Hunting for a Remedy!

I am really feeling my age lately (and we will not go into just what age that is!). I ache! Throwing a cast net, standing on ladders and shoveling dirt are probably not helping things one bit. As a matter of fact, I imagine these things exacerbate the aches and pains tremendously. It is just hard for me to stop doing all of these things and many more. For instance..today, instead of waiting for someone else, I decided to install a light fixture. This would not have been too difficult had it not been twelve feet up and needed to have screws inserted into some really hard wood. Balancing myself on top of step ladder while pushing on a screwdriver took the use of some muscles that have been dormant for some time. So now I am paying for my impatience. Not one to take any sort of medicines if I can at all avoid it, I decided to turn to my vast amount of herbs for relief. Off to the kitchen to make a potion as my nephew calls it. I pulled several herbs that I know have pain relieving effects and bruised, blended and heated. Now a concoction of Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, Sassafras and oil will steep overnight. Actually, this smells really nice and looks a lot more like salad dressing than an arthritis cure. Tomorrow will be a test run of the quality of this remedy..hopefully, the arthritis in my hands will respond well to this treatment. I might be aging but I still have far too many things that I want to do and achy hands and joints just will not be tolerated!

I thought I might show you another neat way to use cheesecloth for Halloween decorations. Here on the Bayou, it is very rare that we have cool enough weather in October to use the fireplace as it is intended. But..then again, it is not so rare for me to use things in ways that they are not intended to be used. To give the empty fireplace a much creepier appearance than just a big, gaping hole, I made "ghost" fire! I placed a few real logs on the grating in the fire box and I hid a standard "black light" lamp at the base of the logs. ("Black light" or ultraviolet light lamp.)

To do this, I merely placed the black light on the floor of the fireplace near the logs and then placed a log between the light and the hearth. The cord from the light was extended out the side of the fireplace but was hidden by the fire screen. Next step is to prepare the "flames". This is done the same way that we made the cheesecloth ghost. I just cut strips of cheesecloth, soaked them in liquid starch and twisted one end to bring them to a point. They were then laid them on a foil-lined cookie sheet to dry..I did curve them a bit to make them more "flame-like". (You can "speed" dry them by placing them in a pre-warmed oven that has been turned off. Do not place them in an oven that is still on as it is a fire hazard!) After they dry, arrange them in the fireplace, keeping in mind how flames would look. Just poke them in between the logs to make them stand erect. Make sure to put some in front of and some in back of the logs. Turn on the black light.. tada!.. ghost fire! You can leave them like this as the black light will make them glow or you can do as I did and lightly spritz them with (of all things) Mr. Clean! Make sure it is the original yellow colored Mr. Clean and not the new types. The original type will make the "flames" glow even brighter! This does give the old fireplace an eerie glow! (Without the added heat..something that we do not need this far in the South!) You can take this one step further and add a tiny fan to make the flames move but it really is not necessary..they look fine as they are! Oooohhh..creepy ghost fire! Hehe!