What a cozy-looking cradle to raise some cute little tomato seedlings.

Am seeing some seedlings coming up in the garden now- of lettuce, carrots, bunching onions, and radishes... these are things that sprout and grow well in the cold Spring weather. They can be direct-seeded in the garden in early Spring, before the date of the last frost.  Exciting to see the tiny baby seedlings pushing up through the dirt!  Now if only the squirrels and birds will leave them alone.

Meanwhile, I've had to get creative concerning the warm weather veggies like peppers and tomatoes.  Most people either just buy started plants (like I usually do) or start ahead of time from seed in their basement under grow lights.
I realized a few weeks ago that it might be impossible to buy started plants next month at the garden store, what with the Covid-19 shortages and everybody suddenly starting "victory gardens" in their yards.  So I had ordered some seed early enough to get some before online sources run out of seed.

I didn't have the typical seed starting equipment or little seedling pots, and I imagined the local garden shop would be already out of all that anyway. So I cut in half a plastic milk jug and a cardboard milk carton, and also had a tupperware shallow container. I filled them with dirt from the garden and planted the seeds of tomato, red and orange sweet peppers, and purple tomatillos.

I had an electric pet warming pad that gives very low heat (as in 85F), like the kind you can put under reptile tanks. I stole it from our cats' bed... LOL.  I sandwiched the heating pad between hand towels in the large wooden tray, and put the planted containers on top and covered loosely with plastic wrap.  Put it in the bright window of the guest room... the only room closed off from the cats, who would likely tear all this up if they were allowed access.  ;) I think I'll get a little table lamp and put that near it as well. (update: borrowed a 60w shop lamp from Brian and set it up overhead as well.)

I think they take 10 days to 2 weeks to germinate, so I'll need to monitor it all to not be either too wet or too dry.

Anyway, here's my crazy setup- I hope I did not waste my precious seed!:

I've been doing whiskey in a quart jar.  Oh . . . wait . . . I meant to post in the Unhealthy Living Forum. 

Seriously, I'm a fan of sprouts but have never grown my own.

We've been doing broccoli sprouts in a quart jar.  

Not seeing any seeds sprouting  yet  in the garden where I planted lettuce and radish and such several days ago. But might be slow since it's rainy but quite cold still. Will be excited when i see something come up!  Just wish the squirrels would quit digging around in the garden.     Nuts to them!

But I started some alfalfa seeds in a sprouting jar a few days ago in the kitchen, and the sprouts are growing nicely and will be ready in 3 more days.  Yay, fresh greens!  We love sprouts and I usually do grow them in jars in the kitchen all winter when the garden is asleep and we're craving fresh greens.  I almost always have a jar going during winter. Alfalfa is our favorite because we like mild sprouts that are not peppery. For some reason I didn't do it this Winter, but now with the virus isolation and so few trips to the store and the garden not producing yet, now is the perfect time to start sprouting again!   
I ordered a pound of fresh alfalfa sprouting seed from amazon, but I do have enough seed for another two weeks til the new package gets here.  I'm starting a quart jar size of sprouts every three days which is about what we go through when we eat it often. Each qt jar requires 4 level teaspoons of seed to start it. It's covered with a screen top. Days later when ready to harvest and all greened up it takes up the entire quart jar- amazing. Once you pull it out of the jar, tease the sprouts apart to rinse the hulls off, it's a nice generous amount of sprouts and you just keep them in the fridge in a plastic tub and use them. It takes 5 or 6 days to grow from start to finish.  It's fun and easy, you just have to remember to rinse the jar with fresh water twice a day and drain.

Dusty -- your last paragraph sounds like the plot for the Brit TV series Fortitude which we watched on Amazon (and it's still there if you need something to binge watch).

Our backyard veggie plots take on a new sense of importance during these strange new times of self isolating. They become like the WWII "Victory Gardens" the govt used to encourage.

