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 

http://www.chooseremedy.com

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. 

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. :)

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! 

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. 

Rolling barbed wire from a downed fence

We have lots of four point barbed wire all over the place. Many are cross fences that are useful for rotating our herd but many of the fences are placed in areas that limit the access for the herd to get to us when we are feeding cake in the back pasture. My cowboy says, "This fence has to go." Well folks, that's when I pull on my 'fencing pants' and get to work since my cowboy is down south in the oil field and I am the one making our home run. Yup folks, I am the one at home taking care of the ranch while my husband is making ends meet! We are still very young and we have goals of where we want to be in the future so we bust our buts and sometimes don't get to see each other for months on end! So not only am I taking care of two kids, eight horses, five dogs, and one cat...I have the responsibility of taking care of a bunch of cattle and help them through calving season. Don't get me wrong, there are certain things that I can't do so I rely on my new neighbors (I bet they love my calls!) and if we need, a veterinarian. Knock on wood, we haven't had to call them yet. I'm saying all this because women CAN ranch and do it really well. I know lots of women who help side by side making sure that the job gets done. Some of these women can rope better than any man can! We are just as equal in this line of work as our men. Ok time to get off my soap box and back to work!

Here is my 'tutorial' on how to roll a 4 point barbed fence once you have all the wire off the T-posts and the T-posts pulled out of the ground. I then separate each line if you have more than one down line. You can do it several feet apart or if you are really 'challenged' you can move each line 10-30 feet from one another. 

This is the start of my roll. I make one loop and twist the end around that loop. My trusty "Gin" at my side wanting love.

I then pick up the wire roll and roll it along the downed wire. This is a very important 'step'. You need to reduce the slack on the downed wire. If the wire is all floppy then when you roll it up it will fall off of the wire wreath you are creating. So you need to continually (while rolling up) put some tension by pulling the wreath towards your body, making the wire on the ground straight and able to roll in your wreath. (I sure hope you guys understand this important part). The above picture shows the long wire on the ground in front. If I stood the wire wreath up like this, I would pull the entire wreath towards my body and it would make the wire on the ground 'tight and straight'. Then I just start to roll it up by 'rolling' it. It's like driving a car and continually turning your wreath like a steering wheel. 

There is a lot of overgrowth on our fence lines due to years of neglect. Instead of jumping into that thorn bush...YA RIGHT...I am going to pull it through and lay it beside the bush!

You can see the wire on my foot before I pull.

Oh wait, my lack of attention is kicking in, look at the awesome bird nest that I found in the grass. :) 

Ok back to pulling, as you can see, it takes a little effort but you can pull your line out of the thorn bushes without having to go in it! 

Another moment...I saw this on the grass and it is a cocoon I think.. As soon as I crouched down to take a picture, Danno had to come over and lick my face..lick a girl when she's down! I carefully rolled up my buddy and we'll see if it survives to make a beautiful butterfly...or wasps... :) Even though I think wasps use mud. 

While I was busy taking pictures of bird nests and cocoons, my dogs were always with me, creating a protective barrier between the cattle and myself. The cattle are on just on the other side of the trees in an open pasture. You can barely make out Gin who is way far back by the blue sky line in the middle and then Danno is by the gas tank. I love these guys, they protect me and warn me when a cow approaches. 

Here is the end result of one 4 point barbed wire completed. I use the end wire and wrap it around the entire wreath before I let it all out of my hands (it might just go crazy if you didn't wind it tight). 

I take some extra wire and wrap three other places on the wreath. So in total I have four ties around the entire wreath, equally spaced out.

The end result is a beautiful strand of wire that you can reuse if another wire, in use, breaks or if you need to create a new 'fence line'.

Such an inspiring sight, four wire wreaths rolled. Wonder if I could decorate with that? :) JK.

We also accumulated this old ford truck in our move. I don't think it runs but my husband is a mechanic too (he's made skidders, tractors, and all kinds of stuff run) so he might get this going. How fun would that be chuggin to town? Ok perhaps not town!

I laughed when I saw this sticker. We have our own beer truck! Woot. Too bad my cowboy is allergic to wheat! So we might have to change it to a wine truck or slap a biohazard sticker on and pretend we are carrying something toxic. Throw a dirty diaper in the back.

I also don't like working in long sleeved shirts. You can see that I now look like I got in a fight with a porcupine. 

I would suggest a tight fitting long sleeved shirt, if you have a sweatshirt on you will just get so tangled in your wire you will not have fun. You will HAVE to wear leather gloves or you will not make it!

My fencing pants. 

