The $99 Peanut

Early this week I noticed that the freezer compartment of my refrigerator seemed not to be keeping things as "frozen" as usual. The 'fridge is nine years old so I figured, "Uh oh." I looked in the manual, looked online -- no help. Then this morning I noticed a puddle of water coming out from under the box.

To the Yellow Pages -- called a friendly-looking appliance repair outfit and they had a nice guy there within an hour. He took the back panel off the 'fridge to get access to the mechanicals and immediately said, "There's your problem." A styrofoam peanut had lodged itself between a blade on the fan and the fan housing, keeping the fan from running.

He popped out the peanut, checked everything out, and voilà, everything was cool again -- "We usually charge $119 for weekend service calls, but since this was a small deal we'll make it $99." I appreciated the break, trust me.

A $99 styrofoam peanut. (Explanation: I had recently unpacked a UPS shipment in the kitchen that was filled with styrofoam peanuts, many of which ended up on the floor during the unpacking. One apparenlty made its way under the 'fridge and eventually got sucked up by the fan into the fan housing.)

In retrospect, this was a lesson in logic and initiative. I know scant little about refrigerator maintenance. But I do know that the heart of a refrigerator is the compressor, and compressors generate heat so they have to be cooled by a fan. The compressor is what cools the refrigerator and the freezer, so if the box wasn't cooling properly it might be the compressor. The compressor could have died -- but that wasn't necessarily true. If the box is cooling a little bit, that means the compressor was running "a little bit" -- compressor runs, gets hot, but the fan doesn't cool it, so it shuts off and the 'fridge starts heating up. Then the compressor cools off by itself, kicks on again, heats up again, shuts off -- etc etc.

Logic would have said, "The compressor's not running efficiently. Let's see if the fan is working." A quick inspection would have found the styrofoam peanut jammed in the fan.

It's amazing how clear and logical solutions are AFTER the fact. I should have done this by myself -- but it would have been nice to have talked through this with another person: "Let's pool everything we know about how refrigerators work and see if we can narrow the problem down."

Even just taking the panel off the back of the 'fridge would have revealed the styrofoam peanut: "Hey, are refrigerator fans supposed to have a styrofoam peanut lodged between a fan blade and the fan housing preventing the fan from turning? No? Well let's remove it and see what happens -- see if things start working correctly again."

Ah, well -- hindsight is always 20/20. At age 60 I am still trying to learn to use logic in problem-solving. Many problems in life are simple enough to solve if we can get one or more minds wrapped around them. Especially when they are no bigger than a peanut.

On a more fun note, here's a cute picture of my neighbor's daughter, Kaylee, taking a spin on her dad's #24 (DuPont sponsored) lawn tractor. A safe (slow) and fun way to learn to coordinate feet, hands, and eyes in the driving position:

Movie: Henry Poole Is Here

This trailer makes Henry Poole Is Here seem appealing. PG, nice cast (Luke Wilson, George Lopez), cute story.

Peggy Noonan Says What I Wish I'd Thought Of

Peggy Noonan continues to say what I feel before I knew I felt it. Not only is the former Reagan speech-writer one of the most eloquent journalists working today (books and a regular WSJ column), she remains conservative for what seem like the right reasons. Here she takes Bush to task, decries the dehumanizing process of going through an airport, and most helpfully, raises questions about Obama: What does he really think (feel) about America? You can read the column (dated April 25, 2008) here.

Grier's Garden Veggies (and Costco Berries)

Stopped by Mr. Grier's garden while running an errand and came home with three large bags of veggies: two bunches of TALL green (spring) onions; one HUGE bunch of turnips, and a big bunch of white and red Swiss chard. Total cost was $8 for close to 10 pounds (I'm guessing) of produce. (The turnips alone would barely fit in a regular plastic grocery bag and must have weighed 5 pounds by themselves.)

These pictures don't convey the size of these bunches. They are huge! The bunches are leaning up against the tall LaLanne juicer which you can't even see:



These green onions are leaning up against the Green Power juicer which gives you an idea of their size. I have never seen onions this large and robust anywhere:



Close-up of the chard -- I've seen chard this tall before, but rarely this "thick." The leaves are heavier than most I see in the stores:



And the turnips. I don't usually buy these in the store, but I'm looking forward to sautéing the roots and steaming the greens:



These berries did not come from Grier's garden, of course -- but I'm going to mention them here as an "Attaboy" to Costco. Both of these bags of ORGANIC berries (one is all blueberries, the other is mixed blue/black/raspberries) weigh three pounds and cost in the $10 range. Compare that per-pound price to buying organic berries in the small containers at the store -- usually several dollars for a tiny plastic container of these organic berries. The health benefits of these berries are well-known, so if you have a Costco connection they are worth buying in bulk:

