Nifty Nettles

I first learned what nettles were in Girl Scouts on a hike. I had walked through them and my legs started to itch. That's why they're called "stinging" nettles. I didn't think much more about the plant until years later when I became interested in nutrition and herbs. I found out that nettles are full of chlorophyll, vitamin C and vitamin A, minerals, including calcium, silicon, and potassium chloride; protein, and dietary fiber. Nettles have been used as a nutritional tonic for many things including anemia and as a dietary source of calcium. They grow in my yard and I have used them on and off over the last several years. I find that I feel more energetic when nettles tea or infusion is part of my daily routine. Nettles rinse is also very nourishing for the hair!

So imagine my surprise when I found that this trusty plant had also been incorporated into a new yarn! Classic Elite Woodland is 65% wool and 35% nettles. The animal fiber and the plant fiber take on the dye differently giving the yarn a rich heathery look that is very appealing! And the combination of both wool and plant fiber together gives the yarn a quality that neither has alone. I very much enjoyed knitting with this yarn and think you would enjoy knitting anything out of this new collection.

Pickles Pickles

I planted three hills of bush cucumbers this spring. Even with all the shade from the surrounding trees, cuks seem to do very well here. I was noticing the profusion of yellow flowers on the vines one day in early summer, with just some very very tiny baby cuks starting to grow. We had five days of rain in a row. I decided to check under the leaves and cuks were everywhere...large and small. We've been eating cucumber, tomato, and basil salads, and sweet refrigerator pickles.

Our son Wes requested some *real* dill pickles, so we cut up seven cuks into a gallon jar and added one hot pepper and some dill and garlic from the garden, plus some fancy spices we had in the cupboard. They sit on the counter for 2-3 days to ferment, then into the refrigerator until they are gone. Yum!

Nissen Fundoplication - one year later

This is not really a post about homesteading, food, or nature...but it is about health. Exactly one year ago today I was in surgery for a complication that had nearly ruined my overall health. I thought I would post the details here in case someone else might be searching for information and experiences that others have had with the Nissen Fundoplication surgery that physically corrects major hiatal hernias. Mine has been a very positive experience overall. Much of what I found on the internet in my early search for solutions was very negative regarding the surgical procedure. Thus, I'm going to offer a detailed look in this post of my own experience hoping it may help someone out there with a serious GERD issue.



Back in the late 1990's I began having a lot of trouble with bronchitis conditions that frequently recurred. Doctors and clinics I would visit would always ask me if I was a smoker - I never have smoked. Often my energy level was very low and sometimes I felt like I was dying. I was finally diagnosed with GERD or Reflux disease - but encouraged to try medicine and other lifestyle adjustments. Let me say when the problem started I was not overweight. I was probably 10 pounds or so overweight midway through the disease...and certainly for folks that are overweight losing the weight may indeed help you or even could correct your problem. Well, since the weight was not the major issue for me I underwent just about every test, diet, special pillows, bed-raising, and medicine I could find of over the past ten years. Nothing really worked...until I started taking Prilosec.



I needed heavy doses of Prilosec, however, and in the beginning it helped. Gradually however after three years the doses were not helping as much, and I was starting to have increasing nerve and bone pain throughout my arms, hands, and toes. It became very painful and my intuition told me it was a result of the Prilosec. About that time studies were being published in medical journals demonstrating these same type of side effects. My dental health had deteriorated greatly and I had many dental problems all of a sudden. I was seldom able to sleep very much during the night, often waking not able to breath with horrible burning in my chest and throat. I was trying several alternative health therapy approaches - but unfortunately these were of no help.



Finally, I threw in the towel and started to consult with surgeons on what might be done. After several nasty exploratory tests the diagnosis was that I had a hiatal hernia at the stomach opening allowing highly acidic juices to flow upward burning the lining of my esophagus constantly. Nothing short of surgery would correct it. The doctors said it was likely I would end up with cancer if nothing was done. They recommended the laproscopic nissen fundoplication procedure that would physically correct the hernia and restructure the stomach opening such that it would operate as close to normal as possible. during the initial consultations I had misread the doctor in thinking he had said I would not be able to eat meat or bread forever after the surgery. Well, that gave me great pause, but I felt this condition would kill me so was willing to do it. But, later I learned he meant no bread or red meat for the first six - eight weeks. That was a relief!



