Buying a 1/4 of beef!

Part 1
I think I have at least most of the money I will need to purchase a 1/4 grass fed cow. I now only need to find butcher and farmers. I don't know how to do that. I have googled butcher shops and found some. I have also talked with a woman I work with who recommended one. Since that recommendation though I have heard some stuff about that place I don't like. Mostly that some hunters have reported not getting their deer back. One of my goals with finding a butcher is to find some one who I can go to and trust when I tackle hunting. I want to use this experience to build the beginning of that relationship.
I have put out a call to other Columbus Paleo people through the Facebook page "Meetup: Paleo Living Columbus. I hope by the end of the day I can talk to some one who has actually bought a 1/4 or more. At the moment I am getting a lot of suggestions about Butcher shops, but it does not seem that many people have tried to get this much at one time.
Part 2
Wow, I just got a response to my post about "Fox Hollow Farms." This is looking like the place. I don't seem to need to do the extra work of finding a butcher myself. I will need to learn what I want to tell the butcher when the time comes. However, according to the FHF website the butcher can help me thought that process too. It looks like total cost will be about $500 and I will get about 90 lbs of meat. This is more money and less meat than I was expecting. It's still by far the best way to get this deal. I buy heart and tong for $4 a pound, but those are limited supply and very heard to deal with. When I am done butchering them and have them in an edible state I have about 1/2 of what I stated with. That means they are actually $8 per pound, plus and hour of work. This is gonna be awesome, its just gonna be more money than I was expecting.

It tastes like a Craft Store!

Last week, I got out two of my bottles of mead. On christmas I took one over to my girlfriends family for dinner. They are a family of wine connoisseurs. However, since it was christmas and all the stores were closed the only thing to compare my Raspberry Mead to was "Economy Wine" that was purchased at UDF. Still, I was worried that it could be the most terrible drink humans could make, but  ok with the comparison to "Econ wine." Pegi, girlfriend's mom, said it was amazing. I think she was being overly-kind. Moe's sister Annie said "It tastes like a craft store." I think that was actually the most accurate description. There was a strong flavor of raspberry and a lot of a yeasty flavor. However, I could also detect that sort of potpourri taste mixed with crafting items. Its hard to describe beyond that. I immediately could pick out several points that I could improve the process and will do so next summer.
The following night I took the second bottle over to some friends. We all went out to dinner and then some one suggested stopping at "Brothers' Drake Meadery" so we could properly compare. This gave my Mead an unfair disadvantage. Moe and I got a sampler, 2 oz of 6 different meads. Their mead is amazing and I have a lot of work to do to get mine better. The uninfused ones tasted like honey  without the sweet. After experiencing that flavor I was able to pick out the honey flavor in my own mead. They used a very different process for their "flavored" meads. They brew the original "Wild Ohio" and then later in the process infuse the various ingredients.
All in all I am very happy with how my mead turned out. It was by no means the best mead, but it was pretty good for my first try. I am excited for my raspberry crop this year and maybe getting to use some of my own honey.

Planting in the Snow.

I did some planting today. I finally dug in my old garlic from the summer. I don't know if it was still viable. The cloves were pretty old and dried out. I used a pvc pipe and stabbed holes in the snow. Then simply dropped the cloves in the holes. I think in a week or so when it snows again I will repeat the process with fresher garlic.
Today is also the second day I am seriously pursuing a fast. Sunday I had a small snack after work and didn't eat until monday at 4:30. Today, I will be attending game night which includes a large community dinner. I will break my fast then. Once I am able to do the whole 24 hours consistently I want to do a more formal write up.

Pinching Paleo Pennies.

I have been barely scrapping by for the past several months. I am saving a lot of money to get back into school. That means I don't have much left over to spend on food. In a month when I start school I will be working even less than I am now. I did some "back of the napkin calculations" and figured out that I spend about $315 a month. That is also about all the money I can spend on food. Over the next several weeks I am gonna try several things to bring that number down as much as I can. These changes will include things like using the internet to get more of supplements for cheaper and working on fasting more.
I have been buying most of my supplements at a local health food store. I like shopping there cause it's a small local business. However, the supplements I get are 20-50% more money there than on the internet. Thus far I have not made the switch cause its just easier to pick these things up when I am at the store. Now I have to make the switch. Hopefully if I am getting enough from one place I can get a good deal with shipping.
The second tactic will be to improve my intermittent fasting. I currently do a version of IF called bulletproof IF. This is where you drink bullet proof coffee and do not consume anything until the late afternoon. I have been wanting to do true IF for months because of the effects it has on mitochondria function. Mostly, by giving you mitochondria a break form constantly taking I'm more and more energy you can allow them to do a sort of house cleaning. My goal is to build up and do two 24 hour fasts every week. I expect that doing this will cause me to eat about 10% more on the feed days. That will make me come out to consuming about 78% of what I currently eat. Or roughly 16,380 calories a week.
There will be other adjustments like buying more things in bulk. However that will have to wait until I am able to save some money from these first tactic.  Also, I am trying to keep up with the sprouting again. The trouble with sprouting is that it takes daily care to keep the plants going. They care needed for them is not much but if you miss a day your kitchen smells like rotten lettuce.
I will do my best to keep updating how this is progressing. I want to find cheap solutions for Paleo lifestyle as much as the next guy.

Getting Cold

This past weekend a bunch of my friends all partook in Mini-Hell. A fun fill weekend of crawling in mud that is finished by jumping in a frozen lake. I couldn't afford the time off work. However, I have been getting back into my own cold weather training. Last night when it was 21 degrees Fahrenheit  -6 Celsius  I went for my first shirtless run. For these I wear only shorts and shoes. I ran 1.75 miles in that cold. I ran down the biggest street in town at about 10 o'clock at night. I ran from my house to my girlfriends. By the time I got there I was a little worried that my fingers wouldn't work to unlock the door. I got in just fine though. After an hour or so I was warmed up again. 
Then this morning I went out again this time the thermometer read 20 F, -6.6 C, I did 2 miles to start. I wore a thin shirt that Was over at Moe's house cause my bag was irritating my hips. This time I ran from her house to my bank. 
From there I ran to where my father had left my car about another mile. The whole time I was on main roads and people were starring at me. I would see them in their cars all geared up for the cold with their heat on. Meanwhile I am half dressed booking it down the side walk. It's an empowering feeling knowing that I can face something most people do everything they can to avoid. 

I am scared.

 Over the past month I have been losing my hair. Not in a male pattern baldness way. The hair loss seems to be all over my head, with some areas that are worse than others. On both sides of my family my grandfathers had full heads of hair into their upper 80s. The pattern of hair loss that I am seeing seems to only be explainable by something being wrong with me.
Tomorrow morning I am scheduled for blood tests. I am getting my testosterone, thyroid and Complete Blood count.
I don't have much more to say about this at the moment, just feeling scared.

Sprouts!

I started sprouting about three years ago after visiting a friend of mine who was sprouting seeds in her house. She spoke to me many of the health benefits, but she had me at cancer preventing. She gave me a jar full of sprouts, some seeds, and some ideas of where to get more. Since then I have sprouted off and on. I do it more in the winter when access to good greens is harder.

