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https://theintercept.com/2016/05/03/edward-snowden-whistleblowing-is-not-just-leaking-its-an-act-of-political-resistance/


Edward Snowden
May 3 2016, 6:00 a.m.


“I’ve been waiting 40 years for someone like you.” Those were the first words Daniel Ellsberg spoke to me when we met last year. Dan and I felt an immediate kinship; we both knew what it meant to risk so much — and to be irrevocably changed — by revealing secret truths.
One of the challenges of being a whistleblower is living with the knowledge that people continue to sit, just as you did, at those desks, in that unit, throughout the agency, who see what you saw and comply in silence, without resistance or complaint. They learn to live not just with untruths but with unnecessary untruths, dangerous untruths, corrosive untruths. It is a double tragedy: What begins as a survival strategy ends with the compromise of the human being it sought to preserve and the diminishing of the democracy meant to justify the sacrifice.
But unlike Dan Ellsberg, I didn’t have to wait 40 years to witness other citizens breaking that silence with documents. Ellsberg gave the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and other newspapers in 1971; Chelsea Manning provided the Iraq and Afghan War logs and the Cablegate materials to WikiLeaks in 2010. I came forward in 2013. Now here we are in 2016, and another person of courage and conscience has made available the set of extraordinary documents that are published in The Assassination Complex, the new book out today by Jeremy Scahill and the staff of The Intercept. (The documents were originally published last October 15 in The Drone Papers.)
We are witnessing a compression of the working period in which bad policy shelters in the shadows, the time frame in which unconstitutional activities can continue before they are exposed by acts of conscience. And this temporal compression has a significance beyond the immediate headlines; it permits the people of this country to learn about critical government actions, not as part of the historical record but in a way that allows direct action through voting — in other words, in a way that empowers an informed citizenry to defend the democracy that “state secrets” are nominally intended to support. When I see individuals who are able to bring information forward, it gives me hope that we won’t always be required to curtail the illegal activities of our government as if it were a constant task, to uproot official lawbreaking as routinely as we mow the grass. (Interestingly enough, that is how some have begun to describe remote killing operations, as “cutting the grass.”)
A single act of whistleblowing doesn’t change the reality that there are significant portions of the government that operate below the waterline, beneath the visibility of the public. Those secret activities will continue, despite reforms. But those who perform these actions now have to live with the fear that if they engage in activities contrary to the spirit of society — if even a single citizen is catalyzed to halt the machinery of that injustice — they might still be held to account. The thread by which good governance hangs is this equality before the law, for the only fear of the man who turns the gears is that he may find himself upon them.
Hope lies beyond, when we move from extraordinary acts of revelation to a collective culture of accountability within the intelligence community. Here we will have taken a meaningful step toward solving a problem that has existed for as long as our government.




Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Gen. David Petraeus.


David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images

Not all leaks are alike, nor are their makers. Gen. David Petraeus, for instance, provided his illicit lover and favorable biographer information so secret it defied classification, including the names of covert operatives and the president’s private thoughts on matters of strategic concern. Petraeus was not charged with a felony, as the Justice Department had initially recommended, but was instead permitted to plead guilty to a misdemeanor. Had an enlisted soldier of modest rank pulled out a stack of highly classified notebooks and handed them to his girlfriend to secure so much as a smile, he’d be looking at many decades in prison, not a pile of character references from a Who’s Who of the Deep State.

There are authorized leaks and also permitted disclosures. It is rare for senior administration officials to explicitly ask a subordinate to leak a CIA officer’s name to retaliate against her husband, as appears to have been the case with Valerie Plame. It is equally rare for a month to go by in which some senior official does not disclose some protected information that is beneficial to the political efforts of the parties but clearly “damaging to national security” under the definitions of our law.
This dynamic can be seen quite clearly in the al Qaeda “conference call of doom” story, in which intelligence officials, likely seeking to inflate the threat of terrorism and deflect criticism of mass surveillance, revealed to a neoconservative website extraordinarily detailed accounts of specific communications they had intercepted, including locations of the participating parties and the precise contents of the discussions. If the officials’ claims were to be believed, they irrevocably burned an extraordinary means of learning the precise plans and intentions of terrorist leadership for the sake of a short-lived political advantage in a news cycle. Not a single person seems to have been so much as disciplined as a result of the story that cost us the ability to listen to the alleged al Qaeda hotline.


President Barack Obama talks with Vice President Joe Biden in the Oval Office, April 15, 2015.


Photo: The White House


If harmfulness and authorization make no difference, what explains the distinction between the permissible and the impermissible disclosure?
The answer is control. A leak is acceptable if it’s not seen as a threat, as a challenge to the prerogatives of the institution. But if all of the disparate components of the institution — not just its head but its hands and feet, every part of its body — must be assumed to have the same power to discuss matters of concern, that is an existential threat to the modern political monopoly of information control, particularly if we’re talking about disclosures of serious wrongdoing, fraudulent activity, unlawful activities. If you can’t guarantee that you alone can exploit the flow of controlled information, then the aggregation of all the world’s unmentionables — including your own — begins to look more like a liability than an asset.




Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers detailing U.S. policy in the Vietnam War, Oct. 10, 1976.


Photo: Susan Wood/Getty Images

Truly unauthorized disclosures are necessarily an act of resistance — that is, if they’re not done simply for press consumption, to fluff up the public appearance or reputation of an institution. However, that doesn’t mean they all come from the lowest working level. Sometimes the individuals who step forward happen to be near the pinnacle of power. Ellsberg was in the top tier; he was briefing the secretary of defense. You can’t get much higher, unless you are the secretary of defense, and the incentives simply aren’t there for such a high-ranking official to be involved in public interest disclosures because that person already wields the influence to change the policy directly.

At the other end of the spectrum is Manning, a junior enlisted soldier, who was much nearer to the bottom of the hierarchy. I was midway in the professional career path. I sat down at the table with the chief information officer of the CIA, and I was briefing him and his chief technology officer when they were publicly making statements like “We try to collect everything and hang on to it forever,” and everybody still thought that was a cute business slogan. Meanwhile I was designing the systems they would use to do precisely that. I wasn’t briefing the policy side, the secretary of defense, but I was briefing the operations side, the National Security Agency’s director of technology. Official wrongdoing can catalyze all levels of insiders to reveal information, even at great risk to themselves, so long as they can be convinced that it is necessary to do so.
Reaching those individuals, helping them realize that their first allegiance as a public servant is to the public rather than to the government, is the challenge. That’s a significant shift in cultural thinking for a government worker today.
I’ve argued that whistleblowers are elected by circumstance. It’s not a virtue of who you are or your background. It’s a question of what you are exposed to, what you witness. At that point the question becomes Do you honestly believe that you have the capability to remediate the problem, to influence policy? I would not encourage individuals to reveal information, even about wrongdoing, if they do not believe they can be effective in doing so, because the right moment can be as rare as the will to act.
This is simply a pragmatic, strategic consideration. Whistleblowers are outliers of probability, and if they are to be effective as a political force, it’s critical that they maximize the amount of public good produced from scarce seed. When I was making my decision, I came to understand how one strategic consideration, such as waiting until the month before a domestic election, could become overwhelmed by another, such as the moral imperative to provide an opportunity to arrest a global trend that had already gone too far. I was focused on what I saw and on my sense of overwhelming disenfranchisement that the government, in which I had believed for my entire life, was engaged in such an extraordinary act of deception.
Change has to flow from the bottom to the top.At the heart of this evolution is that whistleblowing is a radicalizing event — and by “radical” I don’t mean “extreme”; I mean it in the traditional sense of radix, the root of the issue. At some point you recognize that you can’t just move a few letters around on a page and hope for the best. You can’t simply report this problem to your supervisor, as I tried to do, because inevitably supervisors get nervous. They think about the structural risk to their career. They’re concerned about rocking the boat and “getting a reputation.” The incentives aren’t there to produce meaningful reform. Fundamentally, in an open society, change has to flow from the bottom to the top.
As someone who works in the intelligence community, you’ve given up a lot to do this work. You’ve happily committed yourself to tyrannical restrictions. You voluntarily undergo polygraphs; you tell the government everything about your life. You waive a lot of rights because you believe the fundamental goodness of your mission justifies the sacrifice of even the sacred. It’s a just cause.
And when you’re confronted with evidence — not in an edge case, not in a peculiarity, but as a core consequence of the program — that the government is subverting the Constitution and violating the ideals you so fervently believe in, you have to make a decision. When you see that the program or policy is inconsistent with the oaths and obligations that you’ve sworn to your society and yourself, then that oath and that obligation cannot be reconciled with the program. To which do you owe a greater loyalty?


