Delicious And Healthy Nettle Fritters

Spring time has arrived to the Northland and with Mother Nature´s perfect precision everything has turned green on the third week of May, just like every single year for the past 16 years. 

For us living here up north this is always a magical moment, just like when the snow arrives and covers the entire land around in the white blanket in the winter time. 

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Herbal Course and Workshop: Natural Self Care during Autumn and Supporting Our Immune System with Herbs

While summer is officially still here, when I wake up in the morning and step outside the door, one look around the wilderness that surrounds the farm tells me that autumn is slowly but steadily moving in.

It is a perfect time to start thinking of possibilities how to support and strengthen our immunity and nurture our body and mind before those long months of darkness and cold arrive, and before the upcoming flu and cold season hits us, slowing us down from all those important tasks that still need to be done before winter is here.

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Keeping Your Canine Seniors Fit and Healthy

Who wouldn´t wish for their beloved animal companion to live a long, happy and healthy life?

While most of us wish our animals would live forever, we know that the life cycle does not allow for this and we wonder what can we do for them to keep them by our side as long as possible, without pain and suffering, but vital, full of energy and spark.

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Calming Herbs For Your Dog And Calming Animals The Natural Way

For centuries, herbs have been proven as our great allies for healing and addressing many different ailments of people and animals alike. 

So it is no surprise that there are herbs and herbal remedies that are very effective for calming dogs that are stressed, scared, panicked, nervous, traumatized, suffer from anxiety and other similar emotions.

In this article I would like to show you a few safe herbs and how they can help calm your dog, without harmful side effects, as well as what types of herbal remedies are safe and effective, and some principles when turning to herbs for help with calming your animals, what to be careful about and what to avoid.

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Balto´s Natural Way Story

Balto joined our pack as a six year old experienced sled dog and racing veteran, retired from another kennel´s team. Since then, he ran and pulled many miles in our teams, in training and also on races, teaching the younger dogs a lot of skills, as he was an excellent lead dog with a fabulous work ethic.

While Balto was at the bloom of his sled dog athlete career and full of energy, he was not, however, at full health. He´s been suffering from eczema on his paws, mostly between his toes, whenever the weather changed, when exposed to too much water or mud and during damp conditions. His previous owners spent a lot of time searching for the right type of food for him, and as it is in the typical allopathic medicine scenarios – Balto was way too often on antibiotics, eventually developing resistance. The vets believed he needed to be on hypoallergenic and grain free commercial dog food, and so did we at the beginning.

But because feeding him the “special” food did not make any difference, I have soon realized the problem has to be approached holistically.

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Dill: A Nutritive And Healing Herb For Your Dog

I have been so focused lately on weeds and their medicinal and nutritive properties, that I have totally forgotten about garden or kitchen herbs.

A trip to my mini herbal garden in order to pick fresh oregano and basil for a sauce to go with Jachym´s home made pasta (which was fantastic, by the way and I might actually share the recipe some day) reminded me of the many amazing health benefits of these classic kitchen herbs.

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Healthy Soup For Dogs And Cats

I originally formulated this recipe as an additional light meal to add to any pet´s feeding program, especially to aid in taste and for those who feed their animals with commercial pet food, to add essential micro nutrients, missing in the processed foods. 
I recommend it for dogs, cats and even ferrets, with skin issues, allergies, eczema and sensitive stomachs. It is also an ideal light and healthy meal for overweight pets or those on a weight loss program, as it is still rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, amino acids, yet is is light in calories.

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Two of My Most Favorite Smoothies

Howdy all!

I am soooo behind with my blogging - or I should say with my real blog blogging, because I am actually not totally idle and mute and I did not cut off the sharing of our daily life in the woods with our huskies and pursuing of our wilderness homesteading dream!

As a matter of fact, I´ve been (what I call) "mini" blogging a lot on my Facebook page and sharing tons of pictures on Instagram. You should really check both of these hubs out, because I have some real nice pictures there and also some info on Herbs for Dogs and some natural nutrition and health care advice, etc. 

Anyhow, today I´ve decided to share something healthy, holistic and totally delicious for the humans  - two of my most favorite smoothies :)

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Warming And Immunity Boosting Herbal Blend For Dogs

I love making my own herbal blends for my dogs, cats, and for us as well.

