Life in the Hollar

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We spent the morning on the land… I have to think of a better name for our new place… any suggestions? I was thinking about Dandelion Farm (since our address is Dandelion Drive) but that website is already taken 🙂

Anyway, we picked up more trash, built two raised beds for the strawberries, and took a great hike. I found some yarrow and mint (I think it is spearmint) where they might have been a garden before, along with some strawberries! Then, as we got into the woods, I started seeing some Blood Root… and then more Blood Root, and then I realized that I couldn’t step anywhere without having to dodge the Blood Root! There is so much of it it is insane! I think I may have also spotted some lady’s slipper starting to come up, some edible berries (raspberry maybe), possibly some Elder, Rue Anemone, and this little dainty plant that looked like a marijuana leaf… maybe a cutleaf toothwort?

We also met one of the neighbors who lives down the street. He came slowly walking up the hill to check us out. Odell is probably about 75, but who knows. He told us that he has had 6 bypass surgeries, so he may only be 50 and in bad shape. Seemed like a nice guy though. We talked for a while and he offered any help he could give. Then, as he turned to go, I noticed the Mother of Pearl six shooter sticking out of his pocket! I guess he takes it with him when he goes out for his walks!! Yikes.

Beautiful day in the neighborhood

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Well, we closed without a hitch! We are now caretakers of 25 beautiful acres! We went up there today for a trash pick up… we go two large boxes full of beer cans and bottles, two 55 gallon bags of trash, and 260 pounds of scrap metal! And we didn’t get it all!! Tomorrow, we will try to finish with the trash and throw down some seed on the banks where the trucks have torn up the grass. Things are looking so lush up there. I found a weeping cherry, some blood root (Sanguinaria canadensis), lots of bulbs, and the dogwoods are blooming white and pink! Kaia decided that today she should have her first ‘nuddie in the creek’ experience. She ended up head-to-toe covered in mud!

On the bee front, both hives are doing well. One is going so strong that we had to split it ’cause they were about to swarm. I can’t wait to get the bees (and all of us for that matter) up to the land. Our lease ends at the end of May. So, we have 2 months to make ourselves comfortable up there and get started on the main house.
(And Kaia keeps saying she wants a baby sister!! Umm, I think we have enough on our hands:-)
FUN, FUN, FUN.

Fun in the sun!

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Can you believe the weather today?!? It got up to 80 degrees here!

Well, I spent last night frantically cleaning the house getting ready for my hoop class. I invited 19 people and had 10 confirmed “Yes”. I spent this morning setting up the front porch, cleaning the dog poop out of the front yard and making this great home-made salsa for the pot luck. Everything was ready to go for the class at 4. Then I waited… and waited… and 4 o’clock rolled on to 5 o’clock. One friend came at 5 (and I already knew she was going to be late). So, now I have to ask… what happened to the rest of them?? I knew there was a possibility that some might not be able to make it, but I have to say that I was a bit perturbed when only one person showed! I was only giving this class because I was asked to, repeatedly, by many of these friends. I spent a freaking $160 on supplies to get all the stuff I was going to need for a class of ~10 people! Now I am stuck with all this stuff that I didn’t want in the first place. I plan on making all these hoops myself and selling them at the next festival I go to, or something like that, so I can make some of this money back.

At ~6:00, my neighbor and his family came over and hooped for a while. It was his 30th birthday, so it was nice to be a part of his celebration. That lightened my mood a good bit. And, I did make a few really cool hoops. I even made K. a sparkly, purple one for her to hoop with.

And what did K. and I have for dinner? Good guess… chips and salsa!

Suki monster

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Here’s my Suki. She’s a long-coated Akita. Isn’t she a cutie? I know she looks gigantic, but she is only 65 pounds, and lots of fur!

canine hip dysplasia

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Have any of you worked supportively with hip dysplasia? Suki is probably ~6 years old and seems to be a little tender to the touch in her hips. She still moves around like a puppy, but if I would like to nip this thing in the bud and give her some good joint support in case she is developing dysplasia. I am thinking… similar herbs to those I would use with arthritis… anti inflammatoris, anti oxidents, fish oils, glucosamine chondroitin… what else?

