I need a recipe PLEASE!

Now that I have generously shared my CURE ALL SALVE recipe with you, will someone PLEASE have mercy on me and share your REALLY TRULY NATURAL stick deodorant recipe with me!
I have been googling until I am cross eyed and keep coming up with recipes like the following one which claims to be so good for you because there is no aluminum in it!

(My guys stubbornly insist that gold old baking soda or a salt rock will not do the job. They WANT a deodorant stick because that is what they are used to! Thanks though, for all the ideas that have come by email! I appreciate your thoughtfulness! And I know that it IS possible to make such a thing because someone once mailed me a sample size and it was WONDERFUL but it was a secret recipe and I dasn't ask for it.)

Contains: Propylene Glycol, Water, Sodium Sterate, Vegetable Protein, PEG-200/Hydrogenated Caster Oil, Isostereth-2, Salicylic Acid, Steareth-100, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract (Chamomile), Aloe Barbandensis (Aloe Vera) Leaf Juice, EDTA, Fragrance, Tea Tree and Eucalyptus Oil, Citrus Grandis (Grapefruit) Seed Extract, Diazolidinyl Urea, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate

Wait a minute! Propylene Glycol is a sweet colorless, viscous, hygroscopic liquid used as an antifreeze and in brake fluid and also as a humectant in cosmetics and personal care although it can be absorbed through the skin with harmful effects).

I did try one recipe that had nothing but cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, tea tree oil, and beeswax, but it was sticky and the guys wouldn't use it. I've found some similar recipes with cornstarch and baking soda added to combat that sticky feeling, but would like to use a tried-and-true-really-natural-not-just-slightly-less-bad-for-you-deodorant-recipe!

Here's one, but does it work? Is it sticky?

Ingredients: Olive oil, cocoa butter, carnauba wax, sodium bicarbonate, modified cornstarch, tea tree oil and your choice of scents.

How to make a Healing Salve

Dad bought some "Salve-ation" for me (Shea Butter and Fennel), and I was inspired to make a similar but superior product to use for cuts, burns, scrapes, muscle aches, chapped or dry skin, acne, udder congestion and mastitis. The following recipe is for HUMANS and ANIMALS. If it's good enough for us, you might as well use it on your animals too.

This is the second batch I have made. I added mango butter, sweet almond oil, and coconut oil to this one so that it would help chapped skin as well as be healing.

Over the course of a year or two gather your ingredients. This way, the cost doesn't overwhelm you. :o)

Infuse comfrey leaves in olive oil or castor oil - I set mine in a sunny window for about 4 weeks. (Note that that link says not to do it for more than 2 weeks. I added Grapefruit Seed Extract to mine as a preservative.) But, you can heat it over low heat instead and vastly speed up the process.

Strain your comfrey leaves out of the olive/castor oil.

Add several heaping Tablespoons of beeswax and about 1/2 cup of Mango butter to the pot and heat over low heat until it's melted in.

Adding the comfrey root powder.

Then, to test the thickness of the cooled mixture, just drop a tiny drop on a cold plate. Give it a minute to cool and then see if it is thick enough for your liking. If not, add more beeswax. (How's that for scientific?) I'm not giving exact measurements because I did not use exact measurements!

Then add:
Peppermint Essential Oil - pain relief, circulatory system, anti-inflammatory, supports muscles and bones
Lavender Essential Oil - relieves pain, enhance blood flow, rejuvinates skin, soothes burns and sunburns, protects against cancer
Fennel Essential Oil - helps in milk production, anti-inflammatory, good for the skin
Tea Tree Essential Oil - antibacterial
Oregano Essential Oil - good for acne, anti-viral, antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti parasitic, helps heal psoriasis, excema, athletes foot, relieves congestion
Cayenne Pepper - improves blood flow
GSE - antibacterial
Vitamin E Oil - natural preservative
Comfrey Root Powder - healing
Sweet Almond Oil - improves complexion, softens skin
Coconut Oil - good for dry skin

Pour it into sterile jars. Do not put the lids on until it has cooled.

