106 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-18-16”

  1. Morning all. Worked at school today and feel ready. One more day to prepare.
    I sent out a newsletter today and have been getting some encouraging feedback. It is a lot of work, which is why I only do them on school break. I pray over them and watch God give me the stories and the pictures.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  2. Your newsletter is spectacular, Jo! Bravo!

    It’s pretty cold here. I don’t know the temp, only know that the furnace is staying quite active. I have on a cozy wool sweater that I don’t get to wear very often.

    I’m sure there will be many events going on today considering that the MLS Center is here in Atlanta. It made for a great home school field trip back in the homeschooling days. We went with a group of homeschooling Scouts.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. I had to laugh this morning. I was watching the Toronto news and they said it was 8F with a windchill of -1F. An extreme cold warning had been issued! We’re currently sitting at -18F with a windchill of -42!!! We don’t get extreme cold warnings until the windchill is below -40. Oh those poor Torontonians. 🙂

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  5. I was going to complain about our 23 degrees until I read Kare’s post.
    My SS teacher left this to go to Calgary in Alberta.. He’s teaching there this semester.
    He may be getting chilly weather now.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. 34 degrees here in the Sunny South. I have never been so glad to get home in my life. I am usually up for adventure of any kind but there is a saying that fish and guests start smelling after three days and 3 days of Oldest Son is about all his dad and I can take of him. Sharing too much information with us, inappropriate comments inserted into conversations that had no relevance. Actually telling his father that he didn’t have to watch his children that is what we were there for. Wanting to quit his job when he has a family to provide for, especially when this one offers benefits that will save them $1,000 a month! We have all stuck with jobs until something better came along because we needed it. Ugh!
    I had made a promise to myself that I would never say anything negative to my husband about his children but I broke it. I had listened to him vent his disgust until I told him I was going to say a few things myself and then I wouldn’t mention it again. So you guys got to hear it!

    It is back to real work for me today. I haven’t really done much since Christmas, what with the first week of the year being light and then being in Maryland last week (although I did work some).

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  7. Janice, when did they change the name of the Atlanta airport to Hartsfield-Jackson? It came up on my phone as Hartsfield-LaToya Jackson Airport. I had to Google to make sure it wasn’t actually LaToya Jackson. They have also renamed Baltimore-Washington International to BWI-Thurgood Marshall. Really? Does it make a difference?

    Like

    Reply

  9. Jo, I sent an email to you from my old address giving you the new one. Please use the new one. Too much spam goes to the old one and I am switching everyone I want to hear from over to the newer one.
    All of you are on my want to hear from list!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  10. checking in with you all in the middle of the night as I was awakened by a torrential rain. On a tin roof, that is noisy. Getting quieter now, but I can still faintly hear the rain in the distance. I am sure that every tank on centre is full after that downpour.
    Thanks Janice for your appreciation of my newsletter. It was all God and it was a delight to share about what He is doing.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  11. I enjoyed the newsletter and the photos, too.

    52 degrees here .

    Having now written out this morning’s whine, I’ve erased it to save you the boredom.

    I’d confessed all this in the middle of the night, anyway.

    Off to start the 16 day “clean” organic eating. Thrilled my usual breakfast makes the cut! LOL

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. Laughing, though, the letter we were sent is an example of the need to proof read.

    One of the directions is to drink half your weight in water each day. My husband and son immediately went to work to calculate exactly how much that was . . . Her example demonstrated she wants us to half our weight in ounces of water.

    Easy for me.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. Kim- It matters to someone when an airport or whatever is named for a person. Usually, though, it’s a dead person who would never know. Around here they name stretches of highway or bridges after high patrolmen or other law enforcement officers who died on the job. In my opinion, the only people who care are the relatives, so why spend state money on a sign no one pays attention to nor remembers a mile down the road? Sorry to sound unkind, but when I die, put me in a pine box in an unmarked grave so my enemies don’t know which grave to dance on.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  14. I would think drinking half one’s weight in water would drown the person. Half the ounces makes more sense. Better start drinking water! I usually drink a half gallon at school anyway.

    Like

    Reply

  15. I just figured that a gallon of water weighs ~8 pounds. So I would need to drink over 12 gallons of water a day! No way. I’d spend all my free time in the restroom.

    Like

    Reply

  19. In defense of southern Ontario (not Toronto, they really are wimps), i could cite the difference between wet and dry cold (and there is) but the bar really seems to have been lowered.

    I dont understand Fahrenheit but its -12 celsius as i write. I googled its 10 Fahrenheit.

