Cats for Christmas Cheer

My daughter and her husband and baby have moved back in with her in-laws. It's a long story, but they worked a rent free deal since both Kate and Jon are full time students again. Kate had two cats, Jade and Beetle, and Jordan just loves the cats, especially Jade. Jade has been very tolerant of Jordan's rough handling, and in fact, there is a lot of mutual love and affection between the two. Check out this picture, taken back in the summer, that I titled "Loving Jade". At any rate, Jon's father is deathly allergic to cats, so to keep the kitties happy, and to make sure Jordan doesn't lose Jade prematurely, I now have two cats.

At first they were both outside, then they were both inside,and now Beetle is outside(by his own choice) and Jade is inside. I'm allergic to cats, too, but my allergies present as nasal congestion and general itchiness. It has been a week, and while I've had some symptoms, it is far less than what I would have expected, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can continue to keep Jade in the house. Beetle is a little Romeo, very affectionate and playful. You can tell that he is a younger cat. He's very pretty for a tomcat. I took a picture of them in the cat carrier the night they arrived, just before we let them out. Of course, I also took some pictures today as Jordan got to play with Jade for the first time in over a week-since they moved. She was so happy to see her "Dade"! Seeing that smile makes any allergy worries melt away. It may have been the best present she got-and it is one that money had nothing to do with. By the way, that's my son in law, Jon, who I think misses Jade almost as much as Jordan does.

We are trying to rename Beetle, and have been calling him Tiger, Tigger, and the mutant moniker of Tiger Beetle. He is apparently living under the house, again, by his choice. He ran through my legs two nights ago and bolted out of the door. He will let you catch him and pet him, but the minute you head for the house, he's down and gone in a flash. I actually think it will be good to have both an indoor cat and and outdoor cat. Not only are they good for killing mice, but I hear cats are great against scorpions and snakes, too. I just hope that Beetle will be able to outrun Hobo, the cat killing German Shepherd across the road.

Going Green

My employer, a few months before I was hired, quietly initiated an voluntary environmental management system known as ISO 14001. This past Tuesday, after a week long audit, we have been recommended to be certified as ISO 14001. That is usually just a small formality-for the most part, we can say that we are ISO 14001 certified, or at least, we soon will be, but for the purposes of this blog, I will assume we already are.

We are now the only commercial flooring adhesive manufacturer in the US to be ISO certified. This is HUGE, and I am proud to say that I intend to play a more important role in this program in the future as anyone who knows me knows how much I care about the Earth, the interconnected nature of living things-Gaia, and environmental issues in general. Our environmental policy is straight in line with my personal belief set and green goals-conserving energy, reducing my footprint, becoming self sufficient and striving to live in harmony with nature. I also hope to become more active in the GreenBuilding community in the coming years.

http://www.usgbc.org/
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=222

My dream home is a passive solar earth sheltered home in the back pasture at the ridge line. Green Building, rather, sustainable building, is not new to me. It is a rare find to work in a place where your personal ethics and environmental concerns are shared by upper management. One day soon, our company will be building a new lab and office. I saw the architect's plans and WOW, would you believe that the building will be a LEED certified passive solar building with louvers to control the light and other energy saving features?!? How cool is that?

For those who aren't familiar with ISO 14001, you can learn more from the links below, and hopefully, for the sake of our planet, you can convince your employer and/or your community to follow suit. It can make a real difference, both for your organization, and for the Earth.

http://www.iso.org/iso/management_standards.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_14000

To quote Wiki, "The aim of the standard is to reduce the environmental footprint of a business and to decrease the pollution and waste a business produces."

And this could only be the beginning. We, as a business, could go even further, making even more voluntary changes that would benefit the company's bottom line and the environment. In fact, one such program that we could probably benefit from is called Six Sigma. Motorola invented this strategy for consistent business improvement back in the 1980's, and since then, other large, successful companies like GE and Honeywell have developed Six Sigma programs. It is really all about statistics-(I really, really wish I had taken more statistical studies in college). The Greek letter sigma, "σ" or "Σ", is equivalent to our "s" or "S". Sigma is the mathematical sign for standard deviations and there is a mathematical model that states that if there are six standard deviations between the process mean(the average in a data set) and the nearest specification limit, practically no items will fail to meet specifications. It is a process, and if your business operates within the process, then you will make less errors, 3.4 errors per one million opportunities, to be exact. In other words, if you put a system like this in place, and you make a million products a year, you can expect less than 4 product issues as a result of production or business error per million units. It is actually pretty interesting how far math can take you these days. Who knew that statistics would ever be so important in something other than baseball? ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Sigma
http://www.ge.com/en/company/companyinfo/quality/whatis.htm

It is an insane world. I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but it sure is nice to work for a company that morally and ethically tries to do what is right. They get it. In a world where no one can agree on the cause of global warming, whether or not it exists, and what should be done about it, if anything, I have found an oasis of green common sense in my workplace. It is refreshing. I only wish I hadn't wandered around in the desert for so long.

Rio Grande, the Flow and the Flub-ups

Saturday, for the first time, I rode a gaited horse. Rio is, as we say in the South, a Big Ol' Boy. He's over 17 hands, but very gentle with a sweet disposition. Technically, he's a Spotted Saddle Horse out of a Tennessee Walker mare. Rio was very patient with me and overlooked my reining and balance errors. My friend's sister took this picture of us, I've just never very photogenic, sorry, but at least you can see how honkin' huge Rio is compared to his sister Cheyenne that Ava is riding. We rode around her property for only about 30-45 minutes, but it was still fun to learn about his gate and feel the difference between a pace, a trot and a smooth racking gait. I can't say that I did well at getting the horse to stay in the rack. My balance was off and riding with split reins was new as well since I usually hold the reins together. I hope I get another chance one day as that feeling of floating on a horse could be addictive. He was just so smooth. I know a lot of folks take issue with gaited horses, but for me, with my arthritis, I think it would be the perfect solution-not that I've been jarred much on other horses, but if I had my own horse and rode all the time, a gaited horse would definitely be easier on the old bones.
I was thinking on the way home that I have, in my entire life, been on a horse probably less than 50 times. It may have only been 35 times; I dunno. I feel comfortable on horses-I'm not scared at all, but until I met Ava, I'd never had any real instruction about exactly how to ride. Well, that's not exactly true. I used to have a friend who rode English and I did ride with her a few times-under her guidance, but that was 30 years ago now, and English is so different than Western riding. Now, I'm learning about different horses and such, and I just wish I had more time and opportunities to ride. I'm telling you though, I was more sore on Sunday and even a bit sore on Monday, than I was the last time we rode, and last time we were gone for hours! I wasn't that saddle sore, but Rio's width really gave my groin muscles (adductora) a workout. Just sitting up there is a good stretching exercise! ;) Again, my stirrups were not the right length. Look at the posture of Ava's foot compared with mine. Her heels are down, my toes are down. Bad bad bad. Once we lowered the stirrups, things were better, but still it was difficult for me to get in the correct posture while riding. This is just challenging and frustrating at the same time. I want to ride correctly. I want to do what the horse is used to doing. I wish I was 12 again, so I could spend my whole day with horses. There have been so many missed opportunities.

For those of you who are horse people, I'd appreciate some pointers and especially tips about my feet. I'm off balance because my feet are all wrong and this confuses the horse. (I think!) I used the arm-length guide to adjust the stirrup length, but I still have to let it out more. Perhaps riding with no stirrups will help me overcome the problem?

Saami and Suomi

After a long absence from this space, I return with a bit of heritage. The Sami, or Saami are the indigenous people of northern Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Russia. You may have heard them called Lapps, from Lapland, but Saami consider the term Lapp derogatory, much in the way that the Inuit don't like the term Eskimo. The Saami are mostly nomadic or semi-nomadic reindeer herders, but there are some tribes who primarily fish or farm instead of herd. My grandfather was from a fishing village, and although I am not exactly sure of the location, I believe it was in the vicinity of Lake Inari, north of the Arctic Circle. My father just pointed to the area north of Rovaniemi and Kemi, Finland, and said that his family was from 'there'. Lake Inarijarvi is the body of water in northernmost Finland, up near the Arctic Ocean and the border with Norway and Russia.

Saami are not ethnically Finnish, but they are distantly related based on their language. The Finno-Ugric languages form a subfamily of the Uralic languages. Other closely related Ugric languages include Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian. Unlike most of the languages spoken in Europe, the Finno-Ugric languages are not part of the Indo-European family of languages, that is, they do not stem from Latin nor are they Germanic.

In the Old Norse language, Fenn and Finn are terms for Saami, but after the 19th century it was transferred simply to mean someone who lives in Finland and not specifically of the Saami people. 'Suomi' is still the Finnish name for Finland, and the word 'suomilainen' means Finnish.
Both words stem from the word Saami. There is a lot of confusion about the origin of the Finnish people, both Saami and non-Saami. New theories are proposed every year. Legend says that the khans of Mongolia chased these (Finnic) peoples across Russia until they reached the northern shores of Scandinavia. This happened over centuries, and the Fenns chose flight instead of fight. I once read that the word 'Fen' meant 'runner', but I can't recall where I read that. Anyway, when they could run no further, they fought fiercely and turned back the horde.
I've always liked that story.

The Saami seemingly share certain physical traits, like Mongoloid eye-shape, with other indigenous peoples of northern Asia. Modern theories of origin suggest that this is just chance, and that the facial features in common, such as high cheekbones, are more from cultural similarities than genetics. Europeans, who have a longer history or farming, have lost the high cheekbones necessary to support the musculature of those who eat a lot of meat. Many Saami are dark complected, but there are also fair-skinned blonds. The same is true of ethnic Finns. This phenotype variation further complicates the mystery of the origin of these people. In addition to evidence that these people came across the steppes of Russia, there is also evidence that the Saami and or Fenns have inhabited the Sapmi(Scandinavia to include all of Finland) since the last ice age.

I've included a few turn of the century Saami I found on the web, along with modern Saami. Since they were traditionally nomadic, their shelters were temporary, often tipis from animal skins or huts of stones and earth, as shown. I don't really look like any of these people(except for maybe the little girl second from the right in the front row back when I was 5 years old), but I consider myself of Saami heritage. If you don't know what I look like, then perhaps you have seen Renee Zellweger. She, too, is of Saami heritage. We both have those slanty eyes and round, high cheekbones and dirty blond hair. I'd rather look like Pamela Anderson or Christine Lahti (both Finnish, but not Saami),but, alas, Renee and I are distant cousins. I loved her in Cold Mountain, but I digress. For the record, speaking of celebs, Matt Damon is also Finnish.

I know you guys are rolling on the floor laughing at the traditional garb. That's okay. For a good chortle, zoom in on the shoes of the children. Now, you will understand why small Christmas elves are depicted with pointy shoes. Santa Claus is Saami, by the way, with his rosy cheeks, felt cap, reindeer, etc. I kid you not...now you know. The North Pole really is in the Land of the Midnight Sun.

Anyway, genetic and language studies are rather inconclusive as to proof of the actual origin, but what is known is that the Saami are not related to other Europeans, so perhaps we do hail from the Urheimat. "Urheimat" is supposedly the homeland or origin of the language. The exact location of the Urheimat is unknown and disputed. Big surprise there, huh? Some believed it to be to the just west of the Ural mountains in central Russia, some 5000 years ago. There is evidence that before Slavic tribes lived in Russia, a sprinkling of Finno-Ugrians inhabited the whole territory from the Urals to the Baltic Sea. Other scientists place the Urheimat further south or in Siberia. My Sami grandfather told my father that his ancestors were from northwestern Siberia. I consider myself of Finnish and Saami ancestry, but technically, he emigrated from St. Petersburg Russia (Finland was a Grand Duchy of Russia at the time) and there is a good chance that some of my forebearers were Siberian, so I suppose I could be as much Russian as Finnish, ethnically speaking.

More later...and I couldn't resist the image of the Aurora Borealis over Lake Inari. It is magic, at least to me.

Moving On

Eleven years ago today, Halloween, we moved onto EarthNSky Farm. The beauty of Autumn was breathtaking, and I recall that I felt like I had died and gone to heaven-I was finally home. The sky was brilliant blue, the wind was crisp, and the leaf color was nothing short of spectacular. Before the moving truck was unloaded, George, our neighbor, came by on his old Ford 9N tractor to introduce himself and to visit. Throughout the years, we've had our ups and downs with George, but generally we get along pretty well, our only disagreement being about the type of fence that should go on the property line. He is our most immediate neighbor and I've learned a lot about homesteading from George and his wife. George taught us how to hunt and field dress a deer. Nancy taught me how to clean the meat and cook it. I recently bought the 12 gallon cast iron pot from him in which I learned to render lard. He's taught me how to raise and catch pigs, how to sight in a rifle, how to take care of horses, how to buck 70 pound alfalfa bales into a barn, and countless other skills. They were with me when I got my first chickens and they gave me my first ducks. Almost all of my current flock of chickens are from his Blue Laced Red Wyandotte rooster. His workmanship is all around me as he built this house from the trees on the land; his rockwork on my hearth is beautiful and everyone who comes into the house compliments the artistry. Over the years, we've been the beneficiary of his various hunting kills, wild goose (which looks and cooks like beefsteak), deer, turkey, and even bear. I'd eat bear again only if I were starving-there are much better meats to put on a plate. But tonight for dinner, I'll be enjoying native trout, caught this past Spring by George up in the Cohutta Wilderness. My son loved to watch George forge knives and other creations. He built wagons and learned to forge metal from Judd Nelson of Foxfire fame. He is a true artist, with skills in metalwork, woodworking, rocklaying, carving and painting. His wife is also an excellent wildlife painter and I have a beautiful walking stick with a carved and painted copperhead snake on the handle.

There have been a few times over the years that George has put up a for sale sign. I've never taken it seriously as he has family here and his wife and sister in law are the daughters of the original land owners, the homestead of which we now occupy. They have roots here. However, they have struggled financially over the years and most recently health issues have surfaced for both of them, making money even more scarce. A few years ago, after George recovered from chemo, his son sent him out to Arkansas on a fishing trip on the White River. George fell in love with the place, and his son bought some land out there. For the last two years, they've bantered the idea of moving to the Ozarks. While I know he would fit in there, he is what I would call a true, modern homesteader, I just could never see it happening, until yesterday when he told us he had a contract and buyer for his house and land. He was going to sell off, pack up the camper, and move to the Ozarks. I'm in shock. I'm trying to see this from their perspective in that it will be cheaper to live there and it will afford them a little financial breathing room.

In addition, there's always that anxiety about who will be buying in. All I know is that they are rather wealthy by local standards, have 3 kids, currently live in Atlanta, and will be using the cabin as a weekend home, a place where the kids can 'run free'. I don't know if they will appreciate the beauty and primitive nature of life out here or whether they will try to bring the city, and all of it's conveniences, with them. I'm sure they will be wonderful people, but it is hard to see the good side of anything when the loss feels so great. It is the first time in eleven years that I have even had a fleeting thought about moving away. I look out the window, and this Halloween is much scarier. The sky is overcast and foreboding. The Autumn leaves are wet and muted. Rock Creek will not be the same without George and Nancy.

First frost and freeze

Tonight we should have our first frost and freeze, and tomorrow we should have a hard freeze. I usually subtract 5 degrees from the predicted Calhoun temps for planning. We haven't gone below 45 yet, and suddenly we are looking at 31 or 32 for tonight and 26 or 27 tomorrow. We skipped the low 40's and thirties altogether!

I just came in from picking the last of the beans and tomatoes. I kept about 4 tomato plants alive and kicking until frost, bringing in the first, and last, green tomatoes just now. I got enough Kentucky Wonder pole beans for a meal. Those beans have been producing since the first week of June! A Wonder indeed!

