Author: mjkisner

Making a Natural Bug Repellent for You and Your Dog

Spring is the time to start thinking about finding a good bug repellent for you (and your dog). Four years ago, I was deep into learning about how essential oils could be used, and one of the first products I made was a natural bug repellent for my greyhound friends (human and dog!).

My research started with making sure that the essential oils I used were safe for the dogs. Here are two books I started with, along with research on the internet.

Most recipes for a natural bug repellent had pretty similar ingredients…water, essential oils and an emulsifier to disperse the oils. The most important issue was making sure the specific essential oils were safe for your pets. Amazingly, most were fine for dogs, but only a few were safe for cats! I suspect this is because cats will lick their fur and ingest the essential oils.

You can read more about using essential oils with your pets at the end of this post. For today, I wanted to share the natural bug repellent spray recipe that I’ve found to be effective for you and your dogs! Once you’ve sprayed your dog and rubbed it into its fur, you’ll have it on your hands. Rub your hands on your arms and legs. An extra spray on your clothing can keep the bugs away from you too!

This bug repellent is safe for you and your dogs. It is not necessarily safe for your cats! Please check with your veterinarian for a safe repellent for your cats!

Here is my recipe for a natural bug repellent:

All of the ingredients in this recipe are available at Amazon. You can mix this up directly in an 8-ounce spray bottle. I’ve been mixing it up in an 8-ounce bottle with a screw top lid so I can more easily share it without having to worry about the spray bottle leaking in transit. I just include the empty 8-ounce spray bottle.

Here are the ingredients I use:

Here’s a close up of the Lavender Hydrosol label on the jug in the back row:

Labeling the bottle and/or spray bottle is important.

So try this recipe yourself! Enjoy the warm weather without the bugs or harmful chemicals!

ABOUT USING ESSENTIAL OILS WITH YOUR PETS

I found great information online from Dr. Maranda Elswick, who is a licensed veterinarian in Florida and Virginia. (For more information about Dr. Elswick see: https://iloveveterinary.com/blog/the-meowing-vet-dr-maranda-elswick/)

In another article, she provided a list of essential oils that are safe for dogs and a separate list for cats. Her information also included how to treat essential oil poisoning in dogs and cats. If you use any product with essential oils in them on your pets, please keep these lists nearby!

Essential Oils Safe for Dogs:

Cedarwood oil; Chamomile oil; Citrus oils (including lemon oil and orange oil); Eucalyptus oil; Fennel oil; Frankincense oil; Lavender oil; Lemongrass oil; Peppermint; Spearmint; and Rose Oil.

(I also researched Manuka Essential Oil and it was found to be safe for dogs. If you’d like to read more about Manuka Essential Oil see https://marykisner.com/manuka-essential-oil-fact-sheet/)

Essential Oils Safe for Cats:

Chamomile oil; Jasmine oil; Lavender oil; and Rose oil.

How to Treat Essential Oil Poisoning in Dogs and Cats:

If your dog or cat is experiencing mild respiratory irritation after inhaling an essential oil, move them to an area with fresh air.

If a concentrated essential oil came in contact with your pet’s skin or fur, wash the area with a pet-safe dishwashing liquid, such as Dawn.

If your dog or cat ingested an essential oil, consult with your veterinarian or poison control center immediately. Do not induce vomiting.

Essential Oils and Pets: Tips and Advice

Fortunately, the majority of essential oil toxicity cases carry a good prognosis with prompt detection and veterinary treatment. However, prevention is key. Pet parents can reduce the risk of harm to their dogs and cats by following these safety tips when using essential oils at home:

SAFETY TIPS FOR USING ESSENTIAL OILS AROUND PETS

    Only use pet-safe essential oils from reputable brands, and dilute appropriately with a pet-friendly carrier oil before administering to your dog or cat. Avoid use around animals more susceptible to ill effects. Never feed a highly-concentrated product to your pet or apply it topically.

    Never force an essential oil on your pet…even those deemed pet-safe…if they don’t appear to like it. Try the “smell test” to introduce your pet to the oil first.

    Do not add essential oils to your pet’s food.

    Keep essential oil bottles and products out of your pet’s reach or locked in a cabinet. This includes the reservoirs for diffusers and liquid potpourri, which pets can easily knock over if left unattended. Ingesting large quantities can be fatal!

    If using a passive diffuser, make sure your pet can get away from the area. Avoid use around birds.

    Avoid using an active diffuser when your pet is in the room, especially around birds and pets that groom frequently, such as cats.