    I have the day off hence im here. Ive been called to jury selection. 1600 people have been called and 12 +1 are needed. Its a big trial thats been in the news.

    Like

    Reply

  20. So what are the directions for clean organic eating? I try to drink a lot of water. Sometimes I am successful and sometimes not. I had joined a FB accountability group to do 10,000 steps a day, but wasn’t able to keep with it. Oh. I probably got the steps in…I just didn’t have my phone with me at all times. 😉

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  21. Interesting to follow the debate on “organic.” I tend to buy organic produce, but am not entirely convinced it makes such a big difference.

    My veterinarian has developed a major (almost obsessive) interest in organic, non-GMO foods as being a miracle panacea for good health.

    I think it’s good to stay away from processed foods and eat “real” foods in general, which is what I’m trying to do.

    Keeping fresh produce fresh continues to be a challenge for a single-person household, however.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  22. That warmth is supposed to swoop in here later. We are still -13F at the moment and there is a good wind out there. We did have a discussion about humidity, which makes a huge difference in how the cold is felt. I hope to not have to go out. 🙂

    Like

    Reply

  23. I tend to buy organic if I can and my biggest gripe with GMO is anything Monsanto is involved in. Genetic Modification has been going on send Mendel discovered it in plants and animal husbandry discovered it it in animals.

    Like

    Reply

  25. Yes, water intoxication is a real thing, and yes you can die from it: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1770067/ We were trained to watch schizophrenia patients for signs of excessive water consumption – they often drink water compulsively. It is believed to be a method of reducing their anxiety. Drinking half ones weight in water would not be a good idea.

    In fairness to Torontonians, they have homeless people, and an extreme cold weather alert is a signal to open up the maximum available shelter space and increase vigilance in getting people off the streets. People have been found dead from overnight exposure too many times.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  26. Enjoyed the newsletter Jo 🙂 Looks like you had a fun Christmas break.

    I bought some “paleo bread” (0 carbs) at Whole Foods the other night but haven’t tried it yet (I presume it will have to be toasted to be edible). The challenge with so many of the natural foods, of course, is that they have little to no preservatives — again, a challenge for a single-person household, I often just can’t get through the stuff in time.

    I’ve bought the bread (Ezekiel something) you keep in the freezer and that’s not bad, I can take a few slices out at a time for the refrigerator and then toast them when I want bread (which I eat very little of these days). The paleo bread says only the refrigerate it, but it could probably be frozen as well (but it didn’t come frozen).

    Welcome home Kim, sounds like they kept you running while you were away. 🙂 Nice to get back to your more familiar routine, though, I’m sure.

    The baby shower yesterday for my friend’s daughter was so elaborate — they have a huge home in the foothills, the girl’s husband is extremely ambitious and interested in money (but he seems also to have a knack for getting it, so good for them I guess; although I think my friend finally agreed to co-sign for their house when they bought it despite being advised against it).

    And it will be interesting to see how they deal with the raising of the kids in the Muslim faith. Hard for my friend who raised both her girls Roman Catholic, but it gets complicated with family once the kids marry whom they decide to marry …

    Like

    Reply

  27. Organic/GMO discussion. Long ago, I was ambivalent. My cheap side said organic was a less expensive way to grow things for my little area. I have watched the discussion for years. Many years ago, we moved here, not far from the lunatic fringe that it had to be organic and GMO free. And in the middle of big farms that plant GMO wheat and other things and use herbicides and pesticides and I figured it was all good as we feed the world.

    Then the walnut tree got sick from overspray and the raspberries got sick. Then I thought, the spray is put on to kill things. What was I thinking. We can’t wash the pesticides off, they are pulled up through the roots into the plant, that is what kills it. Or enters through the foliage. And what is sprayed on the apples is designed to kill insects. And then we eat the apples. I would rather pull the bugs through my teeth and enjoy the good fruit. Then husband got sick and there is some thought that it came from working down near the creek where all the farm chemicals accumulate. And the calf died from blue algae caused by the fertilizer mixed with warm days and water. And the guineas died.

    And I decided the lunatics were correct and have quietly joined them. We can’t prevent death, but we could perhaps improve quality of life. Son has been telling us for years that we should move out of the middle of farm fields. Other son, with the optimism of youth, says he is still alive so what is the problem.

    I am currently reading a book recommended by the dad of one of our friends here. Wheat Belly. It is a very interesting take on the affects of GMO wheat on our bodies, in the author’s view. And a few weeks ago in church, the idea of GMO was mentioned and one of the ladies laughed and adamantly insisted GMO was just fine, nothing new. I begin to believe we are feeding the world, but we are also poisoning it and causing damage we don’t understand.