Ooops

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I had a little glitch in my blog and lots the last post and a few others from mid-Feb. Sorry about that. All the more reason I should keep my journal on paper!

I think I am going to print out a bunch of K’s pictures and make a physical photo album just incase we have another glitch and lose those! That would be tragic!!

Yay for spring!

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Ok, so it may be lightly snowing outside, but it is the first day of Spring today! So, Happy Spring!

K and I spent the morning coloring eggs, eating eggs, and talking egg talk :-) I am impressed with the colors that we got. We used Turmeric for the yellow, grape juice concentrate for the purples and blues, spinach and parsley for the really light greens and a mix of other things for the inbetween colors.

Yesterday I harvested a bunch of Chickweed from my bro-in-laws land and made some chickweed pesto and yummy green drinks. Tonight, we will have pesto and pasta and probably some eggs! I also picked up some chocolate eggs this morning, so when T gets home we will hide some for K to find. Our own little tribute to the rebirth of Spring!

Here is the recipe for the absolutely, splendidly, scrumptiously, yummy Chickweed Pesto:

  • Place 4 cloves garlic and a handful of walnuts in a blender and chop ‘em up
  • Add some olive oil (~1/4 cup), feta or parmasean (~1/2 cup) and lots of chickweed(~3 cups), and blend until mixed well.
  • Taste and see if there is anything missing and adjust to taste

You can use this as you would any other pesto, and it freezes well.

For the green drink, I put ~4 cups of apple juice in a blender and added a~1 cup of chickweed, 1/4cup of parsley and a handfull of blueberries and blended well. MMmmmmm. Yummy!!

Happy weekend!

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Graduation was this past week and we had sooo much fun! All the students and some of the teachers had a camp out at this great house in the boonies. We stayed up until 3am, had a lazy morning cooking and playing (I brought my hoops and got almost everyone hooked, and there was a trampoline there too) and had a wonderful ceremony. One of our teachers (she specialized in energetic herbalism) conducted a hand-fasting for each student and a chosen plant. For the next year, we are to learn more about the plant we were hand-fasted to, in every way we can. She said that when she meditated on me, Rock Rose (Cistus ladaniferus) came to her. So, for the next year I will make this plant my ally. I’m excited, first because this is so cool, and second because I know nothing about this plant except that it is one of the main ingredients in the flower essence “Rescue Remedy“. I ordered the essential oil so that I can work with that too.

Here’s a picture of my class and some of the teachers. All of us but one are going on to level three (and that’s only because one student just had a baby and is taking some time off).

Some of you have asked about the school I go to…
There are three official herb schools, and many others that hold classes, in Western North Carolina. This area really attracts healers, so there are all kinds of alternative education programs around here. The school that I go to, and teach for, is the Mountain Spirit School of Herbalism (MSSH) (We just changed our name from the Southeast Center for Herbal Healing, so don’t get confused by the web page). I took my first classes in 1999 at the North Carolina School of Natural Healing, which was being run by another herbalist at the time. I went on to open Full Circle Herbs, but kept it very small. This past September, I met up with Mimi Middleton, who is the director at MSSH. She was one of the first graduating classes from Tai Sophia with her Masters in Herbal Medicine. (Tai Sophia is the only school in the US that is approved to give Master’s degrees in Herbal Medicine). Anyway, she is an amazing woman to talk with and a fantastic teacher. She asked me if I would be interested in teaching some basic classes for the school, but I didn’t feel confident or competent enough to teach. So, instead, I decided to take the Level 2 class that was about to start, and I am so glad I did. Though some of the stuff was review, most of it was absolutely amazing and educational and stimulating! So, now, I have decided to go on to level 3. This is the final level and I will begin seeing clients in the clinical setting as an herbalist. I’m really excited about this! I have seen clients before, but I have never had a course like this and I think it will be extremely helpful. My plan, when I am done, is to see clients part-time out on the land. I will have a small apothacary out there and a great big herb garden. I am also about to begin teaching for the school. The next level one course is beginning next week and I will be teaching a few classes. All of this is really amazing, especially since I never thought I would find a place as an herbalist when we moved back to Asheville.

