Books for a Certain Lifestyle: Part II

Alternate titles--

Books for a Parsimonious Lifestyle

Books for Creative Living

Books to Feed the Soul

You know that I love books, right? I love books gotten inexpensively. None of these were full-price, and I assure you that none cost me over a dollar. Some may have been a quarter or free.

Book of Herbs

This book has identification pictures, history, herb garden photos, recipes and more. The cover is brilliantly colored, but tonight, I had little luck with pictures.

Back To Basics

"How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills"  I don't know how many editions of this book were released. This is the 1981 edition, presumably the first.

The Complete Book of Herbs

A practical guide to growing and using herbs

The title does not lie. There are many pictures for id, recipes, medicinal uses, pictures of dishes made with herbs. potpourri and dying. The color is beautiful.

You might think that with all the books on herbs that I possess that I would be capable of identifying herbs.  I feel clueless except for mint and basil. I read these and enjoy them. The first group of books are the ones I am most familiar with.  I told my friends in Birmingham that herbs put me to sleep each night. When they asked, and  I explained that I went to bed with a book of pretty pictures and lay in bed for a bit before sleep, they laughed. I no longer do that. sigh. I do know a bit, but not as much as others.

On the table beside me were books in a stack. On the bookshelf nearby more of these herb and lifestyle books were shelved. A friend looked at the stack and then at my shelf.

"I am going to have to come back some day and borrow a few of your herb books, so I can learn more."

I laughed. That night all herb books were taken to the mantle in my bedroom. She never mentioned it again. 

Your turn

Have you had the pleasure of enjoying these books? What are some of your favorite herb/plants/lifestyle books?

 

Homefacts

Have you ever wondered what were the chances of a tornado hitting in your vicinity? Earthquake risk? Location of fire stations, police stations, schools, brownfields? Are there any hazardous waste sites nearby? I only scratched the surface of the information you can find at this site. Yes, factors affecting your family's  economic well-being, health, and safety, including sex offenders, can be found.

When You Break an Egg

Two broken eggs--one laid Wednesday; one laid Friday

ten-day-old eggs should have been eaten first!

Do you ever have a time you would consider a good time to accidentally break an egg? Just what I thought. NO! It's not usually easy to recover from accidentally broken eggs.  I did  break an egg in my pocket once before. Yuck! And, here is a picture of my pants at another time. Yes, that is an egg in the pocket, oooozing out. Look through the comments for Wendy's funny response.

Today, I was going through eggs on the counter to get the ones with the oldest date. I had bacon cooking and was going to scramble eggs in the remains of fried bacon. Don't think I added that much grease to my eggs. I poured all the grease into a 1/2 pt fruit jar and was going to scramble them in a greasy skillet, drained of all grease.

Butterfingers Me accidentally knocked two of Thelma's eggs to the counter. So, no matter the date, I scrambled those, actually two eggs from yesterday and the day before. That was a pretty good recovery. Usually, I scrambled one of Thelma's eggs (large and brown) and one of Pepper's eggs (small and white). Not today. I had two gigantic eggs from Thelma. Recovery was easy!

Later, I was going to release the girls, throw out food, and rush to get tires on my car. Since Pepper had left me an egg, I put it in my pocket to keep it in the car so I did not have to climb the stairs to the door! I was in an extra big hurry since the tire store closed at noon, as did the bank. Because I was out of checks, I had to withdraw cash from the bank, get back to the tire store, and get all this done so they would have time to get the tires on without rush. When did banks quit giving out counter checks to be used in stores?

As I approached the bank door, I felt something cold on my thigh. Yes, I had broken an egg in my pocket AGAIN.  I stood talking to the teller, cleaning egg from my pocket with some paper towels I had gotten from the ladies' room and putting it all into a waste basket dragged from a nearby tableside. It was disgusting.  It was getting close to the time for them and tire store to close. Otherwise, I could have retreated to clean my pocket.

"Why do you have a fresh egg in your pocket?" Imagine this said in a low, incredulous tone, almost as though the speaker thought you had taken leave of your senses.

When I arrived at the tire store, limping (knee and back) and trying to hold my pants off my leg a bit, the owner looked at me perplexed. When I told him what happened...."Oh, good god!!!" By this time, egg had managed to drip to my ankles despite my best efforts.

When I finally got home the egg had sort of dried. Yolk was even on my panties! Recovery was not easy.

Earlier, I put my egg and bacon in a Tupperware bowl, along with a T tumbler with milk and another with orange juice. A mad dash to the car and a mad dash across town to pick up a friend did not diminish the taste of breakfast I ate on the run. Oh, this was two chores before the bank and tire store. Breakfast was delicious.

Your turn
Anyone besides Wendy and I who break eggs in pockets? Rolling them out of the bowl onto the counter?

Chicken Salad Pockets Recipe

From cozyhomescenes.blogspot.com

I have never made this, but doesn't it look yummy? She says the filling is forgiving, and I think that you could use homemade pastry or any other kind. I have had something similar. If I make them, they will be triangles so that I don't have to get the pastry "glued" together to make a rectangle.

Check here for the recipe. She requested all text stay on her site.

ABOUT BLOGGER: Does anyone know where my "join this site" button went? LOL so how can I get it back? I have not deleted it, but it disappeared about the time I went to new blogger.  I have gone to all blogger sites in a search for the button. It is not out there.

Your turn
Have you had these? If so, are they as good as they sound? Have you posted a similar recipe? Maybe you could share the link with us.

Treasure from My Attic

What have you found in your attic that someone before you left behind? In 1977, this was in our attic. The house was built in 1902. Sometime, between 1902 and 1977, this was placed in the attic and forgotten.

The embossed bottom reads: Crescent News Company
In the center is: price 10 cents
Maybe you can read it.

