Garden Update

To the left you can see my Catnip plant is doing awesome. (My cat Bootsie Collins is in the background) Catnip tried to go to seed so I pinched off the head to keep it from doing so. Harvest time is near. Fresh catnip doesn't do much for the kitties, they just sniff and walk away. Once it is dried they have more interest. Until then, I have found that fresh catnip is AWESOME on pizza. Just rip some up and throw on top of sauce before you cheese is. It has a wonderful taste. I think it would also go great with steaks and pork although I don't eat pork. I don't find much on the internet about people using catnip in recipes but I have been using it as a go to spice since my other choice is Basil, which my strain is very strong flavored, almost like licorice. Next year I will try a few different varieties of basil to find my favorite- this one is just a bit too strong. I still use it anyways though :)
The sun has moved in my yard, so I had to move my plants now that their old spot is shaded by the apartment buildings I live in. I also got complaints about my buckets so I reduced the amount, pulling up my beloved jalapeno (because its too cool now) and bell peppers (who got diseased somehow but still produced 3 delicious peppers. Thank you Bells!) I said I was sorry and thank you, and tossed them into the woods. Most people are happy about my plants and dont have issues... but some elderly ladies like to make trouble with us young'uns so they do their best. Since I don't have wild parties and disturb anybody they find other things to complain about.
I planted potatoes and garlic at stupid times- mid summer. I just felt like sticking some that started growing in pots and see what happens. The potato plants got pulled and I was surprised to find some teeny little tatos in the dirt I dumped from the bucket.

Hello Tatos!

the jalapeno farthest from the tatos is the only one I got from seed. Either my soil mixture was not right, or they do not like transplant. Next year I hope to find out more.
My garlic is doing something weird~ but appears to be going along a lot better now the weather has "cooled"- that means it is in the 80s and not 110s! I transplanted a bulb back in July and a small clove had already formed.
There is a feeling i get from growing my plants my brings me great joy. I look forward to the day I can do it full time, producing a bountiful harvest in the summer to bring me and my partner food all winter long- giving us time to travel and return when its time to plant again.

Diatomaceous Earth

the fleas native to this area are super fleas. my carpet has been treated with chemical spray, and diatomaceous earth which is said to kill insects by tearing teeny little holes in their bodies so they dry out. Well, today I am wearing my flea catchers (knee high socks) because these things don't work. I have applied frontline to my cat every 3 weeks since June. I also have been bathing him in flea bath~ let soak 5 to 6 minutes and fresh from the tub he still has fleas all over his big tan belly. what gives? Am I the only thing that can kill these fleas? I have heard of washing your pet in Dawn Dish Detergent, but I do not want to risk my best friend's health and safety. Dawn is for dishes... and my dreads (I am washing obsessively now because I don't want fleas in my hair!)
Naturally with fleas, come worms. Cats lick the fleas from their bodies and get worms. Diatomaceous Earth is great for this! Make sure to get the food/animal grade and not the pool grade. Pour a little bit of the dust into your cat's WET FOOD and mix well. I did this once a day for 5 days or so and no worms. Also if you take a pinch of ROLLING or CHEWING tobacco (because these are additive free, unlike cigarettes) and mix into wet food, this will also kill the worms but may give your pet diarrhea. The small amount of tobacco is toxic for the worms but not the pet. For larger animals, like dogs, give them a little bit more.
The de-wormer I bought from PetSmart was pretty expensive and did not, repeat, DID NOT work. Maybe the D.E. will work for your fleas too~ ours are a special, evil breed.
Must have something to do with the blackhole of a town that I live in.

update Nov.7~ so the d.e. is the only thing that kills the fleas living in the carpets. After treating my whole house the fleas have finally all died to the point that we do not have them jumping on us any longer. I am no longer afraid to sit on the carpet. I have been applying the d.e. to my cat's fur on his back where he can't really reach it, but doing so carefully as to not make the dust fly everywhere into our noses and lungs. This has decreased the flea population of Lobster (my cat) but he still has them. I applied a knock-off Frontline (which has the same active ingredient) and still, he has some fleas.
D.E. did appear to get rid of the worms for Lobster but it also appeared to make him constipated. We have given Bootsie (my outside cat) tobacco mixed into Tuna to kill her worms twice, it appears to work for about a week and they return, along with her extreme hunger. Maybe we need to try more tobacco but I just don't want to make her ill. I know that smoking a cigarette makes me, a nonsmoker, feel very odd indeed. I wouldn't want to wish that upon my kitties!

