DIY Hand Scrub for Gardeners!

This DIY Hand Scrub is formulated especially for gardeners! I know I can't be the only one who forgets their gardening gloves! Sometimes on purpose, once the soil warms up because I just really like the feel of warm soil in my hands.

But that makes my fingers look awful and sometimes does cause surface scratches on my skin that needs to be cared for so nothing gets infected!

What makes this DIY Hand Scrub special!

When I was in Esthetics school my favorite chapters in our textbooks were about ingredients and their effects on the skin. Natural plants and herbs have so many benefits, not just for our insides but for our largest organ, the skin. The skin has optimal abilities for absorbing what it comes in contact with. So being chemical free is important as well as needing products that really work!

I came up with this easy DIY Hand scrub with gardeners in mind several years ago. I actually sold it for a few years in my online shop! It did really well. 

Since I no longer sell scrubs I decided it was time to share it with my fellow gardeners and previous customers so they can make their own. 

The Ingredients and why they are important

The key ingredients are infused comfrey oil, tea tree, and lavender essential oils. 

Comfrey: The healing action of comfrey on wounds comes from a constituent contained in the leaf and root called allantoin. This compound is a cell proliferate which helps to regenerate wounded areas of the body and speed up new healthy cell growth! In most all of my skin care products over the years, I included comfrey because it works to support healing and beautifies! Allantoin is used in most skin care products but is typically lab synthesized. The real thigs works SO much better! I add a comfrey leaf infused oil and a tsp. of comfrey root powder for its help and support to heal minor skin scratches that can occur when gardening without gloves. I can not say enough about the positive effects of comfrey on the skin for these reasons and so much more. It's literally worked overnight for me in some situations! I believe in it so much I'm actually writing a whole book on it! Check this post if you do not know how to make an herbal oil infusion DIY Herbal for Horses whether you are making it for human or animal its the same thing 🐴 

Lavender Oil: Has wonderful antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties that help with bug bites as well as minor wound healing support! Plus it smells amazing and helps mellow out the stronger fragrance of comfrey and tea tree oils.

Tea Tree Essential Oil: Helps with dry, itchy skin and skin irritations. It's anti-inflammatory and also helps support any minor wounds. 

The other Ingredients that make it work so well!

Those are the ingredients that help support any healing of bites or scratches from rocks out rough dirt that can occur for us that 'forget' our gloves occasionally!

But these are the ingredients that get your hands clean!! Even the tiny little crevices in the fingers!

Sugar: Just plain old cheap sugar! In fact, scrubs are the only reason I have sugar in my house at all! It is a natural, gentle abrasive that removes dead skin cells and dirt easily. It helps keep skin unclogged and clear! 

Olive Oil: Is what I use to infuse the comfrey. Its prevents signs of photo-aging and sun damage. The fatty acids absorb quickly into the skin making it a great moisturizer. 

Soap Sheds: I prefer adding soap shreds to this and really any scrub I make. Soap shreds add another level of clean! And also help reduce an oily feel that might be left behind on the skin. I highly recommend you use a natural handmade soap with extra moisturizing benefits like a goat milk soap or one of my Donkey Milk Soaps

Vegetable Glycerin: It's a natural humectant that locks in moisture! It's optional for this scrub but really adds to it if you have drier skin!

DIY HAND SCRUB RECIPE

This recipe/formula is for 4 oz. of hand scrub. You will need a kitchen scale, a grater like you would use for cheese, small mixing bowl, spoon and a small jar with a lid to put the scrub in.

2.5 Oz. Sugar

1 Oz. of infused Comfrey olive oil

.25 oz. of soap shreds

10 drops of tea tree oil

10 drops of lavender oil

Optional

1 Tsp. Of vegetable glycerin

1 Tsp. Of comfrey root power.

Mix it all up and scoop into your jar! Easy peasy and ready to use! 

I hope it helps you like it's helped me!

This scrub has been so beneficial to me over the years. Keeping scratches from getting infected and keeping my hands so clean and soft you'd never know I garden without gloves, trim hooves, shovel manure, etc... It's really great for all-around farm work!

