Years and years ago when I only had one little child, my next door neighbor was Mennonite. One weekend she and I and my daughter took a trip together to visit her Mennonite and Amish relatives in Ohio. In fact, we spent a weekend on an Amish farm - an experience I enjoyed very much.

One afternoon on the farm, we all went and visited another nearby meticulous Amish farm. I especially remember two things from that brief visit: a conversation in which it was explained to me that it works out very well having larger families if you start training the children young to take up daily tasks and the obviously hand knitted dishcloths at the kitchen sink. It had never occurred to me that you could actually make your own dish cloths so I was surprised to see them. Many years later, I can now vouch for the former principle of training children for family life but as I was at the beginning of my odyssey of self-reliant skill building back then, I took note of the dish cloths but never got around to actually making one. I tried once or twice over the ensuing years but the only instructions I found were for crocheted dish cloths which I had no idea how to do.

About a month ago, I came across an informative post at Reformed Farmer’s Wife. Leah is teaching herself how to knit and has turned out all kinds of wonderful things. She knitted a number of dish cloths, for instance. In her post Newly Acquired Skill she has photos and links and all the inspiration I needed to finally get started knitting dish cloths for myself. I already had some yellow and white cotton yarn tucked away partially made up into a very lame sort of dish cloth. I quickly found the yarn, tore out the old knitting and started afresh.

I choose the Moss Rib Cloth to start with because I thought the ribs would help with scrubbing and the directions were easy. Every afternoon when I was supposed to be resting for my adrenals, I spent at least some of the time quietly knitting. It was such a pleasant way to pass some time. I knitted other times of day, too, whenever I could but it was challenging. The brain fog I have from my physical condition and the myriad interruptions of full-to-the-brim family life challenged my concentration mightily - even with a pattern this simple. However, I persevered and finished it and now we are using it!

This is fun. I have already purchased two more skeins of cotton yarn for my next cloth and for my oldest daughter to start her first one. She has also already discovered that exercise is more satisfying and rest sweeter when accomplished through a gainful occupation.

One of the things I love most about this odyssey towards do it yourself skill-building in the service of a simpler life is the many “aha” moments. “Oh, that is how they used to do it,” and, “Oh, I can learn to do that myself,” and most especially, “Oh, we can do that as a family.” To me these are fun realizations full of all kinds of possibilities. I love it.

From the beautiful mountains of southwest Virginia,
Leslie

It somehow never occurred to me that the seminal Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston Price was in the public domain. But Abby Eagle of Rejoice in Life did figure that out and has a link for a free download of Dr. Price’s book on his web site.

I scanned through the book online from Abby’s link for a little while before getting ready to post this. I happened to read a section on the varying health and customs in Switzerland and became deeply engrossed. It is not just that properly preparing and eating natural foods produced people with singularly healthy teeth. What Dr. Price observes is that societies based upon natural, simple ways of living produce people with powerful physiques, healthy teeth. strong moral character and clear vision both literally and metaphorically. Dr. Price comments upon customs and even styles of clothing as he relays medical/dental information. I found this to be riveting reading and, along with many other people, highly recommend this book to you. You may either purchase a hard copy or download it from the above link.

Living natural lives relatively free of the ravages of the rapacious engine of desire creation follows laws of seemingly unintended positive consequences. Well, really the positive consequences are certainly intended, but not by us. They were intended by our Creator. We have only to follow the natural laws that govern us. The dire consequences of man stepping outside of these laws is what generated the phrase “unintended negative consequences” in the first place. Read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration and discover some hints towards positive consequences. And while you are there, look around Abby’s site. It is loaded with information as is his very useful cookbook Learn How to Cook the Way Grandma Did …

Bon appetit for all that was actually intended for us to have and be!

From the beautiful mountains of southwest Virginia,
Leslie

For a long time, I made Peppermint Tooth Powder for the family and everyone happily used it from the youngest to the oldest of our family members.

