Garden Progress

Our garden is s...l...o...w...l...y progressing. Last week, Ethan and Caleb went out to the farm, and Ethan plowed up the rest of the garden spot while Caleb watched. The ground was still quite wet, and it has to dry out quite a bit before we can do any more work. With all of the rain that we have been getting (many areas and cities around us are flooding worse than they have in over 10-15 years), it might be awhile!

The plants that I started are desperately wanting to get into the garden. Their growth had halted in their planting pots. Yesterday I dug out all of the old pots that I have been storing (I was keeping them knowing we would eventually move out of this parsonage, and I wanted to be able to take my flowers with me), and I planted my garden starts in them. If I can get my hands on some more pots, I will try to start our pumpkins, cucumbers, and melons in them - with hopes that I can transplant them.

I also am going to see if I can encourage my starts along with milk jug greenhouses. Since tomatoes do most of their growing at night, from what I understand, the greenhouses help keep them warm and moist throughout the night so they can grow better. Just in case it is too warm for milk jug greenhouses now, I don't have all of them covered. Plus . . . I ran out of milk jugs. :)

So although it's not much progress, it is a tiny step ahead towards a garden. My hopes for the gardening year are to get enough tomatoes and peppers to can enough spaghetti sauce, salsa, and just plain tomatoes to get us to next summer. Also, I am banking on being able to plant a nice crop of fall beans to fill the cupboards with (one of the few vegetables Ethan likes) since last year my fall beans were the nicest. Anything else, I will just take as a bonus during this year of transition.

Poison Ivy Treatment from the Cupboard

I really haven't done much besides clean since my last post. Since I was going to be gone Saturday and Sunday, I cleaned up the house quite a bit on Friday for a realty agent walk through that was yesterday. I also did even more polishing and cleaning last night and today since there was someone who wanted to see the house. It's amazing how much time the polishing takes up, even when everything is already clean!

So since I don't have much news, I thought I would give a summary on some home treatment I used for this round of poison ivy. I have been VERY happy with how quickly the welts and blisters have gone away and how well I was able to keep the itch under control. It will be good for me to record what I did this time anyway since I seem to get poison ivy every year. I'll list the different stages and what I used.

(Please note, these are some home remedies that worked for me from various things I gathered together from people who aren't in the medical profession. I am in no way qualified to give medical advice!)

Stage 1 - Contact
I missed recognizing this, but if you know you have come into contact with poison ivy, wash with degreasing dish soap and cold water ASAP. It only takes a few minutes to react. (See later in this post why not to use hot water.) Then wipe down with rubbing alcohol, along with wiping anything off that might have also come into contact with the plant and picked up its oils.

Stage 2 - Bumps and "Pimples" Forming
If you notice that you are starting to get a rash, wash the area frequently with cool to warm water using a degreasing dish soap. Also, rub the area lightly with salt, rubbing light enough not to break the skin. Also, frequently wipe the rash with vinegar. The sooner you can do these things, the quicker and less intense your breakout will probably be.

If itching has started, you can also make a mixture of any of the following to dry and leave on: dish soap, salt, baking soda, cooked and cooked oatmeal, vinegar. When you rinse it off, use cool to warm water. These things really helped take away my itch. DO NOT itch with your fingernails as poison ivy outbreaks are notorious for infections - which I have had with mine twice now. (One resulting in blood poisoning.) As awful as it sounds, a light salt rub (mixed with some soap) really feels good and will take the itch away for awhile.

You can also start taking oral Benadryl, although it can make you quite sleepy. Be careful with the Benadryl cream. It does a good job of taking the itch out, but some people will react to the cream when they have poison ivy and make things worse.

Stage 3 - Blisters (with oozing)
When you start getting blisters, you really need to keep the area clean to avoid infection. You can continue with the mixes of dish detergent, salt, baking soda, cooked and cooled oatmeal, and vinegar. Salt rubs mixed with soap also are good to keep up, (and feel great!) but take extra precaution not to break any blisters. If your skin seems really weepy, letting a paste of baking soda or cooked and cooled oatmeal dry on the area will help dry things up.

You may feel like although your skin is really weepy, it is quite dry too from all of the treatment. If this is the case, oatmeal works better than baking soda, and after you get done washing something off, an application of aloe will nourish your skin a bit. I found that sometimes my skin was just weeping because it was getting overly dry, and the aloe would stop the weeping for awhile.

