If you have chickens or any other livestock, I bet you’re familiar with the idea that deworming is beneficial for them (after all they eat off of the ground and seem to love drinking the least fresh water they can find 🤪)
…but did you know you and your family can benefit as well?
If you’ve ever noticed moods, energy or sleep are thrown off around the full moon – it could be because that’s when parasites are most active. This makes it a great time to support your body in flushing them out!
You can start up to a week before and continue up to a week after the full moon, or you can do just a couple days on either side of the full moon. I’d start with less and increase if you don’t see results.
What do we use and why?
We use Oregano Vitality and Clove Vitality essential oils (plus a couple of bonus options I’ll share at the end).
Oregano Vitality will help to break down the biofilm parasites hide in and support the body’s ability to restore balance by eliminating an abundance of undesirable parasites. Clove Vitality will kill eggs so that new parasites don’t immediately take their place.
If you’re doing the full two weeks, skip clove on days 1 & 2.
Recipe
2 drops oregano
1 drop clove
For adults:
Add oils to a clear veggie capsule and top with carrier oil
For kids:
Rub oils on the bottom of their feet at bedtime. Make sure they don’t touch their feet (it can sting if they touch their eyes after).
For animals:
Add oils to feed or water.
If adding to feed we soak it in water, skimmed milk or whey.
If adding to water we also add 1 spray of Thieves cleaner to emulsify (otherwise the oils float on top of the water).
PS If you’re wanting to take it to the next level, ParaFree soft gels are formulated with an advanced blend of some of the strongest essential oils studied for their cleansing abilities! And ParaGize is blended specifically to support your animals’ natural cleansing system. See my Parasite Cleanse and ParaFree highlights for more info.
This year, we’re moving into the New Year slowly, sticking with more family time and less busyness. We had a very cold Christmas for our area followed by the new year feeling like spring, with temps in the 60s! We’re still waiting on the lambs to be born and thinking we may use a marking harness next breeding season so we can have a better estimate of due dates! In 2021 we happened to witness breeding so we knew when to expect lambs but not this time.
We’re still making broth continuously to keep us all filled with the warm nourishment it provides daily, and we’re continuing afternoon mineral rich adrenal cocktails for more mental clarity and energy. Of course we’re also continuing to making sure to support our bodies with enough sleep, and making sure our home is filled with safe products so we’re not adding to our toxin load.
There are more announcements for the month below, including a new free homestead accounting course and a new resource to help you get started with your own website or transform your website if you need help improving it!
One last thought: Instead of focusing on resolutions or a word of the year, this year I’m leaning into obedience. I want to improve my heart in submitting and being refined to serve His purpose for me. I’m looking forward to using the Acceptance essential oil blend that is one of the free gifts this month. Using this blend will help me remember that I want to be more obedient, to be “light and salt.” Read more about obedience here.
XO Sarah
The Holistic Homestead Course
We welcomed a number of new students to our course in November and we’re temporarily closing the doors for the course while we focus on serving our current students and enjoying some rest and family downtime.
If you missed your chance to get in during our sale, sign up for the waitlist and be the first to know when we open the doors again! We plan to do this mid-January.
We hope to have ewe lambs ready to go to new homes sometime in March (assuming they are born this month!). If you’re interested in your own babydoll lambs, please sign up to be notified on the product page by clicking on the image below!
Want to do a deep dive on Homestead Accounting? We’re offering free course with lessons released once a month all year long in 2023.
Last year we made huge strides in our homestead finances and when I mentioned homestead accounting in my Instagram stories it sparked a lot of great conversation. This year we have even bigger plans for our homestead business and we’d love to take you along on the journey of setting your homestead up for financial success.
Peter is a CPA with 20 years experience, and we have 6 years of homestead/farm accounting experience.
We’ll be covering everything from planning ahead for your income and expenses to legal considerations and everything in between such as day-to-day bookkeeping, in a way that’s accessible to anyone.
Ready to learn about setting up or transforming your homestead finances this year? Head to our subscribe page and make sure to tick the homestead accounting box under interests. While you’re there you can also tick the checkbox for any of our offerings that interest you!
Have you ever wondered who made our website? I am asked multiple times every month by other homesteaders and small business owners, who want to start or improve their website. I have over 20 years experience with website development and we’ve now made it easier than ever for you to get started with a new step-by-step instructional page. Whether you’re looking for 100% DIY, a custom site, or somewhere in between – we’ve got you covered.
Have you gotten the Simplify Winter Collection of essential oil blends yet? No figuring out what to put in the diffuser every morning for amazing wintery scents, just pick one and done! These blends also make great perfumes.
Have you tried Thieves tea yet? We don’t make it often, but it’s a good option to remember if you ever start to feel a tickle in your throat. Warming, soothing and ever so slightly spicy, Thieves tea a such a simple wellness tool to have in your toolbox. The Thieves blend includes Clove, Lemon, Cinnamon Bark, Eucalyptus radiata, and Rosemary.