The U.S. Capitol is reflected in a puddle next to the Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., Oct. 15, 2013.


Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images


One of the extraordinary things about the revelations of the past several years, and their accelerating pace, is that they have occurred in the context of the United States as the “uncontested hyperpower.” We now have the largest unchallenged military machine in the history of the world, and it’s backed by a political system that is increasingly willing to authorize any use of force in response to practically any justification. In today’s context that justification is terrorism, but not necessarily because our leaders are particularly concerned about terrorism in itself or because they think it’s an existential threat to society. They recognize that even if we had a 9/11 attack every year, we would still be losing more people to car accidents and heart disease, and we don’t see the same expenditure of resources to respond to those more significant threats.
What it really comes down to is the political reality that we have a political class that feels it must inoculate itself against allegations of weakness. Our politicians are more fearful of the politics of terrorism — of the charge that they do not take terrorism seriously — than they are of the crime itself.
As a result we have arrived at this unmatched capability, unrestrained by policy. We have become reliant upon what was intended to be the limitation of last resort: the courts. Judges, realizing that their decisions are suddenly charged with much greater political importance and impact than was originally intended, have gone to great lengths in the post-9/11 period to avoid reviewing the laws or the operations of the executive in the national security context and setting restrictive precedents that, even if entirely proper, would impose limits on government for decades or more. That means the most powerful institution that humanity has ever witnessed has also become the least restrained. Yet that same institution was never designed to operate in such a manner, having instead been explicitly founded on the principle of checks and balances. Our founding impulse was to say, “Though we are mighty, we are voluntarily restrained.”


President Barack Obama walks with U.S. Secret Service agents to Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, Calif., May 8, 2014.


Photo: The White House


When you first go on duty at CIA headquarters, you raise your hand and swear an oath — not to government, not to the agency, not to secrecy. You swear an oath to the Constitution. So there’s this friction, this emerging contest between the obligations and values that the government asks you to uphold, and the actual activities that you’re asked to participate in.
These disclosures about the Obama administration’s killing program reveal that there’s a part of the American character that is deeply concerned with the unrestrained, unchecked exercise of power. And there is no greater or clearer manifestation of unchecked power than assuming for oneself the authority to execute an individual outside of a battlefield context and without the involvement of any sort of judicial process.
Traditionally, in the context of military affairs, we’ve always understood that lethal force in battle could not be subjected to ex ante judicial constraints. When armies are shooting at each other, there’s no room for a judge on that battlefield. But now the government has decided — without the public’s participation, without our knowledge and consent — that the battlefield is everywhere. Individuals who don’t represent an imminent threat in any meaningful sense of those words are redefined, through the subversion of language, to meet that definition.
Inevitably that conceptual subversion finds its way home, along with the technology that enables officials to promote comfortable illusions about surgical killing and nonintrusive surveillance. Take, for instance, the Holy Grail of drone persistence, a capability that the United States has been pursuing forever. The goal is to deploy solar-powered drones that can loiter in the air for weeks without coming down. Once you can do that, and you put any typical signals collection device on the bottom of it to monitor, unblinkingly, the emanations of, for example, the different network addresses of every laptop, smartphone, and iPod, you know not just where a particular device is in what city, but you know what apartment each device lives in, where it goes at any particular time, and by what route. Once you know the devices, you know their owners. When you start doing this over several cities, you’re tracking the movements not just of individuals but of whole populations.
Unrestrained power may be many things, but it’s not American.By preying on the modern necessity to stay connected, governments can reduce our dignity to something like that of tagged animals, the primary difference being that we paid for the tags and they’re in our pockets. It sounds like fantasist paranoia, but on the technical level it’s so trivial to implement that I cannot imagine a future in which it won’t be attempted. It will be limited to the war zones at first, in accordance with our customs, but surveillance technology has a tendency to follow us home.
Here we see the double edge of our uniquely American brand of nationalism. We are raised to be exceptionalists, to think we are the better nation with the manifest destiny to rule. The danger is that some people will actually believe this claim, and some of those will expect the manifestation of our national identity, that is, our government, to comport itself accordingly.
Unrestrained power may be many things, but it’s not American. It is in this sense that the act of whistleblowing increasingly has become an act of political resistance. The whistleblower raises the alarm and lifts the lamp, inheriting the legacy of a line of Americans that begins with Paul Revere.
The individuals who make these disclosures feel so strongly about what they have seen that they’re willing to risk their lives and their freedom. They know that we, the people, are ultimately the strongest and most reliable check on the power of government. The insiders at the highest levels of government have extraordinary capability, extraordinary resources, tremendous access to influence, and a monopoly on violence, but in the final calculus there is but one figure that matters: the individual citizen.
And there are more of us than there are of them.


From The Assassination Complex: Inside the Government’s Secret Drone Warfare Program by Jeremy Scahill and the staff of The Intercept, with a foreword by Edward Snowden and afterword by Glenn Greenwald, published by Simon & Schuster.

Contact the author:
Edward Snowdent@snowden

http://www.leaflady.org/purr.htm
Bone-healing/Restorative "Purring Frequencies"This preset utilizes binaural beats based on the approximate range of purring frequencies of domesticated cats, 27 to 44 Hz, which researchers now say can have restorative effects on the body, particularly the healing and strengthening of bones.

From the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association

Healing and the cat's purr - Fauna Communications Research Institute

Scientists have discovered that the purring of cats is a "natural healing mechanism" that has helped inspire the myth that they have nine lives. Nine lives: wounded cats purr because it helps their bones and organs to heal Wounded cats - wild and domestic - purr because it helps their bones and organs to heal and grow stronger, say researchers who have analyzed the purring of different feline species. This, they say, explains why cats survive falls from high buildings and why they are said to have "nine lives". Exposure to similar sound frequencies is known to improve bone density in humans."

Doctors and scientists in a number of different medical fields are researching the healing properties of sound, and the results are pretty promising. Most body cavities and tissues have their own resonant frequencies, and sound in those ranges can stimulate the respective organs to heal. For example: the human lungs resonate at around 39 hertz (in a fluid medium) and researchers at Georgia Tech and Emory University have found sound at that frequency to be beneficial to people with lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis. Solving the Mystery of the Cat's Purr using the World's Smallest Accelerometer
Elizabeth von Muggenthaler and Bill Wright

Ever since the Egyptians started worshipping the cat, philosophers, scientists and cat lovers worldwide have wondered why cats purr. Fauna Communications and ENDEVCO initiated a novel research study that recorded the purrs of five species of cats - cheetah, puma, serval, ocelot and the domestic cat. This research has contributed valuable information that may solve the mystery behind the cat's purr.

