mjkisner – Page 36 – Mary's Musings

Scaled Down Summer Festivals

This is the second year that our large local summer festivals were cancelled. Even though things are finally opening up, large festival schedules had to be finalized in March. So, all Memorial Day activities, from the Fireman’s carnival and parade to the huge craft fair that usually attracts over 130 vendors, were cancelled. The 4th of July fireworks and day-long celebration had to be reduced to having a smaller fireworks display incorporated into a minor league baseball game.

The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts (https://arts-festival.com) that is held in downtown State College and The Peoples Choice Festival (https://peopleschoicefestival.com) usually held in Boalsburg in July was cancelled for the second year in a row.

It has been interesting that smaller community festivals are being organized around the county to fill the empty weekends. These smaller venues are easier to plan, attract smaller crowds and give folks a place to celebrate getting back to normal.

This weekend in Boalsburg, on the grounds of the Columbus Chapel & Boal Mansion Museum (https://www.boalmuseum.com) a small festival was set up for a few vendors to share their wares. Ted’s family and I checked it out and got to see the inside of the Boal Barn that is under renovation. We had a few food choices, some interesting items for sale and time to wander the Boal Mansion property. A beautiful day was served up by Mother Nature and we feel like we’ve had a break from isolation. Hopefully, something resembling “normal” will develop over the next year. Here are a few pictures of the Boal Mansion “Antiques, Arts & Crafts” festival:

The Boal Barn is being renovated and will be air-conditioned.

One granddaughter found a lovely ring at this booth.

Had to make sure to show Bert this picture of this PRR Lock with Key. He has several but he’s always interested in what’s out there.

During the weekend, I let my granddaughters loose with my polymer clay. I think someday I might see their art creations at a festival someplace!

Sometimes the BEST festivals are with family! Enjoy your local festivals!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

When the Lights Go Out!

Things happen…or they don’t! A large thunderstorm rolled through the area last night (not related to the approaching hurricane from the South). Ted is visiting from California; Erin and the girls arrive this evening. Around 7 p.m. the power went out and apparently to about 4,000 homes around us. State College did not lose power. Since it was still somewhat light outside, we gathered a few flashlights and Bert found two oil lamps that were ready to go.

I think the clock says 9:20…when I got around to take a picture.

Bert plugged the small wired princess phone in that we save just for these occasions so we could call out if necessary. The land line still worked but the cordless phones would not when separated from their bases. Of course, our cell phones still worked.

Ted was headed out to visit a friend in State College…and then we remembered the automatic garage door would not open without electricity. Undaunted, Bert and Ted manually lifted the door and Ted went off to visit.

As it got dark, we found ourselves sitting at the dining room table where the Aladdin lamp was. Bert was able to play Solitare and with the help of my Powerjak, I charged my phone while I finished reading a book on Kindle. No problem. Luckily, the dinner dishes were done and no machines were running. We had turned the air conditioners off when the storm started because surges of energy are hard on them.

We had a nice evening. West Penn Power said the power could be back on by 10:30 p.m. so we stayed up for a while. It felt like we were at camp…with indoor plumbing!

I was reminded of all the women way back when who had to do their mending and quilting by lamplight. Carrying a flashlight from room to room I could see all the projects I could not do right then, from my sewing machine to the computer. Not enough light from the oil lamps to do my hand stitching for my old eyes either! How times have changed!

When we went to bed the power was still out. It was amazing how dark it was…no tiny lights from various electronics; no dusk-to-dawn lights shined across the yard; no light from the neighbors. However, a glow in the sky told us that State College still had electricity. Power came back on about 1:00 a.m. We got up to turn off lights and reset battery backups.

This morning, we found bits of debris from the trees littering the ground but the plants near the patio did just fine. It’s still raining, so I’ll wait a while to check out the garden on the hill.

The Spearmint was a little beat down in the middle, but it is fine.

And of course, it was time to recharge my Powerjak…get it ready for the next time!