Pachyderm Picassos

One of the things that motivates me about the vegan lifestyle is the mysterious nature of animals -- how they are so smart in so many ways; how they have a purposeful place in God's creation that goes beyond being food for the human species. I'm reminded of the stories of how so many wild animals fled the coastal areas for higher ground -- and remained alive -- prior to the Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2004. They sensed danger when humans didn't; many lives might have been saved if humans had been more sensitive to what the animals were saying by their actions. Or consider the recently documented experiments using dogs to detect human cancer. Their powerful noses can detect something on or beneath human skin that we can't sense.

This video of Burmese elephants that paint pictures is an example of the brain power of animals. Granted, these elephants were likely trained to paint the same picture over and over as a tourist attraction -- they probably can't create new pictures every time they come to the easel. But still, this is a remarkable example of an animal's skill. I'm not crazy about the idea of exploiting animals for entertainment -- but all that aside, just enjoy this creature's skill with the brush:

Expelled—the Movie

Ran out to see Expelled this afternoon, the movie I referenced a few days ago. I liked it. I feel like I gained a better appreciation for the kind of folks who populate the mainstream scientific faculties in major universities -- pretty unappealing for the most part. They were (generally) closed-minded, hostile, and not interested in dialog about Intelligent Design. The ID proponents, on the other hand, seemed friendly, courteous, and desirous of dialog. (This is an obvious oversimplification, based on the interviews the director chose to include in the movie.)

Ben Stein is Jewish, so this wasn't a movie about evangelical Christianity or the Christian right or getting biblical creation into schools. I don't recall "Jesus Christ" ever being mentioned, and Christianity only rarely, usually by the evolutionists who claim that ID is a smokescreen by the Christian right to get the Bible back in schools. I've never seen such well-educated folks, on both sides of the issue. I recall seeing several double-doctorate holders on the ID side.

Stein used an interesting metaphor to frame the entire movie from beginning to end: the Berlin wall that was put up by East Berlin to shut off all contact and dialog with the West. He likened that wall to the kind of closed-mindedness seen among evolutionist scientists. The movie was made interesting by frequent decades-old film footage of the Berlin situation, and later of Nazi Germany. A good bit of time was spent showing how committed Hitler was to Darwinism, and how evolutionary principles like natural selection were used by Hitler as justification for cleansing Europe of "weak" minority species like Jews, Gypsies, the mentally ill, the aged, homosexuals, and others. And how some of the same eugenic principles have made their way into today's Planned Parenthood -- all based on Darwinistic evolution (wittingly or unwittingly).

Stein's point was not to condemn the theory of evolution, but the attempts by mainstream scientific communities to shut off debate on any ideas that don't comport to Darwin's framework, and to oust and shun those scientists who dare to step outside the lines in their research, writing, or teaching.

It's a conservative film -- Ben Stein is a conservative, after all, and believes in preserving the right to free speech in every venue. But it's not a religious film at all, for which I was glad.

Finally, the most interesting thing to me was the evolutionist scientists' utter lack of explanation for how the evolutionary process began. (After all, as one of the ID guys pointed out, Darwin's book was titled On the Origin of Species, not On the Origin of Life. Darwin didn't know either.) They don't have a clue how life began, and admit as much. I thought Richard Dawkins', England's Arch-Atheist, explanation was the most unbelievable. He finally admitted, in a conversation with Stein, that ID might have happened -- that a superior intelligent race of beings from another planet, who of course were the result of evolution, came to earth and seeded a life-form of some kind in earth's primordial soup, beginning the evolutionary process.

Puh-lease. I can't prove it didn't happen, but is that what we're supposed to call science? For a group of people who condemn ID proponents for their lack of scientific methods, the evolutionists sound at times more like science fictionists than scientists.

A creative, interesting film, following Stein in his travels around America and Europe interviewing the best and brightest on both sides of the debate. I have to say the ID guys came out looking the best -- but I'm sure that's what Stein intended to happen. After all, it's his film.

Precious in the Sight of the Lord . . .

Psalm 116:15 says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Or, in the words of The Message, "When they arrive at the gates of death, God welcomes those who love Him."

Cheryl Burton, the friend for whom I had asked for prayers yesterday, went home to be with the Lord this afternoon. All her family, except for one daughter traveling from Taiwan, was with her when she died -- and even that daughter was connected by phone. She had struggled in and out of lucidity Monday and most of Tuesday, then rallied significantly Tuesday night and enjoyed time with her family before passing away early Wednesday afternoon. So it was a sweet parting of the ways. All are glad that her burden has been lifted and replaced with an eternal Sabbath rest in Jesus.

