Life and Coffee

I love coffee.

I drink it everyday.

I was never one to go out for coffee until recently. Dave and I would chat about drinking coffee and how we thought that we could change the world after 3+ cups. Or, more along the lines of how brilliant and creative we are after 3 cups. I am sold. Why not?



So, after 3 hours sitting here in the same spot, my mind started wandering to the people that came into the store rather than what I came in here for...

Actually, I wanted to get out of my head and I did just that. I crawled into the heads of everyone else.

People hang out here all day. I had no idea. This is all new to me. It makes me feel smart to hang out at a bookstore, so why not? Feeling smart with a caffeine buzz is not a bad thing, well...until later. We won't talk about that now.

It's like an airport. People coming and going, wandering, sitting, reading, staring, thinking, drinking, eating.

Living.



Found out a refill is only 50 cents. It's why I am here for 3 hours. And to stay out of the house. Yes, I still have Maggie's beds all over, food and bowl still out. Being away gets my mind off of it for a little while at least.

Students, retirees, mothers, kids, me. We're all here.



This blog isn't much of anything but to say I am "being."

I am here.

I am aware.

Home Away From Home

I want to start off by saying that I continue to miss Maggie everyday. She will forever be in my heart. The past week I went to my home away from home (Chico, CA) to help mourn her loss. It was a nice to have a change of scenery for a few days.

I love it there.
I went to college there.
My college room mates and best friends live there.
It's home to me.

I tried to take it slow and not do much. I did for the most part. It was relaxing to see everyone and doing simple things that I enjoy. Since I arrived during the week, everyone was working so I met them in different places to share their life with them.

I did spend moments alone in the park (trying to avoid snakes)but I had no idea about the other fun activities that were in store for me.

I walked with Rose and Jake, went to Hannah's (John and Heide's daughter)softball game, and had the privilege to attend a "clothes party" at someones house with Heide. I was oblivious to this "secret club."

Women gathering in a home, watching a clothes paring demonstration, being served wine, and once it's completed...off come their clothes! It was a flurry of half naked women grabbing articles of clothing...shoving and pushing, screaming at each other, falling on the floor. Pure chaos!! Well, sort of.

They didn't appreciate me being there not partaking in the wine, taking pictures and not stripping, but I had an entertaining time watching all of the fun. To protect the innocent, only photos before the strip down will be included.

Here are some pictures to give you an idea of the excitement. :)

Presenting the clothes...

Starting the wine and cheese fest...

Heide and Connie with their game plan...

Hannah (on left) and friend at their softball game

Up to bat (with dad coaching in background)

Jake running in the park

Jake

Enjoying Bidwell Park

Bear Hole

NOT enjoying a new friend I almost stepped on:

I am so thankful that they are in my life and that I can go visit them on a moments notice. Until next time...

Dihydro-Vitamin K1

Step right up ladies and gents; I have a new miracle vitamin for you. Totally unknown to our ignorant pre-industrial ancestors, it's called dihydro-vitamin K1. It's formed during the oil hydrogenation process, so the richest sources are hydrogenated fats like margarine, shortening and commercial deep fry oil. Some of its benefits may include:

• Inhibiting vitamin K2 metabolism
• Reducing bone mineral density
  
• Causing organ damage and inhibiting platelet formation in animal models
• Dramatically increasing the death rate of spontaneously hypertensive rats

Dihydro-vitamin K1 accounts for roughly 30% of the vitamin K intake of American children, and a substantial portion of adult intake as well. Over 99 percent of Americans have it in their diet. Research on dihydro-vitamin K1 is in its infancy at this point, so no one has a very solid idea of its effects on the body beyond some preliminary and disturbing suggestions from animal experiments and brief human trials.

This could be another mechanism by which industrially processed vegetable oils degrade health. It's also another example of why it's not a good idea to chemically alter food. We don't understand food, or our bodies, well enough to know the long-term consequences of foods that have been recently introduced to the human diet. I believe these foods should be avoided on principle.

Pastured Eggs

Eggs are an exceptionally nutritious food. It's not surprising, considering they contain everything necessary to build a chick! But all eggs are not created equal. Anyone who has seen the tall, orange yolk, viscous white, and tough shell of a true pastured egg knows they're profoundly different. So has anyone who's tasted one. This has been vigorously denied by the American Egg Board and the Egg Nutrition Council, primarily representing conventional egg farmers, which assert that eggs from giant smelly barns are nutritionally equal to their pastured counterparts.