 I have made my own version of the sprout jars. For the most part a sprout jar is a mason jar with a special lid that will let water pass through but not seeds and sprouts. You can buy these special lids that will fit on wide mouthed mason jars. The trouble with those lids is they are about four bucks a pop. When I really have my sprout farm going, each jar is in rotation for about two weeks. One week growing, one week eating. I start a set of jars about every three days; two or three jars at a time. That means that at any one time I can have between nine and fourteen jars going, about $60 in lids alone; not to mention the mason jars themselves, which are about $15 a dozen. Instead I made my own lids. I took the metal ring section from the mason jar lid and hot glued window screen from the hardware store for $7 a roll. I had to use two layers of the screen because the holes are just a little large for my smaller seeds. It works perfectly and I will never run out of the screen. After that I just add one to two table spoons of any sort of seed I want and begin sprouting. I won't use this space to discuss the method of sprouting cause the internet is abound with that information.

For a green future I think we should all adopt sprouting. Sprouts can be grown with out light for the first several days. They require only the equipment which I have described above and water. I use about a gallon a day to water my sprouts. However, that water could be recycled and purified and they would only need about 1/2 a cup to grow a quart jar full of sprouts. To grow sprouts with that little water would require a lot of work on behalf of the humans involved. If you are trying to grow them in a completely closed environment where water is scarce, it could be done. Whether your goal is just having a salad growing in your window or if you want to try a bio-dome experiment, sprouts are a great option.

Currently, on my shelves I have broccoli, radish, clover, and fenugreek. They are flavorful and in some cases, sort of spicy. They go great on salads as a garnish, or cooked into things like you would with spinach. Seriously, if you are still reading this you should start sprouting.

Thoughts form This Year to Next.

This year I think I learned a lot in my garden. I learned how vicious deer can be. I learned how fruitful scraps can be. I learned that sweet potatoes will grow in high rises. I learned the value of having a comfortable place to sit. I also learned the joy of good gardening with good people. That is the part that next year and in all the years of my life I want to cultivate.
Next year, I want to prepare better for the challenges laid out by the area of the community garden. I want to have a better fence that will protect my garden from deer. This year I felt I was always doing damage control from the deer. They would find a place to jump the fence and the next day I would come see the damage. Then I would scramble to find a way to disrupt their "landing zone." I found that if there was no where for them to safely jump the fence and land they wouldn't get in. However if I cleared a bed to plant or removed some junk that had been left out, in they came. Next year, I want to use fast growing tall plants to act as a second barrier to them. I am hoping if they can't see past the fence very well they will be afraid to jump in. Really, I want to have a wall of sunflowers all around my garden. This will also help with the noise from that guy who insists on rotary tilling his plot once a week.
I will also reattempt my sweet potato skyscrapers. Next year should go better since I already have a good deal of soil down at the garden. At the end of this year instead of leaving all my new soil down there to be tilled under and spread about all the other plots I hid it in the woods next to my plot. I will also get a good deal of soil from my father's compost here at my house just like at the beginning of this past year. In addition to that I can use my tactics from last year and collect some soil from the surrounding woodlands. Maybe if I am lucky I will also have a truck by then. That way I can haul some compost or soil from somewhere far off. There are some other improvements I want to make to the skyscrapers next year. I want to find a way for them to generate more of their own heat. The reason my sweet potatoes didn't work very well this year was because our summer was not hot enough. Next year could be hotter, but sweet potatoes really need Southern Georgia levels of heat to thrive. I want to try a few things to improve the heat in the skyscrapers. First, I will paint all the towers black. I don't expect this to have much effect because the tires are starting out very dark gray or black, but it should help. Second, I want to try mixing in some raw compost into the tires. I will probably try a few different methods to do this. By raw compost I mean things like grass clippings and other non-decomposed material. I will experiment; one tire Soil and the next Raw Compost switching all the way up. Or perhaps soil in the middle of the tire and Raw Compost on the outside. I will leave some skyscrapers with only soil as controls. My hope with this experiment is that as the compost decomposes in the tires it will generate heat and the plants will thrive. My concern is that the action of the decomposition will cause the sweet potatoes themselves to become sick or even die.
This year was the first time that I created a space in my garden that was purely for sitting and being comfortable and relaxed. It was also the first year that I managed to have mostly plants that I planted covering the rest of my garden. I do not think that was a coincidence. I know that there were days that going down to sit in my chair in the sun with some cider was the reason I went down.  Usually once I was down there that I also got myself to do a little weeding or watering. Next year, I want to do that in spades. I want to build a second chair for Mo. I may even build a few smaller chairs for the kids. I also want a coffee table.
Having this will help me on my way to cultivating a community for the Community Garden. However, I don't want to stop there. I have already talked with some friends about helping them to find a plot for next year. There are some other gardeners down there that are pretty social and come over to our plot and say hello. However, that is the exception not the rule. Next year I want to hold a few gatherings of all the gardeners down there. I don't know what form those gatherings will take, but I want them. I want an opportunity to talk to all the gardeners down there and to hear what they have to say. I want to know why they garden and to share why I garden with them.

Finding Balance.

I am feeling very out of balance lately. Not in a spiritual or existential sense. On Tuesday I had a plantar wart treated on the heel of my right foot. That is the nice way of saying I had a dermatologist give me 3ed degree frost bit! Since the procedure I have been unable to put weight on that part of my foot with out a good deal of pain. This means I am either favoring my left foot completely or standing only on the ball of my right foot. As a result I am sore. Sore everywhere. My hips are imbalanced, my calves are tight. Don't get me started on my feet. I just finished beggar's night with Mo and her kids and From the waste down...
I don't mean to complain. I am grateful to live in a society where I can go get a procedure like that done so easily. I am also grateful that I live in a place where walking is not a fact of life. Well, maybe most days the fact that most americans don't walk more is part of the problem, but today walking was the problem.
I am mentioning all this because I find it very interesting. Something so small as this can cause such a problem. This ice burn is smaller than a dime on the sole of my foot. However, it's effects have telegraphed through most of my body. There are many small things that we encounter everyday that are preventing us from being all that we are capable of being. Some of them can't be avoided, some can. Things like sleep and stress or bad diet. We may think that staying up a few nights a week won't hurt us. Or that eating that bit of gluten will be fine as long as tomorrow we are 100% paleo. But in exactly the same was a favoring my left leg is throwing my body out of whack, only working on one corner of your lifestyle is as you let the rest spiral out of control will wear you down. I think what I am trying to say here is that I need to get some sleep.

Preparing for Winter.