I wish I had a few more weeks for okra as the plants still have flowers and plenty of life even at 7 feet tall. I'll use up the last peppers with tacos and beans tonight, and I might make some fresh salsa with the last tomatoes. It's all good. I finally grew enough beans to freeze and it should last until next summer...I hope. I'm going to leave the remaining butternuts out there for tonight, and bring them in tomorrow. I've never left anything out after frost, so this is a bit scary for me. I usually use squashes and never have any left to leave out, but this year, I have over 30 pounds of squash in storage already, so the remaining 10 pounds or so is an experiment that should be successful since most folks do leave the squashes until after the first frost.

I still have a 32 ft row of peas, half English and half snow peas, but neither is doing well. I've harvested some English peas, but the snow peas are slow. I have some kale to try, and a few plants of collards, cabbage, broccoli, and yes, Brussels sprouts, but nothing is even close to being ready. I may lose most of it after this weekend.

The springs are still running in the garden making it a mucky mess, and a new one made a small sinkhole(about fist sized) less than a foot away from my Mars Seedless grapevine that is 2 years old. Either those grapes will be extra juicy or the vine will be diseased and die. Time will tell. Anyway, I've been moving the carpet strips around just to be able to walk enough to harvest the beans and such. The amount of water we have this year is amazing.

I also stripped the leaves of my Malabar spinach vine, pulled two radishes, and stripped the leaves of a lemon verbena. All the porch and deck plants are in the greenhouse and ready for winter.

I split a fresh load of dry wood this morning, and we currently have the first fire of the season in the woodstove. My daughter and granddaughter are visiting. Life is good.

Ch..Ch..Ch..Ch..Changes

I survived my first week back in the workforce after a year of being at home. I did not have any real problem getting up for work(I know that surprises some of you!), but I am definitely feeling the job in my feet. I don't yet have a desk and have been mostly standing all week long. My computer came in Friday(it is a nice looking Dell), but without a desk or workspace, obviously I can't use it. I thought my foot was 100% healed after the surgery, but I have discovered otherwise. There wasn't too much walking to the job, and certainly no exertion, just standing.

The best part of the 'new job experience' is the people. My co-workers all seem competent and seem to have a good work ethic. I've seen no slackers, no idiots. That's a good thing as I can't stand to be the only one working while everyone else surfs the internet or plays games on their phone or makes personal phone calls, etc. That kind of stuff drives me crazy. It is a good group of folks to work with, and I think that can make or break any job. Even if you love your job, if you can't stand the ones you work with, you can be miserable.

This past week, I've been 'training' with the QC guy. Instead of filling a position, I'll be carving out a niche for myself in the lab. I'll start with taking over some of the more mundane tasks, clerical minutia, that are weighing down the other chemists-things like recording spec data and filing certificates, MSDS sheets, etc. I'll fill in for the QC guy and probably perform some testing for the R&D guys. I'll probably do more bench work as I gain more experience, but for now, I'm
just learning the products and their applications and specs. There are probably 65 or 70 formulas or more, many sold under more than one label, so it can be confusing. In addition, I'm not familiar with many of the raw materials, so there is a LOT to learn before I start mixing anything! I'm still not sure whether or not I will be working more in QC or in R&D, but there is always the possibility of doing both. The company is growing and I'll have options. It is SO much better than the last place I worked. They are like night and day.

On the homefront, I did not make it into the garden at all this past week, so this morning I had lots of beans and okra to pick and process. I got almost two gallons of beans, which isn't bad considering the fact that it is October. I made some fresh guacamole with the few tomatoes I picked, and sliced and froze the okra for frying later. I did take about 20 of the smallest pods and tossed them into a pickle jar. I had a hankering for pickled okra, but since the fridge is already full, I did not want to open a new jar. I had a jar of pickles that only had a few pickles in the brine, so I tossed the okra, some cayenne peppers and some garlic into the jar, shook it, and tomorrow I'll start snacking on the okra. In three weeks, I go back to get my cholesterol checked, and okra is a wonder food for lowering cholesterol. I'll eat a lot of it in the coming weeks. Tomorrow, I'll can a small jar of Anaheims and Poblanos for use in burritos or beans, and I have a 9 cubic foot wheelbarrow full of peanut vines to process. I'll remove the peanuts from the vine, brush off the dirt, and allow them to dry a few more days in the house. They have been in the wheelbarrow on the porch, which isn't ideal for drying and curing, but with the rain last week, it was the best I could do. I did not want to lose my peanut crop to mice, rats, or squirrels.

Skyguy spent the day bleaching and pressure washing the deck and the front of the house. He'll probably spend the better part of tomorrow finishing the job. We were going to try to wait until Spring to replace the kitchen window, but I'm afraid it won't last through the winter and I really think we need to replace it now. I think we can get energy credits if we do it before November, too. First is the pressure washing, then the window replacement, then the house gets a new paint job. Next weekend we have a 5 year NWGAA anniversary event here at the farm, and I really did not want our guests to wonder if the algea would attack them while they ate. The house and deck face north, and with all the rain this year, everything is green and slimy. The deck was a safety hazard.

Thursday, Skyguy and I celebrated (and I use that term loosely) 25 years of marriage. We had plans to eat out, but that night we were both tired and decided to just go home and have a normal evening. After all, it was 'Survivor' night, and we had to watch evil Russell scheme and plot his way to through the game. We decided that we would celebrate on Friday and would rent our 'Jacuzzi room' at the Hampton Inn. We started doing that years ago when we did not have TV and had limited water supply. It was nice to take a hot shower of unlimited length, enjoy heat without loading a log into the stove, lounge around in the Jacuzzi, and watch TV, hopefully some boxing or ultimate fighting or maybe a Formula One race. We would try to do that once a year, at least, just to relax and enjoy things that most folks take for granted. Even though we now have satellite TV and a new well so we don't run out of water, we still like to go to "our room"at the Hampton. So on Friday after work, we grabbed dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and went to the hotel to check in. As it turns out, 'our' room is no longer there. Apparently the hotel removed the jacuzzi due to a leak, and now the only room with a jacuzzi is actually a room where the whirlpool is in the bathroom and you can't watch television from the bathroom. It was disappointing, the end of a tradition, but we rightly decided not to waste money on that anymore, so we stopped by Home Depot and drove home where we were greeted by a couple of very happy dogs. I spent a few hours last night looking for another 'Jacuzzi room', and I did find a hotel in Dalton, but I just don't know. It is so tempting to just take the credit card and just buy a damned hot tub for the deck. With that, I never need to leave home. I have dreamed about that for close to twenty years now.

Vitamin D and me

I've written before that I thought I was Vitamin D deficient. There were a few symptoms that I had, but nothing too serious, or so I thought. On my own, I started taking fish oil, then switched to cold liver oil because it contained more Vitamin D. I've always craved oily fish and chicken livers and eggs and other foods that are notoriously high in Vitamin D. I eat plenty of dairy and milk, too.

Back in July, I wrote about Vitamin D on my blog. (July 17) It was around that time that I decided to start a trial of taking Vit. D supplements in the form of Cod Liver oil. This page gives a quick overview:

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp

I did some reading and discovered that there is quite a controversy over the RDA for Vitamin D. We need more as we get older. The relationship between Vitamin D, cholesterol, and the melanin pigment in our skin is important to understand. Basically, the short story is that the sun's UVB rays turn cholesterol into Vitamin D. Fair skinned people like me whose ancestors are from the far north have very little melanin to block UVB, because north of the Arctic Circle, there is very little UVB making it to the ground and our bodies don't need to block it. However, here in the US, I have the possibility of more sun, more UVB than Finland, and yet I still don't have the melanin to protect me. Because I am so fair, I don't get enough exposure year around to produce enough Vitamin D from my cholesterol.

