how the west was won

HOW THE WEST WAS WON

when we were first looking at moving to texas from arkansas
we were wined and dined by a clinic here to get me to move here
and work with them
during the visit my medical school friend took me to a little store
in this town where they made this things called kolaches
i jokingly tell people thats why i really moved to texas
for the kolaches

now my favorite is the blueberry kolache with cream cheese

now there is not a better place to get a fresh one than stopping
at the famous czech stop/czech bakery store in west texas
ive never ever been there when that store wasnt busy

it a must stop whenever we go to dallas or points east
we always time our trips so first we refill with gas
take a pit stop
and i get me two of those fresh blueberry kolaches with cream cheese

in the next 2 weeks i have to go to dallas three times as  part of my
2 year followup for my alzheimers disease neuroimaging initiative study
where ill have that dreaded neuropsychological test three different
xray scans lots of blood work and if my wife she doesnt faint again
another spinal tap for beta amyloid and tau protein

i am looking forward to going there so i can stop twice
one going there and once coming home
that is until i saw the news this morning

that explosion in west in that fertilizer plant that leveled the area
2.1 on the richter scale
was felt in the dallas area an hour+ away
killed several people
several fireman are unaccounted for
schools buildings houses cars business were damaged or destroyed
hundreds are injured and are in area hospitals

sounds like the czech town of 2500 is evacuated

i sure hope that the west czech kolache shop was not damaged
gee it gives so much satisfaction to me and hundreds of travelers from
everywhere so much comfort

yes west is one of the pleasures of traveling to dallas
that long 3-4 hour trip on the interstate
broken up just right by those delicious kolaches

we wish the people of west the best
and our thoughts like with the people of boston are with them today

the organicgreen doctor

the plant that keeps on giving, duct tape

THE PLANT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
if i could only chose one plant to plant in my garden
it would be the swiss chard


i presently have 3 planted in my garden

a red version

a bright version

a green version

when i cut the leaves to use in cooking it looks like this


i planted mine in september of last year and this late winter
and have been doing cuttings off of them since

they have provided regular cuttings for our salads
as we use the new leaves as they first appear for salads
but before you can turn around it seems to have grown
even more so the leaves get larger

so we use them in our two favorite recipes

crockpot greens with chopped garlic onions and poblanos peppers
served with fresh my wife shes country n cornbread
or
mollies swiss chard in tomato sauce or coste e bietole
with garlic onions shallots and brandy tomato sauce

yum yum on both those recipes

the plant seems to not mind the winter at all
in fact sometimes unless the temps get way down in
the 20s i dont even cover them to protect them

they love the spring time and usually survive the summer
heat here ok as long as they get water

i rarely have any insect problems with this plant

after the initial prep of the soil when i plant it i never
do anything else to the soil

these plants may sometimes last me two years
but usually i transplant a new plant each fall and if the
old one starts to flounder some i pull it up and feed
it to the country n chickens
who love it


the plant also looks beautiful tucked in the landscape
or in a pot on the deck
especially the more colorful varieties

its also loaded with nutrition

so yes
a plant that keeps on giving and giving and giving

DUCT TAPE
since im known as the duct tape doctor or dr duct tape
or dr duck tape
people are always sending me pictures of new uses for
duct tape

my cowgirl sisterinlaw sent me a picture yesterday
it seems her horse starting loosing it horseshoe
the farrier you know the guy who puts them on couldnt
come out for several days

you got it
she used duct tape to hold it in place
notice the colorful swiss chard color that was used

the organicgreen doctor

who was this guy

WHO WAS THIS GUY

as i sat and watched the boston globes replays of the original blast
from the bomb at the boston marathon i noticed a elderly
gentleman in an orange top running and approaching the
finish line
then suddenly he is taken off his feet and seems to be moved
sideways some
he was down and in a later video you can see someone help him up
but initially he just laid there with people running around him
i thought maybe he had been hit by shrapnel from the bomb

i told my wife she
i wonder who that guy is and if he was hurt and if he managed
to finish the race since he was only a few feet from the finish line
the commentators never said anything about him
it would be tragic to have come so far in this race after 4+ hours
and have some terrorist defeat him so close to finishing

it seemed so obvious as i watched the original videos that this
man seemed to stand out from he other runners at the end
but
no one talked about him

well this morning when i logged onto my yahoo account there was
the still picture of him being blasted off his feet but
following the picture
was his story

his name is bill iffrig
he is 78 years old
he is from lake stevens washington
he was running his 3rd boston marathon
he was knocked off his feet by the concussive blast he said near the finish line
about 10 feet from finishing
he was momentarily stunned
a race official helped him up and
he walked across the finish line
then walked the half mile to his hotel
the only injury was a scraped knee

thats who that guy is
sounds like quite a fellah huh


my thoughts on all this
i bet this was done by our own homegrown terrorist
ive been concerned about things like this happening when
you read and hear the venomous things on the internet on tv radio and
even on facebook
yes i have had to befriend a few people

we may be more of a danger to ourselves than outside groups

it also made me think back to the late 60s after mlk was
assassinated and almost all the large cities in the united states
had rioting and burning going on so that every city seemed
to be afire
this was also partially the result of that same venomous rhetoric that we all
are seeing now
we may be reaping what we sow

my thoughts go out to those injured and to those families of those
who have died
innocently enjoying the marathon then to have it all taken away
by this

we have some healing to do and some introspecting to do

the organicgreen doctor