Carla Burke

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since Oct 29, 2013
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Biography
A Christian & devoted Patriot, wife, soap maker, herbalist, formerly a homeschooler, baker, truck driver, and more. I was born in the South, but actually grew up around the Great Lakes. Both of my childhood families had big, lush gardens,& preserved everything they could for the winter. I carried that into my own life. But, change happens and for over a decade, it just wasn't an option. Now, retired in the Ozarks, on 29 heavily wooded acres of mostly ravines, our best crops are nearly inaccessible wild blackberries, rocks, wild herbs, and ticks. We're utilizing our burgeoning small-livestock collection, straw bales, raised beds, and containers to build soil, and a better, healthier life for ourselves and our beloved critters, who provide us with eggs, meat, milk, fiber, honey, beeswax, fertilizer, tick control, brush control, 'lawn' mowing, loads of entertainment, and even help turn the compost.
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Recent posts by Carla Burke

I fully understand the struggle.  Charlie had gotten up to 22lbs, and it took us a couple years to very gently get her weight back down into her healthiest zone of 16 - 17lbs. But, she's not catching her own chow, like MM does. 🤣
10 hours ago
GOOD KITTY!!! She needs a treat, after that one! Maybe a tin of sardines, all to herself!
10 hours ago
For us, it's the peach tree. And squirrels.
2 days ago
I use old rice to make rice-bag heating pads, for drying out cell phones, and other stuff like that.
2 days ago
Maybe some of the way past stuff can go to compost, or even directly into the garden? Sometimes life just gets away from us all...
3 days ago
Maybe put the past-dated stuff out, where they'll annoy you into finding uses for them? Some things can safely be shared with the local wildlife, or subbed-in for pet & livestock food.
3 days ago

Jane Mulberry wrote:If you mean English ivy, be careful. It too easily becomes a weed. We have it planted on our house walls, and it's spread to the garden. Grows like crazy, even faster after being cut back! It's over two feet deep on the walls in places. Hubby spends a lot of time he'd rather spend doing other stuff just keeping it from covering the windows and lifting roofing!

Pluses are that it insulates the house, provides pollens for beneficial insects in autumn at a time when there's not much else available, and we have loads of birds nesting in it. Also covers the ground and forms dense mats, useful for places you don't want erosion control. But it's impossible to contain once you have it, will weaken earthen houses, and will get behind any sort of sheathing and lift it.

I've sworn never to have a place with English ivy on it again!



It's also high in saponins, so can be boiled, to extract them, and be used as soap.
3 days ago
We've never had that kind of difficulty, even with water kefir, milk kefir, kimchi, saur kraut, sourdough, mead, and beer all going at once, in the kitchen.
3 days ago
My approach is nearly identical to Megan's. Fresh veggie pickles, dehydrating, roasting pans full of whatever, with some form of protein. Sometimes the pan goes on the grill. Sometimes, it gets baked 'en pappillote', with fish. Sometimes the pan switches from a jellyroll pan (with the very short sides) to a bigger cake pan or casserole dish, and quinoa, cheese, or maybe even pasta gets added, for a casserole, or sometimes it becomes a chunky salad...
3 days ago