The Smells of the Holidays

There's no way to sweeten the ideal, we are pig farmers and have three rough and tumble kids under 7. That means I do a LOT of laundry and deal with a lot of really bad smells. Those of you with kids and or pigs probably know that the majority of these smells come from the kids!

But there is a catch, everyone in our house is allergic to commercial chemicals, deoderizers, and fragrances and it is a range of reactions, from severe skin blistering to headaches to sinus irritation. It is easy enough to switch to hyper allergenic clothes washing, pure soaps, and natural cleaners but what about getting smells out of unconventional places and what about pleasant scents?

My first step is always to clean, but that's not always enough.

To start with, white vinager is a great deoderizer. Works the same way that Febreeze does, it pickles the stink and kills the bacteria. I used to demonstrate Febreeze and had to study the product before hand. Basically the same idea. I add a little peppermint oil to the bottle so when it dries it smells minty fresh! My oldest daughter calls this Peppermint Pickle spray. I works as a first aid spray too (all be it a painful one) and a quick hand sanitizer. I use a mix of this as a rinse in my clothes washer too.

Then to make the house fragrant if company is coming I collect the orange/clementine peels and mostly eaten apples that are abundant this time of year at my house. Through the day the girls add them to a stove pot, I cover with water and add a cinnamon stick or two and simmer; add water as needed. Ta da! It adds humidity we need right now and smells amazing with no allergic reactions. I have also done this with just mint, but it is not as strong.

How do you combat stink at your house?

Happy Happy Farm Day for Farmer Chad

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Frugal Fruit

When Julia asked me to take part in her frugal blog tour, I struggled to think of a topic.  Then it came to me....fruit!

Who doesn't love fruit? Or rather who does in my house....the answer is everybody including our livestock. What is not to love? It is healthy and sweet and full of good nutrients. It can also be expensive but it doesn't have to be.

In fact, most of the fruit brought home to our farm last summer was free. Even when we lived in the city I managed to "score" hundreds of pounds of fresh, ripe, organic fruit for free. How? I paid attention and I asked.

The first year I brought home the apples it was because a nursing home posted online that they had trees that needed picking. When the facility was built, various fruit trees were planted and now they were basically neglected and so heavy with fruit the branches were breaking. Organic by neglect and only a short drive from home, we brought our own picker and had at it. Every year I go back (with the grounds keeper's permission) with buckets in hand and a few friends and we bring home more than enough apples and pears to fill my pantry and freezer for the year.

This year I brought extra buckets and cleaned up all the windfall too (the grounds keeper was thrilled!). The hogs and chickens we raise could not get enough. That go me thinking about how to get them more......so I asked around. Anyone I know have an apple tree that was bothering them? Ha! Surprisingly, four or five friends did have an apple tree problem. Perfect, lovely apples that were just going to waste were suddenly put to very good use with a very small effort on my part. I brought home about 4000 lbs of apples this year to feed 18 Berkshire pigs that we pasture.

When we lived cityside I would also see neglected trees while walking my kids and dog around the neighborhood. Peaches, apricots, cherries, and mulberries that no one bothered to pick. A quick knock on a door or a note left in the screen would not only yield my pantry but also expand my community.

I also added wild crafting to my fruit gathering repertoire. I found red and black raspberries wild in my own backyard. Then I found wild plum, mulberries, boysenberries, elderberries, an blackberries.  I gathered and froze or canned and much as I could. Then I started to notice these berries everywhere we went, public parks and ditches were overflowing with food! (Note: most ditches in Iowa are sprayed with pesticide and they manage road runoff so not the best place for harvest, IMO).

Not all my fruit needs were satisfied this way though. My kids are HUGE peach fans and no one who had peaches were giving those up for free. Ha! A local family owned store near us had 50 lb crates of Missouri peaches for $13 dollars this summer. I bought 5 over the course of two months and canned 2 of them. The the rest my kids ate out of hand and any spoilage went to our chickens. This same store had apricots and blueberries for a similar price too. I asked the storekeeper about spoilage and a few times they called me and sold me crates of bruised fruit for 3$ at the end of the week. CRATES! That all went to the pigs. Pigs like bruised fruit.  It doesn't hurt to ask.

