Good Morning- Last September Day

 This morning's sunrise, the forecast says rain this afternoon

Yesterday's visitor

Herbs: Mullein

   Good morning Mid-Week. There was some interest in the mullein plant yesterday on T so I thought I would do a post with some informative links.

   Photos found online

This plant I always thought was a cool plant-no thorns on it, fuzzy leaves, and always loved the little yellow flowers too.  It grows in poor soils and reading more about it yesterday (Tuesday) learned that it has a 2 year life span. Also when foraging for herbs-never over harvest, and also never forage near roads with cars which will contaminate the plants.

    After I was almost finished with this post, I found this article online which is very informative including the history, information on the plant and photos.

  This article  is a nice read. Explains that mullein is a two year plant-first year just a rosette of leaves low to the ground and no flower stalk. She says the first year is the best for harvesting the leaves for lung health  Second year plants then are for harvesting the flowers which can be made into an oil for ear infections.  This infused oil can also be made into a salve for diaper rash, or the oil can be added to handmade soaps. 

   When you are researching any topic including herbs one will find different information. This article is saying to harvest leaves in year two, but to harvest the roots in the first year.  This article has good information and also suggests collecting the roots in the first year or the following spring. Roots need to be washed well and dried. Roots are used as pain medicine especially for the face and jaw.

   In comments yesterday Tammy suggested a video: 

Mulling over Mullein | Benefits and Uses with Yarrow Willard (Herbal Jedi)

  I really enjoyed listening to this herbalist and will be listening to more of his herb videos.

  Years ago when I first started blogging I featured herbs for Herb Thursdays. I enjoyed sharing the information and learned allot in that adventure. 

   A couple years ago I deleted my original blog-as many of my posts were tied to photobucket and when I canceled that-I lost most of my blog photos, was frustrated with that so just deleted it all. Sometimes looking back I wished I would have kept it for all the herb posts.   I may just start that up again 

  Happy Mid week!

T Stands for Tuesday-This & That--Updated around 4pm Missouri Time

   Good morning Everyone,

  Can you  believe it that September is almost over? For me it seems like this month just began instead of ending already.

  I was late for posting to T last week, so thought I would post earlier this week. Anyone is welcome to join us along with a drink related photo-link in my sidebar. Bleubeard and Elizabeth is our hostess-thank you Elizabeth for all you do for the group.

We have been enjoying lovely weather this past week, very cool mornings and then warms up during the day. Went through another pile of rocks over the weekend-mostly small ones. I am keeping one hummingbird feeder out as we are still seeing hummingbirds every day. Yesterday I didn't have a camera nearby but I was looking out the window and the most beautiful little hummer flew in. Very bright yellow-green wings, white under body and pinkish splashes. Looking it up could have been an Anna's

   photo from online-this is the male

or possibly this one a Broad tail hummingbird

 I am thinking more towards the Anna's but the photo shows more green on his chest  Hoping we may see another one this week. The migration has been going on for awhile so we are getting hummingbird visitors that are migrating It is rare in my area of Missouri I think to see hummingbirds other than the more common ruby throat, at least the 20 years at the woods house we only saw the ruby throated-thinking perhaps the lake water might bring others in.

  Cooler weather wants me eating eggs for breakfast now instead of our usual-Bob's Red Mill gluten free European museli-which is all raw gf grains, slivered almonds, and raisins either with yogurt or one of my nut milks.   This little tea pot with a strainer insert makes the perfect size cup of tea.   I have also been drinking a cup of the herb mullein tea for asthma-it really works.

  The mullein plant grows wild here in Missouri, you can dry the leaves and/or the flowers. I bought a bag of organic mullein, and the flavor is actually really good-was expecting not to like it. You may have seen this plant too

 

       I also got a bit more threaded on my weaving project-I have been doing other things so this is still not all threaded-almost now.  and I discovered I missed counted the threads so half of the grey to the left won't get threaded-a first have never missed counted before-ugh

   Saturday afternoon I had fun in my craft room and played with new to me stamps that I picked up used on Ebay (a great place for buying used-almost new stamps) for my October cards and slow mail friends. I ended up making 18 cards. I feel so organized haha.

