Dandelion woodstove enchiladas

This is a delicious way to eat dandelion greens. Pick the dandelion greens, wash and blanch for 5 minutes then discard the water.

Sautee peppers, onion, and garlic in olive oil. Add greens and a little broth and cook 5 more minutes or until most of the liquid is gone.

Mineral Rich Vinegar

I notice more and more how herbs and wild plants feel in my body. It's an experience you don't get with vitamins. They've entered my dreams with their roots moving through the muscles and organs and their flowers blooming from the skin. When eating freshly picked wild Dandelion simmered in a soup, the leaf melts on your teeth like chocolate, coating your them with a microscopic yumminess that my teeth craved for 3 more days after the first time. My gall-bladder makes this little squirt noise that feels so nice and my stomach and colon chime in with happy gurgles when I'm eating a nutritious soup.

Menopause Summit 2009

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The new Crooked Creek

Here is a photo of the creek at the new property. After a good bit of rain, the creek was nice and full. We sat by the creek while we ate our lunch and it sounds so beautiful. We've been working hard to make an area for the old RV to arrive and next will be the outdoor kitchen. We found replacement BBQ grates on clearance and there are plenty of rocks on the property to build with.

Revenge of the chigger king & the new homestead

I spent a few days with my family in Galveston this summer. My niece and I were at the beach together at sunset and she made this beautiful drawing for me.

My last post was brought to the attention of the Chigger King. He was very displeased by such disregard - claiming that with casual effort, I could thwart his teaming army. Looking for property hours and hours from home didn't lend itself to a shower within 4 hours of being outside. So I was attacked over and over, it was bad. When out picking herbs here at the house I really got sick of showering after coming in, so many days I'd convince myself that it wasn't necessary. I was wrong. I did find that a dry rag or bandanna for a dry scrub helped a lot. Then I found out about Sulfur Powder.

Chicks and Tiggers

(Update: I wrote this post a long time ago.  We now use Sulfur powder mixed with D.E. and put in an old sock to dust down with.  That keeps the chiggers from biting.  We haven't used deet or Off in many years.)

We didn't buy that property we came to see the last time I posted. There were topography and creek issues. We did just move to Missouri though a few weeks ago and are renting a house w/ gorgeous woods and pastures. The heat was pretty extreme the first week and there was no A.C. but that's been fixed. The woods have ticks and chiggers and I guess anyone that has woods and tall grasses are feeling their bite this time of year.

Heading out

We may have found a place in Missouri and it's time to go see it and finalize the contract. This weekend we had a garage sale and are packing as much as we can into our vehicles so we can head out on another long road trip. We're going to leave what we take in storage until we get back next month for the official move. Unless this place has wild zombies roaming freely and toxic waste bubbling up from the ground, I think we'll take it.

Gravy

Here are photos of my niece and nephew. My nephew caught his first fish. Aren't they beautiful?

Dorothy bored on a cold day

This afternoon Jeffrey took me to a banjo concert at a library about an hour away. The weather wasn't that great and snow was coming down, very overcast and thick out. The scenery was pretty much the same the whole drive. Two lane winding county roads; up, around and over hills; snow blowing like powder over the tall snow banks lining the roads, snow covered fields with the tops of dried yellow corn stalks lined up in rows sticking out, old farm houses and barns, some falling down. Then BAM! Out of no where a giant, slow-turning blade filled the entire windshield and all of my vision. It must have been 15 stories tall and looked like it was right on us. We were passing a wind farm and the massive blades were down enough on a hill that when we were close enough to see them through the snow, they were eye level. The visibility was so bad we didn't see them till the last second. "Oh Lord!" I hollered. I told Jeffrey I thought we were about to be abducted by aliens or a plane was about to crash into us. They were so tall, looking at them made me think about dinosaurs.

Sorry, more snow photos

Sorry to post more snow pictures, I've just never seen this much snow. For perspective here is my dog Barney, though he is short and the swing set out back. The snow is level with the lowest swing and just goes forever in every direction. Notice the 3 colors of old paint on the swing seats! The creek looks like a dent in the landscape. The bent fence photo is the small raised bed garden. It looks like a snowy cemetery and some of the beds can't even be distinguished. The fence was just temporary chicken wire to keep Rufus out (he doesn't challenge fencing) and wasn't really attached to the posts in many places.

whiteness

(Can you see Dorothy kitty looking out the window at the snow?)

So there's nothing but whiteness outside. It's so white and bright that you have to sort of stare at the ground to see it 3 dimensionally. All angles are rounded and all pathways hidden again. We are above the ice line so just a lot of other types of white crunchy precip is coming down.

Movin on

(photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/tristanbrand/)
I'm not a political person, but was excited to watch the inauguration. I couldn't quite make out the words to the last speaker during the inauguration, we were getting ready to take Jeffrey to the airport and running around. The little parts I caught were beautiful I thought. I found the transcript online. There were pieces in Dr. Joseph Lowery's Benediction that just sparkled. The phrases rolled and landed perfectly. I wonder if he wrote the first part himself or if he was quoting, I thought it was the most beautiful. It hasn't mattered enough for me to research it though.