What Is Personal Care?

Personal care is simply the things you can do to yourself on a regular basis that will improve your health and the way you look to others.   This also includes products, beautification, and personal hygiene.  Some examples of processes that many people would consider personal care include:

Bathroom Care

• Washing Hands Appropriately
• Tooth Brushing
• Flossing Teeth
• Mouth Washing
• Scrubbing Your Skin Or Bathing
• Eyebrow Maintenance
• Personal Grooming
• Healthy Nail Care
• Use Of Antiperspirants
• Corns And Calluses Removal

Personal Heath

• Various Exercises
• Regular Nutritional Intake
• Disinfection
• Safe disposal
• Proper bandaging
• Use of protective clothing and gear
• Sterilization of instruments
• Isolation or quarantine of infectious persons or materials

Personal Care Around Others

• Use of Antibacterials or Hand Sanitizers
• Correct respiratory and hand hygiene when coughing and sneezing

Care For Personal Foods

• Prevent contaminating food
• Separate raw and cooked foods
• Cook foods for the appropriate length of time
• Store food at the proper temperature
• Use safe water and raw materials

Personal Care Around The House

• Appropriate Laundry Hygiene
• Regular Disinfection
• Appropriate Air Purification
• Safe Garbage Removal
• Pleasant Noise And Sound Levels

Physical Mobility Care

• Regular Long Distance Running
• Balance Exercises and Biking
• Swimming And Aquatic Movement
• Frequent Skiing, Snowboarding, And Other Mobility Using Gravity
• Improve Walking On Natural Surfaces With Bare Feet
• Appropriate Hydration During Mobility
• Ability To Run And Move Quickly For A Short Time
• Frequent Climbing Using Both Hands And Feet

There are personal care assistants who may be able to help get you started but I believe it is optimal to complete your personal care yourself thus helping to put your own investment in improving your health.

How Personal Care Improves Health

When you improve your personal care you are less likely to become sick, you lower your risk of infection, and over time the preventative things you are doing will pay off over the rest of your life.  Even things like scrubbing your skin in the morning will help the look of your skin and you ability for your skin to work easily in the morning for overall body cooling and sweating.  When you are completing your personal care, try to remember to do things that are also “preventative care” as well.

Personal Care During Stress

It may be hard to keep up your personal care during a stressful event but do it for yourself.  If you have been through the loss of a loved one, grief, divorce, or a parental child abduction it is important to continue with your personal care and help show your children or other people around you ways they can improve their care during this stressful time as well.

Have fun with it, and let me know how it is working by leaving your comments here or by SMS and Voice at (802)445-5626

Myla Hillman With Father Gregory Hillman After Completing Some Personal Care

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I Lost The Weight, So Can You!

I have been overweight a few times in my life including my freshman year of college, after working long hours at a desk, and after long vacations but each time I have been able to do a few simple things to lower my weight and become more healthy.  I am not a medical professional and these are just my opinions on things that I believe have worked for me and may help you drop the lbs.

How To Loose 10 Pounds In A Week

1) Eat low glycemic indexed foods.  This just means to eat foods that break down into sugars / carbohydrates slowly in your body.  It is said that these foods will help regulate your insulin so that it does not overcompensate for the amount of sugar in your body and therefore does not turn the sugars into fats.  Some great examples of low glycemic carbohydrates include

• Artichoke
• Asparagus
• Avocado
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Cucumber
• Eggplant
• Green beans
• Lettuce
• Peanuts
• Peppers
• Spinach
• Young summer squash
• Zucchini
• Tomatoes
• Cherries
• Peas
• Plum
• Grapefruit
• Pearled barley
• Peach

How To Loose 10 Pounds In A Week

If you can stick to these carbohydrates in combination with proteins, healthy fats, and fiber in each meal your 10 pounds will drop off in a week if your diet needs improvement.  This is a healthy way to do it and a few medical processionals that I have come in contact with have said that your body will actually start burning fats more efficiently once the sugars are released into your system slowly.  This means that your body may continue to burn fats that are not needed after you stop this type of diet.

How easy is cloning?

Here in Southern California, like most places in the world, there is a need for fresh food and being able to supply it just steps from your kitchen is priceless for me.  You can visit farmers markets which may or may not have what you are looking for available and you never know for sure how the food was grown.  You could even drive to a supermarket or warehouse chain for your food but odds are it was grown in horrid soil and water conditions, has toxins that you can even see on the food, and was handled by plenty of workers with limited sanitation.  When you factor this in with the gas to drive the amount of food, the check out lines, the cost, and just dealing with finding everything, cloning that plants you want is *significantly* easier.