The Best Book . . .

This is the book I've recommended more than any other on the evidence for the benefits of a plant-based diet.

Dr. Colin Campbell is Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University and has been studying biochemistry as it relates to nutrition for decades. His own research led him to adopt a plant-based (vegan) lifestyle. The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health not only reports on the findings of the "most comprehensive study of nutrition ever conducted," it also gives Campbell's reflections on health and nutrition in America based on his access to the inner sanctums of government and education. Bottom line: the medical, government, and educational industries in America do not always have the best interests of humans and health as their top priority.

You'll need to read the book to appreciate the astounding depth of evidence and conclusions Campbell has compiled. But here's the message of the book in a nutshell (the evidence from the 20-year-long China Study): "People who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease. Even relatively small intakes of animal-based food were associated with adverse effects. People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic disease" (page 7).

If you are at all concerned about your health, and the health of people you care about, I cannot urge you strongly enough to buy and read this book -- and encourage others to do so as well.

[Disclaimer: I come at my support for a plant-based lifestyle from a biblical (Gen. 1:29), as well as evidentiary, perspective. Dr. Campbell's book comes purely from the latter. I have no idea what his spiritual or religious convictions are -- he never discusses them in the book. However, I find it comforting that his scientific, evidentiary conclusions harmonize perfectly with the plant-based (vegan) lifestyle described in Genesis.]

More on Water

I continue to tell friends that a subscription to Wired magazine is perhaps the smartest way to spend $10 that I know of.

In the current issue (May '08) there is a big article on the problem of potable water in our world. If you don't have time to read the entire article, consider this table:

How Much Water Does It Take to Make a . . .

•Cotton ball: 1 gallon
•Sheet of paper: 3 gallons
•Slice of bread: 11 gallons (WK note: that would be around 250-300 gallons for a loaf. Who buys a slice?)
•Orange: 13 gallons
•Glass of beer: 20 gallons
•Egg: 36 gallons
•Burger: 634 gallons
•Leather shoes: 2,113 gallons
•Pair of jeans: 2,866 gallons

One of the strongest arguments for a plant-based lifestyle (Genesis 1:29) is how much more efficiently the world's resources are used to produce the ingredients for that diet versus a meat-based diet. Compare (above in red) the amount of water it takes to produce an orange verses a hamburger.

John Robbins, who walked away from the Baskin-Robbins ice-cream "heirship" as a young man after seeing his father's and uncle's health deteriorate from the consumption of their own product, was one of the first to research and publish the numbers on water, land, and natural resource use necessary to support a meat-and-dairy-based society. His book, Diet for a New America, demonstrates that the vast majority of water, land, and grain consumed in agricultural endeavors in America goes to raise meat for human consumption. And that's not to mention the negative health benefits of meat compared to plant-produced food.

Consumable water is going to be a defining issue for future generations -- not just in America but in the underdeveloped world. It's not hard to imagine wars being fought over water at some point down the road.

Friends and Food

For the last year, four of us have been meeting twice a month to "get into each other's stuff" -- spiritual life, job/work, family matters -- looking to apply biblical principles to the never-ending stream of challenges. The last two meetings have been at my house over supper -- fresh veggie juice and salads last time; veggie juice, chips and salsa, and veggie burritos this week.



Left to right are WK; then Paul Stack, a manufacturers rep (Stack Marketing Services) for industrial valves and fittings; then Dave Frucella, insurance sales (AmericaQuote.com); and Chuck Robbins, owner of aro, a marketing and public relations consulting firm in Charlotte.

It dawned on me as I was preparing this meal for the guys that I have done this before. When in grad school at the University of Alabama ('70-'72), I got involved with Campus Crusade for Christ on campus, through which I met some undergrad guys. Somehow we began having a regular early morning Bible study/prayer meeting at the small cottage I rented just off campus, and I would fix breakfast for the whole group: usually scrambled eggs, bacon, juice, bread of some sort. It was a huge undertaking in a tiny kitchen, but really added to the fellowship portion of our meetings. I even raised money from a local Christian businessman who I cold-called to help pay for the food we were consuming. I think he donated $25 or so, which bought a lot of food in the early Seventies. He even came to one of our meetings just to see if we were legit. I even remember what we discussed that day -- modesty (or the lack thereof) in dress among the Christian "sistren" on campus. I remember the look on his face -- probably not what was usually discussed in his local Baptist church Sunday school class. But he was a nice man and left convinced that his money was not being ill-spent.

