The Profit Part of Yesterday's Quote

I thought I had read Gardening for the South before, but I'm noticing now as I reread that it is a very comprehensive manual, with charts about saving seeds (how long can you keep them? Can you plant last year's and expect good germination?) that agree pretty closely with modern ones. He does advise using a mixture of slaked lime and SALT on your soil, which moderns would avoid, but a lot of his stuff is quite interesting. He recommends the same manures, the same crop rotations, and some of the same cover crops as later writers. Here's the "profit" part of yesterday's quote:

"The product was as follows on one and one-fourth acres of land: 1100 head lettuce, large; 1400 heads cabbage, large; 700 bunches radishes; 250 bunches asparagus; 300 bunches rhubarb;14 bushel pods, marrowfat peas; 40 bushels beans; sweet corn, 3 plantings, 419 dozen;  ...; celery, 500 heads- all worth 621 dollars in the Utica market, but supplied 130 persons all they could consume. Only one man was required to do all the necessary labor."

That's what I call intensive planting. I will look again at his fertilizing plan, definitely. Wow! The ... includes a LOT of other produce I did not want to type out. Happy New Year, and may your garden grow as well as the one Mr. White described in 1857. Peace to all who truly want it.

Tomatoes-Hybrid or Heirloom?

This is the garden in late June, 2008.
I've planted both kinds of tomatoes, and I have to say that Arkansas Traveler worked out a LOT better than the Big-box-store varieties in my yard. Very little cracking, where the hybrids had deep cracks. Of course there are caveats- I corrected the soil pH in the meantime, and got better at watering, and used tomato cages instead of stakes. But the Travelers were tremendously prolific as well. 

I'm going to try to plan everything around open-pollinated or heirloom varieties this year, and try saving seeds. I can't save corn, because they say you need to have at least 50 plants to do that for cross-pollination purposes, and I simply do not have that much sunny space back there. I'm going to try a 10x5 3 sisters planting, a 5x5 tomato patch, and greens in whatever is left of the main bed, followed by sweet potatoes. The back bed will contain herbs at the front and a few sunflowers, red okra, and amaranth at the back. I'm going for a decorative edible effect.

The side bed near the neighbors will contain green beans along the fence (we eat an astonishing amount of green beans every year, and I can share them with the neighbor, who puts up with the vines climbing into her yard for more sun), and other shade-tolerant edibles (radishes and greens did well there last year) across the front.

Notebook in the Pocket

Here is an excellent quote about gardening for these dark winter days, from William H. White's Gardening for the South (1857). the book can be downloaded free in PDF from Google Books.

" 

It is difficult to acquire this knowledge by reading or simply looking on. It is easiest and most pleasantly gained with implement in hand and a notebook in the pocket. The readier way of understanding the instructions of the books, is to put them into practice. He who thus heartily enters into the performance of horticultural operations, will be fully rewarded by our good old mother earth with health, profit, and pleasure. In health, for not only does the garden yield a choice and wholesome variety of fruits and vegetables, most salutary for daily food, but the exercise afforded in moving the fresh soil, and the interest excited by the diversified operations of the garden,are still more salutary. In profit- but more of that hereafter. In pleasure- for what is more delightful than to watch the daily developments of that which our own hands have planted, cultivated, and sheltered- or to witness, as the skilled gardener will do, the constantly improving condition of his soil, or to partake of the daily succession of choice vegetables and luscious fruits brought to perfection by his skill and care, or to enjoy the more spiritual and refined pleasures of landscape and flower gardening where the eye is charmed with the greenness and breadth of lawns grouped with all rare and magnificent trees, or with parterres gay with brilliant colors and profuse with beautiful and perfect forms.

If that doesn't make you get out your notebook and plan, nothing will.

Walking Keeps Me Going

This was the last surviving tomato. We ate it week before last. It was good on the outside, but the heart was rotten. The cold must have gotten to it.

