Sleep Well

Sometime back I jotted down some thoughts about staying well.  I happily confess that except for a few brushes with the ickies, I've done very well this winter.  And I sadly confess that I left out one of the most important things you can do for yourself  -  Sleep.

Normally this is the part where I would post a nice photo, but alas -  I could not find any that adequately depicted my idea of a good sleep.  All the photos were beautiful younger people in white sheets shot in bright white light - NOT my idea of a good nights sleep.

In fact a good night's sleep is quite the the opposite.  Who cares what color the sheets are, because its supposed to be DARK.  And if you can't get the room dark, make yourself dark by using a sleep mask or covering your head with a blanket.  You just can't get a good rem sleep in the light.

I wasn't always this way, but after reading The Hibernation Diet, I came to realize that many factors affect our sleep, including how much light is in the room. Upon making a few changes I started sleeping sooooooooo much better.  And now that some years have passed I find good sleep to be increasingly important to function well.

And it also helps you STAY well.  When you get run down your immune system is more likely to become compromised.  And for me, when I feel that happening, sleep is my number one weapon against becoming sick.  Probably the most prominent experience happened while visiting our daughter late last year.  Sunday afternoon after a couple of wonderful days  found me coming down with something AWFUL.  Once we got home I hit the sack and slept most of fourteen hours.

Fourteen hours. And I felt fine the next day, and the day after that, and after that . . . .

So sleep. There is good reason the CDC considers sleep deprivation a public health epidemic.  Don't be a statistic. 

Don't get Sick

It's no fun.  You know that.  Been there, done that -  you got the ugly tee shirt too and don't want to wear it.  Same here.

Truth is, sickness is a fact of life.  You get tired, run down, eat something you shouldn't, get cold, wet, or too hot -  and there you have it.  Your immune system is compromised and caves into a cold, flu, or virus.

So what follows here is not new.  Your mother told you this stuff, your grandmother too . . . things that you can and should do to help stay well during flu season.

Keep Warm.  Wear mittens, gloves and a scarf if necessary.   A dip in body temperature by half a degree can compromise your system enough to catch "whatever."

Stay dry.  Especially your feet.


Wash your hands.  Or use hand sanitizer.  Keep your hands away from your face as much as possible.  Cough into your arm then wash that nasty shirt.

Stay hydrated.

Eat well.  As in food that is GOOD for you.  A car don't run well and breaks down more frequently on poor quality gasoline.  Why would your body respond differently if you eat junk?


Use good sense about unnecessary exposure. Stay away from  sick people as much as possible.

See how simple that was?  There are a lot more good suggestions out there which anyone is welcome to share. A lot of it boils down to good common sense and just not giving into the temptation to fudge when doing the right thing is inconvenient.  I write this as much for myself and my kids as anyone.  Because really - who wants to be sick at Christmas??

Choosing Color

"I don't do white."

I felt the room around me kind of pause. The words were spoken to a young lady of color behind the counter of a fast food chain. She had just waited on some other customers of like skin tone and they were silent too. It was a bit awkward as I realized what just came out of my mouth.

You have to understand. I'm a 50+ Caucasian woman, somewhat overweight, obviously not a youth, and obviously suffering from a serious case of foot in mouth disease this day.

The young lady and I were trying to work through some logistics to get my order right. The restaurant only offered packaged dinners - I wanted something different and was trying to explain to this girl why I did not want a biscuit with my fried chicken.

And that's when the awkward statement came out of my mouth.

The long and short of it is, I'm giving up white foods. White flour, white sugar, white pasta, white rice, white potatoes. I'm sure there are some others I need to give up, but that's the big five for me. It's not that I can't have breads, sweets, pasta, rice and taters - I will just have the superior forms and not the inferiors that have become staples of the American diet.

So far so good. I don't know if I'll even be able to tell a difference six months from now, but I do know it won't hurt.

So yeah, I don't do white.