I’m expecting to hug the rest of Ted’s family later today. We have not seen them for two years due to Covid travel restrictions, so we’re ready for some hugs! Enjoy your day!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Make a Fabric Box to Hold a Gift

Last week I was brainstorming a nice way to package up three odd shaped items to use as a gift. I didn’t want to have to stock up on small wicker baskets to do the job. My daughter suggested I make a fabric box like the ones I gave to the grandkids. That way I could make one at a time as I needed them. At the time I cranked out a whole bunch of them for gifts and for a greyhound conference and I still have a few around the house.

Luckily, I saved the link to the tutorial, because frankly, I couldn’t remember how to make them! The original instructions are from a website by Connie Kresin Campbell. Here is the link to the tutorial:

https://conniekresin.com/2014/12/fabric-baskets-tutorial.html

What I do recall about these boxes was they perfectly held a square box of tissues but they were not sturdy enough to really pick them up without squishing them. However, they could be made in any appropriate fabric for most any holiday.

I wanted to refresh my memory about how to make them so I referred to the link above. I documented my steps here, but they do mirror the ones in the tutorial from Connie.

How to Make a Fabric Box

Materials:

Two 16″ squares of coordinating fabric, one will be the outside of the box, the other the lining.

One 16″ square of lightweight low loft batting

4 buttons

Instructions:

Sandwich the fabric, right sides together, on top of the batting square.
Stitch around the “sandwich” with a 1/2″ seam, leaving a 3-4″ opening to turn.
Trim the corners to reduce bulk.

4. Turn the “sandwich” right side out. Press the finished square. Hand or machine stitch the opening closed.

5. Quilt the square in any pattern you like…free motion, straight lines, wavy lines, etc. (Hint: Unless the fabric is quite stiff, the fabric will “creep” as you sew. I started all my stitching from the center to reduce this problem. I also started with two diagonal rows of stitching to stabilize it.)

6. Decide which side will be the outside of the box. Fold the square in half with the lining out.

7. Mark the corners 3″ by 3″ with a ruler and pen. Stitch on the lines. Trim close to the stitching.

8. Open the square and fold again in the opposite direction. Mark the corners, stitch and trim as before.

9. Turn the box right sides out. Pinch each corner flat and top stitch as shown below:

10. Fold down the points and add a button to secure them.

I had three items that I wanted to put in this box. They are lumpy and the basket is hard to pick up.

I think I will have to figure out how to shrink wrap them like a gift basket so they are easier to pick up, or I’ll have to put a handle on the fabric box and add a piece of stiff cardboard inside on the bottom of the box.

I’ll be glad to hear any suggestions you might have! Anyway, now I’m clearer about how to make these boxes…and you can try it too! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly if you have suggestions at marykisner@comcast.net.

Garden Produce to Winter Vegetable Soup

I always have winter vegetable soup in mind when I’m planning my summer garden. Eating fresh produce is wonderful, but in Pennsylvania if we depended on our small garden for everything, we would be pretty hungry this time of the year. Lots of tiny green beans and hard green tomatoes, but that’s about it. Even with local farmers’ markets, most of us are limited by our frost dates. Yes, there are some folks with greenhouses, high tunnels and cold frames, but if you look at where much of the produce at our grocery stores is shipped from, you’ll notice locations and countries across the globe.

One of the books I re-read every spring for inspiration is by Barbara Kingsolver, titled Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, (2007).

This is a non-fictional account of her family as they move from Arizona to a family farm property in Virginia. She documented their efforts to eat only what could be grown in their local area, beginning with asparagus in the early spring through the next spring, using foods they had grown and preserved. This account is a good reminder of how many of our families had to survive before foods were transported from far off lands. It was a very dedicated family project!

To me this was an incredible effort to show how it can be done by adjusting our daily recipes to use local foods and finding ways to preserve the foods we do grow so we can use them in the winter, spring and early summer.

