The Kitchen

That is the listing picture of the kitchen. It is the one I pointed out the smashed stove top and carpeted floor. 

The day I bought the house Gus took off of work in the afternoon and started tearing out the carpet in the house. This is the only room I got picture of while the carpet was being removed. Due to my allergies I was unable to help with the project but Gus did get a friend or two to help him.

When the 4 loads of carpet were taken to the dump we found out that all together the carpet weighed a little over ONE TON. You read that right. One ton of carpet. This is most of the pile.

Back to the kitchen though. The carpet in the kitchen was glued down. Oh joy.

We sanded down the Kitchen and Breakfast Nook floors. Unfortunately the Kitchen floor was not salvageable. The Breakfast Nook floor was, but that is another story. 

Here Gus is vacuuming after sanding.

We decided to lay laminate flooring in the kitchen. We found some on sale at Menards.

So here is the finished product...sort of. I have not painted the kitchen yet. I would like to do so this summer. We will see if I have enough time with all the other projects going on.

Looks pretty snazzy, doesn't it? 

We Bought a Foreclosure

The house we bought was a foreclosure. It was empty for at least 2 1/2 years. The neighbors told us that the owners got a job down south of us and moved. They tried renting and it did not work out. They did some work on the house to try to sell it but gave up and let the bank have it. Maybe they gave up because of the vandalism?

You read that right: Vandalism. The house had been broken into and vandalized. All glass fixtures and appliances (including the stove) were smashed. Some window had been smashed. Bannister's were broken and beaten apart. A few window trim and sashes were chipped and gouged. Some things had graffiti on it. One wall had an inappropriate word written on it in plaster mud! In the living room we found coils of nails for nail guns stuck to the ceiling using plaster mud. The dining room had a hole smashed in one wall.

If you look closely you can see the carpet

in the kitchen and the smashed

stove top.

The house reeked of cat urine. The third floor was the worst smelling area of the house. One room was very bad. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not a cat fan, I don't like animals in the house, and I am very allergic to cats. The carpet would have to go...ALL. OF. IT.

The worst room. I really think paint was peeling

from the cat urine smell!

 There was carpet from the 3rd floor all the way to the bottom of the basement steps! One bathroom had carpet going into the bathroom, stopping about 2 feet in. The dining room and breakfast nook were carpeted. Worse than all of that? The KITCHEN had carpet.

Now you can see how we had our work cut out for us. The next house posts will be about the fixing-up!

The House

Life has a way of becoming very busy! One of the things that has made our life busy is The House. Just before we were married I bought a fixer-upper. I got a GREAT deal on it! It has 3 floors and a basement! There is a fireplace, a completely enclosed back yard, 2 working bathrooms, and 2 more we could install (all the hook ups are there!).

The listing showed this photo of the front yard from a slight side view.

The full view of the front from the street.

The back door. This is our main door that we use.

This is a cheerier picture. The lights were on and we were inside working on it...well, I wasn't at this moment because I took the photo. 

We have done a lot of work on the house so far. Many of my friends and family have been wanting to see photos of the house. I tell them to wait for the blog posts. Well, they are coming. I will be working hard in these next couple weeks to post all that we have been doing.

Kidney Stones

(Note: I am deleting an old homeschool blog of mine and decided that this is the only post I want to save from it.)

I am often looking up natural remedies for my friends. Recently I found myself looking up information on natural treatment and prevention of kidney stones. I decided that when I look things up for people I will make a report up and use it for my blog. I love learning and this is my “Home School on the Range.”

Kidney stones are solid pieces of material (or mass) found in urine. Not all kidney stones are alike. They can be made up of different types of matter.

The most common type of kidney stone starts as excess calcium. Calcium that is not used by the bones and muscles is found in the kidneys. Now, most people’s system just flushes this calcium from their body. However, in some people the calcium stays in their kidneys and other waste products join with it to form a stone. One common combination is called calcium oxalate.

An infection in the urinary system can cause struvite stones containing magnesium (a mineral) and ammonia (a waste product). When your urine contains too much acid a uric acid stone is more likely to form.

The rarest stone is the cystine stone.  These stones are caused by a genetic disease called Cystinuria. Cystinuria causes one of the building blocks of protein (an amino acid) that make up our nerves, muscles, and other body matter to build up in the urine and form a stone. This is a kidney stone that is not addressed in this report.

Kidney stones vary in size from as tiny as a grain of sand to as large as a pearl. Some have been found to be as big as golf balls. They are not uniform in size. Stones can be jagged or smooth and are often a yellow or brown in color.

When a stone starts to move from the kidney down through the tubes that empty urine into the bladder (ureters) it can block the flow of urine out of the kidneys. This causes the kidney(s) to swell and cause severe pain.

(Note: The above information was found on many websites found through a general Google search.)

There are many natural things that you can try to prevent or dissolve kidney stones. I am not a medical professional and look into natural treatments on my own. I am not paid for this information and am not responsible for what you do with the following information. If you decide to try anything listed below I advise you to tell your medical practitioner. This is up to you to do.

