Getting ready to work on a better, more raccoon proof, chicken run and garden fence.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Monday, April 6, 2015
Back from Vacation
We're back from spending spring break in Canyonlands. The kids backpacked in 3 miles barefoot -- being unintentionally primal. They did complain of sore feet at the end of the day.
I wanted to camp in Hovenweep on the way back. The kids wanted to camp at Sand Island near Bluff. "There may be drunk river rafters on a Friday night," I warned them. Sure enough, a group arrived a little drunk, continued to drink, and dissolved into fist fights around 11:30 p.m. It was better than Netflix. Seriously though, they were making a bad name for river runners. How can a group of people be so oblivious that they are in a public campground?
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Santa Fe Bike Swap Bike
Here is the bike we picked up for $16 at our local bike swap today. Yes, we have enough bikes, but the bike we have the studded snow tires on is a little small, and my wife wanted this one. The shifters are shot, but we'll get the $17 replacements from Rivendell's Clem collection. In the meantime it is stuck in a good gear.
Health Update
According to the blood pressure machine in the pharmacy department of my local grocery store, my blood pressure has come down quite a bit, at least the systolic has. (My doctor told me that those machines are more or less accurate.) For as long as I can remember, my blood pressure has been around 135/85. Usually it measures a little bit higher in the doctor's office. As usual, that concerned me more than it concerned my doctor, but he had me wear a machine that checked my blood pressure every 15 minutes for 24 hours. During the night it falls very low - down to something like 99/50. My doctor said that variation over the course of the day tells him there's nothing particularly worrisome about it seeming high when I get a checkup - white coat syndrome.
Still, I don't like the fact that I hover in between prehypertension and hypertension on the little chart on the machine there in the grocery store. Today when I checked it, it was 117/83. That 117 puts me in the normal range for systolic.
Is it all due to eating a Primal/Paleo type diet? Who knows. Still, the blood pressure combined with the absence of seasonal allergies and asthma is encouraging me to keep with it.
Still, I don't like the fact that I hover in between prehypertension and hypertension on the little chart on the machine there in the grocery store. Today when I checked it, it was 117/83. That 117 puts me in the normal range for systolic.
Is it all due to eating a Primal/Paleo type diet? Who knows. Still, the blood pressure combined with the absence of seasonal allergies and asthma is encouraging me to keep with it.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Grain Brain
I have just about finished reading David Perlmutter's Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers. It covers the ground you would expect it to - grains, carbs, and sugars causes inflammation; cholesterol is good; cutting out grains and carbs, (and of course sugar) will drastically, dramatically alter your life.
I'm at the point where I don't read books like Grain Brain for radically new information. I read them to keep on track. It also represents a type of self-reinforcement that has become common in the age of the internet. I believe that is both good and bad. I remember when the internet was heralded as the place people of differing views could get together and discuss, in true democratic fashion, differences of philosophy and opinion, and we would all be better citizens because of it. I found that I immediately gravitated toward the car-free crowd, which also tends to be the car-critical crowd. Daily I read posts on Twitter and on the internet about the great strides bicycle infrastructure is taking, the steady, dramatic decline in car ownership, both in the United States and around the world, and references to the few whackos out there who continue to champion internal combustion engines. I get Bill McKibben's tweets about the groundswell of opposition to the Keystone pipeline, and I read tweets from the primal community. The fact that all these messages pour into my devices does not make it feel like I'm part of an insular community, but paints a picture for me of a global culture of bicycle riding, carbon scorning, grain refusing people. The world looks that way to me, and it gives me optimism, which is a good thing, but if I spend time doing something like visiting my family in the Southeast, I realize that there are a lot of grain-eating, car-driving, global climate change denying people out there.
Parenting becomes an even more difficult thing when you are trying to change your own culture. We stopped eating spaghetti a couple of years ago because my wife felt it was making her feel terrible. Our kids now long for pasta night. Is there anything wrong with pasta? In the larger cultural climate, of course not. But we, as the parents in the family, are now circling about like sharks in the waters of sugar is poison, pasta is poison, bread is poison. How much allowance to you give the larger culture in raising children?
