8/15/09 - with videos! :)

Sleep:
woke at 3am for temp., but didn't take it, up at ~7:45am
to sleep for night at 10:30pm again... good thing I can sleep in again on Sunday - gotta' get to sleep earlier Sunday though 'cause there's no sleeping in on Monday...

Food:
breakfast: 1 medium-large pineapple (no burn today, nice)
lunch: small bag lychee (~20?), 4 smallish-medium dragon fruit
before dinner/after run: 15 small-ish medium apple bananas
dinner (1 1/2 hrs after bananas): shredded cabbage & carrots with tahini-lemon/lime dressing & 1/2 avocado

Yeah, a bit too much overt fats for 10% today, but I've been doing the overt fats light to none lately so it's okay I think - will find out Sunday I suppose...

Here's a video of lunch remnants and about dragonfruit I took at the farm. It might take a bit to load 'cause it's the limit of what size Blogger will take. I'll look into other video uploading options another time:

Exercise:
Pedometer wasn't working quite right for part of the day - probably about 1/4-1/3 of the walking time I'd say... so I'm not quite sure how much regular walking I did. It says 5,548 steps, which is 2.189 miles, but I'd estimate it was more like 6,935-7,398 steps or 2.736-2.919 miles. Still, it's nowhere near as much as I walk when I work at the gym. I don't wear the pedometer when formally working out, so the other stuff is extra.

I was able to get back to my running schedule today, yay! :) My foot didn't hurt this time at all. Yay! Not exactly sure why it hurt the other day, but I'm not taking chances on getting hurt, listening to my body, and that day my foot didn't want me running. Good thing it was okay with me walking fast though. I held myself back to the scheduled increase, again, in order to take it easy. I've felt cardiovascularly like I could do 30 minutes or more straight through at the slower speed I'm running/jogging, but don't want to increase things too fast so my muscles, tendons, ligaments and such have time to adjust. But I couldn't help myself go a tad longer... I was supposed to do 25 minutes, but did 27 1/2 minutes instead. That way I can get to the 30 minute goal the next run, rather than taking two runs to get there.

I did a shorter warm-up walk too, but it felt right. Instead of the 3 miles I usually do in the process of warm-up, run & cool-down, I did a bit more: 3.36 miles instead, as I was almost to 3 miles when I was done with the run even though I'm still running slow in order to get to the 30-40 minutes solid running going solid. I walk at 3.5 - 4 mph for warm-up and cool-down, and run at 5.5 - 6.2 mph, mostly 5.5 right now. To run at an 8 minute mile pace I need to run at 7.4 mph-ish, so there's a bit to go in that department. All in due time, all in due time. ;) Oh, and I also do an extra cool-down of about 1/2 minute at 3mph, followed by ~ 1 min. @ 2mph & ~1 min. @ 1 mph, then off to ~ 1 min. easy bounch on the rebounder, just so that I don't get that trippy room rushing past me sensation when getting off the treadmill and walking. LOL I start rehydrating during the 3.5-4 mph walking cool-down and stick with it 'till after my shower or when I've taken in enough to weigh what I started. I follow the running sessions with some stretching, which lasts about 20-30 minutes. Then I'm off to the shower. Ahh... nice.

Hmm... I'm finishing this post on Sunday evening & I can't remember if I did other exercise or not... thought I'd remember for sure. Oh well. Gotta' write that stuff down.

Detox:
The sty thing's going away, so I suppose things are evening out. Still sweating buckets when running, however it's also been super humid and muggy here lately so it makes sense.

Female:
3am temp: ?? degrees Fahrenheit - didn't take it again but I know it was 96.something degrees 'cause of the time of month it is, day 4 of my cycle, green day, no kid icons

The Rest:
I'm starting to add videos in here and there as I can. Let me know what ya' think. :)

Went to a guy's place to check out some fencing that we were going to remove and take for free - on both sides. It was on Craig's list. We thought it'd be no problem with the heavy duty jack we usually use as a post puller, but our jack had been jacked (pun intended - yeah, stolen in other words) from our farm a while back. We went to the place we got it from only to discover that not only did they not have 'em anymore, but the employees there didn't remember ever having them. LOL It was a year at most that we got it. How soon they forget... guess we're not gonna' get that free fencing. Don't wanna' use the tractor for it & don't have anywhere else to get a heavy duty jack like that here either. Oh well.

I wanted to go there anyway 'cause we're running low on the timothy hay I give to the guinea pig(s & rabbit now too!) as food and they use it for bedding too. Yes, we live with 4 guinea pigs and a bunny now. :) They're all so cute! The feed store apparently stopped carrying timothy hay recently as well, saying they didn't have enough sales to keep carrying it. Darn. Part of living on a small island and all I suppose. I don't know of anywhere else on island to get bales of timothy hay & the guinea pigs shouldn't have alfalfa. Guess that's another thing we'll hafta' grow ourselves - sooner than later it seems. I wanted to grow it eventually, but looks like we may have to push that up a bit. They eat all fresh food otherwise, but it seems they need a bit of dry stuff too, thus the timothy. I think we'll change the approach to the hutches and not use it for bedding so much anymore. We'll make hay dispenser dealies to go on the wall and let them use the fresh stuff for bedding if they want. We plan to move 'em out to the farm sometime in the nearish future too anyway and when we do we're going to have a compound for them to go out and eat the stuff growing directly.

We're thinking of setting up a worm composting system below their hutches so that the droppings and such go directly in there, and not having things in there for bedding. The bunny will have a shelf to hang out on to get away from the guinea pigs and mesh flooring if she wants and the guinea pigs have tubes they can go in for those purposes as well (but would be getting away from the bunny if they want instead of the guinea pigs). We can have the hay feeder on the side of the hutches and put their veggies and fruit in trays that clip there too. The compound would be fenced in and have 4 sections. There'd be a sort of entry hall of sorts at the base of their hutches where there'd be 4 doors, one to each section of the compound. We'd let them out into one section at a time, letting the other 3 grow back from all the grazing. I could plant carrots and other root crops in there too for the bunny to dig up and eat. She loves to dig. :) There'd be enough space for them to go in and run and munch around and visit with us if they like. I could go in there and knit, crochet and/or spin cotton while they explore and eat. :)

We'd open up the hutches and the door to the current section of the compound and let them decide when or if to come out. We'd shepherd them back in before the day's over. We were thinking that the compound wouldn't need a roof 'cause they'd only be out in the daytime when we're there too, but I might end up having a shade cloth or some other sort of moveable roof in order to let them hang out there when I'm not in there too (but still in the area). I'm fairly certain a bird wouldn't swoop down to get them when I'm sitting there with them, but it might if I leave the compound to do other farmwork... I planned to have some things for them to play in and on in the compound too, so they'll also have them to hide in if necessary. I'll be able to clean out the cages without having to grab 'em and take 'em out of there this way too. Less cleaning needed if we do it all this way too, so it'll be nicer for all of us. There are so many things to do for the farm though, I'm not sure when we'll get all of this done.

While we were at the feed store we got a hay fork, so nice to have an actual hay fork that works. Yay! We've been using our digging fork like one 'cause all we could find elsewhere were forks with way too many tines for hay. Nothing like having the right tool for the right job. Moving hay is sooo much easier now. Ahh... a pleasure actually.

We also found some clips they use for horse stuff which look like solid brass and are the right size for the homemade custom exercise resistance bands we want to make. So we got 'em. Now we have everything we need we think, except for the guava wood. We'll go hiking to an overgrown guava forest and get some sometime soon, possibly Wednesday. We would have gone this weekend, but my hubby's trying to finish a grant proposal so we'll do it another time. I think I'm really, really gonna' like these resistance bands when we finish 'em. So nifty and pretty too! :)

We're still setting up things at the farm in order to plant things. We've planted some bananas already and a mammey sapote in the rich soil in the rotted out center of an albezia tree stump, but that's all that's in the ground right now. Well, we do have some pineapples in the mud by the stream, but that's not their final place, it's just like a nursery for them 'till we can plant them along the fence. Here's a short video of our pineapple nursery area. My hubby made a nifty stepping stone path down to the stream with rocks that came out of the gardening area:

And here's the mammey sapote and bananas we have planted so far:

There were really tall albezia trees along the stream that the owners had cut down after they got the land. They're beautiful trees, but they're also quite dangerous since they grow so fast and are sort of leggy in that way, tending to break off in the wind and/or just fall down at times. One fell over on a neighbor's property when we were there a while back. It sounded like a bunch of firecrackers going off. Huge tree trunk and tree, just broke off in the middle and fell down - just beyond the property beyond the tilled area you see in the video. Didn't look dead or rotting on the outside and it wasn't even windy that day. We used the leaves in the compost and are using the logs for various things here and there - like how my hubby made the edges and steps down to the banana patch you can see in the video. The stumps will sprout back, but that's good 'cause we can coppice them and use the nitrogen rich leaves as mulch and/or compost Permaculture-style. :)

We've been planting some seeds from fruit we eat in flats and pots in the meantime too. We're expecting the rock dust and shell and other organic amendments we ordered to arrive sometime in the next week or two, so we'll work them into the soil and then will be ready to start planting. Yay! We did soil testing and analysis in order to find out the condition of the soil, what it needs to get back to what it should be from where it's been. That's why we're waiting for the amendments, so we can make sure the soil has everything it should in order to give the plants every chance to have everything they should, so that we have every chance to get everything we need from them. :) We'll probably maintain the fertility primarily with compost after this initial amending, lots and lots of compost. :)

We've been getting sprout discards from some friends of mine who run a commercial sprouting operation not far from our farm. It makes terrific compost along with the grass clippings from the land - and our own compost from eating of course. We'll probably get compost from other people as well once we start doing markets again. Compost is definitely the health food for soil and we plan to give it plenty. :) We get the sprouts in trash cans and sometimes they make castles like sand castles at the beach when we dump 'em. Nifty! :) Here's what I mean:

It's so nice to be planting fruit seeds, knowing that we'll be able to grow and take care of them through their fruiting years. :) I'm also gonna' be able to finally plant cotton there too, once we get things going on the edibles. I've got seeds not only from locally grown organic white cotton, but also heirloom cotton varieties from the Mainland that yeild naturally colored cotton: brown, rust & green are the colors I have right now. So I'm soooo looking forward to planting, harvesting, and spinning them in order to make clothes and things truly from scratch, naturally and organically. :)

We've been quite entertained by our pool-pond which is an above ground pool that we're using for ag water storage. It's got fish and plants and is basically a pond in a pool. The water gravity feeds into it from the stream, we have a filter on the intake so we don't suck up any fish from the stream. We have another filter on the intake for the pump so we don't suck up any fish from the pool-pond to water the farm as well. There are two filters in-between there to filter water before it goes through the pump as well. We don't have to use the pump for lots of things down lower as they work gravity fed. We'll be using the pump to run the sprinklers for the veggies and such at certain times of the day though. We gathered fish, clams, prawn and plants from the stream, nearby pond and local rivers to put in our pool-pond to help keep it healthy.

We also got some fish and plants from the pet store and put 'em in there for biodiversity. We weren't sure at first if we were doing the pet store fish a disservice by putting them in a pond after they've probably lived their lives (possibly generations of them have lived their lives) in sheltered aquariums. We weren't sure if they'd be able to adjust to a more natural and wild-ish sort of life. Now we're sure we made the right choice as they've all taken to it very well. We don't see them all of the time as the pool-pond is deeper than we can see and there are all the plants and things in there as well, but when we do see them they look very happy, natural and well-fed. It's fun to watch all the fish we can see and other things in the pond at the end of the day with my hubby. :)

Dragonflies like the pool pond too. I've been trying to film them for a while now. Finally I caught one just sitting on the end of a water hyacinth stem, a pretty red one. I took a few videos of it, but don't have time to upload them now, maybe I'll upload it another time. It's getting late. Here's a picture of it for now. It's wings are down:

There's so many other things to tell y'all about to catch up, but I don't have time right now to tell you it all, so we'll have to catch up more later.

Aloha for now! :)

12/27/08

K, guess I didn't make it online last weekend. My hubby's computer went down and he's been using mine a lot. With two of us using the same one when we used to just use our own I got off-schedule. We usually do the computer things at the same time as each other. He's taking the cord apart and fixing it and such as I type. (We can't just go to the store and get another here, have to find one online and it takes forever and lots 'o bucks to get one here).

Sleep
We haven't been able to farm, still, due to all the rains here and how our new farm has been flooded for the last few weeks. So we've been working on things around the house and it's been great, however we've also gotten off-schedule with our sleeping. I think it's affecting our quality of sleep too. We're both starting to realize it and will be trying to ease back into something more regular again.

Female
I'm on day 8 of my cycle, there's a little boy icon on there. I haven't been willing to take my temperature for a while though since the sleep is so irregular and I've been either going to sleep or getting up too near the times I can take my temperature lately. I have been putting in when my period starts, so I suppose that's where it's getting the info from. I'm thinking of changing the time I take my temperature to a different time since our schedule's all different now. That might help.

I felt a bit of PMS before this last period: sore breasts, a little headache and some constipation/bloating. I felt a little hormone emotional for a few hours as well. I haven't felt that stuff in years. It all was really slight and minor, but I noticed them 'cause I don't usually have those symptoms anymore. A sign that I need to get things more in order towards the ideal again. I think the main thing that will help my health more noticeably than the other things is getting regular aerobic exercise, so I'm gonna' work getting that back into my life again (along with the other things).

Farm
We've run out of things at the old farm and can't plant more there so we're not doing farmer's markets anymore. Well, actually there are a few older things we've been harvesting for ourselves as we make trips back and forth for moving everything. It's not the quality we'd sell, but it works for personal use, for now at least. We're about out of that too... I'm thinking of planting some things at our house to bridge the gap, perhaps in pots so that they don't get flooded as well.

Food
So that means I've started to buy things for my evening meals again. At first I figured I might as well get stuff I'd buy occasionally if I had to buy stuff. It's hard to buy things we usually grow - get so spoiled when you're a farmer and all... The problem with getting the things I was getting is that it's not ideal fare, not too bad in terms of that sort of thing, but not the best either. I was had some dried tomatoes that were in olive oil (and the olive oil) on some non-organic cucumber noodles a few times. I also had some Essene bread, which is considered raw (like dehydrated) but is still grains and such. Both delicious, but not ideal, oh well. Actually, the Essene bread wasn't so delicious, so I'll probably skip that kind at least in the future. I do okay with the olive oil occasionally on our fresh grown organic cukes, but I this was a bit more than occasionally since I had it 3 or 4 nights in a row...

What else am I eating these days? I'm having coconut water or OJ for breakfast and bananas for lunch. I'm eating either apple bananas, ladyfinger bananas, "cooking" bananas (raw & ripe of course), or Cavendish bananas these days. The Cavendish aren't locally grown but the rest are. I sometimes end up having to get them at the store when there aren't enough ripe local bananas. The storms have affected the banana supply here as well as slowing the ripening speed of what I find. I'm drinking more water lately - probably 'cause of the non-ideal dinner foods. I think it's mainly the incidental salt I'm getting from them that's making me more thirsty. Did I say that I wrapped some of the older stuff from the farm in dried Nori sheets a few times too? Yeah, not too great either. Not the worst, of course, but I've done better for myself and will again! :)

I keep thinking that I should just skip the dinner stuff for now and just have fruit instead, but I haven't been into having bananas or oranges for dinner right now, and haven't been getting the more expensive fruits 'cause we're budgeting everything 'till we're farming again. So I'm more on a survival raw diet than a thrival one. It's going well considering the situation and all.

Stress
Speaking of going well considering the situation and all... I haven't been stressed out much at all about the lack of income thing or the farm being flooded and more storms coming thing either. We might end up doing other work in the meantime until the land dries up enough to plant or we find another place to farm, but I feel fine. Nice. It feels like it's all gonna' work out well, so I'm "going with it." :)

Exercise
I'm also not getting as much exercise as usual since we're not farming. We're doing things around the house, moving things from the old farm to the new one and within the house, but it doesn't feel as good physically. Perhaps it's 'cause we're not outside all day anymore or something...

Overall
Anyway, I am still doing raw vegan and getting exercise and sleep, but it's "off" a bit compared to how it usually is, so I'm not as vital as I know I can be. I really want to get these things done around the house though, so I'm willing to deal with it. I'll just have to adjust to the changes and get into the swing of getting regular quality sleep, exercise and more ideal food again the way things are right now. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Happy Holidays!

Aloha!

12/14/08

K, so I'm on-track-ish for the Blogging so far... Yay! :)

Farm
It looks like we might have done our last farmers' market for a while, although we might have a bit for Wednesday. We're gonna' try...

We harvested for yesterday's market hoping it'd clear up enough, but it didn't. The bridge was closed so we couldn't do the first one. The storm let up enough to go to the second one, but not many people were going out at that point anyway. There had been a lot of thunder and lightning in addition to the wind and rain and we don't usually get lightning, and even rarer is thunder with it. It started raining again and getting windy, etc. after a bit, so we left with lots of leftovers. Unfortunately we weren't able to preserve them, so they'll be future fertilizer via compost...

Food
Too bad about the salad 'cause I could use some salad right now. Oh well. I'll hafta' make do with something else. Kinda' a bummer to be combined with a shortage of ripe bananas too. My banana guy was away the week before last and it threw off the supply (in addition to the varied whether for ripening) more than I realized.

I got some carrots, broccoli and corn at the farmer's market yesterday - all of which are sort of rare for me. I was feeling like getting other veggies in me as well as the greens. I ate the corn right away - 'cause it's best eaten as soon as possible after it's been picked. I ate the carrots a little while ago and had some of the broccoli leaves as wrappers for wraps with my salad last night. The broccoli was mainly leaves. Maybe I'll dip the rest of the broccoli into some lemon-tahini dip or something tonight after lots and lots of orange juice (since I don't have salad).

I had OJ for breakfast too and a small hand of apple bananas at lunch. Now that I think about it, there's probably no way I'll not overeat the fats today. Oh well. I think I'll have several hands of bananas ready for tomorrow or the next day, so I'll be able to even it out then.

I gathered a bunch of lilikoi (passion fruit), the yellow tangy kind from our yard today & I'll probably have some of them tonight too, just after the OJ and before the dip. Hmmm... it's turning out to be a better dinner than I thought it'd be. :)

Exercise
Not much official exercise... we've been doing loads of stuff at our house with the house and yard so have been getting some that way. We've cleared out room to use my son's home gym thing which is exciting so I'll probably start using that again soon. We've been moving some stuff around that hasn't been accessible for a while and the dust was getting to me so I've been not as energetic due to the sneezing increase that happens with exercise when that's happening. Too bad I wasn't full-on with the elements of health better these days - I probably wouldn't have been as bothered by the dust and all. I know it's worked that way for me in the past with 80-10-10 (where if I'm "on it" with things I don't have much if any allergy issues). Oh well. It is what it is. At least I know why.

Sleep
Sleep? Er, uh.... yeah. Well... We have been getting loads and loads of stuff done that we've meant to for years - but it has also often been late at night so I haven't been getting as good of sleep as I should. I started to catch up a bit today - took a nap, but still need to do a bit more, perhaps tomorrow. We'll see.

Female
I should be well into the green days, but I have been getting to sleep so close to my regular time for taking my temperature and getting up too close to it afterward that I haven't been able to take my temperature lately. I probably could have and it might have been okay, but I like to skip it if I'm in doubt about if the reading would be accurate or not, just in case...

While we wanted more children years ago, our son is 20 now and we're kinda' liking the independence and such. It's still a possibility for the future to have another child, but I'm not wanting to take the chance right now.

Crafts
I think I'm gonna' join Ravelry and blog over there about some of the fiber crafts I do. I have to request an invitation, then I can join. If/when that happens I'll let y'all know so if any of you are interested in more info on that stuff you can go there. I figure I shouldn't take up too much space here on it. I might change my mind and just combine it all into this one blog, still deciding. If you have suggestions, let me know. :)

In the meantime I'll cover some things here... I love knitting and stuff like that 'cause it gives me something to do with my hands instead of figiting when I can't do anything else. I also like being able to make custom things so they're just how I want them. And it's also exciting, sort of addictive to me too... There are little bits of progress to measure and goals to reach along the way and it's so exciting to me to anticipate and reach them. Here's and example of what I mean: I finally decided to go ahead and go for knitting a sock.

I was always intimidated by having to use double-pointed needles - and not just two, but FIVE! I had been afraid I'd end up with messes of dropped stitches by the time I got back around again. LOL So I decided to face my fear and just do it. I'm sooo glad I did too! :) I knitted a nice lacy pair of cotton socks for myself and I was so amazed that I was actually doing it the whole time. It was like, "Wow, these bamboo knitting needles are working just fine, not losing stiches after all." Then, "Hey, look! The toe actually looks like a sock toe, and my toes fit in it!" (I was knitting them toe-up).

Next I was using Five needles instead of two and it was, "How cool this looks and it's not that hard after all." Then I got to the pattern and it was, "That is a nice pattern I do like it. I'm almost to the heel!" Kinda' nifty how that design had the same procedure for the heel as the toe, which really appeals to me from a practical perspective or something like that. So I thought that was way-cool too. When I was done with the heel it was, "Gosh, this really is starting to look like a real sock!" I was showing each of these steps and sharing my excitement with my family and at that point my hubby was excited/impressed too. He said something like, "It looks like a sock now already. I mean you could just end it now and it'd be a sock." (He likes to wear footy types of short socks with his running shoes and all).

