The Winter Has Been Long

I haven't felt much like writing about myself lately. I'm more liking getting around the wilderness and going to school. There have been many sunny days, but I have found the sunlight depression people claim when the sun hasn't been out for months. My solution to that is clam bakes. Fake-n-bake at the local tanning salon. It has been too cold to spend more than 5 minutes outside for the last 4 months. Sub-zero temperatures in the daytime have been  the norm since December. It's these temperatures that have prevented me from getting sunlight, or feeling like writing. I've joined Facebook and taken pro-active steps toward getting my brain to work on the sunny side of life, but nothing has been working like the tanning beds. I feel much better. I suppose the shock of moving from a big city has something to do with the sadness. It might also have to do with Gracie.

During the last few months, I've learned that my father is allergic to dogs. He never told me he is allergic to them. He never mentioned the runny nose he gets at friends houses. He said he doesn't think about it. BUT when my brother came to visit, rather than telling me that he is feeling sick due to the dog, he tells my brother. When I asked my dad why he let me bring a dog home to his house, and why he chose which dog to bring home, he said it was my lesson to learn. Alright, I am 32 years old and I have learned many lessons including this one: Don't believe your father ever again. He lies.

I looked for many people to take Gracie. I've asked dad to get an allergy shot at his next doctors appointment. Nothing worked. I knew I needed to take her back to the shelter. It was easy. Too easy. I signed papers, brought her in, and while she sniffed around the place, I gave the leash to the workers. She knew. Her tail is usually up above her in a round black curl. Today, it was down on the ground. I wish my dad wasn't such a pushover. I'm not a pusher, and I don't make anyone do anything they don't want to ever. I even ask if someone is okay with something 2 or three times. I give chances like, "are you sure dad?". "we don't have to do this now." "Maybe we could wait a few days or months." Why is he such a pushover. Doesn't want to make waves or cause any kind of conflict for what? So his health can diminish. I have an idiot genius for a father. I told him I would not live with him if the dog had to go. I am leaving. And he will know it was about the dog. If he can teach me a lesson when I'm 32, I can teach lessons to him when he is 75.

I'm getting a bartending job soon while going to school and finding an internship. I'll find a place to live. I won't have a dog, but I'll have sanity around me. Not someone trying to be happy all the time because he thinks that is what people want him to be.

I'm going to find happiness somewhere. Maybe in freedom and liberty there is happiness. I don't want to pay a ton of bills, but obviously he doesn't want or need me here. I try to help him with his diet, and he just eats peanut butter sandwiches even after every meal. I try to remind him to get more sleep or to get more exercise, and he just says, "I know". I'm here for nothing. I'm not much of a help. He can get his friends to help him with the things he wants help with.

Maybe I'm just angry. Maybe it just me and my mood at the moment.  Maybe I just need to get out of this house. Maybe I should stop trying to make excuses for inexcusable behavior and go.

I'll go.

16) Pics of My Home the Wild and Mushrooms Galore!

15) Cold Is Settling Down

There's a slight squirmy chill in the air today. I can't seem to sit still. I've got a hundred and one reasons why I shouldn't go outside, however I know I need to finish some projects. Dad's observatory needs more paint on the other side. The ginseng is still at the other plot of land. I need to make beds for it here, plant it into the ground, and cover it with mulch. This all means I get to drive a tractor possibly soon.

Yesterday I wasted a ton of time searching for mushrooms out back by the cemetery. I found puffballs, and a whole bunch of others that are to me indistinguishable from anything. They're all in canvas and paper bags in another room, but I'll go through them one of these days soon, before they rot.

I walked through the cemetery for the first time yesterday. I found 4 license plate type grave markers. Two of which said Baby Hardy, and gave no birth date. The other two gave names, and the ages were too young. They died when they were children in around 1905. It amazes me that these aluminum plate type markers would last so long. I didn't look through the stones very long, and my curiosity is more and more wondering about the light I see all night long across the barbed wire and into the graveyard. A solar powered light shines all night so that the loved ones can come see their family's memorial, and know where it is. Well, my fingers are warming up now. It's about time to start cranking out some articles.

14) I wrote it!

Mushroom Health Benefits

In studying the mushroom benefits, I was surprised at all the healthy aspects of mushrooms that blew other vegetables out of the water. If you ask anyone why they eat mushrooms, most will say they like the taste or the texture, but not many will tell you about the highest level of nutrients found in mushrooms than any other vegetable. Not many people know. There’s all the hype about eating berries, apples, oranges, carrots, broccoli, and we know all the reasons why. When adding mushrooms to salads, people don’t much realize that they are adding the most important vegetable to their plate.

