I wanted to create an organic vegetable garden for the kids to tend to, with the hopes that they would also EAT more fruits and vegetables. 🙂
We had an existing bed along this wall, which receives sunlight most of the day. I removed the existing plants, my handyman built the raised bed with untreated lumber, and I filled it with 18″ of all organic soil and compost. The bed is 18′ x 30″ x 18″.
Total cost of 18′ x 30″ bed: $275 plus labor
Wood: $50
Front is 3 boards of 12’x6″ (untreated), and 3 boards of 8’x6″ (untreated)
Two sides are 3 boards of 30″ cuts (done at Home Depot)
The stakes were added for support
Soil used: $150
9 bags of Kellogg Organic Garden Soil, 3 cu ft each
5 bags of Organic Compost Mix, 1.5 cu ft each
5 bags of Organic Garden Soil, 1 cu ft each
(used in layers with richest soil on top)
Front inside has a galvanized pocket for the 1″ PVC rainbow
PVC – total number of rainbows, multiplied by width doubled
Garden stakes are wood shims, marked with the name of the veggie, the date of harvest, and the space in inches.
Purchased from Two Dog Nursery 5/26/2013 $75
Planted 5/27/2013:
Golden yellow pepper, 12″ spacing,
Orange sun pepper, 12″ spacing
Sweet Marketmore cucumber, 3″ spacing
Traviata eggplant, 12″ spacing
Hale’s Best Melon, 12″ spacing
Charentais Melon, 12″ spacing
Black Beauty Zucchini, 16″ spacing
Yellow Crookneck Squash, 16″ spacing
Spaghetti Squash, 16″ spacing
Big Max Pumpkin, 12″ spacing
Fingerling Potatoes (18″ deep)
Buttercrunch lettuce
Celebrity Tomatoes
Sequoia Strawberries, 4″ spacing
Jubilee Blueberries
Sweet Basil
Purple SagePin It
I wanted to create an organic vegetable garden for the kids to tend to, with the hopes that they would also EAT more fruits and vegetables. 🙂
We had an existing bed along this wall, which receives sunlight most of the day. I removed the existing plants, my handyman built the raised bed with untreated lumber, and I filled it with 18″ of all organic soil and compost. The bed is 18′ x 30″ x 18″.
Total cost of 18′ x 30″ bed: $275 plus labor
Wood: $50
Front is 3 boards of 12’x6″ (untreated), and 3 boards of 8’x6″ (untreated)
Two sides are 3 boards of 30″ cuts (done at Home Depot)
The stakes were added for support
Soil used: $150
9 bags of Kellogg Organic Garden Soil, 3 cu ft each
5 bags of Organic Compost Mix, 1.5 cu ft each
5 bags of Organic Garden Soil, 1 cu ft each
(used in layers with richest soil on top)
Front inside has a galvanized pocket for the 1″ PVC rainbow
PVC – total number of rainbows, multiplied by width doubled
Garden stakes are wood shims, marked with the name of the veggie, the date of harvest, and the space in inches.
Purchased from Two Dog Nursery 5/26/2013 $75
Planted 5/27/2013:
Golden yellow pepper, 12″ spacing,
Orange sun pepper, 12″ spacing
Sweet Marketmore cucumber, 3″ spacing
Traviata eggplant, 12″ spacing
Hale’s Best Melon, 12″ spacing
Charentais Melon, 12″ spacing
Black Beauty Zucchini, 16″ spacing
Yellow Crookneck Squash, 16″ spacing
Spaghetti Squash, 16″ spacing
Big Max Pumpkin, 12″ spacing
Fingerling Potatoes (18″ deep)
Buttercrunch lettuce
Celebrity Tomatoes
Sequoia Strawberries, 4″ spacing
Jubilee Blueberries
Sweet Basil
Purple SagePin It
In December we went in for our yearly flu vaccinations at the pediatrician’s office. Even though I don’t like getting these shots, it seemed that the benefits outweighed the risks – especially with my four-year old twins in preschool. As you all know, preschool is like a petrie dish, especially in the winter time when it’s too cold to play outside and they’re all cooped up in a classroom together.