I'm particularly worried about my son's eating habits and my responses to him, particularly in light of reading Grain Brain. He loves to bake. For years I've fought him on that. That feels like a really shitty thing to do. "Hey Dad," he'll say, "will you get the stuff to make cookies? I've really been wanting to make cookies." "I really don't want you eating sugar," I'll say. "Plus, it's hard to have cookies around when I'm trying not to eat them. I like cookies too your know." I almost always capitulate in the end, though sometimes he gives up. To a large extent, I would much rather have him in the kitchen baking than sitting in his room submerged in the realm of Minecraft. He also likes for me to buy him some jelly beans on the weekend when I do the weekly grocery shopping. I used to buy him a box of Jelly Bellies from Trader Joe's, but he would down them in a second. Now, I do a short burst of Jelly Beans from a bulk bin, but he's irritated when I return home with a smattering of Jelly Beans for him. But here's the thing - his eating habits tend toward the terrible. To my eye, it looks like he's addicted to sugar. Whatever I get him for a week - a big bag of trail mix with M&Ms, jelly beans, lemonade, (when he requests it), etc. - disappears within two days. He does eat what I make for dinner, but neither he nor his sister are that big on breakfast. They also will not take anything for lunch. I will send them off with carrots, which I find later rotting in their backpacks. Zeb, particularly, won't eat sandwiches. He's not fond of fruit. The trail mix is the only thing he requests, and, as I said, he polishes that off in a day or two. I think I would have to buy forty dollars worth of trail mix a week for him to max out on it. He won't eat just nuts - the candy is what does it for him.
He also seems to be in the dark tunnel of adolescence. He rarely smiles. He seldom laughs. He stays in his room all the time playing Minecraft. On reading Grain Brain, I started thinking, "you know, if I could just get him to eat a low-carb diet and eliminate sugar, his mood might improve significantly." It might also be equally true that if I just got off his fucking case and bought him supplies to make cookies and snacks he wants to eat, his mood would equally improve. It's a hard call, and I never know which way to go with it.
In my own adolescence, I stayed in my room and locked my door, (which drove my mother crazy, though I wasn't doing anything naughtier than what teenage boys normally do in their rooms). I could eat an entire sleeve of Oreos at a sitting. I lived mainly on Lucky Charms, frozen chicken pot pies, applesauce, sprees, skittles, grilled cheeses, Campbell's tomato soup, and whatever my mom made for dinner. I probably consumed much more sugar than my son is consuming. Should I just let him be a teenager? No matter what your view of healthy is, how do you try to inculcate that in your children without creating conflict?
The main thing I notice in myself at this point in time is I do not have a big problem with allergies. People are being felled by the juniper pollen all around me. I'm not willing to attribute that solely to my sticking strictly to a no grains, low carb diet, but it's certainly possible that's helping. This time of year, that's reason enough to stick to the diet. My allergies can really be debilitating. (I remember one year when my eyes almost swelled shut). I'm also still free from any difficulties with my asthma. I wonder if my mother had known cutting out sugar and going low carb could help with asthma, I would have embraced it as a teenager, or if I would have been pissed off all the time that I couldn't eat oreos and ice cream? The world is never simple. Perhaps there is a time for ramen and ice cream. We take care of ourselves and each other as best we can.
I'm at the point where I don't read books like Grain Brain for radically new information. I read them to keep on track. It also represents a type of self-reinforcement that has become common in the age of the internet. I believe that is both good and bad. I remember when the internet was heralded as the place people of differing views could get together and discuss, in true democratic fashion, differences of philosophy and opinion, and we would all be better citizens because of it. I found that I immediately gravitated toward the car-free crowd, which also tends to be the car-critical crowd. Daily I read posts on Twitter and on the internet about the great strides bicycle infrastructure is taking, the steady, dramatic decline in car ownership, both in the United States and around the world, and references to the few whackos out there who continue to champion internal combustion engines. I get Bill McKibben's tweets about the groundswell of opposition to the Keystone pipeline, and I read tweets from the primal community. The fact that all these messages pour into my devices does not make it feel like I'm part of an insular community, but paints a picture for me of a global culture of bicycle riding, carbon scorning, grain refusing people. The world looks that way to me, and it gives me optimism, which is a good thing, but if I spend time doing something like visiting my family in the Southeast, I realize that there are a lot of grain-eating, car-driving, global climate change denying people out there.
