Home made itch lotion

Hi all, its another lovely day on the mountain. Really cool this morning, 56 degrees. Feels so good after the heat. Will warm up by afternoon but the nights are lovely for sleeping now. If you are working in the yard and battling bugs and bites, minor scratches etc, try this to soothe the itches. Mix 2 Tablespoons of aloe gel( I buy it bottled but you might be able to use it from a plant if you have one) with 1 tablespoon of baking soda and 1 tablespoon of water. Apply liberally to affected areas. I love the weather cooling down but hate the thought of winter so hope we have a lot of fall days ahead of us. They have late cropped the tomato fields and Doug, my son is putting out new seeds.  My eggplants which have not done well finally have a few blooms. take care, enjoy these lovely cooler days.

Can you go Sugar Free?

It sounds daunting, but sugar really is harmful to your health. I'm sure we can't all totally avoid it but cutting way back has huge benefits. Ask me. Our adopted child, Karen had a blood problem and to extend her life and the quality of it, we moved to a tiny "town" in Illinois, maybe 25 families in the area. We grew a lot of our food, bought organic goat milk, and grain from farmers that didn't use chemicals on their fields. Life was really cool those years, very laid back and rural. The kids and I found places to pick fruit from trees no one ever bothered to pick from, patches of wild strawberries, garlic, you name it. We did almost everything from scratch, freezing the bulk of the crops. For sweetener we used local honey. In all the five years we ate that way, there was not a cold, or flu in the house. And we all felt energetic and good. When my husband was diagnosed with diabetes, we took sugar out of the house again. That was in the 90's. He later developed some serious health problems and we again had to be very limited so far as diet. No sugar, no salt, nothing from cans or boxes. Eating fresh produce and whole grains is not that hard, and you soon learn to dislike the taste of those not so good for you  items. We limited meats too so he would not have to take statin drugs which can destroy kidneys and liver. The knowledgeable man at our local health food store told me when I asked how to cope with that problem, " just never eat anything that had a mother." We did eat fish and chicken, but in small amounts.  I lost both those dear people, but the diet sticks for the most part and I avoid eating much sugar or salt. Can't recall when I last had a cold, sugar really zaps immune systems. Hope you give it a try and maybe find it works for you too, at least try cutting back on it. Eat healthy!