I agreed that I could, but was gonna' finish the pattern and make more of a leg on it. I'm glad I did. They came out so much cuter than I thought they would. They're almost like little boots or something. The same look/feel to me as the little boots I used to love to wear in college and when I met my hubby. Sweet! :) I'll hafta' take a picture of 'em and show y'all. I'll try to take pics of the other two projects I've done recently as well - and maybe some older ones too while I'm at it... Maybe I'll have that done for next week's posting.

I was gonna' get back to spinning again today and was all ready to sit down and spin when I realized that my container of unspun de-seeded cotton had been moved during all the stuff we're doing at the house and I have no idea where it is right now. Oh well. Probably a good thing anyway. I might not have gotten to doing this blog on time otherwise.

A lot of the things we're doing around the house and farm are sort of like craft projects on a larger scale. I hadn't really thought of it that way before, but that's what building stuff is really. Not sure why it didn't occur to me before...

Other
Well, I should go now. My hubby's back from the new farm, it's dark and that means it's time to work on the garage some more... It feels so great to finally get these things done! :)

Aloha!

12/10/08 - Updates

About Blogging
K, so you wonder, what happened? Janie was on a roll again...

Yeah, well, um... lots of stuff, actually. Sorry. I haven't been online much most of the time so it's been harder to do the blogging because of that. I'm thinking of doing audio or video blogging instead or in addition, alternating or something. Podcasts of sorts and all. My camera takes short videos fairly well and I might be able to find my son's digital audio recorder - both portable. I could do the blogs in-between stuff informally on the go... Hmmm... I think it has potential.

I think I'll be able to do some of the FAQs with audio or video stuff too. That might get them to happen quicker than they've been happening.

I have been pretty obsessed with knitting lately - been knitting pretty much every bit of spare time I have with my hands. I have also gotten into listening to Podcasts about crafts in addition to news and such as well. I just realized today that my son hasn't been using the digital audio recorder we got him to use for taking notes or making compositions in school. It's one that would interface with voice recognition software and type things out for him, which is a challenge due to his dyslexia. He's gotten fairly proficient with typing and spell check though and doesn't need it for his life right now. So.... I'm hoping he knows where it is still (Mr. Gagethead, he is indeedy) and it's not buried in some pile of electronic stuff somewhere not to be found for years. LOL

I've also decided that rather than try to post daily and feel badly about getting so far behind, I'll try to post weekly instead - either typed, audio or video. We'll see how that works. I'm not sure what day I'll post them, probably over the weekend, but I'll figure it out once our schedules settle again.

The Farm
We were doing quite well with the farm for a while there, had worked up to 7 farmers' markets a week (over 6 days - there were 2 on one of the days), and had other wholesale customers as well. We were lovingly pumping out the organic veggies and loving it. :)

We knew that we'd probably have to move the veggies to another place once the papayas get to a certain age as they'd shade out the veggies and would get so large that the roots would overlap so we wouldn't want to disturb them. So we were able to get a lease on some other land that we planned to move onto when the time came. We planned to overlap things and transition from one to the other fairly seamlessly.

Well, there were complications with that plan - mainly getting the land at the new farm prepared for planting. We had a hard time finding someone who had the equipment and know-how to do what we needed here - and then had a hard time finding time they were available. It took several months to get them out there to begin with, but it worked quite well. Well, sort of... He wouldn't do both parts we wanted to do, claiming that we needed to mow, then wait and mow again before doing the rest. That's how most of them do it here. So try as we did, we could not get him to stay and finish the second part that day. He said he'd be back in a week or two though, so we figured we could wait. Well, wait we did... and we're still waiting! It not only has been over a week or two - it's been over a month or two at this point. Ug!

The problem is, we cannot wait any longer. The time to move is now - for many reasons: we were subleasing through someone else and the landlord changed the locks on the gates but would not issue more than one key for our group (even though there were several subleasing the piece). This is after the security guards had been hassling people who came there to help us farm. It got worse after the key change - they said that only my husband could go there (not even me) and that we had to have the key (which they would not give enough copies of for my hubby to have his own) and that we could not use a hide-a-key and all. It'd become totally unworkable. Evenso, my hubby plodded along and worked out something so that he can bring me in and we have access to the shared key.

The security people got all weird over time and the landlord's office claimed that they were having problems out there (there are many acres of leased land over there beyond the gates and many people leasing various parts of it). We weren't able to get in for a few days when they changed the locks because the security people told us we couldn't go in without the key - but they hadn't issued the new key yet. Doi. We ended up having to miss a few markets and weren't able to go in daily to water, weed, plant and tend to the farm either. In addition to that, there had been a few storms and such that made it more challenging to grow things consistently and some farmer's markets that were completely rained out. It had become questionable about whether the people we were subleasing from actually had a lease for the term we were supposed to have as well as other issues with them that had become apparent. We had been having less and less planting space due to the papayas as well, so we realized the time to relocate had come, ready or not. We've reduced down to two days of farmer's markets a week, have stopped planting and stopped weeding at the old farm in order to get this done.

So we have been working on relocating our farm, even though we are still waiting for the equipment to come and prepare it for us to plant... because we have no other choice at this point. My hubby and I have been trying to figure out ways to get some things planted ASAP without waiting for the equipment as we cannot even raise the guy on the phone these days anymore. (He may be off-island for the holidays and such). Heh, the ironic thing about the security and all over at our old farm is that after we reduced the farmer's markets and stopped going there daily, someone stole some of our tools. We'd never had any theft problems before - and they were supposed to be making things more secure by making it so hard for people who belong there to get in. LOL We weren't able to do anything about it the day we discovered the thefts 'cause we were rushed to get the harvest done and to market, but we moved out everything we could over the next couple of days, leaving things to do harvest with since we'd still need it there for now. We got a storage shed and assembled it and all, after my hubby cleared some of the land with his high wheel weed wacker and regular heavy duty weed wacker.

We need to set up the irrigation and all over at the new place too - but need the land prepped first... We're trying to figure out how to get it done anyway. It'll work out in some manner or another though.

It's nice to not have that long commute daily anymore and I'm looking forward to the short commute in the near future. So it'll be much better once it's done. We'll just end up having a gap in our production it seems, which we'll deal with in some manner or another as well.

Oh yeah, we've also been looking for acreage and at acreage within the price range of the person who's gonna' get land that we'll then be able to use long-term. We've been looking at auctions, listings and word of mouth stuff too. We haven't found anything that will work in that price range yet, but we feel we're getting close! :)

House
Given that we couldn't farm and haven't been able to do things as much in relation to that lately we've been taking the opportunity to get things done around the house that were overdue and needed. It feels so nice to get some of this done - finally. We've been able to get rid of some of the clutter inside much better than ever before and we've started to do some repairs here and there (like the wooden fence that we put up about 10 years ago that needs new supports 'cause we didn't want to use treated lumber at the time and it's rotten now). We've also decided to take out the garden fencing in our yard, figuring that we'll do the trellis gardening at the farm instead. That will give us more room to get to the fruit trees and harvest them when they're producing. We're going to move the plants in the garden area to the new farm. Most of them are Permaculture-ish type of plants that grow on their own here once established, so we can plant them there even before the land is prepped. We decided to not have a compost pile at the house since the new farm is in town and we can bring things there instead, so we're clearing out the compost piles from the yard. Nice.

It feels terrific to make some tangible progress in this area. There's much more we want to accomplish (including new flooring at some point - hopefully soon), so we may not finish it before we get things going at the farm but we're getting loads of it done now. Speaking of the flooring... it's currently what was a white plush carpet (came with the house, unfortunately) that has majorly suffered from little boys trekking in and out of the yard from the pool to my son's room and all, not to mention us coming from the garden in the yard or the farm. We all tried to take off our shoes at the door, but sometimes when in a hurry that fell by the wayside... And then there were the occasional spills and such, and rain coming in from the window when we didn't realize it, stuff leaking under boxes stored there, etc. It's amazing that it doesn't smell. Thank GOODness! :) It's not white anymore, needless to say, heh. And it's needed replacing due to all the stains and such for a while. Now that we've cleared out a lot of the boxes and such that were stored in there it's more of a possibility. Yay! :)

We want to have something that will be more well suited to our lifestyle than a white carpet. LOL I suppose almost anything would be more well suited to our lifestyle than a white carpet. :) We'd been eyeing bamboo flooring that's surprisingly inexpensive for some time now, but as it got closer I started thinking that tile was better. We'd been eyeing tiles too, but were leaning towards the bamboo previously. I went on the Internet to find out pros and cons of things and discovered that we might want to do a cement stain instead, and then seal it. The foundation is a cement slab and the garage has it bare with just a seal, which works quite well. It looks like the cement stains are quite versatile and can be quite beautiful as well. So that's what I'm leaning towards right now. My hubby's not so sure. Actually he's not so sure about thinking about changing the flooring right now either. We have so much else to deal with right now, it's understandable. Whatever we choose we'd have to take the current carpet out, so I figure that we'll see if cement staining is even an option at that point. (The cement slab has to be in good condition to do it apparently).

So ANYway... lots of stuff going on at the house-front as well, suffice it to say. I'll move on to other stuff now...

Food
I'm still doing all raw, like usual, however not as well as usual for the time being at least. We're budgeting our funds and have not had as many veggies for ourselves to eat or to trade for other things, so things have been a bit scarce at times. This has resulted in me eating a bit too much fat (probably more like 20%-25% ish) and some of my rarely occasionally things more frequently. It's temporary though, so I'm feeling okay about it. Of course I'm noticing the corresponding changes in my vitality but at least I know what's causing it and how to change it to what I want.

Exercise
That's been going really well at times and not so good at other times while I was away. I finally was able to make it to one of the classes at the gym where I work. It was really fun! :) I was going to the gym and rowing every other day and doing some free weights again too for a while there. Then it became obvious that I wasn't able to keep doing the work schedule I'd been doing - and get enough sleep. I was getting too tired and was taking the time to sleep instead of working out 'cause I just wasn't getting enough sleep otherwise. Between getting up at 3 in the morning for the job at the gym and doing harvests and farmer's markets for the rest of the day, sometimes into the night, I was only getting about 3-5 hours of sleep most days. I was having trouble staying awake when driving to the farmer's market that was the farthest from the farm (about an hour and a half) so my hubby had to do that one. Just so I could sleep. He needed to be farming though. It didn't make sense to hire temporary help at the farm to cover my hours either 'cause we pay people more than I was getting paid at the gym. LOL So I told them I couldn't work that day anymore. They said that the other person who was working mornings was going to be switching jobs there and they wanted me to just switch that day for another instead of working one less day. I figured out what day was the least worst day and exchanged it for that one. The thing is, it conflicted with the class I took there. Bummer. I thought that I might be able to take the yoga class that conflicted with my previous shift though, but now I'm realizing that it's probably not gonna' happen. Now that we're moving our farm, we won't be down that way as much so I'll probably not make it.