I have fresh veggie seeds coming in the mail soon from Park Seed Co.   But two days ago it was sunny and 55F and the weather predicted several days of rain and high in the forties for a week.  I couldn't resist- i hoed a little one square yard patch in my garden and planted the leftover 2019 lettuce and radish seeds from last year... might as well use it up and see what is still able to germinate.  Then when the fresh seed arrives I can start some of that too, a week later. I usually direct-seed into the ground the cold-loving things like lettuce, carrots, and radish.
Naturally, the next day all the rain forecasted turned into snow instead and this morning there's two and a half inches of New York snow out there. It'll briefly get up to 45 today and I'm hoping that's enough to melt it all.  I'm thinking those little seeds are still ok and that maybe 1/8 of them might wake up and sprout... hopefully just enough to get a few early leaves of leaf lettuce and a few radishes. The last time I did this same thing, i got zip ... but no harm in trying I guess!  In any case, it was therapeutic to be out there in the sun for an hour digging into the earth. 

Strumelia, my wife is the queen of chicken soup and often makes a new batch every day.  You think I'm exaggerating, but I'm really not.  And not just in the winter, but even in the summer, which drives me crazy and leads to arguments about the cost of air conditioning.  Sometimes she makes what she calls vegetable soup, but she still uses a chicken broth.  For that reason, when I make soup I tend to use vegetable broth to get a break.

Yes, miso has no expiration date.  It's kind of scary how long it lasts in the refrigerator.

I've been told that honey is the only "food" that doesn't spoil.

I think I'll stay away from the frozen woolly mammoth meat, though.  That stuff might have been infected with diseases that have been extinct for 10,000 years.  No reason to bring it back.

Dusty that soup sounds wonderful.  I make something a little like it, sort of with root veggies in the winter- golden beets is my fave to add in, and I make the base chicken brith.  But i do have miso in a jar in the fridge- and you've inspired me to pull it out and make some up soon!  I also made some udon noodles in chicken bouillion a few days ago- but I forgot I had the miso paste and will use that next time!  I read that miso paste is fermented and keeps well for years or indefinitely in the fridge if you don't introduce other stuff in the jar.  My refrigerated miso paste still looks, smells, and tastes great after 3 years now.     They actually found honey in 2,000 year old Egyptian tomb jars.. that was perfectly edible!  Also much older edible wooley mammoth meat in the frozen tundra.   !!

Well the cold (for California) weather has set in, and after all the buttery, gravy-laden Thanksgiving grub, I thought I needed a cleaning.  So last night I made a bit batch of one of my cold weather standards. I call it "hearty vegetable miso soup."  I start with vegetable broth and toss in whatever vegetables I'm in the mood for.  This time around I added onions, bell peppers, orange cauliflower, broccoli, and asparagus.  Seasoned with onion powder, garlic powder, and whatever else I'm in the mood for. I even added a teaspoon of a pre-made barbecue sauce and a couple of shakes of hot sauce.  Get that up to a boil and then turn it down.  Then add a big tablespoon or two of miso paste, which doesn't like to boil but needs to be really hot to dissolve easily.  Once that's all mixed in I add some cubed tofu and top it off with a sliced green onion.  I made enough to last a few of days, but when I have some later today or tomorrow I might add some chicken or salmon or some other protein. It's remarkably tasty and filling while still being really low in carbs and fats.

In the past, less concerned with carbs, I used to toss in some udon noodles.  But that's how flexible this dish is. The soup is great for parties when different people have different dietary restrictions. You can make noodles, chicken, beef, pork, or seafood, and just have all that  available on the side for people to add into their soup, which starts out vegan and gluten-free.

Well, it's that time again...  doing the vegetable garden cleanup.  Piles and piles of pulled wilted dead plants, rotten tomatoes, weeds, etc.  Heaped on tarps and then we haul them into the woods to a big ditch across the road.  So much less fun than the beginning of the garden season.
Nice to get things cleaned up in the Fall though. Way worse if you wait til Spring, because then the ground's all muddy and half frozen when you're trying to pull out dead plants and clean things up for planting.  In the Fall the ground is still dry and fluffy- easier to pull out the plants!  Then I'll rake things up a bit and lay down thick straw over the beds for the winter.

Amazing, I still got a couple of nice big red peppers today... probably the last before the plants frost and die.

I've made two blueberry cobblers this week with blueberries I froze in July.  :D  I still have enough in the freezer for about 5 more cobblers... for special occasions I think.

The bees are slowing down. Time to put the mouse guards on the hive entrances and insulate the tops for the winter.

Sounds delicious and comforting. Your words remind me of that Greg Brown tune "Canned Goods" .

Let the wild winter wind bellow and blow

I'm as warm as a July tomato.

There's peaches on the shelf, potatoes in the bin

Supper ready everybody come on in

Taste a little of the summer

Taste a little of the summer

Taste a little of the summer

Grandma put it all in jars.

