Cool vertical garden

http://akitverticalgarden.blogspot.com/2009/10/frequently-asked-questions.html

Now that is a cool garden.

Essential Oils

Now that I make so many products and household cleaners and hygiene products with essential oils it seems like our house always smells so good.

Last evening while we were watching a movie I kept smelling peppermint. Later the girls said they smelled peppermint too. I do love the smell. In this case I think it was from the homemade mouth wash.

Today I am going to start looking for a metal tray type thing to put in my freezer for an ice tray. We buy our ice and need a tray/container of some type to keep it in in the freezer. I don't like to leave it in the bag because it gets all over the freezer. We are using a plastic shoe box but it now has a hole in it and I know if I buy another one it will just break as well. I was trying to thing what we could use instead and came up with the idea of using something metal. I have seen rectangular shaped metal container thingies so that is what I will begin looking for.

I am thankful we have had a mild winter so far this year. I don't think I want to experience snow for days on end in our current situation.

I am thankful for our RV home. I love living here and except that there is no room to have company it meets all my needs. I guess we will just have to save having people over for nice weather when we can be outside. I think if we lived in an old icky RV I might have other feelings but our 5th wheel is only a couple of years old and very nice. I love the oak woodwork and try to keep fingerprints and drips cleaned up so it looks nice all the time.

I have narrowed the amount of cooking utensils and vessels so I am not overcrowded. The hard thing here is lack of counter space. I cope by always having the dishes washed and put away and cleaning up after one project before another one is started.

It seems like this little RV gets very dusty though. I wonder if its just as dusty as the big house or is it really dustier here and we just notice it more because its a smaller space? Housekeeping is definitely easier.

One thing I am wondering how it will work is canning. I will be finding the answer to that question soon because I will be canning the bacon I ordered. At one point I was thinking of cutting back on my canned goods and going heavier on the dehydrated and freeze dried foods for weight reasons but home canned meat is just so superior I have to continue with that if not fruits and vegetables as well. I have a feeling I will continue to can everything because I like to can and because home canned food is so much better in so many ways.

I did notice that chicken was not near as cheap in January of this year as it was last year. This year the cheapest I have seen boneless, skinless chicken breasts if $1.77 a pound. Last year I paid .77 cents a pound for it. I am glad I canned 110 pints last year.

Jeff also order me some pork butt so I will be canning that as well. I will probably cut it into chunks and can it plain like that. Last time I canned pork butt I canned it as pork chili which we love, but this time I think I will can just the chunks so it can be used for bar b que or pork chili or whatever.

Well I hope you all have a great day. Its going to be nice weather here and our Sunday school class is having a get together. Yeah.

More than one way to play a guitar.

Sweet story

An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard.

I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that

he had a home and was well taken care of.

He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on

his head; he then followed me into my house, slowly

walked down the hall, curled up in the corner and

fell asleep.





An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out.

The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked

inside and resumed his spot in the hall and again slept

for about an hour. This continued off and on for several

weeks.



Curious I pinned a note to his collar: 'I would like to

find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is

and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your

dog comes to my house for a nap.'



The next day he arrived for his nap, with a different

note pinned to his collar:



'He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3

- he's trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with

him tomorrow?'

The wheels are turning

Well the wheels are turning and it looks like there will probably be some changes for our family. They are good changes. All changes come with adjustment and this one will be no different but it will be all good in the end. I darent say anymore until the powers that be are notified of the upcoming changes.

The girls washed the ceiling in the bathroom and the vent in the kitchen and the fan.

Its been nice here weather wise. Today its 68 degrees. Every afternoon we have been opening the door and letting the nice air into the RV. It doesn't really get stuffy in here very often but its good to have warm enough weather to open the doors.

TWO WOLVES

One evening an old Choctaw told his grandson about a battle that

goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

"One is Evil - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed,

arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride,

superiority, and ego.



"The other is God - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility,

kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion

and faith."



The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his

grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Choctaw simply replied, "The one you feed."

Not much to say

Believe it or not I have not had much to say lately. For those of you who know me personally you know that is highly unusual. There are some things going on in our lives but much of it I don't want to blog about until things are more sure.

