Just wanted to post this recent picture of Comanche :) He's such a sweetie! I can't wait to begin riding him, but he's only a yearling right now. This has nothing to do with herbs, or gardening, or writing, but horses are my first great passion and I couldn't resist putting his pic up here for ya'll to see.

Whooo-hoooo! Today I got the news that my little grandbaby Lillie will get to go home for the first time tomorrow. She is 6 weeks old and hasn't been home yet. Her mom is so happy to finally be able to have her home and get a schedule of normalcy to both of their lives. Lillie was born with CF and was having trouble gaining weight. Now she is taking some pancreatic enzymes and hopefully all will be well from now on.

I haven't been very good at making regular blog entries, I know. But I have been writing a lot in other places, LOL. Does that count? I need to work on my websites, but my program isn't working (FrontPage) because my computer crashed and now it won't reload. I'm not good enough at HTML to make many changes without the WYSIWYG type of program and I just don't have time to learn it right now. Maybe Santa will bring me a new computer for christmas and all the stuff I need will be already loaded onto it...

Corn Bread Recipe

This recipe came about quite by accident, it was an experiment that turned out really good! It is true what they say about necessity being the mother of invention :) After I had all the flour, eggs, and other ingredients in the bowl, I discovered that my cornmeal was rancid. The only other thing I had to use was the yellow grits. This cornbread makes a nice large-crumb cake style cornbread. I like mine on the sweet side, but if you don't like yours so sweet, use less sugar. It is delicious with red beans and rice!!

2 cups coarse ground yellow grits (preferably from pawpaw's gristmill)
2 cups self rising flour
1 heaping tsp baking powder
1 level tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs (preferably nice, dark yellow yolked ones from the hens outside)
enough milk to make a runny batter

Put all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Heat the stove to 350, oil a cast iron skillet, with enough oil to have a little extra to rise up around the batter when you pour it in, and let it get hot in the oven while you mix the cornbread ingredients. I don't have a mixer, so I just stir till all clumps are broken up and the eggs are well blended.

Pour the batter into the hot skillet and bake until golden brown and the sides are pulling away from the skillet. This makes a fairly dense cornbread, so the test method of inserting a knife might not work so well.

My husband had two boxes of Jiffy mix out waiting for the failure of this recipe, haha, but we didn't need them.

Enjoy!

This weekend I harvested the short row of green onions I had planted late this summer. My neighbor laughed because I was planting onions at this time of year, but these are not bulbing onions and they grew plenty enough for what I needed. You can use the whole onion, including the bottoms, but I cut them off at about 3" so I can replant the bottoms. This herb is essential, it is the essence, of cajun cooking! I know the hispanics use it in their dishes, too, so I can never have enough of it. It is delicious added fresh on top of chili and mexican rice, and it is delicious added fresh on top of a steaming bowl of chicken and sausage gumbo. It is delicious cooked in with crawfish stew or rabbit sauce picante, with a fresh handful added right before pulling off the fire. I just can't cook good food without them!

And I have more to say about these green onions, lol. These are special because they came from my grandpa's garden. He gave me the bulbs and now they've all divided several times over and I can plant many times more next year than I planted this year. I'll sell them at the farmer's market and through my little CSA, and I'll offer an incentive to return the bottoms to me so I can plant them again. So this is an heirloom plant and it's one I dearly love for many reasons.

Wild and wild-simulated Ginseng sold for $805/lb last weekend! For those of you who would like to learn how to plant ginseng (wild-simulated) in your own woods, I'm planning a workshop out here at our property. Hunting season has interfered with the November planning. I believe it is no longer gun season on Dec. 1, though, and that's the date I'm aiming for now.

Cost will be $25/person. All materials needed will be supplied, but we'll have to take turns with the rakes and seeder. If you have a garden rake you'd like to bring, you're welcome to do so. I'll buy a few more if enough people register to warrant doing so.

Some things to keep in mind. It's a fairly good/hard hike out to the planting/growing site, so wear appropriate shoes. The hike itself is short, but it's steep until we reach the location. Bring a bag lunch and water, and make sure to bring a sack to pack out your trash. Smoking is allowed if you pack out your butts (a friend of mine who smokes has a cute little case that looks like a pocket watch, made just for this. A foil bag will work if you don't have the little gadget, though). Tick season is pretty much over, but if you're very sensitive to insect bites, make sure to bring spray. The ticks can be awful when a warm spell happens.