    Limit your use of diffusers, sprays, and other essential oil products to a short period of time, and air out the room before allowing your pet inside.

    Avoid combining different oils (which can inadvertently raise the concentration), and avoid using pure products or blends in which the concentration is not specified on the label!

    STAY SAFE WITH YOUR PETS!

    Fabric Resources Scraps & Skeins Shop

    I posted over a year ago about the Scraps & Skeins Shop with an eye out for a place to donate items as I started thinking about downsizing. It looked like the perfect place…when the time comes to donate my various sewing supplies, fabric and yarn. Now, I’m considering how this shop can fill a need with the closing of our local JoAnn Fabric store.

    Their printed literature says Scraps & Skeins is a creative reuse store…meaning they accept donated items such as fabric, yarn, quilting supplies, knitting needles, books, patterns and even refurbished sewing machines! These items are organized and repackaged for resale to the public. This store provides employment opportunities for adults with mental health challenges. This is a win/win as far as I can see!

    Scraps & Skeins was officially opened in 2015 under the umbrella of Strawberry Fields with the mission to create employment opportunities for adults with developmental delays, intellectual disabilities, and mental health issues. All proceeds support Strawberry Fields Inc., a United Way affiliate.

    Since 2015, Scraps & Skeins has grown from a single showroom and storeroom into the six-room shop and workspace located behind the Strawberry Fields’ administrative office. It now employs a store manager and multiple employees.

    When wandering around the shop, the colorful displays of fabric are enticing! It feels like a fabric store! All the fat quarters, 1/2 yard and full yard pieces make an organized explosion of color!

    There are many books available for sewing, knitting and crafts projects.

    They even have some patterns available!

    They had a display of various vintage fabric items for sale!

    They also had a whole room filled with notions…like thread, sewing needles, knitting needles and a lovely selection of yarn. (The room was crowded so I didn’t try to get pictures.)

    Finding the Scraps & Skeins Shop

    Their store is a little difficult to find the first time, but when you find it…you’ve found a treasure! Their address is 2766 West College Ave., State College, PA 16801…but to get there I find it easiest to turn off West College Avenue onto Bristol Avenue and then turn right onto Enterprise Drive. The first right takes you behind and between the buildings and when they are open, they put out a sign that really helps.

    The store is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and every third Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. You can reach them at 814-234-1435 or email at scrapsskeins@gmail.com.

    Helpfully, they also post regularly on Facebook and remind you of their hours and new stuff they have! They even offer select items on their website that can be ordered online! (https://scrapsskeins.shopsettings.com)

    Because their offerings come from donations, their inventory is always changing. Stop by frequently to check them out! If you don’t live nearby, check out what’s available for purchase at their website.

    Of course, if you’d like to donate YOUR extra fabric and yarn, here are the kind of things they accept! Know that your donation will keep the good stuff in circulation for the rest of us! Enjoy!

    Garden Update April 13, 2025

    I hereby declare that our garden season has begun for 2025! I’d like to give you an overview of the upcoming season…sort of a baseline…so as the season goes on you’ll see progress. We are always hopeful at the beginning of the season!

    So far, the planters by the patio are filled with 100+ onion plants. They seem to have weathered the below freezing temperatures just fine. We’ll thin them as we eat them so we’ll see how they do over the summer.

    The planters along the side of the patio will have lettuce and radishes but it’s still a little early to start them.

    Bert started the tomato plants in the shop under grow lights about two weeks ago. Today they are big enough to take pictures of them. We have three kinds: Bodacious…a large regular tomato; Super Sauce…a large Roma style; and Rain Drops…a large cherry-type tomato. They will soon be thinned and transplanted to larger pots. It’s probably 6 weeks before they’ll go in the ground.

    Bodacious

    Super Sauce

    Rain Drop

    In the planters off the patio, we’re hoping to plant asparagus and the Rain Drop tomatoes. Not sure if we’ll fill in with flowers.

    As I walked up the hill to the fenced garden, I noticed the forsythia around the property still looks beautiful.

    Up in the garden on the hill, the lavender (in the foreground) still looks silver green. So far nothing is happening there. We’ll have room for tomatoes, carrots, green and yellow beans and zucchini. We grow what we’ll eat and I’ll can, freeze or dehydrate the extra. I fill in with produce from the local farmer’s markets.

    At the other end of the garden is our section of Echinacea…my favorite! It looks like nothing is happening, but when you look closely, tiny green shoots are starting!

