In the last few weeks, Jari has taken down a few trees around here. We had a completely dead pine tree in the back that had to go. Brown brittle needles that made a serious fire when we burned them. The woodpecker was kept busy for a while anyway. Then went the second tree. The roof was getting damaged by the tree and when your husband is in the roofing industry ... the roof comes before the tree. So away that one went! To be honest, I had no clue what he was cutting down until it was down ... and then I sort of freaked out a little bit.
This would be contemplation. Serious contemplation. The branches that he could reach were gone and we don't have one of those lovely chainsaws anymore. Planning in action.
At this point (or somewhere along the line) I did issue a serious warning. And I mean serious. My hubby can't even handle the smell when he walks into a nursing home to visit and I have promised him (altho' that promise is not necessarily signed in blood) that he will never live in one. At the point where he was balancing the ladder to do something insane, I told him if he fell and injured himself to such a degree that I couldn't care for him ... to the nursing home he was going. His boss obviously would like him in one piece as well ... that dear man showed up with a chain saw and the tree was down. Sort of. Maybe after some yanking with the truck and some bark flying and all that kind of fun stuff.
That evening I learned that he had felled a eucalyptus tree and I went into panic mode.
Meanwhile, little man was busy chasing chickens. He doesn't think they should be out and about enjoying the nature outside their enclosure. Every boy should really have some critters in their life ... until they are ready to start laying eggs. Then I don't know what we are going to do.
Eucalyptus panic had me on the good ol' Google. Do you know that a bunch of preserved eucalyptus sells for $50??!! Penny pinching do it yourself Finn over here started collecting.
I made three bunches for the sauna. I don't use a sauna whisk but there are three hanging out there now adding some nice aroma to the cedar.
Next came the process of preserving. I am itching to make some wreaths out of the stuff I collected. Off to Sprouts to get some vegetable glycerine. Following the instructions found here, I mixed 1 part glycerine to 2 parts boiling/near to boiling water. Let it cool for a bit and then poured it into jars.
Glycerine isn't exactly a dollar store item nor is the price. I have 6 quart jars filled with eucalyptus doing their thing so there is only about an inch or inch and a half of liquid in the bottom of each jar. I did go back and add some more near the end of week 1.
I had a minutes idea to move some into bigger containers until I took a bunch and saw this going on. Little beads of silicone are traveling up the stems to the leaves or wherever they need to be to do their job. I promptly put them back in the jar and set them right back where they were. At some point I am going to need the surfaces they are sitting on and will probably move them to a cool closet shelf that happens to be open (can you believe it?!) at the moment.
I should be able to use the fluid again once these branches are done and next on the list are olive branches. Our house stays nice and cool in the winter time allowing for plenty of preserving. If these work, Hobby Lobby may have just lost a customer in their greens department! Sprouts may have gained one whenever their glycerine is on sale!
We are users of Young Living oils and have been adding eucalyptus to the sauna rocks. Oh. My. Gosh. Talk about clearing out those sinuses! I also tried to extract oil from leaves by placing them in a crockpot mixed with other oil on low for nearly a day. Big problem. Oil boils on low in my crockpot and my house wreaked of burned oil. Perhaps I should have just left it on warm but am not up for that one again. I would turn it on low and then on warm or off. Repeat. Repeat. I am going to make one more attempt at the oil business. Mix some torn leaves and soak them in oil for several weeks to see what happens. They are suppose to sit in sunlight so maybe a try at a window sill will do the trick. Will let you know if that one fails or has me picking more eucalyptus leaves in the neighborhood!
My fingers are itching to put wreaths together and just fill plain fun glass on the mantle with a a sprig or two.
A great big Happy Birthday to the man who entertains most of my whims and fancies! He celebrates another year of living today!
I am so very thankful for you.
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