Prepping for the Canning Season

It is mid-May and things are growing gang-busters here. The garden is getting taller and some of the peppers are blooming.  The artichokes are also growing and we are excited to try some of our own at some point in the future.  Additionally, we joined a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program this year and that should be starting in the next couple of weeks. Sooo, all of that means that we need to make sure we have sufficient canning jars for the season. 

My dear hubby found three different sets of jars on Craigslist (craigslist.org).  The first one was probably my favorite.  We got the jars from a working farm, although the owners work full time as well at jobs off of the farm.  It was fun to watch the free range everything roaming around – ducks, chickens, horses – ha ha.  We were able to get 115 jars for 28 cents each, and a good number of them were ½ gallon sizes. They needed a lot of cleaning but this is what they looked like when I was done – Nice huh?

In my continuing efforts to understand herbs and their uses, I planted some selected herbs, but decided to plant them in pots on the front porch for this year.  Here is what the pots look like here at the beginning.  The Milk Thistle, German Chamomile, and Astragalus are all sprouting so that is pretty exciting! 

So what are these supposed to be good for?

Milk Thistle: This is reported to be (http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/milk-thistle-000266.htm) good for liver, kidney and gallbladder problems, can help prevent liver toxins, may help in treating viral hepatitis,  and the milk is reputed to help with the treatment of warts.

German Chamomile: This is one of my favorite herbs for a lot of reasons:  http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/german-chamomile-000232.htm.  It is reported to help calm nerves, treat chest colds and sore throats, assist with the treatment of skin conditions and children’s illnesses like chickenpox.  It also makes a wonderful tea before bed, especially when mixed with Valerian.

Astragalus: http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/astragalus-000223.htm.  This is a Chinese herb that my husband found.  It is expensive for the cut or powdered herbs so I decided to grow our own.  This herb is reputed to help protect against cancer, support the immune system, prevent infections, treat diabetes and a host of other benefits.

So, I have a lot of new ½ gallon jars, and they work perfectly with the herbs I’ve ordered.  Here is what they look like.  Next I will start making various teas and ointments.  How much fun is that? 

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the Mothers in the country!  If you are reading this, you obviously have a mother, so please don’t forget to tell her Thank You for your life, even if you don’t always get along.

Caeryl

Blogs and the First Amendment

Recently I have been following the situation of Steve Cooksey in North Carolina.  Steve has been threatened by the North Carolina Board of Dietetics / Nutrition (NCBDN) for posting his information on treatment of diabetes based on his own experiences because his information is different than what they recommend. To learn more check out the Natural News story at: http://www.naturalnews.com/035717_North_Carolina_blogger_free_speech.html#ixzz1tWeczPLP

All of this makes me wonder how we can begin to help each other if sharing our own experiences can get us sued.  The First Amendment says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I have been using the internet since about 1986 when the primary launching platforms were AOL or Prodigy.  Now every site in the world is available for us to peruse (assuming it can pass muster with our security systems - ha ha).  AND that is how I have learned a lot of information over the years.  Of course, you have to vet your resources carefully to assure that you are not accepting incorrect information, which is always your personal responsibility.


I am learning a tremendous amount about herbs in my studies and I want to keep sharing that information with you. The First Amendment seems to say that I can do that. I hope you have a wonderful and productive week.


This weeks tip: Bentonite, Shea Butter and Coconut Oil


While not exactly an herbal balm, this one is natural all the same.  Bentonite clay is a substance that is reputed to be excellent for drawing out toxins, and Shea Butter and coconut oil are considered to be healing.  So I thought, "Why not put the three together?".  To make this I used 1/2 cup of Shea Butter and melted it gently, then added 2 tablespoons of coconut oil.  I removed it from the heat and let it cool a little. I added 2 tablespoons of the Bentonite clay and stirred well.  I put the mixture into a wide mouthed decorative container.


I have found that it has lots of uses from covering a cut or a burn, to a popped zit. Just smear it on the wound, then cover with a sterile bandage.  If your experience is anything like mine it will help you heal in a much shorter time than usual.


Hope you are having a great week!  Caeryl

Determining Your Purpose in Life – or the Joy of Herbal Mastery

Good morning everyone!  I hope you are having a wonderful week here in the spring!

