Rescue Remedy
Third in a Series
How do I start. This product is amazing, and I don't even use it for all the stuff it's good for. I'll just give you my history with it, a few thoughts and some links.
A couple of years back or so my sil and friend, LK were visiting and mentioned RR in passing where they had used it for something. "What's that?" I asked. So they explained the product, the concepts behind it and shared experiences with it. My initial thoughts were "this is some kind of new age witchcraft product and they're duped." Flower essences . . . yeah, right.
A year later at the same sil's house my precious and fragile mil had a terrible knee injury where she hit and scraped it good. Right away she cleaned it and sprayed it with RR explaining that it would keep it from bruising. "Right" I thought. "Nothing will stop that thing from being purple in the morning."
Was I ever wrong! Not even a hint of bruising. Three months later my own mom took a terrible fall on a knee that had been replaced. I knew what to do and she too never bruised, at least not the knee. The shoulder that had taken a little of the fall had a bruise the size of her fist. It was obvious that immediate and frequent application of RR the first few hours after receiving blunt force trauma relieved stress on the capillaries so they didn't break.
Topical use of RR isn't the norm, in fact I think it's only been within the last few years it became popular as both cream and spray formulas have come out. The main application is still internal - a few drops in water to relieve stress. For what it's worth, when my son was in an auto accident two days before his wedding RR cream is one of the natural products we used to help him function through rehersal and his wedding day. He danced with his bride very naturally. You'd have never known he couldn't move the morning of his rehearsal.
http://www.rescueremedy.co.uk/about_whatisrescue.htm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/75640.php
So, that's my endorsement of Rescue Remedy. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself and I have used it many times since. I generally make my own cream with it which has greatly helped my daughter's vollyball teammates with bruising, soreness, etc. I just don't leave home without it - you never know who or what will need help.
10.24.2007
10.23.2007
More Adventures In Kefir
No, Kefir is not a place or a new age stage of mind. Those who've been around me the last year or so know it's the latest phase of my off beat healthy lifestyle. I learned about kefir from Jordan Ruben (The Maker's Diet) but had no idea what this strange stuff was. Then I learned a friend in NC made it, and closer to home, my sister in Pensacola. It was a blessed day when I got my first kefir grain and I made and used it all last winter.
Warming weather and time constraints forced me to dehydrate my grains for summer storage. It was making far too fast with the rising temps and I wasn't using it fast enough. Plus I suspected my grains had picked up a contaminate. So we retired for the summer.
But now we're back at it. I got a fresh new grain from my niece and with some inspiration from a set of websites she told me about, am kefir crazy again. I've not even had regular kefir so far. I've been doing some crazy stuff with it.
1: Pollen Infused Kefir: Let it ripen 24 hours or so with 1 tbs pollen per pint. Sweeten with honey. This is supposed to make the pollen digest easier providing a powerful protein and providing immune boosting properties.
2. Kefir Cheese. I missed changing my grain out this morning and the curds and whey had separated . So I ran them all through cheesecloth, mixed a little rosemary and salt with the curds and let it hang in the cheesecloth to drain a bit longer. It's odd, but not too bad for a first try.
And the whey - it's in the pumpkin bread that's in the oven as I type. I'm nuts for being up this late, but hey, it's fall and I just felt like baking. I will pay for it though. I will pay.
No, Kefir is not a place or a new age stage of mind. Those who've been around me the last year or so know it's the latest phase of my off beat healthy lifestyle. I learned about kefir from Jordan Ruben (The Maker's Diet) but had no idea what this strange stuff was. Then I learned a friend in NC made it, and closer to home, my sister in Pensacola. It was a blessed day when I got my first kefir grain and I made and used it all last winter.
Warming weather and time constraints forced me to dehydrate my grains for summer storage. It was making far too fast with the rising temps and I wasn't using it fast enough. Plus I suspected my grains had picked up a contaminate. So we retired for the summer.
But now we're back at it. I got a fresh new grain from my niece and with some inspiration from a set of websites she told me about, am kefir crazy again. I've not even had regular kefir so far. I've been doing some crazy stuff with it.
1: Pollen Infused Kefir: Let it ripen 24 hours or so with 1 tbs pollen per pint. Sweeten with honey. This is supposed to make the pollen digest easier providing a powerful protein and providing immune boosting properties.
2. Kefir Cheese. I missed changing my grain out this morning and the curds and whey had separated . So I ran them all through cheesecloth, mixed a little rosemary and salt with the curds and let it hang in the cheesecloth to drain a bit longer. It's odd, but not too bad for a first try.
And the whey - it's in the pumpkin bread that's in the oven as I type. I'm nuts for being up this late, but hey, it's fall and I just felt like baking. I will pay for it though. I will pay.
10.19.2007
WET PANTS
Come with me to a third grade classroom..... There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It's never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.
The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head
down and prays this prayer, 'Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat.'
He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered.
As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap.
The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, 'Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!'
Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else - Susie.
She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. You've done enough, you klutz!'
Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, 'You did that on purpose, didn't you?' Susie whispers back, 'I wet my pants once too.'