    Like

    Reply

  28. roscuro, I had read something recently that we’ve gotten way too carried away with the water drinking. 🙂 We tend to swing to extremes when it comes to food and health and exercise.

    Like

    Reply

  29. Isn’t some GMO food good, though? I don’t know a lot about it — and no doubt it’s wreaked havoc, I wouldn’t argue there. But can’t the concept itself be useful in some cases? Again, we tend to be all-or-nothing people when it comes to diet. I tend to think there’s more nuance (but admittedly I don’t know enough about it to say that with certainty, I guess).

    I do know my veterinarian has become really pretty obsessed with it all — kind of like the climate change topic, right or wrong, I tend to tune out when people go those extremes and something becomes downright “evil.”

    Like

    Reply

  30. I am not sure the GMO thing has been around since Mendel. We know that raising animals and crops to weed out the unsatisfactory aspects has been going on since the time of Jacob. But to actually enter the cell structure and change it by implanting parts of a different thing is rather new.

    Like

    Reply

  32. GMO. Around here, the crops are GMO. You can tell because the wheat stands all at the same height and is stalky so the wind does not blow it down. Is that good? Of course, then the combine can run through and get maximum yield. The wheat is consistent so the blades can be set just right and fly through the fields. But, what does that do to our bodies? Do we even know? We grow more of these crops than ever before due to the GMO stuff and the equipment and the herbicides. Is more better? I begin to think, maybe not. I suspect if we grew half of what we grow, we could still feed the world. A lot of the food goes to waste.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  33. We do know that obesity and immune disorders and autism and ADHD and mental illness and who knows what are all on the rise. I believe a lot of it is our diet and think it could have something to do with the electronics though a lot of people think that is far fetched. Not just the act of playing with the electronics, but the electrical waves/radio waves/etc we are constantly bombarded with. Chas’s honeybees are very sensitive creatures and they could be an example of what I am concerned with.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  37. No, Web MD did not interview me, but they seem to have the same general idea I have. I had not thought of the rise of superweeds, similar to antibiotics losing their efficiency.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  40. Donna, eating healthier is what we should all do, but as far as weight loss goes a calorie is a calorie. You can choose whether you want to waste a calorie on good tasting bread or a piece of candy or a better choice of vegetable and meat. That doesn’t mean you won’t get sick if you eat all of you daily allotment of calories in potato chips, but is does mean that you can have them occasionally as long as you count the calorie.

    Like

    Reply

  41. I had bought this book for Mr. P several years ago when he was a new Grandpa. Last night he ordered it and sent it to Master S and Miss Em so they will know what to do next time he is there.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  42. Yep. Calories. Got it. Have gotten it for a long time now. 🙂

    It really does come down to that in weight loss. But interesting now with the new understanding of just how bad some carbs are for us — and how fats can be good, depending on the source … There’s been a lot of new research that’s turned many of our prevailing ideas of old on their heads, no?

    I’ve lost some weight recently but my main focus is on eating more ‘real’ foods, especially fruits and veggies — salads, plain yogurt, fruits (admittedly buying frozen fruits works best for me — nothing lasts long enough otherwise in my world).

    The paleo bread is awful, though. 😦

    It wouldn’t even toast right.

    So mice don’t like cheerios? Everyone likes cheerios …

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  43. Just making sure because people sometimes get the Atkins thing mixed up and decide they can eat a pound of bacon every morning and all the “diet” food out there is over salted or over sugared or over something. I try to eat REAL food. I did eat frozen yogurt in Atlanta because my throat was hurting and I wanted something cold on it. That didn’t work so I wanted something hot and got a cup of tea. I use REAL butter. Our bodies don’t know what to do with margarine. I drink whole milk (when I do drink milk and I buy organic) because some of the nutrients found in milk has to have the fat for absorption like Vitamin D. I try to watch what kind of oil I use in cooking because there are GMO oils but it all gets confusing. The only think I know for sure about oil right now is that I ought to be using coconut oil for everything and I’m not. I try to stay away from anything “enriched” because usually that means they took all the nutrients out when they processed it and then had to put some back in—that’s a hard one too.

    Like

    Reply

  45. Kim, I hear that they’re kind of rethinking the significance of calories. And good fat is actually good for you and helps the body feels full. I avoid sugar substitutes, GMO, etc. if possible. But from what I’ve heard, organic foods aren’t necessarily better for you, and with some foods I doubt seriously it matters. It would matter more with tomatoes (where you eat the skin), for example.

