Pineapple Weed Tea - A free, local, wild chamomile

It’s 10:01pm, it’s very dark, I am in my driveway. Coffee cup in hand, crouched while scanning the moonlit gravel driveway beneath my feet. My 11 yr old son walks past with a full pail of fresh warm milk, he’s heading to the house “Mamma? Watcha do’ in?” I reply, “I’m just grabbing some tea son.”. “Alright” he says. He doesn't skip a beat.


It's sad really. Normal children would think their mamma's crazy,

but mine just pat me on the head and keep walking.

I have this bag of chamomile on the back porch. I've had it for eons, I bought it to make soap. Yesterday, I picked up the package to blow the dust off and the little flowers looked familiar instead of foreign. I looked closer and it hit me, all those weeds outback look just like this. Hmmm...to the bookcase.



Matricaria Discoidea is Pineapple Weed whereas Matricaria Recutita is German Chamomile. They're related! "Smash the flower heads in between your finger and smell the aroma. If it smells of apples(some say pineapple), you have a genuine chamomile relative, if it stinks..it's a lookalike. Ewe. I find a huuuuuge patch of what I think is Pineapple Weed. I take a bud in my fingertips and smash....mmmMMmmmm....aaaaapples. Yummy green apples. As a matter of fact, it smells just like Jolly Rancher green apple!



Must have TEA. Oh happy day!!! Medicinally, from what I have read, this differs very little, if any, from German Chamomile and looks just like it to...well, the flower buds do. German Chamomile buds open into a white flower and Pineapple Weed buds stay looking like...well... pineapples, never opening into anything special. Unfortunately, and a BIG unfortunately, is that it does not keep well. So much for stuffing a 2 qrt jar full. It can not be dried without quickly loosing it's effective volatile oils. It is best frozen for less than 6 weeks or used fresh.

The tea will help you to sleep or soothe an sore gut...some say it also has a tylenol effect on pain. I placed a little more than a tablespoon of buds(not the leafy stems, they are bitter, though not poisonous) in my cup, filled it with boiled water and steeped for 7 minutes. Then strained with cheesecloth and enjoyed a cup of tea that was reminiscent of an apple Jolly Rancher dissolved in a cup of hot water....something I would have done in 7th grade. O.k., something I've have done.

It is all over the West Coast...you MUST try it! It likes dry soils, cracks in driveways, roadsides, lots, and is easily identifiable with it's appley aroma. Now go. Go and find some right now and make yourself a spot-o-tea, then let me know how you liked it.

Or you can meet me in my driveway tomorrow night with your coffee cup in hand ;)

Video of Gracie's Caterpillar

I am trying my hand at video again.

I saw a little caterpillar, climbing up a tree.

It wiggled looong, it wiggled short, it wiggled right to me.

I put it in a little box, "Now don't go away", I said.

But when I looked inside, I saw a butterfly instead!

Caught a weasel in the turkey house..

And it’s wearing blue dress.

I was making dinner tonight when I heard the relatively quiet turkey tractor whooping it up. I looked out the dining room window to see a blue dressed weasel trying to inconspicuously catch a sneak a turkey!

She was no good at catching the critters though and mamma was able to grab her camera and get out there before she exited with said turkey poult.

Birkenstocks, Moles and Field Mowing

 

It is 11:13pm. I was not in the mood for a creative title…ok?

It sure is nice to have neighbors who own trains down the road. We stumbled upon our neighbors Mr and Mrs.(Dee) VB running their childrens train at the Raspberry Festival in town Saturday. Thank you Dee for your generous free train rides to a family who about fills up your train!

Where is my little baby? Really…he is growing so fast. He loves this new front door that opens to a whole new world outside This child is going to be a petrologist. He always has a rock of some sort clutched in his chubby little hand. I do his laundry and there are rocks in the bottom of the wash tub.  “Elijah, spit it out!” <sigh>

 

Don’t ask me why the hats. I don’t understand it myself. Daddy has worn that hat for years but recently(after seeing friends with them?) everyone 7 and older is wearing a hat. It just so happened the thrift store had plenty to outfit the children….oh happy day.

 

My new front yard and back yard. Paul got the septic field/low spots/high spots all leveled. After two dump trucks and 20 yards of soil we should return to normalcy at some point this year.

