Elderberry in my back yard!!

Common Elderberry in Flower with Immature Berries
 http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Elderberry.html

I am fascinated with wild edibles.  I am working on one day being able to forage with out fear.  Right now there is lots of fear of poisonous look alikes.  Today I think I had a break through! I am 98% percent sure I have an elderberry bush growing in the woods behind my house!!  Serously it was like finding gold in my backyard!! 

What did we do before technology?  Seriously? Thank god I had my phone with me this afternoon when the kids and I went for a trek through the woods.  We were just wondering around looking at bees's nest and hunting frogs when we came upon a patch of wild flowers.  Wild flowers that I'm convinced is golden seal, but that's another post.  I broke out my phone and started looking through wild medicinal herbs when this picture came up.  

 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Elderberries2007-08-12.JPG)  

Wait!! What the hell I just saw that!!  Kid's come back this way!!!  So we walk back over to the spot where I had seen the bush,  thinking nothing more of it then bird berries.  OH WOW!!  I think that really is Elderberry!!  But then the rational brain kicks in, waaaiiiit what if that is not elderberry? What if its a look alike?  What else looks like elderberry?  Why is there and elderberry bush in my back yard?  etc.  etc.

So I took lots of pictures.

Tonight I have been scouring the internet looking for plant look alikes.  The most common I have found:

Poison Hemlock:

(http://www.mdinvasivesp.org/images/conium_flwrs_klk.jpg)

 Which is really only confused with elderberry in the flowering stage

Flowering Elderberry:

(http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Elderberry.html)

Another common plant that is mistaken for elderberry 

Poke Berry:

(http://steveweems.com/blog/index.php?title=poke_berries&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)

Notice the grape like cluster of the Pokeberry.  Compared to the umbrella clusters that the elderberry has

I actually found pokeberry growing right next to my elderberry

 

Another identifying feature of the poke berry is the leaf pattern.  Pokeberry leaves grow in an alternate pattern while the Elderberry leaves grow opposite of each other.  

Pokeberry

Elderberry

Got all that?  Don't worry I'm doing plenty of homework on the subject.  Word of caution to anyone that thinks they might also have elderberry, please don't eat anything you are not 100% sure of what it is.  Pokeberries and Poison Hemlock are extremely poisonous and could kill you. Do your homework too!  

Oh the things I am going to do with my elderberries!!  Elderberry jam, Elderberry muffins, syrups!

Wonder why I'm so excited?  Elderberries are great for your immune system, full of antioxidants and rich in vitamin A and C.  Actually I think I am going to save all the Elderberry info for another post.   Maybe a series on elderberry.   For the rest of the night I am going to bask in my elderberry/foraging goodness!  

Hooray for wild edibles!!

Check out
http://www.herbalrootszine.com/articles/elderberry-vs-pokeberry/ and http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Elderberry.html

:::tap, tap::: is this thing on?

Hello Blog,

I want to post something. So I am.  I am feeling a blog re-do coming on soon.  Right! I know  great another random blog out on the intra-webs.  Seriously there are soooo many blogs how do people keep up?  Find a niche in the blog world?  Find the time to keep up?  I don't know.  I guess I will find out.

I have really wanted to talk more about homesteading with other people, mainly herbal medicines and home remedies.  I have resolved myself to not taking my kids to the doctors ever again. Ok, maybe not never, but only for serious, serious problems (i.e. broken bone).  Whats the point?  I have a scale, I can weigh the kids.  I can see them growing. I am capable of  monitoring  "milestones"  that they "should" be hitting.  Point being I know my kiddo's.  I don't need a Doctor to reaffirm what I already know.  So with no doctors and a hate for all things over the counter, what is one to do when little things pop up?  Fevers, rashes, bumps, general everyday kid aliments?   I am in the process of researching more.  I OVER research everything.  Get used to it and prepare yourself for a wealth of stolen information from around the web.

