Lessons from Lice

My eldest child is 15 and this is the first time I've ever had to deal with head lice in my home. I've learned some interesting lessons.

#1 - Being prepared means being prepared for ANYTHING - including ignorant neighbors who allow infested kids to wander the neighborhood!
Fortunately I happened to have tea tree oil and a lice comb. Funny thing was - when I bought the comb I thought "I'm not going to need this, but it's only 49 cents - and you never know"
#2 - Go with your gut. When the kid turned up here an hour before school got out the other day my gut said 'send her home, if she's out of school she doesn't belong here'. Shoulda' listened to my gut. Instead I decided to play nice... dumb idea.
#3 Good neighbors vs bad neighbors. We caught them quickly thanks to our other neighbor who thought we should know since they knew our daughter played with her.
#4 schools suck/privacy rights trump common sense even in a small town- they checked my 14YO but didn't feel compelled to let me know so I could check my 5YO even though they know the kid lives right next door and plays with my daughter.
#5 vigilance and persistence pay off - we caught it quickly, checked the whole family, and followed up every few hours. DD was the only one infected in a house of 6. I've found a few migrants on myself but I think they just escaped while I was cleaning DD. So far so good, but we'll follow up with a few daily washings for her and I using OTC lice shampoo. I'm a firm believer in natural remedies and this one seems to work exceptionally well, but I'm also not a gambler when it comes to infestations. They're too hard to get rid of once they're entrenched and I don't want to have to bomb the whole house (though I may still have to).

Suggestions for anyone interested -

Keep the following in your preps for lice treatment whether you think you're going to have to deal with it or not. Like the flu, when you need it - the store will be sold out because everyone is looking for it at once.
Olive oil (should have this anyway)
Tea Tree oil (also does quite a job on bug bites)
lice combs (plural - they're not very sturdy and we have thick hair, one day of use and the one we have is already getting weak teeth.) They're cheap so keep a few around. You can also use flea combs from the pet store, anything with close-set teeth will work but they need to be very close.
shower caps - so you can allow the hair to soak without having to sit in the tub to keep it contained. Again, they're cheap so have a few around. I didn't before this but you can be sure I will after! Poor kid has spent hours in the tub since yesterday!
OTC lice shampoo - can't find it around here today, everyone's out of stock. I'm going to call and see if I can get a prescription from the pediatrician. I doubt they'll ask to see her.
butterfly hair clips like they use at the hairdressers - dd has long hair and it's a PITA trying to be thorough when I can't pin up what I've already checked. This is something else I don't have in my preps but will be adding.[/list]

Building a preparedness/survival binder

This is far simpler than it might seem at first. The keys are consistency and organization. Basically whenever I find information that would be useful in an off-grid emergency I print it out and add it to my binder. There is tons of information on the web and I've saved many things to my computer and memory stick - but if the power fails I'll be out of luck without hard copies.

This is different from the information you should keep in your 72 hour kit. That would be personal information key to you and your family only. A preparedness binder would contain more general information and could be seen as a "Recipe book for survival". Right now mine consists of basic yet somewhat complex things like:

• how to make lye
• how to dry food without electricity
• oral rehydration solution recipe
  
• recipes for basic condiments and sauces
• recipes for household cleaners
• a list of local wild edibles with pictures
• vinegar making instructions

Other things that should be added will be printed and filed in the correct tabbed areas as I find them. I'm just starting this binder and much more will be added over time I'm sure. Ultimately the recipes will have a binder of their own as I tend to collect lots of them but for now those basic ones will stay in the prepping binder. I have books that cover many preparedness topics but it's handy to have all the basic info at my fingertips, in one convenient place.

Exhaustive list of area for prepping

(Disclaimer - making lists in no way implies that the author has the preps listed or advocates such thorough prepping. It's nearly impossible to be prepared for every occasion but it never hurts to think about it)
So being the OC/listmaking type I came up with this:


FOODS -
Grains - flours, oats, tortilla/taco shells
Sweeteners - sugars, honey, molasses, karo
Fats/Oils
Adjuncts/misc - (cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, salt, unflavored gelatin)
Pasta & Rice
Dairy & eggs
Legumes & Nuts
Meats & Fish
Fruits & Veggies
soups, broths/boullion
Spices & Flavors
Condiments
Water & Beverages (Includes coffee & tea, water treatment supplies)
Beer & Liquor
comfort foods (chips, cookies, candy, convenience foods)
Garden plants, seeds, trees
Fishing supplies
Guns & Ammo

