Sun stuff

A few months ago I made an entry about the sun, and what a solar storm could do. NOAA made a prediction for the next solar cycle and mentioned the Carrington event in the article:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/29may_noaaprediction.htm

As you can see, the government clearly states that it could take ten years for a recovery from such an event, so I wasn't exaggerating about what could happen. For me, it is actually quite scary to see this new solar prediction in print. Also in the article is a good graph that clearly illustrates the Maunder Minimum, a time when glaciers expanded and rivers in Europe froze over in what was called the Little Ice Age. I'm sure you've seen the artwork showing ice skaters on the Thames. Scientists still do not know why that happened, and this article and it's graphs make me wonder if we are headed for another 'Maunder Minimum' period, as Gaia struggles to to counter the warming. I think it would be nice to see cooler temperatures and more precipitation, but the longer winters, shorter growing seasons, and possible famine wouldn't be
fun.

Carbon-14 dating in tree rings have shown that there are other 'minima' in recent history: Spörer Minimum (1450–1540)and Dalton Minimum (1790–1820). There has actually been 18 periods of sunspot minima in the last 8,000 years, and while some suggest that these periods are caused by a slowing of the sun's rotation, no one knows exactly why that would happen. It is interesting to think about. What we do know is that since 1996, the sun has been getting dimmer and the solar wind is 20% less than what it used to be. In the visible light spectrum, the sun is 0.02% dimmer, but in the ultraviolet spectrum, it is 6% dimmer. Referencing solar activity and sunspots, the sun is quieter now than it has been in the last 100 years. We are in what is referred to as a 'deep solar minimum'.

Call Me Bones

I went to a podiatrist yesterday and found out that I have a nice sized fracture in my right foot. The fuzzy white blob on the x-ray, the hard callus, was almost quarter sized on the second metatarsal, it's about a month old and almost healed now, but the blob was so large that it almost appeared to touch the third metatarsal. I had wondered why my foot was so swollen. Duuuhhh! Yeah, it hurt, and I mentioned it to both my rheumatologist who thought the swelling was from joint inflammation, and my primary care physician, who thought it might be an insect bite, back at the end of April. Neither doc x-rayed it. I don't remember any kind of 'break' or injury, and I have a good deal of generalized foot pain as background noise, so it just never occurred to me that something might be broken. The break occurred in an area known for stress fractures, but I think I vaguely remember dropping something on my foot. I can't be sure, though, and it really doesn't matter since it is almost healed. I've been hiking, biking, and walking on the beach. I tilled the garden a couple of times, planted trees, and have generally spent a lot of time on my feet. If it is a stress fracture, it probably happened from biking. The image at the right shows the location of the break. I'm kind of amazed that it has healed in the correct plane.

The reason I got a referral to a podiatrist was not for the swelling in my right foot, but the pain in my left from my tailor's bunion. It is bothering me a lot these days and I can't keep a lidocaine patch on it 24/7 indefinitely. I thought that the podiatrist would prescribe orthotics, which he did, but for different reasons, yet, to my surprise, suggested surgery to shave off the bone cysts-you can see them on the x-ray-looks like I have caviar topping the joint-LOL-and reshape the bone to relieve the pressure on the nerves and tendons. If I have this minor surgery now, I can hopefully avoid major bunion surgery with pins and wires and artificial joints later. They will just deaden my foot, and I will be fully awake and able to watch. I'm not sure I will actually want to watch him chisel away the bone, but we'll see. It is scheduled for the first of July. After everything heals up, later in the summer, I'll have a casting appointment and get custom orthotics made to stabilize the bones in my feet.

I was born with a fairly common condition known as accessory navicular bones. When I was a kid, the extra navicular bone on my right foot was larger than my ankle and it would hit the other foot and cause me to fall when I tried to run. I was a slow base runner, and the kids laughed at my awkward stride to keep bone off bone. As I grew, the bone grew, and it put a lot of pressure on various tendons that caused pain. When I was in the 7th grade, I had surgery to remove the extra bone and they rerouted my tendons to build in an arch as I was flatfooted. I recall being on crutches for over 3 months, and that surgery exempted me from most PE courses throughout high school. I think that was a bit of overprotectiveness, so I made up for it by becoming a long distance runner, softball player, tennis player, volleyball player, and soccer goalie in college. :) The bone in my left foot was never large(about the size of the one in the image at right) and has never caused any trouble or pain, thankfully, but in 1993, I had another foot surgery to remove scar tissue from the original surgical site on my right foot. As it turns out, over time, the tendons and ligaments have loosened and that allows some instability. Add in my rheumatoid arthritis and you get the ingredients for all kinds of foot injuries,
including fractures and sprains. The custom orthotics will fit in my shoes and support the architecture of my foot to prevent further injuries. In addition, it might have the side benefit of reducing my sciatic nerve pain. If your stride is right and your posture is good, you reduce pressure on your spine and the nerve doesn't get pinched as much. There's no guarantee that it will help my back, but I'm hopeful. Insurance doesn't cover the orthotic inserts, but since they can last for several decades, and they can prevent injury and reduce pain, the $300 price tag seems like cheap insurance. By the end of the summer, I should be set for even more strenuous exercise, all in the mindset of taking care of these small issues and getting healthier to live longer.

Cholesterol-It Does a Body Good??

Most of the people I know are on some kind of special diet and or cholesterol lowering drugs. At the beginning of the year, I started making small dietary changes and it appears to be working. My cholesterol dropped 72 points from December to April and I am still losing weight and exercising regularly. Today, I weigh 187 pounds. That is 23 pounds gone from my 210 pound starting point. 175 pounds is my minimum goal-to be "normal" on the height/weight charts, and I'm really starting to feel that 175 is attainable with almost no real effort to get there! My maximum goal was to lose 50 pounds in 2009, which means I still need to lose 27 pounds. I think I can do it! I thought I would pass on some health and diet information for your consideration. I hope you take the time to slog through it, because I have spent more than a week writing this and I think it is important. You have to see all sides of an issue, and sometimes, it is not politically correct to look at the less popular viewpoint, but it is necessary nonetheless.

