Emergency Water Sources In Your Home

In an emergency situation, clean, drinkable water is often the most important factor to consider. Our bodies are 60% to 70% water. The water content of our brains is over 80%. Each day, through natural elimination, breathing and evaporation through the skin, we lose 1 1/2 to 2 quarts of water. That's without hard work, excessive heat or anything else that would cause extra water loss. A person can die from lack of water in as little as 2 days in extreme heat conditions.

Any number of emergencies can cut off our water supply. Flooding, even if it does not affect your home, contaminates the water tables and supplies where your water may come from. Tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, biological contamination, earthquakes and power outages can all stop or damage the water supply you depend on.

The best thing we can do is to prepare ahead of time. Every home should have emergency water containers filled and properly stored. The average rule of thumb is to store 1 gallon of water per person per day and have a 2 week supply - so 14 gallons for each person. On the average we should drink about 2 quarts a day, but also need to allow for cooking or other food preparation and very basic hygiene. The more you can store, the better.

2 liter bottles are good storage containers. Glass containers have the lowest danger of contamination but are heavier if you have to carry them and have the danger of breaking. You can get large water storage barrels through many on-line sources or sometimes from local canneries, or other food handling companies. Take extra care to make sure your containers are very clean before filling them. We keep four 30-gallon barrels and many smaller containers in our basement and have used them many times when our power has gone out. Since we have a well and rely on power for the pump to run, we have no water to our home when there is no electricity. If you have very little room, get creative, but don't be unprepared and go without. Put water containers under the bed, on high shelves or next to the wall behind the couch!

If you know that your water source will be gone for some reason, like flood waters rising, or have been informed that the municipal water facility has been damaged or contaminated, take immediate action to collect as much water as possible. The bathtub holds about 30 gallons of water. Fill it up. Fill every bottle, pitcher, bucket and container you can find.

Once your water supply has been cut off, you also have access to other water that is naturally stored in your home. First you should shut off the main water intake to your home to keep contaminated water from coming in. Then you can safely access the water in your home plumbing system. Your water heater is a great source. Turn off the pilot light so the water won't heat up and open the drain valve at the bottom to collect water as you need it. If you have a multiple level home, open a faucet on the top level to allow air flow, then go to the bottom level and turn on a faucet to collect the water that is in your pipes. You can also scoop the water out of your toilet tank - not the bowl! If you have tablets or some other cleaning product in the tank, you will not be able to use that water. Don't forget your ice cubes in the freezer, and any canned foods you have can contain a lot of liquid, too.

Think ahead, do what you can do now, know what to do when an emergency comes, and be prepared. It can mean your comfort, or your life!

A Few Money-Saving Tips

Saving money doesn't always have to mean going without or going through exhausting extra effort. There are so many simple things you can do at home to cut costs that will add up to significant savings.

Have a clothesline - I love my clothesline. It's a nostalgic thing for me, as much as a money saver. My mother hung our clothes on the line in the summer since before I was born. I loved the fresh air smell on them. I've traveled Europe several times and always loved the lines of clothes hanging across the narrow streets and between buildings. Even if you are in an apartment and don't have a yard, you can still have a clothesline. If your apartment has two windows on one wall, it's pretty easy to attach a short rod next to each one on the outside wall. A couple of simple pulleys from the hardware store with your line strung through them in a loop - just reach out the window and clothespin the clothes on one at a time, pulling the rope through the pulley each time to put the next one on. If you only have one window, you can go outside with a ladder to attach the other rod, or string it out to a tree, fence, or another building. Get creative and you can have a clothesline just about anywhere. There's nothing like fresh linens blowing in the breeze. For inside, you can buy retractable clotheslines that easily install over a bathtub or in your laundry room, like the kind you sometimes see in hotel rooms. In the winter, I hang coats, blankets and other bulky items that take longer to dry, on a drying rack next to the wood stove. It saves a a very significant amount on our electric bill!

Watch the refrigerator door - Your clothes dryer and refrigerator are the two most expensive appliances to run. If you can cut down on how many times the door gets open and shut, you will cut down on how often the motor has to kick on. When I come home with groceries, I set all the items that go in the fridge, next to it, and then open the door once to put them all in. It's better to have the door open for a longer time, than to open and shut it several times in the same time frame, because of the seal on the door. Every time you pull it open and break the seal, it sucks air in quickly which circulates the air in the fridge, exchanging the cold air with the air from the room.