It is commonly believed that cats purr when content. However, cats also purr when they are severely injured, frightened or giving birth. So if cats were purring solely out of happiness they would not purr when injured, especially as the generation of the purr requires energy, and an injured animal will generally not expend precious energy needed for healing on an activity not directly connected with their survival.

Since the purr has lasted through hundreds of generations of cats, there must be a survival mechanism behind its continued existence. Suggesting that the purr evolved to function solely as a vocalisation of self-contentment goes directly against the basic tenets of evolutionary psychology and natural selection. Could the purr in any way link to the fact that vibrational stimulation not only relieves suffering in 82% of persons suffering from acute and chronic pain but also generates new tissue growth, augments wound tissue strength, improves local circulation and oxygenation, reduces swelling and/or inhibits bacterial growth?

Survival of the Fittest
Throughout history, the cat has been the most worshipped and the most persecuted domestic animal. Perhaps the most popular cat saying is that they have "nine lives". This type of old wives' tale usually has a grain of truth behind it, especially since there is also an old veterinary school adage that states "If you put a cat and a sack of broken bones in the same room the bones will heal".

Most veterinary orthopedic surgeons have observed how relatively easy it is to mend broken cat bones, as compared with dogs. In a study of "High Rise Syndrome" found in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Drs. Whitney and Mehlhaff documented 132 cases of cats plummeting from high-rise apartments, the average fall being 5.5 storeys, or 55 feet. The record height for survival was 45 storeys. Ninety percent of the 132 cats studied survived even though some had severe injuries. There is also literature that suggests that domestic cats are in general less prone to postoperative complications following elective surgeries

Cats do not have near the prevalence of orthopedic disease or ligament and muscle traumas as dogs have, and non-union of fractures in cats is rare. Researchers believe that self-healing is the survival mechanism behind the purr. There is extensive documentation that suggests that low frequencies, at low intensity, are therapeutic. These frequencies can aid bone growth, fracture healing, pain relief, tendon and muscle strength and repair, joint mobility, the reduction of swelling, and the relief of dyspnea, or breathlessness.

In order to measure the domestic cat's purrs and how purr vibration is spread throughout its body ENDEVCO Model 22 accelerometers were used. Weighing a mere 0.14 gram, this is the world's smallest accelerometer. It mounts adhesively, requires no external power and is ground isolated. It is typically used on such small objects as scaled models, circuit boards and disk drives.

During tests, the cats relaxed on blankets, and were encouraged to purr by occasionally stroking them. The small, lightweight Model 22 accelerometers were placed directly on the skin of the cats and stabilised using washable make-up glue and medical tape. Each recording session lasted between 6 and 10 minutes. Data was recorded on DAT recorders and analysed.

Results indicated that despite size and different genetics, all of the individual cats have strong purr frequencies that fall within the range of a multitude of therapeutic frequencies and particular decibel levels, see Fig. 3. Frequencies of 25 and 50 Hz are the best, and 100 Hz and 200 Hz the second best frequencies for promoting bone strength. Exposure to these signals elevates bone strength by approximately 30%, and increases the speed at which the fractures heal.

Purring the Pain Away
All the cats had purr frequencies between 20 Hz and 200 Hz. With the exception of the cheetah, which had frequencies ± 2 Hz from the rest, all the species had frequencies, notably 25 Hz, 50 Hz, 100 Hz, 125 Hz, and 150 Hz, that correspond exactly with the best frequencies determined by the most recent research for bone growth, fracture healing, pain relief, relief of breathlessness, and inflammation. All of the cats' purrs, including the cheetah, had frequencies ±4 Hz from the entire repertoire of low frequencies known to be therapeutic for all of the ailments.

That fact that the cats in this study produced frequencies that have been proven to improve healing time, strength and mobility could explain the purr's natural selection. After a day or night of hunting, purring could be likened to an internal vibrational therapeutic system, a sort of "kitty massage" that would keep muscles and ligaments in prime condition and less prone to injury. Additionally, the purr could strengthen bone, and prevent osteodiseases. Following injury, the purr vibrations would help heal the wound or bone associated with the injury, reduce swelling, and provide a measure of pain relief during the healing process.

Australian architecture firm ArchiBlox recently unveiled Australia’s first carbon-positive prefab home that’s packed with eco-friendly features and gorgeous to boot. Contemporary and cozy, this light-filled mobile home is sealed within an airtight 800-square-foot structure that locks in cool air and keeps Australia’s intense heat out. The solar panel-topped Carbon Positive House prototype can produce more energy than it consumes and is currently on display in Melbourne’s City Square.
by Lucy Wong

http://inhabitat.com/australias-first-carbon-positive-prefab-house-produces-more-energy-than-it-consumes/carbon-positive-house-by-archiblox-6/

s http://wellnessmama.com/8364/black-drawing-salve-recipe/




Black drawing salve is  a natural remedy I first heard about when visiting a local Amish community to pick up produce and eggs. I saw one of the farmer’s sons applying what looked like tar to his arm after getting a large splinter from a fence post.

I asked what he was putting on his arm and was told that it was a drawing salve to help pull out the splinter and make sure the area didn’t get infected. I was fascinated and wondered if it would work and if it would stain the skin.

The farmer assured me that it didn’t stain the skin and that they used it all the time in their community to help with wound healing and drawing out things that were stuck in the skin. He said that it was even effective on some spider bites for drawing out the venom.

I asked if there was a place to buy it, and was told that they made it themselves but the farmer offered to write down the recipe for me.

We’ve been making variations of this recipe ever since. It takes a while to make but is very effective and well worth the time. We especially use it for splinters and pieces of glass that get stuck in the skin.

I have not tried it personally for this, but black drawing salves are also said to help remove moles and skin tags.

Black Salve RecipeIngredients

• 3 Tablespoons comfrey, calendula and plantain infused olive oil (see instructions below)
• 2 teaspoons shea butter
• 2 Tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 Tablespoons Beeswax
• 1 teaspoon Vitamin E oil
• 2 Tablespoons Activated Charcoal Powder
• 2 Tablespoons Kaolin Clay
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 20 drops (or more) Lavender Essential Oil

Instructions

1. Before making the salve, it is important to infuse olive oil with comfrey, calendula and plantain. You will need 1 tablespoon of each of the herbs, finely powdered in a food processor or blender, and ½ cup olive oil. It can be infused in one of these two ways:
2. Powder the herbs and place in a small jar. Pour oil over the herbs. Leave in jar for 3-4 weeks, shaking daily, and then strain through a cheesecloth for use.
3. Heat the herbs and olive oil in a double boiler. Leave on low/medium heat for about an hour until oil gets strong smelling and darker. Strain through cheesecloth for use.
4. Personally, I keep a big jar of olive oil with plantain, comfrey and calendula in my herb cabinet and let it constantly infuse for use in salves and lotions. When the oil is used, I discard the herbs and begin the process again.
5. Combine infused olive oil, shea butter, coconut oil, beeswax, vitamin E oil and honey in a glass jar in a small pan of water.
6. Heat the water to a simmer and carefully stir mixture in the jar until all ingredients are melted.
7. Remove from heat and add activated charcoal, kaolin clay, and lavender essential oil and mix well.
8. Quickly pour in to small jars or tins and let sit until hardened (several hours).
9. Store in airtight container and use as needed on cuts, splinters, etc.

