Building the House

Whoo-hoo! The floor trusses have been delivered. Now we can get busy building our house :)

Guest Blogger: Evelyn Mosley

These pictures are from Evelyn, who came on an herb hike with me a few weeks back after spending a couple days at the Herb Festival at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, AR. She wrote to me a very inspiring testimony of how much she enjoyed herself and I thought I'd share it here with you. The following is from Evelyn:

"My Ozark Weekend – A Treasure

The experiences of this weekend remain a treasure I will hold forever in my memory! The Medicinal Herb Workshop at the Ozark Folk Center and the walk high above the bluffs near Greer’s Ferry to identify spring ephemerals were marvelous but my time spent with Roxann on our Herb Walk topped it all! The day was fabulous! I just absolutely loved every bit of my time with Roxann and the purely natural Ozarks!

Another torrential rain had fallen the night before our Herb Walk and even more rain interrupted the day of our walk! Roxann and I rode down county roads, wash-boarded in places from the continued spring rains, enjoying views of the Ozarks few have seen, until we reached her place. We sat out yet another heavy rain, enjoying a cup of coffee, waiting for the right moment to start our walk.

Finally, after the rain slowed to a heavy drizzle, we donned our rain gear and headed up the mountainside. The sound of water was everywhere! The creek, now a river, was really high and gushing. Streams, probably only a trickle most spring days and maybe not even visible in the summer, flowed down unlikely spots all around Roxann’s home. As we walked, we came across just-emerging plants, all announcing spring and the growing season to come.

We hiked up the mountainside to a beautiful site under rocks bigger than houses, where we enjoyed our lunch and the view of the valley below. Brooding clouds quickly developed, bringing our walk to a close. We descended to a hollow, where the sound of the gushing water all around us was eerily silenced, then continued back to Roxann’s place and the end of our hike. What an incredible day!

On my return to Tennessee, as I checked my city garden to see how things had grown in my absence, I was inspired by my hikes in the Ozarks to forage for our dinner! The result was: dandelion greens which I cooked with onion, grated carrot, and garlic and chickweed, violets, and red bud blooms plus some herbs from the herb bed--parsley, bronze fennel--that went into a salad. Very tasty! Stuffed eggs, flavored with pesto made from our own homegrown basil, and ham sandwiches on pumpernickel with baby spinach rounded out our “foraged” dinner.

The dandelion recipe I used is included in the book, Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants, by “Wildman” Steve Brill and Evelyn Dean. This dandelion recipe is guaranteed to be liked by everyone since the carrots and onions offset the bitter greens. The authors are right! Our dandelion dish was delicious! And our meal was a wonderful end to a weekend trip of treasured experiences!"

Plants from March 30 Herbwalk

We found mayapples just beginning to unfurl, always an interesting site. They remind me of mushrooms at this stage and they look like they are in slow motion eruption. Plants weren't the only things getting up and ready for spring. The ladybugs were also out and about. I think this is one of the native ladybugs. Anyone know for sure how to tell the difference? I've always thought the orangey ones were Asian and the really red ones with larger spots were American.

This bird nest looks fresh, not like one that made it through our winter. The little bird was probably watching from a distance making sure we didn't touch her nest.

The christmas ferns were unfurling too. These fiddleheads are a strange site. Some are edible, but I am not sure about these.


Not exactly sure yet what this is, but I believe it will make a flower soon and I'll go back to look. If I recall correctly, it makes a yellow flower, similar to the trout lily. (Ah-ha! I remembered as soon as I saw the name in the listing I was looking through. It is a bellwort - Uvularia grandiflora Smith (Liliaceae)) The trout lillies are just beginning to bloom, so maybe today I can get a picture of them. The ginseng is just now beginning to unfurl, as well.

A patch of mayapples in a puddle from the recent rains. Our ground is saturated.
Corydalis flavula (Pale Corydalis) is below, with the yellow flowers. It is a member of the Poppy family and also contains many alkaloids. According to Erichsen-Brown, Native Americans used to place the plant on hot coals and inhale the smoke to "clear the head".
That was about all of the plants we saw. It was early in the season to see very many, but now, only 2 weeks later there are lots of other things getting ready to bloom. Next year I will try to schedule a walk a little later. Too late, though, and the bloodroot is already done blooming. Maybe we'll get in two spring walks.

