Reflections on September the Eleventh

       

    I remember September the 11th, 2001 as if it were just a few months ago.  That morning I was gathering paperwork and working on paperwork for our entry Visa into Russia.  I had the television on, and I think "Regis and Kelly" were on.  All of a sudden, a special report appeared on the television. Of course, report fragment after fragment kept coming that morning, as no one really knew for a time, what was going on. Before long, video of a plane crashing into the Twin Towers was being shown. It was only the first of many other news reports, which were worse and worse as the day went on.
        I remember my husband calling that morning wondering that if we were at war, and if we had been attacked, if perhaps we should not go to Russia at all." Ours is an humanitarian mission", I said.  We have to go.  Of course, being an American on a plane which had to go from Virginia to New York, then New York to Moscow, and then Moscow, five thousand additional miles East to Vladivostok, was no longer a comfortable prospect. My husband asked if I thought we would still be able to enter the US after being in Russia for the month we were scheduled to be there, if by then we were at war.
       In retrospect, I don't think I understood that day how much had changed.  Prior to September 11th, I knew that Osama Bin Laden had been spreading the internet with hate speech against the United States, and was doing so rather vigorously. Other nations do sometimes as well. I thought it unlikely that anyone other than the disturbed would follow Bin Laden. I did understand the amount of venom and jealousy some nations have for the United States. A great deal of it is based in misunderstanding of our media, particularly some of the television programs we export as "representative of the US" when it in fact, is not.  I believed that our CIA and FBI was likely monitoring sufficiently to block any real attacks, especially since the domestic terror situation in Oklahoma City.
        I did not understand.  Osama Bin Laden found plenty of people who hated not only the US, but any nation that was developed and anything approaching civilized. He found plenty of radical Muslims who hated women, and any nation who permitted them to hold positions of power.  Sadly, Muslims who did not hold these views, for the most part, kept quiet. They did not renounce the actions of a radical fringe. Since then, some of them have insensitively tried to build Mosques in areas that Christians feel are offensive. I do have moderate Muslim friends, and therefore I at least understand that they don't all hold such radical views.
       Prior to 9-11, preparedness and survivalism were largely felt to be the purview of the paranoid. Following 9-11, people began to realize that when the planes are down, the medications en route to your pharmacy and hospital aren't getting there, as few pharmacies hold what they need for even a week of prescriptions. People in the US began to examine how vulnerable our nation is, not only to terrorist attack, but to any type of natural disaster which cuts or limits our ordinary supply lines.  Preparedness did not begin for me after 9-11, but it began that day for many Americans, and at least we can thank the radical Muslims for that.  We can also thank them for the progressive dilution of our Constitutional protections which have occurred since that time, slice by slice.  Now, an illegal Mexican occupant of the US can open a bank account at Bank of America with a social security number, but I cannot.
        Since then, I have met a surprising number of people whose brothers, cousins, friends, fathers-in-law were killed in the collapse of the Twin Towers or the attack on the Pentagon that day.  I have yet to meet someone whose family member was on heroic Flight 93.  I can't help but notice how similar the weather, the sky and the day is today in comparison to September 11, 2001. I pray for the surviving families of all the people lost, and who remain missing from that day.

It's Very Early Autumn

      
 
    In my part of the world, it's still Summer, but Autumn will be coming soon.  The Crepe Myrtle trees are still in bloom, the trees still have their leaves, but some of them have a little bit of tell-tale red or yellow interspersed. My Gingko Biloba trees look well, but one of them is dropping leaves from the outermost branches, and this means Autumn is on it's way.  Believe it or not, it's time to begin to consider Christmas gifts or gifts for the Winter holidays you celebrate. A good gift can seldom be conjured the week one needs it, and so consideration should begin now. Also, grabbing gifts at the last minute is expensive. Considering the genuine needs of people, finding the right thing, and then wrapping it attractively need not be.
              One of my dear friends who actually lives within about ten miles admired an ornate pewter dish I have in my dining room. This year, I happened to see the same one on sale in "Tuesday Morning", a department store liquidation shop.  I put it away and I added it to my Gift Notebook. This is where I write down ideas for gifts for people, so I won't forget.  I have a sheet in there where I can check off gifts for people when I get them. She is the first person for whom I have a gift for Christmas this year.  I don't yet have gifts for anyone else, but I am thinking about it.   For my eldest son, he could use a gift certificate either to Harbor Freight for tools or a gift certificate for Woodworker's Supply.   My daughter, who moved into her own house this year, is normally easy to buy for, but I am afraid this year, this is not so.  She already has everything inexpensive,and I am afraid that anything she really needs is going to be expensive.  She could use "The Simple Pump" which would allow her to obtain water from her well, and pressurize her house, even when the electricity is out. Even if she bought the pump and I paid for the installation, this would be more than my Christmas budget just now.  She could also use a riding law-mower.  Both items are too expensive for my husband and I to give to her this year. We will have to keep looking.  Our college aged son likes books.  I have been going to www.half.com and assembling a collection of the classics. These are books he has said he wanted but are too expensive in conventional bookshops. I have been buying them, only as new books, gradually over several months. I have quite a collection of excellent books for him.  Our next son is still enamored with computer games.  I have been gathering new games that he has mentioned he would like to play from wither amazon or new from www.half.com . I think he will be very pleased.  We always give birthday and Christmas presents in the name of Daniel, our son who passed when he was 12 1/2.  Usually,  something comes up before Christmas, that seems a worthy contribution, usually to a family well known to us, and less often to an organization.  This year, I think we might again take canned goods from Sam's Club and donate them to a local church foodbank in Daniel's name.  Daniel always thought food bank donation was an important task, even if you have little money yourself.

