Yesterday started out innocently enough...browsing the craigslist ads, we found some wonderful red raspberry plants! a LOT of red raspberry plants.....I picked them up, and then zoomed off to work to try to get them planted before the rain hit. We decided our new raspberry patch would be near the mini's pen, so I got out the tiller and started tilling....much to the delight of the minis. They lined up to watch as if this was the most thrilling spectacle they'd ever seen!

Pretty soon the sky looked like this...


and then THIS. We managed to get all 62 plants into the ground just as the first raindrops hit. We closed the doors and windows and sprinted for the shop! It was a doozy of a storm...but the berries got watered. :)

February Luxury Soap is here, and it is DIVINE! Terri had a great time concocting this special Sensual Soap. She scented it with a spicy, fiery, potent essential oil blend of nutmeg, ylang-ylang, and patchouli. It's floral, spicy and rich....and the essential oils in it are considered traditional aphrodesiacs. Consider yourself warned. :) We have 38 bars of this fantastic soap - when it's gone, it's gone, so enjoy it while it lasts! $6.00 each - any 3 or more soaps are $5.50 each. Ingredients: Fair Trade coconut oil, organic palm kernel oil, distilled water, sodium hydroxide, essential oils of nutmeg, patchouli and ylang-ylang.


Also. We are experiencing weather again. Donna's snowed in and Maggie's snowed out. We're not sure when we'll be able to pack orders again - hopefully Wednesday, maybe Thursday. :( We are sorry for any delays.....as usual, we assure you we will do our best to catch up, as soon as Mother Nature lets us. 

Friday we made it to work, only to discover the power had gone out, AGAIN. So I snapped some pictures, we hung out with my mom and granpda for an hour, then headed home. Not much we can do without power. :(
All the treese were coated with ice, like this. It's hard to see, but it was really beautiful. The ice is super dangerous, yet beautiful. We had ice combined with fog, so everything seemed really surreal, sort of soft, and very quiet. out in the country the only noise you heard was ice falling. Lots and lots of ice falling off of EVERYTHING. It was strangely beautiful, I'm so glad I got to experience it.

This is what happens when you have ice plus wind. Crazy sidways icicles. :)


In this picture you can actually see the ice chunks dangling from the branches, ready to fall at the slightest movement. The ground below was littered with ice chunks (next picture).

Saturday we were FINALLY able to work, we processed as many orders as we could. During the afternoon, the fog rolled in again, for about an hour and a half we watched the world slowly disappear out the window. Then we headed home, slowly and veeeeery carefully.

Today: a blizzard! no, I'm not kidding. We are officially under a blizzard warning, Donna is reporting big drifts already. She had difficulty making it into town this morning and said the road is probably impassable now, until the wind stops and the plows can get through. School is cancelled, AGAIN. At this rate, the schoolkids are going to be in school until mid-June, I swear.

What a winter!

oh, John got some REALLY great ice pictures on Friday, check them out: Jag's Photo Blog

First up: obligatory weather-related news info. It's still icy as hell out there. Donna slipped and slid her way out to the shop yesterday to check on Violet, the shop kitty. (Violet THRIVES on "alone time" - as long as she has food and water she really doesn't mind not seeing us for a day or two. We're not cruel people keeping the kitty locked up all alone, I promise...she likes it.) This is the photo she took of the shop siding. Now imagine that same amount of ice covering EVERYTHING. Doors, windows, cars, outbuildings, sidewalks, EVERYTHING. It's crazy. And more than a little dangerous. It's melting a bit now, so envision big chunks and sheets of ice randomly falling off roofs and power lines, and slight puddles of slick water on top of even slicker ice, and you've got an idea of what central Iowa is like right now.