Teresa has suggested I name it "Mother's Touch Healing Salve" or something along those lines. I like that idea because it implies that it's not only for mothers to use on their children, but good for Udder Kinds of Mothers too! Or for Other Mother's Udders. Kris suggested I name it "Salve-anella" but if I expect to sell any of it, I better not! Sounds too much like salmonella. :o)

to Tana

Tana, those are some REALLY CUTE pictures of Suzie Q!!
You'd be proud of Erinn - she caught a big bass today!

HOT

This is what my seedlings look like now - a week after PJ nibbled them down to nothing and pulled them out by their roots.

I replanted all the ones he pulled out, and put up an elaborate barricade to keep him off my side of the deck. He can have his side. That's where he eats, because the goats don't really let him get much of their feed. And for some reason, he will only get up on the deck by using the kitchen side steps. He could easily get up using the other steps, but he never has. Yet. Wait until he sees all those juicy seedlings growing over there!

It's 90 degrees today!!

And those tough old roosters can't be eaten unless they are boiled for at least an hour.

I made some tamales with the last rooster, and Mooky really liked them.

So, rather than heat up the house, I put my "pot of rooster" out on the deck to cook on the electric burner. Not only does it save propane, but it keeps the house cooler.

Kris took the kids fishing today and they had a great time!

I forgot to send the camera along, so you will have to be content with this picture taken while Kris was replacing the rotten platform in the boat.

I finally got the soap pictures uploaded! Erinn is very disappointed in hers - she says it's too plain and ugly. But, I don't agree with her. It looks beautiful and smells wonderful!

It's Hot Apple Pie!

Mine is Peppermint, Spearmint, and Wintergreen with Chocolate.

It needs a name. Give it a good name and I will send you a free bar! :o)

Just ordered some ink to refill the cartridges but found out that Canon has a scam going on where the printer refuses to print unless it has a NEW cartridge in it. I found a couple sites with elaborate instructions on how to get around that problem, so hopefully when the ink arrives I can make the printer work again.


Mooky especially has been loving his new school ring binder. It's got his chore list, and all of his school subjects in it. He can do what he is supposed to do with no help from me! Whenever he is ready, he can go for it. Doesn't have to wait around until I can show him what needs to be done. I should've done this a LONG time ago!!! Someone still has to read his spelling words off to him, but it can be any of us, doesnt just have to be me.

Curriculum

We spend very little money on home school curriculum because we are blessed to be a second generation home schooling family who receives "hand-me-downs" in the form of SCHOOL BOOKS! yay yippeee!!! :D (Thanks Mum and Dad!)
The one place that we do actually spend the most money when it comes to educating our children is Vision Forum. Quite often the kids will choose to spend their own money buying cd's from Vision Forum. They are having a sale which ends today and when I asked Mooky if he had ever heard of the Witherspoon School of Law and Public Policy, he got all excited and started telling me everything he knew about it and how there was a cd about it from Vision Forum that he'd love to get. When I told him that cd was on sale he just about croaked!
Here's the description:
The 2008 Witherspoon School of Law and Public Policy is an up-to-date look at the most important constitutional battles we face, an overview of the biblical and historical foundations of Western law, and a training tool for Christians who aspire to speak with precision to the great ethical and apologetic battles of our day. This album includes 24 CDs.
Then he found out that the current sale, which ends at midnight tonight, actually includes 74 hours of audio on 78 CDs he asked if he could spend some of his 4-H money on it.
So. Guess what we'll be listening to non stop for weeks on end! He'll be playing those cds all day every day until he has heard each one several times, then he will play them at night to listen to as he goes to sleep.
SNEAK PREVIEW: Tomorrow Vision Forum is going to be having a new promotion. I can't tell you what it is until after midnight tonight, and I certainly do NOT intend to stay up that late.
So, if you want to you can go to Vision Forum and scroll down to find the Newsletter Subscription box. Then you will need to watch your email for a confirmation link. Then you can watch your email on Wednesday for the upcoming promotion. It's a good one!