Food on its way to a foodbank.

 My husband usually likes decidedly bland gifts. He likes a pair of woolen or perhaps alpaca socks to go under his boots in winter while doing things on the farm. He likes the more expensive and non-synthetic long underwear.  Tall, thin people seem to get cold in Winter, even in Virginia.   For everyone else on my gift list this year, if my book is out, I plan to give them a copy. Of course, it's on the basics of preparedness for beginners ! This depends on how long it spends in editing etc,   This leads me to my next subject. Don't be afraid to go through the catalog or website of augasonfarms.com or beprepared.com to search for gifts for loved ones.   There are wonderful gifts that in these times, and in any other, would be welcome additions.

You can do something like this yourself !

This is also not difficult.

interiorgroupie.blogspot.com       You can cut out designs for brown paper.

( From www.mightydelighty.blogspot.com )

 


         Remember also to make cookies, jams, or candy if you can and give these as gifts to the people who can enjoy them.   I have a neighbor who definitely bests me every year as they leave us homemade cereal bars, jams, and even homemade soaps. One of our sons got a gift of some exquisite homemade granola last year, made by a friend.   I never seem to have the time, and always buy them some type of treat.
When it's time to wrap remember that brown paper stamped with Christmas stickers or stamped with red Christmas trees and secured with red yarn looks as good as any $6.-$10. wrap sold in a department store.  Plan how you will wrap in advance this year.  Spending very little need not look cheap or lousy.
          So, stay quiet, and plan your gifts little by little, starting now.

On Adult Gummy Vitamins

         When I first saw and read about the advent of gummy vitamins, I was not encouraged.  Most of us need very little encouragement with which to ingest sugar, and I had concerns that children could easily become poisoned when they eat the entire bottle, not realizing these are medicine. This was of particular concern for me as a critical care registered nurse, because iron overdosage has caused child deaths. When I saw this package in the store, I was not thrilled. Certainly, it comes with a "child-proof cap" but at my house, we often joke that this is only a "nurse-proof" cap, as when our children were tiny and I couldn't open something, I would hand it to them just long enough for them to open it, and they were in it in a jiffy ! (No poisonings, by the way.)  It was only a matter of time before there were not only gummy vitamins designed for children, but gummy vitamins designed for adults, with adult potencies, available on store shelves.
          I am glad I reconsidered.  One of my children has Crohn's disease, and normal vitamins often produce stomach aches and occasionally vomiting for him.  Perhaps this would be a way he could supplement certain vitamins on a more consistent basis. He was reticent, of course. He thought that although the vitamins came in a sugary vehicle, that he would likely taste the vitamins, just as we do in Carnation Instant Breakfast drink, or Ensure.  He was pleasantly surprised that at least, Vitafusion brand gummy vitamins, taste like gummies.  We even wondered if they really had the vitamins in them !  He needs to supplement pretty large amounts of vitamins as he no longer has a colon, and must absorb things using a small intestine alone.  The Vitafusion Prenatals actually fairly closely approximated some of the things he needed.  The manufacturers left out the iron one would normally include in a prenatal, most likely because I am not the only one who feared child death following a potential poisoning of iron rich gummies.  Before long, we were supplementing his D3 using a gummy, and his Vitamin C in this way also.   I also have been taking my Vitamin C, B-complex, and D3 in this way.

Yes, these are for adults, with adult potencies.

It is no longer necessary to stir crystals into a glass of water for fiber for some of us.

