X-Ray Vision

Can you count how many times you've been to the doctor and leave with no hope? Feeling like your body is betraying you? Falling apart? Wondering, good lord, what is the next thing to go? More bad news? Will it never stop?

I went to the eye doctor yesterday. He said repeatedly I am very lucky to have better than outstanding vision. Others would kill for my healthy eyes. He even got out these weird little lenses and showed me how other people see. Really?! I am lucky. He even said as we get older our eyes deteriorate. Cataracts develop and get worse requiring surgery. Macular degeneration befalls most of us. If you have diabetes, good luck. But my eyes...a gift from the gods.  Amen.

St. Lucy is the patron saint of vision. I know this because I majored in art history in college. Lucy was the one who held a plate with her eyeballs in it. Very cool. While taking a Renaissance Art History course, I visited relatives who had a one-eyed kitten.  Her name was One Eye. This relative wasn't very imaginative when it came to naming pets. She was such a pretty kitten with an incredibly ugly name. I felt she needed a better start to life so I renamed her Lucy after her patron saint. I am reminded of this story on my day of eye-health gratitude.

How often have I received good news from a health professional? I am going to revel in its glory for at least a week and remind myself daily about how lucky I am! I feel like a superhero.

"I'd Rather Smell Like a Man"

'Tis the season for home improvements, repairs, and general construction projects. There are a lot of things I can do around the house and I'm not one of those dainty things that's afraid to get her hands dirty, but there are some things I can't do. I'm not tall enough, strong enough, nor do I have the right tools most of the time. For instance, I can't hold a large, heavy power tool with a sharp spinning blade with one hand and a large, heavy piece of wood with the other. I can't carry a seven foot door nor can I chop up a large wooden slab of wood that's been used as a step to my shed for the last twenty years. I don't have a thirty-foot ladder to reach the top of my house. I can't even unscrew the hose that was screwed on tight by the last construction worker who was here five years ago. So this means I have to venture out of my fragrance-free environment and invite smelly people into my safe haven. Smelly men to be exact, because there aren't a whole lot of construction-worker women out there. Not something I look forward to....

Just getting quotes is a nightmare because once we've ascertained what I need done they can do, my second questions is, "Do you wear cologne?" Invariably they have no idea what I've asked. I'm not sure if it's because it's such a weird question out of left field their brain doesn't register it or if they just aren't listening to me. Or both. They often start babbling about something totally unrelated as I patiently try to make sense of what they are saying:

"Yes, I work alone and...."

"No, I charge standard prices, but...."

"I've done projects like that although...."

What did they think I asked? So I have to embarrass myself one more time and enunciate the question very clearly:

"DO YOU WEAR COLOGNE, PERFUME OR ANYTHING SCENTED????"

There are men who do wear cologne and because they want my money they will graciously assure me they will refrain from wearing it. Really? OK, so they won't bath in it that morning, but what about all that stink on their clothes? In their vehicle left over from the last perfume bath? The stink they can't smell because they are brain dead from toxic overexposure? I say, "Thanks, but no thanks."

There are men who claim they don't wear cologne but still arrive smelling like a toxic waste dump. It burns my sinuses and I have to ask them to leave or I don't notice it outside and when they come into my house I can faintly smell it as it pollutes my living space and have to spend hours air purify the rooms they entered. Sometimes this is deodorant, aftershave or laundry detergent and they have no clue this is also considered the anything scented I was referring to in the question.

There are men, however few, who don't smell at all. No cologne, no smelly deodorant, no aftershave, no laundry detergent. One told me when I ask the question, "Heck, no, I'd rather smell like a man." Hooray! You can stay!!! Sometimes I feel like I don't even care what they will charge or even if they know how to do construction work - I want to pay them just because they don't stink. I especially want to pay the men who understand the question so I don't have to repeat it again. That just screams smart to me.

The thought of hiring people for construction is extremely stressful besides worrying about being poisoned and having the ask the question. Can they do the job I need done? Are they competent at what they can do? Will they show up? Will they adjust the quote once they are here because they failed miserably at assessing the job in the first place? Will they blatantly try to rip me off because I am a single woman and they are male chauvinist pigs? These are situations I've experienced and I've found no matter how careful or conscientious I am, I get screwed. I think I have bad construction karma.


