Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

After a few days of staying in bed, I'm feeling much better. Most people, after being sick for a while, eventually get over it and feel better and go on with their lives. Well, I apparently don't do that. On the day I was finally feeling better I got a canker sore just so my body could prove how much it hates me. I don't mean to be a big baby about this, we've all had canker sores, they hurt a little and then they go away, no big deal. This one keep getting caught on my tooth, but I'm trying to ignore it. The thing that bothers me the most is that after a month of being ill, I really just wanted to be better. Well now I can't sleep so well on my left side. Bonnie gave me some clove essential oil, which is pretty amazing. As soon as you put it on you can't feel the sore anymore. It lasts for a long enough time as well. I haven't been using it lately because it doesn't really hurt so much anymore and I had a feeling it was making my cut angrier.

Enough of that. I finally ventured out into the greenhouse a few days ago to see what I had been missing. I took a bunch of wonderful pictures of wonderful growing things. The cucumbers in particular make me happy. They grew so fast and they look so cheery and happy. I also moved my sprouted eggplants to bigger soil blocks yesterday. It's so great to finally be planting after months of winter and trying to find ways to stay busy. I've been living on a farm for 6 months and I haven't done much growing and planting.

Last night we had a little house meeting where we talked about what needs to get done this week. We started off the meeting by saying what kind of machine we felt like (I felt like a soil blocker, but then later reconsidered and decided I felt more like bellows because I'm coughing so much), and then we talked about our favorite and least favorite things we've done since getting here. I mentioned the fact that we are growing things now and the incident with the moldy hay.

This week looks pretty good. More planting and transplanting. Some people who want to help Bonnie and Oliver buy a farm are coming by on Tuesday so we've been cleaning up a bit for them. On Wednesday we're going to visit Jay's property in Jamaica (yes, Jamaica is in Vermont). And then more and more planting.

I had some pictures to put up, but I can't seem to find my camera at the moment, which is odd. I'll look around for it tonight and maybe add some pictures later.

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

I don't have much to say about the farm today. I'm still sick and I've spent most of the last three days in bed. I know there are things happening, but sadly I am not really part of them. I'm glad that we got two more WWOOFers when we did because I am being utterly useless right now. I can't wait to get back out to the greenhouse.

I have spent a lot of time catching up on Vegan Radio episodes and also reading articles that fellow twitterers send out. Someone posted this one, which I found pleasing. The only thing lacking from that article is the wrap-up sentence of: JOIN A CSA. I've also been looking at lots of food blogs recently and I want to update my links section. There is a lot of really good information out there and anytime someone can compile a useful list is great. I'm not really doing anything better with my time, so I'll be working on that today.

Oh, I almost forgot. Last night our friend Jay brought his dog Kira over to spend the night here. I never really caught why, but I assume he had to go somewhere and couldn't bring her. Nisi freaked out and harassed her for a long time, while she mostly just tried to mind her own business. I guess after a few hours of Nisi's harassment Kira finally snapped and the two have been barking at each other non-stop. They slept inside in different rooms, so we had a quiet night, but they have been at it all day again. They don't really do any serious scuffling unless they end up on the porch where the food is and the space is small. I've heard Oliver go out there twice and yell at them. I think it's good to see a dog stand up to Nisi, as long as it doesn't get out of hand. Nisi is so used to being growly and vicious sounding to other dogs and they end up backing down, so she never stops. At least this dog doesn't seem to be putting up with her, or hurting her, so it could be a good thing. They teamed up for barking at the garbage man, so maybe they're friends now.

Oliver came in here and brought me a mysterious orange drink and told me that it would make me better. I believe he called it switchel? It kind of looks like orange juice and honey, plus I trust Oliver so I took a sip. NEVER TRUST SOMEONE WHO WON'T TELL YOU WHAT THE HELL THEY ARE GIVING YOU. Garlic, ginger, honey and lemon juice. Oh my god, that is spicy! But he claims it will make me better and I keep hearing about how good it is to have ginger and garlic when sick. Probably because nothing living in my body will survive this drink very long. Ugh.