    As soon as overnight temperatures are above freezing, Bert will set up the rain barrels. So, watch for future updates as the season progresses. Enjoy!

    Fabric Resources WalMart

    With the reality of JoAnn Fabrics stores closing all over the country, those of us that actually sew are looking for new sources of fabrics…especially where we can touch and feel the fabric. In my area, central Pennsylvania, JoAnn’s has been the go-to source for many years. Recently, I really haven’t needed much except fleece for the greyhound coats. Now that I’m not making as many coats, and my other sewing projects involve using up the fabric I have, I realized I didn’t know what my other choices were.

    Today I’d like to share what I found at my local WalMart for fabric and sewing notions. A store near you may have other choices.

    I found many prepackaged yards of fabric…mostly 1-yard and 2-yards…of poly/cotton blends and 100% cotton. Prices were pretty standard.

    They offered a section with utility fabrics, ready to cut to length…assuming someone was nearby to do the cutting.

    A whole section of cotton fabric, ready to cut, was available.

    Muslin and interfacing were available.

    Fleece, prepackaged into 1 1/2 yards was available. I could make two coats out of one package, plus the linings out of another.

    Poly-fil stuffing and pillow forms are stacked up.

    The price of patterns in stores and online are crazy now! The display at WalMart seemed to be focused on the needs of families…clothing for children, costumes, etc., and ranged from $2.97 to $4.97!

    The offerings for appliques and buttons were pretty sparce, but I can see those can easily be sold online…probably even at WalMart.com.

    The rest of the items for sale were tools and other notions that could be useful to folks that sew or craft…scissors, rotary cutters, magnifying lights, Velcro, needles, rulers, safety pins, etc.

    WalMart’s offerings of sewing fabric and supplies can certainly fill a need for those many useful items that you might need right now when you’re in the middle of a project. If you’re looking for specialty fabric, or high-quality fabric for clothing or quilting, you may want to find another source for that. I’ll continue exploring resources in the area for those projects.

    Spring Has Sprung!

    I know sprung is not a real word…but when I look outside that’s how it feels. I’ve been watching forsythia for a few days, waiting to see them all flower. Yesterday I took some pictures when it wasn’t raining for a few minutes! They are glorious! I hope the neighbors appreciate the color, since their houses end up in my pictures!

    Several years ago, we had to remove 27 blue spruce trees that had formed our property line for 40+ years. They finally succumbed to disease and needed to be removed. Two years ago, Bert finally agreed to plant 65 forsythia plants along the property line. They’ve been growing but really didn’t bloom much until this year. What a wonderful treat while we wait for the grass to get green and the temperatures to finally stay above freezing. I’m ready for garden season, 2025!

    Fabric Resources Frye’s Moyers Sew and Vac

    Today I’m going to start a series of posts highlighting stores around my area that sell fabric and sewing supplies. If you sew, or if you ask others to sew for you, you might be interested in places around your area that sell fabric and sewing supplies. Look for the hidden gems that cater to quilters in your area, even if all you need is fabric for curtains. Here in central Pennsylvania, we are dealing with all of the JoAnn Fabric stores going out of business. Since this is a nationwide chain of stores, we can’t just drive 40 miles to the Altoona store…it is also closing!

    Granted, we all have access to Amazon for internet sales. However, buying fabric online is difficult when I need to feel the fabric and see the true colors of the prints. Sometimes I’m restricted to buying a minimum of 2 yards…when all I need is half a yard. Internet buying for fabric is at least tedious and sometimes unreliable.

    I will write more about resources on the internet in future posts, but today I’d like to profile a local retailer that is a hidden gem…Frye’s/Moyers Sew and Vac in State College. The main store is located in Altoona and has been in business over 70 years! The State College store is smaller, but it has a beautiful collection of quality cotton fabric available. I say it is a hidden gem, because if you don’t know where it is it might be hard to find. The local quilt guild members have long treasured the quality fabric and personalized quilting instruction from the employees.

    First, how to find the store! The address for the store in State College is 1011 E. College Avenue. It is located just outside State College on College Avenue. Coming from State College, it is on your left. The sign is right along the road and directs you down a short side street. That short street continues up a hill to the Centre County Historical Museum building. You can read about their hours and available services at their website: https://fryessc.com.

    This small store is divided into two areas…the fabric and sewing machine sales and repair, and the vacuum sales and repair. This is the only place I know in town to get my sewing machine serviced…and they can answer my questions when something malfunctions. Of course, should I need a new machine…they know all about them! I can also try them out right there!