    The government pushing uniformity in food sizes is inadvertently a push toward manipulation of our food that isn’t helpful.Why does it matter if all the squash in a bin are within 10% of the same size (or whatever the standard allows) or if the holes of Swiss cheese are a certain size (yes, that is government regulated). I don’t know what to think on some matters, like whether vaccines might cause more problems than is admitted or how much coffee or wine or eggs are good or bad for you.

    I do think that there is something (within limits) of letting our body tell us what is good. If fruit is what my body is craving, I eat a piece of fruit. Sometimes an all-veggie dinner sounds refreshing; sometimes I want fish. I’d rather go by those hints than government guidelines (put together with help of lobbyists). And I also try to serve two or three different colors of vegetables, and otherwise offer a variety of nutrients. But beyond that, I have little way of knowing whether the frozen fish has bad stuff in it or is all good for me . . . and ultimately I just eat it and leave it to God to figure out the day of my death.

    I know two people who have stressed over food and died young (now, granted, one started her extraordinary stress over food after she developed cancer, but the other one didn’t). I’m not going to obsess about any of it. Guidelines like “eat local honey” make sense and so I’ll incorporate them some, but I can’t really know the details of what is in my food, and I choose not to obsess over it.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  46. I was talking about a calorie is a calorie in weight loss. I agree with everything you said and try to do most of it. I have learned by trial and error that if I can’t buy fresh shrimp at a seafood market, I buy the frozen kind at Publix. I pay an arm and a leg for it, but anywhere else I don’t trust not to have formaldehyde in it. I do think there are good fats that keep us healthy. I am by no stretch of the imagination a health nut but I do try to make some changes. I haven’t given up heating things in the microwave, but I no longer use any type of plastic in one.

    Like

    Reply

  47. And virgin olive oil. I have coconut oil (virgin, unrefined — it’s refined that I think you need for cooking and I have a jar of that, too). I used the coconut oil mostly in the dogs’ food for their skin and coats, it’s really helped Cowboy’s problems.

    My doctor and I were talking about good fats recently — he’s pretty current on the latest research which I appreciate. Eggs, now OK (though maybe not every day, of course). I do get low fat (not nonfat) yogurt & milk (although whole is appealing because it just has a longer shelf life).

    Walnuts are a good, heart-healthy snack.

    Coffee (1-2 cups a day) seems to be on the “good” list now, which is interesting. But I usually drink somewhat less than a cup if I make a single-cup serving on some mornings. We have free coffee at work so I’m trying to take advantage of that on some days for an afternoon pick-me-up, but I normally just don’t crave hot drinks during the day.

    I buy fresh-caught Alaskan fish, but the frozen kind in a package — again, it’s a shelf-life issue for me.

    But I’m with Cheryl, it shouldn’t be something we become obsessed about. It’s not a religion. 🙂 Or at least it shouldn’t be.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  49. Those who obsess about food and eating right strike me as somehow thinking they can beat death by doing so. It’s odd. But as Cheryl points, out there’s not always a correlation between diet and health (although quality of life is probably better by eating healthier, in general, at least).

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  50. Donna, FYI butter freezes well. If you buy the package that has half-sticks, you can buy a pound, thaw just one half-stick at a time, and not have any issues.

    I transitioned to butter a few years ago (I like the taste of margarine better, and it’s cheaper). Now I only use margarine in cookies (I go half-and-half in cookies), and I also transitioned to sea salt from the health food store. I’m transitioning to more brown rice and less white, and am mostly there (brown costs more, doesn’t taste as good, and takes longer to cook). Veggies are mostly fresh or frozen, and I eat a lot of fruit. I avoid soda (an average of one a month or less) and fake sugar, avoid sugary snacks in the morning or after supper to try to keep a limit on them, etc. But I can’t realistically avoid prepared foods (partly because my husband buys a lot of them), and so I figure that along with multiple healthy habits are some imperfect ones, and I can live with that.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  52. I have been glad to see that recently they have decided you need some sun light to process Vitamin D and to keep you from being depressed. I could get skin cancer from sitting in the sun but I could also be hit by a bus crossing a street. I want the life I live to be healthy but I am not looking to hang around forever. I figure cancer will get me, but it will be quick. We found out my maternal grandfather had cancer on a Sunday. He died on Thursday. We found out my dad had cancer on May 22nd and he died on June 11th. My maternal grandmother had never eaten seafood. They used iodine in a medical test and she had an allergic reaction to it which led to her death…she was 88. My paternal grandmother had dementia but was otherwise healthy as a horse. She died at 89. I am not quite sure how my mother died. I think she had been in a nursing home for quite some time and died from pneumonia.