I don't know whether these are absorbed as well as Calcium Citrate preparations of calcium. Check with your pharmacist or physician to see if this brand and vehicle are beneficial to you.  Always drink plenty of water with calcium also.

         This is my new take on the advent of at least this brand of adult gummy vitamins.  First, if you have any small children who reside or even visit your home, you need to lock these up. They are very tasty, and the most discerning psychiatric patient, or your Aunt Freddie with Alzheimer's will not have a clue that these are anything beyond a candy.  Compliance, or the regular ingestion of this medication will be excellent. No one is going to forget their gummy after breakfast each morning. Even I am tempted to ingest just one more !  The poisoning potential hazard remains and so you must be careful of this.  Fat soluble vitamins, which are A, D, E and K, are poisonous in doses higher than the Recommended Daily Allowance, unless your physician has ordered higher, therapeutic doses for the purpose of treating some other pre-existing condition.  Water soluble vitamins are less toxic, and wind up in your toilet and septic, but are still undesirable.  Excessive Vitamin C, for example, will cause cold like symptoms when withdrawn.  So, we want to make sure that everyone takes the RDA and not more unless it's physician ordered.
         Secondly, if you are diabetic and your diabetes is under control, then these still may be a possibility for you.  Most varieties are about 4 Gms of sugar per dose (one or two vitamins, depending upon brand) and are about 15 calories. If you do choose to use them, they should be taken after a meal on a consistent basis, so that the sugar is processed along with protein and fat, and does not spike blood sugar.  For the rest of us, a consistent time of ingestion is wise for another reason. We probably should take our gummies after breakfast daily so that just after we can brush our teeth and remove that sugar bath.  Dentists will tell us that a consistent habit such as this will probably increase the number of cavities some of us develop.
        Still, I now accept that some patients, by virtue of better compliance, and better tolerance can benefit from this new novel approach.  Please note that genuine pregnant women who take gummy prenatals will need to supplement the iron they need to take in another non gummy form.  This does provide another means by which patients who really need supplemental vitamins can get them, without nausea and vomiting afterward,allowing them tol take them on a more consistent basis.
         These are available at most pharmacies, Ebay, Amazon, and at Wal-Mart.  As for adding them to preps, you could, although I do expect them to become less tasty in the vicinity of their expiration dates, which was 2/2014 on mine.  I suspect that conventional vitamins would last longer in a cool dry place.
Again, take every possible step to keep these out of reach of children, or adults with dementia.

The Significance and Importance of Good Signage

We found signs like these with our name signed on a space at the bottom to be the most effective for us.

          

Despite the fact that one would think these would be camouflaged, these work quite well also.  They are available from:www.MyParkingSign.com

This is also distinctive.

     We have now lived in a profoundly rural area for more than fourteen years, in two different farms. The area around our present farm, which we also own, is surrounded with thick forests, and is marked with  "No Hunting or Trespassing" signs.   I am not completely anti-hunting, but we don't want people on our land with guns that we don't know, and those who have had a six-pack too many, milling about. We don't want people casing the house or the outbuildings or barns for robbery. Although we don't hunt our own deer presently, we certainly reserve the right to do so ourselves should we either need to thin their herd, or obtain some food. In short, the people making the payments on this property would like to retain the right to hunt the deer, if this became necessary.  You would be surprised at what a difficult concept this is, particularly for some urban dwellers.
             We are quite a distance from any urban centers or even suburban ones.  This is why it can be so interesting when people with guns trespass in an attempt to hunt and then when apprehended, say, "I didn't know anyone owned this".   This happened sufficiently in the first years at our first farm that we enclosed all of it with "No Trespassing" signs.  When this was apparently ineffective, because so many people have the same thing, we started prosecuting trespassers.  In Virginia, those who trespass are subject to large fines or up to twelve months in prison or both.  Those who are proven to be trespassing with some type of criminal intent, are likely to get both penalties in tandem with their conviction, even on the first offense.  Yet people still do this !    One of the reasons this is such an issue to us is that when urban warriors come out to the country to hunt, and they hurt themselves, their families often sue the landowner. For this reason, our attorney has told us to lock the place down, and prosecute those who don't listen.
              A bit more than six years ago, we built this particular farm and thought that it might be more defensible than the last.  We started with the same type of "No Trespassing" signs we bought from our distant hardware chain, and they had about the same effect they always did.   We decided to beef up the signage and see if it made any difference.  You are certainly welcome to use anyone you would like. We don't receive any additional benefit or discounts for endorsing them, but www.buildasign.com has made our custom signs and we are very pleased.   You can design your own custom signs online.

These are very similar to the original signs we used. We signed them all.

                  People apparently notice and respond better to signs they do not see every day, and to signs that might be a bit more expensive.

