Local plants

I can't believe it's been two years since I posted on here. We have another child turning one soon and I've missed writing any of it. So much happens in life and blogging hasn't been as urgent as everything else. I thought having internet at home would make it easier, but that got me deep into facebook. Sometimes internet is a bit addicting for me. It was craigslist for awhile. But now I've found a local online garage sale group, way more profitable than craigslist which covers a 100 mile radius in our area of remote Alaska. Mommy brain has me trying to remember what I even was going to post about, now that I'm here. Hmmm. Yes, I remember. A "miracle" plant: I've had a patch of eczema on my low back for many months now. Less than two years, but I don't remember when it started. I also have a wart on my two that I've had almost two years, it started before my last pregnancy and hasn't cleared up. Finally I am fulfilling a dream of learning about the land, so I could possibly live off of it. I'm enjoying learning about local and native plants/weeds and their uses. One prolific weed is jewelweed (touch-me-not family). We have a great book by Schofield that describes uses of all these plants. We've been experimenting with one at a time to learn it's usefulness for us. Jewelweed takes away the sting of nettles, true it worked for us. And we do have nettles in our weedy areas next to the pooshky and the raspberries usually. I read that the Jewelweed can also help other skin issues and it mentioned eczema and warts specifically, among other things. Having both those conditions I decided to give it a try. THere's no recipe or instructions in the book. So like a good pharmacist, I just took some plant, broke it to release juices as we did for the nettle sting and rubbed my two affected areas, and went to bed. I repeated this "dosage" in the morning and evening today. What Have I noticed so far? Amazingly my eczema patch smoothed out significantly and it's pink blotchiness is gone. The area has reduced to a tanned skin color with slight stiffness compared to surrounding areas. Basically, it's hugely improved in just one day!!!!! I am curious to see if it fully clears up. The wart has not changed yet. I'll continue twice a day applications and see. Plantain we have tried on skin wounds. Seemed to work. Having a cold right now, I've also been using yarrow, pineapple weed, and spruce tips - all of which grow conveniently on our city lot. That brings a bit of tension. If I get rid of the wild, unsightly weeds and make a pretty plot of land, I lose access to my closest natural medicine chest and have to walk further down the road. But what if we ALL got rid of our weeds, then where do we go? On to other things, our baby boy. Perhaps "Rocky" would be a good screen name. He's named for courageous wisdom, that's his identity that we are calling out in him. By the way, does any one read blogs anymore, now that Facebook and other social media has exploded in popularity?