Now, for those of you who could care less about herbs, and are only checking this blog to see how my Chia Heads are doing, well, here you go:

Check it out!!! The roots grew through the panty hose without a problem, but the little sprouts couldn’t. So, I had to do a little brain surgery and cut a hole in the top. I love how the hair style changes depending on the angle of the sun :-) Kaia and I will probably plant them for the Equinox on Monday. We also plan to dye eggs and plant some flower seeds. What are you all planning for Ostara?

Purple, sparkly fairy dress

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Last week, I promised K that I would make her a “purple, sparkly fairy dress” when she got over the chicken pox. So, yesterday, we went to the fabric store and she picked out what she wanted for her dress, and I spent the afternoon sewing. I have to say that I am very impressed with what resulted, ’cause I don’t know how to sew! I took the basic idea from another dress that K has and came up with this:

Isn’t that awesome!! If I thought I could even come close to repeating it, I would make one for myself too!! :-) And K likes pockets, so I made two in the front for her:

And here are her wings in the back. They are held on by a button, so she can take them off if she doesn’t feel like flying:

This week is also graduation for my herb school! Then, in one month, I will start the clinical preceptorship and begin seeing clients. I have seen clients before, but taking an ‘official’ course makes me feel more confident in my skills and more qualified to teach other herb students. I will be teaching Male and Female Anatomy and Physiology, Respiratory A&P, and select herbs to go along with those to the first level students that are beginning school in two weeks!

Oh, and on the beekeeping front, both of our hives made it through the winter and seem to be holding strong! We hope to move them up to our new land soon so that they can take advantage of all the Tulip poplars out there during blooming season!

Oh (again), and the Chia heads are growing!!

pox and such

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Well, I think we are over the rough part of chicken pox with K. She developed full blown symptoms last Thursday (fever and some small spots) and has had a rough weekend. But she is such a trooper! She loves taking her oatmeal baths and she helped me make a lotion to soothe her spots. She is even using visualization to help! (I told her to imagine a purple, sparkly sunshine just outside of her body and that when she takes a deep breath, the sunshine goes into her body and warms her up and helps her feel better. She was so cute… taking deep breaths and trying to concentrate on the purple sunshine.)
Here she is taking a little break on the couch:

Today, K helped me make some home-made chia pets. I don’t know how they will work, but it was fun anyway. We took old panty hose and put a layer of red clover seeds on the bottom. Then we stuffed it with seed starting soil and the end of a wick (I used some yarn since I didn’t have a real ‘wick’). Then, we tied up the ‘head’ and stiched on some buttons for eyes, nose and mouth. Then I dunked the whole thing in water and for a minute and placed it over a jar with water and am letting it sit in the window. I’ll let you know if it works. I think the hose may be to tightly woven and the seeds won’t be able to break through…

We also went up to the land this weekend. We had hoped to camp, but with K feeling under the weather, we decided against it. Still waiting on the Atty. to finish the paper work before we can close. Hopefully, next week.

Chicken Pox Stew

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Well, in anticipation for K getting the Pox (no signs yet), I decided to make a ton of yummy, nutritious, immune supporting soup. I made ~ a gallon and put a bunch in the freezer. Here’s the recipe:

  • Place 4 chicken legs (fat and skin removed) in ~ one gallon of water with 2 crushed garlic cloves and 2 green onions and simmer until the meat falls off the bones. (Crush the garlic 10 minutes before using it to activate the medicinal properites.)
  • Take the bones out of the soup and leave the meat
  • Add into the broth: 3 chopped red potatoes, one chopped burdock root, one shreaded turmeric root (~2 inches), and one cup of dry rice, and simmer for ~30 minutes
  • Add ~10 sliced Shitake mushrooms, a handful of Wakame seaweed (dry), 2 handfuls of kale, 5 crushed cloves of garlic and 5 green onions, and simmer for another 15 minutes
  • This soup is fairly bland, which is good if you are sick, but if you want more flavor, add Miso paste to taste. I add ~ 1 heaping Tbsp each time I heat up enough soup to feed the three of us. Once you heat the soup take it off the heat and strain off some liquid into a bowl. Add the Miso paste to this liquid and stir it well. Then add this miso fluid back to the main soup, mix and serve.

Yum Yum!!

SCORE!