March 30 Herbwalk

The weather was awful for an herbwalk, but Evelyn was in town all the way from Tennessee, and she was still game. I actually like hiking in the misty cool rain, but you know, this is not typical of most folks. The bench pictured below was our destination for the day. There are a lot of different woodland plants to see, even so early in spring. I don't have the other pictures downloaded yet, these are from Evelyn's camera - thank you Evelyn for sending them and I hope you don't mind that I've posted them to my blog!We saw a few things poking their heads up after a long winter's rest. Among them were adam-n-eve orchid leaves. I have a picture of one we dug up to look at the root and the baby root (or the 'Eve' root) coming off of it. I'll upload it later when I get it off the camera. Mayapples were just beginning to open their umbrella-like leaves. Chickweed is in good form and ready for harvest. The ginseng is still fast asleep, as is the goldenseal. Bloodroot would have been flowering full-blast, but the recent rains tattered their dainty petals completely off except for a few here and there. Dutchman's britches have leaves out. We stopped to take our lunch break under the big rock. Here's Evelyn in late March. Later I'll post the plants in late March, too :)

Here's me, looking more tattered than the bloodroot blossoms, haha! I'm dressed for cool drizzly rain, but the rain suit was a little warmer than I wished at some points. Walking up steep hills gets the blood moving, that's for sure!

I'll post more later.

Fencing Project

The horses have been getting out by going up the logging road and over to a neighbor's place. This weekend I finished a project I started last weekend. Fencing here is not very easy because there are a lot of rocks! So my fence is not straight - it goes from tree to tree. Here at the big rock there is no tree and no way to get a t-post into the ground...On the other side of the big rock, there are a couple small caves. The one on the left goes in quite a ways and we haven't gotten to the end of it yet. 'I' haven't gone in much at all, hahaha, but I stayed outside and talked to Garrison while ~he~ went inside. This is heading back to the beginning now.

This is the logging road behind our house; I believe it is how the horses are getting out.
And the mountain over there is the one they keep going to - the pasture is on the other side! It is about 2 miles taking the county road to get there, or maybe a mile taking the logging road.

This is how I made the fence strands tight, by twisting a stick on it. Later, when the fence loosens up, I can tighten it more.

Flooded Again!

Frank called to tell me I'd best stay put and then said if I can get down to the creek it would make a good picture. Well, I couldn't get to the creek because the driveway is too flooded to get past it. Don had called Frank and told him the water was up to our mailboxes down by the creek. The 'creek' he is referring to is where the road crosses the creek to go up past his house. The creek in the driveway is the same creek, just normally it is not in my driveway so much! The place I wanted to get a picture is all the way to the end of my driveway, but I'll have to wait til this water slows down some before I try to cross. And by then it might not be at the mailboxes any more, LOL.

Land Locked!

The usual way out is impassable (see above) and the back way out is too high, too (see below). A general rule of thumb is if the water is over the center of the tire, it's too dangerous to cross. The back way is about up to the top of the wheels and would come in under the door. I've lost a dog to the bridge when the water was high on the front way out a couple years ago. She managed to swim out, but she was a large dog and was swept off the edge like a little piece of flotsam. Sure convinced me to never try crossing that bridge with the water high! Water has a tricky way of looking shallow or easy to cross when it is high like this. Since we moved here the locals have always called to warn us not to attempt to cross when they see the water looking like this, or they will let us know that it's okay to cross if they know it's moving slow or not too deep. I sure appreciate them sharing their knowlege like this!

First signs of Spring

It's beginning to at least SOUND like spring at my house. This morning I heard a crow's call when I woke, and some other bird song that I don't hear all winter. It warmed my spirit and really gives me hope that yes, winter is almost done. Today temperatures will climb to the 70's but by tomorrow night we are expecting a severe winter storm with ice and snow accumulation. That's a wild swing, but hopefully this is winter's last throes. Oh! I saw daffodils blooming on the roadside yesterday, too. There used to be such things here, but I think the horses have eaten anything green that might have come up over the last few weeks. The tulips that have escaped their attention must be getting ready to bloom by now, too.

Dreary Days

It is so time for Spring. Last weekend I was sick and this weekend will be dreary again. It is time for Winter to move on out and let some good gardening weather in! I don't have much to write about today, I'm still recovering from a bout with the flu or something similar and it has sapped my creative energy for now. The picture of the beebalm is from last year's garden. I moved it to my new garden, but not sure if it will come back or not. I hope so, but if not, I have seeds on standby. Beebalm is a great hummingbird, butterfly, and medicine plant. I use it in my cold/flu tea and tinctures, but last year I didn't harvest any tea supplies at all. This is the first time in many years that I've gotten the flu, and wouldn't you know it would happen when I am least prepared?? This year, I will be harvesting the necessary ingredients all year long as they become available. Send me an email if you'd like to be notified when the tea is ready, if you'd like a sample. I'll put you on my mailing list. The tea usually includes things like beebalm flowers/leaves, echinacea flowers, yarrow flowers, elderberry flowers and berries, lemon balm leaves, heal-all flowers and leaves. And maybe other things I run across that would add useful qualities to the mix, like spicebush berries and twigs and peppermint and other wild mints. Last year I found a really nice little wild peppermint and I forgot that I intended to transplant some to my garden. I'll have to remember to go look for it when the weather clears up.