I have no interest in trying to duplicate their year-long project, but I am inspired to find ways to preserve the foods we do grow so they are available in the winter. I have grown basil, parsley, thyme and oregano in the past. I still have little jars of dried parsley, thyme and oregano in the cupboard. I needed more basil flakes, so I made sure I had some in the garden this year. Last year I dehydrated kale just for fun. That made a nice addition to vegetable also.

A quick buzz in the blender made kale flakes to add to soup!

Our tomatoes will be cut up, cooked enough to soften them and canned or frozen to be added to soup or made into spaghetti sauce. (Sorry…no pictures of canned tomatoes…all gone! It will be several months before I have any ripe tomatoes.)

We did not grow corn this year, but we will eat it in season when it’s available at the farmers’ market. We’ll cook a little more than we eat each time, cut it off the cobs and freeze or dehydrate it. At the end of the season, I can pick up a bushel of corn and do a marathon of dehydrating!

This early corn…from someplace else…was not very sweet but will work in soup this winter!

We will eat green beans fresh and the extra is snapped, blanched and dehydrated. They will take up so much less room than frozen!

I always try to have dehydrated onions and celery available. They are easy to store and fill in if the celery that has been shipped from California or Mexico doesn’t look good.

And of course, stock! There is usually canned stock or broth in the grocery store, but if I have it in the freezer, I prefer that. When I cook a chicken, I always try to make my own stock. Canning is worth it if I have a huge batch. Otherwise, it goes into the freezer. Check out how to make chicken stock in an earlier post from May 20, 2021.

As you know, vegetable soup is pretty flexible. After dried vegetables have simmered a while in the broth to reconstitute, I check the refrigerator to see what other vegetables or meat could be added. Adding fresh carrots, onions or potatoes is easy.

If the weather is miserable outside, there’s nothing like taking time to make a batch of soup noodles! That was always fun when the kids were little. Bert has memories of making noodles with his Grandmother…there was no other choice but to make them yourself! I have not made noodles since I discovered I couldn’t eat eggs, so I’ll have to find a different recipe!

I always feel like I’m the Ant in the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper. It gives me such satisfaction to know I could pull a hearty soup together from just what I have in the house. Give it a try with the resources you have! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly if you have questions at marykisner@comcast.net.

Garden Update: June 29, 2021

By this time in the garden…about 5 weeks after planting everything…we are seeing some successes and some failures. Frustrating, but totally expected. Between the weather and the bugs, it is almost guaranteed that some plants do very well and others don’t. Things can change even in few days. Ahh, the adventure of gardening! Thank goodness for the Farmers’ Market and even the produce in the grocery store.

It has been 15 days since our last measurable rain. We’ve had some dark and cloudy days, a little sprinkle now and then. We know this because Bert has tracked our rainfall for over 20 years, every day from March 1 to November 30. Our rain gauge measures to the 100th of an inch. Remember, Bert’s an engineer!

We’re grateful for the rain barrels to keep everything watered.

Two weeks ago, the cucumber plants that Bert started indoors back in April were doing very well.

Two weeks ago, these were the cucumber plants.

Over the last few days, I even found 4 small cucumbers that I ate immediately! Yummy! Yesterday the plants were wilting and even with watering they did not perk up. Absolutely dead! With a little online research, Bert found that the culprit was probably a bacteria in the soil. That particular raised garden has had the same problem over the years…first with strawberries and last year with cucumbers. Looks like we need to try to find seeds/plants that are resistant to that issue, or at least plant something else there. Anyway, Bert pulled out the dead plants.

Now we’re left with the plants that we planted directly in the garden from seed. So far, they are doing well but I’m not optimistic that I’ll get any cucumbers! We’ll see.

Now how about the rest of the garden! My raised planter is doing well. My second batch of radishes are almost ready and the lettuce has been picked and replanted.

Second planting of lettuce…only Black Seeded Simpson this time.

