Lotions and Soaps

Fall is definitely here in the Old Dominion and it always makes me want to burn candles  and stay in the kitchen longer. Today we experimented with mini batches of some lotion bars and soaps. I love making our own soaps and skin products, but with all the recipes available, it’s hard to narrow it down to what I absolutely love.

Left to right are shower bombs, lotion bars and exfoliating soap.

The shower bombs have lavender, lemon and peppermint essential oils in them to help clear sinuses. Apparently you just toss one on the floor of the shower and let it melt away! I love this lotion bar recipe and used it at least twice a day last winter. Cocoa butter, beeswax and coconut oil are perfect for the face or other prone-to-dry-out skin! Finally, we tried exfoliating soap with orange and peppermint oils. I’ve never made soap with poppy seeds in it before! And hey, even if they are all flops, the house smells absolutely delicious.

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Protein-Packed Omelet Cups

When the chickens are producing eggs daily and you can’t eat 7 eggs each day, you come up with other creative ways to eat them. These omelet cups are great for an on-the-go breakfasts or snacks. I love recipes that I can change to whatever I have on hand. Try this with chicken and bacon together or any other meat combo! The veggies can be changed also, perhaps some spinach or mushrooms! This is dairy and grain free, but adapt it to your food goals!

• 10-12 eggs
• 2 cups cooked chicken, diced
• 12 slices cooked ham or bacon, diced
• One pepper (green, red, or yellow), chopped
• Salt and pepper (I used paprika also)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease or line 12 muffin tins.

Beat the eggs until well combined. Add salt and pepper, chopped peppers, ham, and diced chicken. Mix well and then use a soup ladle or measuring cup to fill each muffin tins with some of the egg mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees at 30 to 35 minutes, until the eggs are fluffy and slightly browned.

Makes 12 omelet bites. 

Rosemary Tea??

My tiny herb garden this year just consisted of a couple types of basil, spearmint, lavender and a few rosemary plants. Honestly I hardly have used the rosemary at all, but rosemary is said to help with soothing anxiety and stress as well as improving digestion and inflammation.

It is super simple to make a tea. Simply harvest a couple pieces of rosemary and stick into your french press. Steep in hot water for 5-7 minutes and then enjoy! It has a pleasantly light flavor. As with everything, drink in moderation. Multiple cups of rosemary tea a day and you might have anxiety over your digestive distress! 😉

Pig Smiles

Down the road just a little ways, Joel Salatin has made having happy pigs famous, but sometimes I think it works both ways. You can’t have a bad day when your hogs are so excited to see you that they lay on their sides for their daily belly rubs, right!? These handsome boys are doing a wonderful job clearing out brush and saplings to improve our wooded acres.

“Raylan” and “Now Piggie”

“Piggie” “Boone” “Cinder” and “Bacon” 

You can tell which pigs are the ones destined for the freezer since the boys get to name them!

Pigs are very opposed to clean drinking water and prefer to not even wait for me to fill up the buckets after scrubbing them!

Guinea Fowl Young’ins

The blog has been sadly neglected once again, but here’s to repeated efforts to keep it going. We were able to successfully hatch out 11 keets and they have all survived and are almost 5 weeks old already! Below are several pictures of the keets’ adventures over the past several weeks.

They lived for a several days in our basement as they had access to probiotics and electrolytes and I was able to monitor them

First days of exploring grass!

The cedar shingle-sided coop my Mountain Man built

They are being jailed in here for 6 weeks before being released to free range

Sitting on Eggs

Yesterday we started the process of incubating guinea fowl eggs. The boys are already asking when the babies will be coming out. It’s going to be a long 26-28 day process at this rate! We can’t wait to see how many of the 24 are able to hatch out and start their lives as natural pest control and watch dogs around our home.

 

DIY Hair Toner

I have always maintained low maintenance hair. Haircuts every 6 months, no color, rarely any heat styling, and yes, lots of ponytails and high buns. Recently the gray “sparkles” started to annoy me and I went and had some highlights added to my hair to help camouflage them.

The blond looked natural the first day and on day turned turned a horrible brassy orange color. I was overwhelmed by the toner options at Sally’s Beauty but also didn’t want to return to the hairstylist and carve out more time for a correction. Thanks to Maskcara.com I found this super simple recipe and have been using it about once a week to keep the blond looking ashy and not orange!

Simply add 3-4 drops each of red and blue food coloring to a cup of white vinegar. Pour over hair after shampooing and conditioning and rinse well. The vinegar smell doesn’t stay, but the ashy blond color will!

Beginnings of a fire

Ever since we started talking about buying property, we knew we wanted a fire pit area in our backyard of our future house. Pinterest is great for fueling elaborate projects you never knew you needed, right??

Last night we started gathering some materials for the project to begin. Salt treated lumber was raided from a relative’s barn and the inexpensive fire ring was purchased from Tractor Supply.

I can’t wait for construction to begin and the pebble base to be laid so we can start enjoying evenings around our fire! Picture rustic wood benches, rocks from our property and the whip-poor-will soundtrack of the evening!

Best Frugal Face Mask

The skin is our largest and fastest growing organ, but I often forget to properly exfoliate it regularly. I found this recipe and have been using it every couple of days for about a month. My skin always feels super smooth afterwards! I like that this isn’t as abrasive as many of the sugar scrubs I had used previously. Here is the super simple and very frugal way to help maintain it without having to leave your house!

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 1 Tablespoon baking soda

Mix together into a paste. Wet face and apply over face and neck. Let set for 5-10 minutes before rinsing off.

I’m extra lazy and bring a Tupperware container of this mixture in the shower with me so I can apply it at the beginning of my shower and rinse off at the end. No walking around the house with a face mask and trying to remember to take it off in the correct time.

Snapping Turtle

This guy showed up next to the boys’ trampoline the other day. Who knew one little animal could provide so much entertainment for the afternoon!