Farmfresh City Homesteader - the sound of falling oaks.

[lorihadams]

That is awesome about the chainsaw!!! I wish my parents would listen to me when I try to ask for something I actually need.

 

[punkin]

I hope all your tests go smoothly.

It is kind of funny how something so common as chickens can be so foreign in a different setting. Kind of like they've never seen chickens before without lemon-pepper or BBQ sauce on it.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Another busy day at "the farm".

. . .

Problem - I normally wipe my body down with ACV before extended gardening to repel mosquitoes. This I did not do for chopping the brush around the house, loading and unloading it and marking a wild apple tree. Today I am about covered with CHIGGERS! This means I spent most of last night, even after a medicated soap bath, scratching and wiggling! Still itching today. Will I ever learn?

I was reading some in the journals and came across you talking about your "Stinky Soap". Use it before you go anywhere chiggers would like. I use flowers of sulfur like body powder around my ankles when I needed bug protection. Yes it stinks, but nothing bites me that day. It's amazing- chiggers, fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes wont come near it. Don't ever let sulfur powder get in your eyes though You'll cry a river.

I wonder if guineas would get rid of them too? I know they love eating ticks and bean beetles. Who knows how many kinds of bugs they might eat.

 

[Farmfresh]

I was reading some in the journals and came across you talking about your "Stinky Soap". Use it before you go anywhere chiggers would like.

I wonder if guineas would get rid of them too? I know they love eating ticks and bean beetles. Who knows how many kinds of bugs they might eat.

Yes I normally DO use that Stinky Soap for just such things. It is on those occasions that you are in a hurry or simply "forget" that you pay the price! :/

The "Stinky Soap" has sulfur AND sage in it. I think the sage does it's thing against the bugs as well.

When my hubby got into the seed ticks that made him so sick a few years back I was walking through the SAME tall grass as he was. I even had on shorts and sat in the grass for a while when my arthritis got painful and I needed a rest. I had bathed in the "Stinky Soap" before our walk and did not have ONE tick ... while he had an adult and a big batch of seed ticks! May be just luck ... but I doubt it.

My sister who raises guineas does not have any chiggers, ticks and with about 26 cats (yes it is a sickness! But all spayed or neutered.) she has few or NO fleas!! I would LOVE a guinea patrol around here, but I don't think I could convince them to stay in the back 40 (remember it is 40 FEET by 40 FEET) and since 3 - 4 hens are pushing the city envelope I am pretty sure guineas would end me up in jail!

 

[Farmfresh]

So in goes the needle and on goes the "juice"!

 

[Beekissed]

Farm, that sounds excruciating! How awful! I'm glad the tests came out okay but it sounds like you are back to square one, huh? Still don't know why.....any kind of pain or injury to your lower back in the past?

you need a rooster to make a hen lay eggs" (like he is holding her at gunpoint or something! )

Had a good chuckle at that one! I always imagined the same thing when people asked that....funny how that is. In my mind I can see the rooster pointing his wing with a stern look on his face while dejected hens troop into the coop and climb dispiritedly into the nest boxes, defiance written all over their beaks!

 

[Farmfresh]

I have taken quite few "leaps of faith".

 

[keljonma]

As far as the tests are concerned... I was at the neurologist a little over 2 1/2 hours today being tested. The first thing the doctor did that concerned me was when she hit my knees with the little hammer my leg didn't jump. I just do not have a reflex jerk at all.

Then it was time to hook up the "tazer" - or at least that is what I call the gizmo. At first she was having problems with the machine then she figured out the tazer end was not working right and plugged in a new one and we were in business!

Basically I had little sensors hooked up to my toes and feet and the she measured a certain distance and made a pen mark. Then she zapped me and the computer measures the nerve response time. The zaps start so light you can not feel them and progress until you get a real little jolt. You can actually feel it running down a certain nerve to the toe (or wherever that nerve goes). She kept commenting on how well I was doing and was I in any pain. I had to explain to her that after you have been wrapped up in an electric fence and hit with a cattle prod, her methods were very very mild indeed!

Then that part of the test was over. The next part was far less fun. The doctor basically sticks a needle (about cat shot sized) into the muscle and tries to "irritate it as much as possible" (her words). The computer reads the results and it determines if the muscle is served with good nerve function.

So in goes the needle and on goes the "juice"! Then while that is going on she asks you to move your feet, toes, bend knees etc. And then she basically probes in a 360 radius of the needle with the juice on. This fun ranges from uncomfortable to OH BUDDY on the pain meter. She made about 6 probes in different parts of the same leg and (thank goodness) got good results. She told me she did not need to do the rest of the leg - which meant thigh to foot on both legs.

So the results? I have numb toes and feet. Basically she just confirmed what I know. The tests also showed the extent of the nerve damage and that the muscle was basically OK. So now the doctor has to do further studies into the WHY. Possibilities include: Thyroid problems (I already have those and am on meds), Vitamin B deficiency (Celiac... so that is a distinct possibility), diabetes (not in the family history but ?) and then fun stuff like LUPUS and other biggies.

Oh well ... at least numb feet don't HURT!

I had those same tests, FF.... I called the first the electro-zapper. I thought the tests were okay, but nothing I'd necessarily want to do again. Hopefully, you'll get some results soon; I found the not knowing the worst part.

 

[Farmfresh]

The video that you have GOT to see if you haven't called "Man Cold". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXLHWmjA5IE

 

[soapmaker]

You seem to take it in stride. I hope your tests results come back soon. I think waiting is the hardest part and just not knowing instead of them saying it could be.... this or that...