Beeswax, Dried Herbs, & Herbal Oils

 Well I know I haven't posted anything lately and I am very sorry. I have been a little preoccupied lately, but now it seems things may be slowing down and I was so happy to have a few days to myself to get the house in some semblance of order and to get back to my herbs. I have been pretty busy with my herbs lately, since my summer was preoccupied with other things I haven't really had the time to try to keep my herbs garden up either. So to say the least it looks pretty poorly compared to what I would've liked for it to look like. But, I got most of the weeds cleaned out of it and now all I have to do is take the weed eater to the sides and clean out the side I couldn't reach because of all the weeds. Hopefully Dad can get the weed eater fixed so I can get that done by next weekend.

  I had a few orders come in on my website and so I have to fill those (I got my first overseas order...YAY!), so I decided I really needed to make some more oils, get some beeswax and put up my herbs that I had dried a few weeks earlier, so here are the results of the past few days spent on herbs. 

Cleaning the beeswax, it smells sooo good!

Getting ready to double drain the beeswax...boy is that a messy job.

This is not for tender hands...yes, it burns!

Clean beeswax sitting on top of the water.

Finished Product.
So Beautiful!

Preparing Plantain Oil

this almost looks like I am making oregano oil...but it's plantain I promise

Finished Product, now it's ready to go into
a salve, or balm.

Dried Yarrow...waiting to be stripped and
put into jars. One of God's best healing herbs.

Dried Lavender...it smelled oh so good!

The Lavender jar, hopefully I can get it
 filled by the end of the year.

Hope you enjoyed reading and looking at the pictures, I have really enjoyed being able to get back to my herbs ;)

What did you do this summer?

Two gals +One truck x Lots of Seedlings = Lots of Fun!

This past weekend I went shopping with my best friend Jess. Now, we shop a little differently from most girls our age. While others might be headed down the road in a honda, mustang, or some other cute or sporty car, listenin to pop music we were headed down the road in this:

Scottie

listenin to some good ole fashioned Country. And while other girls might be headed to the mall, clothing outlet or somewhere cool to hang out. We gals were headed off to hit up some nurseries:





The first place we went is an awesome little nursery called Farmer D's it has all USDA Organic plants. I found a few herbs and some cayenne peppers, I was a happy gardener...what a way to start off the day!





Yes we love shopping, OUR way!!!



Family Tree Nursery had a wonderful layout and had a lot more herbs than they did last year and they also had some heirloom tomatoes, so Jess and I both were pleased!!!

If you see a cart full of peppers like this, just know it's Jess...that girl LOVES her peppers!!!

Where are those sage plants???

To many to choose from and not enough money :'(



Vegetables!!!




look at my lovely variations of oregeno Jess!!!

 Although we didn't start off like normal 20 something year old gals would have started their Saturday, we did end up where most of the teenagers and 20 something year olds were (although I could have sworn it was a bunch of three year olds in daycare), at the Theatre. We met Mama Cathy (Jessica's Mom and one of my Best Friends) at the theatre and watched Soul Surfer, aside from all the bikini clad girls it was a wonderful movie (made us all cry), but I wouldn't let my guys see it that's for sure.

Here are some pictures of us working in her garden enjoying the plants, dirt and sunshine:




Such a wonderful nostalgic look,  plants in the bed of an old truck







Sooo, when do we get started?



Peakin over all the veggies and herbs



Peakin over the veggies and herbs




Mountain mint...I love this plant.




Mint Julep...smells so good!




Golden Thyme




Blessed Hands!!




Variegated Sage...it's a pretty plant.




Me and Mak workin in the garden




Jess making rows for seeds




Intensely workin in the Garden



 Monday I started planting my garden, I didn't finish but here are some pics:



MY




BEAUTIFUL



HERBS!!!!



over $150 for all this stuff!




I always figure out where I am going to put things by setting them up the way I want them planted...




then I will plant them.




But, it took me a good long while just to figure out where everything should go




I finally got it right...well at least I think I did.




I planted a lot of Rosemary and Sage (their good companions), I am actually planning on getting more Rosemary. I want it to be like a hedge of sorts for my garden, although that will take a few years...but I'm willing to wait.




Planting Echinacea




Resting for a minute...if you can tell there is some big Echinacea plants behind the little ones I just planted, they are the ones from last year that I planted from seed and they never bloomed (apparently Echinacea is a Biennial), but this year the blooms are coming in strong...Hallelujah!!!!



Planting the Rosemary and Sage was intense work, I had to get them all in a straight line you know.
Yes I'm a perfectionist...sorry, but it's me!

All in all I have had a wonderful weekend and a great beginning to this week, I can't wait to get my other plants in the ground tomorrow LORD willing and the Creek don't rise.



Farmers, Daughters of Vision, Future Wives & Mothers
BUT ALWAYS BEST FRIENDS!!!!



What's Growin in My Garden?

My friend Jess asked me what was growing in my garden, I thought that ya'll might wanna know as well. I grabbed my sister's camera and went outside and took these pics of my garden and a few of the family pets that just "happened" to be in view of the camera lense.

Yarrow blooms



Applemint (it's taking over my garden) =)



Plantain (this is right along the edge of my garden and the cement)

Just some Pansies we planted in a pot next to my herb garden

Garlic

Echinacea

Lemon Balm

Lemon Thyme

Bee Balm

Lamb's Ear

Veregated Oregeno

Greek Oregeno (it's very tall and bush like)
A few Applemint sprigs are trying to form a
friendship with it I suppose (to the right)

Wild Lavender (it smells so divine)

Greek Oregeno
this was actually grown from seed the first year I started an herb garden

Chives

Mountain Mint

Furball: Hmmm, this yarrow looks like a good bed..

...when are you gonna leave so I can lay down in the nice comfy yarrow?



Braveheart LOVES to play very hard when we're not watching, and he hasn't noticed me yet




Uh oh, he caught me taking the picture




He's Camera shy




Furball definately isn't ;)




Aww Friends Forever (well, until Braveheart decides to "Play" with him again)

 I hope you enjoyed this post, I realize it was mostly pics but sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. If you would like to know more about the herbs that I have or need information or identification of your own plants just comment or email me ;)