Another DIY Herbal to try is my Homemade Fly Repellent Salve

I actually developed this for my equine but it works great for people too! 

Other resources

Sourcing out good herbs and essential oils is important if you want your DIY Herbals to actually work. I highly recommend Mountain Rose Herbs

If you are a member of AHG you can get a 20% off discount as well as if you enroll in some herbal student programs. 

For essential oils, I really like Majestic Pure

More About The Comfrey Book and recipes!

I mentioned above I am working on a book about Comfrey because it has been such an amazing herb for us on so many levels! The book will be about its many uses, growing, and harvesting as well as many formulas for healing support. It will also include a bonus booklet with recipes for a complete facial skin care routine!

When it's released I'll be doing a deeply discounted special on it!! So if you'd like to be notified sign up for our email list! 

We never share emails, nor do we hit people up every week with affiliate links! We are not affiliate bloggers. We are real full-time homesteaders and don't have time to full your email box. We do like sharing what we know to help others build their dream farm... just like we did! 

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Farm Season: Spring

Elderberry trees are getting leaves and popping up everywhere telling me its time to pot some up! Irises are peaking through the dirt... Buds are forming on the blueberries and grapes...Snow peas are starting to grow more rapidly!

Farm Season: Spring

March still has some cold weather coming back this week but all the new life does brighten my outlook a lot! Makes me want to really jump start ALL those new garden projects I got rolling around in my head!

As well as get some things in the ground and many more seeds to be started inside! So exciting!!!!! But at the same time, I'm kinda lazy from the easy winter!!
To see my previous garden checklist for the months you can check them out here Garden Checklist

Spring is so busy on a farm and here in the southeast, it can be gone in a few weeks. Ok, it's not officially spring yet but when I see daffodils I call it spring! It helps get my brain back into the busy farming 'flow' after winter. Which can be really hard sometimes! Even for a gardening lover like myself. I'm very excited about all the things I have plans to do.. but actually doing them takes me some time to refocus and a few motivational tricks.

Things that help motivate me to get my farm hustle back

Motivation trick 1: Bringing out my easy low tunnels to transplant hardy vegetables in helps get me going! Normally I use simple plastic and hoops but this little fold out tunnel is so easy to set up and it works great! Less effort to set up than pvc hoops, rebar, and wrestling with plastic! I'd like to buy more of these! You can find different brands on Amazon and greenhouse shops online.

  

Motivation Trick 2: Getting excited to prep beds for early greens and peas can be hard because it's still cold but all the work I've put into my compost and topsoil helps motivate! 

Good topsoil can take years of work! Using raised beds helped me accelerate that though! Being pesticide free, chemical free helped along with good compost added every year and every season! So Finally the earthworms found my soil acceptable to call home! With every turn of the broadfork, lots of these guys were hanging out now. 

Seeing earthworms is most definitely a motivator to compost and get my beds ready!! 

Motivation Trick 3: Ordering new gardening Gloves!!!

One of my new most favorite garden tools!!! These waterproof gloves!!!! I love them.. I go through garden gloves so fast and they have never truly been waterproof but these are! In my top 5 garden must haves! I also got these at Amazon.

Motivation Trick 4: Getting out last springs garden journal and log sheets of planted seeds and amounts harvested!!

 I always keep a garden journal type book but its often a hot mess at the end of the seasons with ragged sketches and notes. It's more like a creative recording than die-hard record keeping. 

I love keeping my garden journal but I also keep more structured log sheets for quick clear references. I keep logs on how much I planted, amounts harvested and how much I canned or preserved in other ways. It works wonderfully to motivate me to get out there, cold on not and get everything ready! I seriously surprised myself when I started record keeping like that. I had no idea I harvested so much food before I kept records. Very, Very Motivating!! 

Motivation Trick 5: Livestock work! My barns by this time are a hot mess and getting piled very high! It can be very hard to get back in the routine of cleaning out barns (or coops or whatever livestock you need to clean up after) To help get me motivated to get out and clean up I start by cleaning out the feed room and going through equipment. What I don't need I put it up for sale and use it to buy new equipment I do need! That's usually the first step to getting me prepped to clean out the barns! I then start with the small stalls and work out toward the main areas. Adding to the compost pile usually helps keep me shoveling away because I like to think about all the vegetables it will grow! 