Second! Something actually not realated to weather. I am slooowly getting my computer back in order. I THINK I have the files downloaded and put on my computer, now I'm putting them back in their proper places. I realized that I have a TON of herbal articles and recipes. A ton! So I'm going to do a better job of sharing them with you. This one is for Erin, our friend and former neighbor. She is having trouble finding a shampoo she can use. I sent her a Just Plain Shampoo bar and I hope that will work for her, but, I also have several recipes for non-soap shampoos that I have personally tried and love. Here is a recipe for a Lemon Egg Wash. Don't be scared, it really works. It's great, actually! So try it!
Old Fashioned Lemon Egg Wash

2 eggs
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tbsp. spring water or hydrosol

Remove eggs from fridge and let warm to room temperature (this could take an hour
or two). Thoroughly beat the eggs, then add the juice of ½ lemon,and about 2 tbsp.
water, your favorite herbal infusion, or hydrosol. In a warm shower, wet hair
thoroughly, then massage egg mixture into your scalp and hair.

The key to this recipe is to really take time to thoroughly massage your scalp and
hair – it won't suds, but the cleansing action is still happening. Then, using
lukewarm water, rinse the mixture completely out of your hair. It is very important
NOT to use hot water, as this can and will cook the egg, and you will have scrambled
eggs in your hair - NOT fun!This mixture made my hair really light, fluffy, soft and smooth!

I needed no
extra conditioners or rinses. This would be an especially fantastic shampoo for
blondes or people with lighter colored hair, especially if you substituted a
strong chamomile tea f or the water or hydrosol.

We had a whopper of an ice storm yesterday. Everything - EVERYTHING - is covered in a thick layer of ice. John got some pictures from our house yesterday, if you'd like to see. Donna is literally iced into her house. John and I are going to attempt to make it out to the farm later today, feed her horses and see if we can de-ice the front walkway a bit, but we do NOT want any customers coming out. Please, don't come out! It is dangerous. After we get some things de-iced we will let you know when it is safe to venture out again. But for today, please...stay in, stay safe, be warm! Shop online if you like. :)

AND, because all of the posts lately have been about weather, here's something different and fun. Here is a fantastic compilation of herby links - all kinds of information, recipes, and ideas! Absolutely divine. enjoy!

We have been having QUITE a bit of interesting weather this winter. This past weekend, we have had almost 4 solid days of fog, with lots of hoar frost. Hoar frost is interesting, and extremely beautiful. I felt as if I was in a foggy, dreamy winter wonderland all day. John captured some gorgeous images! I've got 4 to post here, but if you'd like to see more, visit his blog.



That was yesterday. Today, we're having an ice storm. Donna is stuck indoors fretting that she can't get out to feed her horses. It is a SOLID sheet of ice out there. From my living room window I can see it collecting on the tree branches - which are hanging lower and lower by the minute - and power lines, which are swaying dangerously. Interesting stuff.....

Are you tired of snow pictures yet?

Here is the path Donna cleared so she could get into the barn to feed the horses. The drift was over the door. Shoveling snow higher than your head is EXTREMELY difficult. Just in case you were wondering.


Here is the path we cleared to the classroom.

here is the view from inside the classroom. Yes, that is SNOW covering the windows.

Okay. Prairieland Herbs is officially OPEN! However, you cannot access our road, S. Avenue, from 210, you must approach it from the north. Why, you ask? Well, here's why! (thanks for the pictures John).

If you don't know how to access S. Avenue from the north, just call us at (515)438-4268 and we'll talk you through, it's very easy. :)

Here's the stats. Iowa usually gets about 36 inches of snow per year. Most of that tends to come late in the winter or even early in the spring - February and March. Well as of today, we already have our 36 inches. Something tells us it's going to be a loooooong winter.

Donna sends these pictures from her iphone. She is still WAY snowed in, but everyone is safe and warm and well fed.This picture is taken from Donna's deck. This is her path to the barn, our shop parking lot, and - notice the barn - the snowdrift is OVER THE TOP of the six foot door. I cannot even fathom how much shoveling is in my future.

Maggie's computer is STILL downloading files. I expect it to take another few days at this rate. Continue to enjoy the $5 flat rate shipping and whipped shea butter sale. I can't update the website until my computer is back to normal.

Tired of snow pics yet? Friday, we had to shovel out the waist-high drift from the sidewalk to the shop...there's now a sort of tunnel to walk through. :)

ANd then, we had to dig out the chest-high drift from in front of the classroom!


There was collateral storm damage....mailbox broken by the county snowplow :(


The drifts were so big, our normal snow removal guy (with a big truck and snowblade) couldn't dig us out. A back hoe was required.