How to Use Black SalveMake sure area has been cleaned well. Put a generous amount of black salve on the wound or splinter and cover with gauze or a large bandaid.

Leave at least a few hours or overnight to allow it to draw out the infection or object. Some things (like glass… in my experience) may take a day or two and several applications to draw out an object.

This salve is a wonderful natural remedy but it is not a replacement for medical care when needed. Consult a doctor before using if you have any health conditions or concern

http://selfreliantschool.com/mineral-deficiencies-do-you-know-what-your-soil-is-missing/

Mineral Deficiencies–Do You Know What Your Soil Is Missing?This post may contain affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Self-Reliant School with your purchases.July 24, 2015




Years ago, on a fluke, I brought home two female goats. We were ill-prepared and had no idea what we were doing. I asked lots of questions and did my research to make sure I was raising two healthy beautiful girls. Months after we brought them home, one gave birth to twins. The first was underdeveloped and stillborn. The second was weak and rejected by both mom and aunt. I rushed that baby to our local vet with the hope of saving it. It died before the dawn of the next day.




Our vet said that nothing we did would have saved those babies because the mother was suffering from a selenium deficiency. He went on to explain that our region had a selenium deficiency in the soil. All the feed we bought would be deficient because it was processed locally. The only solution was a trace mineral supplement. No one had told me this. I had lived in the region my entire life and had no idea there was a mineral deficiency in our soil.

While it was interesting, I didn’t give it much thought because life went on. It was a hard and traumatic summer that ended with us moving to the city. No more livestock for us at that time so no more thoughts about mineral deficiencies.

Recently, I was having a conversation with a friend about a plant that grows wild in our area. Somehow, selenium came up. Later, I found myself wondering--if a plant that is supposed to be high in a mineral grows in deficient soil is it still a good source for that mineral? The answer is quite logical--no--but most people don’t realize that their soil might be deficient. This is especially true for land that is undeveloped, such as the forest where that plant grows.

Soil composition is not something we talk about unless we are talking about our gardens or landscaping. We talk about how the clay content makes drainage difficult or the lack of nitrogen makes the leaves on our plants yellow. We know that crop rotation is important for the soil but we don’t really understand how that translates to how it affects us. We don’t eat dirt, right?

The truth is that soil is the foundation of all the nutrients we consume. A plant’s roots take in nutrients from the soil and store them in the various cells of the plants. Animals consume those plants. We, as humans, consume the plants and the animals. A plant can’t give us what the soil doesn’t offer.

There are three mineral deficiencies that affect the health of cattle--Selenium, Copper and Iodine. When it comes to how that translates to human health, I didn’t quite get it. I knew that a lack of selenium affected the health of my goats. Giving my momma goats a mineral supplement solved a problem that I didn’t feel like I needed to pursue. I ate a healthy diet. We try to eat organic and local. Our diet is well balanced but our health isn’t as good as we hoped. As I dug into this concept of mineral deficiencies in soil, I began to understand why.

According to the National Institute of Health, selenium deficiencies have been linked to thyroid issues, asthma, seizures, heart disease and male infertility. While there have been no human studies, there have been livestock studies that show selenium deficiencies cause miscarriages and stillbirths.

Sally Fallon, in her book Nourishing Traditions, says “High levels of heart disease are associated with selenium deficient soil in Finland and a tendency to fibrotic heart lesions is associated with selenium deficiency in parts of China.”

It’s quite simple to get enough selenium in a balanced diet since it’s found in meat, grains, dairy, and eggs. For those who live in areas where selenium is limited in the soil, those foods no longer provide the expected nutrition.

When it comes to these three minerals, selenium has the most information and research but copper and iodine are still just as important. Copper works with iron in the blood to form red blood cells. The lack of copper in the body can lead to poor cardiovascular health, nerve damage, poor immune response, anemia and osteoporosis. Iodine supports thyroid function, immune response and is essential for breast health.

How do you know what mineral deficiencies your soil has?You can always start with the internet. This map shows selenium deficiencies by county. This database shows a number of minerals in soil, with copper being one. It’s not the most user-friendly site but I have managed to figure out how to read the charts. When looking for a copper deficiency, look for a single digit. What constitutes a copper deficiency is up for debate amongst a number of agricultural groups but what they have in common is that they are all under 10 ppm.

As for iodine, it has been nationally accepted to just assume that the soil has an iodine deficiency.

You can always have your soil tested, but another way for a quick and easy answer is to call a local vet who specializes in livestock. If your vet doesn’t work with livestock, they should know who does. Once you get a veterinarian’s attention, just ask them what the common mineral deficiencies they see in the area. The information they share with you becomes a starting point for improving you and your families health.

There are a number of ways to add these minerals to your diet. If you raise livestock, give them a mineral supplement. That’s something you can talk to your vet about while you have them on the phone. If the animals provide food for you, then you will benefit from those supplements.

You can also choose to add certain foods to your diet. For selenium, the easiest and most consistent food is Brazil nuts. Just a few daily will give you all the selenium you need. If you are like my family, you can try drinking food grade diatomaceous earth. We like the added benefits that it gives to our body. Copper is found in shellfish. Iodine is in seaweed.

Now, because I know you will ask, you can eat iodized salt and get all the iodine you need. Salt was iodized because the US had huge populations that didn’t have access to iodine rich foods which resulted in a health epidemic. That worked fine until the last thirty or so years. With the increase of fast and processed foods, Americans consume a lot of salt. Salt became bad. Iodized salt became a villain. And admittedly it is a processed refined salt, however, if you you think you might have an iodine deficiency and don’t consume seaweed, then iodized salt is an option.

I, personally, buy non-iodized salt, nothing added, because we use the salt to make pickles and for our nasal rinse. For food, we use sea salt and other “fancy” salts. Sea salt and similar salts do have traces of iodine. We, also, try to eat seaweed. As I do my research, I feel like I need to purchase a few container of iodized salt for our emergency stores but I’m not sure that the added ingredients in that salt are something I want to eat.

Is there a long term solution to soil mineral deficiencies? No, sadly there is not. Some minerals have never existed in certain soil compositions. Some minerals have been lost due to erosion and poor agricultural planning.

There are mineral supplements that one can add to the soil. I can’t say that they are the perfect solution. Soil supplements can help with improving gardens and crops but often it’s just moving nutrient rich soil components to areas that lack those nutrients. Without good organic soil practices, such as erosion prevention, composting, and crop rotation, the deficiencies will sadly continue.

While this information may feel like it’s directed to those who homestead, have livestock or grow their own food, it’s not. These mineral deficiencies affect everyone. Much of the food in the grocery store is grown and processed locally. While it might not come directly from your community, many food processors have discovered it is far cheaper to open more plants to save on shipping costs. Also, these deficiencies often affect large areas. This is why the feed I gave my goats still had deficiencies. Goat feed is oat based and I’m not sure where they are grown in my region, but they were still local enough to lack that selenium.

I’m a big proponent of knowledge is power--once you know, you can act. The biggest problem is not knowing there is a problem. It’s been seven years since we lost those babies and I am just now realizing what that means for my health. This is not a finished topic, this is the tip that we all have to chisel away at so we can understand exactly how all the components fit together to affect our health. I, for one, look forward to what we might discover.

www.http://selfreliantschool.com/ is Jennifer's site.  She has sooooo many great tips and tricks and video too!

