Front Porch Tales with Barbara Belding Gibson. Come on, pull up a rocking chair, grab a glass of iced tea and let's visit a while. OOPS; a Broomweed related tale as told in 1999 Before getting into specifics of the broomweed, I feel the need to tell a tale of a few years ago, a broomweed related tale. How I spent my Tuesday evening this week - As recounted by one Grandma Type Girl named Barbara. There once was a girl who grew up on a ranch.  As this girl grew older and older and older she never got over her desire to travel down the ranch roads seeing the trees and birds and all other such outdoorsy things.  Usually such trips were made in a vehicle with four wheels firmly attached to the ground.  However occasionally they were made on her own two feet.  The problem with such foot trips was that the two feet didn't seen to have the same attachment to the ground as did the wheels.  One reason could be that at most times one or the other of the feet was raised off the ground moving forward to the next position. As this girl had grown older and older and older she gained more and more and more experience upon which to base her life.  As a result she grew fairly intact into a Mother Type Girl (MTG), only falling off the back steps once while pregnant with her soon-to-be-born son.  That experience while in the womb, combined with similar sightings as he grew up led the son to drawl, "My Mom is the only person I know who can stand flat-footed and fall down."  However, in spite of such slanderous statements, the MTG continued to gain experience and finally grew into a Grandmother Type Girl (GTG). One experience that the MTG had was of chasing cattle through the weeds in the holding pen.  This experience had taught her that when running through weeds it is quite likely that this particular MTG would step on weeds with one foot and immediately hook the other toe under those same weeds.  This almost always resulted in a precipitous landing with her face among the weeds and rocks.  Now, being the intelligent MTG that she was, after repeated lessons of a similar nature she vowed never to chase cows through the weeds in the holding pen again. As she grew into a mature GTG she began to feel the need for "walking for her health".  So one day she decided to combine this activity with the more desirable one of viewing the outdoorsy things from a ranch road. Unfortunately the road that she chose (as well as all other ranch roads in the area) was full of broomweeds.  As the GTG walked along at a rapid pace for better aerobic results, a broomweed seemed to plant itself under one foot while rising up to hook the opposite toe.  This resulted in what seemed to be a slow motion fall, face down on the rocky road.  However, due to the fact that the broomweed immediately released its hold on both feet, the graceful GTG slid about six inches while still on her face.  The distance is easy to measure by the length of the scrape on the right cheek while the downward force of the fall is easily measured by the depth of the wound on the bridge of her nose and the crack in her left elbow. Immediate results included the fleeing of all wildlife and gathering of not-so-wildlife.  Wonder Dog, Ranger, thought this was an unprecedented opportunity to play with the GTG on the ground.  When the GTG finally fought off Ranger and got the pain and exasperation under control, she turned over on her back only to see at least ten cows and their calves standing about five feet away looking at her with very puzzled expressions on their faces.  Since other cows were heard running through the trees in her direction (they probably had visions of feed being poured into a nearby trough), the GTG decided that an immediate decision about just how she would get up was in order. After finally mastering the engineering feat of getting up without using either knee (already incapacitated by previous falls) or either hand (because of 2 rock damaged palms and 1 aching elbow), the GTG walked back to the house trying very carefully not to wipe away any of the blood or dislodge any of the burs.  After all, without this visible prompting how could she get the appropriate sympathy while at the same time remaining cool and collected.  Of course by the next day the cast on the left arm provided ample opportunity to be suitably consoled. Greetings from the one handed GTG who takes great delight in playing with her computer (one handed) instead of washing dishes or sweeping floors - neither of which can be done one handed I can assure you. Barbara -------------------------------- Broomweed - An annual related to the sunflower Broomweed is the bane of livestock ranchers in Texas. It grows tall and branches near the top until, in the fall, it forms a canopy capable of robbing the soil of all light and most water. When the small yellow blooms appear on a pasture full of these blooming canopies, it is a beautiful sight if one can ignore its dangers. At earlier stages when the cattle will actually eat it, broomweed causes them to abort. When it is large and blooming it may make a beautiful pasture but cattle don't like to put their heads in it to eat the grass under the canopy. To this little girl playing with her dolls in the far distant past, the yellow blooms crushed in a little cup of water make excellent doll perfume. Florists harvest tons of it to put in arrangements in the place of Baby's Breath. And bee keepers value it as one of the best sources of honey for winter storage. Honey made from broomweed is strong, dark and slightly bitter. Early settlers used it as kindling because of its high resin content. The same resin content can make a pasture fire go like the wind when it gets started. Early settlers also tied bunches of it to sticks and used it as brooms - but never when it was blooming. Some cultures believed sweeping with it while it was blooming swept away the master of the house. There are many varieties that are hard to tell apart. These are called Snakeweed, Kindling Weed, Turpentine Weed, Matchweed and Matchbrush. Our broomweed is mostly the annual variety with one main stalk and a canopy of branches, leaves and blooms at the top. Others may be perennials with multiple stalks coming from the root. Broomweed's close cousin, the perennial known as Snakeweed, smells like turpentine when crushed. It has been used to make poultices to treat rattlesnake bites in sheep. By some it is still steeped 30 to 40 minutes in water and this tea is poured into a hot bath to ease the pain of arthritis. The Navajo chewed it and applied it as a poultice to alleviate stings and insect bites. They also gave a tea made from the whole plant to women after childbirth to help expel the placenta. European broom was imported to America as a garden plant. Evidently Thomas Jefferson was one of those to import it. In Europe this pest was associated with heraldry. They even wore sprigs of it into battle for good luck. It was associated with Geoffrey, count of Anjou, Louis IX of France, and the Plantagenet royal house of England. Distilled water made from broom flowers was commonly used as a diuretic and purgative. King Henry VIII is reported to have relied on it when he was ill. But all that said, Broomweed remains more bother than benefit.