Have a tasty house plant - Even in a small apartment you can find room for a house plant or two. Tomato plants can be just as decorative as a common green house plant. If you attach a small hook to the ceiling above it and run a cord from it to the plant, you can keep tying your tomato plant to the cord and it will continue to climb toward the ceiling, bearing fruit all the way. Many herbs are easy to grow and make a perfect window box or potted plant. Unless you buy herbs in bulk quantities, they are pretty pricey in those little bottles they come in. You can grow them for a fraction of the same cost, enjoy the beauty, and eat them fresh!

Recycle candle scraps - If you love candles, like I do, you know they can sometimes be expensive - especially the higher quality ones. If it's a free-standing candle, they often drip and puddle. Jar candles almost always have at least a little wax left over in the jar, but sometimes it's a lot. Some wicks aren't very sturdy and they fall over in the melted wax and disappear. I keep all those unused wax portions, and when I get enough, I melt them down and pour new candles. Just save a tin can, wash out the beans or whatever was in it and remove the label. Set it in a pan of water and heat the water up until the wax melts. You can buy nice sturdy wicking by the yard, and those little anchors to put on the bottom at any craft store. Tie the top of the wick to a pencil and set the pencil over the opening of your candle jar so the wick hangs down in the center and reaches the bottom. Pour in the melted wax and trim the wick when it's cool. Or you can make hand-dipped candles by just dipping your wick in the can of melted wax. Dip it quickly, pull it out and let it cool for a few seconds and dip it again. You have to dip quickly so you don't melt off the wax you already have on. As you can see in the picture, my kids got creative with some of their candles! I've made a lot of candles over the years out of what would have been wasted. Most of them I pour in jars, but dipping is always fun. Although candles add a wonderful ambiance, you should always have them on hand for emergency lighting, too.


Save nice bows and wrapping paper - My husband and I were just discussing, and decided that in the 21 years we've been married, we've probably only bought new bows 4 or 5 times! I don't like "tacky", so if they get a little crushed or crumpled and don't look new, I toss them. They just seem to last forever. When we unwrap a present and pull the bow off and it still looks brand new, I just don't have it in me to throw it away! I put it in the "bow box". Wrapping paper certainly doesn't last nearly as long, but most of our paper gets used at least several times. After it's used for a present, if there is still a nice big center that looks unused, I cut off the edges and put the now smaller piece in the "paper box". I'm sure we've saved a small fortune over 21 years of birthdays and Christmases!

Well, that's just a few of my ideas. There are plenty more and I'll share more on later posts. If you have any great ideas to share, please leave them in the comments.

Self-Reliant Health –Lungs and Bronchials

About 12 years ago, I got Bronchitis for the first time. I was miserable enough that I decided to go straight for the medicine. I didn't feel like I'd survive if I had to wait for the herbs to "assist" my body in healing. I took stuff for the cough, stuff for the congestion and any other stuff I could find. My misery was quickly "curbed" enough to give me the illusion of relief, but I ended up battling with it for two full weeks! Once you get Bronchitis, you seem to be more prone to it - like pneumonia. A year later I had it again. I went through the same routine, for two weeks. The third year, same thing again. Maybe I'm a slow learner, but the fourth year I finally wized up. I decided I would only use my herbs. My symptoms subsided faster than they had with medications and in 3 days flat I had nothing left but the last little bit of a very mild common cold. I've never gone for the medications again! And I've only had Bronchitis twice since then.

I have come to understand that herbs ARE medications. They just aren't synthetic or toxic. They are both effective and nourishing, which strengthens your body while it heals, instead of weakening it. I have a few favorites I keep on hand for sicknesses we get that go into the chest. They work every time.

Fenugreek - Known as "the Lung herb". They are little seeds which are used heavily in some parts of the Orient because of the "sweet" smell they cause in a body when a lot is consumed. They are pretty inexpensive and easy to find in a health store. Fenugreek is excellent for lungs, coughs, sore throat, allergies, expelling mucous, ulcers, lubricating the intestines, headaches and migranes.

Mullein - This hearty plant grows along the roads, in the woods and especially anywhere the ground has been disturbed. It's easy to find and one that I harvest myself, but you can find it inexpensively in the health stores. Use the leaves. Mullein is excellent for all respiratory problems and expels mucous from the lungs and body. It's a natural pain killer and is high in iron, magnesium, potassium and sulphur.

