Day: January 7, 2017

Birch Essential Oil

Birch essential oil, also known as sweet birch oil, is rich in methyl salicylates and has a long history of use for sore and fatigued muscles. The familiar, soothing aroma of birch oil is reminiscent of the inside of a doctor’s bag on the day of house calls. This therapeutically wide-spectrum stimulating and cleansing oil  has a bright, refreshing aroma, and can be kept in mind for restoring comfort to the overworked body and the agitated or cloudy mind. […]

via Birch Essential Oil — Good Witches Homestead

That Magical Tree {January 2017}

birch-beithe

Birch  –   Beith Ogham letter B … Ruler of the 1st Lunar Month 24th December – 20th January Powers:  Purification, A Guardian of New Beginnings, Bringer of Hope, 

The Druid tree symbol for the Bards

– ‘The Goddess Tree’ – ‘The Lady of the Woods’,  the Birch tree, Betula Pendula is the bringer of promise, light, and new beginnings.

  An elegant native of British woods, of all Northern European countries and of North America, the birch is tall, up to sixty or so meters in height, with a slender pale trunk. It grows in clearings, preferring sunlight, but is not fussy about soil and is very hardy although not especially long-lived.
The birch is known as a ‘Pioneer Tree’ – meaning that it can restart the colonization of woodlands after long-term natural disasters.

Its soft green deciduous leaves have serrated edges and are held on thin branches which move and bow in the breeze. Its striking white, peeling bark gives it a faery-like beauty in all its seasons.

As the sap rises in early March, it’s possible to cut the bark, tap the trees and use the sweet liquid collected neat and cold as a water, or as the basis for a birch wine or beer. (Find out how to tap for birch sap in the bushcraft video below).

  In early spring the small male flowers develop into long catkins (pictured right) and the female flowers grow into tiny cones (pictured left).

The rest of the article at the Source: That Magical Tree {January 2017}

South Dakota State’s Attorneys File Motion Seeking to Transfer Control of At-Risk Wild Horses

“If the motion is approved, the wild horses would be placed in safe homes rather than sold at auction…”

black-stallion

A Black Stallion stands, snow encrusted, in sub-zero temps. with no shelter at ISPMB facility in Landry, SD

The South Dakota state’s attorneys in Ziebach and Dewey Counties have filed a motion requesting that a judge transfer to two equine welfare organizations control of 540 wild horses found starving and neglected at the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros in Lantry, S.D.

Filed in the Fourth Circuit Court of Ziebach County, the motion requests that management and placement of the horses be turned over to Fleet of Angels, an organization that provides emergency assistance and transportation to at-risk equines in the United States and Canada, and Habitat for Horses, an equine rescue based in Texas.

Read the rest of the story at the Source: South Dakota State’s Attorneys File Motion Seeking to Transfer Control of At-Risk Wild Horses