How to Make Herbal Poultice

Do you have any memories as a child when your mother used to put mashed herbs on your wound or sprain? If you have then I’m sure you’re wondering how it works and how it was done. Maybe I’m the odd one out, but when I was a child I was so intrigued, and I learned all there is to know about herbal poultices.

A poultice is a healing remedy for sprains or wounds that comes from herb oil and natural ingredients that you can find at home. Learn how to make them, and use them. This tutorial will teach you some survival 101

Find out how you can make a Comfrey Poultice with this DIY tutorial!

Comfrey is known for it’s healing and cell-regeneration qualities. Do not ingest comfrey, it is toxic to the liver. Read more facts here.

Here’s what you’ll need to make a Poultice Dried Comfrey Leaves (or other herbs of your choosing) Lavender Flower Powder Organic Muslin Bag Spoon Hand Blender

1. Cook and soften the herb.

Place a quarter of a small muslin bag of comfrey into a pan. Add water just enough to soften the comfrey and heat the mixture.

2. Blend and Mix.

Add lavender flower powder and hand blend it until it gets pasty.

3. Stuff and Use.

Stuff the muslin bag with the mixture and it is ready to use!

image source

Want to see how to make your own poultice at home? Then watch this video tutorial from Cat the HerbalPrepper:

What do you think of this tutorial on how to make herbal poultice? Will you give it a try? Let us know how it went and share your experience with us in the comment section below.

Have any homesteading projects you’d like to share? Share it with us an we’ll give it a try. We’d love to know what you think!

LIKE this? I’m sure you’ll LOVE: How To Make Herbal Infusions | Herbal Remedies Indoor Herb Garden Ideas

Originally posted on December 15, 2015 @ 2:46 PM

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Hurricane Dorian reaching the Bahamas on its track to Florida on Sept. 1, 2019.Photo: Pierre Markuse/Flickr

With the havoc Hurricane Dorian brought upon the Bahamas over the past few days, members of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas have begun battening down the hatches for what may come.

If your landscaping company is located near or in Dorian’s path, now would be a good time to prepare your customer’s landscapes and your company for what might be on the horizon.

Having a hurricane preparedness plan in place for your company could help save lives, as well as help preserve your customer’s landscape, so take a look at a few things to keep in mind when preparing for an impending storm.

Update on Dorian

According to a tweet from the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Dorian had maximum sustained winds of 105 mph as of 5 a.m. EDT this morning. CBS News reports that Dorian’s core was around 90 miles east of Dayton Beach, Florida, and it was moving north-west at 8 mph. CBS News also says that hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 60 miles from the center of the hurricane, and tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 175 miles.

“While Dorian has stayed far enough off the coast to largely spare Florida from the worst of its wrath, it is forecast to make a much closer approach to the coastline of the Carolinas between late Wednesday and Thursday and could even make landfall,” The Washington Post said online.

According to CNN, 21 counties in Georgia are now under a state of emergency, and seven counties in Florida are still under mandatory evacuation: Clay, Duval, Flagler, Nassau, Putnam, St. John’s and Volusia.

“Impacts are thus expected to be more severe,” The Washington Post said online.“Around Charleston, South Carolina, for example, wind gusts could hit 80 mph, and water levels could rank among the top five levels ever recorded due to the combination of ocean surge and up to 15 inches of rain.”

Hurricane prep

According to the National Hurricane Survival Initiative, 40 percent of small businesses that close due to hurricane damage do not reopen.

Overall, there are three main steps you need to take to help prepare and protect your landscaping company from a hurricane: maintain an emergency kit, protect your property and protect important documents and information.

When looking at your company’s physical building, consider installing hurricane shutters or covering windows with plywood. The roof should also be evaluated to find out if it can withstand the impending storm, and any nearby branches should be removed to keep them from falling on and damaging the structure.

If possible, it’s a good idea to make sure utilities are turned off before the hurricane gets to your area. Within the building, be sure to anchor and brace large furniture, such as filing cabinets and shelves, and put sandbags down in any area that could be subject to flooding.

When gathering important information, always bring any documents that would be hard to produce, such as insurance documents, legal contracts, tax returns and accounting statements. Make sure these items are stored securely in a waterproof container and make sure you have backup copies made.

Along with your paper information, be sure to have backups of your technological information and data. This can be backed up and stored at an off-site location so it can be recovered if the physical computer or device is damaged during the hurricane.

Whether the storm hits unexpectedly or you’ve seen it coming for awhile, it’s always a good plan to have an emergency preparedness kit on hand that you and your staff know about and are familiar with.

Before the hurricane reaches your location, be sure you have an updated contact list for all of your employees, as well as alternative numbers in case their primary one is nonoperational. Also, take time to reach out to your customers ahead of time and notify them that the business will be closed.

Once the storm has concluded, check in with your employees using the contact sheet, and evaluate any possible damage done to your establishment, which will include downed power lines or broken water lines. Document and take photos of any damage before you start fixing it, and contact your customers as soon as you can to let them know the company’s current situation. 