Another thing that is good to use at this time is plain yogurt or buttermilk. These contain good bacteria that can help prevent infection - although if you suspect infection, it is important to see your doctor to get an antibiotic. Trust me!

Also, during this time, you can keep up the oral benadryl if you can stand the drowsiness.

Stage 4 - Healing
This is the stage where the blisters dry up and your skin is healing. You may still have itching at this time, but you are over the hump. Soap and salt rubs are still helpful, as well as aloe, buttermilk, and yogurt. Only use the baking soda and oatmeal if you really need to relieve some itching that the others won't, as your skin might be quite dry by now. Try to add as many moisturizing things as possible.

This whole process can take up to 3 weeks (or more). The least it has taken me to get to the healing stage was 1 week, which was this time. Something to note, however, is that the outbreak doesn't all go at the same rate or at the same stage. The concentration of oil you recieved and the thickness of your skin where you came into contact with the oil will make a difference on when the rash shows up and how quickly it clears up. It may seem as if the rash is spreading over a week or two, but the rash is not contagious and most likely the new spots are just areas that received less oil so they don't react as vigorously.

Also, oil will stay on shoes, door knobs, steering wheels, etc. for even up to a year. If you really think that your rash is spreading, you might want to wash or take rubbing alcohol to anything you think got oil on it.

Something to be cautious of too is heat. Heat will open your skin's pores and can possibly drive the rash deeper, making it worse or making areas that just received tiny bits of oil break out if they wouldn't have otherwise. The hard part is that heat feels really, Really, REALLY good on an itchy rash. Even while knowing this, I fell into the trap of using heat this time to relieve the itch. Instead, try a soapy salt rub. I came to realize this brought the same results as the heat for me.

So there you go. That's what I know about poison ivy remedies from your cupboard. If you have any that you fall back on, I would love to know.

As far as things not from the cupboard, (I guess Benadryl is one), I have heard that over the counter Zanfel is great (but expensive). Also, I have gone to the dr. to get steroids more than once, and they knock it down like none other. This has been my 2nd worse case of poison ivy, and it probably would have benefited from steroids, (my worst case involved lymph nodes swelling and red streaks racing up my arm - signs of impending blood poisoning leading to shots of powerful antibiotics and steroids) but I was so excited about how things from my cupboard were working that I decided to just finish off with them.

I hope you never have to use this information. :)

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Tools of My Trade

Since writing this post I have gotten poison ivy multiple more times.  I finally broke down and got the poison ivy treatment described below - oh my!  I can't say enough about it!  Now, if I can't get my hands on one of the following, I will use the above remedies, but I am going to always try to keep the below on hand because they are worth every penny!

I first used Zanfel, described underneath, until I learned that it was actually the same formulation and company as Mean Green Power Hand Scrub, which is much, much more economical by volume. I now keep a container of this hand scrub in my medicine cabinet.  It not only feels wonderful to use on a poison ivy infection with its gentle exfoliants, but somehow they have figured out how to come up with a product which helps remove any remaining or deeply absorbed poison ivy oils from the skin. My rashes that used to last 3 miserable weeks or more are now gone within a week - and the itching is immediately relieved throughout the day with applications just a couple of times each day until the rash is gone.  I have used this on my young children, and we have not had misery from poison ivy rashes since. It almost makes me not so fearful of getting into poison ivy anymore . . . almost! (Just Google Zanfel for instructions on how to use this product for poison ivy.)

Zanfel was the original tube of poison ivy treatment I purchased, at the suggestion of a friend.  It is the same formulation as Mean Green Power Hand Scrub, just marketed in a smaller tube at a higher price for poison ivy relief.  If you don't want to wait for an order of Mean Green Power Hand Scrub to  come in, I would highly suggest driving to Walmart or your local pharmacy to purchase a tube.  It will still be worth every penny. 


I have not personally used Rhus Tox, but a couple of my friends have introduced me to this product. Judging by the reactions I see them get, they are either more sensitive to poison ivy than I am, or they get into it more than I do. (One of them has it all over her yard.) They go on and on about this product whenever they have an outbreak. Not only does it help once they get one, but it has made their reactions much less severe as they start it in December and take maintenance doses throughout the season. (I'll have to get the schedule they use.) Now that I can spot poison ivy better, don't get into it much anymore, and have Zanfel on hand, I have not had the need to try this. If I were to get a major outbreak again, I think Rhus Tox (helping the body to heal) might be great to pair with Zanfel/Mean Grean Power Hand Scrub (removing difficult residual oils which continue irritation).