I haven't hired anyone for anything for about five years, and I was a little hesitant to start the process again. My neighbor suggested contacting a friend of hers and she called him for me. After quizzing him on the types of construction projects he was able to do, I asked the question. He started talking about something else, so I asked again. He said he didn't. No cologne. I invited him for a consultation and quote. Nope, no stink. He sounded really knowledgeable although he made it clear he wasn't licensed, it was to be work under the table, cash only and it needed to be done within the week because he had time off and was going back to work next week. He was cheap. He was fragrance-free. He said he would need to bring a friend to help on some of it which would make the job go faster. OK, make sure your friend is fragrance-free.

The job is postponed twice, first because I need time to find all the supplies he requested and another time because he was out of town for a prior commitment and returned too late. The whole time my brain is screaming at me CANCEL WHILE YOU CAN! I'm getting cold feet. Maybe he isn't as knowledgeable as he sounded? Maybe he'll do such a lousy job it will cost twice as much as the quote to fix it? He's unlicensed so hiring him is a huge liability. God, what was I thinking? I buy all the supplies anyway because it's been five years and I really need to get some of this stuff done. This is probably why I have bad construction karma - I'm so desperate to hire someone I ignore my instincts.

He shows up on time on the third scheduled day which is really rare in my experience so I take this as a good sign. His friend stinks of Axe deodorant. You ever smell that stench? I tell him he either needs to leave or he can wash it all off. He starts to try to negotiate about how he will stay away from me. NO, if you chose to stay on my property you will be fragrance-free. He opts to wash it all off since they drove an hour to get to my house and he does apologize explaining he normally wears unscented products. He doesn't stink after the wash and he brought an extra shirt. Thank god.

After that, everything worked out magnificently and I have to say I've never met such an outstanding carpenter nor have I seen such superb teamwork. Not only did they get my list of projects done in one day, the hourly total worked out to be less than the original quote. Watching them measure cedar shingles so they matched the existing wall pattern was pure art. Awesome.

The only mistake I made was giving the friend a towel to wash up with and I should have given him an old towel or rag I could throw away. The towel and the wash rag have been laundered four times and they still stink of Axe deodorant. I've had migraines, nausea and severe irritability for two days straight.

Now to get through dealing with the gutter repair guy...he's also fragrance-free, but he doesn't listen and because he doesn't listen he has already had to raise the quote which I don't appreciate. He claims I didn't tell him that. It's my fault, of course. And he thinks my name is "Lisa" although he's asked me several times. Hmmm. What is it about me that make men not want to listen to me?

If I get through this I'm done hiring construction workers for another five years!

The Advantages of Being Chemically Sensitive

As MCSers we tend to focus on the negative: what we have to sacrifice to live in the world, how lousy we feel, and how it has changed our lives. Believe it or not there ARE advantages to being chemically sensitive!

Appreciation for Health  Think back ten or twenty years ago when you took your health for granted.  Moments, days or weeks when we feel good, it's definitely appreciated!

Hyper-Immunity I don't get sick because my immune system is overactive constantly battling chemical exposure. No colds, viruses, sore throats, flu. When everyone around me is feeling lousy, looking miserable, lying in bed, sipping chicken soup and wheezing through congestion telling me it's something that's going around, I can silently say to myself, Hooray MCS - it won't be coming around here.

Education on Health and Healthy Living Becoming chemically sensitive makes one search for answers in hopes of finding solutions. We study information on diet, environment, chemicals, medicine, health, home improvements, gardening, etc. etc. etc. We expand our knowledge on how to live healthy and how to heal. We are highly motivated to finding answers. Would I have taken the time to care so much about health and alternative medicine before I became chemically sensitive? Maybe, but I doubt it.

There are so many out there who still don't have a clue when it comes to the consequences of chemicals, Today, for example, I visited my local hardware store. As I waited, the person at the checkout counter next to me was naively buying Roundup. I had just posted my Save the Bees blog following it with the article on Roundup research and Monsanto revenge. I wanted to point and scream, OH GOD, DON'T YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT POISON? IT'S KILLING BEES! DON'T BUY IT! Would she have cared? I'm pretty sure she would have laughed. The whole store would have laughed and chalked me up as being deranged. 

People who wear perfumes, eat junk food, smoke, do drugs, dye their hair, use high-VOC paints, and kill things with pesticides, herbicides and fungicides are self-poisoning on a daily basis. I see these people and wonder how it will affect their health long term. Will they suffer from some related disease later in life? An autoimmune disease? Cancer? They might not care now, but they will regret their bad habits when their health starts deteriorating whining about what they wish they would have known.