We all need fats in our diet, but all fats are not created equal. Saturated fats, those fats derived from mostly animal products, are digested and processed into LDL's (Low Density Lipoproteins), which is commonly called the "bad" cholesterol. LDL's help form the plaque that clogs and narrows our blood vessels. This in turn raises blood pressure as the heart has to pump the blood through smaller channels, and if there is a blockage, a stroke or MI(myocardial infarction, AKA heart attack) can occur. Unsaturated fats, which are derived mostly from plant based fats, are digested and processed into HDL's (High Density Lipoproteins), which is commonly called the 'good' cholesterol because they reduce the plaque buildup. In the makeup of your total cholesterol, you always want a higher amount of HDL in your blood than LDL; the ratio is important. What is really important, however, is to know and understand all sides of the cholesterol issue. Pharmaceutical companies and the medical industry have an ulterior motive for making you think all cholesterol is bad-they want to sell you drugs for the rest of your life. But you, as a thinking, independent human who is responsible for your own health and life, can consider all sides of the equation and make a more informed decision as to what is best for you.

We get cholesterol in the food we eat and our body produces it when it is needed. It is not an inherently bad thing, just as steroids are not inherently bad. Cholesterol is actually the most abundant steroid in the body. You just have to think of it in a scientific way and not in the popular media catchphrase kind of way. The material that forms the wall of every cell in our bodies is cholesterol-the cholesterol is what protects and seals the cell, preventing transfer of materials across the membrane. Another often overlooked function of cholesterol in the body is that it is needed in the production of Vitamin D. Without it, you couldn't make Vitamin D from sunlight exposure. Vitamin D is found naturally in whole milk and is bioavailable, but if you are limiting your cholesterol intake, you are probably drinking low fat or skim milk. Vitamin D (as well as Vitamins A, E, and K) is fat soluble-that means it is naturally found it, transported by and stored in fat, so what kind of sense does it make to skim the milk/remove the fat, and then add a fat soluble vitamin back to a liquid with no fat? That is like adding oil to vinegar! Of all the chemical molecules of substances found in the human brain, cholesterol is the most abundant. It is used in the hormone uptake process, the process where our brains uptake serotonin, the hormone that is so important in depression and mood disorders. Many anti-depressants work by manipulating the serotonin uptake process, and without sufficient levels of cholesterol in the brain, it is a wasted effort. Without cholesterol, our brains could not process our memories as well. Cholesterol is also found in bile, the bile which helps us digest all fats, plant and animal fats. If there is too little cholesterol, the body has trouble digesting fats, and cell damage can occur.

LDL acts as a patch if a vessel is damaged. When LDL's are high, you can assume that your body is creating excess LDL to repair damaged vessels and cellular walls. HDL acts as a scrubber, removing the old patch material and sending it back to the liver for reprocessing. Triglyceride is a fatty form of cholesterol that is stored in the liver. Cholesterol moves through the body as a triglyceride molecule. Triglyceride counts can be in excess of 1000, and that much fat in the system will thicken the blood, cause blockages and interfere with the gas exchange in the lungs. Obviously, if you are in good health, your body won't need much repair, and your blood won't need to transport triglycerides, therefore you will have low cholesterol and low triglyceride level. You have to consider the big picture of what is happening, cause and effect. If LDLs are high and HDLs are low, your cells are deteriorating and not being repaired. If HDLs are high and LDLs are low, that means there is very little damage and what was there is healing.

There are reasons why cholesterol tests will give an erroneous measurement of elevated triglycerides or give an actual reading of an elevated triglyceride count that is only a temporary fluctuation. Hypothyroidism can cause the thyroid to erroneously call for massive amounts of triglycerides from the liver. Cholesterol tests are usually given under fasting conditions so that dietary cholesterol is isolated and removed from the equation. However, if you fast per doctor's
orders and then do work that requires your body to produce energy, the triglyceride level can spike due to the fat (triglyceride) being released into the bloodstream for energy conversion. So, don't fast and then workout or clean the house or garden or exercise. Don't expend energy. Take a break from the routine and don't exert yourself. The last thing you want to do is to jog across the parking lot or run up some stairs on the way to the lab to have your blood drawn. In addition, if the body needs cholesterol, LDL, for patching, and there is none provided by the diet, then the body will call for the release of triglycerides temporarily raising the level of lipids in the blood over background levels. Cholesterol plays a very important role in body processes in multiple organ systems. When doctors began measuring cholesterol levels in the blood and quantifying them, they, by default, created categories of high and low cholesterol, and then when it was discovered that cholesterol levels could be manipulated, Big- pharma dusted off the snake oil and relabeled it as a statin. I'm only half kidding with this, but I take a harsh stance to play the Devil's Advocate role at times.

