Spring Blooms, Bugs and Oil Blends

It's spring! The flowers are blooming, and the insects are beginning to wake up. We are nurturing pollinators this spring by letting our dandelions do their thing. What are you doing to nurture your environment this spring? I read in a magazine last year that if you want to attract pollinators and your blooms are a bit late, put a drop of wintergreen essential oil here and there near the plants you want them to work on soon. As the insects wake up, it's also time to pull out the Terra Shield oil blend to help repel fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. When i experimented with the killer mosquitoes last year, the arm i sprayed with Terra Shield and water had about half the number of mosquito bites than my untreated arm. Then, I put lavender and fresh aloe or Balance Oil Blend to help with the itch. Peppermint oil placed into mole holes is supposed to repel moles. They supposedly don't like the smell. I tried that last year, too, but our two terriers took care of them first. The amazingly intricate trenches and craters are evidence of this. We may have to buy dirt this year to fix the yard. It reminds me of the old kid's rhyme that starts, "there was an old lady who swallowed a fly..." I think our rhyme would end something like, "there were two old ladies who brought home some dogs to catch the moles that dug the holes that housed the grubs that grew to beetles that ate the grapes that would have been juice that the old ladies hoped to swallow, I don't know why the craters were dug, I guess they'll fill with rain and become bogs." Another good springtime use for peppermint oil is as you throw open your windows to get ready to add new color to your walls, add a couple drops to your gallon of paint to help reduce the odor. And, before you paint, Lemon oil, Purify blend or Citrus Bliss added to your vinegar, castille soap and water cleaning solution adds a bright, uplifting scent to your home. And, if a friend's dog happily happens to pee in your shoes, use some Purify Oil Blend and vinegar and castille soap to scrub them well. We did that, and our shoes smelled great! Thanks, Jake for peeing on our shoes, they are clean and fresh now! (The tennis shoes went into the washing machine with our homemade laundry soap and Purify Blend, but Deb's leather dockers just got a good scrubbing inside and out. How do you use essential oils in the spring?