                 There are a number of signs I would like to put up. However, one must be cautious about the type of signs you use.  In the event you use a provocative sign, and then must shoot a trespasser who means to do someone harm, then your sign may be used against you by the prosecutor when the issue goes from a Coroner's Inquest to a Grand Jury.   These are a few of the signs of which you might need to check with your jurisdiction as to how pleased they are to see these.

I am not certain what this says, but I get the idea.

If you shoot someone and have this sign, you will be seeing it again at the Coroner's Inquest.

            


                        I am happy to say that we now have some perfectly worded signs surrounding the property, and different ones marking the gate house and the gate on the way in.  It's hard to tell whether the trespassers are in fact, responding to the clean and new signs or to the frequent target practice which can be heard within.   If you can, always enlist the help of your local sheriff or law enforcement before formulating a strong anti-trespassing plan.

                       Our attention has now turned to preventing any future thefts from a garden of our daughter's place. I'll let you know how that goes.

Adventures in Painting

The kitchen in process

   Most of us have painted the interior of a home from time to time, and know something about the process. However, it has been many years since I assisted in the painting of multiple coats to the interior of an entire house !    My daughter purchased a home in July, and in tandem with her demanding full time job and yes, 3, sketchy part time ones,also,  she has not had a lot of time to work on her new home.   Her father, her brothers, her boyfriend and I have all helped and she has done the more difficult cleaning, removal of the old carpet,  and eventually the drywall repairs, which were quite lengthy, and preparations for actual painting.   One of the reasons this has taken so long is that we were all mindful that the more time you spend in preparation of the area to be painted, the less time you will spend on the actual painting itself.
     The selection of the paint caused some rifts between my husband and my daughter.  My daughter wanted to use something called Zinsser primer because one of the rooms in her house had been painted a deep forest green and another had been painted a deep midnight blue/black    My husband thought a good quality paint in a couple of coats would cover just fine.  The second thing we did was purchase tape to cover lighting fixtures, doorknobs, etc. then brushes and containers of different varieties and then rollers of different sizes.  Because only subflooring was present, and the house was empty, we didn't bother with drop cloths.
     We started with the bathrooms and the oddly colored rooms first.

Visual from: http://www.thisoldhouse.com

          Next, I used a brush to cut-in on the walls at the ceiling, around windows, above baseboards at the lowest portion of the wall.  This allowed my daughter to come in with a hand roller and paint the large areas of the walls and ceilings.   Her boyfriend did the tough parts of painting the cathedral ceilings.  We ran into some real challenges in the bathrooms which had sheetrock problems, and needed repetitious repairs before painting could even be comtemplated.  Then, even when these areas were cut in, a normal roller was too large for ceilings or walls. A smaller roller had to be rigged.  When these were finished there was a lot of splatter in tubs and on toilets, and a lot to clean up. Additionally, the paint my husband selected, which was not Zinsser primer, did not cover adequately, and the bathrooms needed almost six coats.   The family room and the kitchen in this house are quite large and reaching the ceilings, even with a roller screwed on to a pole was difficult.  With others doing the tough large area painting, I went on to painting the interior of closets, painting baseboards, door frames, and the six panel doors with a semi-gloss paint and a brush.  In all, there is plenty of work to go around.

Picture: http://www.thisoldhouse.com

            My daughter is a smarter woman that I.  Rather than cleaning the rollers and brushes after each session, she would wet them additionally with the paint which was used on them,  and cover them with an airtight clear bag.  This meant she was spending less time washing up each day and some days could paint early in the morning, and then later in the afternoon also.

             My husband bypassed the Zinsser primer my daughter had requested because he thought it was more expensive.  It turned out that one coat of Zinsser primer would have allowed us to move on faster to the final paint color, and would have been cheaper in the long run.  She used Duron a latex matte paint on most walls.  She chose Valspar brand from Lowe's for the rooms which were becoming a color other than cream or white.  This paint performed well.  We used Sherwin Williams paint on house exterior doors and trim, and on the large outbuilding.    By far, the best paint brushes were the Wooster brand.  We used moderately priced rollers and supplies from Lowes.  Our daughter received a ten percent discount for some of these supplies from a coupon she received from her change of address packet from the post office.

            We also learned something else.  My daughter has been concerned about not using too much in terms of electricity before she is in the house. She had been turning off the air conditioning when we finished painting and were leaving.  She eventually found that this was a bad idea.  In Virginia, the air conditioning is needed in order to not only cool the rooms but to decrease the high humidity here which would allow the paint to dry !  We were surprized when we returned the following day to find the paint not fully dry. We lost a day while she ran the central air to cut all that humidity.