All five of us got our shots, with Baby E being last. She is only 22 months, and this was her first flu shot. Other than lots of crying, all was okay and we headed out to the car. By the time I sat her in her carseat (maybe 3 minutes later) her entire face had swollen and she had puffy red spots all over it. Her eyes were also red and puffy. I brought her back inside, and they laid her down on the table and poured Benadryl down her throat. She fought it, and ended up throwing up about half of it. A few minutes later she was mostly back to normal. “She must be allergic to eggs. She can never have another flu shot.”
My Mom has always told me she was allergic to shots prepared in egg syrum, so apparently it runs in the family. My Mom had a very bad (almost lethal) reaction to the swine flu vaccination in the 70’s.
Even though Baby E had gotten the flu shot, she wasn’t fully vaccinated because your first dose should be one followed by another a month later. She had only gotten half.
My dear sister-in-law has always been very knowledgeable on homeopathic remedies for illnesses. She has given her family Boiron Influeninum 9c for a few years now, as a flu preventative. If you are researching on google you will see that it’s primarily marketed as a flu remedy when you have symptoms. If you really dig deeper, you’ll see many people are using a protocol to prevent the flu.
Influenzinum is made each year from the current influenza strain, as predicted by the World Health Organization. This homeopathic medicine has been prepared according to the standards of the
Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States since 1957. You have to buy it right before you use it, and a great place to find it is at luckyvitamin.com.
This homeopathic Flu preparation dilutes the three viral strains to 1 part per billion without the need for
mercury as a preservative and infuses the medicine into tiny pellets that dissolve easily in the mouth. This homeopathic method of preparing the vaccine greatly reduces the risk of side effects and may be obtained without a prescription. Influenzinum is formulated to stimulate the body’s own defense system to resist the onset of the season’s flu strains. It is shown year after year to be highly effective for prevention of the flu. Safe and natural, this helps your immune system fight.
In 1998 the French Society of Homeopathy conducted a survey of 23 homeopathic doctors concerning their use of Influenzinum for the prevention of the flu (Coulamy, 1998). The survey included use of Influenzinum over a 10 year period (1987-1998) in 453 patients. Results of the survey were remarkable. In
approximately 90 percent of the cases no instances of the flu occurred when Influenzinum was used preventively for all ages 2 and older. In the survey, no side effects were noted in 97% of the cases, while 3% experienced mild nasal discharge. Influenzinum has been used throughout the world by millions of people
for decades.
When you purchase a tube of the Influenzinum 9c pellets, you will get 80 tiny pellets. There are directions on the back of the bottle for using it as a flu remedy after you already have flu symptoms. To use the Influenzinum 9c as a flu preventative you must follow a different protocol. I have yet to find any manufacturer recommendations for using the product as a flu preventative. My research from various sites points to two different dosings as a flu preventative:
– 3 pellets dissolved in your mouth at the beginning of each week for six consecutive weeks; or
– 5 pellets dissolved in your mouth at the beginning of each week for four consecutive weeks.
If you are currently using influenzinum as a flu preventative and you use a different dose, please comment below.
Please remember I am not a doctor, only a Mother. Please do not take the above information as medical advice, and always consult your family doctor prior to taking any new medications.
Good Luck and stay healthy!!
Feb 13
Young Kids’ Calendar
I made this calendar after my four-year-old twins kept asking me what we were doing today. “Do we go to school today?” “Is it pancake Sunday?” “Can we go to the train today?”
The calendar is an eraser-board with the seven days of the week, and square 1″ magnets that I attached images on. The images represent the people or activities that occur every week. For events that are not weekly I use a dry-erase marker to draw the event.
Here is a picture of my supplies, which cost $40 at Office Max:
Supply List:
– 18″ x 24″ framed magnetic dry-erase board
– Dry-erase marker set
– 1″ Magnet squares with sticky front
– Colored tape for making borders
The kids have been very excited to look at their calendar each day and see what will happen. I have included a round magnet with a kite on it that I move each day to highlight what day it is.
If you have suggestions for improvement, please email me!
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