Organic Food Movement Indoctrination  Same educational benefits. Learning about healthy eating requires understanding the difference between conventionally-poison-grown food and organically grown food. This also involves reading labels, appreciating local farmers, visiting farmers' markets, and expecting a higher level of quality, freshness and safety for all food.

Minimalism I can't buy junk made from cheap, toxic materials or chemically-saturated products. I can't shop freely. With shopping choices limited, I've been forced into the minimalist movement.  In learning to appreciate my situation, I make a conscious effort not buying material things that will end up at the dump someday, I am very picky about where I shop and support only those businesses that encourage sustainable practices, I buy quality merchandise rather than support a throw-away culture buying cheap junk, and I spend less money. I appreciate not being shackled to material objects or addicted to buying the latest gadget. I value my air space and have garage sales to get rid of stuff.

Environmental Awareness With the minimalist approach in my daily life, I have become more environmentally aware. The chemicals that are poisoning me are poisoning everyone else and the planet. I fix what is broken instead of casually throwing it away and replacing it. I think twice about what I buy and how it affects the water, air, and earth when it's used or after it's at the dump. My chemical sensitivity has made me more conscientious about ecology.

Return to Traditional Lifestyle With a new awareness on healthy living, organic food, and minimalism, this involves taking the time to make home-cooked meals from scratch instead of out of a pre-packaged box. I clean with products my great-great-grandmother probably used. I grow my own food when possible. Who would have thought I'd ever be a gardener?

Random Acts of Violence in Public Places  I'll never be sitting in a packed, midnight screening of any movie and have to worry about being shot to death by some lunatic. I'll never be on an airplane sitting shoulder to shoulder with smelly people as we fly into the side of a building. Granted, with all the crazy people in the world, being chemically sensitive doesn't immune me from other random acts of violence, but because I'm less likely to subject myself to crowds, I'm less likely to be a target for terrorist violence. What an insane world we live in.

Any other advantages I missed?

Herbicide Research and Chemical Company Revenge

Speaking of bees...The Organic Consumers Association just posted this article today on the sleaze of government and chemical companies. The local government destroyed a beekeepers hives without warning, killed his bees, and gave him some lame excuse. He had been researching the effects of Roundup on bees. Roundup is a deadly herbicide made by Monsanto. Monsanto didn't like that and went after him destroying years of research. Unbelievable. It's like we live in a police state....or a chemical state.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/07/05/monsanto-roundup-effects-on-honeybees.aspx?e_cid=20120715_SNLNew_MS_1

Save the Bees

The bees are disappearing in record numbers. It is said if we cannot find a solution, they will completely disappear in ten to twenty years. Agriculture is dependent on bee pollination and without bees, our food supplies will turn to food shortages endangering our very existence.

Is that jetpack a superhero complex?

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is caused by pesticides called neonicotinoids that were developed during World War II as nerve gases to support chemical warfare. The most common insecticides in this category are: acetamiprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, imidacloprid, nitenpyram, thiamethoxam, and thiacloprid. They are sold under various brand names with cute logos not only as pesticides, but in combinations with fertilizers, herbicides and fungicides. Imidacloprid is the most common insecticide used world-wide and corn is the crop most often treated with it.

This guy sends me little cards in the mail requesting money
to support a cure for children's leukemia. Really?
The nerve of stupid people.
You can't imagine how much it irritates me.

Neonicotinoids are used on crops, golf courses, school playgrounds, parks, and residential lawns, gardens and homes. Their increased usage in the past ten years is contributing to the corresponding increases of cancer, kidney and liver disease, thyroid dysfunction, childhood learning disabilities, leukemia, and asthma. Since a dog's favorite activity is laying around on lawn, canine cancer is also on the rise.

I never see women spraying...
Hmmmmm?

The Environmental Protection Agency has done nothing but irresponsibly approve their use without the normally required testing, and the chemical industry has encouraged their overuse by up to three times the recommended limits. France and German have already imposed suspensions and are currently fighting chemical companies to ban these widely-used toxins. The United States has done nothing but aggressively protect chemical companies and their profit margins.

What you can do!! 