More Weeds to Love Well, if I keel over before anyone reads this from alkaloid poisoning, this post will have to serve as my last communication. I don't think I'm any danger though. Yes, I know the photo is downright frightening, but in a way it's super cool as well. I attempted to have this tree identified some years ago. I don't know if my photo wasn't that good or what, but the tree expert extension agent in the next county missed it completely. I learned it's true identity a few days ago. It was a rainy day and I had some business to handle with my former neighbor who is now my insurance agent. Like friends do, we caught up on everything under the sun, including a story about how my fire ant cream helped one of his kids. Then out of the blue he reminisces about something that happened to him before that last kid was even born. An old fellow took him out riding in his old pickup truck down a dirt road up near Evergreen. He showed him a tree, peeled off a piece of bark and had him hold the underside against his gum. In a few moments he didn't feel a thing. . . . the gum was numb. It was an old Indian remedy for toothaches. It was a fascinating story, and out of the blue Roy had his friend on the phone. I was even able to talk to him and here's the rest of the story. The tree is a Prickly Ash, aka Southern Prickly Ash, aka Toothache Tree. It's not common and is most often found on, you guessed it, fence lines. And there's more to it than numbing gums. Turns out it's good for arthritis and will, in his words, "clean your arteries." It's supposed to "reduce bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol" I found out earlier this year that I have high cholesterol, so I figure there's not a lot to lose by giving it a shot. I already know it won't kill me because I positively identified my trees by putting the underside of a piece of bark on my gum. It actually numbed the whole left side of my face. So I'm going easy on the stuff. Bark is soaking in a mason jar with apple cider vinegar and I'm told it tastes really bad, but thats no biggie . . . a spoonful of sugar, I mean honey, will help it go down. And isn't ACV and honey supposed to be some kind of miracle cure for a lot of stuff anyway? So what if it's got a few alkaloids in it. But just in case, you've got a photo of the molecule for the autopsy.

Green Goodness: Just Wear Your Gloves

The stinging nettle stand I mentioned a few weeks earlier has grown substantially, in fact there's a couple of nice bushy mounds of it by the barn. Now that I recognize it every time I see where it's spread to another place I'm pleased. It seems to like to grow against rocks and buildings. I've not seen any out in the open, it's almost like it's trying not to be noticed.

But I notice! And a couple of days ago I donned my gloves and a pair of snips and harvested some stalks with tender greens. I was nervous about the gloves, but I figured the barbs would be less likely to penetrate latex than leather or cloth gloves. It was a gamble that paid off. I snipped them low with kitchen scissors, took them in an washed them, all the while being careful not to get them against any bare skin.

My sister had told me they didn't taste great but were great for you. All my research supported that but I wasn't up to a meal of straight nettles, so I mixed them with canned turnip greens. To tell you the truth, I couldn't tell I was eating anything out of the ordinary, but then, I wasn't doing a high ratio of nettles to greens either. It's been almost forty eight hours and no hint of symptoms, so at least I know it's not poisonous.

What was left after snipping the tender greens off the stalk I bound up in a string and hung it just outside the back door. It may be an old wives tale but it's supposed to help keep flies out. So far so good! They're supposed to be naturally leery of the little barbs. I hope it's true - I HATE flies!

I think tea is next on the agenda. They'll be gone as soon as it gets hot so I plan to harvest soon.
Who would have thought a plant that causes so much pain would do so much good?

Loving my Weeds

I spent a little time outdoors today. It was nice to get some fresh air as our temps have been pretty low recently and even though it was overcast, it was warm enough to be enjoyable.

My mission was chickweed. A few weeks ago an angel of mercy disguised as a bank rep called, and upon hearing my cough and learning we were recovering from the crud offered some down home advice: Chickweed tea. Actually, chickweed tea with lime.

It wasn't the first time I'd heard that this lowly pest had value. Initially learning that it was rich in nutrients and edible didn't promt me to go out and eat it, but this time I had a need. I was hacking like crazy trying to clear my chest, and nothing was coming up.

God knew, and had a huge wad of chickweed waiting by the door, hanging out of a flowerpot, when I got home. I rinsed it and laid it on a rack over the broiler pan on the wood stove. It was dry in no time.

Making tea was a bit frightening. I used a tea ball and full well expected it to taste like crap, but it didn't. It had sort of a greenish taste, but a teaspoon of lime overpowered it . . . and of course I sweetened it with honey.

It worked! It worked great, and it didn't take long to learn to like the stuff! I'm hooked now, and don't want to be without a good supply of dried chickweed in case we ever have that need again . . . which is why I was searching around the property for a good stand of the stuff.

