Country Lore October/November 2006

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Save your child’s memorable moments with a handmade T-shirt quilt. JOANNE KENNEDY

Great Goat Grub

Here’s a great winter treat for your goats. Every autumn when the leaves fall, we put them in the sun to dry until they are crunchy. When they are thoroughly dry, we put them in large grain or garbage bags and store them in the shed until the snow flies.

On winter evenings, when we tuck in the goats and sheep for the night, we give them a few handfuls of the dry leaves. As we close the barn door, all we can hear is the sound of crunching leaves from content animals; it’s much like the sound of people munching potato chips.

Recycling leaves in this way not only helps clear our property of them, it also makes for very satisfied animals.

Barbara Siegal
Danby, Vermont

Use Yarrow for Healing

Several years back, I sliced my index finger with a rotary cutter, down into the muscle, leaving no flap of skin to cover the wound. My brother-in-law treated me with all the usual first-aid techniques, but couldn’t stop the bleeding.

Finally, I listened to my grandmother’s insistent little voice in my ear and sent my husband out to cut a yarrow leaf. We crushed the leaf into a wad the size of a pecan and bound it over the gushing wound with gauze and tape. In the process, one drop of blood about the size of a pencil eraser came through the bandage.

Twelve hours later, I gently cut off the bandage (no more blood other than the original spot), plucked off the yarrow leaf, and never had to bandage the wound again. Yarrow truly is a “blood stopper.”

Betty Hyatt
Hewitt, Minnesota

No More Insulation Itch

Anyone using fiberglass insulation knows that a case of itching almost always follows the installation. To prevent this reaction, liberally apply cornstarch or talcum powder over your body before you start the project. You’ll be amazed at how this simple trick reduces the aggravating itch of working with fiberglass.

Richard Skweres
Huntsville, Texas

Heavenly Hot Rocks

I was lying in bed, my toes like ice, reading a historical novel that mentioned servants warming bed sheets with hot irons. Earlier in the evening, I had read an article about hot stone massage. It did not take a genius to envision combining these two bits of information.