Wonder Soil Review~ Dirt That Grows ~ Gardening With Arthritis

Center Photo Credit: https://wonder-soil.myshopify.com/

 

 Gardening With Arthritis 

There is a lot about me that I don't put out on here, but as I write more I realize for people to truly understand how my homesteading is going maybe I need to enlighten you all a bit more on our situation.

See 2 years ago I was diagnosed with Lupus and Fibromyalgia. This is part of why we began homesteading. We realized my health was never going to be good enough to go back to a normal job. So I do what I can here to not only save us money, but make some money at home so that my husband doesn't have to get a second job.

I am fortunate. He has a great job with great benefits. Is he paid his worth? No, but who is these days? So here I am trying to deal with our horrible soil. I've been bringing in bags of soil and shoveling dirt from the back of the woods.

The lupus has impacted my joints horribly. I'm 33 and have been told I need bilateral knee replacements. I have refused, but that gives you an idea how bad my knees are. On top of that my shoulders and wrists are miserable on a regular basis.

Wonder Soil Makes Gardening With Arthritis Easy

I admit, when I got this product I was a bit unsure what to expect. The only experience I have with soil that grows are those awful small things that come in dollar general plants. They are dreadful, don't hold water, and have zero nutrition in them. 

So I was pleasantly surprised when I tried this out. My Wonder Soil was delivered in 5 or 6 inch by 12 inch sections. Each of these sections expand to 7 times their volume!

It breaks down into smaller sections pretty easily. I was using mine to plant into some grow bags so I broke it down into 3-4 inch sections.I inserted this into my grow bags, added water, and it really did exactly what we were hoping! It grew! It didn't only grow, but it turned into beautiful soil. Yes, I just called soil beautiful! It really is!

Wonder Soil Ingredients 

So the ability to grow makes my life much easier! It helps my arthritis greatly. I no longer have to lug around giant bags of soil. It's convenience is not the only benefit though. Unlike the horrible fake versions of this product that I find at my local dollar store this soil has amazing ingredients! 

• Coconut Fiber - Not only is coconut fiber great for helping to retain water it is also great for deterring insects and disease. 
• Worm Castings - Natural plant food!
• Humus - Decaying plant material improves drainage and releases beneficial nutrients. 
• Mycorrhizae - Reduces transplant shock and helps aid root growth. 
• Kelp - Helps growth, root stimulation, and better seed germination.  
• Azomite - Increases yield and helps roots

These aren't the only ingredients, but they are certainly great!  Nothing is better than organic soil.

All around this is a great product. It is not only good for helping those with arthritis. It is also good for those in drought impacted areas. Since Wonder Soil holds water so well it reduces the need for watering or rain. Wonder Soil can be used to grow your lawn, and helps keep it green during the rough summer months.

Where to Get Wonder Soil

If you want to get yourself some wonder soil just click here! You won't be disappointed. This is an amazing product! 

A Great Hammock with a Built in Stuff Sack

I've been with my husband now for 9 years. The last time we had a hammock, he and I had just met a month or 2 before. One night we were having a nice evening sitting outside. We both went to sit on his hammock to finish our drinks. As we sat down the awful happened. The hammock was dry rotted and as we sat, our butts went straight through and we landed on the ground below.

Since then we have not owned a hammock. Not that we suddenly hated hammocks, but more like we hated the idea of the same thing happening again. So I was so excited when I got the opportunity to review a new hammock.

The Nortwill Portable Hammock is going to be a great addition to our back yard and our backpack! I'm looking forward to having a hammock to take with me when we go camping again.

Installing Our Nortwill Hammock

In the middle of our yard we have 3 trees in the shape of a triangle. Since we moved here I had been telling my husband the spot was perfect to hang 3 hammocks from. Now in all honesty I hate these trees. They pretty much make it impossible to use that entire section of the yard. Because the property was so poorly kept over the years the 'baby' trees keep reappearing below these. We are constantly having to cut them out. 

So we thought this spot would be ideal for testing out my 3 hammock theory. If I could get one to work then we would get more. My 5 year old likes to lay in the hammock at her grandma's house. So when I installed this I installed it so we would be just above the ground. 

This Nortwill Hammock came with nice tree straps. However my trees are an awkward size, too big to wrap more than once, too small to wrap only once without hanging us very close to the ground. I want to be close to the ground, but I don't want to be touching the ground. 

So I wrapped the tree strap just once around the tree, but I wrapped it a little higher than we needed it accounting for the sag that we would cause once laying in it. In the pic above you will see how we wrapped it. We then hooked the Nortwill Hammock onto the tree straps. 