Here are 7 helpful facts about mushrooms:

1) Mushrooms have low energy concentration. Less calories helps to keep your weight in balance. Eating more mushrooms could contribute to weight loss.

2) Mushrooms have a high raw fiber content. High raw fiber consumption results in the lack of hunger pangs which in turn prevents overeating.

3) Mushrooms have low sodium concentration. Anyone with hypertension can eat them without restrictions.

4) Mushrooms do not have starch. Rather, they contain mannitol which is half as sweet as cane sugar, and can be consumed by diabetics.

5) Mushrooms are low in purine. Beneficial to people suffering from gout and rheumatism

6) Mushrooms are highly concentrated in essential vitamins. Up to three times more than other traditional vegetables.

7) Mushrooms have high concentrations of essential minerals and trace elements like selenium and potassium.

Some statistics about mushrooms in 100g of white mushrooms, the following was found.

Calories: 40 - Average of most vegetables

Sodium: 9mg - Significantly less than other vegetables

Potassium: 450mg – Significantly much more than other vegetables

Vitamin B-1: 0.10mg - Significantly much more than other vegetables

Vitamin B-2: 0.47mg - Four to Five times more than most other vegetables

Vitamin B-5: 2.25mg - Four to Five times more than most other vegetables

Vitamin B-9: 0.027mg - Four to Five times more than most other vegetables

Vitamin D: 1.88 micro g - One of the only vegetables with this vitamin

Selenium: 28 micro g - Twenty Eight times more than most vegetables

As you can see, there are many amazing benefits to making mushrooms a part of your daily regimen of fiber and nutrients. I can’t wait to get my hands on some fungi to cook lightly and devour!

Field Guides to Mushrooming

Click Here for Information on hunting mushrooms!

Click here for Dog Training Tips!

13) Teach Me How To Make Money

I have put applications into every business that is hiring within a 30 mile radius of where I live. That happens to be about 2 businesses, and the filing deadline had already passed when I sent out my resume's. Other than that I have sent about 20 applications and resume's to at least 20 companies in the area who are not hiring in hopes that they have need for someone as talented as I am. I have not received a response yet. How can I find a successful venture out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a recession, unless you'd like to call it a depression? I've searched deep and wide to find a service where I answer really dumb questions for hours on end for .10 per answer. I have found a potential way to make money, and I'm learning the ins and outs of blogging. This is starting to get fun, however I've made zero money on them so far. I certainly have a lot to learn. I'm writing articles for other people's blogs, and that pays all right. I can do it part time and make a few bucks. Another thing, I am a customer and representative for a "wellness company". Another word for Network Marketing person. The goods they sell are great, so I'm doin all right with that too. For the record, I have been working my butt off, and I have not seen my paychecks yet. They all seem to be out there in cyberland waiting for a click. In the mean time, let me just go back to my article writing, and make another couple bucks for the day.

12) Fog

11) The Smartest Chipmunk

Yesterday my dad and I had an adventure. We went for a walk without Gracie out back. About 50 yards or so there is a pond that has shrunk down into it's muddy shore. The cows, deer, and birds stop occasionally to drink. Left over remnants of lost artifacts long lost remained on the north end of the shore. An old buggy wheel rim, a coal burning stove, a laundry ringer, and many rusty metal buckets. There was an old mailbox and it's flag I found about 15 feet from where the box was partially buried. My father was telling me about the uses of some of the things we found there when I stopped him.

"Look! Dad look at the chipmunk!"

Closer to the pond where you almost had to step in the mud, there was a crushed, rusty metal bin, and just on top was a little head with tiny ears poked up from the rubble. A small chipmunk. He was just looking at us, still as can be. My dad went over to the pile of scrap, and decided he would shake the vermin out. He lifted the browned tin, and we watched for the little rodent to scurry, wondering which way he would go. I was intent on watching for the chipmunk, I was really curious why he hadn't run away from the rubbish, until dad cried out, "Bees!" As he stepped backward, there was a large mogul topped with grass behind him, and he toppled over down to the ground. I was surprised and asked dad to get up so we could get away from the suddenly startled bees. He said he wanted to rest a moment.

I looked to where I thought the bees would be swarming which should have been all over us. And there were only a few. "They're cold", Dad said. "That's their babies in the white stuff." The bees had begun to move around a little more, and I thought it might be a smart idea for us to leave. Neither one of us was stung once, and dad simply has a sore hip from falling. I'm grateful that nothing serious happened. I didn't have a phone with me, and if the bees had been warmer, I would have had to leave him in the bees to get help. I'm glad nothing serious came of this, but next time I'll have my eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary.

One question though, how was the chipmunk able to live in there with the bees and not get stung either?