The Legacy of Garry Currie - Dad, Taxidermist, Inspiration

The Trip that Changed my Life

There is a defining moment in a family when everything changes.  Mine happened December 3, 1983. I was a little girl and  my dad ended up in a wheelchair after a tragic accident on the drilling rigs that left him paralyzed from the nipple line down.  A few months later my mom lost my grandpa to colon cancer.  It was ground zero for my family
. 

My dad would say it was the best and worst thing that ever happened to him.  It was the worst because he had lost the ability to walk but, the best because he now was given the gift of spending every day with his family and being retrained in a profession that he loved.  The oil field doesn't give you much of a family life so he loved every moment he now got to spend with us.  I was a pretty spoiled kid in that respect.  My dad was a really incredible guy.  It was also very hard to feel sorry for yourself or limit yourself when your dad would remind you every day the fact that limits are something you set and that if you keep an open mind, get creative, you can do anything!  Because my dad was paralyzed when I was so young lots of times I didn't even realize he was different.  Even as an adult I would often forget to even tell my friends that my dad was in a wheelchair.  They would always point out that a heads up would have been nice. 

My dad was given the choice to retrain in any career he wanted.  He could have picked anything at all!  He chose taxidermy in my dad's words "the art of preserving nature". He loved to hunt, fish, and the great outdoors.  He actually got more into hunting, fishing, and camping in a chair than before.  More time he would always point out. So WCB sent him to the worlds best taxidermists in the USA for training.  I was about seven and we got to camp, stay in hotels, and travel in the states.  My mom home schooled us for a bit and it was an amazing experience!  My dad made lifelong friends with his teachers and we got to see some of America's heritage in the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and all sorts of museums. 

My family toured all of these attractions with ease and what I felt was VIP service.  People in wheelchairs from my seven year old eyes got special parking, entrances, guides, first in lines.  I never once associated a disability with limited access. I realize now that said more about my dad's attitude on life than his ability to gain access to buildings. So when my family heard about Jewel Cave National Monument  we were all excited.  It was the third longest cave!  My dad loved caves!  He loved all of the crystals, stalactites and stalagmites, and the sense of adventure.  We were definitely going.  At first it was business as usual, our family got the preferred treatment.  Special entrance, first in line, front row seats in the first viewing platform, elevator service.  It was so cool!  You could see all of these really vast formations, the guide was giving us the explanation of millions of years of history.  To a really geeky kid like me it was heaven.  Then the tour was to continue and I looked at the rest of the path..stairs.  How was my dad going to come?  I looked at my dad and he had this expression that I will never forget.  It was this really big smile with sad eyes.  He said "Go girls!  I will be right here.  You have to see the rest of the tour!  I am just going to wait here.  You can tell me all about it so listen carefully".  I knew then what it meant to have a dad in a wheelchair.  It wasn't special service it was minimal service.  I was devastated but, I didn't want my dad to feel bad.  I knew that if I didn't go he would feel guilty like he was holding me back, but I didn't want to go on this adventure without my dad.  I knew he was going to miss out.  I looked at him and he said, "Don't worry about me. I can see lots from here and I want to hear about the parts of the cave I didn't see".  I went. 

I saw pools of water that had dripped from the ceiling over millions of years, unique rock, crystals, and dark caverns but, I couldn't shake the image of my dad waiting for me.  So when our guide wasn't looking I crouched down and pocketed a little rock by the pool.  It was a bit of calcium and orange colored.  I looked around and no one had noticed I took one.  I nervously held this little stone in my pocket and focused on everything the guide said so I would remember everything to tell my dad.  They eventually led the tour back to the beginning and there was my dad!  Waiting patiently and looking at the original cavern.  I began telling him all about it and he listened to my enthusiastic description.  He had all of the appropriate ooohs and ahhs to my story and we started out of the caves.  Back in the elevator and into the parking lot I grasped that little stone thinking about the still waters of the little pool. 

Later on that night before we all went to bed I finally pulled the stone out of my pocket and gave it to my dad.  I told him where I got it, the pool, and how the rock was formed.  My dad held the little rock up and marveled at it.  He loved it!  It was my dad and I's unspoken communication.  It was my way of bringing a little piece of a place he couldn't go back.  It was my way of telling him that I knew he wanted to go but, couldn't.  It was my way of thanking him for making me go without him and for planting a little spark of exploration and adventure.  My dad knew what I was trying to say without me saying it.  My dad told me how much he loved me and how he wanted to hear every detail of that tour.  So it started. 

