Nature

Sleep Week – day 7

Liz James · July 11, 2017 ·

OK ya’ll….. I’m coming clean here… Sleep is important to me. I’ve researched sleep for several months now, and the more I researched, the more I appreciated its value. These last few days have been ginormously busy for me…. so much so, that I have not had a moment to catch my breath except when it’s time to head to bed.

By 9:30 each night, I had to make some decisions…. what was more important? Sleeping or blogging. I know that many of you have hung out and reached out to me during sleep week, but I also knew that none of you would lose sleep if I missed a blog posting day.

So….. I chose to make a good example of myself, and picked respecting my bedtime hour over blogging and sharing with you all.

There is much more to sleep than I could cram into 7 days anyway, and I’d love to share more. If you’d like a more in depth class I’m happy to schedule one at some point.

In the meantime, I leave you with this video about simple habits you can either break or create to gift yourself quality sleep.

If I’ve piqued your interest in any products that have helped me and thousands of other people sleep please let me know, and I’ll show you the most economical way to own your own stash. Everyone deserves healthy restorative sleep!

Enjoy!

Sleep Week – day 3

Liz James · July 3, 2017 ·

Deficiencies. Sometimes our bodies don’t produce enough, and other times, we just don’t consume enough. The only way (aside from supplementation) we can receive minerals like Magnesium or Potassium is thru the plants we consume, and to a much lesser extent, meat from animals who have eaten plants. Additionally, our bodies give us the ability to synthesize D, but D can come from a non-vegan diet as well.

Current farming practices have overworked the soil and synthetic fertilizers bind minerals. Both practices prevent the transfer of minerals to the plants. Since the 1970’s, the mineral content of plants we eat has diminished greatly (50-70%). Growing your own food with organic (ex: cow poop!) fertilizer will help, but supplementation has become a growing necessity. This is exactly why we’ve chosen to garden and use our own compost….. and choose very specific seeds.

Not all Magnesium is created equal. Some forms are not absorbed well. Highly absorbable forms of magnesium include citrate & glycinate ( Thankfully YL uses both forms).

Not all vitamin D is created equal either …..D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol). Studies indicate that vitamin D2 is much less potent and has a shorter duration of action than D3. Young Living uses D3 in their formulations.

Thank goodness they know this and incorporate the good stuff into their formulations. (Believe me, I see what’s available out there in pharmacy land!)

What are the chances you are deficient in any (or all) of these? Deficiencies abound in the good ol’ US of A. Despite the wealth of our nation, we are sorely lacking in many nutrients.

80% of us are lacking in Magnesium

75% of us are lacking in Vitamin D

98% of us are lacking in Potassium

Give yourself a high five if you thought you might be deficient. Now go do something about it !… and work towards that 7 hours of golden sleep.

Supplementing is so helpful to keep us above that wellness line. All three deficiencies can cause many more body system dysfunctions than just missed sleep. God made a finely tuned machine when He designed us. If someone finds they are significantly deficient, there are prescription strength D, Pot, (and non prescription, but high strength Mag) available…if you need concentrated help with magnesium, make sure you opt for glycinate and/or malate forms (higher doses can cause diarrhea, and these are less apt to do that, while still being highly bioavailable).

War, Volunteers, Gnomes, & Mama (Whew!)

Liz James · June 21, 2017 ·

I’ve been so busy this last month that I’ve barely had time to come up for air. I feel like I’ve left so many discussions hanging. And now, I’m so far behind, that in order to be sequential, I’d have to write about six posts just to get you caught up on current affairs on the farm. Sheesh. May and June are just flying by! That said, this post is going to be a mish mash of current affairs…. cliff notes country style!

Garden Warfare You may recall my frustration with cucumber beetles. I’m happy to report that my non toxic mixture of beetle repellent worked remarkably well. It at least allowed us to get past the tender seedling age unscathed. As you can see, my garden is a hot mess of success. We were out of town for about 8 days (that will definitely be a different post!), and Lord have mercy on these weed pulling hands. We’ve got a lotta pickin’ and pullin’ to do! I’m harvesting peppers, beans, tomatoes, onions, garlic, CUCUMBERS and zucchini with many varieties of squash nearing pick-ability. My melons are looking good but no where near picking yet. They got such a late start. Our blackberries started coming in last week, so we’ve got at least a month of intensive picking before that season ends.

Volunteers: There came a time during the dark days of beetle domination that I feared my garden would fail this year. I was literally feeling victorious when ANYTHING survived beetle mastication. I guess that’s why I let every little volunteer tomato plant grow where it was naturally sown last fall. I literally did not plant a single one of these plants. In fact, I thinned them tremendously prior to our eight days of absence… but you could never tell it. Anyone need any tomatoes? We are about to be tomato heaven around here.