Trees will be very vulnerable to strong winds, which could uproot younger trees or cause damage to your customer’s property. Check the landscape to ensure that younger trees are staked properly and make sure these stakes are secured deeply into the ground with a strong rope.

Be sure to trim back any weak or dead branches from larger trees to keep them from flying away in the wind and to prevent damage to the windows or siding of your customer’s home.

For trees and plants that are close to your customer’s home, be sure to prune them away from the house and remove the debris out of the yard. If there are any dead trees, shrubs or plants, go ahead and remove them as well to cut down on any potential flying debris.

Read more: totallandscapecare.com

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Editor’s Comment: Another guest submission from Scott Huntington to The Prepper Journal. A subject we have talked about in the past and with the Summer break coming some food for thought.

We all love the great outdoors, and it’s a great way to spend time bonding with your family. If you go out hiking as a family, do your kids know what to do if they get separated from the group? What about other survival situations — would your little ones know how to stay alive until help arrives? Everyone should know some basic survival skills, regardless of their age. Here are some easy ways to teach your children about survival skills.

Be Stealth About It

This is the best tip we can probably offer you. Be sneaky about teaching them survival skills, the “wax on, wax off” method per say. Don’t walk up to your kids — especially younger ones — all doom and gloom and tell them that you’re teaching them how to survive in case the world ends.

All you’ll manage to do is scare them to death, and they won’t remember anything you try to teach. Instead, be sneaky about it. Take notice of what interests your kids and play into their interests. Approach it as a game, if it helps.

Don’t — “Hey, let’s learn how to build a fire in case you’re stranded in the woods all alone.”

Do — “Hey, wanna learn how to build a fire?”

Don’t put the focus on survival. Instead, shift the focus to learning new skills. If your kids are ever alone in a survival situation, they’ll thank you for these comprehensive lessons.

Focus on the Rule of 3

This isn’t some mystical voodoo — just a simple rule to help your kids remember what they need to focus on in a survival situation.

Remind them that they can live:

Three weeks without food Three days without water Three minutes without air Three seconds without the right mindset.

From there, know your priorities — first, don’t panic. If you’re not swimming, you can skip the second one, focusing on water and food.

These aren’t the only things you need in the wilderness — fire, and shelter being among the most important — but reciting the rule a few times can help you get into a survival mindset.

One rule you should reinforce as often as possible is the Lost rule — if you get lost, you don’t move. You stay put and wait for someone to find you. Staying in one place makes it easier for search and rescue teams to find you, and could potentially save your life.

Get Out There

Kids aren’t going to learn how to survive in the wilderness if they spend all of their time sitting in front of video game consoles or televisions.

GET OUT THERE!

Take the family hiking or camping, and give your kids a practical application for all the skills they’ve learned. You should be there to supervise, especially if they’re trying their hands at foraging or fire building, but having a possible outlet for these new skills can help reinforce them in their young brains.

Make sure you have plenty of supplies on hand for these excursions, especially if you have younger children who aren’t up to building a fire or fishing for their dinner — or if the kid’s attempt to catch dinner falls through. Children of any age can benefit from regular camping excursions. Getting them used to the woods helps make it familiar territory and prevents panic if they ever end up out there alone.

Skills They Should Know

What survival skill should your kids know? That depends on their age — you don’t want to trust that a toddler can tell the difference between nightshade and blueberries — but most older children should know these basic skills.

How to build a shelter — This is vital in areas where it gets cold at night. Even a basic shelter could mean the difference between a successful night vs. the wild and/or hypothermia. How to build a fire — You need a fire to cook food, boil water and stay warm in cold climates. In addition to creating a fire, your kids should know how to protect it for the night and how to keep it contained, so they don’t accidentally start a wildfire. How to purify natural water sources — Rivers and streams might look clean, but they could hide dangerous bacteria that could make you ill. Boiling or otherwise purifying water could save your life. How to forage for food — While you can survive for three weeks without food, a lack of calories makes it harder to sustain because you won’t have the energy to continue moving forward. This is a tricky lesson because there are so many plants that look edible and are fatal — a handful of pokeberries could easily kill an adult, even though they look edible. Learning how to set snares can also help them stay full in the woods. How to defend themselves — Self-defense is as much a survival skill as anything else listed. Even if they never need to use it, self-defense classes can be life-saving. Learning how to create makeshift weapons can also be a valuable skill. How to perform first aid — Take a family trip to your local Red Cross or fire station and take a first aid class. It’s a lot harder to deal with a skinned knee or a broken bone if you can’t holler for mom or dad’s help. How to navigate — A cell phone with GPS won’t always work if you’re out in the wilderness. Teach your children how to read a map and navigate using a compass. This can be a fun skill to learn — set up a scavenger hunt with prizes at specific coordinates.

There are plenty of other skills they’ll pick up along the way, but these seven can save their lives if they’re ever alone in a survival situation.

Closing Thoughts — Don’t Scare Them

While learning survival skills is important, your kids won’t learn anything if you scare them instead of teaching. Children will learn from everything you do, so show them the basics and let them run it with them. You’ll be surprised how quickly they pick them up!

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