   Closing with a few lake views-Happy T and new week

 Here is another heron at our  neighbors to the right of us

This morning's (Monday) sunrise-gorgeous

Update:   We have been missing "our" eagle pair lately-they did not disappoint. First there was one-then I heard allot of singing going on behind me on the lake and the one in the tree-then I didn't see it happen but the male flew to his mate and circled the lake singing away-so cool. I tried to record the song but didn't turn out well.

They both ended up back in the tree but not together-had a hard time getting a decent photo with my very old digital camera. Came in the house for a few minutes went back out and they are now sitting together-perfect!

Can you see the two eagles in this photo?

(photos will enlarge just click on them)

A New to Me Flower Garden Idea & Morning Lake Photos

   I have been a bit sad that I couldn't get the one side I am working on cleared of rocks so I can get more soil in and then plant perennials for hummingbirds and butterflies in time. I am getting more work done, but mid September til now is the time to plant.

  I was looking around the internet a couple days ago for gardening information and I bumped into this article which is a game changer for me haha.  Planting your flower seeds in the ground during fall and winter-to come up in the spring. Information here

   How nifty is this?? Have any of you tried it? There are some really good sellers on Ebay with good prices for seeds, so I just bought several, and the seller Mother Natures Seeds gives you a free packet when you buy 4 So I have several coming in. October is usually pretty nice here where I live so hoping I will have time to get things ready-more rocks need to be moved.

  I had thought of growing flowers from seed in my plastic gallon water jugs (those are the best way for growing seeds into plants-mini greenhouses), but I don't always have good success with flowers and herbs for some reason.

  So I am excited about this, just never thought about planting flower seeds this way before.

  We had an interesting sky this morning. A little steam came up off the lake too with the differences in water and air temperatures.

The sun coming up

We never know what might be floating down the lake when we look out our windows--This is one very large dock getting moved

This morning looking up in those trees for the eagle(s) which we haven't seen for awhile-we saw this surprise instead

Happy weekend!!

Cast Iron Saturdays-Pumpkin

   Last week several of you in comments mentioned that you love pumpkin-anything. I love pumpkin too my husband not so much. For the holidays he loves a fresh sweet potato pie instead.

   So for this week I thought I would scan the web for pumpkin recipes using cast iron.

 Cast Iron Skillet Pumpkin Bread

I found this to be an interesting recipe-Pumpkin Cobbler-Not sure if I would like this or not, but saw several recipes for it-recipe in the video baked in dutch oven

Cast Iron Pumpkin Cranberry Cake-this looks and sounds delicious

Pumpkin Streusel Cornbread

Skillet Gooey Pumpkin Cookie-Cake

Pumpkin and Chocolate Sourdough Loaf-baked in cast iron bread pan

Pumpkin Cinnamon Twist

Pumpkin White Chocolate Dump Cake

  There are so many pumpkin recipes to choose from-if you would like more pumpkin in cast iron let me know in comments

T Stands for Tuesday & Pirate Ship and Speed Boats

   Hi everyone,

        It has been awhile since I posted for T. Still working with the garden project and all of those rocks. August was an extremely hot month here in SW Missouri, and actually we are still rather warm to hot here this September as well. Another 90 degree day for Monday. (I am posting this early Sunday evening)

       I needed to take a month off working outdoors as I had really hurt both knees carrying heavy rocks into place. I am better now-finally-but must be aware and be really careful.  So much to do yet, that I don't think I will have time to get it all done so I can purchase the plants I wanted to get in the ground this month. 

  Today (Sunday) I decided I must get my little lavender plants in the ground, as well as what is left of my bee balm plants-I had lost half of them-and my echinacea plants. I placed my tomato cages around some of the smaller plants so they won't get stepped on. I had kept them in large pots outdoors in semi shade as we had such extreme heat here. The company I ordered from did replace my 3 lavender plants that I had lost with no charges. I even told them about our heat here but I had kept them out of the hot sun. They had sent me 3 extra bee balm plants originally, I lost 3 and still have 3 plants that look pretty good.  Now if we could just get rain.