I hope you guys enjoyed my little blurb on rolling barbed wire. As always I'm asking anyone to comment! Do you have a better way? I'd like to hear it.

My book, feedback appreciated.

Well I am at it again. I have decided to pick up on my book that I've been neglecting since the move. I finally pushed past chapter 9, with a help from my friends (Thanks CJ and Becky).

I wanted to post the prologue here. I am in the writing stages but I have set a 'finish deadline' of October of 2013. I haven't decided if I will self publish or send it off to the 'massive' publishers.

This book is called Cascade and it is about a girl who falls in love with an Indian legend. My genre is fantasy and it is a Young Adult book.

I am looking for feedback. Do you hate it, love it...indifferent? Needs more..this or that. I'm just curious because I have posted it on several writing websites so I know how they feel...but I don't know how 'google/pinterest/twitter' readers feel. So let me know.

Cascade
Autumn Daily All rights reserved
Copyright 2013

You can not duplicate or republish any parts of this without the author's permission.

Prologue

         Kai Reed gently inserted the needle into the girl’s arm and pushed the black liquid into her. He wiped away the tear that slid below her speckled, blue eye. 

“Don’t cry, honey, this will help the fever,” Kai swallowed. He despised seeing so much suffering in his people, especially the children. 

“Will this make the demons go away?” the child questioned, as Kai laid a cool, wet towel on her reddened, sweaty face.

“Yes, dear, you will be able to sleep again.” He remembered his own horrible nightmares. That was one of the symptoms, lack of sleep and beyond terrifying dreams. She was a week into the illness, with cough and fever. The little girl’s temperature climbed to 119 degrees. A fever of that size killed humans but water babies could go to 130 degrees unharmed. Her water gene continued to work overtime trying to cool her body, resulting in fatigue. He picked up the lifeless child and carried her back out into the waiting room to rejoin her mother. 

The mother, who looked extremely fatigued herself, took her daughter into her arms. Kai gave the mother a shot two weeks ago but he still saw the plague’s effects. 

“Kai, please thank your mother for her skills in finding the cure,” her voice trailed off as Kai patted the child’s arm. 

“Everything will be ok. We’ll make it through this.” 

Kai thoughts lingered on his mother, the biologist. He was super relieved she had found the cure for the plague in time. If her and her team hadn’t discovered something to eradicate the plague, their kind might not exist anymore.

Kai thanked the woman and gave her instructions. He spent the last two weeks, injecting the black syrup into water people with symptoms of the black plague. Three-quarters of the population caught the disease in less than a month. Thousands of people died. It had been a struggle to keep everyone alive. Kai had traveled back to earth and brought back many species of plants, hoping that one worked. It was the black root of earth that had cured them with a round of high potency antibiotics. They gave three doses to everyone, standard for water people. Fifty people came to the clinic before Kai left for home.

He was a volunteer to help aid with the vaccinations since the serum became available. During the night he assisted his father. They tried developing different strategies on preservation, warfare, and gaining leverage for the water people. He volunteered his services at the hospital until everyone received a dose of the syrup. By now the plague had reached three-fourth of the population. Kai had caught it. His mother had given him the doses but not before the nightmares had begun. They filled his mind with wicked dreams of black water and war. The images appeared amazingly real and upon awakening, the green around his iris’s swam in liquid form within the whites of his eyes. She insisted that the family stay together during this dark time. 

The infestation came from the well. They poisoned the water, spreading through vapors from the dry cough. The cough appeared along with fever and with that, came death. They knew their weaknesses. What was worse, the fire people remained immune to the disease. 

Kai washed his hands in the sink and looked at himself in the mirror. His black hair looked longer than usual, in a messy style that the girls liked. His green eyes looked tired with dark circles under them. He needed sleep tonight knowing his body did not like little rest. He grabbed his bag and walked home after the patients left. 

Ripley, their town, cast in darkness since the plague started since people wanted them dead. It was the beginning of a new chapter in the Otherworld. Every city housing water people were in lockdown. There was a strict curfew. Kai had a special pass, thanks to his father, so he continued to do work past curfew. But the streets weren’t the same. There used to be festivals and dances. The water people raised large families and held big celebrations. Now the street lights lay dormant at night. Housing construction became the biggest priority of every city. Every remodel and new construction required a thick layer of armor on the outside, to protect from fire. Many shelters around the town had gone up in case of an emergency. Water cities were uprising at an alarming rate but his family decided to stay in Ripley. They waited on their enemy to strike them to their demise. Peace talks were failing. War nipped at their ankles, depending on who threw the first punch. 

