Category Archives: Health

Shifting Gears -2025 Update

Chickens, Eggs, Health, Reflections, spring

Hello and welcome!

Vehicle Shopping

In a recent post I told you all that we were car shopping, wanting find a reliable, used vehicle to replace our minivan. After countless hours of searching online, researching different types of vehicles, test driving a few vehicles, and not finding what we are looking for we have decided that having some repairs done on our minivan with the hopes that it will continue to serve us for another year, or more, is the best thing to do.

So, we have suspended our car shopping and are moving on to other things. Forgive me, but I am going to repeat that in hopes that the internet will hear/ see or detect it and stop bombarding me with vehicle advertisements. We are no longer shopping for a vehicle. I doubt that will help but worth a try. 🙂

Spring

There is not much to be done at the farm as we wait for spring to truly get here but we’ve observed a couple of the earliest signs of spring, the buds on the trees are swelling which means the sap is flowing. This is something I learned to watch for several years ago when we were collecting sap and making maple syrup. We haven’t done that in a few years since we no longer have a source of inexpensive wood to burn for boiling the sap into syrup. The process uses a lot of wood and can be quite expensive. 🙂

The other sign is that our hens are laying eggs again. It was back when we were tapping maple trees that I noticed that the chickens begin laying eggs again around the same time that the sap begins flowing. In the past two weeks we have gone from getting one or two eggs every couple of days to getting as many as 13 eggs a day. I am grateful that I was able to get eggs from my sister throughout the winter while our hens were resting. Her flock are first year layers who didn’t take a break. I am even more grateful that our hens are laying again.

Projects

There are projects that need to be done in the house, however. One that we have tackled this past week is painting our kitchen. I had planned on doing this in November, but those plans changed when my dad got sick. It feels good to finally be back on track.

My husband also changed the wax seal in the toilet this week. I love that he is able and willing to do this job, so we don’t have to pay a professional to have it done.

Health

Last year I got into a routine of exercising at least 30 minutes almost every day. Exercise is said to be the best thing a person with Parkison’s Disease can do. I also altered my eating habits, so I was eating less and including more fresh fruits and vegetables in my diet. I ate few desserts and limited them to just a few bites when I did indulge. As a result, I lost 30 pounds and felt good.

In November and December, when I was busy taking care of my dad’s affairs, I had slacked off on my exercise routine and got off track with my diet plan. I gained about 3 pounds back. In January I got back on track with my exercise and I am again to doing at least 30 minutes a day on either the recumbent bike or the stationary bike. I do feel better on the days that I exercise than if I miss a day. I am also working on getting back on track with eating right. If only I didn’t like sweets so much.

Crafting

I completed a few craft projects since the beginning of the year. I’ve made three more of the reusable shopping bags like I had made for my daughters for Christmas. I also made two hoodie style shirts. One for my sister and one for myself. The picture below is the one I made for me. The one I made for my sister went together well and she loved it when I gave it to her. When making mine I apparently wasn’t paying attention when I sewed the hood on backwards. After realizing what I had done I said “OH NO!” shook my head and decided to take a break because it wasn’t worth getting upset over.

I vacuumed the house and after lunch and a nap spent about two hours using a seam ripper to remove all of the stitches that held the hood in place. The next day I pinned the hood in place and held up the shirt to make sure it was right before sewing it on. Believe it or not I again had the hood backwards. Thankful that I checked, I unpinned the hood and repinned it the right way. Lesson learned!

I am also in the process of crocheting a baby afghan. I expect to have that finished in the next few days.

Last week my husband took me to Joann Fabrics to do some shopping. They are in the process of closing their stores and liquidating their stock. It was early in the process, so the sale prices were not great, but I wanted to get some things before they were sold out. We still have two other craft stores in the area that sell fabric and yarn, but their selections are not as good as Joann Fabric. It is sad that they are closing. We will certainly miss shopping there.

Looking Forward

Our weather forecast for the upcoming week shows a dry week with temperatures in the 50’s Fahrenheit most days, so I am looking forward to getting outdoors. I expect to see daffodils and garlic poking up through the ground and that robins and red winged blackbirds have returned to the area. Perhaps I will even hear frogs singing. Just a few of the things I love about spring.

Thanks for visiting.

What are you enjoying about spring?

January 2019 – Learning To Ferment Foods

Fermenting, Health, Reflections

Wow! Where did January go??? The good news about January being over is we are closer to spring, and while we are in the midst of climbing out of a brutally cold spell, spring is a most delightful thought. The other good news is even though the month seemed to be gone before I knew it, I did do some things that I am quite pleased with.

The one thing that I am going to share with you (it will  probably take in a few posts) is that I have been studying about and learning to make fermented foods. I have experimented with some fermenting in the past and some times it has been good and other times not so much. This time, although I am still experimenting, things seem to be going better 🙂

Before I start talking writing about what I am fermenting, I wanted to tell you why. You may recognize fermentation as a method of preserving food but it so much more than that. While canning, freezing, and dehydrating are all methods of preserving food which I practice none of them increases the nutritional value of the food. Fermenting does! Over the past month or so I have viewed many websites related to fermentation and I thought I would share just a few.

I choose the first article Seven Reasons Why Fermented Foods are Healthy because it cites case studies which support these claims. If you have any heath concerns, including depression, I recommend taking a look at this article. This article also provides a list of fermented foods and says some are commonly found in grocery stores. While that may be true it is important to know what to look for where to look for it. Some foods on the list like pickles and sauerkraut are often found sitting on the store shelves. These canned foods have been pasteurized thus killing off the probiotics. Fermented foods sold in the grocery store will be found in the refrigerator section. Some key words to look for on labels are “Raw”, “Perishable”, “Naturally Fermented”, “Live Cultures” or “Active Cultures”. This link pertaining to only sauerkraut explains and gives some brands that may be found in stores.

While the above article cites case studies the following video explains the health benefits of fermented foods in a way that I thought makes a lot of sense. Personally I have not watched the entire video as the later part teaches how to ferment foods and I have already read all about that.  I do highly recommend watching/listening to the first 16 – 17 minutes.

 

This last site has a plethora of information about fermenting and I keep going back to it. Since they do sell fermenting supplies I will tell you that I am not affiliated with them nor have I purchased or used any of their products (yet). I do find it most admirable that even though they sell starter cultures they also give instruction for making your own starter cultures. They also have many recipes and I will be sharing in an upcoming post some of the recipes I have tried.

I will close by telling you that over the past few weeks, since I began including fermented foods in my diet daily, I have felt some positive results. I have more energy, my digestion has greatly improved, I feel more satisfied by a small meal and don’t get hungry as often, I also don’t crave sweets and I have lost a few pounds. I am fairly certain there is more going on than meets the eye, but these are the results that I can attest to.

As always I thank you for reading and I would love to hear from you. Is your year off to a good start? Do you ever eat fermented foods? Do you ever make fermented foods?