Somehow I always seem to end up in the kitchen, voluntarily so. My mom was the same way -- I guess I swam often in that corner of the gene pool growing up.

For All Who Pray

For all who live on praying ground and read this note, please pray for a dear saint in Atlanta, Cheryl Burton, who is struggling against cancer. Cheryl, strengthened by her faithful husband Dan, has fought the good fight against her breast cancer for several years -- as soberly and spiritually as one could have asked for. Of late, they've done all the medical protocols (chemo, radiation, etc.) but she's been hospitalized for a couple of weeks and is losing strength and not responding well. The doctors don't know what to do for her at this point.

I've known the Burtons for nearly 30 years -- they are the best this life has to offer in so many ways. Please pray for God's grace, to be manifested according to His will, for Cheryl and the family.

One Word: Water

In the spirit of the famous line from The Graduate ("One word -- are you listening? -- one word: plastics.") the new one-word is "water." I thought of it again this morning when watching a tour of the Bush ranch house in Crawford, Texas, highlighting some of its eco-friendly design. According to Laura Bush:

•No gutters. All rainwater runs off the tin roof into stone-filled troughs that surround the house, which funnel the water into a 44,000 gallon underground cistern for later irrigation use.
•Geo-thermal heating; possible windmill coming.

Additional specs on the house (gray- and black-water cisterns; all-stone construction using scrap stone; house design [a long thin house; few interior doors] that facilitates air-flow for cooling) can be found in this article.

The water issue is likely not to go away based on what I read. My son Daniel wrangled a bunch of 55-gallon food-grade plastic drums from a food company in his hometown and has set several up in his yard to catch and store rainwater from the gutters for irrigating their garden -- and has passed on some of the barrels to friends who want to do the same. He gave me one and I am trying to collect the parts needed to install spigots, etc., as is he. This is a simple step that lots of us could do to re-use rainwater. And your plants will thank you for not slaking their thirst with the likes of chlorine, fluoride, and the other chemicals in city water.

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The Element Song

If you'd like a fun lesson in what your carbon-based existence is compromised of, take a listen to "The Element Song." Written by (now 80-year-old) Harvard mathematician Tom Lehrer, I first heard this ditty when I connected with the guys at Ocean Grown in Naples, Florida, a few years ago. This company harvests seawater which contains nature's perfect balance of all the 90+ elements (minerals) in the periodic table for use as an agricultural fertilizer. I water my wheatgrass with their concentrated ocean water in order to get the 90+ minerals into the wheatgrass, the juice of which is made that much richer. It is the "demineralization" of our nations soils that has contributed to the poor nutritional quality of even the best farmland. As Dr. Maynard Murray (who pioneered the use of sea salts in agriculture) wrote in his book Sea Energy Agriculture, plants are simply the delivery mechanism in nature to deliver the minerals in the soil to the human body. If "from dust (read "minerals") we have come" (Genesis 2:7; 3:19), then it makes sense that it's minerals we need to sustain ourselves.

Here's Lehrer's song:




Wheatgrass grown with Ocean Grown Solution:

Beautiful Union County

I've been off the bike for nearly a week, so instead of doing a long, hard ride this afternoon I took my camera and did a leisurely ride on some of the roads in Union County, NC, where I usually ride.

For whatever reason, Union County is horse country. There are lots of stables, riding centers, homes on acreage with horses in fenced pastures. This is an equestrian center a few miles south of where I live:



And an example of the kind of affluence it takes to support such endeavors. This "house" sat way off the road, beyond the equestrian center -- my zoom lens pulled it in closer:



Union County is (was) an agricultural county. The area of UC that borders the Charlotte metro area is being converted from farmland to subdivisions of large homes. But even with subdivisions going up all around, there is still a lot of land that is farmed. Here's a beautiful example of a field in spring cover crops, waiting to be tilled for planting, I assume -- but not before it's nuked with an herbicide to rapidly kill the cover crop (see below):



The green of the fields is being replaced by manicured subdivision entrances:



These friendly fellows (girls?) came over to the fence to have their picture taken:







What a beautiful face!



Just down the road from the horses was this lovely setting:



And directly across the street, this rather predictable MacMansion with an estate-sized yard:



Wesley Chapel, NC, is one of many small crossroads in Union County. It literally has a crossroads with two-way stop. This is the City Hall of Wesley Chapel -- a country-type ranch house turned into administrative offices for the "city."