My search was not in vain. Not only did I find a good amount of chickweed, I was thrilled to find a few stinging nettle growing by a rock pile at the edge of the garden. I left them alone for the time being as I don't have an immediate need. That way they can grow nice and big for me, and hopefully reproduce.

The other thing I found was dandelion. Lots and lots of dandelion. I'll be gathering some of it in the near future too as my dh is already talking about getting the garden dug up for late winter planting.

Those last few moments outside provided a kind of epiphany. As I surveyed the mess left over from the last garden I realized that many of the plants inhabiting that space now are every bit as valuable as the vegetables we had harvested months earlier. Any other year I would have used roundup on them or tossed them root and all in the garbage. Now they were like gifts from God that I had never wanted, let alone appreciated. And they were everywhere.

Yeah, I love my weeds.

It's hard to believe we've only got a week left of January 2008. Even with the cold there has been plenty to do keeping Norman's books, cutting out quilts for my mom, picking out pecans and running kids too and fro. I've a new bee helper, a boy from church who loves nothing better than to be outside catching chickens and the like. We spent a warm Saturday checking hives for food reserves. One was doing poorly and we took measures to keep them safe and fed. Hopefully they'll make it. We've had colder temperatures this year with temps dropping into the twenties several times. Montgomery even had snow!

So there has been a lot to do. Norman and Becky have seen to the cows. He's staying wrapped up with LocalHelpWanted and truck sales. Becky has been occupied with school, music, the school yearbook and friends as time allows. She had her senior portraits taken last night. She's going on a missions trip to Costa Rica this summer and is getting started on her fund raisers.

We found out yesterday that her cousin, Zack from Phoenix, is going too. What's that saying Cindy had . . . . "Horton, party of FUN." Yes, it's a missions trip and it will be serious, but where two or three Hortons are gathered together a party usually breaks out! I have no doubt the laughter will break down barriers so God can really speak to the kids. It will be good and I wish I were going!

I may not be going to Costa Rica but I am going to Auburn. Dr. Tew asked me to teach a workshop on Gardening at the 13th annual Beekeeping Symposium Feb. 2. I've been doing a lot of research for that. Earlier this week I scrapped my original outline and started from scratch with something that flows better. Phillip Carter reviewed it for me and gave it a thumbs up. Now I've just got to get the power point part of it done.

Workwise I'm happy to announce new packaging for Fire Ant First Aid. It took a bit of creativity to make it happen but it's now available in .15 ounce tubes. Westside Pharmacy has already switched their inventory to the new size and I've got to make more before I approach the other stores. I REALLY like it. The tube is small enough to keep in my pocket and I don't have to touch it to apply it. It always bothered me a bit that I seemed to waste a little when I wiped my fingers after applying it. The other plus is that it's much more affordable.

Another interesting thing with Fire Ant First Aid - I've used it with wonderful results on two spider bites this year. My friend Joe told me they were brown recluse bites but I can't confirm that as 1) I didn't see the spiders and 2) I didn't have the classic necrotic symptoms. But I did have small painful ulcers with huge red whelps around them. Both times I applied the cream, covered it with a bandage and repeated that step several times. The redness went away within a few hours and I discontinued treatment once the ulcer made a scab a couple of days later. They heal slow, but thank the Lord, they DID heal.

What Happens to Your Body Within an Hour of Drinking a Coke

Do you want to be healthy? Drinking soda is bad for your health in so many ways; science can’t even state all the consequences. Here’s what happens in your body when you assault it with a Coke:

Within the first 10 minutes, 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. This is 100 percent of your recommended daily intake, and the only reason you don’t vomit as a result of the overwhelming sweetness is because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor.

Within 20 minutes, your blood sugar spikes, and your liver responds to the resulting insulin burst by turning massive amounts of sugar into fat.

Within 40 minutes, caffeine absorption is complete; your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, and your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream.

Around 45 minutes, your body increases dopamine production, which stimulates the pleasure centers of your brain – a physically identical response to that of heroin, by the way.

After 60 minutes, you’ll start to have a sugar crash.

BOTTOM LINE - Don't touch the stuff.

Iodine and Health

This morning as I put together my next two weeks of supplements I realized that I've not said jack squat about iodine. Duh!

