some things

SOME THINGS

for some reason i like miley cyrus
i guess when i see her i always think of
the girl with the dragoon tattoo
a disturbed brilliant girl that is talented
who doses some weird things

now i dont like to look at her pictures or videos
since when i see them all i can think of is
what if that was my daughter twirking like that

recently when she was hospitalized
i thought well now shes gone and got all drugged out
and just needed some rest and rehab

however it seems she was given an antibiotic for a cold
seems like a misuse of antibiotics to me
a cephalosporin it was
doesnt really work well on upper respiratory bacteria infections
like pneumonia
and doesnt work at all on viral ones

so my guess is she got an antibiotic for something that an
antibiotic wasnt needed
and
she paid the price
this is why using antibiotics for viral infections shouldnt be done

she definitely was worse off from the reaction to the antibiotic
than she was from the infection
it would have cleared up on its own

i remember once i had a patient who came in with a severe
case of poison ivy on her uppper arms and hands
it seems her kids had gone to a pond where the stuff grows
got it all over their clothes
when she put them in the washing machine
the clothes not the kids
she got the ivy oil all over her hands and arms

it was one of the worse cases of poison ivy ive seen
in doctor terms thats called contact dermatitis severe

im getting there now tying this to miley

it also looked infected
at that time staph infections were still susceptible to a lot of
antibiotics
i was concerned she had gotten a strep skin infection
so in addition to the steroid tapering stuff i gave her a cephalosporin
like ms twerker got

the severe reaction to the poison ivy gradually cleared over
the next two weeks
then after that she developed this new rash that was diffuse
her joints became swollen red tender like a severe case
of rheumatoid arthritis
her lips were swollen
her legs feet and hands were swollen

what had happened was she had a reaction to the antibiotic
which was masked by the steroid
when she finished the antibiotics
and as the steroids wore off
the antibiotic reaction took over
it was the worse that i have ever seen from an antibiotic

you can get kidney failure and even die from these reactions
the severe ones are called steven johnsons syndrome

i was going to post pictures of a severe reaction
but i was afraid some of you would have difficulty looking
at them especially if you had just eaten breakfast

my guess is that miley had this same reaction happen to her
probably her youth and good health from all that twirking exercise
probably kept things from going from bad to worse

hopefully she and her doctor learned a lesson

its still hard to believe shes hannah montana

the organicgreen doctor

its not everywhere

ITS NOT EVERYWHERE
it seems that our climate does a poor job of distributing water
for us to access

like those awful storms that went through arkansas this weekend
fast terrible storms with lots of rain then leaving their paths of
destruction
water is good for us to receive but not when its distributed that way

our thoughts are with those folks


then this last few months around here when the climate dumped 12 inches
on the austin area twice on separate weekends
causing its own destruction with its flooding and drownings that go with it

cruel it is as it made worse our water situation when it didnt fall on the
tributaries to all our lakes and aquifers that provide the water sources
for all the cities around here

and even more cruel here at the country n since very little rain has fallen
here since last early november

we can see it in our wildflowers
they are not as plentiful and they look like charley brown christmas trees
compared to what they look like in previous years
and
compared to some of the areas just a few miles from here where
there has been more rain

our lake levels here are down and the aquifer levels are down to
concerning levels since this should be our rainy season and
since we are about to reach in a month our hot dry time of the year

more severe water restrictions are about to be put in place
im afraid a lot of people will be losing their lawns and plants
this year

one town near here has gotten more aggressive
on new builds
there are restrictions on the size of the lawn
the type of grass you can plant
6 inches of topsoil has to be provided if grass is to be planted
more water restrictions are expected as things worsen

their water source is the river that runs near the country n
water on our acreage flows towards and into the river
we havent been giving them much recently

we of course catch water off anything that has a roof on
our property
we have a lot of berms and increased vegetation that slows the
flow down to the river so it soaks into our property
another form of xericscaping

so this last weekend i went out to check my aquifers
whats happening in mine is whats happening in theirs
its just my aquifers are more visible
yes im talking about my rainwater tanks
all 22 of them
excessive huh

i was saddened when i checked the levels in my tanks
we seem to be down to about 25% of our capacity
which like all the cities around here
is scary as we are headed into our dry season

im sad to say we may have water purchasing in our future
if it doesnt rain

cities cant really do that can they
they would have to buy it from somewhere that doesnt exist

so here we are on severe water restrictions
but that doesnt affect us that much since we already operate
that way

the techniques we use here can be used anywhere
well maybe except for one
you might get a ticket for that one

we plant only native xeric plants that gets no supplemental watering
we have no grass that we care for
although we have 10 acres of pasture land with grass on it

we reuse our gray water from the washing machine from showers
from our sink when we hand wash our dishes and rinse them
saving the rinse water for our edible plants
the first water you run when you take a shower
that stuff that goes down the drain
its pure water and can be used on edible plants
the other gray water is used on the landscape

we turn the water off when we brush our teeth or
when we shave

we take quick but effective showers

we use drip irrigation to our vegetable garden which is covered
thickly with mulch the leaves you folks have given me
which keeps the ground from drying so fast
that anthill garden bed method also helps to hold the water in

im afraid if in the future if you and the folks who live in the cities
around here dont adopt what we are doing here at the country n
that this area is going to be in trouble
as the scarcity of water continues

dont wait until the levels are dropped severely
thats called crisis management

there needs to management before the crisis hits

make people and encourage people to conserve now

just ask those folks in california how important all this is
as they run out of water there

yes its not everywhere
not anymore

lets save what we got

the organicgreen doctor

what is alzheimers

WHAT IS ALZHEIMERS

or
click here for the link to the video

this is a question i get asked a lot
what is alzheimers disease

please watch
the video above as its is the best video ive seen on      what this disease is

words to know
beta amyloid-the proteins that stick together to cause alzheimers disease
tau protein-the protein that gets destroyed as the process proceeds
hippocampus-the undersurface of the brain where this all starts
acetylcholine-the level drops in alzheimers patients
           aricept (donnepezil) increases that level and helps the symptoms
                for awhile
alzheimers vaccines-under study now in several large studies
           antibodies will bind up beta amyloid in the brain and remove it
                and if we are all lucky it will work to slow down the disease or
                prevent it

if i do have alzheimers which i think i do based on
changes in short term memory on serial memory tests
strong strong family history-mother father brother grandmothers
multiple aunts and uncles
apoe4 gentoype double version that increases risk 10-20 times
positive or abnormal levels of the bad stuff beta amyloid and tau protein
in my spinal fluid
soon to be done beta amyloid pet scan of the brain called amyvid

then i hope to benefit from new treatment studies coming available
using the alzheimers vaccine and using nasal insulin
hoping not to get put in the placebo group

also if i have it i will already have those changes going on
in my hippocampus thats well described in this video
they just havent advanced far enough yet so that they can
be seen on regular mri but would on the amyvid pet scan

but
sorry to say even if i have those plaques forming there they cant
be undone
for you see
thats this cruelty of this disease
once the disease manifests itself early early it may be to far gone
to be treated
so
treatment when it becomes available will have to be started years and
years earlier
in those of you who read this blog who are in your 30s and 40s

lets find a cure please
do the walk to end alzheimers in your area to show your support
contact your congress persons-its election year and they do listen
support any caregiver that you know

the organicgreen doctor

the life blood

THE LIFE BLOOD
its the life blood of your garden
thats what compost is

the best compost is the compost you make yourself
thats what i do
made almost 3 cubic yards of country n compost this year

compost can be as simple as dumping leaves in the corner
of your yard and just leaving them alone
gradually over time they will compost down to a rich
nutritious compost
like nature does

yesterday i was showing a student that was helping me
doing some landscaping at habitat for humanity
as i was talking about compost to her

yes i get in a compost lecture when i can

i showed her how those leaves had sat on the lot for months
down under the top layers
there was this rich compost there

 you can all do that

if you cant make your own
there are a lot of commercially available organic composts
readily available at most garden centers
especially here in the austin area there are several good ones
ladybug brand gardenville medina just to mention a few
i always use ladybug brand on my garden if i need compost

please oh please dont use the solid waste compost in your garden
it aint safe to use

so here again is how i do my country n compost
the kiss method
keep it simply simple