1.) Stop using toxic chemicals such as pesticides, fertilizers, fungicides, and herbicides on your lawns and gardens. Go organic!

2.) Stop using toxic chemical pesticides on your homes. Find healthy alternatives.

3.) Support your local organic farmers and gardeners by buying local produce directly from the growers or at farmers' markets.

4.) Write to your local politicians about the consequences of killing the bees.  Question your city's use of herbicides on roadsides and parks.

5.) Write a blog post featuring photos of your stupid neighbors.

6.) Create a bee habitat on your property or find a location for a community garden.

I've done everything in my power to create a bee-loving habitat in my yard filled with plants that attract and support bees. I hope they use it as a safe haven on their escape out of my toxic neighborhood.

Plants that attract bees:

The flowers I currently have in my garden are in bold. I have had others but many are annuals and I didn't replace them after a season.

Borage

borage (This is drugs for bees. They love it.)

butterfly weed

sweet peas

Shasta daisies

Daisies

violets

columbine

purple coneflower

asters

English lavender

Lavender
Actually this might be French. I also had Spanish lavender
but two died.

bee balm

lilac

cinquefoil

Gloriosa daisies

mint

Peppermint

nettle

dandelions

Siberian wallflowers

black-eyed Susans

California poppies

forget-me-nots

Yarrow

yarrow

cornflowers

cosmos

sunflowers

bergamot

foxglove (I've never seen foxglove on any of the bee plant lists, but bees love it, too!)

Foxglove

If you'd like to participate in The Great Sunflower Project or The Backyard Bee Count, all you need to do is grow sunflowers.  Go to www.greatsunflower.org for participation instructions.

My Favorite Flower: Salpiglossis

Casualties of War

Of course, my perception of gardening changes throughout the season. One day it could be a seen as a miracle, and the next a complete failure. There are days when I wonder why I went through all the trouble, time, and money. When the bugs, diseases, bacteria, and pests seem to be winning and I forget to notice the beauty. I feel like an organic gardening fraud and question what made me think I knew what I was doing. Especially if I focus too much on what is going wrong instead of what is going right:

Something ate more broccoli than I did!

Few of the sunflowers have survived. I've planted them three times (!) and you can see in this photo something has started eating again. See evidence of my arsenal of gardening weaponry? The red stuff is cayenne pepper, the shiny stuff is Epsom salts, and the white pellets are Sluggo. What you can't see is the Neem oil, BT and the onion-garlic sprays. But nothing seems to keep the plants from being eaten. I also used baking soda spray helped keep the broccoli from dying from a fungus and the milk spray strengthened the tomatoes so they could fight off diseases caused by all the dampness.

Cucumbers are surviving, but their lower leaves are all eaten away. Still, they are hanging on and growing.

This bean plant looks good, but check out the one in front of it. Eaten down to the stalk.

Even with all the Sluggo surrounding the lettuce, every time I check I find little slugs on it. The lettuce has grown big and full, but evidence that bugs have been crawling on it doesn't make me want to have a salad. Blah! I feed it to Peter, but even Peter won't eat it. Slug slime doesn't appeal to him either.

I grow lots of basil every year and usually it's very successful. See them in the planter? No? They all died. This year was the first year I used full-spectrum fluorescent lighting on the indoor start. Coincidence? I think not! I'm on the third planting of basil, now directly into the pot outside. Third time is a charm...maybe?

The Kabocha squash is doing fine, although something is nibbling the outer leaves. This is the only plant that survived out of twelve other indoor-started squash plants. I'm on the third and last planting of the others. Some are growing. I have about four zucchini, two acorn, and five pumpkin plants. No signs of delicata or butternut. Darn. My favorites.

And then there is human stupidity. This is my favorite plant this year. The reason it's my favorite is because I've rarely seen it in full bloom because Peter eats it down to nothing every year. So I moved it and protected it. Wouldn't you know I decided to weed wack the grass nearby. I had just changed out the plastic cutters and misjudged how long I left them.  Half the plant was wacked away before I knew it. You can see it all chopped down on the right side of the plant. I'm sure my neighbor wondered why I was screaming! Damn!

The weather just changed so we'll finally get some summer sun instead of constant rain. This might helps, especially to discourage the slugs.  I hope because nothing else is working!

I keep trying to remind myself this is part of the fun, but most of the time it feels more like frustration. I guess if I didn't want the challenge I could do what everyone else does and use chemicals. NO WAY! To me that's not real gardening. 