    I have been also trying to get perennial bulbs that I had dug up replanted-I got allot of those in over the weekend-but the area that I also want to plant them in is almost impossible with the extreme hard soil-I am going to need to water that down this week. and this is the area with poison ivy-ugh I will be wearing long sleeves and gloves for sure.

    We are working on an area next to that rocked slope that I had completed-to extend that over some. Larry started cutting down big bushes in that space-which we will eventually use for crappie beds around our dock. I will need to dig out that dirt-reuse-and get rocks up there-that will use up allot more of the rocks in this area. Being in my 70's now-I had not thought this through that I could just get this all done in a month haha. Oh well our minds always think we are still young but not our body parts.

  My poor husband has been back to working alone on the dock project-he was getting close to finishing-and has hurt himself bad twice now in a week's time Today was a bit of a panic. A huge wave came up that he didn't notice and it caused him to run a piece of machinery down his arm-allot of blood loss and took off allot of skin under his arm -that was a bad one.  We got the bleeding stopped and have it bandaged up.  Like I have mentioned-things are so much more difficult to accomplish when we get older and ill.  We have never been ones to do nothing though-we are always involved in different projects.

   A couple posts back I posted a 4 minute video on the lake with lots of geese. We had allot more "lake action" mid day Saturday   September has been perfect for lake activities this year-warmer and no rain or high winds. Later that same day I took another video of the pirate ship. It was straight across from us-docked-picked up passengers to take for a pirate ship ride and dinner and then a couple hours later brought them back home. I think that sounds like great family fun.

    I really zoomed this in for a closer look-about 8 times on my old digital camera

Here is a photo and also a video

Note for better viewing you can enlarge videos to full screen-and then click on escape to go back

  Like I mentioned, Saturday was crazy busy-we learned there was a bass fishing tournament so that explained all of the fishing boats speeding by. There were also allot of those speed boats all day too-fun to watch but noisy and they take over the lake sometimes . Here is a video I took right after the pirate ship video.

A couple weeks ago I opened up this bottle of wine-one I had picked up at a local winery, when our Wisconsin friends came down for a long weekend visit.  I just finished the bottle last week. It was really good-my favorite is a semi-dry red. The wine had an unusual finish that I couldn't quite figure out-thinking perhaps it was aged in oak barrels.  This is one of my favorite hand thrown pottery wine glasses.

Happy T and new week 

Early Morning Video at the Lake

   This week we have enjoyed all sorts of birds visiting us here at the lake. Yesterday while working outdoors I spotted a pair of pileated woodpeckers up in the trees above me-that was very cool. This morning just as it got light we already had a hummingbird visitor passing through and lots and lots of fishing boats. Must be a fishing tournament this weekend.

  We kept hearing lots of geese but didn't see them, they must have been in the cove to the right of us. Here is a video I just took. The last boat in the video ended up being our neighbors boat to the right of us-where allot of geese were "hanging out"-they had to wait for them to clear out before they could dock

Here is a photo of a pileated woodpecker -photo found online- I didn't have my camera with me

Cast Iron Saturday-Fall Pies (early)

  Good morning,  I am writing this on Thursday morning-early-and it's our first very cool morning. The fish were jumping in the lake all around in the dark-pretty cool and a clear sky so lots of stars. We are blessed to really enjoy nature here at our lake house. I loved our woods home and do miss it sometimes-but we can enjoy the sky especially from indoors or on the deck here at our new home.

The coolness and now that I have no oven-got me to thinking about fall pies in dutch ovens. Those are always a winner to bring out a pie baked outdoors in your dutch oven-over and under the coals.  As I have mentioned in the past I use a trivet on the bottom of the dutch oven and then place my pie-in pie pan-right on top-less chance of burning on the bottom this way.

