The Yurtathon II - We Don't Need No Stinking Gear.

Garry, Lisa, Pam, Sherrie and I set off for the second annual Yurtathon in The Mount Tahoma Trails System (skimtta.com). This event requires hiking or snowshoeing to The Yurt along the Lower Yurt Trail and then back along the regular trail.

There is never any grooming along the Lower Yurt Trail so it is always interesting.

We set out at about 8:45 and headed up. The Lower trail had less snow on it than in previous visits although there were plenty of opportunities to posthole and we took advantage of many of them. We had decided at the parking lot which was completely clear to leave the snowshoes behind so we had already taken that choice away.

 

The deepest parts are the more open ones, but it is hard to avoid postholing this time of the year. There are places that the snow below has melted away and in you go.

By the time we made the junction of the main trail which leaves an uphill mile to go to get to the Yurt we were ready for some easier travel and got it. We arrived and had the Yurt to ourselves for a spectacular hour of food, water, rest and conversation.

We headed up the regular trail. That's right, UP. The challenging part of the Yurtathon is it's resemblance to stories your parents or grandparents told you about going uphill both ways on the way to school. You go downhill to the junction and then it's a steady 2 miles uphill to High Point which is just past SnoBowl hut. From there on you get your downhill reward for the last 3.5 miles to the parking lot.

All in all it is just over 13 miles so a half marathon length hike. We had considered calling it the Half Yurtathon, but It is a full Yurtathon even though it is just a half marathon in length. The name stays.

Be very well and more soon.....

Acceptable Levels

In 1874 chemists isolated DDT. In 1939 it was discovered that it was an effective insecticide. In fact in 1948 Paul Hermann Muller won the Nobel Prize  for his work with DDT.

In 1962 Rachel Carson published her book "Silent Spring" that catalogued the health risks of DDT and the environmental impact. She questioned the widespread use of DDT without fully understanding the effects of it.

It took until 1972 before DDT - now a known carcinogen - was banned in the US.

In 1962 Daminozide - known mainly by the trade name Alar - was approved for use. It was part of a chemical cocktail - over 40 separate chemicals - that were sprayed on apples grown in mono crops - One type of apple planted in large tracts together.

In 1989 Alar was pulled off of the market because it was found to be a known carcinogen.

In 1957 Bispenol -A (BPA) was first used in making plastic. It is not banned in the US currently except for use in baby bottles. It can be found in virtually all plastic bottles including the big ones on the water cooler at work. There is growing evidence that it acts like a hormone in the human body which disrupts your glands (endochrine system).  It is banned in Canada as a toxic substance.

Is it possible to protect yourself from all the toxins in the environment? Probably not, but that is the best reason to limit exposure where you can by making as many natural choices as possible. Filter your home tap water instead of drinking from plastic bottles. Read labels and never eat anything with an ingredient you can't identify.

The acceptable level of chemicals and toxins may be something other than this, but the desirable level in my world remains at none.

Be very well and more soon...

Big, Ugly And Naked

Minds out of the gutter! This is how I suggest you prepare salads to get you healthier than ever.

Let's start with big. Get out a serving bowl to use for your salad bowl. Ours are 10.75 inch bowls. Greens are basically free to eat. They are low in calories and high in calcium and lots of other necessary nutrients. The greener you go the higher they are in vital nutrients. The other thing they do is fill you up so you aren't hungry right away.

Fill that bowl with greens to where you have a pile on top. This is where the ugly comes in. Tear those greens up with your hands until they are half the size by volume that you started with. This won't look like the salad at your favorite dinner house.

Top the greens with some tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, mushrooms or what ever you like. Now it's not as ugly as it was.

As far as naked goes, use as little dressing as possible. There are recent studies that show that over dressing a Tbsp it adds up fast. Look for ways around dressings. I like pepperoncinis on my salad sometimes. When I add them I pull the stem over my salad and let the juice inside drizzle on the salad. It has almost no calories and tons of flavor. Olives also add a lot of flavor and make dressing less necessary.

Other alternatives are salsa which is about 1/3 of the calories of dressing and plain old fresh lemon juice. If that's too tart for you start with a little fresh squeezed orange juice mixed with some lemon.

So that's what I have for you. Eat your salads Big, ugly and naked.

Be very well and more soon....

Boom! Up The Boom! Norse Peak Boom! Trail

Pam, Garry, Lisa, Phyllis and I headed up by Crystal Mt to attempt the Norse Peak Trail. We chose this hike since there are lots of backup plans nearby. We were surprised to find a trail that we could follow. We were in our snowshoes from the outset.

