Lots of yarrow growing wild.
I gathered 5 bunches to dry.
Yarrow is used on wounds (promotes clotting), reduces inflammation, is an analgesic, is used to treat fevers and pain (contains salicylic acid derivatives), is astringent and cleansing ~ there is a whole list of American Indian and Shaker uses listed in Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs. We know a lady who sells it online for $12 for 8 ounces dried and she says that she can't keep it in stock. So, I thought I should dry some. =) Maybe I will start selling it ~ we have lots of it and our land is pesticide free.
My strawberries {that the deer all ate} came back. . . along with lots of other natural grasses. You can hardly tell this is a strawberry patch.
I was pleasantly surprised to even find a few strawberries.
And some noxious weeds. Since we don't spray, we have to dig these up by hand.
My little garden area is overgrown.
And the driveway by the house was washed out by all the water this Spring.
Dylan is standing in a hole.
When we put this road in, I was sad that this area was covered up with dirt and logs. . . and now it is all washing out. I smiled. This was one of my favorite spots ~ under all that dirt is a beautiful rock ledge that I dreamed of sitting on it in the mornings and having my quiet time. Maybe I will get that after all (after a few more wet Springs). =)
I didn't get any photos inside the house, but Luke and the boys got a lot more done on the sheet rock during their Spring break trip. The bedrooms look like bedrooms and are almost all sheet rocked.
And here is a view of the house from the road:
Most of the trees along the ditch have been cleared and there is a clear view of the house from the road. The area around the house is being cleared, slowly but surely.
The property itself is overwhelming. Considered useless forest, it had not been tended in over 15 years. That and the fact that Luke wants {flat} farmland has really discouraged me.
However, this encourages me:
Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, saying, “You are a numerous people and have great power; you shall not have one lot only, but the hill country shall be yours. For though it is a forest, you shall clear it, and to its farthest borders it shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, even though they have chariots of iron and though they are strong." Joshua 17:17-18
We are in the hill country and though it is a forest, we shall clear it.
Oh, and Jordan found a snake that he thought was a rattlesnake. {This concerned me greatly knowing we had been hiking around the property without concern}. He saw it under the picnic table and followed it to the creek bed where he pinned it just as it was going into a hole. Luke held the snake with the shovel, and Jordan used the ax to finish it. I missed all the excitement, but what concerns me is that it was right by the house where we eat, slithered through the rock pile that Malachi plays in, and ended in the garden area where I had been. Luke is not convinced it was a rattlesnake ~ he thinks maybe it was a bull snake. But Jordan thought it had a rattle. Bull snakes would be welcome (they kill mice), rattlesnakes. . . not so much.
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