it? I find it exhausting to stay caught up, to be a good friend, to offer advice when I can...even if I don't have the time, to monitor, like, love, cry, laugh...it's exhausting. I don't even feel like I have to go further into it. It doesn't bring me the happiness it used to. It's sad, I have a lot of amazing friends on social media. It's hard to explain.      One of my biggest setbacks in past blogging is not being able to find a true direction. I want to cook, I want to home school, I want to sew, etc etc. It felt l