Balsam Poplar Infusion

Yesterday I strained my jars of balsam poplar infusion that had been sitting in the sun since early spring.

(though we didn't have much sun in May or June....)   This batch has a lovely fragrance, but it is a milder scent compared to the first batch I made which I let steep for over a year.  This infusion was put together in late March/early April.  

So the lesson I learned is to put this infusion together and forget about it like I did the last time.  

However, the strong infusion sometimes puts people off with its pungent scent.  (My kids can always tell the minute I open the jar of salve I made last year.)  My original batch was VERY concentrated.  I'm interested to see if family and friends react to this batch differently.  I tend to think medicine might as well be strong.  But a gentle approach also has its place.  If people are more willing to use the recipe because the scent is not so sharp, then that matters too.

I used organic olive oil for the infusion.  But I haven't decided if I will experiment with a new recipe this year.  Since there is more than 3 quarts to work with, I can play with the original recipe if I want to.  I call the original recipe, Healing Salve.  It is excellent for wounds, scrapes, sores, and bruises.  

"Native Americans used resin from buds to treat sore throats, coughs, lung pain, and rheumatism. An ointment, Balm of Gilead, was made from the winter buds to relieve congestion."

http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/trees/populusbal.html 

One of my friends, a piano teacher, applies it to her hands as "good medicine" to ward off stiffness.

Me?  I just like the smell.  I think it smells like spring... and walking through the swampy section of our driveway to the school bus in the early spring mornings of my childhood.  I loved the smell of "bombagillian", the Northern Minnesota slang for Balm-of-Gilead.  I always knew that beautiful fragrance must be good for something.  So I was delighted when, as an adult, a friend shared with me how to infuse the buds and make a simple salve.

I like to use my salve on my hands and feet in winter time.  My skin is dry and cracks easily.  The salve is very healing and effective on broken skin.

Book Bonding-Fully Funded!

I would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to my friends from Bemidji High School Class of '91.  Many of them donated to this project and it was fully funded yesterday.
So happy!

Do you remember the first moment you fell in love with reading?

One of my earliest memories is of my Richard Scarry's Mother Goose book.  It was hardcover and I still have it.  I lived inside that book's world until I went to kindergarten.

As I progressed through school my teachers introduced me to other authors.

Beverly Cleary

Walter Farley

Roald Dahl

I loved reading.  I loved reading for reading's sake.  I loved all kinds of books:  love stories, murder mysteries, against all odds, historical, science fiction, fantasy...

I just loved reading.  And all those stories have played a part in molding my person.

I'm guessing that many of you reading this blog are also avid book readers.  

If you are, take just a moment to imagine your life if your connection to reading had never been established.  However you came to be a person that loved reading....just imagine that never happened....

Where would you be without those books that influenced your life?

Where would you be if you had never latched on to the joy of reading?

Without doubt or question, my life would have been bleak.  It is unfathomable how my spirit would have been sustained through my darkest hours without access to reading.

Now think of all the distractions that a modern-day teenager has.  So many young people enter their high school years without having fallen in love with reading yet.

Do you really want to live in a world governed by young people that never learned how to love reading?

I find it terrifying, myself.

And so deeply, painfully sad.

Here's where I'm going with this:

 The BOOK BONDING Project!

My dear friend from high school is now a high school teacher herself.  And she is trying to raise money to get high-interest reading materials in her classroom library.  She wants to put high-interest books in the hands of her students so they can fall in love with reading for the first time in their lives!  "High-interest" means the books kids are talking about NOW.  You aren't going to see Steinbeck on this list.  But a kid that doesn't like to read isn't going to pick up Steinbeck anyway.  A kid that loves to read will, quite possibly, eventually visit some of the classics.

So I'm asking you to PLEASE DONATE to my friend's classroom library by clicking on one of these links.  It only takes a minute to donate any amount you choose to give.

  Help Ms. Dittrich lead her students toward a lifetime of reading. 

If YOU recognize the value of reading in your life, this is a WORTHY cause.

Happy Birthday

I turn 40 today.

It sounds rather daunting, but I'm so glad I made it this far.  Life just keeps getting better and better!

 

I recently started running to try to get fit. You can follow my progress on my new blog;

Bean Can Run

 I guess a birthday like "40" will do that to a person.  I'm rather terrible at it, but I'm learning.  And learning something new is good.  It keeps one young.

 

In the spirit of youthful exploration I decided to post this baby photo of me

P - L - A - Y - I - N - G

 

 

Remember how fun a box could be... or the kitchen cupboards?

:)

Here's to more PLAY in my future.

Prom 2012

A milestone at the Erickson house...

Isaac and Asa attended their Junior Prom. 

Shameless bragging:  I thought my sons looked so handsome...and their dates were just beautiful.

Isaac and his friend, Abby.

My camera decided to malfunction...boo!...and by the time it actually worked, the kids were tired of posing and they were laughing.  But I finally got these TWO photos!  Abby wore an authentic Indian sari.  So cool! 

Asa and his friend, Sabrina.

My camera was behaving earlier in the evening, and the couple graciously posed for about 50 snapshots.  :)  Sabrina was wearing her favorite color: bright green.  Gorgeous!  And Asa had designed the flowers specificly to match her dress.

So proud!

Tradition

Once again, it is time to post one of my birthday photos from waaaaaayyyyyy back.

This one was taken the year I turned three!  hahaha.

Auntie Helen made the cake, which I adored because it was a horse.  It was covered in Lifesavers and had licorice whips for the bridle and tail.  If I remember right, it was also covered in coconut flake.

This was October 1975...before we had carpet on the floor...

and before my little sister was born.

Well, I'm not three anymore...I'm entering the last year of my thirties!

I took a bike ride today...something I haven't done since the boys were little munchkins in the pull behind trailers.  It felt great. 

One thing I can say for having children while I was still quite young:  now that they are starting to wander farther from home and needing me less...I'm still young enough to enjoy a lot of the hobbies I put on hold.  Maybe some moms don't put their lives on the back burner the way I did...but I found motherhood a bit overwhelming and it took all I had just to cope the first several years.  So now I'm teaching myself how to count myself into the equation.  It's all new again.  :) 

Looking forward to another good trip around the sun!



Birthday Post

Inspired by the heavy influence of recent dog incidents,

I decided to feature my first dog in my

Traditional Birthday Old Photo Post...

This photo was taken in 1973 in Deer River, MN.

I don't remember much about the dog, though I do remember his black and whiteness.

Funny how even tiny kids can remember blurry images like that.

I've been told that I enjoyed crawling in his dog house and eating his dog food with him.

I'm struck by how similar his shape, size, ears, and face are to my Megan Pie. 

He must have had some border collie in him.