Motivation Trick 6: To help me get excited about the added livestock chores spring brings I print out a new journal! When I had poultry or goats I'd print out new brooder or new milk production/kidding record keeping pages. That always helped me get organized for new spring babies and ready the added livestock chores that come with spring. 

Now with the horses and donkeys, I print out a new training journal with health records. If I have a mare or jenny getting ready to foal I'll print out health records and milk production pages for them too. Then I place it all in a pretty binder with a pretty cover! 

If you need an equine training journal I have the one I use here. 

It has so many extras with it, like DIY herbals, essential oil and herbs for horses guide sheets, health records and more! Equine Training Journal

Picture of Bianca being long lined for her training session a couple of weeks ago. 

Above here's my donkey Rani, waiting to foal. She's my best milking donkey and always happy to let a kid hitch a ride. Donkeys are a fantastic addition to most farms! You can read my ebook if you've been thinking about getting a donkey for your farm. Its especially wrote for someone who has no donkey or equine experience too! Donkey Care Primer ebook

You can also find more posts about donkeys on my blog Donkeys on the Farm
So if you need an extra nudge to get moving after the cold winter I hope these motivational tricks help you like they help me!

So much to look forward too on a farm! Many times my head is more excited than my body after 9 years of farming so anything helps! We all need extra motivation sometimes!! 😆

You can check out my homesteading pinterest boards for even more ideas Homestead and Horses

Happy days and many blessings for your dream homestead life.
Till next time....

Just want to say, I'm not an affiliate salesman. The products I recommend are products I actually use and recommend because they have worked for me. All pictures are from my own farm, they are not purchased stock photos! 

Garden Checklist : March!

For many of us in the upper and certainly lower parts of the south March is GO TIME for the garden!
I get really excited once March rolls in and happily get out my Garden Checklist because there is so much to do!!

This is when I really start seeing life come back into the pastures and woods here in southeast TN and I am so thankful to God! It's so beautiful!

Last month some seeds were started inside, some thrived, some did not! Those that did are in the greenhouse now!
My snow peas are up but the sugar snaps are not... I should have put a blanket over them too. Oh well, it's in next years notes!
It's not too late to plant snow peas in the southeast though it's getting close! If you're in a cooler climate you may just be getting ready to plant them! You can check out my post here on some tricks I use to get good crops and the best variety out of the 6 I have grown Growing Snow peas!

Some mustard greens planted in the fall thriving under low tunnels

Keep in mind I am in zone 7. You may need to adjust if you're in a different zone.

My Garden Checklist For March

1. Fertilize all fruit and nut trees and brambles such as blackberries. This is best done right before the leaves start to come out
2. Give garlic a side dressing of compost
3. Weed and compost any beds you missed in February
4. Fertilize muscadines (or any grapes) before the buds swell
5. I can start to Propagate Blueberries, Elderberries, and muscadines this month
6. Divide mature perennial herbs such as comfrey.
7. Sow clover cover crops if needed, and grass seeds for pasture improvement.
8. Plant potatoes when daffodils are in full bloom
9. When Forsythia blooms I can plant these outsides with frost cover on hand! lettuce, green onions, fava beans, burdock, carrots, cilantro, collard greens, dandelion, dill, kale, mustard greens, spinach, 
10. Inside or greenhouse start in flats: Veggies: main crop tomatoes, sweet peppers, tomatillos, ground cherries, kohlrabi, cabbage, celery. Herbs: Arnica, oregano, sage, sorrel, thyme, valerian, and parsley.
11. Start sweet potato slips
12. I can start to Harvest stinging nettle that's rapidly making a comeback!

All that and get your garden journals out to keep notes! My saved charts and notes through the years have helped me be successful in the garden more so than anything else.