As some of you may remember, I was downsized (economy related – nothing I did wrong) a little over a year ago and looked for more than a year for a new job.  I was too experienced for the companies where my skills fit and not experienced enough for others.  Combined with my last salary (out of range for most companies) and my age, I couldn't even get an interview and I finally gave up unless I was able to travel all over the country, but I coouldn't do that.

After much (MUCH) soul searching, I realized that even if I had found a job in my field of expertise I would have not have enjoyed it as I would have before.  Enter the new direction.

I finally decided that what I really want to do is to master herbs – I am well familiar with culinary herbs and a lot of what they can do, as well as the health benefits of other herbs, like chamomile (for example), but I want to learn a lot more.

So, one of the first things I did was put together my list of herbs that I would like to have or grow, and I will be sharing information on different things as I go along. Next I planted some of them this weekend.  Here are the babies:

The cutie on the left is one of the Elderberry bushes.  Elderberries are purported to help shorten flu and colds and support the immune system.  Natural News carries more information if you are interested in doing some additional research. http://www.naturalnews.com/elderberry.html

This big beautiful guy is also an Elderberry and we might actually see some flowers and fruit this year with him.

Next we got red rasberry and blueberry bushes.  Aren't they beautiful?

Fresh berries have numerous benefits in supporting health - they have vitamins, minerals and fiber, and they are strong in anti-oxidants.  The Berry Health Benefits Network gives a lot more information by berry: http://berryhealth.fst.oregonstate.edu/health_healing/fact_sheets/index.htm

Next we planted Goji Berry Bushes:

Goji berries have been reported to have a huge range of benefits - everything from being a superfood and increasing immunity to being antioxidants.  The little tiny plant next to the stick is one of the two goji berry bushes we have planted, but it will be a while before they generate berries - ha ha.  For additional information, check this site:

http://www.extremehealthusa.com/gojiarticles/gojistory.aspx

Next we planted this lovely juniper bush:

Juniper is reported to be excellent for more than making wonderful gin (ha ha) - it is reported to help with a lot of different immune issues - arthritis, rheumatism, urinary tract infections, and a world of other uses. Check the following site for more information.  http://www.natural-herbal-remedies.net/juniper-berries.html

We also planted our first garden this week.  Most of what we planted were peppers of a variety of types.  They are not only excellent for you in so many ways, they just taste great. We also planted some rhubard and some horseradish...  here is the garden with the wonderful cages we found last year - They are first I had ever seen painted - How happy is that?  Take a second to appreciate them - ha ha - Thanks!

Rhubarb is reported to help high blood pressure, high cholesterol, acts as an antioxidant, supports the immune system, and may help control allergies.  A good site for more information is this one: http://www.zhion.com/herb/Rhubarb.html

Horseradish is reported to help with  sinus infections, arthritis, rheumatism and even lung congestion.  Doesn't get much better than that.  You can use bottled horseradish for some of this, but as with all plants, fresher is better.  Check out this website for additional information. http://www.liveandfeel.com/medicinalplants/horseradish.html

Of course, there are many more that I want to plant, but I am waiting for a small greenhouse to start the others.  I'll tell you about them as I get them started. 

One needs tasty herbs too, so here are the culinary herbs I planted too (of course they all have health benefits too):

Two different kinds of basil, some chives, some chamomile, thyme and sage.  Add that to the giant rosemary and mint on the side and we will have yummy salads and cold soups all summer..

So that was our weekend - How did you spend yours?

I am going to try to put in a tip every time I post about something unique that you might not know in the world of herbs.  Today's tip:

Stop Bleeding with Cayenne Pepper:

This is a somewhat counterintuitive tip, but I can tell you from personal (clumsy) experience that it works amazingly well.  If you get a cut:
 - Clean the cut
 - Put a good amount of cayenne pepper powder on the cut and let it sit for a few minutes.  It SHOULD stop the bleeding immediately. 
 - After a few minutes, you should be able to gently rinse off the cayenne and bandage the cut.

A couple of things:  this does NOT burn like you might expect it would, and it does work.  I had a cut last week and handled it this way.  It was sealed when I rinsed it off and healed within 2 days. Give it a try, and let me know what you think.