I walked to the grocery store to pick up some more brown sugar this afternoon. It is a few miles each way. Quite a walk, but well worth it. After the front passed through last night, today was 20 degrees cooler, but sunny.  Walking is quite helpful for me. My joints hurt more when I sit than they do when I walk. We walked to the pizza place after we got back from our all-day post-Christmas drive home. That worked out a lot of kinks, and so did the walk today. Doctors used to tell people to lie around when things hurt, but now the research says what my own experience indicates: we need to move in order to be able to keep moving.

The Civil War That Never Ends

Tennessee is a border state in an ongoing Civil War of Winter. The unstable weather gave us a 70+ degree Fahrenheit weather day today. Of course the windows are open for airing, and we went for a glorious wind-blown walk in the park this morning, attacked by wild buffalo herds of galloping leaves in  swirling abandon across open meadow and zoo parking lot. It'll be freezing again after the front passes and the winds shift to the north. It is a north (cold, and usually dry, but wet this year) versus south (warm and usually humid) battle every day of winter that turns our meteorologists prematurely gray. Will the moisture hold into the freezing temperatures, resulting in ice storms, closed schools, and mayhem, or will the cold, dry air mean crisp, sunny school days, and children glad to be inside out of the wind? Will the cold hold, or will it relinquish territory to the warm again? And again? And again?

This saying has been true in Tennessee for many years: "If you don't like the weather, wait a few days. It will change." Mom remembers blizzards and shirt-sleeve days for Christmas during her childhood in the 1950s. This is not recent. It's a war with no truces, but few victims. We have four seasons, and sometimes all within a week or two! I hope you enjoy the weather your dwelling-place offers. If not, consider Tennessee- you may not like the weather on a given day, but in a day or two it will change.

Christmas with Family

It's always good to get away from the computer for a few days and focus on loved ones. My presents tended to be practical as usual. Even my 4-year-old nephew gave me a recipe box, which he calls a "treasure box", painted by Himself. I'll use it for treasures, of course. 

The children grow so fast! I can only stay a few days, because if I stayed longer, I would not ever want to leave them. I learned that I would not have children pretty early (mid-20s, when the maternal instinct is as strong as it will ever be), years before I started dating or thought about marriage. So I avoided young children and poured that motherly affection on my middle school students. It worked to get me through those years. Now I can still love the children of others, but not get devastated about not having my own as some women do. With my joint condition being autosomal dominant, I'm happy not to pass it on. I helped to rear about 1000 middle schoolers, and that was enough.

Oh! They really liked the Buggabugs presents. They played with them more than once. Felt food is a good idea for a preschool gift.

All I want for Christmas

Is a pressure canner... And that's what I got! Look! I also got a really nice pair of leather work gloves that actually fit! They smell nice and feel nice. Good working presents.

Finishing Presents

Here are the finished Buggabugs toys. I modified a few things to get done faster, and because I had not worked in felt before, but they seemed to turn out fine. There are more pieces to the above pizza set; I just liked making smiley faces with the components.
Here is the fruit for the little girl. The apple and orange pieces are removable. I hope they like it.

Making Toys

I'm getting those Buggabugs toys done. This is from a few weeks ago. Hopefully I'll post the finished pics tomorrow. CUTE!! I hope the kids have as much fun playing with them as I've had making them. The quotes I've posted about gardening could apply to sewing, cooking, and other household crafting skills- something is just glorious about producing something tangible, with your own hands, for the pleasure of someone else. 

Back to productivity!