January Diffuser Blends
If you’re a current customer or brand partner, you can access our team diffuser calendar with a new blend for every day of the month. Let me know if you need help finding it!
January’s Gifts with Purchase
Swipe through below to see all the gifts and ideas of how to use them! The satin facial scrub is one that I use once a week all year round. It’s so refreshing for your skin!
There’s one supplement we give to every animal on our farm – cows, sheep, poultry, pig and even our guardian dogs!
We give it because of how much it provides in bioavailable minerals, which effect their ability to stay well and thrive in so many ways, especially during our current times of depleted soils making everything growing in them deficient.
So what is it? Kelp, specifically Thorvin kelp.
Here’s some info from the company’s website:
Thorvin is a 100% natural feed supplement for supporting optimal livestock health. It is nature’s most complete source of bioavailable minerals, vitamins, and beneficial phytonutrients. Thorvin works by filling in micronutrient deficiencies. Every ounce provides nutritional essentials, for just pennies a day.
The most nutrient‐dense kelp animal supplement on the market, Thorvin is harvested from the cleanest kelp beds on earth, and then dried at controlled low temperatures using geothermal energy to concentrate its rich nutrient profile.
Thorvin contains one‐third less moisture, 30% more iodine, and is the only kelp supplement with a guaranteed selenium claim. Whether you are a formulator or farmer, you get more nutrients per pound, and feed less. Thorvin makes good business sense!
Blend Thorvin into feed formulas, or feed it alone or mixed with salt. Naturally chelated, Thorvin is bioavailable and readily utilized; it only takes small amounts to deliver benefits to livestock at all stages of life.
What the Experts Say 🤓
“I have observed Thorvin improving dairy cow health and performance on farms for 20+ years.”
– Gary Zimmer, Biological Farming Expert & Dairy Farmer (WI)
“If you’re raising broilers, I sure hope you’re feeding Thorvin.”
– Kipp Jaszewski, Mountain Meadow Farm (VA)
“When I encounter pinkeye, hairy warts, ringworm, or breeding problems, my first question to farm clients is, ‘Are you feeding Thorvin?’”
– Paul Dettloff, D.V.M & Livestock Consultant (WI)
“I switched to Thorvin and saw an almost immediate difference in the quality of the milk – higher butterfat and higher production.”
– Kristie Miller, landofhavilahfarm.com (MI)
“We prefer Thorvin. Other kelps just don’t contain the same mineral levels.”
– Joel Salatin, Farmer & Author, Polyface Farms (VA)
Lately I’ve been contemplating how many chickens is the right number of chickens. I think the sweet spot lies somewhere between the low end being the amount of chickens your property can feed with on site food sources (like Joel Salatin mentions in the audio) and the high end being the number you need for your personal egg consumption and hatching to sustain your flock.
Chickens are the least sustainable of all the animals we raise. That is partly because we’ve been raising enough chickens to provide hatching eggs for many other families, not just what we need here.
We recently used the last of the eggs we had stored from spring and summer, and we’re feeding about 150 chickens right now since there’s not much for them to forage during winter – while only collecting between 2 and 6 eggs per day since they don’t lay many eggs during the dark short days of winter. 😅
We do have some on site resources to feed them, but not enough for this size of a flock and so we’ve been refining our flock and hatching egg offerings for a number of years, getting closer to the target of that sweet spot. (We could have gone much faster with reducing our flock but we love all the breeds we have and find it so hard to pick!)
For 2023 we are focusing more on Bresse and less on having a lot of breeds for rainbow hatching eggs. Bresse are becoming more popular since they are a meat breed but they still provide plenty of very large eggs, and those eggs are hatchable too so unlike most meat birds that you buy a chicks, each family that keeps Bresse has their own source of chicks for both chicken eggs and meat to sustain their flock!
Have you figured out what your sweet spot is?
About Our Family
Hi, we are Sarah & Peter Milcetic of Better with Thyme Farm! On our farm we focus on working with Creation and the wisdom of God’s design. Stewarding our land and animals for God's glory gives us hope and freedom for the present and eternity.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. -John 15:4
The Hub
Introducing the Holistic Homesteaders Hub! Our mission is to create a network of breeders, buyers and service providers dedicated to stewarding our animals for their optimal wellbeing, rearing our animals as close to nature as possible and incorporating natural remedies only as needed.
We love thyme. With seemingly endless varieties of this aromatic, delicious, medicinal, flowering evergreen ground cover we thought it was a perfect namesake for our farm. We especially loved creating a play on words that reflects hope, regeneration and abundance.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. -Romans 15:13
Homestead Cleanup!
Are you ready to make a shift toward a healthier home? I'd love to help you!
If we don't grow it ourselves, this is where we buy organic herbs & spices! The first time we smelled their garlic powder, we knew this company offers the best quality herbs!
Order your herbs through the link below and we get a 10% commission - with no extra cost to you! We can also help you create your own link so you can get commission too!