Yours in health!  Caeryl

Medication Safety and the Phillips Medication Dispenser

I apologize for going almost a month between postings, but my mother in law required a lot of transportation and care in the last month. Since she doesn’t live near us, it makes planning critical.

Mum (my mother in law) has numerous medical conditions, and unfortunately, most of them require their own specialists.  She has a Primary Care Physician, an ophthalmologist, an orthopod, and now an urologist.

Of course, for almost every physician visit and new condition, and once every test is read, she gets either new or additional medications, OR the dosage is changed, OR the number of times per day is changed, OR the number of days per week.  Right now, she is taking 18 different medications, taken from 1 to 7 days a week and from 1 to 4 times a day.  Combine all of that with the facts that she is nearly blind, and her hands hardly work – that means that getting medicine bottles open (even the ‘senior friendly’ ones) is almost impossible. When someone is 77, things are not as clear and simple as they might have been even ten years before. Is it any wonder that people get confused?

It is difficult to find applicable statistics regarding exactly how many self-medication errors occur per year, but I know from personal experience that it is easy for seniors to get confused and either take too much or too little of their medications.  Additionally, if the senior tends to take more of their pain medication than is prescribed, the family can be a little lost on how to deal with the situation, especially when the patient lives alone.  And what about couples where one party is frequently the medication administrator for both people?

Don’t despair if you find yourself in this situation.  There is a wonderful, affordable solution.  When we were ready to take Mum to her home after an extended hospital / rehab / assisted living stay we realized that she could not live alone if she could not control her medications.  Enter the Phillips Medication Dispensing System - Monitored.

The way the system works is basically this: You will need to analyze several key pieces of information:

1)    How many times a day you or your loved one need medications - up to six times a day.

2)    What those times should be.  Note that you need to pay close attention to WHAT you are scheduling if you are doing this.  For example, Mum takes three blood pressure pills a day, so I split them out to morning and night to keep from dropping her pressure too much all at once.

3)    How many days a week they need the medication, and if it is less than daily, which day you will administer the medicine.  For example, some medications are once a week.  I give her a “one per week” pill on Wednesdays and the other “one pill per week” pill on Sundays.

It will help if you set up a document to track these in.  I found that this is also a great document to take with you to doctors offices to update their records – it saves a lot of questions .

This is the form I set up to facilitate this process:

Medication	Days of Week	Times Of Day	# / Day	# / Week
Acetaminophen – 650 mg	Sunday - Saturday	8:30 (AM) 5:30 (PM)	4	28
Alendronate Sodium (Fosamax) – 70 Mg tab	Sunday Only	11:30 (AM)	0	1
Arthrotec EC 50 mg – 200 mcg	Sunday - Saturday	8:30 (AM) 5:30 (PM)	2	14
Atenolol – 50 mg Note: cut the current tablets in half	Sunday - Saturday	8:30 (AM)	1	7

Once you have set the document up, it allows you to QA the frequencies and make sure that they are 1) correct and 2) logical.

Next you will need to work with Philips to set up the schedule as you want it to occur (similar to what you see above).  This schedule is a good starting place, but you need to pay attention for a while to make sure it is working as you expect.

To load the machine, Philips will give you a Styrofoam template that looks like this:

It has 7 days across starting with Sunday and 6 down to match the schedule you have set up, and will hold the little medicine cups so you can fill them. I generally move the pill bottles from one side of the table to the other to make sure I don’t miss any.

Top each cup with the included cap, and load into the unit upside down (this part is critical to correct dispensing) by day of the week.  If you are not loading any PRN (as needed) drugs, you can load 10 days worth into the unit at once. Then just lock the unit and it is good to go.

I LOVE this machine.  It is easy to load, easy to reschedule, and will announce when it is time for each dose.  If a dose is missed, the machine will continue to announce it, and will notify Philips who will then contact the person identified to let them know of the missed dose. 

