Dandelion Picking

 

         Have you ever woke up one day looked out your window at your few day old carefully mowed lawn and seen an army of yellow flowers taking over? To most people dandelions are annoying weeds that need to be destroyed! I have to admit even I feel the crazy desire to kill every single one I see poking out of my could be, maybe one day, beautiful lawn. And since I haven't had the please of having a front yard till now, I find it even more appalling to have a pretty one.

          So I got up this morning with a desire to eliminate those pesky golden orbs covering my newly rented front yard, and found myself on Pinterest looking up the best less environmentally harmful way. Because of course it has to be environmentally safe, and cheep too. Did you know you can kill most weeds with vinegar? Just put some in a spray bottle, and spray the heck out of the plants. Or as they say, thoroughly saturate the bastards. But just a warning though...they have to be plants that get full sun or the vinegar really doesn't do the job.

Here is a comparison for what happens when they are in full sun, and when they aren't:

Full Sun

Not Full Sun

But after I finished killing these ugly invasions in my way, I some how stumbled across a enlightened understanding of these weeds.

Apparently Dandelions Are Good For You!

        Yes! You can eat them; they are edible, and nutritious! They have tons of vitamins and minerals, and they are a natural diuretic. 

In fact people eat them in:

• salads, and 
• create salves
• lotions
• tea and all sorts of creative things! 

      I ended up drying a bunch to make tea in the future. And when I mean a bunch I mean an hours worth of picking off my front yard! It was actually really relaxing to go flower picking, though I probably looked pretty odd to my neighbors. 

I learned a trick. It's better to turn the buds on their faces because they start closing up as soon as you pick them.

It would also be a great activity to do with kids or on a picnic with a special love. Maybe make some flower crowns and get better acquainted with your inner child again. 

I let you know how the tasting goes later, and if you want, you can let me know about your adventures with weed picking.... or killing...... in the comments below.

Tootles!

In Bloom

                                                     

This afternoon I decided to take an hour or so stroll to Down Town Medford and take some quick pictures of the place. There was also a Pear Blossom Steet Fair that I heard about, vaguely, and wanted to check out as well. Apparently it is a big deal here, bringing in people to participate in there run all over the United States. I love local festivities don't you?
----> Did you know that Harry And David started out with Pears first?




It all started out on track, at least I made it down town without getting lost. Thank you handy dandy phone navigator. But before I got started I was distracted by the smell of coffee (who isn't) at a wonderful little coffee shop called Down Town Grounds. I've visited this place once before when my husband and I were in a mad search for a place to live. The place just made us feel more at home, and had a lot of local stuff and information you can take home and explore. Like The Rogue Valley Messenger ,which has a lot of local yummies.

Happy and contented with my coffee I walked around the fun fair with all the handmade stuff and the food that makes your mouth water even if you are full. Drifting along I actually forgot to take pictures till I started walking home! #shorttermmemoryloss #wheresmybrain.

I guess I got sidetracked thinking about the name of the festival Pear Blossem..... and found more interest in taking pictures of the beautiful blooming flowers around town. This time of year is so beautiful, and everything smells so good! My trek back home took three times as longer then it did getting to down town! So I present to you the fruits of my labor. (haha fruits.. get it... because a pear is a fruit!)

Oh and yes I took and spent a lot of time editing these photos so if you please, will you credit me?

House Hunting

Jonathan and Brooke Bear at Crater Lake in Oregon 

(We were on our honeymoon two years ago that's when we decided we wanted to live here. Now we are only one and a half hours away from this lovely national park)

So I started this blog a few weeks ago between my husbands and my mad dashes from Redding, CA to Medford, OR. We had just moved back from China on a English teacher job; by the way I have a blog link for our experience over in Shenyang, China, you should check out. It was all in all an adventure, but we are both really excited to be home in the United States.

So why did we choose this location to live in after being half way across the globe. Well Jonathan applied to a really great grad school program,  which of course my smart, multi-talented husband got into, and we really love this area since we spent some time here on our honeymoon. We actually also chose this area because we thought is was a great place for setting in some roots. You know the whole settling in for the long hall, becoming part of the community, and making some babies aspect of life that we haven't quite gotten to yet.

So......... How do you go about accomplishing this when we do not even have a place to live, or a job yet. And that was our crazy predicament we were in. Places don't want to rent to you if you don't have a job... and jobs don't want to hire you if you don't have a place to live!

Craigslist was of course the fist place we started to look, since we didn't want to go through a major company that makes you pay a fee too even see the house. Our criteria was a little demanding I admit. A two bedroom home, allows bets, with a yard that I can create a small homestead farm on, all under $1000 dollars a month. Let me tell you it was not easy, and exstreamly frustrating to even find the houses that met all our needs. people who have been in this situation before know what I'm talking about.

We looked at a few different houses that we loved right away, and thought we were in the running to get, but there was always someone who looked a little bit more qualified. It's probably due to the fact that we didn't have any jobs, but hey we had money.... isn't that enough?

Well I have to say after much looking, and a few times almost giving up and getting the crappiest apartment we could find, we found someone to take pity on us. It was the blue house with the white trim and the older lady that "just loves students" who saved us. A rent that was below our budget, and a loft area that can easy be turned into an office/craft room/ extra bedroom! Double score.

So............ we did a few more runs down to Redding to pick up our stuff, and have been moved in officially for a week now. Though it happened a lot less smoothly then I would have liked, It is a good home, and I'm glad we are living in it. Here is a little tour my hubby will take you on.

Brief tour of our new home
Posted by Jonathan Baer on Thursday, April 2, 2015

Now till fill the house with fur babies and get started on the yard...... oh I guess putting some paint on the place.... actually having some furniture....maybe spend a little more time on my cooking skills. wow.... I have a lot more work ahead of me.....

Until Later! Tootles