VICKS VAPORUB COUGH REMEDY WITH SOCKS

Well, I just had to post about a 'home remedy' that has worked wonders for us.

2nd Man and I caught a cold a few weeks ago.  We always try to start taking Vitamin C and Zinc at the first sign and we did.  But then we stopped when it felt like it was gone but alas, it wasn't completely gone.  It came back in the form of a lingering cough.  You know, that cough that is worse when you lay down and keeps you up all night?  You have coughing fits so bad that they give you a headache or hurt your ribcage?  Well it's been keeping us up so we broke down and got some cough medicine.  That didn't really help.  Sure it probably relieved some of the congestion but the cough was still there
(so much for "truth in advertising")

Vicks VapoRub

Flash forward to the other day when my dear friend Dawn suggested a home remedy:  Vicks Vaporub...on your feet before bed...and socks.  HUH?  For a cough?  Sounds crazy but hey, we had the Vicks, we have the socks and we definitely have feet, LOL.

Now growing up of course, my Mom always put Vicks on my chest when I was sick.  I even asked her to put it on Tommy the Tiger, my constant stuffed animal companion as a child.  But I had never heard of the feet thing.

*Not my feet

So the other night, I got home and decided to do it.  I slathered it on while I was up watching TV and then put my socks on over it.  Sure I was a sight to see in red and green plaid flannel pajama pants (hey, don't judge, it's been below 30 here at night, ha), white socks and black Crocs.  I figured that was the best way to a) not get Vicks all over the hardwood floor, and b) not mess up my regular shoes.  2nd Man waited until bedtime to put his on.  Apparently, there is something about being horizontal that helps as well.  I coughed a bit while I was up but then before bed, I put it on again and let me tell you, we both slept like a baby.  No coughing in the night, and slept right up until the alarm went off to get up and go to work.

I've also noticed today that my cough is different, it's somehow released the congestion in my chest and broken it up.  I didn't even take the cough syrup last night and I slept without needing it and without coughing.  I will be doing this again tonight and every night until it's gone.

A nice side effect is that my feet are soft and smooth too, ha.  I'm not sure how it works.  Power of suggestion?  Some sort of aromatherapy-ish thing? The essential oils being absorbed into the body?  Something like reflexology since the feet connect to other parts of our system?  I've still coughed during the day but that's just because there is no real way to put this on and go to work, but for sleeping through the night, it's wonderful.

I have never heard of this home remedy before but wow, I have to say,

"color me impressed!"

I wonder what ELSE Vicks can do??

Buy Vicks Vaporub 3.53 Oz here at Amazon if you can't find it near you.

UPDATE:  Several of you have written to say it works best with wool socks.  I believe the socks I used were wool, but I will make sure if I have to do this again, I will buy a special pair of wool socks "just in case", ha.

UPDATE 2:  I posted a list with more uses for Vicks that I culled from around the net.  CLICK HERE to read the post.

VINTAGE POSTER SUNDAY, LICK THE PLATTER CLEAN

Lick the Platter Clean, vintage poster circa 1943- image courtesy of US National Archives

Here is a poster that I believe was aimed at children during WWII.  I'm guessing that the use of cartoon like nursery rhyme characters might have been to appeal to children.  Since WWII conservation on the home front was all about not wasting food, saving food for the troops and the war effort, they needed everyone in on that effort, adults AND kids.

And really, isn't it just as important today too?  None of us need to waste food and I often see so much food wasted at restaurants.

Enjoy your day!

SEED CATALOG PALOOZA 2013

Ah, it's that time of year.

Outside, there's only cold, damp, and gray Winter weather...depressing to say the least.

Depressing that is until...you check the mailbox.  And there it is.  Peaking out from between the electric bill and the grocery sale papers and the envelopes addressed to occupant.  Those ubiquitous 5 letters somewhere on the cover:

"S E E D S"

Then you see another and another, and the next day yet another one comes and then the cycle is repeated for the next week or two.  Suddenly your table is filled with dreams of Spring.

