Pioneer Woman at Heart

  A new "first time" for us was to make a cold infusion with cleavers.  It is a bonus weed that we get this time of year when we weed the flower beds and the vegetable garden.  Heck, I see it growing in the asparagus, so I'll be pulling more of it this weekend (in between rainfalls).  If you harvest wild medicinal weeds/plants, I would love your feedback on this.  I believe I dehydrated it many years ago, but it's best when harvested fresh.  I have only one friend who also harvests this, but sadly, she does not live very close to me. Side note: I made a face wash back in 2018 with cleavers, but never kept up with making it and using it over the years. Rain returns starting tonight, and on and off all weekend.  Woke up to 49°F, and again we have not planted the vegetable garden yet. Still on time, but slightly late if we can get it done soon.  However, we were unable to obtain organic sweet potato starts, so no sweet potatoes will be planted (as of...

I had a slow start to yesterday's chores, and was able to capture the sunrise, despite the fact it rained the entire day.  I'm glad I got to see it.  Although my front porch was covered in rain too, thanks to the wind. Using homemade infused oregano oil is somewhat different for a sinus infection.  Instead of simply taking the oil itself by a dropper, my Dad taught me to drop a few drops onto a teabag, and heat a cup of medicinal tea.  It got me thinking, because this is the 2nd or 3rd time I was reminded oregano can be used to make a tincture too.  There have been some other herbs I ran across this winter, that I will be making tinctures with next spring.  So thank you to all of you for suggestions.  I know I will be dehydrating more goldenrod (some of my adult kids drink the teas too). Three days now, and our handy-man has still had car repairs to delay is ability to work here.  If he can't commit, I plan to finish it all by myself.  Hopefu...

It's a brisk -2°F windchill this morning (15°F).  The weatherman warned us.  Maybe it will kill off some germs. I blame it on the weather, but my sinuses are a hot mess.  The pressure is so uncomfortable.  I am breaking out my herbal teas, my lavender eye pack (for headache relief) and ordered myself a headache ice pack wrap now. I made homemade "Vicks Vapo-Rub" and this time around, I doubled the recipe, but used a combination of coconut oil and olive oil.  It came out to the perfect thickness, and made about 4 ounces.   Note:  Allow it to completely cool.  Make sure the jars do not have a cardboard insert in the lid.  If you put the lids on too soon, you will have condensation on the inside of the lid which will cause your rub to go bad faster.   The link will take you to the recipe, but as you know coconut oil becomes very solid when it's cold.  I have not tried making it with simply 1/8 cup coconut oil and 1/8th cup o...

  I decided, after doing some research, to buy butterfly pea flowers (instead of growing them).  Everything I read stated they prefer a very hot season, and otherwise, do not produce enough flowers.  I have been intrigued to try the tea with them too. Here is the witch hazel after 24 hours, after infusing it with a few flowers.  Very pretty right?   I started using it on May 19th. Do I like it?  It's only been a few days, but feels great after a washing my face, after a hot day of work outside.  My face feels great in the morning too.  I'll continue to use it and update after a few months.  I did do a test on my arm first, to make sure I would not have any reaction to it first. The recipe is online with a free printable page - Mommypotamus, DIY Butterfly Pea Flower Skin Toner. I included the link on this post, as she has a lot of other DIY recipes and how-to's.   It's just infused witch hazel (organic, double distilled), infused wit...

We are to heat up to the 80's today.  They sky is looking strange this morning.  One direction looks like a storm brewing, and the other, the sun rising with very dark clouds above it.  We had very bad wind yesterday. Once again, you are being entertained with a blog draft from J une of 2017 .  To be honest, I don't remember buying the book.  I think a blog follower sent me her copy, but anyway, a very old draft to entertain you with.  It does have me thinking about other herbs now.  I have, as of last year, started to harvest our wild growing goldenrod.  I had to laugh reading this draft, because I do not remember growing Gotu Kola seeds indoors either. We are blessed with a lot of wild growing herbs and weeds, but you do have to know what you are picking as well.  Stinging nettle requires some very thick gloves, or your hands will be pricked by the stinging part of the nettle.   When we had barn cats, I never had a problem finding...

