Learning from Failures

We have had a rough week with different things not working out or running into obstacles hindering us from making progress with our transition. We have had our gardens be overun with bugs, oil lamps we've purchased not work, our shampoo eat Sandi's skin (a few weeks ago), as well as a feeling of discouragement.
When we stepped back as we were feeling discouraged we realized we had learned a lot from our mistakes and failures and were also succeeding in other areas.
Our gardens are doing awesome (thus all the bugs), we're learning about pests and how to control them, we obtained a rain barrel for $15.00, we shot our guns (that we've owned for over a year) for the first time, we learned olive oil does not work very good as oil in an oil lamp and we have been staying faithful to not using lights in our house, no air conditioning, no sodas, and we have also bought a juicer and have been using that faithfully once a day.
Learning from our failures is as important as learning from our success. I've attached a lot of pictures for you to look through.
1.We've got lots of pests as you can see
2.Our lovely rain barrel
3. Sol with our solar night at night time
Failing is not a failure unless you fail to learn from it.
Chris, Sandi, and Sol

No More Lights

We have officially quit using normal lighting in our house as of 3 days ago. We bought several candles and candle holders and have been enjoying using them. We bought one little $4.00 solar light from tractor suppy to use as a night light. We place it outside during the day and bring it in at night and it lasts all night long.
Coming home after dark we just pick up the solar light and use it as a soft torch coming into the house. We really have enjoyed it and are excited and feel really use to it.

Also as a reminder please check out our website at TheBantamLife.com
or on the right side of the blog we always have a link to the website. We are slowly getting more and more content there that will not be on the blog. With the blog we are limited in the ability to seperate information into categories and with space.

If you have any information on how you are being self sustainable, recipes, items that you would want to post for others to be able to use feel free to email me at bantamfarms@gmail.com or post comments on the blog with the information.
Chris, Sandi and Sol

P.s. We are loving the Dental Experiment! Great results already.

Dental Experiment

I have in the past few years needed to get some dental work on my teeth in the price range of $500. This was the cheapest quote we had received. Basically it would be for a more detailed cleaning of the teeth. I had not taken care of my teeth as well as I should have and so they needed to spend extra time getting it right.
Well we started researching how to make our own toothpaste/tooth powder and we ran across an amazing website full of information. I highly recommend anyone to check it out and at least read the information there even if you don't apply it to your life. Click here for the OraMedia website.
In a quick summary a dentist named Dr. Robert Nara had the belief that we could take care of our teeth without ever having to go to the dentist. He believed that what you used to brush your teeth was less important than how you brushed your teeth. He believed that you should brush 3 times a day with baking soda and 1 or those times with salt in the mix. He also says to rinse your mouth with salt water so the bacteria in your mouth cannot thrive in the high salt environment.
Because of this we are doing an experiment mainly with my teeth.
1. I am going to brush 3 times a day with baking soda (we are checking other sources to make sure this will not wear the enamel off) and once a day with salt and baking soda(do not brush with salt yourself if you have any metal fillings it will cause corrosion)
2. I am rinsing with salt water once a day and using salt water in my water pick to help the healing of my gums.

3. Sandi is going to be my dentist and will remove the heavy plaque buildup with a $4.50 dental cleaning kit from Wal-Mart.

Dr. Nara stated that he believed your diet had a big deal to do with the health of our teeth so we are steadily trying to improve our diet. We have already begun that prior to this by cutting out all sodas (we do still drink sweet tea) and we have recently gotten a juicer to help us eat healthier foods. We will also be canning and dehydrating fruits and vegetables in the near future. I have posted some pictures of my mouth after the first brushing and will be posting updated pictures as we go along. I believe we will track this for one month when we will show final pictures (or if need be 3 months) and let you know how it went.