Myrrh - Yes, the same precious herb brought to Christ from the Wisemen. It comes in powdered form. It's not very expensive anymore. I buy it in 1 lb. bags and encapsulate it myself. Myrrh is an excellent antibiotic and has been found to increase white corpuscles. Besides being very effective with the lungs and coughs, it cleans and heals the stomach and colon and helps to eliminate waste. It's very helpful for sinus problems, any infection or sore, asthma and emphysema. You can buy it in powder or capsules.

Echinacea - I add echinacea to almost all my herbal remedies because there are few sicknesses that don't involve mucous. Echinecea breaks up and expels mucous, helps to drain and clean the lymph glands, tonsilitis, throat and strep infections and is a blood purifier. It's an excellent infection fighter and a powerful antibiotic. If you have hypoglycemia, echinacea is a good alternative to Golden Seal, which is another powerful infection-fighting antibiotic.

Myrrh is very bitter so we always swallow it in capsule form. The others I prefer in a tea. When you swallow an herbal capsule, you are swallowing a small amount of a dried, crushed plant. Your body will extract the healing properties out and disgard the bulk. In all our years of using herbs, I've found that for infection type sicknesses, nothing works better than a nice warm cup of tea. The healing properties are extracted for you, you get a lot more benefit and don't have to process the bulk. And besides being comforting, that nice warm tea just seems to absorb faster.

Making an herbal tea is very simple. Tough parts of plants like seeds or woody pieces of bark or root can be simmered gently for 5 minutes or so. Don't boil them hard. Just a light simmer because too much heat will destroy the healing benefits. Then pull your tea off the heat and add the tender plant parts like leaves and flowers. Put the lid on and let it steep. The longer it steeps, the stronger the tea will be. There is no exact science to how much herb to use and how long to let it steep. You can use less herb and let it steep a little longer and get a nice strong and effective tea. I use maybe a tablespoon or so of each herb for 4 to 6 cups of water. When one of us is sick, I make a good sized pot of tea so we can drink it throughout the day. Pour it in your cup through a strainer and add a little honey.

Mucous, believe it or not, is a good thing! Unless it pools and collects in your body and isn't flushed out. It is the body's method of washing its cells. Taking an antihistamine to dry up mucous membranes takes away the body's opportunity to flush the junk out. Mucous can collect throughout your body in the intestines, organs and even your brain. It can pool like a swamp. Just like alligators like swamps, infection likes pools of mucous. The "modern" method is to throw some poison in the swamp (medication) to kill the alligators. But if you just drain the swamp, the alligators will go with it. Try taking some cayenne in hot honey and vinegar water, or enjoy an extra helping of your favorite hot salsa! Let your nose run! The faster you flush out the infection, the sooner it's gone and the running stops. When a good strong herbal tea sends you to the bathroom frequently to both urinate and blow your nose, you know your body is flushing well and you'll be feeling great in no time.

Pumpkin Soup and Seeds

The first time I heard of Pumpkin Soup, I thought "Ewwww"! It just didn't sound like a good idea to me, but then I had the opportunity to have some and was I ever surprised. I loved it! Good thing I have an open mind. If you've never had Pumpkin Soup before, this is the perfect time of year to try it out.

Pumpkin Soup

Chop your fresh pumpkin into small cubes, remove the rind, and simmer in salted water for 30 minutes. Then follow the recipe:

1 finely chopped onion
2 Tbl butter
2 Tbl flour
2 lbs. pumpkin (abt. 2 c.)
5 c. chicken broth
1/4 c. white vermouth (optional)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 egg yolks
1 c. whipping cream

Saute the onion in butter until it's soft, then stir in the flour. Mash the pumpkin into a puree and add it. Then add the chicken broth, salt and vermouth (if you're using it - there was none in the soup I had). Cover it and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the ginger and nutmeg. Mix the egg yolks and cream together and add to soup. Heat it until hot but not boiling. This serves 6.

Serve the soup in a hollowed out pumpkin. It'll be big hit!

Don't throw the seeds away. Any time we carve pumpkins, or use them for baking goodies, I roast the seeds. They are one of my favorite fall treats.

Pumpkin Seeds

Wash the seeds off. Then mix 1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce, 3 Tbl melted butter, and salt to taste. Stir that over 2 c. of pumpkin seeds, spread out on a cookie sheet and bake at 225 for 2 hours. They make a great substitute for some of the candy through the holidays!