My entire life as I grew older and started down the my career path as a professional camper I would bring my dad back a stone, a cool little piece, or in one case I used a little Nalgene and brought him melted snow from a back country ski trip I went on.  My dad and I would always sit down and  he would ask for every detail and then he would share his latest fishing trip. It was a routine and a way to acknowledge that my dad was the one who planted the spark for the outdoors for me and he was in a way the reason I was out there in the first place.  I had so much fun and the outdoors were becoming my life and my passion.  Every trip I wanted to try going longer, every rapid I wanted to try a bigger one, every river I wanted to see where it went.  Complete freedom.

When I was blessed with twin sons in July of 2010 my dad, of course, was over the moon for them.  I was very lucky for twins as they were very good about being easy on their mom and dad for the most part.  The biggest transition for me was more learning about mortality.  Before my kids I was immortal!  I could go where I wanted, paddle what I pleased, and hit the trail. Suddenly, I was up to my eye balls in diapers and I couldn't just take off or go where I wanted.  Suddenly, rapids looked different to me.  I would judge rapids based on what could happen to me instead of classic river class 1,2, or 3.  Suddenly, I was worried about a bear eating me.  Suddenly, I was mortal.  Don't get me wrong I was happily mortal.  I love my sons and their fascination with the outdoors is so much fun.  Like my parents I raise my boys outside.  We fish, canoe, camp, build fires, and look for caterpillars and worms. Of course, having a mom who owns a Canoeing Company helps.  My dad was right in there too.  Buying them bikes, life jackets, and living at the lake with our family in a van in our camp. 

My dad was sick.  I looked after him, changed his bandages, and fought super bugs and doctors with everything I had in between canoe trips, and hospital stays. And after every coma or near death experience my dad had (there was a lot in the last six years) my dad would fight harder, go salmon fishing, get inventive on how to take antibiotics and still camp with us. He would pick up his taxidermy every time he would come home even though some of the comas took away his ability to use his hands. He got an electric chair but, went to physio every Wednesday to get back in his push one. Nothing would stop his iron will.  I still brought him little rocks from new rivers and now so did my little sons. 

We lost him last year.  Going threw stuff in my dads shop I keep finding little rocks, the melted snow I brought him, and little pieces he put away.  There is so much you discover losing a parent.  My dad died thirty years later almost to the day that he ended up in his chair.  I would not trade a single day of that thirty years.  One thing you realize when someone you love is gone is the things you thought they would pass on to your children.  I thought about hunting this year.  I always  thought my dad would take my sons hunting and now I realize if I want my sons to appreciate that part of my childhood, one of my fathers passions, I would have to take them hunting.  It was now my responsibility to pass on my dads, my grandparents, my families history and stories to my kids or they would be lost too.  It was an opportunity to let my kids connect to my dad without him being there.  It was a small rock brought from a cavern in a Jewel Cave. 

It was then I realized that family stories need to become legends.  My families legends, my families morals, beliefs, passions if taught to my children would move from legends to legacy with the hope that they too will pass down stories of all of the moms and dads before them.  Small pebbles. 

 

A couple of week ago I gave birth to a daughter, Anna.  My dad wanted a granddaughter so bad that when he would wake up from his many comas he would always assume I had his granddaughter.  She will never meet him but, she will know him.  And listening to my boys playing in the kitchen making up a campsite complete with tent and looking down at my daughter sleeping on my chest I once again feel...immortal. 

Winter Camping with Kids

 

Winter Wonderland

10 Tips for a Magical Winter Adventure

"You are crazy.."  That is the usual response I get to winter camping.  I have tried for years to convince my friends and family that my passion for the winter season is justifiable.  Sleeping in snow forts, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, clean crisp air, big campfires, eating whatever you want, no bears, no bugs, no crowds, it is complete freedom!! Few in my circle of folks get how beautiful winter camping is but, the ones who do are just as fanatical as I am.  I loved planning expeditions and seeing new areas that were otherwise blocked but, now free to explore thanks to the miracle of freezing.  Still most of the time it was a solo trip due to my persuasion skills and enthusiastic testimonies always being trumped by the very phrase "winter camping". 

