assassin bugs, good food, and other misgivings.

assassin bugs. specifically, immature masked hunter bugs. if you see these things, freaking...run.

so, this morning, i was screwing around with my glasses. the screw had fallen out of one side last night, and i had secured it with some wire that i snatched off of a needle threader. well, when i took my shirt off this morning, it pulled the wire out of my glasses, so as i was trying to get it back in, i stabbed myself in the finger. good enough to draw blood. this, of course, pissed me off. i ended up breaking off part of the wire as i was putting my glasses back together. a minute later, i put on my intended shirt, rescued from the pile of clothes on the floor. i walked out to show wes where i stabbed myself, and i thought i had the fallen wire stuck in my shirt or something. SEARING PAIN. so i rip my shirt off, and i'm wondering why it hurts in two totally different areas. i look down, and oh ho, dear readers, this was no wire poke. within a minute, i had two swollen blood blisters a little smaller than the size of a pencil eraser, and wheals around the blisters the size of half dollars. so, i'm thinking, great. brown recluse or black widow in my shirt, i'm going to die. way to stay positive. i examine my shirt, and instead come up with this delightful little critter:


keep in mind, this thing is freaking small. and the size of the bites i got..well, not so small. i didn't know at the time it was an assassin bug, but the skin reaction and ensuing numbness and tingling in the area of the bite (which were on my left breast and underarm) freaked me out, as did the stomach ache. so, i called Botsford. they said, sounds like an allergic reaction, mosey on over. i scooped up the critter in some tupperware, brought it in, talked to some doctors. they didn't know what it was, and treated the reaction as an allergy - prednisone and antihistamines. the swelling is nearly gone, and the pain is under control. you can read more about masked hunters here - http://ping.fm/f7LoQ

When they say that assassin bug bites are some of the most painful, they're not messing around. it felt like a hot wire. it was excruciating. i've been stung by bees and wasps, even bitten by fire ants. it does not compare. not even a little. ...bastard. thank god we're too far north for those to carry chagas disease.

moving on here...
i've been noticing a RIOT of purslane in the parking lot here at work, as well as other stuff like perennial sowthistle, wild lettuce, lambs quarters. it really makes me think about and appreciate that some plants do much better without cultivation. i work in a heavily polluted industrial area, and here is this green and red stuff just bursting out of the cracks in the pavement...it's amazing.

i also saw some prostrate spurge, and they certainly do look much different. whereas purslane has thick glossy leaves like jade plants, the spurge has papery leaves, a much more straggly looking red stem, and a red tear shaped drop in the center of the leaves. also, there's the stuff that comes out of the stems when you break them. like latex, only it pissed my skin off.

cooking (and eating) adventures this week have included:

+ raw food mushroom tamales with mole sauce and salsa, courtesy of holly
+ pan fried stuffed grape leaves my sister and i made with grape leaves harvested from my back yard, fresh raw milk mozzarella from zingerman's (oh dear god that stuff is good), basmati rice, chipotle, lemon, cabbage, garlic, onions, tomatoes, and butter toasted pine nuts. This recipe was courtesy of Loba's Lovin Kitchen, and can be found over at the Anima Center's blog - http://animacenter.org/blog/?p=245
+fresh raspberries and sliced peaches both nights for dessert, a winning combination. With homemade whipped cream on it, when my sister was here.

plus, i got to share the delicious parcels of grape leaves with my neighbor, who hates my grapevine and asked that i cut it down (i did, it grew back). she liked them.

i got the costs associated with the associates degree program, and they are remarkably high. i have to sleep on it for awhile....i just don't know if i can commit that much money, especially not when HHP's are not licensed here. plus, there's other people i want to study with. i don't know. we'll see.

up yours, tidy bowl man.

so, as many know, i like to stick it to the man in nice, small comfortable ways. and by this i mean, if it's going to land me in jail, i probably won't do it, but if it saves me money and requires testicular fortitude, i might.