I buckled down and made a BIG batch of green tomatillo sauce today, and canned it. Always a project to haul out the canning stuff.

I started with approx. 14 lbs of tomatillos (before husking), and finished up with about 16 nice looking pint jars.  It also included 4 onions, 13 cloves garlic, 2 fresh garden red peppers, an entire large bunch of fresh cilantro, 1.5 cups lime juice, and 2 T. ground cumin. About 1 tablespoon each of ground black pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes.

My oh my but it tastes divine!

So satisfying to get the messy kitchen all cleaned up and hear the 'pinggg!' sound as each jar top dimple seals down while cooling.    When the snow flies outside, every time we open a jar it'll bring back the taste of Summer.

Thanks, Ken......that is a great reminder........your website is outstanding, in fact I have used some of those recipes in days gone by.  I looked for a food-coop sort of group out here but alas none. (You can find plenty of dope co-ops though.)  When I was able to deliver food to the pantries around here I could always manage to find some produce from time to time. Those sources have dried up for the most part. 

And you are so right about those megastore groceries, one day apples were $4.29 a pound.  (A young women ahead of me in the checkout line had a bag of apples for the two tykes she had with her, 6-7 apples rang up a bit over $11.00.)  Next year I will fence off an area and grow my own, or at least some off it.  I'll bet have the poor folk out here are sick with diabetes, bad teeth, and all sorts of other stuff, because they just cannot afford to eat healthy food. 

I'll hit your website today and come up with a list of things to buy when I head down to Ocala.  There is a Earthfare store there, pricey but the produce is pretty good.

I appreciate the reminder to visit your website and will make it so.

Saltsprings!   Look around and see if there's a Produce Co-op in your area.  We get 98% of our veggies these days from the SWFL Produce Co-op.  Great quality veg and MUCH cheaper than Publix!  We're both Pescatarians (fish/seafood once/twice a week) and eat a LOT of veggies.  I spend $30-40 at the co-op for what would cost me twice that from Public or any of the megamarts.

Check out my weekly Fooding Around With The Kilted Cook food-blog.  I have hundreds...thousands of great, easy to prepare vegetarian and other recipes that I've posted over the past five years.  Just yesterday, among other things,  I posted a recipe for Mexican-flavored white bean burgers that are really simple to make and outstanding great flavor

Nice.........my cooking is going down the drain.  In fact, it has become pathetic...However, this little note might just get me back on track.   The big issue right now is weening myself off some meds for that disastrous nerve issue in my kisser. Since the Doc's warned me that a 30-40 lb weight gain could be expected its off to the veggie stand again.  Big old tomato sandwiches sound really nice and are sure to beat Raisin Bran and peanut butter crackers.........

Your veggie concoctions are really outstanding, but believe it or not veggies out here in the woods and in Florida no less are priced way out of line............$2.00 for 1 tomato!  I planted some last year and the deer loved them and everything else they could swipe..........really kind of funny.....they were just waiting for them to ripen.

Tomatoes are gearing down.  We had big tomato & bacon sandwiches on sesame hamburger buns for dinner. I like mine with mayo spread on the buns, Brian likes with guacamole spread.  Won't be more than another week or two for those big slabs of red tomato slices. 

Still getting lots of tomatillos though, so I'll have to make more green sauce this week.  I'll probably can some jars of it since there'll be too much for just keeping in the fridge.  Those plants get mighty big!  Next year I'll have to remember to give them more elbow room on all sides.

I also discovered that tomatillo branches are absolutely gorgeous when cut and arranged in a vase. The sun shines through the light green leaves, and the little tomatillos 'lanterns' hang from the stems, draping gracefully. Beautiful! and they last for almost 2 weeks in a vase looking nice.

I've been saving up ripe tomatillos from my garden for the past 10 days, and had a giant bowl of them ready for today.  I made my first green sauce!

After husking and washing the tomatillos, I cut them all in half, then quartered two onions and halved a large red italian pepper (also from my garden) and tossed all with a little olive oil and salt and black pepper.  (I can't eat too hot spicy so I didn't use jalapeno hot type peppers. Mild hot is ok for me though.)
I spread everything out on a big broiling pan in one layer and roasted it in a 425 oven about 20 minutes til everything was soft and a bit of charring of the tops. That was more than enough cooking. Removed some of the liquid with a turkey baster, because there was really way too much liquid. 