Police Brutality Vs Peace

(copied from my other blog~ Laura's Westy)
This is a ten minute long video taken from MSNBC on the NYPD's attack on peaceful protesters at "Occupy WallStreet" The powerful words spoken by Lawrence O'donnell bring tears to my eyes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgr3DiqWYCI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I know this doesn't seem to have much to do with my Westy~ but it has to do with you and me every day of our lives. This also includes our vehicles and whatever life choices we make. I have been fortunate up to this point not having a run-in with the "law" but they're eyes glisten and glaze over with dreams of brutality as I peacefully putter by. This post is not to assume that all police officers are bad people, just a majority of them. Thanks for facebook my friends share, almost daily, videos of police brutality and they continue to get away with it. Here are some of my favorite quotes from O'Donnell during his clip (just in case you don't have time to watch it, but you really should because its important.)

"this weekend a few trouble makers turned a peaceful protest against wall street greed into a violence burst of chaos, the troublemakers were carrying pepper spray and guns, and wearing badges."
"Police were grabbing people for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON, crushing them on the pavement and arresting them."
"We will post this video on our blog and you won't find ANYONE doing ANYTHING that is legal grounds for arrest."
"Cops know they can always get away with it.. no mayor, no police chief will call them on what they think of as a little too tough"
"This is an AMERICAN policework that we are watching... Everyday in American police cross the line and abuse citizens, EVERDAY in America police get away with it."
"Everything the police done this weekend to these protesters they have already done to someone else with no video cameras rolling"
"They know just how much latitude their dept gives them on abusing citizens, they do it because they know they can...because they can get away with it."
"NONE of them will be charged..."
"The dept has already said the officers acted appropriately, cased closed."
"AMERICAN POLICE HAVE ONE AGAIN GOTTEN AWAY WITH ANOTHER CRIME AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THEY ARE SWORN TO SERVE AND PROTECT"

Now let's have a BBQ!

sidenote~

A Wall Street Hedge Fund Manager made $5 BILLION DOLLARS last year

That's about $480 MILLION DOLLARS per month

That's about $120 MILLION DOLLARS per week

That's about $24 MILLION DOLLARS per day

That's about $3 MILLION DOLLARS per hour

And yet his Federal Income Tax Rate is 15%

Is it any wonder there is a protest

Hula Hoop. For Your Health!

Last week I heard a fat lady lost 130 lbs in a year by hula hooping! First she started at 10-15 min a day and worked her way up to an hour and a half a day. A friend of mine "facebooked" that hooping burns 100 calories in 10 minutes. I am putting these stories to the test and plan to hoop at least 30 minutes each day. Its fun and I am learned to dance with my hoop. Now I can twirl about, walk and jump while hooping. Still working on the transition from hooping with my hands and dropping it to my waist~ i can do it, but its messy looking. For $5 at wal*mart go get yourself a hoop! Just make sure its the larger size, as adults need the bigger one, unless you are skinny mini! ;) (I am medium sized and the large glittery wave hoop in the kids section is great)
Hoop On!

dreams of teeth

in my dreams i usually loose or am about to loose my left canine tooth. Last night I lost most of my molars, but avoided my front teeth as most of them were loose too and I didn't want to smile toothlessly! Woke up and all of my teeth are in my head securely. Whats up with that?

Sneaky Trans Fat

We all know trans fat isn't good for you... and labels love to read "0 grams trans fat"
However!~ for a product to claim 0% in their nutrition facts there needs to be a "trivial amount" which is 0.5grams or less PER SERVING.
Take a look at YooHoo for example. At 1gram of fat it appears to be "healthier" than my soy milk, reading further down through the list of unpronounceable ingredients appears "partially hydrogenated oil" or... TRANS FAT. That means if I was feeling super choclatey today I may want to drink 16 ounces (2 glasses) of YooHoo. That earns me 1gram of trans fat. You are supposed to not eat more than 2g of trans fat a day (I try to always shoot for zero but like I say... trans fat is sneaky!) so if I eat another 2 servings of peanut butter or cool whip or some other "food" boasting "zero trans fats!" I may end up being a fatass.
Moral of my blog post~READ THE INGREDIENTS OF YOUR PRODUCT

lower fat lunch decisions

today when looking into my sparse fridge I had few choices for what to have for lunch. Ignoring the neapolitan ice cream sandwiches calling to me from the freezer, I reached for the romaine and paused at the fat content of my "lite" caesar dressing~ 8g of fat. The ice cream bars at 5g of fat won, their influence is strong.