If you haven't grabbed a copy of my Givers and takers plants to help you plan your garden you can grab it here! Nutrient Needs of Vegetables, Givers, and Takers

Spring Time and other happenings on the Farm

The only ones here more excited about spring than me is the horses! They are already leaving their hay and venturing out more and more nipping on all the grass the rains have brought up! Of course, its prime time for my equine to get rain rot so I shared this Rain Rot remedy a few days ago. You can check it out here if your animals love standing in the rain as much as mine! Rain Rot Remedy Herbal recipe

Below, I snapped this pic of my 5-month-old poodle puppies and my mini mare, Freckles. They were playing and watching me start seeds by the greenhouse. 

Freckles is with foal and I couldn't be more excited or more nervous! Vets are on speed dial! She's the only horse I have bred to deliver this spring. Everyone else is due this fall or being bred to foal next spring. I love Freckles and she has great potential to be a good team partner for work. But first I'm praying for a healthy baby!! and an easy time for mom. 💓

If everything goes well I do plan to milk her just like I do my donkey jennies. If you are unfamiliar with why I would milk mare's or donkeys here are a few links

Wikipedia on Mare's Milk

Mare's Milk for health

Mare's milk and donkey milk are extremely similar. Both are great for people with food sensitivities and allergies like me! They both have incredible medicinal properties. Both can be used to make Kumis which we love! Talk about energy after just 1 little shot of it! Mare's milk being higher in milk sugars than donkey milk will make a bit better product. Here's a bit about Koumis Wikipedia Kumis

For more info on Donkey milk and what donkeys can offer a homesteader, you can check out a few other posts I've done at this link  Donkeys on the farm

Curious about donkey milk soap? You can try some here Etsy shop Donkey Milk Soap

Well, I think that's all that's going on here this week! Going to be a busy month getting everything done and I feel so blessed!

Have you have a blessed productive week of homesteading!

Rain Rot in Horses and other Livestock Free Herbal Recipe!

Sorry for the inconvenience but this recipe has moved to 

https://donkeylistener.com/rain-rot-in-donkeys/

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Garden Maintenance Checklist : February

Garden Maintenance Checklist for February 

January and February are my 2 least favorite months because for us in the southeast they are usually the coldest and most likely to get some snow and ice. Which I also hate! 

I'm a spring, summer and fall girl all the way! Gardening books, planners and seed catalogs help but there is no real substitute for getting in the dirt and sunshine! 

At least in February things pick up for seed starting! There are only a few things I can start in January but this month I get to start early tomatoes, ground cherries and other things I can put out early in wall o' waters!! 

Let the fun begin... if you missed Januarys checklist you can get it here Garden Maintenance Checklist: January

My February Garden Checklist 

1. Prune fruit trees, blueberries and propagate raspberries if you grow them.
2. Prepare beds for carrots, spring greens, onions, broccoli, and potatoes
3. Weed perennials such as asparagus, walking onions and strawberries and give some compost.
4. Sow inside at seed starting station or in the greenhouse: cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi, hot and sweet peppers, Asian greens, celery, lettuces, leeks. I also start tomatoes, cucumbers and anything I plan to plant in a wall o'water.
5. Outside you can plant arugula, spinach, and radishes. 
6. When the daffodils start to come up or the forsythia starts to bloom I plant my snow peas (in a low tunnel or under a row cover. I also plant cold-hardy greens, carrots and fava beans outside at this time.
7. If you started spinach, onions or other hardy greens last month you can transplant outside them after hardening off.

Isn't it exciting? There is nothing as wonderful as a garden!

If you've not got your garden planned yet you can download a copy of this PDF to help with rotation planting based on  Nutrient Needs of Vegetables

Keep in mind this checklist is best for those in Zone 7a and 7b. Your zone may require a later start to some of these seeds. 

Also on the Farm

Our Livestock and Farm Days in the Cold

Luckily we do not raise any livestock that cannot handle cold weather on their own anymore! 

Though cold weather does take its toll on us as we have to go out and care for the livestock every day no matter the weather. Still, Some require a bit more time outside than others. 

Like my husbands Meishan pigs, since they don't have access to the ponds or creeks the Bald Man has to water and of course, feed every day. But they do absolutely fine in the cold weather with simple 3 sided pallet sheds! So no worries with them!