Come with me to a third grade classroom..... There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It's never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.
The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head
down and prays this prayer, 'Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat.'
He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered.
As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap.
The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, 'Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!'
Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else - Susie.
She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. You've done enough, you klutz!'
Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, 'You did that on purpose, didn't you?' Susie whispers back, 'I wet my pants once too.'
10.15.2007
It's Monday Again
And I can barely move. It's a good kind of soreness, the kind you experience at the end of a hard task, almost a sort of euphoria.
I spent the weekend extracting honey. This is the first time in all these years of beekeeping I've tackled the task by myself, and as things turned out, the largest extraction to date. I'm guesstimating that by the time I strain what's in the bottom of the big extractor and the cappings finish draining we'll have around 300 lb. The task itself is not that difficult, for me it was just a lot of lifting and repetitive motion. I'm feeling it mostly in my right shoulder from all the uncapping.
This was a good learning experience for me. I extracted on the screen porch with the cracks around the door sealed (with a towel) to keep curious bees out. It worked well. The weather was wonderful though I did have to shut it down earlier than planned Saturday. Once it got dark the bees that were trapped inside with me (the few that had come in with the supers) started buzzing around the light on the ceiling fan directly above me. That wasn't good. Also the honey practically refused to sling out because of the dropping temperature. So I had to finish Sunday afternoon when it was daylight and warm.
Another thing I learned was that the right equipment makes the task go much faster and smoother. I borrowed new uncapping knives and an uncapping tank this time in addition to the club's electric extractor. I couldn't believe how fast the uncapping went. I had several buckets of uncapped frames waiting on the extractor by the time it was all said and done.
Next time I'll cover my tables with plastic as removing melted wax wasn't fun. I'll enlist a vacuum cleaner for the bees that are trapped inside with me. They all congregated on the screen attempting escape and left yellow bee poop on the ledge under them. And I'll definitely cover the floor with paper.
Today all the curious bees that were trying to get in are feasting. I put the uncapping tank outside for them to clean before I tackle it with soap and hot water. No need letting all that honey go to waste when they will gladly remove all the sweet sticky stuff.
10.13.2007
It's been a long time since I stayed up so late on a Friday night. One of the things about growing older is that I fancy my sleep. It's not a lazy thing, it's just that I function much better when I've had a good night's sleep, and I like functioning. I don't fancy ceasing to function.
It's been a tough but good week. Norman turned 51 without a lot of fanfare. We made him the coolest plaque ever . . . "When Chuck Norris goes into a sauna, the sauna sweats." It will go on the door of his new sauna.
Kammi and Naomi spent one morning with me. We had a great visit while designing and making two Indian dresses for Naomi. They're learning about native peoples right now. It blew me away when Naomi recognized and understood the purpose of Uncle Norman's "sweat house." She's so adorable and looks like a princess in her moleskin (white) and buckskin (brown) dresses. Her Mom did a good job on the designs.
As I write I just put about 5 quarts of honey in the oven to heat up. I'll cool, strain, mix and jar them tomorrow to make cinnamon creamed honey, a fall favorite around here. Its a big seller too. Last year I pestered every beekeeper I know trying to find light honey. This year I bought five gallons from Jeff Dayton in Tennessee. It's some fine tasting stuff. I'm experimenting with a couple of pints my mom dug up from somewhere as well. It don't have nearly the taste Jeff's has.
And I'm extracting tomorrow too. I've had 3 supers in the freezer a few weeks and robbed three more today. By the time I get the hives here on the farm robbed I should have in excess of 200 lb. I plan to extract on the screened porch. I think as long as I stuff rags under the door we should be ok as far as bees trying to get in. My bee room in the barn is currently a wreck in bad need of cleaning and organizing. And the weather's so beautiful the screened porch will be nice to work in. This time I'm using two extractors, the club's electric one for the bulk of the honey and the little hand crank job for the light honey
Workwise the week has been frustrating. We've wound up changing out both the modem and router at work. I liken working without internet to working with one arm and one leg tied behind you. It's worse than tough.
One bright spot is that Norman has got most of the 200 LocalHelpWanted.net sites up and running. It's the absolute most awesome job board ever. And we got our first check from a customer for the site. I'm tempted to frame it!
Our kids Dennis and Toni will be parents of an active little boy soon. Tony might be 100 lb. soaking wet so this has been quite an ordeal for her. And my friend Connie's oldest son and his girlfriend will be baptized Sunday - talk about an answer to prayer! He was very hostile to the gospel when he left for basic and God did a beautiful work in his heart.
And our professor friend made it back safe from Malaysia where he shared the Christian faith with ten accounting students who had "no religon." He's got a knack for making friends wherever he goes. One of the young ladies cried when he left.
I can't think of anything else. G'nite all!
10.08.2007
Miscellaneous Monday
Well, we're back. The Far Above Rubies retreat our women's group returned from Saturday was wonderful. I've lost track of how many years I've gone now. While it's great to "get away with the girls", it's even better to be refreshed and challenged spiritually. This year's theme and agenda had to be one of the best, but I was very disappointed there was no altar call at the closing session.