Norse Peak trail is like most of the trails we like - it has a nice elevation gain. The bulk of the 2800 feet of elevation gain is done in the first 3.5 miles. At that point you walk a ridge for the final mileage to the peak which was a fire lookout.

We were almost immediately greeted by explosions from the Crystal Mt area as there was avalanche work going on there. Norse Peak trail is narrow and mostly tree lined for the first 2.5 miles, but in more open areas there was some fairly deep snow we had to break trail over. It seemed like every time we were in exposed areas there was another explosion from across the way.

We were finally forced to turn around when at about 2 miles up we were no longer able to find the trail. Since we already had a great workout we headed back down and enjoyed a beverage at the Naches Tavern in Greenwater on our way down.

I decided not to carry my big camera and Pam's had a dead battery so there are no pictures to prove we were out at all so you'll have to take our word for it.

When we were deciding on a trail last week I was going back and forth between Granite Mt and Norse Peak. After catching the news on the avalanche at Granite I am sure we picked well.

Be very well and more soon....

The Plastic Problem

I've posted before on plastic bottles and the dangers of exposure to the chemicals they are made of. The problem is that those same chemicals are also in many processed foods. They are generally used as stabilizers to keep things from separating and not looking all yummy like the pictures. There is no other legitimate purpose to add them to "food."

Here's the problem. Your body has a system of glands that regulate the entire body called an endocrine system. The endocrine system is a complex network of glands and hormones that regulates many of the body's functions, including growth, development and maturation, as well as the way various organs operate. The endocrine glands -- including the pituitary, thyroid, adrenal, thymus, pancreas, ovaries, and testes -- release carefully-measured amounts of hormones into the bloodstream that act as natural chemical messengers, traveling to different parts of the body in order to control and adjust many life functions.


Plastics and the petro-chemicals they are made of act as endocrine disruptors in your system. An endocrine disruptor is a synthetic chemical that when absorbed into the body either mimics or blocks hormones and disrupts the body's normal functions. This disruption can happen through altering normal hormone levels, halting or stimulating the production of hormones, or changing the way hormones travel through the body, thus affecting the functions that these hormones control. Chemicals that are known human endocrine disruptors include diethylstilbesterol (the drug DES), dioxin, PCBs, DDT, and some other pesticides. Many chemicals, particularly pesticides and plasticizers, are suspected endocrine disruptors based on limited animal studies.

I know we are supposed to have an agency that monitors what gets into the food supply but every year over 2000 new chemicals and chemical combinations are put on the market with virtually no oversight. That's right. You are on your own.

The good news is that you CAN avoid this crap. Don't buy bottled water or other liquids in plastic containers. Read labels on anything you buy and avoid any product that has any of the following in them.

ethylene - the simplest olefin; used as a chemical feedstock and ripening stimulant

• polyethylene - polymerized ethylene
• ethanol - via ethylene hydration (chemical reaction adding water) of ethylene
• ethylene oxide - via ethylene oxidation
  • ethylene glycol - via ethylene oxide hydration
    • engine coolant - ethylene glycol, water and inhibitor mixture
    • polyesters - any of several polymers with ester linkages in the backbone chain
  • glycol ethers - via glycol condensation
  • ethoxylates
• vinyl acetate
• 1,2-dichloroethane
  • trichloroethylene
  • tetrachloroethylene - also called perchloroethylene; used as a dry cleaning solvent and degreaser
  • vinyl chloride - monomer for polyvinyl chloride
    • polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - type of plastic used for piping, tubing, other things

Chemicals produced from propylene

• propylene - used as a monomer and a chemical feedstock
  • isopropyl alcohol - 2-propanol; often used as a solvent or rubbing alcohol
  • acrylonitrile - useful as a monomer in forming Orlon, ABS
  • polypropylene - polymerized propylene
  • propylene oxide
    • polyol - used in the production of polyurethanes
    • propylene glycol - used in engine coolant and aircraft deicer fluid
    • glycol ethers - from condensation of glycols
  • acrylic acid
    • acrylic polymers
  • allyl chloride -
    • epichlorohydrin - chloro-oxirane; used in epoxy resin formation
      • epoxy resins - a type of polymerizing glue from bisphenol A, epichlorohydrin, and some amine
• C4 hydrocarbons - a mixture consisting of butanes, butylenes and butadienes
  • isomers of butylene - useful as monomers or co-monomers
    • isobutylene - feed for making methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) or monomer for copolymerization with a low percentage of isoprene to make butyl rubber
  • 1,3-butadiene (or buta-1,3-diene) - a diene often used as a monomer or co-monomer for polymerization to elastomers such as polybutadiene, styrene-butadiene rubber, or a plastic such as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS)
    • synthetic rubbers - synthetic elastomers made of any one or more of several petrochemical (usually) monomers such as 1,3-butadiene, styrene, isobutylene, isoprene, chloroprene; elastomeric polymers are often made with a high percentage of conjugated diene monomers such as 1,3-butadiene, isoprene, or chloroprene
• higher olefins
  • polyolefins such poly-alpha-olefins, which are used as lubricants
  • alpha-olefins - used as monomers, co-monomers, and other chemical precursors. For example, a small amount of 1-hexene can be copolymerized with ethylene into a more flexible form of polyethylene.
  • other higher olefins
  • detergent alcohols

