John Hume

We’ve made our comfrey sale with plantain leaves added in. We let the leaves wilt on the dining room table before immersing them in olive oil for several days on a low crockpot water bath with the jar lids open to let moisture out. We use beeswax as a stiffening agent. It does stain clothing. It is a great salve to use for sore backs and around wounds.

Two suggestions:
1. Xero Shoes - I recently got a pair of Denver Hikers. With a felt insoles you would be warm and feel like you’re barefoot, but protected
2. Get some heavy fleece material. See/quilt 3-4 layers, or more, together.

The Xero Shoes are minimalist shoes. It is like being bare foot

1. Wear long underwear.
2. At night, and on cold days, fill a hot water bottle with very hot water, wrap it in a towel and put your feet on it.
3. For people with respiratory issues an unvented kerosene heater will increase their susceptibility to colds and other respiratory ailments.
4. The Germans, a generation ago, would only heat one room in the house.
5. Think camping out indoors. The tent in the living room works well if you have several blankets under you with hot water bottles near your feet.
6. With all the regulations you may not be able to do much with wood stoves, pellet stoves and the like. An electric oil filled radiator style heater would be quite effective in a tent. Outside the tent use lap blankets, hot water bottles, and long underwear.

There is a product ('Tarsul'), developed by a doctor for a different purpose.  The ingredients are cream of tartar and sulphur.

Years ago I lived in Louisiana. The state bird is a mosquito.  I visited with an older gentleman who had worked in the Mississippi pine barrens doing lumber work when he was first married.  He said the chiggers were ferocious. Their low tech solution to that was to start eating a tablespoon of powdered sulphur each day about 2 weeks before the chigger season started in the spring.  They never had an issue with chigger bites.

Try taking Tarsul and see if that doesn't keep the chiggers and mosquitos away

Here is another gravity feed pellet stove - a rocket stove
https://rocketmassheater.com/
This is a bit pricey but you could probably work out some added mass to get a rocket mass heater

Need a fan powered by the heat from your stove (i.e., no electricity involved)
https://www.lehmans.com/product/heat-powered-oscillating-stove-fan/

Check out a one-wheeled carrying cart.  Based on the Chinese wheelbarrow concept.  They are pricey but you are able to pack up to 250 pounds of gear
https://www.honeybadgerwheel.com/

Here is an article about Chinese wheelbarrows.  This is something that a handy person with a welder could put together in a few hours.
https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/12/the-chinese-wheelbarrow.html

Another anti-biotic herbal remedy is to cut a clove of garlic in half and use a bandaid out tape to hold it in place. We normally do this at night before bed. Stubborn infections may require more than one night’s application.
 This was first used in the Crimean War. The British medics would cut a clove of garlic in half and use a bandage to hold them in place on either side of a gunshot wound. If they got to a soldier within 30-60 minutes of being wounded there was no gangrene

I draw, make bread in our dutch oven (ruin my slim girlish figure), bake cookies and cakes, make birthday cards for the grandchillens, and enjoy visiting with my wife.

Go get a Wovel (https://www.thegreenhead.com/2006/01/wovel-ultimate-snow-shovel.php).  In 2010 we had 50" of snow in 8 days.  Delightful!  Shovel a while. Come in and eat homemade bread and soup. Go out and shovel a while longer.

With the Wovel your lower back is not affected.  However, when you push the snow up and away your arms and shoulders get a good workout.  How good?  The next morning when I brushed my teeth, I put the toothbrush on the sink and held it down with a hand while I moved my teeth back-and-forth on the brush.

Use an old jean leg with an upcycled nylon strap as a water bottle carrier. The water bottle being a clean 2 liter soda bottle