In 2007, the magazine Mother Earth News decided to test that claim. They sent for pastured eggs from 14 farms around the U.S., tested them for a number of nutrients, and compared them to the figures listed in the USDA Nutrient Database for conventional eggs. Here are the results per 100 grams for conventional eggs, the average of all the pastured eggs, and eggs from Skagit River Ranch, which sells at my farmer's market:

Vitamin A:

• Conventional: 487 IU
• Pastured avg: 792 IU
• Skagit Ranch: 1013 IU
  

Vitamin D:

• Conventional: 34 IU
  
• Pastured avg: 136 - 204 IU
  
• Skagit Ranch: not determined
  

Vitamin E:

• Conventional: 0.97 mg
• Pastured avg: 3.73 mg
  
• Skagit Ranch: 4.02 mg

Beta-carotene:

• Conventional: 10 mcg
  
• Pastured avg: 79 mcg
  
• Skagit Ranch: 100 mcg
  

Omega-3 fatty acids:

• Conventional: 0.22 g
  
• Pastured avg: 0.66 g
  
• Skagit Ranch: 0.74 g
  

Looks like the American Egg Board and the Egg Nutrition Council have some egg on their faces...

Eggs also contain vitamin K2, with the amount varying substantially according to the hen's diet. Guess where the A, D, K2, beta-carotene and omega-3 fatty acids are? In the yolk of course. Throwing the yolk away turns this powerhouse into a bland, nutritionally unimpressive food.

It's important to note that "free range" supermarket eggs are nutritionally similar to conventional eggs. The reason pastured eggs are so nutritious is that the chickens get to supplement their diets with abundant fresh plants and insects. Having little doors on the side of a giant smelly barn just doesn't replicate that.

Love

Thank you.

I want you to know how much I am touched by your thoughts, comments, well wishes, and words of kindness. I am truly blessed. My friend, Caroline made this piece for her memory.

I was lucky that Maggie chose me 10 years ago.. We had so many adventures together, especially last summer. I put together some moments she had in the last year on this slide show.

She loved you all.

I am healing. It's a day at a time. I miss her everyday.

Iodine

Iodine is an essential trace mineral. It's required for the formation of activated thyroid hormones T3 and T4. The amount of thyroid hormones in circulation, and the body's sensitivity to them, strongly influences metabolic rate. Iodine deficiency can lead to weight gain and low energy. In more severe cases, it can produce goiter, an enlargement of the thyroid gland.

Iodine deficiency is also the most common cause of preventable mental retardation worldwide. Iodine is required for the development of the nervous system, and also concentrates in a number of other tissues including the eyes, the salivary glands and the mammary glands.

There's a trend in the alternative health community to use unrefined sea salt rather than refined iodized salt. Personally, I use unrefined sea salt on principle, although I'm not convinced refined iodized salt is a problem. But the switch removes the main source of iodine in most peoples' diets, creating the potential for deficiency in some areas. Most notably, the soil in the midwestern United States is poor in iodine and deficiency was common before the introduction of iodized salt.

The natural solution? Sea vegetables. They're rich in iodine, other trace minerals, and flavor. I like to add a 2-inch strip of kombu to my beans. Kombu is a type of kelp. It adds minerals, and is commonly thought to speed the cooking and improve the digestion of beans and grains.

Dulse is a type of sea vegetable that's traditionally North American. It has a salty, savory flavor and a delicate texture. It's great in soups or by itself as a snack.

And then there's wakame, which is delicious in miso soup. Iodine is volatile so freshness matters. Store sea vegetables in a sealed container. It may be possible to overdo iodine, so it's best to eat sea vegetables regularly but in moderation like the Japanese.

Seafood such as fish and shellfish are rich in iodine, especially if fish heads are used to make soup stock. Dairy is a decent source in areas that have sufficient iodine in the soil.

Cod liver oil is another good source of iodine, or at least it was before the advent of modern refining techniques. I don't know if refined cod liver oil contains iodine. I suspect that fermented cod liver oil is still a good source of iodine because it isn't refined.

My Bed

For the past few days, I have not left my bed. I don’t ever remember doing this before.

I need to do something different.

I did it. It was hard, but I decided to take my happy pill.

At first, I was hesitant. Why not? I know it will be good for me. Once I did it, it was ok. Then after a while, my breathing got harder, my throat started to burn, I started sweating…yes, it felt gooood…. Ahhhh…

The hardest part about not having Maggie around is coming home. I look forward to it so much because I see her head through the cut hole in the fence greeting me. If not there, she is slowly waking up and walking through the dog door.

Now it’s silence. I walk into the house looking at her half eaten bowl of food.

Thank you all so much for the kind words and well wishes. It is so appreciated! Even though I haven’t been out of the bed, I will get there soon. I know it. There are too many things in life to experience and blog about. Thank god for blogs.

I miss her terribly. Here’s a video of her trying to swim (She HATES swimming, but likes to bite water) at Lake Vermillion in South Dakota. We stayed there 3 nights in the most beautiful campsite on our trip. School was out so it was empty. Just us and the lake.

At least one of us looks like we're having fun in this picture.

Her favorite is barking at waves. Here we are on Lake Erie in Ohio.