Homesteaders

[GardenNut]

Yep! I used Rosemary Gladstar's recipe, but I found multiple versions online too. I also made pickled garlic: fill a small jar with peeled garlic cloves, cover with Bragg's ACV. Let it infuse in a warm spot like the cider. This is my first attempt at either.

 

[lcertuche]

I made a skin salve with plantain, jewel weed, olive oil, coconut oil, and bees wax. It's supposed to be really good for treating poison ivy. It is an incredible skin softener. Harvested some Jewel Weed seeds to plant on my property.

I knew someone that kept putting a plantain salve on a skin cancer and it went away after a couple of months. I love plantain for all kinds of skin ailments. My son put some on his ingrown toe nail that got infected and my daughter put some on a spider bite. It went from her hardly being able to walk to almost disappeared by the next day. We just chew the leaves and put on the problem and cover with tape or band aid.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

I don't have a recipe I just know when it looks right. Big difference is mine has no ACV . I mix cayenne, garlic, honey, ginger, and onion in my ninja mixer until smooth. 1 tbl spn am and one pm. We do it year round. In the spring I also add an extra tbl spn honey, fresh and raw and local, for the allergen fighting. In cold months it's extra every thing else. We eat a ton of home canned pickled stuff so we get the vinegar from that.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I have started taking a Hawthorn supplement, hoping to help my slightly high blood pressure. It really is just borderline high, but I would like to try to get it down a little. I know loosing weight would help a lot and I am working on that also. I haven't checked my blood pressure since starting 10 days ago, but I do feel better.

I think I may reduce my flock a little bit before winter. Dad would like a stewing hen or two for his freezer, and I have been struggling to give away all the extra eggs. One of my hens has been having a lot of feather issues for a while, and one is laying soft shelled eggs fairly regularly. Could be the same hen doing both, lol.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Jewelweed is also great for taking away the sting of stinging nettle. The two plants have similar growing requirements, so they tend to grow in the same areas. Just take a stem of the jewelweed and rub the juices on the area that was smacked by the nettle.

Jewelweed is also known as Touch-Ne-Not.

 

[lazy gardener]

When we were growing up, we called them poppers.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm steadily whittling down my flock right now too. Still need to take out 5-6 more birds to feel comfortable about good coop space this winter. I've already put 13 in the jar, so another 6 oughta give me enough soup meat for the winter.

Brother got a deer this evening, so the dogs will be eating high for awhile....they were working on the gut pile when we went back to the house. I saved the organs for later and will also be able to freeze some scraps for them. They had already filled up on chicken bones and organs earlier today. Tis the season of plenty for the animals here, as they all share in the meat harvest.

 

[GardenNut]

Lordy, my two German shepherds would go nuts over stuff like that.

Finally broke down and ordered a wireless containment system for the dogs. Thank you @beekissed for discussing yours a few pages back. I think my submissive male will respect it with no trouble. My tenacious, rebel, alpha female will test it I'm sure. The deer and rabbits are so prolific, I've been having to keep the dogs on leashes. I'm afraid they'll take off after the deer and either get lost or shot!

 

[henless]

Bee, how many chickens do you usually keep through the Winter?

I've cut my flock from 19 down to 11. I sold 5 Black Sex Link & 3 EE pullets. I ended up with 1 cockerel out of the pullets I bought. So far, he is being a good boy, so maybe he will be able to stay. I do have my doubts though. All of them are 6 1/2 months old, but he is already twice as big as the pullets.





I'm not planning on doing any real breeding next year, so I turned 2 of my coops back into one big coop. I also combined my EE's & BSL's into one flock since I thinned both flocks out. I took down half of a hardware cloth wall to combine the 2 coops. If I ever need 2 coops again, it will be easy to put up another wall.




I finished winterizing my coop by putting up plastic around 2 sides. Even with the South & East sides still open, you would be surprised how much warmer it is with the plastic up to block the winds. I added 8 loads of large leaves to the coop. This is on top of 10 loads of small leaves/pine straw I put in a couple weeks ago. I'll be putting some more in within the next week or so. They sure shred it up good.

They were a little leery when it came time to come back in, lol.



This is my 3rd year with chickens. I really enjoy them. So glad I bought those first!!

 

[Beekissed]

LOVE how big your coop is! And also love that you are using leaves, like many of us are now doing. Nothing like having free bedding that breads down beautifully.

I usually winter over around 12-15 birds but this year I may stretch that to 18...this winter looks to be as uncharacteristically warm as the last one was around here, so there's a good chance they will spend most of the winter outside the coop rather than confined by deep snows or subzero weather(that will come in Feb.).