The History Of Herbal Medicine and RemediesThis post may contain affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Self-Reliant School with your purchases.August 21, 2015




Welcome back! Today we are exploring the history of Herbalism. To me, it’s important to know where we came from, so we know where we are going. Herbalism as a tradition has had many twists and turns - far too many to go into detail but we will touch on the high points. Let’s get started!

An herb can be defined as any plant that can be put to use either in our kitchen, or in a medicinal way. This includes herbs that we may associate with man-made medicines such as foxglove or poppy, as well as everyday plants like garlic and lovely sage.

The use of herbs and medicinal plants have been around since the beginning of time. Dare I say it began in the Garden of Eden!! “Then God said, “I give you every herb and seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” ~Gen 1:29~

Let’s take a look at a little herbal historyEvery culture on Earth has relied on the vast variety of plants, trees, seeds and bark that we call herbs and all their healing properties for a variety of therapeutic purposes. Take a look at a few statistics that show the world-wide interest in herbs:

We begin our journey over 5,000 years ago with the Sumerians - people from ancient Babylonia - who documented hundreds of medicinal herbs they used on clay tablets. (1) Then we pick up our trail with the Egyptians around 1500 B.C. who listed in the Ebers Papyrus over 850 medicinal plants; including garlic, juniper, cannabis, castor bean, aloe, and mandrake. Egyptians usually used herbs indigenous to their location although they did import a few. (2) Then we jump over to India where they practice Ayurveda, a form of medicine that uses many herbs including Turmeric, this tradition started as early as 4000 B.C. Sanskrit writings are some of the earliest manuscripts available detailing the medical knowledge of the Ayurvedic system. Herbs and minerals that were used were documented by herbalist Charaka and Sushruta who describe 700 medicinal plants, 64 mineral preparations and 57 animal preparations in The Sushruta Samhita. (3,4,5)

That is just a few examples of how far Herbalism dates back and how extremely important and widespread they were from Egypt to India and beyond.

Other civilizations contributed to the advancement of herbalism:

• Greece: Early Greeks began to prize herbs from Assyria and India such as Basil and Ginger. Hippocrates (6) began categorizing food and herbs by qualities such as hot, cold, dry or damp. He had detailed knowledge of over 235 herbs. He insisted that good health was maintained by keeping these qualities in balance. (7)
• Rome: The Greek theory of medicine reached Rome in about 100 B.C. Rome adopted the view that medicine was a way to repair the body much like a machine, rather than Hippocrates’ view to allow disease to cure itself. All medieval European herbology, in one way or another, goes back to Pedanius Dioscorides (thought to have been the physician to Antony and Cleopatra), and his influential five-volume book, De Materia Medica. His writings described 600 medicinal plants, grouping them by character, such as “aromatic” or “pungent,” and by appearance or part, such as “roots” or “herbs.” His instructions for collecting herbs were even more detailed than those of Hippocrates. He described in detail when to collect blossoms, leaves, stems and roots, and when to prepare herbal remedies, such as plant juices. Of the plants he discussed, ninety are still in use today. (10,11)

Chinese herbal medicineTraditional Chinese medicine is a very ancient system of healing dating back to about 2500 B.C. In Chinese medicine illness is seen as a sign of disharmony in the body. So the task of the traditional Chinese practitioner is always to restore harmony and balance to the whole body. Herbs have always been central to this philosophy which also includes acupuncture and massage. (12)

The origins of Chinese herbalism are unclear and rooted in myths. The legendary figures such as Shennong (13) (who was reportedly the “divine cultivator”) invented agriculture and identified many medicinal plants. It was said he tasted the flavor of hundreds of herbs and supposedly he also discovered tea drinking as well. Apparently leaves from a bush fell in a bowl of water boiling nearby, hence tea!

The Chinese usually prescribe herbs in standard formulas and these may be adjusted slightly depending on the specific condition the patient is experiencing. The formulas may include two herbs or twenty-two and the interaction between the herbs is extremely important. Herbs are generally given as pills, powders or as decoctions or “soups”. In traditional Chinese herbalism the characteristics of a plant always include taste, temperature and an indication of the organ it affects. (14)

Remember the fall of Rome?After the fall of Rome, herbalism in Europe was not completely plunged into the Dark Ages. On the contrary, the barbarians that swept the country also brought with them their own herbal healing customs.They added their traditions to the Roman herbal practices.

During this time the oldest herbal remedies book was written (these books are also called herbals), “The Leech Book of Bald” dates from the first half of the 10th century. (15) This book included remedies sent by the Patriarch of Jerusalem to King Alfred. Numerous treatments are described for ailments caused by “flying venom” and “elfshot”. Among the most popular herbs of these times were Wood Betony, Vervain, Mugwort, Plantain and Yarrow. These would be taken internally and also worn as amulets.

The Church was largely responsible for all herbal healing during this time frame. Monasteries would grow medicinal herbs and tend the sick. Healing was part prayer and part herbs.

Herbal Books or Materia MedicaDuring this timeframe, illustrated herbal books which we call Materia Medica, came into being. Nicholas Culpeper, an apothecary by trade, was determined to make medical knowledge more accessible to other apothecaries, who prescribed most of the herbal remedies. He authored one of the most popular and controversial English herbals in 1653 called The English Physician. Culpeper's herbal was criticized by the medical establishment for its mix of magic and astrology with botanical medicine, but it became one of the most popular books of botanical medicine for its day. (16) There were also several other great herbal books written in this time period:

• The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, by John Gerard, 1597
• The Theater of Plants, by John Parkinson, 1640
• The English Physician, by Nicholas Culpeper, 1616

Excerpts from Gerard’s Herball

Gerard describes mint as “...marvelous and wholesome for the stomach…it stops hiccups and is good against watery eyes and a sure remedy for children’s sore heads.”

Lemon balm, according to Gerard, is good against “the bitings of venomous beasts.” The juice “holds together” green wounds.

Gerard also found the distilled water of lavender “virtuous,” whether it be “by smelling or applied at the temples and bathed on the forehead.” (paraphrased) (17)

North American Traditions: A Mix of Native American & Old WorldThe first settlers arriving in North America brought with them many familiar healing plants from home such as Heartsease and Plantain. The early settlers also integrated many Native American healing traditions and discovered new herbs such as Boneset, Purple Coneflower, Goldenseal and Pleurisy root. The combination of traditional herbs with the Native American healing methods eventually made it back home to Europe and has had a lasting influence on herbal practices there.

The early pioneers and Native Americans shared much of their herbal knowledge with one another. An early enthusiast, Samuel Thomson founded the Physiomedical movement. He believed that parents were responsible for both their own health and that of their children’s health. He patented a series of handbooks full of remedies called, “Thomson’s Improved System of Botanic Practice of Medicine”. (18) His main theory was that “All disease is caused by cold.” Central to the Physiomedical view was the belief that by strengthening the bodies vital forces we keep our tissues and nervous system in balance. Using herbs to help maintain this balance was an intricate component of this theory.