The images remain dancing in our heads.  The colorful and fragrant flowers.  The delicious and tasty vegetables.  The sweet and luscious fruits.  The strange and exotic plants.

Gardens.

Flower beds.

Containers.

Yards.

Endless Possibilities!

I have gathered all of mine (plus some that didn't make it to the photo op) into a pile, made a nice hot drink to counteract the cold and took out my marker.

You can plant seeds anywhere you have dirt and want to try to grow something.  Seed catalogs are the ultimate in hope for the future.

Let the planning begin!

P.S. Don't forget to enter the book giveaway this month.  Only 15 entries so far, and we're giving away TWO books so your odd are pretty good! 

Click HERE to enter

NAMED ANOTHER TREE

Those of you that follow the blog know that I have a penchant for naming some of the trees on our property.  "Barnabas the Party Tree" and "The Two Sisters" were the most recently named trees.

A couple of weekends ago, I was walking the property and noticed this tree.  In the Spring and most of the Summer, it is covered with leaves so that you can't really see its shape.  But now, with Winter rapidly approaching, most of the leaves have dropped off and that has revealed this shape.  When I looked at it from this angle, it reminded me of a dancer, quite graceful in it's growth, with her arms outstretched.

So henceforth (I love that word!), this tree shall be known as;

"GINGER"  (after Ginger Rogers of course)

INSPIRATION THURSDAY, SMALL ZEN GARDEN

Zen Garden, photo courtesy of: davesgarden.com forum

Is it weird to have a zen garden on a farm?  I don't see why not.  I've always wanted one and usually I only see big, elaborate designs.  I'd just like something simple and something that makes a statement.  So when I saw this on a gardening forum, I said to myself "that's it"!

It's simple, circular (more or less) and just has a nice layout.  I mean really, anywhere we could find a blank spot, it wouldn't be that hard to recreate something like this.  On our property of course, the boulders/stones would be impossible to locate, just not that kind of 'terrain'.  I'd have to have those brought in.  Then some gravel and a rake and I could get off my Big Green Zen Machine and into my Little Green Zen Garden, LOL.

Enjoy your day, see you back here tomorrow.

SEEDS OF THE MONTH JANUARY

Seeds of the Month for January 2013

Got this month's batch of seeds from the Seeds of the Month club right on schedule.  It is a fun day when I get them in the mail after a long day at work.  It brings my mind back to the future and planning.  This month, at least I know what they all are as opposed to some past shipments.
For this time, they are:

Okra, "Burgundy"

Cucumber, "National Pickling"

Chives (no variety)

Celery, "Utah"

Anyone grown and used these particular varieties of each of these vegetables and herb?  I'm very familiar with okra, it's a staple down here in the South and I love it, but in this case, I can honestly say I've never had this purple variety.  As for the cucumbers, I'd love to have a good variety for pickling.

Thanks as always for any tips and suggestions!

Seeds rule!!!

RECAP FOR CANNING JARS, WONDERFUL NEW PRODUCT

reCAP lids

Here is a great new product I recently discovered.

They are called "reCAP Mason Jars".

It's a wonderful invention that I didn't realize how much I'd use until we had them.  I got two, they are made in two different sizes, one for the standard size opening of a jar and one for the wide mouth opening.

reCAP lids on jars

We are experimenting with making our own salad dressings in a jar.  It's a great way to just put our ingredients in and then screw on a standard lid and ring and shake it up.  Nothing wrong there, but then when you unscrew that ring and pop off the lid, it's a mess to pour.  This eliminates that.

Here is a batch of mason jar dressing we made up for dinner.

It's our "Farmhouse Vinaigrette".

reCAP jar dressing before mixing

First I put in the olive oil, then some red wine vinegar, and then a batch of seasonings and screwed on the reCAP lid.

reCAP jar dressing after shaking

Snap the flip top down (I kept my thumb on it just to be safe) and then I shook it up for about 30 seconds.  Voila!  Homemade dressing.

Then came the fun part, pouring it out.