The Planning Begins

Picture from June 1, 2008. I'm already discussing plans for next year's garden with my husband- trying to come up with ways to use every square inch of the backyard productively, while adding more organic material to the soil and wishing I could take out a few more bushes. We'll also be maximizing our use of open-pollinated varieties so that I can learn more about saving seeds- and I'll try growing plants from the seeds I saved last year.
I garden for the fun of it, because I like the physical work, and because the best food you'll ever put in your mouth is food you planted, fertilized, cultivated, prayed over, watered, pulled strange insects from, harvested, and prepared yourself. God does all the real work of making the plant grow- we just provide what we hope is a good setting. He makes the jewel.
I don't garden because I'm freaked out about Global Warming (I'm from Al Gore's state. The fact that he's making money from making people feel guilty is nothing new. Typical Tennessee politician/postmodern pseudo-religion-TV evangelist.). They need to add a few zeros- earth's been warming for 15000 years, not 150. Ice sheets used to cover most of North America and Northern Europe, according to the geologists. The continuing melt is not a new crisis. I don't garden to get back at agribusiness or express some kind of hippie sensibility, or to be "green". Most of the "green" sites out there just sell more stuff, which is hardly "green" even if it is "organic".
I garden for the sheer joy of getting down in the dirt, watching things grow, and letting the scientist in me do something personally useful. Because curiosity keeps you young, and so does eating lots of fruit and veggies and exercising. All can be provided in gardening. And that's why I do it.

Getting Ready for Christmas

5 days and counting. The presents are almost ready. I did have to go out looking for some simple, small, lidded empty glass containers today. It seems to be difficult to find simple things like that these days. You can find plenty of cheap plastic bric-a-brac. Useless items with Hannah Montana on them. Everything made in China, cheap, and tawdry. I finally found some containers that would do, with a sugar-chunk-and cinnamon mix in them at a grocery store. Cleaned them up and they'll be fine. But even they were from China. I always have trouble shopping for non-food items, because I usually know exactly what I want, and i will buy only that item. Stores are built for impulse purchase of junk these days.
I like things made locally, if I can get them. Things I can make myself are good, too. But you usually need a few simple things to use to make those gifts. My husband says I ought to open a "Books and Grub" store. It would specialize in books about needed skills, and beautiful books that encourage or edify. The food would be healthy, except of course for the traditional southern Sweet Tea in summer. It would also be a place to find the pliers, baling wire, duct tape, WD-40, good strong thread, and sturdy work clothes I seem to have such difficulty finding sometimes. We can all dream.

Another Working With the Hands Quote

This is a good book. Granny (shown above) would have approved this statement.

"When any people, regardless of race or geographical location, have not been given skill of hand in youth, and taught to love labor, a direct result is the breeding of a worthless idle class, which spends a great deal of its time trying to live by its wits. If a community has been educated exclusively on books and has not been trained in habits of applied industry, an unwholesome tendency to dodge honest productive labor is likely to develop... they are likely to be fretting continually for fear that noone will be left to earn a living for them."

He did go on to say that book study has its place- but at school, people should study things, not just study about things.
Don't quite "love labor"? Do you know grandmas who can outpace you? I sure do, living on my street! What can we do? Don't do the guilt thing. Instead, get up and cook! The gardening catalogs will come soon, and with them the season of planning and preparation! Clean something, cook something, walk to a store. Soon you'll be helping Grandma- and she'll be proud. And you can know the joy of sheer physical exhaustion that makes falling into a clean, soft bed absolutely fabulous.

A Gift EVERYONE seems to enjoy

I never knew apple butter would be so popular. I took it to work, and gingerly asked each of my prospective recipients if they liked it- the Americans of European Ancestry responded with a "Yes!" and a look very similar to the one my brother's one-year-old daughter gave him last Thanksgiving when he was eating pecan pie in front of her. It would take an armless man with a heart of stone to resist that look. When I handed it to them, their grip on the jar was firm, the thanks genuine. "You made this? Yourself?"
I had to explain what apple butter is (slow cooked apples strained and mixed with sugar and cinnamon, cloves, and allspice) to the Indians (from India), but they were pleased with it, too. Vegetarian, no offensive animal products, all natural. Works for everyone except diabetics, and you might find a way to make it with Splenda or agave nectar or something. Homemade means you took time for someone, and people appreciate that.

