Lexie Smith

I love the 2nd one with lots of uses for sourdough!

I haven’t yet used much salt preservation for meat but I’m sure enjoying using it to preserve spices. I have a mix of sage, rosemary and thyme with a little garlic that I processed in the food processor with Himalayan salt and another of garlic scapes done the same way and both are wonderful! I use them just about every day. I simply spun it up until it was finely chopped and then dried it on trays, though it would have been just as easy in the dehydrator.

I keep them on the counter until they’re softish and then freeze them. Once they’re all frozen I thaw them out and run them through the food mill and then freeze dry them. The powder is delicious for a huge variety of things but I started it for my dad’s favorite flavor of my kombucha, his persimmon and honey.

I have almost always worn my hair long because it’s so much easier, unless it’s REALLY short which doesn’t please my beloved, so I have tried a great many things over the 50+ years I’ve been managing it. One of my favorites is called a twist clip on Amazon. I lean forward and brush all the hair into a handful, like I would for a ponytail, then I twist the whole thing until I have a bun shape, tucking the ends underneath. The clip is designed to twist into the bun and become almost invisible. Depending upon how much hair you have, it might take one on each side but it holds well and keeps it out of my eyes. Another must have is satin wrapped scrunchies that don’t break or stress the hair. It’s handy to be able to put one on my wrist or gear shift for quick changes on the go. Last but not least, I recommend not washing it every day or every other day but once or twice a week unless it gets really dirty and just rinsing it well and maybe applying shampoo to the oily areas otherwise. I see so many people who wash every time they shower and their hair becomes frizzy and dry. My daughter in law has gorgeous hair and she follows this advice and even playing with her hair color all the time it remains soft and healthy.

I dearly love all my canning jars, Ball and Mason too. I have jars handed down for 3 generations now and I treasure them too. Recently, Azure standard has launched their own brand of canning jars with the same lids and sizes as well as some different sizes and I have to admit that their advertising of being extra tough has apparently been true. I use these jars and wash them every day and they don’t break as easily as the old ones. I’m clumsy and have a problem with proprioception so I break things in the sink constantly as I hand wash my dishes but these new ones don’t break, even when I bang them against one another or the sides of the sink.

I just replaced my old electric with a gas powered club car. There are cheaper options than club car brand but the ones my dealer offers have aluminum frames where cc has steel. I went with gas because I’m in the south and batteries in the heat tend to boil themselves dry if left hooked up and the battery life feature was the first thing to die in the electric. We have a 4x4 and a golf cart and the 4x4 is the best option for the remote and overgrown sections as well as for building fences but I love the golf cart for quick trips around the various houses and the mailbox approximately 800’ from my house. I also have a garden cart which I attach to the golf cart to work on the electric fences. The new one has a utility bed that dumps but I haven’t yet used it. I just got the new one last week. It’s essentially a refurbished one that the dealer fixed up and resold. I have tumors on the bottom of my feet so I’m limited in how far I am able to walk each day and the golf cart is an extremely important tool for me. Good luck on deciding what will best suit you!

I’m positively tame, I think. My neighbors don’t really care what I do but my church crowd thinks I might just have lost my mind because I got a milk cow and learned to make cheese.

For me, I have crazy weird health issues that inspired me to focus on what I can control and what I eat was at the top of the list. I dropped all conventional sugar and flour as well as so called “vegetable oils” and focused first on whole foods, organic and stopping all processed foods. I dropped 60 pounds, regained my mobility and went from a wheelchair to running the farm again. I still struggle with the constraints my illnesses cause and with the constant need to pace myself but I’m no longer brain fogged, stuck in a wheelchair and unable to drive myself because I couldn’t focus on it. I think cutting your food bill is a great idea but my experience says pay more attention to what you’re eating than what it costs and listen to what your body says about it to maximize your health.

Cube it, peel it if it’s a big one, sauté it with most anything. Eat it plain or crack an egg on top. Freeze dry it about half way done and it rehydrates just like fresh.

I know that raw milk has enzymes that processed milk doesn’t so I’m wondering if it causes kidney stones like processed milk does? My father always loved milk and had to give it up years ago because of stones, quite possibly around the same time milk started being strictly (for us) a heavily processed CAFO product.