American Lyme Disease Foundation. What is Lyme Disease? Where is Lyme Disease Prevalent? U.S. Range Maps and Statistics Symptoms Diagnosis Treatment Table of Recommended Antibiotics and dosages How to Prevent Lyme Disease How to Remove a Tick Deer Tick Ecology Tick species that transmit Lyme Disease: Black-legged tick (Deer tick), western black-legged tick What is Lyme Disease? Lyme disease (LD) is an infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, a type of bacterium called a spirochete (pronounced spy-ro-keet) that is carried by deer ticks. LD manifests itself as a multisystem inflammatory disease that affects the skin in its early, localized stage, and spreads to the joints, nervous system and, to a lesser extent, other organ systems in its later, disseminated stages.
Although LD is now the most common arthropod-borne illness in the U.S. Borrelia burgdorferi Generally, if you discover a deer tick attached to your skin that has not yet become engorged, it has not been there long enough to transmit the LD spirochete. U.S. Home Remedies for Bug Bites and Stings. Clockwise from top left: Plantain, honey and Epsom salt, lavender EO and onion for onion poultice. It’s that time of year again! Along with fun in the sun, one often ends up dealing with insect bites and stings form mosquitoes, bees, wasps, spiders and all things creepy crawly. Just this past weekend, I accidentally grabbed a yellowjacket while moving plant trays around in my cold frame.
I never even saw the critter, as it was hiding under the lip of a plant tray, but within a fraction of a second I had pounding, stabbing pain shooting through my fingertip. I scooted over to the garden to grab some plant medicine, and went inside to lick my wounds and share the “fun” with the folks on the Common Sense Homesteading Facebook page. Home Remedy for Bug Bites and Stings #1 – Ice and Benedryl (diphenhydramine) Note: I recommend using this remedy in combination with any of the others. Susan B. says, “First, you have a lot of nerves and some pretty good blood pressure dedicated to your fingers. How to Grow Tomatoes. All About Growing Grapes - Organic Gardening.
Keeping a Garden Journal : Real Food RN. When we bought our first house we hadn’t even been the house for one week and my Mom showed up with her tiller and garden tools. We quickly plotted out a garden and got to work (We moved into our house in June….late for the planting season!). We got my entire garden in that day and that night my Mom started my very first Garden Journal. She is a Master Gardener and has kept a journal for years of all of the gardens that she grows. Why keep a Garden Journal? This is a great tool to keep records of previous years bounty, and failures.
When I look back through my journal I can see when I planted each year, what I planted, what worked, and what didn’t. This is helpful because I can learn from my successes and mistakes. Here is how I keep my journal organized: (Of course I had to decorate the cover) On some pages, I tape the packets of seeds that I planted. This way I know exactly which brand of seed I used. I include the receipts as well, so I can also keep tabs on how much I spend each year. How To Build Your Own Solar Thermal Panel For Around $5 |
How To Build Your Own Solar Thermal Panel For Around $5 Check out our awesome Facebook page and stay up to date with what's new! I did a post a few days back about solar power for your home . Some folks on the Facebook page pointed out that the options featured were expensive and out of the reach of many people. Today I am going to focus on budget solar power and when I say budget, I mean less than $5. That’s right, for less than $5 you can build a solar thermal panel, which will heat water to a temperature that scalds. This option is small-scale and it is built around a reclaimed heat dispersal system from an old refrigerator (which you can get with the gas removed from your local dump). It has no pump as it is gravity fed and it requires no electricity to work.
Now this is all small-scale, but I see no reason why several of these panels could not be used together in some way, to meet a family’s entire hot water needs. (Photo from: The Sietch) Vegetable Gardening Know-How from Beginning to Master Gardener. 16 Foods That’ll Re-Grow from Kitchen Scraps. By Andy Whiteley Co-Founder of Wake Up World Looking for a healthy way to get more from your garden? Like to know your food is free of the pesticides and other nasties that are often sprayed on commercial crops? Re-growing food from your kitchen scraps is a good way to do it!