    Like

    Reply

  53. It’s hard to know. I’ll weigh in . . . in two weeks.

    In the meantime, my grocery bill doubled . . .

    I’d already made a lot of the fresh food changes in the last couple years, just not gone to organic. We have a farmer’s market here in the middle of wine and foodie country but it’s on Wednesday mornings when I either work or have other things to do. Maybe later.

    In the meantime, a bit challenging to go on a diet like this in the winter!. Fortunately, I like soup, I just wish I could make one that actually tastes good! LOL

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  54. GMO’s- genes are spliced from other species to make them do certain things- like be resistant to certain pesticides, Roundup ready, kill bacteria, resist fungus etc. Sounds wonderful to growers, but we ingest these things. We do not need our intestinal flora being killed by the food we eat! Gut health is one of the most important things in keeping inflammation at bay.

    Organic-I have grown my garden organically for the past 30+ years. The catalyst for me was my oldest daughter. She was just walking, and her little face was plant level. I figured if the poison would kill an insect, it was not good for her to inhale. So I just quit using it. I have raised a beautiful garden every year. Until 2015. I was invaded with bugs. First came the mexican bean beetles. The covered every squash bloom. Then came the harlequin bugs. Corn was covered! It was awful! Then the invasion of grasshopper..all about 1/4 to 1/2 inch long. They devoured everything in their path. Ate all of the dill, beets, chiles, basil, etc. Now I am more than willing to share my garden with squirrels, deer, and porcupines, but after the grasshoppers, I was done. I sprinkled Sevin dust over the entire garden once. It was when we were to be gone a few days. Then, later in the season, I sprinkled the perimeter. It was enough to control the invasion. I got a good amount of squash, corn, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkins, and peas. The rest was a loss to the insects. So if my small amount of insecticide controlled the problem, why is there constant poisoning of large food crops?

    Calories- Yes, while I agree that calories do count, they are not all the same. Those calories containing large amounts of fiber do not stick with your body and become fat.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  55. Michelle and others that is the problem with trying to eat healthy. It DOES cost more. What really irritates me is that a soda at a convenience store is 99 cents but juice, milk, water, or something that is a better choice costs close to two dollars!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  59. 2 Scrambled organic eggs cooked in peppers and onions and mushrooms with last night’s leftover veggies, topped with organic cheddar cheese. Glass of water and a banana for desert. I’m ready for a nap–didn’t sleep last night–and of course have a Wednesday deadline for this Biddy proposal.

    Like

    Reply

  60. True, at a convenience store. But juice concentrate at the supermarket for 100% juice is $1.50. And it makes 1/2 gallon, which can be poured into your own cup and taken with you. We eat lots of fresh and frozen veggies, rice and beans.

    We have so much wind here that I have been reluctant to invest in the floating row covers. How do your plants get pollinated, or do you just use them on the brassicas?

    BTW- wood ashes repel flea beetles.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  61. wood ashes going out to the garden as we speak. I take the row covers off as the flowers come on and put them back before the beetles come, which is usually right after the mustard fields are harvested. Kind of like the snakes coming in right after the fields are harvested, looking for cover and eats.

    Like

    Reply

  64. Thanks for the butter freezing tips, I never really thought of doing that. 🙂 But I may have mentioned how I wish I had a larger freezer …

    And good point about calories, rkessler.

    Like

    Reply

  66. On a decorating note, Green Abyss is my new favorite color for window sheers.

    I just put them up on one double French window (one of my gazillion, long & narrow French windows in the main room — the rest have cream white sheers) and I really like the color and how it contrasts with the rest of the room. They were on sale for a couple dollars a panel at Penny’s (Martha Stewart).