I flipped up the top and poured the dressing onto the salad.  It came out smoothly and cleanly.  Best of all?  When I was done, I snapped the flip top down and put it in the fridge for storage.  No mess, no fuss, no leaks.  It's ready for the next salad and all I'll have to do is shake it up and pour it out.

These jar lids are made of BPA-free, recyclable plastic and replicate the vintage  look of the American zinc cap.  They are top rack dishwasher safe, though they recommend hand washing.  Oh, and they can even turn your favorite canning jar into a beverage container (i.e. an adult sippy cup!).

Please visit the reCAP website HERE for more information, or, they have an Amazon storefront that you can visit at: reCAP Amazon Storefront.

This is my own independent review, not done in exchange for product.  It's just something I found that is very useful and thought I'd share.

BEER CAN TURKEY VERTICAL ROASTED

I'm all about the deal, and recently, I was at a local grocery store and found turkeys on sale.  It was just after the holidays, and they still had a few left that were fresh (not frozen) and had a "sell by" date of a few days later.  Sure, if I was buying one for a dinner a week from then, no, not a good idea, but after our success of the Thanksgiving turkey we roasted, I figured, why not buy two and go home and roast them and put them up?

So are you ready for the price?  $5.00 each! 

TWO 14 lb turkeys, for $10.00!

So below is how we did them:

 We started by removing the giblets and rinsing the turkey.  Then we rubbed it down, both under the skin and on top of the skin, with olive oil and our "farmhouse seasoning" blend of spices.

Then it was put on this Beer Can Turkey Rack, on a foil lined baking sheet in the oven.  We put it on the bottom level rack and roasted it for 1 hour at 450 deg. We didn't use a beer can or anything liquid, we just used the rack as the means to make it easy to keep it upright for the vertical roasting.

Here it is about midway through the roasting process.

And here it is finished, in all its golden glory.  A 14 lb turkey done in an hour.  

After that, we just let it cool and then simply cut it up.  Here is one of them, cut into the appropriate pieces, and then vacuum sealed.  We put them in packages of two legs, two wings, and then, because they are so large, we put one breast per bag and one thigh per bag.  That way, later on we'll have choice of using white and/or dark meat depending on whatever recipe we want to use. 

So remember to check your grocery store after major holidays, you can stock up on meat at a great price, just be ready to cook and/or freeze it within a few days.  We've gotten ribs and briskets for deals like this after other holidays, such as Memorial Day or 4th of July or Labor Day.  Heck, you can get some great deals on ham after Easter too!

BARNABAS IS NAKED

I love this image of "Barnabas", our party/dinner tree.  He's an old

(over 100 yrs we believe) Mesquite tree next to the house.  In the Spring, he's covered in soft, green, fern like leaves.

But in the Winter, as seen here, he's stripped bare in all his nekkid glory.

I've always thought that he looks like a tree from the set designer on a Steven Spielberg or George Lucas movie.

VINTAGE POSTER SUNDAY, SAVE SEED FOR VICTORY

Save Seed for Victory poster, image courtesy of US Natl Archives

Here's a good one and in light of the recent seed gift I received, it seemed appropriate.  This is from WWI, circa 1917 or so.  The Government was urging people to save the good seed, the valuable and well growing seed, because that could be a key to victory.  Unknown seed could be defeat.  In other words, they wanted citizens to save the seed from good and prolific crops to reuse for the following season.  This could help guarantee future good crops.

Perhaps a bit over the top as when it came to the war effort but the message is still pretty relevant today.  There is one line on here I love most of all:

Good Seed Wins

True then, almost 100 years ago, and perhaps even more so today.

Heirloom and organic can be the key to victory in 2013!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway here

JANUARY GARDEN BOOK GIVEAWAY, TIMES TWO

We missed the December giveaway because of the holidays.  Thanksgiving and then of course getting ready for Christmas.

So now we're in a new year and we are starting our monthly book giveaway and for this month, we're going to have two books!

Two books = two winners!

