Learn how to grow, harvest, and preserve this wonderful herb. Recipes for vinegrette, vinegar, soap, oil, and ways to use these products in your kitchen, bath and medicine cabinet.
Learn to use Rosemary to soothe aches, pains, arthritis, migraines, tired eyes, dandruff, swelling and other health conditions.
Four page report includes photographs, recipes, resources, and in-depth directions for growing, harvesting and preserving the herb.
More details here: eBooks & Reports.
I had a groove goin’. My routine, not yet rolling smooth, but definitely movin’ to a beat, a rhythm of some kind.
Get up, do morning news and facebook online, work on the magazine, visit the gardens, gather eggs, bake some bread, do some housework, work on the magazine, piddle with a project or two.
That was my rhythm, and I was really getting my groove.
Then, I decided to get a job with the census.
Bye Bye groove.
As a crew leader, my hardest task is getting everything done in under 40 hours a week. (Not counting the hours now required for regular laundry, ironing, organizing, primping — those things a job also requires.) But as a creative person, the hardest part is watching all my other projects fall behind.
First off, we’re back to store bought bread. Even with the bread maker, I just don’t have the mentality for it. For some reason, baking bread requires a complete “homebody” mentality, and I’m carrying that “career woman” mentality again. I just know any bread I would make now would be hard as a rock.
Also, the house is a complete mess. Dishes, laundry, dusting, sweeping — all behind, with new messes made every day. There’s clutter, everywhere. For me, clutter outside the brain causes clutter inside the brain. It drives me crazy. My usually organized desk is scattered with notes, papers and post-its. My work table is covered in census paperwork. The coffee table is piled with reading material that I now feel I may never get to.
The chicken pens need cleaned, the plants in trays need put in the ground, the flower and herb beds need weeded & mulched, the porches need cleaned off, and the yard needs mowed.
But, I’m caught up on all my census work and am only slightly behind on my monthly magazine routine.
It doesn’t help that I am always tired now. This typical insomniac has slept like a baby since this whole thing started. In fact, last night I fell asleep at 6 pm after dinner, woke up at 1 am, went back to bed at 2 and slept until 6. That manic energy that normally swirls around inside me (some people call it ‘gumption’) has vanished. I work from 7 am until 2, and by 6 or 7 in the evening, I’m tuckered – with still so much to do.
Thank goodness we don’t have children. They’d be going to school dirty, naked and unfed – without their homework.
We had Daisy Dewdrop on a diet and regular exercise schedule – that’s gone by the wayside.
I missed my last CEOS meeting (our cemetery clean up day, and that’s a good one), and I’m the club secretary.
Sure, I’m getting a regular paycheck now, and that’s all well and good. I like paying off credit cards, stocking the pantry with store-bought sundries, treating ourselves to Chinese food and a movie.(I ate two boxes of Cap’n Crunch cereal this week – and am now wracked with guilt.)
It is very, very difficult to balance work and home – and I seem to be failing at the task. But it’s only week two, and I’m starting to feel like things are smoothing out. I might soon get it on a rhythm, and then I’ll get a new groove.
Soon, I hope.
Appearing today on The Hur Herald (www.hurherald.com)
Resolutions or Goals?
It’s been years since I’ve made any New Year resolutions. I don’t much care for the idea of starting over. Some like to look at the New Year as a fresh start. Well, I’ve made plans, I don’t want to go back to scratch. For me the turnover to a new year is a time to reassess the goals I have already established.
In early 2006, Frank and I set a long-term goal to simplify our way of living and become more self-reliant. For us, this is the path we have chosen to pursue our happiness. Two-Lane Livin’ Magazine; our “super sized” garden; farming; my experiments with canning, freezing, raising chickens, baking bread; our studies into earth and body friendly resources; practices of budgeting and saving and recycling – all of these are attempts to “simplify” our lifestyles.
Unless you were raised that way, simple living is anything but simple. In order to be “self-reliant,” your life schedule comes under the control of daylight and dark, the whims of seasons, the influences of the clouds and the sun. Meeting times are set by chickens and projects are planned around planting, weeding, watering, and harvest.
In college, I studied writing and literature, not herbs and livestock. I may be able to quote Shakespeare, but I cannot tell you the germination period for a tomato seed. You have to study, learn, practice and polish simple living skills to reach the goal of self-sufficiency, and I feel, in many ways, I’m just getting started.
1. Learn About and Launch Hot Beds: Frank and I learned last year in our first “serious” garden that vegetables like carrots, beets, etc. really need to be planted early. Also, we don’t want to wait until spring to have fresh leaf lettuce. We know that hot beds can help us get an early start and more fruitful harvest, but I know very little about how hot beds work or how to manage them.
2. Study Compost, Fertilizer and Earthworms: In an attempt to increase the quality of our soil, we began a compost pile last year. In addition, this year, we have what we need to “farm earthworms.” While these things may not seem related, the soil the worms will be living in will be excellent for our garden, and we might sell some worms for fisherman. Worms can double their population in less than three months. Of course, I know very little about raising worms, and I haven’t quite gotten full control over the compost pile, but I can continue my studies and practice.
3. Expand the Herb Garden: I started an herb garden last year, mostly from plants given to me by friends. It did fairly well until the rabbits, chickens and deer found it. Even so, I have herbs dried and frozen and I use them in my breads, teas and other dishes. But, I need to fill out the selection I have, and I need to get a fence around it. I will master what I’ve learned about drying and freezing them, and maybe next year I’ll learn to make salves, vinegars, oils and tinctures. But right now, I just want to master keeping them alive.
4. Get More Hens: I’ve been the parent of four hens for eight months now. We call them “The Ladies.” DeeDee, Ellemby, Pepper and Red provided eggs for Frank and I, my mother, my aunt and uncle all summer and fall. If I get four more, I can supply more friends and family, and maybe work through the process to sell some at the farmer’s market with excess herbs and vegetables from our gardens.
These four goals are some early 2010 goals for the land around us. We also have goals for the house, goals for the business, goals for our health, goals for our minds and our mentality. So much can be done in a year, the possibilities are overwhelming.
It helps me focus, organize and plan if I reassess my goals instead of making resolutions. For me, it’s the difference between promises made from scratch, and simply maintaining our set path.
It helps me remember that I’m already part-way there.
Currently at Two-Lane Livin’ Magazine Two-Lane Tweets