Spooned it all into the food processor and buzzed it just enough to to chop up the bigger onion/pepper pieces.  The resulting chunky sauce all filled a 2 quart pyrex pitcher.  I add a tablespoon or two of hot cilantro chutney, stirred that in, and then ladled into canning jars to keep in the refrigerator.  Recipes say it should be good for like 6 or 8 weeks... plenty of time for us to eat it all up!  It is reeeeally yummy!

There are way more green tomatillos still out there that are not ripe yet.  I think the next batch would be accumulated and ready in a couple weeks.  At that time I might make another batch but actually 'can' it with a hot water bath and seals so I can store it on a shelf for longer time, maybe give a few jars as Christmas presents.

If you want info on homeopathic treatments for tick bites, let me know!

Terry, I'm very grateful for the blessings I have in life, at least at this point in time.   :)

Do you think the cobbler could survive being mailed to the west coast? I'll gladly take some off your hands.

Still picking tons of blueberries.  I'm making a blueberry cobbler (8x8 glass pan) almost every day.  The bushes look like maybe another two weeks to go. Somehow my husband and I are just managing to keep up with eating them without having to preserve any.  I guess we can get back to less fattening stuff after the blueberries finish.  That's when the tomatoes kick in.  :)  We feel like bears during berry season, gorging ourselves. 
I'm also having bowls of yogurt with our own blueberries and raspberries, topped with walnuts.  Eating extra yogurt to recover my gut from having taken doxycycline for 5 days after a tick bite.  Dang ticks ruin all the fun!  We never walk in the woods or fields anymore due to ticks, but sometimes they get us even in our small backyard, like when I work in the veggie garden or pick our raspberries, or work near the beehives. 

I went to a Cajun 2-step dance party at a local pub, with pretty good cajun band.  A new experience for me, a little outside my comfort zone. I didn't expect to see more than 1 person I knew, but several people i know, and also a few contra dancers I know showed up.  I guess we were all there in order to get some dancing in.  They gave a modest lesson beforehand for a few minutes, and it was all real casual, so I didn't feel too embarrassed.  Everybody danced with everyone there...all nice folks.  It definitely wasn't as much movement as a zumba class (or as contra dancing either) but it was more fun than zumba for me, and my pedometer claimed i did about 6,000 steps during the dancing.
I'm going this Saturday to an all day outdoor festival that features a huge dance tent with contra dancing almost all day and night.  I'll get there before lunch and leave around 11pm or so like last year.  HUUUUUGE workout, which is why I'm trying to get a few zumba classes and other dancing under my belt  beforehand.

@salt-springs , Had to look that up, had to add it to my favorites...  So sad to learn he just passed away last month.

"He'll to the Naw, Naw"............one of my all time favorite semi-gospel tunes by Bishop Bullwinkle on

YouTube..........seriously, that song will preach!

"...to the naw..."  Too funny! 

Thank you, @Robin-Thompson!  That feeling is mutual, and I am grateful for you!

@Strumelia, OH friend!  HA HA HA!  Eric had been copying the original Zumba VHS to DVD for me when he came in and blurted, "WHAT is this you brought into my house?!!" and accused me of having porn.  I had never done the advanced ones, and apparently Beto is dancing behind two of the girls with his "eyes on their onions" as Eric says, licks on hand and slaps a bottom, licks the other hand and slaps the other in the same way.  He was horrified!  LOL...  But it gets even better:  Then there was a whole sting operation around a Zumba place in Florida that was actually a prostitution ring.  So when our community center started offering Zumba to the little, old ladies in the neighborhood, I said I was going.  His immediate response was, "Oh HELL to the naw!"  HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!  

You really have to hear him tell it~everyone splits a gut.  SO FUNNY!  And the Zumba class, of course, was great.  

Sandi, swimming is a good way to exercise/move without overheating during the Summer. It's been so hot around here lately! Even my honeybees are too hot to stay in their hive- at midday, there are great BEARDS of thousands of them hanging from the fronts of their hives, keeping cooler than going inside. I should take a photo, it would scare most folks to death to see but they are pretty peaceful, just 'hangin' and 'chillin'.  lolol   We are blessed to have air conditioning in our house- especially needed as we get older i think.

