Conditioner 1 and 2 FAIL. Oh and lice.

Well I tried the first mix. Would make a decent hairspray but not conditioner. For try 2 I dumped half the mix and diluted with water. Not crunchy this time but it made my hair feel like straw. Mix 3 is half acv, half water, a dash of lemon juice and a dash of tea tree oil. I think my hair is too fine for any honey. We'll see how this works.

As a side note- I'm using the tea tree oil as a lice deterrent. My job has me with teenage girls who aren't great at hygiene and who share everything. Add that if I have to do a restraint I'm right up next to them and I refuse to risk it. We live in one of the super lice states so prevention is worth it. I've been treating one child for lice for over a month. Last Wednesday I broke out the online homemade remidies. Did a acv/salt rinse. Soaked in coconut oil for 5 hours. Then a lice shampoo and ended with picking through her hair with the lice gel and comb. Seems to be improving. Cross those fingers.

Homemade conditioner maybe?

For a long time I was a no-poo girl and I loved it. Then we moved and I was put on cymbalta. My hair began to fall out in clumps. I hated it. I also developed horrible dandruff. My doc recommended I use a regular shampoo and conditioner. So back to chemicals I went. But the cymbalta made me feel awful and after the Savella poisoning I knew the signs of toxicity. So off of it I went. Very happy to now me completely med free but my hair was still trashed. I began to see what homemade things help. Lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, diluted honey and many more were all over the web. I already used acv as leave in conditioner so that wasn't the complete answer. I decided to mix the above ingredients. I also added tea tree oil. I used probablt 1 1/2 cup acv, tbs mint honey, and 1/2 cup lemon juice with a dash of the oil. The acv broke down the honey so no sticky. Put it in today and my hair smells fantastic. Hopefully this helps enough that I can stop the shampoo again. Crossing my fingers.

Homestead time.

Finally am not in limbo an able to share my life again. For a good long while I had to be very mum about things because we were trying to get moves in place and ready on our time frame rather than due to the choices of others.

We are now the happy owners of over 20 acres in North East Washington State. We are within spitting distance of the canadian border. We have pasture and timber. We are withing a few hunderd yards of a large lake. We have a pond. The house is smaller and one story making things much easier on me. We are finally able to really homestead. Grow and raise and make and be. I get to put my knowledge to use. I get to improve my health. I get to get back to writing. My girls are in schools with only 400 kids. The nearest town where they go to school has a population of 3000. It's awesome. So look forward to some posts on my new chapter. I plan to explore so much. Making my own soaps and body products due to my chem sensitivity, growing a garden, canning it all, hunting more, shooting more. Very excited.

2 weeks chem free.

It's been 2 weeks. My hair is soft, shiny, healthy. I haven't really hit any awkward issues except for loss of body and it has been straighter than with regular shampoo. I'm guessing my lack of weird is from already being pretty organic. Scalp is slowly improving in the itch department. Fun times. So far I give the "no-poo" movement 2 huge thumbs up.

No-poo or as I prefer to call it "Chem-free hair"

This is day 1 of my new chemical free natural hair care journey. Most call it "No-poo" but poo sounds too much like poop to me and poop related to my hair is just ick.

Okay to start from the beginning. I liked this idea for 2 reasons. First I have always been chemical sensitive but as my fibro has progressed it has become worse. My skin hurts and burns from deodorant. My body itches from regular soap. And my scalp is an itchy mess. My second reason is the practical side from a prepper angle. If SHTF I hope to still have fabulous hair.

This pick is 2 days in. On day 1 I did a clarifying shampoo for my final chemical wash. It is supposed to shorten the transition time. I finished it off with my new form of conditioner. A spray bottle filled with water, a 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, and 10 drops of peppermint oil.

The second day the real fun began. I used a pointed tip bottle with a cup of water and 1 1/2 teasp of baking soda to scrub my hair. Just squirted the mixture against my scalp and scrubbed. Rinsed. Then sprayed my hair and let sit a bit and rinsed.

My mixtures might change as I try to find the right balance but thems the basics. I plan to blog every week at least to keep track of the progress. Hopefully it makes my scalp better. Others have reported that their hair has thickened, strengthened and the color became more rich. I'm excited to see what happens.

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese (with bacon!)

This. Was. Amazing.

The recipe looked a bit daunting, but honestly it wasn't that bad as long as you prepped and didn't try to do things half way through. Also, I'm insane about what ingredients I use. The recipe called for whole cream, but the store didn't have any so I had to settle for half and half. But I only use Tillamook sweet cream butter. Period, end of story. If you can't get it in your area, well I'll pray for you. I also generally only use Tillamook Cheese, preferably sharp cheddar.

As I said before, this recipe psyched me out a bit. Not to mention it's from the 1920's and they had a different view then on what was 'easy' cooking. But I made sure to have everything measured out and ready before I started, and it was actually a breeze.

The result was amazingly creamy, but not too rich. I added some ground mustard to the flour mix and a clove of minced garlic to the melted butter, but otherwise followed it to the tee. I added some bacon (because bacon makes everything better!) but forgot to add before throwing it in the oven, so I just plopped it on top, no harm no foul.

This macaroni is really really worth the extra effort, and it fills a 9x13 pan so it'll be good for either a large group, or I'd suggest cutting it down a bit. The Boy and I both ate a fair share, and I gave a large bowl to David and May also.

I'll throw the recipe up in the comments!

The Wonder of Wifey Bread

I am so thankful for TOR's Wifey. She sent me an amazing bread recipe quite a while back, and it's so easy and amazing I haven't bought any store bread since. I did have one epic bread making fail, but I was on the phone with a friend and spaced and added 1.5 tablespoons of salt instead of teaspoons. It looked alright, but tasted like a salt lick. (That had nothing to do with the recipe, it had to do with my tendency to be easily distracted by things that make noise or have shiny parts. Unfortunately for my bread dough, my phone is both of those things.)

