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Artichoke Lover

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Went to the store this afternoon and was disappointed to find the local store only had green tea, black tea and a small selection of herbal teas which all have chamomile as the base.
I decided to get a box of Lipton black tea to try and I’m pretty disappointed it tastes woody, like someone boiled peanut shells. Honey didn’t help much but milk did improve it greatly. I may try it again with less honey and more milk but I don’t think I’ll be buying another box. Thursday I’m planning on making a trip to the nearest big town and I’ll see what kind of selection they have there.
 

Pulsegleaner

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depending on how big the nearest big town to you is (or if it is actually a city, not a town) you might do better trying for a Chinese or Asian grocery store. As they drink far more tea that the national average, they tend to have better selections.

I don't know Alabama well, but going online there is a Chinese market called Hometown in Homewood, wherever that is.
 

digitS'

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Okay. This pedestrian tea drinker will wade into the discussion, @Artichoke Lover .

The Asian markets have had Prince of Peace. I will not say that it is very good, only that it is okay and the price is very good ;).

They have not had that brand on the shelves lately and I'm not all that happy with the Golden Pak that they do have. It must be a very dusting packaging building. I'm thinking that they should clean up their boxes and the workspace for their employees! Nevertheless, altho their oolong is quite different from Prince of Peace - stronger flavored - but it is also okay.

I won't be drinking Earl Grey. Nope. One must really have to like lavender to find it acceptable. IMO

There are several different kinds of mint in my yard. I have no strong interest in using any of them ;). Is there some reason you shied away from chamomile? The commercial spearmint and chamomile - I kinda like that.

Steve
 

Pulsegleaner

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Okay. This pedestrian tea drinker will wade into the discussion, @Artichoke Lover .

The Asian markets have had Prince of Peace. I will not say that it is very good, only that it is okay and the price is very good ;).

They have not had that brand on the shelves lately and I'm not all that happy with the Golden Pak that they do have. It must be a very dusting packaging building. I'm thinking that they should clean up their boxes and the workspace for their employees! Nevertheless, altho their oolong is quite different from Prince of Peace - stronger flavored - but it is also okay.

I won't be drinking Earl Grey. Nope. One must really have to like lavender to find it acceptable. IMO

There are several different kinds of mint in my yard. I have no strong interest in using any of them ;). Is there some reason you shied away from chamomile? The commercial spearmint and chamomile - I kinda like that.

Steve
I've had Prince of Peace. I think they misspelled the last word in the name :tongue

Are you sure you aren't having Paris Breakfast Earl Grey? Regular Earl Grey should taste only of bergamot orange, not lavender. Though there are a lot of Earl Grey recipes that do use it, like the above, and Victorian Earl Grey and others.
 

Artichoke Lover

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@digitS'
I’m avoiding chamomile for the moment because several family members have allergies to it and I’m uncertain if I am as we never kept it the house growing up. I’m also afraid that it would make me sleepy if I drank it during the day.

Im very grateful for your mention of lavender in Earl Grey though. It may have saved me an emergency room visit as I have a pretty severe skin allergy to lavender and I’d hate to see what it would do to my insides:ep
 

baymule

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Yesterday afternoon I needed a break from the madness that my life has become. I mad a cup of oolong tea. I was thinking about @Phaedra Geiermann and her lovely peaceful place where she has tea and breakfast for her and her husband. My house is a mess. I’ve been hauling out stuff, boxes of books to go to the used book store, things to go to Goodwill, a saxophone and banjo to go to the high school band department, boxes of documents and papers to be burned and just general disarray because I keep dragging things out to go through, keep or get rid of. No peaceful place here! The front porch wasn’t much better. So I went outside. I looked around. Found it! I dropped the tailgate on the truck.

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I sat on the tailgate, drinking my tea, looking about at the beautiful place we had together.
The tall pines were pictures of beauty against the blue sky.

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Our double wide mobile home with the 12’X54’ screened porch we added.

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There is a circle driveway with 2 majestic oak trees in the circle that give shade.

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I finished my tea. I decided to take a walk on our property and drink in the quiet, the peace and beauty of it all.

A huge fallen leaf from a Blackjack Oak caught my eye.

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I went through the gate and surveyed the horse barn we had built.

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No horses here, they have gone to other homes. Empty barn.

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The panels BJ and I put up when I sowed Bahia grass seed behind the barn, to keep the horses off so it could grow and get established. These are actually panels to a 60’ round pen for training horses, I will take them down and take them with me.

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I looked behind the barn at the many trees and the Bahia grass I planted in spring of 2020. It is greening up now with recent rains, it was looking brown from a dry spell. So much prettier now. This tree is a giant Sweet Gum, I cannot reach around the trunk. I enjoy just admiring this tree.

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baymule

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The Bahia grass is still thin but in a couple more years will thicken up and be a lovely pasture.
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I looked at the small 8’X16’ portable building. Not much in it. I won’t have a barn at my son’s rent house, so I’m taking this with me for a place to put feed for the sheep and dog food.

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I stood there remembering, the building was free. The bottom was rotted out. The guy even brought it to us, unloaded and blocked it up. We gave him $40 for gas, a pork roast and a package of home smoked bacon. He was happy, we were happy.

We bought treated 2x4’s and treated 2x6’s to rebuild the floor supports. Neighbor Robert and I rolled under the building with cordless drills. BJ pushed the 2x4’s under the building as needed and handed us screws in our hand reaching out from under the building. Robert and I wiggled in the soft dirt, and got all the 2x4 supports screwed in place.

I had glued and screwed the 2X6’s together to make skids for moving the building where I wanted it. We got the skids screwed into place and I drilled holes through the ends to put long bolts through to wrap a chain around so we could drag it with the tractor. We screwed a treated 4”X4” post between the skids to keep them from drawing together when being dragged.

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We dragged the building through the gate and blocked it up. To move it again, my son and I will put bolts through the holes in the skids, wrap chain around them, use the tractor to lift up one end, remove the blocks, do the same to the other end and drag it to the front driveway and winch it up on a trailer. Strap the skids down and take it 120 miles to my “new” house, unload and block it up. Then when I find a place to buy, we’ll move it again.

The horse hay ring, the pipes are bowed over to give spaces wide enough for horses to put their heads through, with no top rail, which would rub their mane off. My 3 didn’t finish the hay. I’ll have to move the hay ring off the hay. It is screwed together in 3 sections. I’ll take it apart and load it up to be moved.

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I went walking down the pipeline. The giant Bermuda grass seed I planted this spring has done well, growing enough that I could graze the horses on it, rotating them on and off, and rotating them on and off the Bahia pasture. It is going dormant now, so not much green.

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I walked down the pipeline, some late wildflowers caught my eye. A brilliant splash of yellow was a treat for the eyes.

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A close up.

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I walked through the woods to the southern property line. A gully goes through it, water runs after a rain. We built and set 3 H braces to go down to the gully, stretching the fence tight.

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Then down and across the gully. My son had come to visit and he went to Lowe’s with me to purchase bags of cement mix. I was going to buy the 40 pound bags, so I could handle them. He pointed out that he was there and could handle the 80 pound bags, so that’s what I got.

Son placed the bags of cement, making a solid barrier to animals digging in or my dogs digging out, but with gaps to let water through.

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Then the H braces up the other side of the gully.

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