so, my house is a mess. i mean, really really nasty. i hate cleaning, i always have, my dad used it as a punishment when we were growing up. as such, my toilets need to look like something housing a creature from the black lagoon before i'm like, hey, i should probably go ahead and clean that. well, today we were out of pretty much everything we use to clean, minus some ms. myers counter spray, which we were running dangerously low on. i've got a book called, clean house, clean planet, and it's got all sorts of recipes for do it yourself cleaners, as well as tips for doing things naturally (you know, like washing your windows using newspaper for a streak free shine). so i whipped up a batch of "hollywood bowl" using castile soap (thank you, dr. bronner), baking soda, vinegar, water, and tea tree oil. cleaned the toilets better than commercial products, and it smelled nice (if you like the smell of tea tree. if not, sorry man). So, that's right, up yours, clorox. up yours, tidy bowl. my cleanser smells better and my kid probably won't die if he decides to eat it, although he might throw up. i made it myself, it was cheaper, it cleaned better, and it smelled better.

however, my cats might die. i made sure the lids on the toilet bowls were closed, and didn't clean the outside of the toilets with them. i'm wondering what good antibacterial EO can be usen in something like that that's not overwhelmingly toxic to my four legged friends (or enemies. depends on who threw up in the bed and who i've caught pooping in my garden.)

bonus? i've got a recipe for castile soap in my inbox. but it uses lye, and that's not something i keep around the house. someday soon, i'll get some and keep it in the garage.

let's see...what else.

united plant savers conference was awesome. herb walk with jim mcdonald, class on medicinal mushrooms with george vaughn, a lecture by althea northage-orr. i meant to go to the fermentation class, but was in the wrong building. whoops. overall, it was pretty great. watched what i thought was going to be a plane crash while out on the walk, i nearly lost control of my bowels. it even freaked wes out, and he doesn't get freaked out pretty much ever. it was SUPER low, way under 1,000 feet, and quite loud, coming in sideways. come to find out later, romeo airport was about 10 miles away. it was a 4 engine plane, we guessed a cargo.

today was busy - made some tea for my mom, went over to visit her for awhile. made a summer squash souffle, 2 loaves of zucchini cinnamon bread, the toilet cleaner, cleaned the house, changed the beds, planted fall veggie seeds, put up 4 tinctures, one of which was calendula, which i am sure i did wrong.

herein follows my horrible account of putting up tinctures with no practical experience, reliance on someone else's formula, and no in-person teacher.

dried calendula flowers are light as air. to make a tincture, it's a 1:5 ratio, wherein you need 1 oz herbs to 5 oz liquid. calendula needs 70% alcohol, so if you're using 100% ethanol (grain alcohol), you'd do 3.5 oz of alcohol, the remaining 1.5 oz should be distilled water. first, you can't get grain alcohol here, and it's illegal to ship alcohol into the state as far as i know. i picked up a bottle of polish rectified spirits, which is about 76% alcohol. so, it was about 4.6 ounces of the spirits, the other .4 oz were water. that's all good and fine, simple math. then you run into, is that oz by volume or oz by weight? because an oz by volume of rectified spirits is different than by weight? i did by volume, which is what michael moore of SWSBM says to do. here comes the problem. are you ready? an ounce of dried calendula flowers is like....80% of a quart sized mason jar. no lie. 5 oz by volume of fluid does nothing. it sits in the bottom of the jar like swamp water. ...wth? i wish i had a real teacher. i'm not nearly far enough into my curriculum at ACHS to have anything more than a basic recipe (1 oz dried herb to 1 pt fluid, which is not really a recipe, but more of a general guideline), and i routinely fail to make connections... man. i know people make calendula tinctures all the time, but i'm a fish out of water. i need help. i'm considering posting to the herbstudent list...but i hate looking like a douchebag. Gonna have to do it, though.


Tinctures should be ready in two weeks. they're for my mom's diverticulitis. good thing they last a year and a half, too. i'm sure she'll have another attack before then.

this week - finishing up the liver unit @ ACHS. harvesting grape leaves (pan fried grape leaves a la The Anima Center, oh yes). i HAVE to finish the vegetable garden book and make more tracks on the canning book. i need a pressure canner. raw food extravaganza. cooking with my sister.