Transition – PFTR

It was fun being away for awhile but now it was time to get back to “real” life. This week I have focused most of my time on healthy living. For me, it’s the one thing that impacts everything else, so I’m giving it some extra attention. I have been like a sponge reading, watching and absorbing all kinds of information that I believe is in our best interest to obtain and maintain a healthier lifestyle. As I noted previously, I am only writing about what we are doing and it’s not meant to influence others because everyone has to evaluate their own own situation and make their own decisions on what’s best for them. I know what I have been doing wasn’t working and that there needed to be a significant change NOW!

With the easy access to all kinds of information, one of the biggest challenges is trying to find out who’s telling the truth and that isn’t always easy. I am fortunate to have a scientific based background and I am willing to spend the time researching facts before drawing conclusions. It’s unfortunate that our world has become so special interest driven and that much of what one reads is making a point in the best interest of the writer and not that of the reader.

I’m not going to outline who I believe or exactly what I plan to do, because again that is a personal choice, but I will give you a flavor of my approach. First, I made a list of health related things that need to change or improve. I then researched what conditions could cause the health related symptoms I experience. Once I found a condition related to my symptoms, I formulated a plan to deal with that condition. Unfortunately, it seems that most medicine is prescribed to deal with symptoms and not the underlying condition(s), so my goal is to reverse this trend as it applies to us.

After reviewing much information and taking measurements at home (blood sugar, blood pressure, ketones, etc.), it’s became pretty clear that insulin control was a condition that needed much more attention. I mentioned previously, that I was starting a keto diet. That’s true but, as I learned, there are many variations on that diet and it’s important to do and eat the things that make a measurable difference and even more importantly that can be maintained. This is not easy. After being on this diet or should I say lifestyle change for a few days, I didn’t feel that great. But instead of just throwing up my hand and saying, this isn’t going to work, I did more research and determined what I need to tweak. Once I made the tweaks, things got better. I am sure there will be more tweaking as I progress but I am determined to make this work and I will keep you posted.

Despite my obsession with health at the moment, I did get back to work on a few projects. A few weeks ago, I had cut more oak logs and they were now ready for mushroom plugs. We had a couple of unseasonably warm days, so it was a great time to get to work on the logs. This time I was going to plug Reishi, a medicinal mushroom. However, after I got everything ready to begin work, I realized that instead of plugs I had sawdust spawn. I tried to inoculate the logs with this spawn but it was hard to fill the holes and even harder to see the filled holes to seal them. Unlike the top of the plugs which are easy to see, the sawdust blended in with the bark. This was going to take forever, so I just ordered more plugs. I will try to keep the sawdust spawn alive so I can experiment with a different kind of mushroom growing in a few weeks.

We have 16 bluebird houses on our property and I spent time getting them ready for the soon to be new occupants and I cleaned up the trail that runs between the birdhouses. I also serviced our RTV that I use to drive along the trail. We don’t put a lot of hours on our RTV so it’s easy to forget that it needs attention too.

Finally, I worked in the garden.  I need to get a few areas ready to plant greens.  Our new diet requires lots of good leafy greens and they seem to to be in short supply in our local stores. I have been letting our chicken manure compost and I started moving wheel barrels of it to the garden. It takes about six months for this type of manure to break down to the point that it is acceptable for plants.

I am looking forward to watching the NFL playoff games today, since there are teams playing in each game that we follow in the regular season.  I bet you can guess which ones they are based on the places we have lived. That’s about it for this week. Stay warm! V