Thursday, March 21, 2013

Product Review: Remedy Skin Care


I was recently asked to provide some feedback on some product that I won at a twitter party, Remedy Skin Care (Twitter). I was asked, "Would love to hear what you think about Remedy on the Ranch!" They probably didn't expect I would do an entire post on them with pictures! In fact I don't even know if they know I have a blog!

First thing I did was strip off my boots and try on the slippers they had. One size fits all...which kinda scares me since I am a size 10. They fit! Phew. But as soon as I took it off, my daughter had to see if they truly were 'one size fits all'. She thought they fit as well. 

With the slippers, this was the entire package. :) Thanks so much Remedy!



Well after I read the note...I looked at the product. I received six packets which I thought, hmmm...I could do a trial period and use half a pack twice a day, once in the morning and once in the night. As a rancher my hands are the most abused. I have them crammed in leather gloves if I am working fence line. I have them shoved in water if I mess with the floats. I am a gardener which means I should wear gloves but I don't. I am in red dirt if I am planting. I also just built a shelf and stained it.
In addition, I bite my nails. Yes...I am the PERFECT candidate for actually spending a little time to 'pamper' myself. 




These are some before pictures of my hand. You can tell I am hard on my hands from the white marks on my nails. This is due to hitting it on something, causing a white mark to appear. To keep this as simple as possible I decided to take three pictures each day. One of my right hand, one of my left hand and one of my left knuckle. 

Day 1




One of the first things that I found out about the product was the scent. It is nice and light. Not overbearing like so many lotions out there. I placed half of the package in my hands and tried to work it in. It was fast absorbing and the feel was unlike a water based lotion feel. This truly had something in it because I could see a difference in my hands after just one application. Then I read that it has 24% silicone blend (Bingo) that was why my skin was instantly feeling smooth and supple. It also says on the back that it improves the appearance of redness. We'll see if it works on my 'red' knuckles. :)  

Day 2



One thing that I noticed right away was how slick my hands felt after the first day. I went to grab a wire on the fence to secure a gate and could barely hold onto it! Day two consisted of me working in the garden for about 2 hours. I planted lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and cabbage. My hands were in the dirt the entire time. When I went to wash my hands the red dirt came right off. Which normally it will stain my knuckles but it seems this product is creating a barrier for my skin. In addition, day two shows a drastic color change in my knuckles. They have gone from having a reddish tint to normal again. I plan on soaking tonight in a tub (usually I do the 15 min shower) and perhaps file my nails and put anti-biting stuff on it. Does this stuff make you want to take care of your self? Dunno. I just know I have a two year old that watches me eat my nails so now she does the same. (So tonight were both getting our nails done). 
Day 3



The manicure ended up being the fastest manicure! My toddler had to help so I was rushed. But I did get a 20 min. soak which helped. I pushed back cuticles and filed my nails. I also cut just the excess cuticles. The result is a fast manicure but a bunch better than before. :) 


But I wanted to show something, after I took the soak, this is what my hands looked like...can you believe that the water just beaded off! My hands were permanently protected from the water! This would be a great product for nurses who are constantly washing their hands. 

Day 4




Day 5


I ended up in the water troughs all day. Which is not good for a demonstration on how the product works for 'ranch hands' but I guess that is what they asked...I used my hands to clean out a water trough that I dried out and cleaned it and then refilled it. I left my shovel at the house so I ended up scooping out most of the sediment with my hands which was very damaging. It stained my hands with the mineral rich matter and dried them out completely. I also fed the cattle and the horses and moved them into another pasture. 




After cleaning out those troughs and everything my hands soaked up Remedy's product. I have found that it's better to take a shower and wait 20 min. until all the water has been dried off and had time to evaporate off my body before applying the product. It goes into the skin and allows the barrier to be created. If your skin is wet, it doesn't go on as well. 


I also had a chance to test out the Vanilla candle. I started it when I took a soak. I noticed that it was a light scent. What I didn't realize was when I left the room and did stuff in other areas of the house and returned, the vanilla smell was just wonderful. It filled the entire room and kept the smell in my bathroom hours after the candle was blowed out. I guess my nose had grown accustom to it's scent while I was in the bathroom. If you are looking for a great smelling candle, Remedy is up there with some of the top line. 

Ok that is my conclusion of my product review of Remedy. You can find them online at Twitter at https://twitter.com/RemedySkinCare
and 

I was in no way paid to say these things. :) I just won some of their product and on the letter was asked, "Let me know what you think"...so here it is! No use keeping a good product all to myself. 



