This and That ~ Homemade Hairspray ~ Calendula Cream

I have been reading my library magazines and books off and on, and recently read a nice article on motorcycle camping.  A future possibility for sure.  I'm reading through many magazines to hopefully find a muse and get an article sent off.

The dog flu has hit Ohio.  We are told we should vaccinate our dogs or keep them home etc.  Seems like this happened last year or the year before too.  Hubby thinks is a conspiracy to push another vaccine.  Hm.

I made homemade hairspray for the first time.  I have several new facial cleanser recipes to try over winter or spring.  One requires rose water, and I refuse to buy it (very expensive), so I will wait for my own rose blooms to make that myself.  It's a long wait, but I hope to cut the cost of such supplies that my girls use constantly.  

Back to the hairspray.  I found the recipe in the book "Homemade Beauty" written by Annie Strole.   The recipe calls for a bit of vodka.  However, Dr. Axe has the same recipe online too if you are interested.  There are other recipes as well, but I started with this one.  I'll be trying it out on the girls and see how well it works.  They use so many products that are full of chemicals and perfumes, it chokes me out as I walk through the house.  I hope I can convert them.  Slowly, but surely.  Especially make up remover.  Oye. That will be a spring trial, unless we find rose water on sale. 

I'm currently in the process of setting up a craft bazaar reservation.  It's been hard to get in touch with the people in charge.  One is already filled.  I waited too late I think.

Hubby and I got a lot done on Sunday as well.  

We reduced our barn pile debris, cut some of it up, and now have a start of this year's fire wood.  Oh, there is much more to cut.  But that's not all we accomplished.

Air conditioners were put away (finally), more of the garden tilled (cucumber and squash plants removed), some porch furniture stored, and . . . 

. . . an emergency batch of calendula cream was made (after I applied a plantain poultice to my boo-boo (s).

What my fingers looked like a 10am.  My hands look red, but it was pretty cold out.  Like about 41°F when we started.

What they looked like at 4pm.  Yeah, I got them pinched under a heavy board.  Hubby feels terrible.  I should have paid more attention, but with care I hope it'll heal up quick. 

After I got the cream made I had Daughter help me mix up some homemade sausage to set overnight.

Now I am out completely out of calendula oil, so I started another jar, although it's not really sunny today, nor this time of year.  I will need to keep it in the warmest room.  

Although cold, we are still getting some calendula blooms in the herb garden.

And after all of that work, Hubby got a call out for work, and went in for the extra hours.  I just love that man.

An "off" day ~ Thrift Store Adventure (and dollar store)

The "more" on why I took the day off Friday, although I know my time is running out to gut the garden. . .

We all have days where things go haywire, off kilter, and just agonizing.  I had one of those days on Thursday.  Everything I did seemed to go wrong - I'd drop stuff, didn't have ingredients I needed, just chaos I tell you.  Or it felt like a chaotic day anyway.

I remember all too well, getting sick last December and so I ignored the garden for a day, and took the slower road on Friday.  It paid off too. 

I'm feeling better, more focused, and guess what? Hubby slept almost the entire day, so we both took the day "off" (on Saturday).   It's not like I run out of things to do, ha ha!

As for the barn rubble, we re-homed a mess of metal materials.  There is more to give to the happy taker too.  I'm always happy to see more rubble find a new home. 

The biggest challenge?  Coming up with a breakfast, that only used 2 eggs, but feeds 4.  I ended up making pancakes and fried up a small package of bacon.  However, the egg supply remains low.     

I was up at 2am and couldn't sleep, so after rolling around at 4am, I got up, and whipped up breakfast.  In the dark, ha ha.  Funny thing about this, is Daughter worked until midnight, and couldn't sleep until 4am.  I think we just missed each other in the kitchen.

At 11:30am it was still a brisk 40°F and about an hour prior to that, a motorcyclist went by.  Brrr!

Oh, and remember the nuisance neighbor making a road adjacent and along our south property line (between us and a crop field)?  Well, a person in a blazer has been sitting there, on the other side of our fence, in the area of our pear trees.  As soon as I go out to do my morning chores, he pulls out and leaves. 

Hm.  I'm not sure if he is bow hunting, the land owner now, or what.  But I'm the sort that doesn't trust the neighbor, so I'm watching him (could be a friend of the neighbor too).  As he passes the house, he looks directly at our house, while I'm watching him out the window.  Oh, and his vehicle is loud, so he can't hide in the trees either.   We can hear him plain as day when he pulls down that so-called lane before 6am too.  

My Grad Daughter and I decided to take a trip to the "big" city and check out the thrift store (so Hubby could sleep, and we could have a little fun).    We also visited the dollar store.  I brought home a new rooster kitchen towel, and two blue ones (the blue will be hand towels in my bathroom for winter first).  Many of my kitchen towels are so worn out they are turning into rags now.  These were washed and are hanging on my indoor clotheslines (yes I have one), to dry.

I had to come back and update this post.  While walking around the thrift store, two older gentlemen were talking about the bells for sale on a shelf.  One picked one up and said as he rang the bell, "I need to put this by my computer so I can ring it and holler for her to bring me more coffee."  Laughing proceeded.  Funny men.
 

Daughter found a few nice tops at the thrift store for wearing to work, and I found this gem.  I found a lot of other gems, but I can't take them all home you know.  This book is packed with 631 pages of instructions - firewood box, all sorts of things we could use.  I told Hubby "Merry Christmas" and he laughed, but he later wanted to look through it (he he!). All for the price of $2.00.  As for the other two gems of books I wanted?  Well, I wrote the titles down, and will just check them out of the library.  I have to keep a limit here.  Maybe.

Have a nice Sunday.  Typically we'd take it easy today, but we are fired up to get stuff done today, and the wind hopefully dried up the garden enough to work out there.