I decided my next strategy would be to marry someone who loved to camp all four seasons and mission accomplished!  Les and I enjoyed trips, building quinzees, tarp towns, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and nice warm fires with a reflecting tarp.  Then we were blessed with a set of identical twin boys.  I had pictured myself strapping my kids on and not missing a beat.  I pictured mountain peaks, rapids, snow caves, with smiling babes and victorious poses.  Did I mention these were my first babies?  I countered each argument from more experienced parents and skeptical friends with very public declarations of nothing will change I can still maintain my lifestyle goals.  Its too bad that they had reprioritize but, I shouldn't have to.

Cue nine months later a crazy, hormonal, huge pregnant women crying on the shores of a river in the arms of a very patient husband as my staff is leaving on a guided canoe trip without me. It was the first trip that I hadn't guided myself and the first time I had say goodbye to something I loved because I couldn't do it.  I mean I literally couldn't go canoeing.  I tried getting in one of my canoes pregnant, got stuck and had to turn the boat over and wiggle out.  Luckily it was on dry land and in front of a large crowd so my dignity remained in tact.  Very shortly after the canoe stuck incident my healthy happy baby boys were born!  Begin sleep depravation, breast feeding, breast pumping, thousands of diapers, and before I knew it was winter. 

The first realization was that my priorities had in fact completely changed but, not my passion for the outdoors.  I tried putting my skis back on only to discover that my abs would need some time to recover because I had damaged them in my pregnancy.  All of those pre thoughts of winter camping, skiing, snowshoeing, mountain peaks, were starting to look like something that would have twin 16 year old boys in the picture than my babies.  I am willing to admit I went through some difficult times adjusting.  I mean first there was all of the ways I said it wouldn't change me, it wouldn't stop me, and everything would be amazing.  I was upset but, for all of the wrong reasons.  I am not sure when I realized what I missing in not trying to plan 20km trips only to be disappointed because its completely unrealistic with my sons but, I am glad I did.  Camping with my kids is magic!  Their enthusiasm, imagination, excitement, accomplishments, and triumphs are now the best part of every adventure I am on!  I still love exploring, pushing my limits, going on expeditions but, the ones with my kids are now in my top trips. 

So a couple of weeks ago in a very unseasonal warm spell of plus three in January my pregnant 33 week self, Les, and my very enthusiastic four year old twins took three days and planned the ultimate camping trip in the wild winter backcountry of our backyard.  Other than the many trips to the potty I had to make with our third child on my bladder the first winter campout was a roaring success and now my sons are obsessed with all things winter camping.  When you are taking kids outside its all about making a spark and fanning the flames of their imagination as to what the great outdoors has to offer.  I let them set challenges and make accomplishments and nothing makes me happier. I will be taking those big trips again with my kids and this is how I am going to get there.  Because my dad was such an outdoor guy my appreciation started young and now I am passing the torch to my sons.    

Getting outside in the winter is all about frame of mind.  The fresh air is so healthy for our families and with a little pre planning you can help your family to discover a new challenge and adventure that everyone can enjoy!

Here are 10 tips to get started with creating this magical adventure for your family:

1)  Go Nowhere: Whether you are an experienced backcountry winter sleeper or a first timer the first time you go out with your kids consider going nowhere but your back yard or apartment patio.  This is all about family adventure, making it fun, and getting your kids involved in a new challenge.  It is way easier to be able to use your house for the first time.  If your kids aren't quite ready, or the weather changes, or you forgot something, take the pressure off and camp close to the house.  It gives you freedom to bail if its just not working and the comfort of less packing and stress.  For your kids its a family activity they could care less about where you are setting up the tent. 

2) Check Weather:  Plan as best as you can for a first night out in milder weather.  Its again less pressure on you and makes a missing toque in the middle of the night not as much of an impact.  We were sleeping at plus three and it was almost too hot for all of us crowded in our little tent.  It also makes planning activities more fun too.  If you have fresh snow make some snow ice cream or snow candy as part of the adventure.  Clear skies?  Take a look at all of those stars and look for different constellations. 