Luckily, I was able to lower my cholesterol with eating more nutritious food and with increased exercise. I improved my overall health and I avoided statins. Statins are cholesterol lowering drugs that work by preventing the body from making cholesterol, specifically, LDLs. It doesn't "cure" or "fix" anything and may actually inhibit your ability to heal. In addition to thwarting LDL production in the liver, they also recall LDL patch material that is already circulating in the body. Yes, it prevents plaque build up, but maybe in general, under normal conditions, temporary levels of high blood serum cholesterol is not a bad thing. Statins interfere with production of Co-Q10, which is extremely important in muscular performance. Remember that the heart is a muscle, and since it works continuously, it uses a lot of energy, needs a lot of Co-enzyme Q10 to produce the power to pump. Statins reduce Co-Q10 in addition to cholesterol, and this has been attributed to an increase in heart failure by some researchers. In my opinion, taking statins removes the symptom and ignores the overall problem. If your LDLs are high, you must ask yourself why? Is it because you have cardiovascular disease and your body is trying to repair the vessels or is it because you incorporate too much animal fat in your diet or is it because elevated LDL levels are secondary to some other problem like hypothyroidism. If you reduce the level without understanding why it was elevated or correcting the underlying cause of that elevation(be it lack of exercise or gallbladder disease, whatever), you may be harming your body. It is the equivalent of removing the batteries from your smoke detector because it goes off when you broil food and it is annoying. Yeah, if you remove the batteries, you can broil those steaks in peace, but you also lose the warning that your house is on fire. It is worthy of some thought that the side effects of statins are mostly the same symptoms one would have if one's cholesterol is too low or out of balance: digestive upset, cognitive issues, muscular weakness, etc. There is a lot more controversy as to whether or not it is a good thing to take statins to lower cholesterol or to simply manipulate cholesterol levels in general, than you would think by listening to the mainstream media and your medical doctor. Statins mute the immune system and have been proven to cause cancer in rats. If you are considering drugs to counter an existing symptomatic disease, it is one issue. If you are considering drugs as a prophylactic against contracting disease, it is another. Do your own research and look at this issue from all angles. You have the power to control what goes into your body. Try these links for starters:

http://www.westonaprice.org/moderndiseases/statin.html
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2003/11/07/bad_news_about_statin_drugs.htm

Artichokes

We have tried and learned to like yet another vegetable...artichokes. Since it is rich in potassium and iodine, it should be good for my heart, muscles, and thyroid. I had eaten them years before at my sister's home, so I knew that I liked them, but Skyguy had a restaurant meal that contained artichoke hearts, so now, we are going to try to grow artichokes. As a perennial vegetable that is hardy to about 15-20 degrees, I should be able to grow it here if I place it carefully and protect it when the temps are really low. We do see single digits here, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. So, I bought some Emerald Artichoke seeds at Home Deposit (birthday gift card-couldn't resist it!)and I've been reading about growing them. Living in Georgia most of my life, I've never even seen an artichoke plant, but the pictures online are awesome and I am thinking of planting this in the garden AND in the yard. I read that it is a deer resistant plant, so it will definitely find its place in the yard. Edible landscaping is the way to go! I also had no idea that you could get 18 artichokes from one plant! These suckers are huge! They get 4 feet tall or more and 6 feet across. There were 8 seeds in the packet, so we will see what happens.

Tomorrow night, we will be making a version of Ruby Tuesday's Chicken Bella. It is chicken in a artichoke, portabella mushroom and parmesan sauce with penne pasta. It has a slight cayenne kick.
Here's the recipe:

http://www.grouprecipes.com/sr/12623/chicken-artichoke-amp-parmesan-baked-penne/recipe/

The Southern Belle

As a part of our 'Live Life to the Fullest' mantra, we went on a riverboat sightseeing and dinner cruise this evening with my folks on the Tennessee River up in Chattanooga. They had a Spring Break Special which amounted to 50% off, so it was a great deal.

http://www.chattanoogariverboat.com/

I can't believe how much fun it was-Skyguy definitely needed this break from reality. The economy creates a lot of stress, and if you add in family trouble, well, let's just say he *needed* this outing. The food was great(prime rib and shrimp creole), the entertainment was good, and the weather held out. I think my parents enjoyed themselves as much as we did, at least I hope so. Tonight, I am thankful that my family cares about my Skyguy and is willing to pay our way and join us in going to places like this. I'm not a city person, but the mixture of the old architecture, the new architecture and Nature's architecture, was inspiring. Chattanooga is a unique city, molded by the Tennessee river which flows right through the middle of town and protected by Lookout Mountain above. It is rather fitting that the city's motto is "A Great City by Nature". Rivers hold the same sway for me as the ocean does for some folks-all that water, the power of the water, ever flowing....whether I am on the bank, in a canoe, on the Delta Queen or a just a touristy riverboat, I just feel transported back into time.

One of the sites I saw was the legendary Delta Queen. I rode on this paddlewheeler back in 1979 in New Orleans. Now, it is being turned into a floating hotel on the river in Chattanooga. It was very cool to see her again. I wish I were a better photographer. The bridges and the way the sunlight illuminated them was spectacular, but I could not capture this on film. As it got dark I had even more trouble capturing the views.




If you visit Chattanooga, skip the Choo Choo, See Rock City, visit the Tennessee Aquarium(it is the building with the pointy roofs) and treat yourself to a riverboat dinner cruise. Be sure and talk to the crew to learn about the river and the industry and activities you see along the way.