For the past two weeks I have been working very hard to clear out my community garden plot. We have to have everything out of the area by the end of tomorrow. A week ago I was not sure if I could get that done. I know now I am with in striking distance of the goal.
The reason for this is because of how the city manages the community garden plots here. Every year on October 31 we need to be completely out of our areas then they till the land. Then again in the spring they till again. Every year I get more and more stuff down there that has to be pulled out at the end. That makes this task harder and harder. This is also a very depressing time of year for me because as I am doing my fall harvest I am also destroying my garden. The fall harvest should be a time of celebration.
However, this process also gives me an opportunity to think about what I will do next year in my garden. That is a positive that I can focus on. Next year, I want to build more furniture to have down there. The adirondack chair that I made myself really made me very happy this year. Next year I want to build one for Mo. I think having a coffee table would be nice as well. I want to plant all the sunflower seeds I collected this year. I am going to make a wall of sunflowers all the way around our space down there. On the outside of that I want to plant marigolds all around the perimeter and I think inside of those two flowers I will plant more giant zinnias. I want to create a room out of flowers. I am going to reattempt the sweet potatoes using the same tire method I used this year. I want to do butternut squash again, but I want to try to grow up and not out with them next time. I also want to do other squash. This year I had a great crop of early lettuce, next year I want to get that going earlier and last longer.
Over the next several months I will be doing a good deal of indoor gardening. I am going to finally put the leg work in on the window farms. I want to start sprouting more again. I also want to get back to writing again. For now I am going to get some sleep. It feels good to post again.

Up with the Sun.

I have been struggling with sleep for the last few weeks. My new job keeps me out past 10 three nights a week. Even when I get out at 10 I am still amped up. Last weekend I was up pasted 1 am three nights. I have also been drinking more, enough that even once I am asleep my sleep is disturbed. A few glasses of wine seems like the best way to wind down at the end of a busy night. But I have found after an hour or two of sleep I am then awakened. I usually am then up for 40 minutes to an hour. Getting up in the morning has been hard too. I get up after 8 or even after 9, which is late for me. I am never getting restful sleep after sun up. All in all for the last few weeks I have been getting in the range of six to seven hours of sleep a night. This really messes me up during the day. My allergies will be much worse. I obviously feel more tired. My brain function is lower, my memory and learning are not as sharp. I don't blog as much.
I have a solution for this problem at least three nights a week. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I work nights and Thursday I have a game night with some friends. That leaves Monday, Tuesday Wednesday that I control my evening. It just requires discipline. I have two alarms set on my phone, one is for about 30 minutes before sunset and the other is for sun set. When I am disciplined I turn out all my artificial lights after the second alarm. Out of boredom or frustration from stubbing my toes I usually go to bed with in half an hour of this.
I did this last night. I was in bed for 11 hours and 40 minutes and I was asleep for just over 11 hours. Its very interesting to see how different my sleep feels like this. I feel like me sleep is a more active. Last night there were three times that I remember being up in the night. Normally waking in the night is stressful for me cause I know I only have a very limited time to be asleep and if I am waking up I am cutting into that. I feel great today. I love when I get to do a solar cycle. I know there are still four days a week that I can't be going to bed at 7:30, but I want to work on before 12 and really push for before 11 for at least three of those. I also want to get this "down with the sun" thing on for the other three days a week that I don't work. Not just one or two of them.
I would love to be able to have a job or lifestyle someday that would allow me to remain on a solar cycle all the time. I can't really imagine what that job would be or how I could swing that. Doing something like that though the summer would be easy enough. In the winter in Central Ohio around the solstice we have only about 9 hours and 18 minutes of sun up. That wouldn't leave much time for much besides an 8 hour work day. If I have a job where I work on my own schedule it might be possible.

Just call me "Theo Hood"

Last Tuesday I met with an old professor from one of my schools. I heard on good authority that he could tell me a thing or two about hunting. It was a very informative meeting. This guy grew up hunting. He had hunted just about everything there is to hunt in this state, except wild boar. Before the meeting I didn't even know what questions I had to ask. After the meeting I now have a plan of action. Sort of.
I have signed up for The Ohio Devision of Wildlife Hunter and Trapper Education Course. The class is  on a Saturday at the end of the month. In the mean time I am reading a booklet of the hunting laws and regulations from last year. I expect that the dates will have changed, but the rest will be the same.
During the conversation with that professor I realized that I am only interested in bow hunting. First, bow season in this state is much longer than gun season. Since there is so little time for the gun hunt the public spaces can become a war zone. I don't want to mess with that. Also, Robbin Hood is a boss. I went to the closest Cabelas and priced bows. There are three main types of bows avaliable there. Most of the bows they carried were compound bows. These have pullies that increase the force of the arrow. They also had recurve and long bows as well. They are off to one side sort of in a corner. I need to do more reasearch before I can make a decision.
I have also been talking with a butcher about bulk meat. I am hoping to be able to get a quarter or half cow soon. I will keep you updated on that as well.

Sweet Success!

Yesterday, I knocked over four more of my sweet potato sky scrapers. The experiment went well enough for me to know that next year I will do the experiment again. I filled about half a 5 gallon bucket from the tires I have already pulled down with sweet potatoes. From talking to other farmers this year I have learned it was terrible for sweet potatoes. The weather didn't get hot till september and then was only hot for two weeks.
The experiment worked! The sweet potatoes grew the way I wanted them to, up. The only reason I ended up with smaller ones is cause I didn't have enough heat. I need to in the future do the same thing and hope for more heat.

Deep Freezer! Bee Keeper!

I have know for a few weeks that for my birthday I wanted to get money so that I could put it towards a deep freeze. Having a freezer, that I could store a good deal of meat in, could save me a lot of money every year. I looked up deep freezes online, the ones that suited my purposes were about $230. The money I got for my birthday and some extra I had from dog sitting totaled $340 (it was a good year). On Friday, I went pricing deep freezes with Moe and Colin. Dispite Colin's protests hardwears stores are just toy stores for adults. I went to "home depot" and "aplliance mart" that both had units simular to what I had seen online and simular prices. However, at "Lowes" they had almost the exact same unit for $179 even with the 3 year wanrty and taxes it was still $224. I am very happy with my purchas.
I spent the rest of the day Friday and most of Saturday preparing my house for the deep freeze.
My house was built in 1895 and no where is that more apparent than the basement. There are cobwebs down there dating back to the houses construction. Moe and I removed two paper grocery bags worth of dust from the crumbling walls. I could spend another 2 weeks down there cleaning and it would still be a mess, ( I may just do that). That said it does look infinitely better. There is a large hatch in the floor of our back porch with steps that lead to a door in the basement under it. My family and I have never had the hatch open since moving into this house almost 15 years ago. Moe and I got it open and cleaned it out too.
The Freezer was delivered this morning and the workmen took it down that back way. It is now in place in the basement and just needs some palates to stand on and an extension cord to reach the nearest outlet. I just had a really cool moment where I noticed that this dream I have had for a while, owning a deep freeze, is a reality. It was very simple to make that happen too. Now I can keep 7 cubic feet worth of meat. I don't even know that is, but its exciting!
My other big birthday present was a beekeepers hat, gloves, and when it comes into the store, jacket. About half an hour ago I used them to get into one of my hives and put a sugar water feeder on them. I need to do the other one soon but I ran out of sugar.