3) To Pitch or not to Pitch: There are many ways to camp outside in the winter!  First of all no bugs-making the need for screens or tents an option.  I suggest the easiest and use your tent.  Its what your kids are used to.  If you have a little more time look up building a quinzees!  Its basically a snow fort igloo for sleeping in or look at different tarp options with fire support. If you look up winter camping on line there is countless options for sleeping outside and staying warm. We used our tent because it was quick, easy and the kids like to set it up.  If using a tent, put a tarp or ground sheet underneath, consider removing the fly for air circulation and moisture release from your breath and bodies, if you have access to a four season tent it will already be ready for winter. 

4) Little Hands make Light Work: What fun is a winter camp without playing in the snow?  Get the kids involved in making camp.  We had them shovel out a spot for out tent with us and pack it all down with snow angels.  They built and packed down trails for our pee spots and to our house.  You can get them stacking wood and hauling warm gear.

5) Build a Nest: One of the strategies to staying warm when camping in any season is get off of the ground.  With our kids we call it building a nest.  We have all sorts of camping gear so we layered off of the ground thermarests, sleeping pads, foam mats from the camper, blankets and then put our sleeping bags, pillows and one big blanket for on top.  We were almost to warm.  If you are going to use an air mattress remember changing temperature will deflate your mat so you will want back up padding and loft.  Be creative!  You do not have spend a bunch of money or buy more equipment.  We have used bubble wrap insulation as a layer, lots of clothes that you want to keep warm for the next day.  You just need to get as much between the ground and you as you can to stay nice and warm.

6) Bring on the Feast: Winter camping and outside activity in the winter burns a lot of calories and you need to replace them to stay warm, happy, and healthy!  Plus there are a few luxuries in the winter that are awesome like ice cream!! One of my favourite treats in the winter are ice cream sandwich smores.  You roast your marshmallows, get your graham crackers, put your chocolate in your warm marshmallow, on top of ice cream and a graham cracker and smoosh it all together!  Heaven.  Or toast an apple pie on the fire with ice cream.  It may sounds wrong but a spoonful of butter in your hot chocolate is dreamy.  Lots of carbs and fats are essential to winter camping so indulge guilt free because you will burn it all and be toasty warm.  If you have some daylight homemade toffee poured in clean snow is so much fun with kids! Again close to the house is nice for all of this activity.  I will post again about advanced winter camping menus and tips.

7) Build a Sleepy Bird Snack Pack:  An essential tip for sleeping warm and again is fun for the kids is a night time snack kit.  One of my treats is sleeping with chocolate bars.  I never do this in summer for bear aware reasons so winter time is my fun.  The secret to warming up is carbs.  If you sleep with a chocolate bar the sugars will kick start your metabolism to create heat and the fats will sustain the burn to keep you warm and toasty in your bag.  For the kids I look for little bars because if they freeze they still fit in their mouths to thaw and chew, some small fruit snacks or chocolate chips, some crackers, and glow sticks.  We pack it all in a Ziploc cracked the glow stick and chucked them in the sleeping bags.  The kids had no problems finding the snack pack because of the glow stick and were warm and toasty. 

8) Do a Tribal Dance: Another technique for staying warm in your tent is get in your sleeping bag warm. Before getting in your tent dance around, go for a walk, move shake, and make it fun!

9) Snug as a Bug:  There are lots of way to sleep warm outside!  Get into your bags warm is the first step.  You can sleep with hot water bottles or water bottles filled with hot water.  Make sure the lids do not leak.  Wear light layers to bed with loose clothing.  Constrictive clothing or sleeping gear can get cold.  Wear clean dry warm socks, mitts and keep a toque on your head.  Keep your face outside your sleeping bag because moisture will collect on the inside of the bag.  If you are close to your house why not use an electric blanket?  Cuddle up and make sure that your sleepy time snacks are close.  Pack extra insulation on areas that get cold like little butts.  Make sure everyone uses the washroom!  You do not want to get finally all bundled up in your bag and getting warm and then hear little ones calls for bathroom.

10) Waking up to the call of Nature: Last but not least the bathroom.  We have all been there winter or summer.  You are all bundled up, nice and warm, and then you need to go!  You try and ignore it but, its there until finally you concede and get out.  In the winter give in!  The more energy your body uses to keep your pee warm the colder you are going to get. So get out and go.  Little ones however, I highly recommend the pee bottle.  Sounds gross yes but, often they wake up especially camping and have to go now.  Its dark, in the tent with lots of layers so if you have a bottle, with a non leaking lid, clearly marked it can be easier to help them go quickly without getting to cold or very unbundled.  Just remember to dispose of the waste and container the next morning. 

