Return to South Beach

Unfortunately I'm not talking about Florida. I'm talking about the dang diet! Why? I'm fat! Ugh! I was worried the cruise would be the big problem. It was only the catalyst to the winter binge. I kept telling myself that I would do better every day but I've apparently had too many events to celebrate with food. It doesn't help that I celebrate my birthday ALL month long! I refuse to drag out my fat pants so South Beach here I am!

I'm motivated primarily by two things right now. First, I am going home to Tennessee at the end of May for our family BBQ and I'm damn sure not going to be mistaken for the hog that will be roasting on the fire pit.  The other is my dear friend Brenda aka Buzzby has started a 17 day diet.  Many times we participate in each others health initiatives so I thought I would get in on this one.  It's nice to have someone to suffer with.  Actually, I'm just not willing to be fat alone :)  She is not doing the South Beach diet but it is somewhat similar.

Over the past few years whenever I feel the need to get back on track I return to the South Beach plan.  I know the principals well enough that I don't need to follow it strictly, but it's very helpful to read a bit each day to reinforce my behavior.  After only a few days my blood sugar returns to normal and I begin dropping weight.  So here we go again.  I'm not as fat as when I began my blog last May but I've really struggled this winter so measures must be taken!   I've had great glucose readings for five days in a row, ranging from 85 to 95 but my weight is not moving yet.  Still 158.  It will though :)  So here's a sampling of the right kind of food to eat...

Lots and lots of veggies.  This is steamed broccoli and cauliflower with bits of sundried tomatoes, goat cheese and slivered almonds.  Yum!  But you have to like veggies!

Tuna Salad made with lowfat plain yogurt rather than mayo.

Sliced ham and turkey with sundried tomato and pepper jack cheese wrapped in radicchio.  Oh why is it sideways?  Oh well... I'm tired of fooling with pics!

Oh boy!  Now I must stop to relay this farm town adventure... while I catch my breath...Ok… I was watching out my office window and saw baby Daffy, Ginger's new calf walk under the electric fence.  She couldn't get back through because of the hot wire.  I went out to get Daffy back on the correct side of the fence with Mama.  Not too big of a task since I went out armed with a nice warm Daffy bottle to drink.  Good news!  She is actually nursing from Ginger now.  Only from the front though and I don’t know how much she’s getting.  Her bag looks pretty deflated so I’m giving her a bottle twice a day to keep her going but not as much as she should be getting to see if she will go ahead get Ginger's milk going. Anyway… I finished feeding the bottle and gave they other cows hay, fed the chickens and dogs and then went back upstairs to get some work done.  Dave was sitting in the living room and I heard him puzzling… How did they get out…?  So I ran to the window and there was Ginger and baby Daffy grazing in the front yard.  Oh man!!!  When I went out to retrieve and feed the run away calf  I had entered the cow shed through the gate .  When I was finished with the bottle I just climbed back over the fence and forgot to shut the gate.  By the time I got there one of the little yearlings was out too.  I threw some hay in the feed trough and the little one came back in but Ginger wasn’t having any of it.  And of course Dave is on crutches!  Very fortunately I remember the secret weapon… bread!  I ran to the freezer and got a loaf of bread and the big fat cow trotted right back in with little Daffy following behind her.  Whew!!!  Yay Neighbor Carol!  She's the one who told us to bread train them... and most likely she is also the one I would have called to help me get them back in had the bread not worked :)  So... saved by the bread!  Hmmm... maybe I burned off 5 or 10 calories running around the yard after the cows.  :)

Now when Carol reads the above account of the escaped cows she will be very confused as between the time I wrote the above adventure (yesterday) and late this afternoon... the cows escaped AGAIN and this time I did have to call her.  This time it was not my fault.  Looks like one of them got a little excited and busted through the gate.  Stupid cows!  I was able to get Ginger and Daffy back in but the little heifers were a bit more problematic.  Carol and her mom "Granny" came to help round them up.  I even had to chase one of them up the road.  :(  Grrr... and Dave supervised and helped herd them into the fence by riding around on the riding lawn mower.  It was the best he could do with the crutches and all.  We must have been quite a sight!

Before Dave's foot surgery on Monday he started my greenhouse/garden shed.  Here he is laying the foundation...

And here is the floor nailed down...

And now I wait.  He has two weeks of crutches time then two weeks in a walking cast... and then back to work :)

Well... I bet you want to see how baby Daffy is doing right?  Of course you do!

Here's baby Daffy and her mommy Ginger.  They couldn't quite figure out the whole nursing plan at first and so we began bottle feeding her.  Dave first and then I took over once I got home.  Of course it's pretty easy to get attached when you are handling them and feeding them.  Here's a link to a little video of my first feeding...   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7V_wP5V6Fg

Dave told me I was going to spoil her rotten!  But then... well, it was really rainy for a couple of days and she got all wet and I found her like this in the cow shed...

