Nature Study on an Island

Bong Tree

Hoche Cave once inhabited by Portuguese Sailors

What is this?

Desert flowers are small but beautiful.

Moringa trees grow naturally here.

The infamous bottle tree.

hunh?

Can you see our vehicle?

a fish my dh caught for breakfast.

Egyptian Vulture..very pesky.

By for now....

The Wonderful, Reusable Power of Oranges

I have discovered a wonderful all purpose natural cleaner using oranges and vinegar. I make it in minutes and it costs less than .04 cents per container. The best thing about this find is that we eat the good parts and what was going into the garbage (the peels) is now being put to use to clean mirrors, stoves, bathroom ceramics, etc. I have two items now in my arsenal against grime and bacteria, baking soda with essential oil, and orange vinegar diluted with water.

I learned about this from the Grocery Shrink. She says this...

"Orange oil is famous for it's cleaning properties. It smells great too! Harness the power of orange by soaking your peelings in vinegar. It will absorb the oils and pigment boosting the cleaning power of the vinegar.



The most economical way to make this is when you are already buying oranges to eat because they are such a great price. This usually happens in winter. I try to make enough during this season, to last me until next year.


To make: Stuff the peelings of 4-6 oranges into a glass quart canning jar. Cover with vinegar and seal with a lid. Shake every once in a while for 1-2 weeks. Strain out peelings. When finished the orange vinegar should be a dark orange color.


It is okay to start the jar with your first orange and add peelings to the vinegar as you eat them. Just be sure to leave room in the jar for the peelings when you pour the vinegar.


Use this in any of the recipes below in the place of white vinegar.


Note: When making infused vinegar, any citrus fruit will work. I've used lemons, limes, grapefruit, and tangerines with success."

What I love about this Orange Cleaner...

• It is inexpensive
• I can use it on everything even on things I used to scrub if I spray on the orange vinegar cleaner and go away for a while it works while I am working and my job is as simple as rinsing it off.
• We use it to sanitize our hands when on the go. I keep a small bottle in my car and in my bag and we are prepared for amything without the stinky smell.
• It smells lovely
• I don't get head aches from inhaling it as I clean because it is natural.
• It feels great to make use of garbage for such a wonderful purpose.
• It doesn't take lots of time or know how to make it. We bring out a clean jar when we eat oranges for a meal and everyone helps to stuff them in.

Happy healthy cleaning!

Just Say No to Bugs!

This summer I am mixing up yet another batch a wonderful substance that keeps away the mosquitoes and bugs. It’s called Vinegar of the Four Thieves. It is herbs mixed into vinegar which is then brewed and then applied externally to skin and clothes to keep the bugs away. It has no bad smell, doesn’t feel sticky, but best of all it works!!

The Vinegar of the Four Thieves is a super-strong insect repellent. It should be diluted with water to half strength if you spray it directly on your skin. This repellent can be used many ways. Splashed on your socks or shoes will discourage ticks, chiggers, and mites. An herbal cloth kept in your pocket and rubbed on your skin ever hour or so would be very beneficial during outdoor work or recreation. Or, a nightly bath with a little herbal vinegar and oil will keep it on your skin for many hours and could prove helpful for families who live in the country or while out on camping trips. It should only be used externally.

You can purchase the herbs seperately at Bulk Herb Stores and follow these directions below or purchase a premix at Bulk Herb Stores . Their button is on my side bar.

Recipe
• 2 tablespoons Rosemary
• 2 tablespoons Sage
• 2 tablespoons Lavender
• 2 tablespoons Wormwood
• 2 tablespoons Peppermint
• 2 tablespoons fresh, chopped garlic
• 2 quarts of apple cider vinegar


Directions
Combine 12 tablespoons of the premixed herbs and 2 quarts of vinegar in a sealed glass jar, and steep in a cool, dark place for 2 weeks or so, shaking daily. Then, strain out the used herbs, and retain the herbal liquid mixture.
Add several cloves of crushed garlic, and close lid. Let soak for three days, and strain out the garlic fiber and discard.
This liquid tincture needs to be stored in a cool place, like the refrigerator. It can be preserved for a very long period of time by canning. To do so, fill canning jars with boiling liquid tincture to within one-half inch of top. Cap with rubber seal canning lid, tighten ring, and turn hot jar upside down; leave it undisturbed until it cools to room temperature. This will cause the jar to seal. Don’t forget to date and label it.

The name, The Vinegar of the Four Thieves, comes from an interesting story of healing from the time of the black death plague in Europe. History records that the four thieves were arrested for stealing from the homes of the many dead victims. After their arrest, they were taken from prison and forced to bury the dead with the promise that if they lived, they would go free. One of the thieves was an herbalist, whose herbal wine vinegar purportedly kept the four thieves alive all during the Black Death. As their resistance to the disease became obvious, others started using their vinegar tincture—reportedly with great success. They lived to credit the vinegar potion for their survival.

Well, off to brew. Have a bug free summer.

Belated Easter Post

I love to take the natural alternative if there is one. This year when I thought about dying Easter eggs I thought of this post It’s about using things in your kitchen to dye eggs and I was eager to try it. So I pulled together all the natural stuff I had; spinach, coffee, beets, and turmeric. I had high hopes to brew up some fantastic dye and begin creating beautiful eggs. Unfortunately I was not as successful as the post, my beet solution was weak so I added mulberries and got a very nice dark grey blue black color. Cool but not really what we had in mind for Easter. The spinach was so yellowy brown we could not see any green in it. The coffee was a lovely shade of brown but very uneven and splotchy. I could go on but you get the idea. After missing our aim by such a long shot I was a bit discouraged, but I did learned a bit more about just how to go about this and I will be better prepared next time. In the meantime, we salvaged the badly dyed eggs and created these adorable little cheeps in a nest.  For a complete tutorial on egg dying look here

 Then I put some eggs into the mulberry and beet solution, and the coffee and left them for a few hours just to see what would happen. The colors came out much deeper and nicer. But they were still splotchy. I don’t have access to dye so I decided to make a few egg armatures out of paper clips and Styrofoam and let the boys paint the remaining white ones and the naturally dye ones with gauche paint. They did the undercoats and I added details.

The end result was supposed to be a colorful egg tree according to the German Easter Tradition, however our Easter breakfast was planned for outside in the yard at our good friends house and the wind was so strong our egg tree would have been toppled before we could set it up. We opted to hang the eggs on a near by scrub tree so the kids could help hang them. The kids loved joining in to help! After we ate BUT before I could get a picture the eggs had all been snatched down and tucked into eager little hands. This Easter I had to just let it all go!