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A friend of ours clued us in to some free house stuff in a local warehouse. We just came back from there with our car loaded down with brand new tile and double paned windows (just the glass. We will still need to frame it, but still, it’s free!) There are ~50 more double paned glass panels left, we just didn’t have the room for them in the car. So, hopefully we can go back and get more!!

Oh, and this friend also has an almost new chicken coop to give us. It was at a house in the city limits and the neighbors complained about the chickens. So, now it’s ours. We just have to have a way to haul it to the land, and hope that JA’s (that stand for Jerk Asses! They are no longer Jerk Butts, I have upgraded them to official asses!) don’t destroy it. Maybe we will keep it off of the land until we get the steel gate up. I can’t wait to see them try to pull that thing down!

The trespassing saga continues

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Well, after Toby met those guys on our land 3 weeks back, we hoped the trespassing issue would go away. Apparently they had other ideas. Toby was up there by himself a few weeks ago and up the hill come the trucks. They said “oh, hey, um we were just headed to the property above yours.” and drove on (2 truck loads of people). Then, up comes another truck that just turned around as soon as they saw Toby’s car. The next time we went up to the land, there had obviously been some trucks on the property and someone had shit by the well head!!. SO, we gated all the access areas to the property again, posted no tresspassing signs, and locked the bottom gate that allows acces to 2 other properties as well. This morning, both the gates have been torn down and there has been more activity on the land! This is making me insane!! It should be obvious to them by now that someone does not want them on the property and that they need to move their parties else where. I think they need a serious lesson in respect!! So, our next plan is to go camp out there on a Friday or Sat. night, which is when they seem to come up to the property. We will lock both gates and listen for them to show up. Then, call the sheriff and have him block them in. I hate to involve the law, ’cause I think this will make them more pissed and more likely to come back and do more damage. But, I don’t know what else we can do. We plan to invite all our friends up there to camp with us so that we can make a big presence (it definitely won’t be just Toby, K and I!!). I may even put a sign on the first gate that says “OK, listen up! We are currently up on the property waiting for you. If you chose to break down this gate again, we will call the law and you will be charged with Trespassing and willful destruction of property.” I figure, even if we aren’t up there, maybe (doubtfully) that will get them thinking. Either way, they can’t say we didn’t give them ample warning.

Chicken Pox

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Well, K may be getting chicken pox sometime soon. One of the friends she plays with just came down with it. His doctor said it was the first case she has had in her office in over 2 years. WOW! I know a lot of kids are vaccinated against it now, but in our community where so many families don’t vaccinate, you’d think there would be more cases. A bunch of parents have already asked me if their kids can come over and try to get it through natural exposure if K gets it. So, maybe we will throw a Chicken Pox Party. Anyway, in preparation I wrote up a little herbal info for dealing with chicken pox.

Natural Therapies To Support Our Children Through Chicken Pox

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Lovely Pineapples

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It must be Pineapple season in the tropics, ’cause our grocery stores are bursting with them. So, in case you were wondering, the way to know if a pineapple is ready to eat… pull on one of the center leaves, if it comes out easily, it’s ready to eat; if it holds tight to the pineapple, move on to the next one.

Bright idea!!

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You guys have got to check Kenny Luna out! He and his students are trying to get Oprah Winfrey to help give every student in America one compact fluorescent light bulb. If this is done, he says it will “help fight global warming by reducing our carbon emissions from electric power plants, save Americans AT LEAST $2.3 BILLION in electricity costs, and help put America on the path to environmental sustainability.” Get all the info at his blog and support the cause!

I’ve sent my letter!

Another Year Younger!

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So, yesterday was my 32nd birthday! I woke up to breakfast in bed (blueberry pancakes) and some snuggle time with the whole family in the bed (well, except the dog 🙂 Today, Toby is throwing me a birthday bash complete with a karaoke machine!! I will be sure to get lots of pictures and maybe some video. Until then, I’ll leave you with the recipe for “root soda” that I made for tonight:

  • 2 oz Sassafras Root
  • 1 oz Sarsaparilla Root
  • 1/2 oz each of Burdock Root, Dandelion Root, Fresh Ginger Root, and Licorice Root

If you don’t have some of these, substitute with other nice roots, like astragalus, but the sassafras and sarsaparilla are key ingredients for the flavor.