Teen Mom: Henri has still not given us any clue as to exactly where she’s stashed her babies. She comes down daily and asks for food, and I can tell she’s tired, as all mothers of multiples must be. She’s even taken to hiding her nuts closer to home…. tucking them here and there on the porch. One afternoon, she came down and asked for nuts. I gave her a few…. she ran over to a spot of sun on the porch rail and lay down for about five minutes with the nut in her mouth, almost like she was too tired to eat. She seemed to relish the sunshine, silence, and stillness.

I had a talk with her and told her that this is what happens when you get frisky with male squirrels. Hopefully, (doubtfully) she will take my advice to heart. I am still looking for a vet who is willing to spay a semi wild squirrel….

I’m already speaking of June in the past tense… even tho it’s the 21st, it seems like July is already here knocking on our door. The garden tugs at our time persistently like an impatient child and the summer heat has settled in today, the longest day of the year. I love the long daylight hours, I’m a farmgirl who easily could throw her clock out the window and simply live according to when the sun rises and sets, if only the rest of the world could too! More later ya’ll…. I’m headed out to pull weeds.

Cuteness Overload

Liz James · May 27, 2017 ·

On Wednesday (the 17th) our newest family member arrived, finally! This was Mercy’s first calf, and since she never had any outward signs of being in heat, we weren’t exactly sure when she was bred… and consequently, didn’t exactly have a good idea of when her due date was going to be. That’s all fine and dandy, but if you are like me, once the signs of impending calving start occurring, I’m on full alert. Again, all fine and dandy until the signs drop in one by one instead of all at once. Three weeks after the first “I think she’s calving soon”… we get our baby…. and I’m exhausted just from the wait! (Thank you Jesus for Ningxia Nitro! Holler at me if you’d like to know more about this particular YL product. It’s not an energy drink, but it does give you staying power without the crash afterwards…. and I’ve definitely needed that recently.)

I know, I know…. calves have been born for thousands of years without man’s intervention. True. But calves and cows have also died (and still do) without an attentive eye on the process. Usually, the event is uncomplicated, and we just give a thumbs up to the mama and a quick lovin’ on the baby. However, this time would have been one of those occasions where the calf would have likely died without human intervention. I’ve done this whole birthing thing enough times now that I hold my breath for about a week once the baby is born before I slowly start to exhale. I don’t consider a birthing process successful until I actually breathe :).

This little calf is a heifer (a female). Yay!! !She is a Jersey…. 1/4 mini, and 3/4 regular sized Jersey. Our bull is a registered mini Jersey, but he forgot to quit growing (he is 1/2 mini), so he is a standard full sized bull with mini genes. That said, he is very good about passing along his mini genes. This little girl weighed in at about 23 lbs at birth…. tiny for a calf. She was also born with contracted tendons in her legs, so the poor little thing couldn’t walk without major assistance for the first 36 hours. If a calf can’t walk, they normally can’t nurse….. and not nursing usually doesn’t end well for the calf.

We realized fairly quickly that something was wrong when she just couldn’t stand even 2 hours after her birth (Calves usually stand within the hour that they are born). We immediately went to work trying to hold her up so that she could nurse. Mama (Mercy) was confused and frustrated. The baby was confused and frustrated, and I was frustrated and worried. It was not the best of times. Finally, Mercy knew best, and bless her heart, she lay down not far from her baby…. milk streaming from her teats. I picked up the calf, and put her right next to her mama, close enough to nurse. It didn’t take a minute before they got the problem under control, and the calf got her important first meal in her belly. Then I scooted her a safe distance away from Mercy so that she wouldn’t get stepped on when her mama got up. For the next 36 hours, I picked up the baby and held her in a standing position every 4 hours so that she could nurse adequately. It took just that long for her tendons to relax so she could get her land legs under her.

Because she is so tiny, we’ve kept she and her mama in a paddock for the last 10 days, just until she got a little more weight on her.

Brushstrokes

Liz James · May 12, 2017 ·

I’m never ceased to be amazed by God’s hand in creating natural beauty. Coming home from work last night I snapped these two pictures. The interesting thing is that the first pic is a sunset, BUT it is a reflection of the sun… and it is on the east horizon. I drove further up the driveway, and then took a pic of the west…. the actual sunset itself. I don’t think you see this kind of thing very often…. at least I don’t.

Yesterday, it was everywhere! ….. just beautiful. These pictures don’t even do the brushstrokes justice.

Y’all have a grand and glorious weekend,
Liz