Does your mind ever make up scenarios that would explain why things are found in unlikely places? Mine does~~

     *The cup was in a box and fell out when the box was removed from the attic.
     * Someone hid the cup in the attic along with a bottle and went up to have a nip.
     * The cup was stolen and stashed.
    

Okay, those are my only scenarios. What can you imagine that would explain why this little cup, less than three inches tall, was in the attic. There is no ladder for access. The ceiling is 10' tall, so it is no mean feat to get up there.

Now I am curious as to where Crescent News Company is located. Defiance, OH has a newspaper of that name. Or, could it be from the New Orleans area?

Do you remember these little collapsible cups as common items? I do. They worked for water fountains when someone wanted to take water with them. We didn't have bottled water in the 50s.  I know Boy Scouts and such still use these. I have seen them in camping equipment areas. They collapsible cups are not as common as they once were. Hopefully, they are no longer made of aluminum.

What is your treasure or curiosity that leads you to wonder about its origin?
Your turn
What scenarios can you imagine to explain how this came to be on the floor of my attic when we moved in here? Did you ever have one of these? I did but I think it got broken when I was a child. What intriguing item have you found in your attic? Barn?

How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies and a Giveaway

I refuse to spray fruit flies like my friend suggested. She insists. I resist. I try not to spend money. I try not to spend money on poison. I try even harder not to spray poison over my sink and counters. For the last three days, I have waged battle against an increasing horde of fruit flies! Ack! One found me and is trying to sit on my nose!

The bottle-with-vinegar trick netted me one fruit fly in 24 hours. It was obviously the only stupid one and will not reproduce. The hole was the perfect size, but no, they refuse to take the bait! These smart ones are reproducing and flying!

In the last hour I have conquered about 1000 of the dastardly little fellows. My weapon of choice--the vacuum. They are sitting up to at least 8' high on the face of my cabinets, wood cabinets that make them hard to spot. When they swarm, I just wave the hose at them and swooosh they go to a sucky death.

I have everything in the sink in soapy water, will take cans to recycle outdoors. They usually have their own place in the kitchen but the fruit flies obviously thrive on corn, pineapple, and coke. Yes, I always half-wash them. I may just wash them thoroughly....sigh....sigh.

I have about 10 lbs of bananas in he refrigerator, safe from fruit flies and the oppressive heat, waiting until all the fruit flies go away so I can slice bananas without a fight. Fruit flies will go into the dehydrator if there are any left in the kitchen. Onions and celery will dehydrate while I make sure the pests are gone!

While I have no delusions that there will be none in the morning, I can guarantee there will be few. One more sweep tonight, maybe two close together. In the morning, I will have them conquered with one more sweep of the vacuum wand.

One drop of Clorox in the area where the drain meets the sink will keep them from getting any water, water they need to live. Before I go to bed, all drains and the commode will have a smidgen of Clorox. Cleaning powder with chlorine will work, too.

Oh, yeah. I will hang a piece of disgusting fly paper to help me out.

Giveaway
Go right here and find out all about it. She gives good prizes.

Your turn
Do you have luck with the bottle of covered vinegar with the hole? Do you actually catch fruitflies? Next time, I will pour Coke in the bottom of the jar or put a banana peel.

Roses and Potatoes and Scurvy

my old-fashioned roses in bloom today*

What do roses and potatoes have to do with scurvy? What do roses and potatoes have to do with each other? Roses and potatoes both supply vitamin C, a nutrient we all need in order not to develop scurvy. You may remember that sailors developed scurvy when they were on long sea voyages with only hardtack to eat.

the back fence today

In the 1700s a British Naval doctor discovered that lemons and limes prevented scurvy. Potatoes and fermented cabbage were used by some sea captains to keep the crew from developing scurvy.

Today, we have a whole range of foods (even meat) that provide us with vitamin C and is available to most of us year round. Most of us get enough C from foods and do not have to worry about scurvy. Preppers might do well to figure out food that will supply Vitamin C and store well.

Some preppers and survivalists recommend storing years of vitamins of all sorts. This bothers me that their resources are being squandered. They could use the money to better purposes, in my opinion. Vitamins don't have a long shelf life. Even then, vitamins must be stored under the right temperature and humidity conditions. Besides, storing or being able to find foods with vitamin C seems more important than storing it.

In no way is this meant as a criticism of what people are storing. Food storage and survivalism is all about present peace of mind as well as future security. If everyone of us would step back and find a better way to live a healthy life eating healthful foods, we might be more healthy right now and more healthy with our food preps. (whew, lots of healths)

A few years ago,. a friend of mine told me about rose hips. She did not live to show me rose hips. I have yet to see any except in pictures. However, they are full of vitamin C. I am no help in extracting it, but maybe someone can guide us in that direction.

People disparage the lowly potato and blame it for weight gain and diabetes. Okay, some of this is true. We all know that the variety of potato, cooking method and serving method have lots to do with potato problems. Remember, cooking destroys the vitamin C. Okay, I don't eat potatoes raw, but I could. Sailors did and saved their lives.  Potatoes with the peel are a rich source of Vitamin C.

Here  is some discouraging news for all that take Vitamin C. I am going to trust Wikipedia to have a true list of some of the foods with Vitamin C.

This post was going to be about rose hips. If anyone is afraid some force might take your stored supplies from you to redistribute, you might consider growing roses with hips. Probably no one will take your roses. Mine don't have hips. Get the right kind!

*About the first rose picture--I did nothing to enhance, lighten, or fix the color in that picture, just published it as it came from the camera. Yes, the blooms are brilliant. I don't know the name, but everyone tells me they are "old-fashioned roses," and no one knows any other name. Do you?

Your turn
Do you grow roses that have hips? Have you ever taken the hips apart to obtain the part with vitamins C?