Cloning may take longer to produce a large plant that from seed in many cases if the clone starts very small.  Instead, try to use larger pieces of plant to clone if possible.  This will make it easier (more likely to work) and you will have a larger plant right away.  I am a brand new kitchen gardener with no formal agricultural education but I have been able to clone a variety of plants successfully in my first season so cloning should be easy for anyone who is experienced with growing plants.

Cloning most plants to a point where I am ready to transplant them and the roots are visible at the bottom of the container (roots are normally a few inches more more) takes at least a few weeks and daily management can be helpful so it is not a completely easy task.  It may be possible to clone more plants but I have either not tried it or it did not work well for me at the time.  If you feel something should be changed on this list, please leave me your comment and I will take it seriously and test it if it is at all a viable option.

Remember to keep the media that the clone is in moist.  A little water spray on the media each morning helps or you can use an aeroponic chamber.

Plants In Order Of “Ease”

1) Basil

Basil has consistently been the easiest to clone, it shows roots with in a week or two, and the roots grow fast and strong.  I have successfully been able to clone basil from around one inch to almost a foot with out any problems at all.  I have used rooting gel when cloning basil and it seems to be more successful than putting the plant directly into the medium after cutting.

2) Pineapple Sage

Again, an extremely easy plant to clone because I have been able to successfully clone Pineapple Sage 90% or more of the times I have tried.  It seems to work much better if the piece still has some healthy leaves and more than 1.5 inches of plant below and 2 inches above the media.

3) Thyme

Thyme, even though the roots take considerably longer to grow, is pretty easy to clone.  Just clip a healthy long piece, dip in rooting gel if you wish, and place in media.

4) Strawberries

Normally people just use runners to propagate strawberries but I have found that some type of strawberries are very easy to clone and may help create a larger crop faster if needed.  I use smaller new leaves with as much stem as possible.

5) Landscaping Trees

As long as you use a lengthily piece of tree with as much low stock as possible I have found great success in cloning succulent “trees” and other landscaping trees.  I have found the clone recovers faster if you leave the long leafs on even if they start to wilt during the process of developing roots.

Hard or Impossible To Clone

• Horseradish (comes from a rhizome)
• Parsley
• Any tree or vine with less than 4 inches of parent plant
• Lavender
• Garlic (comes from bulbs)

This is not a complete list, please help improve it by leaving your comments.  I will also be updating this page shortly.

Organic Controls For Cabbageworm Larva

I have been able to slow their process by picking them off the plants each evening and morning but they are very hard to see on the plants because they are small and normally rest on the bottom side of the leafs.  I have also tried shaking the plant to help and putting other pest repelling plants nearby to help get them off which does not seem to work well.  Again today I have seen many white butterflies which leads me to believe this will not be the last I see of them.

Your Suggestions Help!

I am gathering ways to help control the Cabbageworm problem.  Picking them off is working a little and they only seem to destroy about 10% of the food but if you have any suggestions on ways that I can control these cabbageworms with out purchasing a chemical or using a toxin please leave me a message.

Imported Cabbageworm Larva

The University of California mentions that, “The cabbageworm is active throughout the year in California.”  They mention some chemicals you can purchase:

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r108301111.html

You can see how this Larva managed to eat and kill an entire tomato plant because I did not pick it off in time.

Imported Cabbageworm Larva Kills Food

1/10/11

I still have the larva problem and they have completely wiped out about 10% of the broccoli crop.  I still pick them off daily but I have heard of a new spray called BT which is said to help remove them entirely.  The complete name is Bacillus thuringiensis.

BT seems like an organic solution however there may be problems including liver damage and reduced fertility as seen by an Australian study:

“A 2008 Austrian study investigating the usefulness of a long-term reproduction mouse model for GM crop safety reported that Bt-treated corn consumption in mice appeared to be correlated with reduced fertility via an unknown biochemical mechanism.”

Companion planting may have reduced some of the larva.  Rosemary has been suggested to use near the problem however it did not completely remove the larva.  I used one rosemary plant per every 50 broccoli in the test.

I have tried growing tomatoes in all types of mediums but I found found organic home made soil in 18+ gallon containers works the best.

Tomato Aeroponics:

• Advantages – Disease free, moist media which needs less water, looks interesting, very few or no weeds.
• Disadvantages – Uses electricity for fogging, normally smaller growing area equates to smaller plants, water soluble fertilizer needed.

NOTE* I do not suggest aeroponics for tomatoes but if you need aeroponic equipment http://www.futuregarden.com works well.

