Upstairs, Downstairs

Decided to try taking advantage of the fertile "upstairs" portion of the hanging bucket (container) planters: Planted bean and pea seeds in the top of each one. This is probably fraught with problems—mingling the roots of legumes with the roots of tomatoes, peppers, etc., growing in the "downstairs" parts of the buckets. On the other hand, perhaps the bean/pea roots will fix some nitrogen that the downstairs plants can take advantage of. The main problem is sunlight—the pea and bean seeds sprouted beautifully in all six buckets but they are in the shade nearly all day. The plan was for them to grow up the strings on which the buckets are suspended but that would keep them in the shade permanently under the porch overhang. I'll work on this. :-)









The lizards were eating Mexican the other night and this guy stopped by for some cilantro:

Bob Dylan Has a Message for You

Good Samaritan

When I crashed on my bike last Sunday, a good Samaritan named David Huneycutt, also a bike rider, was one of the first to come to my aid: (David rides a carbon Orbea Orca -- a primo ride.)



David is a former EMT and an orthopedic surgery consultant to surgeons—so he was the right man at the right place at the right time. He checked me out before the other EMTs arrived and made sure I was okay. He also took my bike home with him for safekeeping and brought it by today. I'm very grateful for David's concern (and for his family sitting in the hot sun in their car while he waited until the ambulance arrived). There were lots of other Union County neighbors who stopped on the busy road as well -- many thanks to them all. One, the owner of a popular local restaurant, gave me his card and told me to come by for a free meal. How nice!

I checked the bike computer -- it had stopped at 55.7 miles. Less than six miles to go on my 61-mile birthday ride. So close! I'll have to do it all over now for the record.

Thanks again to David and my Union County neighbors!

Hipocritical Hippocratics

It was Hippocrates (460-377 B.C), Greek physician and so-called "father of modern medicine," who said, "Let food be thy medicine." Obviously, modern doctors who take the Hippocratic Oath upon graduation from medical school have revised the good doctor's dictum to read, "Let drugs be thy medicine."

In his current newsletter, Dr John McDougall tells the story of his own attempts to integrate nutritional therapies into the hospitals where he worked as a young physician, and the opposition he faced from administrators and insurers in spite of the success he was having. Simply put, there is no money to be made from nutritional therapy compared to drugs and surgery. He ultimately left "organized medicine" and became one of the leading (and most creative and successful) voices for plant-based diets for preventing and reversing disease. I encourage you to take 10 minutes and read his story.

When Bike and Body Are One

Ringers at the Gila

If I was racing in the five-day Tour of the Gila road race in New Mexico this week, and looked over and saw these three entrants on the Mellow Johnny's team, I might suddenly develop a "sprinter's limp" and withdraw. They are (L to R) Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner, and Lance Armstrong, the three Americans on pro cycling's most powerful team, Astana.


Mellow Johnny's (the closest-sounding English words for the French "yellow jersey" worn by the leader of the Tour de France) is the name of Armstrong's bike shop in Austin, Texas -- and the MJ team was thrown together at the last minute to participate in the Gila as a warm up race for these three heading into the upcoming three-week Tour (Giro) of Italy.

This is of interest to me, having just broken my collarbone and a rib in a crash last Sunday, since Horner just broke the same two bones three weeks ago and Armstrong shattered his collarbone a month ago. (And Leipheimer cracked his sacrum in February in the Tour of California.) So they apparently heal quickly -- good news.

Michael Pollan Speech

Author and food analyst and activist Michael Pollan spoke at the Georgia organics conference in Atlanta March 20-21. Everyone who eats and cares about food and health -- and how agriculture is the key to human and environmental health -- should be familiar with Pollan. The video is an hour long, but there is no "action" to keep up with so you can listen to it while doing other things. The last 10 minutes are the most important -- anecdotes from several presidents illustrating how important it is to bring pressure on Washington to produce change: