Miracle Salve Recipe

Miracle Salve Recipe 

 You need to know about this stuff!!

If your anything like me, the winters really take a toll on my skin, especially with the dry heat of a woodstove! And who doesn't want smooth healthy skin in the summer?I found this fantastic recipe for a great salve! It will soothe and heal the driest of dry, cracked, chapped and scaly skin. 

It works wonders for dry hands and feet. Just rub some on your hands and feet before you go to bed, let the nourishing ingredients work their magic when you are sleeping and you’ll wake up with baby soft skin. It’s that good. You can use this homemade salve for hands, feet, face, elbows, even lips! Even for your dog’s paws. In the cold, harsh winter months when you need extra moisturizer to combat dry skin apply where needed and it can be used as a nightly face cream.

 And what’s even cooler is that it’s SO easy to make. This recipe couldn’t get more simple to make. You may have to get just one or two ingredients that you don’t have on hand, but It  will be worth it and those ingredients will last you a really long time.  Also, a little of this salve goes a long way so a small jar will last you months. 

 I’m giving you the basic recipe, but you can switch up the oils, adding different essential oils, infusing fresh herbs into your oils, etc.  You can’t really mess it up!

 

Credits too:

http://www.primallyinspired.com

Miracle Salve Recipe 

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons beeswax pellets

¼ cup coconut oil

½ cup avocado oil or other oil of choice (sweet almond, olive or jojoba make great choices)

2 tablespoons shea butter optional: 20 drops essential oil of choice 

 THIS blend - not only is it calming, but it's great for skin health, too

*A specific essential oil blend for eczema is THIS. It's been working wonders for people that  are dealing with eczema & psoriasis. This eczema blend is safe for children.

Instructions :

Add a few inches of water to a skillet and place on your stove at medium low heat. Place a glass jar in the water and add your beeswax to the jar. Allow the beeswax to melt - this takes 15 or more minutes.

Once the beeswax has melted, add the remaining oils (except essential oil) and shea butter and let melt - this takes an additional 15 or more minutes. You don't have to stir - the oils will naturally blend together. Once everything is melted and liquid, remove the jar from heat and add in your essential oil, if using.

Pour liquid into jars of choice and place on the counter for a few hours to harden.

You can speed up the hardening process by placing the jars in the refrigerator for at least a half hour.

Notes:

Please dont raise the heat to make the beeswax and shea butter melt faster. Be patient because we want to preserve the beneficial, healing enzymes in these ingredients. So we have to melt them SLOWLY.

If you would like a softer salve, use 2 tablespoons of beeswax instead of 3.

     

                                                             

                                                                       Enjoy!

long year, no posts

Haven't blogged in a while, actually just told a friend about my site and realized it's been way too long. Rough year. 3 deaths my gramma, my favorite aunt and best childhood friend. Full time volunteer work, stress, lost 3 hens to natural causes, had a hawk take a rabbit, dog got skunked.... and then the every day stuff. I shouldn't complain, could be worse! I have lots of new stuff to blog! Hope my followers are still reading! Thanks for your support.

Lost one of my best friends.

3/2/14 Baby Kitty Lost his fight for life. He suffered complications due to his fractured pelvis he developed at 6 weeks.

Toughest thing to do is say goodbye to someone you love so much. I know Baby was a Kitty but he was my fur baby and he needed me to care for him. We had to let our baby go early this morning around 1 am. He had some complications from a minor procedure and he never recovered back to himself. but he had an awesome life and a good quality of life running around this house and jumping, things we never thought he could do. Its hard because he was only a Kitten, barely 10 months. Nobody could care for him better. Nobody could love him more.

— feeling heartbroken. .

Baby Kitty Update

This is an update to my responsible pet parenting page. After many, many ups and downs I am proud to say "Baby" Larkin is doing great! He is a sweetie and great addition to out menagerie of pets!
                                                             Before: June 3rd 2013

After: December 14th 2013

What are you growing?

Quick Post for today. I stumbled across this piece of work, poetry, quote, whatever you will. But to me it is real food for thought. Just wanted to share with my readers.

"Your Mind is a Garden, Your Thoughts are the Seeds,
  You can Grow Flowers or You can Grow Weeds."

Just something to think about, while we are doing our day to day. Or while we are working in our Gardens!

~Steph
Farmchic

Do Pastured Eggs Need to Be Refrigerated?

 

If you get your eggs from your local farmer you may notice they have some, um, greenish brown streak marks on them still. Maybe even a feather or two as well. If you can recall, it is very different than what an industrial egg from the grocery store looks like, all clean and uniform in size (even the so-called "free range" or "cage free" eggs).

What's the big difference? Prior to the 1940's eggs were kept on the counter because there were no refrigerators! What has changed?

Before I go any further I am going to just state the obvious because I feel it is necessary... Nature is so amazing and it's incredible to me that everything is created to have a purpose!

Ok, now that I got my soulful-hippie two cents out of the way, we can discuss what actually happens when an egg comes out of the hen.

Pastured Egg

An egg shell is very porous and has anywhere from 3-6,000 pores covering the entire surface! (source) When the hen lays an egg her body does one last thing to protect the egg before hitting the air: she deposits a natural anti-bacterial mucus membrane called the bloom. The bloom comes out wet on the egg but then dries quickly, filling in all those little pores on the egg to protect it against things like bacteria and outside gases or chemicals.
The bloom also serves a purpose of keeping the egg fresh on the inside. The bloom keeps the moisture contained leaving a much bigger, firmer and more bright orange yolk. The albumen, the soft, jelly-like substance surrounding the yolk, is slightly hazy looking. (source) This is a reaction with carbon dioxide and proves the egg to be fresh.

Something else to consider is, in nature, it takes about 2 weeks for the hen to lay the eggs and then "set" (incubate) on them. During this time period, the eggs have not been refrigerated and will eventually hatch into vibrant little chicks.

Then why is refrigeration necessary in a large egg producing factory?

Industrial Egg

Let's take what we learned about an egg and put it into the industrial setting. We now know the surface of an egg is extremely porous and when we consider the way things are "managed" in an industrial environment, it can be quite frightening to think about eating an industrial egg.

We are all aware that in large egg producing factories hens are living in crowded and unhealthy conditions, breathing in the ammonia fumes all day, every day and have little to no sunlight. Common sense will tell us that sick hens equals sick eggs.

Within 7 days of when the sickly hens (who may or may not have salmonella) lay their sickly eggs, workers take the eggs and wash them to get all the dirt and feathers off of them. Some companies take it a step further and rinse the eggs with a chemical wash.

No bloom + chemical wash = chemicals seeping into the egg

No bueno!!

Companies may also spray the egg with their own protective coating (mineral or GE vegetable oil) to make them appear satisfactory to the consumer. (source) If the eggs you buy at the grocery store appear to be shiny that's why! Once washed, rinsed and/or sprayed the eggs then HAVE to be placed in a refrigerator to protect them from being infected with bacteria. I've read that several companies actually pasteurize the whole egg to ensure there is no bacterial growth going on. From the time of being laid to the time it actually hits your belly, the egg may sit for weeks! Talk about a nutrient depleted egg!

Remember how I mentioned the bloom serves a purpose of keeping the egg fresh? Well, with industrial eggs since the bloom is washed off, the pores are then exposed. This creates open airways to allow any kind of bacteria (think salmonella) to enter. Not only that, the quality and freshness of the egg drops. This is why if you crack an industrial egg open, the yolk is small and pale yellow. The albumen loses it's haziness and becomes translucent. All are indications of an egg that has lost its freshness.

So Do Eggs Need to be Refrigerated?

Scenario 1: Okay let's say you buy eggs from the farm with the blooms still intact and you put them in the fridge immediately. No worries! But let's say you take those same farm fresh bloom-intact refrigerated eggs and let them sit out to the point they start to sweat. At that time, it's imperative to use the eggs as soon as possible because when the egg sweats it loses the bloom. I also wouldn't recommend putting them back in the fridge because since the egg has no bloom it is now at the point where the quality and freshness are quickly degrading.

Scenario 2: Now let's say you buy eggs from the farm with the blooms still intact and instead of putting them in the refrigerator immediately, you leave them on the counter. No worries! But if you wash the eggs, you must use the eggs as soon as possible. Again, the bloom comes off as soon as any liquid hits it.

Scenario 3: You buy free range eggs from the grocery store..... wait. I don't recommend this scenario to anyone because industrial eggs are bad news! BUT if you have to buy them, always keep them refrigerated... no matter what! If you take them out, use them immediately!

The Ideal Temperature

With backyard eggs or eggs from a trustworthy farm source, you can get away with leaving them on your counter for a couple months if they are stored around 65°F to 70°F. If you are nervous they may not be fresh, you can do the float test to see if they are okay to eat or not. With factory farm eggs, it's necessary to keep them at a temperature of 40°F (USDA guidelines) so no bacterial growth occurs.

If you are still worried and consider yourself somewhat of a germ-o-phobe a good general rule of thumb to follow is to keep the eggs the way in which you received them. If they were refrigerated, keep them refrigerated. If they were sitting out at the farm store, leave them on your counter! And always ask the person you are purchasing the eggs from if they have washed them or not.


A good solution to ensuring you receive the freshest of the fresh eggs is to have your own backyard chickens!

Special Thanks to...www.HealthyRootsHappySoul.com for this great post.

Responsible Pet Parenting

  I would have to say that I am a huge animal person. I have always felt a need to have a family of dogs or cats, or whatever comes into the yard or my life for that matter. Seems like I am always rescuing or saving something, its nothing new for us. I had yet another occasion to rescue a kitten this past weekend, he was neglected, 4 weeks old and very sick. Most likely if he had made it another day it would have been a miracle. This guy doenst even have his eyes open because they were so badly infected, from the upper respiratory he has. Things like this anger me so much. I mean if you cant handle the responsibilty of animals then dont have them. If you do choose to have them then get them spayed or neutered, so that they cant become out of control in litters of unwanted, uncared for babies. And even at that if you do find you cant care for your pet in a responsible way or if circumstances extremely change in your life then seek help, call a shelter or a no kill SPCA. Its cruel and disgusting to let something so tiny go to the brink of death, and it doesnt even matter how small, letting anything be so badly neglected and without any care is terrible. If you see cases of animal abuse, do something, call your local SPCA, and keep calling until you see results. Sometimes, the best way to get the job done well is to roll up your sleeves, put on your boots and head to where the animals need us most.
  On a positive note, our guy is getting better, steady improvement and only after 3 days. He is eating, drinking, pottying, and purrs like crazy when you hold him. He is on antibiotics twice a day, has special vitamin formula for nutrients every hour, eye salve every 2-4 hours, special kitty food when he wants it, and he drinks from a dropper right now. Unfortuantely his eyes are still something we are unsure of, we are hopeful but we are also expecting the chance that he may be blind. But even at that he is a very happy boy and doesnt seem to know the difference. Let me just say though, so far he has very good ears and sense of smell, especially for his food! He has definitly crawled right into my heart. I will post updates as I can.

Waking him up for pictures. :)

 

                   Stretch and Yawn! :)