Kayla's Conversations

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Clean Fingernails

I know…it’s an odd title. As a milkmaid, I milk cows. (Start by stating the obvious!) As a milkmaid, I get dirty. As a lady, I like having a little length on my fingernails. As a lady, I think clean nails are essential. However, I have found it hard to combine the two…milking cows twice a day, and maintaining long, clean nails. I have a hard time keeping nails of any length anyway, simply because I do too much…there is a slim chance of not breaking a nail, in my profession! Every time I come in from milking the cows, I wash and wash my hands, trying to get rid of the “cow” smell (not pleasant, when you’re not in the barn and are trying to eat or something!) and it rarely works effectively. Sometimes it just has to wear off. This does NOT make me happy; quite the opposite, actually! I keep a nail brush, which I use religiously, and that helps some, but not enough. This week I found a remedy for my plight. Baking soda! I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before! So now, when I come in from milking, I spend a few mintues scrubbing my hands and nails HARD with baking soda and a nail brush, in the hottest water I can stand. I was keeping nail polish on my fingernails, because I like it, but I found it hindered my ability to get every speck of dirt and grime out from around and under my nails. So now, I use clear, or perhaps a very light color polish. I may be a milkmaid, but I am a clean, well manicured milkmaid!

Baking soda is amazing! We’ve already been making our own toothpaste for a while now, with baking soda, glycerin, and peppermint oil, and it’s absolutely wonderful! I can’t stand the taste of the awful foamy commercial toothpaste anymore, not to mention the killer ingredients. Literally, killer. Did you know that a tube of toothpaste contains enough poison to kill two small children??? If that’s not enough to make you want to make your own, I don’t know what is! (Oh, I know..you don’t EAT it! But do you really want your mouth absorbing that junk??) I haven’t read all there is to read about the contents of toothpaste, but that’s enough right there. This past week, I was looking at my deodorant ingredients. We don’t buy “regular” deodorant, and my parents buy the Thai Crystal spray stuff. I’m not crazy about that spray stuff…just me, though, everyone else likes it fine. When I was in GA once this past year, I went shopping for deodorant. I ended up getting a Tom’s of Maine variety, because it said “no aluminum” on the front. I wasn’t familiar with the ingredients at the time, but I knew that I wasn’t going to get a regular one with aluminum in it. As I was examining the ingredients this past week, I found that the first ingredient was propylene glycol. Again, I don’t know much at all about this one, just enough to know that I didn’t want to use it. (By the way, even if you don’t know that much about a questionable ingredient, why would you risk using it all the time, possibly to the detriment of your own health? Just a thought for all the synical skeptics!) Sooo…I googled! I ended up finding a recipe that I tried one day last week, and, so far, I’ve been very pleased with it! All it is is baking soda, cornstarch, and coconut oil! All of these things that I make take 5 minutes to mix up, cost very, very little, and are MUCH healthier than anything you can find in the store! And, if you’re only in it for the money, by the time you figure how much it cost to go to Walmart, spend the time finding the deodorant isle, and buying the poison, and then gas money to get back home, you’re saving a TON of money making your own at home! (As silly as it may sound, I am only partially joking here!!!)

These days, I use very, very few products for soap, shampoo, lotion…what have you. It all pretty much boils down to baking soda, apple cider vinegar, coconut oil, and essential oil. (Apparently, I have turned into my mother, only more fanatical, drastic, and dramatic. I’m hoping that this is a good thing…) I also use Mom’s soap some, but I end up using more baking soda than anything else. In the mornings, I either wash my face with baking soda (make a paste and rub it on…then you can wait for a couple of minutes, and rinse it off {it’s very drying, though}) or I use an oil cleansing method. With the oil cleansing, I have mixed up a combination of olive oil and castor oil. I rub that on, and steam my face with a hot washcloth. I then wipe the residual oil off, and rinse with cold water. I always follow with an apple cider vinger and plantain tincture that we made, although plain apple cider vinegar diluted in water works great as well. The plantain tincture pulls toxins out of your skin…it’s really amazing to watch the effects of what you eat! When we were in FL, I had been using the tincture for a few weeks already. When we first started using it, it took several days to do it’s thing…every time I put it on, my face would get very red for a while, and then it would go away. After I had been using it for a while, it had pulled all the toxins out, and no longer turned my face red. By the end of our trip at the end of December, it would again turn my face red, from all the junk we had been eating on our trip. It’s really fascinating! Anyway, I always follow with that toner. And of course, I use a moistureizer. Most of the time, I use straight coconut oil, which also helps with a great complexion. Mama is experimenting with lotion recipes, so we always have some lotion concotion laying around, and I also use that. (it is, of course, totally and completely natural, and the ordinary person can easily pronounce the ingredients!!!) In the shower, I use baking soda to cleanse, or our soap, and I do not use any shampoo. I keep a small cup with my baking soda, and mix a few tablespoons full with water. I wash my hair with that, and I do an apple cider vinegar rinse…just ACV diluted with water. Sometimes I’ll rinse that out, but I end up leaving it in most of the time. It makes your hair shinier, and the ACV smell doesn’t hang around after your hair has dried. I am usually very happy with my complexion, and my hair! Please not, however, that the soda is drying, and, unless you follow with a moistureizer, your face will crack. Or at least feel that way…. This is my shelf in the medicine cabinet. If you don’t read the labels, you may brush your teeth with deodorant!

I have been cooking a lot in the past few weeks (like that’s new news!), and I found a bagel recipe that we all loved! They turned out beautiful, and the only bad thing about them was that the wax paper I was instructed to put them on stuck to the bottom. Next time I will bake them on our pizza stones, I think. That should make the bottom crisp and yummy!