I spent yesterday chilling with my family. Becky had spent a couple of days visiting a Christian college in the area and rode back with us Saturday. It was good to catch up.
So I'm back at the office today. My neighbor (at work), Liz, has been by several times. She's a botanical genius and a neat lady. And she loves my bees. Actually, I think my bees love her. She keeps several bird baths with water for them and they've been known to head butt her when the water got low. Once she refills them they're all as happy as can be. Liz and Ken are the ones who rescued the rat snake that got in the office last spring. As far as I know "Ralphette" is still thriving on the mice in my barn where we turned her loose.
For my own benefit I want to jot down some highlights from our trip.
First, an ongoing issue/topic of discussion with a friend took an unexpected turn when I found myself in a workshop face to face with someone who represented our conversations. God used this person to bless and challenge me, and also to remind me that my citizenship as a believer is in heaven, where we're all blood bought sinners regardless of differences imposed upon us in this world. It's all level ground at the foot of the cross!
I didn't flub the monologue Renee asked me to do. (Thank you Lord!)
It was neat to play harmonica with TC again. Talk about a gifted musician! This is the second year we've done the campfire music with her leading on guitar.
This year's theme was Traveling Light. A lot of things in our sessions hit home. Our speaker ran with the theme and spoke on checking baggage ahead (good works we lay up in heaven), things that weigh us down to leave behind (bitterness, anger, etc) and carry on luggage (the rest of the Lord). It was pretty neat. For what it's worth I had already been working on simplifying life. I seem to have accumulated a lot of clutter, both literally and figuratively. Time to clean house!
Today's been pretty neat. I like government holidays that aren't holidays for the rest of us. It's a little less stressful and easier to catch up on paperwork. So what am I doing but sitting here blogging instead of working! Shame on me!
Well, we're back. The Far Above Rubies retreat our women's group returned from Saturday was wonderful. I've lost track of how many years I've gone now. While it's great to "get away with the girls", it's even better to be refreshed and challenged spiritually. This year's theme and agenda had to be one of the best, but I was very disappointed there was no altar call at the closing session.
I spent yesterday chilling with my family. Becky had spent a couple of days visiting a Christian college in the area and rode back with us Saturday. It was good to catch up.
So I'm back at the office today. My neighbor (at work), Liz, has been by several times. She's a botanical genius and a neat lady. And she loves my bees. Actually, I think my bees love her. She keeps several bird baths with water for them and they've been known to head butt her when the water got low. Once she refills them they're all as happy as can be. Liz and Ken are the ones who rescued the rat snake that got in the office last spring. As far as I know "Ralphette" is still thriving on the mice in my barn where we turned her loose.
For my own benefit I want to jot down some highlights from our trip.
First, an ongoing issue/topic of discussion with a friend took an unexpected turn when I found myself in a workshop face to face with someone who represented our conversations. God used this person to bless and challenge me, and also to remind me that my citizenship as a believer is in heaven, where we're all blood bought sinners regardless of differences imposed upon us in this world. It's all level ground at the foot of the cross!
I didn't flub the monologue Renee asked me to do. (Thank you Lord!)
It was neat to play harmonica with TC again. Talk about a gifted musician! This is the second year we've done the campfire music with her leading on guitar.
This year's theme was Traveling Light. A lot of things in our sessions hit home. Our speaker ran with the theme and spoke on checking baggage ahead (good works we lay up in heaven), things that weigh us down to leave behind (bitterness, anger, etc) and carry on luggage (the rest of the Lord). It was pretty neat. For what it's worth I had already been working on simplifying life. I seem to have accumulated a lot of clutter, both literally and figuratively. Time to clean house!
Today's been pretty neat. I like government holidays that aren't holidays for the rest of us. It's a little less stressful and easier to catch up on paperwork. So what am I doing but sitting here blogging instead of working! Shame on me!
10.02.2007
This has to be fast as I'm on a tight schedule to get everything done before I LEAVE tomorrow! It's our womens group's annual Far Above Rubies retreat. I've lost track of how many years I've gone to this but it's still great enough I don't want to miss. I never leave without being challenged and refreshed.
OK, so I was going to share some of my various potions and remedies . . . so here's a jewel of a quickie: Arbor Oil
I've been using this magnificent product several years now, mainly for cold and sinus related problems. I've use it by spraying it a time or two on the tissue then inhaling the vapors off the tissue. When I catch a sinus or cold condition coming on it will clear my head and kill bacteria which prevents the condition from worsening. One friend uses it on airplanes where the air is recycled.
OK, so I was going to share some of my various potions and remedies . . . so here's a jewel of a quickie: Arbor Oil
I've been using this magnificent product several years now, mainly for cold and sinus related problems. I've use it by spraying it a time or two on the tissue then inhaling the vapors off the tissue. When I catch a sinus or cold condition coming on it will clear my head and kill bacteria which prevents the condition from worsening. One friend uses it on airplanes where the air is recycled.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)