I'm thinking that I may have to quit that job completely, or at least drop the day I switched for. That day's not gonna' work out very well once we're back to our usual schedule since that night's the night we stay very late harvesting (with headlamps) for the early morning market the "next" day. I will probably not go there much 'cause it's an hour away, and it doesn't make sense to drive that far for the amount of pay I get and a membership I'll probably not be using much if at all... But I'm not gonna' drop things just yet. I will wait and see what happens. I may be able to work out after my shifts and after markets we have in that area if I'm getting enough sleep otherwise. Since we wouldn't have to commute for two hours a day just to get to the farm it's possible that I would get enough sleep anyway... We'll see...

In the meantime I'm doing other exercise here and there. We cleared out enough room in the living room to be able to use some of the exercise things I had in there and have enough floor room to do things in. Yay! My hubby pulled out the two rebounders we have when it was raining and we rebounded together. It was so fun! I just love rebounding! It's so joyful! :) It's also kinda' funny to try to coordinate our bouncing together too. :)

Sleep
Well, I sort of covered that in other areas here - it's been variable, but I was falling quite behind for a while too. I discovered that I needed to temper my knitting obsession too 'cause I was staying up too late doing that as well as the other challenges. So I'm still challenged in that area and working on it... Yeah, tonight it's the blogging, heh. Oh well...

Female
I haven't been taking my temperature as regularly lately 'cause of the irregular sleep, but the BabyComp still works anyway. So cool. I'm soooo glad I got it. I can just take may temperature around ovulation and menstration and that does it.

Other Stuff
My relationship with my hubby's going fabulously well, as is my relationship with my son. I am so grateful for my life with them, every moment.

When we cleared out the living room that also made room for my spinning wheel again. Yay! I haven't gotten back to it yet, mainly 'cause I've been distracted with my knitting obsession, but I'm planning on starting back on it next week.

I was playing the banjo ukulele every day - in my spare time, on the way to/from the farm and all, but then the battery in the tuner I used to keep it tuned ran out... And I took too long to get it replaced. It's been a while now and I've gotten out of practice. I have the batteries now, but haven't started back yet. I'll be starting off close to the beginning. That's okay. It's for fun anyway. The knitting has sort of taken it's place to/from the farm so I'll have to alternate them once I get going again.

The vog has come by once or twice since I last posted I believe. The last one was a few days ago and was getting to me. It lasted a bit longer than the vog though and I realized that it was a bit different afterwards - it turned out that I had another one of those little eyelashes growing astray - and into my eye. It was a bit hard to figure it out 'cause my eyes are often sensitive to wind after the vog exposure even after it's gone and it often feels like something's in it or irritating it. Was nice to have an instant solution to that irritation though - just pluck the eyelash and it's over. Definitely nice.

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but I only have one guinea pig now. The other one died. She was quite old, for a guinea pig that is, so it wasn't completely unexpected. It looked like she was peaceful and she'd been eating and drinking and acting fine so I think she was happy too. Same thing happened with my dog too - she died peacefully and was old as well. We miss them both daily, and we're grateful to have been able to share our lives with them for as long as we did. :) So now we're sharing our house and lives with only one guinea pig and a cat... along with all the unofficial companions like geckos and other lizards, birds and everything outside and all...

Let's see, what else... hmm... don't know right now. Guess it'll come out eventually as I blog more.

K, gonna' go now. Need to relax and go to sleep... getting up early tomorrow again and stayed up too late last night finishing a shirt I was knitting... (insert embarrassed smiley here).

10-12-08

Sleep:
up at 7am-ish

Food:
orange juice for breakfast, yellow dragon fruit a bit afterward
the rest is TBD..

We're going to a potluck today that is encouraging people to bring home-grown produce so hopefully that'll mean lotsa' fruit! :) We're actually not gonna' be bringing fruit though 'cause none of our fruit trees are bearing at the moment, well except the lemon tree. We're bringing three salads ('cause there are three of us): one that's two of our farm's 5-lettuce blend bags' worth and perhaps some rose petals; one that's two of our farm's salad mix bags' worth with some edible herb flowers; one that's cubed chayote squash, lemon, katuk leaves & flowers, tomatoes and perhaps some rose petals - all from our yard, except the tomatoes are from our farm. I'll make two dressings for people to pour on separately: avocado-lemon and avocado-lemon-basil-chives. I'll blend the avocado and lemon to dressing consistency, perhaps adding water if needed, pour out some of it into one container and then make the other dressing by adding the chopped herbs into the blender and barely blending it just for mixing. I'll try to take some pics of them for y'all. Since the thing starts at 10am and lunch is at noon, I figure that's when the potluck'll be so we're gonna' take things in a cooler and assemble them into the bowls when it's time.


update:
So I didn't end up having the OJ for breakfast after all. I discovered that we only had 2 oranges left LOL, so I had bananas instead. I ate 'em while making the dressing and chayote thing for the potluck. My hubby was gonna' get a pot for me to plant seeds from the yellow dragon fruit into so I didn't have them yet this morning either.

I ended up putting the juice of the 2 oranges into the dressings for the potluck too, in order to have more liquid 'cause the avocado made it thicker than I had lemons for and didn't want to add too much water... It tasted nice so it worked out fine. We were all running late for the workshop so I forgot to take the pictures I intended of the food. Oops - outta' practice again... had my camera and everything too.

The salads and dressings went over really well at the potluck. There were pasta dishes, chips, crackers, other salads and such too. Good thing my hubby over harvested. LOL We refilled the large salad bowls several times and it was all eaten, even though the crackers and some other things weren't. I was surprised how quickly the chayote and katuk dish went with that diverse crowd. Nice. There were some bananas there, but they were pretty bruised up so I had our salads all mixed together with the dressing. Then a friend of mine told me that they'd brought some longan from their yard. I hadn't seen it before so went and got some. Not the best to eat it after the salad dressing (overt fat from the avocado), but it was a potluck and I knew I might be mis-combining...

A farmer friend of mine gave me a chip she'd made from dehydrating greens and I can't remember what else - perhaps only Bragg's, not sure. It was tasty. I'm now wondering what else was in there 'cause if it was only greens and Bragg's I could do some without the Bragg's at some point for my hubby and it'd be a better choice for chips I think... I'll hafta' ask her sometime.

I had more bananas for dinner. I've got a lot of them ripening now so I'll be eating them a lot for a while...

Exercise:
Not a lot of official exercise today. It's the only day we don't harvest for the farmer's markets, but I am harvesting from our yard for a potluck today and my hubby's harvesting a tiny amount from the farm for it as well. I'll probably do some weights and/or dance video game with my son later.

Detox:
A bit dehydrated lately, not sure why. Drinking more water, but haven't had anything noticeable detox-wise to report - yet.

Female:
I skipped the temperature today 'cause my sleep was irregular (my hubby likes to sleep on an air mattress & it sprung a slow leak that partially deflated it during the night) and I thought it wouldn't be accurate, day 8 of my cycle, red day, no kid icons

The Rest:
I planned to catch up on my posts - or at least with the pics I took a while back today, but I'm not sure if that's gonna' happen after all. My hubby found out about a workshop/class that we all (my hubby, son and I) want to take today. It takes up most of the day, so I may not have time after all. Sorry. If I don't do it today, it'll probably wait 'till next weekend 'cause I'm still filling in for the guy who filled in for me at the gym and it makes me a bit short on sleep and time... Yesterday I decided to take a nap after the farmers markets, thought it'd be an hour or two.. I ended up sleeping three hours and could have still slept more if my hubby hadn't come home then. I wanted to get up and spend some time with him for a while before going back to sleep for the night. He was sleepy too so we went to sleep early. This morning I feel fairly well-rested (considering the deflated bed situation overnight LOL). Guess we'll hafta' patch the airbed or something. I was definitely wanting my hammock after a while, but stuck around 'cause I wanted to be with my hubby more...

The class we're going to is nifty - supposed to help you build your own wind and/or solar power system. We've all read books on this sort of thing and set up little solar power systems in the past, so hopefully it will cover things in more detail than just an overview or what's-possible-and-hire-someone sort of deal. It'd be cool if they got so detailed as to tell you how to make solar cells and such, but I kinda' think not, think it's a buy this and buy that sort of thing...

K, well that's it for now. I'll be back here posting for y'all when I can! :)

update: the workshop was pretty good, not just this is what's possible, went into more specifics and it helped update us with some of the newer batteries, controllers and such since we were off the grid the last time. Nice. K, gotta' go to sleep!!!

I'll try to take pics of my food better again...

Aloha! :)

Quick update

I took pictures of my food for a few more days and stopped after a while since I wasn't getting a chance to blog about them as much right now.

I'm working at the gym 5 days a week for this week and next week, filling in for someone on vacation who filled in for me when I was on mine. That means I have less time for everything, and that I'm taking most of what time I have to just sleep. Sorry.

I'll try to catch up on the older posts that go with my pics this weekend. Then I'll be back posting more regularly in about two weeks, when my schedule's back to usual.

I had a great time on vacation, and it's also good to be back home. This is home for me. Get out those ruby slippers 'cause I'm gonna' say, "there's no place like home, there's no place like home..." :D So true...

I'm having a blast getting back into my regular life again and have so many exciting developments with building the life I want that it's hard to contain myself sometimes. I love my life as it is and it's just gonna' get better and better as we head more towards my dreams. Yay! :)

Hope all is well with y'all too!

Aloha! (and nightie-night) :)

9/29/08

This was posted two weeks later and dated as if it was posted on the 29th, so the day of the week will show correctly and it keeps things in chronological order...

Sleep:
up at 3am to get ready for my shift at the gym - will be doing so all week...

Food:
~7am: I found 3 mangosteen in the kitchen and my hubby said that I could have 'em. Yum! :)


Then I had the rest of the starfruit from the day before:


~8:45am: When we got to the farm I had the water from two of the coconuts we got from our yard the night before:


I had lunch a couple of times 'cause I was too busy to eat it all at once. It was all bananas from our yard:


I can't remember what I had the rest of the day anymore and lost the pics later in the day so I don't have the pics to remind me. I think it was salad from our farm though.

Exercise:
Harvesting and light calisthenics as I had time, stairs and such at my shift at the gym... so not much, but I was still taking it easy with the jet lag and all.

Detox:
Yeah, I'm sure. Can't remember specifics though...

Female:
I think this was the first day I took my temperature again for a long time. I think it was day 5 of my cycle, but can't remember specifically at this point... It was a green day though, I remember that. :)

The Rest:
It was my first day back at the gym for work. It was nice to see everyone again too. I did the farmer's market with my hubby since he'd been doing it while I was gone. We went and got the freezer after market.

