24 August 2017

I was about to get into bed and go to sleep when I remembered I didn't post a blog entry yet!  Heaven forbid!  Here I am... keeping my commitment for one more day, ready to sacrifice for the cause!  I am dedicated!  :-)  Hahahahaha...

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The day has been full of physical activity... so I am well spent.  I think one day of yardwork a week is enough for me... maybe even too much when I do too much of it.  Senior limitations are a thing we have to discover through failures. Cutting the excessive blackberry vines and related messes are the only thing I have permission to do here.  It is quite a job... no fear of unemployment for me! 

I am amazed at the task... discovering that those huge blackberry bushes we see are really new vines over years of dead ones... they keep getting bigger because no one cuts them back!  I think it may be called pruning, but the idea is the same... cut out the stuff you don't want and help the stuff you want to keep to grow better.

I was inspired to use some of the packing boxes from our move here to help me move the many piles of debris to where the growing waiting-to-burn pile is.  October is when the next approved burning yard waste season begins.  I keep saying it will be a huge bonfire by then.  That would be fun, if it's even allowed.  It has been a big deal for me to move my saved piles of what I weeded out little by little.  The boxes may help the process not be so difficult.  I think I will be able to use them again, but cardboard is good fire material so it could be an investment in controlling the fire later.

As I was cutting the vine pile in one area of the yard, I discovered some ripe blackberries and started to eat them. By the fourth one I thought I smelled a yard chemical and remembered that the neighbor, on the other side of the fence from where I was, had sprayed the berry vines in his yard with poison.  I wondered if I ate any of it, and if it would make me ill... I stopped eating those berries!

It reminded me of the battle between the poison camp and the organic camp.  It seems easier and faster to throw some poison control on plants we don't eat, but the effects we don't see begin to add up.  Chemical companies want to sell their products, they aren't going to tell us the real truth.

I remember watching a documentary about food issues where RoundUp cotton plants were harvested by local field workers who let their prized cows eat the vegetation the cotton had grown on.  The livestock died.  If these chemicals go into the plant, what about the cotton that grew on them... will the poison affect the end product, the person wearing the end product, the people who work in the factories as the end product is being manufactured?  Cotton is considered a natural product... when we buy a cotton t-shirt, it doesn't tell us where the cotton came from, if the plants were grown with poisonous chemicals, etc. 

Another issue is the GMO (genetically modified organism) problem... I realized that the old definition of "organic" was "grown without pesticides" and that the seed source might not be so organic.  I haven't resolved this problem in my own thoughts yet, and it has been some years since I thought about it, but the core problem is still the same...  words don't mean the same thing.  We have to find a way to make sure we are talking about the same thing when we use words people rely on to make their decisions, like "organic."

This mixed meaning is a problem in religion, too.  Christians might be saying the words "Jesus," "God," and "Holy Spirit," when they talk to some denominations, but the meanings are very different so the truth doesn't get shared for either participant.  Finding Truth is hard no matter what the topic is... just think about government and media.

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If you follow my Facebook posts, you saw a lot of photos about my living space... and the kitchenette, the backsplash progress, and how I am organizing my room.  I decided to post the photos more individually today, instead of one group.  I haven't figured out how to combine several photos with individual text explanations, so I am working on how to share groups of photos in a way that readers can know what is important about each photo.  If it is possible to post photos with this post, I may add them at the end... maybe.  You will be able to see a few things about my life...

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I can't think of too much else to say for today...  I am hoping to get my crafting workspace (table area) cleard by the end of the weekend so I can start making things.  All my changes means it is the only place to put things in transition.  Tomorrow is the Jewish Sabbath so I will try to plan a way to rest... another learning experience for me.   I may start blogging to my Working Together blog on Fridays... It seems like the best option right now.  I am still deciding.  I'll let you know next week if I did.

Enjoy your weekend. 

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

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May God watch over you and help you to find His Peace in each day.  May you discover the greatness of your life, and what He has destined for you.  May you use your time, money, and life well, so that your memory will be good in the hearts of many people.  Amen.

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Note::  I had to take a photo because all my Facebook photos were on a different device.  Where it will end up, I don't know.  This photo is to share the kitchenette and the backsplash... FYI...  I will try to figure out the process for photos ASAP.