And, while Karla was snowed in, she wrapped a few bars of soap for us. This might hold us until the end of the week. Then again...it might not....

Pictures Donna took this morning with her iPhone, and emailed to me to blog. Yay technology! The snow guy told her he "might" be able to make it out to her place in a few hours, but...so far there is no sign of the county plow to clear out the road.

Snow update: it's CRAZY out there! Donna couldn't get out her back door, it was totally drifted shut. So she managed to get out the front and dig her way around to the barn. She reported waist high drifts, and it's still snowing and really blowing. She fed the horses extra, as she is doubting she can get back out there until sometime tomorrow. The shop cats are warm and cozy with lots of food and water (we won't be able to get into them until probably Thursday, but made sure when we left yesterday that they were okay for a few days).

The internet seems to be going a little glitchy here, but so far we have power and are safe and warm. Iowa DOT has pulled snow plows from several areas of the state - you know it's bad when not even the snowplows can get around. :( 20,000 people are reported to be without power so far....we are hoping they can all stay warm and safe. Windchills are to be as low as -10 tonight.

I have more pictures to post, but blogger seems to be glitchy, so for now here is one that Donna took from indoors.

So. There is a giant storm happening here right now. An honest to gosh blizzard. I don't watch TV, but I've been told that folks from The Weather Channel, and various people from assorted news stations have been sent here to Iowa to cover this big-ass storm. National Weather Service forecasters have described our first major storm of the season as "epic and extremely dangerous". 8-15 inches of snow are predicted, and up to 50 MPH winds. 8-15 inches of snow is bad enough, but when it snows that much, then blows, we get extremly slick roads, and VERY high snowdrifts. We have at least 6 inces of snow now. it started falling this morning, and is continuing (and expected to intensify) overnight.

Maggie packed as many orders as possible this morning, BUT, Donna had to deal with some family-related health issues, AND the weather got bad enough at about 2 PM that everyone headed home. SO. if you placed an order with Prairieland Herbs on or after Saturday, December 5th, it HAS NOT shipped yet, nor will it until probably Friday.

Epic winds are predicted for tomorrow, and no travel is recommended. Thursday, it should be calmer, BUT, then we have to wait for 1) the county road crews to open up our road, and 2) our snow removal guy to open up our driveway. Given the immensity of the predicted storm, we are not counting on either of those things happening very quickly on Thursday. (Our farm is rural, fairly remote, and VERY prone to drifting). We will keep you posted, but until now, unfortunately, we are predicting to not be able to ship anything until at LEAST Friday.

HOWEVER, we are absolutely willing and able to work overtime to catch up on orders...as soon as we can get back into the shop. :) We will keep you posted! Stay warm and indoors, everyone!

Dear Mother Nature,

Hey. How's it going? Just a quick note from two of us here in the middle of the prairie. We totally get that you can do whatever you please - hey, it's part of the perks of being the Green Goddess and all! We were pretty tolerant of the long cold damp spring. It happens sometimes. And then the cool summer, that didn't allow our tomatoes to ripen, and make all our our tropical herbs thing we were torturing them? We TRIED not to complain, really we did. But now - going from 60 degrees to freezing last night, and then waking up to SNOW on October 10th...and a low of 22 tonight? Is that really, TRULY necessary?? Just wondering. Not that we want to tell you what to do or anything.....just wondering.

bundled in wool in the midwest,

-Donn and Maggie

EGADS it's cold.

How cold? Check out a pic of our neighbor's* thermometer this morning!

So the projected HIGH today is -5. It's approximately -15 right now. as soon as I finish this blog post I'm going to pile on several layers of clothing and attempt to start my van. BECAUSE *drum roll* Donna just called and said her driveway has just been cleared. So we can get to work! and hopefully get the computer set up with a minimum of swearing.

I'll let you know when we're up and running. Meanwhile, bundle up everyone.

*Miss Effie actually lives several hours away, but in the "country" sense, a neighbor is anyone you are neighborly with - or neighbor with. (Yes, it can be a verb. trust me.) Also for the purposes of the international internet community, she is our neighbor in that she lives in the same state as us. Heck, I consider our customers in Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc. to be neighbors too. So, howdy neighbors!