So anyway, I started taking about 1500 IU's of cod liver oil a day as well as a multivitamin with an additional 400 IU's, and after a few weeks, I could swear that I felt a bit less achy from my arthritis pain. I seemed to have more energy and was more able to think clearly. About that time, I had an appointment with my rheumatologist and I told her of my suspicion that I was Vitamin D deficient. She ordered a test, as well as a test for bone density since I had had a stress fracture a few months prior. The other problem I've had for a few months is gum inflammation. I had my teeth cleaned in March and in early April, my gums started to bleed. There was a lot of blood, not just pink in the sink. I increased my brushing time, rinsed with fluoride washes and tried all kinds of stuff, but still, my gums were bleeding at the drop of a hat. I could also tell that they were receding a bit around my bridge. Things seemed to be changing fast, yet I had no pain or tenderness. I went to the dentist, but he had no answer other than it could be Vitamin D related but usually gum bleeding was gingivitis related. Well, as it turned out, the bloodwork revealed that I was indeed Vitamin D deficient. Very much so, even though I had been taking the Cod Liver Oil. Normal was 31-100 and my result was 14. Some docs think 'normal' should be 20, I've learned, but even with that I was deficient. My first thought was no wonder my arms feel like they are about to break when I do something like unload the washing machine! No wonder the dentist is telling me that I have bone loss and gum inflammation! So, my rheumatologist prescribed a Vitamin D supplement that I take once a week. It is a little blue gel pill of 50,000 IU of Vitamin D. WOW! The RDA is 400 IU and daily supplements are usually up to 2000 IU a day.

I have now taken two of them, the most recent being on Wednesday. Yesterday, Thursday, for the first time since April, my gums did not bleed when I brushed my teeth. Not a speck of blood, when just a few days ago I had to rinse 5 or 6 times just to not taste the blood anymore. Better yet, in the last week, I have had less arthritic issues, less overall aches and pains, and I seem to be more optimistic and more focused in my thinking. I'm now looking forward to seeing how good I will feel in a few months. The best part of this...these little Vitamin D pills were only $6 for a month's supply, 4 pills.

I'm hoping that I will at least be able to reduce my NSAIDS and pain meds, and hopefully, hopefully, I will be one of the lucky ones who might be 'healed' to the point that I would not need expensive biologics like Enbrel that are ruining my liver over time and increasing my chance of getting lymphoma.(I have something like a 40x higher chance of getting lymphoma that those who do not take Enbrel) This morning, I found this UK article, which supports the notion that RA might be curable after all.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-508283/Could-vitamin-D-really-cure-arthritis.html

This article makes a lot of sense as to why elimination diets might work for some and not for others. It mentions alkaline diets where you reduce acid foods, too. Dieting could even work for a while and then not work again. If you are Vitamin D deficient, anything can happen.

I can't believe that this might have been the precipitating factor for a lot of my health issues, for a long time, too. And it seems to have such a simple, and inexpensive solution. I've tried turmeric and milk thistle and other supplements and herbs but the biggest difference in pain relief and general well-being has been with Vitamin D supplementation.

Last year, I went to the ER with a kidney stone. I'd never even had a kidney infection or a bladder infection, and out of the blue I get a kidney stone. Well, I read that Vitamin D deficiency can cause "increased excretion of calcium from renal tubules". If you are going to the doc for bloodwork anyway, get them to check your Vitamin D levels. You might be surprised. It might keep you from getting cancer or even from getting the flu or other viruses.

This page lists some risk groups(including vegetarians) and talks about how certain meds can affect your Vitamin D levels.

http://www.the-vitamin-and-supplement-guide.com/vitaminDdeficiencysymptoms.html

I hope everyone takes a few minutes to read these articles. It just might save your life or prevent you from having osteoporosis or other bone issues later in life.

To Living Life to the Fullest

Thirteen years ago or so, when we lived in the Atlanta suburbs, Jeff C.
entered our lives and we've never been the same. Jeff was a friend and
co-worker of Skyguy's older brother, who is a monk now, but who used
to work for Clyde Beatty Cole Brothers Circus with Jeff. They did
various things, but mostly worked in marketing and advance promotions, traveling from town to town ahead of the circus. Long after Brother Dave left CBCBC, Jeff continued on, and we remained friends with him. He would try to get us into the circus for free when the kids were little. My kids have ridden on elephants and petted ligers and had other really wonderful backstage circus experiences. Once, he not only took our family to Augusta, he took my best friend and her husband as well and put us all up in a really nice hotel. That was the kindness we loved in Jeff, the more the merrier, and the words 'more' and 'merry' definitely described him. Jeff weighed well over 300 pounds and was always the life of any party. He loved to describe himself as a flaming queen. Yes, Jeff was as gay as gay could be, and if you look up homosexual in the dictionary, his picture should be there. As I type this, I hear his voice saying " tell them this, or tell them that-you really should capitalize 'flaming' "... he was quite a character and would love the fact that I am writing this story.

Whenever Jeff would come through town, he would usually take us out to eat in a really nice restaurant. He was of Spanish heritage and he delighted in teaching us about real Spanish cuisine. Once, Jeff came to visit, and instead of taking us to dinner, he decided that he wanted to cook an authentic dinner. He went to Harry's Farmer's Market and came back with enough groceries to feed an army. As he started cooking, he realized that we would have more food than the 5 of us could eat. While he was making the sangria-real sangria, he told me to call some friends over for an impromptu party. He kept cooking and I kept calling the neighbors. We lived in a pretty diverse neighborhood, but even as open minded as people were, watching people meet and get to know Jeff was always entertaining. He had a unique way of making people like him, even the most homophobic individuals. As it turned out, half the neighborhood had dinner with us, and Jeff was the life of the party. The food was great, but the Sangria...oh my god...it was divine. The neighbors got drunk and Skyguy had to walk a few of them home. One guy passed out on our sofa. That Sangria was so good that you would not even know it was alcoholic, until you woke up the next day with a banging sugar hangover. Amazingly, we had some left over, and Jeff suggested that I bottle it and we could open the bottle in two weeks when he came back through town on his way back North. I found one of those fish shaped wine bottles, poured the sangria in-straining out the slices of fruit-and corked the bottle. Jeff left the next day and told us that he would call us in two weeks.

We did not make any plans, nor did a couple of neighbors as they wanted to come by and just hang out with him. He was just so interesting and always had a million stories to tell. You would laugh until you cried. Two weeks went by, and there was no call. Three weeks came and went. We had not heard from Jeff. Finally, on the fourth week, Skyguy's brother called and told us that Jeff had been killed in a car accident on the weekend when he was supposed to be on his way to our house. He was so physically large that he was crushed upon impact with another car and the steering wheel impact caused cardiac failure. The world lost a very special person that day.

So, in honor of Jeff, I've kept that bottle of Sangria all this time. I recall that when we poured it up he made a joke that it would be good in 100 years. I don't have a good place to store the bottle here, and I don't think Jeff would want me to keep it the way I have done. I'm afraid someone will come along, not knowing the bottle's history, and uncork it to see what it is. He would want me to open it, invite some friends over, and have fun. The question is, is it still good? Part of me wants to keep the fish bottle intact, but part of me wants that Sangria. If I knew that the Sangria was vinegar instead of wine, I might keep it in the bottle, but just thinking about how good that
Sangria was, and just knowing how much love Jeff put in it....I want to make a final toast to Jeff.

So I open this dilemma to a vote among those of you who read my blog. Let me know what you think I should do. To the best of my memory, this was made with 7 up, grain alcohol, red wine, rum, sugar, and lots of fruit. I remember lemons, oranges, peaches, and kiwi, and it seems like there was more, but I've forgotten. It was very, very sweet, almost syrupy, and wonderfully smooth. What would you do-open a 13 year old bottle and toast to Jeff, or find a place to store the bottle and keep it in his honor?

