staring

STARING
what you doing my wife she said
as  i sat in my big easy chair in front of the window
oh i said im just staring

oh ok she said
and went on with what she was doing

i recently ran across an article talking about the benefits
of country living
of course i call it country n living

decreased stress
theres something about living out here makes things less stressful
maybe its the decreased traffic
no traffic jams here
not much crime either

increased nature time
i can sit and watch the butterflies on my many native plants
watch the increasing numbers of lizards that are found around here
watch the bird population feed on our feeders and on our native plants
see the deer in the distance every morning and evening coming up
from the river
heat the owls ahooting at night and the whippoorwills in the morning

decreased cost of living
my taxes are just lower here
they are about a fourth what they were when we lived in austin
for the same value of my property
i grow a lot of my food in my garden
we collect rainwater and generate solar electricity

a sense of community
our neighbors are spread out
we dont really know them very well here
but
there is a friendliness to everyone that just doesnt seem to
exist when we lived in town

so i stare now
to supplement the good part of country n living

why do i stare
i realized recently that i really didnt have down time
where i just stared or meditated or really stopped and
thought about things without doing something all the time

i dont like to do yogu
i do hike some but its not like staring

so im sure my wife she was worried about me when i stare
but
thats my way of meditating
staring

we all need to stop for a few minutes each day and say
no cell phone no tv no internet and no conversations with anyone
spiritually or not
just our time to
stare for ourselves

the organicgreen doctor

we are on the edge

WE ARE ON THE EDGE
here at the country n we live at the northern edge of the hill country
where it starts to flatten some as it moves past the san gabriel river
into less and less trees and more and more ranch land

last week we attended a kickoff event for the travis county
walk to end alzheimers which is at camp mabry on october 12
we will be walking with the austin regional clinic team for that walk

it was at amys ice cream down on lamar
if youve ever had their ice cream you know how good it was
yes i had vanilla ice cream the mexican bean one
with no toppings
didnt want anything to interfere with the taste and flavor


see hillcountry outdoors 

while there i met this lady who works for a local advertising
firm but who helped start a company that puts together trips
for folks to do
no not quite like a travel agency

there are hundreds of people moving here to this area each day
just go try to rent an apartment or try to buy a house
you had better be ready to pay more than they are asking
and be ready to rent or buy right then and there
or youll not get a place to live
or
worse try to sell your house
you better be ready to move as it will probably be gone the first day


roadtrippers.com

now the austin area has all these places to go see that
those of us who have lived here a long time know about
barton springs
the original threadgills
hamilton pool
natural gardener
boggy creek farm
mount bonnell
blue hole swimming hole
johnsons wildflower center
childrens museum
etc etc etc

freefundinaustin.com

if you move here you just dont know about all these places
but you will

so what this lady did with her business and website was to
put folks together to go to these places
sort of a social gathering of sorts
of all ages sizes races
but it seems with a different feel
you know that austin feel you get when you are here

what a great idea

the website is called
www.hillcountryoutdoors.com

so here is some of the things on their list that we have done ourselves
pancakes at magnolia cafe and bat watching
schlitterbahn
concert in the park
hike mckinney falls
lbj library
broken spoke dance hall
walk town lake
the list goes on and on and on

so for an active austinite or central texan or a visitor here
especially if you are new or
heck even if you have been here awhile
i see things on there we havent done yet
look at the website join in with them or
at least to get ideas of things to do around here
make that bucket list
fill it up real good
as this area has a lot to offer

note if you click on the october 12 event
you can read her personal story with her moms alzheimers

the organicgreen doctor

that sounds familiar

THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR
paraquat
now that sounds familiar
and sounds toxic
paraquat why does that sound so familiar

monsanto developed these seeds that carry a gene that
makes the plant resistant to glycophosphate
better known as roundup
so that the plants let say corn could be planted
then the field could be sprayed with
yes roundup so that the weeds could be killed
but the corn would be spared since it its now resistant
to roundup
sounds good
dont know if i want roundup on my corn when i eat it
if i do does that mean i will be resistant to roundup

now here is what happens when you mess with mother nature
she always always wins
think overuse of antibiotics
we now have superbugs that cant be killed
and
the drug companies are not working on any new antibiotics
no profits in them they said
they made all the profits by encouraging us all doctors and
patients to overuse them
now see what we got
a mess
also neither is monsanto making new chemicals to use
they are pulling out the old one

paraquat why does that sound so familiar
then i just read about 2 4 d now that sounds familiar also
neither a good familiar sound


so one worry is that resistant gene in that corn will move over
to weeds to create a superweed that roundup wont kill now
well
its already here those superweeds
so what the heck will they do now to kill them

well we do have this old weedkiller we use to use
it works great
its available for use all over the world
well maybe its a little toxic if you get exposed to it
it has that history it seems
but
its already being used anyway
so
lets spray it on those superweeds to wipe them out

so plant a super corn that weed killer wont kill
spray it with the weedkiller to kill the weeds
then
spray this paraquat now what is that stuff
or 2 4 d
so it will wipe our the bad remaining weeds

now what you have is a corn crop that grows well without
competition from weeds so its a more productive yield

the hell with side effects

paraquat
2 4 d
oh yeah i remember that
that was in agent orange
the chemical we are paying millions of dollars for its effect
on our vietnam veterans
but wait it also may affect their offspring too
it was also sprayed on weed from mexico after the vietnam war


so what a good idea to spray it on my corn cob
and then let me eat it

wonder if i can qualify for benefits too

just remember the recent story of how ddt used to kill mosquitoes
was found to be in high levels in people with alzheimers

wonder whats waiting for our future generations
remember its the kids who are rapidly growing new brain tissue
new heart tissue new kidney tissue new ovary or testicle tissue
that are the most vulnerable

if you can stomach it
google agent orange then hit images
itll make you go organic for sure if you have kids or
if you are pregnant

now they are developing a 2 4 d resistant gene to put in seeds
guess they didnt learn their lesson
nothing good will come of this
except for increased monsanto profits

agent orange sorry thats bad stuff

the organicgreen doctor