my chickens do all the work
they provide me with compost eggs and insect contol

you the ones that give me your leaves provide the carbon source
the chickens provide the nitrogen source with all that pooping
they do
then
the chickens dig through the leaves removing the seeds and
gradually over weeks shred the leaves to smithereens

i make three strengths of country n  compost
strongest
stronger
strong

the strongest starts here

this is where the chickens roost at night
their poops falls down below the roost area
i have leaves as a base
then every so often i throw in some leaves to cover it up
and to control ammonia buildup
the coop is open to the outside so it has good ventilation

that white stuff you see is diatamaceous earth
i dusted the area well with it
after i power washed the coop with an oranges oil water mixture

the diatamaceous earth will kill any insects in there and mites

every 6 months i clean this out
this year i got 3 full wheelbarrows full
of poop feathers leaves

and pile it up in a area layering each wheelbarrow load with leaves
then i let this sit for months
letting it all compost down all that poop feathers and leaves
what is left is a rich compost
i use it like you would use an organic fertilizer

the stronger compost

i make or i should say the chickens make this

inside their coop is an enclosed area of about 300+ square feet
this is the area where they are locked up at night and when we are
not around
they spend well over half their day there even when we are around
as they feel safer in there
they have food and water in there also

i have put in bags and bag of leaves yes those that you gave me
they over time have shredded the smithereens out of the leaves
leaving a rich rich compost not as strong as that mentioned earlier

i clean this out every 6 months
this year i got about 15  5 gallon buckets of this compost

which i placed in this 4 ft x 4 ft area to sit for several months
ill use this in my fall garden
yum yum my peppers eggplants okra tomatoes i have planted now
i heard them say this i did
they cant wait

the strong compost

there is a chicken run around my garden where they have access
all day long
thats about 90 ft x 3-4 ft

i have placed down a layer of leaves about 2 feet deep
yes they really work this stuff
digging dusting shredding eating seeds for a year
whats left is pure compost
is smells like fresh dirt
i get about 2-3 cubic yards of compost from this area
this ill use next spring in my garden

so this is the three country n compost that i er should i say these
girls make each year
i almost feel guilty using all this free labor
but heck they sure seem happy

its the best compost that can be used
since i made it myself

reduced that footprint some didnt i

start you a compost pile
and
maybe add a chicken to keep it all stirred up

the organicgreen doctor

the garden

THE GARDEN
this weekend i met a new gardener
who will be planting her first new garden
at her new home

she has two raised beds probably about 8-10 ft x 4 ft

i of course offered a lot of advise on what to do

i told her today i would post a blog on my garden
including pictures
hoping this information will be useful to her
and
maybe to you

the life blood of a garden is its soil
all my soil was originally started by laying down cardboard
and or newspapers on the ground
building my frames for the beds with limestone blocks
dont use treated wood
then going to the natural gardener in austin buying their
hill country soil which has everything in it you need to
get vegetables to grow

what i noticed though was the veggies did well but in the
heat of the summer they didnt do as well as i wanted
later i figured out it was my soil depth

so
i dug out each bed added at the bottom tree branches limbs
trunks cardboard newspapers leaves compost soil in layers
so that i now have a good 2-3 feet of soil
it makes a difference in this dry hot climate we live in here
since all that stuff in the soil helps hold moisture

each time before i plant
i add 3 inches of compost now i make my own
i add a sprinkling of a good organic fertilizer
i use ladybug brand 8-2-4 according to directions on the bag
i then sprinkle a light dusting of cottonseed meal as per the bag
then when i plant a plant i add a small amount of earthworm castings
thats worm poo

then i plant it
im lazy so i dont even mix it all up i let nature do it

after things get growing i start adding mulch
i use pine straw when i can get it
when not available i use leaves

then i just water them making sure the soil doesnt get all dried out
usually thats once a week based on the weather and rain
i do the finger test
sticking my index finger down to the second joint
if its not wet it needs watering

plants commonly dont do well
either from not watering enough or watering too much

i dont use any pesticide or nonorganic products in the garden

if you see worms and ladybugs in your garden then thats a good sign

in my garden now

here are my garlic almost ready to pick and let dry out for two weeks
then i hang them in braided chains
these i plant in november