Chemicals produced from benzene

• benzene - the simplest aromatic hydrocarbon
  • ethylbenzene - made from benzene and ethylene
    • styrene made by dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene; used as a monomer
      • polystyrenes - polymers with styrene as a monomer
  • cumene - isopropylbenzene; a feedstock in the cumene process
    • phenol - hydroxybenzene; often made by the cumene process
    • acetone - dimethyl ketone; also often made by the cumene process
    • bisphenol A - a type of "double" phenol used in polymerization in epoxy resins and making a common type of polycarbonate
      • epoxy resins - a type of polymerizing glue from bisphenol A, epichlorohydrin, and some amine
      • polycarbonate - a plastic polymer made from bisphenol A and phosgene (carbonyl dichloride)
    • solvents - liquids used for dissolving materials; examples often made from petrochemicals include ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, acetone, benzene, toluene, xylenes
  • cyclohexane - a 6-carbon aliphatic cyclic hydrocarbon sometimes used as a non-polar solvent
    • adipic acid - a 6-carbon dicarboxylic acid, which can be a precursor used as a co-monomer together with a diamine to form an alternating copolymer form of nylon.
      • nylons - types of polyamides, some are alternating copolymers formed from copolymerizing dicarboxylic acid or derivatives with diamines
    • caprolactam - a 6-carbon cyclic amide
      • nylons - types of polyamides, some are from polymerizing caprolactam
  • nitrobenzene - can be made by single nitration of benzene
    • aniline - aminobenzene
      • methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) - used as a co-monomer with diols or polyols to form polyurethanes or with di- or polyamines to form polyureas
        • polyurethanes
  • alkylbenzene - a general type of aromatic hydrocarbon, which can be used as a presursor for a sulfonate surfactant (detergent)
    • detergents - often include surfactants types such as alkylbenzenesulfonates and nonylphenol ethoxylates
  • chlorobenzene

Chemicals produced from toluene

• toluene - methylbenzene; can be a solvent or precursor for other chemicals
  • benzene
  • toluene diisocyanate (TDI) - used as co-monomers with diols or polyols to form polyurethanes or with di- or polyamines to form polyureas
    • polyurethanes - a polymer formed from diisocyanates and diols or polyols
  • benzoic acid - carboxybenzene
    • caprolactam
      • nylon

Chemicals produced from xylenes

• mixed xylenes - any of three dimethylbenzene isomers, could be a solvent but more often precursor chemicals
  • ortho-xylene - both methyl groups can be oxidized to form (ortho-)phthalic acid
    • phthalic anhydride
  • para-xylene - both methyl groups can be oxidized to form terephthalic acid
    • dimethyl terephthalate - can be copolymerized to form certain polyesters
      • polyesters - although there can be many types, polyethylene terephthalate is made from petrochemical products and is very widely used.
    • purified terephthalic acid - often copolymerized to form polyethylene terephthalate
      • polyesters
  • meta-xylene
    • isophthalic acid
      • alkyd resins
      • Polyamide Resins
      • Unsaturated Polyesters
• Yep. That a big ass list. Try this. Eat fresh, organic foods. Don't trust your health to a chemical company.

Be very well and more soon....

First Load And The Wheelbarrow Handle Breaks/ I'm Glad I Didn't Toss The NordicTrack

We decided that our wonderful southern exposure shouldn't be wasted growing grass so we added close to 200 Sq Ft of raised beds.

The soil arrived around 9 this morning and I got to filling the beds up. As I rounded the corner with the first load the handle failed on the wheelbarrow and I lost half the load. I first thought about heading to the home improvement store, but decided to attempt a repair first.

I headed to the garage and spotted the foot rails for the NordicTrack that I have yet to get rid of and saw what I needed. A couple of lag bolts and some deck screws and I was back in business.

6 yards of soil later I had the beds full and decided to get the blueberries and half of the kale planted in there. They had all been suffering where they were before. The kale was in a too shallow bed and was too close together. Now it has it's own 4' x 12' bed that is almost a foot deep.

 

The blueberries will hopefully like the end of the big bed. Otherwise we suck and should not be allowed to have blueberries.

