Pioneer Woman at Heart

Regarding my recent sprained toe...  I unfolded each piece of gauze to prepare and make the poultices for my toe area. (looks like ants are chewing holes in the leaves) I harvested some comfrey from our "weed" garden, to make poultices.  I only had 2 x 2 gauze, but it worked for my toe.  I used my new smaller food processor this time, and it worked great (comfrey leaves, a bit of water, and flour {can use arrowroot, or whatever for a thickener}). The plant is springing up pretty well, and was large enough to get enough leaves cut for the poultices.  I used a freshly made poultice right away, and froze two more.  The frozen ones work to also reduce the swelling. I also used my homemade comfrey salve, and the bruising is very quickly healing, and pain was gone after day one of poultices.  Thankfully, it was a sprain and not a break. A strong thunderstorm, with rain and wind, moved into our area last night.  Only about half the mowing was completed before...

  The teaser 60-70°F days, we have been having, are bringing up sprouts of comfrey in my "weed" garden.  However, the rabbits (or something) is finding it tasty, so I best get to the hardware store and add more fencing to it.  We left a space, where we ran out of fencing last year, and completely forgot about it until this spring.   Comfrey is great to have on hand for medicinal needs, and yes, it is invasive, but the rabbits may keep it from getting too big, ha ha!   I make comfrey salve using this "weed" and I dehydrate it as well.  We've made numerous poultices with it over the years, and so glad I learned about it. Kitchen Down!   The current repairs are being done in the kitchen, so it is hindering any cooking or baking.  I will be glad when it is all done either way.  It's also helping push me to finish other projects in the mean time. I'm still planning a "coffee with me" meet up at our homestead, but not until we don't ...

  I've been using a sample size of horsetail salve, to see if it will help with the very dry cracked skin on my hands (joys of gardening).  I did a bit of reading (like a tiny bit), and it apparently is good to help brittle fingernails too.  I do not make the salve.  I, honestly, never heard of it, until we bought some earlier this year.  So far, it's helping restore my hands and heal the very dry cracks.   Garden planting is still on-going.  The rain has now moved later into the week, so watering newly planted seeds and plants is happening.  I obtained a few packets of organic collard seeds, and have a new plan for them this year.  I read that if they are planted next to thyme, they thrive better (we'll soon find out). Our garlic is starting to grow scapes, and the radish plants have not even sprouted due to late planting.  The two together, make the most delicious dip.  I don't need to cut the scapes just yet, but I read they...

April 9th - rain and snow mix, morning temperature was 21°F! April 10th - 38°, high of 44°F, rain April 11th - 30°, low chance of rain, partly sunny We should be picking asparagus, wild violets and wild dead nettle right now, but the weather is delaying it.  I surely hope we still get them all.  Time will tell. Despite freezing cold weather that is freezing my chickens water at night, my potted comfrey is already coming to life again.  The weather is to warm up again thankfully. I need help with deterring rabbits. Does anyone have any tried and true (non toxic) ways to deter rabbits from your flower beds and herb garden?  I read coffee grounds deter them, but they are not good for my herb garden.  I had motion sensor noise gadgets, but they did not work for the rabbits last year. A tree of some sort is growing in the edging (between the landscaping stone and chives of all places) of the herb garden, and it has thorns.  It needs to be dug out thanks to the b...

It appears that some of the bigger projects on our to-do list will be taking a longer break than we want.  Atleast anything related to climbing a ladder around here. Oh boy.  I did it again.  I'm mostly mad at myself, because I just started to clean up flower beds, and was about to start raking out weeds from the already tilled vegetable garden (s). It's an eye roller moment. I've been MIA a bit in blogger-land this past week.  First, I was instructed to stay off my feet, other than to use the bathroom.  Second, I was instructed to use crutches when I was up.  They were (yes were) the most pain in the rump to use.  I can say, that I can stand to lose more weight than I thought ha ha!  Lifting myself on those was a complete work out in itself. The urgent care I went to did not have any boots.  I thought this was very odd for an urgent care facility.  They gave me paperwork to take to a medical supply in the same town.  Again, no boot...

  I've narrowed down my draft blogposts.  I went from 80-some down to 38.  I have resurrected another draft.  The odd part, is that I made this salve years ago, and never posted this draft.  I have no idea why I didn't.  It was drafted up, but the date is not showing up. All I know is that this was the 2nd version of comfrey salve and I like it much better.   You can make comfrey salve a few different ways.  You can check recipes in library books or on the worldwide web too.  Many vary, but I have been making salves for a while, so I  know how thick I want it.   The first recipe I attempted created a very hard salve.  It was too hard to even use.  I was a beginner salve maker at that point. You can also use an oil of your preference for making the infused comfrey oil prior to your salve making.  I, for the most part, use olive oil, but I have used grapeseed and jojoba oils, depending on what I am making them for....

  Yesterday's pickings.  Even though I picked the day before, and I obviously missed some cucumbers.  Those larger ones went to the chickens. In lieu of a severe storm threat yesterday afternoon and evening, I tied up the last 35 tomato plants, hit the stakes again (best I could with a dry ground), and found another worm.  I accidently slammed the side of my thumb while hammering stakes in (not the first time for either of us). I could barely bend my thumb to cook nor do dishes, so I whipped up a comfrey poultice, and today there is barely the sight of a bruise, and pain is about zero. We have been enjoying our homegrown green/wax beans.  We don't eat potatoes like we used to, but last night was just the right time.  So good with bacon.   My husband is my entertainment lately.  He is coming up with ideas for the extra zucchini, and last night made these in the air fryer.  Blech.  Coconut oil with an egg dig and seasonings....

Chives are in full bloom. Sage is about to bloom. Comfrey bloom for the first time ever. Now we are battling the lack of rain.  The ground is almost rock hard due to the temperature getting up to 91°F.