Here is this month's giveaway.  For all the gardeners out there it is:

Green Guides, What to Do When in Your Garden

It's a great book that shows step by step what to do each month in the year.  For example it reminds you which bulbs to plant in Fall to have color in Spring, when to weed your flower beds so that you have less weeds later, and when to take cuttings later in Summer to plan it all again.

Copyright 2011, the book is 256 pages long and filled will lots of color photos.

As always, and for those new to the blog, the rules are as follows:

You should be a "friend of the farm" (follower) and leave a comment here on this thread that you want to be entered (after all, it might be a book you have).

The contest will run until midnight at the the end of the month at which time I'll randomly pick TWO names as winners.  Open to everyone, even those in other countries and those who won last year.

One entry per person.

Thanks and good luck!

COMMENTS NOW CLOSED TO ENTRIES, WILL HAVE THE DRAWING THIS WEEKEND AND ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS THEN!

PANTRY STORAGE JARS IN THE MUDROOM

Cracker jars on pantry shelf

Last Friday, I posted HERE about some cool jars we found at Ikea.  Well this Friday I thought I'd share some more of our storage plans.  I've been collecting these cracker jars (also called biscuit jars) from various stores or online as I find them (on sale) for about a year.  The link I posted is to Amazon, where they always have them and frequently at great prices.  They aren't vintage of course, but they do have that vintage look that we like so well.  I also find them at other local stores and big box retailers in town.

These are the shelves in the mudroom/pantry.  I took one shelf and set it at this level to maximize usage below and then figured out how many I could fit in the space.  Turns out the magic number is twelve...three rows of four jars!  

Set of Cracker jars on pantry shelf

They come in three sizes, 1 quart, 2 quart and 1 gallon, so that was a perfect way of setting up the shelves to give us a uniform look while giving us different sizes for the things used more of and less of.

Cracker (or biscuit) jars, image courtesy of Amazon.com

There is another shelf next to it the same size, so I set it at the same level and I'm going to do one more and replicate this on that one.  If I do that, it would give us at least two dozen jars for storage.  With 2nd Man's love of cooking, that would be about right.  Rices, grains, sugars, flours, beans, and everything else in between.  Obviously we'll end up having more jars elsewhere in the pantry and kitchen as we use the space and figure out what works best for us, but for now, this should work out perfectly.

INSPIRATION THURSDAY, RUSTIC ARBOR

Rustic Arbor, photo courtesy of Fox Hollow gardens

I'm not even sure what this is but when I saw it, I decided that someday, I want one!  I believe it's an arbor, made of found wood branches.  I can imagine relaxing under it after a long day, or just sitting and reading a book on a cool afternoon.  I love how it's kind of hidden amongst the greenery.

I wouldn't even know where to begin to make something like this, but that's why I post these photos every Thursday, to share something I see that inspires me to want to someday do something like it on the farm.  This blog and my inspiration posts are like my own "Pinterest", LOL.

Enjoy your day, we are finally enjoying a sunny day after several days of gloomy, rainy weather.

RAIN RAIN AND MORE RAIN

We've had quite the rainfall the last couple of days.  2nd Family, who lives at the other end of the driveway, sent these pictures to me while I was at work. She said that 4.5" showed in the rain gauge and it was still raining.  This doesn't count the rain from yesterday which was probably an inch or two more.

So it's most likely the farm has received almost 7 inches of rain over the last two days.  These are the kind of rains we usually get in Spring around here so it's kind of unusual this time of year.  It's because of a warm front backing up from the Gulf of Mexico and bumping into a cold front coming from the other direction.  Warm+Cold=storms and rain

These are views from their yard and porch.  It was far too much to ask her to drive the quarter mile up to our house and snap a few pictures.  I'm sure we'll be out there during a monsoon and I'll get some firsthand pictures, ha.

A HANDMADE SEED SURPRISE

A little seed love!

Anyone who follows the blog knows that I love when I get my "seeds of the month" shipment in.  Imagine my surprise when I got home recently and found an unexpected package of seeds!

But these beauties came courtesy of "Bee Girl", Melissa, author of the always inspiring blog, Sky Minded & Ever Growing. 