Other systems based in the botanicals followed, among them the United States Infirmary in New York, followed in 1829 by the Reformed Medical College, both were founded by Dr. Wooster Beech. The Eclectics liked to combine the use of herbal remedies with Native American healing practices. In its day, Eclecticism had more than 20,000 practitioners.(19)

Physiomedicalism and Eclecticism made their respective ways over to Europe and eventually in 1864 these various groups merged into The National Association Medical Herbalist. That association continues on today as The National Institute of Medical Herbalists.(20)

Plants = Pills, Oh My!Extracts and essential oils have been prepared from plants for a very long time. Traditional herbalism has always combined herbs to modify effects, viewing the whole as greater than the parts. The movement to identify individual active ingredients and use these single constituents as drugs began in the 18th century. The chemical properties from these single components were quite different, property wise, from the original herb.

Initially these drugs could only be obtained from plant extracts but later the chemical structure of many extracts were identified and synthesized. In creating chemical copies from plants for the sake of convenience, we have lost the art of combining herbs.

Three “Old” Modern DrugsLet’s look at 3 herbs that had their chemical structure identified, synthesized and made into modern drugs:

• Digoxin
  A physician, William Withering, apparently failed to bring about an improvement in a patient suffering from severe dropsy or edema caused by heart failure. Suddenly the patient started to recover. The patients relatives admitted to administering an herbal brew based on an old family recipe (which included Foxglove). Dr. Withering began experimenting with the various herbs this remedy contained and identified Foxglove as the main constituent. In 1785 he published his “Account of the Foxglove and Some of Its Medical Uses”. This paper detailed 200 cases of dropsy and heart failure that he had successfully treated with the herb. Later cardiac glycoside was extracted from the foxglove plant in the form of digoxin. (21)
• Morphine
  Another modern drug isolated from a plant was Morphine. Identified in 1803 by Friedrich Serturner in Germany, he extracted white crystals from the crude opium poppy. (22)
• Salicin
  In 1852 Salicin, identified as one of the active ingredients in Willow Bark was artificially synthesized for the first time and launched as aspirin by Bayer in 1899. (23)

Herbalism Today – In Our HomesI hope that the use of simple herbs and herbal remedies will encourage us all too once again take responsibility for our health and for those we love.

Let’s remember: instead of trying to remove symptoms of sickness when they appear, to try and stay consistently in-tune with our bodies and recognize symptoms of imbalance as it manifests itself, and treat the causes to restore our bodies back to wellness.

Let’s bring back the old traditions…and make them new again!

Resources:
1. Sumner, Judith (2000). The Natural History of Medicinal Plants. Timber Press. p. 17. ISBN 0-88192-483-0.
2. Sumner, Judith (2000). The Natural History of Medicinal Plants. Timber Press. p. 17. ISBN 0-88192-483-0.
3. Susan G. Wynn; Barbara Fougère (2007). Veterinary Herbal Medicine. Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 60.
4. Aggarwal BB, Sundaram C, Malani N, Ichikawa H (2007). "Curcumin: the Indian solid gold". Adv. Exp. Med. Biol. ADVANCES IN EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY 595: 1–75. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-46401-5_1. ISBN 978-0-387-46400-8. PMID 17569205.
5. Girish Dwivedi, Shridhar Dwivedi (2007). History of Medicine: Sushruta – the Clinician – Teacher par Excellence (PDF). National Informatics Centre. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
6. Grammaticos PC, Diamantis A (2008). "Useful known and unknown views of the father of modern medicine, Hippocrates and his teacher Democritus". Hell J Nucl Med 11 (1): 2–4. PMID 18392218.
7. "Hippocrates". Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation. 2006. Archived from the original on 2009-10-31.
8. Strong, W.F.; Cook, John A. (July 2007), "Reviving the Dead Greek Guys" (pdf), Global Media Journal, Indian Edition
9. Traditional Greco-Arabic and Modern Western Medicine: Conflict or Symbiosis? by Hakim Mohammed Said Copyright 1975 by Hamdard Academy - Karachi, Pakistan pp. 17 - 23
10. "Greek Medicine". National Institutes of Health, USA. 16 September 2002. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
11. Forbes, Andrew ; Henley, Daniel; Henley, David (2013). 'Pedanius Dioscorides' in: Health and Well Being: A Medieval Guide. Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books.
12. Traditional Chinese Medicine, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, Traditional Chinese Medicine: An Introduction
13. Christie, Anthony (1968). Chinese Mythology. Feltham: Hamlyn Publishing. ISBN 0-600-00637-9.
14. Flaws, B., & Finney, D., (1996): "A handbook of TCM patterns & their treatments" Blue Poppy Press. 6th Printing 2007. ISBN 978-0-936185-70-5
15. Nokes, Richard Scott ‘The several compilers of Bald’s Leechbook’ in Anglo-Saxon England 33 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 51-76
16. Hanrahan, Clare; Odle, Teresa. "Herbalism, Western." Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine. 2005.Encyclopedia.com. 3 Aug. 2015
17. https://archive.org/details/herballorgeneral00gera
18. Dr. Samuel Thompson's Botanic System - from The History of Warren County, Ohio (W. H. Beers & Co. of Chicago, 1882), p304 ff.
https://archive.org/details/thomsonianmanual01thom
19. The History of Western Herbal Medicine, Chanchal Cabrera, 2006.
20. http://www.nimh.org.uk/
21. Haughton, Claire (1980). Green Immigrants. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. pp. 133–134. ISBN 0-15-636492-1.
William Withering, An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses (Birmingham, England: M. Swinney, 1785).
22. Meyer, Klaus (2004). "Dem Morphin auf der Spur". Pharmazeutischen Zeitung (in German). GOVI-Verlag. Retrieved 8 Sept 2009.
23. Uchytil, RJ (1991). "Salix drummondiana". Fire Effects Information System,. Online. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service,
Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Retrieved 2006-07-19.

Kat Yorba
Howdy there, I'm Kat! I'm a southern gal who loves being a wife, mother, blogger, writer and a follower of Jesus Christ. I adore coffee, chocolate, sweet tea, essential oils, herbs, gardening, homemade bread, meows, guns, drag racing and TEXAS! Simply Living Simply was created 3 years ago, from my hearts desire to share Simple ideas pertaining to homesteading & preparedness, gardening & food, herbs to DIY and everything in-between, all with a Semi-Homemade twist. Two rules we live by around here: Keep it Simple & always Semi-homemade!

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Hi there, I’m Kat. I am a homesteader, prepper, gardener, wife and mother and an avid herbal nut! I love anything to do with herbs, plants and essential oils. I marvel at this amazing world we have been given to live in, the plants put here for us to use so that we may live this life more fully and with “wholeness”.

I have been in the alternative healthcare field for over 15 years, and during this time have learned and experienced a wide varieties of healing from Massage Therapy, Ayurveda, Aromatherapy, Reiki, Herbs and more. Although I have “mastered” some fields such as Massage Therapy, I truly have a student’s heart to continually learn as much as I can, and that translates into my herbal education. My herbal background is based in a love of plants from my mother, who shared her knowledge freely with me beginning at a young age. I continued my learning from a variety of sources including courses at 3 different schools, a large collection of books from widely known authors such as Rosemary Gladstar, Susan Weed, Kathy Keville, Jeanne Rose and more. I am currently enrolled in Herbal Academy of New England’s program, because you can never learn too much!! If I had to classify myself I would say that I am a traditional herbalist with wise woman ways!

As homesteaders, preppers, women, men, mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, daughters and sons we just want to eat right, feel right and use more natural approaches to health and wellness. We have learned that “whole”, natural foods are best for us. If we nod our heads in agreement with that statement, then let me ask you this: why do we continue to use man-made chemical pills, syrups and drugs when we get sick?

