"Bucky" Beaver and Fences - Neighbors Both

Yesterday was a cooking day and my refrigerator is bursting at the seams now with food for the next week plus. It was a beautiful, sunny day, so I did take some time to trace the possible waterways "Bucky the Beaver" could have used to get up to our YMCA. I took photos, but I'm too tight on time to upload them right now. I'll try to have them for Monday's post. 

Why was the beaver at our swimming pool? There's 
no wood around it to build a dam from. LOL

Of course, any of our waterways are open territory for as powerful a swimmer as Bucky is. Any beaver is fully capable of reaching a large portion of the Twin Cities without any problem at all. After all, we are the "Land of 10,000 Lakes", and that's not a misnomer. We easily have that many lakes, probably more. We were covered by massive ice during the Ice Age, and when the ice finally retreated, it left huge gouges and channels in the earth that were filled with melt water as the glaciers left behind melted away. We are the state that births the might Mississippi River, after all. 

A state map of this size can't show all of the 
smaller ponds and lakes that we have all over 
the state - especially the northern section - 
but it at least gives you an idea of how much 
water there is in our "Land of 10,000 Lakes". 

DH is a bit grumpy. He had planned to spend today (Saturday) working in the garden area, and then we would go to the compost on Sunday to drop off a lot of sticks, including some from our neighbor across the "nonexistent" fence. That's one thing that will be excellent about having the fence down for so long. I'm finally getting a chance to know my neighbors to the south, and they're quite delightful - or at least the wife is. Laura and I have had a chance to converse in person, and have also had a few quick texts and conversations over the phone. She's a young mother of two (I think it's two ... not 100% sure on that). They are Muslim, she ears a hijab, but I'm not sure if they are from a different country or not. There's a slight accent, but nothing I can place. In any case, it's been fun to chat every now and again. 

We've gotten to know all of our neighbors over the 
years, but these neighbors are new - only having 
purchased the house within the last year. 

So, DH and I might be wet and a bit crabby by the end of the weekend. His plans to rake up the last of the autumn leaves might come to naught because of the rain. My plants will enjoy the moisture, though. He bought me several different kinds of peppers and tomatoes for my garden this year. I container garden those crops. He also picked up some more pots for me. Yippee! 

So, I'm closing this down, promising photos for next week, and heading to the shop. I'm a bit late, so this will be a BORING post. Still, have an excellent weekend, be kind, enjoy the people (and animals) that you meet, and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל. 

Our Newest YMCA Member - A Photo to Share and Memories of Kent State

I caught up with our lifeguard, Beth, in the early morning before the pool got busy and she sent me her photo of the beaver at our outdoor YMCA pool. She also tried to send me the video of it swimming (which was REALLY funny), but it was too much bandwidth and wouldn't take. Still, take a peek at our newest member of the Shoreview YMCA. 

I'm not sure exactly what he's sitting on - the 
pool doesn't open to the public for another 22 
days. But here's our beaver - our newest member 
of the Shoreview YMCA. I hope "Bucky" had a 
lovely swim. He's welcome to return, but it'll be 
a loud mess of people in about three weeks. 

On the recommendation of a variety of sources, I've started adding MCT oil to my morning tea. I have always put MCT oil into my Ogre Juice batches, but have never used it in any other way. It is a light oil - not like a cooking oil, but I'm not sure I like it in my tea. It's tasteless, but it does leave that oil slick behind, and that's annoying. I'll try it for a week or two though, and see if I notice any difference in my general health. It's important to try things, but every body is different, and blanket statements like "Add this", "try using this", or "my recommendation is...", aren't always going to be right for my particular body. 

MCT Oil. I just purchased this brand 
at my local store earlier this week, since 
my stock of MCT oil was quite low. It's not 
my usual brand, but I'm sure it will be fine. 

One of the major things I learned during the 90-day program on WildFit, was that what works for most people, won't necessarily work for everyone. One of the big things in WildFit is "Return to Spring", where you do a serious limitation of types of foods for a period of up to a week, often having a  24-72 hour fast as well. I, on the other hand, had a VERY difficult time with Spring in general, and after private consultation with my Coach and the Nutritionist, it was decided to keep to what we called "Mild Spring" and skip "Deep Spring" completely. That seemed to get me right back on track, and I've stuck with that ever since. I don't fast, and I don't do "Deep Spring", but I also don't skip my Alkagizers every week, and I keep up with my supplements. My physician is delighted, my weight is right where I want it to be, and I feel great. Lesson learned - sometimes what's right for a group isn't right for everyone. 

They've changed their logo within the past two years, which 
I think is a shame. This is the old logo, and it's absolutely 
perfect. Of course, I'm an archaeologist by training, so going 
back to the roots of humanity is kind of my thing. LOL

So, for those of you in my general age group, I have a question. "How many of you were thinking, "I hope this doesn't turn into another Kent State" over this past week's college encampments and police incursions to break them up. I remember Kent State - this was my generation. I was in High School, and it wasn't very long ago in my memory. May 4, 1970 - for some of you it will sound impossibly distant, for others it will be an easy memory. And here we are again, The wheel keeps turning and the "establishment" keeps trying to keep everything under control. That's actually never going to happen, but it's a nice dream, I suppose. But, the unrest over Palestine and Israel right now, are just like our protests against the Vietnam War, and the protests are probably just about as useful as ours were - which is to say ... not very useful at all. 

The last time we had civil unrest like what we've been 
having this past week, was in 1970 when college students 
around the nation protested the Vietnam War. This is the 
image of the Kent State Massacre that many of us 
remember when we think of that day and that time in 
history. Four students were killed, and nine others injured, 
when the Ohio National Guard fired on students 
protesting the expansion of the Vietnam War into 
neighboring Cambodia. The Vietnam War ended in 
1975, but peace negotiations, etc and a formal treaty 
didn't come about until almost 20 years after that! 

DH went plant shopping yesterday. I'll try to remember to talk about his many purchases for my garden in tomorrow's post. He got me some wonderful plants, and some more pots. I'll have lots of great things to cook and eat and dehydrate at the end of Summer. How wonderful! Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.