Planning the Garden

Planting in the desert is hard.  Like super.freaking.hard. The weather has been all over the place, too. We were super cold, I had all the trees covered and heat lamps set up for the tropical ones. Then, boom. High 70’s. Everything started budding and flowering. Our winter garden started shooting flowers up.

It was an all out hustle to get the garden area cleared of all the cactus. The plan was to begin planting the third week in February. And did my husband hustle…Oh man, did he. We were able to borrow our neighbors tractor to clear the cholla cactus and level out the ground. There was no auger on the tractor so, post hole digging it was. He was able to do all of that within three days. You should have seen all the cactus! So.many.cactus. Have you seen cholla cactus, it’s evil, its nasty, and it was everywhere! But, that was a great spot for a garden and a little secluded behind a large ironwood tree. It has turned out to be a very peaceful spot. I am pretty excited about it. 

But our adventure continues because, this week the temperatures have plummeted to just above freezing at night. So we have had to hold off on planting for another week. My feelings are mixed about all this. My poor husband busted his butt to get that cleared and the fence up around it… I really didn’t want to tell him about the upcoming temperatures this week. He sprained his wrist and is now wearing a brace because of it. Oh man. I should have looked at the temps for the following week before we started. But it’s in and it’s almost done.That is one less thing we have to worry about.

The soil in the area was pretty good for the desert. I was surprised but we will still need to amend the soil and add Woodchips to protect the soil and keep as much moisture in as we can. This is where I have suddenly and unexpectedly smacked face first into a road block. The best place in town, that I know of, is out of compost and are at least three to four weeks out. There is no way I am buying compost from a big box store in tiny bags… I need 15 cubic yards. 15. What the heck am I going to do now? And the wood chip place, I’ve been on a list for five weeks already and nothing, I just had to renew my request… 

We have a neighbor to our north that has two horses and she has offered to shovel manure over our fence into a wheelbarrow… Do I get manure from her to help amend the soil, wait it out for the wood chips and hope that it will all be ready for the winter garden? (I will say, winter out here is MUCH easier to grow things). That option is not my first choice, I was so excited to get this garden going but, I am also not interested in paying more than we need to, to accomplish this. Getting the neighbors horse manure might be our only option at this point.

Planting this year can still happen. Just not where I was hoping.

We have a small raised bed garden to the east side of our house that I can still do some early spring planting in, while we work on the soil in the main garden. My plan for the raised garden was to grow herbs for cooking and teas but, here we are. East Garden becomes early spring garden again.

Next year east garden, its me and you, and a whole bunch of herbs. It will be lovely. Till then, this year I will focus on how I will shade you from the harsh sun.

But like I said, planting in the desert is hard. It’s hot, the soil is barren, the sun is intense, and it is dry. Why are we trying to homestead here when there are sooooo many other places to go. There are so many places that we could go and not have to worry about water or acidic soils.  What are we doing here? Ha! We ask ourselves this question pretty often. I must admit though, its sure is nice here in the winter.

The Study of Smell

Essential Oils

The Study of Smell

Introduction to the link between scents and your brain.

The Olfactory Bulb

OLFACTION

  • The Olfactory bulb is a neural structure of the Olfaction, the sense of smell.
  • It sends the Olfactory information to be processed in the Amygdala and the Hippocampus.
  • The Amygdala is where we process memories, decision making, and emotional responses (happy, sad, fear, anxiety, and aggression.) 
  • The Hippocampus is where we consolidate information from short and long term memory. 
  • The Amygdala and the Hippocampus are part of our Limbic System.

The Olfactory Bulb

OLFACTION

  • The Limbic System supports the function of your emotions, behavior, motivation, long-term memory, and olfaction.
  • The Thalamus is where our sensory and motor signals are located, also the regulation of consciousness, sleep, and alertness. 
  • The most important function of the Hypothalamus is to link the nervous system to the endocrine system via the pituitary gland.
  • The Pituitary glad secretes hormones

Healthy Lifestyle

Healthy Lifestyle

Being Healthy

Is not a goal. It is a lifestyle. 

Start with one small change and build on that.

  • Replace juices or sodas with water. If you don’t like the taste of water, add a drop of lemon oil, lime oil, grapefruit oil, or Peppermint oil. Not only does it add flavor but it also benefits your digestive system and helps support your cells.
  • Get up and move! We all sit for most of the day, set an alarm that will go off every hour. When it goes off, take a brisk walk around your office or a run up and down your stairs at home. Do something to get your blood pumping.
  • Keep your favorite citrus oil at your desk and place on your vita flex points throughout the day for extra motivation and alertness.
  • Add a little more fresh veggies to your diet and eat a little less junk.
  • Replace a chemical filled cleaner with a plant based one.
  • Choose to use glass over endocrine blocking plastics.
  • Replace chemically fragranced products (ie shampoos and lotions) with all natural ones, scented with EO’s. Or even try to make you own.

Be Nice to Yourself

It’s Okay

Everything in moderation is okay. Don’t beat yourself up over a slip-up. Just.Keep.Moving.Forward.

Find something that requires you to move your body, that you love doing, and KEEP DOING IT.

GET OUTSIDE! Enjoy nature. Meditate. Hike.

Eat the rainbow

Adding essential oils to an unhealthy body is only a bandaid. They will not support your health alone. 

Adding essential oils to a healthy lifestyle, will help catapult you to another level.

Make the small changes.

The Study of Cells

Essential Oils &

The Study of cells

An Introduction

Essential Oils &

Cells

  • The human body is composed of approximately 100 trillion cells
  • Essential oils contain 40 million-trillion molecules per single drop. That is enough to cover every cell in our bodies with 400,000 molecules per cell.
  • It only take one molecule of the right kind to communicate with DNA to alter cellular function.
  • For molecules to pass the blood brain barrier it must be smaller than 800-1000 amu (atomic mass unit) Some now say under 400 amu and must be lipid soluble.
  • Essential oils have an atomic mass unit of 300 and are lipid soluble.

Why is any of this important? 

These molecules are so small they are able to pass through our tissue and enter our cells. Our body is able to transport these molecules through our entire body within minutes. If you place a drop of Lavender on the bottom of your foot, your body will be infiltrated with 40 million-trillion molecules within 20 minutes. That is some powerful stuff.

This is one major reason why you should always make sure your oils are truly “100% pure therapeutic grade”*.  To take it step further, you should make sure the plants that are used are pure, the soil they are grown in is pure, and the seeds that are used are unaltered. Starting from the seed of the plant to the first distillation**, everything should be PURE. No synthetic additives, no fertilizers, no pesticides, and no GMO’s.

* There is no FDA regulation on how essential oil companies label their bottles, almost all oils you see on the market will say “pure therapeutic grade”. You need to be you own best advocate and do your research. 

** Anything more than first distillation (i.e. second or third) has to be done with chemicals to extract additional oil from the already distilled plant.