Dry Skin Relief - Coconut Oil, Shea Butter and Goat's Milk

It's well into winter and relief from the dry air seems far away. Heaters, fireplaces and air cleaners don't help with the dry skin issue. Even normal, everyday activities like washing clothes, dishes and produce, even just handwashing seems to leave my skin ready to dissolve into powder. That might actually be less painful that the cracking, splitting and peeling that is taking place. 

Wait, I'm a soap maker! I should have soft, smooth, healthy skin, right? Regular use of my goat and cow's milk soaps certainly helps. They are gentle and nourishing. My reformulated lotion bars, with extra coconut oil and shea butter, are easier to spread in winter's colder temps. The thing is, in the drier climates, I find I need to reapply frequently. My homemade lip butters are handy for this. The coconut oil and shea butter are soothing, and heal up our chapped lips quickly. If we would remember to keep using it, the chapping would also be prevented.

My favorite lotion bar in the winter is the Jasmine Rose. Rose oil is reputed to be soothing for dry skin. I like to recycle a 2 ounce size tin or snack container with a tight-fitting lid, smoosh a lotion bar inside, and carry it in my purse for easy application after handwashing on the go, or any time. I also keep a lotion bar next to the soap on each sink in my house, RV, trailer and in my travel bag. Okay, that seems obsessive, but I really am the biggest fan of my homemade soaps and lotions. Of course, that's why I make them. They're all natural and if I'm not happy with them, I know you won't be, so I make sure they're just right.

Want some help with your dry skin? Check out my Etsy shop, or my website, Mrs. D's Homestead.

Thanks for stopping by.

Back To School - Blogging As Language Arts

One great thing about homeschooling is the flexibility in the schedule. After nearly 2 months off to help with fixing up the RV and trailer, closing up the Homestead and packing for the road, not to mention celebrating the holidays, 10 year old Yak is back to school. He is still working at the conventional "6th" grade level. He is taking more control over his schedule, often completing his work late at night so he can have the daylight hours free for his fort-building work and other projects. I check his work first thing in the morning , write his assignments in his record book and make sure he reads for his minimum 2 hours. Also, during the day sometime, I will sit him down and go over any particular difficulties he may be having in math, spelling, grammar, etc.

This past week he has started blogging. I supervise each post just to make sure everything looks good. I am also his final spelling/grammar check. It's really all his. Sometimes we discuss why using certain phrases may not be appropriate and we discuss online safety issues as we go along. I think he is learning a lot as he works on his blog and he enjoys having people other than just mom see his work.

We would like to invite everyone to check out his blog: http://horsecrazyjacob.blogspot.com and please comment. In fact, I would love it if you would leave a comment here, as well.

Stop by again, soon!

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Vintage Trailer Rehab

We've finally arrived at our first stop on the road - the grandparents' in Colorado. As we spend some time enjoying the holidays, here's a little bit of what we've been doing to make my 1975, 14ft. MeToo travel trailer more suitable for full time living:

Tearing out the bunks and dinette resulted in an large open space. Now, what to do with it? The bunks from the house would have fit, but too heavy. A lightweight futon was a consideration. Yak wanted a hammock to sleep in. The man of the place came up with the idea of removing the bunk from the old RV and making it a fold-up bed. That sounded good, so he went ahead with it.

Here you can see the bed folded down, with a little bit of a shelf next to the wall. The bottom picture is the bed folded up. You can see the mattress sticking out the top and the hinged leg supports folded against the bed. I still have to add a center support and straps to hold the bed in the up position. There is now quite a bit of easily accessible storage space under the bed, and when folded up, storage boxes can be moved outside, to give me a large workspace for sewing, writing, whatever.

Another modification we made was to remove the smaller, non-working fridge and replace it with the larger fridge from our old RV. This involved removing the entire door frame and building out the cabinet to accommodate the bigger fridge. A few more cubic inches doesn't seem like much, but it really makes a difference.

A former owner upgraded the electrical system, including putting in an independent battery system, which I have yet to figure out. I still have some work to do on the heater and oven, though the stove works. The hot water system is a battery operated pump at this time, until I get the hot water pipes replaced and can check the water heater. The cold water works fine. When it's not frozen solid. I fiberglassed a crack in the gray/black water tank and have a minor repair to do on the toilet, but then I think the plumbing will be ready to use.

Right now, everything's thawing out, as I had no electricity the first few days we were here. Now I'm plugged in and have the electric heater going. Luckily, we've been warm and dry in the grands' guest room while we work out the bugs.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

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Sunset at Wild Horse Ranch

I have been a bit slower to post this past month, as we have been working hard on the new direction our life is taking. Preparing for full-time living in an RV and travel trailer has meant major renovation to the travel trailer, which I will post about in the weeks to come, and getting animals to the vet, to update shots and such.