Sandi I reeeally want to hear the funny zumba story!  Are you willing to post it here or will you PM me?

@hugssandi We're here on the planet to encourage one another-- and you've been an encouragement to me through the years we've known one another online.  We do go back a good ways.  <3

I always love all of your sharings here!  Hope you are doing well with your journey and hospital issues, Andreas.  Hang in there Salt Springs!  Strumelia, I so love Zumba, but I've not done it in a few years.  Have a funny story as to why my husband didn't want me to ever start...  Robin, I am encouraged by your cleaning out!  I am in the same boat, and I guess I have been for a long while.  I never seem to finish, and it all seems to pile up again.  

I'm not doing so great in the health department.  I know that if I'm not loyal to just 15 minutes, 3X a week I struggle with swelling and knee pain.  So WHY am I not doing just that??!!!  UGH.  I know I've been battle a bit of depression over many different issues and wish I weren't built like tissue paper.  We just got back from an hour at the pool though, and that felt great.  Weird that I could feel the swelling in one ankle more in the water....

Friends, your postings have encouraged me with going through old paperwork, papers much accumulated in my own home during the years I was caregiver at my folks' house.  And I wish to tackle more than papers, too, to lessen the things in the house.  It will take me many months but I'm further along than had I done nothing.  

Andreas, I wish all good things for your hospital stay! 

Thank you for the inspiration, folks!  

Good luck with your hospital stuff, Andreas. 

Our backyard blueberry bushes are in season now, so all self control is turned OFF.  My husband and I are plowing through an entire home made blueberry cobbler every day or two now, because fresh blueberries are way better than frozen.  Cobblers (and pies) are the only thing that enables us to eat up our blueberries as fast as I'm picking them. Each cobbler uses 3 or 4 cups of fresh berries. Yesterday I made two cobblers.  Picking about a quart of blueberries a day right now, and that will continue for a couple more weeks, then taper off.  And then there's our raspberry bushes...

Exercise-   During the Summer, half of the contra dances I usually go to are usually off for July and August due to the heat.  I don't want to just sit around eating ice cream and getting fat all Summer, so this week I forced myself to attend a Zumba class for the very first time.  I went to a "Zumba Gold" class which I guess is for more senior types, though some people there were under 60- zumba Gold is a little less intense and less complex steps than 'regular' zumba.  Yikes I felt like a total klutz, not knowing  any of the dance moves and I stumbled my way through the 50 minutes.  Good thing it was less complex!

Oh well, as the teacher said it's not a performance and doesn't matter as long as you're moving and having fun.  I don't know about the 'fun' part- it was Godawful HOT and sweaty and I felt soooo lame.  But because of my contra dancing at least i did not get out of breath...yay!   I did get a decent workout -the next day felt a little sore in places i didn't know I had...lol that's always a good test to see if a new exercise is 'doing anything'. 

Though it's not nearly as much fun for me as contra dancing and I'm not a big fan of the zumba music (hahah, I wore earplugs ), i did find it way less boring than going to a gym, which i did years ago and couldn't bear.  So, I bought a 6 class card and will at least go to 5 more classes.  My pedometer said it used about 5,000 steps for the class (though many were probably more like little hops than 'steps').  I need to do something active once or twice twice a week when there are periods of time without contra dances.

Great job................

I was doing pretty good cutting back on the carbs until this week.............then disaster..........."Apfelstrudel mit Radler"

I have also heard of black cherry for gout.

Well, y'all are still killin' it!  YER AWESOME!  I missed last Friday due to a BIG splinter, did a seated workout on Monday that was harder than the standing ones~HA!, and I have a plan to get another HASfit in tonight and Saturday.  Still slowly progressing, knees doing well, low back pain is a bother at times.

I find if I ride often I can quickly build myself up to longer distances each time. Land here is flat so its easier for me... Robert.

Bobby, you might want to reduce your rate of increase a little- adding 1 mile per week, or 1.5 mi per week gives your body a chance to build the muscles and gain the aerobic strength it needs for the increases.    :) 

Yes, Black Cherry can help..........I suspect you need to drink more water since your weight loss may be contributing to those crystals forming in your joints. 

This has been a busy thread, and I love it!  I so agree that it is INSPIRING!  Thank you all for sharing so much of yourselves.  

Today equals a month of working out with HASfit~just 15 mins., 3X a week, senior vids.  Yesterday the kids and I went to the park and walked some wooded trails.  My knees and balance would not have been able to handle the unevenness of the terrain just a few weeks ago, but I was able to hop over creeks even!  So big improvement over such a short time.  (I tell myself if I can't get 15 mins. in, I'm a scrub!  HA HA HA!)  I am looking forward to increasing when I'm ready.

@slate-creek-dulcimers, I miss your fat bike updates!

Good words and well spoken too!  Wayne.............I've seen so many people over the years taken from us by those, "widow makers."  In many cases they had no warning as you said, and no health issues that they could discern either save for assuming they were invincible and living lives that were, "typical."    

I would add that folks should not assume that this sort of problem does not affect women.   Too often women ignore symptoms and unfortunately suffer serious or fatal consequences.  Widow maker heart attacks are equal opportunity destroyers as are a host of other diseases that can be avoided.

For the younger of our lot who might be reading these posts...........now is the time to make the changes you need to make to live a long healthy life.   For the rest of us let's see if we can abstain kicking over the bucket by watching where we are going and turning on the lights in our 'noggins.  

Back in April 2018 (April 5th to exact), I suffered a massive (Widow Maker) heart attack - NO WARNING WHAT-SO-EVER!!!. Two main arteries were blocked at 90% & 100%, I am truely blessed to be here today. The doctors didn't need to open my chest, stints were placed, I was kept on a ventilator for 3 1/2 days in order to heal/rest and spent 12 days in the hospital. After my discharge I had to wear a Zoll Life Vest (for those who are familiar with those) for 7 MONTHS!!!  The recovery/rehab was quite a journey but I was determined I was going to make it - which I have. Yes, I have heart disease and always will BUT the TOTAL LIFESTYLE CHANGE has been a literal God send. I'm now 60 pounds lighter (I wasn't even all that overweight anyway), I'm on a total heart healthy diet (Sharon as well), I work out at 5 days a week (treadmill, bike, weights), meds for life, and my entire outlook has changed. Ended up retiring last October at 64 so I have VERY LITTLE stress (I taught Middle School). Now i raise a good size garden, play my dulcimer (and Native American Flutes) and simply enjoy life. Thanks for letting me share part of my story. I would just add to all reading this post ..... PLEASE take care of yourself ..... eat healthy, get exercise, loose some weight AND eliminate as much stress from your life as you can. NEVER EVER SAY it can't happed to you! God Speed. Wayne

I suffered from chronic knee pain for 30 years. Got a bicycle 15 years ago, a hybrid type not one of those road bikes. Riding solved my knee pain, never suffered again! No pills no elastic braces. I wish everyone would ride and play music, it would really make us all healthier... 

A lot of pumpkin pies for sure!. I promised to give myself a day off and recoup, maybe learn a new old fiddle tune. But I'm only 65, still a kid yet. I recoup fast... Robert

Good for you, Andreas.  I'm sure somewhere between being a sports junkie and not moving for 15 years there is a happy medium and a healthy lifestyle.

But Sandi, think instead of where you'd be now if had not started so many times!

SaltSprings, thanks for my laugh of the day. I can relate. 

Yikes.............I can't imagine doing that.........as it is I sound like a bowl of Rice Krispies when I start moving in the morning......

@Robert-Shuler I hope you're moving today!  Are they pumpkins good for pies?  :) Pumpkin pie is my favorite.  

Hugssandi...........check out Lynda Randle singing, "One Day at a Time" on YouTube..............and learn the second verse........she's the real thing and her music always lifts the spirit..........

Thank you for keeping up the conversation, Andreas!!!  I love reading your updates and am inspired by them. 

Salt Springs, you are the perfect encouragement!  Thank you!  I keep thinking about where I'd be now had I not quit so many times.  I'm not seeing that as a downer, but as a DON'T DO IT AGAIN!  That every little bit adds up, so if nothing else keep at least doing the little bit!  

Just transplanted 2 acres of pumpkin plants by hand. Countless deep knee bends lots of fresh air and sunshine. I'll be lucky if I'll be able to move tomorrow!... Robert.

