My Baby Fig Trees

One month ago I cut 8 twigs off our fig tree in an attempt to have them sprout roots.  After a month in moist peat moss I discovered two of the twigs did sprout roots.  The other 6 are getting there, but probably have another week or two to go.  I'm going to plant these two in containers and see how they do.

Halloween 2014

So here we are at our yearly pirate ship for Halloween.  We spent two days setting up for the event.  We had a few props set up around the ship.  Here's one of the pirate treasure.  As you can see no skallywag has been able to make off with the booty.

Here's the drunk pirate lady drinking her grog.  We made her using a pond pump with tubing running up her arm.  We put clear tubing running from the mouth to her belly so you could see the grog flowing.  I took 3 yellow highlighters and squeezed all the juice out of them and mixed it with water.  That made the water fluorescent and much brighter than plain old water.

Here we have the captain steering the ship.  He's an original and has been with us since the second year (this being our tenth anniversary).  In addition, we have other pirates, one standing swinging his sword and one hanging off the plank trying to steal some jewels.  The hungry crocodile waiting for a tasty snack.

Here's another pirate in the cargo net sitting on boxes of TNT (yes we are aware TNT hadn't been invented during the time of real pirates) and holding a sword and grenade.

Another drunk pirate passed out neglecting his duty of manning the cannon.

A sign warning pirates, with a pirate hanging by a noose.  This pirate had some cool clothes, but while I was trying to distress his clothes with a butane torch, the clothes caught fire and burned his pants and most of his shirt off, also melting his rib cage.  Next time I'll take his clothes off first before I distress them.

Here's the completed scene.  We are waiting for it to get dark and have the trick-or-treaters show up.

The ship is 32 ft long, with a 25 ft tall mast.  The little dinghy in the foreground is "the bearded clam".  You can't see it in the picture, but my daughter drew a little clam with a pearl in its mouth....with a beard.

Lastly, here's a picture at night.  The cul-de-sac had people hanging around all night long.  Our neighbor told us we made it on the internet as one of the top ten places to trick or treat in Los Angeles. (Redtri.com), as well as google earth, pinned with a pumpkin.  We estimated we had 800-1000 kids come through this year.  

Halloween Henry

Poor Henry, he hates this time of year. Always getting dolled up for Halloween. 

Arrrrgh!

Cuban Night

We went to a friend's house the other day for a book signing.  John Verlinden was cooking a few dishes from his new cookbook.  His partner's mother is Cuban and sat down with him and gave him all her recipes and shared a few stories about life in Cuba before Castro.  Over a ten year period he compiled the recipes and stories and has now published a cookbook, To Cook is to Love.  The book has lots of recipes, stories and pictures of Cuba.  Here he is with a dish of arroz con pollo and a dish of black beans.  He also made some appetizers of small empanadas and garlic shrimp, which were tasty.

The Pirate Ship, She Comes!

Next week we go into high gear getting our pirate ship up and running.   We captured this guy to let the neighbors know the winds have shifted and Davey Jones is headed our way. 

Liposomal Encapsulated Vitamin C

I have been very interested in Orthomolecular treatment of diseases since about 2003.  Back then, I went to the doctor and he said I had high cholesterol and advised to go on cholesterol drugs.  I said to myself "no way" and began researching this stuff.  I read some of Linus Pauling's studies (he was a Vitamin C guru).  I regularly go to doctoryourself.com which is a site by Andrew Saul, who is the "MegaVitamin Man" and has alot of research about mega vitamin therapy.

I have experimented with high doses of Vit C, niacin and other stuff and I'm a true believer.  Anyways, I watched some videos on YouTube of Dr Thomas Levy and his research and found out about Liposomal Encapsulated Vitamin C.  He treats all sorts of illnesses with this and other antioxidants.  He has treated Dengue Fever, cancer, toxic poisonings, MS, hepatitis, among others.  I'm not talking about the 65mg of the recommended daily allowance by the FDA.  I'm talking about mega doses - 10,000 to 200,000mg (10 to 200grams) of Vitamin C, mostly given intravenously.  Liposomal is even more effective in getting into your cell walls and a 6gram dose of this stuff is equivalent to 60grams of intravenous.  So being the DIYer, I made a batch.  Here's the recipe...I don't know if its readable, but I got it from 8aloha.com under liposomal vitamin C.

 

Here are the ingredients:  Distilled water, non-GMO lecithin and Vitamin C crystals.  They can be purchased at any vitamin store or online.  The ultra sonic jewelry cleaner machine I purchased at Harbor Freight. 

 

 

 

I tested my product and it was Heisenberg grade stuff (you'll see what I mean as you read the recipe).

 

 

 

I made a batch and took 6 ounces, which should be about 6 grams of Vitamin C.  This is alot better than the way I've taken it in the past because the encapsulation doesn't upset the stomach like regular crystal Vitamin C.

 

I know it sounds lame, but I really get into this stuff.  I found out a fun fact during alot of reading.  Did you know that if someone claims to have a natural cure for Ebola, the FDA has threatened to arrest them?  Interesting.  Ouch, that's the government pushing down on our heads with their thumb.

 

 

Our Fig Tree

It's getting close to the end of the fig harvesting season.  We collected about 200 figs this year with the squirrels and opossums getting their paws on another hundred.  There's a cool history to this tree.  In the 1970s my grandfather cut a twig from a fig tree and gave it to my father.  He grew it into a fig tree at the house where I grew up.  Before my dad died he cut several twigs that I found after his death.  I took one and planted it.  Here's a picture.

Anyways, today I cut several twigs and placed them in a zip lock bag with moist peat moss.  Hopefully they'll sprout roots in a couple weeks.  Keep you posted.