A more natural way-gardening, bug bites, and for anything that ails you!

Lately the Jacobs' house has been doing things a little more old fashioned natural. Our garden has probably been the biggest undertaking, and while I can't say it has/will feed our family for months it has been an amazing learning experience and hopefully in the future could feed us for a while.  I've run into all sorts of things.  Birds and spider mites really like tomatoes, and now that I know that next year I will cover my tomatoes early on in the season, and watch closely for those pesky bugs.  (and not wait until they have devoured both my tomatoes and beans, grrr!) I now know that cabbage takes up a ridiculous amount of room and is probably not worth it for us.  Watermelons also take up a bunch of room (seriously) but each plant produces more than one watermelon so I say that is a win.  We also tried lots of different varieties of tomatoes and 2 different kinds of watermelon.  Some worked better than others so we have that to go on for next year.

We also learned that you don't have to spend lots of money making the boxes or on the soil.  We used Mel's mix for the first two boxes (and spent a pretty penny on the soil!) but for the third one we used some recycled wood and left over dirt and things are growing quite nicely there as well.

Most everything grows way better in April-June.  Everything grew bigger in the early months, now it is so hot things are much smaller when they are ripe.  What a  learning time this has been!


With all that being said I have so thoroughly enjoyed watching my little plants grow and produce stuff.  It's been so fun to go pick something from the garden, wash it off, and eat it. (or cook it)

We started with almost all "starter plants" this year. Not sure if we will make the switch to seeds next year or not.  Honestly the plants were not all that expensive. (yes seeds are really cheap) but I think there is more room for error with seeds and for many things the growing season is so short (especially when we have 100+ temps for half of June!) they recommend plants many times.  We will see what we decide for next year!

Now on to bug bites! I have always been irresistible, well for mosquitoes anyway! They LOVE me.  And I HATE them!  There were times when I remember scratching the bites until they bled, or "accidentally" scraping them with my razor (when they were on my legs) because I would much rather deal with a scab than the itching! I also have always had bad reactions to fire ants.  Like if I got 1 bite on my foot I couldn't wear shoes for a week! They would swell, get black and blue, seriously crazy stuff. But I have found something that works REALLY well on any kind of bite and seems to speed the healing process.  It's call Eden Salve and you can only buy it at The Bulk Herb Store.  Here is what they have to say about it:
Why It Works:
We formulated this salve using an effective blend of herbs and natural ingredients to numb pain, as well as heal and soothe. It acts as an astringent to draw out infection and poisonous bites. It is an antiseptic and fights bacteria. When you and your family needs it, Nature’s Healing Touch is here for you!


I have a bad habit of tending to my garden at dusk, you know when all the bugs are out? I have put this stuff on all my bites and they are gone by the next day.  Benedryl cream NEVER did that for me! If you read the comments on the website people have also used it for sunburn, cuts, and even Brown Recluse Spider bites!! This is some good stuff!! HIGHLY recommend it!!


Ok, switching gears, for anything that is wrong with your body (seriously) Colloidal Silver.  I have mentioned it on my facebook a few times, but over the last 2 months we have personally used it for:
-An Ear infection
-A massive sinus infection
-Warts (a crazy stubborn one on Jason's hand that he has tried EVERYTHING, even tried to cut it off!)
-Athlete's foot
I'm telling you, this stuff is so crazy awesome!! And I just love that I don't have to rub/ingest chemicals, or wipe out our bodies good bacteria in order to kill the bad! It's safe for Caleb to take and it taste's like water.  (You can also use it to clean with since it has both anti bacterial and anti viral and anti fungal properties, but our budget doesn't exactly allow for that right now! So we will stick with vinegar for now)  We buy ours from our Chiropractor, but most any natural place sells it.  If you have heard bad things about it you can read HERE.  One thing to note- you really only need 10ppm (parts per million) less is more with this stuff.  


And one more natural remedy for you women out there.  If you get a yeast infection THIS has been my go to.  It has worked better than other natural remedies I have tried. I also like it because you can do it during the day where as over the counter remedies you have to wait until night time. (laying down)


I also have a short update on Caleb, but since it is into the wee hours of the morning that will have to wait!

Caleb's Eyes

We had our appointment a few days ago and things went really well.  The first nurse came in and tried to make his eye "do it's thing" but couldn't.  She tried all sorts of things.  I described what was going on to her and she just had to take my word for it because his eye worked perfectly.  Then they came in and dialated his eyes so they could see if he needed glasses.  (many times being far-sighted causes the wandering eye) He was not a big fan of the eye drops, in fact it was almost as crazy as getting his blood taken. (although thankfully not as long) We went out to the waiting room to wait for his eyes to dialate and then they called us back again.

The doctor came in this time and tried again to see the problem.  He was able to see in his eyes and determine that he does NOT need glasses. (YEA!) But again his eyes did not want to "cooperate" and they never got to see what we see at home.  So they said that his eyes are pretty strong (they see lots of cases that are far worse) and we should patch it 1-2 hours a day. The patch goes on his strong eye (the left eye) to help the weak one get stronger.  They gave us a few patches, we made an appointment for 2 months later, and we were on our way! We were only there a little over an hour.

They put a patch on him before we left and he did great! It's a disposable patch, like a sticker almost, and we use a new one everyday.  He messed with it just a little at first, but then forgot about it.  It's been pretty much like that everyday, he touches it a few times, then leaves it alone for the rest of the time that it is on.

We can already tell a difference, his eye doesn't loose control as much as it used to, and he seems to be able to get control back quicker.  We are very thankful for the results of the appointment and the improvement of his eye.

Our next step is Scottish Rite and our appointment is August 9th at 8am.  It can't come too soon.  I know he wants to walk but he doesn't have the support to be able to.  It makes me sad sometimes so I am very ready to get him some help!