Making Use Of What Is There

   The other day, I made mention of pine gum and a healing salve made from the stuff.  Well, a slow hike around the property led to me finding my sap.  Hurricane Zeta (and the many, many other storms this year) damaged so many of our trees that the sap was an easy find.  I was able to ethically gather nigh on a half cup with no problems.  I am sure the felled pines will not be needing the sap as we will be cutting them out of the live trees.  My only problem is that the half cup is not enough for what I planned on making.  

  The salve is made by melting and blending the sap chunks in an infused carrier oil then having beeswax added to set the balm.  It is an easy, albeit, time consuming task.  You NEVER heat the pine sap and oil over high heat!  That would be just asking for trouble.  Everyone knows that pine gum will flame up in a heartbeat and adding oil to it just makes that a bigger potential.  Since I needed to be in the same room at all times, I used a tiny cast iron cauldron on the old wood-burning stove.  That way, I could do my painting project within a few feet of the stove and keep watch on my concoction.

  Like I said, my first effort did not make as much as I preferred so I will visit the downed pines again to gather what I can.  In fact, I am thinking a drip pot would be a wise idea.  I could catch the sap continuously throughout the day and night.  In the meantime, however, I will be satisfied with my small "half" jar of salve.  Life is good when you can make your own!  

Tiny Orb of Sap

   When out meandering about the place, I am always on the lookout for anything that has changed since the last hike.  With life as it is, entertainment has to be found in oddities instead of people.  I am good with that as I have long avoided much social contact.  I do not see the need for all the drama that comes with interaction with society.  I prefer to live my life with limited access to the "outside" world.  Occasionally, however, the need for new ideas makes me long for some sort of entertainment.   That is when I search the place for any oddity that can fill the imagination.

  Yesterday after finishing my chores, I trudged through the mud near the marsh edge.  Surely. my brain would be jostled enough by something besides mud!  Just as I was thinking mud was to be the high point of the hike, the sunrays hit upon a tiny speck on the pathway.  A spark of brilliant blue was to be seen on a gnarled root.  Hmmm...that was a bit interesting so, regardless of the knees of my jeans getting wet and muddy, I dropped down to inspect the tiny blue orb.

  Resin!  Or as we call it, pine gum.  Hurricane Zeta had obviously scraped a pine root bare and marred it enough to cause the pine sap to rise in a tiny ball.  This gum was now hardened on the outside creating the perfectly clear (although yellow as it was only blue by reflecting the sky) orb.  The sunrays were hitting it in the right position to allow me to see the reflection of the bright blue sky and surrounding oak tree tops in the orb's surface.  Ok, so that was fascinating!  

  The finding of the pine gum brought the brain around into a circle of things from how to remove the sticky stuff from clothing to needing to make some salve.  The salve is more important than fretting over a smear on the jeans so now the brain is in high gear of remembering the concoction...pine gum, oil, beeswax...hmmm...time to do some pondering and some searching for pine gum. I will need a good bit more than that tiny orb! Setting and keeping goals are good entertainment...at least for me.