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

How crazy that there is going to be another person in this house soon. I'm not even referring to the new WWOOFer that is coming in a few days. I'm talking about the new baby. It's a bit of a waiting game at the moment, but any day now there will be another little Levis, though probably louder and more opinionated than the current Levis family. I'm so excited to meet this tiny person that we've all been focused on. Bonnie wants to have the baby at home, so I'll be watching Guv and Talula if they don't sleep through it, or are not at daycare. I was hoping The Logger would be around to help me (i.e. keep me happy while I attempt to keep the kids happy), but his mother got a nasty stomach flu so he is off taking care of her, and has been kind of quarantined. If a stomach bug made its way into this house it would be a huge and awful mess. I couldn't even begin to imagine giving birth while fighting a stomach flu.

I find it so strange that a woman has so little control over when her baby is born, even though it is her own body. Of course I find most things that the body seems to do on its own with no prompting from the conscience mind rather odd. Carsickness especially baffles me. A friend of mine started going into labor six months early. She knew it wasn't right, but could not stop it. Evolution seems to have a much stronger hold on the body than the mind does. Luckily the doctors were able to help her and she gave birth to a healthy boy only a month early.

I'd like to mentally help my body fight a virus because I've got a little bit of a cold at the moment, which has been going through the house. It did a good job of keeping me awake and cranky last night, so I'm happy that Bonnie didn't go into labor. Oliver told me to take this nasty-tasting echinacea & goldenseal herbal supplement to boost my immune system. I hope it's doing something, because the taste really lingers in your mouth forever, and it's not pleasant. I'm not really into taking medication, but since this is holistic and aimed at strengthening my immune system, instead of impeding it, I'm all for it. I feel quite certain that taking medications aimed at relieving cold symptoms actually make you worse, because those symptoms are the ways your body fights illness.

In other news, I made rice flour tortillas again, this time with an egg and they came out slightly better. They also lasted for more than a few hours and were still soft the next day. They don't stay together so well, but I think a blend of flours will help that. It's an ongoing experiment. When I finally get it right, I'll post it. I'm hoping to find a way to not use an egg, because I always prefer to cook vegan and I especially prefer it when people are not using commodity eggs on account of my recipes.

The Logger's Sister's Apartment- Upper East Side, New York, NY

I can't deal with how well my job is going. Normally the tech is hell and I'm there 9:30am to 11pm everyday. Today I was back at the apartment at 6:30pm. I'm not even convinced this is a real play anymore. Why aren't there more problems? Well, I shouldn't talk about this, it'll bring bad luck. I'm not superstitious in any way, shape, or form, except when it comes to theatre. It's just the nature of the beast.

Anyway I took the Logger up to the SoBro house on Thursday night. It was amazing, as expected. He actually had a good time, which I knew he would. My friends might be a little crazy, but they are wonderful people and they never fail to have a good time. We played this fun card game called Van Huesen. I'm not convinced it's actually a well known card game; I suspect the person who taught it to me made it up. Anyway it's a difficult game to explain, but it's not really a regular card game. There are no winners or losers, no score, no real structure. The cards are simply a way to get random numbers. It's a really great ice-breaker, and it's also fun to play with people you know really well. So anyway after a few rounds of watching us The Logger started to catch on and decided he wanted to take a turn. I couldn't believe it. Especially because one of the stipulations to him going up there was that I would not make him play any games. Anyway he really liked it and told me so on the way home, and then again the next day. If only it was a game that was actually fun to play with two people. But the point is, he liked my friends, they liked him, and he did not have the terrible time he thought he would have. As usual.