Mollie's friend's parents are selling their home and moving far away. The girls are both a bit disconcerted about it.

We have started doing some sort of cleaning project every day. I had tended to let things pile up and you really should not do that when you live in such a small space. So far this week the girls have swept and mopped and vacuumed all the floors. They made sure they got along all the edges and corners where dirt tends to collect. They also cleaned the refrigerator. Today I want them to clean the ceiling fan and the vent close by it. I appreciate my daughters very much. They also took all the laundry to the laundry mat yesterday and washed, dried and folded it.

I cleaned a lot of the stuff I had piled up on the kitchen counter. Its stuff I use often but I just had to put it away for visual peace of mind. That helped.

Today we ran some errands and took the van through the car wash. As we were leaving I saw the attendant and asked if they sold their empty barrels. He said he had two and I could have them if I wanted. Of course I said yes. I just need to thoroughly clean them and disinfect them. They previously help soap so I am not concerned chemical wise about them. I wanted them to fill with water in the event we lose electricity and the well cant pump the water. If we need to move they are easy to empty and refill at a new destination. I told a friend of mine about the barrels and she may have two clean empty ones I can have that are metal. They have a sealing top on them and would be useful for storing grains and such. I hope she does indeed give them to me. They are also great to store feed in to keep animals and critters out.

I have also been trying to spend less time on the Internet. I feel like I am wasting too much time fiddling around on the computer.

I have made the homemade mouth wash twice and we like it quite well. Jeff and I both feel like it actually freshens our breath better and lasts longer. I will make another batch when I finish this post.

What love

Body Whip

Yesterday I made 5 batches of body whip. It thought that might last for at least a few days but it turns out I got an order for all that plus more. So today I will be making a few more batches. One batch makes about 12 jars/bottles.

So I guess I'd better hop to it.

Have a great day every one.

Oh, yesterday I posted a recipe to make home made drawing salve and Linda commented that they were gathering recipes like this for their own use. Do you have a recipe for some homemade formula that we might like? Let me know and we can post it here.

Homemade drawing salve recipe

http://www.ehow.com/how_4601266_make-drawing-salve-family-recipe.html


How to Make Your Own Drawing Salve -- a Family Recipe
By Angela Lynn, eHow Member
User-Submitted Article
Drawing salve is specifically made to remove splinters, stings, and several other common conditions such as boils. It can also work adequately to draw out small infections, ingrown toenails, and even acne. These days you can buy a satisfactory drawing salve at your local pharmacy, but making your own allows you to know exactly what your using, can be cheap, and can be helpful when you don't have any store bought salves on hand.

This recipe was around during the great depression when the need for alternatives sparked an age of inventions. I can remember myself as a child using thinly sliced, salted bacon fat applied directly to the wound to draw out splinters and bee stings (which really works most of the time). Another, excellent method used includes the following...
.Difficulty: Easy
Instructions.Things You'll Need:
1/2 teaspoon of Brown Soap (Octagon or Fels Naptha) found at any local drug or health food store.
1/2 teaspoon of Granulated Sugar
3/4 teaspoon of water
1
Start by measuring your soap, sugar, and water into the palm of your hand and mix thoroughly. The palm of your hand is used because it is warm and helps mixing.

2
Then, using the handle of a spoon [or similar item] as a spatula, spread the salve heavily over affected area.
.

Read more: How to Make Your Own Drawing Salve -- a Family Recipe eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4601266_make-drawing-salve-family-recipe.html#ixzz1BicvxekV

Is it Friday again already?

Time passes quickly for me. I must be getting old. We don't have too much planned for this weekend except today I will be making at least 3 batches of body whip with out thieves oil. One of my mom's reps. who has a beauty shop has several customers who love the stuff. I have not developed a system yet to tell me what to make and when to make it. Maybe along with a daily cleaning list I should just make a different product each day. That might work.

I am thinking of cleaning out one of my kitchen cabinets so I have a place to put my Herbalife products and keep them off the counter. Counter space here is a premium.

