Spring itch

Saint Valentine’s Day is the first of those holy/planting days, the next two being Saint Patrick’s Day and Good Friday. Saint Patty’s Day and Good Friday are both early potato planting days and Saint Valentine’s Day is the beginning of planting those really early garden seeds such as lettuce, spinach, peas, and maybe radishes, in other words the salad garden. So as I began to think of gardening again (did you think I would be thinking of LUV on V-Day?),I drove my little Nissan pickup into town to the leaf dump. I wanted to make sure I got some of the leaf compost before some farmer hauled it off for his fields. In the fall the town picks up and shreds the leaves and by spring they are starting to look like peat moss. In my opinion a leaf dump is a good recycling project for any community, turning refuse into something valuable with a minimum of effort. Have you seen what they charge for peat in the garden stores? Hopefully the leaf humus will be an excellent soil amendment. I’ve gotten six pickup loads in piles around the garden. I refrained from putting it directly on the garden area because I wanted to give the cover crop of ryegrass a chance to put down deep roots and grow. My cover crop really looks anemic this year but then so do the local farmers’ rye cover crops. Worst I’ve seen in 30 years.

I knew my wife would also want a load of leaf mulch for her flower gardens, so I brought her one. When she saw her pile that evening she put on her smile and got all doe-eyed and told me she wanted MORE! I tried to beg off by saying I was broke and my truck was very low on fuel. That evening a ten and a five magically appeared on my dresser top. So I brought her another load but she still wants MORE. That woman sure does love her flowers!

It is obvious from the above comments that my wife and I are getting the spring gardening itch. Once I get all those shredded leaves turned into the soil along with the ryegrass maybe the garden will be off to a good start this year. At very least I got my exercise quota from pitch forking those pickup loads. Now I need to get those salad seeds planted (when it stops raining.)

Porkerville

I got put on the VA fat farm. The VA doesn’t call it a fat farm; they call it their “MOVE” program which stands for I don’t know what but I get the message. At my last check-up at the Veteran’s Clinic the doctor asked me my height and used that with what the nurse had just weighed me at to figure my body mass index or BMI. He looked at me kind of strange, asked my height a second time and then refigured my BMI a second time. “You don’t look that heavy” he said. Of course all of this convinced me that I had just worn too many winter clothes for my weigh-in and more importantly had developed really heavy bones from all that skim milk I had drunk over the years. Still I look at this free VA program as a real opportunity for me since I am sure I’ll feel much better at 180 than at 220.

I am sharing this boring personal aspect of my life because I am certain there are others who may have the same problem and may want to see how I progress and what the program is about. Besides, it is still a while until gardening and fishing season and if I post anymore of my personal philosophies it will be even more boring.

I am aware that a sort of perfect storm has formed, a downward spiral. First came the high-calorie holidays, then being more sedentary in winter on top of being less active in retirement. Even in summer when there is a lot of yard and garden work, I only put in half a day compared to the 12-hour days of physical labor before I retired. I have also been blessed with the curse (or is it cursed with the blessing?) of a great cook for a wife. If after nearly 40 years of marriage that is the worst I can say about her I guess I’m a lucky man. (I put that in there just in case you-know-who reads this.) Still, if I had been forced to live off my own unpalatable cooking all these years I am certain I would be leaner. Taken together, all these elements of this brewing perfect storm along with my age, I do need to be careful.

I was impressed with our first MOVE meeting with a registered dietician. The goal is simple: lose 10% of your weight in 6 months at the rate of about one pound per week. The method is simple: rid yourself of 500 calories per day, 250 calories burned from increased physical activity (we were each issued pedometers to wear) and 250 calories reduced in food consumption calories. A 250 calorie reduction in a 2000+ daily caloric consumption does not seem that tough. The plan attacks the calorie reduction at the margin, i.e. you give up the easiest 250 calories not the hardest. Butter and tub spreads are extremely calorie-dense, about 50 calories per tablespoon; there are spray-on butter substitutes in the dairy section which taste just like butter but are zero calories per serving;losing a single slice of bread can mean a reduction of 100 calories. So cutting calories at the margin by replacing spreads with the spray-on, replacing sugar in my coffee and tea with zero-calorie Splenda and cutting back one slice of bread and one cup of milk, I should be able to lose that 250 calories per day and not even feel any sacrifice. (Sacrifice is the part we all hate.) Replacing one of my daily cups of skim milk with a diet soft drink might even feel like a treat and would save me 80 calories. So cutting 250 calories a day seems very doable. It is much more a matter of awareness than of sacrifice. I think the real question is whether the 250 calorie per day reduction and 250 calorie extra activity burn will actually translate into a pound loss per week. That remains to be seen.