Horsing Around with Jordan

I kept my granddaughter last night and today. My daughter is on vacation she and her husband were exploring various museums and historical sites locally, sites that would not interest Jordan, so it was my privilege to spoil and love my special grandbaby. She is like the world's best drug in that no matter how you truly feel, physically, she can erase pain and bring smiles and light into your life.
We are experiencing what is called Blackberry Winter here in Northwest Georgia, it is the last attempt by Old Man Winter to have his way. It is usually in May, like now, when the blackberry bushes are in full bloom. They say the cold snap makes the berries sweeter, too. At any rate, it was in the 40's here, and very windy, not the best day for exploring on the farm, but I have made a pact with myself that I will do something special with her on every visit, something she can't do with her parents or other grandparents due to their location. I could show her my garden, take a long nature walk, or let her express her love for horses. Today, it was the latter. After breakfast, Jordan stood at the kitchen window calling to the horses in the pasture. She stood transfixed for over 5 minutes, only distracted by a chipmunk that ran across the deck right in front of her. So in the afternoon, when it was warmer, my best friend Ava came down and the three of us went out to the pasture to let Jordan love on the horses-and Jack, the donkey. She gets a little horse time whenever she comes, and has never shown fear of them. She loves animals, large and small.(She's going to the Atlanta Zoo tomorrow!) Right now, Jordan looks very much like my son-in-law, Jon, but she has Katie's independent personality, physical prowess, and love for animals.
Ava's horses love Jordan, too. They are all great horses with gentle and loving personalities. I could not ask for better pasture tenants. Joe is the dark colored horse. He is normally a gentle sweetheart, but today he was playful and kept wanting to taste her jeans. Jordan of course just laughed with delight, so he is still a sweetheart in her eyes, . Dallas is the light colored horse, a beautiful boy who is normally mischievous, almost bratty, but today expressed the more mature, gentle and little-girl-loving side of his personality. Jack was Jack, fairly non-expressive, but he never misses out on a chance for a bit of rubbing. There is something about Jack that people love...he so unassuming and sweet. The other horse, Rebel, didn't interact much with Jordan today. Maybe next time.
Usually, we hold her when we are in close quarters with the boys, but she wanted down to explore on her own and the boys were being very good. I've titled these shots, from top to bottom, Jordan loves Jack, Jack come Back, Dallas kisses, Horsey Love x 2, and my favorite, Horse Whispering... Jordan is now 18 months old.

Science moving at the speed of light

I have no idea of how many times a day I google for information, but it is more than I should admit to, as I am a person of above average intelligence. I'm old enough to remember when calculators became a handheld device, and people warned how it would cripple our brains and make us lazy. Well, it did, and it didn't. I have a calculator within 2 feet of me, do you?(consider cellphones, etc.) Fast forward to Google and googling information..I used it to remember what movie I saw last-how crazy is that? It just seemed to have better odds of success and faster than looking through my memory box ticket stubs, drawers, calendars, etc. The next generation for nerdy people like me is going to be WolframAlpha.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/

You ask a question, it answers...

If we have the knowledge of all of humanity at our fingertips, what is the next step? The next step is probaby wi-fi chips in your brain that allow instant knowledge. Just today I read an article about an implantable GPS chip with optional cyanide that could be released with a few inputs. Track terrorists, child molestors, criminals, but terminate them before they commit crimes.....of course, that would mean that Big Brother is not only watching, but controlling and manipulating the future by taking out people BEFORE they act, akin to Minority Report. But for now, we just have Wolfram at our fingertips.
It is in the Alpha phase of operation, but it seems to still have Beta like problems. A few minutes ago, I got a message that said "I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"...lol...
like all great things that are new, it has a fun factor-it's true uses haven't been realized yet.

More Bloggin' on the Garden

I planted the rest of my tomatoes Thursday. I'm not sure how many there were..more than 25 though. Mostly they were Romas, for making paste and sauces. I still need to transplant the peppers to the garden. I also transplanted the last of the basil to a box bed, and I cut the rest of the pack choi to make room for the peppers. It is a busy time. I spent about half the day Thursday playing with black walnut seedlings. I may try to sell some of them- I planted 22 walnuts on Tuesday with the Paulownias, and I still have almost 4 dozen plus whatever else happens to germinate out of that pile. Secretly, I wish it were pecans instead as I really, really, love pecans. Walnuts are okay, but IMO, the trees have more worth as timber and shade than for their nuts.

Yesterday, I cut my first Swiss chard leaves. I pulled up a garlic scallion and chopped it all together. I put some olive oil in the Dutch oven, added the garlic, sauteed it for a few minutes, added salt, some crushed red peppers for a kick and then added the chard leaves. Yummy. This morning, I made a chard lasagna with hot Italian sausage, diced tomatoes, mozzerella, cottage cheese, fresh eggs, fresh herbs, etc. It is in the oven now, so I will let you know how it turns out. I also planted okra (variety:Lee) and a seed pack (basically one 6x6 block) of Golden Midget corn. Both seed packs were from 2007, so it may not come in good. Next week, I'll plant the Bloody Butcher. I'm looking forward to that. Over the years, I had accumulated a lot of seed, but as I did not plan well from year to year, I have ended up with a lot of old seed. I don't want things to cross, so I am using up the seed this year and next year so that I can collect fresh seed from anything that germinates. It has been an interesting 'experiment' to observe the quality and germination percentages of old seed of various ages. Even for things that typically keep for years, it appears that 3 years old is about the limit. I think it is due to the fact that I heat with a woodstove and only have one window AC unit for the house. I try to keep the seeds at a constant, cooler temperature, but I can't control the humidity factor. The seed just doesn't remain viable for years and years. I suppose I have to live with that and adjust my long term garden plan appropriately.

My friend Ava noted that my tomatoes had not grown in almost two weeks. They do look the same now as the day they were planted. I'm hoping that it is due to the 6" of rain and the size of the tomato vines when they were planted. Everyone always wants to have that first tomato of the season, but I suppose I look forward to having the last one. Also, Most people buy nursery transplants and put them out. My toms are transplanted two or three times before they are set out, and even though the plant might be two feet tall at planting time, I plant the whole vine except for the top 6 inches or so. My tomato plants look puny compared to nursery transplants but soon they will catch up and probably surpass the others in size and fruit, because mine will have a more extensive root system and will hopefully survive the heat and drought of summer better.

I saw Star Trek Last night. It was the first movie I've been to see in the theatre in some years-I can't even remember the last time. I wouldn't call myself a die-hard Trekkie, but I liked the show, have seen all the movies, and I can say that I was not disappointed. It was actually rather amazing, well cast, decent storyline, and good special effects. If Sci-Fi appeals to you on any level, it is a must see. It was certainly a great distraction from all the drama and heartbreak
going on in our personal lives, but that is not for discussion here. I don't know who to credit for this saying, but it is ever so true; "You can bury a lot of troubles by digging in the dirt". I think the key word there is 'bury'. The problems will still be there, and may have even fruited if you don't tend to them head on. At the same time, out of sight, out of mind-it is good to not think about your troubles 24/7.

