Bread and circuses

We’re all familiar with the old roman quote about the bread and circuses. My recent gluten experiences say this may be truer than even they realized. Basically I have come to the conclusion that foods containing gluten should be reserved for periods when they are needed to avoid starvation. Having been largely gluten free for several months now and while I am pretty certain I’m not celiac I can definitely feel the difference when I eat something with gluten in it (most recently a too tempting piece of birthday cake). A difference that lasts for a couple of days. And it’s not a good kind of difference.

My point is that while grains are wonderful for their ability to be stored between the gluten and the acidification they should not really be a first second or third choice on the menu. Their chief benefits are for the elites in a centralized reciprocity social system and for populations that periodically risk starvation. So for those who consider the Paleo-diet to be too XXXetremeXXX I recommend taking a month off from gluten. Some of you may be surprised.

Of course you’ll benefit at least from the near elimination of processed foods that is caused by gluten. Of course, you could buy the needlessly overpriced gluten free processed food if you really hate cooking.

Setbacks are the norm

We won't be building the bunkie on Halloween morning. It was too wet so I didn't get the concrete slab poured. In truth it's really too cold to be doing mortar work now anyway - we don't have the budget to set up those plastic heated walls like the pros do.

The Boss and I talked it over and since the bunkie is still going to be an investment of hundreds to thousands of dollars we felt it would be better to wait until spring so we can do it right. For this winter I'm thinking to throw up a temporary log a-frame structure. Just not real sure how :)

My bro has generously given us permission to use his little wood stove to heat it.

Many hands make light work

We were up to the farm again this weekend this time to pick up and plant some trees. We were fortunate to have some friends come down to help so we managed to plant the 27 trees in just a few hours.

In one area We planted 3 Walnut trees, 8 American Hybrid Chestnut trees and 3 high bush cranberries. In another area we started on the fruit tree orchard with 3 each of plums, cherries, peaches and grapes.

Next up is the bunkie if the weather holds. We hope to work on it over the Halloween weekend so if anyone is interested in lending a hand let me know. It's a small cordwood structure so it shouldn't be exactly hard labour but lots of it.

Beatrice

I picked up my tractor this week and naturally I started using it right away. First I put my implements away - snowblower and and plow then I started doing some bush hogging. Fortunately the tractor moves pretty slow so I haven't had an serious accidents yet but a couple of times I did get thinking man, what am I doing. I mean you can feel the power of the thing when you start it up and it's not a really big tractor. But I still would suggest you don't park in front of it. Or behind it for that matter.

Looking back on a hour of work and it's not exactly easy but it's a lot easier than the three days it would have taken me to clear that brush with my hedge trimmer.