Mercury is retrograde. *sigh*

So, here is the most important thing you need to know: Our computer crashed and we're snowed out of or shop. SO, rest assured - we will get back to normal tomorrow (We think) but if you have emailed us in the last few days, we are NOT ignoring you, we just are having some temporary technical difficulties, and we thank you for your patience!

Now, the long-winded version of that announcement.


Tuesdays are always busy days for us, because we are closed Sundays and Mondays, so we have lots of orders to process and pack, phone calls to return, emails to answer, etc. So it was quite a shock to our system to show up on Tuesday (yesterday) to find that our computer had mysteriously stopped working.

Now, it probably shouldn't have been a surprise. Our Gateway is 4-5 years old, and is a WELL-USED machine. See, our business runs pretty much entirely with that machine. We use it to pull orders, answer emails, process credit cards, and print labels. Without it, we grind to a halt pretty much immediately.

So, we spent the morning trying to trouble-shoot, and fix the durn thing. (Those of you who know Donna and I are now laughing hysterically at the idea of us trying to fix a computer. We can use the things just fine but fix them - um, no. Lots of "um, errrrr"''s were muttered, heads were scratched, toes were scuffed, swear words invoked.

A note: The weather yesterday was dreadful. COLD, and we had had loads of snow and blowing the day before. We had to brave snowdrifts up to our butts (yes, literally) to tromp through to get from the house to the shop. (Necessary, because house has food and a bathroom and our shop does not).

We eventually decided to give it up, and just buy a new computer. So the search ensued. We figured out what we wanted to spend and poked around online, then decided Maggie should just drive to Des Moines and buy one.

Off I go in my van to Des Moines, to visit 3 different stores. Meanwhile, it starts snowing. ALOT. and then some more. Oh, and look - the wind is picking up! Great. By the time I visit 4 stores to figure out what we want, and actually make the purchase, we have a little mini-blizzard going on. I head home. Wine was consumed.

This morning, we woke up to big snowdrifts. For those of you who haven't visited our farm, lemme 'splain. The setup is thus: we have 2 acres (almost) of land. Donna's house is on the land, as well as our shop and various outbuildings. It is on a gravel road, surrounded by cornfields, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The part of Iowa we live in is very, very flat, and when we get blowing snow, we can easily get drifts several feet high, making it impossible (impassible?) to get around. So even a few inches of snow, combined with high winds, can REALLY screw things up.

So, Donna is currently ensconced in her warm house, surrounded by large snowdrifts. The winds are still howling. The HIGH temperature for the day is 2 degrees. The low? So glad you asked. A balmy -14. The winds are holding steady at 15 to 20 mph with some gusts up to 29 mph, giving us a delightful windchill factor of -20 or so. Eventually, the winds will slow down. At some point after that, the county trucks will plow out her road. And at some point after THAT, our nice snow guy will come plow out or driveway so we can get to the shop.

Until then, the new computer waits patiently in my van, 30 miles away, and Donna waits, not at ALL patiently, for her new computer to show up. You folks have NO idea how much it is bothering her that she can't fill your orders and answer your emails!

So until then, stay warm y'all.....we'll be in touch with tomorrow...hopefully......

Happy Freebie Friday!

We hope you all had a delightful holiday - whatever you celebrate. We sure did! We had our annual Christmas Eve soup and pie dinner (Donna made this absolutely AMAZING Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie - I cannot STRESS how divine it was) and much fun was had. :)

The winner of last week's freebie (an 8 oz. bottle of Lavender & Vanilla Mist) was ASTER!! Aster, drop us an email with your address and we will ship that out next week!

This weeks Friday Freebie is - a 5-pack (Your choice of varities) of our handmade lip balms!! Our lip balm was one of the first products Prairieland Herbs ever created, and I still believe to be one of the best. Vanilla Bean is Donna's personal favorite - I am partial to the Tea Tree and Mint.
Anyway, as usual, here's how it works:

If you'd like to win the item - you must leave a comment on today's blog post.