NON_FOODS -
Medications, First Aid & Essential Oils
Vitamins & Supplements
Baby needs
Toilet
Cleaners & Soaps
Hygiene & Personal
Paper goods
Batteries
Pest control
Lights & Flames (flashlights, lamps, candles, lighters, matches, etc)
Pets
Office supplies (paper, pens, etc)

CLOTHING & SHELTER -
Shoes/Boots
Fabric, yarn
Sewing/Knitting supplies
Shelter (tents, tarps, etc)
Bedding & Towels

TOOLS -
Hand tools (hammers, saws, screwdrivers, etc)
Yard/Garden tools (Shovels, hoes, etc)
Kitchen tools
Communication/Time/Direction (radios, clocks, compass, maps, etc)
Ropes, Bungees, & Fasteners (nails, screws, etc)
Adhesives (tape, glue, caulk, etc)
Canning supplies
Gardening equipment
Candlemaking equipment
soapmaking equipment
Buckets, Dishpans, Washboards
Blades (Knives, Axes, etc)

TRANSPORTATION -
Auto
Auto supplies & Parts
Transport (non-auto) Bikes, wagons, etc

KNOWLEDGE -
"Survival" Binder - wish I could take credit for this idea but read about it elsewhere. I've been doing this general thing for a while. Oh well - another post later...
Books - prepping books, cookbooks, how-to books, etc
Educational (if you have children)

ENTERTAINMENT - books, games, music.

FUELS

BARTER/BENEVOLENCE GOODS

DEBT SERVICE - not that it's my last priority but it does cost money and is imperative to being prepared.

Coping with New England weather and busy schedules

I've been waiting nearly a month for that perfect combination of clear weather without a frost warning and an afternoon where DH is home and not working on other 'priority' projects. I think we may finally have reached that magic date though it's looking overcast I don't think it's going to rain.
One of the hard points to living in VT is not going stir crazy in May and planting too soon. I've talked to/ read posts from sooo many people who planted too soon this year and lost everything to a late frost. Gardening here is a precise dance of patience and perseverance.
The garden's been tilled for weeks and I've been working on weeding the perennials between wet spells. We've got all our new trees and bushes in the ground and the apple tree has had it's first treatment of Captan for the scab that has plagues it since we bought the house. It's always been an annoyance but we never bothered to try to harvest the fruit before so we just left it. This year we're hoping to get some fruit from it so we'll need to treat it weekly for a while to see how it does.
Michael got most of the yard mowed and weedwhacked last night while I weeded around the raspberries. Today we're hoping to get to the interior of the garden. I've spent alot of time these past few weeks pouring over gardening catalogs and "Carrots Love Tomatoes" to figure out the best planting plan. I was pleased with last years plan but, as I understand it, we're supposed to change the layout each year to keep pests from getting established. I'm thinking I may just flip the plan so everything that was in the first row is in the last and vice versa, which will work fine til I get to the middle of the garden.
I think the first of the rhubarb is about ready to be harvested and yesterday I noticed tiny berries forming on my strawberry plants. I've had fresh chives and oregano for weeks now.

Progress - the Catch 22

So I've been gone for several weeks again. I'm really back and forth with this blog. I started it as a way to journal the changes our family is going through, as a reminder to us and as an inspiration to anyone who might come across it sometime down the road. What I find is that the more I 'do' the less I 'write'. It reminds me of the old saying "Those who can-do; those who can't-teach". I'm so busy doing that I don't have time to sit and write about it. On the other hand. my mind sometimes gets so full of ideas that I can't slow down long enough to get it all out in writing, and sometimes, like this afternoon, I just have to write it down to get it out of my head.
The past several weeks have seen many small changes, much like the weeks before; changes so subtle that those who see us regularly won't notice them; but those who haven't seen us in a while notice quickly that 'somethings different' but they just can't put their finger on it.
I keep the TV and radio off most of the day now - I no longer feel the need to have constant noise coming into my life. There's very little of true value to be heard or seen these days over the public airwaves. Quite honestly I wonder now if there ever WAS anything of true value in these places. I love our local Christian radio station but when compared to the direct study of Gods word or singing a well loved hymn - there's no comparison. My senses are freed up to hear the birds singing or the children playing, my own music sweeps into my mind, favorite tunes that are ingrained in my mind.