I still have about 4 yds of soil left and maybe 2 yards of need, so I am hoping one of the neighbors is interested in hauling the rest away.

I might be a little sore right now.

Be very well and more soon.....

The Rap On The Wrap

My pals at McDonalds have unveiled their latest attempt to look like they have more nutritious menu items - The McWraps. I hope you weren't on your way to go get one because I have some information you need before you go.

The Grilled Chicken one has 460 calories, 16 grams of fat of which 6 is saturated fat, and 2400 mgs of sodium. So that you know, that is a full teaspoon of salt which is almost twice what they recommend now.

The Crispy Chicken and Bacon weighs in a 600 calories  with 30 grams of fat - 8 saturated, and 1420 mgs of sodium. You can see the bad stuff balance at work here. Add fat and you can reduce the sodium.

The Grilled Chicken Sweet Chili is the best bet at 360 calories with 9 grams of fat -2.5 saturated, but it still includes 1040 mgs of sodium. If you get it Crispy the calories are 520, fat 22 and 4.5 and the sodium up to 1200.

They should call these the McCraps instead.

You can do better at home in minutes. How hard is it to pick up a rotisserie chicken, some tortillas and lettuce? Make a quick little vinaigrette and use it sparingly and you get more benefit for less money and protect your food supply a little.

Be very well and more soon....

At A Dog's Pace

I do some of my best thinking watching Athena walk. That is likely due to the fact that I am attached to her and the rhythm of it leads me there. I see the people that wonder what is wrong with the guy whose dog is taking him for a walk, but I know the truth of it.

There are things you learn with your dog attached to your waist and walking at their pace. You learn things about both of you that are important I think. They have proven important to me at least.

First, you can walk much faster than you think you can. With the constant pace pressure Athena imposes I find my only response is to find a rhythm that will allow me to keep a little slack in the lead. I find songs or pieces of music that work that I can keep in my head as we go. Lately, I've been trying to get back to the pace that Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No 4, Movement 3 provides. That was the magical 5 MPH area. I have to speed it up a touch, but it works.

Second, If you want to really deserve the look of thanks and love that your dog gives you freely you should give them "dog time." That is the time that they spend doing what they love the most. Going fast and being in charge a little both fall into "dog time." When you get done and you are dying from the effort you get that big dog smile and know it was earned.

Third, and especially if your dog is active and you work from home, it tires them out and they give you some time to get stuff done. That one is self-explanatory I think.

Last is that there is no more tenacious workout partner than an active dog. They always have a little more than you've got so it always stays interesting.

Be very well and more soon....

Good Stuff At Great Prices

Part of eating organic is knowing where to get the stuff you want at prices you can afford. I have a number of great reasons to get or keep you Costco card.

Newer additions:

Nutiva Chia Seeds
Nutiva Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
Townsend Frozen Organic Blueberries
Kirkland Brand Organic Tomato products
S&W Organic Black Beans

Back in stock:

Frozen Organic Corn


Regular items:

Truroots Quinoa
Truroots Sprouted Rice and Quinoa
Short grain Organic Brown Rice
Garafolo Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti and organic pasta shapes
Dave's Killer breads
Earthbound Farms Organic Baby Kales
Earthbound Farms Organic Mixed Greens
Earthbound Farms Organic Spinach
Earthbound Farms Organic Brocolette
Earthbound Farms Organic Carrots
Kirkland Organic Rice Milk
Kirkland Organic Soy Milk

Seasonal Now:

Fresh Organic Blueberries

Gone from stock is the Truroots Sprouted Bean Trio which makes me very sad.

I realize they have other organic products and I listed a couple I don't use like the soy milk. They have had organic apples in the past, but not lately.

I try to cruise the Grocery Outlet Bargain Market weekly to look for anything they might have. It's always hit and miss, but here are some of the things they have.

Annie's Organic Pretzel Bunnies
Canned Organic Beans - usually .99
Organic Greens
Organic potatoes - by the bag
Organic Soups and soup stock
Organic Chili

Trader Joe's has some organics on a table by themselves. Some of the stuff I like are:

Grape Tomatoes
Onions
Avocados
Bell Peppers
Citrus

The rest of the stuff I need I buy from Marlene's and hit Fred Meyers occasionally. Freddy's usually has Organic beans 10 cans for 10 dollars which, if my math skill serve me right, is $1 per can. They have everything from Garbanzos to a 3 bean mix and everything in between.

There is my shopping favorites right now. This weekend the Tacoma's Farmer's Markets kick off in South Tacoma on Sunday. It will be fun to see what they have early. That is normally where I get my berries.

Be well and more soon....