Essential Oils for Burns

Chalk this one up to experience. Last week, I spilled a pot of boiling canner water on my bare feet. The whole thing, as I carried it out the back door. I do my canning on my enclosed back porch, but once I'm done, I put the pot of hot water outside to cool. This helps keep at least some of the heat off the back porch. After the water cools, it's given to nearby potted plants. The water in this pot, however, spilled all over the top of my feet.

When I was a small child, I got second degree burns on my legs when someone accidentally poured freshly percolated coffee on my lap (this was in the days before drip coffee makers). My thighs were covered with burn blisters as a result, and this is what I feared would happen to my feet. I had to do something quickly.

The first thing I did was fill another large pot with the coldest water I could get from the faucet, and I submerged my feet in it. Did you know that insulating a burn from air stops the pain? Our tap water isn't very cold, but it stopped the pain until I lifted my feet out. I sat there as long as I could, but I still had a big clean-up job to do and needed to get to it. So I slathered the burns with aloe vera gel, got my clean-up done, and then put my feet back into the cool soaking water as fast as I could.

A little research on essential oils for burns told me I had several on hand that would help: peppermint, lavender, and tea tree. Essential oils are very strong and must be diluted, usually with a carrier oil such as olive or coconut. Instead, I used aloe vera gel.

Soothing Burn Gel

• 1 tablespoon aloe vera gel
• 2-3 drops each of these essential oils
• peppermint (anti-inflammatory, analgesic)
• lavender (anti-inflammatory, analgesic)
• tea tree (soothes, inhibits infection)

Mix well and apply to burn generously several times a day.

Instant relief. The peppermint has an immediate cooling effect which is very soothing. Best if all, no burn blisters. 

Wearing socks and shoes was uncomfortable for a couple of days, but tolerable. I'm just thankful it wasn't worse.

Essential Oils for Burns © July 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Conserving Water in the Garden: The Olla

We're in the season of popup thunderstorms. That means hot days where some places can get drenched, while others get passed over for rain altogether. Lately, we've been passed over, which means we're checking daily on the water needs of our garden and container plants. I mulch, work toward increasing moisture-conserving organic matter in the soil, and we have our rainwater tanks. Even so, I'm always on the lookout for new ideas. This book is loaded with them.

Gardening with Less Water: Low-Tech, Low-Cost Techniques; Use up to 90% Less Water in Your Garden by David A. Bainbridge. This book has a lot of interesting, inexpensive ideas for water conservation, many of them gleaned from arid parts of the world. The one you see pictured on the cover is called an olla (oy-ya).

An olla is basically a terra cotta pot. They are often used for cooking or for evaporative cooling of foods (zeer pot). In the garden, it's used to hold water for nearby plants. Mostly buried, its porous walls allow for a slow transfer of moisture to the surrounding soil. Brilliant and effective.

Ollas like the one pictured on the book cover can be purchased, or one can DIY. For a small olla, the materials list is short: an unglazed terra cotta planter, saucer to serve as a lid, and a way to plug the drain hole.

The book recommends a cork, but some people plug the drain hole with a bit of concrete. Dan cut disks from plastic coffee can lids and glued them down with RTV, a silicone product used for automotive gaskets.

Anything that would make a watertight seal would do. RTV is just what Dan had handy.

To make a larger olla, use two pots and plug the hole in only one. Glue the second pot upside-down on top of the first. The drainage hole of the top, upside-down pot is where the olla is filled with water.

Next, they're buried up to the rim.

And filled with water.

The inverted saucer becomes the lid.

This one is in my thyme bed. Thyme seems to dry out quickly with no rain.

The saucer lid keeps debris from falling into the water and is easy to remove to refill with water.

For the lid for my second olla, I cheated somewhat. The large saucer I needed was twice the price as the one with the same circumference as the top of the pot. So it doesn't fit over the pot, it fits on top of it.

This one is in the front porch trellis bed to water my Matt's wild cherry tomatoes.

As you can see, I weight it with a rock. Hey, it works!

We check the water every couple of days and fill the ollas as needed. So far, so good. My thyme hasn't dried out yet, which is a relief. My front yard herb beds tend to dry out quickly, even with a good layer of mulch. That means every little bit helps!

Obviously, the larger the olla, the less frequently it needs refilling. My recommendation is to get the largest pots you can, or make the double-pot olla (or both).

I'll close with a couple of links for more photos and ideas for olla irregation.

• How To Use Olla Irrigation at the Water Use It Wisely website.
• Olla  – The Most Efficient & Oldest Irrigation System in the World at Living Center Oregon.

Conserving Water in the Garden: Olla © July 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

More Progress on the Pantry

In my last pantry blog post we were just starting to put up the paneling. Now the paneling is up and so is the trim.

A comment on the paneling. I showed it to you last time. It was the least expensive we could find and I have to say it's cheaply made. Very flimsy and needs a stiff backing to support it. It could not be installed with only wall studs for support. And if a nail needs to be pulled out, it tears the front surface like cardboard. We got it at Lowes. Not recommended.

Also a comment about the paint. For as long as we've been here, I've gone with Valspar brand (another Lowe's product). The quality has become increasingly poor, and even their good quality takes three or four coats to get good coverage. It remains tacky for weeks after being applied. They say it's washable but it really isn't. This time I bought paint at Walmart. It's their Color Place brand and I got the middle grade. Much less expensive and two coats with no primer have done a very good job of covering the trim. Barely any odor and dries quickly.

Two coats. You can see why we're pleased with this paint.

So the walls and trimwork are done.

You can see before photos of the pantry in this old blog post.

All in all, I like that the room is lighter and brighter than it used to be, even though the pantry shelving will cover most of it. Still to do is to put back the curtain rods and some thermal curtains. I also plan to give the ceiling a fresh coat of paint to cover the stain from when the old pantry roof leaked (photos of that here).

Of course, now the old linoleum looks specially worn and tacky, but replacing that is not on the to-do list at this time. Still, I'm tempted to do something with it before we put the shelves back. Does anyone have experience with painting floors?

The next blog post on the pantry will be much more interesting, I promise. Dan has begun experimenting with ways to cool the room without AC. Neither of us has any clue as to how successful it will be, but we're curious to find out.

More Progress on the Pantry © July 2020

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com