I took a few pics of a chameleon at the farm when drinking my coconuts and lost all the pics on my camera card that I hadn't copied over yet when deleting the ones I didn't want. Even though only a few were highlighted and I hit the delete key on my computer and it asked if I wanted to delete that many pics, it somehow deleted all of the pics on my card in that folder. :( Bummer. I had taken some pics of ukuleles I saw at Costco that I thought my dad might be interested in that I lost too. Now I'll hafta' figure out how to get in there again to do it again. I don't have a membership, but he does... I do have the web optimized pic I did for y'all of the chameleon though. Here it is:


K, I've only got one more day's pics from two weeks ago (the 30th), but will hafta' post 'em another time. It's getting too late tonight (the 12th) as I'm getting up at 3am again tomorrow...

Aloha! :)

9/28/08

I'm posting this two weeks later, so I don't remember much at this point. I'm gonna' override the posting date so it shows up as if I posted it on the 28th though.

It was my first day back, so I was short on food still and still jet lagged...

Food:
Breakfast was stuff I found around the house...
~10:15am: Star fruit - the first pic's what I started with and the 2nd is what was left when I was 'done' with the star fruit...


~10:30am: Then I decided to have some of the corn in the fridge 'cause even though I was done with star fruit, it wasn't enough calories. I find it hard to eat enough star fruit at times due to the waxiness of it. I realized that the corn wasn't fresh and I wouldn't usually eat it beyond the first day from harvest, but I was foraging so-to-speak, so I ate one to see how it sat with me. It did fine, so I ate another. The pic's of the second one and one like the first...


~12:15pm: My son told me that there were some longan around for me (gift from other farmers at market) so I searched around some more and found them. There weren't many so I ate 'em on the way into the farm...


~1:15pm: I got to the farm and looked around at what was still growing in the personal section I took care of before I left. The cucumbers were pretty much all done by then, there were still some tomatoes and basil, the peas were long gone and there were a few long beans still though. So I ate what long beans I could find. Here's a pic of 'em growing, followed by a pic of me with some of 'em. :) I was wearing the lei my hubby gave me at the airport when he picked me up 'cause it was still good...



~3pm: It was time for more serious calories, the foraging wasn't doing it for me anymore. So we went to the grocery store that usually has ripe bananas, but they didn't have any ripe right then. :( So I decided to get dates and eat 'em with apples to clean my teeth and lessen the sweetness. Yep. Home in the tropics and stuck eating imported stuff still. LOL I'll be able to go to the farmer's market soon and get things going again. No worries. :) My hubby got stuff from their deli and we ate at the mall. Here's my stuff in the re-usable bag that stuffs into a smaller attached one for storage:


When we got home (at about 6pm) we discovered that the rack of bananas in our yard that my hubby was so excited about ('cause it was sooo large and his favorite kind) had ripened while I was gone and some of them were already eaten by the birds. He was so busy doing everything, leaving in the dark and arriving back in the dark that he hadn't noticed... He harvested it and we harvested some coconuts for me to have in the morning too. I got lemons from our tree and noticed that there were roses ready for eating as well. (I eat the petals in salads). No papayas ready just yet). I gathered some yellow lilikoi (passion fruit) too. :) No more avocados left at this point. Oh well. Here's a pic of the coconuts from our tree after I put them in the back of our truck to take to the farm the next day:


~7pm: Dinner was cucumber noodles with cukes from our farm that I harvested before we left, topped with some julienne sun dried tomatoes from a jar that were soaking in olive oil. Eeek! Yeah, olive oil... Oh well. It was yummy at least. :)

I also sprinkled basil flowers on the 'pasta' that I'd gathered at our farm earlier too. Here's a pic I took of the basil flowers in the field...


Exercise:
Not too much today, just harvesting and stuff...

Detox:
Can't remember at this point (2 weeks later) - I figure there was something though as I'd been not eating all that optimally... I can see my skin and hair weren't up to par in the pic. That's sort of a usual thing for me after flying as well.

Female:
I didn't take my temperature this morning yet 'cause my sleeping was still messed up from jet lag and all..

The Rest:
It was really nice to be home. There was a strange smell the night before that we couldn't place. It smelled like something burning or something else, but it was hard to tell where it was coming from or what it was... In the morning we still smelled it and it was worse so we tried to figure it out even more. I finally decided that it was coming from the back or underneath the fridge. My hubby wasn't convinced and thought it was coming from a different area. Then we sort of converged to a similar area and I thought it was coming from the back of the fridge where a little fan was and he thought it was underneath the fridge. It was hard to locate 'cause the smell would sort of come and go in it's intensity. I thought it was related to the fridge's operation 'cause the smell would be more noticeable when the fridge was powering on and less when it was not. At a certain point late in the morning we discovered that it was indeed the fridge 'cause when my hubby was cleaning out the floor behind the fridge it started sparking when it powered on. He promptly unplugged it and we realized that we needed to get a new fridge. LOL Good thing we kept at it and didn't just go off to the farm. It made us rather late to get to the farm for watering, but it saved our house from burning down... My hubby cut the cord so our son wouldn't come and plug it back in when we were gone ('cause he wasn't there at the time and didn't know what was up).

So after going to the farm and watering and foraging we went to the mall and any other place we could think of with refrigerators to see our options. They were much more expensive than we thought they'd be and not all of them on display were available right away. We decided on one at Sears and were going to go back the next day to buy it and get it delivered. They said that if we got it delivered it wouldn't happen 'till Wednesday so there was no rush. The delivery would be free - we pay it upfront and get a rebate that will refund us. Hard to pass that up, especially since they had the best one in our opinion.

Since I'm writing this 2 weeks later I'll keep going with this thread... I went in the next day and saw the same sales guy to buy it. Then it turned out that the stainless steel one we were looking at wasn't the price it said on it and that we'd discussed. That price was apparently for the white model. Ug! We'd talked all about how it was the same as the white model beside it and that must be the difference in price - the sales guys had participated in that discussion too. Doi. There was another sales gal there on Monday who explained the difference in the price between the white models of the stainless steel one we wanted and the white one beside it was that the shelves inside had a slight lip on the sides of the shelves rather than just glass at the sides of the shelves. Quite minor. ANYway... the stainless model was $200 more than we thought and I wasn't prepared to pay for that. I'd gone in alone and didn't have the money for it with me or my hubby to discuss it with. At this point the other white one seemed like a better deal 'cause of the $200 difference. The thing was, they didn't even have the stainless steel one in stock either! Ug! So I went back to the farm and told my hubby about it and he agreed that perhaps we shouldn't get either of them.

We thought about just getting a freezer that opens at the top in order to freeze the water bottles for the farmer's market and leave it at that. Our son could use the little 3/4 fridge we had but weren't using and we didn't really need refrigeration for most things. We used it for left overs from market, but nothing else much. Those freezers are more efficient and cheaper to run, better on the environment... So that's what we did. We got it and brought it home that night. We got one that was the right size to fit where the fridge was, but didn't put it in there 'cause we still had the fridge and didn't have time to move it first.

We were able to plug in the freezer in the middle of the night and had the bottles of water in there to freeze for the farmer's markets. We were buying bags of ice to use for markets in the meantime. The freezer turned out to be not so great for this. It wasn't freezing the water as quickly and solidly as the refrigerator had - and hadn't even frozen one solid after 2 days... We then re-examined the owner's manual and noticed that it said that it was designed to store frozen foods.. so perhaps it didn't get cold enough to freeze things, only cold enough to keep things frozen that were already frozen?!? Ug! We gave it more time and my hubby noticed that it seemed to do better when we had more things in there and theorized that it needed less open space to freeze things. So we've been working on increasing the amount of bottles in there and it's been working better for us. It still takes about a day and a half or two days to freeze the bottles (whereas the fridge would take only overnight or one day), but we haven't been able to fill it up enough quite yet either. It'd be nice to have it full though so we'd always have plenty of the refreeze containers for the larger markets and the day we have two markets and all. So we're keeping it.

On a different note. I pulled out my son's ukulele and used the tuner my dad got me to tune it up. The pegs were a bit rusty so it was a bit more difficult to tune, but it tuned up nicely and I like the sound. So does my hubby. Yay! :) I started to practice the cords I knew and experiment with things with them and trying to find other notes or chords that sound good w/'em. I also looked at another string instrument we had around the same size. It was a banjo thing I guess my mom had and looking at it again I noticed that it had four strings. A banjo uke! Cool! I always liked the way that thing looked, now perhaps I'll know how to tune and play it too! Sweet! :) There were only 3 strings on it and it was very dusty and dirty so I took the strings off and cleaned it up some. I figured I'd bring it into a music store and ask them how best to clean it up further and get it restrung.

I wasn't able to go in right away to get it looked at, and when I did I found that I had to go back another day when the guy who did repairs would be there. That was Friday (the 10th) and he said that it was missing it's bridge, but he could order one fairly inexpensively. He told me a bit about it and will help me string and tune it when the bridge arrives. It should be here at the end of next week. Cool! :) He said it wasn't a top of the line sort of thing even in it's time 'cause it didn't have tension adjustments on the sides and all, but it could still have a nice sound. I like the design of it so I want to find out what it sounds like, so I'm going for it.

In the meantime I've been practicing and playing on my son's uke, which has been fun. I found that I needed to tune it almost every time though and figured it was partly 'cause of the rust on the pegs and more likely 'cause it didn't have a case and was getting untuned in transit. I found a nifty camo case and got it on the spot. Yay! I'm lovin' that case, yeah.

I haven't been playing the harmonica since I got back... want to find the book I have on how to play it here first...

K, enough on this day and updates on that stuff since...

9-23-08 and update

Sleep:
been catching up on my sleep, more gradually than before, didn't sleep very well on Sunday night - the shitake breath was bothering me, but I don't know if that was the only reason... Good sleep otherwise though

Food:
Monday
Breakfast was 'half' a watermelon (organic this time, yay), actually it was probably more than half in reality:


Lunch was organic bananas again. So simple, no brainer, nice. I ate 3 less than pictured:


Dinner was organic salad again. Yummy! I'm lovin' this salad lately: baby spinach and tomatoes (this time it was 3 heirloom roma tomatoes) with tahini-lemon dressing:


Tuesday (this day, the 23rd, but I'm writing it on Wed. morning)
Breakfast was the other 'half' of watermelon from yesterday, so it was probably less than half that watermelon:


Lunch was the regular for now, organic bananas. I ate 3 less than pictured again:


Dinner was the same as last night, still organic spinach & tomatoes with tahini-lemon dressing, except the tomatoes were a different kind (beefsteak large and medium instead of heirloom roma):


We went to the farmer's market in Berkeley today, different one than the one we went to before. It was nice. I'd been there last year too. I don't remember it being there when I lived in this area before though. I remember the other two markets and used to go to them in Berkeley when I lived in that area. ANYway...