The horses are now safely ensconced in their new home in Northern Colorado, under the watchful care of my daughter, the horse lover. We are taking a little break, to enjoy a late Thanksgiving and early Christmas together, and then will head back to the homestead to put the finishing touches on the travel trailer before heading up to the grandparents' in Southern Colorado, where we will spend the holidays. Both of these towns are wonderful, and I am excited to explore them and write about them in the coming year. There are lots of farms and dairies, local beekeepers and other homesteaders. As well as all kinds of activities and points of interest for travelers.

Moonrise over Wild Horse Ranch

For now, here are a couple of pictures of the horses enjoying Wild Horse Ranch. I hope to post a couple more times in the coming weeks, and then more often again after New Year's. Looking forward to sharing about our Homestead on the road.

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Teaching My Son To Sew

If you sew a button on his shirt, he can wear it another day. If you teach him how to sew a button on his shirt...you don't have to do it anymore. All 3 of my sons can sew buttons on their shirts and sew a straight seam in order to mend a tear. The older ones prefer to leave these things to their wives. Except for hockey gear. They can mend their own hockey gear. Possibly because the girls won't go near the smell. 

Yak is taking it a step further. Having spent so much of his life with me in my workshop, he has pestered me for years to let him sew on the machine. Yak started out with a needle and thread when he was about 5 years old. He had his own sewing kit, in a matchbox, with several colors of thread wrapped around old bobbins, a paper with a couple needles stuck in it, and a safety scissors. He would sew meandering seams on scraps of fabric and call it done. Later, I showed him how to sew on a button and mend a small tear. Finally, this year I set him up with my grandma's old factory model Pfaff.  This is the machine I use for sewing leather, heavy canvas and anything that might damage the Janome.

Historically men were the sewists anyway. Tentmakers, tailors, dressmakers, most were men. Yak has developed an enthusiasm for designing his own patterns and I want to nurture that enthusiasm quickly before it goes away. First he watched studiously as I sewed the drapes for his dad's RV. He noted the working of the foot pedal, the hand wheel and how to guide the heavy fabric under the needle. Next, I let him take a turn. First he sewed on some cotton scraps to get the feel for the machine and foot pedal. He sewed up a number of bean bags, which he sold out of at the Farmer's Market where we worked for several weekends. His next project was hand bags. I think the simple design, along with the sturdy upholstery fabric looks great. He ran into difficulty attaching the straps, so the project is on hold for now. Maybe this is a good time to encourage use of the seam ripper...

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Our 1989 28 foot Georgie Boy Cruise Air II came to us in top notch condition. All that needed fixing was some worn out plumbing. The microwave burned out after the first use, so we replaced it. The kitchen is easy to cook in, and the sitting area is very comfortable. All that was needed here were 2 twin mattresses for the bedroom bunks and drapes for the bedroom windows. 

We happened to have an old full-size futon mattress laying around so we recycled it. We cut it in half, I pieced fabric strips onto the covers so they would fit again, and sewed them closed. I also had a bolt of upholstery material in the workshop, so I measured, cut, ironed and sewed drapes for the bedroom and a long panel for a bedroom "door".

Mr. D is now happily ensconced in his new digs, enjoying the use of his electrical gadgets, powered by the solar panels he installed, along with several heavy duty deep cell batteries. He has already started on the first leg of our road trip, to snow country, where he will be wintering, taking care of his parents. 

We will be joining him soon. Now to get my trailer ready - that's a project! Thanks for stopping by.


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End of the Garden

Our bountiful harvest

We didn't have much of a garden this year, but what we did have did pretty good once it started raining.Those pumpkins were enormous! I think one was somewhere around 70 pounds! The other 3 about 20-40 pounds. We got about a dozen watermelons, about the same on cantaloupes. There was only one row of beets and one of onions, but that was enough to keep us well fed for a couple months, as well as several cans of beets for the pantry. A neighbor supplied us with zucchini and chard, another with cucumbers, so in addition to eating fresh and fried squash and greens, I was able to put up a couple dozen quarts of pickles. I am not really a pickle person as far as store-bought goes, but I love my homemade pickles. I love to open a jar of pickled cucumbers or other veggies midwinter, to add some variety to our staples of rice, potatoes, carrots, onions and beans. 

Zucchini, cucumbers and onions ready for the pickling brine

As for the pumpkin, well, the largest went to our local library so they could use it for a fund raiser. If you're near Ash Fork, stop in and guess the weight for 25 cents a guess - the winner gets to keep the pumpkin and the library gets a boost to its budget. This little fellow grew right into the fence. We had to pick him before he got any more attached, but he seems to have ripened just fine.

A creepy halloween mutant

After giving away several more pumpkins, the last few will be eaten for the next few weeks and canned for later pies, breads and cookies. Sadly, we didn't plant any tomatoes. I can always use lots of jars of tomato sauce. Maybe next year...speaking of which, we will be on the road next year, looking for fresh, local produce and experimenting with our homesteading practices in a 28 foot RV and a 14 foot trailer. Should be very interesting. 

Thanks for stopping by.

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