Andy's Idea Factory

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...

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...

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...

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...

For Christmas this year, I got a Kombucha making kit from my husband that he purchased through an awesome resource - The Kombucha Shop . I didn't get cranking right away, but once I did, I couldn't stop! And as those of you know that have gone before me in this, the scoby invasion is a big reason why! Kombucha starts with the Scoby, a symbiotic culture of healthy bacteria and yeast, a gelatinous, cellulous biofilm that is also known as a "mushroom" as it resembles the top of a mushroom. Many other products start with a culture like this - vinegar, ginger beer, keifer, and my other most recent experiment, sourdough . Cultures are good for the gut, the immune system, brain health, and the overall health of the body - 3/4 of our immune system resides in the gut, and a healthy gut means a healthy body. As you know from my many other experiments, research, and tinkerings, I love a good science project. So this was the ideal present for me! The full kit comes wit...

Ever since living on the farm in Oregon and learning all the old world holistic trades, I have been a big proponent of do-it-yourself home care. Be it for skin, hair, eating or cleaning, there's so much to be said about making your own. And one of our go-to items is a healing comfrey salve. Burt's Bees makes a great version ( Dr. Burts ), and there are several others like it you can buy at Natural Grocers, Whole Foods, etc. So if you don't have time, having one of these store bought versions in your first aid kit or cabinet is a great idea. The magic of the comfrey plant is legendary - the Native Americans called it "Knit Bone," and used it for all sorts of internal and external remedies. In our house, we use it for rashes, stings, cuts, nicks, scrapes, and most of all, burns. Most versions (home made or store bought) include lavender in their blend, which is an immediate and must-have cure for burns. So this summer, when our comfrey plants took over the f...

Great recipe from Lauren Toyota, from Clean Eating !

Yesterday was my first  Magic of Henna workshop with a great group of women in Moab, hosted by the Moonflower Market and Henna Sooq , and what an exciting afternoon it was!  I was thrilled that over half of the women who attended wanted to jump right in and try it then and there (I had planned on just doing a strand of hair with them)!  All of the participants had similar stories - either they dyed their hair with chemicals and wanted to switch to something natural for various reasons such as burning scalp, or they were sick of the gray and wanted to try something natural. Either way, they were all very eager and willing subjects - so awesome! All had brown hair and wanted to keep their brown color so we used a lot of indigo yesterday - more than I had anticipated - so some of them with longer, thicker hair were going to have to likely do a second round soon, but were ok with doing the top part of their hair. I started out with all my research - the history, the Ayu...

As you know from many blog posts about it , I am ecstatic about henna and what it's done for me, in order of importance: the overall health of my hair and scalp, the all-natural solution, the compliments-attracting color, the independence, the low cost... so of course, for all those reasons I am forever talking it up to my girlfriends - whether they already dye their hair or not, but especially if they do.  So far I have three friends who have gone with henna after my encouragement and all of them have gorgeous, lustrous, vibrant hair of various colors now! To continue to add validity to this topic, here's the story from the latest convert:  (Thanks Alicia for sharing!!) My henna experience…. Alicia Wright of Bella Sol Spa   I have to say first and foremost, I love henna! At first, I was nervous about my hair turning red, and I was not ready to take the plunge.  The grey hair that crept up on my head as my roots grew out had me frantic about solutions. Not ha...

View previous posts on Henna: 1- About Henna and my process 2- The first dying 3- Other products from Henna Sooq 4- Cleansing and Independence It's been almost a year since my last Henna post and I realized I have a few things to report that might be useful! If you've read the other posts, you'll know I'm a meticulous person. I like researching something until I know it fully, and then I like developing my own process and adapting it. I was made for an R&D department, unfortunately I'm not in that career, oh well. Accordingly, I've studied Henna until I'm blue in the face. I've found an awesome provider at Henna Sooq (my only complaint is that they run out of the good stuff so you have to plan ahead, a funny story on that to follow). And I've tried several new hair products now so that I'm proud to say there are no chemicals on my head any more. After two years, I feel I have this process honed. Here's what I continue to learn a...

(Continued from parts 3 , 2 , 1 ) Like clockwork, my hair grows about 1/2 an inch per month, as it has since I started paying attention 20 years ago. So that leaves me with an inch of increasingly gray roots every 2 months, and thus, a much needed regular schedule.  With each passing month since my switch to Henna in October, I must say I love the product more and more.  And I am pretty sure my key goal - matching momma's truly natural color - has finally been succeeded; something I simply wasn't able to do with chemical dyes. Proof: while down in Florida this past week my mom's college roommate pulls her aside and says, "Wow, Andrea got your red hair!", like she didn't remember that from 15 years ago when I'd seen her last.  My mom (and I) chuckled... "Nope, she uses Henna."  Personal victory, accomplished. So what's new in my experience? Cleansing success Well, I've honed in on the bar I like for my hair. I think if you switch to...

I am not exaggerating when I say I have been loving the switch to all natural Henna, and I have eagerly awaiting the next round with Teresa - the trooper that she is for going through this with me! Since October's posts [in case you missed Part 2 or Part 1 ], purchase, and treatment, I have had tons of comments on the color and health of my hair... Henna has - no question - improved the overall body and hydration of the hair strands and health of my scalp as well as giving it a more natural color tone than I've had since I started coloring it red 4 years ago. After the first dye, I went back to the girls at Mountain Hair Studio here in Steamboat and had them give me a once-over. While it didn't totally blend the full length of my hair (Teresa cut off about 3-4" of the dead ends, but the bottom 5-6" of my sternum-length hair still had darker, merlot colored ends), there were no "hot roots," and the tone looked more natural, continuing to settle f...

(Continued from Part 1) Henna Gods, I am truly impressed. Granted, my mantra has been, "the Indian women have such beautiful hair..." so the results had to be good.  But even so, my hair looks awesome. A more natural shade of red than the chem dye- slightly lighter than my natural brown tone (is that possible? is that from the chamomile?)- than I've ever had in the four years that my stylist and I have been tampering with tubes of colors like Michelangelo. Not wine red, not Redskins red, not Mahogany-Obsidian red.  I had been shooting for my mother's red. Scottish/Irish red, a dark Ginger. I think I'm finally there, or damn close. So how'd we get there? Here's the last 48 hours: 10pm Monday Large ceramic bowl Mixed 300g of fresh organic Rajasthani Indian Henna powder with 3.5c of warm chamomile tea from distilled water, steeped for 20 minutes and cooled with 6 cubes of ice Covered with plastic wrap, left on counter 9am Tuesday No "red...