June 1, 2015
Right now, most people are gearing up for summer. Sandals, sleeveless tops, and shorts (well…more
like peddle pushers in my case) are being worn everywhere. Like that old saying, “It’s summertime and
the living is good.”
Even though it’s been in the mid-80’s in our neck of the woods, Charming
and I are already thinking ahead to the coming winter. We’ve made several trips to get pick-up loads
of wood, with one more trip planned on the next cool-ish day. A friend of his has a lot of downed trees on
his property and a couple of members of my family have also given us wood that
they had down as well. My beloved
husband, who knows the importance of keeping his Lovely Wife warm in winter,
has already split all of the wood that we’ve gotten so far and stacked it
against the shed so it can dry out over the summer and be ready for use this
winter. He has spent hours getting this
accomplished. Luckily, we were able to
purchase a log splitter last year which makes the job much easier and faster. What does he get for his efforts…a grateful
wife, no fuel oil bills, and three tick bites.
He’s not too happy about the tick bites, but otherwise I think he’s
happy with the pay back.
We also made our yearly trek last week to the grocery store that
sells bulk foods so I could stock up on gluten-free flour and rolled oats. (The sweet little lady that orders the flour
for me gave me a hug when I handed her two plates of gluten-free cookies…Awwwwww.) I buy 25-pound bags of the flour because it’s
much cheaper than buying smaller, pre-packaged bags and the bigger bags will
last me a year. For someone who bakes as
much as I do, it’s important not to get low on flour. This afternoon I bagged the oats and flour so
it’s ready to go into the freezer.
I’m also planning to make some jewelweed soap in the next month or
so. Last year I transplanted some of the
jewelweed that I had pulled up by the roots from a local river bank. After I had made all the soap I could use for
the year, I folded the leftover jewelweed into its flower pot. That allowed some of the seeds to fall into
the dirt and come up this year. I make
sure that the jewelweed pot stays in the shade most of the time (its current location provides only early morning sun) and is always damp. That makes for the perfect growing condition
for jewelweed. I have given most of last
year’s batch of soap away to family and friends.
However, I do have a small stash that I’ve kept for my own use. After trips with Charming to cut wood, I
immediately come home and take a shower using the jewelweed soap. I’m happy to report that I have not gotten a
case of poison ivy, even though I’ve come into contact with it several times
this year. YAY!
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| Here's side #1 of our shed. Doesn't my Charming stack neatly? |
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| Side #2...the final load of wood will go right in the middle where the chimney is located. |
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| Side #3. The wood is stacked as high as Charming could reach (and he's a 6-foot guy). The only opening will be at the window to allow for sunlight to get into the shed while he's working (and to not accidentally break a window). |
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| My work surface for dividing the flour into manageable bags. (Our handy, dandy hand-held Shark vacuum is absolutely wonderful for cleaning up any spilled flour...love it, love it, love it!) |
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| Gluten-free rolled oats, millet flour, and sweet white sorghum flour. It does my heart (and stomach!) good to know that I have enough on hand to last me a whole year. |
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| An early morning picture of my pot of jewelweed. Although I saved some seeds from last year's plants, all of this came up voluntarily after I had folded the plants into the pot when I had finished making soap last year. |