Hey, it won't be long before it is time for the first spring herb walk! Be sure to send me an email if you want to be put on the mailing list - the first walk is scheduled for Mar 22 or 23 (can't remember which day and I can't see the sidebar while making this post, LOL). But that's about when the bloodroot starts to bloom and a few of the other woodland plants begin to pop out and show leaves.

Last weekend Gary and I raked pine needles and refreshed the chickens nest boxes with it. The horses kept poking their heads in and eating all the hay before, so we thought maybe pine needles would last longer. Well, the hens must be happy! Five eggs yesterday and the first white egg from our spangled hamburg hen, to boot. We have been planning to make lots of chicken jambalya if they didn't start laying soon, so maybe they have redeemed themselves now ;)

In other news, Gab's brown recluse spider bite has almost completely healed and it doesn't even look like it will leave a scar. This is excellent news because this bite was on her forehead! She did get the standard medical treatment for it, plus I had her keep a clay pack on it most of the time during the early stages. The clay contained herbal tincture of myrrh, goldenseal, comfrey and cloves as well. I think a person may also gain some resistance to the venom, because this one reacted less than the bite last year.

Zack has started the driving part of his CDL classes and he is thrilled - he feels like this is what he was destined to do with his life, loves it as much as he loves hunting. Now that is saying a lot for him! He did say it is very hard to learn how to make turns, but he will get more practice on that today.

The horses have been in my new garden. I must finish the fence this weekend, even if I have to go out in the ice to do it because they'll tear up all the work we did last weekend if I don't. There's nothing growing in it for them to eat, they just like to check out all the new rows...and three horses walking around in soft ground spells disaster.

I've started a seed swapping blog. If you would like to offer heirloom or organic seeds to trade, please join me. Send me an email and I'll add you as an author to the blog. If you don't want to join, then keep an eye on the posts and chip in whenever you feel like it.

This weekend was a good and productive one. First, I made up our household budget. This was a sorely needed chore that I've been putting off for a long time. Now that it's all organized I am happy. On Sunday I worked in the garden all afternoon. Now there are 4 tilled rows and 2 of them are planted. On the first row we have Bull's Blood beets. There is 100' of beets and they should be ready to pull right as it is time to put in the artichoke transplants in that same row. On the second row we have 25' of red onions, 25' of yellow onions, 25' sweet peas (Lincoln), 20' Lady Finger Carrots, and 5' Red Globe radishes. The peas will give way to the snap beans and the radishes to lettuce. Row 3 and 4 are unplanted right now because I just ran out of time. It will be raining too much this week and likely next weekend to do much more in the garden for now, but I will be working on the fences if the weather allows.

What did you do this weekend?

Yesterday my daughter and I groomed our horses. Mine has a wavy mane and tail that gets little wringlet knots in it and they're very difficult to unwind. But I managed to get them all undone this time. He also has very long hair on his jaw and legs, LOL, he looks like a wooly mammoth. This spring I will begin working with him and riding some, but he'll only be 2 in May and I'd like to give him another full year of growth before I ride him often. We'll get a lot of the ground lessons started, though.

Bobbie Sue and Pooter (the dogs) were busy trying to dig up a mole. Just when Bobbie Sue closed in for the kill, I ran and snatched it up by the scruff of it's neck so I could get a look at him. I've only seen pictures, never seen a real mole before. Boy! They are fiesty little critters! He kept trying to turn around and bite me, and I know he must have been terrified, but I wanted to hold him long enough for the kids to get a look at him, too. Some people think they're ugly and I'm sure most would think I should have killed him, but to me he was cute with his huge front paws and long little nose. And as long as they stay out of my garden, I don't care if they till everywhere else. They can even till in the garden out of season and I'll be happy with it.

Speaking of the garden, I was out there on Saturday. I took down the bean trellis and moved it out of the future perennial garden. The pieces are lying in the future annual garden waiting for their new life. While I was there I noticed all the mole trails and saw that they completely avoided the garlic rows. So I am thinking that I will plant a garlic boundary around the entire garden. That might help with both deer and moles. I hung the bluebird box while I was out there too. I've been seeing them on the roadsides, maybe they are scoping out spring nesting areas. I want a family to move in by my garden this year.

While thinking about a book I am writing, the POV it needs came to me all of a sudden. Going over it in my mind, it is definitely the right one! All the ideas are flowing better now, so I'd better get busy with it.