Put the roots in ~1 gallon of water and bring to a boil. Then simmer for 30 minutes. Take off the heat and let cool. Strain out herbs and add sweetener to taste (I ended up adding ~1 cup of brown sugar). Then add enough carbonated water to make it fizz. It should remind you of a gentle root beer.

This makes a bunch, so scale it back if you don’t want a ton in your fridge.

Land Plans

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Thanks for all the well wishes! We now have a signed contract on the land!! The plan, once we close, is to get out there immediately and start building. Toby is going to go part time at work and we will build a 12 x 16 temporary structure to live in. It will have a loft and a big covered (possibly screened-in) porch for a kitchen and all in all be ~ 300 sq ft inside with ~190 feet outside. This will be practice for us since neither of us have much building experience at all. It will later be my herb shack/office. We have all that material from the house that Toby helped take down back in Sept. and we hope to use mostly local or recycled materials to build. At first, there will be no electricity, running water and just a bucket to poop in. But, I think it will be a lot of fun for all of us to experience that for a while. In the main house that we build, we hope to have water (from the welll, or catchment system maybe), solar electricity and a composting toilet.

One other possibility is that Toby’s mom really loves Deltec homes and we may help her build a little one of those on our land first, that will give us some building experience and a place to live while we build our main house.

The garden will probably wait until next year. It would just be too much to build a house and start a big garden all at the same time. I will probably throw out some field peas, oats and vetch just to cover the large muddy area, bring some nitrogen to the soil, and I love the taste of the pea shoots! And we will still probably do a few tomatoes and stuff, but noting like the big circle garden of last year, at least not yet!

Land ho!

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Hey all! Sorry I’ve been so lax in posting and commenting. My head has been elsewhere lately. BUT it looks like we are going to be putting in an offer on some land!! Friends of ours turned us on to this 25 acres that isn’t on the market (yet). Friends of theirs own it and have been looking to sell. Anyway, it is ~15 minutes from down town, to the NW of Asheville, rolling woods. It looks like it hasn’t been logged in a long time. The trees are huge! There is a pond, a well, at least one spring (we think there may be more), a cleared area for gardening, some nice rock landscaping. And I’ve found pipsissewa, usnea, chickweed, rattlesnake plantain, the local version of reishi mushrooms, possibly some hawthorne trees… I can’t wait until the spring when I can really see what is out there. It also has some perfect spots for planting ginseng, goldenseal, and other more rare medicinal herbs. The only downside is the surrounding neighbors. They keep riding their 4-wheelers and baja’s up there and tearing up the land! They pay no head to the locked gates at the bottom of the land… just cut the chain! We hope that they will lay off once we are out there and that we don’t have to deal with trespassing issues. I have absolutely no problem with someone being on the land as long as they are respectful to the land and the other people there. The price of the land is insanely cheap compared to what other things are going for around here, but we are still going to have to subdivide and sell some off. Our hope is to buy all of it and get situated out there, then bring out friends who are interested in similar lifestyles (sustainable living, homesteading…) and start a community. It’s a lot to think about! OH, and I will probably be without a computer for a good while!

The other land, the acres in town that I mentioned a while ago, well the family that owns it is fantastic and has tried really hard to make it work so that we could buy from them, but their land is nothing like the 25 acres that we have decided to buy. So, we passed on the in town stuff.

Hey, also, I know my herb reviews have slowed down, but I am still hoping to do them and would love to hear about any herbs that would like discussed.

Sweet Rosemary!

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“I know if I excrete from any of my holes that I can take an oak leaf and make a tea.”
-Rosemary Gladstar, discussing the astringent effects of tannins in plants

Rosemary Gladstar came into town this weekend for a talk on the United Plant Savers and women’s health. This is the first time I have seen her talk and she is a blast!! Aside from all the years of experience she has as an herbalist, she is just so down to earth, genuine and fun. My good friend Jill Frink-Thompson was her apprentice this past year, so she asked Rosemary to come and talk. The NC-AHG helped with some of the advertising for the talk, so as a thank you, Jill invited us all to a little party on Friday night. My first herb teacher, Peggy Ellis, was a student of Rosemary’s in the early 80’s. Peggy was also at the party, which was a total suprise. So, there ended up being 4 ‘generations’ of herbalists there, and with all of our “root soda” and home made mead and herb wine, we had a great time, as you can see!

