The Ol' Pagosa Country Almanac: Assorted breezy little bits of information
Compiled by Ol' Norm Vance

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Old Pioneers Cough Syrup
2 onions, honey or sugar. Slice onions thinly. Place in bowl in layers, sprinkled with honey or sugar. Let stand to draw out juice. Crush onions and press. Use teaspoon of juice for cough or sore throat.

Burn Healing
Always keep an aloe vera cactus growing in a pot in the house. Put in a semi sunny place and water sparingly. For any burn immediately break off a chunk and squeeze juice on the burn.

Boiling Water
Water boils at a lower temperature at altitude. To serve hotter coffee, cocoa or tea preheat your mug with hot water. This is important in winter. For this same reason boil water twice as long to sterilize.

How To Prepare A Husband
First, use care in selecting. Get one that isn't too young, but tender and healthy. If you choose one recklessly it may not keep. Don't put in hot water. This makes them turn sour. Sweeten with smiles, and spice with patience. All varieties will respond. To insure a wonderful consistency, stir gently—never beat! And don't leave unattended for long periods of time. To add a delicious flavor, sprinkle generously with praise and appreciation. The poorest specimen may be improved if you follow these instructions and will keep for an unlimited time in any climate.

Voting
When voting in Colorado, one who is registered as an independent can declare a party when voting in the primaries.

Gardening Hints
One resident says that when her lilac tree begins to bud out, she knows that spring is here. To insure blooms prune to maintain small size and cover until all chance of frost is past.

Last Frost?
Traditionally the last freezing date is June 15. But one can start garden plants indoors early using fluorescent lights within one inch of sprouts two to three hours a night. This "fools" the plant into thinking it is summer. Putting the light a greater distance will produce long, thin and unhealthy plants that may die.

Plant seeds in May for the following:
spinach, snap peas, lettuce, broccoli, and brussel sprouts and any thing in the cabbage family.

After buying bedding plants "harden them off" for a few days. Do not plant them, but set them outside during the day. Cover at night or bring inside if afraid they might freeze.

Hummers
Some people keep their humming bird feeders up all year. Some put them up when the birds arrive in May and take them down Labor Day.

Bird feeders are a great way to increase the bird population on your property. Have binoculars handy for a closer look. If you have humming bird feeders you should let it go dry during prime flowering time.

The recipe for filling humming bird food is 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. Too much sugar causes fungus in the birds. Take down at end if flowering season so birds will fly south, otherwise you might cause the birds to stay too long and this is not good or fair to the birds.

Jello
Lemon Jell-O dissolved in 2 cups of hot apricot nectar with 1 tsp. of grated lemon added for zip makes a perfect base for jelled fruit salad. Pour water into a mold and then drain before pouring in mixture to be chilled. Gelled food will come out of mold easier.

Cookies
When rolling cookie dough, sprinkle board with powdered sugar instead of flour. The dough won't be as heavy or dry. Place pans in upper third of oven to keep from burning.

Grooming and Health At High Altitude
Hair and nails grow faster at high altitude; trim often.

Wear Layers
Because the temperature can change 50 degrees or more between early morning and sunset, wear clothes in layers.

Twenty percent of your body heat goes out through your head so insulated and snug fitting hats are advisable. Undershirts can keep body warm and ward off catching colds.

Quick Wilderness Fire
If you hike and ever have to spend a night in the forest a quick and hot fire can be made from the lowest branches of a spruce or pine tree. They are bone dry and snap right off the tree.

Matches are not what they used to be, safety concerns have changed the formula and many do not strike. Carry extras.
 
Hiking – Outdoor Tips
Carry three large trash bags in a pocket when going for a hike. If it rains make a skirt by cutting open the closed end and stuffing one end under your belt. Use the second bag by cutting head and armholes in the closed end to make a jacket. The third bag covers the head tying a knot under your chin. No rain, pick up trash.

 One can sunburn quickly here as we are closer to the sun in the mountains. Apply lots of apple cider vinegar to a sunburn. Best of all, if you think you might be burned, start doing this as soon as you get out of the sun.

Horse Care in the High Country
Good winter care is important. Enough hay and grain is needed to provide body heat to survive the winters and face the spring in a healthy condition. Using special blankets for horses is a bad practice because sufficient winter hair will not grow when its body is covered.

More Food Notes
To take away sweet taste of cola, add tonic water and a slice of lemon.

Homemade Syrup
2 cups white sugar to 1 cup water. Bring water to a boil. Add sugar all at once. Stir until it comes to a boil once again, turn off heat, add pinch of salt, 1/2teaspoon vanilla and 1/2teaspoon maple flavoring.

To remover fish odors from hands, utensils and dishcloths, use one teaspoon baking soda to quart of water.

Sandwich bags make a perfect mitt for greasing baking dishes.

Baking powder will remove tea or coffee stains from china pots of cups.

Never put a cover on anything that is cooked in milk unless you want to spend hours cleaning up the stove when it boils over.

A tablespoon of butter in the water when cooking rice, dried beans, or macaroni will help keep water from boiling over.

To remove a dried cork that has fallen inside a bottle, try this: put some household ammonia in the bottle, let sit for a few days. The cork should shrink.

Wood Burning
Speed woodpile drying by stacking the wood east and west and cover with clear plastic. Make a few holes at the top of the plastic to let moisture out.

Leave boiling water on the wood stove all through winter. Helps your nose and lungs and keeps wood in house in better shape.

Hoe Cake
1 cup corn meal, 1 tsp. salt
Pour boiling water into corn meal mixture until consistency of a thin pancake mix. Drop on a very hot greased griddle. Turn when edge is crisp.

High Altitude Cornbread
Thanks to a charming Pagosa Springs resident who, through trial and error, worked up this recipe for cornbread that does not crumble. It is made in a 9-inch cast iron skillet:

Mix together 2 cups cornmeal, 1 cup flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon sugar. Add 2 well-beaten eggs and 1 cup to 1 1/2 cup buttermilk. Add to skillet 3 heaping tablespoons oil. Heat until slightly smoking, pour 1/2 of this oil into the batter and quickly stir well. Pour batter into the skillet holding the remaining oil. Cook in 400º oven about 30 minutes. Options: Add grated cheese, or chopped onions or chopped green chilies

Christmas Dough Christmas Tree Ornaments
4 c. flour
1 c. salt
1 1/2 c. water
Mix, knead, roll thin and cut out with cookie cutters Bake at 350º for one hour or let dry overnight. Don’t halve the recipe. Decorate with paint or cake decorations.

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