Prevention

The most interesting thing that I found is that drinking water cuts down the occurrence¹ of kidney stones by 2%, tea cuts the occurrence by 8%, and a daily cup or two of coffee reduces risk by 10%.² Remember that coffee can cause jitters, irritability, insomnia and addiction.³

Horsetail, a plant with reed-like shoots, has also been suggested as a treatment for kidney stones.³ Use as a decoction, tincture, or powder internally (I may post on how to do those at a later time).⁴

Nettle leaf is a great herb used for many things and it seems it helps prevent the formation of kidney stones as well.  Nettle can be used in conjunction with Horsetail, as well as Marshmallow (the plant, not the food) and Cornsilk.⁵ Try a tincture or an infusion.

Lastly, I find that pumpkin seed is recommended for the prevention of stones.^3  6 Commision E (Germany’s version of a natural FDA) recommends 10 grams of pumpkin seeds a day. That is approximately one-third of an ounce, or a handful a day. You can also take the seed oil in a dose of 480 milligrams per day.⁶

One recommendation I found is to reduce your intake of the types of food that may add to your type of kidney stone. If you generally get uric acid stones then you may want to eat less meat, which breaks down to make uric acid. If you are prone to calcium oxalate stones you may want to limit foods high in oxalate, such as beets, spinach, chocolate, rhubarb, bran, peanuts, strawberries and more⁷. Look up food high in oxalate for more foods high in oxalates. You should also reduce your intakes of soft drinks.¹

Treatments: Nutrients

Calcium, Magnesium (200-300 mg taken with meals), vitamin B6 (50-100 mg daily), Glucosamine sulfate and Chrondroitin sulfate may help reduce the risk of kidney stones.¹ You may think that calcium would make the stones more likely to occur. I do not understand the whole concept yet, but it seems to be along the lines of the homeopathic thinking of like treats like.

Treatment

Try one-half of a fresh lemon in 8 ounces of water every one-half hour to hour until pain subsides. Add in 1,000 mg of Vitamin C per hour. (Preventative: Drink one-half of a lemon in a glass of warm water first thing every morning.)⁸ Doing this along with certain kidney combinations (in Treatment: Herbs) should take somewhere between 5-14 hours to dissolve the stone(s).

Treatment: Kidney Combinations ⁹

There are two recommended herbal Kidney Combinations you could try as a decoction or infusion (both drank like a tea).

Combination 1

Juniper Berries, Parsley, Uva Ursi leaves, Dandelion Root and Chamomile

Combination 2

Juniper Berries, Parsley, Uva Ursi, Marshmallow, Lobelia, Ginger, Goldenseal

Both combinations act as diuretics, helping to cleanse, heal and normalize the kidneys, as well as dissolve kidney stones.

Treatment: Herbs

This is a list of herbs that have been helpful in treating kidney stones.

Birch Bark (Infusion, Decoction, Tincture) ¹⁰

Burdock (Decoction, Tincture) ¹¹

Corn silk (Infusion, Tincture) ¹²

Dandelion (Decoction) ¹³

Gravel Root (Decoction, Powder, Tincture) ¹⁴

Marshmallow (Infusion, Decoction, Tincture) ¹⁵

Nettle Leaf (Infusion, Tincture) ⁵

Wild Carrot ¹⁶

Bilberry ¹⁶

Goldenrod ¹⁶

Bearberry ¹⁶

Chamomile ¹⁶

Couch Grass ¹⁶

Passion Flower Herb ¹⁶

Echinacea ¹⁷

Licorice Root ¹⁷

Parsley ¹⁷

Uva Ursi ¹⁷

Yarrow ¹⁷

Red Raspberry Leaf ¹⁷

Cayenne ¹⁷

Aloe Vera (Juice) ¹⁷

Footnotes

 ¹The Natural Pharmacy by Skye Lininger, D.C. (Editor in Chief), Jonathan Wright, M.D., Steve Austin, M.D., Donald Brown, N.D., Alan Gaby, M.D.; page 84

²The New Healing Herbs by Michael Castleman; page 168

³ The New Healing Herbs by Michael Castleman; page 507

⁴ Practical Herbalism by Philip Ftitchey, MH, ND, CNHP; page 187

⁵ Practical Herbalism by Philip Ftitchey, MH, ND, CNHP; page 225

⁶The New Healing Herbs by Michael Castleman; page 380

⁷The Natural Pharmacy by Skye Lininger, D.C. (Editor in Chief), Jonathan Wright, M.D., Steve Austin, M.D., Donald Brown, N.D., Alan Gaby, M.D.; page 83

⁸The How to Herb Book by Velma J. Keith and Monteen Gordon; page 216

⁹The How to Herb Book by Velma J. Keith and Monteen Gordon; page 84

¹⁰ Practical Herbalism by Philip Ftitchey, MH, ND, CNHP; page 93

¹¹ Practical Herbalism by Philip Ftitchey, MH, ND, CNHP; page 112

¹² Practical Herbalism by Philip Ftitchey, MH, ND, CNHP; page 137

¹³ Practical Herbalism by Philip Ftitchey, MH, ND, CNHP; page 140

¹⁴ Practical Herbalism by Philip Ftitchey, MH, ND, CNHP; page 170

¹⁵ Practical Herbalism by Philip Ftitchey, MH, ND, CNHP; page 212

¹⁶ The Complete Herbal Tutor by Anne McIntyre; page 206

¹⁷The How to Herb Book by Velma J. Keith and Monteen Gordon; page 215