This is an interesting way to do the crust-never heard of this before, and this is a good link with lots of information on how to bake it and what apples to choose :

Rustic Skillet Apple Pie

Note: there are lots and lots of different cast iron apple pie recipes online, some with a crumble on top, some baked in individual cast iron pans too-lots on Pinterest

Southern Skillet Pecan Pie

   This one is baked in your cast iron skillet in your oven, but could also be baked in a pie pan in your dutch oven-over and under the coals

Bourbon Pecan Pie w/ Chocolate Cookie Crust

   This recipe looks and sounds delicious-this can easily be baked in a pie pan and inside your dutch oven. Or baked in a skillet in your oven

Skillet Pumpkin Pie w/ Streusel Topping

This sounds like a farm pie for sure-Cast Iron Cherry-Berry-Peach Pie

 Do you have a favorite fall pie??

Fun Mail

 Before I forget I wanted to share the fun slow mail I received from Iris

   Those of you in the usa this stamp is real close to a pack of first class flower stamps we have now.

The card with the lady has a green glittered skirt

Thank you again Iris-I have really enjoyed slow mail this past year so much.

I am Ready for Fall & a Catch Up Post

   Still in the 90's here-no surprise really for this area of Missouri. On years when we have had a very hot summer-like this year-then it will remain warm in September even til mid October sometimes.

   It is cooler in the mornings-which feels good, the black walnuts are falling all over the place, the number of those little hummingbirds have increased this week-as those that have started migrating have found my feeders.

    I am relieved I passed my vehicle inspection so I could buy new stickers for my plates for my car. I had no safety issues, but I am having two things that need to be fixed, and wasn't sure if that would effect the inspection-it didn't.                                   I wasted a month on one place in the town over from me. When I would check back each week about the part, he tells me he will check on it. Never once called me back about the part I need-or gave me an estimate on new tires for Larry's vehicle. So am done with that nonsense.                                                                         I found someone closer to where I live for the inspection and they also do auto work-his daughter does the maintenance type work they told me and I am to call back this week-so am pleased so far-very friendly staff, and they had a huge friendly dog checking everyone out lol

   I drove on to the county seat (where the Wal mart big box store is too) and got my renew stickers for my plates. I asked the clerk how soon can I get my new drivers license as it expires next month-oh right now if you want to. Wow so I studied what I needed to real quick and now have a new drivers license coming. That was a good morning for me-haha.

I found this pretty photo on Pinterest

  On a bummer note I baked us up a batch of gluten free chocolate chip cookies last night-and discovered my oven does not work-temperature too hot for what it is set for and doesn't hold a temperature lower either-sigh. I was able to get the cookies baked with only the first batch a bit too brown.                                                              Such a bad time of the year not to have a working oven. For now I will just deal with it as we have projects going that are more important.

  I have been back to working on the rock project again-being careful-no carrying the rocks so far. I had an area where I needed to dig through the soil looking for concrete chunks and rocks-and ended up with a huge pile.  So many rocks to get moved though-I will get it done-just much slower than I had anticipated for this project-I thought by now I would be ordering plants and getting them in the ground. Larry tells me I am Old now-thanks Larry haha

Enjoy the rest of your week-are you ready for fall too.

  Oh I received some very fun happy mail last week from Iris-I will post photos soon. Thank you Iris.

Politics

 

Weekend Photos-Sunrises-Birds-Sailboat

   We had glorious sunrises over the weekend, a sailboat early morning Saturday using just her sails, I would have missed it but Larry was out fishing and called me to watch out for it coming towards our house. I was out working on my garden project.     That evening another sailboat using their motor sailed by along with several huge ocean boats. Larry's sister and husband stopped by to visit on their personal watercraft-which is much quicker time wise then driving from their lake home I didn't have my camera out then.

   I have redone the threading on my weaving project-third time-so far-was the charm. I am realizing I have too many threads and another reason why these towels looked too wide to me. I have never done that before-but I warped this up in several sittings and messed up the count-I will just take those off once I get to that point.

 My camera did not pick up the bright red suns, but the reds did show up in the lake

  Sunday

 The hummingbirds have been quite active-many have already left for their long migration.

Can you spot the hummingbird? hint in the middle to the left

The eagle visited on Saturday

 The sailboat early morning Saturday

Happy new week everyone