Another Booker T. Washington Quote (1904)

From Working with the Hands:
" I do not believe that anyone who has not worked in a garden can begin to understand how much pleasure and strength of body and mind and soul can be derived from one's garden, no matter how small it may be, and often the smaller, the better. If the garden be ever so limited in area, one may still have the gratifying experience of learning how much may be produced on a little plot carefully laid out, thoroughly fertilized, and carefully cultivated. And then, though the garden may be small, if the flowers and vegetables prosper, there springs up a feeling of kinship between the man and his plants, as he tends and watches the growth of each individual fruition from day to day. Every morning brings some fresh development, born of the rain, the dew, and the sunshine."

A Rant And Repentance

Thomas Fuller wrote a book in 1646 called, "Good Thoughts for Bad Times". He later wrote "Better Thoughts for Worse Times" and "Mixt Thoughts for Better Times". Interesting work. Makes the people screaming about the economy and "climate change" look whiny. England had endured years of civil war. It was unsafe to travel anywhere without a protective convoy. People were suffering dreadfully. When some people say previous generations only lived to the age of 40, his is the generation they mean. In peacetime, people have always lived long lives (check your local old cemetery or family genealogy if you don't believe me). Anyway, here's his take on "climate change" and environmental issues:

"When the creatures, formerly officious to serve us, start from their wonted obedience (as the earth to become barren, and air pestilential) man ought to reflect on his own sin as the sole cause thereof. "

He ain't talking about being "carbon neutral", either. We need to look at our lives, as individuals, and stop screaming about how someone else needs to change, or be regulated. The only regulation that really works is self-control, under the guiding hand of God, who makes it possible to break that wild horse. He'll show you how, if you're willing to attend a tough school. Stop carping about carbon dioxide- you breathe it out, so talking about stopping its output is talking about your own suicide in the end. Start looking at how we use greed and pride and lust to harm others- and maybe try some repentance. Real repentance, not buying "carbon-credit" indulgences. Not twisting scriptures to condone your own personal sin and to deride others for not "tolerating" your self-destruction. A few days of real fasting and prayer would help this country in a lot of ways, I think.
Well, off to repent for allowing myself to get emotionally dragged down by the foolishness of the world. God has so much good, and beauty, and truth in store for us, and we insist on making badness out of it. May we all take time to be still and acknowledge our blessings this holiday season. He came, after all, to save us. That is love, and that is blessing enough for all time.

Home Remedies for Cough

O.K. You've managed to survive the flowing sinuses, but the cold is threatening to move to your chest. Before CONSIDERING handling it yourself, hie thee to a doctor in any of the following circumstances:
1. The "cold" has lasted more than 2 weeks (you've got a secondary infection)
2. You're coughing up colors
3. You have a serious fever
4. You have coughing spells in which you cannot catch your breath
5. Your energy levels are so low you cannot complete daily tasks
6. You cannot sleep enough to keep going.
I speak from experience here- every year from 1993 to 1998 (in 1999 my asthma was diagnosed and properly treated), I developed walking pneumonia or severe bronchitis, depending on who was scowling at the chest X-ray. I hated going to the doctor, because all the germs I got from my students were amoxicillin resistant, and some of them insisted on amoxicillin as a first-line antibiotic. So I put it off too long. My energy levels went very low one year- when I went to the doctor, my blood pressure was 90/50. Talk about feeling a few pints low...If in doubt, submit to the pokes, proddings, and pills of conventional medicine. God gave us the ability to discover antibiotics for a reason.
What to do before the 2 weeks are up? Take an expectorant to help you cough up the goo. Avoid smokers like the plague- the smoke can paralyze the cilia that bring mucus up out of your lungs. Drink a lot of fluids, especially hot tea with honey to soothe your again-ragged throat. Play with your pillows- sleeping on an incline (head up) instead of flat can do wonders for your night's sleep. Humidify as necessary, if it helps you breathe. Bundle up, covering mouth and nose, if you must go outside. And rest as much as you can-let your body's immune system do its job. And when in doubt, get thyself to a doctor.