Okra and it's Beneficial Slime

Okra. It is an oft maligned vegetable usually associated with the Deep South. I'm growing it, as are most of my friends and neighbors who have gardens. I have the old standby, Clemson Spineless, and a heirloom variety called Lee. Lee's pods are not as heavily ridged as the CS, and the pods are darker green and smoother. I personally think they are less spiny than the Clemson Spineless. Both varieties are doing well in the garden. Did you know that okra historically grew wild on the banks of the Nile River and was one of Cleopatra's favorite foods? Egyptians were the first to cultivate it 1200 years before Christ. By trade, okra became a popular crop across north Africa to Ethiopia, around the Mediterranean Sea, and even as far away as India and the Americas. By 1658, okra made it to Brazil and New Orleans and by 1781, they were growing it in Philadelphia. African slaves used ground okra seeds as a coffee substitute as well as cooked gumbo. Even today, ground okra is used in Africa to make a soup cooked with fish, and okra as a coffee substitute found widespread consumption during the rationing era of WWII. The words okra and gumbo are of African origin, but this easy to grow and useful vegetable is now known around the world by the following names: Okra, Okro, Ochro, Okoro, Quimgombo (Cuba), Quingumbo, Ladies Fingers, Gombo, Kopi Arab, Kacang Bendi, Bhindi (S. Asia), Bendi (Malaysia), Bamia, Bamya or Bamieh (middle east), Gumbo (Southern USA), Quiabo, Quiabos (Portugal and Angola), okura (Japan), qiu kui (Taiwan). Asians, especially the Japanese and Chinese, treasure okra as a fountain of youth.

Okra has hairy spines that are prickly and irritate the skin like fiberglass insulation. The sensation is easily remedied by quickly washing in cold water. The plant has varieties that are burgundy or purple podded and stemmed. Some varieties are dwarfed, but most grow tall, 3 to 6 feet or taller depending on variety and the more you cut the okra the tall the plant gets. It is an 60 day annual that likes hot weather, from the same Mallow family as hollyhock, cotton, and hibiscus. The yellow flowers on the the okra plant are beautiful enough to warrant growing the plant simply for the flowers alone. Ants seem to like the plant, and can often be found on the leaves and flowers. The immature seed pods we call okra are eaten raw, used for soups, pickled and canned, used to thicken stews, breaded and deep-fried, or simply boiled. The pods are cut from the stem when they are about 3 inches long. If they get longer than about 6 inches, the pods become tough and woody, and the pod is not worth eating but will dry nicely for seed. It can also be used to make cordage or paper. When washed or cut, okra releases a sticky, mucilagenous substance with thickening properties. Many people will not eat okra because of this 'slime', but it is this soluble fibrous slime that is extremely healthy for you. If you just can't take the slime, try it deep fried, pickled, or raw. After you cut okra, store it in a paper bag in a warm part of refrigerator, as temperatures below 45 degrees will damage okra. Use within 2 or 3 days at most, or cut it and freeze it. Washing okra will precipitate the sliming process, so do not wash the pods until absolutely necessary. Okra is alkaline in nature, that's why it goes so well with the acid in tomatoes. They balance each other, and I think the acidity helps reduce the sliminess. When canning okra however, recipes must be either pressure canned or acidified for safety.

Okra Nutrition (half-cup cooked okra)

Calories = 25
Dietary Fiber = 2 grams
Total Fat = 0.2 grams (the healthy fatty acid is Omega 6)
Protein = 1.5 grams
Carbohydrates = 5.8 grams
Cholesterol = 0
Vitamin A = 226 IU (5%)
Vitamin C = 13 mg (22%)
Vitamin K = 32 micrograms (40%)
Folic acid = 36.5 micrograms (9%)
Calcium = 62 mg (6%)
Iron = 0.4 mg (1%)
Potassium = 108 mg (3%)
Magnesium = 46 mg(7%)
Manganese 0.2 micrograms (12%)
Phosphorus = 25 mg (3%)
Plus approximately 7% of the RDA of Thiamine and Vitamin B6
With a glycemic load of 2, it is excellent for weight loss due to the lack of fat and the high fiber content.

According to famous nutritionist Sylvia W. Zook, Ph.D., the following benefits of okra should not be overlooked making okra a staple in your 'green pharmacy'.

- The superior fiber found in okra helps to stabilize blood sugar as it curbs the rate at which sugar is absorbed from the intestinal tract.
- Okra's mucilage binds cholesterol and bile acid carrying toxins dumped into it by the filtering liver.
- Okra helps lubricate the large intestines due to its bulk laxative qualities. The okra fiber absorbs water and ensures bulk in stools. This helps prevent and improve constipation. Unlike harsh wheat bran, which can irritate or injure the intestinal tract, okra's mucilage soothes,
and okra facilitates elimination more comfortably by its slippery characteristic.
- Okra fiber is an excellent probiotic for feeding the good bacteria, contributing to the health of the intestinal tract.
- To retain most of okra's nutrients and self-digesting enzymes, it should be cooked as little as possible, e.g. with low heat or lightly
steamed. It can even be eaten raw. However, if one is going to fry it (and it is undeniably delicious prepared that way when rolled in cornmeal and salt), only extra virgin olive oil, or UNREFINED coconut butter is recommended (this is NOT the unhealthy partially hydrogenated product found in processed foods.) Organic ghee used by gourmet chefs, has the oil and flavor of butter without the solids, is also excellent for frying okra (does not burn like butter), and may be obtained from the health food store or made at home.
- Okra is a supreme vegetable for those feeling weak, exhausted, and suffering from depression.
- Okra is used for healing ulcers and to keep joints limber. It helps to neutralize acids, being very alkaline, and provides a temporary protective coating for the digestive tract.
- Okra treats lung inflammation, sore throat, and irritable bowel.
- In India, okra has been used successfully in experimental blood plasma replacements.

The following are anecdotal stories and studies detailing how okra is helpful in eliminating specific ailments. The treatments were found on the web and should be used at your own risk and with common sense.

Acid Reflux and Constipation
A person, suffering from constipation for the past 20 years and recently from acid reflux, started eating 6 pieces of Okra. Since then, has not taken any other medication. Now, his blood sugar has dropped from 135 to 98 and his cholesterol and acid reflux are also under control.

Asthma
Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. This anti-inflammatory activity may curtail the development of asthma symptoms. A large preliminary study has shown that young children with asthma experience significantly less wheezing if they eat a diet high in Vitamin C. One half cup of okra provides almost 25% of the RDA of Vitamin C.

Atherosclerosis
Diets high in insoluble fiber, such as those containing okra, are associated with protection against heart disease in both men and women, diabetes, cholesterol and obesity.

Cancer
The insoluble fiber found in okra acts as a mild laxative and helps to keep the intestinal tract healthy, decreasing the risk of some forms of cancer, especially colo-rectal cancer.

Capillary fragility
Eating plenty of flavonoid and vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables such as okra helps to support the structure of capillaries.

Cataracts and Vitamin A support
1/2 cup of cooked okra contains 226 IU of vitamin A. Some studies have reported that eating more foods rich in beta-carotene or vitamin A was associated with a lower risk of cataracts. Vitamin A also helps night vision and of course has anti-oxidant properties, anti-aging nutrients, supports mental health by maintaining brain chemistry, great for healthy skin, helps with blood circulation and liver functions.

Cholesterol
A study (JAMA July 23, 2003) showed that consuming a diet rich in soluble fiber from oats, barley, psyllium, eggplant and okra was as effective as the cholesterol lowering drug Mevacor. Raw okra is a great weapon to lower cholesterol and it also provides some protection against absorption of trans fats.

Depression and Lack of Energy
Okra is a supreme vegetable for those feeling weak, exhausted, and suffering from depression.

Multiple sclerosis (MS)
In one survey, researchers gathered information from nearly 400 people (half with MS) over three years. They found that consumption of vegetable protein, fruit juice, and foods rich in vitamin C, thiamine, riboflavin, calcium, and potassium correlated with a decreased MS risk. Okra is an excellent disease fighter.

Alternative Dialysis type treatments
Take 2 pods of Okra, cut into 3 pieces each, rough crush the pieces, fill glass with water soak the pieces overnight.(do not refrigerate just use bottled or tap water) In the morning before eating,
drink the thick slimy texture, swallow the seeds too. Drink three times a week it clears excess cholesterol and toxins (in bile acids). It removes extra wastes from your blood, does the job of a dialysis machine by helping the kidneys to function properly.