I got a bit over 12 pounds of melons for my breakfasts the rest of my time here, some dirty girl early girl tomatoes and some beefsteak tomatoes, all organic. I wanted lemons and salad mix too, but didn't find any. Good thing we were going to the Berkeley Bowl later so I didn't have to re-figure out what to eat.

I got a pleasant surprise at market. Someone who knows me from my website here and I've emailed with a couple of times saw me there. We talked a bit and it was really nice to catch up a little and see each other face to face. I took a pic of us, holding the camera myself. That's such a fun way to take pictures. I have a friend, who also eats 80-10-10 and visited Kauai for a few months, who is a master at taking pictures of herself this way (holding the camera out in front of her). She has even taken nice profiles and silhouettes at sunset and such. After seeing her pictures I got inspired to take pictures that way too. It's such fun to do when taking a pic with someone else too 'cause it's sort of a grab bag to find out how it turned out. I'm getting better at aiming though, but I still need to get my shoulder to look more natural and stop opening up my mouth weird when I'm aiming it. LOL I usually have to take a few pics just 'cause of my mouth. Luckily digital cameras are like Polariods in that way & you know right away whether you got the pic enough. So here's the pic we liked the best:


We had planned to go eat at Cafe Gratitude in Berkeley after the farmer's market to check it out. I've never been there and my dad and his wife wanted to take me out somewhere. I've been curious about tasting the food there 'cause I've heard other people talking about it. I can't remember what they said in particular, but know that it's not the optimum food, like all the 'raw' restaurants, and that it sort of stretches the 80-10-10 thing and even the raw thing a bit IMO, but it's close enough to try out on vacation as a splurge. All the menu items are named like affirmations and all, things like "I am happy" and "I am feeling warm", so it would be sort of fun in that way too. We didn't end up doing it because when we got there it was closed 'till Thursday (supposedly) for repairs or remodeling or upgrading or something. I thought, "Bummer, we came here mainly for that & now my dad & wife are gonna' be hungry and all". I also was a bit disappointed 'cause I was 'up' for trying some of their stuff and had sort of planned out what I got at the farmer's market and what I was gonna' eat according to having eaten stuff I'd have to recover from today. LOL Then I thought that it was probably a blessing 'cause I wouldn't have to recover after all.

At the Berkeley Bowl my dad said that I was having an effect on them 'cause they were getting excited about buying veggies and fruits and stuff. It's pretty easy to get excited about that at the Berkeley Bowl too 'cause they have so much of a variety, and a variety of the variety. LOL I got baby spinach instead of salad mix 'cause it cost the same (all organic of course). I also got another large tomato 'cause I realized that I needed to account for an additional dinner since we weren't eating out after all. I got lemons to last for the dinners 'till I go too. I was done, but they were just starting. I then got to thinking about how I had planned to splurge and remembered a thing I'd been wanting to try out at some point. I decided to get the supplies as my substitute splurge, so I did. I had thought about making sandwiches with the sprouted and dehydrated breads you can get here, using avocado instead of mayonnaise and putting thick slices of tomato and lots of lettuce and/or salad mix/spinach on it. I got one that didn't have fruit in it so it'd be less of a digestive challenge and all. I don't know what temperature they dehydrate those breads at and all, but I'm not too concerned about it for a splurge. To me, dehydrated is dehydrated and it's not really raw; it's not necessarily exactly cooked either, so it's okay enough for a splurge. I don't eat grains otherwise so it's sort of a double-splurge, but still a lot less of a health challenge than what I'd probably have eaten at the restaurant.

It turned out that the bread was frozen. Guess they don't get it regularly enough to keep it just refrigerated. I got it anyway, which makes it a triple-splurge 'cause I don't eat frozen stuff otherwise either. LOL Oh well. I noticed my old favorite mix of it (one with dates and cinnamon) and then remembered that I could probably take that on the plane with me but not fresh produce... and got it too. Doi. Guess I'm doing the vacation eating thing after all. Good thing I'm not here much longer in that regard. LOL I know that I'd have been fine just eating my lunch early before my flight and having my dinner late after the flight, like I usually do. Oh well. Now I'll have a dessert thingy to munch on instead...

Now I'm wondering how much I'll be temporarily set back from all this 'cause on our way to my dad's house after leaving the grocery store my dad said something about going to the restaurant another day before I left. We thought that maybe Friday night, and his wife said it could be a farewell dinner. He usually wants to avoid a possible lunch or dinner rush so I guess that's why he later suggested we go on Wednesday instead. The Berkeley one is still closed on Wednesday, but we could go to one at a different location.

So I'm gonna' be splurging left and right here. Ooops. Oh well. It's still all under the general category of organic raw vegan, even if it skirts the line of raw a bit IMO. I'll survive... and then thrive later on when my body's dealt with it all. LOL I'll make a point of enjoying it all as much as possible too, so it's worth it. :) I'm wondering how to space it all out now though, not sure if I can do it well. The frozen thing was too frozen to have the sandwiches last night and I'll probably not want to eat anything else in the day after we've been to the restaurant. I had already taken the bread out to defrost before my dad suggested going to the restaurant the next day, so I should eat it fairly soon... I'll just see how I feel and either have it later that day or the next day. Perhaps the bread will last 'till the day after, which would be nice... We'll see. I'll probably have some detoxing things to tell y'all about in the near future, heh.

Exercise:
Monday
I pretty much did my usual thing lately at the gym: rowing and weights. I had noticed that the TVs in the cardio room had a number displayed below them that looked like a radio station and wondered if they were doing local broadcasts of the TV channel sound so you could tune in and listen to it while working out (and other people wouldn't have to listen, and you didn't have a lot of competing channel sounds going all over the place). I asked 'em at one point and they said it was just that. Cool! I thought about how they had loaner gloves and speed bags and all and wondered if they had loaner radio tuners and earphones too, so I asked this day. They did! Yay! I got them and enjoyed watching TV that I wouldn't usually watch while rowing. It was sort of educational for me, LOL, really. I don't usually shop in regular stores and haven't seen The Price is Right since I was in Elementary School probably (I know at least since before college). I watched that while rowing and enjoyed people watching on the TV as well as seeing how much stuff costs and all. Interesting enough to supplementally entertain me while rowing for a bit over a half hour. It's a good thing too 'cause I was feeling a bit low energy-wise that morning due to not sleeping so well the night before. Once I got going though I felt great, like I could row forever, as long as I had something mildly interesting enough to watch as well. LOL I figured I shouldn't go much beyond a half hour though 'cause I didn't want to overdo it and get set back from my back thing and all.

After the rowing I went and did the shoulder dumbbell routine: 3 sets of reps to 'failure' of: lateral raises; compound lateral up to front and down; compound biceps up to overhead and back; reverse fly. Then I went and used some machines for more of the same: chin ups & bench press. I had noticed that my usual bench press weight seemed a little light before, but didn't see any 5 lb adders. This day I decided to try it with 10 lbs more. It worked just fine, so now I'm doing 10 lbs more for them in the bench press machine. I don't know if I'd be able to do that same weight with a barbell as well or not, but don't want to try it without a spotter. Perhaps when I'm home again I can try it with my hubby spotting me. He's a terrific spotter for me 'cause he's so careful that I don't get hurt. LOL

I thought about maybe doing some of the speed bag too, but then decided to just end it there as I remembered how I was a bit low energy to start with.

Tuesday
I basically did the same routine as the day before, but felt that I'd recovered enough to try out adding in the adductor/abductor weight machine, so I did 3 sets at weights low enough for high reps (12) with that machine in-between the dumbbells and the chin-up machine. I watched the Today Show instead of the Price is Right this time though. I like the Today Show and I'd already gotten what I was gonna' get from the Price is Right the day before. When I started my rowing session I decided to try out the Games option they had on there. There was a fishing game that was sort of fun, but didn't seem to be good for exercise 'cause I had to slow down or speed up in order to play the game and found that slowing down worked better for scoring and the way the fish were arranged which meant I wasn't really rowing as much as usual and it was sort of a jerky thing. The game was cute, sort of a PacMan dealy where you ate smaller fish or the larger fish would eat you and you'd move up and down the screen according to how fast and hard you stroke. The fish would move across the screen horizontally, moving up and down a little. So after I messed with that a bit, I did about 35 minutes or so of regular rowing before going on to the weights.

When I went to turn in my locker key I saw the gal that was rowing with me after class last week and she asked me if I rowed. I said I had and we had a discussion about where I was from and such. She had been talking to the Pilates instructor I'd talked to the other day. I told her that it didn't look like I'd be able to take her class after all, that it wasn't working out timing-wise. She made a pouting look and asked, "you can't make 9:30 on Thursday?" I said that I could make that class, but it didn't look like I was gonna' be able to make it to a Pilates Mat class beforehand like she'd recommended. She said that if I was there on Thursday that I could take the class anyway since she was the instructor. She said it'd be challenging, but that she thought I'd do fine. Yay! That sounds great! I have been curious about the Pilates with the equipment and all. After I went home I looked at the schedule and realized that I had spaced out on a Pilates Mat class that was actually happening as I was talking to her at the gym. Doi. It had started a half hour before that so I totally could have gone to it... if I hadn't spaced on what day it was. Vacation spaciness, forget exactly what day it is and all. LOL Oh well. I'm gonna' try to make sure not to miss the thing on Thursday. It's not gonna' do all the equipment, but I'm hoping that she might show me the other stuff afterward just for fun...

Detox:
A touch of BO under one arm after working out on one of these days - a rinse with water took care of it.

My skin is always so much drier when I travel than usual, so I realized that since I don't really have BO that I could just skip the shower after my workouts since I like to shower before them. That allows my skin to not get as dried out and has been working fairly well for the last few days.

Female:
days 13 & 14 of my cycle, red days I'm sure, probably some sort of kid icons (if I had the BabyComp with me, that is)

The Rest:
I think I covered most of it already in the rest of this post... Oh yeah! Instruments!

On Tuesday morning my dad found his harmonica and the instructional book that came with it so I took out my new harmonica and started to do some stuff on it with the book. He did some of it with me too. Fun! :)

On Tuesday night my dad and I watched an ukulele video he'd gotten from the library. I had the uke and tried out some of the things that he introduced us to on the video. It was pretty cool, but I had a hard time figuring out when to change cords and what cords to change to by just watching him and he wasn't calling them out or anything. Later in the video we found out that there was a booklet that came with it (that wasn't with it anymore) that probably would have done the trick for me. It was fun anyway though and I learned some stuff. He had 3 guest ukulele professionals towards the end of the tape that had some pretty nifty strums going. Inspiring. I have no idea if I'd ever get to the point of doing anything like that, but it's nice to know I could if I spent the time. :)

K, that's "it" for now.