Carrots looking good…however, the beets (at the top, two partial rows) didn’t even come up at all!

Lots of green tomatoes. These are Burpee’s Super Sauce tomatoes. Should get twice this size before ripening.

However, Bert found these aphids on the back of all the tomato leaves! Time to spray!

Echinacea plants finally look healthy. Even some flowers are starting! I sure thought they would be much taller by now.

And of course, the Spearmint is doing well. I plan to use some of the leaves fresh for infused water and dehydrate some for tea.

That’s the tour. We certainly don’t grow all the vegetables we like to eat, but over time we’ve decided to let local growers handle the things we don’t have room for (like corn) or the things we don’t eat very much of (like squash and potatoes). Every other year or so I’ll go to the Farmers’ Market at the end of the season and pick up a pile of cucumbers to make relish, or even tomatoes and make ketchup. Our carrots will stay in the ground until probably Thanksgiving and we’ll just dig them up as we need them.

The older we get we know which vegetables are labor intensive and which we don’t want to mess with anymore. As the season goes on, I’ll start preserving any abundant vegetables by canning, freezing or dehydrating. More on that as I do it!

Please comment or email me directly if you have questions at marykisner@comcast.net.

Difference Between Essential Oils and Fragrance Oils

Essential Oils

Many of the projects I’m working with now include at least one essential oil. These oils impart a subtle scent to the products I’m making with added benefits like being soothing to the skin, or especially healing to damaged skin. Many essentials oils can be taken internally or can be used in aromatherapy.

Essential oils are extracted from different parts of a plant, such as flowers, stems or roots, usually through the process of steam distillation and are not cut with a type of carrier oil. Essential oils are difficult to reproduce synthetically since they can be made up of 50-500 different naturally occurring chemicals found in the plant. Many of these chemicals have not even been identified.

Most of the oils I use are essential oils. With a few exceptions, my products are meant to be soothing or healing to the skin…whether human or canine! For example, my lotion bars and soaps often include Lavender and Manuka Essential oils.

The Flea and Tick repellent includes Lemongrass, Eucalyptus, Rose Geranium and Lavender essential oils. This mixture needs to be safe for the dog’s skin.

Oils used in the flea and tick repellent.

Fragrance oils

Fragrance oils are created in a laboratory. One of the main benefits of using these oils is that they are are non-volatile and the scent generally lasts longer than essential oils. However, they don’t provide the same health benefits as essential oils. They are designed purely for the purpose of mimicking a scent. Fragrance oils are problematic because these synthetic compounds are drying and irritating to the skin and can cause many other health problems. These compounds are hard to get away from as they’re found in most commercially offered cleaning products, room fresheners, personal care products, laundry soap, baby diapers, toilet paper, food, drinks, candy, toys and so on! If you have allergies, you have already learned how to read the fine print on products you buy.

A benefit of fragrance oils is their cost! They cost about half as much as the essential oils. Taking advantage of their long-lasting scent, I use fragrance oils in a few products. In my air-dry clay air freshener, I’ve found the essential oil lasts about a day. The fragrance oil will last for several weeks. In an air freshener, the scent is what matters to me.

Before I realized the cost difference, I used Citronella essential oil in my beeswax candles. I could have saved some money with the fragrance oil…although I don’t know if that scent would still repel mosquitos or if it’s something in the components of the oil that is given off when the candle is burned. We’ll see this summer!

Read Labels Carefully!

I can see it would have been very tempting to use a Lavender Fragrance Oil instead of Lavender Essential Oil in my products, since I use so much of it, but I think I would not have been able to say my products are good for your skin. However, they might have had a nice strong scent of Lavender for a longer time.

Read labels carefully on the products you buy. If it is supposed to be soothing to your skin, make sure it says Essential Oil! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly if you have questions, at marykisner@comcast.net.