The weather is cold and there is snow left on the ground from the 1/2 to 1 inch we got the other day. I am not a cold weather person and the older I get the less I like it.

Well the work isn't going to do itself so I better get to it.

I'm still here

I am sorry for the absence from this blog. We made an unexpected out of town trip for a few days. While it was a very very long drive I think the outcome will be beneficial. More later as the details develop.

On other topics.

Has anyone used the Dyna-Jet Mean green washing machine? It looks like it would work similar to the James washer. I saw a break out of the parts used and it looks like it would be simple to build if a person had those type of building skills. I will have to think on it and figure out if its something Jeff and I could make.

Here is a link to the picture: http://www.meangreenwashingmachine.com/

Today I think I'd better do some house cleaning. Things are looking a bit drab around here.

The weather was warm yesterday so when we got back we made a trip to the laundry mat and washed 4 loads of clothes. We returned home and hung them on the line. It was almost 5 when we got home so of course the clothes did not dry before night. I am hoping for a warm day today so they will finish drying and I can take them in and fold and put away.

I ordered several cases of ingredients for my lotions and they came in yesterday. Now I have enough ingredients to make about 14 batches. Yeah. I may make a couple of batches today. I have new bottles so now we have lotion in 4 different containers. We have the squat 8 oz. canning jars, an 8oz. pump bottle, an 8 oz. flat bottle that is plastic and can be carried in your purse as well as a 1 oz bottle for your purse. These new and varied container make using Pink Monkey body whip easy and convenient.

I also have several essential oils on order so I can make more Thieves Oil.

I can hear Hannah in her room working on her Spanish. Mollie is helping her. I love my girls.
I hope everyone has a nice day today.

Where are we heading?

Do you ever wonder where we are heading as a country? Is there going to be a food shortage? Should I stock up on food or ammo? How will things work out if and when bad things happen?

I have been reading a blog by a man named MD Creekmore. He is a survivalist. I find many of his articles interesting and informative.
Check out his blog at: http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/

Atta girl

My mom, Vera Miller signed up to be a Pink Monkey rep about a week ago. She immediately got two more people to be reps under her the first day and moved up to independent distributor. She is growing my business faster than I can believe. I think she now has 3 or 4 reps below her. Good job Mom, Vera. This is the kind of people I like having sell Pink Monkey. They believe in the product and just tell others about it and my product sells itself. I like to make sure all reps have testers of Thieves Oil and body whip because most times, once a person tries it they buy it.

I am proud of my mom. Now I better go make some more product. I love it.

This is why I believe in God

THIS IS FABULOUS!!!

It was written by an 8-year-old named Danny Dutton, who lives in Chula
Vista , CA . He wrote it for his third grade homework assignment, to
'explain God.' I wonder if any of us could have done as well?
(and he had such an assignment, in California , and someone published
it, I guess miracles do happen!)


EXPLANATION OF GOD:
'One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the
ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on
earth. He doesn't make grownups, just babies. I think because they are
smaller and easier to make. That way he doesn't have to take up his
valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to
mothers and fathers.'

'God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of
this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times
beside bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV
because of this. Because he hears everything, there must be a terrible
lot of noise in his ears, unless he has thought of a way to turn it off.'

'God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps
Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting his time by going over your
mom and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have.'

'Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any
in Chula Vista . At least there aren't any who come to our church.'

'Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work, like walking on
water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't
want to learn about God. They finally got tired of him preaching to them
and they crucified him. But he was good and kind, like his father, and he
told his father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive
them and God said O.K.'

'His dad (God) appreciated everything that he had done and all his hard
work on earth so he told him he didn't have to go out on the road anymore.
He could stay in heaven. So he did. And now he helps his dad out by
listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take
care of and which ones he can take care of himself without having to
bother God. Like a secretary, only more important.'

'You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they
got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time.'

'You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and
if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God!

Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to
the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn't come out at the
beach until noon anyway.'

'If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very
lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp,
but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared, in the
dark or when you can't swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big
kids.'

'But...you shouldn't just always think of what God can do for you. I
figure God put me here and he can take me back anytime he pleases.


And...that's why I believe in God.'