Tomato Hydroponics:

• Advantages – no disease in media, normally inaccessible to animals, control the fertilizer easily, low evaporation, no weeds
• Disadvantages – Uses electricity for pumping water, normally smaller growing area equates to smaller plants, fertilizer needed.

Tomato Aquaponics:

• Advantages -Low cost for fertilizer, all organic, can use fish as a secondary food source,
• Disadvantages – Must also regularly feed fish, takes time to create fertilizer, uses electricity to pump water

Tomato Container Gardening:

• Advantages – Very few weeds, easily move containers, keeps plant separated from other plants, use less water than ground, no electricity
• Disadvantages – Slower to accept fertilizer (may be good), filling containers and transplanting takes time, may not keep all animals out.

Tomatoes In Raised Bed:

• Advantages -Larger space for growing, keeps water in the bed, no electricity, easier to weed than in ground, control the soil quality easier.
• Disadvantages – Regular weeding needed, plants can grow together or take over other plants, more water needed than containers, animals!

Tomato In ground:

• Advantages – Huge space available for plants to grow, use local irrigation systems and gray water to irrigate ground, no electricity.
• Disadvantages – Soil disease, hard to control quality and hydration, more water needed, animals have easy access to plants.

Tomato Growing Location

The variety of tomatoes that I have been growing have been doing very well in full sun after they have hardened off.  This means they do well with unobstructed sun from when the sun comes up until it goes down after the plants have a developed root structure.  When I have placed small tomato plants in full afternoon sun on hot days the tomatoes may become dry and wilt sometimes leading to death.

Animals have not been a huge problem with my tomato plants.  Sometimes the chick peas or another kitchen garden plant may attract raccoons which can dig up the media that the tomatoes are planted in.  Of course if you decide to plant your tomatoes inside this may not be a problem but most likely you will end up paying more in electricity to keep the plants growing the way you want.  In general I have only seen a few flies hovering around the tops of the tomatoes and the rest of the animals leave them alone.  I have seen some gardeners put up electric fences and motion lights to keep the animals (and at times humans) out of their tomato kitchen garden but in general I do not believe this is necessary unless you have an abundance of wildlife.

Their should also be plenty of air circulation around the tomato plants but they do not seem to grow well in gusty winds because the tomato stem is easily broken or damaged in the developmental stages.  Some varieties of tomatoes also benefit from a cage or wire mesh that helps keep the plant growing vertically.

Be sure your kitchen garden area with the tomatoes has easy access to water.  In general, even on hot days that have reached up to 114 F I have used a light watering for about 5-15 minutes early in the morning so the media has time to dry out over the day and possibly helping with root rot and other problems associated with damp growing media.

Tomato Propagation

For tomato gardening to be “worth it” for me, I need to propagate, multiply, and reproduce the tomato plants so their is an abundance of tomatoes when harvesting.  Just one tomato plant may only give you a few tomatoes which may only last one meal for me and buying many plants from a nursery can become expensive.

The best way I have found to propagate the tomatoes is to get a ripe tomato from a friend that has been growing organic tomatoes in a similar area for years.  This way you can be more certain that the genetics of the tomato will work in your local environment.  I have also started tomatoes from seed purchased online from companies like “Burpee” but their tomato plants have not grown as fast or as stable as the plants grown from local seeds.

1) After you have your “starter” tomatoes cut them up and keep the seeds.  Eat the pulp and skin but place all of the seeds in a medium sized glass container.  You can smash up the whole tomato but I find this to be a waste of a good tomato!  I have not needed to wash the seeds but I have placed about 1/4 of Reverse Osmosis treated water (around 50 TDS or lower and 6.8 pH) in the container with the seeds and mixed it up with a wood chopstick.  Keep the seeds inside near a window with light or outside in a protected area (so animals do not take them) for 10 days or so.  You will see a furry layer of mold which is normal and some say useful to ferment the tomatoes.  After about 7-10 days I rinse the grayish redish seed paste with RO filtered water and put the seeds directly into their medium.

2) When you put the seeds in the medium be sure your container is small (2-3 inches across at most) for each seed so it keeps the media evenly hydrated and you do not need to weed out tomatoes around your tomato which could damage the roots or stem.  I have used Ultracoir (ground coconut husk), aerolite, sand, compost, potting soil, and many other combinations of germination media to see what works best.  In general I find that it really does not matter but organic compost with kitchen scraps and yard waste that is completely “done” with a small amount of natural sand mixed in works the best.  I have also found it may be best to moisten your soil before you put it in containers.  Make 20 or more small containers so you have better odds of survival for as many tomato plants as possible.  Be sure you have sun on your small plants right after they sprout of the lack of light will lead to long week stems.  You can keep these small containers in a green house or similar structure if you wish but once the seed has sprouted and you see green, I have found it best to put the plant outside in a protected area that receives direct morning light but protected afternoon light.  I also water the small containers early each morning so that the soil is moist but not soggy.  I do not let the containers sit for days in water but putting the containers on a tray of water for a day every few days seems to help keep them evenly hydrated.  If there is too much afternoon light I find the plants tend to try up or not grow as well.  It may take a couple weeks to germinate and show green and then another few weeks to “harden off.”

