Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I'm calling it Monday Madness, as we return to a week of a regular work load, and trying to catch up for what we did not get done around here.  The bathrooms need a good cleaning, trash taken out, dusting, sweeping, dishes etc.  It also means, I am back to the kitchen for some homemade cooking and baking this week. I'm dehydrating plantain, as the weather was good for it, and we needed it.  I have tinctures to strain, and salve making to do this month. My husband is feeling better faster than me, and in doing so, has prompted the start of several projects that are overdue.  I'm not sure which one will be done first, but we have acquired the new window (will require some drywall work as well), lumber is ready to start the chicken run build (and we have stand by help for both), he's on board with the office purge (so old carpet can be torn out and the new flooring put in), utility room purge/clean up will once again start due to the fact we will soon need to rem...

Note: This was another resurrected draft post, so the photo is older, as well as the content, but sharing for those who may not know about plantain.  I have also dehydrated it for a medicinal tea.   I have ground plantain, and applied it to a wasp sting, and it removed the pain and redness within 20 minutes of applying the ground up plantain.  It truly is a wonderful weed to have available. I know plantain is great to add to some healing salves as well. Sharing the post today, as it was buried amongst the land of the blog drafts.  The timeline is a bit off, as we are just now nearing spring weeds, but finally sharing.  The blogpost prior shows a comfrey poultice .  Apparently, I never took a photo of the plantain poultices I froze. ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~ Plantain has finally been harvested.  I allow some to grow in my flower beds too. It grows wild here. I made several poultices, and have put them into my freezer for safe keep...

  The wild black raspberries are on early this year.  They are small, but tasty.   I have a lot of plantain in the flower beds, and I am happy to say I have a wild growing mullein plant again.  So happy for that. The heat if finally letting up a bit, but no sign of rain. My husband took the truck to work the other day, so he could get the gas can refilled.  A deer jumped out of the ditch and smashed into the side of the truck.  I'm still waiting on the collision repair guy to call so I can take the truck in for repairs. I sure hope it doesn't take a year to get an appointment. I finally baked us a chocolate angel food cake.  It's good and light, but there is not much chocolate flavor to it.  I don't get to make one very often, but it's a nice light dessert for this hot weather.

Hubby and I were sipping coffee at 5am on the porch Friday morning (won't be many more mornings to do this), and the radio had garden talk and advice going on.  They gave advice on whether to pick your tomatoes and bring them in to ripen or have a tomato fight.   If you pick green tomatoes when it's in the 70's, they will ripen in two weeks.  If you pick them in the 50's, it will take 4 weeks.  I decided to get out there and pick them all.  We had a frost warning, and after that they won't be any good.  The ladies and Stud Muffin Sparta had a hay day helping clean up too. As for the garlic, it depended on the weather at 4:30pm when Hubby got home.  Rain was in the forecast.  We managed to toss down some peat moss, and get the garlic bed tilled just before rain arrived.   Once the parsley left the dehydrator, plantain went in.  I'm hearing more people are getting bitten by spiders this year, and requiring doc...

Our youngest daughter's medication was pretty strong, but did not break up the phlegm for her either.  The tea I mentioned earlier worked like a charm for her, and she admitted to feeling much better in 2 days of drinking it.  She actually came downstairs and asked me to make it again. I took some plantain leaves and aloe, and made up some sunburn relief to have on hand.  We typically do not get burned, but sometimes it happens.  I wanted to give this a try and see how well it works.

Plantain tea (1 teaspoon dried plantain weed, 1 cup of boiling water - steep) is good for an upset stomach. Comfort food - Pumpkin-Sage Macaroni and beets.

Mom gifted me some pie pans when she came to the grad party.  They are now attached to the pea fence for another rabbit deterrent.  I just hope with "Biker Sally" up, the glass bottles in place, and now the pie pan bangers, the garden will thrive. Our sugar snap peas are on, and growing quickly.  I can't wait to harvest that first bite.  Yum.

Today is the fift h day in a row to pick green beans.  I planted two rows of two different organic varieties, both of which stated were great for freezing. Not including day one ( I might have picked 3-4 poun ds that day) ,  we put up 1 2 1/2 pounds of beans so far.  The first variety is yellow (buried in the basket), and other green.  I have the names written down somewhere around here.  I've lost track of putting this information into my "homesteading journal."  I'm just so busy, and my mind is just focused on getting it put up without waste. Update :  I located the names of what I p lanted - Strike Bush Beans, and Go ld Rush Beans ( yellow).  Both from High Mowing Organic see d company.  Both are delicious and high y ielding.

Remember the herbal oil I was heating in the sun for a plantain/comfrey salve? Well, it's done, and I melted beeswax with it and wa-la!  Homemade "Neosporin."  I washed a few lip balm containers, and some recycled baby food jars to store it in.