Over the years, we’ve been through more diets than one can count. I’ve read Wheat Belly, Grain Brain and a myriad of other books. As I loved potatoes, I was never quite determined enough to commit to the strict non/low-starch/carb for the love of one stem tuber! However, as my Doberman got older and finally diagnosed with breast malignancy and degenerative myelopathy and gradually losing control of her hind legs, I put her on an all organic mostly fat, limited protein and extremely restricted carbohydrate diet. The clickable title will take you to the astounding results in the full post….
Natto is traditionally made with soybeans.
Not a big fan of soybeans due to its estrogen mimicking effect, I experimented in making natto with black turtle beans.
For me, the end result was delightful – just like Marmite for me, except tons more health benefit.
The clickable title will take you to this experiment, and a fan story….
Traditionally we separate companion animals from livestock in order to protect our own emotional selves: a way to prevent us from getting “hurt” when livestock becomes dinner. Children are discouraged to play with livestock and directed to forge friendships only with their pets.
Is it necessary?
More importantly, is it healthy to insist on such an “artificial” categorization?
What can we learn from wolves and caribou?
The clickable title will take you to my contemplation.
Misguided self-confidence does not match accurate results – sexing chickens turns out to be one of such unfortunate events that fits the statement.
My supposedly 5-hen-flock has 3 rooster-imposters, providing me 40% of the egg production….
The clickable title will help any homesteader avoid such disappointing results while saving time and money.
“Our chickens are welcome to stay and free to leave,” Karl Hammer said about his “working chickens”. It is indeed a high expression of chicken-hood.
Do humans “measure up”? How? Why not?
Often times, patients come to therapy but hesitate to look into the core of their internal life. The psychic injury of the past seemed still a fresh wound in their mind’s eye. The courage in facing what is “there”, as Karl’s chickens, instead of imagining what one believes is “there”, like my patients do, is no small feat.
The clickable title will take you to my thoughts on related matters.
Any serious homesteader should try soap making. It’s fun, meditative and creative.
I don’t mean using one of those “fake” melt and pour soap base. Those have lots of “junk” added to them so there isn’t much of a difference between your own “fake soap” and store-bought “junk soap’.
I mean using a few organic raw ingredients and nothing more.
There are “cold process” and “hot process” – each with pros and cons. You should try both before deciding what suits you better.
The clickable title will give you my experience, my preferences and more.
Having had a close and intimate relationship with food and food making, it was not far fetched for me to want to make organic chicken feed for my hens. After all, I’ll be eating their eggs. Not to mention that they would most likely prefer the tasty variety than the extreme-heat-treated, artificially-vitamin-fortified factory-made everyday-is-the-same commercial feed.
The clickable post title will take you to not only the practical how-to on this matter.
Whoever said that only roosters crow had never met my wolf.
There wasn’t supposed to be any rooster in my supposed all-hen-flock….
The clickable title will take you to the fun post of surprising facts.
Ten days after I obtained my 7-week-old hens-to-be, I was in for a few surprises.
Fun, puzzling and most of all, surprises that I had never, for the life of me, imagined birds may have delivered.
The clickable title will reveal what I have learned….
Focaccia is undoubtedly my little helper, as the process of making it delivers me into a meditative state. In this case, a focaccia is never just a focaccia even though the concrete result of a beautiful focaccia would not last more than a few minutes after the steamy hot bread is out of the oven.
Life coaches or psychotherapists who don’t like the process of focaccia making would be hard pressed to find other ways to clear their minds….
The clickable post title would certainly boost your confidence in turning out a loaf of focaccia – anyone can do it, the simplest bread ever existed – and much more.
Not having grown up in the land of fresh coconuts, it took me a while to figure out how to choose a young and mature coconut and how to open them without a hammer or using brute force.
The clickable title will take you to the post.
Cooking is not about what shiny equipment you have, it is about a creative process that allows you to turn any scrap of leftovers or whatever random items you have in your fridge or on your counter into a tasty meal. Good cooks are creative thinkers. Cooking and food making are meditative processes that allow one not simply learning a new dish, but using a specific knowledge gaining in a particular field as a tool for honing our creative thinking skill in general.
Sauerkraut making acted as such a tool for me here.
The clickable title will take to you the fun details of my learning to cook, not just sauerkraut making.
The domestic animal vaccination debate has been going on for more than a couple of decades. The general public holds vastly different opinions, so do the professionals such as veterinarians and veterinary researchers.
This post is a long overdue thorough review on what may be the “gold standard” of “least harm”-“most effective” way of protecting our best friends.
Click on the post title for all the related information and some tales of my best friends.
When a wound is infected, the traditional treatment is surgical debridement, for humans and domestic animals alike.
However, plenty of other less invasive and readily available remedies may be just as effective, if not more. In this post, I explore some of these treatments, including manuka honey and hydrotherapy.
The images in the post may be upsetting to some.
The clickable title will take you to the full text.
Kefir is one of these things which, despite its undeniable health benefits, elicits strong “opinions”. Some love it. Others hate it. I have yet to find someone who claims indifference towards it. One of my patients would pinch her nose, tilt her head backwards, and then quickly pour the thick semi-liquid substance down her throat. “Exactly how cod liver oil was taken when I was a kid”….
The clickable post title will take you to my own kefir-making journey.