Good job, Andreas!!!  Wow, Hugssandi!  You are both well on your way to reaching your goals.    Sometimes the going seems really difficult, but if we set our minds to the task we can do it.   I remember having to pass a fitness test when I was in the Navy.  The weather was so hot and I felt absolutely terrible.  but, I had to do it anyway, 30 push-ups, 100 sit-ups and a mile and a half run in a total of 25 minutes with no breaks...........the last 3/4 of a mile was so difficult and the time limit was running out.........I made it only because of will power, stubbornness and lots of bad language along the way. ( I found out later that morning that I had pneumonia at the time, just to add to the drama).  

Sometimes we have to struggle and will ourselves to make it to the end of the race.  I've learned that struggle can become easier if we dare to think of ourselves as winners and never give up.  Press on and even if you feel like giving up resolve not to do so.  I know you can do it........we're all cheering for you and anyone else who dares to enter this race.

Hang in there folks.......... it is now 10:46 PM and National Doughnut Day ends in 1 hour and 14 minutes on the East Coast.....other time zones...........be strong!

I am loving this discussion!  Years ago I used to ride 11.5 miles each way to work.  I loved it, because I beat the bus by 4 mins and didn't have to walk 30 mins at either end depending on the day and time.  That ride would kill me now, but I long to get back on my bike!  Y'all are encouraging me.  I will get there again, or I'll create a new love.  I really want a longboard skateboard to ride the neighborhood on...  Can you imagine?  OH keep talkin'! 

BTW Friday = 3 weeks into my HASfit workouts.  I am amazed at the difference in my knees and how stairs don't hurt anymore!!!!!

Make sure you wear shoes that have semi-hard soles, so that all the pedal pressure does not concentrate just on the ball of your foot... that creates hotspots that might really hurt you if you have gout.  A hard sole will help distribute the pressure more evenly over the entire bottom of the foot. 

Andreas, I hope your derriere is not in terrible pain today.  Mine would be if I did what you did on a new bike.

About 10 yrs ago I did my longest bike ride ever... 70 miles round trip, and pretty hilly here in rural New York.  Thought I would die but I didn't.  That was when I was in top biking form though.  I think I'd have trouble with a ten mile ride today.

My husband and I have good bikes... he has 3 and I have two.  They are all steel bikes designed for touring.  I do way more dancing than biking these past few years though.  At least I;m moving around briskly for several hours once a week. 

Good for you, @Andreas-Fischer, for getting the new bike.  Don't overdo it too fast, though.  You might want to start out doing 3 km a day for a while, and then slowly increasing your distance.  I applaud your enthusiasm, but none of us would want to see you injure yourself.

Andreas..........good for you!  Keep up the good work, your an inspiration.    By the way, how close are you to Dusseldorf?  I have long lost cousins living there.

Those fresh peas sound really good Dusty.  I've tried growing peas several times in my garden... to no avail.  Sometimes you just have to figure out what grows well for you..and grow lots of it.  I do that especially with tomatoes, which I seem to always have great luck with.

Those radishes look delicious, but I'd prefer the roots to the greens.

I don't grow them myself, but this time of year I eat a LOT of fresh English peas.  I think last year (and maybe the year before that) I posted a picture of a big pile of them.  One of the local supermarkets doesn't even put them out for the public.  They sell them only to a small handful of us who buy their whole stock. By mid-summer they won't be fresh anymore, so there is only about a month when I can indulge.

And I don't do anything with them. I used to make a pasta sauce with them, but they are just so delicious fresh and raw that now I just eat 'em.  Shell 'em and eat 'em like popcorn.  Mmm. 

And I don't think it's evil to add butter to the greens. I cook chard sometimes with apple cider and bacon.  Check out the work of Samin Nosrat (Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat).  She explains clearly how fat functions as a purveyor of flavor.  If you heat up some garlic in water, the water will smell mildly of garlic, but if you cook something in that water, it will not pick up much garlic flavor. However, if you cook that garlic in olive oil or butter, those fats become infused with garlic and will pass on that garlic to whatever you cook in the them.  

I picked some French radishes from the garden this morning, got about 8 nice big ones.  Brian likes the radishes so much, but I also like to eat the tops, which are super nutritious!
The leaves are a bit prickly so not great for salads...better to cook a bit. After washing and cutting off the thicker stems, I like to make a cup of chicken bouillion (made with 1 cube) and simmer the greens in it for about 1.5 minutes.  This makes them soft like spinach, eliminates the prickles and easier to chew and digest.  My evil secret is to also add a half pat of butter.