Cover crops are grown during the winter on the fields to hold the soil in place (good) and fix nitrogen in the soil (good -- depending on the kind of cover crop). Organic farmers will plow under the lush green grasses seen in the photo above (called "green manure") so the grass can feed the soil microbes and worms and add the maximum organic content to the soil. But conventional farming practices are to spray the entire field with an herbicide (bad) to kill the grass and any disease pathogens in the soil. A field can be lush green one week and look like this the next. I'd be surprised if you could walk out in that field, turn up a random shovel of dirt, and find a worm. The soil is basically lifeless after being treated with herbicides, so in order to provide food for the crops, heavy doses of chemical fertilizers will be added to this field. So the seeds of the food (corn, probably in this field) that is grown are planted in dirt contaminated with pesticides and loaded with synthetic fertilizers. There is nothing natural looking about this field:



A lovely restored farmhouse just down the road:



And the lush cover crop grasses -- 18" - 24" tall -- growing in a field across the road:



This is a house I drool over whenever I pass it. A classic Southern farm house, beautifully restored. You can see the original structure minus the addition to the rear. The original had brick chimneys on both ends, big porch, big trees -- give me a break! What a beautiful setting:



The next crossroads, heading south, is Mineral Springs. It's actually pretty large, with a pizza place, a quick mart, a church, and something else on the four corners of the main intersection. You can see the Mineral Springs Fertilizer store (a typical seed 'n feed, showing UC's agricultural roots) heading into "town." The pizza joint on the corner of the intersection is not a chain -- it's a one-off model that serves up something fried. The aromas wafting out of the place are enough to make a vegan biker reconsider his priorities when he rides by:



At the Mineral Springs intersection this historic marker points to the historic Pleasant Grove Methodist Church campground which you'll see below:



Before leaving Mineral Springs, here's another house that would be worth having. It's not as picturesque as the previous one, but large and rambling with a beautifully wooded lot. What I really like about it (see below) is the fenced in area on the side where horses are usually kept. Inside that fenced area would make a garden to die for, having been saturated with horse manure for years:



The red-roofed outbuildings are already in place, waiting to be filled with farm and garden tools instead of horses tack which is what they look like they were built for:



What a great yard!



Now -- to the amazing Methodist campground. There are (I'm guessing) a hundred or so small cabins built in a rough square, cabins on each of the four sides facing outwards, built right next to each other. I'm guessing these have been built over the years by those who attend camp meetings at the church. (This hearkens back to the days of old-time revivals and camp meetings when people would gather and sleep in tents or in rough shelters they would put up, adequate for a week or so.) I rode around the perimeter of the layout taking pictures on all four sides.

This is the side that faces the main road:



The second side:



I liked this one on the second side because it was red. Most of the cabins are white or other "plain" color:



This one was also on the second side. Now I'm thinking these are some "new money" Methodists who moved in without being properly schooled in cabin design; their two-story A-frame probably won them the stink-eye (thanks Juno) during camp meeting from those "who'd been coming to camp meeting before you were born."



This is the third side of the square:



The requisite old-timey country cemetery as you start up the fourth side:



And the fourth side cabins:



This place fascinates me. I would love to attend camp meeting there some time. As far as I know, I haven't seen the church, though there is a sign for it by the road.

On the way back home I saw a huge buzzard sitting on top of this old barn. I think he was waiting to see if my carcass would be available for picking after going down the upcoming hill (see video below):



Fortunately, I made it without becoming buzzard food:

Near my house, this unbelievably beautiful crotch-rocket was for sale in front of a very small house. This thing has so much bling on it I couldn't even tell what kind it was. Gorgeous!



Hope you enjoyed the glimpse of the past and present of lovely Union County, NC.

Polyface Farm

A good article in USA Today on Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. Salatin is a legend in the organic, sustainable farming community for his innovative methods. He farms mostly meat -- chickens, beef, rabbit, and pork -- but gets premium prices for it from restaurants and local customers because it tastes like its supposed to (grass fed, etc.). I'm not a fan of his raising animals in order to kill them, but he does it respectfully and humanely, giving the animals every benefit and pleasure they should have before their lights go out. The article is mainly about Salatin and Polyface Farm (view the photo gallery of pix from his farm), but it also has a sidebar on other farms around the country that are capitalizing on the agro-tourism business. Salatin has about 8,000 people a year visit his farm from all over the world to learn his methods, some of whom pay $1,000 for a one-on-one day with Salatin. The article gives good insight into how hungry (pardon the pun) people are to know more about food and how they can reconnect with it at the source.

Joel Salatin has written a half-dozen books on sustainable farm practices, including those on his own farm. You can view all-things-Salatin at Amazon here.