Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Bach and Bamboo


I've been craving a new purse lately. The one I've been hauling around for the past couple years is looking pretty battered and bruised, not being exactly high-end to begin with, and constant employment has worn it down to the nubbins.

And it's spring - I want some "pretty" in my life. (Without spending $150!) So I drug out the fabric bins, and bought some bamboo handles, and started playing with newspaper templates. I think I've got something that'll work. I'll post more pictures when I'm done. Still need to pick up some interfacing to hold the inside cell-phone pocket.


Poultry Report

So far we've lost 8. Ding-Dang! These darn broilers seem to make a hobby of dying!

Here's what I did, and you can laugh if you want. They were all looking so distressed and unwell, and I'd frantically checked and double checked on feed and water and shavings and temperature, and everything was as it's "supposed" to be, but they were still lying around and panting and making horrible noises and I was having nightmare visions of losing the entire batch.

Then I remembered the Bach flower essences that I've been using on myself and my family, and that there's a bottle of something called 5-Flower, or Rescue Remedy for emergency-type situations. I've been using it on my hands and wrists after therapy sessions, and on the Spouse's headaches, and sometimes on clients when they've got unrelenting knots. But you can use it internally too, and now and then I'll take a few drops just to settle.

I took the chickens' waterers, refilled them, and put 5 drops of Rescue Remedy in each. Then I put them back in the brooder, told the chicks to LIVE, and tucked everyone in for the night.

The next morning there were no dead chicks - first time since we got them! I took the boards off and they all started running around very energetically, and nearly crawled up my arm to get at the chick-starter I was pouring into the trough.

Hurrah! We have had one die since, but it was one that had already gone paralyzed and couldn't move to the feed or water. Today, cross my legs and hope to fly, it looks like a grand day for chick un-mortality.

I swear, I dreamt about chickens all night. Who knew this chick-anery would be so fraught?

5 comments:

Constantine said...

What is Bach flower essence? It sounds pretty cool.

Do you still use Udo's oil at all?

Madcap said...

They are pretty cool. Edward Bach formulated 38 original essences from plants native to England, and they have various applications, mostly emotional. HOWEVER - the Holly and Beech combination made an enormous difference to me in my spring-time allergy fight. And as I mentioned the Rescue Remedy (a combination of 5 different essences) is really helpful with physical strain.

If you want to try some out, I'd suggest the Rescue Remedy, and I'd recommend using the Flower Essence Services brand. Due to various legal things, they call the same blend Five Flower Formula. I find that company more potent than the "Bach" brand.

Still using the Udo's oil, but I'm having trouble remembering it! Thanks for the reminder!

Also reading various books on brain wiring - currently Magnificent Mind At Any Age, but a while back I read The Brain That Changes Itself, and that was fascinating.

What are you reading these days?

CG said...

you did good! The whole thing is not so much WHAT to use EXACTLY but how to listen. I'm sure you find that in your work too, the how to hear it and if you can just hear it it will tell you how to fix it.

I haven't read those books but one of the subjects that fascinates me is how the brain responds to how one thinks -- one reason I look skeptically upon so-called "counseling" and psychoactive medication and the like. Think differently and your brain will chemical differently! The counseling seems to dwell on stuff and perpetuate the whole cycle. I have been thinking a batch of chickens might cure a lot of stuff for a lot of people. Maybe I'll post it! LOL! I'll see what our library has on that while I wait for the ones they ordered for me.

Madcap said...

I appreciate the encouragement, because this enterprise has got me a bit glum. We had a couple days with no deaths and then BAM - yesterday we lost FIVE. Keep trying to think what on earth it is that we're not doing right, or not giving them, or wondering if they're just determined to die. We've lost 14 so far, and Patch is out checking on the morning total.

I spend so much time thinking about thinking! The brain is so delicately balanced, and the concept of "free will" or choice of thought seems to be a confluence of the right mix of chemicals and inclination. The more I study about humans, the more I'm mystified about where the line is.

For instance, a few months ago a client of mine told me that she was on a natural progesterone supplement and that it had changed her life. So I went and researched it, and so many of the symptoms of progesterone deficiency fit for me that I ordered some of the creme and gave it a try. And holy crow! Suddenly I wasn't having anxiety attacks anymore, and I was so much more cheerful, and the chronic pain I'd been dealing with for a couple years decreased by about 50%. Even the skin on my heels, these calluses like coral reefs that I've had all my adult life, those cleared up too!

So, obviously my physical self and my chemical soup were having a huge effect on my emotional outlook. But I was still able to keep looking for answers. And that's the point where I wonder about - are there chemical imbalance states in which it's actually not possible for a person to continue to look for answers? I wasn't able to stop myself from having anxiety attacks with all the positive thinking and mental redirection I was trying. Could it be that there are places from which it's impossible to keep asking questions?

The Magnificent Mind book really has some great information about how over/underactive functioning of the different areas of the brain affects personality. And one of the other things I loved about it was that the author (a child psychologist) listed vitamin/herbal supplement therapies for each brain area as well as chemical, and gave the supplements precedence of place and definitely advocates their use. Those and exercise - getting that cardiovascular workout as much for the brain's sake as the rest of us.

Constantine said...

Pretty interesting to say the least, your Rescue Remedy.

As for Udo’s, I haven’t been using it for a bit, but plan to restart. I do take fish oil. The thing about Udo’s is that it has a combo of 3*6*9, which I’m not real sure about in terms of the differences they each make, but I believe fish oil is only Omega 3.

I’m reading “Secret Keepers” (fiction) by Mindy Friddle and “Jesus Interrupted” (nonfiction) by Bart Ehrman. Both are good reads and I suspect you’d like ‘em both.