Gently into That Good Night

On my birthday I went into an isolation tank. I will not talk here about the revelations I had in it or visions I saw. I will instead talk about the more visceral experience of being in that environment. It's an 8x4x4 foot box, sound proof and "light proof." The bottom of this box is filled with about one foot of water with 1000 lbs of Epsom salt dissolved in it. I wore ear plugs cause I didn't want that in my ears. This solution is extremely buoyant, I have never been a "natural floater. " Some people float some sink, I sink. Being able to float in this environment without difficulty was a completely new experience. The thing I did not anticipate was what that would actually feel like. When I sleep on my back I need a firm bed. This is because of several years of slouching before I learned about better posture. On a soft enough mattress I am forced into a "horizontal slouch." In this liquid solution the same thing happened but to an extreme degree. My shoulders rounded forward, putting my neck in a bad place. Also my low back arched in a way it shouldn't, max deadlifting the day before didn't help this situation.  I found if I laced my fingers behind my head the shoulders and neck worked out better, but I could do nothing about the low back. When you have no visual or auditory input you do start thinking about this stuff as much as I am here.
All that said I would like to do it again. I think to do it again I would need to do some serious work. First, I need to start meditating more and working on "letting go." Second I would need to get a massage before going into the tank. However, the kind of massage I would need to be relaxed in that tank is not the kind of massage I really need. The massage I need for the tank is the sort of relaxing rub down that I think I could actually get at a place that calls its self a spa. The massage I need cause of the sort of things I put my body through on a regular basis, is the kind where a big Swedish man named Sven digs elbows into me as I scream. I don't have the money to start doing both of these massages and floating regularly. The third thing I would need to do is find some way to keep my lower back in "the hallow back position." I think if I had a small flotation device I could place under my butt it would do the trick.
Finally, I do think the experience was worth it in the end. I did come to some revelation about what I am doing with my life. Both in my recent past and near future. I came to the conclusion that I am happy with where I am and where I am going. I don't really want to discuss the details of what that means, but I am pretty excited about it.
Namasta Y'all

What has being #Bulletproof done for your sense of purpose in life?

A question that popped up in my Facebook news feed this morning. Most of you know how I eat and live is consistent with "a paleo lifestyle". However, in several ways I adhere to the bulletproof diet and lifestyle as well. Over the past year as I have thought more critically about all the things that I consume. Not just the food I put in my body, but the information I expose myself to, the thoughts I have, the people I surround myself with, even the sun on my skin. As I think about these things more and more I use the approach of Bruce Lee "Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own." If a food or a person in my life is not something that makes me feel more awesome, Then it is removed. The result of this is that 99.9% of the time I feel great. I am happier than I have ever been, I am more productive, I am stronger, I even have better hair. 
The result of this effort is a knowledge that I can accomplish anything. There is nothing I can't do if I set my mind to it. I know that the next few years are going to be hard, possibly the hardest yet. I know that the life that I have ahead of me is going to be nothing like I have imagined or could have imagined a year ago. I know all this, and I say, let's do it!

Milestones.

Today I am reaching a couple of milestones in this blog and in life. I started this blog on my half birthday, March 17th, exactly 6 months ago. That also means its my birthday today, I am turning 25. Which is sort of a big one. This post will also be my 100th post published on this blog. Also, if I am luck, I will crest over 2500 page views today. I would really like that cause I am on a 25 theme today.

Yesterday, I spent a lot of time looking at some of the earlier entries in this blog. Trying to see where I had come from in just the last 6 months. Looking back I have achieved a lot. I am eating much more locally than I was then. I have a job, which was a much bigger task than I thought it would be at the time. I was in a class at Columbus State, when I started this blog. I am now finally at a mental place where I have started thinking about going back to school. 

Earlier last week I was starting to get really depressed about my birthday. I tend to do this a lot around my birthday every year, but this duldrom was worse. I was depressed because I am not where I would like to be as a 25 year old man. I am still living with my parents. I have been in school for 6 years with no degree to show for it. However, I think being able to look back over this blog yesterday and today have reinvigorated me. In just the last six months I have accomplished so much. I have become a bee keeper, I have had one successful season in my garden. I have learned a lot and grown a lot and that isn't going to stop. 

I now want to ask you my readers for a birthday present. I want you to share this blog with some one. I am still thinking of trying to hit that 2500 page views. I still need about 80 views to do it. I think its possible to get there by the end of the day, but I need your help!

A Great Plan!

I don't want to do this today. I have been saying for a week now, that though I would fail at my 25th year challenges today, I was going to attempt them. I think that was a younger man's notion. I think that If I were to attempt all those things today I would end up hurt. I think doing that would also result in my being distracted in the isolation tank tomorrow. If the point is not to feel anything in the tank and all I can feel so muscle soreness...
I still have today off from work. I can spend the day on other presuits. It's a wonderful idea to suddenly have nothing planned for myself today. I can't remember the last time I did that. Maybe I will garden, maybe I will go for a long walk, maybe I will spend the day with my girlfriend and her kids, maybe I will spend all day on youtube, or napping. I don't have plans and that is a great plan!

Garden Update 9-14-2013

Today I stopped in my garden to do a little harvest. I got some tomatoes, some dead flowers that I will seed and a butternut squash. I was only down there for a few minutes but it was a good recharge. Reminded me what is important. I want to get in there tomorrow morning and plant a final crop of lettuce.

So much to do so little time

My birthday draws near; I am feeling overwhelmed. I have been working hard to prepare myself for the Sensory Deprivation Tank. I am still doing the sensory deprivation meditation. I didn't try and lucid dream last night. I have not been making sleep a priority. I work everyday between now and my birthday. I have not been concentrated at all on the physical preparation I want to achieve for my birthday. I am complaining. Sorry I will do push ups to repent.

My Journey Inward.

Since I don't have enough on my plate in preparation for my birthday, I am also doing a session in a  sensory deprivation tank on my birthday. I am at the moment only signed up for an hour in the tank. I may change it to an hour and a half appointment, depending on how the preparation goes. Thus far on the internet I have not found much information about how to prepare yourself for the tank. The only thing people seem to say is not to shave before hand cause the salt will irritate the skin. I am, therefore, developing some of my own preparation methods. I am doing three things.
Everyday I am doing a "sensory deprivation meditation" I put on a sleep mask and ear plugs and lay on my bed and try to "let go." Yesterday and today, I got about 30 minutes in before I started feeling anxious and stopped. It's very weird doing this, I seem to go somewhere, but I can't say where. I don't try to go "no mind" or anything. I do sometimes try and visualize something, like walking in nature. For the most part my mind just wanders. Time seems to become non-existent, when I stop and come out of the darkness, I have no idea how much time has passed until I check the clock. It's a very interesting space to enter.
I am also trying to become more familiar with the sensation of floating. I try to take cold baths as often as possible. Yesterday in the bath, I spent most of the time trying to feel normal with earplugs in and my head floating around the level it will be in the tank. I also try and float my arms or legs. I have to do one or the other at a time cause my bath tub is so small.
Finally, I am working on lucid dreaming. There are noortropics out there that are said to enhance lucid dreaming, I am trying to explore everything I can in this realm with out drugs before I venture into the world of noortropics. I am writing before bed (all long hand) preparing my mind for remembering dreams in the night. Then as I lay down to fall asleep I try to focus on remembering my dreams. Then when I wake up I grab the same notebook and as fast as I can write down all that I can remember from my dreams.
I hope that these practices will help me in my adventure inward in the sensory deprivation tank. I will keep you updated.