Natural Bug Repellent for Dogs

All my work with essential oils has been geared for human use. I’ve been asked if this salve or that lotion can be used on their dogs and cats for their skin issues. (At the end of this post is an article from a veterinarian about which essential oils are safe for dogs and cats. This helped me a lot in choosing which oils would be safe in my spray.)

Today was my “chemistry experiment” day…where I experimented with making a Flea and Tick Repellent for dogs (but not cats). Here are two books I just got that have lots of recipe ideas.

The recipe I’m using today came from a website on the internet. Most of the recipes are pretty similar, with water, essential oils and something that serves as an emulsifier to disperse the oils in water.

Forgot to add the 1/4 teaspoon of Polysorbate 20 to the recipe. It was the emulsifier.

Last week I prepared to make this spray by ordering the 8 oz. spray bottles, the Lavender Hydrosol (basically lavender-infused water) and Rose Geranium essential oil. I already had the other oils. Then it was recommended I include an “emulsifier” to help the various essential oils disperse in the water. So, I ordered the Polysorbate 20.

I chose 8 oz. spray bottles because I was planning to give these to several folks that would test it for me.

I did not have enough Lavender Hydrosol to use only that instead of plain water, so I portioned it out so each spray bottle had 2 ounces. It smells really good!

Since the total amount of drops of essential oils measured to about 1/4 teaspoon, I added 1/4 teaspoon of the Polysorbate 20 that would help disperse the oils in water.

Then I filled the bottle the rest of the way with filtered tap water, screwed on the spray top and shook it up. Looks like the oil is dispersed just fine!

This spray is just for dogs. My research into which essential oils are safe showed that this will work for dogs, but NOT for cats. See the information below:

What Veterinarians Say About Essential Oils

I’d like to share what various veterinarians have recommended for which essential oils are safe for dogs and cats. There are many long lists of essential oils that are BAD for your pets. It’s easier to show you the list of oils that are SAFE for your dogs and cats.

This list came from Dr. Maranda Elswick, who is a licensed Veterinarian in Florida and Virginia:

Essential Oils Safe for Dogs include:

Cedarwood oil, Chamomile oil, Citrus oils (including lemon oil and orange oil), Eucalyptus oil, Fennel oil, Frankincense oil, Helichrysum oil, Lavender oil, Lemongrass oil, Certain mint oils (peppermint, spearmint), and Rose oil.

Essential Oils Safe for Cats include:

Chamomile oil, Jasmine oil, Lavender oil, and Rose oil.

So you can see, it matters what your pets are exposed to.

If you find your dogs or cats are experiencing mild respiratory irritation after inhaling an essential oil, move them to an area with fresh air.

If an essential oil causes irritations after contact with your pet’s skin or fur, wash the area with a pet-safe dishwashing liquid, such as Dawn.

If your dog or cat ingests an essential oil, consult with your veterinarian or poison control center immediately. Do NOT induce vomiting.

Good advice from Dr. Elswick!

I will make sure that the label on the final spray bottle will say NOT FOR CATS! I may also print out the list of safety warnings above on how to help your dog or cat if they have a reaction to this spray.

That was my chemistry experiment of the day! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly if you have questions at marykisner@comcast.net.

The Best Vegan Muffin

I finally found a recipe for a Vegan Banana Blueberry Walnut Muffin that actually rises and tastes good! I’ve tried adapting regular recipes by removing the eggs and substituting the milk with almond milk, but for some reason that just doesn’t work.

When I find a recipe online, I’ll print it out, put it in a plastic sleeve in a notebook. As I experiment with the recipe I’ll write directly on the printout and even write comments like I did on this one (Tasty).

Once I’ve made the recipe several times and like how it turns out, I’ll retype the recipe into the format I’m most comfortable with (see below). This format seems to be common with the Joy of Cooking cookbook that I’ve been using for years. I can glance down the bold-typed list and easily see the ingredients I will use.

This morning, after I retyped the recipe I decided to make a batch.