There was only one thing I personally didn’t like about it. We always ran out at night. I mean always. By nightfall, I am usually staggeringly tired so running into the kitchen and throwing together a batch of tooth powder at that point was often just too much for me. There are obvious ways of preventing such a situation (such as not waiting until absolutely every particle of powder has been used!) but I came across a bit of information that has provided us with something even simpler for brushing teeth.

In my first post on oil pulling, I linked to my favorite page on the subject which is Karen’s Guide for Self Healing site. I happened to check back at that page a couple of months ago and discovered that there are many more comments there on her How to Do “Oil Pulling” page now than there were then when I initially linked to it, and with great bits of information throughout them. In those comments, Karen gives more information about her recommended dentifrices (i.e. substances with which to brush teeth). She has several great suggestions, one of which was so astonishingly simple that I jumped up to implement it immediately upon reading it. Dr. Bronner’s soap. Go read about it in comment #11 but do read through all of the comments to get a bigger picture of the how’s and why’s.

I pulled out another trusty empty rennet bottle (suitable for its small size and tip designed to let out one drop at a time) and poured in some Dr. Bronner’s. Almond is the flavor we happened to have on hand. I put it on the shelf in the bathroom and was done!

You literally put one tiny drop of soap on your toothbrush and have enough to brush your whole mouth thoroughly. It is so economical. I imagine the peppermint flavor is probably tastier but the almond is fine. No one has any trouble with it, not even the young children. I personally have some childhood trauma associated with soap in the mouth (!) but Dr. Bronner’s is nothing like Ivory and brushing is nothing like being punished so I have had no problem at all using Dr. Bronner’s in my mouth.

I don’t know anything about how Dr. Bronner’s kills bacteria. That is what dentifrice is principally for - killing bacteria. I am thinking that I may make up a batch of Peppermint Tooth Powder again and just have everyone use it once a week or so. I know that baking soda and hydrogen peroxide kill the whole spectrum of bacteria. Karen suggests perhaps using baking soda perhaps once a week. Others say to use it every day. I think I will strike an average between the two.

Meanwhile, though, I am very happy to have such a simple, economical, effective dentifrice that everyone can manage on their own and which never challenges me at night when I am tired!

From the beautiful mountains of southwest Virginia,
Leslie

Educating yourself about thyroid, adrenal and other hormonal issues is a powerful step to take towards improved health for many of us. The conventional, pharmaceutical medical industry tends to be poorly informed on these subtle matters of hormones and the endocrine system. Even finding an MD who can properly diagnose and treat the very common hypothyroidism is a rare event. I have paid very dearly over and over again for doctors thinking they know more than they do about how to treat hypothyroidism.

What do you do when you think you are suffering from adrenal fatigue? Most doctors do not even acknowledge the existence of adrenal fatigue as a debilitating and treatable condition. Worse yet, what do you do when you know you are suffering from adrenal fatigue and have a sense of how to treat it yourself? Most doctors do not even know how to accurately test for degree of deficiency, never mind have a handle on how to work with you on treating it. In the words of JH Tilden MD about a hundred years ago:

Professional minds are supposed to be trained into a power of discrimination that enables them to sense truth in anything. But it appears that the principle training today is into accepting authority without question.

This painful truth leaves patients with several problems including where to get effective treatment and how to get appropriate lab work done. Sole access to ordering lab work is one of the chief ways the medical industry holds us hostage. Sometimes it really helps to follow the up’s and down’s of your condition with lab work. Lab work can be an important source of information, if ordered correctly and interpreted usefully. But try finding a doctor who will order saliva testing for monitoring adrenal conditions or one who will monitor thyroid levels in the way you feel they should be monitored. It is almost impossible - especially if you are living in the country where there are fewer choices of physicians.