A Three Month Supply

Being prepared is a hot topic of conversation these days! And it's no wonder, if you are watching the global political scene, Mother Nature's fury and our national and world economies. I think things are going to get much worse before they get better. But we can be prepared. We don't have to live in fear if we are prepared. Preparedness is peace of mind.

For over 50 years now, the leaders of our church have urged people to have a supply of food and other necessities on hand. Since I was young, my parents have kept and maintained about a 1-year food storage supply, and I've continued that in my own home since I've been married. At times when the income is low, we have food, toilet paper, cotton balls, tooth paste or whatever we might need. Even when there isn't an urgent situation, we are buying things in quantity when a good deal is available and are living a year ahead of inflation, and that adds up to a lot of saved dollars!

A good place to start, is with a 3 month supply of everything you normally use. A few considerations will need to be made, like fresh produce will have to be substituted for canned or dried, and milk may have to be powdered. Just keep track of everything you use each day, week or month. Whenever you go to the store, buy an extra item here and there until you have enough food and supplies to last you and your family for 3 months.

Both the federal and state governments, and many medical emergency preparedness organizations, have web sites concerning pandemic preparations. A recent government article I read said that "not if, but WHEN a pandemic hits" we should be prepared to self-quarantine for about 3 months. That means we stay in our homes and don't leave. No one comes in and no one goes out. A self-quarantine means we have the option to protect ourselves that way, but there are no police or military enforcing it. People who are living hand-to-mouth and have to go to work or to the store will be doing so at their own risk. If you have everything you need in such a situation, you will have the peace of mind of knowing that you can keep from exposing your self and family to the dangers outside.

I have always been passionate about preparedness and am very often approached by others wanting help. They say they just don't know how to get started because it seems so over-whelming, or they are stocking up on things but don't know the best way to store it so it will last longer and be safe from bugs and moisture. Keeping track of it all - rotated and inventoried - can be confusing and they want to know how to manage that. It is my intent to help as many people as possible to become as prepared as possible for whatever may happen down the road. As each of us becomes more prepared, we can then help others.

Write down a menu for one week and list all the ingredients that would be needed. Then multiply it by 4 and you know just what you need for a month's worth of meals. When you have one month, double it and then triple it. Each time you are at the store, grab an extra item or two, like another tube of toothpaste or roll of paper towels or bottle of aspirin. Watch for sales and bulk items. Before you know it, you'll be feeling less worry and enjoying life a little bit more! You'll have greater peace of mind.

The Ultimate Kid's Toy

We had the ultimate toy when we were kids! It cost little or nothing, didn't consume batteries and provided the most fun I could imagine (at the time) all year long. It was the fantastic, amazingly versatile INNER TUBE! No kidding! You probably have no idea what kind of things a kid can do with an inner tube. Well let me tell ya...

In the summer, our inner tubes were my almost daily entertainment. The big truck tubes were the ultimate choice. I have a big brother who could talk me into almost anything back in my gullible-little-sister years, and he'd somehow convince me to curl up inside the tube so he could roll me down the hill that sloped down beyond the edges of our yard. Being unreliable in their ability to stay on the same course you launched it in, the tube would often veer off in an unpredicted direction as it bounced down the hill. As the passenger, it's really difficult to remain coherent of your location and direction when you are in a state of constant somersault. He would aim me toward the swamp, where I'd be guaranteed a soft landing, even if it were wet. But if the tube hit a bump and decided to bounce a little to the left, I'd make a brutal connection with the side of Dad's shop. But hey, the element of danger added to the thrill.

Laying flat on the grass, inner tubes are great bouncers. My sister and I would bounce opposite of each other holding hands across the tube. We'd bounce around and around it. My little goats, who love to climb and play on anything they can (like Grampa's pickup), would join in the fun and jump on the tube with us.

We had a very large Douglas Fir tree in the front yard, and tied a rope up on a thick branch that hung down and was tied around the inner tube. I'd sit in that tube with my feet against the tree and swing around and around it like a tether ball.

My favorite summer fun was down at the lake. Of course, you can lay on a tube to sunbathe, or you can climb on it, jump off in the water or pull it behind a boat. Maybe the manufacturers who sell those expensive "water tubes" got the idea from us! My favorite thing to do was sit across from a friend, lock hands, and get the tube rocking up and down like a teeter-totter, plunging us up and down in the water until we rocked it far enough that when one person went up in the air, the tube would just keep going and flip clear over.