Garden Update

Well I finally got carrots sprouted~ I did the old method of putting the seeds in a moist towel, but soaking them in a sprouter and then rinsing them like how I make sprouts may work just as well. It worked for my spinach~ the weather is finally cooled off enough now to get a good start. I want to start some broccoli but I haven't found any seeds yet.

My catnip has grown a lot in the past week! But today I picked up it's basket to re-arrange my plants and a root was ripped from the earth beneath it! I hope it will be Ok... I should repot it in a bigger pot I suppose... I love the basket look though and I don't want to disturb the roots by ripping it out of the basket~ so I am going to just set the basket in a bucket of soil and leave it at that until its time to harvest it completely. Next time I should re pot it before it gets so big. Luckily I have a whole bunch of seeds still for next spring!

Lookin' a little wilty now...

My Jalapeno plants are still going strong, one of them has a whole set of new peppers growing. Now that is getting cooler out I worry if they'll have a chance to fully develop. They grow a lot smaller than other jalapenos I see at the store or ones my friend grows... But they still pack a punch! I'll have to make some more Pinappeno hot sauce! Pineapple juice + jalapeno + vinegar + bit of salt and blend! You can cook it down to make it thicker too... but we just left it runny.

Easy & Yummy Cheese Crackers

I made my own cheese crackers today~ I used Cabot Sharp Cheddar cheese and it is far superior to other cheeses~ you can use whole wheat, but I just used unbleached all purpose flour to get as close to a Cheezit taste as possible. Man, its delicious to succeed!

Recipe!

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  
• 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
• 3/4 cup butter, chilled
• 1 cup shredded Sharp Cheddar cheese
• 6 tablespoons cold water, or as needed

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, salt, white pepper and mustard. Cut in butter with a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in Cheddar cheese. Stir in water one tablespoon at a time, until the dough is able to hold together. Press the mixture into a ball, wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to a rectangle that is 16x12 inches. The dough should be about 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 1x3 inch strips. Place the strips onto the prepared baking sheets spaced about 1 inch apart. A pizza cutter works great here.
   
4. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden and crispy. Cool completely before storing.

Mine came out thicker because I used a cup as a rolling pin, so my bake time was closer to 25 minutes. Just keep an eye on them and check often. Mmmm goes good with the 3 pepper hummus I made with them!

Bible LOLs

taken from this website~ this is a letter to Dr. Laura who stated on her radio show that "homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance"

Here's a letter somebody with more sense (of humor) & intelligence wrote to her~

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination... End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is, my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath.Exodus 35:2. clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination?

7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle- room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your adoring fan.

James M. Kauffman, Ed.D. Professor Emeritus Dept. of Curriculum,
Instruction, and Special Education University of Virginia

has the government finally done something RIGHT?

"Throughout our history Americans have used petitions to unite around issues they care about. We the People provides you with a new way to petition the federal government to take action on a range of issues. And if your petition attracts enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it is sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response."

I have quite a few petitions up my sleeve already...

recycling those disposables...

we live in a disposable world, full of one time use objects that will sit around for thousands of years, wondering why we threw them away. Even relationships appear to start becoming disposable (one night stands, bar friends, school friends you never talk to once graduated)...
I re-use my plastic baggies and because of this I can count on one hand how many times I have purchased ziplock baggies. Once a raw meat is bagged or it starts looking stained or old I will toss it and begin anew. But why? Why should I use this great plastic bag with a zipper on it, only once?
Disposable razors~ are you supposed to only use them once? I have been using them regularly and one will last me about a month, or more! No nicks, no cuts... 4 years ago I ran out of shaving cream, and I never bought it again, regular soap works perfectly. Although Glamor magazine told me that it would increase nicks & cuts, I actually feel like I have fewer because I am free to use a lot more soap than I would with "shaving cream." I am getting away from my point here.
Plastic yogurt containers, maraschino cherry jars, spaghetti sauce jars, these all make wonderful Tupperware that is free (essentially) and you can give your leftovers to your friends and not care about ever getting it back because you have another container of yogurt about finished.
Ran out of spice? Save that spice jar to put your own home made seasoning blends in~ see below for Chef Paul Prudhomme's Redfish Magic seasoning. (It turned out wonderful, but I think my white pepper is lacking in potency.)
It puts a smile on my face to see an object have several different uses, put a smile on your face too and reduce, reuse, recycle!