The fact that these were hand gathered and even hand packaged in homemade seed packets by her, means more to me than any seed I could ever get from the store.  So now, I'll have some more great seeds to use in planning our garden in the Spring.

She sent organic and even heirloom varieties of the following:

 Radishes - Cherry Belle

Kale - Red Winter and Red Russian

Turnips - Purple Top White Globe

 Beets - Early

Tomatoes - Yellow Taxi

When we (hopefully) eat some fabulous meals featuring these veggies, we'll have her to thank for it.  In exchange for her seed love, we're sending some blog love her direction!

Thank you "Bee Girl".

Everyone, check out Sky Minded & Ever Growing.

MIX IN A JAR GIFT PACKAGES

I mentioned in one of my pre-holiday posts that we were making several of our gifts.  Well, since the gifts have been given, I thought I'd share some pictures of what we did.  I'm sort of known among my friends and family for the mix in a jar recipes.  Most of the ones we use are our own recipes that we have tried out and made to use just for the jars.  Here is the dessert jar we made, it's a jar of chocolate chip cookie bar mix...dump the jar in a bowl, mix with some wet ingredients and you end up with a giant chocolate chip cookie/brownie hybrid.

This one is our version of I guess what you could call something similar to hamburger helper.  This one is actually a goulash mix.  Just add hamburger, some tomatoes, water and this jar of mix and you've got a great meal ready to eat.  The one with the bow tie pasta in it was a special request from a dear friend who loves it, it's a turkey pasta dish.

Once we got them done, we got them organized.  These ten (we made sixteen total), represent dinner and a dessert and so that's how we packaged them.

Here they are with their labels on, and some other decorative elements, along with a small jar of sugar scrub that I made as well.  Details on that one coming in a separate post.  I put them on a cardboard circle, and then we filled them with paper shreds and wrapped them up with basket wrapping.

Finally, they are almost finished in this shot, just before we put a big red bow on each one.  We ended up with eight gift "baskets" like this to give out.  I believe everyone we gave them to enjoyed them. They were certainly made with lots of care and love, and really, that's what it's really all about, right?

SODA vs POP vs COKE vs WHATEVER

Graphic courtesy of USA Today

I found this online the other day and was fascinated by it.  I've always been intrigued about the differences in regional words and phrases.  For example, down here in the Southern US we say Y'ALL to mean you all, even though it's grammatically incorrect.  So when I saw this, I thought I would share it.

  

It's a map showing how the majority of people in each of the counties of the United States describe the ubiquitous fizzy carbonated beverage we seem to love so much.  For those of you in other parts of the world, here in the US we use the words "Soda", "Pop", or just a generic "Coke" to describe them and it's pretty much based on where you live or grew up.  

So, in this chart, when people want a soft drink, this is what they told researchers they say.  The red tones are where most people say "give me a Coke".  Coke can mean Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper or whatever.  Strange I know, it's just what we say.  The blue tones are where people say "give me a pop", probably a shortened form of soda pop.  Speaking of, the yellowish tones are where the majority of people just say "give me a soda".  The greens and purple are "other" and I'm not sure what that is, ha.  You can see that it's kind of a North/South thing for the most part.  I wonder, are there differences in other parts of the world as well?

What do YOU say wherever you are?

Do share below...

VINTAGE POSTER SUNDAY, HOME CANNING

Home Canning Do's and Don'ts, image courtesy of US Natl Archives

During WWII, the US government pushed food conservation and a big part of the process was home canning of fruits and vegetables.  The citizens at home did their part of course but I guess it was not without incident; burns, illness, breakage etc, were apparently pretty commonplace, so the government put out this poster of "what not to do" when canning to help turn the tide.

It's all pretty much stuff that still stands today when canning.  After all, canning is a process that's been around a long time.

As always, you can click on the 'history' label below or to the right and see all the poster images I've been able to source online and share.  I'd sure love to have some of these, but for now, they must live on in digital online form from various archives and websites around the country.

