There’s always both regret and relief when a con is over—a delight to see friends I don’t see at any other time; but it’s tiring. Particularly tiring when the air conditioning isn’t up to snuff, and it’s August in Spokane: as chronicled frequently in recent posts, I don’t cope well with heat, especially with exertion, and climbing up and down 4 flights of stairs or trekking across the quadrangle to another building or out to the car (especially in the workout-sandals I wear) is work. I spent most of the time slightly sweaty and trying to find any venue with a breeze from a fan to help a bit. And while we had some good panels, the schedule had the good panels at 10 am when any fan with sense is off having breakfast somewhere after partying the previous night and sleeping until 9:30.
We’re going back on Atkins. I have had my sojourn with carbs, and right now I never want to see another piece of bread, candy, confection, cake, pie, potato, or tortilla. I am overloaded with carbs of every sort, I’m tired of that stuffed like a goose feeling, and right now, the only thing I want is meat, eggs, and cheese. I long for bacon. Sausage. Pork chops. Just enough carb to keep from crashing, and vitamin and mineral supplements to keep us in good order: Lord knows, I’ve got plenty to burn. We decided after our last diet gaffe we’ll just get back on even keel, have one fling with cream pies, desserts, cereal, and everything we’re not going to allow for a while, and then bring the carb level back down to what we find comfortable and sustainable. We’ll be getting periodic blood tests (with the thyroid meds) so we will keep track of our health, never fear. It’s just that if there’s one piece of luck in our relationship with food, it’s that we both do not do well on high carbs: we get really cranky and physically uncomfortable.
So farewell to parties and cookies. Farewell to the evening glass of wine. Just good behavior for the next number of weeks…and we’ll see how we do.
refined carbs and sweet stuff really disturb my blood sugar levels – while I wouldn’t ever do Atkins I certainly keep off that stuff …and feel much better on a relatively high protein diet. Yuck!
when are you getting back to your nice cool ice-skating?
Unfortunately we bit off more than we could conveniently do when we stripped the lawn this summer. This is harder than the back yard, because our neighbors yard was left in weeds early this year and seeded over onto ours. Plus while we had a clear plan for the pond, for the front, with beds and all, we don’t have a plan: it’s kind of growing organically outward from the water feature…but meanwhile the weeds keep growing and we can’t keep ahead of it. We can’t work in the heat; and it’s just a pain how hot it is: morning is my best working-time, but it’s also when it’s cool. So we’ve been whacking away at this mess until we can get something like order, which is why we haven’t been on the ice… Because we’re not born to this city, and don’t know people we could hire, we’re left with hiring people off the street, which is dangerous to do—you don’t know who you’re inviting in and whose attention you’d be focusing on you, your place, etc, with what unwholesome intent. So we just slog away, moving dirt, moving mulch, wielding heavy tools and digging. The bench grinder is going to help, because we won’t be doing it with blunt tools now, but we still are just about at the end of our strength to get this done, and I have given up my morning ritual of sitting and brushing the cat while staring out the front window and thinking about my book, so I have moved the kitty brushing to my regular work chair that overlooks the pond—a much more pleasant thing, but no relief from sitting in the same chair all the time. Right now out that front window all I see is dirt to be moved and weeds to be hoed, and it’s ruining my concentration; and Jane’s hands are getting damaged from her efforts to rush and do anything heavy I try to do—I won’t have her crippling herself; and I can’t do any more; so we’re just going to be slow. Jane keeps hoping the old grass will decompose, which is sort of happening, but I am getting really weary of rolling that compost pile and a hive of bees (bumble-type) have taken up residence in part of it, which is yet one more problem. Everytime I work, I have to watch for bees and quit when they get agitated.
Lord, that’s a lengthy, disgusting whine above. But that’s the honest reason we haven’t been skating, and having our blood sugar out of whack because of the carbs (can you tell?) hasn’t helped at all.
If I were you, I’d get to a decent stopping point on the front yard and declare a moratorium until cooler weather in a month or two. It sounds like you’re both running yourself ragged trying to keep ahead of the weeds and doing the whole front All At Once. It may look like heck for a while, but most yard projects do at some stage; don’t let that sucker you back into doing just a little more… Work on your books, go back to skating, do something that your mind and body don’t think is ‘work’ for a while, then come back when you are refreshed. Your subconscious may even burble up with an overarching ‘plan’ for the front while idle!
If I overindulge with too many carbs, I bloat and feel sluggish and fat; I can completely sympathize!