 

Daniel The Mole. Daddy does not like going under the house. When your house is almost 100 years old there are all kinds of creepy crawly *things* lurking around, or remnants thereof. Paul was in the process of running wires to and fro in the addition when he came to the point of *under the house work*. Daniel offered as he LOVES going under there. It has been two days and Daniel and Micah have ran, single-handedly, all the wires under the house, drilled the holes and fed them through to Daddy(comfortably on the outside) It was like a day at the beach for Danny and Micah.  Daddy was able to easily instruct Danny with a walkie-talkie.

 

Daddy and Micah putting gookumpucky on the end of a pipe to feed wires through to Daniel The Mole.

Jacob learned how to drive the tractor this weekend and cut some of our neighbors field grass for him. He’s a natural on a tractor. He can work the clutch and PTO like he done it since he was 3.

As for me, I’ve been cleaning house. I absolutely love gathering all the bedding on a hot sunny day, washing it and purposefully NOT using fabric softener so I can hang those sheets out to crisp in the summer breeze. The children are eagerly waiting for Solid Rock camp this weekend. I love summer with the kids. No pressure, everyone’s outside, my legs don’t hurt, I am not jailed to the stockings…I am in my birks.  Did I mention the Lord gave me a gift a couple weeks ago? I looooove Birkenstock sandals, I’m a conservative tree-hugger at heart. My only pair of birks wore through last year so I finally pitched them, sadly and reservedly. I was in Second Chance(thrift store) and there was a brand new(!) pair of black Birkenstocks for $1.99. Were talking the real deal $120.00 sandals. In my size. I grabbed them, hoping not to look too giddy and thanked the Lord for them. Oh…it gets better. The next week I found the SAME ones brand new in blue…in my size for $1.49. And I can wear them without my hose….I can see my toes……I can wear polish…..it feels so great. Thank you Lord for that little gift that means so much.

Updated photos have arrived

It is hard to become motivated to take blogworthy pictures of my children when my camera stinks. The poor thing, by no fault of it's own, has aged terribly. The flap that holds the battery in is broken, the lens is scratched and it just plain has started taking lousy pictures. I'd buy it again though, it was a great little point-n-shoot.

Now that I have stated my excuse I will own up that the pictures on my sidebar are soOOoo outdated, a couple of them were two years old! Eh-hem. That was bad. Today, as the children were doing what they do outside I thought I better get some pictures before this ole camera dies. So with a washcloth in one hand(to wipe EVERY face) and Camera in the other...I now announce the arrival of new pictures.

Off to make dinner

Ostrom Mushroom Farm Field Trip – 2 Spots left!

 

July 29 at 1:30pm our family is going to take a *no cost* tour of the Ostrom Mushroom Farm in Sumas.  

Now WHAT can be more FUN than MUSHROOMS!!! I’m die’n here, this will be the BEST ever field trip…really.

All different types including White, Crimini, Portabella, Shiitake, Oyster, & Enoki.

 

We can have a maximum of 30 children so call us to sign up. Currently we have 2 spots left available. Mr. Leo Gonzales, the plant manager himself, will be taking us on a guided tour. If you are interested please call me or leave a comment on this blog.

 

It sounds like they put together a neat program. Our van will have 3 extra seats, FYI.

I used to put together some fun field trips for homeschoolers, but it just kind of faded away. I would like to get back on the horse for the 2010-2011 school year…any ideas? I’ll blog them a month in advance.

Lest we forget…

"Self-righteousness is being more aware of and irritated by the sins of others than you are conscious of and grieved by your own." – Paul Tripp

 

This quote went up in the kitchen this morning. What a great reminder for the body of Christ.

Puppies are here!

O.k. so she didn’t have 42 puppies like I thought. I have been guessing my litter sizes 4/5 times. Here Jen, have a piece of humble pie.

On Saturday we were busily packing up for a BBQ. After making my salad, dressing the children and packing everyone up, I ran back in the house to grab the diapers and wipes. All day I had been watching my dog, who seemed perfectly happy being pregnant with 42 puppies. I kid you not, everyone was in the van and as I grabbed the diaper I turned around to have one last glimpse at the dog on the t.v. screen and at that moment she hunched up.

This dog KNEW I was heading out the door for the evening. I went out to her kennel and sat there watching her, sure enough, this was it.

We stayed an extra half and hour to see how things  progressed. I ended  up calling our neighbor Dee who  said she would check on my dog every hour. Over the course of the next 8 hours Summer very slowly gave birth to 4 puppies.  Healthy little buggers they are. 3 boys/1 girl – 2 blacks/1 brown black and 1 white. The littlest guy is a true solid black, no white at all and he was 4.5 ounces!

 

Much to my dismay, she did not have 42 puppies, but these four sure are keepers.