Category — Health

The big news is that my daughter Kasie has moved here and I am happy and thankful she is here. In addition to the joy of just having her spirit and energy around, she has also relieved me of my overnight work for Origins. This currently leaves me working two day shifts per week which is much more manageable considering all of my other work and activities.

I started a batch of prickly pear fruit wine this morning. In another few weeks it should be ready and I will bottle some as wine and make brandy out of the rest. Tomorrow morning I’m gathering more fruit and will make more wine. I also want to try making mesquite wine and brandy which should have an interesting taste. I also need to figure out how I want to distill the wine. I could buy a distiller or I could build my own from parts I buy. The kind you buy costs $500, so I don’t think I’ll go that route!

We had another great meeting/potluck for Arivaca Local. There was another big event going on at the same time, so we only had 10 people show up, but I enjoyed the smaller group and felt more connected to each person. We started by talking about the upcoming barter faire which then segued into discussing local economy in general.

We woke up early at Rusty’s RV Ranch outside of Rodeo, NM and enjoyed an amazing sunrise while we drank our morning coffee. We were on the road by 6:30 a.m. and thought it would be an uneventful last leg of the trip to Arivaca. About five minutes later we found out otherwise. The temperature gauge wouldn’t drop below the red line even though we had barely started, so I pulled over to see if I could figure anything out. I noticed the radiator overflow tank was empty and when I looked closer I saw that the damn thing had cracked down the side (towards the bottom, no less) for about three inches. I knew I just had to make it to Arivaca and then I would have more time to get it replaced, so I grabbed a plastic baggy and some duct tape and patched it up as best I could. It was still leaking, but slower and when I started up again it stayed cool enough to keep going.

The rest of the trip WAS uneventful and although there were a few more hills to climb, we managed not to overheat again. We stopped in Green Valley, AZ for a few groceries and arrived in Arivaca around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. I parked the motorhome near the house we are renting and partially underneath some large mesquite trees to provide a little shade from the summer sun. It is still too hot to be in their during the day, but in the morning and evening it is just fine.

We also found a vehicle to drive within a day of arriving. It is a big, gas-guzzling white van that has several interesting personality quirks, but it gets us around town and that’s all we need for now. We are renting it from a friend of ours and may end up buying it. We used it to go to La Gitana last night and we had an incredibly wonderful evening seeing most of our old friends and getting caught up. It feels so good to be back in what we now know for sure is our home. Sara is already feeling better and a lot less stressed and feels like this is where she is meant to be. We both feel that and are thankful we are back.

I weighed in at 232 this morning, 3 lbs less than yesterday and 4 lbs total.

I slept until 5:00 am, finally, my normal waking time. Although I did go in and out of sleep quite a bit during the night, I was never completely awake.

There is a high pressure system over the area, now, so I expect the joint pain to ease up. I think most of the joint pain is from the weather and maybe a little from the detox, but I have no way of knowing for sure.

I feel much better today and very light and energetic. In fact, I feel much more energetic than normal and am pretty hyper. I think I’ll go for a long hike and do some birding, today.

I had a little trouble focusing in the morning, but then realized that I had not had my coffee, yet. I only had 2 cups of coffee today along with my Emergen-C and fish oil.

7:00 am
1 mineola

8:00 am
1 small avocado

9:00 am
1 banana

10:30 am
1 banana
2 oz raw cashews

1:30 pm
small salad with:
3 tsp tahini
juice of 1 small lime
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
handful of spinach
a little bit of cauliflower

3:30 pm
1 large avocado

5:00 pm
1 mineola

6:30 pm
pizza from Papa Murphy’s
(YES!)

And so ends my raw food trial. I got tired of always being hungry and crampy and tired… enough was enough. I’m glad I tried it, I learned something about myself. And I’m also glad I’m back eating crap food!

I woke up at 2:00 am and read myself to sleep by 3:30 am. I woke up again at 6:30 am and stayed up the rest of the day. I was tired and lethargic again throughout the day. The scale read 235, one pound less than yesterday.

The cramping was gone by the time I woke up, thank goodness, but I had a sinus headache from the large low pressure system and felt lethargic. I had my usual 2 cups of coffee, glass of water with Emergen-C, and 2 capsules of fish oil. I also started taking (again) 10 drops of zeolite in water. The zeolite helps your body flush heavy metal toxins. I also drank more water today to help flush everything out.

My joints were really aching today. I normally have some arthritis pains in my fingers and toes during a low pressure system, but this time my knees and elbows were hurting as well. I took 1 sudafed and 3 ibuprofen after my first meal to help with that.

8:30 am
1 banana
1 small avocado

9:30 am
1 banana

10:30 am
small bowl of papaya

12:30 pm
1 banana
1 large avocado

2:00 pm
4 oz raw sprouted almonds

4:30 pm
small salad of spinach, raw sunflower seeds, and 1 tsp of raw tahini