The best course of action in my opinion would be the “whole” route - granted the road less traveled, but getting busier every day! Our bodies were created to break down, metabolize and use more effectively, whole foods, plants, spices and the like. So let’s look at several reasons why it would be good for us to “Go Herbal!”

• Herbs are nature made, so they are really and truly natural.
• We know what’s in them; they have a very small ingredient list!
• They are very inexpensive to grow, harvest, create and use.
• They work!

I am sure there are many more, extremely good reasons to dive into using herbs, but this is an awesome start! Let’s take a peek at #2 for a minute: the ingredient list. Have you looked at that cough syrup you take, lately?

I have been dealing with allergies this season quite badly, and I instinctively reached for a leading name brand allergy syrup to relieve my symptoms. But lucky for me, I have been on this “reading my labels kick”, so I did! All I can say is, “Wow!” Take a look:

“Diphenhydramine HCI, anhydrous citric acid, D&C red #33, FD&C red #40, flavors, glycerin, monoammonium glycyrrhizinate, poloxamer 407, purified water, sodium benzoate, sodium chloride, sodium citrate, sucrose.”

Some of the ingredients I actually know, like glycerin and purified water, but the ones I cannot pronounce I am quite sure I don’t want in my body!!

There are countless different herbs and as many different combinations of herbs that are used for our good health and healing. Thankfully, there are only a few basic but different types of preparations that are used in treating illnesses, ailments, afflictions and wounds.

These preparations take dried or fresh herbs and transform them into life giving medicine that can be taken internally in the form of teas, capsules and the like, or applied topically such as salves, oils, bath salts and compresses. Sometimes you will use both methods of preparation for a single herb with differing expected outcomes such as using St. John’s wort to make capsules and also a salve. The nature of your ailment will ultimately determine your preparation.

Welcome to Getting Started With Herbal Remedies. This series is for beginners. I am excited to be joining you on your Herbal Journey and look forward to learning new things with you too. In upcoming posts we will look at the ABC’s of working with and using herbs in our homes for beauty, cleaning, and for medicinal support. We will learn the variety of ways to prepare herbs and cover many DIY recipes together. PLUS, we’ll be creating our own Herbal Materia Medica too, with plenty of printable materials. Let’s take a peek at what’s ahead:

Our time together will include:

• History of Herbs and Herbalism
• What kind of herbalist will you be?
• Growing, harvesting and preserving your own herbs
• Common ailments with recipes
• Internal preparations of herbs
  • How to make tinctures
  • How to make syrups
  • How to make glycerites
  • How to make capsules/pills
  • How to make teas
  • How to make vinegars
• External preparations of herbs
  • Aromatic Waters
  • How to make compresses
  • How to make body oils
  • Castor oil packs
  • Herbal baths
  • How to make a poultice
  • How to make salves and ointments
• The Digestive System
• The Nervous System
• The Respiratory System
• The Circulatory System
• A dozen herbs to get you started-- each herb lesson will include a detailed look at the herb and it’s uses PLUS a printable Herbal Materia Medica pdf :
  • Lavender
  • Peppermint
  • Eucalyptus
  • Cinnamon
  • Clove
  • Marjoram
  • Chamomile
  • Tea Tree
  • St. John’s Wort
  • Yarrow
  • Willow
  • Valerian
  • BONUS: Comfrey

In Preparation For Our lessons:

I highly suggest purchasing a 3-ring binder with a see through pocket in the front for the cover of your Herbal Materia Medica. This will become your Herbal Bible of sorts. You will be able to index all of your favorite recipes, information that you will want to keep at your fingertips and refer back to time and time again.

Here are your first couple of downloadable printables. One is the cover and also a blank Materica Medica.




Click here to download the cover.




Get your FREE Materia Medica Template by filling out this form:First Name *

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I also suggest looking into purchasing quality dried herbs (or harvest your own) for our studies. One of the most important aspects of learning about herbs is to use them, not just study about them. You may want to record your experiences with each herb in your Herbal Materia Medica; such as taste, feelings, any emotions, reactions and personal experience. For our learning purposes, purchase or harvest ½ to 1 ounce of each herb.

I have used the following two companies for my herbs and can highly recommend them both. Mountain Rose Herbs and Bulk Herb Store. These are also great companies to get your accessories that you will use in making some of the recipes; tins, containers, waxes, bottles etc. This year my herbs are doing marvelous, so I plan on harvesting most of my herbs from my garden – I will have a video tutorial on harvesting/drying/preserving. Remember to do your research when looking for a reliable herbal supply company, it’s important to get the highest quality of herbs you can afford. Once you start on the road of Herbal discovery you will want reliable access to a wide variety of herbs for your tinctures, salves and teas!

I leave you for today with a lovely excerpt from Healing Wise:
“I see the wise woman. From her shoulders, a mantle of power flows.
I see the wise woman at her loom. Every thread is different, each perfect and splendid, alive with sound and color.
I see the wise woman. She is old and black and walks with the aid of a beautifully carved stick. She speaks in song, in story, in dance. She lives in every herb.
I see the wise woman. And she sees me. She winks at me and spreads her arms.
"These are the ways of our grandmothers, the ancient ones. Every pain, every plant, every problem is cherished. Night is loved for darkness, day for light. Uniqueness is our treasure, not normalcy.
"These are the ways of our grandmothers, the ancient ones. Receive abundance with compassion, knowing you will be food for others. Know that dying is a portal just as birth is. Celebrate all comings and goings, they are the turnings of the spiral.
"These are the ways of our grandmothers, the ancient ones. The joy of life is the give- away. You are the center of your universe. You are the axis, life's matrix, the still point in the ever-moving. The designs of the universe radiate through you. You are god/dess, unique and whole."
I see the wise woman. And she sees me. She smiles from shrines in thousands of places. She is buried in the ground of every country. She flows in every river and pulses in the oceans. The wise woman's robe flows down your back, centering you in the ever-changing, ever-spiraling mystery.
Everywhere I look, the wise woman looks back. And she smiles.”

~Susan Weed~

Next time we are together we will look at the history of herbs and herbalism. I hope you’re excited, because I am and I look forward to learning the ABC’s of beginning Herbalism with you, until next time, be well!

Kat Yorba
Howdy there, I'm Kat! I'm a southern gal who loves being a wife, mother, blogger, writer and a follower of Jesus Christ. I adore coffee, chocolate, sweet tea, essential oils, herbs, gardening, homemade bread, meows, guns, drag racing and TEXAS! Simply Living Simply was created 3 years ago, from my hearts desire to share Simple ideas pertaining to homesteading & preparedness, gardening & food, herbs to DIY and everything in-between, all with a Semi-Homemade twist. Two rules we live by around here: Keep it Simple & always Semi-homemade!



Spread The WordYou Might Also Like:The History Of Herbal Medicine and Remedies Simple Home Remedies Already In Your Kitchen How To Start Seeds Indoors For Next To Nothing — Without Flimsy Plastic Containers How To Make and Can Blueberry Jam Seeds Of The Month Club

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Dehydrating food is one of my favorite ways of preserving; I love it so much I’m teaching a class on dehydrating foods! So if you’ve got a dehydrator in the closet that you bought for just making jerky--get it out! Because let me tell you, it can do so much more than make jerky! There are 25 lessons in the dehydrating eCourse and only one of them is about making jerky. Yes, you read that correctly--25 classes, and I keep trying to make them short and sweet but they all at least 20 minutes long, most are a little more. Not to worry, they are not too long, most are under 30 minutes. I only mention this because there is so much more to dehydrating than jerky.

