The Self Sustaining Kitchen is Hitting the Road

Bud and I are making the move back to the land of snow, cold and ice at the end of the month (can you say brrrrrrrr and flannel underwear?).

I am also starting an EXTREMELY difficult semester, sooooooooo.....it may be a while before I check in again. Never fear, my faithful 3 readers. I will be back once I have settled in. I have a great new post in the works. I know you can't wait!

Until then, stay warm, love the one you're with, and happy thoughts!

~D

A Sack of Potatoes

That is how much weight I have lost this month. 10 pounds. Doesn't sound like much, and I sure don't look any different. But when Bud and I were at the grocery store and I picked up the sack of potatoes, I stopped and said, "huh."

The lightbulb went on. 10 pounds doesn't really look like much. But I imagined myself having to carry that sack of potatoes around with me all day. huh.

I remembered how tired I always was when my son was just a month old and I was carrying him with me everywhere. huh.

I was actually kind of embarrassed to come on here after a month and let you know I had only lost 10 pounds. Heck, I even look bigger in my picture this month (note to self-that top is NOT flattering!). But those capris I am wearing I couldn't begin to button last month. I was surprised, actually. I went to pull them on, thinking that no way was I going to get them buttoned....huh.

Now that I have put 10 pounds into perspective for myself, I feel better. Actually, Bud and I have both lost weight. He has dropped about 15 pounds, and it shows.

I went to the doctor this week, and my triglycerides were down, and my cholesterol was down. My BP was an amazing 110/75! Hasn't been that low in several years.

I guess what I am trying to say is, every little bit counts. That 10 pounds might be a drop in the bucket compared to what I need to lose overall, but dang it, it is something! It's a sack of potatoes!

I'll weigh in again in 30 days....I will surely post something before then, though. I have had a grueling semester in school, so I haven't had the time to visit here. Better days ahead....

~D

Ode to Phlegm

At first it was a little tickle,
and then it was a cough.
Then sniffles chasing sneezes,
but that was not enough.

My eyes gooped in the morning,
dried snot upon my face.
Rush to the bathroom hacking,
lift the toilet seat, just in case.

Kleenex by the truckloads,
and NyQuil by the keg,
My lungs have just exploded
something gross upon my leg.

Green and yellow carnage,
slimy, icky goo.
Okay, okay you're right dear
I guess I have the flu.

~D

The Incredible Shrinking Woman

I have high blood pressure, and I have to go see a cardiologist next week. Why? Because I am a Fat Girl. I have been obese for more than 90% of my life, and I have been morbidly obese for the other 10%. For my frame size and height, I should weigh 124 pounds; I weight double that. I am carrying around an extra person! No wonder I have high blood pressure....

What in the world does this have to do with being a self-sustaining kitchen, you might ask? Well......the less I cram into my mouth, the more food there will be to go around (ba-dum-bum). We will have more money in our pockets, and small countries can feed their children, all from the food I don't eat...

Okay, seriously. A big part of being self-sustaining is being healthy. I am not healthy. I watched someone I love lose a leg to diabetes; I watched someone else I love have a heart attack. If I don't stop, I am going to end up going down that same road.

I know what I am supposed to eat. My problem is that I eat way, WAY too much. I love food. The taste, the texture, the smell...I just can't seem to enjoy it in moderation. Portion control has just never been something I could do well. I almost always have seconds. The first helping tastes so good, I want more, and I want it NOW. I have to change that mindset. And it won't be easy.

I don't have a weight or a size in mind. Rather, I want to feel good in the skin I am in. I want to bring my blood pressure down. I want to bring my cholesterol from tottering on the brink to well below 200. I want to bring my good lipoproteins up, and bring down my bad lipoproteins and triglycerides.

I am doing this for me. Today is my start date. Scale says I am (gulp) 248 pounds. That means I have put on 38 pounds in the last year and a half. Good googly moogly! This is what I look like today. I will post a new picture every 30 days. Wish me luck!

~D

Hanging Gardens Revisited

For those 3 of you who read this blog, you are aware that this spring, ES very ingeniously came up with a design for a hanging garden. Her hope had been that it would make it accessible to her for gardening, eliminate the need for excessive weeding, and put the garden out of reach of our critters.

It was a great design, but unfortunately, our yard has more craters than the moon, and is impossible to get around in in a 4-wheeler, let alone a wheelchair. If we had one of those beautifully manicured lawns that are level and free of 1001 armadillo holes, it would have been perfect for her.

If you are thinking about using the design, here is some feedback. We had never done this before, so it was an experiment. As such, some things worked, some didn't.

1) We made ours too tall. Our frame was 8 foot tall. Try heaving a 40 pound bucket full of dirt up a shaky latter to hang--I dare ya! Seriously, we should have made the top bar only 6 feet high at the most.

2) Drainage. Make sure your bucket has LOTS of drainage holes. We ended up having to add additional holes, because the water wasn't draining and the plants were getting waterlogged. It had a lot to do with the amount of clay in our soil. We mixed potting soil with garden soil. Next time, I would skip the soil from our yard and use 100% potting soil.

2) Bucket size: We used 5 gallon buckets--these are too big. Even with drainage, the wet soil was too heavy, and the handles couldn't support the weight. Most of our buckets came falling down over the course of the season. I would suggest a 2 1/2 gallon bucket. Our smaller buckets that we used for herbs did nicely.

3) Support: Having never done one of these before, we didn't factor in enough supports. You will want to put supports around your 4 upright pieces so that your structure isn't too "wiggly". Ours rocked quite a bit because what we thought was level ground, wasn't. We ended up using metal fence posts on the interior to "prop" the four upright pieces.

ES really did a good job coming up with the concept. We planted a whole lotta garden in an 8 ft square area.

~D