9 Loads in 1 Day

Last week I got a bit behind on the laundry since we spent the weekend working on the farm. I wasn't too concerned though. I figured I would just catch up this week.

Monday night, after we finished pulling fence, I decided it was time to start washing the laundry. I had our regular clothes to wash, Ethan's soccer clothes, a full load of dirty diapers, and just as full of a load of poison ivy infected work clothes. One problem. Our washing machine broke before the first load was even finished.

Instead of emptying the hampers this week, however, we have just been filling them more. I know I have added at least another load of clothes and cloth due to my oozing poison ivy. On a side note, I have gotten it almost every year since college - never had it before then. This is the worst I have ever had it, except for last year's encounter with the poison ivy tree that led to 3 weeks of rashes and a trip to the emergency room with blood poisoning. Even with this one being quite bad, it is has been one of the most bearable. I think I have finally found out what all to pull out of the cupboards to calm it down quickly!

Okay, back to the laundry. We haven't been able to pick up a new washer (new to us at least - we have located a few used ones we are going to try to get) since we have had quite the full week. Tuesday we met with our builder to go over the final plans before materials are ordered, and Ethan had a soccer game in the evening. Yesterday we went and bought an old camper for the farm and started fixing it up (you can read about why we got it here on my husband's blog), and Ethan had a full day of work today.

Since I am going to be gone over the weekend, I decided that the laundry NEEDS to get done. So today I loaded up all of our dirty clothes into our truck and drove to the laundry mat. An hour and a half later and over $15 poorer, I headed home with 9 loads of wet laundry which are now cycling through our drier and hanging out on racks on our deck. Hopefully Ethan will be able to pick up a washer somewhere this weekend while I am gone. I think I took as much dirt out of the laundry mat as I took in. I can't imagine having to do that every week like some families have to. Not only for the cost of it, but also just the work of hauling everything there.

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A Clean Fence Line - Thanks Dad!

Last week I got a call from my parents asking what we were going to be doing over Memorial Day weekend. We were planning on going to Des Moines to pick up some things we found on Craigs List, but when they threw out the offer to help do some work on the farm - coming armed with two chainsaws and a rototiller, we quickly changed our plans!

The forecast for the weekend was great weather on Saturday and rain and storms on Sunday and Monday. I called up my cousin, Tim, who has graciously been offering help every time we see him, to let him know what we were up to. He said he would be around Saturday morning to pitch in too.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast was quite wrong, and we woke up with rain on Saturday. Since Tim had plans in the afternoon, he had to take a rain check. The rain did clear up eventually, however, and our family and my parents were able to go out and work from 3 until 7. With the forecast of rain all day also being wrong for Sunday and Monday, we were able to go out again today for another long morning of work that ended around 1.

Here is a summary of what we got accomplished:

Saturday, Ethan worked on tearing out the last of the woven and barbed wire that was left on the farm. My dad took his chainsaw to the trees and bushes that had grown in and around the fence line, and I threw what was cut into the ditch. (We hope to clear out the ditch next fall, but until then there will be some good wildlife habitat!) Also, my mom helped out by playing with the kids on top of the hill where we have mowed.

Today my dad cut down some rather large trees that were along the fence line, along with more bushes and smaller trees. Ethan and I followed to clean up the trimmings. My mom had bought some fun new toys for the kids at the dollar store and played with them again on the hill top.

With the two days of work, we were able to get the entire overgrown fence line cleared. Now we just need to pull out the last of the posts, run the mower along the line, and the farm is ready for new fence!

We did try to plow up a spot for the garden, and my mom would have helped plant it - but it was just too wet with the unexpected rain Saturday morning. Hopefully it will dry soon, and we can get that garden in.

It was a great two days of work, however, I did run into a couple of things that weren't that enjoyable - seeing the unexpected things that can happen with chainsaws, continuing to flick ticks off and pull them off of our kids, and the welts and blisters that come from poison ivy. (I saw I was working in large patches of it, but how can I let others work through it who don't even own the land if I'm not willing to.) Thankfully, it seems if I am the only one who has reactions to it. (Tim- I bet you're glad you didn't have to find out if you do or not!)

