The thing about adventures is you have to leave your home...

  "I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesterdays are buried deep - leave it anyway except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can.  Never turn back and never believe that an hour you member is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the futures lives in a cloud, formidable from the distance. The cloud clears as you enter enter it. I have learned this, but like everyone , I learned it late". 
Beryl Marham - West with the Night 

How to get your chickens to STOP eating their eggs.

Oh Chickens! Give me a mammal over you girls any day. Over the years we have had a number of different challenges with our chickens. Starting with them being eaten by a variety of predators, our dog now takes care of that job. Last spring I posted pictures of our twelve little heritage chicks which I wanted to raise into a small flock with just enough eggs for our family. Seven of which turned out to be Roosters or slow oven roasters.

 In January I realized my little flock of pullets where eating there own eggs. Everyone told me ,just kill them, I had such a little flock, but I was determined to try. Special thanks to Robyn and Sarah for their input. Here's what I found out.

 Chicken Detetive-

1. Find the out who's doing it! Blow out an egg and fill it with blue food colouring. Sealing one end with melted wax, something I didn't do and ended up with a week of smurf hands. This way the blue dye will out whoever is doing it. In my case guilty all around. 

2. Try hot sauce in an blown egg, this may deter them from doing it again.

3. Some chickens like hot sauce, try Djion Mustard. Both of these didn't work for me, but I have had them work in the past.

4. Make sure it isn't rats or other predators. 

Try this-

1. Make sure your chickens have enough protein. 

2. Eliminate Boredom, I moved mine from the chicken tractor to a larger pen.

 3. Collect Eggs several times a morning, if possible. 

4. Make sure they have shell in a separate bowl from their food. High or low levels of oyster shell may have them eating their own shell. 4. Try giving them Vitamin D. I did this by pouring 1/2 tsp of cod liver oil over their scratch once a day. I saw my first few uneaten eggs in about three days. 

6. Trim back about 1/8 inch off the end of the beaks or file. This is NOT the same thing as debeaking, the trimmed tip of the beak grows back in about two weeks. This made the biggest change to our own chickens and we started to get those four to five eggs a day.

7. We also order "chicken glasses" which I was hoping to only use for a few weeks or until we broke the habit. I know you all where looking forward to an video, but I just don't have the heart to glass our chickens while they are being so well behaved.  

We ordered these glasses online $4 for 50 pairs. It was during a night of online searching, one up from stewing them. 

  As crazy as chickens are I know we all feel this way about them.

DIRT, good for growing in

  

My children have discovered a January of glorious mud. And if it is not muddy enough, they will get buckets and Rubbermaid totes  and make it.  All this mud and dirt has got me thinking about what they are getting out of these hours.

Peace of Mind - Firstly I think about how good it feels to be outside, no matter what state of mind we leave the house in, the outdoors clears it all away.  All that carrying, bashing, digging and stirring, singing and moving settles any emotions that may need to move along.

Building Healthy Bodies-All those naturally occurring microbes living in the soil will help build healthy immune systems. Not to mention all the exercise that making mud pies or soups creates.

Education (Play)- Free play creates space for your mind to explore new things and become your own creator. This gives your child a true sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.  

Free babysitting- There is always of jobs to do around the farm, rain or sun. So having hours of mud entertainment and happy children, means that I can start and maybe even accomplish an outdoor task.

So as long as they want to play in the dirt we’ll stay outside. The more appropriately dressed they are for the weather the longer they stay out, but as you can see by my not appropriately dressed children in the pictures you’ll still get an hour or so. 

The ducks also love mud pies 

Coping with Stress

I have had this list on my fridge on and off for the last five years. It was given to me by a friend who is a great example to me and whom I look up to in many ways. In the most stressed times of my life, this list has helped me see the forest for the trees. I have never done everything on this list at once, but find even one little change can help.  Over the past six years my husband and I have built our own home, brought two children into this world and started a garden and a farm. We have had our hills and valleys and mountains. This list posted to my fridge has helped me find something concrete I can do to reduce stress in our own lives. I feel like not sharing it would be selfish. I'm not the kind of person who has time to google, reducing stress. So feel free to print it out and post it on your fridge and maybe ,sometime, when you are looking for chocolate, you might catch sight of this list and find something a little better. 


1} Prioritize your life. 

2} Balance work, relaxation and exercise. 

3} Avoid caffeine, alcohol, tobacco and junk foods. 

4} Eat a natural whole grain diet. 

5} Drastically reduce use of white sugar in your life. 

6} Drink chamomile or lemon balm tea as a calming agent

7} When going through prolonged periods of stress that are unavoidable, like prolonged illness of a family member, grief, unemployment or the rigours of raising children, temporarily use supplements like magnesium, vitamin C, and a high does of vitamin B complex stress formula. 

8} Do not over use salt.

10} Drink liquorice root, nettle or ginseng tea for exhaustion. 

11} Exercise for twenty minutes three times a week. 

12} Spend some time out of doors every day. 

13} Live simply. 

14} Create a quite time to be with God every day, and we grateful for his love and for everything he has give you. 

15} Forget the "SUPER HUMAN IMAGE". Ask for help. Ponder on how great it makes someone else feel to do something for you for a change. 

16} Guard your time jealously. Set priorities on the different areas of your life. Make daily decisions what can be dropped today. If you take on a new service, drop an old one. 

17} Set time limits for each area of your life. 

18} Review what you are working for. Are you working for an ideal, for money or your children. Make decisions based on the value they hold for you. 

19} Don't say YES, right away. "let me think about it for a bit". Then look at what it will cost you in time and what will have to be laid aside if it's too much… then decide. 