3)  Once your tomato plants have “hardened off” in this case meaning that they are accustomed to the environment, they have a developed root structure, and they can survive transplanting, it is time to move them to your full sun area.  I like to prepare 18-20 gallon containers with great drainage at the bottom 1/4 and a organic soil with a little sand mix on the top.  You can find containers by asking local gardeners if they have any extra after their projects or by visiting local garage sales and asking.  I have found many great containers for free.  You can buy soil at a local nursery but your own home made compost will work better in almost all cases.  I normally recycle ink free cardboard or other non-toxic media at the bottom which also makes the containers lighter to move.  Remember, one tomato plant per container so it has space to grow and if there is a disease or problem you can easily remove it or change the position of the container.  Prepare the soil with water so it is moist but not soggy, transplant the tomatoes in the late evening so it is dark for the roots and the plant has time to adjust before the sun and heat of the following day.  Do not touch the stem at any point.  If you need to, you can use the lower most leaves to handle the plant since they will not be used in food production.  I have also found it helps keep the plants alive if you provide some water right after you transplant your tomatoes in larger containers.  After this I normally water once a day in the morning directly to the soil and add organic fertilizer or compost tea about once a week or slightly more often.  I have read that tomatoes benefit from leaf watering but I have not seen any significant improvement with this and some of the leaves start turning brown if the temps are above 100 F.  Once established tomatoes seem to do very well in hot dry weather.

Some say adding used tea or coffee grounds help the tomato plants grow fast but I have not found this to make any significant improvement.

4)  Enjoy the beautiful yellow flowers from the plant and harvest the tomatoes when they are completely ripe.  Do no refrigerate, store in a cool place if needed but pick and eat right away from your kitchen garden in about two months from transplanting.

2010 Kitchen garden tomatoes

Preparing Kitchen Garden Tomatoes

Pick and eat tomatoes promptly when ripe out of your kitchen garden with a variety of herbs including basil, oregano, and thyme.  Add a little gray salt from Brittany France for extra flavor and include olive oil or balsamic vinegar over sliced pieces.  Many people also love tomatoes with mozzarella cheese or white Queso Mexicano.

Tomatoes are said to have some Vitamin C at 13 mg (22%) of C per 100g.  The orange is said to have 45 mg (75%).

Anything to add?  Please leave me your suggestions here for a better tomato growing and eating experience for everyone!

Over the next few months I will monitor the mantis and report any changes in insects or growing changes. For now it seems to be, in the very least, an excellent visual addition. Maybe we will see more of them on farmville as well.

I have read that grasshoppers are used in some parts of Mexico for a protein source but I did not try it this time. If you have had any experience with this type of grasshopper please leave your comments here. It was found in Southern California near Los Angeles.

Giant Grasshopper

Silver Lake Research mentions that high levels of copper may cause gastrointestinal distress so today I tested the tap water in Marina del Rey Los Angeles California.

The test took a few minutes to administer and was completed with a strip in some tap water.  After two minutes you can see the results.  The EPA states copper levels should be below 1.3 ppm.

Would I drink this water?

Yes, the copper level does show less than 1.3 ppm as seen in this photo and I have tested the water for a variety of other concerns.  The test may show about 0.7 ppm or less.  The water tastes good!

*Please note I am not an expert or professional water tester and I can not say if water is safe or unsafe to drink.  No test can.

The CDC has some information on Copper that is easy to understand such as:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/healthywater/factsheets/copper.htm

“All living organisms including humans need copper to survive; therefore a trace of copper in our diet is necessary for good health.  However, some forms of copper can also harm you.”

“Corrosion of pipes is by far the greatest cause for concern.”

“Drinking water with high levels of copper for many years could cause liver or kidney damage.”

This test supplies were from Silver Lake Research:

Copper Water Test in Los Angeles

Copper.org offers some current information:

http://www.copper.org/consumers/copperhome/Env_Health/environmentandhealth_drinkingwater.html

“How much is too much copper in water and food?