Maybe you don’t even have a dehydrator yet and are wondering if dehydrating is for you. I hope I can convince you to give it a try because it’s fun, easy and so versatile. You can build a complete food storage easily, quickly and safely.

Dehydrating is a very old method of food preservation. If you remove 90 to 95% of the water content from food then bacteria that aids in the decomposition process can’t survive. Your food is preserved in a sort of suspended state waiting for you to add the water back in order to nourish your body. Here are some important facts you should know about this great food preserving method.

Facts About Dehydrating FoodEasy To Do
Dehydrating is fun and easy. Most foods can be dehydrated and there aren’t a ton of rules you have to remember like other food preservation methods. There are techniques that help your food be at its best through the dehydrating process but it’s really hard to “mess up” when dehydrating.

Risk Factor Is Low
There is a risk factor with all preserved foods. After all, they are not fresh, so something had to make them safe to eat at a later time. The risk of your food not being safe to eat after you have preserved it is very low with dehydrating. There is also a low risk of your food not tasting good after you’ve dehydrated it, provided you’ve used the correct pre-treatment.

Nutrition
Dehydrating preserves more of a food’s natural enzymes than other forms of food preservation. Dehydrated food can be as nutritious as fresh food provided the food is dehydrated at low temperatures. This is especially handy for preserving herbs for natural remedies, since all of the herb’s healing properties can be preserved.

Light and Portable
Dehydrated food is light and portable. All the heavy water content has been removed so the food is super light. This makes stuffing it in a backpack, a bug out bag or a 72 hour kit a great choice. You can carry considerably more dehydrated food than fresh or other food preserved by a different method.

Easily Add Food To Your Food Storage
Since dehydrating is such an easy process you can quickly build up a food storage for whatever emergency might come along, or just for a rainy day.

Takes Up A Smaller Amount Of Space
Since dehydrated food is missing the water content, not only is it light and portable, but its size is greatly reduced. So your food storage takes up less space. This is great for people who don’t have a lot of storage space. Also, it can be stacked, unlike home-canned food.

Preserve Your Organic Garden
You worked hard on that organic garden. Dehydrating is a great way to preserve your harvest. You can simply put things in your dehydrator as they become ripe. You can dehydrate in large or small batches.

The Dehydrating eCourseWant to learn how to save money, eat healthier and easily put food into your food storage?


Find Out MoreUnique Recipes
You can create some great-tasting recipes even if you’re not trying to build a food storage. Have you ever had homemade crunchy spiced corn or kale chips? They make great healthy snacks.

Less Running To the Grocery Store
This one is kind of a no-brainer if you have a food storage. But the thing is that sometimes you’d rather run to the store before opening a case, jar or can of something in your food storage. But when you dehydrate you can open almost any container, take a little out, and seal it back up with little or no trouble.

Uses A Minimum Amount Of Energy
Other forms of food preservation use a lot of energy either for the process itself (canning) or to maintain the environment (freezing). Dehydrating takes very little energy to process food and none to store it.

Dehydrated Food Is Easy To Cook With
Dehydrated foods are really easy to cook with. Most of the time you can throw them into soups or stews without even reconstituted them. Even if you need to rehydrate them for a recipe it usually only takes a quick soak in a bit of water.

Save A Ton Of Money Making Powders
Not only can you save a ton of money by preserving things from your garden but you can save a ton of money by not having to buy so many items from the spice isle. You can make your own garlic and onion powder. Dry your own basil and rosemary. You can even make some of your own spice powders like ginger and turmeric powder.

Equipment Is A Good Investment
A good dehydrator is not super cheap but it’s probably not the most expensive thing in your kitchen either. The thing is if you buy a good dehydrator (I recommend an Excalibur) then you’re likely to have it for years. They are excellent dehydrators and mine has paid for itself many times over.

Can Be Done In Any Location
You can dehydrate most any place on earth. All you need is either a bit of electricity or the sun. Sun Oven makes a dehydrating kit for their solar oven, and you always have the option of making your own solar dehydrator. So dehydrating is a great off-grid food preserving option.

Children Love It
Kids love bite-sized snacks, and dehydrating different foods can give them a variety of healthy snacks. They are no longer limited to just raisins. You can dehydrate most any food and kids love the sweet (most fruit is sweeter once it’s dehydrated) chewy bites.

Dehydrated Foods Can Be Stored At Room Temperature
Although any food will last longer the cooler, darker and dryer it stays, dehydrated food will last a good long while at room temperature as long as it stays dry. So that means you can store it in a closet or bedroom.

Did I leave any dehydrating facts out? What’s your favorite reason for dehydrating food?

http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/09/27/%E2%80%8Bsweden-to-become-one-of-worlds-first-fossil-fuel-free-nation%E2%80%8B/

The Swedish government has announced they are going to focus on becoming 100% fossil fuel free in order to meet the challenges of climate change. Hopefully, this will encourage other countries to focus more on clean energy as well.Published: September 27, 2015 | Authors: Lorraine Chow | EcoWatch | News Report
Sweden is setting out to prove that the world doesn’t need fossil fuels. In a recent announcement, the Swedish government said it will invest 4.5 billion kronor, or US $546 million, in their 2016 budget “to meet the challenges of climate change, increase the share of renewable energy and stimulate development of innovative environmental technology.”

“Sweden will become one of the first fossil-free welfare states in the world,” Prime Minister Stefan Löfven told the press. “When European regulations do not go far enough Sweden will lead the way.”

As broken down by Bloomberg, here’s how Sweden plans to completely abandon fossil fuels (no deadline has been set):

• 390 million kronor per year between 2017 and 2019 in photovoltaics, with a plan to spend 1.4 billion kronor in total
• 50 million kronor annually on electricity storage research
• 10 million kronor on smart grids
• 1 billion kronor to renovate residential buildings and make them more energy efficient
• Subsidies and investment in green transportation such as electric cars and buses
• Increase funding of climate-related projects in developing countries, raising its budget to 500 million kronor

Science Alert also pointed out that most of the budget increase will be financed through tax increases on petrol and diesel fuel.

According to Science Alert, “The move comes after Sweden suffered extreme heatwaves last summer, and one of the worst bushfires in the country’s history. The government has committed to taking action to protect its citizens from the effects of climate change in the future.”

If Sweden’s clean energy plans sound a bit like a pipe dream, the country already receives about 78 percent of its electricity from nuclear power and hydroelectric power, which do not generate carbon emissions. (Although it appears that the Scandanavian country is favorable towards nuclear energy, it has no plans to replace its aging plants. By the looks of its current budget, Sweden is throwing most of its eggs into the solar basket.)

Additionally, it’s not so far-fetched for a country to run entirely on renewable energy sources.Earlier this year, Costa Rica announced that for roughly three months, 100 percent of the country’s electricity needs came from renewables. Hawaii is also poised to become the first U.S. state to adopt such a standard.

Perhaps in an effort to “lead by example,” as the Ecologist wrote, Sweden’s clean energy announcement comes a few months before the all important international climate talks in Paris (or COP21) this December.

“By setting ambitious goals, Sweden will take a leading role in the international negotiations on a new climate agreement,” the Swedish government said. “Only by doing so do we take our moral responsibility for future generations, while taking advantage of the job and innovation opportunities that the green transition brings.”