Last Dance

Everyone needs joy in their life. I've always disliked the word 'joy'; some of you will know why that is so, and if you don't, it is not that important anyway, but lately I've decided to make a concerted effort to enjoy life more. As Oprah used to say, 'remember your spirit'.

My best bud Ava (Shout-out and wave to Ava!), knowing that I'd soon be returning to the workforce and thereby leaving the way of life I've grown accustomed to for the past year, invited me to join her and my other friend Melissa for a horseback ride on local wooded trails. While I've gone riding with Ava in the past, I'm still very much a novice rider. I've been on horses since I was a kid, but not with enough frequency to become a good rider, and certainly not with anyone who was willing to teach me the way Ava and Melissa do. They've both been riding continuously since they were kids, so usually they take the boys on more complicated rides, rides not suitable for someone like me. So today was a real treat for me, and I learned a lot, both by doing and by watching. That's me on Dallas, Melissa on Spike, and Ava on Joe, left to right in the picture. Skyguy took the picture, and I guess he did not realize that my eyes were closed-not the best picture of me in many ways. Oh well, I guess it happens to everyone eventually, right? You know, Dallas just isn't as pretty with me on him. He deserves his own space, so I post my favorite picture of him as well.

The first thing I should say that I learned is that it is a much more comfortable ride, and an easier ride, if the stirrups are adjusted properly. You may be able to tell by looking at the picture and comparing my leg posture with theirs that my stirrups are a bit too high. We later lowered the stirrups and voila, bliss! When I first saw the picture, looking at myself and my friends, I couldn't help but hear the Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the other" in my head. LOL! It is just too funny. You gotta laugh at yourself on days like this. At any rate, we rode for several hours, mostly walking through the woods and pastures. It was wonderful, and while it is not quite Fall yet, it wasn't hot like you would expect on a late Summer day. If I had enough money, I think I would definitely want a horse. You can totally forget about the world when you are riding. You can hear and see things that you would not normally notice. Perhaps it is just me, but I think I enter a state of heightened awareness. I notice what the horse is doing, what other horses are doing, what trees or holes or barbed wire or spider webs are ahead of me. Of course, I try to be aware of how I am holding the reins, how I am sitting in the saddle, whether or not I am leaning too much, and I try to make sure my feet are where they are supposed to me. I wish I could say that it all just comes natural to me, but I just don't ride enough to get to a point where I don't think about such things and just naturally progress from one position to the next as the terrain or conditions warrant.

Will I be sore tomorrow after four hours on a horse today? I'm sure I will, but hopefully it won't be too bad. I'm rather used to those kind of aches. Today, I felt my shoulders and neck and biceps after pulling muscadines and catbriar vines out of the trees yesterday. We are in the middle of cutting and stacking wood for the winter, and while we were back there getting standing dead wood, we decided to clean up a small section of woods. So today, when Dallas would trot, I could feel it in my shoulders and neck. Tomorrow will be no different, except that the location of the ache will be a bit lower. It will remind me of how much fun I had. At least right now I stay active enough to constantly be feeling my muscles and joints. I wonder how that will change after a few months on my new, sedentary job.

Bugs

Yesterday, while picking tomatoes in the garden, I noticed this interesting looking 'wheel bug', a type of assassin bug, on a volunteer tomatillo. They are considered beneficial, but they do bite. It is more like a puncture than a bite, but it is painful and can become infected. If you look closely, you can see that he has killed a small bee. The nymph stage of this insect is red and black and is what I call the 'backwards bug' because the back legs and raised rump look like the bug is backwards. Earlier in the year, I saw hundreds of nymphs, but have only seen two adult wheel bugs, both yesterday. The other day, I was stung by a saddleback caterpillar. I did not see him when he stung me, but I suspected that was what got me. My forearm and wrist started burning while I was harvesting oregano. I put some crushed plantain on it and took a Benedryl when I came in the house. The next day, I found the caterpillar on the floor under the hanging bunch of oregano. I'm glad I found the fuzzy beast before the dogs did. Apparently I am not as allergic to them as I am to bees as the whelting was gone the next day. If you have ever been stung by a jellyfish, that's what I relate this to. It is a very similar feeling. Anyway, it's too bad that Mr. Wheelbug did not find Mr. Saddleback before I did. It is just my luck that a beneficial insect like a wheel bug would be eating my mason bees.







While I am on bugs, I thought some of you might like to see what we locals call 'Mexican grasshoppers' or Devil Horse grasshoppers. It is a type of Eastern Lubber, and I have never seen them outside of this valley. It is obviously a isolated local population as even people who live 15 miles away in Calhoun are amazed when they seen these grasshoppers on the road. That's where you usually see them, on the road. You can actually hear them crunch as you run over them.





This yellow flowering plant is an unknown that I'm hoping someone can help identify. It looks somewhat like a Jerusalem artichoke, but it shorter and only has 5 petals instead of 12. It is blooming now. For comparison, you can see the JA flowers in the background of squash picture. The leaves are very similar, but the unknown plant only grows to about 3.5 feet tall.

Late Summer Garden Report

I'm still pulling in 5-10 pounds of tomatoes every other day, but blight or magnesium deficiency is taking a toll here. The tomatoes probably have a few more weeks of life. I've got enough tomatoes, juice, and sauce canned, but I think I still need more pizza sauce. I'm thinking of perhaps trying to make some soup as well.

I'm still picking about 2 quarts of green beans a day, freezing most of it now. The Kentucky Wonder pole beans and the Blue Lake bush beans are going crazy, and I expect to still be in beans a month from now. The red field peas that I planted turned out to be half runner types, and the 10x10 area is now about 20x20 and the runners are taking over like kudzu. They've covered my bush cherries, and are threatening the pole beans. I've picked dry pods as I see them, but 98% of the crop is still on the vine. Interestingly, at least to me, the peas look more like what I would call white acre peas than the red field peas I planted. They are small and white. Odd thing.

Round one of sweetcorn was a disaster, so we replanted a short season sweetcorn in mid-summer. We are about a week from eating corn again, but I don't want to count my ears before they are picked. On this farm, anything can happen to corn, and usually does. The Bloody Butcher corn lodged from a downburst in a thunderstorm, but much of it is still alive, even if it is laying over. I decided to leave it alone as when I tried to stand the stalks upright, they broke. I have no clue as to how this will affect pollination. It was planted June 12, so it has a few more weeks as well. My goal for the BB is to get a few ears for seed, one or two ears to roast, and enough to grind for 1 cup of corn meal. It seems like a lot to ask out of what I have in the garden. Can anyone tell me how much corn-how many ears or pounds, does it take to make a cup of corn meal?

I'm nursing along a watermelon(GA Rattlesnake), but it just isn't growing the way I'd like. It is more round than oblong. Another odd thing. I've got squash everywhere, quite a few butternuts still out there(I already harvested 30# or so) as well as acorn squashes. The squash vines are growing on the deer netting, and it looks funny to see acorn squash hanging 8 feet in the air. A few of the hanging squashes have holes bored into them, as if some kind of wasp or squash borer drilled hole in the fruit. I took a few pictures for the blog. The summer squashes are done and gone. Peppers are still producing, and I've canned or dried as much as possible: Anaheims, serranos, banana peppers, poblano(ancho), etc. I've also made homemade salsa, of course. The okra is just starting to really come in strong. I've pickled a few jars of it, and will pickle more. I have taken a liking to pickled okra. Yum! I have sweet potato vines everywhere and expect to get 30-50 pounds of sweet potatoes next month. I never did harvest my Yukon Golds, but yesterday I went out with that intention and found a bunch of new potatoes, beautiful little yellow golf ball sized things. I decided to leave them as seed.