I totally love the fact that I am able to pick or grow many of the plants myself, on the meadows and in the woods right here, around our homestead, and know they are truly "organic", growing in unpolluted nature in the best imaginable conditions.

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Top10 Most Read 2014 Blog Posts

Howdy all!

In my neck of the woods, we have 1 hour and 3 minutes till the end of the year and I decided to share the TOP 10 MOST POPULAR POSTS from Katerina´s Journal Blog - that means the ten most read by You and those You found most interesting this year.

I have to say that I got totally inspired by friend Lisa at Fresh Eggs Daily, who posted top ten blog posts from her blog about natural raising of chickens and ducks. If you own a flock yourself, or have a little (or big farm) with all kinds of animals, you should head over there, it´s a great information source!

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Herbal Supplement Mix For Puppies

Just a few days ago I was re-filling the herbal supplement mix for the puppies and I´ve decided to share it on the blog since I was already in the process of mixing the herbs.

As some of you know, I am a big fan of herbs for animals and humans alike, be it for their nutritional values or medicinal properties.

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Chilli´s Story

Folks have been asking lately how is Chilli doing. I know I kept very quiet about this special boy over the summer and I held my breath lately, but now, now I have a whole story to share! :)

As some of you know, in mid March Chilli sustained a severe injury in a freak accident when he got hit by a car, at the area where we were working and living away from home for the winter season. 

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Invitation To Workshop: Natural Nutrition, Herbs and Acupuncture For Dogs

I am excited to invite you to our upcoming workshop!

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Few Tips To Keep Your Dogs Cool On Hot Summer Days

A few folks asked me recently how do we keep our huskies cool and comfy during summer, so I thought I´d share a few pics and tips of what we do.

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Herbal Mix For Your Dog's Healthy Heat Cycle

You´ve never heard of female dogs having issues while they are in heat? At least  not the same kind as their human counter-parts: headache, stomach pain, cramps, bad mood,...?

Well, that does not mean that they do not ever suffer from any issues associated with the heat cycle at all or that herbal teas and certain herbs in their food won´t be beneficial.

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Natural Home Made Tick And Insect Repellent: A Favorite In Reprise

The tick, mosquito and other "bug" season is here. Let´s fight them off naturally, without the use of chemicals, harmful to our animals. 

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Soon To Be Released - A FREE Webinar For All Dog Lovers

This is where you would find me lately. With my head and nose in the computer and books, writing, making notes, editing, etc. 

What am I doing, you may ask?

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Switching Our Kitties To Natural Diet (Natural Feeding Program For Cats)

I must admit that we never really planned or spent much thoughts on our cats´ nutrition. And honestly - shame on us! Or particularly shame on me, because I am a large promoter of natural nutrition, filled with key ingredients for strong health and longevity for all animals.

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Treating Maya's Infected Paw

Saturday night. Long weekend connected with yesterday´s wildly celebrated Midsummer state holiday, meaning everything is closed . Although in this part of the world everything is closed early and on weekends solid. Holiday or not. Hundred miles to the nearest, highly overpriced veterinary hospital. 200 miles to our trusted wonderful vet.

This is a rather typical scenario. The Murphy´s law works amazingly accurately. When something happens, it is usually after opening hours  or on weekends. And of course on holidays.

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Fantastic Dandelion Pesto

Over the years of living on the wild side of the Vattudalen lake, I have learned to utilize wild herbs for many different uses, mostly for home made remedies and cures for both, the dogs and us, from different teas to tinctures, salves, etc. But many of these amazing plants have sparked my interest more and more in my kitchen.

We basically use nettles the entire summer instead of spinach, which doesn´t do well in our vegetable garden and I try to avoid the one from the shops due to the heavy pesticide used when growing it.

Dandelion leaves often substitute rucola in salads and on sandwiches and I also add chickweed for its super delicious taste and health benefits. 

Those of you who read my blog regularly know I´ve previously posted about our use of various dandelion parts in our dogs´ feeding program, but I realized that I actually haven´t blogged much about wild herbs in the use of my own kitchen.

So I decided to start off with this fantastic tasting, super easy recipe for dandelion pesto.

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