Predators

On Saturday we ran into our neighbor (the one who is directly next to us, with a horse that Darlin' likes to hang out with) at the auction. She was buying some chickens, and she told me about a bobcat that she had recently shot as it sat on top of her dove cage trying to figure out how to get in...

That dove cage is just out of sight in the trees across the fence line!

Then she told me that they now have two dogs (not sure what breed, but not LGDs) and yesterday her two dogs came over here for a visit when she was not home. Hannah was in La-La Land, as usual and didn't even notice a thing. She never realized we had intruders. Liberty, on the other hand... ran at them furiously barking and they backed off a little. Then she ran back to her goats who were on the other side of the house. Rather than attacking the dogs, she chose to stay with the goats. Kris shot at them with the BB gun, just to scare them and they went back home. Liberty stayed on full alert right next to the goats and Hannah continued on with her nap.

DRY

Compare this pic of the hill near the cabin to the one at the top of the blog.

Then, pray for rain!

On Friday we helped Grandpa get junk from the cabin loaded onto his trailer to take to the auction.


On Saturday we helped him get about 25 or so of the WILD Barbados loaded up to take to the auction. There were SO MANY trailers full of animals coming in. More than we have ever seen before. It seems that hard times have hit for so many ranchers, and the lack of rain is making things even more difficult. Two of the Barbado rams that we loaded were ours, so it'll be interesting to see how much they went for. Not much, I am sure!


We still have one ram out at the cabin - it's a Dahl sheep though. He's the one we raised as a bottle baby. I hadn't seen him in over 6 months, but he remembered me. Mooky got this great picture of him.

BEAN

Today Erinn and I made soap for the first time in a long time. She made Hot Apple Pie and I made Mint Chocolate, which I am getting rather tired of, but I had a new idea I wanted to try. I'll take pictures tomorrow when we cut it.

I got the Watson Ranch Organic Fertilizer that the Bakers gave us sprayed on all 3 garden areas plus the fruit trees. Tomorrow I will start working on spraying the grass areas. The goats were following me around trying to figure out where that delicious molasses smell was coming from.

Hypocalcemia and Ketosis

The following was posted on Nubian Talk and it is full of such good information! This basically explains what most likely happened to Maggie and Rio this year due to being unable to get good quality hay and no forage.

(no subject)
Posted by: "(no author)" (no email address)
Sun Feb 22, 2009 12:04 am (PST)
Since there has been much discussion online regarding ketosis, the causes and whether or not to feed alfalfa, etc., I went online to several websites and copied the one below. It is lenthy, but very informative. Remember this info is on Hypocalcemia and Ketosis,
Hope this helps.

Ketosis is a metabolic disorder defined by increased levels of ketone bodies (acetone, betahydroxybutyric acid, and acetoacetic acid) in blood, milk, and urine, and is associated with elevated blood plasma nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA), which are precursors of ketone bodies.

The link between calcium and phosphorus in the diet (and the link between Hypocalcemia and Ketosis as well!)

As we goat owners sometimes painfully discover through the unnecessary loss of a doe in late gestation, the nutrients we provide for them during that period are more important than at any other time in their lives. Remember, it's not just the mother we're feeding, but all her fetuses as well. Two minerals especially critical now are calcium and phosphorus. If not available in sufficient amounts and balanced in relationship to each other, in the areas of bone development and muscle tone the physical needs of the mother and her fast-growing fetuses cannot be met