Treating a Cold, Part 2

So what do you do when the sore throat is alleviated, but your body is trying to drown itself in its own fluids? Check for a fever. If you have a serious one, or it lasts very long, get thee to a doctor! It's more than a minor cold, and the more serious respiratory infections can sometimes kill.
If you have no fever or a minor one that doesn't last more than a few days, try these things:
1. for sinus congestion, my allergist recommends a simple decongestant. The flowing nose is for a purpose-to wash out the virus and any sloughed-off infected cells- so using an antihistamine to dry things up is counter-productive, unless you have asthma or another serious lung problem. Then your doctor is the one to ask.
2. If you are stopped up, a trip to a good Mexican or Indian restaurant (for takeout if you want to minimize exposing others) is warranted. You'll actually taste the food, and the "heat" will get that fluid flowing out of your poor achy sinuses. Ask them to make it spicy- if you dare.
3. Steam yourself. Drink tea, and breathe in the vapors from the steaming cup. Drink soup, same thing. Put steaming water in a large bowl. Add a drop or two of eucalyptus and peppermint essential oils. Put a large bath towel over your head and the bowl to form a tent. Breathe. The menthol vapors should open things up, unless you are allergic. Then see a doctor.
Take steamy showers with abandon. You are ill. You need to enjoy something.
4. For coughs, take an expectorant, not a cough suppressant or a multi-drug combo containing one. An expectorant will help thin the mucus so you can cough it out and get better, faster.
5. Tone down the dairy consumption and go hog wild on citrus. Dairy is supposed to be mucus-producing, and vitamin C from food may help. Besides, you can probably taste an orange better than a glass of milk, anyway.
6. If you have a really good friend who knows massage or pressure points, they may be able to help you. I went to a chiropractor with a sinus headache once (he was helping me with a hip problem, but as long as I was there...). He pressed some points on my face, and the dam up there broke loose. He didn't claim to cure anything, just to help.
7. Rest and let other people help you. Sleep as much as you can, and let your body fight off the disease. It'll be over in about 7 days, no matter what you do. Might as well take your body's message and rest.

Home Remedies for Colds

The sore throat started yesterday afternoon. I left work early (one of our cell lines, the one I work in, actually came from a human originally a few decades ago, so being sick around the plates is not good), got groceries for foods that will go down easy, overloaded on citrus (hey, it is in season), and prepared to be as sick as Husband has been all week. It hasn't been that bad so far, though I did take it easy a lot of the day. Even the sore throat eased after I took my home remedies. What are they?
1. If your throat really hurts, DO NOT TALK. Write notes or use sign language or something. My students used to get amused when I would teach without a voice. I taught them the ASL signs for "yes" and "no". The classroom tended to be quieter than usual as the kids started imitating me (or maybe that was making fun...). Middle schoolers are funny.
2. Drink lots of tea at the most comfortable temperature, which is the hot side of lukewarm for me. I add honey and lemon juice, and choose decaf green or chamomile at night.
3. Here's where it gets weird. Before one of those cups of tea (at home of course) I mince a small clove of garlic and hold it in my mouth toward the back for as long as I can, then swallow with the honeyed tea.
4. Lukewarm salt water nasal lavage (you use a plastic device to gently pour the salt water up your nose. It is nasty, but not torturous) acts as a mild antiseptic. Gargle with some of the salt water to soothe and clean those swollen tonsils.
5. The sore throat is usually gone or down to slightly scratchy by the next day if I comply with the vow of silence. Of course nobody gets too close for 24 hours, because all the Listerine in the world does not eliminate the garlic breath. But they won't get the germs either, so it's good.