It rained a lot last night, maybe an inch or so, but I was able to putter around the garden a bit this morning, and I made a second sowing of carrots, as well as additional sowings of New Zealand spinach, radishes, chard, and lettuces. We are going to experiment with growing lettuce in the summer in the shade. Between beds #1 and #2, at the edge of the carpet and the north side of bed two in the strip shown, Skyguy planted his Mesclun lettuces . The ground is moist and shaded, so we are hoping it will work. My reasoning is that if the ground supports sweet violets and gill o'er the ground, it should be fertile enough and moist enough for lettuce. Bed #2 on the left, is all cauliflower-well, there are some companion herbs in there, too. The cauliflower heads are forming now, so in a week or so, I should be busy blanching and freezing cauliflower. I could eat roasted cauliflower at every meal.

Trees, Wonderful Trees

It was Arbor Day at EarthNSky Farm. I planted 47 Paulownia elongata trees and 22 black walnuts trees in the front part of the front pasture-in about an acre. I'm looking at the walnuts as retirement income or furniture wood. A good sized walnut tree can bring 30K or more. Thankfully, it was not too hot, and it should rain for the next few days. Each tree is flagged to prevent mowing accidents. As they grow, I'll put the white rabbit guard protectors around the trunks. Right now, the Paulownias are only about 8 inches tall-they came in a plastic 10 pack-tissue cultured trees. One was dead, and two were wilted or broken to the point that I cut them back to 'resprout'. As long as there is a rootball, and there was, the trees can be coppiced, even seedling trees. I may plant one of these trees in my yard or give one as a gift. I haven't decided yet. The black walnuts, well, here's this:

How Not to Grow Black Walnuts at EarthNSky
In the Fall of the year, dig holes 1 foot deep and loosen soil. Plant several walnuts, husk and/or no husk, in each hole at a depth of 5-6 inches. Cover, water, and wait....and wait, and wait, and now it is May and nothing has broken ground. I can only assume they were eaten by squirrels.

How to Grow Black Walnut Trees at EarthNSky
Collect bags and bags of black walnuts, the more the better. I had several hundred pounds, enough to fill 3-4 55 gallon drums. Dump walnuts on gravel driveway near workshop under 200 year old oak tree and run over them multiple times to dehusk. (Two piles almost two feet tall and about 5-6 feet in diameter or more) You want them to dry a bit in the shell before you crack them open. Forget about walnuts as Autumn leaves cover the piles laying in the driveway. Instead of raking up walnuts at Christmas time and cracking them in the vise, continue to forget that walnuts and leaves are piled in the driveway. Procrastinate doing anything about it because it is too cold.(or you are too tired, the shop is not clean-can't find the vise, your hands have just now returned to their normal color, etc. etc.) Come February, watch from a distance as squirrels begin to raid the pile and carry off nuts. Notice all the 'pig snouts' in the yard and notice that the pile of nuts is basically gone. Voila!! As the trees leaf out in the Spring, notice that the former pile is a miniature forest of black walnut trees, now 1 foot tall! Carefully pull up trees and then transplant trees to preferred location. A week later, notice that even more trees have grown in the driveway. Take pictures.

As typical with my blog pictures, you can see them better if you click on them to enlarge them. The top image is that of part of my front pasture where the trees are to be planted. I have all the trees and tools in the cart and there are flags staked where the trees will go. The second image is of a Paulownia Elongata seedling. It doesn't look it, but they are about 8 inches tall. The third picture is from World Paulownia Institute,
http://www.worldpaulownia.com/
where we bought our trees, and it shows a tree plantation, which is what we will hopefully have. The last image is that of one of the former piles of black walnuts and you can see all of the new seedlings that have sprouted. I have already robbed this pile of over 15 taller plants, and then, with new rain, more germinate and grow.

Today I carried water down to the area in my 8 cu.ft. wheelbarrow and 5 gallon buckets. I suspect that I will be doing this frequently over the next few weeks. I read that if the trees don't reach 18' the first year, that you should coppice them to the ground and then choose the straightest shoot that emerges for the following year.

To Fail is Funny

I am oft accused of being too serious and not smiling enough. That's the Finn in me, I'm sure. Finns are often described as dour, serious, boring folks. My family has been trying to help me overcome this affliction, and my daughter has introduced me to a website called Failblog.Org. (http://failblog.org/) Trust me, it's funny. The blog consists of a pictures that are funny or ironic, and the subject matter is further divided into categories like Lolcats, Loldogs, LolCelebs, Look-Alikes, Engrish, etc. Now, I'm a dog person, but the Lolcats page is really funny. Engrish is always worth a chuckle, too, the Harei Davehong Motorcycled/Harley Davidson Motorcycles belt buckle image from this post came from this page: http://engrishfunny.com/page/3/
You can even set the site to show only G-rated material so hopefully you will smile and not take offense. By far though, in my opinion, the Fail pictures and video are the best.
You may get plenty of laughter in your day, but I generally don't. TV sitcoms almost never make me laugh-I find them stupid for the most part and I really dislike the slapstick in some programs. I've always liked more intelligent humor, and there is a good bit of that on Failblog. Laughter is good medicine for whatever ails you. The brain releases endorphins which kill pain and bring about feelings of well-being. A good laugh can make you forget all about how badly your feet hurt or how sore your back is. I believe that laughing as stress relief is just as important as exercise and diet for overall good health, as it certainly must boost the immune system. Laughter may very well be the best medicine, as the Reader's Digest suggested.
So check out the Failblog. If you know of other similar sites, let me know. I need the laughs. I suppose Youtube fills this void for some folks, but I'm on dialup so images are better than video.