Winter camping in a luxury and a truly Canadian thing to do!  Introducing your kids to this little adventure is the first thing in establishing a lifelong interest in a healthy lifestyle in the great outdoors!!  So get out bundle up and eat some candy in a snow bank!

Wild Winter-Lets Get Started!

What Can I Eat Wild in the Winter?

Pine- A tree of Abundance

There is so much wild eating in the summer.  Summer, Spring and Fall are season of abundance and winter is the season of silence and reflection.  But there are some plants that you use for eating or medicine and winter is the perfect time to gather them!

The bustle of the holidays are done, the new year has been rung, and your Christmas lights are put away. The Christmas tree has been unadorned and waiting for storage or hanging out in the backyard for that epic winter bonfire. But your pine worship need not end! Because winter is tis the season of Pine.  In all of that white wash there is always the beauty of the evergreen or pine.  The tree that brightens are days of winter and reminds us of the green summer to come.  But what an amazing tree it is.

You can utilize a large portion of the pine tree for both food and health. Just like anything else you try in nature there are a few tips for gathering pine:

1. Consider the source-try and choose trees that are away from pollution and contamination.

2. Consider the health and quantity of the plant- Does the tree look damaged? Does it look like it may be partially dead? Is it a single tree or a forest? In the case of harvesting bark use a branch instead of cutting into the trunk.  You want to preserve the health of the plant as best as you possibly can.

3. Do not strip the plant or one branch.  Spread out your harvesting so you do not kill or harm the plant.

What does the Pine Tree have to offer?

Medicinal Properties:
Pine is has been known as an Analgesic, antifungal, antimicrobial, antiseptic, disinfectant
It has been a remedy for colds, flus, mucus, skin infections, and maybe not so prevalent today but its been used to treat scurvy.

Pine tree or evergreens in general emit at natural chemicals called phytocides that have been found to help strengthen our immune systems.  So just hanging out in a forest and breathing in the air can help improve your health and reduce stress. 

Nutritional Properties:
Pine needles and the tree has been found to very high in Vitamin C and has been referenced to have as much as five times the amount of vitamin c in an orange.  It has also been found beta carotene, starches, sugars, and vitamin A. According to some research Pine needles are higher in vitamin C in the winter which makes it an excellent choice for colds or just boosting your wellness in the winter.

Other Uses:
Pine has been used as a cleaning and disinfecting agent for hundreds of years. The pine wood has been used for all sorts tools and building. Pine boughs are excellent to sleep on to provide both cushion and insulation in winter camping.  Pine Pitch or sap has been used in the construction of canoes, as a waterproofing agent, and it also makes an amazing fire starter. 

Warnings:  If you are looking for side effects of using this tree one of the biggest I have found is that the ponderosa pine (not native to Saskatchewan) has caused abortions in cattle.  As with all things new you are trying start small and use moderation when enjoying tasting the wilderness. 

My Favourite Pine Recipes:

Pine Needles:

Pine Needle Tea-This amazing little part of the pine tree is so versatile.  The most common use of pine needles is to make a tea.  The tea is a great way to get your dose of vitamin C and helps to clear congestion and clear up cold symptoms.  I have to admit the first time I made this tea I was thinking it would taste horrible. I mean drinking a pine tree does not sound the most pleasant, but it was delicious and surprisingly sweet!  I was really impressed and we now mix it with other wild herbs like mint or Labrador tea for a great bush brew. 
To make the tea you just need to find a pine tree, harvest some needles (about 1 teaspoon per cup), cut them up with scissors or a sharp knife, and add some hot water.  You want to boil your water first, let it sit for a minute or two, and then steep your tea for about 10min.  You don't want your water too hot or it will harm some of the delicate medicinal properties of the tea.  It has almost a citrusy taste. 

Pine Needle Steam or Bath- Add some needles to hot water, put it in a basin, and add a towel over your head.  Breathing in the pine and I like to add peppermint loosens up tough mucus and relives congestion.  Its also nice just to throw some needles in your bath.

Pine Needle Vinegar-  Take some nice fresh needles, add some vinegar, and seal them up in a jar.  When making infusions like this you want to consider your container.  I like glass because then nothing else will leach into your mixes.  Add some fresh oranges peels as well and you have your own homemade, antimicrobial, antifungal, cleaner!  Or add a bit with some lemons, rosemary, or raspberries and you have a very unique boreal salad dressing.