I made pizza one day this past week…Dad said it was the best we’d ever made. Turned out pretty, too! It’s an all day process. I began by milking the cow, making mozzarella cheese from the milk, and then making the pizza crust. When it was time to put it together, I pulled out a jar of our tomato sauce that we canned last summer! Yummy!

I’ve also figured out a way to make cheese dip for chips! We love the “salsa con queso,” but the ingredients list is absolutely horrendous!!! I spent one afternoon researching the ingredients, and it’s bad! I left a couple of gallons of milk out to sour (no, raw milk does NOT rot…pastuerized and homogonized milk does rot, but not raw. Raw milk sours wonderfully!) I let it set until it was thick, and then I heated it slightly, and then drained the whey off. Then I mixed it with a little bit of baking soda (told you that stuff was incredible!) and let it sit for a little while. Then I melted a little butter on top of the stove, and mixed in the cheese. Once it melted and smoothed out, I added some cream and milk, to the desired consistency. I mixed in a little salsa for flavor, and it was GREAT!

Sometimes, when we try to find healthy alternatives to conventional “food” (whether or not it should be edible is up for debate) we tend to get a fairly close replica…sort of settle for a tad less punch of flavor. However, this cheese was FAR superior than anything we’ve bought before. Which leads to my next topic…

Patience. The American people are NOT a patient people. We have to everything right now, and will not wait. This is detrimental to everything…although health is my point of concern right now. With the cheese I made, the milk had to sit out for about a week. The bagels I made; the dough had to be mixed up and then sit in the refrigerator for 12 hours. Sprouts - you have to plan ahead in order to enjoy them. My point is, healthy food requires patience! You can NOT have good, healthy food fast. Fast food has ruined the health of Americans, and has also taught them that they don’t have to wait to eat. The microwave makes people to where they won’t wait to heat their food. We got rid of our microwave years ago, and the lack thereof requires patience. You know what? You actually have to plan ahead and set the leftovers out so they won’t be stone-cold come lunch time! It does take more work in the long run; you have to get a few skillets dirty, but it’s better for you in the long run. If you want bagels in the morning, you have to mix them up today. If you want lasagna for supper tomorrow night, you’d better start making cheese today. (And if you wanted to use cheddar in your lasagna, you should’ve started 2 months ago!!!) If you want chips and cheese Friday night, set a couple of gallons of milk out to curdle. Baking cookies this afternoon? Better set the butter out to soften! Basically, Monday mornings have to be spent planning out the week’s food, so that you are prepared. In this our attempt at self-sufficiency, we find this more and more…the essentials of planning ahead. You can’t wait until supper time to decide what you’re having!

This morning I juiced carrots for breakfast…it was GOOD! Not that I was surprised, because I’ve done it before, but it was still good! I mixed a little raw cream in with it (helps with assimilation of nutrients) and yummy!

Last week I was researching different hair braids, and found a tutorial on a Dutch Crown braid. This picture is after I’d done it a few days in a row, so I had a little practice! Dave liked this picture…

And from the top…

I also tried a 5-strand French braid on Mom…I’m her beautician when it comes to braiding. She can’t do French braids, so I usually fix her hair that way, but I tried something different here. I think it looks pretty neat.

I made a new denim skirt shortly before we left for our FL/GA/AL trip around Christmas, and I got Dave to take some pictures while we were at the West Point Lake Dam with my grandmother. I really like the skirt, and Dave took some good pictures. I think I posted at least some of these on the photo page, but here they are again. I’ll probably be making another skirt very similar to this one soon…it flows very nicely, without having too much fabric, and being too heavy, since it is denim.

And a goofy one…

There’s a local store around here that’s absolutley great! They have everything from guns, to tools, to automotive, to fabric and crafts…it appeals to everyone, and thus makes it a great family day trip! Here is a picture of some of the stuff I bought…apron fabric mostly, and several yards of blue plaid homespun…my wheels are still turning on what to do with the homespun. I’ve got an idea, but we’ll see….
Top to bottem here: blue to contrast with the floral, floral, red bandana (will be paired with denim scraps,) blue floral stripe, brown with blue flowers, and yellow paisley with blue accents…all for aprons. Underneath is a brown silky fabric that will be a skirt, the blue homespun, brown corduroy with embroidered flowers, for a skirt, and a light denim, also for a skirt.

I’ve been meaning to make more aprons to be able to sell some at the craft fairs this year, since I can turn them out pretty quickly. Here is one that I made last week…the whole front of the apron is a pocket, in this case, all of the green. I normally wouldn’t make one with these colors together, but they do sort of go together, and I was mainly wanting to see how I liked making this particular pattern.

We moved our furniture around in our living room, so that Dad would have an area to start sowing indoor seeds. In that process, the guys moved several of our bookshelves out of the living room, and into the back bedroom, where the boys and I sleep. The put them in the middle of the room, so now I have sort of a partition. It’s not a room, but now I at least have an “area” of my own. For those of you who have seen it the old way, my bed is just turned around to the side….

I’ve finished a baby sweater for an addition in our extended family. Here it is modeled on the little girl we babysit…she’s so adorable!

Ok..wow! The scary thing is, this is still not everything that I could write about! However, it does get y’all pretty much up to date with me. If you would like to comment, or if you gave any questions or anything, PLEASE email me @ fiddlegirl89@gmail.com. I love to hear what people think about what I put here, but we had to disable comments a while back, due to insane amounts of spam comments. So please, email me! I’d love to hear your thoughts!

~Kayla