Dawn's Bug Beware!

I made my own insect repellant with essential oils.  So excited to give it a try.  We are about to go 'sploring on our 40 acres looking for a flock of turkeys we've been seeing around our house.  Sadly, we think our Australian Shepherd puppy, Middie must have scared them off the other day and they've not been back.  We need serious insect repellant around here.  The chiggers and ticks think they own the place.  We don't seem to have much trouble with mosquitos although they are around, because we have a pretty healthy bat population that keeps the mosquitos thinned out.  We love to sit at my in-love's and watch the bats fly just at dusk during the summertime.

I am not very good at taking pictures for ya'll. Thought I'd use my Modern Essentials book and the current book I'm skimming that I borrowed from the library (Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens--can you guess what's in our near future??) for the background.  Also used my new rolls of washi tape that I love!  Thanks for the idea Camp Wander

ok, back to the insect repellant :0)!

I found a recipe at two different places on the web.
Natural Homemade Mosquito Spray

and

DIY: Insect Repellant

So, I tweaked them and came up with my own.  Here it is:

Dawn's Bug Beware
12 oz Witch Hazel
15 drops citronella essential oil 
15 drops lemongrass essential oil
10 drops peppermint
10 drops tea tree (melaleuca)
10 drops eucalyptus

I put these into several different size glass spray bottles. 

2 - 4 oz. bottles    One for the front door and one for the back door.
1 - 2 oz. bottle      For the van
3 - 1 oz. bottles    For the car, truck, and my purse.

So there you have it.  We will be giving it a try and I will update in a few weeks or so and let you all know how it's working. 

All essential oils can be purchased at Spark Naturals.  Be sure to use code "sonshine" for a 10% discount.


I've shared and linked this post over at Sustain Create and Flow  for
Wildcrafting Wednesday  and Natural Living Link-up  Please stop by and check out some awesome posts by other bloggers.

Please leave a comment!  Thanks for stopping by!

P.S.  I did not name it until after I'd already made the labels...next time!!
Dawn

5 Amazing Facts About Essential Oils!

Since I've been posting so much about essential oils lately, thought you might enjoy this page of facts! 

I found this on facebook from my friend, Patti at Patti's Place.

Enjoy and have an essentially wonderful day!

Dawn

Cuts and Scrapes Spritzer

Updated-September, 2014

I have 3 small children and we are constantly dealing with cuts, scrapes and lots of tears.  Sometimes even meltdowns.....anyone relate? 

I keep this on hand for just such an occasion (translated ~ everyday occurrence! :0) lol )

 We keep a bottle of this with us wherever we go!

Cuts and Scrapes Spritzer
12 drops Lavender
8 drops Lemon
8 drops Bergamot
Couple pinches of Epsom Salt
Witch Hazel 
2 oz. spray bottle

Use code "sonshine" at Spark Naturals for a 10% discount!
(be sure to always shake a little prior to each use)

Just drop the essential oils in the 2 oz. bottle and then the epsom salt and fill to the top with witch hazel.  

The salt in this does give it a bit of a sting, but my kids still ask for it when they get an owie.  I think they like it because they know it will soon feel better and will be gone quickly.

I linked up here....

Please leave me a comment.  Thank you,

Dawn  

Cuts/Scrapes Spritzer can be purchased at Sonshine Botanicals.

You can find the epsom salt, witch hazel and spray bottles here: My Amazon Store

Snow! Planting Must Go On! Tree Planting-Day 3

Look what we woke up to at 5:30 this morning!  It's beautiful, but oh so difficult to find the golf tees in the ground that mark where to dig the hole for each tree.

 The drilling has begun.  It took over an hour to sweep the spots to drill about 150 trees.

 You can see the bare spots for trees in the background.

 Oh no!  Ready for the planters--that's me!

 Turkish Firs we planted, yesterday!

Jericho enjoying the snow-covered trampoline

2013 Tree Planting-Day 2

 It spit snow on us all day.  By the time we finished up at dark, it was snowing hard.

 Turkish Firs

 David bringing the next box of trees!

 These are Meyer Spruce

 A close-up of the Meyer Spruce tree

Using the tractor today to dig the holes.  Discovering it does go much quicker this way.  It takes 2 of them, one to drive and one to direct the auger.

After dark, we plant trees in pots.  These are Momi Fir.

We have 500 of these to pot!

Momi Fir.  We will graft Frazer Fir on these.  They are too small to graft this year, so next year we will learn the grafting process!

Some Fun Pics of the Kids

Tuesday (2/26) it was beautiful and almost 60 degrees.  Too bad it didn't stay!  Planting would have been so much nicer in this weather.  At least the kids enjoyed it!

2013 Tree Planting

 10 boxes arrived Wednesday afternoon!  2 are missing here....this is Thursday morning and 2 boxes are already in the field!  Brrrrr.....it's cold and wet this morning.  Makes for easy digging.  But, we are sitting on feed sacks or old dog food bags to keep our rear-ends dry :0) lol!

 We bought all tiny baby trees this year and the planting is taking less time because there is a much smaller root system.  These are Virginia Juniper trees.  The tops of these trees turn red when they go dormant.  They'll be a beautiful Christmas tree!

 Caleb planted his first tree!!

 David is taking a quick break for a sip of HOT coffee!  It's 33 degrees and we had a dusting of snow early this morning (Thursday, 2/28)  Even Pumpkin, the cat has come to check out all the activity in the tree field!

 Digging by hand this year.

 Poppie is digging all the holes for those who are planting.  Today it's David, me and Caleb before lunch.  After lunch it was Hannah and Nanny Boo Boo and David and Caleb.  Hannah and I switched out a couple of times!

 This is the box of Virginia Junipers

 These are our fertilizer pellets that we put in the hole before the tree, a little bit of dirt on top and then the tree on top of that.  Caleb is in charge of these.  He walks around asking if we need a "cough drop"--too funny!!!

 David planting.

 Lots of tender loving care for each tree--and this is just the beginning!

 Packing the dirt

 Me, planting some too!  Poppie on the 4-wheeler in the background.  He's bringing extra dirt for the holes.

 We got 100 of these in the ground by 11:30.  Headed up to the house for some lunch.  Moving to a new field and different trees after lunch.

 These are Turkish Fir trees.  These are going by the gift shop...just to the side of the hay bale maze.

 David and Caleb tag-teaming it.

 Hannah planting her tree

 Poppie found the post hole digger

You can see what's left of the hay bale maze from Christmas in the background.  The cows have been enjoying eating it.