A Witchy vacation with some Baptists :-)

At the beginning of the month, I was lucky enough to get some time off work, load up my SUV with "Super Hubby" and the goofy mutt and go to South Carolina. My Dad  moved to S.C. back in April, after living his whole life in New England... he was having a bit of culture shock, so we went to visit.

Dad has a bunch of land out in the middle of "nowhere", and let me tell you that "nowhere" is beautiful. I hiked with the dog twice a day and never saw a soul. I saw black squirrels, heard mooing cows and even one night, when we were late getting back, a howling yi-yi sound of a coyote! I was not afraid! :-)

But there something that I was a little nervous about, everyone in town and I think, possibly in that section of South Carolina are Baptist. I don't know many personally, growing up in New England, everyone I knew was Roman Catholic. I did have a vague sense that they do not drink, and some do not dance or play cards...so a drinking, dancing, Texas hold 'em playing witch had just come to town....Interesting.

My Dad is Anglican, which is a tradition within Christianity, his wife was raised Baptist and they go to a Baptist Church.They are not hard to find in S.C., I counted 17 in town. So, everyone at church had heard that "Super Hubby" and I were coming for a visit and wanted to meet us. Yikes!

We were invited to the house of a church Deacon for lunch. "Super Hubby" could not contain his evil glee at the thought! I am very respectful when it comes to religion and while I do not offer my personal beliefs to strangers, if one should ask, I am always forthcoming about being Pagan. I just hoped no one would ask....

Oh, one little historical tidbit.....one of the last witch trails in the United States was in S.C., in 1813. Barbara Powers was tried on the charge of witchcraft, accused of turning a young girl into a horse and riding her. Interesting.......

We had a nice lunch, making small talk and such. The conversation turned to gardening and herbal tea and the Deacon's mother, who was in her 80's,  pulled me into the kitchen to show me her Grandmother's cookbook.

 Holy cow!!!! It had recipes for chicken and biscuits and every other food you can think of.... but guess what else? Folk remedies, and herbal medicine and gardening tips using moon phases.

When I asked about some of it, she got a little embarrassed and said her Grandmother came to the U.S. from Wales and was very superstitious. I told her so was I and I asked if I could write down some things from the book. She agreed and here is some of it....

There was a poem that young girls can recite while looking over their shoulder at a new moon:

New moon, new moon, let me see
Who my husband is to be;
The color of his hair, the clothes he wears,
and the day he is to wed me.

Sounds like a spell to me!!!!! LOL.

To cure a sore back, boil pine tree roots and pain ants ( I guess that means, the biting red ones) in a clean cloth and place it on the sore spot.

Got a sore throat? Put a live toad on your neck where the pain is.....Ewwwwwww!

There was a bunch more, so many of them witchy, like wear a ring with a green stone if you have eye problems....lots of things that she called poems but to me were definitely spells! :-)

Before my next trip up there, I will do some research about the folklore and witchcraft of that area....who knows what I will find. If anyone can suggest some books or websites about the folklore of the area, please let me know.

They Deacon never asked what religion I was, but I think his Mom knew.... :-)

Day 10....but is this the end?

I survived! In fact, I have to say I have not felt this good in 10 years! Not that it was easy. I did well until about a week in, then I had an intense cheese burger craving. But it went away after 15 or so minutes and all was well.

So, even though I have 1 juice to go, I thought I would throw up so numbers.......I lost 11 lbs,  4 inches off my chest, 4 inches off my waist, and 3 inches off my hips!!!!!! I am pretty happy with that!

"Super Hubby" lost 12 lbs, but he did not do any measurements. Tonight, he will go to a juice in the morning and two meals routine. But, I think I am going to continue with the 2x a day juice and raw only food for dinner, until I go camping at the beginning of November.

I  found I really like Watermelon, pear and green apple juice for breakfast, and my favorite lunch juice is kale, spinach, tomato, carrot, green pepper and onion! Yummy!!!!

So, I will update this before I go for my un-plugged weekend and let you know how it goes.

Day one!

I started my juice and raw food only 10 day challenge today. It is harder than it looks, as I am sure you can imagine.