Yes!  All covered up with a blanket.  So who is the spoiler?  Hmmmmm?  And one more little video of Daffy trotting through the muck to the cow shed for her bottle.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCDmTR4yawU

Daffy and mama finally figured it out and she is nursing quite well now.  Ginger is being a super good mom.  She is very good about letting us handle her calf which is awesome because Ginger is huge.  I wouldn't want to be on her bad side!   We are still anxiously waiting for Mumbo's baby to arrive.  Oh yeah... our little mother hen is sitting on a batch of eggs too so baby chicks should arrive in a few weeks.

I guess that's about all the news from Diamond Dave's MicroRanch and Orchard for now.  Like the name?  I'm being optimistic for sure - I have yet to harvest the first piece of fruit from the young trees and grape vines... but it will come, then I'll be asking, my oh my, how's that pie?  

Ciao!

Spring For Real!

This post has been in the process of being written for about a week now.  I started over the weekend but
never finished.  I'm in Woodinville now and I'm finally taking the time to finish and post it.  It's midnight
 but I'm too excited to go to bed.  You'll see why in just a minute.  Of course if you are a fan of facebook you will already know why :)

It's really and truly spring! The buds on the grapes are almost swelling.  The blossoms on the fruit trees are almost forming.  The creek is spilling out over it's banks like it does every year...
Tank is getting ready to go for a swim.

The flooding creek means the snow in the mountains is melting and the ground is thawing.  Last week I tried to dig a hole to move my blueberries but the ground was still too frozen. This week I was successful.  Dave and I moved them to a sunnier location between the grape vines and the raspberries.  I hope they thrive in their new home. Today (Sunday) I pruned the grape vines and planted some new cuttings.  I just read that you can stick cuttings in the dirt and they will grow.  We shall see...

Super nice picture with the clods of dirt hanging out of the tub.  Oh well :)   I'm excited to see if they will grow.

 We also pruned the fruit trees.  This is their third year so I hope we get a few pieces of fruit off of them!












On Saturday I decided I better think about rototilling the garden for the first time.  I had a whole winters worth of cow poop piled on top and wanted to start working it in.  I put on some nasty garden work clothes assuming that it would be a pretty "crappy" job.  I was right!  Unfortunately I forgot to take an antihistamine.  I am still getting over the last of a winter cold and had a heck of a time breathing through my nose.  So... I was forced to breathe through my mouth - which would not have been so bad except that as the tines cut the poop into the soil they also threw it up and I felt like I ate as much poo as I tilled into the ground.  SOOOO GROSS!!!!  :)  Oh well!  Live and learn!

 I will give it another go this weekend.  I will take an antihistamine first!  As you can see in the background there are NO leaves on the trees yet.  The west side of the state is about a month ahead of us.  We will catch up though so it's high time to sort through my seeds!

Speaking of seeds... I plan on growing bok choi, spinach, a couple of kinds of beets.  Sugar peas, pole beans, several varieties of tomatoes including the kind for sun drying.  Hmm... what else... Walla walla onions of course, cilantro, basil, jalapeño and cayenne peppers.  And I'm sure I'm forgetting some.  Oh, giant pumpkins too.  I think I bought a squash variety packet of seeds.  I'm sure I have more seeds than garden space.  I think in the fall I'll plow up more ground and enlarge the garden.  First I have to see how much space I have left after my green house and garden shed are built.  That will be one of Dave's major projects this summer.  Along with fencing in another large chunk of pasture and building a new chicken coup.  Dave is awesome!  :)  Of course I will have to assist with the project by fetching this or that and keeping a steady stream of drinks and snacks coming.  I probably will have to include a few foot and back rubs too but it will be worth it :)  I can't wait to try my hand at starting  melons early in the greenhouse then planting them in the garden to mature in the hot sun.  We have wonderful hot weather that produces awesome tomatoes and things... once it finally arrives!   I have learned that our little valley has one of the shortest growing seasons in the country.  Last year I jumped the gun and planted my tomatoes in the garden in May and they froze!  :(   A green house will really make the most of the short season.

And the most exciting thing of all is the arrival of Ginger's tiny calf.  Unfortunately I'm in Woodinville so I missed out on the birth but Dave was on hand and sent me this little pic that he took with his phone.  I'm so excited to get back home to see...it.  Come to think of it I don't even know if it's a boy or girl baby.  But here it is...

