Homemade Feminine Pads

Well since I did a post on the family cloth I thought I should go ahead a do one on  homemade feminine pads. Once again some of you may think yuck and that there would be no way, but just think about it, and the money you would save. Not only the money you would save but you wouldn't have to worry about having to store big bulky packages of pads every where or worry about not having them when you need them, or running out. You also don't have to worry about the harsh chemicals that are in store bought pads.

They are very simple to make you can go here to get a pattern.

 

I  copied the pattern onto some cardboard. 

 

cut them out.

 

Place on your fabric then I use a sharpie to trace around the patten.

 

Cut them out.

 

This is what you should have one top and two bottom pieces.

 

This is an optional step. I had some fabric (not real sure what it is) that was covering the boat but ripped so we had to take it off I took the cover and washed it. It is water resistant so I used some on the bottom of the pads. So if you use a water resistant fabric cut two bottom halves.

 

 

Place the resistant fabric on the underside of the two bottom pieces and iron over a small fold on the edge.

 

stitch these down I used a zig zag stitch.

 

Then set the two bottoms on the top

 

pin in place.

 

Sew around the edges.

 

Then turn inside out.

 

Iron down and sew around the edges of the turned out pad.

 

For the inside take two squares of fabric sew together and turn inside out and run a few seams on the inside kind of like quilting it. (Sorry it is kind of hard to see in the picture)

 

Fold this in to thirds

And insert into the pad.

 

You can use Velcro or snaps on the wings.  This one I just stitched a piece of Velcro on the wings.

 

On this one I used snaps.

 

 

After it is all done it can fold up like this. They are very simple to make.

 

You can use them for pantie liners , just don't put in the insert.

 

There are a couple things you can do with them after you use them. Some people have a bucket of water that they put them in after they are used, or you can put them straight  into a bucket and cover with a cloth. To wash if you put them in the water just drain the water and throw in the washer, with the dry bucket when you get ready to wash add some water and rinse then throw in the washer. I haven't used the water method, I would think the water would get smelly so I have a small bucket that I cover with a small towel to put them in I pull out the insert this way it all gets air I haven't had a problem with the smell but I do keep them washed up at least every other day.

 

So do you think this is something you would do? I was  a little sceptical at first but I have to say I like them a lot better and they are more comfortable then the store bought pads.

 

 

Meet Gomer

This is Gomer. Yesterday I talked a little about our marker bull  well this is him.We bought him at the sale barn just for this job, we will keep him until fall then he will go into the freezer. The thing on his head is a chin ball marker it has green paint in it. and the thing around his front is a skirt. When a cow comes into heat Gomer will try to ride her, and in the process will get green paint all over her so this way we know she is ready to be bred. The skirt keeps him from breding her. ( I know take all the fun away lol). He is quite the ladies man, yesterday he was in with the neighbors cows trying to court them.

 

We will keep him in with the cows for a month, time for all the cows to cycle and be bred. Afterwards we will turn a clean up bull out with the cows to breed what was missed. We can take the dates that we AIed and calculate when the calves will be born in the spring. In The fall when we wean the calves off the mama cows we will preg. check to make sure we have no open cows ( not pregnant) and if they are open we will sell them. No since in feeding a cow that isn't going to throw a calve in the spring. A lot of people will just turn a few bulls out with the cows to breed but the way we do it we have a little more control over when we calve and we know who the sire is for each calf. We can also bred milk stock to my milk cow, and hopfully one of these days she will give me a heifer instead of all the little bulls she has thrown the last few years. So any way this is how we breed our cows.

Week 22 Food Storage Challenge

10 Lbs Powder Milk / Feminine Products

10 lbs Powder Milk try to buy this in bulk it is cheaper that way. You may want to put it in air tight containers when you get it home.

Feminine Products When you store these you need to have them in something to keep critters out of them. Get enough for all the women of the home and if you have preteen girls get some for them. You can also make your own pads, learn how here. Even if you just store the stuff to make them then you will not need to worry about running out. If you are going to make your own you need to store some Flannel, thread and snaps or Velcro.

Keep putting back water.

Add some more to your money stash.

The action Item for this month is to learn where all your shut offs. You need to know how to turn the water electric and gas or propane off in an emergency.

　

The item for this month is fuel.

You should have a little extra on hand especially if you have a generator. Gas prices are going down a little, so now would be the time to get some extra. Be very careful when you store extra gas. If at all possible you should keep it in an outbuilding, because there will be fumes from it. When you store gas for an extended period of time you need to add a fuel stabilizer to it and if you can try to rotate it pretty often. You should never let you fuel levels in our vehicles get below ½ a tank ( This is something I so need to work on I hate putting in fuel so I wait until the last minute) I am thinking of putting a piece of tape on the half way mark so I can not see under it so I will be more likely to get fuel when it is on the half way mark.

