It's Finals Week.....

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     I haven't been posting lately, but I promise, I have a good excuse. Its finals week. I know it has been a long time since I was in college, but I don't remember it being like this. Finals week is more like finals month. As of right now I only have one more test to take though, and then I am done.....until summer starts!
     Even though it is finals week (month) life goes on. The chickens are getting big, still not full size though.
They are, however, big enough to have attracted a hawk. I consulted everyone I could think of, I went to every website.....all the answers said that I basically couldn't do anything about it except shoot the hawk. I am not going to shoot a hawk. I also am not going to let the hawk eat my chickens, one by one. My solution was to go down to the local sporting goods store and pick up a BB gun. Unfourtunatly all fake guns now look like real guns, and I am not going to sit in my back yard with something that looks like a hand gun, and shoot at something that my neighbors probably can not see. My only option was to get a neon green "Zombie Purge" air-soft gun. It is about the stupidest looking thing I have ever seen, but it works great!

It makes a nice loud POP when fired and shoots little plastic hollow beads that really don't hurt much. The chickens will be safe!

I BELIEVE IN BUTTER!

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Did you know that vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat soluble? That means that they NEED fat to be able to absorb into your body. Did you know that vitamin D is needed for calcium absorption? Did you know that fat helps your body digest carbs? Did you know that in order to make food "low fat" or "fat free" they up the sugar, salt, and chemicals? It isn't even food anymore by the time it is done. It is something as foreign to your body as plastic and your body can not use it to nourish you. 

Did you know that monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats can lower cholesterol and reduce your risk of heart disease? How is that bad? I just don't understand your logic. Fat does not make you fat. And even if you are fat, so what. Screw it all. Be healthy! Fat helps keep your skin and eyes healthy as well as your brain. The brain is 60% lipids! Those are things I care about.

So what does all of this mean? 'Saturated fat' means fat where the molecule cannot fit any more hydrogen atoms on. 'Mono-unsaturated' means the fat molecule has room for one more hydrogen atom, 'polyunsaturate' means it has room for more than one. Hydrogenated fat isn't technically a saturated fat, so it looks OK on the label. But it is actually vegetable oil blasted with hydrogen so that it behaves like saturated fat and most of the time is chemically bonded with sugar. Basically it stays solid at room temperatures so that the product doesn't "seem" oily to the consumer.

So what, it is just vegetable oil, right? Lets take a look at how its made.....
1. Vegetable oil is mixed thoroughly with fine particles of nickel or copper.
2. It is then heated to a very high temperature (about 200 degrees celsius) and held at that heat for 6 hours.
3. Meanwhile, hydrogen gas is pumped through the mixture at high pressure, and then the excited hydrogen atoms penetrate the vegetable oil molecules and chemically change them into 'transfats' ('trans fatty acids'). These are new, complex substances that are not found in nature, except at low levels in some animal fats.
4. The mixture is then cooled down to form tiny hard plastic-like beads. These hard beads are known as 'hydrogenated oil'.
The beads of hydrogenated oil are mixed with liquid vegetable oil and heated up again to a high temperature. when this mixture cools you have margarine. Margarine made like this can contain 'trans-fats' at levels up to 40%.

Here is the kicker - Foods can call themselves "trans-fat free" even if they contain up to half a gram of trans fats per serving. Look on the ingredients list. If a food contains partially hydrogenated oils, it contains trans fats.

I am going to leave it alone at that. I wasnt even planning on preaching that much, but oh well. Some other day I will cover other fun facts having to do with MSG, Food Dyes, Artificial Sweeteners, and why you should never eat table salt!

Chicken Waterers and Seed Starters, Oh My!

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Today it was in the 60's. It was so beautiful. We spent most of the day outside with the chickens and the dogs. I got the chicken waterer rigged up, and it is fantastic. Definitely makes my life easier. I drilled some holes in a 3 gallon bucket, put some nipples through the holes (which I got at QC Supply for $1.89/each) and hung it from the ceiling of the chicken coop. Here is exactly how I made it (but I didn't buy from FarmTek, they were $1.00 more/each). This was so easy to do!

Since that is done and out of the way, time to get some more seeds going. This is what my dining room table looks like right now....I am about half done. 

So far I have planted seeds for:

Basil (7 different kinds including cinnimon), thyme, dill, rosemary, cilantro, marjoram, sage, spearmint, lemon balm, parsley, oeregeno, sweet mace, feverfew

Bell peppers (4 different kinds), hot peppers (a mix), sweet peas, garden peas, yard beans, green beans, sunflowers, cucumber, snake cucumber, black zucchini, green zucchini, yellow squash, watermelon (tons), cantaloupe (tons), pumpkins (2 different kinds), spinach, lettuce

Thus far I have over 1000 seeds started. Around 1000 more to go. That will happen this week!

How it all began....

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  "The world is fucked, and I am part of it. I am doing nothing to make it better, and I sure as hell am not doing anything to make myself better. I am eating processed shit, I am working myself to death, and my idea of exercise is stretching on the couch after a nap." 
     That thought went through my head one day after seeing a Monsanto commercial. I bitch and I complain and I hate it all but what am I doing? Nothing. Nothing except buying in to what I claim to hate and waiting for everyone else to take action. Who is going to take action for me? Our wonderful politicians? That's not happening. 
     That was the beginning. That was all it took. A bit of a realization. I started reflecting on my life and realized that I have gotten so far away from who I once was, who I want to be, that I don't even recognize myself anymore. I hate who I have become. I used to make fun of people like me. How did this happen? I moved out of the small towns and into a city. I got sucked into the ease and convince of everything being right here for me. Whenever I want anything I can call someone and they will bring it to my door. Sure I was still able to avoid Walmart and tried to buy local and organic as much as possible, but that wasn't enough. I was getting fat. I was getting lazy. I was going to the grocery store instead of growing a few plants on my balcony. I was buying my food in boxes and letting other people do my cooking for me in the form of fast food. I was going days without leaving my apartment. I was eating Mac and Cheese out of a box filled with chemicals and dyes. Who was I? What did I stand for? What did I want for my future?
     I started on a path. A path that involved quitting my soul sucking job and going back to school full time. Eliminating processed foods from my diet completely. Quitting smoking. Buying a house with a nice sized back yard so that I can grow my own food. I even got chickens. 
     I vowed to never again eat meat if I didn't know exactly where it came from. This led to me becoming a vegetarian. I would never again eat food out of a box. I would never again consume something I couldn't pronounce. I would plan a garden and try to only eat my own vegetables for a year. I would make sure that I know where all my seeds come from and that they are not GMO.  I would remove all chemicals from my house starting with cleaning products. I would make sure that my animals were eating as good as I was. 
     I cant change the world but I can change my household. I have big plans for the future but for now, this is what I can do and what I can handle. This is a lot of change at once and I am trying to do it in a reasonable fashion. Thankfully I have a great foundation to pull from. I know what it is to eat from the land and know your farmer. I know what it is to drink from a well on the property and live off solar energy. I know what it is to conserve. I haven't forgotten, I just strayed away as an adult. I will go back. I will live the way that we are meant to live, eat the food we are meant to eat, and I will do my best to respect the world around me. I will stop supporting multinationals who do no good. I know that I will not be perfect in my endeavor, but I will try my hardest. 
     I know that a lot of people out there are going through the same thing right now, so I decided to chronicle my journey back to normal. I will let you know my plans, what I am eating, where I am getting it, what it is costing me, and how I am doing it all. 
     I am hoping for some great tips and tricks from readers as well as a lot of great discussion!