I started my day with a large glass of water. Part of this plan is to drink water until you are able to breathe under it, I think! Then, I made my first juice. Here is what I put in the juicer....4 carrots, 1 green apple, 1 cucumber, 1 stalk of celery and 1/2 of a peeled lemon. It was easy to do but I underestimated the amount of time for clean up so I didn't get a picture of it. I had to get to work.

Yea, about that....fasting and work do not go together, at all. "The Cucumber Cooler", that I call the above recipe was not good but it was not bad. It is hard to describe it. But I drank it and went to work.

Work....sigh. I go all over for work and I never realized how many places serve food!!!! OMG! So, by 11:00 AM and two more bottles of water, I wanted to kill the world!

At lunchtime, I was lucky enough to go home and make a juice. I made the "Mean Green", that is the juice, Joe Cross, made a lot in the movie. It's 6 kale leaves,1 cucumber, 4 stalks of celery, 2 green apples, a 1/2 of a peeled lemon and a piece of ginger. OOOOKKKKK!

If anyone tries this, use a very, very, very, small piece of ginger, it is over powering!  Again, it was not horrible but it was not anything, I would crave....ever.

By 2:00 PM, I was feeling better, not so hungry but I started to get tired. I had no coffee, which is a miracle in it's self, I live on coffee. But I pushed through it, being busy at work helped.

For dinner we had salad, with kale, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers,onion, carrots and radish. It's only a little past 7:00 PM and I am ready for bed...I feel strange, not bad but.......just strange!

I'm feeling a little bit RAW!

As most of you know "Super Hubby" is a go with the flow sort of guy, who pretty much lets me do whatever I want and is always there to help me out, when something goes wrong! LOL.

I have been on a bunch of medication for Sarcoidosis (8) and have been feeling sort of run down the last few weeks. I was on the couch watching Netflix, when I came across a documentary called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead". WOW!

So, I mentioned it to S.H., he watched the film and said "Why not, let's try it". I did a bunch of research, picked out a juicer and found some yummy recipes to try out.

I found a website connected to the movie called Reboot your Life and it had several plans from 3 Day Juice only fasts to 15 Juice and raw food fasts. S.H. and I decided on a 10 day Juice and raw food fast. That means breakfast and lunch are made at home in our juicer and dinner is raw food only, like salads, vegetables and fruit. I know there is raw milk and other items, not cooked that we could eat but, we are going strictly veggie and fruit......FOR 10 Days!!!!! Not sure what I have gotten myself into, but check back and I will let you all know how it goes!

Here is a picture of my juicer, ready to go and the crazy amount of fruit and veggies to go with it!

Celebrate the First Harvest!

I love to read. Book, newspapers, and blogs. One of my favorite blogs is The Bishop in the Grove by Teo Bishop, over at Patheos.

The blog there today was about metaphorically experiencing Lughnasad, the first harvest. How we have planted "seeds" and seen them grow or fail in the past year. Ideas and plans that have come to fruition or been dropped by the wayside for one reason or another.

But there was a mention of knowing about where our real food comes from and how we should make this a part of our harvest rituals and celebrations. Teo asks "Do you know where your food comes from?"

I can answer yes, for most of it.

Living in Florida, I can have a garden year round, so I always have fresh veggies and herbs. The stuff I can't grow, like the fruits, I get from a local farm, where I also get my eggs. That is until I wear down the Home Owner's Association, and get my own chickens.

I get my meat from the local grocery store. Oh and some from hunting friends...yes, I eat deer. Yes, they are cute. No, I don't feel bad. Nobody is perfect ;-) and venison chili is out of this world!

Today, I am making soup with my garden veggies. It also has chicken in it but it is just as good without it.

Wednesday night, I will celebrate Lughnasad, with a loaf of awesome rosemary and olive oil bread and a ritual in my garden. I will post the recipe and some pictures on Thursday or Friday.

Now that my indoor aquaponics system is finished, I will have more lettuce and herbs growing.

What started out as a tribute to my late Grand Father, has turned into a hobby or maybe even an obsession but it has also made me a better Pagan. Working in the garden, eating from the first harvest, makes me want to celebrate.

Crazy New Project - Indoor Aquaponics

Sometimes, I feel bad for "Super Hubby"...he has to put up with me and all my crazy ideas. This time, it is indoor aquaponics!