Most importantly if you are someone who is taking responsibility for your own treatment, you need access to lab work as you see fit. Being forced into the system in order to get this kind of information puts your treatment plan at risk. I have fretted and puzzled over this situation for years but now I am very grateful to have a solution.

Through The Canary Club, you can order your own lab work as you need it. The home page notes:

Hormone Imbalances can have a severe impact on your health, and yet, they often go undiagnosed. We understand the frustration and helplessness that comes from visiting specialist after specialist and never really getting what you need to feel yourself again.

Our easy-to-use hormone test kits can uncover the problem and get you started on the road to recovery.

In fact, our home test kits analyze specific hormone imbalances that traditional testing ignores.

The Canary Club makes it safe and easy to find out if your hormones are functioning properly and to help you find the answers you need to get back on your feet and enjoying life.

You can order the testing you need for thyroid, adrenal, and reproductive hormones levels as well as the all important Vitamin D levels. You can get the PSA test as well as order a panel of tests that detect early risk factors associated with Type II Diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The web site also has articles, testimonials, a page of web links, a gland self-evaluation quiz and links to the book Feeling Fat, Fuzzy or Frazzled - Restoring Thyroid, Adrenal and Reproductive Balance by Drs. Shames.

As the Canary Club founders note:

The Canary Club is a premier resource for discounted home saliva and blood spot testing for hormonal imbalance. A health topics of great concern is hormonal / glandular dysfunction. Over 40 million people in the United States alone are affected - and numbers are rising internationally as well. Hormone imbalance, as impacted by environmental pollution, is a worldwide problem which is growing at an alarming rate. Joining the Canary Club enables you to order testing directly from the lab at a special Canary Club discounted price.

Joining the Canary Club is free and the tests you can order through them are very reasonably priced. Observing and researching your own condition and now having the resources to order the lab work you need and have the results come directly to you is an incredibly important key towards not only eventually strengthening your physical health but also immediately strengthening your confidence, your self-reliance and your ‘power to discriminate which enables you to sense truth in anything’.

May you walk in health.

From the beautiful mountains of southwest Virginia,
Leslie

The magazine Progressive Farmer started coming to our house several months ago. I have absolutely no idea why and I am not sure how “progressive” it really is. However, I read a great tip in there that I use all the time now for handling our family cow.

In skimming through one issue a while back, there was a short article about how to handle cows so that they don’t get too upset and lose weight from being handled. OK, these articles are obviously aimed at large cow operations and we have just the two cows but still there was an interesting bit. The author said that the cow’s shoulder is her balance point. I think that is what it was called. I can’t remember exactly and I can’t find it on the magazine’s web site. Luckily this works without knowing abstract things like names!

If you want your cow to move forward but she is placidly standing there with no intention of moving, walk calmly straight towards her. Walk past her head and then past her shoulder and like magic, she will start moving forward! Isn’t that fabulous? I wish I could remember all the details and the why’s and wherefore’s but that is the action anyway. And it works every time. You can’t force your wonderful family cow and you can’t quite reason with her but you can work with her and this is a wonderful tool to have in your tool chest for working with her. It is soft and subtle and part of the natural design for whatever reason.

Here is the one article I did find in Progressive Farmer about cow handling entitled 7 Steps to Gentler Cattle. Again I think this is more for larger operations but there are some good principles here. Using your voice effectively cannot be underestimated, for instance.

Well, boy howdy, I just Googled “balance point cows” and found several wonderful links. Check out Understanding Flight Zone and Point of Balance. What a marvelous education there is here and there are even videos linked at the bottom of the page. I am going to take some time to study all of this carefully.

Learning these subtle natural laws is such a gift and brings harmony to relationships and actions here on the homestead. Enjoy learning about the point of balance in your family cow and make your interactions easier and the bond between you deeper (as in ‘greater understanding creates deeper love’). Then you can start figuring out where the point of balance is in your children and everything will move along smoothly both inside and out!!

From the beautiful mountains of southwest Virginia,
Leslie