The only issue with the recipe is that it makes two loafs. The Boy and I just can't go through bread that fast. Wifey came up with the ingenious idea to make the second portion into dinner rolls, but I decided Monday night to get a bit tricky. I was making dough anyway, but I had nothing to do with the extra. I called my mom who makes amazing caramel rolls (I'll snag her recipe and post it sooner or later) and asked it I could use the spare dough for those. She said no, but promised to call me with her recipe (she didn't).

So now I'm stuck with extra dough, and a evil craving for caramel rolls. I finally decided to get a bit creative and hopefully fix both problems. Instead of just kneading the bread between the 1st and 2nd rise, I rolled it out a bit (okay I lied, I just mushed it into a rectangle-ish shape) and grabbed my ground cinnamon. I spread a thin layer over the dough, the halved it unto itself. I repeated this a bunch of times (and after the first loaf, I figured out to alternate the direction I folded from to make the pattern more uniform).

I also put a light coating of brown sugar and butter on top of the loaf as it was cooking (I suggest about 1/2 way through, to really satisfy my craving for caramel rolls. If you like a very sweet bread, you can also use a cinnamon/sugar mix for the layers. I love Wifey bread because it's just so darn versatile, so I'm sure I'll have more recipes for you soon.

Oh, and sorry I don't have any pics my camera died. I'll try to update with some later.

Diapers: What do I do with this sh*t now?

Brad K. made an excellent point on my "Ladies Only" post that got me thinking. A lot of women (and other people) don't think about adding things like feminine hygiene stuff to the preps. What else are we forgetting? In my personal case, the Boy has been a sloooooooooow potty trainer. He is pretty sure I'm batty, and this going on and on about doing things in the toilet is just silly. Why bother when you can go in your pants and Mom cleans you up? Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me and I'm 25. That being said, the kid is 3. If SHTF, he'll learn really quick.

Now, I'm also quilty has charged for using disposable diapers when the Boy was a baby. Hate me, I don't care. I got lectured up the front and down the back by heaps of people, and yeah, I still don't care. That being said, if I ever so have another baby, I think I'm going to use cloth diapers. I know a few people who've used them and loved them. Their babies had less diaper rash, and potty trained faster as they understood being wet was uncomfortable. Disposable diapers have chemicals that pull the moisture away from the body, and can hold up to 800 times their weight in liquid by converting it into a gel.

Now obviously, if SHTF having a stock pile of disposable diapers isn't very practical. Whereas, cloth diapers will generally last about as long as you can use them. There are a million different types, as is par for the course with handmade type stuff (everyone adapts it to their own needs). A lot of companies now also offer accesories like diaper covers (in various fabrics and designs), reuseable wipes, washable diaper liners, and even training pants.

A few of the girls I know rave about Kushies. Their stuff is adorable, and they have a ton of accesories and was one of the few sites where I found training pants. I love their Classic Diapers but they are very much on the pricey side. A 5 pack of the classics runs about $65 for the baby sized, and about $75 for the toddler sizes. The diaper covers also run about $9. Of course you could also just buy the cover, and use plain old Gerber cloth diapers for underneath.

If your feeling ambitious, you can also give making them yourself a shot. Diaper Jungle has some great resources, and has links to just about anything you'd need. I'm sure if you just google'd a bit you could find a ton more. I can't sew to save my life, so that's a bit out of my realm.

Impending Suds-dom

I'm thinking my next big foray into the homemade world is going to be soap. I'm not sure why, so don't ask. I'm sure there are a ton of things that logically should happen between where I am, and soap-making, but alas soap it shall be. Once you have a basic soap bar, you can use it for a million things. Shampoo, dishsoap, cleaning the house.. The list goes on a on.

I'm a little torn at the moment, because there are a couple different ways I could go. I could take the simple route and just buy the melt and pour bases, buy a soap making kit or go full hog and try to do it from scratch. At the moment I'm leaning towards getting a melt and pour base to start. There is a local natural remedy store that I believe would have all the oils and such I might want to add, and molds are decently cheap. This way at least I can get used to the process before trying to do it all by myself. Also lye freaks me out seeing as they used to use it to cover dead bodies (over share, sorry I know) and I've seen Fight Club one too many times. Lip print scars on my hand is not something I am interested in.

Praise be to the Bread Gods!

I made my first ever batch of bread last night! It turned out perfectly, I was so impressed with the recipe. Most the times I can remember having homemade bread, it just doesn't have the level of put-togetherness at store bought bread. You end up having to chuck big chucks, and then it falls apart anyway. This bread is solid but not dense, and just sweet enough taste great without being practically dessert.

I have to give credit where credit is due, this recipe isn't something I came up with, not even close. Wifey (aka TOR's wife) on TSLRF gave it to me, and I'm eternally grateful. As I said, I've never been overly impressed with homemade bread in general, and I usually screw up a recipe (at least in the baking category) once before I get it right, or even close. This one I'm 95% sure I screwed up somehow and it still turned out just fine. The only thing I noticed was that I didn't seem to get a full rise the second time, but maybe I'm just using bigger loaf pans, I don't know. I'll throw the recipe in the comments section.

The Boy and I got through an alright amount of bread a week, but we really don't use that much so I'm pawning my second loaf off on our neighbors. They are a newly-wed couple and I've known the man of the new two-some for many, many moons. They also received the first 3 pints of jam I gave anyone. Apparently May (the wife) was a bit worried that I'm giving them all these spoils and they don't have anything to give in return. I assured David (the hubby) that if nothing else, they were my guinea pigs so it wasn't a big deal.