Here is yet another draft resurrected, and this one was drafted up way back in September of 2018.  There are probably so many more remedies, but posting this. ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~ S ummer time means some folks may get poison ivy while doing yard work, foraging, camping, or just gardening.  One year, we had wild growing milkweed, and we simply cut pieces each day, and applied the milk from the weed to the poison ivy.  It will burn a bit, but we left it on for about 20 minutes then removed it with cool water.  It dried up the poison ivy fairly quickly. You can soak in a bathtub with warm water and plantain tea bags (1-2 tsp of dried plantain per teabag).  I have large muslin bags I use for bath teas. A dandelion poultice can be applied to poison ivy to help dry it up, and reduce the itch. Cleaver poultices.  They cool the inflamed skin, and aid healing.   Chickweed salve is also good for healing poison ivy.  ...

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 resurrected a blog draft from April of 2019.  The only thing in the draft was a photo of wild growing stinging nettle.  The only thing I can think, is maybe I was sharing what it looked like? Always do your research before foraging for this weed.  You can also buddy up with someone who is familiar with foraging and learn that way too. I know I dehydrated some in the past for teas, and did you know that if you blanch them, you can ice bath them and freeze them for eating in future meals? You do need to have very thick protective gloves on to harvest this medicinal weed .  It's prickly spines will leave a nasty, itchy rash on you if you do not.  Just ask my husband.  He was mowing in shorts one time, and brushed against some growing here on the property.  I had to lather him in chickweed salve. Chickweed is another weed to talk about when it arrives this spring/summer. I wrote up a post about how I made a tea infusion for hair and nail heal...

Resurrecting a blog draft from May 1, 2019.  I don't know how I let so many drafts get buried, but it come in handy for entertainment this winter. Here is the draft posted, but with an update. Migraines are not fun.  I've had about two in my lifetime, and they were terribly painful and nauseating.  Youngest Daughter seems to get them too often, so I'm trying to make sure she is hydrated, exercising etc. I did much research for topical treatments.  One we are trying is organic peppermint oil mixed with a carrier oil, rubbed on her temples.  I also put it on her chest for her to inhale. Topical treatment is all I'm researching, because if you've had a migraine, you are so nauseated you cannot drink teas etc.   I read that a lack of magnesium can also bring on a migraine, so we keep almonds and pumpkin seeds on hand to enjoy weekly.  I have known that peppermint, holy basil (Tulsi), and chamomile teas help reduce inflammation of  a he...

  The problem with winter gatherings with lots of people, are the germs that spread.  I had good intentions of cleaning the house, after the gathering we had here, and I failed.  I love my family, but with them come germs. By "clean" I mean to disinfect bathrooms, door knobs, and the like.   Not all hands get washed (e specially little hands when no one is watching) , and I had not gone anywhere other than the library.  My husband said to me, "I don't get it. You haven't been anywhere but the library."  Yep.  Also, he can bring germs home from work (as we have found out back in October). I caught a bug of some sort, which started with a runny nose, then sore throat and watery eyes etc.  I instinctively took Four Thieves Vinegar, but later remembered I made garlic fermented honey. I have been sipping hot teas with the garlic honey, and will report back as to if it helped shorten the length of this said bug or not.  I'm still finding reaso...

I forgot to load the photos yesterday, on how I grind my dehydrated hot peppers.  I also use this method for grinding other dried foods, like garlic powder or onion powder. I have an electric coffee grinder that I specifically use for this purpose.  The inner piece is removeable, making it easy to wash for the next use, and the cord winds up, and is stored in the lower inside of it. I use mini funnels to pour the ground hot peppers into a spice jar or recycled glass jar.  The color and flavor of our "Fire Powder" varies due to the mix of hot peppers.   I mentioned making a new "medicinal" and here it is . . . Garlic Honey.  You fill your jar about halfway with cloves of garlic (instructions say add how many you want on most that I have read), fill the jar with raw honey and cap it.  You have to burp the jar daily for about 2 weeks.  Some instructions say to flip the jar each day to coat the garlic with the honey.   Need a boost?  Take so...

  Feeling bad I am schlepping myself around with a stuffy nose, and cough, my husband ordered me to "rest."  Ha!  Well I am trying.  It's definitely not hard to do today.  We are getting more rain, which we greatly need, and it looks very stormy outside.  The kind of weather you want to curl up with a book, and light a candle. I'm living on ginger/lemon tea, doses of mullein tincture and what not.  I normally drink a nettle tea concoction for allergies, but did not get started on that early enough apparently.  The recent smoke haze in the air did not help either.  The air is much better now. I have been doing a ridiculous amount of internet surfing, working on a color scheme for the next blanket (to use up yarn in my stash).  I guess you can call it a stash.  It is really yarn that was leftover from other projects, which I over bought I believe.  Anyway, the one color scheme I really like, involves (gulp) buying ...