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  70. My mother raised us with as much healthy, i.e. natural, food as possible, and regularly reads a monthly health food and alternative medicine magazine. I grew up suspicious of the establishment when it came to food and health. In my extended course taking, I’ve had to write more than one research paper on GEO’s (genetically engineered organisms) – plants which have actually had genes spliced in or out of them by deliberate human engineering. GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) are are simply plants bred by humans for certain characteristics and thus have been around since Adam and Eve’s day. I discovered that not as many crops as one might think are GEOs (even heritage crops varieties and organic foods are GMOs) – corn, canola, and soybeans are the big GEOs. Wheat, thus far is not a GEO. Those short uniform wheat stocks are just by very careful breeding. Plant gene sequences are much longer than animal gene sequences and thus they have an ability to be altered to much greater extents without actually engineering the gene. To illustrate this further, this short video is instructive:

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  72. You are correct, Phos, I stand corrected. Again. At my advanced age, our modified food has obviously taken a toll on my thinking and I got my terms mixed up. Thank you. However:

    It is not supposed to be in our food but obviously is out there.
    And since the GEO corn and soybeans are fed to our edible animals, that is obviously there as well.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  73. That scares me. What they feed the livestock that gets into our bodies without us knowing. That is one of the reasons I started buying organic milk as soon as I could find it. I have made enough mistakes as a mother without pumping hormones into my daughter too.

    Like

    Reply

  74. lot of good information, but no health food stores around here. My daughters got me started on all this and I trust them. I use real butter and drink whole milk, however the whole milk here is the long shelf life kind. Oh, well

    Like

    Reply

  78. Well, it looks like my ex husband got married today. They left Saturday for the Virgin Islands, but I thought they were getting married on the 20th, but according to Facebook it’s a done deal.

    Like

    Reply

  80. I have reservations about genetic engineering. However, it is not so unnatural as popular media portrays it. Undoubtedly, some genetic modification, like the glow in the dark bunny, by scientists serve no good purpose and seems to be done just to say we can, which is a terrible attitude to take. However, gene splicing, i.e. genetic engineering, occurs in nature. The most obvious example of natural genetic engineering is within bacteria. When I was studying superbugs, several sources noted that most superbugs picked up their resistance to antibiotics not due to mutations, but due to their ability to pick up genetic material across species. For example, the antibiotic streptomycin is derived from a chemical produced by a certain soil bacteria to defend itself from other bacteria. Of course, it needs to be resistant to its own antibiotic, and it has been found that antibiotic resistance in other bacteria to streptomycin is due to the fact the resistant bacteria had got hold of the original soil bacteria’s resistance genes. Plants can also be naturally genetically engineered and it was the discovery of how the now famous agrobacterium implanted its DNA plasmid into plants to cause crown gall which opened up the idea of artificially engineering plant genetics. Viruses also genetically alter organisms naturally, including we poor humans – the herpes simplex virus (cause of cold sores) is one example of a virus which imbeds itself into human DNA, as does herpes zoster (chicken pox) to re-emerge as shingles later on. The truth is, since the ground was cursed for Adam, nature is both a blessing and a menace. We should never assume that all natural things will keep us alive, for disease and death is very natural indeed.

    Like

    Reply

  84. Well, Chas, I put it to you. If we had been meant to cook things, we should be able to breathe fire, or at the very least use our fingertips as friction matches 😆

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  87. Goodness, I leave for a few hours and the conversation goes every which way.

    Roscuro, a relative of mine studied chemicals, and his wife told me a bunch of the stuff in that video (in more general terms). Basically “chemical” is a word that scares us, but it needn’t.

    Like

    Reply

  90. Sure, chemicals are everywhere. Some combine to make good things, others combine to make poison. Some make my blood pressure go up, others make it go down. That is why we can make drugs.

    Like

    Reply

  93. I started it and I don’t know if it’s the “clean” eating, lack of sleep or I’m getting the flu, but I’ve had a whopper headache all afternoon. I’d like to join Donna and never eat again at this point but I feel miserable. Unfortunately, I’m hungry. I may call off the effort for dinner and eat a bowl of soup.

    More than anything, I’d like to be in bed asleep.

    Like

    Reply

  97. Soup, michelle, soup.

    Abyss green — not green abyss.

    Abyss green is actually a color.

    It’s raining (lightly). And there’s a little bit of thunder. But not enough to have Tess attach herself to my face again, thankfully.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  101. That’s a downy woodpecker in the header photo, by the way. I love it that its eye and beak (and tail) are in sharp focus, its wings mostly in focus but just blurred enough to show action. The falling snow would show up against a colored background better, but it’s still there. If only the bird had been landing on a tree and not a bird feeder, it would be much more interesting. But one rarely knows where a woodpecker will land unless it’s going to a feeder, so focusing on the feeder is a much greater possibility of getting a shot. And I like this shot a lot.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  106. Thanks Janice. I was voting absentee, but I think that they have quit sending ballots to me I will have to check into that when I am home next. Not sure what happened, but the mail takes so long both ways.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to Chas Cancel reply