My 30-to-5 Rule, Herbs, and Other Babble

I think I've worked out a way that I can manage to be productive and still take care of my physical condition. That's what I call my 30-to-5 rule. Basically it means I need about three minutes of rest for every five minutes that I do something. I realize this is probably the opposite of what most people need, but it seems to be working for me. Of course, sometimes I need more than 30 minutes of rest, but at least it is the basic idea of how to cope.

We have really dry weather right now. It's sunny and there is a slight breeze and the air is really dry. So it is just perfect weather for drying herbs. We already dried and put away two large batches of the peppermint that I mostly use for tea. We found a really good and easy way of doing it. We use one of those lingerie bags for delicates in the laundry. That way don't have to worry about how long the stems are and try to tie them into bundles. Instead I just cut them at whatever length they are, shove them in a bag, and then rotate the bag a lot. Right now my bag is filled with the other kind of mint that we have. I am not sure what kind it is. But it looks more like mom's tea mint than the peppermint does. The one I am identifying as peppermint has a very definite reddish tint to both the leaves and the stems. This one has very green leaves and green stems, except the corners of its square stem appeared to have a reddish thread in them.

We have two other herbs drying right now. Those are done by that tie the stems into a bunch method. Unfortunately, I don't know what they are called in English. Instead I will give you their scientific names. The one is called Artemisia dracunculus. The other is Levisticum officinale. The latter we use a lot because it helps make old potatoes taste better.

We are using a lot of mint at the moment. Most days I am making tea on fresh mint. We were reading in DH's herb book about the values of lavender, so today we added a sprig of lavender to my tea as well. It was quite good in my opinion. I also added a sprig of mint to the bottle of cold water DH keeps in the fridge. Makes it just a little bit fresher.

In other news, my back is still improving. Or at least it was. As soon as I wrote that, Shawnee had a little accident on the floor. Her first in ages. I got her outside to finish then cleaned up. But when she came back in, she is so upset and sorry about the accident that she was glued to my feet. I turned around to go get myself a glass of water and tripped over her. I think I need my ice pack again.

I had planned to write more, but hurt too much now to do so.