Don’t forget every little bit of extra storage helps and is better then none.

Store what you use and use what you store.

Have a great week.

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

Breeding Rodeo Stock

 

I took the day off, well sort of. Andy had to go bred some rodeo stock about 60 miles south of here. The girls are still gone on their FFa trip and he needed someone to go with him to help, so I took the day off and went with him.

 

The cows were given a set of shots to synchronize them to all come in to heat at the same time. This way you can AI all of them together. I don't know a whole lot about doing it this way.We just run a marker bull with our cows to let us know when they are ready to bred. It does take a month to get all the cows that way though, instead of breding all in one day. You still have to run a clean up bull with both ( to bred the ones that didn't take). The way we do it we get about 85 % doing the shots you only get between 40% and 65% .

 

 

Here are a few of the cows that we bred. Being rodeo stock I figured they would would be pretty wild but they weren't to bad. Just lots of horns and I hate horns.

 

They put them in  a chute so Andy can get to them from behind,

Here he is getting ready. Looking for the cervix.

 

As soon as he finds the cervix then he inserts the semen.

 

Here is one of the bulls. How would you like to ride that?

 

 

Here is a picture to the south of where we were. Just a lot of sand and dirt.

 

This is to the east more of the same. Would hate to be here when the wind blows.

 

 And as we were leaving. Not much out there. They take the cows to the mountains in the summer to graze them.

 

 On the way back we stopped so I could take a picture of Shiprock. Apparently many many years ago this was a volcano.

AS you can see there isn't much around it. just kind of sticks up all by its self.

It is so funny how you can go 60 miles in one direction and this is where you are.

 

And you can go about 60 miles in the other direction and this is where you are. Guess that's why I love it here, so much variety.

 

Garden In and Daycare Schedule done

Well it was another busy week-end. I think this time of year just wears me out seems like we can never get caught up. We did get our garden planted. We don’t dare plant before June or it will freeze we are even a little early this year. We had to move to a different spot at the hay barn,

and we went ahead and put in one at the house which we will haul water to water. We planted a little over 100 various pepper plants , a little over 100 tomato plants, 8 zucchinis, radishes 3 different types of lettuce, potatoes, pumpkins, Indian corn. Dill, picking cucumbers, slicing cucumbers, Sunflowers, We don’t plant wheat, corn, beans, or a lot of potatoes because we can buy them straight from the farmer for pretty cheap. We cover all the plants with pieces of irrigation pipes that have broken, this protects from the wind and if it looks like it is going to freeze we can put something on the top of them to protect the plants.

We got an electric fence put up at a friends so we could pasture a few of our horses.

We started AI ing ( Artificial Insemination) last week so this weekend we had to move a few cows that had been done and a bull to another pasture.

We have an old stock trailer that was full of stuff from when I moved here 8 years ago we got that cleaned out. Andy is wanting to take it down to the frame and redo it so we can put the camper on it.

Got ground cover laid in the front and a little of the mulch put on it.

The girls had to get ready to go to the FFA state convention. They left Monday morning and will be gone all week.

Pulled a ton of weeds from the yard. And worked on some of the drip system in the front need to get the back done now. Mowed the back yard was starting to look like a jungle out there.

 
Worked on my household notebook I am trying to get a little more organized and use my notebook a little more. I think it will help me save time in the long run ( or at least I am hoping lol).

Worked on a schedule for the daycare for the summer I usually don’t do a lot in the summer as far as preschool stuff but I have a few more older kids this summer. I had to completely redo my yearly schedule and add a few new things. Think I finally have it all figured out though.

Worked on a monthly menu. Here is this weeks. Subject to change.

Mon.              Tue.              Wed.            Thur.             Fri.

B. Oatmeal French tst.       Cereal        yogurt/ fruit scr.   Eggs tst

L. Grilled     Chicken         Pancakes        P B & J        Mac &
   Cheese        Noodle            Fruit             fruit             Cheese
    Fruit            Crackers                                              Veg / Ranch

S Animal         apples/          Homemade    Cheese/        Homemade
Crackers             PB              granola Bars   crackers          Flavored
                                                                                          Applesauce

D Chili            Stroganoff            CFS   Navajo              Green Chili
                                                                 Tacos                Casserole

I do what ever veg. and side dish I can come up with to go with these.

 Andys Snacks for work. He takes a snack to work for break time.

Orange Cake

Strawberry Shortcake

Andy comes home for lunch so I fix him leftovers from the night before.

And of course there were several things on the to do list that didn't get done. Oh well there is always next week.