As you know, from a previous blog,  S.H. made me a seed starting rack about two years ago. It has four shelves and one shelf has grow lights. Now I start most of my seeds this way.

I was looking at the three unused shelves...What could I do with the space? I am a big fan of Youtube gardening videos and I saw one about Aquaponics.

Aquaponics is  is a sustainable food production system that combines a traditional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or shrimp in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. The plants filter the water which contains nitrogen, the plants use it as fertilizer, the clean water goes back to the animals, the animals "poop" in the water and the cycle starts again.

Our youngest son had a fish tank with two gold fish and a huge mystery snail, we call "Goliath". The fish were the kind you win at the fair, but they lived for two years. After they died, we moved "Goliath" to a smaller tank, that was easier for the kid to clean. The fish tank sat in the closet unused. Until now.... :-)

S.H. went out and bought tubing, expandable clay balls, a submersible water pump, pvc pipe and a shallow plastic tote. It cost about $35 dollars at Lowe's. He put it all together on Saturday while I was at work.

Today, I am off and will be going to buy a few fish to put in there with "Goliath". I plan on growing lettuce. I will try and make a video of the entire system when it is up and running!

Footprints and a New Fence!

I went out to the garden yesterday and noticed some strange foot prints in the carrot bed. So, "Super Hubby" and I decided it's time for a real garden fence. We worked most of today and now it's up. Not pretty to look at but it should keep the critters out.

Here's the old fence!                                                                                  And the new one!

We are going to be getting some cold nights here, down to the 30's so I will be covering the garden for sure.

I was on the way to the store and I saw my neighbor had torn down his wood fence and put up a new one. I checked out the pile of wood on the curb and then stuffed it all in to my Xterra!

 I can make a bunch more raised beds with them! I am so excited! I also plan on making a raised bed with the concrete blocks from my original garden fence. I want to plant peppers inside the space and lots of basil in the holes on the sides.

Here is the garden covered last year. Not sure how I will cover it with this new fence.

Valentine's Day Gift from "Super Hubby"

Today is Valentine's Day. "Super Hubby" is usually so good to me all year round that I don't get excited about this holiday.

I went to work and when I came home I had a super cool seed starting rack in my dining room! It's a wire shelf with a grow light! Now I can start seeds all year long. I had been mulling over ideas for a seed starting area and I know S.H. was going to help me by building it, but I never thought of this! I put all my basil seeds that I started outside two weeks ago under the lights! So exciting!

The Worm Bin

After reading more about gardening and how it went hand in hand with recycling, I decided to try vermicompost. That's composting using kitchen waste, newspapers, paper towels, cardboard etc with the help of red wiggler worms also known as the Eisenia fetida.

I saw this great video about how to build a warm bin. You can buy already made bins but the cheapest I have seen is around $99.00 and "Super Hubby"built one like in the video for under $25.00. It took me about an hour to construct the bin. Then I set out looking for a place with-in driving distance for the red wigglers. You need this type because they can eat about one half of their weight in food per day. Earthworms and cold bait worms won't do that.

I found a place called Best Buy Worms, which strangely enough was located less then a mile from my Grandparent's place, in Masaryktown, Florida. It's a working farm, you can visit with an appointment but they also do mail order worms too. I bought a pound of worms for $12.50

So, last April, I put the worms in the bin and have been feeding them coffee grounds, egg shells, left over veggies, just about anything except no meat, oils or dairy. It reduced the garbage that I have to put out for landfill to take and my four year old loves to help feed the worms.

It's been almost a year and soon, I will separate the worms from the compost and start over, using the compost in my garden beds. I will be sure to post pictures because I have no doubt it will be messy!

As a Pagan, projects like this one make me happy.

The Gardening Bug Bites Hard!

After my Granddad died, I still had my two tomato plants. I added some green peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, pumpkins, water melon and potatoes! I was hooked. I read everything I could get my hands on, like Vegetable Gardening In Florida and watched gardening videos on YouTube. Check out The Produce Garden. Here are my two tomato plants on June 11th.

I really had no idea what I was doing. I tried to plant things that we like to eat and some that were fun too. I planted the potatoes in  buckets after seeing a great video on YouTube doing it. They grew and I covered them, and they grew some more and I covered them until they looked like this.