Sunday, March 17, 2013

Natural markers for the garden



Rustic gardening is my bliss. I enjoy making things from nature like back in the days. Call it homesteading, call it being frugal, call it a tightwad. :) I don't give a damn. I tell ya one thing, when it's done...I enjoy it even more than going out and spending money like a lot of people I know. Plus then it gives me a sense of accomplishment. I can tell people, I did this, I built this, I made this and you know most people give me a look like, no way. That is the best part. Here is my rustic version of a identification marker for my garden. I find a stick. Any stick...but the key is once you find a stick, you stick to that kind of stick, that width, and cut them all the same for a 'unified' look. 


I take my knife and I begin to carve, past the bark, and into the wood. I create a little 'space' that is flat where I will write the name of the plant or seedlings that I sow. 


I then take a permanent black marker and write what I have or will be planting. 




Yes it looks a little big at first, but once the goodies come up, it is easy to find the marker amongst the foliage. It's about 48 inches in height. Happy carving. Also for those tender handed people that haven't carved in their life...you need to possibly wear gloves to cover your thumb (see the above pic) cause if you do a lot of these, your thumb will hurt. Oh and don't cut yourself. Not responsible for people being 'challenged' with a knife. :)

Friday, March 15, 2013

Stressing out furniture (and then re-staining)

I've had this piece of furniture since my ex boyfriend's lady friend gave it to me to keep my stereo on top of it. They had laid a piece of drywall as a top. My son painted the top and in the move to Oklahoma I threw it out (it was leaving drywall wherever we went). It laid in storage for a couple of years since we had a small house and no where to put it. When we got it to Oklahoma it sat outside on my back porch until now. Our living room has sort of this color...more turquoise blue than green so I decided to rub out some of the green and make it less drastic. The previous owner obviously painted it (she did a good job- and then spackled it with little black flakes of paint). Like I said the paint job actually was quite nice but it just didn't jive with the house. So...here I go again, to destroy yet another good piece of furniture...or in my case, make it better! :) 

I hand sanded the entire piece and went with the grain. I used a fine grain sandpaper and just lightly sanded. Give the chance for the wood to show through. The more you sand, the more your stain will be able to take hold. 

Next I wiped down the entire piece with a cloth, removing all the junk left behind from sanding. 

I used a cloth and applied the stain. In this case it was my favorite Minwax in Golden Oak. This can was almost to the bottom...I have finally finished the can and need to restock! It went such a long way. I was able to stain my bed frame, desk, pallet shelves, tp holder, my pallet bookcase (in a later post). :)  


I really liked the way it turned out.

I then had to construct a top out of? You guessed it pallets and reclaimed wood...like I would ever stray from free anything. Plus I just am in love with pallet projects. 

I cut them and fit them on to cover the top.

I then sanded them down. 


I stained them with my favorite stain. I used a paintbrush. I have found that with pallet wood, it just absorbs super quick. These boards were in the sun and warm so it was a breeze, the dried fast. 

The finished project. Uneven top (love it) and my stressed out piece.

Not too bad under the TV. We had placed the TV there so...that's where it will stay. I have thought about hiding the cord through the wall but that's on my to do list. 

Another great shot of the new piece.

Also why I was staining outside I noticed a beautiful red flower! My bulbs that I brought from Colorado made the trip and I planted them (a bunch of em) around a lot of trees. This was my first bloomer!
An up close of the inside.


I suddenly have a BUNCH of these guys around that look different than than the other daffodils. Are they the same? Let me know below! 

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Stretching fence

Every once in a while you need to stretch a fence. In our case it's when we have cantankerous 'hooker' cows (Where they place one of their horns in the wire and just flip it up and walk on through between) You need to stretch a fence and place stays in. (I will blurb more about stays later). 

Here I have the top wire ready to be stretched while Gin hangs out.

I then kinda skipped the top wire and realized that I wasn't taking pictures so I took pictures of the second wire. We have a wire stretcher, which is shown here in yellow. We place one side around an anchored point, in our case it is a pipe H brace that has been cemented in. 

I secure the other end of the stretcher to the wire and give the handle a bunch of cranks. Note: if you have an old fence that is rusted, don't put too much tension on the wire or it will snap like a twig and then you'll have to splice the fence. But for this wire that is newer, you can crank it up.

I finish with using my fencing pliers and securing the wire around the H brace and putting is much tension on it while it is still in the stretcher. You don't want to let loose of the tension and realize you lost your stretch cause you didn't pull the wire tight. Then I release the stretcher and you have a new tight wire.

Danno takes a break with one of our horses Sugar. 

You always know that a wire needs tightened when you can do this. Boomer is cruising past me to greet the horses too. But he's our puppy (look how big he is at 10 months) so he just barked at them.