I had to have a preliminary surgery test that was called a pressure test. This to me was more difficult than the surgery itself, but was necessary for the surgeon to plan the exact level of correction. The surgery required five small incisions in my belly. I spent one night in the hospital and was ready to leave at noon the next day. Elizabeth helped me through it all and slept the night on two chairs pushed together and read to me. I couldn't have gotten through it without her. Thank you, Honey.



My diet was liquid for several days, and then proceeded to introduce very mild foods. It took about three weeks before I began to eat "normal" food, and two months before I was going along pretty normally again. I had to learn to chew food very well and also not to drink too fast. The new stomach opening could only handle so much at a time. And if I went to fast the pain was there to slow me down. I ended up losing about 15 pounds, but in the year since I've gained back some of that weight.

One other side effect post-surgery is that people normally cannot burp or vomit. However, my surgeon was incredibly knowledgeable and adept with this type of surgery. He even had it performed on himself. Turns out he restructured the opening just right...maybe just a bit loose. So, I seem to be able to burp fine....which I can tell you it is very painful not to be able to do so. and this occured early on after the surgery. BeanO and Gas-X were my friends.

A year after the surgery, I only have a very slight indigestion feeling and this occurs only once or twice a week, and only a few minutes at a time. Over time I realize that the restructured opening could become loose and the need for GERD medication to control reflux...or worse having the surgery again...might be needed. However, for many patients the surgery seems to work for many years. My quality of life has improved immensly. I gained my energy back and became like a new person. I'm very thankful I met the surgeon and was able to have him perform this correction for me. I am also very thankful for my loving wife who saw me through thick and thin during this entire ordeal.

Hey, if you have a major reflux problem check out the procedure and make sure you get a surgeon with a lot of experience. It can change your life for the better. I can eat chocolate, drink beer, and even stand on my head without any problems now!

'Shrooms now and later

One of my favorite foods is mushrooms...I'm not sure I've tried a mushroom I have not liked. Since I was a small child I recall going on annual mushroom hunts with parents and relatives. The past few years, I've either not had as much time to go looking, or the neighbors have already cleaned out the woods of the coveted morels. So, after doing some research, I decided to try growing mushrooms from some of the logs I had recently cut in our woods.

The basic idea is to use 4-8 inch diameter hardwood limbs that were felled in late winter or early spring. The procedure involves drilling 1 inch holes in a diamond pattern across the entire surface of the log, and then pushing mushroom spawn growing in sawdust into the holes. It's best to brush some melted wax over the inoculated sawdust sites to prevent them from drying out. Then, over the course of 6-12 months you manage the moisture level of the logs by keeping them shaded...and mushrooms will begin to appear. I am trying out shitake and oyster shell mushrooms on basswood and elm logs. Our youngest daughter Rhianna even helped inoculate one of the logs.

The fun really began when I was outside working with the logs and sawdust, when I heard our neighbor, Tyler, start exclaiming he was finding mushrooms with outbursts like "Holy Mother bleep" and "Oh My God". This was just below our house in our woods. Wes and I ran down the hill and joined him. Huge yellow sponge morels were everywhere. The three of us must have picked 10 pounds in less than 10 minutes. The timing was interesting, and gave me hope of not only having mushrooms now, but also later in the year. Then the rainstorm that was threatening all day finally let loose.

Last evening we dined on a dish of pasta with morels and asparagus sauteed in butter and garlic, with Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top, with Rhubarb crisp for desert. My parents are coming over today for a mess of traditional fried morels. Yum!

100 things we've done

The other day Beth and I decided to just list off the top of our heads things we've done that are homestead related...and we ended up with 100...I think there are more...but just for fun:

Things we’ve done ourselves (together or separately):