Goals For My 25th Year.

Today is Tuesday September 10th. One week from my birthday. Every year for the past several years I have set myself a goal to complete on or before the next year’s birthday. When I turned 23 I did a 2300-meter cat crawl. A few months before my 24th birthday I hurt my foot and lost sight of that year’s goal. This past year I wrote down the following goals, Hand-stand press-ups, One arm hand-stand (free standing), Run 5 miles in 30 minutes,  5 minute breath hold, One arm chin-up, Muscle-up. I have achieved none of the goals.

I think my big problem was that I gave myself too much to concentrate on. When I did the 2300-meter cat crawl that was my only goal. For several months that was all I concentrated on. I would crawl home from class everyday. If I crawled to class I would get sweat all over my notes.  I built myself up to crawling 40 minutes or more every day. I crawled so much the school paper wrote an article about me. However, with 6 goals over the past several months I couldn’t concentrate on any one of them hard enough to make a real dent in any of them. I am much fitter now than at this time last year. So, in some ways that is a success. But I have not passed any of my milestones. Over the next week I will focus all my energy on these goals. In a weeks time I will test myself. I know some of them I will not be able to do in that time. However, I will give it a solid try!

Mystery Squash: Solved!

Its late but I need to share. Yesterday I cooked up some of the "mystery butternut squash." I grew this squash from seeds that I harvested from a squash I got in a conventional grocery store. One of the other plants from that same batch of seeds grew this little green pumpkin looking gourd. The other plants that came out of this have all been growing things that look like butternut squash. I have been worried though that they would look like butternut, but taste like an old shoe. However, yesterday I made some into squash fries, cut into long wedges and fried in oil. They were delicious. I am so excited I saved more seeds from this new squash so next year I can have another fun guessing game.

Sprinting For Ice Cream

This ice cream recipe is adapted from Dave Aspery's "Get Some Ice Cream."
Ingredient
1 tbs MCT oil
1 tbs coconut oil
3 tbs butter
1 raw egg
1 tbs coco powder
1 tbs honey
1/4 tbs cinnamon
1/4 tbs Cayenne powder (if you are into that sort of thing)
a few drops of apple cider vinegar.
Just enough water to fill in the cracks around all this stuff once in the blender
Combine all ingredients into a blender. I use an immersion blender, but a full sized one would work much better.
Blend until smooth. Then pour mixture into a small jar with a lid that seals tight. Place that jar in a gallon ziplock with a bunch of ice and about 1/2 tbs salt.
Ok, this is the fun part!
place that whole thing in a backpack. Put the back pack on. Go out side and do sprints. Ideally 30 seconds on (as fast as you can) 30 seconds off. For total ten minutes sprinting. Should be about 20 minutes of work.
Enjoy the bounty of your labor. You have earned it.

Down on the Farm

If you follow my facebook page you saw that yesterday I spent most of my day at Flying J Farm. I arrived about 9:15 in the morning after a beautiful drive through the Ohio farm lands. When I got there I was shown by the owner back to the horse barn to see the two horses and the donkey getting their mani pedi. The guy doing hoof work does that for a living. Traveling form farm to farm with a huge set of nail clippers and a file that would not have looked out of place in shop class. I should have asked if he did gels. As this was going on there were chickens coming in and out to see what everyone was gathering around the horses for. The chickens are able to just roam the farm freely during the day and then put up at night. As I watched them I couldn't help but think "little dinosaurs."
I then spent most of my day turning over some beds in a large green house. This green house was fantastic. It was about 20 feet wide and 100 feet long. Tons of tomatoes, kale, broccoli, cilantro. Oh, and crazy huge spiders, living in this greenhouse. I thought the spiders at my house were big. They guys were more than an inch in length, not including legs. The spiders abdomen were yellow and black. Just after I spotted the first one it jumped to grab a fly that had just gotten caught in its web.
 To turn over the beds we slashed all the existing plants down. Then we added a layer of sticks, then a layer of grass clippings and finally card board. It was hot and hard and my grass allergies made it miserable. However, the day was was also lots of fun there were kittens and chickens running around my feet the whole time. The people who I was working with were very interesting. I learned a lot and I hope to go back very soon.

Run Hot and Cold with Caution

I have recently started my "extreme environment" training again. Sunday I took home a five gallon bucket of ice home from work and made myself take an ice bath. I have taken a few ice baths since then. When I do them I run my bath in on the coldest setting it will run. My bath tub is so small that I can only fit waist down or mid thigh up to neck at a time. After my tub is full I get in and get my legs down after a few minutes I get my upper body in. Then I grab the bucket of ice and pour it over myself. This moment is also accompanied with a lot of cursing and me yelling about how I hate myself. I then try to stay upper body in until the ice melts. Then I switch back to waist down for another ten minutes.
I have also started doing my heat training again. This process is simpler, I put on sweats and run around in the ridiculous Ohio heat. If you want to start doing something like this, start with sweat pants with shorts under. BRING WATER. After doing sweat pants for a while then move onto sweat shirts.

Farms, French and Four Chords

I finally got to talk to the owner of the "Flying J Farm" today. We set up for me to come volunteer this Thursday. I am really excited. I will be working in their vegetable garden for the moment. I hope however to be able to at least see the animal husbandry side of the farm as well.  I know what ever I am doing there I will be learning a lot and working really hard. 

In other news, I am on a 5 day streak with duolingo French, and I just reached level four. I am still working diligently on the piano. I have fallen off a bit at the n-back training, but due to some positive results at name learning at practice last night I am getting back into it. 

New skill piano.

Today I watched this video about 30 times http://youtu.be/vXd9nAs4eSs I hope that in about a week I can play a few different songs. I am confident that I will get there. This morning I knew nothing about playing the piano even though there has been one in my house for years. But now I can make some noises that are kinda like music.

Pardon my chicken scratch.

As you can see I have my phone back. I feel whole again.

A good day.

A good day today. It had a slow start but once it got going it was great. I started using duolingo to learn French. I am already on level two. I am still going strong with n-back training. I had a really good lifting session with Moe. She hit a body weight squat. Then I went to our Parkour practice at wetsone community center, but forgot we didn't have class this week. Luckily, two of our students forgot so we did some training on our own. Now I am enjoying the beautiful weather with a friend on her front porch. I am gonna stop ignoring them and sign off.

Update 8-21-2013

Just a quick update. I went to the Westerville Farmer's Market today. I got two kidneys. I am a bit apprehensive about what I will do with them. Kidneys are an organ I have yet to do. I am not sure they will be something I stick with in the end. We will see. I also talked to the two people from Flying J Farm, the people I get my meat from, about volunteering there. I am gonna call the head hancho tomorrow and hopefully be working there by the end of the week. Excited!

Best Beef Heart Yet!