Aloha!

9/14/08

Sleep:
woke at about 8:30am,
up at about 9am
to sleep for night at about 10:30pm the night before
still catchin' up! :)

Food:
Yesterday:
1/2 medium watermelon for breakfast
4 large ears of corn for lunch at the farmer's market after buying them
figs, some blueberries, a few slices of cucumber and lots of watermelon for dinner

Today, so far:
the other 1/2 of the medium watermelon for breakfast
3 green containers of strawberries I got at the farmer's market yesterday for lunch
I plan to have some dates before dinner (there's only about 8 of them) & then some salad mix with either tahini/lemon dressing or avocado & oranges in it for dressing

I haven't been as active as usual lately, been focusing on catching up on my sleep more, so my eating's down a bit. I'm also recovering a bit from some of the less-than-optimal food I'd been eating, so cutting back is a bit from that too.

My dad took me to the grocery store on the way home from picking me up so I could get some food. He took me to Safeway in his little town and I was so surprised to see how much organic food they have now. The Safeway at home has a little, but nowhere as much as that - volume nor variety, and of course, that Safeway in my dad's town didn't have any organic food in it when I lived here (back in the dark ages as my son thinks of it probably). LOL I got bananas, a watermelon, heirloom tomatoes, salad mix, oranges, strawberries, and lemons there, all organic except the watermelon. Sweet.

The bananas weren't gonna' be ripe for a couple of days so I got about 33 of them. They're starting to ripen today so I'll be able to eat some of them tomorrow. I brought the strawberries with me yesterday when we went out, but didn't end up eating them and they went moldy before lunch today so I had to ditch them. Some of the dark figs I got yesterday got moldy overnight too. Bummer. That's why I plan to eat the rest of them before dinner tonight. I had the strawberries from market yesterday for lunch today 'cause I could smell them being extra-ready this morning. Smelled so good! :) Too bad the others had gone bad. Oh well.

Exercise:
Nothing much today. Some pushups and some jump lunges & jump squats and all. Yesterday we walked around a bit at things we went to, but I didn't end up doing any exercise otherwise somehow. I did do some drumming for an hour and learned how to play the ukulele for a few hours, so I guess that's good for neuro and such...

Detox:
The watermelon's helping on this front, yay! I think I'm clearing out the stuff from H&F and afterward now. I had a little BO under my arms at the ukulele party last night and a tad this morning about an hour after my morning shower. BM this morning when almost done with watermelon was a tad cloudy and I could tell was still being influenced by the raw peanuts I'd gotten in Washington 'cause of the smell (P-U). Note to self, again: don't eat raw peanuts 'cause they make me have bad breath and smelly BMs and such. Wonder when I'll just quit them altogether... at least they're very, very, very infrequent.

Female:
day 5 of my cycle, probably a green day (probably the last one 'till a couple of days after ovulation), probably no kid icons (In case you didn't catch it in a previous blog, I don't have my BabyComp with me on this trip - forgot it at home)

The Rest:
I'm at my dad's now. Yesterday we went to a drumming circle at Kaiser that's for health purposes - to reduce stress. Cool. Kaiser's got all sorts of nifty things going on. Nice. ANYway, my dad does this class and one of the other people who does the class too said she wasn't gonna' make it and suggested I go in her place, so I did. :) It was fun, a lot like what goes on at parties on Kauai, heh. There was a bit of leading going on, but they would usually lead into a jamming session where anything goes sort of and nothing's wrong, etc. When the teacher/leader found out that I was from Hawaii she said that she was having a party that evening called the Ukulele Lounge. Funny coincidence. She invited us too, so we went. It was fun! :)

I learned how to play the ukulele a bit there too, even funnier. LOL I have had several experiences where I go away from home and then have Hawaiian experiences while on vacation: got lomi-lomi massage for the first (and only so far) time at H&F Week a few times ago, learned to hula on a ship, and now learned to play ukulele when visiting my dad. Funny. We had fun there. I had been meaning to learn to play the ukulele and had my son's out in my room at home for some time now in preparation for that. I'd thought of taking classes at the community college or adult school, but didn't have enough regularly free time for it yet, so it was way cool. :)

After the drum circle my dad and I went to the farmer's market before it was over and I got some organic produce: orange flesh honeydew, french melons, corn, salad mix, strawberries, apple-pears, 2 little avos and I can't remember what else. There were craft vendors and live music too. It was by a park so there were a lot of people hanging out on the grass by the music. One thing that was nifty was that there were a lot of people being more active and athletic than I remembered them ever being there before. There was a guy with a nylon strap (about 1" wide) around a tree on one side and around a street lamp on the other, walking it like a tightrope. It was a stretchy and bouncy one though so it was more challenging. He was letting people try it too and helping us to try it out easier by sitting on it at first to get up there. I tried it. It was quite challenging and even though I didn't shake around as much as a lot of other people, I didn't stay up as long as some of them either. There were people doing acrobatic sorts of play things like we do at H&F Week and handstands, walkovers and such too.

After that we went to the Berkeley Bowl, a supermarket in Berkeley, and I marveled at the sheer variety of food they had there - even just in the produce section alone. I mean, it was like, "name a food, any food," and it'd be there. Amazing, just amazing. I don't know why we didn't go there more when I lived there. Well, yeah, I do. There were two other grocery stores closer to where we lived in Berkeley that had enough of a huge variety themselves. Oh, and then we belonged to the co-op too, so we'd go there. The Berkeley Bowl wasn't as big back then and didn't have as much organic food as now either. ANYway... if I was to move back to Berkeley I'd go to that store to get food if I wasn't growing it or getting it from the farmer's directly.

So we got a watermelon, something grey was the name (can't remember the first part), and it looked almost like a honeydew, so it was good for carving 'cause the watermelon stripe patterns wouldn't interfere with the carving patterns as much (a solid dark green melon works in that same way too). But then we decided before we bought it that it'd be too messy and time-consuming to carve it at the party & I didn't have my knives with me 'cause we hadn't gone back to my dad's house since the party was in Oakland and all. So, I got green figs, blueberries and toothpicks to do the alien bugs I'd done at H&F Week this year for the party. It worked out well, and people liked them. They liked them so much that they wanted to look at them more than eat them, which worked out well for me 'cause then I ate them. LOL They had all sorts of cooked dishes of course, but two people brought watermelons too and someone had a plate of sliced cucumbers as well so I ate enough for dinner there actually. Nice.

Today I checked out the two health club/gyms in my dad's little town I had been considering for a temporary membership while here. I'd called them and they'd both said they had rowing machines, but it turned out that one of them just had an upright row weight machine that the front desk gal thought was a rowing machine. The other gym was quite spacious and new and had 4-6 of them in the cardio section, more up in the circuit section and another somewhere else I can't remember off-hand. Wow! They're newer machines than the one at home so it'll be interesting to see if they improved the design or messed it up. My dad's wife (married a few years after divorcing my mom when I was an adult) belongs to a health club in the next town and goes there mostly for the pool exercise classes. I called them and another gym in that town that looked promising and both of them said they had rowing machines as well. We'll see. I'm gonna' skip the other one 'cause it's too expensive and check out the one she belongs to tomorrow. We're gonna' see if they can give us a better deal on my temporary membership than they quoted before since she's a member and I'll be using it for 12 days or something like that. They only mentioned an expensive day rate when she had visitors before. If not, then I'm joining that gym I saw today and workin' out there while here.

I just have to say how much I'm lovin' the new laptop cooler pad thingy my friend in Washington gave me. It's sooo cool - in two ways! ;) It's lightweight, the same size as my laptop, and plugs into the USB port of my laptop for power so I'm still mobile. It's got two fans that cool off my laptop amazingly well and it's solid plastic so that I can put the whole thing down on my lap or a soft surface, like covers, couch, pillow or what-have-you and it's fine. Nifty-oh-yeah fo' sure! :) I don't have to worry about blocking the exhaust fans and such anymore, sooo nice!

She also gave me a water bottle that has an activated carbon water filter in it, connected to a straw so that you can put regular water into the bottle and squeeze it through the straw to drink and it filters it as you go. So nice for traveling on a plane and when visiting people's houses that don't filter their water and all. I just emptied the bottle before going through security at the airport, then filled it again on the other side at the water fountain and I had water for the wait at the gate and the plane. Yay!

There were 3 things she gave me, all of which were ultra-nifty and that I've been really enjoying lately. The other one was a little Sandisk zipper pouch, meant for SD cards for your camera. I've been using it to put my cell phone's earphone cord into and it's been just perfect. I'd been meaning to make a little drawstring pouch for it or something, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. This was the perfect size and had a keyring attached so it's easy to put it on a clip in my backpack or just throw into my purse. It's a thick enough case that the cord's protected from all the other junk I have in my purse as well.

So, as I'm typing this I'm looking out at a nice view of mountains and water from the corner of my dad's kitchen. There are some sparrows feasting on the nuts and seeds in the feeder my dad's wife put out there. Cute.

I added a FAQ entry on teeth on this website for y'all, will add more later this week I hope too. :)

Well, I'm gonna' go for now. Type to y'all later! :)

9/10/08

Sleep:
still catchin' up ;)

Food:
Yesterday:

'naners for breakfast & lunch yesterday

4 or 5 small shitake mushrooms when making dinner (forgot that they were another occasional thing I got this week too... not ideal food, but I eat 'em up to a few times a year)

a few julienne cut dried tomatoes when putting them in water to soak for the marinara sauce... not ideal either

dinner of grated zucchini covered with marinara sauce (blended: tomato, red bell pepper, celery, fresh herbs (basil, chives, oregano & touch of thyme), soaked dried tomatoes) and sprinkled with chopped yellow & purple green beans, chopped yellow sunburst squash, red & orange bell pepper, sliced black olives; touch of nutritional yeast put on like Parmesan cheese.

Yeah, so the dinner was another meal that should stay as an occasional thing, still considered raw by most, but not ideal. My body dealt with it fine though - the BM issues were still clearing, actually gone by that time & I haven't had trouble (it's mid-morning the next day now)

I've had bananas so far today, but I'm running out so I might end up eating some of the Essene bread at some point today 'till I can get more fruit. Yeah, it's another occasional thing. So many of 'em right now. I'm looking forward to a long period free of occasional food when I get back home again. I'm gonna' continue to steer clear of the things I think gave me the BM issues though.