As hard as I try to put balance in my day, I find myself in the kitchen for hours.  First, breakfast prep, then dinner prep, then snack prep, then dishes...just seems endless.  Some days I love it, other days not so much. I sliced up some carrots and bell peppers for my husband's lunch/snack, and realized he may want a dip.  Then I found myself making hummus, and more dishes to wash. During our weekend shopping trip, we could not find borax.  We had to go to two stores to find ground pork.  It's beginning to look like more shortages or lack of product (or lack of employees to get the product on the shelf?). While we were at Wal-mart to get supplies, I walked down the yarn aisle to look for Caron Simply Soft yarn.  They have completely taken all name brand yarn out (other than some redheart), and replaced it with generic brands.  Frustrating.  It seems the only place to get a good selection is JoAnn Fabrics anymore (higher prices though). We called...

  I think I did about 5 rounds of dirty dishes, but then turned around and made homemade lemonade and a pot of homemade ginger-ale syrup for Daughter K.  She is sick.  Her throat was very sore, thus the extra dirty dishes. Lemon juice can help break up the mucus and help a sore throat, plus it's packed with vitamin C.  Homemade ginger-ale has a lot of healing properties too, and helps with nausea as well.   She was dealing with a very bad headache as well.  I surely hope she feels better this morning. Tragic news.  My husband's first day back to work was not good.  He was told that a co-worker, 41 years old passed away.  A semi trailer crossed over the center line and landed his semi on top of my husband's co-worker's car.  I was told that it took 75 minutes to get the semi off of the car.  Mike (his co-worker) died at the hospital.  He leaves behind his high school sweet heart (wife) and two kids (7 and 9).

I deleted one item from our wish list - buy a pressure canner.  I tried to order it directly from All-American, but it was "out of stock."  It didn't surprise me.  I found the same one on Amazon and put in my order.   Hubby wants to build my "garden shed" now with old barn wood.  Not sure if it will happen, but it would allow me to have all the tools right by the garden.  Crossing my fingers on this one. Peas have been planted.  Sugar snap and shell peas.  I am now looking for empty pie tins to hang on my fencing to keep the birds away.  I need to dig through old clothes and try and fix up my scare crow now.  We are however anticipating a cold week May 4-10th with possible lows in the 30's.  This is not normal May weather. I've been keeping my eye on the nettles.  The recent rain should be helping them out, so hopefully soon I'll be harvesting more.   I started a thyme tincture.  First time doing this...

Where is the best place (and cheapest) online to purchase a gallon of organic olive oil?  Thanks in advance.  I cook a lot with it, but need to make some things using it too. My tulips are starting to bloom, and our ornamental apple trees are in full bloom.  We have two tree starts we need to dig up and move.  They grow quickly and are pretty spring and fall.  I tried to buy more tulip bulbs early in the year, but there are none to be had.  I'll try again this fall and fall plant them. With rain arriving late, we decided to get the pea fence ready, tilled and cleaned up.  We didn't start our work until about 1pm due to the weather, and it was definitely a physical workout.  No problem here getting outside and exercise.  We were worn out.  We didn't plant 3/4ths of the garden last year due to massive rain and late planting, so we have to clean out dead weeds first (more work than normal).   Nothing has been planted ye...

(I had this ready to post yesterday, so I added some wording to make it more understandable).  Enjoy! I picked "Odd Mom Out," written by Jane Porter.  I picked this up free, and have never read her work, so this should be interesting. Wednesday we woke up to frost and a chilly 38°F out.  Today it's..... The Good. My husband and 20 year-old made us laugh so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants (Monday night).  I needed that.  They were trying to move a queen sized box springs up the stairs.  Yeah, I knew it wouldn't fit.  It's an older house, smaller steps, shorter ceiling and the stairs turn half way up.   Me (talking to youngest who is laughing at them): Next thing you know they'll throw it on the roof and try pushing it through the window up there. Hubby (from the upstairs bedroom):  Get me the measuring tape! Me:  Are you serious?  This is gonna be fun to watch.  Let's get lawn chairs and watch fr...