Never heard of the best homestead hog ever? You can check out a bit more about them Wikipedia_Meishan Pig and the Meishan Articles 

My Equine actually really like the cold, especially the horses! Yes, Donkeys are desert animals but healthy donkeys grow amazing thick coats for the winter and rarely go in the barn even if it snows. 

In fact some of them grow hair and an undercoat that I have actually spun into art yarn! Spinning art yarn is one of my favorite ways to spend a cold day inside plus gives me more to sell in my etsy store for extra cash (to buy more miniature horses and seeds 🤣)

The Donkeys do hide in the barn for icy rain and wind though, unlike the horses who stand outside in any weather!

Obviously, they can handle it but Rain Rot can and does happen so here is a PDF printable home remedy for Rain Rot if your donkeys or horses need it Equine Rain Rot Remedy

My equine have access to creeks and ponds that do not freeze for water and the hay stations my husband build save me from carrying hay flakes to everyone everyday! 

Making my winter chores very minimum! Most days I just walk down to the barn give them a treat and hug and get back in the warm house! 

Endless natural water supply and hay (or pasture) for days is the best way to raise horses and donkeys for me. Anything else would make them to high input and I would fall behind on the gardens. As I did with higher maintenance livestock in the past. Time management and saving time is SO important when you're trying to homestead. As I found out the hard way!

You can check out this post for making DIY Hay Feeder

It also works really well for sheep...most goats, not so much 🤣🤣

Though the Angora goats did well with it.

I hope you're keeping warm and cozy in the brutal cold that's hit the USA this winter!!

Just get out those seeds and let the spring dreams take over for a while!

Saturday the warmth came out for a few hours and I gladly took advantage and hooked up Stormy for a drive around the lower pasture.

Till next time... May you have many Homestead Blessings and Bountiful Gardens  💚

**ALL photos you see are from my actual Homestead. I do not need to use purchased stock photos. What you see on my blog is REAL! 

Growing Snow peas and the best Variety for your garden

**ALL photos you see are from my actual Homestead. I do not need to use purchased stock photos. What you see on my blog is REAL! 

Mmmmmm... 

Love the snow peas! It can be tricky to grow snow peas in the southeast to get a good crop. Over the years I've come up with a few little tricks to help out.

For my zone, Basically, if my snow peas aren't in the ground in February I can forget about a good crop! It's still cold here in February so how do I work around that.

How I prep and start snow peas extra early!

My secret to early snow pea success and large crops, Low tunnels! I also prep the ground by January and get my hoop cover in place. Then about 2 weeks before I plant I place hot compost, mostly horse manure because that's what I have an abundance of, around the edges on the inside of the low tunnel. This provides a tiny bit of added warmth that keeps the ground from freezing if we do have a cold snap. Keep in mind I'm in the southeast, cold snaps are short and winters are fairly mild so this hack works very well for me. Some years if it has been colder I will also add a 'black mulch' on the ground too.

When the daffodils start to bloom its time to get them in the ground! 

I do inoculate the peas which helps them along. If you're unfamiliar with inoculating peas and beans here is a good informative article. Pea Inoculation

Also here are some other ideas for winter gardening Winter Gardening Boards

When planning my gardens I keep in mind the 'givers and takers' and always plant accordingly for best results. You can grab yourself a copy of my givers and takers PDF printable guide and checklist here Givers and Takers Guide

The Snow Pea Varieties I compared

This year I planted 4 snow pea varieties. 

1. Norli ( pea in the middle ) was the first to produce and continued to produce large amounts! Much larger and longer than the other varieties. It isn't super sweet which is what I prefer.
2. The snow pea on the far right is Corne de Belier. It is much sweeter than the other varieties but just now starting to produce.
3. The pea on the far left is just starting also. Carouby De Moussane. It's the largest snow pea I've ever grown! Taste similar to Norli. 
4. The fourth variety is Dwarf snow has a few baby peas. Taste is sweet but they are few and tiny.

All these peas were planted at the same time with the exact same growing conditions. 