I know you are planning on weed cloth, but i wonder if you would consider my approach – it may only be temporary but it might work until you could get the weed cloth down. you save up your newspapers (or obtain packing paper from movers and/or get friends to give you all their recyclables), lay it down several sheets thick and then put an inch or two of mulch on top. It kills everything under it and you keep the weeds down for several years. You could try that for this summer and then in the cooler weather you could do the weed cloth? I read about this in a book on growing vegetables – the author did it every fall or perhaps every spring. you poke holes in the newsprint to get plants in. It is a lot easier than getting the roots up.
hmmm. We will hopefully have newspapers from OSG and our coach, and maybe we can get coverage enough! We had planned both newspapers and mulch, but I like this notion of mulch directly.
The newspaper does work. I’ve done it and it slowly degrades under the mulch. You can have ours, Tulsa World and WSJ, if you care to come get them. Otherwise they’re for the recycle bin in the school yard across the street.
And if I remember correctly, soak the whole mess to get it going.
Yes! I had forgotten about that technique — they advocate it in Square Foot Gardening books. It works even better now that many newspapers are printed in soy based inks, which biodegrade much nicer. Fill a wheelbarrow with soggy newspapers (fill wheelbarrow with papers in sections, then soak with hose) — lay them out about a section thick at a time — cover with mulch — wash, rinse, repeat. By the time the papers degrade, you’ll probably be ready for the weedcloth, or want to put down another batch of mulch anyway. Talk to your local libraries about taking away any papers they are discarding. They will give you enough to do the whole yard!
libraries! there’s a thought!
I went the newspaper route a number of years ago, turning the edge of the yard from bermuda to flower bed, and it did work. I used more like 3-4 inches of compost on top to make sure the wind didn’t get under them, and then a thick layer of the leaves that people throw away by the black trash-bag-ful here in the fall.
Best of luck with the diet. It is the very worst thing for me, but seems to be what your systems get along with. THis is my happy time of eating, with the farmers’ market at the end of the block – I go and get my basket full of local tomateos, yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant, new potatoes, and cantaloupe, and eat practically nothing else, and have more energy than at any other time of year. There is a woman there this summer selling naturally-pastured beef. I am getting one pound of ground beef per week. That, and cheese and milk and yogurt, does it for the protein (well, of course, there’s protein in all those veggies too.) My blood pressure is down about 20 points and life is good.
In the winter when veggies are poor sad tasteless things from the store, I eat much more meat, and get much less healthy.
We just moved, and our movers say that although they are prohibited from reusing the packing materials they are green, recycle the packing stuff and will make the packing stuff available to people they are moving who are going to pack their own boxes. A call to a local mover might reveal large supplies of the packing paper at very low cost. the boxes might work even better. All you need then is mulch.
I have also successfully done the newspaper-and-mulch trick, I put out the newspaper and then sprinkled it with a hose. The newspaper and the grass underneath it decompose very nicely. This was a problem for me because in a few years the weeds came back, but if you are planning to move the mulch later to put in weedcloth and plantings anyway, that won’t be an issue for you.
Is there a local nursery or garden shop with whom you have a comfortable relationship? Perhaps they could recommend someone who could spread your mulch for you, or who could help you do it?
I am beginning to feel like an overstuffed sausage myself; this seems to have been a summer of feasting with friends. Back to thinking about what I eat. 🙁
I’m with mitha and AbigailM in having successfully used newspaper as a mulch. Back in my ancient history when I was still in the mum growing business, we decided to start opening a new bed in the middle of summer. Obviously RoundUp was out (too risky for the plants in the other beds.) We mowed then covered the area with a thick layer of newspaper that we soaked as we put it down then covered it with a thick layer of straw. ( If we did get weeds they were easily pulled because of the newspapers.) The following spring we had a very nice bed to plow up. We put down preen before planting and kept the surrounding area well mowed. It worked very well.
My preferred mulch is still buckwheat hull because it builds the soil so well. Costly but worth it! 😉
I hate to be a (probably redundant) nag … but y’all are going to eat some vegetables, right? Right? >.>
Yes, once we pass the initial phase, which lasts about a week. But not the heavily starchy ones. 😉 We can be taught.
Rather than hassle with newspapers that have ink on them, call your local newspaper and see if they have any roll ends left over. That way you get clean paper, no ink and the roll makes dispensing a little easier. Storage of leftovers for later use is much easier as well, and I use the roll for “art projects,” and mess catchers.