We are very lucky to have such an amazing community of herbalists in this area!

This one is just of me on the right, Peggy in the middle and Rosemary on the left. I think we were talking about how her mother use to make Filo dough from scratch!!

Sorry I can’t post more, but I am feeling a bit cruddy!

NAIS thought

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It is not mandatory in NC to register your animals… yet. But, if I go to the North Carolina NAIS site I find this question:

Q. If a Person Raises Animals for His or Her Own Use and the Animals Never Leave the Owner’s Property, Do They Need to be Identified?
A. Under the current plan, animals that never leave a premises do not need to be identified. However, animal owners are encouraged to identify their animals and their premises, regardless of the number of animals present, since many animal diseases may be spread whether an animal leaves its home premises or not. Examples of such diseases include West Nile virus, foot.?d.?uth disease, vesicular stomatitus, and equine infectious anemia.

So, I’m an animal, right? Maybe I should start sending in a letter everytime I get a cold, or go out to the bakery and stuff! I mean, I could really transmit some serious gottalittlesniffle disease at that bakery and the government needs to know about all the people I will infect by leaving my premises! Don’t you think? And for that matter, I think I am going to have a sign in sheet at my front door so you can all let the govn’t know that you came to visit, just in case you are contagious. I mean, really, us animal ‘people’ go a-visiting a whole lot more than goats and chickens do. We spread a whole lot more illness! Maybe it would be more beneficial to the govn’t to track all of us! (Maybe I shouldn’t give ’em any ideas, eh?)

Weekly Herb Review #12 – Rue

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If your hound by hap should bite his master
With honey, rue, and onion make a plaster
– Sir John Harrington, 1608

Common Names: Rue – from the Greek word reuo meaning, .. set free..ainly free from disease (also called Herb-of-Grace, Common Rue, Garden Rue, Herbygrass, Countryman.?Treacle)

Scientific Name: Ruta graveolens (graveolens means ..avy scented..r

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Carmella

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Listen to this!! I found out some more about my great-grandmother! Not only was she an herbalist, but before that, when she was still living in Italy, she was a nurse!! When she moved to the US she began working as an herbalist! How wierd is that?? My degree is in Nursing, but I stopped to become an herbalist. I spoke with my cousin, who is in his 50’s and who was raised where Carmella lived, and he remembers picking herbs and squeezing out the alcohol. He said she started the business in 1928 and got special permission from the government to buy, use and sell alcohol during prohibition. The document says she can use alcohol for her “patent medicines used for the stomach”. (He also thinks that many people just bought her medicine so that they could get the alcohol.) 🙂 Her company was actually called Aro-Stoma Tonic Company and he found records of one remedy that was actually Trademarked called “erba-ruta”, which in English is the herb Ruta graveolens or Herb of Grace. She must have had a tincture with Rue in it that she trademarked.

Ok, so here’s something else. A few years ago I met this woman who was learning to do past life regressions. I don’t know what I think about all of that, but she said she would do one for free, so I said, what the hell. Anyway, it was pretty uneventful and I felt like I was just making up this story or something, but at the end she asked if any of my ancestors had any messages for me. The first person who popped into my head was my great-grandma Carmella. I pictured us in a kitchen together and she was giving me a plant. I didn’t know what it was by site, but I said it was a rutabega. The woman doing the regression looked at me with a sad face, like I was messing with her. But really, that is what I saw in my minds eye. Now, I learn she was an herbalist, and maybe it was a ruta, and not a rutabega that she was trying to give me. I am definitely going to plant some of this in next years garden!!

I wish I had know this woman. She sounds like she was pretty cool! My dad died when I was 14, but I vividly remember the stories he use to tell about her. She raised him from an infant after his mom got sick. He said she was a very large italian woman and her breasts were so big that she would knock out a door frame if she turned around in one. He also said he use to come home from school and all his clothes would be gone. When he asked Carmella about it, she would say that he had the clothes on his back and there were poor children out there who needed the other clothes more than he did. 🙂