Gave birth to 3 children at home
Raised our own pigs
Butchered a pig
Butchered chickens
Raised egg laying chickens
Built a coop
Built a screen room
Made bread from scratch
Preserved all kinds of foods including pickles, dilly beans, apples tomatoes and jams
Grow gardens
Knitted socks, sweaters and more
Restored a prairie
Installed flooring
Installed a home theater
Installed slate flooring
Painted our own house
Installed a wood burning furnace
Felled and split firewood
Killed rabid raccoons and an interloping rat
Remodeled a basement
Built fences
Change our own oil
Repaired radiator hoses
Replaced alternators and spark plugs
Fixed flat tires
Removed stitches
Made herbal medicines
Dyed with Henna
Made a self-watering container
Made a raised bed
Herded pigs
Loaded pigs
Made apple cider
Do our own taxes
Did my own divorce
Started my own business
Fixed our own computers
Did electrical wiring
Made pottery
Recorded our own cd
Made an instructional video
Repaired brake and light hookups for trailer while on the road
Repaired weight distribution bracket for camper while in Missouri
Wrote poetry
Delivered babies
Made doughnuts from scratch
Created websites
Taught guitar classes
Taught outdoor skills classes
Taught childbirth classes
Spun yarn
Fixed bicycles
Got out of debt
Fixed lawnmowers (too many times)
Patched the driveway
Sprouted vegetables and herbs to plant in garden
Made dandelion wine
Planned conferences
Cooked a lot of meals from scratch
Recycle most of our waste
Built a composting toilet
Repaired toilets
Repaired drywall
Navigated with real maps not GPS
Installed egress window in basement
Installed programmable thermostat
Transported & raised bees
Extracted and bottled honey
Made bath salts
Foraged for wild foods
Built a trail through the woods
Hunted for mushrooms
Rescued an unhatched chick
Nursed injured animals to health
Groomed our dog
Biked to work
Trimmed hair
Disinfected our well
Tested well water
Watered animals from creek
Mastered pie crust
Created a recipe
Remineralized a tooth
Constructed a masonry floor with antique bricks
Cleaned our chimney
Repaired shower tile
Installed ceiling fans
Installed larger oven and resized wall opening
Put in whole house water filter
Installed & configured computer & phone network
Reclaimed outdoor furniture
Made yogurt
Sprouted seeds to eat
Did newborn exams and screening
Did community presentations on healthy homes and water quality
Coached softball
Built a birthing replica for demonstration
Did our own business accounting
Canoed the Wabash & Blue River and Big Pine Creek
Made homemade ice cream

Dyeing with Plants

I bet you think this is going to be about fiber. You know, knitting, spinning, dyeing and all that jazz? Well it's not going to be about that. It's going to be about....HAIR!

Yep, that's right. Hair.

Maybe this doesn't seem like something you'd read about on a blog about homesteading, but I find that I am interested in anything that allows me to be more independent. In fact we were thinking of making a list of "do-it-yourself" things we have actually done ourselves, but I'll leave that for another day. For now I want to tell you about my natural dyeing experience.

If you haven't noticed, hair coloring is really hot right now. I think maybe more than ever before. A long time ago, I used to think that hair coloring was something fake that people used to make up for not being happy with themselves. Not blond enough. Not young enough. You get the idea. I rather prided myself on the idea that I didn't need to do that kind of stuff; I would just be happy with myself the way I happened to be.

Then I had kids. And they opened my eyes up to the fact that today changing your hair color is like deciding what color of fingernail polish to wear was when I was their age. My older daughter went from bleach blond, to BLACK, to her current black/red combo and she's really hoping for fire engine red this summer. She has helped me see that changing your hair color doesn't have to mean you are unhappy with the natural you; but that it's ok to have fun & experiment and try new things-- and that can be liberating. In her world your hair color can be as changeable as which concert t-shirt she chooses to wear--Kelly Clarkson one day; Iron Maiden the next. No boxes or boundaries!

Both of my daughters have been trying to get me to color my hair for quite some time. But really, even though I thought it sounded fun (and a little bit daring!) I just couldn't see me really buying a box of L'Oreal and doing that. It just wasn't me.

One day I happened across the Henna for Hair website. And I couldn't quit browsing and looking at all of those thumbnails of vibrant glowing hair color. I looked at "before & after" pictures; I looked at the individual mixes of herbs and everyday household items that people used to color their own hair. This was starting to speak my language. Like making herbal infusions for physical health, this was another kind of herbal infusion for hair health! I was hooked.

After lots of reading & thinking about which colors I liked, I ordered some henna and indigo. Being a very brave person, I tried them out on my daughters! Dare I say this was about a YEAR ago? After having fun with my daughters' hair, I left the henna & indigo packets in a closet in a back room almost forgotten. Fun as it had been I was still clinging to my purist, natural ideas--plus I was kind of afraid of doing something I wouldn't like. I like my hair. I know my husband likes my hair. I didn't want to mess it up. And when it comes to change, well I'm a pretty slow mover.

