Nip it in the Bud

In the last few weeks I've been hearing a lot of people talk about illnesses, mostly colds. Everyone wants the magic bullet that will kill the thing before it becomes debilitating.

There's an old phrase that some might have heard but few would know the meaning of.

"Nip it in the bud" literally means to nip (or cut off) the bud before the fruit appears. If you don't want the fruit, kill the blossom. If you don't want the cold, you need to catch it when it first shows its head rather than waiting until it's gnawing at your ankle.

There is no magic bullet that will kill a cold, but there are a lot of things you can do to keep it from becoming a monster. The same things that kill any other disease.

First, a healthy immune system. Vitamin C and D support immune system function, as do zinc and selenium. Vitamin B is another important vitamin for immune system function. Ironically, most of these items are found in fresh fruits and vegetables, something that was once much more difficult to acquire during cold season. Coincidence?

Lots of sunshine will take care of the D problem (although during the winter we all mew ourselves up like we're hibernating). Antioxidants also help build a strong immune system, but they are easily destroyed by excess heat--i.e., eat fruits and vegetables raw or steamed rather than boiled. Processed vegetables out of a can are better than nothing, but most of the nutrients are gone.

Another irony--the vitamins taken out of our food are re-processed and sold as vitamins on the shelf. But that's a rant for another time. Where were we?

Oh. If your immune system is in peak shape (which very few are) it will throw off the effects of most bacterial or viral diseases easily.

So when a cold rears its head, you need to take action.

1) A tablespoon of honey, morning and night. Taken on bread, in an herbal tea or simply from a spoon, honey has a multitude of beneficial vitamins and minerals that make it a miracle food. Too bad the bees are dying, huh?

2) A clove of crushed garlic every night (and every morning if your stomach will handle it). Eat it WITH the skin. Don't peel it. Whether in a capsule, a bowl of spaghetti or raw, garlic is an anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-biotic all rolled into one tasty little package.

3) Vitamin C, as much as your system can handle. If you have the chewable vitamin C, use them as lozenges rather than the chemical drops you buy from the store. Save those for the sore throat stage. Orange juice, pineapple juice

4) Drink. Lots. Drink water until you leak, but leave the sugar drinks and caffeine drinks strictly alone. That's a general rule for all the time, because they make you lose more water than you get from them. It's the definition of a diuretic.

5) Sleep deprivation is one of the most common maladies in the modern world. If you can go to sleep an hour earlier or get up an hour later, it will help.

6) Destress. A no brainer, but sometimes the most difficult to do. Meditation, breathing exercises, reading a good book--whatever it takes.

Winter Garden Update

I went out this morning and my potatoes and pepper (inside the hoop house) were dead. I dug them all up and planted peas.

So it appears that potatoes are an OK late season crop in the hoop houses, but the "Sandy" temperature last night was in the high twenties and we're typically 5 to 10 degrees below the posted temp in the winter, so it might have gotten down into the teens. In either case, potatoes don't do well at 38 degrees (assuming that the temp in the hoop house remained 10 degrees above the outside temp). Lettuce, carrots, beets and onions are just fine. Lettuce and spinach continue to sprout.

I put up a "high" hoop house for the cabbage and broccoli. We'll see how well that does in the first wind-storm. :)

Off the topic

Sorry I'm so wishy-washy on this blog. Right now other things take precedence--like a job hunt and...

My hoop-houses, since nothing herbal is growing.



I have two hoop-houses this year. Last year was our first test. With two water bottles inside the temperature never got low enough to freeze the plants. The water bottles release their heat, so they're the first things to freeze. The bottles did freeze a couple of times (when the temperature got down into the teens), but nothing else inside even got nipped. I'm guessing that another water bottle in each would bring the survivable temperature even lower. Anything that touches the plastic will freeze, and the condensation on the plastic also froze quite regularly. It's amazing to lift the cover in the morning and have ice snap off, but the green inside hasn't been affected.

The hoop-house on the east has beets, lettuce and spinach. On the west, I'm experimenting so that one has potatoes, carrots and a pepper that I'm hoping will survive the winter. We'll see. Right now it's looking pretty sad and not growing.

We harvested our first out of season potatoes today, and I dug up the dill because it was infested with aphids. So I now know that I need to pay attention to insect control...

We've been eating salad (fresh from our garden) for the last month. :)

Another interesting tidbit

I know I haven't been very active on this blog recently, and I palologize. :) Been crazy-busy, but this morning I want to write about something new.

Sometimes I wake up with my left hand numb. It doesn't affect movement, it isn't painful, and working the hand makes the numbness go away relatively quickly.