If you (or a loved one) need to take a lot of medications, you might want to consider a machine like this.  It WILL make your life a lot easier, and a LOT safer.  Have a great week!  Caeryl

Another Reminder About Electrical Dependence and Shredding

Things sometimes happen in the strangest ways.  A couple of weeks ago, my husband sent me an article on EMPs – Electro-Magnetic Pulses (you can read it here: http://defensetech.org/2012/02/29/were-still-worrying-about-emps/).  For those unfamiliar with the term, it refers to a giant electrical impulse that can cause every single electrical item it touches to stop working unless it is encased in a protective environment.  Obviously, we don’t have something that sophisticated in our house – ha ha.

It was pretty freaky because I had read the first paragraph (literally), when the electricity went out.  I sat there for a second and thought “Hmmm, what if this IS an EMP?”  I then went outside to find out if it was just our house (squirrels occasionally get into the transformer unfortunately), but I could tell by the sounds (or more correctly, lack of) that it was at least neighborhood wide.

To demonstrate how ingrained electricity is in our lives I thought it would be interesting to recount how my next two hours went until they got the area wide outage fixed:

1)   I couldn’t call the electric company to report the outage – My land line wasn’t working. 

2)   I tried the internet on my laptop and it wasn’t working either.

Solution:  Called my husband on the cell phone and asked him to call and report it. He did and that is how we found out it was area wide. However, in an EMP there would be no need for this exercize, nor any solution if you think about it:-).

3)   I had already had my coffee and thought that breakfast would be a good idea.  Hmmm, I have ways to cook without electricity, but they were a little too cumbersome to set up for a two hour outage. I thought about a smoothie, but DARN!  That took electricity too.  I could have gotten out my battery operated blender, but again, only two hours…

Solution: I decided to skip breakfast and just have some Kombucha from the fridge.

4)   No computer, no television, so I decided to get some work done around the house. First up: Laundry: Oh wait – Washer and dryer don’t work without electricity… Hmmm – I have a washboard and clothesline, but yet again, only two hours..

5)   I decided to clean.  This one was actually doable except for interior spaces that might be a little dark.  But I was able to clean the house for the most part and that took up most of the two hours. Could not vacuum however… No battery operated vacuum cleaner either.  I guess I would have to use a broom.  I couldn’t even do the old fashioned thing and take them out and beat them since they are mostly wall to wall. That is funny to try to visualize :-)

6)   Work on my inventory.  This is again doable except in the darker interior spaces where I had to hold a flashlight to count things.

7)   Work on my Blogs.  I could do this for a while since my laptop has a battery backup, but I decided to wait until I had power in case there was a higher need.

8)   Shredding:  This is on my list of projects and has been for about three years.  I still had about 12 boxes of financial records, receipts, old blank check books, etc. that needed to be destroyed, which I was clearing through at about ½ of a box per week. With no electricity, I tried to envision myself trying to cross micro-cut my paperwork – ha ha.  Even with electricity, it would take me a long time, and my new 12 page shredder would be worthless when I finished.

Solution: While I couldn’t shred anything until the electricity came back up, I did find a local company that would come to the house.  How awesome is this process?

·        The industrial sized truck comes to your residence.

·        You pour all of your records into the bin provided.  Note that you do not have to pull out paper clips, staples, binder clips, or even take things out of binder unless you want to keep the binders.  They took a load of old floppies I couldn’t even read any more which still had confidential information on them.

·        The bin is turned into the hopper inside the truck

·        The technician starts the machine and you can watch it from outside on a small camera that shows everything being fed into the hopper.

·        It took about 20 minutes from start through payment to finish micro shredding 10 years worth of records!

Conclusions:

We are pretty well prepared overall for a longer power outage, but it is not worth mobilizing the alternates for a shorter one. There are also some gaps we found like what we would do with confidential records.  I would guess we would build a fire with them.  That is completely secure destruction for sure.

I hope you are as well prepared for your next mini-challenge!  Caeryl

Waller Water – The Frugal Person’s Alkaline Water

For the last seven months, my husband and I have been following an alkaline diet. The long and short of the reason to follow that diet is that an alkaline state is the normal state for the human body (and pets too actually), and disease cannot exist / flourish in an alkaline environment.  There is, of course, a lot more than that, but that is pretty much why we are following this.