Asparagus Love

My asparagus bed is starting to wane in production for this year. The spears are starting to get skinny now. When I planted it, 10 years ago(this image is from 2000, before I harvested anything), I was the only one in my family that ate asparagus. I believe I planted about 10-12 crowns originally, thinking that would be enough for just me. I honestly can't remember how many I planted, but my bed is right at 4x12, I think Now, my entire family has learned to love asparagus and I need to plant more. I want to mention this here in case someone else might be also thinking about planting asparagus.
I originally had no idea of how much to plant. I never gave it much thought. Now, I realize that I like about a dozen spears per serving, larger would be better, but a dozen spears will do. If I planted a dozen crown, and each crown produced a spear, that would give one person one meal. A few days later, I could have another serving. However, all crowns don't produce spears at the same rate. some crowns skip a day or produce pencil size crowns whereas some crowns produce large fat spears and grow very quickly. I think to figure out how much you need to plant, you first decide your portion size...for Portion size in number of spears = number of crowns, approximately x the number of people x frequency of eating asparagus per week.

I am getting two servings per week plus a few stragglers that I add to my salads(raw). For us, that is only enough to whet our appetize for more.

So, for Skyguy, my daughter Katie, and me, let's say 15 spears per serving x 3 people = 45 crowns. 45 crowns x 2 meals a week= 90 crowns Straggler spears can go into salad, and I now have a pickled asparagus recipe if I get tired of grilled asparagus or raw spears in salads. I think I would like to grow about 50% more than I think I will need because I'd like to try new recipes, like this soup:

Cream of Asparagus Soup
Take leftover asparagus stalks(assuming you have removed the spear head for another recipe or for salad) and cut off the tough, wood ends. Peel spear with vegetable peeler to remove the tough outer layer. Steam stalks until soft then puree in a blender with a bit of water to make a runny paste. For each cup of puree, add 1 cup of milk to which 2 TBSP of flour has been mixed in well, and then 1 cup of cream. Add 1 TBSP of butter, salt and pepper, and heat soup until the flour begins to thicken the soup.


So I have come to the conclusion that I need at least 90 crowns for the three of us, but that is just the base, minimum number of crowns. I'm thinking that having 135 crowns should give us plenty of asparagus to grill and roast fresh, eat in salads, make asparagus soup, and some to give as gifts and some to pickle.

So the next problem is determining where I would put 135 crowns of asparagus! Originally I spaced my crowns as recommended, giving them room to expand, but I think I may have given them too much space. I planted them 12" apart in two rows, about 30" between rows. But even after ten years, they have not filled in the interim space. I get multiple spears, but the crowns are not even close to being crowded. I'm considering all options, but keep coming back to a wood sided raised bed like I had before. If I made a bed that was 3x50, that would give me 150 sf, a bit more than the minimum 1 sf need per crown. OR, I could make four box-style raised beds 1.5 ft wide x 25 feet long. I could put them around the garden next to the chicken moat, or create a large square, or make chevrons with the boxes that divert water from all the springs to the sides of the garden. That might be the answer. I'll think on it. Buying 135 crowns of asparagus won't be cheap, so I will have time to think while I save up. I will attempt to collect and harvest seed later in the season. Obviously, growing my own 1 year crowns to transplant will the the least expensive route, IF I can do it.

Snakes, Chickens, Sex, and Sermons?

We were able to get the jungle under control this past weekend, but we crossed paths with 2 additional snakes..that makes 3 snakes in two days...one King snake and two red rat(corn) snakes. I was down at my friends house this morning and she showed me a single winding track through the grass-the track was muddy, the grass was green, so it was easy to see. The track was several inches wide. The only thing that would make a track like that is a big rattlesnake, or a monster king snake that just ate the monster rattlesnake(like the one we saw in SC). This track definitely has a Wow Factor associated with it. The snakes are definitely out and about.

We have a few more roosters to dispatch, but in doing that, we will end the great 2008-2009 hatching project to replace chickens lost to predators. I started with 6 birds, and now have 6+ roos that need to be dispatched, 30 hens and 1 rooster in the main coop, and one poor battered hen in the chicken tractor. There are 2 or 3 birds in the 30 that might be roosters, too, but right now they are just androgynous pullets. I have a beautiful partridge rock looking roo that I am thinking of keeping. He would be part Partridge Rock(mother) and Blue Laced Red Wyandotte(father). Currently, I have a RIR/BLRW roo. I've forgotten the number of hens a rooster can service, but I think it is somewhere close to 15. I doubt I will keep all the pullets/hens, but I can always raise two flocks separately. I wonder if two roos will fight if there are sufficient hens for both?

I'm quite amazed at the percentage of pullets I hatched vs. roosters/cockerels. I think I've maybe a dozen+ roosters in all the birds I've hatched since Thanksgiving and with close to 70 total birds, that's rather amazing. Even at 15/75-that's only 20% roosters, and I believe the actual percentage is closer to 17%. It's got me wondering about evolution and the role temperature plays in determination of sex and embryo development. I know that with some reptiles, noteably crocodilians(alligators, crocs, caimans,and gavial), temperature of the eggs during incubation does influence gender. I believe that it must be true with some birds, perhaps in my case, the chicken eggs I hatched. The incubator temps were kind of high, 100-101F. In some reptiles, higher temps can switch off male expression genes and create females. The embryo starts off as a male, but when the egg is exposed to higher temperatures, the embryo undergoes a gender switch and the hatchling becomes female. In addition, some animals that appear female are actually male and visa versa, i.e. their sex is ambiguous;they are intersexed. Could this have happened with my chickens? I think it is possible. Birds are descended from reptiles and the sex change thing is related to a changing environment. Perhaps during warmer eons, more females are produced to expand the population, but during colder eons, the embryos remain predominantly male. The planet is currently experiencing a warming trend as we all know....is it Nature's Way-the ultimate survival technique-the Master's Plan- to turn males into females to expand the population while it is warm and to prepare for the cold eon to come? Are my ambiguous, androgynous looking pullets really male?