If you decide to skinny-dip, you can go out away from shore where no one can see and the tube makes a nice place to drape your suit while you enjoy the swim. Unless of course a boat goes by and the waves knock your suit off the tube and it sinks to the bottom of the lake, like my friend's did once! OK, at least she thought it did until she was in sufficient hysterics and I was laughing too hard to stay above the surface any more. For fear of drowning, I gave her suit back.

In the winter, there's nothing better on the snow than an inner tube. We lived in the woods on a gentle sloped mountain side. When the snow was just right for packing, we would make a chute starting from way up above the house that came down through the trees, across the driveway, down the hill below the house, past the barn and on down into the woods on the other side. It was a great ride! We just had to make sure the sides of the chute were high enough on the corners to keep from flying over the edge of the track and into a tree. Carrying a tube back up the hill is easy if you hang it on your head and over your back.

We'd often tie it behind the snowcat (our term for snowmobile) on a long rope. One day my brother was driving the snowcat, pulling me and Mark, our friend. We went about a mile up in the woods on an old logging road to a large meadow my family had cleared. Being the crazy brother he is, he wanted to make sure we had the best time possible, so he headed across the meadow at full throttle. When he had the machine going as fast as it could possibly go - I'd guess 70 or 80 mph - he leaned hard and spun the cat around. That of course, sent us spinning around like a yo-yo on the end of a string. I think our speed tripled, the world was a blur as my eyes were sucked back into my head and I could feel my face stretched back like a cartoon from the g-forces. It was a long rope! We spun around him so fast that the pull of the rope flipped the cat over him. I saw him jump up and the snowcat flip over him again. He'd jump up again and it would flip and he'd jump up. Through the blur, I think that happened about 4 times before we slowed down enough to just wrap around the snowcat and not flip it. I didn't fly off the tube with all that centripetal force because as I was holding onto the rope where it was tied around the tube, my hand just wedged down between the tube and the rope. My fingers would have come off before I could have flown off that tube!

We shortened the rope to head back down the mountain. The logging road is winding and there's very little room to swing around the corners. I told my brother the rope was still too long but he said, no, it would be fine - as long as he didn't go too fast. If you knew him like I do, you would know that he can't ever pass up a chance for a thrill - even if it is someone else's! He went flying down the logging road with Mark and I in tow. As if we hadn't had enough excitement for one day, we didn't go far before he flung us around a corner, the tube slammed into a tree, burst, and the two of us flew off in random directions into the woods. Don't worry, we had plenty more tubes stashed in the barn to continue our idea of fun with!

My grandpa's ranch, adjacent to our farm, had a meadow on either side of the ranch house. They both have a good slope to them and make for a great ride on a tube. Especially when the snow gets crusty on top. The smaller meadow is steeper and has no "landing" before the barbed wire fence across the bottom. You had to be able to bale off before the fence, which my brother failed to do one day and took out one of the wires, with himself.

One of my best memories is during the Christmas holiday when all the Aunts and Uncles and cousins were together at the ranch. We had a big tubing party out in the big meadow with 8 inner tubes. They were all placed next to each other and about 6 men - my dad and uncles - laid on the tubes and wrapped their arms around them to hold them together. Then my mom and all the aunts laid down on the men's backs and about 10 of us cousins piled on top of the moms. We roared down the meadow like Niagra Falls. My grampa's dog raced along side of us yapping and biting at the tubes. I suppose he thought we were crazy and was trying to stop it and save our lives. His tooth sunk in one of the tubes and when it popped about 5 or 6 bodies flew off across the meadow while the rest of the pile thundered away.

Now, who said you have to go out and spend hard earned money on plastic toys that break and never last long anyway when we have the best toys a kid could ever ask for laying around in shops and garages for cheap or free? Maybe we played with inner tubes because "necessity is the mother of invention", but I thought we had the ultimate kid's toys!