The NASFNB recommends that you not consume more than 10 mg/day to be safe. The NASFNB has determined that most men, women and children consume less than 1.6 mg/day.”

http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/fact_sheets/copper_in_drinking_water.htm

“In Washington, most copper in drinking water comes from corrosion of household plumbing.   Public water supplies are required to conduct treatment to reduce corrosion when more than 10 percent of the tap water samples exceed 1.3 parts per million (ppm) of copper.

Copper from plumbing corrosion can accumulate overnight.  Flushing the water from the tap for 30 to 45 seconds can reduce the copper that can accumulate when the household plumbing is not in use.”

The DOH also mentions this about the amount of copper that is safe.

http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/fact_sheets/copper_in_drinking_water.htm

“Copper is an essential mineral in the diet.  Too much copper, however, can cause health problems.  Major food sources of copper are shellfish, nuts, grains, leafy vegetables, and stone fruits. Typical sources of copper from food range from less than 2 milligrams (mg.) to 5 mg. per day.

Health studies have found that copper in drinking water can add 4 to 45 percent more copper to a person’s diet than what is in food sources.”

Find Healthy Food & Water

Today many of us do not have as much control as we would like over the foods we eat.  Travel and access to a variety of local foods foods may make it hard to eat as well as we would like.  These are my suggestions:

1) Find out about your local farmers markets.

Attend them when possible for fresh, pesticide free, and locally gown fruits, and vegetables.  Find out what guidelines the farmers need to follow to be at a certain market so you know what you are buying.  Some markets are all local and others may have food from all around the world.  Ask the local vendors for deals and come back to the same ones that treat you well.

2) Find a source of legumes, beans, and lentils.

The key reason to find a source of legumes, beans, and lentils is fiber and most of us need more of it.  Most local grocery stores will provide a bag of dry beans for around $1 in the US.  Pick up a variety and prepare them frequently.  You may also be able to find fresher beans at the local markets or by growing your own.  Sprouting these beans may also help provide an additional variety to your diet that still includes your needed fiber at each meal.

3) Discover media about international diets.

The web is a great place to find out which recipes, combination of foods, and qualities of consumption are most popular.  Videos of recipes from India, China, Canada, Mexico, Britain, and all over the world can help you discover new foods that work with your body the best.  A quick message to family members can also yield possible recipes that may work with your own personal chemistry.

4) Find a healthy and reliable water source.

Water is used for food preparation, washing foods, laundry, bathing, and even brushing your teeth so having a good clean reliable source is necessary.  The problem most people I know have is that they rely on a community water system and do not know if there is a water problem until after it has happened.  This is why a testing devise (including pH, TDS, and Salinity) along with personal filters, personal emergency water storage (3 gallons per person – Washington State Guidelines), and clean pollutant free drinking water is needed.  I believe the most current reliable water filter systems for people that live in the US are also made in the US with no BPA plastics, reverse osmosis, and 1 or more carbon blocks.  These systems can also filter rain water, dirty tap water, puddle water, and even marine water if needed.  They are suggested by the EPA and many water experts.  Storing water in plastic for a short period may be alright but try to keep your water fresh and plastic free.  I do not believe one should use hot water with typical plastic dish ware, reverse osmosis membrane filters, or carbon blocks.

5) Cool and heat foods correctly.

I have found the average person does not know the standard guidelines on heating or cooling foods.  The FDA provides some basic minimum guidelines on cooking temperatures.  In general I cook almost every dish that needs to be cooked to temperatures around 180 degrees.  Raw foods like sushi salmon and tuna should be flash frozen and from a very fresh (daily) source to ensure that the foods are safe to eat.

http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/mintemp.html

Minimum Cooking Temperatures

Do not forget to refrigerate foods promptly but remember that if you put a large heated item in a small refrigerator the other foods may also heat up until it has a chance to cool.

6)  Eat balanced meals.

Eat a balance of local foods including carbohydrates, proteins, and fats at every meal possible.  A variety of fruits and vegetables will ensure that you are getting different vitamins and minerals.  Foods that experts suggest eating more of include broccoli for the vitamin C and fiber, fresh juices including fresh cranberry, soy protein, “fresh water” fish, olive oil, almonds, garlic (if eating meat and not practicing yoga), and peaches for the low sugar releasing index.

7) Enjoy eating!

Each time you eat take the time to thank the other people at the table for something they have shared with you even if it is very simple.  Turn on low pleasurable music so people can talk but feel comfortable.  Provide candles or soft light near the table or food.  Use a clean table and well organized environment for eating.  Take time to enjoy the meal, talk between bites to slow the eating process, and chew foods that should be.  After finishing your meals try to relax and enjoy your company.

Time to eat!