I cooked my most delicious heart to date today!
1 Beef heart
1 Tbs cold liver oil lemmon flavor
2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs lime juice
1 large (really large) garlic clove
Dried tyme
Salt
Pepper

First cut the heart to remove all the vessels and sinew. This is by far the hardest part of cooking a heart. it sucks and there is no other easy around it. I used a for instead of my hands this time and it helped a bit I think.
Mix the cod liver oil, olive oil, lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper into a small bowl. Add about 1 Tbs of the mixture to the heart steaks and mix the heart around until covered in the marinade. Let the meat sit for 30 minutes to 24 hours (I did about 1.5 hours)
Pour the remainder of the oil stuff into a large frying pan and heat on medium heat. Once hot add the heart steaks, cover with a lid. When they get brown on the top side flip the steaks and keep them on for a few more minutes. It was when I flipped them that I added about 5 cherry tomatoes from the garden. After a few minutes on the second side remove from pan and let sit for about 4 minutes. Enjoy.

Green Curtains

Today I am going to buy the first part I need for the Window Farm. The air pump needed is about 20 dollars. I will have to buy the components for this project in increments for about 20 dollars. At this pace it should take about 3 or 4 months to collect all the pieces needed to build my first window farm. Typing it out like that makes it seem like a long while, but its a lot sooner than it has been for the past year. I have dreamed of having green window curtains for a long time. I hope to be able to get the plants so dense that they block out the light from the street lamps and my neighbors at night. 

Holy Guacamole

1 avocado halved seeded and scooped out
2 tbs grass-fed butter
1 spoonful salsa (I had mild G.E. natures basket)
Squirt of Sarricha
Squeeze of lime juice
Fresh cilantro
Put all this in a big bowl and mix it together with a fork or masher. Eat with a spoon or a paleo friendly chip.

Update 8-15-213

Today had a slow start. I got back into my garden today. There was a huge chunk taken out of the second tomato that was coming on my plants. I am pretty bummed about it. The Zinnas are blooming though so there is some justice in the world. I figured out that my butternut squash is not ready, the stems are still green. When they turn brown and shrival they are ready. I also saw a bunch of new squash showing up. I also got to cut off a bunch more dead heads from the sun flowers. I am going to seed them all around my garden next year. I want there to be so many that I have a wall of green and yellow all the way around my garden plot. 

ON an unrelated note I started doing "N-Back" memory training today. I will keep you updated on its progress. 

High Performance

I just worked 12 hours at my new job. I did a double shift. They made me take an hour lunch break, but was hardly a break cause I had to walk the dog I am dog sitting and manage to feed myself. The thing is though, I feel fantastic. My energy was so high all day long. I started the day with two cups of bulletproof coffee. On my lunch I got two chipolete burritos. At some point in the second half of the double shit, one of my co-workers asked me "don't you wanna take a break? you have been working all day. Aren't you tired?"To which I said "No. I feel fantastic" I hadn't realized the extent of the 'Higher performance" I was getting from eating this way and treating my self the way I do. Even after I got off work I went to a near by bar and hung out for an hour. The house band was fantastic, they played "Rock Me Momma" almost as soon as I walked in. This was an exultant day. I love my new job. I am so pumped about life.

Dear Insperation, Part 2

Dear Ms.DeCock, 
For the past three days I have been taking on one of your challenges. I have been writing down at least three things that I am grateful for every night before bed. I have also been writing down five tasks that I want to accomplish the following day. So far its been going very well. I have noticed a generally better out look on life. Also, I feel more productive. I was wondering what sort of challenges you were working on these days? I know life has been a bit hectic for the both of us for the past few months and our blog lives have suffered, But its a good time to set things "wright". 

Liver Success!

In the past three days I have eaten two grass-fed beef livers. They have been delicious. The recipe I am using is very simple. First I get the pan hot with some butter and add some crushed and diced garlic on low heat. Then I chop 3 small onions, just under fist size and add them. I saute them until they begin to get soft, adding another clove of garlic during this stage. Then I take all that out of the pan, put more butter in and let it melt. As the butter melts I take the liver out of the package and rinse it well in a colander. Then, I put the liver in the pan, with a lid on, on medium heat. Once the top of the liver starts to brown I flip the liver and add the onion back in. Then I let is simmer for a few minutes. Finally, enjoy. 
The liver flavor is not really like anything else I can describe, but its not unpleasant. In fact if you go into the operation with no preconceived notions, it can be quite good. If you are expecting it to taste like a steak you will be sadly disappointed however. I think it is safe to say the I will be eating a liver at least one a week for the foreseeable future. 

What My Training Looks Like These Days.

I just read Dear Mark: How Are You Training These Days?  I try to break down my training in a similar way to Mark. I have my training, hard strenuous exercises to strengthen my body for the demands of life. Then I have play, which is fun, carefree movement, be it working on my parkour movement or tag with my girlfriends kids. Finally, I have rest, which is often the most nebulous part of my training. Some days I am resting and working in my garden, doing yoga or straight vegging. I don't always have a set sequence of days that I do any of these activities. I cycle through these more organically. When I attend training with Parkour Horizons I do what they do. When I am don't train with them I do what feels right for that day. 

My training days can vary. Yesterday I wanted to lift, however, my schedule didn't allow me to. When I do lift I spend about an hour in the "gym." I can take as much as an 15 to 20 minutes warming up. Then I hit hard with a series of compound lifts that incorporate the whole body. When I can't get to a weight set I do either body weight exercises or speed work. For body weight stuff I fall back on my parkour training. I use lots of quadrupedal movement and classic movements like squats, push ups and pull ups. For speed work I was doing lots of sprints until recently. For me sprints are 400 meters or less. These days I have been working up to longer distance. I know the science, especially in the paleo sphere, points to shorter distance for optimum health, but I have been testing my metal with mile repeats. This is one of those "training for the demands of life." I share a car with my dad, this means that about two times a month I need to get across town in a car sort of time period, but all I have are feet. Therefore, I have been doing longer track work outs. These are things I haven't done since high school, but more on that some other time. 

I work hard so I can play hard. For me a lot of my play is movement and flow based or playing with the kids at the park. I work mostly on dexterity and proprioception. I try to make awkward things graceful. I work on things that challenge or scare me. Or sometimes I just try to remember what it was like to really believe the ground was lava. 

Some days after rocking for a few days, my body tells me I need to chill out for a day. I try to vegg out for a day. However, that never works completely. I usually take some long walks. Sometimes, on those walks I find a big thing to carry around like a log or a rock, movnat style. I always foam roll, in fact, I do that almost every day. I have been getting back into yoga. I used to do lots of yoga, but I quit when I got some knee pain two years ago. However, I have been being careful with it and trying to regain lots of mobility. I have always been really flexible cause of a genetic condition. For a long time I counted on that to carry me through any mobility I needed. Recently I started noticing some lapse in that area of my movement. More on this some other time. 

This is what my training looks like these days. I train to play and I play to live. I listen to what my body needs. I give it sweat when it needs sweat. I give it food when its hungry. I give it laughter when it needs joy. I give it rest when it's tired. I am off to foam roll. 