Self-Reliant Health – Sore Throat

There's no need to go out and buy throat sprays and drops. They don't fix your sore throat anyway. They might numb it or temporarily soothe it in some way, but that's just a cover-up, not a cure. And they are medications, which add more load for your system to try to process and your liver to filter. Here are some of our most successful methods of either soothing a sore throat, or killing the problem that causes it:

Gargle with Hydrogen Peroxide -
Gargle really well with a small amount, getting it as far back as you can. Allow it to fizz and do it's job as long as you can before you rinse. Although there is food grade Hydrogen Peroxide that you can ingest, I don't. I swallowed a mouthful unintentionally once and it came right back up, along with everything else that was in my stomach.

Gargle with and swallow Colloidal Silver –
Silver kills bacteria. It also kills viruses, indirectly, by collapsing the host bacteria cell it invades and suffocating it. Since the silver is absorbed by the small intestine, it doesn't harm the needed bacteria in the colon. I've read about a lot of people who drink colloidal silver or take silver supplements on a regular basis for an extended period of time, but too much of a good thing is too much. I use it only short term when I have a specific need and it works great!

Apple Cider Vinegar, Honey, Lemon, Cayenne –
The acidity in the cider vinegar will kill bacteria when it contacts it. It is also high in Potassium. Honey has been used to soothe a sore throat for many generations. It also helps to alleviate a cough. Lemon is a fantastic cleanser, very nourishing and helps kill bacteria. Cayenne increases circulation which aids the body in attacking and flushing unwanted infections. It is also an anti-bacterial and anti-fungal agent. These 4 substances can each be used separately or in any number of combinations. Mix the honey and vinegar in warm water and drink, or mix ¼ cup each without diluting and take a tablespoon every couple of hours, letting it slowly run down your throat. We like hot lemon and honey tea. Just add a Tablespoon (or 2 if you like it stronger) of each to a cup of hot water and sip it slowly. Adding ¼ tsp. cayenne to either of those combinations enhances their effect.

Warm Salt Water Gargle –
Salt inhibits bacteria growth and is a good cleanser. It also makes a great soother for sore throats but is often only a temporary solution.

Garlic –
Garlic is a natural antibiotic. It effectively kills bacteria, viruses, molds, fungus, yeast and parasites. The healing property in it, a substance called allicin, is released when the garlic is chewed or chopped or crushed. To avoid “garlic breath”, I put a piece of a garlic clove on a spoon and chop it up with the tip of a knife. Then we swallow it down with water without chewing it. If it doesn't mix with your saliva, you won't have it on your breath. However, it's most effective in healing a throat infection if you let the juices of the garlic clove bathe your throat. I used to keep a clove in my cheek and suck on it during cold season when I was younger and I would rarely catch what was going around.

Myrrh –
Years ago we went through a spell for months when it seemed like there was always someone in the family who was sick. We got pretty tired of garlic and in my search for an alternative, I discovered Myrrh. Myrrh is an excellent natural antibiotic and, according to one of my herbal remedy books, it has been found in tests to raise the white blood cell count, as much as 4 times! We take a couple of capsules when we feel something coming on and more often than not, it will stop the oncoming infection in its tracks. A very strong tea of Myrrh is an excellent mouth wash or gargle to kill sores or infections in those areas.

Slippery Elm Bark –
I love Slippery Elm. I buy it in bags in powder form. It is highly nutritious and has a mildly nutty taste. I'll often add a couple of tablespoons to a fruit shake. Two Tablespoons stirred into a cup of hot water will coat the throat and help alleviate both soreness and cough.

Ginger –
Fresh ginger, peeled and steeped in hot water with a little honey added, is a soothing tea for any occasion. Sip it slowly and you'll notice a prickly sort of tingle in your throat. Ginger also aids in digestion, and ginger tea is a good remedy to help get your voice back when it's been hoarse.

Oregon Grape Root –
Taking capsules or, preferably, drinking a tea made by steeping Oregon Grape Root in hot water, will kill Strep Throat. This is the only remedy I'm listing here that I haven't actually used myself. After reading this in several of my herbal books, I've suggested it to 3 different people who had been to the doctor and found that they, or in one case - several members of their family, had Strep but didn't want to use antibiotics. All 3 people reported back that the Oregon Grape effectively and quickly killed the Strep.

Those are the remedies we use most in our family. The Oregon Grape Root (I keep on hand just in case), Slippery Elm and Myrrh I buy 1 lb. at a time from a bulk source, or you can get them in capsules, tinctures or bulk from a Natural Foods store. The rest of the ingredients mentioned, are commonly used and in most of our homes anyway. They are good inexpensive alternatives to purchasing medicinal remedies and are much better for your body!