here are my potatoes red lasodas
i will dig some in a few weeks to get some new potatoes
but will dig up the whole plant when the plant starts dying back
these i plant in late january or early february

here are my onions which are mostly 1015 ones
these are eaten as green onions when needed
they are harvested in may or june
when the stalks start falling over
these are hung woven together until we need them
these were planted in late january

here are my tomatoes this row has 6 plants and another row has 4
this is the right amount for us to take care of
i planted them in late to early march
being careful to keep them covered when things got cold
these tomatoes do well in my garden
juliette sweet 100s early girl celebrity several heirlooms
such as cherokee purple arkansas traveler mortgage lifter brandywine etc
some will make it through the summer and produce well this fall

we will also replant tomatoes in july for the fall

we have a summer garden bed that consists of
basil peppers bell banana mild jalapeno poblano
egg plant clemson spineless okra red german okra
these will produce until it freezes this fall

we have a bean garden made up of
asian long beans that are best eaten in salads
bush beans that are eaten in salads and grilled
we dont do any shelling beans thats too much work

this is a tatume squash a heirloom that is like a zuchinni
but is more round and runs in a vine like a cantaloupe or pumpkin
it isnt affected by the squash borer which wipes out zuchinni
and yellow squash after awhile

this is a armenian cucumber
its long and narrow and seems to grow well here
the white stuff is diatamaceous earth to stop the pill bugs
we dont pickle or put any of these up
we just eat them raw
the cucumbers not the pill bugs

its planted in my keyhole garden thats in an old water trough
it will grow up pvc pipes ive added that go over the trough

you need 8-2-4 ladybug fertilizer or an equivalent organic fertilizer
cottonseed meal sold in small bags
worm castings

i use liquid seaweed to water in my new seedings to get them started
i use johns liquid fertilizer once or twice a month to water my plantings
when i think of it
it has fish emulsion seaweed and molasses in it

a good compost
the best is the one you make yourself
ladybug brand farm style compost is an excellent one

other companies and nurseries have their own brands and are good

for insect control
i use a hand vac to suck them off my plants and then i dump them
in a bucket of water
diatamaceous earth to dust around the plants at times to slow down
the pill bugs and the slugs
bacillius thuringienesis or better known as bt to control caterpillars
spinosid for insect control
seaweed for insect control
a good book is the texas bug book by malcom beck and howard garrett
ladybugs

on the radio klbg590am on saturdays and sundays from 8-1100 am
and
ktsa550am on saturdays from 530am to i think 900 am
have excellent organic garden shows

i hope this information will help you have a successful garden
ive learned the most from my failures

the organicgreen doctor

its ours, post tour

ITS OURS
its ours so we need to take care of it
its the only one we have
except
i hear theres one maybe several generations away
in the far bounds of the solar system

we can rule out going there any time soon

we all of us are gradually destroying this earth
the only one we have
thats not replaceable

some countries are doing it faster than others
we in america did our fair share of destroying it
in the past

we are better but still have a long way to go

i went on line at this link www.earthday.org
and
i calculated my foot print

now im a pretty green person
collect rainwater
generate 40% of our electricity with solar
use as much energy saver appliances and techniques i can
drive cars that get 35-38 mpg
generate only 2 trash bags of trash a  month
the rest plastics glass metal metal cans cardboard paper are
all recycled
produce a lot of my own vegetables
and
of course eggs

i am one of the good guys very pro earth
and
i went to the website to calculate my foot print

it would take 4.6 earths to support the world if they all
lived like i do
hate to see what it would be like for someone who didnt care

it would take 20.6 global acres of this earth to support
my lifestyle

well i do have 10 acres here at the country n

so its our planet
only we can save it for our kids

this needs to be apolitical
i do like eg the way the hunters and fishing organization try to
protect the environment
they know the things they like to do for recreation will go away
if its not taken care of

so
lets all save this earth
we dont have another one

POST TOUR
well we did the funky chicken
tour that is

the first stop was at the sunshine gardens
where people can rent space lots to do gardening
there just seemed to be hundreds of them

we poised in front of the portable chicken coup that
was to be raffled off
we were hoping the couple i and s would win the coop