I love to Eat

I started a new job today. I am a pizza delivery driver. It's weird to be handing out food to people that I would never eat. But its money in my pocket. As a result I have been eating like a king today. Well I have been eating like a king since I got off work. I just polished off 8 eggs with some onion and cheese. If all goes to plan I will be back in the 3000 calorie club very soon. I read an artical a few months ago about the upper limits of protein consumption. The author mentioned that he had recently been eating 250 grams or more per day. He claimed that the result of this was that he didn't get sore after workouts. I don't know if that is a fesible number to aim for, but I like doing crazy things. Also I recall a bit in "The 4-Hour Body" where Tim Ferriss mentions eating ungodly amounts of red meat to up the sex drive.
I think it will take me a while to get my digestive system up to speed. I just put my numbers for today into "myfitnesspal" and I eat almost 1300 calories today. That was because I didn't really eat anything solid untill almost 4 o'clock. I also don't yet have some of the things I will need to make this jump to an excess of 250g of protein. I will need 100% whey protein powder and lots of meat. 
Tomorrow I am doing another day at the temp agency setting up for an event this weekend. That means eating on any kind of schedule will be thrown off. However, wednesday I will go to the local farmers market and get a bunch of meat. Soon enough you will hear about me cooking some heart and liver. Also, me eating tons and tons of food. I keep telling my self not to get excited. But I love to eat. 

Update 7-28-213

Today started early down in the garden. I had some bullet proof coffee and the flowers were in bloom. I finally got cought up on filling my sweet potato tire towers. They all stand about three feet high now. I am now "borrowing" dirt from the woods surrounding the community gardens. 
The experiment I have been running with the carrots has become interesting. I accidently pulled up one of the plants the other day and the bottom was an orange pulp. I am hoping however, that the seeds produced in the flowers will seed more carrots around the garden. Those carrot plants will hopefully grow the delicious tap roots. 
I think the flowers that have blooms in my big tractor tire are moon flowers, not four o'clock flowers. 

Sacred Duty.

Dear gentle reader
Please grow things, things that you can eat. There is nothing so sacred or so powerful as food that you grew yourself. When you take that food and consume it you are consuming your own hard work and sunshine and water. There is nothing so beautiful as that.
If you have no space, put a tomato plant on your desk. All it will ask for is water and your exhaled breath. When you first bite into that red delicious fruit you will fall in love.
You will fall in love with that same thing that I love. The joy of seeing things grow. The knowledge and the power that comes from that growth. Taking control of our food supply is the most sacred duty that humans have. We owe it to our mother earth to do so.
With love. The New Suburban Paleo Farmer.

Push and Pull.

Today, I did my training fueled by the heart of a bison. It was really hot out and for the first time in months I tried to do some heat training. I wore sweat pants and a long sleeved tee. I ran to a park and did some balance training. My balance has gotten really bad lately, so I stepped up what I was doing.
After all that I made my way slowly to the local college track. There I a mile in 7:07. I don't mean to offend anyone but I am about to. 7:07 is a pathetic time. I should be running in the sub 6 minute range. and I should be able to do it more than once. Today, I tried to go for a second mile and made it to 900 meters. Then, I just could not go on. I must redouble my efforts to bring down my time in that. I would like to be able to do several mile repeats in a row with much better times.
I also want to start doing more intensive heat training again. Today, it was only in the mid 80s and I was dying out there. All and all, I am happy I got out there today and pushed myself. However, I am bummed at how far I got when pushed.

Meat Heaven!

Today, I finally got around d to making the second heart in my freezer. This one was a bison heart. The structure was much the same as the cow heart but a bit smaller. I started the same way as you do with the cow heart. First, you 

through

ly 

rinse all the blood, including the congealed stuff, out. I know there are probably some things I could be doing with the blood, for now I am not getting that far into it. Then, I spend several minutes cutting away all the fascia. This is the really icky part, but you end up with one bowl of scrap and about Three decent sized steaks. Today I diced the steaks up and placed them in a simple red-wine vinegar marinade. Then, I took the scraps and put them in a slow cooker with some water. In several hours I will make the diced steaks into shish kebab and the scraps will be strained to make a soup base. 

I made a soup base with the scraps from the heart the other day. It was fantastic! The broth was so fatty I felt like I had just put on really thick chap stick. I just had some more of the stuff for lunch and I am so energized. I still have maybe a bowl of the stuff left. I also have a soup bone in my freezer. I am gonna have so much stew soon. 

Up Date 7-19-2013

Last night, with the help of Moe I cooked and eat the heart of a cow. Actually she did most of the cooking and I did most of the eating. Once you know how to deal with hearts they taste much like any other muscle. Though there the flavor is a bit different. Today I started thawing my bison heart. It will be ready to eat tomorrow.
This morning I also got into my garden again. This tire tower plan requires so much dirt. The tires average about 2.5 feet across and will be about 3.5 feet high at the end. that comes to almost 27 cubic feet of soil per tire. Times 9 towers, almost 250 cubic feet of soil for this project. That would be enough soil to cover my whole garden space 20x40 feet in 3.5 inches deep.  This is so much dirt.
I think the only way I can collect that much dirt is to dig a hole somewhere. At the end of the season  I have to clear out my plot to be tilled. I will have to make a huge pile somewhere in the woods near by.  

Ranting about Training

Today, I temped at a wear-house on the southwest side of Columbus. When on my way in I was listening to the latest episode of "The Paleo Solution Podcast." The guest was Jim Laird. He talked extensively about people that come into his gym that are just broken from having spent years moving poorly. When I got there I spent 8 hours around people moving heavy things that were not trained to do so properly. I saw more rounded back deadlifts that I could count. Everyone working there over age 30 was over weight and walking with a limp. I am not claiming that every time I picked up a box I was using perfect form. However, proper movement patterns are something that we should be teaching in elementary school. 
I remember gym class in elementary school. It was fun then but in retrospect it was terrible. We did nothing but play games. A noble thing for any grade schooler, but that is what recess is for. In middle school things improved a little. Gym class was actually treated like a class. We were expected to learn skills and be tested at the end. However, the two skills I still remember learning were 60s and 70s dancing and volleyball. Those skills will only become useful to me if I get a time machine. In highschool I managed to sort of oped out of traditional gym by taking "summer gym." I remember one of those classes made us walk for extended periods of time and use weight machines. Thats better than nothing, but the rest of the time we mostly played kick ball. One day we even watched "Space Jam" to learn about basketball. 
In high-school I also ran cross country. I have lots of issues about that as a thing for young people. Compared to the other sports I could have played in highschool it was probably one of the better. However, still there was never once a discussion about proper running form. I remember once talking to my coach about it. He pointed out to me that one of our best runners always looked like he was trying to touch his ear to his shoulder when he ran; Therefore, everyone has their own way. Terrible. 
We humans are given a very complex device, our bodies. However, the software needed to run that device is questionable. Squat down, hip hinge, carry something heavy, get down on the ground and get back up, these are all things we should be able to do long before we are told to play kick ball or 60s dancing. 

Update 7-15-2013

Yesterday I finally got back into my garden. It had been over a week. With all the rain I had no need to water and the whole area would have been a solid mud puddle. The place is a jungle. I spent most of my time trying to reclaim my paths. I also added more dirt to one of my tire towers. There is so much to do and its a bit overwhelming. 
I also finished my rain barrel. it looks good and works pretty well. However I fear it has a pin hole leak in the lower spigot. 