This is no simple task! The tricky part is that for her to handle those functions the doe must get a ration containing lots of calcium-rich foods* along with a lesser amount of phosphorus-rich foods*. By the fourth month a properly balanced calcium to phosphorus ratio must be available since that's when those developing fetuses start rapidly draining calcium and phosphorus from her system for their bone development. Mom gets only "left-overs" for herself, and absent that mineral balance, thus with nothing left for her own muscle tone, she'll be facing a deficiency that, if severe enough, will cause her pregnancy to falter. Too weak to perform her normal body functions, she'll be unable even to eat! No appetite, along with wobbly legs,will be the first clues that she's in trouble.** If this situation isn't corrected fast she'll be faced with starvation, her body left with no option but to rely on its own fat reserves to stay alive. As the fat reserves are processed in the liver, ketones get released into her bloodstream, setting off a secondary crisis, a metabolic condition known as Ketosis. Failure to fix the new problem right away will allow excess ketones to build up, quickly overwhelming the liver. Sadly, once it's 70% damaged it can't be saved. But if intervention starts before that happens, with lots of TLC there's still a chance for survival.

Symptoms: Most cases are seen in does that were getting a hefty grain ration along with their hay in the 1st 3 months of pregnancy, especially when that's largely grass hay instead of alfalfa. The first signs can show up as early as the beginning of the 4th month of gestation****, when she stops eating her grain. Soon after that she won't want her hay either. Without immediate intervention she'll become wobbly, lethargic and depressed. If still untreated by then she'll go down and be unwilling to get up again. If you're concerned enough to take her temperature when you first see these changes, it'll be normal (102.3), but soon after that it'll drop to sub-normal (below 102). Unless you start corrective measures right away you'll lose both the doe and her fetuses.

Treatment: Intervention involves two essential steps:

First, provide outside energy immediately, to prevent damage to her liver (propylene glycol can do this), or even better, provide her with a source of energy plus nutrition. (Nutridrench is good for that.)

And Second, restore her body's calcium to phosphorus ratio ASAP to fix the problem that started all this and get her back up on her own, functioning normally again.

Emergency Repair Info: If you have a 500ml bottle of injectable CMPK¹ (an Rx item) on hand, dose her SQ with 30cc of it every 2 hours day and night, warmed to body temperature until she's normal again. Because of its volume (2 tablespoons) it must be injected between the last rib and the front of the hip bones. If you have oral CMPK or MFO (not Rx) instead, dispense it orally at the same rate as the injectable form, taking care that she swallows one mouthful before you give her another.

If neither of those products are handy, you can re-create a 30cc CMPK dose (650 mg calcium; 500mg potassium; 150 mg phosphorus; and 96 mg magnesium) in your kitchen by going to the Supplements department ofany large chain-type drugstore and buying bottles of Posture D tablets (600 mg calcium, 266 mg phosphorus, 125 units Vitamin D), Citracal tablets (315mg calcium and 200 IU of Vitamin D), Potassium tablets (500 mg), and Magnesium tablets (150mg). Crush up the amount of each pill needed to recreate one 30cc dose of CMPK above. (To assist the reader, helpful owners have calculated the following: "½ of a 600mg tablet of Posture-D, a 315mg tablet of CitraCal, a 500mg tablet of Potassium, and ½ of a 150mg tablet of Magnesium). Serve it in a little yogurt, or add water and drench it with a syringe.

Once she's normal again, along with her corrected ration she'll need a 30cc dose of this CMPK replacement daily until she freshens or, if lactating, until the symptoms subside completely.

Prevention: In the future you can avoid this trauma by feeding the bred doe a "non-working" ² diet of grass or timothy hay during the first 3 months. But as she enters her 4th month of gestation when the fetuses really start growing fast, switch her to a "working diet" ², feeding her the needed calcium-foods and phosphorus-foods in a ratio that provides her with at least 2 parts of calcium to every 1 part of phosphorus. This is quite critical, because ifa doe in late gestation eats plenty of alfalfa, but NO grain, there'll be a phosphorus deficiency. And if she eats straight grass hay and lots of grain, there'll be a calcium deficiency. Feeding any way other than to provide that balance of calcium to phosphorus will leave her deficient in the essential dietary calcium and phosphorus. Only a doe that isn't 'working' (growing, pregnant or lactating) can survive on a diet like that.