i could have stayed there all day

then there was this interesting space ship one
the hens lay at the top
the little girl was looking underneath at one of the hens
i was looking at the laying boxes

my wife she and i enjoyed this site
it showed we had a bliss of a day
she of course liked it for the big chicken in the front yard

mobile loafs and fishes
this is the place where we spent the longest time

i asked a lot of questions of this poor volunteer
as she seemed to be the brains behind their chicken operation

i really loved this rainwater collection tank
i even hugged it a little
if you have a rainwater tank you understand

its made of ferrocement and wire
it holds about 800 gallons
the water will be used for the chickens and for the garden

then i managed to catch the volunteer gardener
asked him more questions than i did the chicken lady

here is a hugelkultur garden they planted
these are built and are used as a fence around the gardens
logs in the bottom
then leaves newspapers grass clippings  compost dirt
greens and browns greens and browns
note all my garden beds have been made using this method
all the produce from the garden the chicken eggs are used
to feed the homeless

the most impressive of the 14 sites
well maybe the 1st one was that good also

best tour of the many we have been on

learned a lot again
about gardening chickenering composting rainwater
and
caring for our earth
and
its humanity

the organicgreen earth day doctor

four twenty

FOUR TWENTY
4/20 4/20 as i wrote the dates
now what does that sound so familiar
then
i saw why when i started reading news reports on online
yesterday

it willies day
the day the marijuana supporters celebrate every year
this year
the day was real big in colorado

since they legalized it they have raked in millions of tax revenue
that would have gone to i guess to the drug cartels
and
to the owners of all the jails there
or
some of it would have been spent on arresting those who
were using it

i noticed they arrested folks yesterday in denver
several for being out of staters smoking the weed
guess thats illegal
plus
you cant smoke it in public
but i noticed there was a big old cloud over the 4/20
celebration there
selective arrests must have occurred

my views on legalization has changed a lot in the last few years
anything you know can be abused

the most abused thing in the united states
which carries the greatest health effects that is seen in
medicine
and
cost us millions of dollars a year in healthcare cost is
food
so anything can be abused

now with marijuana chronic excessive users pot heads
as they are called
do have long term effects
as it seems they do actually get dumber

those who use it regularly but not abusively over years
have been found to have a lower incidence of alzheimers disease

its also been used in patients with alzheimers who have
difficulty sleeping at night
a common problem because of the disease as it destroys
the brain
and
a common side effect of aricept (donepezil) used in alzheimers
is sleep disturbances
which is a medicine im on for possible alzheimers
i have this side effect myself

so i recently was given some medicinal marijuana to try
to see if it would help
so i took the one sample i got
it made me restless all night long i woke up frequently all night
even though i was in bed for 8 hours
then when i awoke i did not feel rested
i felt tired and sleepy for about twenty four hours

so it didnt work for me and there are no plans to retry it

there is a drug that is available by prescription that is extracted
from marijuana of course it would be branded and expensive
that helps with the nausea of chemotherapy

many cancer patients just buy some weed and smoke it
or use the weed food like brownies to take

this is a very common use by these patients

all this is blocked by our federal and state laws that really
dont make sense

the potential for medicinal use is there if more research could
be done
instead most of the medicinal marijuana is anecdotal and has
not been subjective to good scientific research

it eg is commonly used by nfl footballers for chronic pain control
during the football season as injuries mount up as the season
goes on
some athletes say its better than ibuprofen naproxen or hydrocodone

there just needs to be good studies done

researchers if they do marijuana research can only use the stuff
grown at a facility at the university of mississippi
its expensive and tightly controlled

just do the studies and prove one way or another if this stuff
really does what is said that it does

so food
then alcohol
then tobacco
all are legal
and
are probably the three most abused in the united states
and
are the causes of many of the diseases we see in our
healthcare system
including alzheimers disease and dementia

so marijuana use is apolitical really from talking to patients
over the years when they were asked about its use
all political spectrums all religions seem to use it

lets research it lets legalize it lets make some of the tax
revenues off it

i do know that in 2020 in 6 years that there will
be a month long celebration during april that year

4/20

the organicgreen doctor