If this interests you as much as it does me, read this:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dp5/sex2.htm
References are listed at the bottom of the page, but consider this:

"Sex is relative. Among animals, especially cold-blooded ones, males
can be turned into females by increased feeding or a change in
temperature. In the case of warm-blooded creatures, it can be done by
extracting ovaries to turn, say, a hen into a cock. In many species,
sex reversals happen naturally. Quahogs (hard-shell clams) are born
and grow up male, but later half of them turn female. Slipper shells
and cup and saucer shells do this too; they commence every season as
males, but nearly all of them later pass through a phase of
ambisexuality and turn into adult females.
Fish have evolved the quickest sex-reversing capacity of any animal:
some species not only change from male to female as they grow, but a
few, like groupers and guppies, develop the ability to switch
sexually back and forth within seconds. [ I intentionally picked an image of fancy guppies-quite 'flamboyant', huh?] If two female guppies meet
while feeling amorous, one is likely to start turning into a male so
he can mate with the other. Occasionally both shift at the same
moment, which usually results in a furious fight, with the winner
emerging as a female who somehow forces the other to stay male."

If you want a good mental exercise, think about all of this with respect to human evolution, global warming, homosexuality and gender identification. You've probably already figured out that I believe homosexuality, intersexuality, as well as heterosexuality to be natural phenomena. I realize that many of you believe otherwise due to your various faiths, so I don't mean to be disrespectful to your beliefs, but I do believe that there is sufficient scientific evidence and sufficient Biblical contradictory passages to suggest that perhaps we all should have a more open mind to things we don't fully understand or know. I suppose the middle ground we meet on is this:
Matthew 22: 36-40
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

Vacation Post #3: Eco-Diatribe

I’m not one to think that ‘Global Warming’ is 100% man-made. I actually think that we are experiencing natural cycles, terrestrial and solar. That doesn’t absolve humanity from taking responsibility for polluting the Earth, it is just a statement of belief. I know that mankind pollutes every environment possible, but I am not so vain or arrogant to believe that we are more powerful that Mother Earth, Gaia, herself. I believe that Gaia can correct, in time, whatever abuse we dish out. In many ways, the Earth itself acts as an That correction may involve oxidation or crustal subduction, but given enough time, that Gaia will repair herself and erase our very existence if need be. Even if we blow ourselves up and blow the Earth apart, She will reassemble the fragments and life will reseed the planet. Extremophilic bacteria are everywhere, even in the magma of volcanoes and in the irradiated upper atmosphere, and they will begin diversification. Life will continue, it is a Force-an Energy, but it may not be recognizable or intelligent as such. For Earth, that might even be a good thing. It probably happened in the past. If so, the Earth that existed before a Mars sized body impacted and carved out the Moon did not resemble the Earth of today. We are complex beings, but you could say that we are the embodiment of bacterial diversification and have infected the planet. Whether or not we are a beneficial, benign, or destructive bacteria, we can not know. Whether we are an accident of evolution or have been molded via Intelligent design, we can not know. But I digress….

While on vacation, we visited Hunting Island in South Carolina. It is a state park, located between Edisto and Hilton Head. Native Americans once used the island for hunting, hence the name. It is several miles long and has a lagoon that runs about a third of the island's length. It is beautiful. Like many state parks, there are rental cabins, and on Hunting Island, some of these cabins were near the beach. Were. They are gone. In recent years, there has been so much coastal erosion that the cabins were washed away. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see not only the remains of palms and 250 year old live oak trees, but also the concrete corner of an old septic tank-the remains of a cabin. All in all, this only proves that the ocean is changing the face of a barrier island, which is a normal part of island evolution, but it sure gives one pause to think about how we continue to view our changing planet in a snapshot mode and how appropriately powerless we are to subdue the power of the ocean, the power of Mother Earth. Instead of working in concert with her ebb and flow of energy, we continue to selfishly think only of our own pleasure-we continue to take and try to stop natural Earth changes without thought of the future. The Hunting Island Lighthouse has been moved once, and it may need to be moved again. Without human intervention to restore jetties, install groins and reclaim beaches for recreation, many would have already disappeared and or would have been recreated elsewhere. Perhaps it is time to retreat to the mainland and allow the barrier islands to do their jobs unabated? We often forget that hurricanes and storms are beneficial to the planet as a whole, distributing the heat of the tropics to the temperate regions. If we try to change these processes, then we are ultimately creating our own demise. Humans just need to live more in sync with Nature and stop trying to control it. Click on the pictures to see details. The septic tank is visible in the last picture, and the first image is of the almost tropical lagoon. All of the erosion pictures were taken at low tide. At high tide, the waves would have practically lapped my feet as I stood just above the high tide line.

Vacation Post #2: Souvenirs

While on vacation, I tried to find some Carolina Gold rice, but interestingly, places were sold out. My quest for rice led me to a roadside tourist trap called the Carolina Cider Company, where I bought a book, my only souvenir from vacation. It is Putting Up: A Year-Round Guide to Canning in the Southern Tradition, by Stephen Palmer Dowdney. It is a pretty nice companion to the Ball Blue Book, and it has great seasonal recipes like Jerusalem artichoke relish and a green tomato soup. Southern recipes have a mystique to them, at least in my opinion they do, because many seem to be associated with a person’s name, like Aunt Frances’ Bread and Butter Pickles or Aunt Sue’s Dilly Beans, and there is always that secret ingredient or technique that only they know about. I’m hoping that I can recreate some of these recipes and form my own family tradition-Grandma Bev’s Blueberry Marmelade, for example. I’ll post the recipes here as I try them. If you don't live near Yemassee, SC, you can order the book from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Putting-Up-Seasonal-Southern-Tradition/dp/1423602803
Realize that this book advocates traditional canning methods, and uses the hot water bath canner to can food after the food has been acidified by adding citric acid. This is counter to the advice that the USDA advises for canning low acid foods, just so you know.

