How to increase the vase life of your flowers

We have all purchased flowers from the grocery store that come with the packets of flower food to keep your flowers fresh longer. But you can also achieve a longer vase life with simple steps and products that you probably already have at home! So how do we do this?

First use the flower food that often come with your flowers, BUT remember when you change your water your flowers still need care. I like to forgo the packets and instead use ta mixture of sugar and vinegar to keep my flowers fresh. The sugar feeds the fowers and the vinegar inhibits the growth of bacteria.

What you need:

• Sugar

• White Vinegar

• Warm water

I like to fill a mason jar with warm water and then add roughly 3 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. I let the sugar dissolve and then add what I need to a vase before adding my flowers. There are also some mistake we should avoid with our flowers as well.

The first mistake we make as caregivers of our flowers is not giving them a clean home to reside in. I don’t just mean initially, I mean on the regular. I mean, you don’t just clean your house one time and then never clean it again right? Make sure that your flowers have a clean home to live in. Keep the water clean! I like to change my water every other day, but every two days works too! I also take the opportunity to clean the vase before refilling it!

The second mistake is not giving those stems a trim! Whenever you bring flowers home, especially from the grocery store, make sure to trim those stems before popping them into a vase. I also like to make sure to remove any foliage that may sit below the water before adding flowers to a vase. Allowing foliage to sit in water can lead to bacteria and prevent necessary nutrients from reaching your blooms!

The third mistake is keeping your flowers next to a fruit bowl. Now, I totally get the aesthetic reasoning for this, but some fruits like apples, bananas, and tomatoes have a high production of ethylene, a gas that speeds up the aging of your flowers! An alternative to this would be to use dried flowers instead of fresh to achieve the decorative look of your home.

Do all of these things and you will be surprised at how long your flowers last!

You are exactly where you are supposed to be

Happy New Year from the farm! What an end to 2022! We had so many plans for a New Year post and pictures of our donkeys in their New Year headbands, but mother nature had other plans for us! Here in northern California, home of the perpetual drought we have been experiencing brutal winter storms...for California. I would never compare our situation to real winters! We spent New Year's Eve at our friends across the street who were experiencing extreme flooding.

Another year came and went, and we still are without the baby we have prayed so hard for. The holidays are hard, especially Christmas. We use to love shopping for family and for each other, and the heavy sadness has made it difficult to find the joy in the season that we use to have. While it was tough, we made the best of it! We cooked a lovely dinner for Daniel's parents and enjoyed a lovely day with them. This year wasn't as hard as last year, not because we have accepted our situation, but because we have made a commitment to find the as much joy as we can while we wait for our miracle. I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

I am in a fertility group run by Aimee Raupp (I strongly suggest coaching with her team if you are also struggling to conceive) that has a series of lessons and meditations meant to put someone like me struggling through my sadness, in a positive headspace. One of my favorite things I have heard her say is that, "You are exactly where you are supposed to be." It isn't always easy being where you are supposed to be. But I have taken this phrase and applied it to all things in life. My struggle is fertility and all of the stress, anxiety, and sadness that brings me. Your struggle may be different. Regardless, I believe with that whatever the challenge we are all exactly where we are supposed to be. Challenge helps us grow and learn so that when what we deserve is ready for us, we are ready too.

My word for this year is Surrender. I went back and forth between surrender and intentional, but I felt led to the word surrender. In meditation, in prayer I could feel the Lord asking me for this. Asking me to trust him, to let go over controlling outcomes and let him work in my life. Being a type A person, this is really hard, but I am leaning into what feels good. It feels good to trust and let go. Surrendering my dreams, my fears, my stresses will allow me to be intentional in the decisions I make. It feels good to trust and allow the Lord to work in my life. This is what I am working on in 2023 - Surrendering and accepting that I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

What is your word for 2023 and what are you working towards?

I am always working towards making a human kids with my husband and blooming where I am planted.