Remembering Home

This was the barn across a gravel driveway from the house in which I grew up. The house was built in 1868, and had a well house, an outhouse, a smokehouse, and a carriage house my father converted into a garage by pouring a rough concrete floor in it. The corner you see to the left was a small building with windows used for tools and repair. If I had it to do over again, I would try to be less afraid of wasps and snakes and explore a lot more. It was a fun and scary place to grow up- squirrels in the attic, snakes close to or even in the house (it was falling apart like the barn roof in the picture here- Dad had to go under it with a car jack and concrete blocks to prop it up at one end), massive trees to play in and under, horseshoes and Indian arrowheads and irises planted long ago, trunks and old books and black-and-white ancestors scowling down from the parlor wall, beauty and decay all wrapped up in a package we were too poor to maintain. A psychologist bought the house for enough money to allow my parents to build something new on land across the street, and she restored the old house magnificently. We have surprisingly few pictures of it. We were too busy trying to survive to take pics, I guess. But I remember it well.

Reusing Jars

My favorite salsa (Frog Ranch Medium) only has 40 mg sodium per 2 Tbsp serving. That's lower than any other at the grocery store, and probably lower than the recipes I have for home canning. And the ingredient list is short and natural (tomatoes, pickled peppers (peppers, vinegar, salt), onions, cilantro). Another bonus: it comes in a real, thick-walled Mason jar! We reuse those for drinking glasses and canning.
One problem remains: how to get the glue and bits of label off after washing the jar. I have a technique that works for me. First use water and a plastic scraper (I tend to hurt myself with metal) to get the paper off. A lot of sticky goo will remain. Get some cooking oil and rub it over the goo with your hands. DO NOT USE YOUR DISHWASHING SCRUBBIES- will ruin them. Use your hands, and rub pretty hard, like massaging the jar. When the oil clouds up, use undiluted dishwashing liquid to rub off the oil. Some of the goo will come off, but the rest will be transparent. Rinse off cloudy stuff with hot water. Apply more oil with a paper towel. Rub hard, and the remaining goo will come off. Then use dishwashing liquid again to remove the oil. Voila! New (tough) drinking glass or container for growing-time goodness!

Second Chances in Sewing and Life

Every seamstress has one. It is sharp, and small, and the equivalent of a chalkboard eraser. It is basically a tiny harpoon with a plastic or wooden handle. It is a seam ripper. When you sew the seam incorrectly, if the fabric allows, you can carefully tease out the thread and start over. Second chances are good.
I had to use one just last night on the toy project. It saves time in the long run to acknowledge your mistakes and go ahead and undo them. If you keep pressing forward, you may find in the end that the entire object or garment is unworkable. Then what will you do? Start over anyway, with a lot more to undo.
I think our consumerism is a bit like that. To our Depression era ancestors, it must have seemed alarming to base an economy post-WWII increasingly on consumer spending and debt, giving up our manufacturing and farming base to make a living... doing what? Shuffling papers? Selling each other stuff made elsewhere? Most of us are wired to want to make or grow things or to develop those talents in others. How many business majors do you know that are more excited about their curriculum (or the job afterward) than they are about other things in their lives? Talk to someone growing things, or fixing things, or making something with his/her own hands to sell, or even to enjoy at home- now there's excitement. They'll talk your ears off! Some college students and working people like what they do, but a lot are in it for the paycheck, so they can buy stuff- and that's where we've gone wrong. Even a sign over a door at the med school I attend says,"Put some green in your future"! A country can't thrive on the basis of money-mongering for long. Eventually we have to get back to our faith, our families, our homes. Give up the "me me me me" chorus started in the 70s and repeated by every generation since, and get back to God, get back to serving others, get back to what really matters. Then we will truly thrive. And what we create will last.

