I have two distillers -- one I use only for water, and the other I am dedicating to plant materials/essential oil. Both are the same MegaHome model, the 320-watts (there is a higher-wattage one).

I have an interest in making hydrosols, but I haven't really gotten too serious about it yet. And, in fact, it may prove in the long run to be smarter and more economical to simply buy the hydrosols available in stores. But, I've said that about distilled water, too, and yet I've managed to make it worth it to periodically distill my own. I recondition it (fix the PH) and drink it, use it in my coffee maker, hot pot, tea kettles...etc.. (I usually buy bottled distilled water for the humidifiers, though, when using those.) Sometimes I mix my distilled water with regular bottled water.

Today, I boiled about 18 ounces of water to get it ready to distill, dumped it into the distiller and added 2 teaspoons of citronella essential oil. Did a little reading during the whole process and learned about the word 'cohobate.' I got about...2 ounces, I'd say, of a water that certainly contained the citronella (mosquito spray!), then I shut off the machine at least for now, though there's still most of the water left in the container. My house was getting a bit overwhelmed by the scent of citronella, and also I wanted to be sure to not let the distiller boil dry (it shuts off automatically when it's empty, anyway, but I was just a little bit nervous).

I don't know how much my resulting solution differs from what is produced by distilling the water with the plant material (to produce a hydrosol).

I would say that what I made is a hydrosol, and it technically involved cohobation since the citronella oil added had already been distilled (not by me) from plant material (Cymbopogon nardus).

Anyway, kind of fun to make my own stuff. The aroma is a bit strong, of course, but not too unpleasant. Two ounces will go a long way in the little bottle I filled, which makes a very fine spray mist, and I would only want to make a small amount at a time.

The carafe in the photo is not the one that goes with the distiller -- it's a different container. I don't want to use the MegaHome pitcher for oils, just for water.

This must be a first, hanging clothes outside to dry in the month of March.

I was amazed that I could fit almost everything on this small, portable rack.

Back down to sub-freezing temps during the night, most likely, though.

Spring has sprung! Or so it seems. Record-breaking warm temps. Will they stay? My guess is... yes.

I'm glad, but I wasn't really ready for this yet. I was thinking I still had a few weeks before I had to worry about mosquitoes... now, not so sure!

I don't plan to garden much but I'll probably at least fix up this little patch with some plants, and hopefully some of the regular perennials will return. I guess I'll have to get ready for the hummingbirds sooner than expected.

I was so pleased to get this great shot, but... it didn't turn out very clear. Temps are warming up so these two will be around, though I don't know if I'll get them both together like this again.

Chipmunk photo taken on 9/21/2006.

I've re-run this photo a few times. It's one of my favorite shots. I took this while walking around Old Sturbridge Village.

Was without internet for about a day and not looking forward to the task of getting it all fixed, but things have started working alright again. So yay, that saves me a long boring trip to the Verizon store.

Tired today. Very. Winter woes, I guess.

News... hmm, well, I put together a new dog bed today. Another Coolaroo bed so Bubbles can be comfy in the backyard (Speckle doesn't go there). Irritated my back quite a bit to do that, but I got it done.

Yeah, did other stuff too... but that's probably the most notable.

I've stocked up on several varieties of Dr. McDougall's vegan (and some gluten-free) soups and pilafs. But getting a bunch through Amazon's Prime Pantry, I saved about 20% off the grocery store's price and found more variety, this time. (Don't worry, grocery store, I always seem to have some reason to enter your doors...)

These are quick & easy, delicious, and are dry, so I don't need a freezer (don't have one, don't want one).

I kept hearing an ad on the radio about stocking up on emergency food. I was put off by the fact that it was all 'add water' stuff -- I mean, if we've hit the End Times, are we going to have any water? So, I didn't go for any of that particular product, but...

The more I thought about it, I decided it would be okay to stock up something even if it would require some clean water. Let's have a positive attitude about the End! Right? Maybe we'll all go lights-out while we're drinking some really good coffee... with our soup!

Okay, really, I'll probably just have it all gone by Christmas. With no End in sight. And then I'll get some more...