Long range consequences of nutritional imbalance: If a doe suffering from this imbalance during late gestation doesn't die at some stage, a few more freshenings with the same diet will leave her heart muscle so weakened that it'll suffer permanent damage, rendering it unable to circulate the body fluids efficiently thru the system. Fluids settle in the body's lower extremities, causing a buildup in the abdominal area and feet that's indicative of Congestive Heart Failure.

Additional problems that appear when goat diets are consistently calcium or phosphorus deficient are: Urolithiasis in wethers (crystalline deposits of excess calcium or phosphorus that block the male urethra), rickets in growing kids (soft, bowed leg bones), and osteomalacia in mature animals (brittle, easily fractured bones). This imbalance also affects the performance of other minerals such as copper, magnesium, zinc, manganese, iron and iodine, all of which play important roles in maintaining healthy body function.

Additional options and info: Alfalfa is the only commonly available* forage that has a lot of calcium, grass hays containing almost none. And all grains contain lots of phosphorus but almost no calcium. So ideally, does in late gestation should get lots of alfalfa along with a small amount of grain to provide the proper balance.*** But if living in an area where grass hay is fed because alfalfa isn't available, in lieu of grain it might be best to provide a loose mineral supplement free choice that has in it the needed calcium to phosphorus ratio along with all of the other essential minerals (ex: Sweetlix 16:8 Meatmaker # 987), perhaps including calf manna in the mixture for additional protein, and powdered dicalcium phosphate as well.

After reading the above, the first question many will ask is, "But how can I provide the energy and protein needed in late gestation if I don't pour on the grain?" Well, here's the answer!

Alfalfa, grasses and grains (barley, oats, corn) all contain similar levels (~1.54%) of digestible energy. So reducing the amount of grain fed and increasing the doe's intake of alfalfa to make the proper calcium to phosphorus ratio available will not change the energy level in the diet at all.

Alfalfa has more digestible protein (~12.5% on average) than do the common grains (oats, barley, corn) and grass hays (~ 8.5%on average). Since late gestation calls for ~ 18% protein, a small amount of calf manna (~24% protein) could either be added to a reduced grain ration, or in addition to the free-choice loose mineral source if feeding straight grass hay.

END

* Other forage-type substances are known to be heavy in calcium as well as alfalfa, but for reasons that while unknown to me no doubt make good sense, they aren't in general use.

**These are symptoms of "Hypocalcemia", a metabolic condition caused by a diet lacking enough calcium and phosphorus to provide for both the mother's and the fetuses' physical needs. But the term is misleading, more accurate choices being Hyperphosphatemia or Hypophosphatemia since Hypo(too little) calcemia doesn't happen all by itself, but is caused by feeding either too much (Hyper = too much) or too little (Hypo = too little) phosphorus relative to the calcium intake.

*** My own regimen for feeding full sized does in the last 2 months of gestation, and that which I recommend to others as well, is 1 cup of grain 2X daily until she freshens, along with all the alfalfa she wants. This diet, In addition to providing the proper amount of calcium, also provides all the protein and energy she needs.

**** Milder and more easily repairable cases of hypocalcemia occasionally show up during lactation as well.

¹ CMPK is a carefully balanced blend of Calcium (1st part of essential dicalcium phosphate balance necessary for bone development and muscle strength), Magnesium (increases calcium effectiveness), Phosphorus (2nd part of essential dicalcium phosphate combination) and K, potassium (helps maintain normal heartbeat while calcium level is being increased).

² A "working diet" is fed to goats that are growing, in late gestation, lactating, or (in the case of bucks) in breeding season. A "non-working" diet, then, is a subsistence ration that's fed to healthy goats that are neither growing, in late gestation, lactating, nor (in the case of bucks) breeding.