🇺🇸 Preserving family traditions in WI 🍓 Gardening & preservation 🍯 Crafting herbal remedies
🔔 The farm bell has been restored! Watch the video in comments to see how it broke 😢 Huge thanks to Nextgen Metalworks LLC for the amazing repair! 🙌 This bell came with the 1880s farmhouse my grandparents bought in the 1950s. It was moved when my grandparents built my home on other side of the property in 1971. My dad grew up here, I grew up next door, and the bell has always called us in from work and play. Cherished memories and history saved! ♥️
Discover the power of ozone! 🌿✨ After chatting with y’all in my stories, I realized many aren’t familiar with ozone’s amazing benefits. Let me break it down:
I use a $60 machine off Amazon with a stainless steel diffuser tip from Dr. O Solutions (the pumice one it comes with is works good too, I’m just extra 😅). Just submerge your produce in cold water and diffuse for 20 mins. Ozone breaks down pesticides, herbicides, wax, bugs, parasites, and mold—even on organic produce!
Bonus: Ozonated water is a stellar sanitizer and odor eliminator for surfaces and items. Have questions? DM me! 💧
🌟 Loving my new mini electric chainsaw! 🌿 It’s under $50 on Amazon and has been a game-changer. Got so much more done compared to using hand tools. Just look at this pile I chopped down today! 🪚🔥
Black Walnut Tincture 🌳 I started these last fall when I harvested the black walnuts, so it brewed longer than necessary 🫣 I processed these outside because black walnut stains! Last fall, I cut up green hulls from black walnuts and covered them with 80 proof alc in quart jars. I put them in a cupboard and shook them every couple days for the first couple months. Now I took them out to strain them and rebottle so they are ready to use.
Black walnut tincture is traditionally used in herbal medicine and is believed to offer several health benefits:
1. **Antiparasitic Properties**: Black walnut tincture is often used to treat intestinal parasites and worms. It is thought to contain compounds that can help expel these organisms from the digestive tract.
2. **Antifungal and Antimicrobial Effects**: The tincture is believed to have antifungal properties, making it useful for treating fungal infections like candida. It may also have antimicrobial effects, helping to fight against various bacteria.
3. **Digestive Health**: It is sometimes used to support digestive health, including relief from constipation, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal issues. The tannins in black walnut may help tone the digestive system and reduce inflammation.
4. **Skin Health**: Applied topically, black walnut tincture can be used to treat skin conditions such as eczema, warts, and acne due to its potential astringent and antifungal properties.
5. **Anti-inflammatory Effects**: Black walnut tincture might help reduce inflammation and pain associated with conditions like arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.
6. **Rich in Nutrients**: Black walnuts are high in antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, and essential minerals such as magnesium and potassium, which can contribute to overall health.
Not a medical professional and not medical advice. Please consult your healthcare professional before using black walnut tincture.
DIY master bathroom remodel🪞after and before🪞
Things I did: regrouted shower tile, patched and glazed shower pan, replaced toilet (before pic taken after olive green toilet was already replaced), new faucet, new medicine cabinet, restained wood, installed peel and stick vinyl floor, new towel holder. It was a lot of hard work but it gave the room a lift!
Rhubarb juice 🫙 Did you know rhubarb is a natural source of vitamin K and A? My mom has tons of rhubarb but I don’t enjoy eating it, so I decided to try juicing it! I’ve heard it’s lovely added to lemonade or used as a simple syrup. I used my steam juicer and while hot added cane sugar. Then I water bathed canned it. I plan to do more with it after gardening season, such as make jelly and simple syrup.
How do you enjoy rhubarb?
I love seeing pollinators in action 🐝 can you spot the bees pollinating my apple tree? 🍎🌸
Reminder to hydrate when working outside, even if it isn’t ‘hot’ out yet 💧My fav drink right now is the limeade watermelon flavor with a pinch a for extra hydration 🍉🍉🍉
What’s your go-to drink when working outside?
Beautiful Apple Blossoms 🌸 Even though it was cloudy and humid, I watered and enjoyed the garden! Spring time brings me so much joy!
Drop a comment with what’s blooming in your garden or yard ⬇️
We live in the woods so it’s bound to happen 🌳 So far, we have been lucky to find ticks before being bitten. Just in case, I made this kit. I gleaned the interwebs and socials to come up with this protocol.
Tick Bite Kit Supplies:
- Tick Key or Tweezers
- Andrographis Tincture
- Bentonite Clay
- Ledum Palustre 30c
- Printed Thick Bite Protocol
My Tick Bite Protocol (not medical advice):
- Remove tick immediately, use tick key or tweezers.
- Treat the bite spot with plain Andrographis tincture.
- Then mix bentonite clay and andrographis tincture to make a paste. Apply the paste to the bite.
- Take a dose of homeopathic Ledum Palustre 30c. 1-2 pellets every 3 hours for the first full day. Then, 2x per day for the next week. After a week, use 2x per week for a month. Finally, use once per week for another month.
- Sweat to get lymph moving, for example use sauna.
Embracing the beauty of spring as fruit trees blossom 🌸🍐
Compost 👩🏻🌾 I love this countertop compost bin I got at a couple years ago; they have them back this year! It’s ceramic, has a changeable filter in the lid and comes with compostable liners. When it’s full I take it out to the big compost bins in the garden.