Parenting becomes an even more difficult thing when you are trying to change your own culture. We stopped eating spaghetti a couple of years ago because my wife felt it was making her feel terrible. Our kids now long for pasta night. Is there anything wrong with pasta? In the larger cultural climate, of course not. But we, as the parents in the family, are now circling about like sharks in the waters of sugar is poison, pasta is poison, bread is poison. How much allowance to you give the larger culture in raising children?
I'm particularly worried about my son's eating habits and my responses to him, particularly in light of reading Grain Brain. He loves to bake. For years I've fought him on that. That feels like a really shitty thing to do. "Hey Dad," he'll say, "will you get the stuff to make cookies? I've really been wanting to make cookies." "I really don't want you eating sugar," I'll say. "Plus, it's hard to have cookies around when I'm trying not to eat them. I like cookies too your know." I almost always capitulate in the end, though sometimes he gives up. To a large extent, I would much rather have him in the kitchen baking than sitting in his room submerged in the realm of Minecraft. He also likes for me to buy him some jelly beans on the weekend when I do the weekly grocery shopping. I used to buy him a box of Jelly Bellies from Trader Joe's, but he would down them in a second. Now, I do a short burst of Jelly Beans from a bulk bin, but he's irritated when I return home with a smattering of Jelly Beans for him. But here's the thing - his eating habits tend toward the terrible. To my eye, it looks like he's addicted to sugar. Whatever I get him for a week - a big bag of trail mix with M&Ms, jelly beans, lemonade, (when he requests it), etc. - disappears within two days. He does eat what I make for dinner, but neither he nor his sister are that big on breakfast. They also will not take anything for lunch. I will send them off with carrots, which I find later rotting in their backpacks. Zeb, particularly, won't eat sandwiches. He's not fond of fruit. The trail mix is the only thing he requests, and, as I said, he polishes that off in a day or two. I think I would have to buy forty dollars worth of trail mix a week for him to max out on it. He won't eat just nuts - the candy is what does it for him.
He also seems to be in the dark tunnel of adolescence. He rarely smiles. He seldom laughs. He stays in his room all the time playing Minecraft. On reading Grain Brain, I started thinking, "you know, if I could just get him to eat a low-carb diet and eliminate sugar, his mood might improve significantly." It might also be equally true that if I just got off his fucking case and bought him supplies to make cookies and snacks he wants to eat, his mood would equally improve. It's a hard call, and I never know which way to go with it.
In my own adolescence, I stayed in my room and locked my door, (which drove my mother crazy, though I wasn't doing anything naughtier than what teenage boys normally do in their rooms). I could eat an entire sleeve of Oreos at a sitting. I lived mainly on Lucky Charms, frozen chicken pot pies, applesauce, sprees, skittles, grilled cheeses, Campbell's tomato soup, and whatever my mom made for dinner. I probably consumed much more sugar than my son is consuming. Should I just let him be a teenager? No matter what your view of healthy is, how do you try to inculcate that in your children without creating conflict?
