Natural First Aid Kit

One night last week I checked email before going to bed and saw that I was drawn as an alternate winner of a mini first aid kit from Naturokits.  The first person drawn didn't respond to the notice, so they drew again and I won!  That's 3 online giveaways in 2012!

As I was showing my young son what would be coming for us, I noticed they sell an upgrade kit, to turn the mini kit into the full basic kit, so I asked if I could pay the difference and get the full kit instead of the mini.  Julie was happy to accommodate my request and even told me how to mark my order so that it would be shipped for free.  Two days later we had our kit!

I've mentioned it to my husband twice, listing the needs the kit can meet, so that if he needs it he knows we have that option.  I also noticed the company recommends taking off the protective wrap on each item in the kit so it can be used quickly in an emergency-good idea!

I hope to never need it, but I have a 6 year old son and a husband who is only slightly less fearless than our son.  In fact, it's my husband who experienced the worst injuries over the last 6 months...

I'm grateful to have won, and to now have a first aid kit filled with natural remedies!  Here's what comes in the kit, and i recommend taking a look around their site for your own needs.

The Basic First Aid NaturoKit® includes:

• Nine naturopathic remedies:
  • Activated charcoal
  • Apis 30C
  • Arnica 30C
  • Calendula succus
  • Cantharis 30C
  • Crisis Calm
  • Hypericum 30C
  • Ledum 30C
  • Wild Weed Salve
• An attractive, zippered, cotton canvas bag
• Full instructions for use with a detailed description of each remedy
• An alphabetical list of conditions - quick and easy to reference when you're in a hurry

We bought a house-Part Two

In my last post about this I left off with what I knew the evening of the first day.  At our Realtor's suggestion we put a new lock on the gate that day.  After that it got even more exciting, though maybe not all the good kind of exciting!  With an auction you pay a deposit the day of the bidding and then the remainder has to be paid prior to 5PM the next business day.  The office location was downtown Phoenix and since Tony had a job there that day we went with him.  On our way home we went by to see if the keys I remembered seeing in the RV would unlock either the front or back door.

We pull up to the gate and there's a different lock on the gate!  Our lock is gone.  No signs, no notes, nada.  There's a lockbox also.  A call to our Realtor confirms he didn't do it, he gives us a code to try on the lockbox, and tells us that it's our house-if someone has changed the lock they are in the wrong and we have every right to break the lock off.  Off we go to get tools.  Tony hammered open the lockbox which we assumed contained the key to the lock-we were right. 

Can you imagine the thoughts going through our heads during this time?

• Did we just get scammed?  Our we out $30K now?
• Are we dealing with an upset previous homeowner who will make our lives miserable?

As we approach the house we see that all the gates around it that were previously open are now closed.  There's a lockbox on the gate to the front door, and another on the front door.  Once again, a call to our Realtor and he's able to identify who it is by the colored box on the front door.  He calls us back with info from the guy and suggests we call him.  This picture shows how far from the road the house is and why we couldn't tell all this from the gate.  This picture was taken a couple of days later, but Wednesday night when this was taking place, the sun had set before we were able to get in.  What you see here is our driveway and the road is out by the two evergreens.

Tony called the other Realtor who had put the lockboxes on.  He'd been contacted that morning by FreddieMac to secure the property and prepare it for sale.  Needless to say he was a bit put out by the lack of communication between the bank/trustee/FreddieMac.  He asked if we got a good deal.  Tony simply answered yes, and this other guy says, "So you paid what, about $75,000?"  I think he almost creid when Tony told him what we actually paid.  I feel pretty good about the price, knowing a Realtor felt two and a half times what we paid would still be a good deal!

I had the power turned on last Friday and we went over to check a few things, but haven't been back since.  Tony's eager to test the well and the pipes in place to irrigate the pastures.  He took pictures that day and I'll post those soon.

The books we ordered to learn more about meat preserving have arrived and Tony's thinking it's pig butchering time sooner than he thought.  Our goat buck is in the same pen as the does and our cow.  All 3 are pregnant and need extra food, but Boots (the buck) shoos them away, so he needs his own pen-hence the earlier than expected pig butchering time.  She's over 250 though, so she's plenty big enough.

We bought a house today!