Joshua 1:9

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

I have to make the disclaimer that it is raw and perhaps emotional if you have ever been challenged to trust a power beyond your own. This is not my normal homestead, animal or flower post. I wrote it in a dark and difficult season of my life.

I have been sitting on this post for nearly a year.

I have been asked a lot why I want this homestead life - the animals, (now) the flowers, the garden, all of the extra work after work. I never answer with complete honestly. Usually I say I just love it and smile. But here is the truth - it simply brings me joy, but it also has been very healing. I feel joy being cultivated when I watch new life come to the farm, when I hug a donkey or a goat, when I collect eggs, when a seed becomes a plant that we later get to eat. Then there are those flowers. I hope that when you come to the end of this you will understand that my 'why' has had to adjust given my own life circumstances.

For a little over a year now (at this posting two years) we have tried to conceive. We knew waiting to get married we would be in our 40s, but we believed our healthy lifestyle would buy us time. We did not think that now two years into this we would be without children and the family we are desperate to have. It has been a hard season for sure, but we have had so many blessings to bring some light into the darkness. I heard on a podcast just the other day that it is important to be grateful for the struggle because that is where we grow.  That is where I am now...trying to grow, bloom, and thrive from a place of deep sadness and if I am honest shame.  Shame because this is what women are supposed to right? Provide their husbands with children? Shame every time someone asks when we are going to have kids. Shame every time someone gives advice assuming we haven't tried everything.

It has been a very isolating time as far as my social life is concerned. If I didn't have the farm I am not sure where I would be. The Lord blessed us five years ago with this donkey business opportunity in preparation for the struggle that would come. It has not only provided us with income necessary to cover some of the costs of this journey, but also has helped us to survive the heartache. It has led us to the way we want to live- sustainably and self sufficient a little bit at a time. What I feel has been the most healing is the personal and spiritual growth I have experienced. I no longer feel as those this is happening to me, but for me, for us. I do believe that God's timing is perfect and I am putting all of my faith, hope, and eggs in his basket (pun intended).

Several times a year we get to be excited by something new on the farm. Last year Aretha, the first donkey ever bred and born on this farm was pregnant with her first babe. Watching that little love on the ultrasound made my heart burst with joy. Being present for all of Lizzie's birth in February was one of the most memorable farm experiences to date. Watching flowers bloom from seeds I started this year reminded me of the miracles that God provides to us when we seek his support. It provides solace in what can easily be hopelessness.

When I am outside in my garden I can reflect on the hard stuff and it is a lovely sanctuary to be in when the hard stuff seems overwhelming. There is constant life blooming in a flower garden.  The unique thing about flowers is the healing that continues even after harvest. The joy it brings me when I am heavy with emotion, anxiety or stress. The joy it brings my friends when I brings them a spontaneous bouquet. Life has hard moments for everyone and in my humble opinion all of this farm stuff brings joy to people on some level, but the flowers have a longer lasting effect.

So what seems like so many years ago when we talked about our dreams living on a homestead, doing all of the homestead things we thought that we would have a little family by now. We never imagined we would spend so many holidays in tears, holding each other and each feeling like we have failed the other. We truly believed that all of this farm stuff would be happening with babies in carriers or in strollers right next to us. Yelling at toddlers not to eat compost or walk on seedlings. A life where we would grow our food and in return be caretakers of the soil that helped provide it. We have had to be flexible and adjust through our sadness. People that grow flowers often use the phrase cultivating joy and that is completely the truth. Flowers unlike the fruits and vegetables have this magical way of making anyone feel joy even in the moments when things feel the most dark.

Lately it feels like literally everyone around me is getting pregnant. Like literally. Just Friday I was in the restroom at work and I heard another teacher announce she was pregnant. I mean seriously in the restroom! I literally see bumps EVERYWHERE! In the past it has felt like punishment. But then I realize that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. These are the moments that God has intended for me to grow so that I am ready to be a mother again. And as Gabby Bernstein always says when we see the things we hope for in others, it is driftwood telling us that our miracles are on the way. In the meantime the flowers, the farm, the animals babies are keeping me hopeful and joyful.