The main thing I notice in myself at this point in time is I do not have a big problem with allergies. People are being felled by the juniper pollen all around me. I'm not willing to attribute that solely to my sticking strictly to a no grains, low carb diet, but it's certainly possible that's helping. This time of year, that's reason enough to stick to the diet. My allergies can really be debilitating. (I remember one year when my eyes almost swelled shut). I'm also still free from any difficulties with my asthma. I wonder if my mother had known cutting out sugar and going low carb could help with asthma, I would have embraced it as a teenager, or if I would have been pissed off all the time that I couldn't eat oreos and ice cream? The world is never simple. Perhaps there is a time for ramen and ice cream. We take care of ourselves and each other as best we can.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Beekeeping time
I'm cleaning out some empty hives to get ready to split my full ones. Honey is Paleo -- in moderation
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Santa Fe County Spur Trail and Rail Trail
Maybe it was all the espresso in the Paleo espresso from Tathagata Coffee, but I decided to take the Spur Trail and the Rail Trail back home. The trail from the coffee place dumps out onto Richard's Avenue right across from the entrance to the Spur Trail.
I have not been on either the Spur Trail nor the dirt section of the Rail Trail in years. They have been working to make improvements to the Rail Trail, and I wanted to see how those were coming along.
What I remembered about the Spur Trail is that it feels longer than it seems it should be. According to this link, the trail is three miles long. Maybe it feels longer to me because it is largely uphill when you are heading from the Community College, which is the direction I usually take on the rare occasions I ride on the trail. It is also fine gravel, and the gravel pools here and there making a it a little bit slippy for a road bike. Nevertheless, I would say it is eminently road bikable. At least it works fine with my 23 mm tires. I'm not sure I would want to do it on super skinny, super high pressure tires. When the trail was opened, I thought "Great, we can ride out the Arroyo Chamisa Trail from our house, hop on the Rail Trail, and then coast on down to the Community College!" And the trail was spoken of as a connection to the Community College from the Rail Trail. However, it seems like such a long way to get to the Community College, and it's dirt and base course, so it's not the most pleasant commuting surface. The rail trail, back in the day, was also full of erosion damage and sandy washes. There is also no clear signage pointing to the Spur Trail from the Rail Trail. I rode right by it the one time I tried to go to the Community College that way. I'm really not clear why the Spur Trail was built. It's nice that it's there, and a lot of people seem to walk and bicycle on it, but it does not seem like a useful connection for commuters. If I'm going to bicycle out that way, I usually find it easier just to head out Richard's Avenue.
The Rail Trail runs along the Santa Fe Southern tracks to Eldorado. Occasionally, I try to advocate for paving it, so the folks who commute in from Eldorado don't have to a) head a long way east to get out of Eldorado and then b) turn back west and head into Santa Fe on the interstate. Unfortunately, the trail itself is not conducive to being made into a commuter bicycle superhighway from that particular bedroom community. It dips up and down, twists and turns, and crosses over washes. I still think it would be nicer paved, but there are plenty of mountain bikers and trail runners who like it just the way it is. I don't commute in from Eldorado ever or bicycle out to Eldorado often, so it's not really my call.
There was a trail closed sign in the Eldorado direction. I've heard from some people that they are really making a mess out there, tearing up trees, and making duplicate routes for the trail that seem unnecessary. I decided not to violate the warning sign to investigate, but I am very curious as to what is going on. I may forward this post to Tim Rogers, who is the trail program coordinator for the Santa Fe Conservation Trust. He most likely would know.
The trail does seem to be in much better shape than it used to be. They've built some retaining walls and have smoothed out some of the erosion. There are some steep sections, and I walked up one. My single speed's frame is from 1978, so it's 37 years old. I have this wacky long steel stem, (the diameter of the stem for the Schwinn Super Le Tour is not 1"), and I'm not sure that yanking up on the handlebars to hump it up a steep climb is a good idea. I'd like the frame to make it another 37 years.
I would say it is much easier to ride a road bike on this particular section of the Rail Trail. I'm not sure what's going on where the trail is under construction. I personally would like to see some bridges over the sandy washes, but it doesn't kill me to get off my bike and push if I bog down.
The trail still is not the best commuter route into the city, and, while I had fun getting out there and exploring again, I'm not sure I would regularly choose that route to get out to the coffee shop.
I believe Tim mentioned on one Community Cruise ride that there are some long-term plans to extend the trail system in Rancho Viejo out to the near-Santa Fe side of Eldorado. If they do that, it will really improve the commuting in to town.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)