There’s nothing like eating your own home- grown vegies, and there are heaps of different foods that will re- grow from the scrap pieces that you’d normally throw out or put into your compost bin. It’s fun. Just remember … the quality of the “parent” vegetable scrap will help to determine the quality of the re-growth. Leeks, Scallions, Spring Onions and Fennel You can either use the white root end of a vegetable that you have already cut, or buy a handful of new vegetables to use specifically for growing. Simply place the white root end in a glass jar with a little water, and leave it in a sunny position. Lemongrass Lemongrass grows just like any other grass. Within a week or so, new growth will start to appear. Ginger. How to Use Epsom Salt in Your Vegetable Garden. Natural Homemade Pesticides: Recipes & Tips.
These homemade pesticides are cheap and easy to make with many being just as effective as some commercial products on the market. No fancy ingredients required, everything you need is likely stocked in your kitchen and garden. Most of the ingredients are earth friendly and natural with the harshest being liquid dish detergent–no need to use toxic chemicals! Tip: The best method of pest control in the garden is to keep your plants healthy so they don’t attract bugs. Fertilize as needed (see How To Make Compost Tea) and stay on top of weeds by pulling them as they appear or using weed killers (see Homemade Weed Killer Recipes & Tips). Begin treating for insects as soon as you notice signs of an infestation, the sooner you start the easier it will be to get rid of the critters. Note: For recipes that require liquid dish detergent, use the basic stuff–nothing fancy with added bleach, nothing concentrated and no special antibacterial formulas.
Rhubarb Leaf Mix Garlic Tea Tomato Leaves Mix Tips. Gardening. Urban Gardening. How to Attract Bats: The Ultimate Organic Pesticide for Your Garden. Attracting bats to your yard can be an advantage to you and your garden in a number of ways. Do you experience mosquitoes, cut worms, June Beetles, Stink bugs or leafhoppers in your garden? Before you get out the sprays and chemicals to get rid of them think about this: Attract bats. Contrary to popular belief bats are safe and in fact are beneficial to gardeners. They fly and feed the two hours around dusk and dawn. During those hours they can eat up to 2000 insects.
If you choose to house bats you are not only helping your garden, You are also helping the bats. Bats need a place to roost at night, trees are good, but if you have no trees you can build a bat house. You will also need some form of water. Night blooming flowers will attract insects which will attract bats. If you are putting up a bat house, plan ahead, they tend to move into houses that have been in place for a few months more than houses that have just been put up. How to Build an Earth Oven. Do you remember your teachers asking you on the first week of school what you did for your summer vacation? Well, if I were still in school, this would have been a story to amaze my teacher and classmates. My friend, TH, is an amazing baker and cook. She is also very wise in the ways of crafts and organizing activities that bring diverse people together.
Her great ambition has been to build and use a wood-fired oven in her own backyard. TH is not someone who merely dreams big -- she builds! She did her homework and found a book by Kiko Denzer called Build Your Own Earth Oven. She also found a website showing a group of masons who built an oven of the type she wanted using Kiko Denzer's model. Here's an image of the boys pounding it out by foot and testing its moisture content. After we made the sand mound (notice the brace we used to prevent sand from rolling off the edge), we covered the sand with wet newspaper, rather like you would a form for papier maché.
Seed Starting Made Simple - Organic Gardening. You’ll love the benefits of growing your own transplants. You can grow unique heirloom selections as well as the best varieties for your garden’s conditions — which will boost your yields and reduce losses to pests, disease and severe weather. The potential money savings aren’t small potatoes, either. Consider the cost of filling a single 4-by-12-foot bed with purchased transplants — typically selling for $4 to $5 each — versus paying $2 to $3 for a packet of at least 50 seeds. If you grow a big garden, the savings can quickly grow to hundreds of dollars. Indoor seed starting is easy, and the small initial investment in equipment will pay off quickly. Learn how to start seeds indoors with these 11 steps. 1. Not every crop is a good candidate for indoor seed starting. 2. Try getting seeds well-adapted to your region from local seed swaps, or you can buy from regional suppliers. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Seed-Starting Problems and Solutions.