One thought that people have is "what about the news? - How do you get the important news of the day" My answer is simply another question - "What constitutes important news of the day?" Swine flue? Wall Street? What the 'first dog' is doing? How many kids Brad and Angelina have? I'm more empathetic than most people so what I say next may sound harsh but it's true. It's unreasonable for me to beat myself up about starving orphans in Bangladesh or sex slaves on the other side of the globe when I don't even know my next door neighbors. Think about the hypocrisy of that. I care about people who I'll never meet but don't care about those I see every day?! That is the problem with this modern world. We try to tackle the huge issues rather than dealing with the mundane everyday problems. If we would each deal with the issues around us we wouldn't have global problems. It's a waste of time and resources for reporters from New York to fly to China to cover a natural disaster there - not to mention they are then in the way of the people who are actually trying to do something about it. It's not that I don't care about the plight of these people, but I can only affect so many lives and I can't spend my time wringing my hands over things I can't change - that takes my hands away from effecting change around me.

One aspect that has always frustrated me in my own life was hushing children to hear the TV or radio, etc. - it's what I was raised with though so it came as second nature to me, even though I distincly remember yelling at my dad for doing it to me - I do the same thing to my kids. I feel like I'm overcoming that... finally, now that half of my kids are nearly grown. It's not completely too late though and I see our relationships changing day by day in small ways. Each change is intertwined with another; less stress means less interest in 'relaxing' or 'escaping' into TV or computers or whatever, less time on those things means more time with the kids, more time with the kids means less stress because they aren't fighting for our attention. It just keeps going.

So I'll try to be better about updating here but I just can't do that at the expense of improving my families situation.

The Prepared Homeschool

We work on a tight budget and I struggle to pull my materials together from one year to the next. Keep it basic -"reading, writing, and 'rithmetic." You can teach history and science in the process of teaching these subjects. These are the bare basic books I would suggest everyone have on hand to instruct a wide variety of ages.

• A Bible - as a Christian this is the single most important text you can own. Use for reading, copywork and basic moral instruction. Even if you're not a Christian it should be considered a piece of classic literature

• Dictionaries - at least two and preferably more - 1 Children's picture dictionary, 1 standard Websters dictionary. A collegiate dictionary and student dictionary would be useful as well. Use for vocabulary, spelling, copywork.

• The "What your __ Grader Should Know series" by E D Hirsch. - This is a great overview of all the major subject areas. There are enough suggestions in each of these books to build your own curriculum on. I have been able to use the Kindegarten edition to talk with my 5 year old about many topics.
  

• A compendium of the founding documents. - These can be printed out from a variety of sources. A bound copy would be nicer but you can get the same information for free on the web. Every American should memorize as much of these documents as possible.

• If you can find them free or cheap, and have the space to store them, I would add vintage Readers Digests and National Geographic magazines/maps.
  

If I had a little more money and could locate one I would add an Encyclopedia printed prior to 1960. (That is my arbitrary date but was selected to try to avoid revisionist history).

As long as society doesn't completely crumble you should have ready access to local libraries to supplement you children's reading. If you are concerned with TEOTWAWKI then I would add some classic novels and field guides for birds, trees, plants, etc. (please note that these are ONLY books recommended for homeschooling, my full booklist includes many other titles and subjects)

Materials to have on hand
(as much of each as you can comfortably store in a small area)

BARE MINIMUM - Pens, Pencils, erasers, crayons, paper, scissors, glue, ruler. You can do just about anything with these few items. Additionally there are amazing sales on them every fall. I stock up when I can get them from a penny to a quarter per package, even if it means an extra trip to the store. Staples allows anyone with a teachers reward card to buy up to 25 of each of these items. In my state homeschoolers can get a card by submitting a copy of your enrollment letter to the store with your application (that is the letter from the Dept of Ed. indicating that you are homeschooling). You just need to ask your local store.