The day of our Move meeting I had planned to take my wife out for a pizza supper. It dawned on me that I would not have to forego this date night. If I just ordered a diet drink instead of my usual sweet tea and free refill then I would save a couple hundred calories. Ditto if we ordered thin crust instead of thick crust. Ditto if we ordered veggie lover instead of sausage or pepperoni. The only part of the MOVE deal I agreed to was cutting what I normally ate by 250 calories and we did that and still had our date night too.

As for the burning an extra 250 calories per day by becoming less sedentary and engaging in more walking, let me say we went shopping the day after the MOVE meeting. Let me also say that unlike my wife, I hate shopping and usually sit in the car working a crossword puzzle to “improve my memory” while she pokes around shopping. I decided to mentally change my viewpoint of chain stores to see them as free-heated walking venues. Instead of plodding along shoving the grocery cart and acting as the "guardian of the purse" while my wife read all the labels on all the cans in the store, I took off at a good pace looking for the emptiest store aisles to serve as my walking track and put some steps on my VA-issued pedometer. Again this may be more a matter of awareness and changed attitude than sacrifice. Time and pounds-lost will tell.
Stay tuned for Porkerville updates.

What’s Happenin’

You know you are getting old when you fall asleep during the Super Bowl and your wife has to explain to you what happened in the second half; that and the fact that you remember a lot more of the names of the players on the first Super Bowl championship team than today’s Green Bay team. But what the heck I did get a good nap out of it.

I haven’t blogged much in January because I set aside the month for putting up a tile ceiling over our wavy, uneven, unsquare bedroom ceiling (one of the joys of living in an old farm house built by old farmers not carpenters). How many retirees does it take to change a light bulb? Just one but it’s going to take him all day to do it. That is why I set a whole month aside for this simple project. That and the fact that those farmers used hard oak instead of pine for all their studs and ceiling joists and every nail I drove bent beneath my hammer and expletives.

There is a country song that is popular just now about a man who hears voices in his head, the advice of his parents and grandparents which the wisdom of his own passing years has proven to be valuable and true. When I begin a project like the ceiling or even a task as simple as washing the dishes or simple house chores, I rely on the voices of old sayings, proverbs and platitudes to get past the initial inertia of an evil living room sofa calling my name for a nap and telling me to procrastinate another hour or day.

To get me started there is the old Chinese saying that “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. I ask myself what is the first simple step I need to take to begin. (No! not lie down on the couch and think about it!) Other initiating advice is “Well begun is well half done” and “On the plains of hesitation lay the bones of countless millions” and “Carpe diem”. I find the advice of Julius Caesar especially valuable as a modus operandi in accomplishing any project: “Divide and conquer.” I think he was speaking more to Gauls and Teutons but the adage works well for any unpleasant chore or “insurmountable” problem. It is the basis for my problem solving. Divide the whole problem or project into parts and then break the parts into still smaller parts and those into even smaller parts until eventually you reach a part so microscopic you automatically assert “Hey, I can do that.” Sometimes (most often actually) I can only begin the dishes with “putting the silverware away.” If all other motivators fail there is always my wife quoting from St. Paul’s epistle that “Those who don’t work, don’t eat.”