I have dogs, but will tie them before leaving the house, so dogs are welcome if you don't mind tying them at the horse trailer or your vehicle while we're in the woods.

The ginseng seedlings for 2008 will be ready for sale beginning in April until it gets too hot to safely transplant them. If you pick them up at the farmer's market, bare-root seedlings are $2/ea for quantities <50. For 50 or more they are $1/ea. If you will want more than a few, it is a good idea to book them now because that way I can make sure to plant enough. They always sell out by the time it gets hot.

This morning I went outside before daylight because the dogs were barking up a storm. Badger, the great pyr, was really sounding upset, barking with more aggression than usual. Bobbie Sue, who never gets right into the middle of things, was on the sidelines cheering him on. Once they realized I was out there with them, the turned up the heat even more. Whatever it was sounded large, lots of crashing noises out there behind the shed. I yelled for one of the kids to bring me a flashlight. My youngest yelled back "What about the shotgun?!", but I just wanted the light, not the gun. I did think it might be a bear, since we do have lots of those around. but they don't normally come that close to the house. Finally, the light was delivered and I shined it out there. It was a coon, high on top of a huge rose bramble, and Badger was in the bramble with it, furiously trying to reach it but just getting caught up in the thorns the more he tried. That was the source of the loud noise, just Badger in the bramble. The coon saw his opportunity for escape and made a run for it, and the dogs followed him down into the gully. They came back to the house soon, checking to see if I was pleased, which I was. He does a really good job of keeping the chickens safe, but we did lose one a few weeks ago and I'm figuring it was to that coon. I hope he won't keep trying to come back for second helpings. The chickens are free range, but they go into a house at night. Other critters live in the gully, a fox and a weasel, and now I guess the coon too. I don't try to clear all the woods and mountains of critters, that's their space. But near the house and garden is our space and they need to steer clear of it. That's what Badger does, he enforces the "Green Zone" around our home. And Bobbie Sue does a good job of helping him. Sometimes she's the first one to sound the alarm and Badger takes it from there. She doesn't like direct confrontations. Some people couldn't sleep with all the barking they do at night. But it actually doesn't bother me. When I don't hear them barking I will wake up and wonder what's wrong, or if they fell asleep at the post. Then I have to get out of bed and check. Usually, though, it's just a calm night and they don't see anything worth barking at.

The other day my sister, Jennifer, called me and she said that a pelican had eaten all the goldfish in their pond! One of them that went missing was a pretty old fish that had survived all sorts of mishaps, so what a shame that some mis-guided pelican found her pond and did him in. They don't really live near the water, so it was pretty odd for him to even be out her way. She and her husband Brad have also purchased some land in Arkansas, over near Yellville. One day I'll have to do an herbwalk over at her place because the soil composition is different and there are different plants there than what is at my house. In particular they have lots more dogwood and it's really beautiful in spring when they're all in bloom.

Today I went hiking in the woods with my friend Dena, looking for ginseng. There are a few wild plants scattered around out there and sometimes I can look all day and not find them. Today I was lucky and found several, but they were all small. The old ones are already retired for the year or dormant or gone. We also found some slippery elm and gathered a little bark for each of

us. The picture is of dena stripping some slippery elm bark. None of the other pictures I took today came out very good and so that was disappointing.

Last night I went to the Benton county Master Gardener's meeting. It was a delightful way to spend my evening! Before the meeting we toured the exhibit hosted at the Rogers Historical Museum - The Healing Power of Plants, a traveling exhibition from the University of Colorado Museum. That in itself was awesome and without having been invited to the meeting I would have otherwise never known it was going to be so close and would have missed the opportunity to view it - thank you Chari! Afterwards, Chari Cross presented an excellent slide show program on common medicinal plants and their uses, featuring plants we can grow right here in our own Arkansas gardens. I brought some of the ginseng seeds from my planting stock and some goldenseal rhizomes to sell after the meeting. I met lots of wonderful gardeners and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Yesterday we got the floor seals put up on the house. Today Gary bought some boards to go on and finish the porch so we will have somewhere to sit and rest while we work on the rest of it. I am sooooo looking forward to a real house for a change!! The old house we're in has been .... er ... a challenge, to say the least.