If you've never read 'The Essential Herbal', now is a great time to find out more about it! Click on the link and it will take you to a free online issue. This is a great little herbie magazine with articles about herbs ranging from culinary, to medicinal, to folklore usage. The advertising is non-obtrusive and the products and companies are those that we herbal folks want and need to know about anyway. Try it, you'll like it :)

Okay, today is going to be a work related post. I have to tell you what the guys have done in the lab! We got a sample in, oh, it might have been a couple years ago now. This sample smells soooooo badly that it has earned a permanent place on the lab director's bench. Not only that, it also earned a name: Mean Joe. The guys love to open this sample from time to time to make the lab smell really really bad. Imagine the worst smelling baby diaper you've ever encountered and it is worse than that. They've been trying to have it smelling real bad like this when the Cintas guy comes to pick up our towels, but they keep missing him. This morning they made a pre-emptive strike and took the cap off the jar and left it off, letting the air in the room become so thick you have to cut your way through it to get to the door for a breath. Of course, the Cintas guy is running late. I just wanted to talk a little bit about this, it's one of the things that makes life interesting around here. I'm going out for air now!

Today Gary helped me gather horse manure. We applied it to the row I tilled yesterday - and it's actually 115'. I know because we measured it today...seems my estimating was a little off, lol. On that first row will be a 3-sisters planting every 3 feet. So that will 38 hills with 3 corn stalks each... so, 114 plants with hopefully more than one ear each. I sure hope the horses, deer, coons, and bears cooperate to let me have some corn this year! We will get the fence up before I plant anything, or I can guarantee nothing will survive.

Here's the first row of the new garden. This will be a fairly large endeavor and will supply our family and our little CSA's members with some good eating this year. The new addition measures about 100' x 30'. This is nice sandy loam, but it's low in organic matter so I will be adding amendments to make it better. Every year the soil condition will get better and every winter I'll grow a green manure to incorporate every spring. Right now it is too early to plant anything, but soon the sweet peas and beets, turnips and carrots will go in. I am collecting bagged leaves, so if you live in the vicinity and have some to donate to the cause, I will pick them up!

Here's a new blog for you to visit; it belongs to my friend Dena: http://giftsofgodherbals.blogspot.com/

She makes and sells all sorts of excellent herbal formulations. I use her super tonic and tooth and gum formulas all the time and they work great for me. She also has pretty much every single tincture you can think of, and if you happen to ask for one she doesn't have, I'll bet she can get one together for you.

Today was one of the best days I've had in a long time. The weather was perfect, not too cold and not too hot. I planted some more ginseng seeds, laid out the garden and planned what was going to go where this year, cleaned up around the outside of the house, and caught one of the new hens on the nest laying an egg. Gary brought Garrison to basketball practice, so I had most of the day to do whatever I wanted. Right now, a pot of coffee is brewing and I'm going to go outside and sit on the swing and enjoy the end of a wonderful day. I hope your day was as good as mine was ;)

I took a survey today to see what the kids wanted most out of the garden this year. Asparagus was top on the list from Gabrielle, Garrison wants carrots and corn and peas. Zack likes turnips and radishes, but both he and Gary especially want some beets. I know my daddy doesn't want onions and garlic, but I have to plant those! I have green beans and potatoes planned, so I think he'll eat those. Momma probably likes most of what I'll grow.

It's hard to not plant things too early when the weather is nice like weekend before last. But this past weekend was typical January weather and I stay inside when it's like that. Cold, drizzly and windy. Yuck! And last year's lesson stuck pretty good. That late freeze snared a lot of gardeners who thought it was safe to plant already.

The kids at Garrison's school say I'm crazy for thinking I can grow figs up here. But my fig tree is very happy sitting under the window in a pot in my living room and it is putting on new leaves. This year, it will make figs and Garrison can bring them to class to prove I'm not so nuts after all. I'm going to make sure and not put it out too soon, especially not until after mid-April. And then later this summer I will build a cage around it so I can mulch it heavy all winter and not have to bring it inside every year like that.

If you like to write, you will be interested in this website I stumbled upon today. It is full of inspirational stories and blog entries and very useful information! It's called "Writers on the Rise" and its a site good for beginners and seasoned writers alike. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Something that occurs to me is this. Yes, it is important to be truthful in everything I say. But it is also important to know when to speak and when not to speak. That kind of discernment seems to me to be harder than simply telling the truth. If I am committed to saying only truths, then there is no judgment needed in that respect on my part. Judging WHETHER to speak sometimes is very difficult. Another difficulty is in deciding HOW to speak, what words to choose. An artist can paint a picture in many different styles, and it still portrays the same scene - but some styles are more easily looked upon than others. The same applies to the spoken word and the written word.

Those are my ponderous words to guide me for the new year :)