Stone breakers

                                                         Chanca Piedra- herb "gale of the wind"

When the doctor gave us the results of my husbands colonoscopy, the good news, no cancer, all test normal, all biopsy normal. But some narrowing of his esophagus possible allergy. So the eoe was given an Rx of an allergy spray. But the side effects of the Rx were terrible and not worth continuing. 

So we were back to square one. Why was he not hungry and in pain. His sister thought he might have gallstones (no history of gall but kidney in his tree) but not enough showed up on the scans for the doctor to worry about. So then what? The doctor said eat more fiber, take some peppermint oil and get some exercise.

I decided other people must be having this same issue and I was right. Gallstone type of attacks but too small for the doctors to do anything about it. So I dove into the rabbit hole and discovered after 3 days of reading everything I could, stonebreaker supplement/herb came up. It is an OTC you can get for breaking gall and kidney stones. Does it work? Yes, he is no longer having pain in that region, no nausea, he is hungry again and has his energy back. His stools are normal again and he is not running to the bathroom all the time. So I think his sister was right gallstones just too small for the doctors to deal with. And that is ok.  This stuff works. I took it first to make sure it had no side effects on me before letting him take it.

 You should never take multiple herb supplements along with other meds or prescriptions. I think that is where people go wrong. They are taking all kinds of mood pills, prescriptions and supplements at the same time. But many things counteract with others. You have to read up on what you take and what you add to your body -whether food or herb. And read every part of the paper you get from your pharmacy about what you are taking. Side effects are put there for a reason. 

I am looking forward to when my husband does not need this supplement and can return to normal again. He is only 46 and way too young to have these problems. But now he is feeling better again. 

Weenter Break

This is my youngest and largest cat Frosty. He had the right idea these few cold weeks, naps and lots of them. I was busy keeping my poultry from freezing. I raised their roost bar to 3 feet above the floor of the coop, tons of straw and shavings, kept regular light bulbs on 24/7. I hang several chains on each light to prevent falls on to the straw. That has worked for years with several new lights to replace the old dusty spidery non working ones. All my chicks hatched under their hens in this artic freeze and I have very early chicks for this new year. 

The snow melted into ice then to mud. February mud is weird. It is very slippery as the ground is still frozen under the dirt. So boots and cleats in the mud for now. We have a warm up in the 50's here and that means duck puddles abound. We have rain a snow predicted by next week again. So I am potting up seedlings and getting ready for spring planting of young starts. Broccoli, peppers, rosemary, celery, lisianthus and some carrots. I am looking forward to getting things growing again.

 

Balls are Back!

 

Your local stores should now have canning jars again. These were spotted at a local big box store. The prices are what they were originally before 2020 so that is nice. Still hard to find rings and flats for future canning but at least the jars come with.