    The combination makes for a lovely store with various quilting projects displayed.

    The fabric is just so beautifully displayed!

    Even the fat quarters are all lined up!

    All the notions are displayed on pegboards:

    Needles and bobbins and rotary cutters…oh my!

    Specialty thread makes a colorful display:

    So, if you’re looking for top quality fabric and specific sewing supplies, this hidden gem of a store is ready and waiting to help you find what you need for your next project. Check in your area for small stores that combine sewing machine sales and service to see if they also have quality fabric for sale!

    Dehydrating Pineapple and Zucchini

    The last few days, when I needed a distraction, I decided to get the dehydrator ready for garden season. I look forward to planning what we’ll be canning, freezing and dehydrating. I also had fun with a new canning tool.

    It all started with an ad for a tool, called a masongenie, that would suck out the air in a canning jar to seal it…as a way to preserve dry goods, like cereal, rice, beans or dried fruit. It looked pretty simple and could be used to re-seal the jar after using some of the contents. (NOTE: This is not a substitute for regular canning processes of raw, uncooked produce.)

    I thought it might substitute for my usual way of taking the air out of a jar with little packets of “oxygen absorbers.”

    They worked, but if I opened the jar to use some of the contents, they had trouble sealing the jar again.

    The masongenie works with regular-mouth and wide-mouth jars. It can be charged with a USB connection and can seal most jars in 60 seconds.

    I started with a partial bag of rice just to give it a try. In 60 seconds, the lid sealed and I could put the jar on the shelf. Looked much better than the wrinkled bag of rice and should keep the rice fresher. Now, when I use some, I can easily reseal the jar.

    Of course now I looked around to see what else I could seal! I got distracted with the package of dried bananas we had been snacking on. When we read the packet, it said, “Made in China!” Yikes! Certainly, we could do better than that. I started thinking about other snacks I could make in the dehydrator.

    I understand these bananas were freeze-dried…which is something I can’t do with my dehydrator. However, I can do regular dehydrated bananas. I didn’t want to go to the store to buy them right then, but I did have cans of pineapple that could be cut up and dried. They might make a good snack until I could buy bananas!

    With the can of chunk pineapple, I cut each chunk in half to make it thinner and laid them out on my dehydrator tray. I had several cans of pineapple slices so I cut them into quarters and laid them on trays. Frankly, the slices worked best!

    I filled three trays and started the dehydrator…135 degrees for about 16 hours!

    The dehydrator ran all night until noon the next day! Delicious!

    The pineapple is the first of several fruits I’ll experiment with…this batch is going into the fridge…the pieces were too big to bother putting in a jar!

    Dehydrating Zucchini

    Now that I had the dehydrator ready to go, I decided to work with the 4 medium zucchini I had on the counter. I use zucchini in a sausage/tortellini soup recipe, but I never seem to have zucchini at the time I want to make the soup. So…time to chop zucchini. Thinking ahead…that I wanted to dry the zucchini and store it in mason jars…I peeled the zucchini and cut it into small cubes. I filled up 4 trays with zucchini cubes.

    When dried, the chunks were pretty tiny, but all four zucchini made about 1 cup of dehydrated chunks! Next time, I won’t cut them so small.

    I put a lid on the jar, set the masongenie on top and in 60 seconds the jar was sealed! I added the jar to my shelf!

    I’ll let you know when more produce and dry goods make it to my shelf! Garden season 2025 is coming soon!

    Recipe Bonanza

    I seem to be a collector of recipes. By now, almost every other post I read on Facebook is a picture of some delicious-looking dish or baked good. Since I open these posts to read the ingredients, Facebook offers me more recipes! Of course.

    I have found recipes in cookbooks written by various community and church groups as fundraisers. Recipes are in every newspaper and magazine I read. Sometimes the recipes are easy to follow; others have complicated steps or ingredients. Some cookbooks focus on a specific topic, like low-fat or vegan ingredients. I seem to gravitate to recipes that use basic ingredients…flour, eggs, sugar, etc. Other cookbooks focus on a kitchen appliance, like recipes for crockpots, air fryers and instant pots. I have those appliances but they are stored in cupboards. It has to be a recipe I really want to try to pull the appliance out to the kitchen counter.

