Current News You Can Use

Kombucha brewing.  The scoby is so thick because I have not made more since I stopped drinking it. Kombucha is black tea and sugar cultured with a “scoby” or “symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast,” a white, rubbery bacterial/fungal matte that has been kept alive, divided and multiplied for perhaps thousands of years since it was discovered in Asia.  It’s also called Manchurian Tea and the scoby is also called a “mushroom.” After a week of culturing, it has a sweet-tart flavor that becomes more tart as the week passes.  It has a vinegary scent that is off-putting, but once one tastes, one can become quickly addicted.  This drinker likes it best diluted with ice and flavored with fruit juices, like apple and tart cherry. It’s good to drink because the scoby converts the sugar and tannin in the tea mostly to vinegar with maybe 1% alcohol, very good for the digestive system, and otherwise good for health.  It cannot go bad, just more tart, because ...

          Few things make one's skin crawl like ants running all over the kitchen counters and bathroom.   But we can do something about ants in the house.   Fill a spray bottle with Listerine.  Spray them; watch them squirm and die; and wipe them up.  Do so wherever you see them; keep a small spray bottle in each room they tend to appear.  Walmart has cute little spray bottles that are perfect for the job. Listerine kills ants with the same aromatic oils and alcohol that kill the germs in your mouth.  Natural pest control companies use much the same kind of oils to kill insects in and around your house, in much greater concentration for longer effect, I’m sure.  The oils soften their exoskeletons, clogging their breathing holes.  On small ants, it works immediately; larger ones take a little longer to die. Listerine kills ants only as long as it is wet; once it evaporates, they will return.  Persistence wins t...

          St. Patrick’s Day           Run For The Law 10k Run or 5k Walk/Run & Kid’s Dash March 15, 2014  ▲Run our 10k or walk/run our 5k course starting and ending at Club Northwest with chip timing! Starts at 8:30am March 15th. Kid’s dash for youth 12 and under will start promptly at 8:40am. ▲Race awards include: $150 for 1 st place overall; $75 for 2 nd place overall; a metal/keychain for 1 st , 2 nd , & 3 rd place male and female overall and in each age category for runs. ▲Everyone participating in the kid’s dash will receive a ribbon.  All participants will receive race packet filled with coupons or items donated by sponsors. ▲Registration for run includes a free ticket in the raffle for an iPad! Additional tickets can be purchased on race day for $5.00 each.  Drawing will be held after the race, need NOT be present to win. ▲Check out our vendors near...

          A great eating green that holds up well through the winter is worth paying attention to.  One that also can be used to treat eye infections is even better. Chickweed under the locust trees Chickweed is already blooming and shedding seed down by the Rogue River along the bike/walking trail at the end of Greenwood Avenue.  It started growing this year months earlier than usual, sprouting with cold September rains, rather than waiting for November like recent years, or January as usual.  The early December snow and deep freeze, down to 8 degrees, didn’t damage the plants, perhaps because they were covered with snow, and they took off blooming and making seed before the end of the month.  It is probably more mature by the river than most places, temperatures being more moderate there.  Chickweed closeup I know it is seeding because I am making  chickweed tea  to treat  conjunctivitis,  A...

       This yard was fine bark mulched; it is now covered with blue star creeper, white thyme; and sweet woodruff; the brown is fresh locust leaves from the tree above.  They cover it through the winter.          Properties from tiny yards to large parks have trees for shade and beauty.   They produce leaves that mostly drop in the fall, and flowers, fruit and seeds that drop any time of year, depending on the plant.   These properties also may have lawns, shrub borders, paths, pavements, or even unplanted waste areas.           Leaves and other tree debris must be removed from lawns, lest they kill the grass, though some can be mulched into the lawn without harming it, with the grass clippings.   They have to be removed from buildings, lest they rot roofs and clog gutters.   They have to be removed from pavements, lest they be a s...

Leaves are the cheapest and most effective mulch for weed control, when enough of them are used.   This natural gardener has been using them professionally on clients’ yards for 13 years.   All other mulches are seed beds by comparison.   Leaves feed the soil and thus the plants; soften it for easy weeding; and can stop sprouting of most small seeds, just by keeping the sun off them.   As long as leaves stick around, they stop germination of seeds that land on top of them, because the top few layers dry out quickly and don’t allow seeds on top to sprout. One can smother nearly any annual weed, and many small perennials, with enough leaves.   But to be efficient with a client’s money, a professional gardener must figure out the least that it takes to do the job effectively when one has to bring them in from other places. There is no need to shred leaves to use them for mulch in most situations.   Whole leaves are better for blocking weeds, but leave...

The Daily Courier reports that Josephine Community Libraries wants to try for a tax district this year, and is asking for input from the public to figure out what services we want to force each other to fund.  After all, we are already sending them what we can afford if we wish to pay for it. We haven't even funded our jail and justice system yet.  The library was cut loose from county government because the commissioners need to fund public safety first.  The public safety situation has only gotten worse.  Citizens Securing Our Safety are finally pushing their own levy, rather than asking the Commissioners to put it on the ballot.  Almost certainly, JCL’s tax district will fail.  If it is on the same ballot as the levy for the jail and juvenile justice system, the levy may go down with it.  If it goes for the November ballot, it will still interfere with the levy campaign. The beauty of a non-profit is that it doesn't need a majority vote...