Natural Animal Care - High Calcium Chicken Broth

This is not the topic I intended to post for today but I haven't had a chance to accomplish much this week.

Our pup, Ladvarian, hasn't been feeling so wonderful. Sunday night he was coughing through the night and Monday afternoon running a doggie fever at 103.5 (normal temp for a dog is 101 to 102.5). His temp was normal by the evening but I was still worried (really freaked out in reality). It could be allergies, a cold (like kennel cough he could have picked up at the dog park) or something worse like distemper (though he was vaccinated so that lessons the chance of that greatly) we don't know yet and I am hating this. This has been a really hard week for me.

We feed our animals a raw food diet and fast them from time to time, usually a liquid fast. When a cat or dog isn't feeling well this can really improve the situation. We found with our cats that 'Anitra Frazier's High-Calcium Chicken Broth' found in her book The New Natural Cat: A Complete Guide for Finicky Owners works wonders on the furrballs when they aren't feeling up to par. So we made a batch the other night. Unfortunately there are no pics as I wasn't really thinking clearly, I was just in "mama must make pup better" mode. The Broth is also a good way for me to get the ascorbic acid crystals (vitamin C) into pup's system and that is extremely important.

I want to share the recipe in case anyone finds themselves needing this though it doesn't have to be just because the animals sick, it's healthy to fast them from time to time anyway and this is also a healthy "treat". It does take some time and effort but I swear to you it's totally worth it!

Anitra Frazier's High-Calcium Chicken Broth

Adventures in the Kitchen - Brown Rice, and Rice Milk

It started out a pretty typical day: Wake up, potty the dog, make coffee & do dishes (my beloved husband & I made potato skins for dinner and he made snickerdoodles for desert. Unfortunately the dishes didn't get done last night. Alas, as much as I hate waking up to dirty dishes I'm not perfect.). When I went to actually make up my cup of morning coffee I found we were out of rice milk. Being that I'm allergic to milk I try to use dairy free options most of the time, but again I'm not perfect and my allergy is not life threatening so I find I cheat way more than I should, but usually not with my coffee.

So I add my stevia (not grown myself yet but instead still store bought... someday) and think to myself... making rice milk can't be too hard can it? I go look online and find out it can be really easy to make. I happened to only have one cup of brown rice in the house, which is the perfect amount... however I have yet to master the art of cooking brown rice. So I search the internet again for a solution.

I found How to Make Perfect Brown Rice Every Time and decided to just go for it!

Rice Cooking on the stove. Please excuse the mess of my not so perfect kitchen.

Letting go of Perfect - The Not So Perfect Family Portrait

Our Not So Perfect Mother's Day Family Portrait

Happy Mother's Day!

I decided a few days before Mother's Day that a family portrait would be a perfect present not only for me but also my mom, mom-in-law, and other mothers in the family (as most of our family still lives in CA and don't get to see us often enough). I envisioned this cute picture of my husband, me, the two cats and the pup. Let me just start by saying the animals were not cooperating with this idea!

I admit, I struggle with being a perfectionist and am trying to let go of the idea of doing things "perfectly" and instead to enjoy the moment/experience.  Taking this picture helped me with this. The picture you see above is the best of the batch (can you tell by my smile the cat was clawing me?). Right after we took it my husband declared it "Perfect for us!" and probably the best we would get anyway. It turns out after more tries he was right. In reality this is a good snapshot of our lil family.

Allow me to introduce us now:

I sit and daydream about my somedays...

Someday I will have a homestead where I can grow or raise most of my own food.  One section will have a permaculture food forest, another a pond for swimming and stocked with fish to eat, and yet another will have my vegetable gardens. Perhaps there will be an orchard to grow pears and apples to both eat and make hard cider out of. There will be chickens that provide food and calcium (via egg shells) for me and the other animals, goats for milk, llamas to protect the herd, provide yarn and pull a cart, geese, dogs, cats, horses and who knows what else (maybe bees if I can get my husband to agree). There will be our cob home, designed and built with love by us and our friends, the barns and workshops... 

Oh yes, I have plans for as sustainable a homestead as I can create. Planning both for the near and distant future. I will tend the gardens, can and dehydrate the food for storage. There will be food storage a plenty. In the off times (probably mostly winter) I will knit, and sew and maybe spin and weave... I will make our own candles, cleaning and self care products. I will make papers and bind them into books. The herbs grown in my garden will be made into tinctures and teas and other amazing things...

I dream and plan for someday, and this someday homestead is my favorite day dream. I can go on and on with ideas...

In reality, however, I live in a two bedroom apartment in the city (think car dealerships both next door and across the street) with my beloved husband, two cats (Bahamut & MotorMouth) and my pup Ladvarian. I grew up a suburb/city girl. I have yet to have a garden of my own. I haven't yet tried canning anything, and only know about food storage in theory. Ok, in reality I only know most of what I've mentioned in theory.