IKEA SLOM JARS FOR DRIED PASTA

We found these jars the other day at our local IKEA store.  We love them.  They are called SLOM (gotta love the Ikea names!) and are made of a heavy weight glass with rubber gasket/seals at the top.  We got a tall one and a slightly smaller one, hoping they would work as storage for our pasta. Turns out they are perfect for that and since we love pasta in any and all forms, we'll have several on hand. They even have a nice retro look as well.

Here they are filled.  The tall one is the perfect size to hold 2 lbs (probably 3) of dried spaghetti or linguine. The other holds 2 lbs of (in this case) penne.  Leaving food at the farm "unattended" for a week at a time, we need to make sure whatever we use for storage has a good seal on it and these are perfect for that. They were reasonably priced as well.  Since we only bought these two and they have 4 different sizes,  we're going back next weekend for more, perfect for pasta storage!

INSPIRATION THURSDAY, ADOBE OVEN

Adobe Oven, image courtesy of Sunset.com

When I post these photos for inspiration many times they are something I found recently that I love and want to do.  In this case, this is literally a picture I've had for years, long before we bought land or even thought of it.

This is a photo of an outdoor adobe oven, that you can actually make for your own yard.  I saw the original article in Sunset Magazine years ago and then, via the Internet, I found the image again.  2nd Man asked me a couple of years ago, "would you build one of those for us?".  Of course at the time, we didn't even have the land and I said sure...but now we do and I know, any day, I'm going to get asked again, LOL.  So while this is on our bucket list for the farm, it certainly won't be this Spring, the garden beds will be the prime focus then. But this could show up sometime sooner rather than later.  I think 2nd Family (down the driveway) wants one too, so we could make it a joint project.

Enjoy your day!

CHRISTMAS GIFTS PART THREE, A METAL DETECTOR

Here is the last of my gifts...

What is this you might ask?  It's a metal detector!  Yes, I got a metal detector.  Let me back up...ever since I was a child, I have wanted one.  I was a treasure hunter wannabe from way back, always reading about buried piles of silver, gold doubloons from shipwrecks, and treasure chests full of jewels and coins.

Sure it was the stuff of childhood fantasy but as I grew older and I had a developing interest in archeology, and digging up 'other treasures' came to mind as well...relics of old civilizations, weapons from past battles, etc.

Alas, as my career path went away from archeology and down the route of boring insurance, my treasure hunting dreams faded away.  But I've always talked about never getting that metal detector and 2nd Man remembered the stories I told of my youth and so on Christmas, he gifted me with this one.  

It's pretty nice, I can plug headphones into it, it tells me the depth of the object, can distinguish between different coins and metals and 'junk', and even has a setting for "gold" (hey, a guy can dream can't he?).  I think 2nd Man did well this year.  I was totally surprised by this and it shows me that he really does listen to my stories after all, LOL.

The interesting thing is, our farm property lies very near some interesting parts of Texas history.  In 1836, General Sam Houston led his troops through battles against the Mexican army of Santa Anna to ultimately fight (and win) at the Battle of San Jacinto.  On the way to San Jacinto, they traveled through the part of the county we are in, camping out at a nearby river.  Could they have travelled through some part of the 10 acres?  Could good old Barnabas the party tree have hosted another party of sorts, a resting point for soldiers to rest under the shade of a big tree?  Did their horses travel the same trails as my Big Green Zen Machine?  My guess is no, of course, but won't it be fun?

With most of about 7 acres of the property more or less untouched for the better part of a hundred years, perhaps there was another house or barn on the property once upon a time?  Maybe I'll find evidence of that?  Heck, I'd be happy finding an old key or a coin or a horseshoe or even nails from a long forgotten homestead.  I can't wait to try out my detector!

Wish me luck, you know this is the first place you'll hear about my finds, unless of course I find something like this...

...in which case it will be on the news!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE FARM

Here's to a great 2013 for all of you around the world.  May your gardens be productive, may your plans all come to fruition, may your dinners be delicious and may you stay healthy and strong throughout the year.  All our best!

1st Man and 2nd Man