For my next project I have set aside the whole month of February for doing my taxes. No need to get in a rush; after all I am retired.

poverty or POVERTY

Am I poor? I really don’t know the answer to that question. I don’t feel poor. All my needs are met. Perhaps poverty like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There are different kinds of poverty. There is the stereotypical hillbilly poverty with a front porch full of old appliances and a front yard full of partially dismantled cars and beer bottles. There is the stereotypical ghetto poverty where kids fight over who has the correct NBA jacket and expensive sneakers endorsed by the right sports celebrity. There is the sense of entitlement poverty where people wonder why the government is slow “getting me my money” and “my benefits”. There is the Benedictine/ Buddhist poverty where men and women purposely take a vow of poverty to live a simple life. There are the back-to-the-earth/self-sufficiency types who also want to return to the simple life and opt out of the rat race. There are those who just feel that most of the economy-produced products are so much clutter in their lives and garages. Poverty can lead to simplicity and simplicity to order and order to happiness. A degree of self-sufficiency can lead to a sense of security and security to happiness.

Of course there is the government established poverty level of income to decide if one is poor or not. But this “poverty line” income is constant across the country and the cost of living varies greatly depending on the location, even from one county to the next. I had a conversation with a widow this summer who complained about paying thousands of dollars in land taxes. Judging from our conversation, her property was quite similar to what I owned. Her property is near the county I live in. “You need to move across that county line,” I said. I only pay a couple hundred a year.

Then there is the concept of land versus income as an indicator of wealth. Remember land is that stuff that they quit making. The small acreage that I own in the country would make me a wealthy land owner in Rwanda, Haiti, China, Japan or any number of other places on the face of the earth. Are people with higher incomes who live in a big city on a dab of land richer than me? Who knows? If I want anything a city or town has to offer, I just drive in and get it. I am not trying to brainwash anyone or proselytize, but if someone has adequate health care, then the simple back-to-basics lifestyle has much to be recommended for it.

I need to cut this short. I want to go out to the garage and see if there is anymore junk I can get rid of. Simplify…simplify…simplify.

Simple Winter Fare

New Year is past; each day grows imperceptibly longer now. December was the most frigid I can recall and now that we are back to average January temperatures it feels like a spring thaw. Perhaps Old Man Winter has worn himself out or there is no more cold air on the pole or in Canada to slide down into the 48. I can hope. It did get up into the 40s today and was sunny so I worked half a day pruning fruit trees. I probably lopped off more than I should have but the increased roots to branches ratio may help the trees if there is a drought next summer. If given the choice between doing exercises or doing outdoor work on a cold but sunny day I prefer to do yard work because I can see something accomplished afterward.

After the over indulgences of the holidays I am ready for the inexpensive and simple fare of winter. We eat a lot of hot oatmeal with butter, brown sugar, chopped nuts and either applesauce or home-grown cherries or store-bought raisins. A box of store-brand oats costs a couple dollars and lasts a month for two people. It cooks in the micro wave while I make the bed. When we need variety or more protein I scramble eggs and top with salsa or make French toast. Bread and eggs are also inexpensive and nourishing foods. Coffee and skim milk are our normal beverages.

My sister bakes a wonderful heavy dark bread. I like that bread with a homemade white bean soup like white chili or senate soup. (I’ll give the recipes at the end of this; the secret to any good white or navy bean soup seems to be adding mashed or powdered potatoes for thickener.) Anyway, with hot bean soup, a big chunk of black bread and maybe a small glass of left over holiday wine I feel like some monk supping in a Middle Age abbey, fortifying myself against the winter chill. Okay so I do get carried away with my imagination; still, bean soup seems a welcome break from all the sweets and pastries of the holidays.

We make soup by the pot full and then eat micro-waved left-overs for a good while so we may also have soup for an easy evening meal if we have a taste for it. If not, our supper is usually spaghetti or tuna noodle casserole or maybe salmon loaf with cooked cabbage. I try to get some omega-3 fish into our diet in winter. We still have garden sweet potatoes and butternut squash which make good side dishes with a little added butter and brown sugar. It’s a small ego trip to still be eating from the garden in mid-winter. Everything is made in large batches and refrigerated so there is very little cooking and a lot of quick microwaving.