20} Create routines where play, realization, exercise get their appropriate time and are balanced with work. 

Time

Winter is our slow time on the farm, when we get to get out and explore this beautiful island where we live. I love being out and about in winter, it's so quite and everything is exposed and shows our island's raw beauty. Morgan is just getting old enough to walk these trails on his own. The even a small hike takes us along time, but we get to enjoy every last little treasure along the way. And it gives me time to photograph along the way. 

As we move into a New Year of 2015, I get to reflect on where we have been and what we want to build. Time moves so quickly as my little babies grow into little children, nothing in life has brought me such challenges or such great joy and adventures as these children. 

“Time passes quickly. Many parents say that it seems like yesterday that their children were born. Now those children are grown, perhaps with children of their own. ‘Where did the years go?’ they ask. We cannot call back time that is past, we cannot stop time that now is, and we cannot experience the future in our present state. Time is a gift, a treasure not to be put aside for the future but to be used wisely in the present.” Thomas S. Monson 

Onion Cures

This post is an ode to the humble onion. Whom I use the most often when the common cold hits. I have been asked to write this blog by serval friends who, like I, have slept many a night because of these simple onion cures. The instructions below are from many different sources but all have the onion in common.  
The next time an ear ache, sore throat or common cold reaches your house, reach for an onion. Yes, your house will stink but you won't mind at all (most likely you won't even be able to smell it). 

Ear Ache:

This the one I share the most, if you ever have been awakened yourself or by a screaming child with an ear ache you will understand why this one is so important to so many people:

What you need:
1/2 onion
hot water
large mug
boiling water
old clean wash clothe

Put the kettle on to an almost boil. Cut an onion in half. Pour hot water in the large mug and drop onion in for a a few minutes or until the onion is warm through. Take onion out and cool until it is cool enough to touch on sensitive skin (I use the back of my wrist). Place onion over ear and cover with wash clothe. This may take several onion applications, you can reheat the same onion over again. I usually have two halves going and it takes about fifteen to twenty minutes until the ear ache is gone, longer for adults. This cure is great because you don't have to put anything in the ear, which you never want to do unless you know the ear drum in intact.

Source- An ukrainian grandmother whom my husband knew as a child. 

Cough with heavily lung congestion-
This onion pack is my go to remedy for coughing children. The medical properties of the onion pack are contained in it's fumes the inhalations of them is what does the trick.  If your child has a post nasal drip from allergies or a cough like whopping cough, the onion pack will NOT work. It will work for bronchitis and pneumonia or a cough that sounds very wet. 

What you need:
1 large onion
Large mug
boiling water
Large clean napkin (old pre fold clothe diapers work great)
Hot water bottle or heating pad
* for an adult you can also add sliced fresh ginger or crushed mustard seed

Put the kettle on to a boil. Thinly slice the onion and place in mug of almost boiling water. Let the onion heat. Now get your child nice and comfortable and have your hot water bottle ready. Place slices of hot onion onto clothe and make a pack (fold like a burrito leaving the top open). Place on chest and cover with hot water bottle. Make sure child stays warm during onion pack time.

Source- Gentle Healing for Baby and child by Andrea Candee & David Andrusia 


Onion for Night Cough-
This remedy is so simple. Works very well for the cough that is much better in the day and picks up at night when you or your child lies down to sleep. And it is so easy to prepare you will even get up at 1 a.m and actually make it. I usually wait until the child is asleep before I bring in the onion. 

What you need:
1/2 Onion
plate or cloth
*a few drops oil of oregano

Cut the onion place on the plate and put as near to child's head as safely possible.
Depending on the cough I sometimes place a few drops oil of oregano on the onion for a stronger remedy.

Source- my own desperation for some sleep when I was to tired to make an onion pack 


Green Onion Sore Throat Pack-
This one contains green onions, but nothing works better for a tight and scratchy sore throat. 

What you need:
1 Cup Epsom Salts
Serval Green Onions
Newspaper or clean old thick clothe

Slice green onion and heat in a cast iron pan with epsom salts. Lay newspaper out and place green onions and salt in about an twelve inch line on the paper. Fold paper to make a pack to place around your neck and leave until sore throat goes away.

Source- Japanese exchange student we hosted when I was a child. 

Remember all those sunny days?

Only a few days ago I looked around the garden and realized for the first time since spring I’m not completely overwhelmed.  The shorter days are taking care of that and I’m glad for the dark evenings. We are slowly moving back inside our house.This past summer was full of never ending sunny days and warm weather. The garden just explored with life and keeping up with transplanting, harvesting and processing harvesting was a joyful day to day challenge. I have to admit I was really happy to discover the last five pounds of green tomatoes where rotten.This summer our cow, Fern, joined our farm with great celebration, it is very difficult to even try to have an biodynamic farm or eat a Weston Price diet without a cow.  Mature coming in for the compost pile is like solid gold around here.  And our family is waiting for spring for that arrival of baby calf and milk.  We also have some hair sheep so whoever has calves or lambs first will be the first to be milked.
The following images are in no order of summer, just a collection of images that really reminded me of these past few months. 

www.westcoastseeds.com

By weekly epsom salt, essential oil footpaths for all the little bare foot battle wounds. 

We went from four to fifty two ducks this summer. Even if they ate some starts I loved having them around. 

First egg from our spring chicks. 

www.westcoastseeds.com

www.westcoastseeds.com

http://www.westcoastseeds.com

www.westcoastseeds.com

http://www.westcoastseeds.com

I know these pictures look perfect but our lives are just as full or challenges and trials as yours just different.