Rose Tea Making

We have had a lot of rain in May giving me abundant roses this year. I wanted to enjoy my roses all year long. I love to bathe, eat, drink and scent my house with roses. To make rose tea you must have fresh roses that ARE NOT SPRAYED. This is very important -you do not want to drink bug spray nor preservatives from store bought. I do not spray my red roses ever. So they are safe to harvest, rinse, open and dehydrate. After drying overnight add half a jar of petals to half a jar of your favorite tea. I like to use Assam or Oolong with my rose petals. It is great with a pinch of sugar and milk. Makes a nice cup of tea that tastes and smells like roses.

Why the Glass Jars?

I have been buying 1 gallon old and used glass jars all around town. As people respond to my ad in the paper, I go and seek them out. And everyone wants to know why the glass jars? They are old, heavy, and have rusted tops. Well, plastic gives off bad stuff into our food. And if you store food like us, that is a lot of time your food gets exposed to toxins. Old glass jars do not have any of that and they can be washed and reused over and over. And the old lids can be fitted with the new canning lids. Sun brewed tea taste divine from a glass jar. Fresh whole milk from a glass jar is just the best and old timers know this. Our kids today have no idea how good food can taste when not stored in plastic. So the photo is my moving brewers yeast from plastic into a jar older than me. Out with the modern and back into the past. Somethings are just worth going back and doing over. And by limiting my exposure to foods in plastic I hope to gain years of longer good health. And I will get muscles moving these heavy glass jars around, too.

Four Duckies in a Tub

Here are our 4 baby ducklings getting some tub time. They love the water and dirty it up fast. Now they are older we can let them stay outside in a large enclosure among the chickens. They have sun, food and their tub all day long. They still do not have wings yet, just nubs. They will need the wings to get away from predators. Mainly the foxes, hawks and turtles will try to hunt our ducks. They get to forage on grass with the chickens and eat bugs. At night we take them back into the coop to sleep among the chickens.

Our New/Used Farm Truck

This past week has been crazy busy for us. We purchased a used 1 ton flatbed truck. We needed a heavy duty truck to move feed, hay and building supplies. We were tearing up our city cars with all the country roads and heavy loads. Then we drove several times into town to get the inspection, license and tax stuff at our county seat. Now the only hold up is new AC and parking break repair. And I need to learn how to drive a stick. I have avoided this type of vehicle all my life but am married to a die hard stick driver. I guess I knew this day would come and I'll have to learn. At least we have a huge field I can practice in. Going to be easier to have a heavy duty truck around the farm for a change.