We also cultivated our own garden fruit too. A small patch (10 ft by 15 ft) of strawberries yielded 135 lbs of fruit for us this year. We froze about 90lbs, ate until we were red in the face, and shared with friends too. We planted raspberry canes and watermelons too.

When my kids chomp through the fruit basket for the week I don't cringe at the expense. I know the ingredient list and I know who picked it for the most part. My freezer is brimming with the summer bounty and I will relish the taste of local sunshine in pies, smoothies, and fruit Popsicles all winter.

Lactivism, and AWESOME friends, and why I fed my baby formula

 Let me start of by saying that prior to last week, I was proud of the fact that formula had never, by my knowledge, touched my children's lips. I had no intention of changing that. Sometimes though, babies turn your world and what you might think you know upside down.

When I posted this picture on our facebook album my husband wrote:

"Some clarification, Isaac was 5 pounds 4 ounces at birth, 4 lbs 7 ounces after day 1, and slightly jaundiced from day 1. Also because of the c-section Danelle's milk wasn't coming in on day 1 (this is normal). Normally a kid not eating for a day or so isn't a big deal, so most moms won't need formula even if milk doesn't come in for a day or so (just keep counting wets until it does), but we needed to start feeding right away to keep the jaundice from becoming serious. This was one of those medically necessary times when formula saves lives - I'm glad we had the 20 oz or so that he ate, I hope we never need it again. Also, formula tastes absolutely disgusting, and based on how much more breast milk he ate as soon as he got the chance, I'm pretty sure Isaac thought so as well."

Chad fed Isaac the formula (after he taste tested it, and I think it is really cool that he would try it first), I wanted no chance there would be nipple confusion. Our doula called to check on us and drove out to us at 10 pm at night to bring us fenugreek pills and tea, just to help things along. She had JUST arrived at home from vacation too, her back up had attended the birth. I was a little anxious because I wasn't even producing colostrum or feeling the tissue changes that usually follow birth and precede milk flow.

While Chad fed Isaac, I picked up my phone and did something most people would find really hard to do. I called a friend and asked her if I could have some of her breastmilk for Isaac. Before I even finished breathing through that sentence, she said yes. We only needed a little bit, a 1/2 pint, maybe a pint. Just to get him through until my milk came in. She was there, driving 65+ miles, the next morning, milk in hand. 

Then I was worried how the hospital staff would react. Silly me. They all thought it was GREAT! They even separated out the feedings into prepped bottles for us. Seriously, this has got to be the most mama friendly hospital birth center EVER.

We were discharged the next day and my milk let down, pretty much as we walked in the door home. 

I wish there were more milk banks. I wish more mamas and babies had access to friends who would donate the liquid gold that is breastmilk. The sad fact is that most do not, most mamas in situations like ours face the insecurity that the delayed milk let down brings, most have no choice but formula, don't know to keep pumping, don't have doula support that will go to three different stores late at night to bring them tea, don't have the blessing of an extremely mama/baby friendly birth center, friends that will pump and deliver milk......most mom's have formula and panic that their baby is sick. 

We were blessed for true and if I could change the world, every county would have a milk bank or at least a network of mamas in milk that would pump at a moment's notice to help new babies.  

You know what though, the biggest factor in our continuing success in breastfeeding despite difficulties with latch, let down, ect.....was my husband. He researched, cheered me on, bought nipple shields at Babies R' Us, and cheered me on in the middle of the night when things were particularly frustrating. Much of our support system the first time around was very pro formula and even anti breastfeeding. Couple that with our initial difficulties and we would have quit and given in to social pressure, unnecessarily. Honestly, formula is not evil, but it is meant to be a breastmilk substitute in medically necessary situations. Somehow it has become a lifestyle choice, and that is something that makes me sad for mamas and for babies who really want to and are led to believe they can't.