Another things I want to get into:
Emergency preparedness
Urban Chicken and duck raising
Canning and Fermenting
Crafty craftiness (EFFing Pinterest) I am thinking about hooking up with the Look what I did from Pinterest weekly challenges.
Financial fitness
more Montessori madness
cute pictures of my kids
general rants and raves

My Moment #10

"I had a new years resolution this year to take out at least once a month. And i've not done so for the last few months. Our talk today reminded me of that. Reminded me that I don't say or remind you how much i love you or how much you mean to me. How much i feel you do for us.. How you push me, when i lose focus. How you love to hear me play music and I don't. How sometimes i'm as self concious as you . I do a bad job of showing you just how important you are.Would you like to spend a morning go to the maymont. have a picnic, go on a carefree walk. I still would like to see the poe museum downtown. maybe we can go there afterwards. I know the timing of this response your email is all wrong. But i don't want to dwell on that. I don't want this to be a once and done either. So let's have a day together and many more. i love you"

My moments # 9

got to bring it back - with all the chaos I have to remember the fun/good/quality time right?

So Moment #9

Jake ROCKING out hard to Rancid
Jake lyrics to the song "under the red hot moooooon, the wheels on the bus" hahahahahah
Family dance parties in our new living room
and the Fat Rapper Dance

(not to self - video tape Jake doing the fat rapper dance! It needs to be documented)

Music - it always relives the tension ALWAYS :)

Mad Science

Make Shift Activity #2 - Mad Science

Soooo this activity was suppose to be an experiment with color – Mixing primary colors to get secondary colors (yellow + blue = green), but it turned into more of a pouring activity. Which is fine! We got in some good talking in about colors; I showed him how to make green and purple and we also had a good talk about glass and how careful we should be when using it.

Supplies:

Glass Jars
(Note: Don’t be afraid of glass! One of the biggest things with Montessori is using aesthetically pleasing supplies; the sun shining through a plastic container would not look nearly as nice.)
Food coloring
(Note: you only need the 3 primary colors (red, yellow, blue) don’t be a dummy like me and pre-make green….DUH!)
Water

What you might want:
A dropper of some sort (turkey baster, eye dropper)
(Note: this would probably keep this a color activity instead of turning it into a pouring activity)

What was supposed to happen was:
Take one color and add to empty jar
Take second color add it to jar.
Presto change-o you have a new color (ewwww ahhhhh)

What really happened :
Presto Change – O you have one color and a fun water mess to splash around.

I am not to concerned that the meaning of this activity was lost. In the end we had a lot of fun. We will revisit it again later, maybe with a dropper.

Make Shift Montessori

So it's Saturday morning 7:00 am and your 2 year old is wide awake and ready to go...whats a mama to do?

Gear up, start the coffee and oatmeal and find something to keep his brain busy for at least two minutes.

Which brings me to Make Shift Montessori activity number 1 -

Marble Motor Skills and Muffin Tin counting:

Supplies

Muffin Tin

12 marbles

Child Sized tongs (I saved this from a Deli tray- perfect fit for little hands)

This is in no way a hard activity to master. The whole point of this activity is to help learn hand eye coordination with a little math thrown in.

We started by counting the number of holes in the muffin tray.

Then we broke out the bag of marbles and counted out 12.

I didn't have to show Jake the next step on how to use the tongs to put one marble at a time in each hole. He gathered as much

And off we went one by one

Simple, free and easy! And a great way to get his little brain pumping in the morning! We worked on this for a good 30 minutes before he got tired of it and wanted his oatmeal. Counting and showing me how he could use the tongs with either his left or right hand. This activity also got him counting things all day long on Saturday.


The number theme started in our house with this book:


The Original Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book was SO awesome in helping us with the alphabet that I couldn't not check this book out!

A lot of my ideas for "activities" come from other mamas and Montessori principals. As of right now I don't have the whole Montessori shelf set up going on (right now), but a lot of what we do around here is based off the learning principals behind Montessori. Motor skills, practical life, sensory, etc. At the same time most of what we do has to be budget friendly. There is NO way I could justify spending 100 bucks on one toy. Trust me I have thought about it and concluded that it is much more fun finding things around the house and using my crafty wit to make it into a fun activity. Coffee cans, muffin tins, lentils, pots, pans...what ever.


I have a bunch of pictures of other make shift activities that we have done before and some cool ideas for the coming weeks. I think next week we are going to start with some Geography. I just got an giant map of the world at the thrift store so I need to put it to good use.

Some Christmas Pictures

The Tree at 2:00am Christmas Morning....yeah we were still up

Some of those toys are not new....but the after math

The gear machine...HUGE HIT

Animal Train

We had a hard time getting him to unwrap presents once he saw the other toys

Oh the over stimulation....Grumpy McGrumpy pants later Christmas Day

Mommy's awesome presents....Rob Zombie autographed Halloween Sticker and a TOTAL SKULL HODDIE!!!