The holidays come with guilt for me as I pack on extra pounds. Judging by the number of people who make fitness resolutions for the New Year I think I’m not alone in this. This simple winter fare probably won’t cause me to lose any pounds but it should hold me steady until spring and summer when I can. Here are those bean soup recipes:

Senate Bean Soup

2 cups dried navy beans
12 cups water
2 pounds chopped ham
1 chopped onion
2 teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ cup instant potatoes

garlic to taste

1. Heat beans and water to boiling. Boil uncovered for 2 minutes. Cover with lid and let stand 1 hour.
2. Add ham and heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours or until beans are tender.
3. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer 1 hour.
4. If soup is too thin add ¼ cup instant potatoes, stir until thickened.


White Chicken Chili
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil 1 (4oz.) can chopped green chilies, drained
3 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 (15.8 oz.) cans northern beans
1 (14 ½ oz.) can chicken broth
1 ½ cups finely chopped cooked chicken breast
In a large skillet, cook onion in oil for 4 minutes or until transparent. Add chilies, flour and cumin; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add beans and chicken broth: bring to a boil. Reduce heat: simmer for 10 minutes or until thickened. Add chicken; cook until hot.

Economic Irrationality

Most people on the face of the earth today believe that capitalism is a system of rational economic actors i.e. buyers and sellers, consumers and producers each acting rationally in their own self interest. But an argument can be made that capitalism at its very core is irrational. No, I am not a pinko commie who is going to be quoting you Karl Marx or Das Capital. On the contrary my main source is Adam Smith, the author of The Wealth of Nations and the father of capitalist economic theory.

Economics is generally considered to be a social science which deals with the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy human wants. The allocation of scarce resources, (that is to say the inputs into the products) makes good sense; these are the scarce means to an end, that end being the products or outputs which satisfy our wants. The irrational part which befuddled Smith and other early classical economists was that the ends themselves, the outputs, the products, the wants which people sought to satisfy were also based on scarcity and not necessity. An example is in order. Water and food are necessities for human life; diamonds and other “precious gems” are not; we can live fine without the shiny rocks but it is those rocks that humans give the greater value to. Scarcity trumps necessity. Likewise gold, a soft fairly useless metal is stored idly in vaults while with the much more useful metal, iron (which has been transformed into the plow, every type of useful machinery, skyscrapers, and canned food containers) we have a hard time getting people to bother to pick it up for recycling. Bottom line is that any system that values scarcity over necessity is somewhat irrational. We see this irrationality played out in movies when people lose their lives in a quest for gold or some large gem. You want to yell out, “Hey…it’s just a R O C K!”

This inherent irrationality of capitalism, (or is it an irrationality of human nature only exposed in capitalism?) could cost us greatly if we continue to trade the health of our planet for “must have” products. Eve had everything she needed in paradise but she just had to have that “other apple”.

Ecos

Environmentalist and economists (or more accurately business) always seem to be at loggerheads. Businessmen want to drill for oil in the Gulf, along the Atlantic seaboard, and the north shore of Alaska. Environmental groups say no. Big corporations want to open national forests up to clear cut logging and oil explorations. Mining companies want to flatten some of the Appalachians to get at the coal and strip mine the Midwest. Utilities want to continue to generate power from coal. Do we want the economy to prosper or not? Do we want people to have good jobs to support families or not? Environmentalist green types fear we will degrade the planet if we accept these options.

Perhaps it is good that these two mindsets oppose each other and perhaps the debate allows us to achieve the proper balance between ecology and economics. Still, it does seem strange that two words with such similar Greek root word derivations should be in such desperate contention. Economics means management of the oikos (home or habitat) while ecology means study of the oikos. From a derivation point of view these two concepts should be synonyms not opposites.

I guess I would call myself a conservationalist; that term has been around decades longer than environmentalism. Basically, don’t use more than you need. I don’t subscribe to the idea that I need to buy more in order to keep business going and my neighbor employed. If we all conserved and used less (that includes my neighbor) then we could get by on less income and have low unemployment based on a shorter workweek. Maybe the 40-hour work week could become reality. I also don’t accept that I need to buy more in order to be happy. I am smart enough to know what I need without being brainwashed by corporate commercials. If a true need exists then there would be no need for coaxing commercials to get me to buy.

Economics and ecology need to become more aligned and work in tandem to match the similarity of their root derivation.