Enjoying Our New Great Nortwill Hammock

Since installing the hammock, my youngest and I have been going outside every morning and laying in it for a few minutes. It really is a great addition to our yard. It gives us another thing to enjoy here at home. 

I can't wait for my husband to have another fire going so that I can lay in the hammock and watch the fire. 

When we go camping I will easily be able to stuff it in it's stuff sack because the sack is actually attached to the bottom of the hammock. I won't have to worry about losing it! Which is awesome, since I lose everything! Overall even though I got this hammock at a discount in exchange for my honest opinion on the product, I think that we will be buying the other 2 we need to complete our hammock triangle at full price. 

If you want to get yourself a great backpacking, camping, or just backyard hammock click here.

Drink Coasters + Holder + Ice Ball Mold Maker

I took a couple days to determine which of my blogs I wanted to put this review on. I know that coasters or ice balls don't exactly fit in with the garden or homesteading.

What I do know though is my husband and I have a little habit that helps keep our marriage great. Life with 3 kids, work, child events, and homesteading is stressful! There aren't enough hours in the day.

Neither my husband or I consume large amount of alcohol anymore. What we do enjoy is a nice glass of whiskey and coke. Every night after we get all the kids to bed we each pour a glass. Then we go out back, water our plants, drink our whiskey, and talk about life. This is our time to talk about our future, things that may be bothering us, things we are looking forward to, or just complaining about the mosquitoes.

No matter what we talk about in that time, it still gives us a nice 30 minutes, uninterrupted by children to communicate. When we are done we come back in and watch some tv while my hubby (if it's the weekend) has another drink.

Because of our Whiskey tradition we have started collecting Whiskey related items. Decanters, whiskey glasses, that sort of thing. So when I got an opportunity from Wise Palace to review this coaster and ice ball kit my husband and I were happy to add to the collection.

Wise Palace Coasters and Ice Mold

So far we are really liking these. They look nice. We love the silicone coasters for several reasons:

• We don't have to worry about them getting broke by us. 
• We don't have to worry about the kids messing them up. 
• They are super easy to clean. 
• They are large enough that even if very tipsy you can still land the average glass on them.
• They grip the table very well unlike some coasters we have tried that slide around a lot. 

So these are a big hit in our house! They are super functional.

I have to admit, my husband and I have a corny pervy relationship. Double entendres are like a second language in our home. So my husband has really enjoyed these ice molds for many reasons! The common night time terms lately are "Can you grab my cold balls out the freezer" "Do you need an icy nipple in your glass" and "You want to take more pictures of my whiskey balls". Lol
My husband gives these as high a rating as he can!

Overall I have nothing but positives to say about these! Absolutely great product! Get yours here!

Alpha Home Expandable Lightweight Ultra Flexible Durable Kink-Free Garden and Utility Hose Set Review

So this whole homesteading on a budget thing has been rough. I am thankful that I am finding products that are making my life a bit easier.

At the start of the spring we went out and bought a 50 ft garden hose from the local Dollar general. Within a week it was leaking everywhere. It also didn't seem to actually be 50 ft long. We were having to stand just the right way to water the garden, arching the water flow just the right way to make it to the plants. Of course standing in this position caused the leak to flow nicely down our arm and into our shirt!

I lucked up and got the opportunity to review this cool expandable hose from Alpha Home Products.

I have to admit I was like a child in a candy store. We had been looking at these for a while. I had been debating it. Would the cost be worth it? Would I even really notice the difference? Is there even really a difference between a $10 hose and a $40 hose?

 

Alpha Home Expandable Lightweight Ultra Flexible Durable Kink-Free Garden and Utility Hose Set

 

Let me just say, the differences are extreme!! No! I am not exaggerating! Maybe it is the poor homesteader in me, but this hose is like no other I have used! Everything about it is awesome! I literally can't find one thing I don't like about it! 

So for starters, it expands all on it's own without getting kinked up. No having to unfold it or get knots out. Nope! It does it all on it's own. Then when you are done using it, you drain it, and it sucks itself back down to about 10 ft long! It does all the work for you! 

It is also much longer than our old 50 ft hose, which I got to wondering about. I measured our old hose and this hose is 11 ft longer. So I went to the store I bought it at and looked, I was right, the cheap one was being advertised as 50ft even though it was only 39 ft!!! I felt like I was back to the day I found out a Subway foot long was only 11 inches! Lol! This Alpha Expandable hose IS 50 feet long! 

This Alpha hose is by far the best hose we have ever had. All the different settings on the sprayer make it easy to water my plants. It easily reaches my garden. I'm no longer stopping 5 times to un-kink my hose. It's fantastic! 

You can get one too! Either go to Alpha Home website or click on the Amazon link below! 