Refiner's Fire

Well, I think I reactivated my hip bursitis Saturday moving those leaves. Lifting the wheelbarrow over my head to get it out of and back into the garage without moving the cars might have something to do with it. The thing is barely light enough for me to lift. Anyway, I can only sit for short periods again. Back to the doc to make sure I didn't do anything worse tomorrow. It isn't nearly as bad as it could be. I can sleep and walk comfortably.
My joints are very sensitive to injury. I have loose ligaments due to a mild connective tissue disorder- not Marfan's, a milder one called hypermobility syndrome. Inherited from Mom, who is 5 ft 2 in tall. I'm constantly learning where the line is between "good exertion" and "damage" (a very fine line sometimes). A lot of people don't think God has a hand in the "bad" things that happen to us, but I think he knew my genetics (and what a hard-headed work ethic ran in the family) before I was born. He knew I would develop the beginning symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in 2004 when I returned to school, and would have to learn humility from accepting modifications (I type tests and my notes in class- writing hurts more than typing b/c the base joint of my thumb bends the wrong way sometimes when I write fast, concentrating on something). The hip pain is teaching me to keep moving- don't sit down for long. Don't give up. Live more mindfully, more slowly, but keep going. We learn obedience from what we suffer (Hebrews 5:8).

Sewing Makes Me Happy

I went to a fabric store to get some material to finish the projects for A and E (2 year old niece and 4 year old nephew) today. A woman cutting fabric, working in a fabric and craft store, confessed that she did not like to sew.
I really like to sew.
I guess part of its charm for me is that I do not get time to do it very much. With a machine and a well-designed pattern, it can be easy and the results always come out custom-made. A tangible result for your labor, not a number to be exchanged between banks. It's another one of those things it does not "pay" to do, if you measure your time in $20/hr increments. But neither does reading blogs or watching reality television. Most of the time cruising the net or watching the tube will not yield the benefits of an hour with needle in hand- busy hands that still the worried mind, a project nearing completion, something made personally for someone you love. If you've never sewn before, try sewing on a button or repairing a small hole in something. Or take the leap, get a machine, and make some bags to take to the grocery store, or stitch two pieces of fleece together to make a cosy winter blanket. A host of internet sites exist to show you how. Get stitching!

Bringing In the Leaves

Today I raked up and piled about 12 wheel-barrow loads of leaves on the garden beds. When they settle in a few days, it won't even look piled up. Whatever rots between now and Feb/March becomes nutrients for new growth. Whatever does not becomes free mulch that will probably rot over the summer. I'm looking for free and low cost ways to do things, as the times do not seem good for lots of spending, even on mulch.
Hey! Here's a paper of interest:In the Journal of Women and Aging, dated 2002:14(3-4):139-48. L.W. Turner et al. studied the effects of various forms of exercise on bone density in older U.S. women. The verdict? Yard work and weight lifting had the best correlation with strong bones. Bicycling, walking, aerobics, and dancing were moderately predictive, and jogging, swimming, and calisthenics were only weakly predictive of bone density.
So rake those leaves! Shovel that snow! Dig those beds! And lift weights to get ready for the spring planting season! Your bones will thank you.

Spending Less and Getting More

I had to get groceries tonight due to a marathon cutting off all convenient routes south tomorrow from my neck of the woods. I loaded up with frozen mixed vegetable blends, potatoes, sweet potatoes, oranges, and other good-to-eat sale items. Cabbage was 55 cents a pound (albeit they were small ones), so I got one of those, too. Peasant potato soup, here we come! Must soak some white beans for it tonight. Well, I spent less than usual (though $90 for basically a week's groceries plus some stocking up is still crazy for two people), and I got more quantity. Paying attention to sales is good. 

I was saddened to see a woman in front of me making a WIC purchase- except for juice, it was almost ALL junk food! WIC and food stamps (now EBT) cover Cheetos, Soda, white bread, and ice cream? I can understand a little ice cream once in a while, but several half-gallons? The only veggies she had were turnip greens, the only real fruit some oranges. The contents of that cart would give ME diabetes before long.  I hope we get some real nutrition education and reform in the system, so poor kids can get some real food and a real chance at a better life. It costs a lot to eat healthily in an urban area (low salt and low sugar items cost more than regular. Real is more expensive than fake), but it costs more, long term, to neglect your body. Above is one of my harvests from summer. That's good eatin'.