I had to reorganize the shelves and such to make room for everything I've canned so far. I made grape jelly and elderberry jam, elderberry elixir, horehound cough syrup, blackberry jam, fig preserves, and blueberry jam. We harvested over 50 pounds of apples a bit early to keep the deer from getting them, and I've made applesauce and apple chips. I have discovered that if you dehydrate the peelings and mix them with blackberry leaves, blueberry leaves and dried huckleberries and blueberries, it makes a great tea, so I have made a few jars of that to give as gifts. I froze about 5 gallons of blueberries, and gave that many away. We did not have any peaches, pears, cherries, or plums this year, but I still have peaches in the freezer from last year, which was a banner year.

I've planted lettuce for the Fall, but a rabbit mowed it down in one day, so I will have to replant. All the neighbors have noted that the rabbit population is exploding, so it makes me wonder if folks have killed too many snakes or too many coyotes. I have no idea of how a rabbit got inside my garden fence unless the gate was left open just long enough for him to get in, eat my lettuce and my only honeydew melon, and get out. I've also got a few broccoli plants in the ground, some Osaka Purple mustard, several brussel sprouts in the ground, a small patch of kale(I've never tried it so this is a grand experiment in taste) a couple of 15 ft rows of collards, a few cabbage plants, a 32 ft row of intensively planted snowpeas and English peas(both sides of the panel are planted, 16 ft of English peas and 16 ft of snow peas. I have both turnips and turnip greens, and have yet to plant spinach. I also need to decide where I will plant my garlic next year. I need to get busy with all that. I have also replanted carrots, radishes, and beets in my carrot bed. The carrots I planted in the ground did not germinate, but the board trick worked well in the raised bed and the carrot greens are about 5 inches tall.

The herb garden has been very productive this year, too. I've made several batches of pesto and froze that, too. I've harvested enough kitchen herbs like thyme and oregano to fill several quart jars, and I still have herbs drying in the kitchen. You might be a redneck if you hang your herbs to dry on your antler chandelier in the kitchen. :) Of course, I also use window screens and my truck as a drying oven, as well as two dehydrators, which are running right now(more apple chips today, onions tomorrow) Seriously, I've harvested and dried oregano, marjoram, thyme, sage, tarragon, savory, fennel, dill, lemon balm, chocolate mint, peppermint, 3 kinds of basil, nasturtiums, chives, violets, dandelion flowers, passionflowers, and horehound. I dried all but maybe 15 bulbs of garlic, of which I'm using fresh in canning and cooking. The echinacea did well, so I will be able to harvest that in a few years, too. This year, I planted beans in the herb bed to fill the gaps. Next year, we've decided that the herb bed will support chili peppers quite nicely.

The big plan for this Fall is to plant and grow more asparagus. We have decided to plant a 3x50 ft wide row of asparagus crowns as the little patch I have is 10 years old and just isn't enough now that Skyguy has decided he likes asparagus, too. If will take a lot of ground prep and double digging, as well as mulch to make this happen. Earlier this year, I planted a 8x15 area with Jerusalem artichokes-a gift from Rob(thanks again!)-and they are 9 feet tall and beautiful right now. The blooms are awesome. I'm not sure what the protocol is on digging the chokes, but I figure I will give them a few years, like I would asparagus, before I try to dig anything. I'm super psyched about that.

This year's garden has been the largest garden I've ever planted. I've tried to keep something going all the time. I will continue to do that, but I'm afraid that this might be my last big garden for a while. There is no way that I could have this size garden working full time. It saddens me. It is like giving up a part of myself. I guess I've been spoiled after a year at home. We all have to sacrifice I suppose. This is probably my last extensive garden update before I start working full time. :(

No phone or internet for 60 hours

At 12:30 pm on Tuesday, my phone line went dead. It may not seem like a big deal, but when you live in the boonies, a phone is a lifeline. Many of my neighbors lose service for 3 or 4 days when it rains. My line just gets a lot of static when it is wet outside. The phone lines here are above ground and date probably back to the 1950's, if they are that new. Seriously, in 1996, my neighbors finally lost their party line. You know, a party line is one phone line for several residences that is shared. There is not much privacy on a party line, but that was the way things worked out here. Normal dial-up speed is 56 Kbps. You get that if your city has copper lines and you live reasonably close to the telephone switching office. I have no clue as to the metallic makeup of our antiquated phone lines, but I'd bet that it is not copper, and the fastest I've ever connected is 26 Kbps. The more usual speeds are in the teens. Still, if I have an internet connection, I can check weather and mail, which is important when you are expecting an important email from your future boss.

I think I miss email the most. I can watch television for news and weather in a pinch, it is just not as convenient or specific to my location and needs. I've never been one to chat on the phone, but I do miss hearing from my daughter, and there is a feeling of isolation that is hard to describe. When I was sick, I went for several days without logging on or making phone calls, but I knew it was there. I knew that if I needed to call 911 or someone else to help, that I could. With no phone, there is no help. Most of my neighbors are in the same boat as me. None of us has a cell phone. Of my seven nearest neighbors, only one other couple has a computer. I think they may have a cell phone, but they also have a land-line. Cell phones just don't work in this valley. Almost no one can get a signal strong enough to dial out, and if a phone rings, usually you lose the call when you try to answer.

So when we lose power or telephone service, and need to call in to report such, we have to drive out of the valley to get a signal out-for those who do have a work related cell phone, or find some nearby Good Samaritan who will let you use their phone if they have a working line. Once, I drove 8 miles to the nearest payphone, but now even that phone no longer exists. So, assuming I find a friend a few miles away who has phone service, and call Bellsouth/AT&T to report the outtage. AT&T treats me rudely, acting as if I am a second class citizen because I don't have a cellphone. They assume it is because I can't afford one. They do not believe that there are places where there is no service. They stupidly ask for an email address as a contact, forgetting that when one has dialup, one does not have email access. My elderly neighbors have it worse than I do. All of them are in ill health. The women have suffered heart attacks and strokes, the men have suffered heart attacks and cancer. They NEED 911 service. Today, my neighbor with cancer drove all the way to town to his daughter's house(almost 20 miles) to report the outtage. When he contacted AT&T, he got the same attitude as I did. The neighbor who loses service every time it rains gets even worse treatment. Bellsouth/AT&T does not seem to care that she's had a couple of heart attacks and lives alone. They send people out, each one with a different excuse or reason why she loses service and why it is now fixed after they work on it. Of course, it is only 'fixed' until the next time it rains. Bellsouth/AT&T doesn't seem to care about the poor people who live on this loop. Cell phones are the wave of the future for most of America, so I doubt that Bellsouth/AT&T will even consider spending the money to upgrade the phone lines for the 32 people who live on our road in this pocket valley. We don't matter.

I picked this place for its remoteness and beauty. I seriously doubt we will ever have cable TV, garbage service, county water, pizza delivery, or reliable cell service without a satellite directly overhead. We do have satellite television, and at least one person can afford satellite internet. The cheapest satellite ISP runs about $70/month, and that is the only option other than our 26Kbps dialup, and since most valley residents are of my generation and older, most do not have a computer at all, and if they do, it is certainly hard to afford $70-$100 a month on a fixed income or a rural Georgia income. Why can't the phone company upgrade the lines so that we could have DSL or cable ISP as a part of President Obama's surge to give everyone equal access to phone and internet. I know there are programs for free trackphones, but that wouldn't solve the problem here. Why can't they make a cell phone that can find a satellite or bounce a signal over the ridge to find a cell tower? The people of this valley would just like to have the same service as everyone else. I'd settle for 56K dial-up. Soon, I will have to give up my internet service, not because I can't afford it, but because downloading updates takes days and very often the files are corrupted. I already had to give up Google Earth because I could not download the updates and the program quit working without that update. My Adobe reader has a similar issue and needs upgrading. If the phone rings while the update is downloading, about 50% of the time the file is corrupted. Thunderbird, Mozilla, Adobe, AVG, and other programs update frequently, and when data is transferring at 14 Kbps and the file is 35Mb, you do the math on how long it takes. Realize, too, that even though the math says 840kbpm, the line isn't continuous, and in reality is takes about 5 or 6 minutes to download something that is 1 Megabyte in size. For a 35 MB file, it would take at least 6 hours, and you just hope that no one calls during that time as that corrupts the file.