I try to focus on the beauty and let the cards fall where they may.

NEW GARDENING ASSISTANT!! Peter's in exile and besides, he eats more than he works. I've been wondering why my cucumbers are growing big and their leaves aren't being eaten away as much. There is a snake living in the broccoli garden!!! She's not very big, but I'm sure with a steady diet of slugs and other yummies, she'll get big and fat fast.

Inspecting the cucumbers.

Guarding the pumpkins.

The last resident snake was this cute little baby garter snake. I named her Lillian. Before mowing the grass I'd walk around to make sure she was safe. This went on for at least a month. Then one day she got in the way and I didn't see her until it was too late. I cried for an hour.

The Miracle of Summer

I love summer when the garden is lush, healthy and full of life, unlike winter when it looks barren and nearly everything dies. The change is amazing. Here are a some examples:

Lovage in the spring. During the winter it disappears.

Lovage in the summer. Eight feet tall!

Mugwort in the winter. See what's left? Brown stems.

Mugwort in the summer (center). Eight feet tall!

Broccoli garden. I posted this picture in the early spring as I prepared it for planting.

Broccoli garden in summer. I removed the broccoli yesterday. It was intermixed with the nasturtiums and borage, both really huge. Probably due to all that rabbit manure. Look how huge the oregano is? In the spring picture you can barely see it in the middle of the bed. And the thyme is now bright green instead of dead brown-green. See the cucumbers to the left in the partial shade. They are looking great and hanging on.

Grape tomatoes in the circular garden with the beans. Roma tomatoes in the garden behind with the garlic.

From baby tomatoes...

...to huge tomatoes!  This one plant didn't fit in
either garden so I put it in a pot on the porch.

Garden with lovage and plum tree. I just cleaned and weeded it today.

I love purple flowers. This planter is perfect.

So cheerful.

The tour:

Front

Front with Broccoli and Tomato Gardens

Front with Squash Garden

Side with Strawberry Garden



Backyard and Sun Garden

The 5th of July

For someone who has a hearing sensitivity, who would rather not be killed by a drunk driver, who doesn't like to worry if her house will burn to the ground due to wayward fireworks, and who would rather not be startled awake by explosions shaking her house, early morning on the fifth of July is my moment to celebrate patriotism.

This is when all the noise-loving lunatics are sleeping in after a night of terrorizing the community.

The streets are quiet. No movement. No cars. No screaming. No explosions.

I can actually walk the streets in peace and quiet and not worry that my boobs might be blown off because some immature imbecile thought it would be fun to throw an illegal firecracker at me.


My best friend's sixteen year old older brother was killed by a home-made bomb on the 4th of July so I've never been fond of this holiday. I'm pretty sure many people have been maimed or killed from fireworks, but that never stops the stupid because the stupid don't think.


I also once knew a Vietnam vet. The 4th of July was always a nightmare for him. One year he was walking along a pier when some teenagers set off fireworks in the park and he jumped over the wall into the rocks and water below. Broke his arm, leg and a few ribs. The explosives brought back too many memories of combat.

At my previous home, the late-night fireworks would start two weeks before the 4th of July and continue three weeks after. At one or two in the morning it was sounding like World War III. Don't these people have to work in the morning? Firecrackers are supposed to be illegal especially in city limits and I'm pretty sure bombs are discouraged, too.


At my current home, the noise starts one, maybe two days before the 4th. It's not as bad. In fact, the first 4th of July I spent here I was amazed at how quiet it was.

Last year we had idiot renters in the house across the street with bombs. Seriously. The first one exploded around 11pm. My adrenaline shot through the roof and I nearly peed my jamies. I ripped open my bedroom curtains just in time to watch Brain-Dead run into the house. I saw him looking out the window to see if the cops were coming down the road. No cops? Of course not. He'd do it again. And again. And again. I was tempted to call the police and give them his address, but I was really hoping he'd blow off an arm instead.

There were a few bombs this year, but not nearly as close or as frequent as last year, and most of the noise stopped before midnight.


I don't understand the attraction to explosives. Is it supposed to be recreating the American Revolution? It doesn't feel patriotic to me.

But the peace of early morning on the fifth? Now that is patriotic.

Let's celebrate peace instead of war.

I think I'll have hotdogs for breakfast.