Sometimes The Cold Helps You Make Friends

It is supposed to get down into the 20s tonight. When I got home after dark, a black, furry shadow appeared at the corner of the garage, his pupils so large that he was invisible when he crept into the shadows. Jorge is back. Spot would usually be very hissy about that, but tonight she was moderating her usual hostile behavior, even sniffing him a little while he was eating. Maybe she realizes that a warm companion would help her get through these cold winter nights.

Husband is sure a help for me. It is amazing how much warmer sleeping is with two people! A cat is fine, but too small to cover much surface area. My previous cat, Felicia, slept on my bed before I got married. She seemed to know when I was sad or lonely- then she slept very close. At other times she played kitty practical jokes, sneaking up to my ear at 2AM, meowing, then jumping off the bed. If cats could laugh, she would have been giggling. 

Anyway, I hope Jorge and Spot can patch up their differences for long enough to keep each other warm. I closed the garage to hold in the heat from the car, and there is an old sweater and a sweatshirt in a box where she often sleeps. They should be OK.

The Value of Eating from Your Own Garden

A quote from Booker T. Washington, in Working with the Hands (1904):

" No peas, no turnips,  radishes nor salads taste as good as those which one has raised and gathered with his own hands in his own garden. In comparison with these, all the high-sounding dishes found  in the most expensive restaurants seem flavorless. One feels, when eating his own fresh vegetables, that he is getting to the heart of nature; not a second-hand stale imitation, but the genuine thing."

Veggies are Important for mice, too

As part of my research (of professional as well as personal interest), I look at things that cause cancers and why they do. So I found a paper from the journal Carcinogenesis from 2001 (H.L. Newmark, et al.) in which normal, wild type mice were fed an altered chow that imitated the normal American diet (lots of fat, little folate and fiber, deficient in vitamin D and calcium) instead of their usual high-veg chow. These mice, without radiation or chemicals, spontaneously developed colon cancers (12/17 mice) after 18 months! Folate seemed to be important in this study. Cells growing improperly were found in the colon, breast (females), prostate(males) and pancreas in previous, short-term studies with low vitamin D and calcium.  

If a medication caused these problems, we would ban it. If living under power lines or near a chemical plant caused them, people would be out marching and writing letters to Congress. But it comes from the way we EAT, so we just settle in with our doughnut and coffee for breakfast, fast-food lunch, and pizza for dinner and wonder if we'll be able to afford enough pills to keep us alive as we age. 

That's why I buy A LOT of veggies, fruit, and whole grains, and we do consume dairy products.No, I'm not a supplement fan. Studies seem to be showing that getting your nutrients from real food, in the package God gave us, is best. When we eat what our bodies need, they respond with health and vitality. Your grandmother was right- eating your veggies is good for you. And your pet mouse, if you have one.

Here's a Bit of Inspiration

From The Vegetable Garden by Ida B. Bennett, 1909 (free to download from Google Books):

"Did we cultivate more assiduously our backyard gardens, those of us whose daily grind chains us fast to a bell or whistle or even an office clock, there would be fewer nervous breakdowns. It is curious how our cares drop away from our poor fagged minds when we get in touch with the good brown earth. It must be a deep-seated trouble, indeed, which will not lift ever so little when the robin's song is in the air and the sweet, moist smell of the soil comes up after a rain. To possess the land and till it is the primal heritage of man. To delight in the work of his hands, the reward which beckons him."

Just the thought of that brown earth waiting under that huge pile of leaves, resting until spring takes me out there with the pick, shovel, hoe, and rake again, sniffing and digging and planting, fills me with joy. And relief that there are a few months when we can rest.