Tomorrow is a run-through in the morning and afternoon, then I get out early enough to watch the Oscars, which I probably won't do. Instead I think I'm going to buy a bunch of veggies and make stir fry in a pot (because we have no pans). Somehow this sounds about a thousand times more exciting to me than watching the Oscars. I have not been keeping up with the no gluten thing, though I wish I were. The problem is that I buy many of my meals when I'm at work, and not having gluten is hard when you're on a tight budget and eating out all the time. I've managed to keep the dairy restricted only to pizza though. The funny thing about dairy is that I enjoy it when I have it, but I never miss it when I'm not eating it. I hate being thought of as a picky eater, because I know I am not. Generally my rule is: if it doesn't have an animal product in it, I'll eat it. I'll even put up with a little green chile every now and again if I have to.

Being in New York has felt like a tropical vacation compared to Vermont. The temperature has rarely dropped below freezing and I can honestly say there were even times when I was uncomfortable because my feet were too hot. Serves me right for bringing Vermont winter socks to New York. That being said, I'm ready to get back to clean air and quiet. It's hard to get completely silent moments in New York, but they happen so often in Vermont, I guess I take advantage of them. I also miss my short commute to work in Vermont (going downstairs). However, I'm not at all sorry I came. I love working on top of a ladder; I find I'm most comfortable working perched on a Little Giant(as a side note, that 21' ladder I'm so fond of is $840), focusing Source Fours for Bradford.

Teleion Holon - Manchester, VT

I've been feeling a little unhealthy lately, as though my body is fighting too many things, or I've not been treating it well enough to let it fight off simple things. Anyway I was talking to The Logger's mother and she was kind of feeling the same way, and had decided to stop eating gluten after she had read something online. She said that after only a few days of this she had begun to feel much better and some of her health problems had cleared right up, so I thought I would give it a shot. I stopped eating dairy a few days ago as well, because I finally got sick of it. I eat so little to begin with that it's not really a challenge. Lately, cheese has been leaving a gross taste in my mouth anyway.

There seems to be a fair amount of information out there about boosting your immune system by eating only whole foods and I used to eat a raw diet once a week, but recently stopped. I looked forward to those Mondays because I always felt light and full of energy, however I found it difficult to eat that way all the time due to time restraints, and also budget. Eating nothing but whole, live foods can be expensive and when you don't know what you're doing, you end up buying a lot of food out of season. I'm thinking that once the season starts up again and there's an abundance of fruits and veggies, I can go back to a mandatory once a week raw diet, and also incorporating this into my daily food as well.

The gluten thing won't last forever, but I'd like to stop it completely now and then maybe allow myself to have small amounts later, after I've adjusted to a new diet. I have decided to allow myself oats, as the amount of gluten in them is debated and probably small, or zero. I'm not having any kind of obvious physical reaction to gluten, so I'm not going to drive myself crazy keeping it out of my diet, but I will do the best I can. I think even reducing it drastically will make a difference.

All of this attention to my diet has got me thinking about where I eventually want to be with my eating habits. Ideally I'd like to have a diet that consists almost entirely of whole foods, and limited amounts of eggs and dairy, which would come from my own animals. I feel very strongly about vegan diets, and I agree that they can be much healthier than the diet of a meat and dairy eater. However, if I had my own animals, I could look after their well being and my own. I don't think dairy is good for a person, but neither do I think soy is healthy. I think both of these things in moderation can be ok, just like eating a cookie or two every now and again. I think the most important part is to cause no harm with your diet. That is my ultimate goal: to cause no harm to others, and to do the most good for my health.

When I talked to my mother about all this her reaction was, "So you're not eating anything." Which is kind of the reaction most people have. However, I find that since giving up meat years ago, I've actually begun to eat more foods and pay much closer attention to my diet. When I started eating more raw foods it opened me up to even more variety. Ever heard of a sunchoke? I hadn't, but I freaking love them now. Kasha and Quinioa are both fairly new to me. So by cutting out just a few foods (and yes, the list is very short), I've opened up my diet to many many more, which are much healthier.