Exciting Raw Milk Pickup Day🐄 Packed with goodness and flavor! Swipe for the comparison of unshaken vs shaken. We source from a WI farm a couple hours away, who offers drop sites, making pickup more convenient. I freeze it in quart jars to reduce pickup frequency, it thaws great - you would never know it had been frozen.
Kitchen and Living Area 🛋️ I’m still in love with this remodel! It was a hard 5 months with no kitchen, laundry, office or living area but was well worth it now that this is my house for the rest of my life!
🪞Powder Room Remodel🪞This should be simple because it’s a small room, right? 😝 In this room not only did we have to remove wallpaper, I also had to learn how to replace a water shut off valve 💦 But the results are stunning and I love that I was able to keep my grandma’s original mirror and beautiful pendant lights ♥️
Home Office Remodel 📚🖥️ It’s actually a space I don’t mind working in ☺️
🫧 Hall Bathroom Remodel 🫧 Completed last summer before the main level remodel, this magical makeover was long overdue for a post!
Happy heavenly birthday Grandpa! I hope you are proud of how I am taking care of your homestead ♥️ His April 1st birthday suited him, he loved making people laugh 😂
Meet our newest addition ⭐️ the Polaris Ranger ⭐️
We got the Ranger in January and today we finally put it to work! It sure is going to be useful around the homestead!
It was so nice again today ☀️ William and I decided to put on our boots and walk the property to see how everything is looking. This winter was brutal on the trees and a lot of trees are down including on our garden fence and many on our path to my parent’s house. We picked up and moved what we could but I will need Eric to bring out the chainsaw for the rest 😝 Not pictured: I pruned my mom’s pear tree 🍐
Fit check ✌️ it was 58 degrees today, so I did the winter pruning of the fruit trees and grape vines. Also worked on some of the fence line and tree line.
Homegrown, homemade beet powder ♥️ I finally freeze dried the beets from fall harvest now that my kitchen is done! After harvesting, I cleaned and blended them into tiny chunks then put them in the freezer. Now I ran them in the freezer drier, then blended them into a powder in my ninja blender.
The snow can be pretty, if only it would stay off the roads and driveways 😅❄️
Lights went in today! We are getting so close to the end of the remodel, only a few more weeks!
New medicine cabinet, don’t mind the paint damage. I guess I will have to paint 😉 mini master bathroom makeover in progress. I’m going to do a few small things over the next couple months to spruce it up.
This is my grandmother’s rocking chair, it sat upon a Persian rug in her bedroom. The chair has been in the family for multiple generations. Over time the caning of the seat failed, my grandma was petite enough to cover it up with cardboard and a seat cushion but I am not that petite 😅 so I set about having it recaned, a dying art. It took a few months but when I received it back it was beautiful and sturdy. What a magnificent chair to keep in the family for more generations to come.
I’ve been influenced by .journal 🌺 this herbal goodness is a beautiful iced, bubbly herbal tea.
I made elderberry, butterfly pea flower and hibiscus herbal ice cubes. Then I added carbonated water and topped with Take the Edge Off tincture.
Probably my last little harvest of the season 🍅 everything seemed so tiny 😂
Drywall up and mud on! It’s cool to be on the other side of demo and rough ins. Hopefully no more surprises 😅 only about 3 months to go…
It’s mushroom season 🍄 even though I am allergic to mushrooms, I am still fascinated by them and their medicinal properties. These giant puffball mushrooms were used by the Native American Lakota Tribe to treat bleeding, promote blood clotting and heal wounds. According to USU.edu, researchers have shown it inhibits sarcoma! It is now cited as one of the first substances with antitumor activity isolated from a mushroom.
I plan to carefully (so I don’t give myself anaphylaxis) prepare and freeze dry the giant puffball mushrooms to keep on hand for emergencies and maybe even encapsulate for use as a supplement.
New Berlin, WI
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✨ Harvested fresh mint from my mom’s garden and freeze-dried four trays! Now I have shelf-stable mint for tea and tinctures. 🌿 💚 According to *The Modern Herbal Dispensatory*, peppermint is a cooling and drying herb, that may soothe the nervous system, stomach, and colon. It’s perfect for settling the stomach, expelling gas, and easing colds, fevers, and headaches. 🫖 So excited to add this to my herbal collection! 🌱 #HerbalMedicine #NaturalRemedies #Peppermint #DIYHerbs #HealthyLiving
“Less noise and more green” -Tolkien I spent the day doing garden chores today, enjoying the nature around me 🌳🌷🪻 #springtime #springlove #homesteadlife #outdoor #1000hoursoutside
Until I lived in the woods I never realized how much trees move in the wind. At first it freaked me out, thinking is my house going to be ok? But now I have come to enjoy watching them do their thing. If you listen close you can even hear them creaking 🌳 This video is taken from my bedroom window, I love nature 😍 #naturevideo #trees #homesteadliving
Imagine waking up to a knocking noise on your back sliding door when you live in the woods 🦃 oh wait it’s just turkeys pecking at your door! The only thing I can think of is they were attacking their own reflections 😝 #wildturkey #livinginthewoods #homesteadliving
Demo ✔️ Beams ✔️ next up plumbing and hvac🚰 3 weeks down, 17 to go! Crazy to see how such little things really make an impact, the house feels so much more open and bigger now! #homesteadlife #remodel #houserenovation #homesteadremodel #realestate #renovation #demo