A major part of an alkaline diet is hydration – water, but not just any water. The water you drink should be alkaline as well, and you need to drink 3 – 4 liters of it every day.  If you have been on any of the alkaline websites you will discover several things: some charge for access, and some just want you to sign up for free; some will offer you recipes that support an alkaline system; some will offer assistance and support groups / boards, and most will offer supplements and water systems.  The water systems can be relatively inexpensive, but only treat 8 – 12 ounces of water every 15 minutes or so, and others are very expensive.

When we started our alkaline diet, we started drinking water, but drinking alkaline water was out of reach for our limited budget. So, we searched around and found that there was an alternative at http://www.afibbers.org/Wallerwater.pdf .  What follows is a pictorial essay that shows how we make the Waller Water. 

First I gather all of my tools:

This shows the Milk of Magnesia (aka MOM), a bottle of seltzer, and a pitcher of filtered water. We only use the original formula because it has no other additives.

Next you can see a funnel for pouring into the bottles, a one liter measuring cup, and an four liter pitcher. I love this pitcher - It holds enough for the four bottles and I use it as a weight lifting exercise too - ha ha.

First open the seltzer water slowly, pour out a little to allow you to add the MOM and measure out the required amount of MOM.

Next you add the MOM to the seltzer water, put the lid back on, and tip it back and forth continuously for 30 seconds.  When you have done it correctly, the bottle will collapse a little. Let it sit for 30 minutes, then open it and shake again for another 30 seconds.  You can use it then, but I usually let it sit for a few days so that if there is any sediment it will solidify to the bottom, and then just strain out the solids.

Now for a short segue: We try to drink the 3 – 4 liters of water a day, and one of the best ways to keep track of exactly how much you’ve drunk in a day is to set up the empty seltzer bottles and label them.  I have mine marked C1 – C12 and my husband is T1 – T12. We recycle our bottles every time, but to keep them clean, I sterilize them in hot water and vinegar. By opening each bottle and putting the lids and bottles in the water / vinegar solution it should disinfect them pretty well.  I’ve been using the same bottles for seven months with no problems. 

Here you will see several empty bottles, as well the vinegar and a new sponge. 

I put at least two cups of vinegar in the sink, add the hot water and four of the bottles and lids. I let them sit in the mixture for about five minutes, then use the new sponge to clean the outside of the bottle.  Next I shake the mixture in the bottle with the lids on for about a minute, then empty the bottle, and rinse it and the lid with hot water.  I do these in batches of four since the pitcher I have is four liters.

Next I put the required amount of the Master formula (which is what I call the MOM and seltzer formula) into the one liter measuring cup and fill the rest with filtered water. I mark the Master formula bottles with an M because I wouldn’t want to risk ever drinking that by accident – it is very, very alkaline.

I then add another three liters of filtered water and blend it to mix.

I then fill each cleaned bottle and put the lids on.

As you can see, we have two wine cases set up to hold the Waller water once it is made.  The empty bottles are returned here and when I refill them, they just go back.

Recently we have been reading that we should / could use the alkaline water for the cat as well as making tea or coffee out of it. So now we have set up a two gallon stoneware crock with Waller water in it too for use in other areas.

I hope this tutorial helps if you are considering an alkaline diet and thinking you can’t afford the water systems.  Thanks, and have a great week!  Caeryl

Happy President's Day!

Hi Everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day and got to share it with the person you consider the most special in the world.  I was so fortunate in that even though I am not having much sucess yet finding a new job, I 1) am at home, 2) with my favorite person in the world (my dear hubby), and our new cat.  It was wonderful.  We decided several years ago that cards, candy and flowers are all we need to get for each other.  We get each other cards, he gets me flowers and this year I made the candy.

If you have never followed "Oh She Glows", I would enourage you to give it a look.  Angela Liddon is a vegan who develops a lot of her own recipes and posts them on line. She recently did one recipe for Chocolate Truffles, here: http://ohsheglows.com/2012/02/05/dark-chocolate-cherry-walnut-truffles/.  I decided to make this recipe for my sweet boy.  

I substituted some things however for my recipe:
Instead of vegan chocolate chips, I used Lindt Black Currant Dark Chocolate and 72 and 84% dark chocolate.  Yum - it is SO dark! Instead of walnut halves, I had some chopped mixed nuts from a snack in December that I wanted to use, so I made that substitution, and I left out the almond extract. It was wonderful which tells me that the recipe has to be excellent because you can change the ingredients a little and it is still delicious.