          As we left that day we spied a doe right near the pond who has evolved into being a frequent visitor. We have concluded that she too lives at our daughter's house.

This is help in selecting types of paint:

http://hytechsales.com/howtopaint/paint_types.html

Other great information on interior house painting:

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/how-to-paint-room.htm

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/painting-trim-baseboards-and-wainscoting.htm


Our final hints:

Don't be in too much of a rush. More spills and more clean up will take even more time.  Don't overdo. I am not accustomed to having my hands over my head steadying a fairly heavy paint soaked roller painting a ceiling. I pulled muscles in my chest and upper arms and this is slowing down my participation.  Last, remember that any color you select is darker when it's dry and on an entire wall.  Think about getting a paler yellow or a paler gray than you might want in a store that is lit with fluorescent lighting. Last, make it fun. This is not only a lot of work, but it's probably our final step in the "launching" of our daughter. This should be a special memory for her, and for us also. Our princess has her own castle !

     When the painting is done, we move on to wood floors throughout all of the home but the kitchen and bathrooms.

Make Time for Parties with Friends

    

A close friend invited my family and I to an evening garden party yesterday.  It was to be an end of Summer evening party and a farewell and best wishes party to their daughter who will be going to the United Kingdom to complete her Master's degree at a wonderful university there.  I had planned to bring the entire family, but yesterday, my own daughter was grieving the sudden death of a friend, and had a migraine, and my husband offered to stay with her.  Two of my sons were otherwise scheduled.  By the time the evening party began, I didn't feel much like going, but I felt it was important to support my friend, and so both my eldest son Adam and I attended.    It was a lovely event.  I am very fond of my friend's daughter, and she has earned such a wonderful opportunity.  As exciting as living in Scotland will be, it will still be an adjustment, and it will take her away from her close friends and from her very loving parents, from her boyfriend, and also from her brother.  Still, this is why we raise our children.  They must go into the world, and make use of the opportunities they choose. Nights like these are like the gravy of life. They are celebrations of why we do, everything we do.

 

  It was wonderful to meet my friend's daughter's roommates and her friends from the college from which she has just graduated. They were all intelligent, reasonable and gifted people, and speaking to them, I got a hint of the idea that the world might be in good hands after all.   My friend is the consummate hostess, one of those rare people who is comfortable with all people, entertaining in all situations and also, what we used to call, "a hostess with the mostest."    The food was not only excellent and varied, as were all the drinks, but the conversations and gatherings and music were so good that I wound up eating very little ! There was a disc jockey and good music, two large screen televisions in the house where people took turns watching their favorite teams playing football. There were also a couple of croquet games under way.
      This evening was a reminder that as hard as we all work, we must make time for friends, for shared food and drink, for gatherings, conversation, and laughter, because over all, the entire journey is just too short.

The Advent of a New Tick Borne Illness

    Some time ago, I presented a series here on tickborne illnesses.   The US Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia has just announced the discovery of a new tick borne virus.   Two Missouri farmers developed a viral illness following a tick bite,  which caused a devastating and life threatening drop in their platelet levels. They lived 60 miles from each other and did not share a common area in which they are believed to have become infected. There was a five to seven day interval between the time they were bitten and the onset of the illness itself.   Both of them required inpatient hospital care, of 10 and 12 days each and had severe headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and fatigue. One remains weak with memory deficits.  The symptoms were similar to another tick borne illness erlichiosis.  Both men were bitten by the Lone Star tick. (Amblyomma Americanum) They were originally thought to have erlichiosis, but they did not respond to antibiotics. Later, a new virus was isolated from the blood of each man.  Weeks of recovery time were required afterward.  The CDC expects more cases and expects this illness to continue to spread.    This virus falls into the family of phlebovirus, but is genetically unique. It is similar to the Chinese phlebovirus SFTSV. These viruses can and do disrupt platelet manufacture, and although hemorrhage was not a feature of the disease in these particular two Missouri farmers, it could certainly be in others who are eventually afflicted.
   The CDC expects more cases and expects this illness to continue to spread at least to the areas in which the Lone Star tick inhabits.  This comprises a completely new zoonotic infection, and could cause death in younger, older, particularly in patients of all ages who have other types of pre-existing medical conditions.


Our other posts which concern Tick Borne Illnesses:
 

http://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2012/04/learn-something-about-your-areas-tick.html

http://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2012/04/avoidance-of-tick-borne-illnesses.html



References:

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/08/29/yet-another-tick-borne-illness-emerges-in-us

Prior to this, these were the only known tick borne illnesses:
http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/diseases/