Ready for Any and Every Thing

Yesterday I woke up late. I had told my neighbor I would do some work for him starting at 8:30. It was 8:24. I felt terrible. On thursday night I was walking through my back yard barefoot when, I stepped on a bee. Since then my foot has been swollen up like I sprained it. Then friday morning when I was at the doctor's I had several warts frozen off. Including one on the sole of my other foot. In addition to that I had had a fitful night's sleep. I didn't end up getting down to my neighbor's house until 9:30. After some bullet proof coffee I was feeling less tired but still in pain. At 10:30 I was trimming some hedges and listening to "The Fat Burning Man Show" when I hear "Theodore"
Its Mr. Galupo my sensi from my dojo. I haven't been training with him for a while cause I can't afford it with out a job. They use the soccer field that my neighbor's house butts up on to run sprints. Also the neighbor who I am working for and Mr. G are old friends, my neighbor even used to lift at my dojo. So, My neighbor gives me a break so I can run with them. He even comes over him self to watch us run our sprints. 
I really miss training with those guys. I hope I can afford to get back in there soon. Surprisingly after the sprint work out my feet feel much better. Shortly after finishing, I get back to work on the hedges. 
Yesterday, I did a little more work on the rain barrel. It should be done soon. 
Also yesterday, I finally got back into my garden. It had been more than  week. The place is a jungle. I am going back there as soon as I finish this post to try to bring it under control. 

Doctor's Waiting Room

I am at the doctor office. I am in the waiting room. I hate being here cause there is a television that plays utter nonsense. They just aired a story about the wonders of lap band surge. Before that they told me how to make a better chicken salad with "light" canola oil mayonnaise. All these stories are interspersed with ads for prescription drugs. These commercials spend more time on the side effects then any other part of the commercial.
I understand people's fear of stepping into a paleo life style after going to doctors like this their whole lives. I used to think of my doctors as some kind of oracle dispersing the truth about my body and health from above. I now think of my doctor as a technician of sorts. I am sure if I had options to go around my insurance I could find other people more in line with my ideals. I am grateful to have the good insurance that I do, but it severely limits me in what I can do. If people who think and live like myself, I assume my readers do, we must be extra proactive about our health. 
We must search out the conditions we have, test we need to confirm them and the treatment we need independently. Then use our doctors to run the tests in hopes that they are the sort that will share all the data with you. After hearing their take on what the data means we have to use our own knowledge and research to find out what actions (if any) need to be taken. In this age with out ample access to masses of information we must learn to think critically about the world around and more importantly with in us. 

Morning in the Garden

It has been raining for about two weeks here in centrial ohio. I know I shouldn't complain about rain but with out needing to water its hard to motivate myself to go to the garden.
I was down there the other morning cause I wanted to see my morning glories in full bloom.

A deer has been jumping my fence. 

If anyone can tell me what this flower is I will give you a tomato.

Views from my chair. 

Biochar, a love letter!

Biochar is a really cool soil amenity. I just learned about it a few weeks ago, but it sounds really smart. It involves burning biomatter at a very low temperature, in a oxygen depleted environment. The advantages of biochar are many and I will in no way make an exhaustive list here.
 First, it creates a stable substance. In the case of compost, it loses carbon to the atmosphere at an exponential rate. In the first year from when you collect the original biomass it can lose more than 50% of its mass to the atmosphere. Every year after that it looses and less until it reaches about 10% of its original mass. Biochar looses about 45% of the original mass in the making of it due to the combustion. After that the biochar is stable and will not decay further. Put simply, if you start with two piles of wood chips each 10 lbs. you let one compost and one you make into biochar. The one you turn to biochar will immediately become 5.5 lbs of biochar. Then you let those two piles sit, in 5 years you will have 5.5 lbs. of biochar and about 1 lbs. of composted wood chips. All the matter that disappeared returned to the atmosphere as CO2 a green house gas. 
Another really cool advantage to biochar, is that it in theory "cleans" your biomass. One of the problems with compost is that unless you have a "hot" compost many things can survive in there. There are some micro-organisms that you want living in your new composted soil. However, there are also lots that you don't. If you have lots of weeds that have gone to seed and you compost them in something to cool you are just spreading the weeds around your garden the following year. In addition there are many substances you can't compost in the same way you compost plant matter. As someone who follows the paleo diet I end up with a lot of animal waste. Animal products will not break down in a regular compost. They will rot and become disgusting, I have neighbors. No one would be happy. With something like biochar from what I can tell there would be no issue with throwing a few bones, and the other bits I can't eat or use, in the fire and letting them cook down. 
The energy used to produce biochar is something to be considered and captured as well. In simplest terms you are burning a lot of stuff to produce biochar. Even the relatively low temperatures required for biochar is plenty of heat to heat homes, water or do work. I know that one of the towns I used to live in Ashland WI, used biomass gasification for its power. According to them the biomass was burned completely in the process and there was no solid waste left in the end. It's beyond the scope of this blog post to get into the different technologies out there for stuff you could build in or around your home to capture the heat from biochar. A quick google search I am sure will give you lots of information. 
If you can't tell I am very excited about biochar. From what I am seeing on the DIY side of things, a 55 gallon metal drums is the way to do it. There are people using those in different ways to contain the burn and reduce the oxygen getting to it. I haven't found a design yet that I am really in love with, but I am sure I will. When I do I will let you know how it goes. 

Thoughts on Dirt

There are two broad categories for soil amenities, "organic" and synthetic. For the proposes of this post I will focus on the "organic" methods. The synthetic methods for increasing yield from soils are harmful to the land its self and everything down stream of it. People often compare Fritz Haber's contributions to chemical warfare and chemical fertalizer. They will say on the one hand he made it possible for our worlds population to balloon from just over one billion people to just over 7 billion people in less than a century. On the other hand he gave germany the means to kill millions through chemical warfare. In my mind neither of these things are good. Therefore, and because I have no interest in it I am not going to talk about the synthetic fertilizer industry. 
 Compost is perhaps the most ancient form of soil amenities. In it's most basic form it requires depositing waste matter on the soil to break down and be reabsorbed. This process also has the benefit of being free. All I have to do is take the unused parts of the plants I grow, greens, stems, roots and more and put them in a pile. By next spring these things have become rich soft dirt. Most people don't realize this, but the matter that makes up most of a plant is derived directly from the air, not the soil. This means I am literally turning CO2 a green house gas into soil. I know that is basic elementary school science, but I find that idea almost sexy. I breath in O2 and I eat Carbon based foods, Plants breath in CO2. They use the carbon from that along with sunshine to build their structure. Then they exhale O2. This circle of life has been spinning for 3.5 billion. This ancient system has been modified thousands of times over the ages by humans. Now it includes things like vermi-composting, bio-char, compost tumblers and more. Most of these new methods have the benefit of making the process from waste to soil additive faster. Many of them also have the benefit of making the final product more beneficial for a variety of reasons. 
Over the next several days I will be talking about several of these processes, my own experience and what the leading research has to offer. Let me know if there is something you want me to research. Eddie I have the re-mineralization in mind. Stay tuned. 



http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07235.html