Vacation Post #1: Activities and Sights

We left Saturday for a quick vacation. We haven’t been anywhere in several years, and after Skyguy’s cancer diagnosis, we promised ourselves that we would start taking vacations as soon as the hospital bills were paid. You gotta live life and not work ALL the time. We’ve spent the last 4 days soaking up South Carolina’s Lowcountry culture and riding bikes. We camped at a KOA to keep costs down, and we took a lot of our own food. We did eat out once a day though, after all, it is vacation! We spent a day at Hunting Island (biked around the island-15.5 miles) a 'natural', island with a pretty lighthouse, a day in Bluffton (10.5 mile residential ride) and Port Royal, a day in Charleston(Patriot’s Point and Ft. Sumter-photo of USS Yorktown and the tour boat to the Fort) , and one day we just rode bikes near the campground (9 miles). We fished some, and Skyguy skunked me by catching a nice sized catfish. I wish I could have fished more, but the mosquitoes and ticks were horrific. At night, we relaxed in the campground’s hot tub and went to bed early.

We saw quite a few animals that we don’t see at home. On the first day, while riding our bikes along the lakeside(in the picture-the lake is actually much, much larger than the image suggests), we spooked a small 4 foot alligator as he sunned on the bank and he made a huge splash as he lept for the safety of the water. Fishing in a lake with alligators is always more exciting than fishing in a lake where there are only turtles for reptilian representation. On the boat ride to Ft. Sumter, we saw quite a few dolphins coming in the feed at high tide and one was positively huge-maybe 10 or 11 feet long. He/She came within 15 feet of the boat so I was able to get a good, however brief, look at him. Later that day while dining in a restaurant on the intracoastal waterway, we saw a family group with a young 3 foot long dolphin racing around at play. It reminded me of the way kids run ahead of their parents at an amusement park, then Mom reins them in, then they run ahead again, etc. It was fun to watch-great food and great entertainment. In Beaufort, we saw an osprey nest, and she was rearing young. We stopped on the roadside, took some pictures(click on the image for a better view), and I could hear the chicks calling, much in the same way that our resident red shouldered hawk chicks chatter. While on the fishing pier at Hunting Island, an old woman caught a small shark, and that got everyone excited, especially the kids on the pier. In Bluffton, while riding bikes along the roadside, I was fighting the wind in the lead position. I had my head down concentrating on a cadence to maintain speed. A nearby noise startled me(I later learned from Skyguy that it was a Canada Goose) and I looked up to see a positively huge snake at the edge of the road just ahead of me. I swerved, but words failed me. Luckily, he saw the snake, too. It was a dead king snake, but it had to have just eaten the largest eastern diamondback on the coast because that was the largest king snake I've ever seen. I did not even know that they got that large, and even though I clearly saw the yellow markings on the snake, my brain just would not register that it was a king snake due to its size. I swear it was the size of my arm, but Skyguy says it wasn’t quite that large. Of course, we saw gulls, Brown Pelicans and other shore birds, too. I never realized this until we got home and I looked it up, but we don’t have Black Vultures here, only Turkey Vultures.

It's a jungle out there!

I came back from vacation to a flooded garden. Everything is muddy and water is standing around. I don't know how much rain we got, but the creek has apparently been running for the last 4 days and my guess is that we got over 6 inches here (since last Saturday). I have never seen my property so green. We cut the grass on Friday, and now it is over a foot tall and looks like a forgotten field.
This morning, I noticed that my whiskey barrel iris was blooming-but the little pot had fallen over and the flower was half in the water, so I walked over to upright the pot and as I did so, was startled by a frog on the rim just sitting there looking at me. It was right near my hand, and it kind of scared me. (I was barefoot, standing in foot tall yard grass) I jerked back instantly and then realized it was only a frog. I thought, "well, it's a good thing it wasn't a snake-it would have bitten me"...lol...just then, I looked down at my feet in the grass and saw a snake laying at my toes-two inches from my big toe. For a split second, I thought it was a copperhead, then realized it was a red rat snake/corn snake. He was about 2.5-3 feet long, little, but about the right size for a copperhead, so he gave me quite a start. I ran inside and grabbed the camera just in time to snap a picture of him as he crawled away through my little Zen garden. My guess is that he was lying there next to the barrel waiting for the frog to make a wrong move and I startled both of them. It is a jungle out there!

Oinkers Boinkers

Swine flu...
No tongues!!! Where's the Listerine?!

Seriously, how many times will the government cry wolf?
SARS, Bird flu, Salmonella outbreaks and now Swine Flu....
Into the Frying Pan-demic we go! Who knows what is going on...some doctors say we are already in a pandemic, that the numbers of flu sufferers are 10-25 times higher than government figures. http://tinyurl.com/dllyd2
Then you can read about how this particular flu is not as lethal as previous flu pandemics. http://tinyurl.com/chcdnq
And it is not really a 'swine' flu at all, it is part swine, part avian, and part human...a nice, seemingly improbable mix, which leads to the next story..... If conspiracies are your thing, you can read the Prison Planet story about how the virus could be a Pentagon weapon targeting Hispanics, specifically Mexicans, in a biowar.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/is-swine-flu-a-race-specific-virus.html
I'm about to go on vacation, and it will be just my luck to get stuck in another state if martial law is declared...Massachusetts just passed a pandemic bill that could call for martial law, and this morning, Fox news was batting the idea around. I don't know what is scarier, potentially dying from influenza or losing my rights under martial law. It is an insane world.