I did some research on the topic and it appears that there are many causes, from heavy metal toxicity to heart attack.

Of course, heart attack would normally be in the right arm, but it's still a possibility.

We don't have a well (municipal water is tightly controlled) so heavy metals are unlikely.

The simplest (and most common) cause of temporary numbness appears to be carpal tunnel syndrome. Carpal tunnel is caused by compression of a nerve as it runs through your wrist and usually affects people who use their wrists a great deal, such as people who spend a lot of time on the computer. It can be caused or exacerbated by extra weight, so often the first thing prescribed is to lose those extra pounds. The second thing prescribed is often surgery, but there are other options. Using an ergonomic keyboard (one that supports the natural movements of the wrist) is probably the most effective. Support your wrists while you type, even if it's just books lined up along the front of the keyboard.

My problem doesn't fit carpal tunnel, so I kept looking.

Most of the options fit in the "nerve damage" category. Causes could range from a sudden addition to your weight training regimen, to a sudden blow or trauma to the shoulder. i.e., did you recently help someone move or build a fence? Sleeping wrong (or long periods of inactivity while you sleep) can also cause the nerves to go to sleep temporarily.

The Brachial Plexus is a set of nerves that runs down the neck and into the arm. Once the nerves pass the shoulder the group breaks up, so depending on where the pressure is any of the nerves (or the whole group) could be affected.

It can also be environmental. I think I may have narrowed mine to constrictions around my shoulder from my pajamas, pressing on that nerve. I also wonder if my dreams are causing me to tense the shoulder and compress the nerve. It is always the left hand, and apparently the nerves of the right hand are situated differently than the left so they're not as likely to be compressed.

Please note that if there are other symptoms (nausea, pain, dizziness, etc) you should seek medical attention.

Going to be an interesting test, eliminating factors one by one until I can identify the problem--and then target it.

Emergency Preparedness #1

Emergency preparedness is not something you can just ignore, although most people seem to be trying. If I think my neighbors aren't my business, my attitude may change when I'm trapped inside my home in a flood or under six feet of rubble after an earthquake.

There are a number of different types of emergencies.

Individual, such as unemployment or a house fire.

Local, such as a flood or an earthquake--emergencies that are local in scope but affect a number of people.

Universal, such as a war or an extended depression.

All of these can be prepared for with a little foresight. First step, request the "neighborhood watch" area list. Since those areas already exist, you can use that foundation for your emergency planning.



Sample text for a neighborhood emergency preparedness flier:


Preparedness Meeting

Area Leader:
(Date, time and location)

List of families in the "area"

There are a number of different types of emergencies to be considered, from personal (such as unemployment or a house fire) to local (such as an earthquake, where help should arrive within apx 72 hours) and universal (which could be something like a major depression or a war). We would prefer to have a representative of each family or house at the meeting.

The following will be discussed:

Special Needs: In our area we have autism, dementia, and several others with various medical problems. These needs must be addressed in an emergency. A family medical survey has been included with this letter. Please fill it out and bring it with you. Do you (as a family) have sufficient medication, food, and water to last at least 72 hours? Do you have sufficient food, clothing and medication to last a year if necessary?

Abilities: In an emergency all special skills might be necessary, from babysitting to flying a plane. Please come prepared to discuss the skills of your family. Skills such as budgeting or writing a resume could be used in personal emergencies, so please come prepared to say whether or not you are willing to offer these skills to your neighbors in case of need.

Communication: What I propose is a fanout program. Each house has other homes within sight--those families would be your first priority after your own family is safe.

What we can expect from an emergency

Garlic Update (a little late)

I don't think I'm going to try the garlic experiment again this year. The plants grew really strong but the bulbs never developed.

This is a picture of my entire garlic harvest from the hydroponics last winter. I planted the biggest cloves I had (none less than an inch long) and the largest clove is less than half that size.

Instead I have my two hoop houses (NOT poop houses, lol) and I'm growing apricots from seed. I still want an indoor garden, but I haven't had much success no matter what I try to grow. Tomatoes and squash got too big, garlic and onions don't bulb up. Lettuce grows long and spindly then dies. The peach tree got infested with bugs and died. Herbs grew for a while then keeled over.

So much for my green thumb. :)

Forcing seeds update

I wasn't successful in forcing beets into hibernation.

Test 1: Put the beet in the freezer (it turned to mush)
Test 2: Put the beet in the refrigerator for a month, then replanted
-----Took root and grew, but no seeds
Test 3: Took the beet out of the ground, let it dry out for a month then replanted
-----Took root and grew, but no seeds

I'll try again next year, because we STILL don't have beet seeds.