Of course there will be more pics when I get home.  Ginger is a great big cow.  Looks like her little baby is about the size of her head.  Really it's a miracle that she has a calf this year.   The sire is a young bull Dave bought last spring.  Just a yearling.... he did not appear to be nearly large enough to breed Ginger.  He grew a lot over the spring and summer.  Still... he must have used a step stool!  :)  He's getting big now though and he must be pretty proud of himself today.  Good job Red Bull!  We expect one more calf from Mumbo.  I think it may be several weeks before her baby arrives.  So much excitement this time of year!  Yay!  Ok... I think I'm winding down now.  Unfortunately (insert sly grin here) I forgot my glucose monitor and have no scale to weigh myself so I have no stats to report.  Toooo bad!

Ciao now, baby cow!  (Yep, I've lost it!  Big time!)

Electric Blue Morning

Ahhh...5:58 in the morning, coffee in hand.  I am snuggled into my cozy couch soaking in one of my favorite psalms.  The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.   The sound of the raindrops on the roof makes me happy for the many windows dotting the vaulted ceiling in my home.  I shall not go out today, but I can bring the outside in.  Peering out the window I see a scene I've seen a thousand times before and never before.  The big red barn.  This morning its bright new barn light captures and intensifies the deep grey blue of the early drippy morning.  It's like lightning against a night sky.  Everything it touches is blue.  The large white roll up door is washed with that blue.  The puddles shimmer and dance with blue as they collect the droplets from the sky.  Behind me the loud tick tock of the grandfather clock marks the seconds of this extrodinary living painting.  The light of day comes, stealing the magic away.  The light clicks off and I am left with the ordinary grey of a rainy day.  I am glad to have taken the opportunity to recognize and savor a special moment in an otherwise dreary day.

I am also glad that I lost another half a pound :)  Every ounce counts and I'm on a roll!  157.5.  Glucose 112.  Damn that whole wheat pasta!  Yesterday I was jonesing for some nice lean burgers so I slogged through the slush to the freezer and retrieved a few selections of beefy Panda goodness.  Unfortunately the ground beef did not thaw in time so I had to make something up.   Remembering the thinly sliced Canadian bacon I had recently purchased at Cash & Carry, I thought I might be able to do something with that.  A can of chickpeas came into sight and I knew I had a start.  Because I was so hungry at that moment the pasta flew off the shelf and once again I was confused but decided to go with it.  I got out the remaining spinach and some lovely sun dried tomatoes and of course some shredded Parmesan cheese.  This is how it all worked out...

I was pleasantly surprised by how well the salty ham and slight crunchiness of the chickpeas pared with the  chewy bite of the sundried tomatoes, backed up by the sauted onion, garlic and spinach.  Tumble in the whole wheat pasta and parm cheese and there you have it.  Tasty textures in one bowl.

Ok... gotta go do something creative.  Ciao!

First Signs of Spring

Yesterday I was crying about the lack of evidence of spring here in the inland Northwest.  Last week when I was in Woodinville I saw the shoots of all the spring flowers pushing up through the dirt.  When I got back home - nothin!  But this morning as I stared out window from my tub it occurred to me that spring was on the way.  The signs are just different here.   When I woke up and slipped into my good morning bath the first light of day was already chasing away the darkness.  I almost got depressed as the snow began to fall, first slowly, then furiously.  The ground and the rooftops are covered once again but by afternoon it will all have melted away.  Check this out...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHwtS7704G8

And I have seen the road restriction signs on all the back roads warning the big trucks to stay off due to the ground becoming soft.  And our driveway is truly a muddy mess.  In the yard the snow has melted now so that we can more clearly see  how many dead things Tank brought home this winter.  So yes!  Spring is coming.  It just looks different here.  Still... I'm going to keep my eye out for the first green sign of spring when I walk down to the mailbox today.  In fact I am so excited about spring that I took Robin's advice and actually pulled out my new spring flip flops!

Well now I need a pedicure and my feet are freezing!  But they will warm up by May perhaps.  :)  If not I can always just bring these with me when I go home to Tennessee over Memorial Day for "Pig 2011".  I'll work really hard on losing the winter fat... so I can gain it all back during the short time I'll be there!  I will arrive at the Nashville airport a couple of hours ahead of Jeff and Andrea.  Robin has promised to come keep me entertained while I wait for them so we can drive out to Dover togeather.  I bet she'll make me go eat some fried chicken.  :)  Yay!  I'm so excited.  This morning the fatometer read 158.0.  It still groaned but at least it didn't cuss at me today.  Glucose was 96 so that's a start!  

Ok, so there's a blizzard going on outside.  It's still spring!  Ciao!

Enough Is Enough!

