recycle, dreamy

Walk to End Alzheimers
we are also walking in the bell county/temple 
walk to end alzheimers on saturday november 3 2012

you can walk free but a donation to and or joining
my organicgreendoctor team is appreciated

join us there

RECYCLE

we recycle as much as we can here at the country n
we have to haul it 10 miles to a recycle place nearby

at the habitat houses i work at im always looking for
things to grab and recycle out of the dumpster
ive even been seen climbing up inside to recover
cardboard metal and other objects

the metal i haul to a trailer an elderly man leaves out
in front of his house
when it gets full he hauls it to the metal recycling place
i guess to supplement his income

(he also is across the street from a country store called
andice country store which has those good ole hamburgers
like you use to get when you went to a drive in
no mcdonalds for me)

yesterday i scooped up a partial load of concrete pieces
that were broken up from the sidewalk in front of the
house we are working on now

this concrete pieces will be used to line my several hundred
feet of garden and landscape beds
its permanent wont breakdown will be there still when the earth
is destroyed one day

it also is used in my crushed granite walkways because
when turned upside down it looks like our native limestone
rocks

cost for me zero and
it adds to the rustic look of our place

DREAMY

whoa was i dreamy last night
aricept (donnepezil) started that dream
as it induces vivid dreams and then the aricept ended
it before i was able to finish

last night i was in high school
well i was an adult but they let me go back to high school
because they needed a quarterback for the high school team
(if you live in texas you know all about high school quarterback
recruitment)

you see growing up i was always the quarterback
all the way from the fifth grade until the end of my 9th grade
when we moved to a small town that only had basketball
i moved from quarterback to forward then

this high school had good receivers but needed a quarterback
who could throw to them
that was me

i also during the dream was a doctor and was treating some
patients who had add and was having problems with school

you know in dreams you can make the story anyway you want

the neighbors were hunting during this time and ran this big ole
buck with the biggest rack ive ever seen
we all just let him go and no one shot at him at all

the only color in the film was these brilliant red and orange birds
one was a beautiful bright parakeet

as i was tying all these unrelated things together in my dream
so they would all make sense
my aricept side effects took over
i got this gosh awful leg cramp
you know the kind that pulls you up out of bed
and makes you want to cry when it wont go away

reality meets unreality

the organicgreen doctor

HABITAT HOUSE FINISHED
after i retired i decided i wanted to do volunteer work 1-2 days
a week
since i was busy with my work here on the country n and with the
alzheimers association and the alzheimers research study and
with some travelling the 1-2 days would fit well into my weekly
activities

we all need to give back in some way
since i had to give up my medical license and discontinue medicine
i couldnt do volunteer medical care
its a shame i spent all those years going to school and practicing
medicine and left medicine at the peak of my abilities as a practicing
family doctor and not be able to use that skill and knowledge to
help others by volunteering
but since the decision was made to discontinue medicine because of
my diagnosis my medical license dea number board certification, and
dps certificate as well as my medical malpractice were all discontinued
(i do have what they call a tail coverage on the medical malpractice
that covers me until i die and probably after i die)

thats done and i cant go back so
i volunteer in non medical ways
ive chose the habitat as one source of my volunteerism

the way habitat for humanity works is it depends on donations and
volunteerism for it to survive
its an international organization that has branches everywhere
i just googled habitat for humanity and found the local branch
i contacted them and started volunteering when this latest
house was started

ok i also always wanted to watch a house be built from the beginning
to end
thats what i did on this house
from the walls being constructed to the landscaping being placed
i learned to use tools ive not used before
how to do cuts on boards and molding so they would fit right
a problem i always had when i did things at the country n
how to put up tyvek siding paint properly and put down flooring

i did use my influence as an organic green person and added a
keyhole square foot garden and recycled all the concrete that
was broken up and used it for the edging of flower beds and
beds around the house and recycled some of the cardboard

