BOOK GIVEAWAY: Fresh Eggs Daily

When I don't know the answer to something my kids ask me (or for their homework), I GOOGLE it. When I have a question about chicken keeping, I FRESH EGGS DAILY it!  I'm serious: since the beginning days of raising my chickens, I turned to the web page for Fresh Eggs Daily and searched the files there for advice, feed recipes (Breakfast of Champion Layers...'nuff said) and natural remedies. You can imagine my excitement, then, when I heard that Lisa Steele was writing a book on natural chicken keeping. I am thrilled to announce that I have an autographed copy to give away to one lucky winner! If you can't wait for the giveaway, or just want to buy one for everyone in your family, the link to purchase this beautiful AND informative book is HERE.




QUICKIE BOOK REVIEW:

At first glance, I was very impressed with this new book by Lisa Steele of Fresh Eggs Daily.  I like the smaller 'coffee table' size of this book.  It is bound beautifully and in full color throughout.  Everything about this book is pretty and chock full of information in ' easily digestible' chapters.  By that I mean that this has got to be the best resource book I have found available on the market right now natural chicken keeping strategies.  I have read every chicken keeping book on the local library shelves and I have not found one that contained advice on raising chickens, specifically, using all natural resources.

While I recognize some of this information from the tried and true website founded by Lisa Steele, don't think you are getting a 'cut and paste' version of her website; this book contains a lot of new information and, again, I love that it is sectioned out to make finding the information you need a breeze.  I can genuinely say that I will highly recommended this book to all current and prospective chicken owners.


a Rafflecopter giveaway
Visit all the other stops along the Fresh Eggs Daily Blog Tour to read some more great reviews and to enter to win a copy!

Week One

October 14th
Louise's Country Closet & Natural Chicken Keeping

October 15th
Farmhouse38

October 16th
The Nerdy Farmwife & Lessons Learned from the Flock

October 17th
Colored Egg Homestead & Our Neck Of the Woods

October 18th
Let This Mind Be in You & Sunny Simple Life

Week Two

October 21st

1840 Farm

October 22nd

Timber Creek Farm & The Land of the Sweets

October 23rd

Happy Days Farm & Fresh From Home

October 24th

The (Mis)Adventures of a Born Again Farm Girl

October 25th

The Anderson Family Farm Project

From The Farm Blog Hop

Hello everyone! I am more-than-excited to be the guest host this week for the From The Farm Blog Hop! I just love to see what people are up to and what you are doing around your 'farm;' whether that's your house in the city, or your farm in the boonies! Thanks again for joining us! I can't WAIT to hear from all of you, so let's get this party started!

Here are the features from last week's party:

Congratulations! Please feel free to grab our button and display it proudly on your blog!

Photo provided by Chicken Scratch Poultry http://chickenscratchpoultry.com/

<a title="From the Farm Blog Hop" href="http://sunnysimplelife.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y449/From-the-Farm/FTFFavorite_zpsa9fe81b7.jpg" width="180" height="180" alt="From The Farm Blog Hop"></a>

Now, on to this week's party:
1. Link up to three of your best gardening or homesteading tips, farm-themed posts, recipes, homemaking and simple/frugal living tips, decorating ideas, DIY projects, craft ideas, thrifty makeovers or repurposed items, healthy and sustainable living tips.
2. Link back to my blog, or put the link party button anywhere on your blog or post to share the love.
3. Make sure to check out some of the other links before leaving.

Photo provided by Chicken Scratch Poultry http://chickenscratchpoultry.com/

<a title="From the Farm Blog Hop" href="http://sunnysimplelife.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="http://i673.photobucket.com/albums/vv97/StoneFamily_2009/LetThisMindBeinYou/FromtheFarmButton-Final.jpg~original" width="180" height="180" alt="From The Farm Blog Hop"></a>

We can't wait to see what you share with us!

Note: Linking up to this party will automatically sign you up for an invite to next week's party via email. To unsubscribe, please reply to any email you receive and you will be removed. Linking up also allows us permission to publish one of your photos on our blogs, Facebook, and/or Pinterest pages.

Warmly,
Shanyn -Fresh From Home
and
Your From the Farm Blog Hop Co-Hosts:
The Adventure Bite | Sunny Simple Life | 1840 Farm | Let This Mind Be in You | My Healthy Green Family | Fresh Eggs Daily

SERIES: Natural Living So Easy...DIY LAUNDRY SOAP powder

Yup.  So Easy Even I Can Do It.  Seriously.  This is super easy.  Everything I have tried during this journey of mine toward more frugal and natural living has surprised me....in a good way!  I always saw stuff like this and thought, "that crunchy-natural-hippy-type stuff sounds good and beneficial, but 'aint nobody got time for all THAT!"  I am here to encourage you to try something that you can make yourself that is so simple (you guessed it), that even I can do this in no time flat!  In fact, my kids usually get in on this recipe and ASK to help!  Here's a ridiculously easy, quick and effective DIY LAUNDRY SOAP (powder):

What you need:

• 2 Bars of Fels-Naptha (Laundry bar soap/ You can usually find this, or an equivalent, on an end of the laundry soap isle)
• 1 Cup Washing Soda (also in the laundry isle)
• 1 Cup Borax
• OPTIONAL:  Several drops of your favorite Essential Oil

STEP ONE:  Grate your soap bars (we do this directly into a large, empty industrial sized laundry soap tub, but any medium sized bucket/container/tupperware will do).  I like to grate them finely so I don't get large soap chunks in my mixture.  This is the part my kids have actually ARGUED over taking turns doing.  I make sure they know how they are helping the family by doing this AND saving us TONS of money!


STEP TWO: Add the Washing Soda and Borax. 

STEP TWO-ish: OPTIONAL: You can add 5 or more drops of your favorite essential oil into the mixture at this point.  We typically choose lavender or lemon and it really makes our clothes smell fresh!

STEP THREE: Mix together and store in an airtight container.

USE: 2 Tablespoons for an "average" to "large" size load.  Use more for larger or heavily soiled loads.

That's it!  Told 'ya-----super simple!  We have had great results with it too.  My husband gets greasy at work and this stuff has NO problem getting it all out and making the clothes smell fresh when using 2 Tablespoons per extra large load.

Is it worth it?  You decide

Here's the cost comparison:

Homemade Laundry Powder= $6.16/ 48 oz= $0.31/oz

General commercially made powder (not generic but not name brand)=$0.20/oz

>>>So that's not a "per ounce savings" at first glance.  Here's the catch:  You only need to use 2 Tablespoons for a Large load of laundry with homemade soap.  Commercial soaps have you dumping in around 1/4-1/2 cup of their chemical-laden laundry soap.  SO, if I have to use less than HALF of the amount of detergent per wash, then my savings can more than double!

Our Laundry soap savings just bought us a large box of ice cream cones to pass around tonight; which MIGHT result in more laundry to do, and more laundry soap to make.  Such is the circle of laundry-life!  Enjoy it to the fullest!