It was about a year ago that I had a health crisis. God graciously led me to a PA who incorporated holistic medicine in her practice and got me out of danger. One of the things I was ordered to do was read a book and start taking an iodine supplement. It didn't make a lick of sense at the time, but I didn't have anything to lose (besides my life!) so I followed orders.

What I learned shocked me. Not only was I iodine deficient, it was shockingly clear that the entire country probably is. Several facts I learned:

1. The iodine in our table salt is not enough.
2. The iodine in our table salt does not contain the types of iodine our bodies need.
3. Other substances, toxic halides, take the place of iodine in our cell structure. Our cells require iodine and when there isn't enough, fluorine, chlorine, bromide, all present in our daily life, take its place. Result - improperly working cells . . . result - many types of disease with very few traceable to the underlying cause . . result - medications that treat symptoms and cause other problems, and on and on and on.
4. Lack of iodide (a form needed by women in particular) is a precursor to breast cancer.
5. People with medically diagnosed thyroid problems need iodine too, in fact they may need it more as a deficiency probably led to their condition.

Getting on an iodine supplement changed my health. It took a couple of months to detox the halides out, but it's made a world of difference. My immune system is stronger than it's been in years; I went through the winter of 06-07 with barely a sniffle. I take Iodoral, an otc product that contains both iodine and iodide.

I continue to be alarmed about this issue. Earlier this year I learned that a cousin was dealing with breast cancer. Turns out an md. had misdiagnosed her with a thyroid condition and she'd taken medication that interfered with iodine absorption for 15 years prior to the cancer. I wanted to scream. More recently a beautiful 21 year old niece was diagnosed with Graves disease, an old people's thyroid conditon.

For anyone who may wish to learn more don't take my word for it. Do your own research, prayerfully consider what to do, and start slow. I built up to a full Iodoral tablet over a couple of weeks without noticing a thing till one day I realized I felt 25 again. The book I read was Iodine, Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It. Dr. Brownstein who authored the book has written another one that I've not read, Overcoming Thyroid Disorders. I would recommend it as well.

Blessed Saturday

Today has been one of those Saturdays I live for. Let me rephrase that, I don''t live for Saturdays, but once in a while I have one that leaves me quite fulfilled. Today was such a one. I didn't accomplish everything I hoped to do but that's ok. What was done was worthwhile. Highlights:

Hitting the Mother of All Good Yard Sales. Good products, good prices. Among other things I purchased three cast iron skillets (0ld seasoned ones!) for $2.75. Sweet!!!

Cooking for the masses. I have breakfast for our Sunday School tomorrow. Part was cooked today, part will be tomorrow.
Chased chickens off the porch

Cleaned Sewing Room. It needed it bad.
Set up table for Beck's studio.
Awesome quiet time with God.
Chased a chicken out of my kitchen.

Cleaned back porch, sort of.
Reorganized screen porch, at little.
Decorated front porch. It looks real nice now.
Fed the cat.

Hauled stuff to the barn.
Took clean empty supers off beehives and put them into storage.

Scored points with the cows by giving them hay. Lost points with the horses by not letting them bully the cows to get said hay.

Mowed the grass.
Made supper.
Loaded more stuff in the truck to move

Stung Norman and myself. Yeah, that sounds strange. I did confer with L. Thompson about it beforehand as he's the apiatherapy expert. Norman had been wanting me to do it for something like a wart on his arm. I had something similar on my calf so took a hit too. It's one thing to get a random sting when you aren't expecting it. Picking up a buzzy little girl with a pair of tweezers and deliberately putting her pointed little rump in a specific spot is a whole different experience. It's not easy to pick up a wiggly bee without squishing her. Anyway we each took one sting tonight. Monday we'll each take two an inch apart on either side of said wart thing, then three in a triangular pattern around it on Thursday. He called it "circling the dragon." After that we'll see what happens or what else needs to be done.

The best part of the day was laughing and working with my family. Beck was gone most of the day but Norman and I had a good time doing stuff. He followed me around the yard on the big tractor for a while just for laughs while I was mowing. Passerby had to think we were nuts. I'm glad to have that done as it will make getting pecans so much easier. Looks like a bumper crop this year.

Presently I'm fixing to (that's a southern term for "about to") pass out. I'll finish that cooking in the morning before church. G'nite all.

