Make a cottonwood buds salve - PEP BB medicine.sand.salve.cottonwood

I made the infused cottonwood bud oil for the Balm of Gilead badge bit. I'd taken a ton of pictures when harvesting the cottonwood buds, and they are somehow all very depressingly gone. I went out and took pictures today of one of the cottonwood trees I harvested from, and some of the (now-too-far-gone) cottonwood buds lying on the ground that I did not harvest.

Buds on the ground (obviously, this is NOT the time right now to get buds)



Here's one of the many cottonwood trees.



Buds (April 20th, a good week or two after I harvested them), soaking in coconut oil and cocoa butter (on top of the car, under an old black shirt, to stay melted)



Straining out the oil



Melting in the beeswax



Labeled Cottonwood Bud Salve (also known as Balm of Gilead Salve)



Journal Pages (sorry that the image wants to be vertical like that. My camera messes up the file whenever I hold it level, I think)

I make this salve most years. Last year, a great big cottonwood tree in my city park fell, and I harvested 3 quarts of buds!!

I soak them in olive oil, usually. Sometimes coconut oil. This time, it was olive and wheat germ. Then beeswax is added to make a soft balm that can easily glide over scars. Here's a video of me doing this:
https://youtu.be/3OhxgQCYX9A?si=9ag1VuySW7l0mvh_