Great American Hero

Your Tropical Weather Update

This one won't likely affect any of us, but it's fun to watch any way. Isaac of course brings to mind Ike, and he's behaving very similiarly in a lot ways. Big and ponderous, unable to really pull himself together, yet potentially capable of immense destruction he fortunately won't be Isaac's Storm.

Higher Ground is about 100 yards inside the Cat 5 evacuation zone, and at around forty feet of elevation is a veritable Fortress of Squallitude. For now we fly a Cocktail Flag; hopefully there'll be no need for the Pennant of Doom.

Here's few batches of model runs, and the obligatory Pennant of Doom:

Elderberry II

So, here's how to extract elderberry:

1). Buy a lot of 100 proof vodka, about gallon or so;

2). Pick ripe elderberries; they're easy as they have no stickers, just cut the umbels off;

3). Clean and dry the berries;

4). Optionally, freeze the clean berries; this keeps your fingers from turning purple;

4). Fill a non reactive, sealable container about 1/3 full of berries; if frozen they just bang right off; otherwise, this the part where you'll turn purple;

5). Fill to the top with vodka, seal, and put in a dark place;

6). Gently agitate the container daily for about 4 - 6 weeks;

7). Strain into a clean, dark bottle or jar.

Not having a good storage place, we just wrap a towel around the jar and leave it on the counter; this makes for a good conversation starter and helps with getting the gentle agitation done somewhat regularly.

Elderberry I

Everybody has seen elderberry, Sambuca something-or-otherus, they are ubiquitous and widely considered a weed. Probably because they grow remarkably fast and are prolific producers of hundreds of tiny purple berries that attract bugs and taste pretty awful. I undertook to eradicate them here at Higher Ground and fortunately, it was a failed project.

As it turns out, elderberry is an inexpensive replacement for Walgreens. Seriously. All parts of the plant are useful for something, and in our experience, highly effective, at least to date; being rather indolent there are lots of things left untried.

The most valuable property seems to be its activity as an immunomodulater; it's an amazing antiviral, and a rather good antihistamine. I personally discovered this rather serendipitously with a piece of toast, in a successful bid to avoid a trip to the ED (recall indolence here) It's been widely confirmed now, by numerous users.

So here's some pictures. The flowers are in late spring (that would be Hot); the berries are ripe in late summer (Incredibly Hot). During Not Quite As Hot, they're mostly dead sticks. The last picture is Pokeweed; it's absolutely not the same stuff. It's apparently delicious, once it's been boiled three times and then fried in bacon grease; unboiled/unfried it's poisonous so be careful to Not Pick Poke.

'Tis the Season

To sight in:

Just Noticed

That it's August and its 88F. In the early afternoon. Upon reflection, it's been a darned nice summer on the edge of the Great State of Confusion; here at Higher Ground we've yet to make 95F.

After last year, it's just amazing.

Correction: It actually was 100+F a few days back in May; fortunately it didn't persist.