Can you guess this plant?

This is one of my all time favorite medicinal plants. I use it as a simple (on it's own) for easing irritation of mouth sores, decreasing pain from repetitive use injuries, and easing tension.  I often combine it with wood betony.  Those of you who've used my medicinal tinctures have likely come across this herb already.  Any good guesses out there?  I'll post a full profile of this plant in the next few days.

Seedling Update

Heirloom Red Onions

A variety of greens planted on Valentines Day sprouting around Fall planted Garlic
Can you see their little purple leaves?

Kale

Other things sprouting:  broccoli, carrots, skullcap, gravel root, hyssop, witch hazel and brussel sprouts.

Look What Came in the Mail!

Horizon Herbs is my favorite medicinal herb supplier.  They provide detailed information about how to grow each plant from seed, growing conditions and common medicinal uses.  Many of the herbs I ordered this year require cold conditioning.  After seeds are planted, they are exposed to fluctuating temperatures in order to mimic the plant's natural rhythm of casting seeds in the fall to over winter and sprout in the spring.  I have already started several seeds in the hoop house where they will be protected from hard rains and wind but will still experience minor freeze and thaw conditions.  By the time I am ready to start my veggies, the herbs will be ready to move to bigger pots or be transplanted to the garden.

Hoop House

Even though we have a large number of salvaged windows for building a permanent green house, we decided to make do with a temporary hoop house for the next year or two.  Most of our materials were already here or recycled but we did buy the PVC for the hoops and some of the fasteners.  We didn't put a lot of thought into our plan since we had built a hoop house about 8 years ago. Despite a few hiccups, it will function nicely.

Lots of left over mess to clear out from the foundation project

Lots of southwest light.  Location is behind the greasy spider.

Moved the pallets the Fergus brought over to where the new compost piles will go.

Screwed together a 2x4 foundation for an 8x10 frame.

Connecting PVC in the center with stinky chemicals and lots of bad jokes.

Attach the PVC ends to the 2x4 foundation with brackets.

Dave came to help too.  The ends of the house are framed with wood.  A better design is to put the door in the middle, but we put very little effort into making this project the 'right' way.  I was competing with Jamie's commitment to the True False Film festival work to get this done.

Framed in a quick door

Seedling table in. Ready for plastic wrap.

It says its clear, but it was very opaque.  Unfortunately, we could not find clear plastic that was the right size. We ended up having to use two pieces to stretch over the top.  Not ideal.

The south side can be rolled up for venting.

The total cost of the project would be around $150 with new materials.  It's still early to start veggies in the hoop house, but there are lots of medicinal herbs that require cold conditioning and fluctuating temperatures to mimic the natural seed casting that occurs in the fall.

Green Valentine

Have you planted your greens yet?  It's time!  Every year on Valentine's Day I try to sprinkle lettuce and spinach seeds in a few spots around the garden.  Even if the ground is covered with snow or ice, lettuce likes the cold and will sprout as soon as the ground softens. Sometimes I don't quite get it done ON Valentines Day, but always within a week or so.  You can have multiple fresh crops of greens staggered throughout early summer by waiting a week or two between plantings.  This works better if your later season plantings are in  cool shady spots so that they will resist bolting.  Or, plan so that your last plantings of lettuce will grow under a larger veggie that will keep it cool and shaded.

Where Have We Been?

Since September a lot has happened on the Kroll Homestead.  Our biggest accomplishment was supporting, digging out and re-pouring  a new foundation under our house! But, as soon as we got the dirt put back around the house and installed the temporary steps up to the front door, Jamie fell off a roof and shattered his calcaneus (heel bone).  That happened in mid October.  Three months and one surgery later, he is now almost off of crutches and graduating to a cane. Jamie was not allowed to put any weight on his foot at all for 2 months, which was one month less than originally expected because he has been healing well. But, needless to say, the foundation project, front porch, and kitchen addition have been on hold all winter as well as my original plans to have a chicken coop and green house up by spring.  I had intended to write in more detail about the foundation, but at this point I think I'll just post a few pictures.  I also planned to post more about the incredible amount of support that our community has given us.  We couldn't have made it through this without all of you!  Special thanks to all of you who fed us, ran errands, hauled wood, knocked down supports in the basement, collected grease and who kept Jamie company when he was stuck at home!  You know who you are.  We appreciate you all very much.

Some of the foundation madness that ensued....

 

View the entire project here. Some of the 130 photos are out of order, but you'll get the idea.

Jamie's foot fiasco....

6 Screws.

finally made it outside

cooking again thanks to a borrowed wheelchair!  Thanks Scout!

Ok, time to focus on upcoming spring projects!

39th Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival.

I can't, I'm going to Winfield

Every third week in September for the past four years we take off work and pull the kids out of school to go to Winfield Kansas for the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival. In a way, this has become a kind of community building project since each year we convince more and more of our community to join us.  We load up our bikes and camp necessities and share one large camp.  Each family plans to cook at least once (sometimes twice) and we share the meals communally.  This year there were 4 families and our friend David for a total of 9 adults and 7 kids.  In fact, this may be the first year that adults out numbered the kids!

We always bring our 1963 Airstream travel trailer named Charlotte and pack her full of bikes, bedding, a communal keg of Schlafly APA, and whatever doesn't fit in our friend's cars.  We fit 6 bikes in Charlotte this year including my xtra cycle!   The best part is that we don't concern ourselves with any political guilt pulling such a heavy rig because Jamie collects used fryer grease from local restaurants, filters it, and burns it as fuel.  We have to use a little bit of diesel, but we only spent about $40 to go nearly 700 miles round trip.

Jamie is filtering grease and filling up cubies for the trip

All the cubies and containers get wrapped in plastic and stored in the back of the Suburban.  Jamie always brings extra filters just in case one gets clogged on the way.

This year was by far the most pain free trip we've taken to Winfield. Something has gone wrong every year between adjusting to using a greasel system and problems with pulling a vintage trailer.   The only problem we ran into this year was getting stuck in the mud at the festival as we pulled into the camp ground. There had been a major storm and a tornado there the night before that destroyed many campsites and turned the roads into mud pits. We thought we would be fine since we have four wheel drive. But about 1/4 of the way to our site we got stuck because the four wheel drive wouldn't engage. Fortunately, there was another rig stuck up the road and a nice farmer with a tractor was already there pulling them out. The tractor ended up pulling us out twice and hauling us right into our camp site.

covered in mud, but happy to be back to our walnut valley home!