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Herbal remedies for Kidney Stones

Kidney stones are no joke; they're painful, sometimes nauseating, and rarely dangerous. These hard mineral deposits form in the urinary tract and can be excruciating to pass. It's better to prevent them than to try and break them up or pass them, so if you know you have the genetic predisposition, or have had them once before, let's start with prevention tips before moving into recovery and pain management.  First, kidney stones can be a sign of dehydration and not enough liquids in the diet. Our bodies are 70-80% water, so we should be replenishing that day, especially in the summer when we are sweating more than urinating the water out. If you can start by drinking half your body weight in ounces per day, that can not only help the body replenish, but reduce inflammation, flush toxins of all kinds, and keep the body's immune system functioning at peak.  In addition, supplement that water intake with watery vegetables, tea, and other helpful liquids.  For vegetables, I...
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Broken Toe - Natural Remedies

About two weeks ago I broke my right big toe. I don't even know how it happened - but after loading an oven/range into our neighbors' house and then loading firewood into mine, my toe started to hurt. I took my boot off and it was throbbing and swollen. I iced it for 30, and while doing so, began my usual route for healing: intuitive check-in, muscle-testing, and resources.  Within a a few hours it was black and blue and I was on task. The general consensus is that there's not a lot you can do for a broken toe except rest and ice. But in the natural solutions world, there's always way more you can do. The prognosis was 4 to 6 weeks recovery, and I was leaving for a ski vacation in 8 days, so my plan was to "throw the book at it," meaning to support my body in all ways possible for the quickest recovery possible.  The first 24 hours, I iced every 30 to 60 minutes for 15 minutes, and each time I took Arnica Montana in the oral homeopathy at 200c potency. Arnica...

Top 5 Surgery Herbal Resources, and more

Over the past year I've upleveled my herbalist knowledge - for 30 years I've been a dabbling amateur when it comes to natural health; finding solutions for myself and making a few things here and there like my "Green Cream" comfrey salve  and facial toner  that I share and sell. I've grown my own herbs and foraged herbs. I've interned on an Intentional Community in Oregon that track on herbalism, studied with under 3 herbalists in Colorado, and worked next to an apothecary in Scotland (visiting it and gleaning knowledge almost daily).  It felt like a long time coming, to do a 12-month intensive certification in herbalism to deep dive into the plant knowledge that fuels my fire. 2024 was that year.  So when my 80-year old mother locked in a total knee replacement this past December and asked me to come down and help her and my dad navigate through the surgery and and her first week of recovery, I jumped at the chance to do some research, bring some medicine, an...

Natural Remedies for Poison Ivy, and lessons learned

Getting back to this blog, after a couple years off... because I didn't have the bandwidth while we were building our house, but between living off grid, and a long year of herbalism training, I have some good MacGuyver tips and home remedy lessons to share!   The first of which is what I've learned from "sister" (poison) ivy / oak / sumac for you: I was exposed to either poison ivy or oak before leaving town last week -- not sure which because we have both, and the rash from both looks the same because it comes from the Urushiol oil from the plants. I didn't realize the rash wasn't a bug bite until I was gone. Mistake #1: check yourself carefully after making fairy gardens in the woods. I didn't have my primary remedy - jewelweed salve - with me, sadly, mistake #2, but did have rhus tox homeopathy (poison ivy), which I started taking immediately and frequently. The homeopathy doesn't help the rash much, just your body's reaction. If you don'...

2022 - 2024 IDEA FACTORY overload!

For those of you who follow this blog , our socials (links below), or our YouTube , I've been slacking on posting some of our big ideas for the year because, well honestly, there's kind of a lot going on, to say the least! In a perfect world, with an excess of free time, great sleep, and the modern conveniences, we'd keep you updated here... but it's not a perfect world, and none of those things have been in excess for us right now!  So creating a new blog post or YouTube for all the fun things we've learned, tested, built, tried, failed, and rebooted this year... just hasn't been possible. Instead... I'm going to summarize, like the video above, and if you want me to elaborate on one of the projects, message me or comment below and I'll start there! It'll help me with the motivation if you do! Because I'd LOVE to be documenting this journey better, it's just for lack of time that I don't!  For background... what we're building is the...

DIY (Do It Yourself) Irrigation

Hey gardeners, if you spend your days dragging around hoses to make sure every beloved plant gets watered, then this PSA tidbit is for you. That was me, for 7 years  –  moving hoses like a mule. We moved into our house in Steamboat II in 2013, promptly put in a new perennial bed along our front walk with the cardboard-lasagna method , and began taking divided plants from friends and the You Dig It program to fill it in. It’s a long bed, the length of our 40-50’ walkway, and about 5’ wide, so yes, that meant I was dragging around hoses to water it because the water pressure in our older home isn't strong enough to push water through more than one 3/4" hose. Mondays it was the front of the bed, Tuesdays it was the back of the bed, and so on. We even put in 2 berms at the edge of the yard, to reduce our grass acreage, but because of our lack of a watering system, those fill-dirt piles sat there for 4 years without water or plants, an eyesore to the neighbors, I'm sure. Ov...

Top Five Favorite Holiday picks

Looking for last minute gifts for a good price from a retailer you know will deliver in time? Here's my Top Five Favorite Holiday Picks plus a few bonuses! Happy holidays! #1 Sleep Innovations Currently marked down to $370 from $650 for king size* We've had a Sleep Innovations mattress for 13 years and loved it. Every time we came home from travels my husband and I would both say how we'd missed our bed the most. So it came time for us to buy a new one and were pleased to find this mattress at a fraction of the cost of both traditional mattress and memory foam as well. Is a quality brand, and a firm yet relenting and supportive mattress. It comes compressed in a 3x4x2 box that's easily delivered, and easy enough for one person to set-up and let expand. We let it expend and air out for two nights. By the second night, it was ready, and as before, the best night sleep! The box it comes in is compact and manageable Cutting off the plastic on our new bed! ...