Really this time!  :)  I have to admit... I've had a fat winter season!  I'm up about 10 pounds from my summer low.  This morning the fatometer groaned and begged for me to get off.  It read 159.5.  Glucose was 122.  Too high!  Ive been really thinking about about my winter hibernation fat and what I'm going to do about it.  So I did what every woman does.... I went out and bought a bunch of clothes that are ever so slightly too small.  :)  I know!  And this morning I actually logged into my FatSecret web site determined to track everything I eat and watch my calories.

Since Dave had been home he's been helping with some of the cooking.  It's a little hard for me to let go and not butt in because I like to cook.  It's also very nice to be called down from my office to a scrumptious smelling breakfast.  Dave knows I need re-lose some pounds so he tried very hard to keep it lean.  He made a tasty scramble this morning with the three eggs the chickens laid for us yesterday.  He used up the left over pork tenderloin, some diced cauliflower and spinach and topped it with fresh tomatoes and a dollop of plain Greek yogurt.    Dave also has a little extra winter padding.  He's also up about 10 pounds.  I think most of his is lack of moving due to the foot surgery.    :)  I saw him sneaking down the stairs with a great big bowl of rocky road ice cream this afternoon.  I almost tackled him for it.  :)  But... I'll let him enjoy it.  Maybe he'll go to bed earlier than me and... NO!  Stop right there!   That's exactly the kind of thinking that made me so plumptious!

I'm up to 859 calories and still have dinner to go. I'm actually looking forward to dinner.  I'm making soup out of some ground clams I had in the freezer from fall.  I added a bunch of cauliflower, some onion, some minced up carrots, a little bottom of the barrel wild rice blend and some dried shitake mushrooms a few spices like cumin and cayanne and of course a few shakes of the Tabasco bottle.  It's cold today so that will be very tasty and fairly easy on the calories.  Here's what it looked like going into the pot...  not cooked or even stirred up.  That just a bunch of ideas tumbling around.  I think I'll call it... Cupboard Clam Chowder.  What ever's in the fridge/freezer/cupboard is fair game.  Sounds like something my dad might make.  :)

And perfect for a cold day like this...

Why Oh why won't spring come?  Lucy agrees with me.

Ok.  Everyone think warm thoughts!  It's almost my birthday.  When I was a young girl growing up in Alabama, my birthday always fell very close to spring break.  I remember being able to lay out in the sun and work on my sun tan.  There's no way I'm going to lay out in that crud!  My cousin Robin told me to put on flip flops and spring would come.  Hmmm...  I thinks she's yanking my chain!  :)

Ciao!

Clearly Vacation Should Not Be A Part Of My Diet Because...

I'm fat!  158.2 and 107.  :(  And that's a week after getting home from California.  I think a big part of the fatness is road trip pit stops.  Yes, I could have ordered a salad at Burger King and Jack in the Box.  Then there was our little field trip into Los Angeles where we went to the Medieval Times dinner show.  That was fun.  Lots of horses and jousting and for dinner we had a quarter of a chicken, pork ribs and potatoes that we got to eat with our bare hands.  :)  Yummy and messy not to mention fat, fat, fat!

Here is the property.  Yep pretty desolate!

On the way down to California we stopped by Grand Canyon West.  We have a little piece of land nearby at Lake Mead.  We thought since we were headed in that general direction we would stop in and see if the Joshua trees and cactus were still there.  They were.  No change.

This is Lake Mead

Our property looks toward the mountains that make up the outside wall of the canyon.  Last time we were there plans were had been drawn up for the new Skywalk but construction had not begun.  Now it's complete and I wanted to see it.  The traffic at this entrance to the canyon is still very light.  More now with the skywalk open. Still, you don't have to share the views with 10000 other travelers like at the main park.  Here are a few pics that were taken there.

This is me looking into the canyon with the river in the background

Michele sitting at the edge making me nerrrrvous!

Michele and me

Scardy Cat... crawling to the edge

Dave trying to fly with his crutches

The Grand Canyon was a lot of fun but mostly we went to visit little Charlotte who lives with Mommy and Daddy at Edwards Air Force base.  She's growing up in a big hurry because in July she gets to be a big sister!  And here she is!


What a beautiful baby :)

Now that I'm back home... well... actually I'm in Woodinville now.  But when I get back home I need to really focus on eating properly.  I've gotten off track big time.  I don't know if it's all the traveling or being less active because it's winter or a combination of both.  Probably the combo.   It's the TV!  Too much TV time.  I think I'll cancel my Direct TV!  What ever the reason I'm looking forward to spring.  New beginnings!  Fresh veggies from the garden!  And... Dave promised to build me a green house and garden shed this year so I'm all kinds of excited about that.  

Well... I can barely keep my eyes open so... ciao!  I'm out!