I learned that you had to wait for the green tops to die then you could pour out the buckets and get the potatoes. Thanks Brian! I grew lettuce, not having any idea that it is a cool weather crop and we were just at the start of a Florida summer. So lesson learned. I planted the pumpkin too late, it flowered and then died. Has some success with the watermelon.

By now, I had run out of room with the two planters I had from The Garden Patch so I got my "Super Hubby" to build me four wood garden beds, that we lined up by the fence in the back yard.

This is where I had the watermelon growing, three to be exact until my lovable, slightly less then intelligent puppy dog, Bailey, decided they looked fun to play with and snatched them off the vine! Again, lesson learned. This year, we will build a fence or raise the beds off the ground.

Why I Garden...

My Grandfather was an amazing man and an even better gardener. As a child, I would go to his home and help feed his horses and work in his veggie patch. We lived in New England but I felt like I was in a tropics. Tomato plants that were as tall as the sunflowers, created a perfect jungle to play in.

He made his own compost and fertilizer, using scraps from his restaurant and other "scraps"( i.e. manure) from his horses. He would put it all in a big bucket, add water, seal it up, and place it in the sun and make what he called "Spring Tea". Sounds disgusting, doesn't it? It was magic, cucumbers over a foot long, eggplant that weighed in at four pounds, it truly was amazing.

Fast forward 20 or so years, and I found myself living in Florida about 3 hours from where my Granddad had retired too. I would drive over every month or so to see him and enjoy his fantastic cooking. He was getting older but he still gardened and now in Florida he had fruit trees too. I would ask him over and over all the things he did to make his plants grow. I suffered from an extremely black thumb. I could not even keep houseplants alive.

 Last February, my Granddad told me he had cancer and it was terminal. The doctors could not tell him how long he had, so he left the hospital and went home. I began spending every day off I had with him. My youngest son, was three at the time and I wanted him to have memories of his great granddad, like I had from my childhood. They would get on the tractor and just drive around the yard, pick oranges off the trees in the back and sometimes just walk hand in hand.

Soon, he began showing signs of his illness and our visits focused more on indoor activities. I knew he missed being outside and growing things so I vowed I would grow a damn tomato plant if I had to sleep outside and watch it every minute!

I had managed to keep a houseplant, a golden pathos, alive for almost two years with my Granddad's advice so now I was going to venture out into my back yard and grow him some tomatoes.

I encounter my first hurdle almost right away. As I dug up some grass in my yard, I found sand. Interesting, So, I did what all nerds do, I went to the internet and began researching container gardening. This seemed to be the perfect plan as I needed to be with my Granddad on my days off. I found a nice one that is sold by The Garden Patch. It was self watering, which was great because I work twelve hour days, have three kids and have a 6 hour round trip car ride, three times a week to Granddad's place. I waited for it to come and when it did, I had it put together in minutes. I bought two tomato plants at Lowe's. Don't ask me what kind, just what was there on the shelf. I planted them and waited.

By March, I had several flowers but no fruit. Second hurdle. Back to the internet, ok, my problem was no bees. Being highly allergic to bees, this presented a problem. I found that certain flowers put near my tomatoes would bring in more bees, like Lavender and Mexican Heather. Soon, we had bees and I began carrying my epi-pen everywhere. But most importantly we had TOMATOES!

The third hurdle was the pests... the caterpillars were easy, my German Shephard/Shar Pei mix was another story. Bailey was fascinated with ever inch of those plants. He drank out of the container, he would chew the leaves, ate more then one green tomato, to be sure. He would get his paws in the dirt and try to dig out the plants. I used no chemicals to fight the bugs and caterpillars, I wanted the fruit to be as organic as possible because of my Granddad's bad health but I swear I wanted to use mustard gas on my pooch. Don't let that sad face fool you, he was a menace!

By the end of March, I brought my Granddad six ripe tomatoes and he laughed when I began to explain all my trials and tribulations, just to get those six. He told me several ways to kill bugs with out using chemicals and I tried to write down all he said.

We celebrated his 79th birthday on March 30 and a few days later,  on April 2nd, he passed away. The man who taught me how to make home-made soups, to fish and now how to grow things had left me, but he left me with a new found love of gardening, that I hope I can pass on to my sons. I love you, LRH, every time I am in my garden I feel you with me. Thank you.