Rules:
1) One entry per person.
2) You must have a registered ID to post - if your post shows up under "anonymous", we don't know who you are, and therefore you can't win.
3) You have until the next Thursday at midnight, CST, to enter your comment.
4) Winner will be announced the following Friday - you must check back to see if it's you!
5) International folks are welcome. We ship Prairieland Herbs items all over the world, so we'll ship our "Friday freebie" anywhere too!
6) Each eligible post will be assigned a number, and we'll use a free online random number generator to determine the winner.

In other news - Prairieland Herbs is CLOSED until next Tuesday, Dec. 30th. We almost never, ever, EVER take any time off, so we are treating ourselves to a few luxurious days of vacation.

The weather here is FANTASTIC. After an extra cold, snowy, and icy start to December, we are suddenly gifted with a 50 degree sunny day. I've been cleaning my garage in a t-shirt. Go figure, huh? Our 10 inches of snow is, of course, rapidly melting and turning EVERYTHING into mud - and when it goes down to 29 degrees, as it's predicted to tonight, the whole world will be a solid sheet of ice. So that stinks. But still, you gotta enjoy a little warmth and sunshine while it's here.

It's ridiculously cold here.

AND.

It's going to get colder in the next 24 hours. GAH!

The low for tonight is -5, with windchills as low as -30. We had lovely whiteout/blowing snow conditions driving home from the farmer's market today - always delightful.

The HIGH temp for tomorrow is -1, (can anything negative actually be called HIGH?), again, with delightful -30 windchill factor.

The low temp for tomorrow night is a wicked -14. I seriously cannot fathom it. I will be cuddled in my house, on the couch, with cats piled all around me. (The good thing about living with 8 cats - your lap never gets cold).

Right now, we're watching the wind - we have no specific plans to cancel tomorrow's Sample Sunday due to weather, BUT - if there's loads of blowing snow, our driveway or road could drift shut. I will post here on the blog if that is an issue.

Are you tired of listening to me whine about the cold? Okay. I'll post something slightly more interesting.Some of you may notice that we are slowly updating our website photos, from old crappy ones I took (hey, I did the best I could with zero photography skills and an ancient camera) to really nice spanky new ones, such as you see above.

They look pretty nice, huh? clean and professional.

Well, they were done by our resident "king of cheap DIY lighting and photo gear" guy. He can do amazing things with sheets of glass gotten for free off craig's list, yogurt lids, sticks-in-coffee-cans-full-of-cement, and bits of remnant fabric and pvc pipe.

For example, this photo above was taking in my living room - here is the "setup shot" (complete with coffee mug and dog food bowl).



This gorgeous photo was taken in a simple basement room. (see photo below).


There are loads more of these product and setup shots, complete with notes and info, on John's Flickr, if you're interested. I just think it's fascinating to see the setup behind the photos, and thought you might too. Enjoy!

GOOD NEWS regarding the proposed FDA regulations that would have made it very, very difficult for us to stay in business!

Weather here has been insane. Sunday, we had an actual temperature drop of 50 degrees (yes, really) in about 12 hours - but, it *felt* like it dropped about 70 degrees, because of the wind chill factor. At 9 AM Sunday morning it was a balmy 50 degrees. By 1 pm it was 17 degrees, and by about 10 PM it was 1 degree with a windchill of around -20. Only in Iowa!

We are gearing up for the Des Moines Farmer's Market this Saturday. Hours: 9-2. It's a WONDERFUL market, I encourage everyone to stop by for fabulous local wine, food, jam, and gifts! If you'd like us to bring anything in particular for you, please do email or call! We bring a very random selection of items every time. The store WILL be open so feel free to come on out to the farm and Donna will be delighted to help you!!

Well, the storm was not as much as was expected - HOWEVER, it did leave unpleasant and VERY Slippery layer of ice underneath a slightly less slippery layer of snow. A very bad combo. :(

I (maggie) am home with the worst sinus infection I've had in years (big huge raspberry to the germs in my head - don't they know I have better things to do than lay on the couch, feel my head pound, and blow my nose?).

So, while we recover from ice and infections, please - do go visit our friend Tina's blog - She is doing an AMAZING series on "DIY" herbal gifts for the holidays. She is just full of knowledge and creativity - I always enjoy reading her blog to see what she is up to. She is inspiring me - there is still time to whip up loads of handmade holiday gifts!!