Pine Needle Butter- This was another great recipe that I love!  You simply cut up some needles and mash them with some soft butter.  Let sit in a sealed container and add the butter to whatever dish you want to infuse with unique flavours. 

Pine Needle Sugar-Add some needles to a cup of whatever type of sugar you prefer to use. Let it sit for about a month for a good flavour infusion.  I made some really tasty pine needle shortbread that I was very excited about.

Pine Needles as a Spice- You can dehydrate or dry out some needles, throw them in a grinder and add them to some Celtic salt or as an extra seasoning to any dish you are making.  I love making a very fragrant rice pilaf with both pine and wild sage.  Pine is a strong taste so start small and add to enhance your dishes.  I have also used a bit in with some Montreal steak spice as a rub and it turned out so good. 

Cooking on a Pine Needles or a Pine Bough-  This is another interesting way to inject some boreal forest into your cooking.  A cast iron pan on the fire works great.  I have taken a small pine branch, soaked it, wrapped it with some fresh rosemary, laid it on the bottom of my frying pan, and then set fish on top.   It smokes a bit but gives your fish an awesome bit of flavour.  Again experiment with flavour and strength.  If you think a branch will be too much try starting with just some needles.

Pine Bark:

Inner Cambium Layer- This inner layer of bark in a pine tree has been used as a survival food and is very high in sugars and starches.  I always look to a branch when harvesting bark but, should you need to harvest from the trunk you want to cut vertically along the trunk not horizontal line.  The sap or blood of the tree travels up and down and you will create less of an impact cutting up and down strips versus across where you cut off the trees sap supply to a larger area.  I haven't tried it myself but, friends of mine have not been enthusiastic about the taste. 

Bark-  There is an outer bark and inner bark.  What can you use the bark for?  First of all some folks have raved about using the inner bark of the tree to make a tea. I have combined it with the pine needles to give my tea a boost. There has been some research into the medicinal and immune boosting properties that lie in the bark of the pine tree.  The other fun and interesting way I learned to use the bark was making pine back crackers.  For the inner bark you peel the grey yellow outer pieces of the bark to reveal the reddish bark underneath.  Then you dry it out and throw it in your grinder.  You now have a pine bark flour and you can add this to breads or cracker recipes for another way to make your meals pop.  There is a great pine bark cracker recipe in the Boreal Herbal by Beverly Gray. 

Pine Pitch:

Pine pitch is one powerful ingredient for wilderness medicines.  To collect it you are going to want to use a fixed blade knife or flat head screwdriver.  Pine pitch is that yellow or golden, sticky balls of sap that the tree uses to seal up wounds or broken branches from insects or diseases.  It is highly antimicrobial and antifungal so if you have a cut or wound its great for healing. Its also very soothing on achy muscles or I have heard of some folks success with inflammation. I had a friend who did use it in a tooth emergency to help seal off where a filling fell out.  And I also have been a victim of the chew it till its gum.  I have yet to make gum because pine pitch, unlike pine needles, is not tasty.  I use it in conjunction with balsam poplar oil or other herbs to make a great boreal salve for all sorts of uses in our home.

A quick easy recipe for a salve:

1) A collection of pine pitch-half a handful
2) One cup of oil-You can use an infusion of oil and herbs, or just make sure whether its olive or just good ol' canola you are comfortable with rubbing it in on your skin.
3) 2 tablespoons of Beeswax
4) 1/4 teaspoon of Vitamin E (as a preservative)

Melt all of the ingredients in a double boiler.  Start with your pine pitch because it takes a little longer.  You want to chop or shred your beeswax into small pieces so it melts faster.  The less heat you expose the mixture too the more medicinal properties of the plant will remain in tact.  Once the beeswax is melted take it off the heat, if you want to add some extra essential oils stir them in, and pour into a heat proof container like a mason jar.  If you are using a metal one make sure its food safe.  And that is it.  It will take less than ten minutes and you will notice your mixture starting to harden up.  If it seems to liquid, chuck it back in the double boiler and add more beeswax. 


There are many more uses for the Pine tree some for summer and fall!  The above are just about the fun of collected wild ingredients in the winter.  This simple tree that is in most folks backyards is so abundant with uses and yet we often overlook how lucky we are to live in a country with so many special plants.