A long time ago I heard a rumor that this valley might be made into a reservoir for power generation. It would be a small but deep reservoir, 4 miles from the dam end to the opposite end, and about a mile wide. The ridge tops are at 1400 ft and the valley is between 750 and 900 feet. The lake would be several hundred feet deep, and some quick math yields that such a reservoir would hold 6.7x10 11th power, or 6,700,000,000,000 gallons. I guess they decided to use Antioch and Heath Lakes instead and Oglethorpe Power developed a plant 20 miles to the west of here over at Rocky Mountain, which is now a state fishing and recreational area. When I first heard these rumors, I did not give them much thought. Then a few years ago, I read about imminent domain, how the government could come in and basically take your land 'for the public good'. I know my ridges are National Forest and that the government already owns them, but the idea that the Forest Service would annex my land as greenspace or biosphere space still seemed like a remote possibility. Perhaps I have read too many conspiracy theories, but I am beginning to wonder why no utilities or county offices seem to care about our valley. I wonder if they could know something we do not? So I stop and think about what that could be. What could they know? My conspiracy theory got legs a few months ago while watching the news. As it turns out, the Army Corp of Engineers has forbidden the state of Georgia to use the water from Lake Lanier as drinking water. Currently Atlanta and her suburbs, as well as a few other Georgia communities downstream, remove water from the Chattahoochee River and use it as drinking water. Wastewater is treated and returned to the river, which then flows to Alabama and Florida. The Corp has ruled that the massive lake and it's emerging river can only be used by the state of Georgia for recreation, not drinking water. Florida and Alabama have those rights. So,,,,, I ask myself, what will the city of Atlanta do? Would they not be in the market for another reservoir, one they could control without Army CoE involvement, a reservoir that would probably be 3000 acres in size? The ridges that would hold this reservoir are already Federal land, part of the Chattahoochee National Forest. The valley floor is private land and in this day and age, no one would think twice about taking the land via imminent domain for the greater public good. Could that be the reason for the lack of development and repair or maintenance of existing infrastructure like roads and phone lines? I hope not.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Back to Work I Go

It is a done deal. I start back to work on October 1st at XL Brands as their 'Lab Coordinator'. XL makes carpet and flooring adhesives and installation systems. The people seem to be very nice, and it looks to be a well run operation. The lab is much nicer and cleaner than the last place I worked. My working hours are normal daytime working hours with no shift work and no weekends. The company is quite a ways from my house, almost 45 minutes away on the south side of Dalton, but I'm hoping that Skyguy and I can carpool some to take the edge off the gasoline bill. I don't trust gasoline prices to stay low.

XL Brands is a division of Textile Rubber and Chemical Corporation, a global chemical and manufacturing company that is headquartered right up the road in Dalton. The following quote comes from their website: "XL Brands leads the industry with environmentally-safe flooring installation products. We have introduced industry first products that are SCS Certified, (Scientific Certification Systems), and contain PCC, (Post Consumer Content). XL Brands adhesives also care the CRI Green Label Plus seal for indoor air quality." It is so rare to find an adhesives company that is environmentally conscious. That's important to me.

I feel very fortunate and honored. There are so many people out there who are pounding the pavement looking for a good job. I was not looking, and had given up on working again. It is a crazy world and I definitely feel guilty because I know so many people are desperately looking for work. While I had first interviewed with this company over a year ago, nothing became of that and I had written it off as a lost opportunity. Then in July, out of the blue, they called, and I went in for another interview. There have been a couple of other meetings over the last month or so, culminating in yesterday's job offer. I have yet to fill out a job application. It is odd how life can twist and turn. You just never know what might be around the corner.

This will allow us to hopefully pay off debt and complete some projects that have been sitting on the back burner. We will be able to regrade the driveway and fix the ruts; we will be able to replace the bay window in the kitchen before it falls out; we will be able to add insulation to the attic. If President Obama goes through with his Dollars for Dishwashers plan, or whatever he ends up calling it, we might actually be able to afford a new refrigerator this year! Woot! Mostly though , having an additional income takes stress off Skyguy as he changes careers. Money makes him happy. I'm generally not materialistic at all, but I have wanted a jacuzzi for the last 20 years, and I might finally get one. I think I deserve it.

Heal Thyself

I am back from the brink of Viral Hell and I refuse to worship the Porcelain God ever again. :) I am healed.

Last Saturday at lunch, quite suddenly, just after I blogged/bragged about my mullein oil cure in fact, I got a headache and felt nauseous. I went outside to try to throw up, but could not. Thinking that I just needed to eat lunch, I went and got some soup from the pantry, and as I reentered the kitchen with the soup, I passed out cold in the floor. Apparently it was the sudden onset of a gastrointestinal virus and I passed out from a fever spike. It's never happened to me before that I can recall, but I have no idea of why I passed out. I did not even see it coming; it was as if someone clobbered me with a wrench: Lights out. Some time went by, I climbed into bed and just laid there. Late that afternoon when Skyguy came home, he took my temperature and it was 103, which is super high for me since my normal is 96.7(thyroid issues). I was really sick for a while. The GI distress started on Sunday morning with diarrhea, but by this time, my temperature had dropped to 99 and hovered between 99 and 100 all week until last night, when it rose to 101. Yesterday morning I decided to called the doctor to make an appointment. They told me that this GI flu is going around and they have one patient who has been fighting it for 16 days. The nurse I spoke with shared that she personally had this wicked virus for 7 days, but did not feel 'well' for two additional weeks. They just told me to stay hydrated-no visit needed. So there I was on Day 5 of a beastly illness with no end in sight. The headaches, fever, and body aches were relentless, as is typical with the flu. I lost 15 pounds and because of the infection I could not take my RA meds for the second week in a row. It was frustrating because I have so much to do, including two doctors appointments and a formal job offer luncheon to attend. The thought of possibly being sick next week was not only depressing, but I knew that would mean missing a third week of my RA meds, and that is a serious thing. Desperate times call for desperate actions.

What kind of medicine woman would I be if I didn't take my own meds, right? To be honest, I was so sick Saturday through Tuesday that I did not even think about anything, let alone meds. After all, I've been brainwashed that the only drugs for flu are Tamiflu and a perhaps a few others that should be taken in the first 48 hours of illness. So it wasn't until my best friend Ava, in a phone call, reminded me that I had just made an elixir for this very illness and I should take it. Recall my blog post from last week where Ava and I canned all day and made and Elderberry Elixir. It looks red in the picture, but it is purple in reality, so much so that it looks like grape juice. So Wednesday morning, with a fever of 99.8, after I hung up from the doctor, I found an eyedropper and dipped into the elixir. It took some serious guts as you must remember that this Elixir is brandy based, and brandy is not exactly what one thinks of five days into a gastrointestinal virus at ten in the morning on an empty stomach. It was akin to the old 'hair of the dog' cure, but I held it down. Two hours later, my fever rose to 100.3, and I took another dose. I took about half a teaspoon of this Elixir every two hours or so, and throughout the afternoon and evening my temperature crept up, but I actually felt better. I did not feel like I had a fever of 101, I felt almost normal last night. It was very, very odd. This morning was Day 6 of the virus and my temp was 97 degrees when I woke up. I got up, poured a cup of Joe, and kissed that pint jar of Elixir next to the coffee pot. I am cured. All day long I've had no fever and no GI symptoms. My temperature has been hovering between 97 and 98, which is still above normal for me, so I have continued the elixir regime, but I feel great.

The short story is that I, the sickly one, the one with a weakened immune system, the one who usually keeps a 24 hour bug for a week, kicked ass on a wickedly evil 7-16 day GI virus. How did that happen?

It happened because of elderberries and the magic of everyday, easily accessible medicines, knowledgebases that are almost lost, but that thankfully, a few souls like Kiva are preserving. I feel such a kinship with this woman; I should hope to have her knowledge if only in my dreams. She is my new hero. I wrote to thank her as I like giving credit where credit is due.
http://bearmedicineherbals.com/