Pioneer Woman at Heart

  I purchased a travel tumbler with tea infuser.  I randomly chose one based on reviews.  It can become frustrating, when you cannot find one person who drinks herbal teas/medicinal herbal teas.  If we like it, I'll post an update on it. By the way, there are several options to buy one, with several sizes too. Something new I learned from a book: -I can brew my herbal tea, cool it, and freeze it in freezer safe vessels.  Pack them for a picnic or travel and it will keep food cold, then thaw for enjoying.  Another perfect idea to travel with your brewed herbal iced tea. -I once watched an "expert" on a video (maybe youtube, not sure) say brewed teas were only good for 48 hours.  I'm reading in a book that brewed teas, cooled for iced tea, are good for up to 4 days.  Anyone know the actual truth to either of these findings? I've been busy dehydrating dandelion flowers.  I, apparently, need to dehydrate more.  They shrink up to about nothin...

Friday the heat index was predicted to be up to 100°.  It reached 98°F in our area. Weeding is still at a halt for me.  Just not worth the risk to be out there.  The humidity is sooo thick and my camera lens steamed up. Chickens were iced again.  Did you know that although they eat the ice to cool off, they also pick some up and put it under their feathers?  Mine do anyway.  Just an FYI for those undergoing the same heat as we are, and raise chickens.  When we had goats, we froze water in small bottles and added them to their water buckets. Nothing really "homesteady" to share today.  Youngest Daughter ditched me for another sister and is spending a few nights with her, so I'm unsupervised for a few days. Bought myself this. . . I sure hope I take the time to read it now, lol! I have yet to deliver roosters to those taking them, but they are crowing now. Thanks to being stuck inside with the AC this week, I have new projec...

Remember all of that lemon balm I grew?   I dehydrated it for teas and tincture making.   Well it's tincture time.  I'm making all three mentioned.  Only one will be made later, as it is currently out of stock and I did not grow it this year (echinacea). Not only will they be utilized individually, but together.  I have a daughter who often gets canker sores in the fall, after school starts, and this combination is said to work. You can read about the canker sore relief at LearningHerbs . The lemon balm tincture can be helpful as a sleep aid, and a lemon balm tea can be used to help sweat out a fever. Lemon balm is soothing and also an astringent.  It helps relieve colds and flu.  It's also known for helping reduce a headache, and an aid to reduce or prevent cold sores. The sage tincture aids healing sort throats and mouth irritations due to it's antiseptic and astringent qualities. The echinacea tincture aids the healing pro...

In the past, I have used a poultice to place on my eyes for eye relief.  I believe I made it from chickweed. I'd have to read over my past blog posts, or read my homesteading journal to be sure.... I'm now experimenting with a tea with a combination of goji berries and chrysanthemum buds.  

First thing yesterday morning, after warming up with a pot of hot organic coffee, I put corned beef into the crock pot.  Yum.  It smelled so good cooking all day.  Remember that homemade sauerkraut I fermented?   Well, we enjoyed ruebens again.  Using that delicious loaf of homemade bread, the meat, sauerkraut, homemade thousand island dressing (made with my canned sweet pickle relish and canned ketchup) and swiss cheese. I also made a batch of chocolate grahams - homemade of course.  Yum. Started a new jar of mullein tincture.  Only this time I have to use dry herbs vs. fresh.  I am tickled I found it growing wild this year though.  It's just not enough. Unfortunately, this will take 6-8 weeks to sit before I strain it.  I don't use anything higher than 80 proof either.  Stronger is not always better. To read about the uses and benefits of mullein, there are many herbal books at the library  (and...

On Monday I totally forgot to post a Happy Homemaker post.  Sorry about that.  I had a "paperwork" day with bill paying, filing. I even filed some recipes I had out and used, filed some of the new ones, and cleaned up the "office" area a bit. Rain arrived just as they said it would.  It will soften up the soil and make weeding the garden much easier. Pear picking is on hold until the rain stops, but I hope we get that window of opportunity before our hard freeze arrives this weekend.  I'm collecting new pear recipes to try (like I need more). The hens have gone from molting and laying 1 egg a day, to 4 now.  However, this little one on the left sure looks like a new layer egg, ha ha!  They are not back up to laying the amount we need on daily basis.  I'm also certain the Araucanas (blue/green eggs) are not laying at all.  Last winter they started laying again.  I guess we'll see.  I don't want to be feeding layers organic grain,...

I have finally ordered, and received my bottles to properly bottle and label my tinctures. Guess how I "washed" my bottles and droppers? I used vodka. I visited a brewery in KY once, and they "wash" their bottles with bourbon, so they do not water down the content.   Brilliant! Just thought I'd share that info.

(sorry for the blurry picture) I strained the two tinctures I made recently - mullein, and bilberry .    Now I'm ready to make one that I feel will be good for varicose veins.   It includes: Barberry Bark Bilberry leaf Bilberries However, after I got my herbs out, I started wondering if an infused oil (to make a rub) would be better?

I drained the last jar of lemon extract I had in the making.  this will last about a year or longer in our house.  It's not used as much as vanilla extract, which we go through a lot faster.

I finally made it to the store to get vodka to make a mullein tincture. I used fresh mullein .  I've read that you do not want to cut more than 40% of your plant , but I am typi cally careful not to over harvest mine. 

In September of 2015, I made my first catnip tincture.  I used a portion of it for making homemade bug spray, which works wonderfully by the way. Bug Away Spray (Mountain Rose Herbs Recipe) The other portion, was placed into a dropper bottle.  Hubby had been having trouble sleeping, and would wake up in the middle of the night.

The mosquitoes are terribly thick this year, and we are seeing swarms of them in areas we never saw before. So...... I decided to dig a bit deeper and found a recipe on Mountain Rose Herb's blog.  Less messy, and easier to tote along for possible camping trips. They posted one using catnip, other essential oils, and witch hazel extract. I had all of the ingredients but a few, and even found catnip to make the tincture for it.