Rescue Remedy
Third in a Series

How do I start. This product is amazing, and I don't even use it for all the stuff it's good for. I'll just give you my history with it, a few thoughts and some links.

A couple of years back or so my sil and friend, LK were visiting and mentioned RR in passing where they had used it for something. "What's that?" I asked. So they explained the product, the concepts behind it and shared experiences with it. My initial thoughts were "this is some kind of new age witchcraft product and they're duped." Flower essences . . . yeah, right.

A year later at the same sil's house my precious and fragile mil had a terrible knee injury where she hit and scraped it good. Right away she cleaned it and sprayed it with RR explaining that it would keep it from bruising. "Right" I thought. "Nothing will stop that thing from being purple in the morning."

Was I ever wrong! Not even a hint of bruising. Three months later my own mom took a terrible fall on a knee that had been replaced. I knew what to do and she too never bruised, at least not the knee. The shoulder that had taken a little of the fall had a bruise the size of her fist. It was obvious that immediate and frequent application of RR the first few hours after receiving blunt force trauma relieved stress on the capillaries so they didn't break.

Topical use of RR isn't the norm, in fact I think it's only been within the last few years it became popular as both cream and spray formulas have come out. The main application is still internal - a few drops in water to relieve stress. For what it's worth, when my son was in an auto accident two days before his wedding RR cream is one of the natural products we used to help him function through rehersal and his wedding day. He danced with his bride very naturally. You'd have never known he couldn't move the morning of his rehearsal.

http://www.rescueremedy.co.uk/about_whatisrescue.htm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/75640.php

So, that's my endorsement of Rescue Remedy. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself and I have used it many times since. I generally make my own cream with it which has greatly helped my daughter's vollyball teammates with bruising, soreness, etc. I just don't leave home without it - you never know who or what will need help.

This has to be fast as I'm on a tight schedule to get everything done before I LEAVE tomorrow! It's our womens group's annual Far Above Rubies retreat. I've lost track of how many years I've gone to this but it's still great enough I don't want to miss. I never leave without being challenged and refreshed.

OK, so I was going to share some of my various potions and remedies . . . so here's a jewel of a quickie: Arbor Oil

I've been using this magnificent product several years now, mainly for cold and sinus related problems. I've use it by spraying it a time or two on the tissue then inhaling the vapors off the tissue. When I catch a sinus or cold condition coming on it will clear my head and kill bacteria which prevents the condition from worsening. One friend uses it on airplanes where the air is recycled.

Sharing the Love

That may not be an appropriate title. More like sharing knowledge, or understanding, gifts of love that God gave to me in order to help others. Ok, so maybe the title will work.

This particular vein has to do with natural means of health and healing and my intent is to write about the things God has and is showing me. It's pretty well known among my circle of influence that Mrs. Horton probably has something that will fix your boo-b00, whether it be a bug bite, a bruise or whatever.

In the beginning . . I was a new beekeeper and had to do a presentation. I chose to speak about something I knew - STINGS! In the process of learning about stings I learned about propolis, also known as "bee glue" to beekeepers. It's a brown substance that looks like dog poo in large quantities. Bees make it to seal the hive and maintain it as a sterile environment. I could park here and spend the rest of the day writing about it's amazing healing properties, but suffice it to say the thing that caught my attention was that it was good for psoriasis which my dad suffered from.

My first attempt to make something to help Dad was both a success and a failure. The tincture was wonderful. But the alcohol dried his skin and which negated the good results from the propolis. Round two found me using knowledge of this product that God had showed me and modifying a lotion recipe to make a cream. What we learned immediately was nothing short of amazing.

During the tincture stage of my experiments I had learned that propolis would help fire ant bites. A girl had several bites on her back and they did well with the tincture formula. I didn't give it a lot of thought. When my husband came in covered with bites while attempt #2 was still cooling off, we put the cream on his forearm where he had received 30 or 35 bites. Poor man was in some kind of trouble, but something happened. The arm felt better. And the next day it looked good. The second day we were dropping our jaws that he had no blisters.

That is how Fire Ant First Aid was born. After additional research, field testing, and more research we launched it in April 2006 on the internet. Several stores picked it up that summer and more have followed in 2007. The list of things it's good for keeps growing and we hope to expand the product line within the year.