A frequent good source of notepads (and sometimes desk calendars) is local printers. Call around and see if they have any. When I used to work in an office and had to run to the printers I'd look to see what they had. Usually there's a table by the receptionist desk with a pile of freebies on it. I've never had anyone question me about it. Also check your local newspaper for end cuts of newsprint. These are the end of the roll that's left after a printing. The paper is excellent for childrens art, banners, wrapping stuff in, etc. Our paper sells them by the pound. I think the last time I bought one it was under $5 and was enough to last a year or more.

THINGS TO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR - more crayons, markers, colored pencils - ask on Freecycle or check at yard sales. Rubber bands can be had by the handful at the post office here in town. I suspect there are also great sources of free paper clips as well. Even if you have to purchase a small container of each. A dollars worth of each will last you for years.

compass, protractor, stapler, staples, hole punch - handy to have around but used infrequently. Can purchase all of these for under $10 total. I keep them in a small shoebox size tote tucked away on a shelf so I can always find them. If your children reach an age where they're using them on a regular basis purchase an extra set for them. I also keep a few solar calcuators around (all found for free or purchased on clearance).

Penmanship paper is invaluable if you have little ones just learning to write. I pick up partial pads at yard sales every summer for a quarter each. My daughter goes through tons of it.
Index cards - keep a few hundred around. These are great for making your own flash cards and are an invaluable tool for Jr High age kids working on their first research papers and book reports.

Extra bonuses - Paints, paintbrushes, modeling clay - paint brushes can be found at most dollar stores, paints go on sale in the fall with school supplies - they're a bit harder to find but they are out there. I found my pster paints at Rite-Aid on a buy one get two free sale. Walmart carries cheap modeling clay in they crayon aisle - it's been 97 cents a box for the last 3 years. I buy at least 4 boxes.

The most important way to prepared to homeschool on your own is to learn as much as you can. You can only teach your children what you know. Educate yourself on a wide variety of subjects. If you want your kids to learn American History then you need to know it. It's not impossible to teach without the knowledge but it's not enjoyable for any of you. I'm no good at science but even I can manage a field guide to birds, trees, etc. I've been amazed to realize how much I actually do know about basic science. I can identify local wildlife and fauna. I can grow plants and do simple science experiements. Books are handy but use what you already know and learn along with your kids.

Dispensing with the roosters

We got rid of our roosters yesterday... the hard way (Warning, some slightly gross description to follow). I love my hens but the roosters have been a nuisance since we realized they WERE roosters. We did not order roosters. The feed store messed up.

A friend had offered to kill them for us. I said "If you can catch them, you can have them." She said "Bring them down and I will". So we were at a bit of an impasse because I can't corner the little buggers. Well her husband came up yesterday to get some eggs and he got to talking with DH. The roosters had started getting slightly aggressive last fall and have gotten a bit worse over the winter. They're not horrible but they can be territorial and they chase the little ones. Well one of them went after the baby yesterday 'for the last time' as DH puts it.

The friend went home and got his son, pistol, and a couple pocket knives and came back. By the time I got home from picking up #1 son they had already dispensed with two of the roosters and were chasing the last one around the yard. Fortunately I had the baby and the dog with me. I didn't know what they were doing, so when I pulled in I let the dog out of the car. DH wanted him him in the house so we dragged him inside and went back to chasing the rooster. Finally the friends son picked up a walking stick while we all circled the rooster. He clubbed it once over the head and it staggered then ran off and hid under a tree. Our friend ended up shooting it.

We've always agreed that the children should see slaughtering meat animals as a normal part of life so we agreed not to hide it from them. My daughter was playing with her new friend in the yard and wasn't the least bit interested in what the guys were doing til after it was all done. The 2 year old was a bit more interested. He laughed when the last one started flopping around the yard, but changed his tune a bit when he realized it was dead. It was his first confrontation with death and you could see a bit of confusion in his eyes. He hung pretty close to me for about 10 minutes and didn't want to go to dad. He also wouldn't take his eyes off that rooster, even when they cut it's head off.

I've never seen a chicken killed before but pretty much knew what to expect. They continue to flap around for a couple minutes after they're dead. I wasn't particularly grossed out til they finished ripping the head off it, something about that step just made my stomach churn a bit. That split second where it went from being a living thing to a dead one. I know it was dead before the head was cut off but in my mind it just didn't click til then.

I think I could now deal with eating my own meat birds. I wanted to get past that first slaughter before I committed to it. We're going to stick with laying hens this year but I think we'll be talking about meat birds next year.