Other pros and cons of these varieties

Norli has a semi-bush habit which means no trellis needed! It also takes up less space and they are stringless.

The dwarf snow didn't need support but was too poor a producer. 

The other 2 varieties needed big poles for support. They never produced as much as Norli but took up more space.

Previous Snow Pea Trails 

Last year, In a previous trial, I planted Golden snow peas, Norli, and Snow Pea Melting Mammoth. Again Norli won hands down! Melting Mammoth needed support, took way to long to produce then the heat killed them out fast! Not a good variety for a large long crop in the southeast! The Goldens tasted good but were very poor producers and just not worth the time or space. 

I truly hope these growing tips and variety comparisons will help you grow a large crop of snow peas to enjoy this spring!

And if you want a huge early snow pea crop you can order Norli Seeds here from Park Seed. I am not affiliated with Park in any way I'm recommending them because they are a great company and Norli snow peas are the best! Park Seed Norli Snow Peas

🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡🏡

For beauty and fun, a Few pics of my previous Goose Flock

Off current Subject, I no longer raise any poultry, but I love looking at my old homestead photos from the past years. Geese are hands down my favorite homestead poultry if you have pasture. Without pasture, they wouldn't be very efficient but they are certainly beautiful in any case. 

I made the decision to move away from poultry at the beginning of 2018 for several reasons due to no fault of the goose! I'll write about later on. I'm still a huge fan of homestead geese. Here is a post about my favorite breeds and why they did well here to fit our needs for so long Homestead Geese
I do miss the geese!

Just a lovely site... Grazing geese...

Thanks for spending some time on my blog today!

Do check out my Pinterest boards for more garden and homestead for more ideas!
Homestead, gardening and more boards!

You can also Sign up for our Homesteaders Journey list below for freebies and other info to help you along your own journey! We will never spam you and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Till next time.... happy homesteading and enjoy the journey!!

Garden Maintenance Checklist: January!

**ALL photos you see are from my actual Homestead. I do not need to use purchased stock photos. What you see on my blog is REAL! 

Last month I was a bit late posting my Garden Maintenace Checklist so this month I wanted to get right down to business and post my Garden Maintenace Checklist for January!

I mean, January is SO exciting!! The seed catalogs are rolling in, the holidays are over so now so garden planning can truly take priority, and indoor seed sprouting for spring vegetables (for me in the southeast) begins at the end of this month!!!

I can hardly contain myself!!!🎕

This year I've got plans though not as grand as previous years perhaps. But plans to try more vertical gardening and more medicinal and tea herbs. I've got a major re-do on one of my front garden beds too.

Planning a garden can be as big or little of a project as you want. But no plan can be a hot mess! I have several Pinterest boards just for garden ideas and planning. You can check them out here Homestead and Horses Boards Don't forget to follow me if you're a planner because I post actively on them!

Here's my Garden Maintenance Checklist for January. Do keep in mind I am in the southeast zone 7 so your checklist might need to be a little different.

Checklist for January 

1. Order SEEDS! Whatever seeds you need now is the time!
2. Review last years winners and losers notes (I hope you kept notes!) Make notes about what needs to be planted this year! and what doesn't! Here is one of my posts on This year's Winners and Losers in the Garden
3. Finish up any pruning fruit trees or vines
4. Start making seed starting and planting schedules.
5. Inside you can go ahead and start Onions, hot peppers, artichokes, and rhubarb if you plant these items. I also start cold hardy spinach and greens this month that I will plant in a 'hot' bed with a low tunnel next month.
6. Outside prepare beds for greens, spinach, and peas. If I don't plant my snow peas in February I won't get a good crop! Which is totally unacceptable 🤣🤣 Check out this previous post I did on my snow peas trials Snow Pea Trials
7. Get your garden journal or planner ready. Don't have one? Check out this Pinterest board for some ideas Garden Journals

That's it for this month! But its enough isn't it? 

Now, if the weather will cooperate with my plans. That's the issue with gardening, the weather doesn't always get the memo that I need to get stuff done!

Ever an adventure but it's always an exciting one on a homestead! 

Blessings 💚

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