Recipes & DIY

Make your own healing ointment for your livestock:

Mix:

25% Standard lard, bacon grease or Bag Balm: Bag Balm on Amazon HERE.
73% sulfur powder: Find on Amazon HERE.
2% Pine Tar Oil: Find on Amazon HERE.

Tweak your mix by adding more Bag Balm/lard/bacon grease or pine tar until it feels like a good consistency.  It should be a thick ointment and not runny or watery.

This mix is perfect for cuts, infections, vent gleet (yeast infections), fungal infections and will kill lice and mite eggs on feather shafts.

*********************************************************

DIY Apple Cider Vinegar
By Vicki -

Save those cores and peels from pies and apple preserving projects. Use organic apple scraps, or know your local apple grower’s spraying policies. For your first batch I’d recommend using between 5-10 apples’ worth of scraps.

Place your scraps in your widest-base, food-safe container. Avoid aluminum or galvanized steel; the acidity level will rise as your vinegar ferments, you don’t want metallic compounds in your salads and marinades. An enameled stone crock-pot bowl would be ideal, but stainless steel, food-grade plastic tubs or enameled cast iron/steel are good vessel options. Whatever you use, make sure it’s something you won’t need for at least one week.I use quart jars.

2. The volume of sugar will depend on how many scraps you have. Dissolve 1/4-cup sugar in 1-quart water. If that doesn’t cover your scraps then multiply that ratio by as many quarts as you need to completely submerge your scraps in sugar water.

3. I smash my cores and peelings in the jars and cover them in the sugar water. I cover my jars with cheese cloth and leave it on the counter for 1 week.

4. After a week I dump the jars in a sieve and strain out as much bits and pulp as I can by pressing along the sides.

5. Put the juice back in the jars and cover. Place them in a dark place for a few months.

************************************

DIY Laundry Detergent:
By Bee

First I have three empty 44 load laundry detergent jugs with the spouts removed but the nice measuring cup caps remaining.

Fels Naptha laundry bar soap...you can now find it at Kroger's and Walmart, thanks to all us ladies who started requesting these items.  Before that it was sometimes difficult to locate.  It's an old timey item.  Arm & Hammer washing soda... not baking soda.  This is important.  This too was difficult to find and could only be found in pool supply places until it got more in demand.  You will most likely find it right next to the Fels Naptha in the soaps aisle at Wally World...you're quite welcome!  Borax 20 Mule Team laundry additive.  Easy to find.

1/2 bar of Fels Naptha, grated so that it will melt easily.  Yes, you can do this in the food processor but it's easier and faster to make your kids do it while they watch TV. But, I digress...

1/2 cup A&H washing soda

1/2 cup Borax

6 cups of water

Combine in sauce pan and heat the mixture until the soap all melts.  Makes the house smell lovely!   Fill two of your laundry detergent jugs half the way full with cold tap water, then split your heated soap mix between the two jugs to complete the fill.  You may have to top this off but don't make it too full to shake the mix up effectively.  When your jugs are full, shake them well.  Let this mix sit for 24 hours to set up.  It will turn into a gel-like substance and you will have to mix it up again before you pour it out for use.  It will look sort of like pale yellow egg whites but thicker and it may have some chunks of thicker material in it.  No worries.  I use two caps full because it's so darn cheap but the normal instructions say just one cup will do...I always add more than folks say.  The original recipe calls for 1/3 bar of FN but I do it my own way...   

It will not suds in your water but it will remove dirt...VERY well.  It can make whites dingy over time so some folks just buy regular detergent for whites...I just stopped buying white things and the few sheets and pillow cases I do have that are white, I just wash in vinegar and water only.  Works great.  It is easy on septic systems and will work on the newfangled washing machines that take special detergent. 

I shake it up each time before I try to use it because it will gel up as it sits.  It leaves absolutely no smell in your laundry and you won't need fabric softener if you just use those blue plastic balls in your dryer...you can get those for $5 now and they last for years.  There is no build up in your clothes so it leaves them softer.  Some folks try to add essential oils to this detergent to make it have a "smell" but I tried that and you are throwing money away....essential oils are..well...oils.  Detergents remove oils out of fabric, not deposits them into fabrics.  Your clothing will come out of the dryer smelling like cloth and not essential oils and you will feel like a ninny.  I know I did.... 

Why do I keep 3 jugs around when it only makes 2?  Because when one becomes empty I can make a new batch and have 2 full jugs waiting while I empty the second jug from the last batch.  I am still using plastic laundry detergent jugs that I bought many, many years ago...these things are tough and last a long time! 

 

**********************************

Natural ear mite/yeast infection treatment for dogs & cats:

By: Pigeonguy

1 shot glass of nu-stock

1 shot glass of vegetable oil

1/2 shot white vinegar (my ear doctor said to use white and said never to put ACV in your ear. I figure if I can't put it in mine I'm not putting it in my dog’s)

Dose: 1-2 ML. (depending on the size of animal). You can usually get a small syringe (without a needle) at feed stores or your local pharmacy. Squeeze the solution into the ear canal and massage the base of the ear to work it in.

It will cure ear mites or yeast infection. Yeast infection is the most likely case if your dog/cat can't hear. You can usually smell a yeast infection, also.

***************************

Pigeonguy’s Creepy-Crawly-Critter-Killing Whitewash

(Will help keep coops free of lice, mites and their eggs/nits/larvae)

In a five gallon bucket, mix:

1 gallon barn lime

1/2 box 20 Mule Team Borax

Hot water till it is thin enough to paint with.

2 cups salt dissolved in hot water.

Stir everything together

Let set over-night (for at least 12 hours)

Stir again add more water (if it needs it) to paint with.

Put on old, old cloths and a pair of safety goggles (not glasses).

Take a 6 inch paint or dry wall brush and slop the white wash on with a painting motion. Get it everywhere – roosts, in the cracks and all over the walls. No need to be neat - you will see why after it dries.

This should kill every creepy crawly critter in there. This is why out buildings were white washed back in the days – for parasite control and not for looks.

***********************

Dakin's Solution (Antiseptic Wash)

Click Here