Also yesterday I checked on my garden and saw that the horses had broken in and trampled much of it and something ate all the peas down to the ground - again. So today I reworked the turnip bed and replanted and put up a cage over just that row and put protection around the peas. It won't stop mice or rats, but it should handle just about anything else. Everything concerning my garden is always feeling like one step forward and two steps back. I can't ever seem to get ahead and stay ahead!

I just visited the website of some herb-growing friends of mine, Dave and Floralyn Perry over in the Missouri Ozarks. You should definitely go have a look and plan a get-a-way at their new lodge: http://grapevinehollow.0catch.com/dave1.html , it's very beautiful! They also grow ginseng and medicinal herbs. I haven't been able to go see it yet, but I sure hope to do so soon.

This morning we saw a beaver at the bridge on our way out to school. I love beavers! Most folks out here do not like them, though - they don't like the way their dams cause the water to back up in their hay fields. Then when they take the tractor out to cut hay, it sinks them down to the axles... at least that's why my neighbor up the road doesn't like them. So I told ol' Mr. Beaver to head on over to our creek if anyone out here gives him trouble. I'd love to have my creek backed up, haha. It would create a great habitat for some skunk cabbage that I've been wanting to grow. Skunk cabbage is one of the greatest antispasmodic roots in the herb world, but the plant is endangered or rare in some areas. I've never found any out here, but it is supposed to be here, so maybe it is rare here, too. And if Mr. Beaver is really eager, it might make a good swimming hole, too.

Today I had the pleasure of meeting a fellow Ozark herbalist, Kristena :) We met first over the internet a while back but today we met in person and walked around looking at "weeds" at the Compton Botanical Gardens in Bentonville. Her daughter Olivia joined us. You might like to check out Kristena's website, and her blog too.

We saw a few plants that we stopped to pay attention to, but this garden is a great resource for hurried folks; I like to eat lunch here and it helps to break my day if it's been stressful at work. One of the plants I was most excited to see is boneset. I've been searching all over our own land for this one, and it should be there, but I haven't found it. Another one was perilla, which I do have in abundance, but have never really studied it to get to know it better. I do know that it stains my fingers a pretty brown, so if you are interested in natural dyes, this might be a good one. And we saw what I believe to be Lady's Thumb - click on the link to go to a website to read up on it. There was a different name tag near this plant, but I believe the plant it identified was no longer there, or else I am mistaken about the identity.

Planted more peas and carrots, cabbage and turnips yesterday. My dad brought his "arrowhead digger" up with him and while he's here I'm using it to till up some new garden. My husband got his bulldozer fixed, so site prep was easy between the two of them. Now to fence it in and get it growing! I should have enough room now to grow more than enough vegetables to supply my CSA and our own household. The trick is now to make the time to get the 4-year rotation plan together and get started :) I'll probably go on and get it certified now, since the entire bench will be ready this year. Rather than "certified organic", I'll do "Certified Naturally Grown". CNG is the new grassroots organic movement, and it's tailored for small growers and direct-marketing farmers. They require growers to follow the same stringent rules as "organic" but it is not so influenced by the big ag business. I think it is less likely to become corrupt (at least until big ag wants to use this name, too).

A critter has been eating my sugar snap peas, and some turnips, and the sweet potatoes. the poor little seedlings weren't but a couple inches tall. about half of the peas are gone and only a few turnips are gone. but ALL of the sweet potatoes are gone, at least the leaves have all been eaten. I'm not sure they can continue to grow without leaves, but I haven't given up all hope on them yet. It is becoming clear that I need a good fence if I plan to come close to substinence gardening, not to mention market farming!

As with almost everything else I need these days, money is an issue. I can't buy fencing materials until I get my Christmas bonus, and there's a big "if" about whether we will even be getting bonuses this year. If we don't land the contract we need, even whether I have a job or not next year is up in the air. I'm really not worried about not having the job, I think I can get another one fairly quickly if I want to - but I will have to learn other ways to do things that don't involve buying everything I need. As for the critters, I am sure that my sons will be happy to sit out one evening to see who's coming to dinner and turn the tables on it. LOL. Hopefully it is something good to eat, like a rabbit. I've never tried groundhog before, but maybe I will soon. How did people garden before fences were available? If I plant more, will there be more predation or is there a point where volume of produce will exceed predation by enough to supply my own household and a few others with food?