Even with the more uncomfortable parts of farm work, I do really enjoy hard work outside, and I find it refreshing to work up a sweat doing physical work (as long as I know a shower is coming!).

I am extremely thankful for all of the hard work my dad put in helping us and that my mom was able to play with the kids so I could pitch in easier too. Also, I have to send Tim a thanks for offering his help even if it didn't work out.

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House for Sale!

Our house is officially for sale. We have actually had the sign up for a week and had our first walk through house shopper today.

Because we were meeting a reporter on our farm this morning, last night Ethan and I were both up past midnight getting the last minute cleaning done - Ethan was actually up until 1:30.

I don't remember the last time our property has been this clean. The yard is picked up and spruced up, our living space and dungeon basement are sparkling, the youth house side is polished . . . We even had a crew from church come and haul away to the dump two loads of old construction garbage that was left in the scary youth basement from the remodeling 4 years ago.

Now if we can just continue to keep everything in order while we continue to get our new property set up and going. At least a lot of the one time jobs are done and now it is just reshining things when someone else wants to come through.

Pulling Up Old Fence Posts

Today we went out to the farm to scope out our new garden location. Since we bought out the CRP land yesterday (all but 5 acres that we don't plan on using), we are now free to do whatever we want to the land. So tomorrow we are going to hook up a borrowed plow and turn over some dirt!

We went over lunch time, so we took the kids and had a nice picnic on the loader. When we were done eating, Ethan wanted to do a little work and pull up some fence posts.

Ethan hopped on the tractor to operate the loader. I wrapped the chain around the posts, stepped back so Ethan could pull it out, and then he drove to the next post where I would unhook the removed post, throw it into the loader, and hook the chain to the next one. It worked out quite well.

The kids also followed along. I'm glad that they were able to. It gave me a good chance to do some teaching about where they need to be when equipment is running. I explained to them how they should never stand behind a tractor that is running (or any vehicle for that matter), and they need to stand where the driver can see them and be a safe distance away. It was nice to be able to walk them ahead each time Ethan moved to a new post and talk to them about tractor safety and safe distances. I also knew that when I was helping out with the posts, the tractor would be stationary.

I figure that if they are going to be living on the same land as a working tractor, this is probably one of the best opportunities to teach them about tractor safety - when it is actually running and they can be highly supervised.

We still have lot more posts to go, but wire needs to be removed before we can pull the rest. The next thing to be taken care of on the farm, however, is the garden!

Waiting for a Garden

Ethan and I have been discussing our garden plans a lot this spring. With moving, we have had a twist thrown into our garden plans though - mainly, where to have it.

We do have a nice here that has been established, fertilized by chickens and coffee grounds, and has a nice community of earthworms and other little creatures that benefit a garden. The problem with this garden plot is that we will be moving away from it. We aren't sure when the house we are in now will sell, but it could very likely happen that someone else would be harvesting what we plant if we put our garden in here.

The other garden location is at our new farm. There are a couple problems with that location though. One, we don't live there yet so keeping it weeded and keeping animals out would be a lot more difficult. Two, there is no bare ground. As of now, the land is in CRP and has a pretty good cover of tall switch grass.

I thought about starting a spring garden here, and then putting the plants that produce their crop later in the summer out at the farm, but after talking about it, we decided that we are just going to do one garden at the farm. So right now my garden is on our deck in planting pots waiting for the ground to be broken up on our new property.

Last night, however, we got one step closer to getting our garden started. Ethan's uncle sent a plow down for us to use with Ethan's dad, who was passing through. We still have to buy out the CRP before we can break up any land, but this Thursday or Friday we hope to get our garden plowed. We will then rent a rototiller from the farm store and hopefully be ready to start planting seeds.

As far as the animal and weed concerns, I think that I will mulch the garden pretty heavily between the rows and just do spot weeding where needed. This will help keep moisture in and encourage the worms to come make their home in the garden too. We'll definitely have to put up a fence to keep the rabbits out, and we might end up having to put up an electric fence around it to keep the deer out. We'll see.

It sounds like a lot of work and hassle to even do a garden this year with all of our transitions and building projects, but it is really important to us to grow and preserve as much of our own food as possible, and we also want to do some more experimenting with the garden this year. So we'll see how it goes, and hopefully we will be moving onto the farm sooner than later!