Help Birds With Your Pet´s Hair

Over the years of living in the middle of nature we have noticed how the birds collect the fluffy undercoat that our huskies shed each spring, and add it to their nest building materials.

Also, we´ve seen them use it to fill in the bird houses for the upcoming nesting 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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Herb Course with Walk and Workshop in beautiful Vedjeön - Vild Ört Mini Kurs, Vandring och Workshop i vackra Vedjeön

Everything in life takes its time, and when the time is right, the things that are meant to happen, do :)

Having said that, let me invite you to my very first herbal workshop ever organized in my home in beautiful Vedjeön, in Swedish (and a little bit of mixed-in English, when I run out of words :)), open for everyone.

I am very excited to share my world, but also knowledge and experience of wild plants with you!

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About Nettle...A Little Differently

If you are expecting a post in the style of materia medica for this extraordinary herb in the mint family, I will stop your expectations right here. But please, do read on, as I have a bit to say about lady Nettle, that you may have never heard or thought of before..

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Paying Attention To The Dogs´ Needs For Fasting: A More Spiritual Approach And A Few Herbs To Help With Nourishing And Cleansing

Couple of weeks ago, we felt our dogs´ needed a day of fasting. They all felt "stuffed", some ate reluctantly, some did not even touch their food and some did not look hungry at all, despite normally being ALWAYS hungry.

We honored their choice and gave the entire pack a day of fasting, 24 hours to be exact for the adults and 12 hours for the puppies and special needs dogs (aka "The Specials").

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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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Omelette with Wild Herbs

You have no idea how much I have been looking forward to the day I will be able to pick a handful of wild herbs and make a meal and fresh herb tea with them!

Our winters and time of frost without any vegetation are so long, and it isn´t until the end of May before we can see some green grass and leaves on trees again.

I also realized that I haven´t shared much from my cooking with herbs and generally from the life on the husky homestead for a while, so here is a recipe for my first fresh spring wild herb omelette.

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Nourishing, Energizing and Restorative Spring Herbs for Your Dog and You

Spring time is time of birth, re-birth and awakening.

Although it is energizing just by itself, the bodies of all the Earth´s creatures are tired, depleted of energy, yet longing for the re-birth and time spent outside, being active.

While I have pondered and covered a lot of the spring needs of our dogs and together with my friend Erica, who specializes in animal acupressure we have touched the spring time care in our co-authored article Acupressure, Herbs and Nutrition for Spring which follows mostly the five element theory, let´s take a bit closer look at the spring wild herbs that mother Nature offers at this time of the year.

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The First Herb Walk of the Season aka of Dogs, Coltsfoot and Wild Woods

Back home again and straight ahead to what I love the most - my dogs, the wild nature of the Great North and herbs!

What is even better yet is that I can combine all of the above at once - grab couple of the fur kids and head into the woods and highlands for a day trip of hiking, wild crafting and simply being where our hearts reside.

My timing of my trip abroad for workshops and lectures was perfect this time, I returned precisely at the time of the very first spring herb beginning to bloom - my favorite Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara).

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The Darkness And The Light

Today, on the day of Winter Solstice, the sun rose at 9:41 am and set at 2:01 pm here, in the North.

Yes, 4 hours of daylight, my friends. And when it is overcast or snowy, there is this blue light instead. 

The word "light" definitely has a different meaning up here during this time of the year, mostly because although the sun does "rise", you never actually get to see it. 

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Winter Solstice Blessings

The wise crone arrived today in the northern hemisphere, covering Mother Earth with her long white hair.

Whispering a silent lullaby for every living creature to slow down and rest while traveling within.

As the longest night of the year sets on us, like the shadow of a raven´s wing, we are guided by our inner light on this journey to meet and reconnect with our wise inner selves.

Tomorrow winter will bring back the Sun, and for that I give my gratitude.

Many winter blessings to you all!

Lots of love and light,

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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Treating Gusty´s Infected Mouth Wound Naturally

One of our young dogs Gusty punched a hole inside his mouth while enthusiastically chewing on a meaty bone. Typically, the hole inside his mouth closed almost completely and a huge swelling occurred on the outside, on the side of his muzzle.

In the past, I would have put him on antibiotics, but not today, having learned a different approach the natural way.

Knowing my dogs more than well and knowing how nourished they are and that their immune systems are strong, I decided for reaching out to a holistic approach.

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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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Jarní Workshopy BYLINKY PRO PSY v České Republice

Ahoj všem!

Toto je jeden z mých mimořádných příspěvků v češtině, protože zde pro vás všechny mám pozvánku a to na hned tři akce, které pořádám v květnu v České Republice.

Pro velký zájem o (nejen) bylinkové workshopy pro psy (a nejen je), který mne moc těší, jsem po loňské vydařené podzimní premiéře na šumavské Veselce u Vimperka workshop rozšířila i o jarní verzi, kde se zaměříme zase pro změnu trochu víc na bylinky jarní, detoxikaci organismu psa, atd. 

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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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Santa's Little Helpers

So, I went to the forest yesterday, to look for some firs to do more decorating around the house. 

And look whom I met, kids! If you don´t believe in Santa Claus, here is your proof: I met a Christmas Elf and some little helpers! :)

Ok, the story went a little bit more like this:

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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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