The million dollar question:
How do you turn a dark, dank, dreary dungeon-like 1870s basement laundry area, with a mere 6′ from floor to ceiling joists, into something worthy of your brightest whites?
To give you an idea of what I’m aiming for, have a look at these photos, and then continue reading below. Continue reading “Boggling Basement (part 1)”
No. Not all carbs are created equal.
Here’s the low-down:
Continue reading “The Dangers of Sugars (carbohydrates) … and how to possibly get around them.”
In 2010, researchers from of the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University, Philadelphia revealed that after a two-year comparison, a low-carb diet fares about as well as a low-fat diet with regards to weight loss. (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/196710.php/)
Put another way, a high fat diet is just as good for weight loss as a high carb diet. Continue reading “Bread OR Butter?”
Any of you who personally know me, know that I’m very interested in nutrition.
We’re a vegetarian household, but before you jump to conclusions about what it all means, let me say a couple of things.
1) We don’t believe that it’s for everyone, and we’re not pushy about the whole thing.
2) We acknowledge that something will almost inevitably have died to get the food we eat to our plate (even if it’s not meat itself). Pesticides, deforestation to make way for agricultural land, etc etc … all kill animals.
3) Our moral standpoint that it’s not necessary to intentionally take life from another in order for us to live. That being said, in the lifestyle we’ve chosen (self-sufficiency), if something threatens our food supply, we will deal with it (as humanely as possible … just ask all the ground hogs and raccoons who now live in the wild land/nature reserve behind the local WalMart!!!).
4) Following on from 3, no, we aren’t vegetarians who eat chicken or fish!!
5) While we don’t claim to be vegan, we don’t drink homogenized milk (we buy full fat cream and dilute with water where milk is called upon), we eat cheese (more than we probably should), and we eat eggs.
6) We are of the opinions that Vegetarians/Vegans can have worse nutrition than those who aren’t, despite the perceived health benefits of not eating meat.
Continue reading “Nutrition, an introduction to our standpoint.”
Before we get started, let’s take a moment to study pronunciation.
I started pronouncing Kefir “KEH-fear”.
Some USA-based friends of mine pronounced it “KEY-fur”, so I followed in their footsteps.
After some investigation, I find that the correct pronunciation in Russia and Turkey (where Kefir is alleged to have originated, depending on which story you follow) would be keh-FEAR (or k’fear if that makes more sense).
Now … onto this post.
Yeast isn’t expensive, but it can cause internal complications/irritations such as the dreaded yeast infection/candida.
Kathryn over at http://www.shaklee.net/gemsoffire mentioned the possibility of making bread from Kefir when I offloaded a bunch of grains earlier this year.
When Eliza had a bout with a UTI (not yeast-related), I fully delved into the topic of making bread from this alternative.
I later discovered that Kefir can be used as a replacement for yeast in beverages too.
It started out as an idea which Frank threw into the air “I’d like to have a beehive some day”.
This year, as I’ve been reading up on trying to get our tomatoes to produce earlier than others in the vicinity, the subject of bees popped up again.
We were going to build a “Langstroth” hive, but as we were watching various YouTube videos on the subject of beehive building, we came across the Top Bar Beehive, which Frank ended up building in a weekend from cabinet grade ply that we had laying around.
See this example of a Top Bar Beehive plan.
A relative of mine mentioned having lost two colonies to mites, but I read that menthol or neem can be used twice a year in combat against the various mites which afflict bees.
Two links which were a great resource of information on caring for bees:
http://www.countryfarm-lifestyles.com/honey-plants.html
Lists flowers which bees love:
Various types of clover (sweet and/or white), aster, goldenrod, sunflowers, fruit trees, dandelions, snap dragons, honeysuckle,
http://www.countryfarm-lifestyles.com/bee-keeping.html
Gives good general information on caring for bees, along with the recommendation of using Neem as a combat against mites.
It’s been just under three weeks since Eliza’s urine started smelling ‘off’.
It’s probably been just under two weeks since she displayed the need to itch around her bottom. Continue reading “Alternative therapies for toddler with urinary tract infection”
Placed an order for potatoes on Feb 1 (expected to ship around Feb 15th) from http://www.irisheyesgardenseeds.com/.
I asked if they’d extend the 25lb per-pound rates to me in light of me buying 35lbs of potatoes, but they wouldn’t.
The price per pound of the regular potatoes was $2.40
The French Fingerlings were $5.50
10 lbs Desiree
10 lbs Early Ohio
10 lbs Cal White
5 lbs French Fingerling
We have a fair number of seeds left over from last year, but I’ll be placing an order today or tomorrow for the shortfall.
I’ve planned the garden to follow a 7-yr crop rotation as follows:
Potato
Squash
Roots
(non-potato)
Legume
Nightshade
Brassica & Green
Corn
I was going to write a bunch of background information here, but let’s just cut to the chase.
I have an HP TouchSmart tx2 running Windows 7 64-bit.
By default, HP have designed this model to switch to Secondary Landscape when you turn it into Tablet mode.
The base of the problem is two-fold:
1) The value in the registry is set to turn the screen into Landscape orientation (see Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Hewlett-Packard\HP Quick Launch Buttons\Schemes\Default\8526)
Tablet_Docked_DisplayMode 1
Tablet_Docked_DisplayOrientation 2
Tablet_UnDocked_DisplayMode 0
Tablet_UnDocked_DisplayOrientation 3 **
** This needs to be changed to ‘1’ for Primary Portrait (annoyingly the power outlet will be at the bottom, so it’s not so great if you’re plugged in … but it means that the vent will be at the top (not burning your stomach), and if you’re left-handed like me, you’ll not have the battery pressing into the crook of your arm)… or ‘3’ for Secondary Portrait.
2) The dll file in the HP Quick Launch folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Hewlett-Packard\HP Quick Launch Buttons) contains instructions to ignore the settings in the registry.
Once you’ve changed the above settings to whatever your preference is, you’ll need to download the MCSVActn.dll from an older version of HP Quick Launch which does NOT ignore the registry.
Please, as a precaution, rename the dll file presently on your system to “MCSVActn.OLDdll” or something similar so that you can revert back to it if you have any issues.
You’ll need to restart your system before the changes take effect.
That should do it for you. It did it for me.