For anyone that's hung around long enough to read my blog for a while, you'll recall we've been trying to find a house to buy.  We even got close a few times-as in accepted offers that either got revoked by the seller or us.  Last night at 530 our realtor called to tell us about a property that was being auctioned this morning at 10AM.  Not so odd except we had told him we decided to stay here and add on, so he wasn't even really looking for a house for us anymore.  We had contacted a SIP home manufacturer and were awaiting their reply as to whether they could build a modified version of their standard plan.  In other words we weren't even looking anymore!  We couldn't get over to see the property before dark yesterday, so we got up early today to have a look.  The auction was at the courthouse at the county seat-an hour's drive from here-so we needed to be ready to head that direction before 9. 

Did I mention we didn't get to see the inside?  Or that to bid on a house at a trustee's sale you have to take a cashier's check in the amount of $10,000 as a deposit?  And the remainder has to be paid prior to 5PM the next day?  How about that we didn't get to see the inside first?  Oh yeah, I did tell you that part already!

We knew at least 2 other investors were interested in bidding.  We knew that both would want to make a quick sale afterward.  We knew we'd be willing to pay a little bit more for that investor to hold the note, should we decide to buy from him or her.  We were told to arrive about half an hour early, but we weren't able to do that and I was getting nervous.  We got to the courthouse at 955AM after having rushed into a branch of our bank that just happens to be across the street from the courthouse.  Tony and Goober Gus went ahead to see if we needed to check in or something like that, bu the trustee's rep wasn't there yet.  Whew.  Another couple and a single lady were though.  Were they there to bid on the same property?  All the excitement!

The trustee's rep told us he hadn't heard from the trustee yet that morning as to whether the sale was going thru.  What?  All this and the sale might not even be today?  OK, maybe that was one way God was answering our prayer to lead us in this transaction.

Turns out the single woman was a rep for one of the investors.  Hmm, how would we handle bidding against an investor with a rep that's well versed in these transactions?  Tony had rehearsed his strategy in his mind on the drive over.  He was going to let someone else open the bid and gauge how serious they were and set our upper limit. 

Having been told there could be a wait, Goober Gus and I went inside to use the restroom.  When we returned, the trustee's rep was reading the legal intro to the sales process, then proceeded to read the details of the property we were there to bid on.  I looked around-the investor's rep was nowhere to be found!  The rep opened the bid at $30,486 and asked if there were any offers.  Tony stammered over his words and started saying $35,000 (our upper limit), while he actually meant $30,500.  The rep instructed us that the first bid only had to be $1 over the opening price, so Tony restated our offer at $30,487.  The rep asked for other offers.  Having heard none, we heard the familiar, "going once, going twice, sold for $30,487"! 

Wait.  What just happened??  Did we just buy a house?  Without seeing the inside?  Do I care?  We just bought a house on 2 acres with 2 pastures, outbuildings, a 5th wheel trailer and backing up to Forest Service land.  We just bought a house.  In the span of 5 minutes!  It's been 10 hours and I still can't quite wrap my mind around it.  We've been looking for about 3 years, gave up and now we have a house for one tenth of what we planned to spend when we were going to build!

God is so good!  Did I mention that we still haven't seen the inside??

Oh yeah,  one of the new neighbors is a lady that was a dear friend of Tony's mom.  They bought the land from Tony's dad years ago.  Kinda funny, huh?

I Won an Herb DVD!

My first win of the year!  I think I've won 5 giveaways from other bloggers now in the last 2 years.  The DVD is from The Bulk Herb Store and the blogger hosting the giveaway is Just Making Noise.  Let me share one of those seemingly coincidental stories with you.  Last summer I was reading Wardeh's blog and learned of the mission run by Marilyn (of Just Making Noise) and her husband in Honduras.  Wardeh was giving away a copy of Marilyn's eBook Just Making Ice Cream and I had 14 gallons of fresh, raw goat's milk in my fridge just begging to be used.  Rather than wait for the drawing to see if I won, I just bought the book.  While trying to explain to my husband why I bought the book, I sent him the link to her blog and as he was reading about their ministry, he found out they'd be coming to our small town in two weeks!  How odd is that?  So, we went to hear them speak and got to meet them right after buying and trying her eBook!

Introducing...

Sugar and Spice. Twin baby girl goats born this afternoon!

