Sometimes it is just nice to use what nature provides to help us heal, at least when we are talking about minor cuts, scratches and burns etc. Below is a tutorial from ‘One Good Thing By Jillee’, which hows how to make not one, but four natural healing salves.
There is an all purpose healing salve, an anti-allergy (with natural anti-histamine properties), an aches & pains salve and finally an natural anti-ageing salve.
4 All Natural, All Purpose Healing Salve Recipes
Chia seeds have remarkable nutritional value, they are one of the very few foods that contain the full protein profile; this means you can get all the protein you need from just chia seeds alone. Usually you would need to combine two or more protein sources over several days to get all the vital amino acids require for health.
It’s not only the protein which makes chia seeds special, they are also full of omega 3 oils, iron, antioxidants, fiber and magnesium and potassium, and many other important vitamins. In short – chia seeds are a nutritional powerhouse!
Chia seeds are easy to prepare and as they don’t really taste of anything, they can by added to any meal to improve its nutritional value. Chia seeds store well, and take up hardly any space in the cupboard/pantry. When you take all of the above into account, I think it’s an excellent idea for preppers to start storing chia seeds, to add a much needed nutritional boost to all the processed and canned food which is typically stored. You can read more about the benefits of chia seeds below.
Chia Seeds: A Tiny Powerhouse For Sustainability
Firstly, before the snake bite first aid and treatment advice, brownie points for anyone who can identify the snake species AND sub-species…
It’s a fact – most people who get bitten by snakes are bitten because of their ignorance or stupidity. They were either not taking the appropriate precautions in snake country, or they were plain stupid and picked up an unidentified snake. In fact one of the most common snake bite victims are drunk people who stumble across a snake and try messing around with it. That said, even the most experienced outdoors person can, and do, get bitten by snakes.
Regardless of why you got bitten, the questions is, what should you do?
Well firstly you should know that the vast majority of snakes worldwide are non-venomous, BUT, if you cannot identify the snake that bite you, you should assume it was venomous and follow the snake bite first aid and treatment advice below. You should also pay attention to the list of things you should not do; there are a lot of myths about what to do when bitten by a snake, and some of these can get you into even more trouble.
Snakebite Symptoms And First Aid Advice
Firstly, let me tell you, blisters are serious business! You should never ignore that hotspot you feel in your boot, take action right away and get a band-aid or some improvised cushioning on the to stop the rubbing. I did a 35 mile day hike once in some new boots (big mistake!), and I ignored the hotspots and blisters; it got to a point at around 25 miles that I knew I was in trouble, but I also knew that if I took off my boots and saw the damage, I probably wouldn’t continue. Anyway the long and short of it is – I made it home, but my feet were a mess and I couldn’t walk for two days afterwards… They were so bad, they took weeks to heal completely.
If you are bugging-out or in a survival situation, not being able to walk for two days could kill you… Blisters caused by friction from boots and packs are entirely preventable; as soon as you feel discomfort, stop and treat.
Now with blisters themselves, everyone has an opinion on how to treat them…. But medically who is right and who is wrong? Is the best blister treatment to leave it alone, or to pop it? Does it depend on what kind of blister it is, for example a friction blister or a blister from a burn? Does it matter where the blister is located on your body? Thankfully the Survival Doctor aka James Hubbard, MD, MPH has written a post on his website on just this topic. Check out Dr James’ thoughts below.
Blisters – To Pop Or Not To Pop?
Essential oils are so versatile; they have so many health, household and medicinal uses. We have done several posts in the past about using essential oils for various things, like first aid, repelling insects and even a post about utilizing essential oils in SHTF scenarios, and post SHTF survival…
Whilst essential oils are expensive to buy, they are pretty cheap (in comparison) to make at home. You will need to either make or buy an essential oil distilling still (the most popular way of extracting oils from plants), but once that is made or purchased, you only have to cover the cost of the plants used to make your oils; if you grow your own, you can make them for free.
Below is an easy to follow tutorial on how to make your own essential oils from plants using distillation. I also recommend you check out the book below: Making Plant Medicine by Richo Cech; the book shows how to make a whole manner of natural medicines from plants, including tinctures, essential oils, syrups, salves and more…
How To Make Your Own Essential Oils From Plants
Making Plant Medicine by Richo Cech
The Master Tonic is a natural remedy for all manner of illnesses and infections. It is most commonly used to treat colds and flu, but as it is anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial it is useful in the treatment of many common illnesses and viruses. It can also be taken daily to ward off illness and maintain health.
Even though it is a natural remedy, the Master Tonic will knock your socks off! It is powerful, potent stuff, with garlic, horseradish, ginger and pepper amongst the fresh active ingredients. You can make and bottle a batch in one go, as it also stores well, apparently indefinitely. Check out the recipe and tutorial below. A powerful and natural alternative to what you can get at the pharmacy.
How To Make The ‘Master Tonic’ Natural Remedy (Recipe)
We’ve been fortunate enough not have had bed bugs, but I have read enough about them to know they are nasty… Once you are infested, they are incredibly difficult to irradiate.
Bed bugs are nocturnal, they hide in bedding, furniture and other dark places during the day. They come out and feed on you whilst you are sleeping and they can cause itchy bumps and welts, with some people having quite severe reactions to bed bug bites. As with most things – prevention is better than the cure; it is easier to keep them out, then get them out once they are in. Check out the link below to find out more on identifying bed bugs and how to prevent and kill bed bugs, either DIY or via a bed bug extermination service.
When I started Knowledge Weighs Nothing, one of the things I decided to do was to track down lots of alternative uses for common household products; I have found that there are some truly versatile products such as baking soda, vinegar, coconut oil, salt and now Alka-Seltzer! These items have so many alternative health, beauty, household and gardening uses, I recommend that all preppers and homesteader should have some stored.
Apart from easing upset stomachs and hangovers, some of Alka-Seltzer’s other uses include: various cleaning uses, unblocking sinks, catching fish and laundry whitening. Check out the other uses and HOW to use it for each, below.
17 Alternative Uses for Alka-Seltzer
I often get asked about what diabetics should do in survival or SHTF situations… If you are prepping and getting caught up with all the if, buts and hows, imagine for a moment, how much more difficult it would be if you or a family member had a illness or condition which requires regular treatment.
I don’t have all the answers, but below is a post detailing the symptoms of diabetic shock, and how to treat it in the field. It is especially important to know the symptoms as one of the main one is confusion, so the affected person might not be able to say – hey I am diabetic and going into shock.
Field Treatment of Diabetic Shock
(Photo from: Outdoor Self Reliance)
This is a follow up post to: Some Great Home Remedies For Sunburn which I did a few days back. Several people asked for homemade sunscreen recipe, so here it is!
I’ll be honest, we generally buy sunscreen, but two things bother me about it – one, it’s expensive and two, have you ever tried to read the list of ingredients? There are dozens of chemicals, preservatives and fragrances.
The recipe below says to use diaper rash cream for the zinc oxide, you can do this, although there are additional chemicals in the diaper rash cream. An alternative would be to buy pure powdered zinc oxide, like: 1lb Nature’s Oil 100% Pure Zinc Oxide which you can purchase for less than $6. You could make a huge amount of sunscreen with this 1lb bag of zinc oxide. Make sure you adjust the percentage of zinc oxide to get the required sun factor.
How To Make Homemade SPF 30 Sunscreen
(Photo from: One Good Thing From Jillee)
