Are we living our dream?

[Medicine Woman]

I sit down and listen in a similar way as a doctor and come up with alternates to medication that they might try. And I exercise great caution. Like I might tell them...well you can try but I would strongly suggest that you follow up with bloodwork to make sure you are on the right track. I really just use anything I feel would work. Sometimes I have to open books if it’s something I never tried to treat but so would a doctor. It really depends on what the client presents me with 🤷‍♀️

As the medicine woman, what kinds of herbal remedies do you recommend for things? Or are you not that kind of medicine woman? Herbal supplements fascinate me!

there are really so many I wouldn’t know where to start. Only thing for sure I never make a diagnosis. I ask if they have ever been diagnosed with something if they tell me enough stuff that I suspect something. I might even tell them what tests to request.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I think your ideas make sense - do what you can yourself. I admire your 'never quit' attitude!

 

[Medicine Woman]

DH finally moving around better. Past 2 weeks have been with very little sleep. I hear him in the bathroom and it’s really bad. Surgeon is a joke waiting a whole month and making me beg for Tramadol like as if it’s a narcotic 🙄. So glad he is finally on the mend. Finally went to the house because the coop needs repairs and we losing expensive animals. I am down a goose and two turkeys and several French ducks. I know I am planning on chipping most of the branches but I made a fire pile in the barnyard while I heard DH working the chainsaw near the house and eventually he joined me and lit the fire. It was getting dark and I worked by the light of the fire for a while. DH burned the goose with the branches. I was hoping the fire might scare some predators. I asked DH to pee near one of the entrances of the coop. It looks like most of the flock is high and dry. Whatever wants them either has to fly up for them or climb. So I wanna make repairing the coop a priority and bring the incubators to the little house because no telling when or if I will have electricity on the place. I did just order 5 outdoor solar motion lights so animals safer and we can extend our work time. If I like them maybe I will get more. Really tempted to order one of those really big kennels. I think they like 20 X 30 or so. I know DH has at least 3 pregnant does. If I can take one and give her some hen friends and cover it and haul in weeds and grain for her and the girlfriends I can milk her later and I don’t have a job that will interfere!!! Maybe even two goats. I don’t mind milking so long as my hands fit the teats. If too little I need a machine 🤦‍♀️. Plus I am doing good if I have a quart. My nephew made me a milking stanchion years ago and it needs a little love but it was such a lifesaver. I needed help holding a doe steady and he came over. I explained that if I can make a stanchion that I wouldn’t need help and he asked me to explain and it was hard but I started talking about it and about a week later he showed up with one he had made. Got to love people like that. I don’t know what the weather is doing. Looks kinda like an old English movie out here. Maybe we can locate mushrooms later. While burning the sticks and palm branches last night I pointed to a tiny tree we have growing in the nooks of the palm tree and I told DH in addition to the other fruit trees we can grow date palms. Inspiration.

 

[Mini Horses]

True, age takes away an amount of strength and speed! I can attest to that. That's why I don't kick my butt too hard when something takes longer than expected. Just happy to still be doing the things I do.

Working does make regular milking a problem. I'd love to be home full time but, for many reasons, still working. Just plan to work fewer hours in 2022 and be home more to handle farm. 😁

 

[Mini Horses]

I can relate! My job is one where jobs are assigned us at the stores. A lot of resets of areas in the store, so I move things into different configurations, based on the new plan-o-gram. It's also seasonal. Spring and early Fall, more work than wanted. Nov thru Feb, almost nothing. That means it's like 5 hrs a week. Not 50. Big difference. Knowing that, you try to plan $ ahead. 🤣 But winter is tight! More heat, feed, hay, time. It's when you look at options, during slack time. 👍

