While I wait

My sleeping pattern has been way off since all this stuff with Thomas & him being back to active duty....I have been up since around 2 a.m. showered & decided since I can't go to the post Office, library or grocery store yet I might as well go through some of my files. I have massive amount of herbal files, there's a book that is waiting to be written. i did start it & the computer crashed when our circuit breaker caught on fire years back...& of coarse I didn't save any of the work on disk...so a few 100 pages were lost. I was smart though in the regards I didn't throw away the hand written pages away & kept. so here they sit waiting for me to get the excitement level back up to type it all up. The reason I went through the files was someone had asked me for some herbal recipes & I came across a few that I thought would be fun to share with you. I have read 100's of books on herbs, its history, its uses, its medical properties & recipes. Most of the recipes I have collected are no longer copyrighted or in patent because they are 100 of years old so they are safe for me to share with you.
Besides my chickens, I love planting & growing herbs & flowers that are just not only pretty but can be used. Getting into chickens has sent me on the hunt for good plants/herbs that I can also give them to help them stay healthy. There is something wonderful about digging in the warm dirt & planting the seeds & then tending to them as they grow. It's like taking care of fragile little babies who need your attention for them to grow big & strong. I do love the winter when things are cold & nippy, but I also love it when the sun comes out & stays in the sky longer so I can wonder happily in my yard. this year with Thomas in Afghanistan I will not be doing a big vegetable garden to can later in the fall so I have decided on top of the garden for the chickens, this year will be the year I get the big herb garden I have been wanting to get in & plant the flowers that have yet to be done as well. Boy, that was a long sentence!
I used to own a herbal soap & bath business at one time & I miss it. Though I will not be doing large batches of items for sell this time around, I still want to make some herbal things that I do use or will use if I have them made up. the marigold salve I put in one of my blogs I love & now that after almost 13 years am low enough in it to make a good batch this summer. I really like this salve because I kept it in a cool dark place & it didn't go bad in the 13 years I had it.....now if I had used oil I bet I would have had to get rid of it a lot earlier.
Now the recipes I am enclosing are for different things I thought you might like to try if you want........

Rose Hand Cream

1 teaspoon Beeswax
1/4 teaspoon Honey
4 tablespoons of Almond Oil (Sunflower Oil is nice for this as well)
4 tablespoons of Rose Water

melt honey, oil & beeswax in a double boiler or a pan placed in another pan of water. Stir until it is all melted then stir as you slowly put in the rose Water. Remove from the heat & keep stirring until it is cooled.....Place in a wide mouth jar without the lid until it has cooled to room temperature. this is very nice to use after your bath on your feet, then put on socks. It will soften your feet & they smell nice but not overpowering.

Rose Oil, Recipe from 1586

18 ounces of a good oil such as Almond or Sunflower
3 ounces of dried Rose Petals
In a clean sterile jar put the petals in first & then the oil. Set in the sun for 40 days, shaking it ever so often. Strain out the petals & re-bottle into another clean sterile jar.

Rose Powder, recipe from 1879

1 pound of Rice Flour
1 cup of ground up dried rose petals
10 drops of Rose Oil
5 drops of sandalwood oil

Dandelion Cookies

1/2 cup of honey
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup of raw oatmeal
1/2 cup of dandelion blooms ( use only the yellow petals, not the green stuff)
Mix honey & oil together then beat in eggs & vanilla. Stir in the flour, oatmeal & dandelion blooms.
drop by the spoonful onto a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

I love this recipe & can't wait until the dandelions come up so I can gather them. For you that don't know this, dandelion helps clean out the poisons from the liver. Most people use dried root & make a tea of it but the blooms work on a very low level. & while you are grabbing the blooms, pick the small leaves & cook them up like you would do spinach....Very good for you!

Rosemary Drop Biscuits

1 cup flour ( can use whole wheat as well)
2 cups of mashed potatoes
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
3 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary
1/4 cup of vegetable Oil
1/2 cup of milk

Mix Flour, potatoes, baking powder, salt & rosemary together, slowly pour in oil & milk & beat to mix together well.
Drop by the spoonful onto a greased cookie sheet & bake at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes....When golden brown they are done.

I am hoping to get some Rosemary planted this year, I love the smell of it. For some reason every time I plant it, it doesn't want to come up so I think I would do best of getting a good size plant that someone else started. I like to just pick it & lay it on my counter for the smell, to me it smells so clean & fresh.

Update on the 'kids'.....Jasper, my male call duck has decided whenever he sees my blue Orpington hen that he has to bite her butt. but now, Porgie, the Sarama rooster has decided to get into the act & while Jasper is clamped on the the hen, Porgie is chasing the duck. This of course scares the hen even more so she is running for her life & flapping her wings as fast as she can. The other hens are staying to the sidelines just watching...definitely no loyalty there.

I have tried to grab Jasper but he won't let go so when he finally does his beak is full of her feathers so I decided to quit doing that...the poor girl is almost bare bottomed as it is! Once the grass shows back up they will be outside so hopefully she will learn to get out of his way or maybe Jasper will have a mate by then...I sure hope he doesn't do that to the girl duck...they don't have as many feathers & I may end up with a balded duckie.