Here is what they looked like just in time for giving to my best friend:

Happy President's Day too!  My hubby took off an extra day (Friday), to make an even longer weekend together.  Sunday morning I got a hungry for something a little different for Breakfast and decided to make a Savory Bread Pudding.  We are vegetarian so we use veggie sausages, but I'm sure this would be fine if you saute some links and / or patties of regular sausage.

Savory Bread Pudding:
6 Cups bread cubes - I used some sourdough we hadn't finished eating yet
1/4 Cup Vegan Margarine
1 cup onion, white, chopped fine
4 link sausages  - AND - 4 patty sausages, or all of one kind
1 cup mixed cheese shreds - almost any kind with flavor will work
2 tsp sage, rubbed
2 tsp Cayenne Pepper, ground - Note this is a little spicy so you may want to cut this down a little
2 Cups veggie broth
1/2 cup vegan sour cream
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese
4 eggs
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut up bread cubes and place in a bowl.  Saute the sausages to brown the outside. Cut into small pieces and add them to the bread in the bowl. 

Next I put the margarine into a skillet and added the chopped onions.  After they softened, I added the broth, the vegan cream cheese and vegan sour cream.  I boiled it on medium high until everything was blended. 

I then poured the wet mixture over the dry, added the spices and mixed it well. 

Finally I added the cheeses and mixed.  Grease a large (13" by 9") casserole dish and place the mixture in it, smoothing it out well.

Bake for 45 minutes, turning 1/2 way and this is approximately what you should end up with:

Hot out of the oven with a nice flavor and a great spicy kick is the best way to serve it. 

These are the last of the holidays that started in October (at least until May), so I hope you enjoyed your holiday season as much as I did.  See you soon!  Caeryl

Snow, Flowers, and Cold Day Projects

Good morning everyone! I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  I know we did.

As I indicated in an earlier entry I have been pretty frustrated with our never-ending soggy, grey fall here, and finally the Wizards of Winter heard my pleas.  Behold, Saturday, we had snow!  It started when we were at our friends house right on the water in Virginia Beach, and WOW!  What a snow.  It was close to white out conditions – for all of what?  15 minutes... and then it stopped.  Darn!  Of course I ran out the door like a scared rabbit and headed home.  I’ve been caught in these storms before and they can be pretty bad. 

BUT, we did get snow Saturday night, as you can see from these pictures.  Not much, but it was enough to allow us to enjoy our Sunday indoors and pretend that it is really winter.

Speaking of indoors, our friends Zeke and Suz are so sweet.  Not only was the food awesome, and Suz’ homemade Lemoncello excellent, but the company was the best.  Imagine my surprise when Suz presented me with this beautiful pot of blooming flowers as we left.  They were such a bright spot yesterday with the snow, but the cat thinks they make good snacks – ha ha.  I had to move them out of munching range.

I have to admit that I am addicted to lip balm.  But until now, I have just been finishing up the supply I had on hand.  Now that is pretty much gone, so I made some more.  Here is the recipe I used:

COQ10 Lip Balm – Makes Approximately 8 Tubes (I didn't know how much the recipe made, so I doubled it this first time)

2 teaspoons beeswax

4 teaspoons coconut oil

1 large CoQ10 capsule

12 drops of flavor oil (I used orange for this recipe to match the CoQ10 color)

Melt beeswax and coconut oil gently over low heat and remove to cool.  When cool, cut the CoQ10 capsule and mix into the oils, then add the flavoring oil.

At this point, you can put the lip balm into a pot, pill bottle or lip tube – whatever you have on hand.  In my case I had purchased some lip balm tubes and a filling tray – They worked like a charm.

This balm is a little softer than the commercial ones, but it feels nice and it is good for lips.  After I made this, I went to the local baking store to buy more flavor oils to allow me to make a bunch more lip balms in a variety of flavors. (Ha ha - You have to love variety!)

I am working on doing a full inventory of the house this week.  Interesting project – What are you working on this week?  Hope it is a great one!