Something caught Kai’s eye behind him. He thought he saw his girlfriend, Amassona Ringer through the darkness. He hid within the shadows as the figure came up and passed. He could see her black hair and eyes in the moonlight under her full length cloak. She didn’t have a pass. Kai knew she shouldn’t be out past curfew. He decided to follow her.

She went in between several buildings, trying to move past guards without them knowing her presence. Kai, being trained in warfare followed silently with no detection. She moved to the edge of town, her pace quickening. 

His friends doubted her in every way possible. How dare they, since she was his heartstring mate? He couldn’t allow her to do something causing him to doubt their bond. He had to talk to her. He started to run and was near her when he noticed a voice that made him stop just short of revealing himself.

“Amassona,” said a man’s voice. Kai halted just short of being exposed. The voice came from a man dressed in black. He recognized this man as his father’s friend so Kai retreated so not to intrude upon their conversation. He respected Meris Rhodes. He waited in the shadows for her. She appeared to be reprimanded by Meris for she looked at her feet and he kept raising his finger to her nose then pointing at the air. He pulled out a letter and handed it to her. She tucked it inside of her cloak at her breast. He wanted to interrupt their conversation but he did likely not understand the nature of the exchange. 

Amassona and Meris finished their conversation and she turned back towards her home. He followed her several blocks so not to alarm her of him ease dropping upon her conversation with Meris. 

“Honey,” he said to get her attention.

She flinched and spun around to meet Kai’s eyes. She came up to him in a long embrace, which he took eagerly. 

“What are you doing out past this hour?” he said as soft as possible, watching her reaction.

“I delivered a baby,” she lied. 

Kai half expected it, he had caught her in so many lies. She searched his eyes. He pulled back into the shadows she was not able to see into his soul. 

“Baby delivery successful?” he inquired after collecting himself.

“Yes,” she murmured, “When will your father grant me the pass? He holds people ransom for those. I have to be with you or I will get fined for doing good.”

“I will talk to him,” he lied. He always wanted to believe her but she always used a lying tongue. He touched her black, silky hair and brought his lips close to hers. They shared a quick kiss. She tasted like honey.

“Hey, you two!” yelled a voice.

Kai reluctantly pulled away from her and turned to look towards the two guards, on their normal rounds. He turned into the piercing glow. 

“Kai, I am sorry to intrude,” the guard turned off his light, allowing the moonlight to illuminate them once more. 

“It’s ok, I am escorting Amassona home,” Kai said. 

They walked away from the guards, her arm finding its way through his. She looked good tonight. 

“I needed to talk to you anyways,” she cooed.

“What’s the matter?” 

“I found something of importance to you.” she retrieved a letter, handing it to him. He took the letter and opened it.

He scanned it, then reread it, eyebrows arching in surprise. 

“Why didn’t you show this to me earlier, where did you get this?”

“I had to deliver the baby,” she stated bluntly.

“This information is imperative and must be dealt with swiftly. I must meet my father.” He turned towards his house. Amassona touched his arm. 

“You need to go to the oracle,” she insisted.

“I will not travel to the oracle right now, this letter changes things and war could occur as early as tomorrow. My father must read this letter.”

“I will take it to him, Kai. You can visit her tonight and travel back to the Otherworld in a couple hours. You will know I am your heartstring mate. You could try in our relationship for once. I am tired of your friends not trusting me. I am aching because you are half in love,” she took his hand and laid it on her heart. He listened to the rhythm of her breathing, he felt her heartbeat through his fingertips.

She moved in towards him. 

“You need to do this for our love,” she begged.

“Amassona, I have to get this to my father,” he removed his hand, the guilt rushing over him.

“I will take this to your father. He will dispatch the warriors. There is time to complete each task but you must hurry. I will be waiting for you when you return,” his thoughts lingered on his relationship with Amassona. She always told him he was not invested in her. That she dragged him along. 

“Take the letter to my father,” he handed it back. She tucked it into her pocket.

“You have at least eight hours,” she insisted. 

“I will need one,” a smile creeped up into Amassona’s lips. He couldn’t tell in the shadows of its sincerity. 

“Kiss me, Kai,” she said. He kissed her quickly and pulled back. 

“Goodbye,” she turned without glancing back.

“See you later, Amassona.” He never said goodbye, it seemed to final.

Kai dissolved, materializing into water molecules. He traveled at the speed of light, hopping from one molecule to another. He moved through water vapor in the air, leaping through the water caves and arriving at the portal. He would have to travel to his home in the Otherworld to earth where the Oracle was being held. To skip over from the Otherworld to earth is very easy. He couldn’t cross back from earth to the Otherworld. Sometimes he made it, most of the passes he couldn’t. Earth confused him. He hoped this time he conjoured through without fail. 