Exercise:
I didn't end up going to the gym yesterday, so did calisthenics and such at the house. I'm still easing back into doing new exercise activities. Tonight we're gonna' go to the "heavy bag boxing" class again. My friend said the trainer teaching the last class wasn't the regular one and hopes the regular one's back today 'cause she says that one's really good and fun. I hope so too! :)

The last class was fun. I was a bit apprehensive about doing the boxing with the boxing gloves without wraps or internal gloves, but it worked out fine. I didn't have any problems with the gloves on my hands - well, except for figuring out how to put my hands down for the pushups and all. LOL I don't know how you're supposed to be able to do regular pushups with them on, it wouldn't work for me. I ended up doing knuckle pushups instead. I learned a bit about how to do various punches. I only know the standard martial arts punches, but I was learning hooks, cross overs and jabs. Nifty.

Detox:
The issues I had from H&F Week, traveling and such have resolved by now, thank goodness. Nothing else new right now.
update: mid-afternoon had a tad of cabbage-smelling gas without bloating, right as I discovered that I had started my period; also took shower after that and smelled cilantro coming out of my pores. I guess it's all from H&F Week 'cause I haven't had either cabbage or cilantro since the last day of fancy meals there on Friday.

I'm thinking that I'm gonna' make cilantro a more rare and possibly a never thing for me and see how that goes. I might add arugula to that as well, but am not sure about it yet (as long as it's baby, baby arugula).

Female:
It's a red day still, no period yet, day 27 of my cycle
update: mid-afternoon my period started, so it's now a green day & day 1 of my cycle

The Rest:
Well, it's early in the day so not a lot to report. Dinner turned out well last night, so well in fact that there isn't much left-over for my friend to have as left-overs. Oh well. I made a few simple garnishes for the little bowls of stuff to sprinkle on top with the zucchini and sunburst squash. Gosh, I just realized that I should have taken some pics for y'all. Doi. Have to get back into that habit again... Sorry. I did a couple of zucchini flowers and 4 sunburst squash leaves to go with them. I packed my carving tools in the bag I planned to not have to unpack for simplicity so was keeping it simple 'cause I was using her steak knife to do it with. It worked well enough.

I've been thinking about the form my books will be taking and all, preparing myself to work on them in the next few weeks too. I'm hoping to finish at least one of them to release as an ebook or something before I go home... You'll know as soon as I do.

K, gonna' go and work on catching up on my sleep some more right now. I'll be back later, working on the todo list and such until my friend gets home. Then we'll work on her trailer some more and run off to the boxing class.

Have a terrific day! :)

Aloha!

Website todos

K, so here's my list of things I want to do for this website. I'm posting it here so you'll know what's due to change & so you can let me know if you think I forgot something or if you want me to add anything else by commenting below.

Todo list:

• fix up Blogger interface so it looks right when viewing older blogs too - adjust template I suppose


• add more product reviews, etc


• fix air & water filter products link(s)


• add garnish/ambiance link in products?


• see if can find smaller tool kits with only the tools I use for garnishing


• add "for women" link in products - for fertility awareness, feminine hygience, etc.?


• add any pics I have on my laptop to gallery (I have more on my external HDD at home)


• blog more


• post fruit, food, etc. pics already taken


• take more pics and post


• fix fruits and veggies links on photos area


• update/add FAQs


• add tips, links, fun, bonus content


• In photo history area:
  
  remove link border on Aug 2003 pic in
  
  fix last update pic (has 2 different dates together - refer to progress for dates)


• update kitchen-and-storage page in photos section re: info of how kitchen is done, etc.


• update garden pics


• do more exercise pics and videos


• adjust home page


• fix salad mix page - remove "coming soon" from mesclun mix with arugula

So there it is. I'll be working on these things over the next few weeks. Some of it will have to happen after I get back home 'cause I don't have all my files and such with me.

Health and Fitness Week was fun!

Yep. I haven't kept up with this as much as I planned, but I'm still working on it. I'm on vacation now, so I'll be able to post more at least for a few weeks...

I'm visiting a friend that lives in the general area that Health and Fitness Week is held right now. H&F Week was last week and I had fun making things pretty and doing fruit and veggie carvings, garnishes, etc. as the ambiance fairy there. Met lots of nifty new people and had a chance to reconnect with friends too. :)

I didn't have a chance to take pictures though :( so I don't have any to show you right now. One of the nifty new people I met was a woman there to take photos though, so I'll be getting pics from her at some point that I'll be able to share with y'all. My camera's gotten quite lonely over the months I haven't been using it. I loaned it to my son who used it for a long time & then never got back into the habit of taking pics again...yet. ;) I brought it with me and I'm gonna' take it out, charge the batteries and start using it again. At least that's the plan...

I also plan to work on my website some more during this time too. Should have brought my external hard drive though; didn't think I'd need it; oh well. I'll have to post the pics I'd taken and not posted in the past later when I'm back. I'm hoping that they'll have figured out a way to get things done at the farm enough while I'm gone that I'll have a bit of time to keep blogging and updating my site when I get back (as well as do things for my fitness goals too).

K, so that's it for this post for now. I'll be back later today to do things on my site and blog again.

Aloha! :)

Friday 2/1/08

Sleep:
no temp today
up at 7am
to sleep for night at 10 or 11pm

Food:
smoothie with lots of bananas (sorry, didn't count), 3 dates, water and 1 med. chocolate sapote - drank while stretching after run
water from 3 young cocos
5 large tangerines
8 chocolate sapotes
jicama, 3 tomatoes, part of a small avocado, celery (6 sticks?), & lettuce

Sorry, didn't note the times

I went with a friend to see if we could harvest chocolate sapotes from some trees she knew about today. They weren't quite ready, but there were lots of citrus dropping off the trees. This was great 'cause I still have some chocolate sapotes and was about to run out of citrus since my son and hubby both decided they wanted to drink lots of OJ the day before (when they haven't been having much or any lately). It's a good thing they weren't quite ready 'cause I forgot to bring my picker poles 'cause I needed to leave earlier than I had planned so was in a rush. Oops! Turned out perfect with the citrus though.

I didn't have a chance to post about Thursday, but went overt fat-free then with banana and date smoothies, chocolate sapotes, orange juice and papayas - perhaps some rambutan too, can't remember. (I'm writing this on Saturday evening before going to bed). So good to have bananas again! :)

Exercise:
Running! 25 minutes solid with approximate 5 minute warm up and cool down walks before and after respectively, probably over 2 miles.
Had to cancel running on Thursday as planned 'cause my hubby and I woke too late to fit it in before going to the farm & back too late to do it afterwards. I was determined to run Friday and not skip yet another day, so we went out even though it was cold (for us), very windy and rainy off and on. Luckily it only sprinkled on us a bit during the run, unfortunately it was during our warm-up walk, which was quite brisk due to being cold. We also started the running at a faster pace than I planned simply 'cause we were so cold and wanted to get warm faster, heh. Yeah, we're underdressed, acclimatized wimps. It was probably only in the 60's (Fahrenheit), but that's cold to us, especially when combined with the 30+ MPH winds and moist air and rain. It was a challenging run for me indeedy, but I did it!

We went 12 minutes and then turned around, didn't pass the place where we started so our pace on the way back was quite a bit slower than on the way there, but then I knew that. There's a slight hill that's downhill there and uphill back. It usually doesn't make much of a difference 'cause I'm warmed up on the way back, but the strong wind was blowing against us on the way back which made it even more challenging. We didn't measure out how far we went, but did note that it was 10 minutes, 35 seconds when we passed the mile mark on the way there. We went pretty far past it before turning around at 12 minutes in and kept the same pace that whole time. The pace dropped off fairly soon after turning around and going against the wind though. Once we made it up the hill (towards the end) and turned the corner, the wind was from the side instead and our pace picked up a tad so that we weren't all that far from the point where we started. Whatever. I'm just glad that I went out when the weather made me feel like staying home - and that I still ran for a longer period of time straight than I ever have before, even though it was quite challenging at times.

My hubby was so sweet in motivating me during the run when it got hard. He was coming up with military marching songs and such to sing to my running cadence to keep me going. I don't know if it helped or not, but I appreciated the gesture and effort. He was running with 5 pound weights in his hands instead of the 8 pound ones he usually has been using lately so I guess that's how he could muster the breath for it - or perhaps it's the fact that he has waay more running experience than I do. I joked about him being a show off, but I know it was to help me. I help him run consistently 'cause he goes when I do and he helps me keep going when it's rough. Nice. :)

Harvesting!
Hiking around, picking the fruit & carrying it back, making a couple more trips of the same, carrying the boxes of what I gathered into the house, etc.

Moving!
We're rearranging the stuff in our house and moved some heavy items around today. Yay! So exciting to see the progress.

Push ups and pull ups
I think it was only one set of each.

Detox:
Not as much as I would have thought due to the massive saltiness of those olives I had the other day. My sweat seemed salty, but didn't get the salty mucus down the back of my throat in the morning, in the shower or any time - so far, at least.

I did have some of the lung 'soreness' sensation when taking really deep breaths, but know what that's from - the running. Guess it's the VO2 Max developing.

Female:
6am temp: 96.58 degrees Fahrenheit, day 11 of my cycle, red day, little boy kid icon (FYI had boy & girl icons on the day after this, Sat., day 12 of my cycle)

The Rest:
Bike:
We got an odometer for my bike today! :) I'm going to use it to figure out mile markers and routes for future runs and/or after runs that haven't followed predefined routes.
I still need to get the air in my tires, so it might be a while since I still don't know where the air pump is (think it's in my son's room somewhere).

Yoga:
I took my old yoga mat out and hung it on the clothes line, scrubbed it a bit and sprayed it off with the hose, left it to dry. Unfortunately, it's been stormy since then and not enough sun to dry it as of the writing of this (Saturday evening). If it's not dry by Monday I think I'll start doing the surya namaskara asanas without it. That should be fine 'cause I plan to run 30 minutes on Sunday and I shouldn't need a yoga mat for just them.

Blogging:
I've been using Blogger to do my more recent journals, which had been working fairly well for a while. I just noticed that it's sort of tweaking with the previous posts areas especially in the archived ones so I'll have to fix that at some point. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Spinning Yarn:
I'm having fun with the cotton spinning although I've also been really grateful for the heirloom wool sweater I inherited from my mom when it's raining and windy. It's easy to spin and a natural wicking material. It's not vegan, but if they were treated really well I think it'd be fine. I've thought about raising a sheep or two and treating them like pets, brushing them out and using that to spin, but don't know if they'll do well here or not. I know people have goats here quite often, but haven't seen many sheep. I started to try to figure it out online. I wasn't able to figure out how they'd do here, but did get reminded that people often raise them to eat rather than just for wool. Doi! I had forgotten all about that. So then I started to find out about different breeds good for wool, meat or both and decided to try to get a breed only for wool so I don't support raising them for meat indirectly. I might get one from the humane society though, whatever breed it is just to give it a home, if there is one there. It looks like Merino, Leicester, Lincoln and Rambouillet are potentials as this point. Of course this is all premature 'cause I don't have a place to keep one just yet, but I can work on figuring out if that's an okay idea or not. Still workin' on it, thought I'd share...