Haus & Garten Pruning Shears

I recently got an offer to review the Haus & Garten Pruning Shears at a discount in exchange for an honest review. I was excited to try them. We are notorious for buying cheap shears just for them to either break or go so dull we can't use them within a few uses. Yes we should have learned our lessons, but instead we kept buying the cheap ones in hope that somehow it would get better.

These are a higher grade pruning shears. They retail for $38.90 on Amazon right now. When I first saw the price I think I had sticker shock. After thinking about it though, I think we have spent that much in the last couple years on pairs that were $5-$10. Now we do a lot of pruning. We are rural folks with land that needs care, trees that need trimmed back, and plants in our gardens that need care. So we may use shears a bit more than the average person, but still the costs add up.

 

So I got these, unsure of what to expect past the basics. I was surprised with the ease of cutting. I've been using cheap sheers so long that I guess I wasn't use to them just cutting right through. I have pretty bad arthritis in my writs which make pruning painful because of the amount of pressure I have to apply usually. With these though it cut with ease.

I did this short video of them in action. One handed because the camera was in my other hand. Most of these branches were smaller, but once I was done filming and had 2 hands I tried them out on some larger branches. They worked great. I didn't have any issues with them at all.

You can buy your Haus & Garten Pruning Shears here.
 

Leopard Outdoor Eva Molded Cooler Bag 24Can

I got an opportunity to review this Leopard Outdoor Cooler bag at a discount to review it with my unbiased opinion. As someone who goes fishing, camping, and to the lake a lot this was a perfect thing for me to review.



When I got it I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure why but I just assumed it would be a cheap feeling cooler bag like I have had in the past. So when I got it and realized the top was actually solid, (feels like very hard foam) and the sides feel like a very thick material I was excited.

#leopardoutdoor

2 Can Holders

Taking My New Leopard Outdoor Cooler to the Lake

So right after getting it we decided we would need to actually take it to the lake for a day to test it out. Our family consists of 5 people. Honestly we are all a bit tired of taking the standard big cooler we own. Since we don't actually need to pack 24 cans we were able to pack what we needed for a day trip. In total we packed into the cooler part 6 canned drinks, 12 fruit juice pouches, Mustard, 1 pack of hotdogs, 2 Sobe bottled drinks, onion, 1 container of worms for fishing, and one bag of frozen herring also for fishing. We of course then packed it with ice. In the interior zipper pouch attached to the lid we put a can opener, a spoon, a bottle of Tylenol, a fork, and a pair of scissors (last minute).  

Even with all of that in there, you can see in the pic, if we wanted to we could have stuffed a couple more drinks into it or even a pack of ground beef for hamburgers. It fit everything our family of 5 needed for a day at the lake. 

Filled, my 12 year old was able to easily carry the Leopard Cooler Bag with the padded shoulder strap into our picnic table by the lake. 

My Review of The Leopard Outdoor Cooler Bag

I really looked for something not to like with this bag. However after using it for both the lake trip, and the next day for fishing at a local pond I can't find a single thing to complain about. 

My 10 year old even spilled some of his fruit punch on the top of it and I quickly tilted the cooler on it's side. The fruit punch ran right off. I was expecting a stain, but there was not even a mark after about an hour.

It's a great bag. I really don't think I have ever owned a cooler of this high functionality and quality before. It certainly made our day easier than lugging around our full size cooler!

Find my Youtube video review here. 

I am in no way affiliated with this company. I never promise a positive rating, I am not compensated outside of the discounted product, and I always give you my honest opinion on a product. 

The Garden

So we have had our plants in the ground for about a month now. All I can say is disappointing! We simply have horrible soil, that even with a ton of good compost is still awful!

The things I have put in pots are doing well, but everything in the ground is doing poorly.

This corn was planted 2 months ago almost. It should be much bigger!

It looks sad right? The soil is sandy even though when we tilled it the soil appeared healthy. We also mixed a good bit of our compost into it which was growing plants better in it than in the ground.

The big pepper plant in the bag is a nice size, but it is not producing any flowers. It is sort of heartbreaking! We were so excited, but now I am just not happy at all with it.

The things that seem to be doing well:

• squash
• cucumbers
• okra

The beans, corn, tomatoes, and peppers are doing poorly.

Cherry Tomato plant is doing well

Tiny little cherry tomatoes!

The cherry tomato plant I have on my porch in a pot is 3 times the size of the ones in my garden, which were planted BEFORE this one! The one in the pot with soil from the local farm and compost is also producing fruit already.

Maybe next year is all I have left to hope for. Right now, what I thought would be a garden able to produce hundreds of pounds of food is looking like I will be lucky to get 25 pounds.