Very much like you right now, I look at what can be done to produce income from my farm. As we all know, farmers are hit with weather and marketing issues, heavily. A crap shoot sometimes. We just can't control some of it. Veggies can sell....if weather and pests allow you to grow enough beyond your own needs. Eggs can sell, chicks or meat birds, too. Here in VA we cannot sell raw milk for humans....but, for crafts or pets, ok. (Don't tell me you call your DH Fido😂) Plus they don't get into the "herd shares" usually. I like the sell live and hire me to butcher thought! I am fortunate to not have hurricane destruction!! Plus there is an active monthly auction for live animals...plus a weekly veggies one in season...both under 10 miles from me. An outlet, for sure. Time to farm. Mental block to give up "a job & paycheck" after 60+ yrs of having is hard 🤣🤣🤷😲🤣

You have some good thoughts...and we work better under pressure sometimes -- I do! Looks like you do, also. 👍

 

[Medicine Woman]

Mass in 90 minutes. DH wants to make a mock hog head cheese. Somehow a store must have donated pig feet to us survivors and some friends of ours said they knew who to give it to so I guess we gonna get a Boston Butt, greens and liver and cook it all down. Really I want the Boston Butt for the chunk of fat because I have been itching to render for soap making.
I just ordered some tins, drip bottles and plastic bottles for my remedies.
DH put 4 does in with bucks and I strongly advise him to separate them. He is on a roll drawing and picture of my grandchild. See y’all.

 

[Medicine Woman]

I used the container DS and DIL had my Christmas gift in to start maybe 6 types of seeds that I wanna try with simple aquaponics inside the house....grow in the many windows instead of put up curtains.
The box DD2 and SIL gave me is pretty and I put my new seed collection in it.
DD4 is here with me. She likes to drive in the evening for practice and to run the dog. Last night it was raining. We had a very small, two year old pig in back of the truck that I had covered with a plastic board. Basically made the truck look like a covered wagon. We took the pig and dog to the back, almost to the boat launch but dog never got to run. We noticed the mustard greens are as tall as I am...full of seeds and flowers. I told DD we will clean the back of the truck and when it’s time we will beat a few plants and then sweep it up to add to our seed collection. I said we can plant all we want around the house, in the barnyard or in the orchard....even put some anywhere so other people can see it and harvest. It’s coming.
Last night a woman my age messaged me that she was cleaning her mom’s house and wanted to give me her mom’s mason jars. Gotta meet her there. She told me where but I remember her getting off the bus there anyway when we were little. Small town living....
so today I guess we gotta park a pig somewhere and put him to work. They make good tillers. Speaking of which the old man who owns the field behind us noticed DH had put a buck on a teeter to keep the grass and brush down and he was ready to both cut grass and till the ground at some places. DH helped him move a fence and next thing I know the goat is relocated and the old man is passing the plow over and over on the property right behind us. DH told me the old guy is making me a garden. Wow!! Well.... I can’t grow okra inside.
DH brewed some Hawaiian coffee and it’s ready. Supposed to be very good and strong. I could use it. See y’all. Always too much to do.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

wanted to give me her mom’s mason jars

Score! Congratulations!

 

[Medicine Woman]

Oh y’all....my feet are NOT happy. But I forced myself to do two laps around the park....maybe the equivalent of an 880. DH was with DD on the basketball court and they were trying to shoot with the volleyball....not the same. I used to play many moons ago. I might be nuts but I had been thinking about getting an adult tricycle for a while so I am looking at prices and then just because I added a basketball to my Amazon cart. We did bring Trouble run afterwards and DH asked me if I wanna bacon burger. I said I will settle for a salad. But we can each lose 100 pounds and still be over weight so maybe we in this together. So I do have hypothyroidism and that really does mess me up.

 

[Medicine Woman]

So I just got off the phone with my younger sister. I am older but in better health. So she told me to go over to her house tomorrow and she will let me have her stationary bike for rainy days (and safety) until I can get a tricycle and she told me I can pick up a tricycle at a certain pawn shop so I might go that route. DH really didn’t do well with the walk and really he has been after me to walk for a while. His knees are not so good. Maybe he can use a bike as well. Now that he is recuperated from his surgery maybe he can work on the rest of him. Poor guy. Guess I best rest up for whatever tomorrow will bring.