On another subject, the pediatrician called today and they still want my son to see a specialist. His pain was gone, but yesterday it was back although the Aleve aleviated it this time quickly and he didn't need additional pain medication. The fact that it was back is worrisome, though, and it completely blows my theory for what happened out of the water.

Here are some pictures from a little hike I took right before dark today:

oh boy, moving the propane tank turned out to be quite a chore! but we did get it done and i have pictures to prove it :)

getting ready:

trying to decide exactly how we'll do this:
Plow-reining down the driveway backwards was harder than it looks! (1/2 mile and HILLY)
Too far left on the pads:
Reposition the chains and get ready to pull it backwards a little:

All done, FINALLY!

It's a beautiful day today in the Ozarks! It was around 50*F when I got up this morning (late because I was out til around 1:30 taxi-ing my daughter and her friends around) and now at 1:45 p.m. it is still only about 70*F. Wonderful weather for working outside. We're getting ready to move the propane tank down to the final resting place near where we're building our new house. I'll try to get pictures of us hauling this 1000 gallon tank with the bulldozer and me holding it in the right alignment by walking before it with a rope. Or maybe we'll load it on the trailer and pull it up to the house. I don't know yet how we're going to do it, but we'll get it done somehow today. It will be nice to start using this huge tank rather than the small ones we've been using. The only thing we use propane for is the hot water heater right now, but eventually I will have a gas stove and oven, maybe a clothes dryer too. Right now all those things are electric and I hate being dependent upon the electricity especially in the winter when the power is likely to go out during an ice storm. At least with the propane, as long as the tank is full, we will always have the stove to use and with our gravity feed water system we will always have running water. When the kids are all grown and moved out, I may just drop the electricity all together. I rarely watch TV and solar can power a few lights and the computer fairly easily.

Did you know that those blue-belly lizards, otherwise known as Western Fence Lizards, have a protein in their blood that deactivates Lyme disease? When the ticks are very small their main food source is our cute little blue belly lizard. When the baby tick bites the blue belly they get a dose of the protein from the blue belly's blood and if the tick had the lyme-causing bacteria, then they will no longer be carriers of that disease! We have lots of blue bellies out at our place and every time I see one I am so grateful for them. Here are a couple links to sites that talk about this in more scientific terms if you are interested:

http://www.anapsid.org/lyme/sceloporus.html

http://www.downtowntomatoes.com/archives/2005/11/lyme_disease_an_1.html

We have a lot of ticks and I'm always afraid that the kids will be bitten by one that has a disease. Every day we check for ticks before taking a shower, but it seems that the longer we live here, the less likely we are to be bitten. I've noticed this with my horses, too. The horse we brought up here with us, Snippy, was plagued by ticks the first year here. The horse we bought from our neighbor didn't seem to get so many. This year, Snippy only got about as many as the native horse, so maybe we also are building a deterrent-smell or taste to them too, lol.

uh-oh. I just found out that I have to give a presentation to a client that's walking through the lab in a few minutes. you cannot begin to imagine the amount of dread i feel about this! it doesn't matter that all i've lived and breathed for the last 6 months is ICP-MS (at least at work) - i am TERRIBLE at explaining or talking in public! please say a prayer, or hold me in your thoughts, or do SOMETHING to help me through this, lol!

10:11 same day

well, the results were all negative - whooo-hooo! so apparently all this pain was just leftovers from a virus his immune system went overboard in fighting. but just to be on the safe side, i think i'll leave Garrison out of the bamboo harvests in the future.

9-12-07 (just in case Blogger gets it wrong again, it's a habit now)

Not too much to write about today. We should find out whether Garrison has a tick disease or whether his hip has been hurting because an infection settled there, at least. We had to bring him to the emergency room last Thursday morning because he was hurting so badly he couldn't even sit up in the bed. This is a child who did not shed a tear when he broke his arm last year, so I know the pain must be intense. The only other thing I think it could be is that he's allergic to that bamboo we harvested last monday - he rode back to the road in the truck on top of the pile, and he also had a rash by Monday night. But the ER team didn't seem to think much of the idea.

In the garden we have planted some seeds: english peas, sugar snap peas, turnips, spinach, lettuce, carrots, and beets. Last time I looked, the carrots were well up and the turnips were all looking strong. Oh, I also planted some italian leaf cabbage, something new that I've never tried before. It's supposed to be really good and tasty for soups and stews.

I made a pretty little fence with the bamboo and now I need more of it! I'll have to post a picture later.