i also helped with doing the landscaping and made sure the
oak tree which my nurse she and her husband donated to the
land owner and other trees and landscape plants were properly
planted
(the soil has clay under the topsoil so i made sure everything
was planted with small raised beds with good soil so the plants
would get a good start
the trees were also planted high enough so the root flares were
all visible-a big problem with a  lot of trees being planted)

this weekend we finished the house
all the landscaping was done
the closing ceremony was done on sunday
the house will be hers later this week
another good deed done

shes a single mom with a 10 year old she is raising on her own
she works and is active with her sons activities
the deal is she went through a lengthy screening process that
requires a lot of screening
when chosen she has to do a certain amount hours of work on the
house and after she moves in may have to do more to get all her
hours in
she gets a no interest loan for 20 years for an amount that is
probably 40% of what the house would cost if she had done
this on her own
(the labor was on donated except for some skilled persons like
plumbers and electrician and concrete work)

this house is in a good neighborhood and should only increase
in value over time
in fact it will increase in value by 60% the day she moves in
eg a $40000 note on a house that will be worth $100000 when
an assessment is done

not a bad deal is it
so yes there is good in this world
we just have to look for it and
hopefully we all will try to be a part of this good
and
yes there is hope for the future
and im getting to be part of that good and hope for the future

the organicgreen doctor

habitat, tanks done, kites

HABITAT
each week as i work at the habitat for humanity house i have
more respect for those skilled people in the construction
industry and the adverse weather they have to work in

it was cold on saturday am
it was at 32 degrees and was windy
but there we were our there working
they do this every day in the winter
we do it only once or twice a week

thanks skilled craftsman and workers for the work you do

now i remember why i dont like to put up insulation as
i helped put up the insulaton in the walls
its now 48 hours later and im still itching

ive done a lot of building stuff and thought i knew a lot
about carpentry painting insulating tools
but after a few weeks i realize how little i knew

have learned a lot
how to use tools and power tools ive not used before
how to cut those dang angles on things i couldnt figure out
the one skill i have not worked on though is roofing
my wife she said no getting on the roof
(she better watch out or ill throw a snake on her)

she didnt want me to be on that ladder list or be one of the
ladder guys
(my patients usually males would fall off ladders and i would
call them ladder guys and tell them they were on the ladder list)

there was a big pile of concrete that was about to be broken
up and thrown in the large dumpster to be hauled off
but i rescued it
my wife she and i went up yesterday to the site and broke up the
concrete with a sledge hammer
well i did the sledge hammer work

we took the good pieces and made a bed for the home owners
flower bed
the flat pieces and small pieces ive brought home to use in a project here
at the country n

just need to recycle stuff as much as we can

i also dumpster dived at the site and pulled out what cardboard i could
retrieve to use in making the owner her square foot garden
wasnt easy as the dumpster is one of those tall ones that require
a ladder to climb up on it
no i didnt join the ladder list

TANKS DONE
my wife she and i and a teacher sponsor and student put in place
a rain water tank that holds 2500 gallons at a building on campus
at one of the local large high schools

think everyone was skeptical that it would fit and work
but ive done several of these large tanks
usually by myself

we dug out a pad for the tank
moved it about 30 feet to sit under the down spout
leveled it
put in the faucet for the hoses
put on a screen on the top opening for the water to go through

now just add rain and they are ready to go

KITES
this weekend was the kite festival here in austin texas
its located at the large park
the one where the acl music festival is every year
there are usually 20000+ people that show up
here are some pictures from the local paper and some from
a local tv station

there are all kinds of kites and people there
the kids have a great time

here at the country n we would have an annual party and
the kids (of all ages) use to love to fly kites
its just something special flying a kite

this years festival was being threatened by a lack of funding
there was concerns that it may have to be discontinued
but they managed to pull it off again this year
hope they can continue to fund it as
so many people enjoy this weekend and festival

lets keep those kites flying
before a generation goes by and never gets to experience
kite flying

the organicgreen doctor