He slipped out of the well on earth and went directly where they kept the oracle.

A woman, held trapped in a basement with illuminating bonds, hissed and clawed at the floor. The guard unlocked her door. He tried not to think of the destruction she would cause if freed. Or at least what he thought she might be capable of. The water people really didn’t know that much about her. Only the fire elementalists of the Otherworld told the water people her destiny was to destroy the Otherworld and she must be captured and destroyed. The water people captured her centuries ago. They tried conjuring her to the Otherworld so she could stand a fire elemental trial but getting her to earth failed multiple times. Only the people that captured her have long since died. So she sat, stuck on earth, until the water people knew what to do with her. The time past and the fire elementalists seemed to all together forget about her. Rumors came from the guards watching her that she could read the future but Kai didn’t know if she told the truth or twisted things to gain favor.

She listened to his approach, her growling came to a stop and she cocked her head to the side and stared at him. Her black skin dusty from laying on the dirt floor. She smiled revealing black, decayed teeth. A black tattoo circled her right eye. 

“You want to know heartstring mate’s name?” she said with broken dialect.

He shuddered knowing now she read his thoughts but wondered if she would tell him the truth.

“How can I trust you?”

“Because you is going to free me.”

He laughed out loud at the ridiculous thought.

“Remember I know of past and future. Like time your father put you as leader of secret military group.”

His eyes narrowed. She shouldn’t know that. That information is very secretive. 

“You have my attention, tell me what I want to know.”

“I know yous heartstring name though you not meet her where you expect.”

Amassona lied, they weren’t heartstring mates! She had said she traveled here to earth and talked with the oracle. He cursed himself for wanting to believe in their love. His thoughts fled to his father, the letter not reaching its intended recipient. His head began to throb as many scenarios flooded his mind, one negative thought after another. His heart rate started to double. He had to get home.

   “She of black water, she evil, she knew you would be trapped on earth so she sent you tonight, your letter never reach your father,” her head went back as if to look at something on the ceiling. 

Suddenly, Kai felt the water’s surface begin to glaze over the portal. His moments dwindled rapidly. If he traveled by water he might make it. Amassona’s identity remained a mystery. If the conjour failed, her full access to his father could result manipulating the battles. She insisted he had to come today and know his heartstring mate’s name before the opening closed to trap him on earth. She might have felt the coming storm, knowing her connection to snow ran deep in her water gene. She understood with him out of the way on earth until the spring, killing his entire family and manipulating the war slipped into her grasp. His family carried this war to fruition, the misery of the battles, whispered in his ear. 

“What is her name?” he said through clinched teeth.

Laying pathways in the garden

I wanted to show everyone a ranching mans version of walkways that are weed free. With our new garden, I wanted to establish some walkways. There are several benefits to establishing walkways in a garden. First of all, when you walk, you compact the earth. Your plants and earthworms love fluffy ground, not compacted ground. They need the room to establish good root systems. If you walk around your plants it will cause them to not reach their full potential. That is also the reason why I like established 'garden' beds. So you, and your friends, know where to walk and not walk.
Second of all it looks more pleasing to the eye. A well structured garden looks well and appears as though you had it planned from the get go. (Which I always wing my garden layouts).

Ok. Let's get started!

I first start by laying out feed bags (from our cattle) and card board boxes. This works in several ways, first they are environmentally friendly and will eventually decompose into the earth. But they also suppress any weeds that were there by denying light to get through. The result will be a chemical free/weed free walkway. 

This is the next step in our three step process. I drench the bags with water. This helps get all the bumps out of the bags and helps to keep everything in place. I was doing this on a slightly windy day. Mother nature won't time things with me. She makes it blow like a son of a gun on days I need to put plastic tarps up and lay out bags! So I drenched everything to keep it in place. (I actually did two sweeps of water cause the bags kept flying! 

This is the next, most exciting part. I sprinkled a heavy layer of pine bark from my local Lowes around the bed. I ended up using 18 bags which was about three bucks a bag...I think. :) I didn't spend over $50 bucks. Wow..I need to start keeping receipts for all of you thrifty readers. :) 

I then drenched the wood with, you guessed it, more water. It allows it to settle so you can find your gaps where bags show through and where you feel you need more 'mulch'. 

That is it folks. It's a ranchers version, and a cheap version, of making a walkway. I obviously this first year with so many other expenses won't lay rock...that will be another year. I always like a raised bed surrounded by brick or rock from the property. But with so many new projects going I had do do something fast and quick for a no-weed walkway. 

Enjoy!