I just had that for breakfast.. mmmm....it's something I can only have on rare occasions when I have radishes in the garden.  As soon as the weather warms, radishes won't grow well anymore for me- they seem to only like chilly Spring growing.
I do this same thing whenever I find young stinging nettle in the Spring.  These spring greens things are like a Spring tonic!

I don't eat super healthy all the time, but I do enjoy these rare fresh garden treats.

Here's a pic I took a few years ago of my garden radish greens in broth:

@salt-springs, THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!  I really loved your sharing, and I've been wanting to tell you so!  It's just been crazy here.  I may send you a message with way TMI sometime....   

@Andreas-Fischer, YOU'RE AMAZING!!!

@Strumelia, I love the idea of your new gadget!  Please share how you like it over time.

@salt-springs, what an inspiring and upbeat post.  Good thoughts in there to live by no matter what your situation. 

I haven't lost any more weight lately, but at least I've been dancing more often (my main exercise) so I feel ok for the most part.

Today I got inspired and bought one of those popular fitness trackers you wear on the wrist, on Amazon.  It's not a Fitbit brand which is beyond my budget, but a $35 one that does most of those things and is well rated by customer reviews. It's supposed to work ok with my Android v.5 phone... we'll see, I hope it works well enough to be useful.
I don't have any big goals in mind for using it, but I know it'll be fun to try out because I used to love playing around with my old style pedometers. In any case it will definitely make me more aware of how much i move (or don't move) each day.  Hopefully it will shame me out of my desk chair a little more often on days i don't go to a dance..which are most days. 

Andreas, and Hugssandi.........thank you for the bold posts and resolutions you have made public.  I want you to know that as one who has been there in my younger days, I was just shy of 300 lbs at 16 years old. It is most important for you to always remember that you are not alone in this battle.  It took years for me to become functional and fit....College Rugby, forced runs during Law Enforcement Academy Training, Physical fitness Training during Navy Chaplains School, 8 years of active duty and nearly 20 years of Hot Yoga.  I say all that to say this, while all of that worked the real issue for me was one of re-learning how think about not only my relationship to food, but my relationship to the world around me. 

Now I am nearly 70 years old and have the old man's gut and I don't move as fast as I once did.  And yes, like alot of other Vets I have seen and remember all sorts of ugliness and sorrow..........but, those issues are history and no longer exist unless I choose to bring them into being..........so what's my point...........each day is a new beginning and fresh start.  Some days run smooth and others do not.....so be it.

Hang in there and feel free to reach out to me or anyone else who has been there.  Even if you can't believe in yourself from time to time, know that I'll believe for you until you get your feet back on the ground and pointed in the right direction.  Anyone can message me at anytime and I'll respond...never judge and promise only to encourage.  

@andreas-fischer please keep us posted!  I have 150+ to lose as well.  I'm sure we can encourage one another to success!!!

Andreas I wish you luck in this major weight loss goal you have.  We all want you to be around and happily playing music for many years to come! 

I never seem to get this part of my life down for any length of time.  I kept injuring myself!  So I've now gone back to free HASfit senior vids on YouTube.

Fresh peas . . .

I love sardines, I'm picking asparagus, sells so fast never have any for myself. The frozen food company down road is cutting spinach, fresh pea harvesting starts soon. Looking forward to enjoying garden fresh food again. 

Well I know most folks here live in garden zones that ahead of me here in new york. 

But yesterday I was able to pick enough lettuce leaves for us to have a nice salad for dinner.  I also put on a generous handful of fresh alfalfa sprouts that I grow in jars in our kitchen all winter. Then added grated carrot and zucchini, sliced radishes, and a few little sardines on the side (yeah I know some of you would hate that, but hey it's healthy and we like it!)  We think of canned whole sardines as our own cheap version of English kippers or Norwegian or Danish herring side dishes.   

Anyway, it was a good fresh salad!

I take a chair yoga class twice a week, plus t'ai-chi twice a week.  The chair yoga class teaches all sorts of seated and standing stretches that are simple, easy, and keep you from cramping up.

So true Sandi!   I try to make it a habit whenever I get up from my desk to do a standing stretch on each side- holding onto the chair arm with one hand while twisting at the waist and reaching the other hand up real high. So simple and quick to do that on both sides, it feels real good and I think it helps counteract the damage of sitting for long periods.
You're right that incorporating a little 'mini-action' whenever you have a moment, or in between doing routine things... it all adds up.