First, I preheated the oven to 400 degrees. Because I could see (down the list of ingredients) that I needed bananas and blueberries, I got them out of the freezer first to let them thaw. Then I chopped the walnuts so they were ready to go.

Step 1: I put all the dry ingredients into a big bowl:

Step 2: In the small bowl with the smashed banana I put the oil and the almond milk and mixed them up.

Step 3: Then I added them to the dry ingredients and stirred them up.

Step 4: I folded in the walnuts and the blueberries.

Step 5: I divided the batter into the muffin cups.

Step 6: I put them in the preheated oven for 23 minutes. They needed that extra minute because the bananas and blueberries were still pretty cold when I mixed them in.

They are a perfect mid-morning treat! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

A Dog Shampoo for Fleas and Ticks

Now that I’ve fallen in love with making my own soap and learning about the uses of essential oils in skin care products, why not think about making a shampoo bar for dogs that would help with fleas and ticks? While I don’t have a dog to care for, my greyhound connection is always giving me great ideas about products I could make.

Usually, I start collecting ideas by going to Pinterest. That always gives me ideas about what other folks have tried. Lots of folks have dog shampoo bars for sale or recipes to make your own. They are “all natural” and “safe” and cute!

I guess a dog’s needs are becoming just as important as they are to their owners. The chemicals in commonly used treatments for fleas and ticks are pretty strong and frequently systemic.

“Give your dog this pill and fleas and ticks will die if they bite your dog.”

“Put this chemically-laced collar on your dog and the chemicals will be absorbed into their skin…and the fleas and ticks will die if they bite your dog.”

Then dog owners are faced with the side effects of the chemicals…skin irritation, vomiting or even respiratory problems. Just like with people, sometimes the side effects of a treatment are not worth it!

Basically, you want to remove the fleas and ticks before they bite your dog. Any soap and water will do the trick. Often Dawn dish washing liquid is used as the base for a liquid shampoo. Shampoo bars start with simple soap bases, like Goats Milk or Shea Butter soap bases. Then essential oils can be added that naturally repel fleas and ticks.

CAUTION: Do not apply essential oils directly to the skin. Essential oils are extremely potent and can cause irritation, itchiness, redness and other side effects when applied undiluted. Always use a neutral, plant-based oil that is safe for the skin (like coconut oil, sweet almond oil or jojoba oil) to dilute essential oils before applying them to your pet’s skin.

Just as burning a Citronella candle will keep mosquitos away, essential oils like Lemongrass, Eucalyptus and Neem oil have strong scents and will serve the same purpose.

The scent of Lavender oil naturally repels fleas and ticks, making it unlikely that any will burrow into your animal’s fur. It also prevents tick eggs from hatching, so if they did make it onto your dog’s skin, they would not be able to reproduce and would quickly die off. Lavender oil is extremely soothing and has antibacterial properties to help prevent infection.

Fleas hate the scent of Lemongrass oil and will generally stay away from it. The active ingredients, citral and geraniol, are natural repellents.

Cedarwood oil, Rosemary oil, Clove oil and Manuka oil are some of the others that are effective.

Basically, you can mix 5-10 drops of these oils to your dog’s regular shampoo and it will keep the pests away. In a solid shampoo bar, the oils are added after the soap mixture is melted and before pouring the mixture into molds.

You can also mix the oil with water and make a spray for your dog’s coat or pet bed. Adding essential oil to a diffuser is another great way to debug your house.

I made up a simple batch of a dog shampoo bar with Goats Milk and Shea Butter soap bases, Vitamin E oil (for a preservative), and Lemongrass, Lavender and Manuka essential oils. Amounts of each are still being tested with a pet groomer.

Now we’ll wait and see if the bars are the right size and shape for the groomer to use. My experiment of the day! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Garden Update: June 14, 2021

We had over 2 inches of rain last night and I thought I’d better see how beat down the garden was. Luckily, there are no puddles in the gardens so it looks like the garden beds are draining well.