Here is a simple easy recipe to make your own natural, non-toxic pine floor cleaner with just a few basic ingredients and essential oils.
Arborvitae (Thuja plicata) Essential Oil
Known as the “tree of life”, Arborvitae is majestic in size and abundant in unique benefits. Arborvitae essential oil is concentrated in tropolones, such as hinokitiol, which are a group of chemical compounds that protect against environmental and seasonal threats and have powerful purifying properties. These compounds also contribute to Arborvitae’s natural insect repellent properties. Thujic acid, another tropolone found in Arborvitae, has been studied for its ability to protect against common threats in the environment. Native to Canada, all parts of the Arborvitae tree were used extensively by Native Americans for health benefits and for building vessels, totem poles, baskets, and clothing. Because of its natural preserving properties, Arborvitae prevents wood from rotting, which makes it popular in woodcraft and for preserving natural wood surfaces.
PRIMARY BENEFITS
- Protects against environmental and seasonal threats*
- Powerful cleansing and purifying agent
- Natural insect repellent and wood preservative
Nigerian Dwarf Goats Kidding Process
Although we have had 3 Nigerian Dwarf does for a couple of years now, this year was our first experience with kidding goats. In the early morning hours of February 22nd, we welcomed our first newborn doeling and buckling into our world. We only “participated” shortly after Strawberry, the mama goat, had already delivered both. Exactly one week later on February 29th, we were blessed with our second and last batch of baby goats for this kidding season. This time two of our pregnant does began birthing within just a few minutes of each other while I was home by myself. I had a brief “mini panic attack” because Jon was supposed to be here and I was NOT supposed to be here by myself! I quickly called him to get home from work, gathered my wits, and proceeded.
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| Mulberry (Buckling) Resting After All of the Excitement |
Melaleuca (Melaleuca alternifolia) or “Tea Tree” Essential Oil
Melaleuca (Melaleuca alternifolia) essential oil, also known by its more common name “tea tree” has been esteemed by cultures around the world for ages. Melaleuca is comprised of over 92 different compounds. Melaleuca is renowned for its cleansing effect of the skin. The leaves of the Melaleuca tree were used by the Aborigines of Australia for centuries. They would crush the leaves and inhale the oil to promote feelings of clear breathing and apply the leaves directly to the skin for a cooling effect. Melaleuca is best known for its purifying properties. It can be used to cleanse and purify the skin and nails and to support a healthy complexion. Melaleuca can be used on surfaces throughout the home to protect against environmental threats. Melaleuca is frequently used on occasional skin irritations to soothe the skin. Diffusing Melaleuca will help purify and freshen the air. Taken internally, Melaleuca promotes healthy immune function*
PRIMARY BENEFITS
- Cleansing and rejuvenating effect on the skin
- Promotes healthy immune function*
- Protects against environmental and seasonal threats*
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DIY Kitchen Cleaner Recipes
The kitchen is the most important room in every household, and as such it must be taken good care of. The kitchen is the place where the entire family gathers every day and spends most of its time there. That is why the kitchen needs to always be perfectly cleaned and disinfected so that it is a good environment for your family. But even the cleaning can sometimes be dangerous. Using a bunch of chemically induced cleaning products will not make your kitchen any healthier or safer, than being dirty. The trick is to clean it in a way that you do not do even more harm. That is why this article will tell you how to clean and disinfect your kitchen in a way that it really is cleaned, not just from dirt and bacteria but from dangerous chemicals as well.
Newborn Doeling and Buckling
We would like to introduce the newest members of the family that were born this morning. Strawberry, the mama and both newborn kids are doing well. Mama was quite hungry and thirsty, quite strong. Both babies are walking (wobbly at first) and nursed. We have a doeling and a buckling. We will post more later. I just wanted to share our news!
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| Mama Goat and Newborn Kids |
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| Mama Goat Eating and Newborn Kids Nuzzling |
Our 1940 Farmhouse – Upstairs Bedroom Makeover
The upstairs of our 1940’s farmhouse has not seen many (if any) updates to it. The upstairs has three small bedrooms. Two bedrooms are rectangular and have closets that are built into the attic space. The third bedroom in the middle has no attic space to utilize for closets and is square. We only have our youngest who is 14 that still lives with us. We let her choose which bedroom she wanted. Not surprising, she chose one of the rectangular bedrooms that had a closet and had the best window view overlooking one of the hay fields. The bedrooms are a little small. Adding to the challenge, she currently has an excessively large bedroom at our current house. To compensate for the space, her bedroom will be the one she chose and the square middle room with no closets will be a game room. Today, we will discuss the updates to the bedroom so that it functions well and suits a 14 year old teenage girl.
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Bourbon Red Turkeys
Saturday, I was at a friends house for Bible study and as we were wrapping up, I saw these two lovely turkeys walking across their backyard. This was actually my first experience being near live turkeys. Crazy, right? I began asking her husband about their experience with raising turkeys and this particular breed. He said these two turkeys were Bourbon Reds. They were named “Thanksgiving” and “Christmas” with the original intent of butchering them for the holidays. However, as they matured, they realized they probably had a tom and hen and thought it better to keep them to try and breed.
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| Bourbon Red Turkeys |
DIY: Building a Bigger Better Chicken Run
We are just weeks (maybe a month) away from our move to our “new to us” farmhouse. We have been quite busy and we have failed miserably at keeping the progress updates flowing. We took a week off from work after Christmas with plans to get a lot accomplished at the new house. Although, we did stay very busy, the excessive rain we received delayed much of our moving and work outside. Although it was still wet Friday, it had dried up enough that we Jon was finally able to make some progress on the outside tasks. A big part of our move is of course moving our chickens which requires constructing a new chicken run.
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Our 1940 Farmhouse
We have pretty much been nonexistent on here lately, but we have some very exciting news! We just closed last week on our new/old 1940 farmhouse!
Our original plans were to eventually build our little farm house on the land we purchased a couple of years ago. But sometimes God just knows better than we do what is best. We happened across the darling little 1940’s farm house with acreage that was for sale in Ann’s hometown where much of our family live and just a few short miles from the other land we had purchased. It is even on the same road Ann grew up on! Don’t you just love old farm houses?!? We were not even looking to buy, and had began the process of looking through house plans and even had an appointment scheduled with a builder to discuss when we found this place.
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