    I just found a link to a huge list of recipes compiled by two women for their church…The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints…the Mormans.

    https://safelygatheredin2.blogspot.com

    https://safelygatheredin2.blogspot.com/2008/11/alphabetical-recipe-list.html

    It is similar to many other cookbooks offered by church groups with breakfast, main dishes and desserts, but the focus is on recipes that use the ingredients that can be found in long-term storage, like flour, sugar and rice. The church guides their members to store basic ingredients for 3-months, 6-months and beyond.

    Their advice to have a stockpile of food and supplies is now a common suggestion for non-church members who just want to be prepared. Even the government suggests a 72-hour store in case of an emergency. It sounds unnecessary, unless you remember all the shortages we just went through with the Covid lockdowns!

    The website also has links to how to store the ingredients, how to store enough water for emergencies and a list of tutorials that show How to Pressure Can, Make Whole Wheat Bread and Plan Your Garden, among other topics.

    It appears the whole website was written in 2008 and 2009, but because the recipes are timeless…meaning they use basic ingredients and simple cooking appliances…they won’t go out of style when a new appliance is developed.

    I searched the internet for the guidelines for food storage and I think the label “prepping” must have been first attributed to the Mormans as they suggest food storage. Now we can learn from their advice.

    I think I’ll start experimenting with the recipes in the list. I’ll cite the website so you’ll know the recipe came from that blog. Enjoy!

    The Quiet Before Spring

    Winter is holding on tight here in central Pennsylvania. We’ve had a day or two each week that pushes above freezing and then we might get a cold rain or a few snow flurries. You can tell that Spring is holding its breath waiting for enough sunshine a few days in a row. I walked around the yard to see if anything was trying to sprout.

    The grass is pretty brown. the dogwood trees out front are still holding on tight.

    The Red Bud trees are not waking up yet.

    Bert has used over half of the wood pile but it has kept us toasty warm all winter.

    The Butternut trees on the hill are resting.

    In the garden, the lavender did very well over the winter. The plants are a silvery green and look just as they did last fall!

    The Echinacea is slumbering just fine.

    Now…the most exciting thing is the forsythia! The buds are looking yellow and should be the first flowers to pop! I’m so looking forward to the color around the property.

    The most fun while we wait for spring is checking Bert’s trail camera to see the animals around our bird feeder at night. We knew we had 4 to 5 deer visiting every night but we also saw an unusual skunk around the Red Bud trees and the bird feeder.

    We now have pictures of the all white skunk with a huge fluffy tail as big as its body!

    We also have a regular skunk visiting.

    Amazing to watch the deer and skunks around the tree at the same time. They aren’t bothered by each other.

    We’ll consider these pictures of “nothing happening” as the baseline as we get into gardening season, 2025. These are the pictures BEFORE we plant! Haha! We will pay attention for the skunks at night…wouldn’t want to interrupt their dinner hour!

    Making Cinnamon Apple Cake

    I seem to be on the lookout for Apple Cake recipes. I’m interested in recipes that use apples without having to roll out pie crust for apple pie or cut butter into tiny pieces like apple crisp topping. So far I’ve written about French Apple Cake (https://marykisner.com/making-french-apple-cake/) and German Apple Cake (https://marykisner.com/making-german-apple-cake/).

    This recipe for Cinnamon Apple Cake looked easy but the recipe was not in my preferred format. The ingredients were not even listed in order of use so I ended up having to search the list of ingredients at every step to confirm amounts. When I was done mixing and put the pan in the oven…I realized I didn’t measure out the brown sugar correctly! No problem. The cake was delicious with less brown sugar so I corrected my recipe.

    Here is my version of this recipe:

    Here are the steps to make this delicious cake.

    1. In a medium bowl, whisk 2 eggs and 1 cup of oil.

    2. Measure out the cinnamon, white and brown sugars and vanilla extract. Add them to the bowl. (Original recipe called for 1 cup of brown sugar. I used 1/2 cup.)

    3. Measure out the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder and add to the bowl.

    4. Chop 1 large apple (I had two small ones) and 1/2 cup of walnuts. Fold into the batter. This made a VERY stiff batter. Using a spatula, press the mixture into a round 9″ pan (sprayed with PAM).

    5. After baking for 45 minutes, here is the cake! It obviously didn’t rise very much but it sure smelled up the house with cinnamon!

    The directions said, wait 15 minutes to cut…but I will tell you…wait a little longer! The first piece sort of fell into crumbs when cut while warm:

    When the cake was cool, it was much easier to cut!

    This is when I knew I didn’t need that extra half-cup of brown sugar…it was sweet enough! I think this recipe for Cinnamon Apple Cake is a winner! Enjoy!