If you know someone going through a similar journey try not to ask them about what the journey. Instead show them some extra love and maybe give them some flowers! We will have those available in the spring!

"And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. "  1 Corinthians 13:13

Clean Candles and Why We Make Them

Here on the farm we LOVE candles! We couldn't ever get enough of them. However, when we ran into some difficulty trying to conceive we consulted with a fertility coach and we were surprised to learn how toxic candles can be!

Many candles are made from paraffin wax which is essentially chemically bleach product of petroleum. Actually I should have been more specific - waste product! They emit highly toxic carcinogens know as benzene and toluene. It is also important to note that fragrance oils are different from essential oils and even then not all essential oils are created the same! Fragrance oils both phthalates (endocrine disrupters) and carcinogens...both not good.

So soy candles are safe? Well, here's the thing it has to be organic. As you may already know the soy bean has been heavily genetically modified so it is important to make sure your soy candles are also made from organic material. I do want to note that regular soy wax is safer than paraffin, but will still emit toxins.

This is what led Daniel and I on a quest to make clean candles. We tried essential oil diffuser and we still use them occasionally, but we both agreed that there was something about burning a candle that we loved. We checked out other candles, but either could not confirm that they were made with organic soy wax or they were just super expensive. Being on a journey to conceive in our 40s we just could not justify the expense of candles when we are spending on so many other things in the fertility realm.

During Christmas break we decided that we would give making our own candles a try. We loved them and gifted a few and received great feedback. I was given the opportunity to join a women's small business vendor site and sold a few there. We decided to add this to our farm shop. Since February we have been looking at different things from recipes to logos to jars. We feel like we have come up with a really wonderful product that we are sharing with you! You can find our candles in the shop!

How we got into Mini Donkeys!

So mini donkeys? Why? It is something people ask us about all of the time! So here is a little back story - Daniel had a mini donkey named Alfee for about 6 years. His mom, Cathy purchased him from a livestock auction here in Northern California. Daniel raised him from about six months old. Unfortunately Alfee was not part of a herd, so he was lonely and really loud. But he was so sweet! I still remember the first time I met Alfee, he came running over to meet Daniel at the fence and let us pet him. He lifted his lip on one side...Daniel said he was smiling at me, but who really knows. He was definitely a donkey with a lot of personality. Our closet neighbors had complained about the noise. Daniel and I had just moved in together and had been living in town and were not not always able to make it our here, so an opportunity to trade him came about and Cathy made the trade for a quiet mini horse. To say that Daniel was heartbroken really just does not do justice to his feelings, but it is the best I can use to explain how he felt. Sadly, just a month later we moved to the family property with this new mini horse Foxy.

We tried endlessly to make her friendly. Walked her, brushed her, loved on her (she was not into this), nothing seemed to work. Realizing Daniel's sadness, Cathy offered to buy us another mini donkey foal (babe). However, it was not an easy find and definitely not at an affordable price! We were super sad, but remained hopeful. A few months later Cathy came up with an idea to "make our own" mini donkey babe. We were a bit skeptical at the time because I mean I grew up a city kid and we really didn't know the first thing about breeding donkeys! Cathy, thankfully was confident and so we began our quest to find donkey parents.

We found some female rescues, which is a whole other story for another post, and a male. The girls were wild to say the least, but Jet our male was SUPER friendly. We really did not have any idea of what we were doing, but 13 months later our first donkey babe, made here on our farm was born! It was the best Christmas gift ever. Once she came along we were just so in love with how friendly, loving, and fun our little girl was. How could we not do more of this and bring joy to other families?

So that's the history of how Boyle Family Farm started bringing mini donkey babes into the world. There were lots of struggles on this journey that we will share in other posts, along with why every farm should have mini donkeys! Stay tuned!