(aka my husband did something foolish and injured his toe)

Last weekend it was our turn to teach the Preschooler Bible Class. For one of our activities we made a figure 8 on the floor with tape to demonstrate the unendingness of God’s love. While the kids were coloring their activities sheets my husband thought 1potato should see how far she could jump on the figure 8. She made it about halfway. Another helper also tried and made it just slightly further. I reminisced about how my husband used to be able to jump very far in his youth. I encouraged him to demonstrate his abilities and he willingly did so jumping about 6 feet. Unfortunately, we both forgot that he was wearing steel-toed boots. He jammed his toe into the steel and pain shot through his foot. We were pretty sure he just sprained his toe.

By the time we got home his big toe was very swollen and black and blue. I applied Arnica cream to it and he spent pretty much the rest of the day in bed in severe pain. He also took some ibuprofen which he never takes. The pain and swelling continued for the next couple of days and we applied more of the arnica cream each day. It seemed to be quickly going through the stages of healing but it was still difficult for him to put much weight on it. Thankfully he has a desk job so he was able to stay off of it for the most part.

On Thursday I started worrying that maybe he actually broke his toe instead of just jamming it so I started to do some research. Sudddenly I remembered that PanAway oil from Young Living was used in treating such injuries. It is a combination of Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), helichrysum (Helichrysum italicum), clove (Syzygium aromaticum) and peppermint (Mentha piperita). I felt so dumb for having not thought about that earlier in the week. When he got home I liberaly applied the PanAway to his toe and rubbed it in. Within a few minutes he was able to walk normally again! It is still sore but we have been applying the PanAway at least twice a day since. The swelling is almost all gone and his toe is flesh colored again.

I love essential oils and how wonderfully they work! Now if I can just remember to use them right away!

If you are interested in learning more about essential oils check out:

http://mamakay.com/WordPress/essential-oils/

MamaKay

We moved to Montana last January with plans to homestead. After much work and many false starts we settled on a nice piece of property just outside of town with no restrictions. We have 1.33 acres. The property came with several trees including 6 large cottonwoods, 1 pine tree, 4 plum trees, 2 apple trees and 1 unknown tree :). We have a pasture with 3 irrigation ditches running through it. There is a small barn of sorts as well. We also have a well.

Our goal is to have a sustainable homestead that will provide food enough to feed our family with exception to a few things we can’t grow (i.e. wheat, coffee, some fruits, oils, etc…) and have enough to sell to support our family. We intend to use as many permaculture ideas as we can and to use intensive grazing using multiple animals. So far we have 50 chickens (half for meat & half for eggs), 3 rabbits (for breeding, possible eating & for fertilizer), a dog for herding, watching & playing and 2 kittens for mousers. We plan on adding sheep, a cow for meat, dairy cow and maybe a goat.

While in Arizona we planted several raised bed gardens and last year we used Grandma’s 20 x 40 ft row garden. This year we have greatly expanded our gardening. Several things are experiments and we had to break lots of new ground so we will be fighting grass all summer.

Here is a list of what we’ve planted:

Potatoes: Yukon Gold, Red, & Russets in potato bins

6 crowns of rhubarb

25 raspberry canes (thanks to a friend who gave us her thinings)

2 blackberry canes

2 blueberry canes

75 strawberry plants (again thanks to a friend) planted in mound planters

8 crowns of asparagus

Herb Mound: Chives, Lavender, Basil, Thyme (English, German, Orange & Lemon), Parsley, Mint, Echinecea, Yarrow, Chamomille, Rosemary

Onions: (some for storage & some for green onions) white, yellow, red and Walla Walla

In our backyard beds we have:

Lettuce (multiple kinds)

Beets

Broccoli

Peas

Kale

Swiss Chard

More Onions

Acorn Squash

Carrots

Spinach

Lemon Cucumbers

Zucchini

Sweet Peppers

We also have tomatoes planted in Topsy Turvey Planters & some in the garden

Out the other garden plot we have:

A 3 Sisters Plot with Corn, Pole Beans and Butternut Squash

A Pumpkin patch

Zucchini

Yellow Summer Squash

Watermelon

Cantaloupe

Rows of Carrots, Peas, Green Beans & Yellow Wax Beans

We also have planted a patch of Sunflowers in front of the fence.

I hope to keep this blog updated regularly this summer as things grow and we take dominion over this plot of land that the Lord has given us dominion over.

Link here to see more gardening posts:

Saving Kittens from Terrorists

MamaKay

Homesteading