I'm not sure why I finally found my henna mojo. But a couple of weekends ago I got the urge to try it. I pored over the Henna for Hair website again reminding myself how to do it. Doing a henna treatment takes time and pre-planning. Unlike a commercial hair dye, henna needs to be mixed up the night before with several hours to let the dye release. Then you need time the next day to apply the henna, something I couldn't have done by myself. Then you need a few hours to let it sit on your hair. Then you need a rather major shampooing treatment to get it off. So with time ahead of me and a bit of courage, I mixed my henna with lemon juice and let it sit in a warm place over night.

In the morning I mixed in indigo to tone the red down a bit and make it darker. After a few minutes of trying to apply it myself I called on Colleen for help. She applied the henna paste layer by layer to my hair. To be positive, the mixture looked a lot like mud; to be more realistic it looked quite a lot like baby poop. The more my hair was coated the heavier my head became. After my head felt about 5 pounds heavier, we piled my henna coated hair on my head & wrapped it in plastic wrap and a towel. Then I just had to wait. And wonder. I didn't take any pictures of this process...I was still pretty chicken about the whole thing. I wasn't sure I'd want to document it publicly or otherwise.

A few hours later when I couldn't stand it anymore, I decided to take the plunge, literally, and got in the shower. I can't really describe what happened when the spraying water hit my head. I was suddenly immersed in a mud bath like I've never experienced before. It was really like being in a mud waterfall. Muddy looking water was running all over me, the shower, and everything. I was not prepared for that! It was quite a shock at first. But after a few shampoos and lots of conditioning, the water was running clear and I was ready to see how it worked!

I could only see my water darkened hair that really didn't look very different than it usually looks. But when I looked in the mirror I could see a glow around my face that was new and different. When my hair dried I could see that the grayest hairs, especially around my face and bangs, were a fairly bright copper. And the hair that was already brown was now a more glowing auburn. Plant dyes are different than commercial hair dyes in that they soak into the hair and actually dye it, instead of just coating and covering it. So with plant dyes, the hair retains it's natural pattern of highlights and shading nuances; they are just a different color, but the natural variation is still there. I really loved how my gray strands became coppery highlights! And my hair felt conditioned & soft and well ... just healthy!

Many people who have a history of using commercial hair colors say it is hard on their hair and leaves it feeling brittle and dry. But the natural henna and indigo are actually conditioning and contribute to hair health. Since I've never done the commercial dye I can't speak to that, but I can say that my hair has felt full and healthy since doing my henna treatment. I feel great about being able to care for my hair in a natural way. And I love being able to use natural plants and to take care of my hair myself. I do a lot of things that I like feeling ownership of, like making nettle infusions for their nourishing qualities or baking fresh bread for my family. It just feels good to know I can use things that nature provides to take care of my needs. And it feels good to know I can do it myself. Now I have found another one to add to the list! Henna!

Wood, wood, wood, how much wood could a....

Lately I've been doing a lot with wood. Cutting trees, chopping wood, stacking wood, burning wood. If you have followed previous posts, you know that we installed an EPA rated wood burning furnace last autumn. It has been great! Our home feels warmer, and I estimate that we have saved about $1300 on the propane that we did not need to use this winter. After including the federal tax break, I believe this furnace will pay for itself in two winters of use. With the exception of one pickup truck load of wood that we recently purchased (and Elizabeth got to help with), all of the wood we've burned we have personally harvested locally from dead trees.

The past month, I've been cutting a few trees that are starting to die, or are increasingly blocking sunlight into our small clearing where our gardens are located. The cool thing is that we will be using the larger sections to split and burn in future winters. The smaller diameter limbs will be serving to produce a variety of mushrooms - something I've been talking about trying for several years. Cutting, splitting, hauling, and stacking wood is something I've done since I was a little kid - and now my kids can get a little of that "split-rail value" experience...they are not amused. There is just something great about the smell of newly split wood, the differences between species, the good feeling of the ache in your muscles knowing you are able to heat your home without the gas man next year.

I'll be posting in the future about the mushroom production....but next up we will be building some new garden beds with cold frames, and getting ready for honey bees. We are also trying our hand at sprouting our own veges....starting with sweet and hot pepper plants. Oh, and we just doubled our chicken flock with five new hens. Lots of exciting projects and photos coming up!