Sugar still not fully out yet.

Cuddling already.

Learning to walk.

Happy Farmer Boy!

I know those things are supposed to be around here somewhere!  Did you bring the map?

Based on gestation time, Cream was due starting on Saturday.  We started noticing signs of labor two weeks ago, and I've been taking her to the milk stand daily ever since.  I've read that the udder gets very tight just before labor, so that's what I've been checking.  At milking time yesterday, the udder wasn't tight, so I wasn't expecting babies today.  I went outside around 115 to let my hair dry in the sun.  Goober Gus had been out playing near her pen and I asked if there were any new babies, to which he replied No.  I sat down to talk to Tony on the phone and heard Cream make a noise so I walked over and sure enough, Sugar is about to be born!  I hung up so I could take a picture-the first one above is actually the 2nd picture, but it's a better one than the first.  Cream was very attentive, licking the goo off, when she stopped, layed down and plopped out Spice.  14 minutes between photos, so not much time between deliveries.  She then took turns cleaning each one and letting them try to walk on their own.  She's been quite good with them, actually.  I gave her some shredded beet pulp with maple syrup, then she got fresh beets, banana peels and carrot shreds.

This is a series of firsts on our farm:

• first pregnancy to occur in our possession
• first set of twins
• first time to have 3 generations together

We're very excited, and feel so blessed that God has given us animal mamas that have easy pregnancies and births!  Time to go check the little darlings again.  Sugar was having a bit of a hard time getting any milk, and Cream was still delivering afterbirth, so I want to see how she does now.

Congratulations

To Michelle at Give a Girl a Fig, my darling son pulled her name out of the hat for the winner in the goat naming contest.  Her suggestion for Sugar came in second for the older baby girl, but we chose Polly's names of Peaches and Cream for that mama/daughter set.

Michelle wins a yet to be made tea towel bread bag.  I'll be making them next Tuesday and will post pictures of the options-so Michelle, keep an eye on my blog so you can pick which one you want!

So now I'd like to introduce our goats...

Peaches

Cream

Belle (Hubby's choice)

Yodelady (Dad's choice)

I won, I won! Part Two

Seems only fitting after having part one and two of Some-things Cookin' to do a part one and two of I won, I won, especially after I won back to back blog giveaways!  Yes, I won two giveaways in a row-how cool is that?!  This time it's a book The Town That Food Saved and when I'm done reading it I plan to have another giveaway and pass this book along.  It looks very interesting and I can't wait to read it.  You can read the review on the prize donor's blog The Local Cook. 
Now off to read more from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

I won, I won!

I forgot I had even entered, but I won a set of reusable produce bags from Chico Bag.  You can see what I won here.  I went to the blog site to see the list of winners and it said "Kelly" and that if there was a message on the page after logging in, you were a winner.  I didn't know there could be email messages to me on someone elses blog, but I looked in the list of followers and it said I had a message.  So exciting!

My next sewing lesson is Tuesday and I'm making bread bags from tea towels and such.  I plan to have a give-away for one of them when they are done.  Stay tuned!

Summer

I knew my list wasn't complete nor comprehensive-I forgot the premiere of Toy Story 3!  My son loves the first 2 movies, and we went to see the 3D double feature release of 1 & 2 last fall.  TS3 comes out June 18th and I don't even have it on my calendar!  My mom's birthday is a few days after the release and I think that's how we're celebrating.  She and I chatted this evening and she wants to have him spend a week at her house.  Go Grandma!

Time Conflicts

Do you ever wonder how we'll handle eternity?  Knowing there is no end?  It's a concept I can't wrap my brain around in a world where no one seems to have enough time!  I'm either busy living life, while simultaneously thinking  about how I want to present this experience on my blog, or sitting here reading other blogs and web sites learning to do  things that will take me away from the computer.  There are days I could make 4 or 5 posts, but then I'm not sure if they'd all get read or simply lost in the shuffle, so I wait.  Then a whole week goes by and I haven't blogged!  So just a quick summary of things that have been on my mind:

1. This is our first year planting heirloom seeds (I think I'm using the right terminology-seeds that can be planted and seeds from its fruit can be saved for next year) and the package tells me I can't plant a different variety from the same cultivar with 1/4 to 1/2 mile of each other.  What??  So I can only have one type of melon?  Or beet?  Or cucumber?  Anyone else had any trouble with this?
2. We went to the County Fair the other day and had a great time!  I called it our Official Kick-Off of Summer Fun.  Got some good pictures, then my poor husband sat down with it in his back pocket.  The screen cracked and you can't see anything on it anymore.  It still takes pictures though.  Looking at eBay for another one.
3. I want to have a contest to name the trio of goats that arrived at our home April 15th.  I need good pictures of them first.  The prize will be a homemade bread bag, and I wanted to post pictures of the tea towels I bought to make them with.
4. My husband and I celebrated the 4 year anniversarry of our engagement last night by attending the Celtic Woman concert in Phoenix.  My parents watched our son and we got a hotel room afterwards.  It was a fabulous time and I want to find links to youtube videos of this concert to point out some of the highlights.  In addition to the amazing voices of the singers, the musicians are unbelievable too.  Dual percussionists-quite entertaining to watch.
5. Tonight we got to watch a local performance of The Sound of Music.  It's my favorite movie, my husband enjoys it, and every now and then our 4 year old son asks to watch it.  We took him with us and he did quite well.  He preferred the singing parts and got a little restless during speaking parts, but never so much as to be a nuisance to those nearby.
6. I'm getting 3 quarts of milk a day from our goats.  We aren't keeping up with using it!  I've run out of canning jars to store it in.  And gallon jugs.  We have 2 gallons away this week.  I made 4 quarts of yogurt in the last 10 days.  2 quarts of ice cream.  As soon as I place the order for cheese cultures I can start making cheese!  I thought I might be able to find some in Phoenix, so waited til that trip was over, but never even found a cheesemaking supply store.  Polly-did you say you get yours from the NE Cheesmaking Co?  I checked their site and will probably order their goat cheese starter kit tomorrow.  Hubby said he could make a cheese press for me.

Those are just the ones I can remember.  I probably ought to set a time just for posting, but I'm not good at sticking to a regular schedule.  I'm enjoing reading the blogs I follow, and I'm making some "friends" in the process. More later.  Thanks for stopping by!

One happy boy riding the tractor wagon to the fair entrance last week!

Need Something from Pampered Chef?

My mom is having a book party, so I'm helping her spread the word.  If you need something, go here and follow the prompts to shop online.  The hostesses' name is Myra Sullivan.  Your purchase will be credited to her party and the items will be shipped directly to you!
Thanks for taking a look!

Learning About Passover at a Seder Dinner

Tonight we went to a Seder dinner at our church to learn the symbolism of the items used in the Passover celebration.  It was quite interesting and I wish I could say that I clearly remembered each item, but I don't.  There were OT remembrances as well as NT and the presenter gave an interesting perspective on that that I might go into on another post.

• It started with eating parsley dipped in salt water.  The green herb representing spring, the time of Passover and the salty water representing the tears of the Hebrew slaves and the water in the Red Sea.
• Then there was a big to do over lighting the candles-but now that I think about it that was probably first-yes it was.  The mother lights the candles to illustrate the mother of Jesus bringing Light into the world.
• After the parsley there was a big to do over taking matzah bread from the center of the Unity Bag and hiding half of it after it's wrapped in a special linen bag.  The remaining half is distributed to each family member-3 pieces each. 
• The first piece is eaten with horseradish to represent the pain of the slaves, immediately follwed by the other two pieces topped with an apple mixture, the sweetness of God taking that pain away.
• Somewhere during this we have taken 2 sips of our "wine" after a prayer is read.
• There are roasted eggs on the table to eat, but I can't recall their purpose.
• We stopped at this point to share in a pot luck meal.
• After the meal, a child is sent to find the piece of hidden matzah, and is rewarded for finding it.  The linen bag it was tucked into has a saying on it that is Greek for "The I Am that has come".  Greek?  I thought the slaves were Hebrew.  This practice came AFTER Jesus, proving that many Jews in that day became believers.
• One thing we did at the beginning was to dip our right index finger into the "wine" 10 times, shaking the drop off onto our plate-1 for each plague.
• The newly found matzah is shared communion style with another sip of "wine".

There was a bit of hostory taught, as well as some other customs.  It was an interesting lesson and I'm glad we went!