And yet another friend got tested for Vitamin D....

She had a level of 18 ng/ml....

So here are the stats:

Me -- 41 ng/ml
Hubs -- 39 ng/ml
Mom -- 15 ng/ml
Coworker 1 -- 18 ng/ml
Coworker 2 -- "very low", he didn't know what his level was except that his doctor was concerned.

Remember, "normal" is 40-60ng/ml.

Last post on topic:  

http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/06/moms-vitamin-d-results-get-your-parents.html

Cholesterol Smack Down

YES!  Finally, I have a come-back for all those people at work who harp on me about how I'm going to die because I eat an egg a day, and how my fatty chickens with their beautiful orange yolk eggs are probably producing massively cholesterol-filled eggs.

So I'm reading this book now -- "The Great Cholesterol Myth".  It's fascinating.  Anyway, I finally read the section that explains that this isn't the case.



Here is a quote from the book, that we can all paraphrase:

"The cholesterol you eat has a minimal effect on your blood levels of cholesterol, which is why the admonition to eat less of it and the prominent listing of cholesterol on food nutrition labels are not as significant as we are led to believe they are. If you eat less cholesterol, your liver will simply take up the slack and make more. If you eat more of it, the liver makes less. It is primarily, overwhelmingly made in the liver, though small amounts are made in other locations. For all intents and purposes, “manufacturing central” is the liver, and this is what responds to the “eat more/ make less, eat less/ make more” seesaw. The Framingham Heart Study found that there was virtually no difference in the amount of cholesterol consumed on a daily basis by those who went on to develop cardiovascular disease and those who did not. Egg-white omelet eaters, take note!"

Sinatra, Stephen; Bowden, Jonny (2012-10-15). The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won't Prevent Heart Disease-and the Statin-Free Plan That Will (Kindle Locations 811-817). Creative Publishing International. Kindle Edition.

YES!  YES!  YES!

For all you chicken lovers out there who have friends who harp on them about egg cholesterol....  give 'em the cholesterol SMACK DOWN!

Mom's Vitamin D Results -- Get Your Parents Tested!

Mom got her Vitamin D test results back -- and they were really low.  15ng/ml.... where a normal range is between 40-60ng/ml.  Not good!  Mom's going to start taking 6000 IU/day to try to get her level up to 50ng/ml.

Get your parents tested!   http://www.grassrootshealth.net/

Refer back to:

http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/05/my-vitamin-d-results.html
http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/06/more-vitamin-d.html
http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/05/important-vitamin-d-test.html

Butterscotch laid eggs on May 21 and June 7.  That's 17 days apart.  If the old girl is "regular" then she should lay another around June 24th, Monday.

Standy by to see!

Update on the Hops

I'm referring back to this post:   http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/05/hops.html

Here are some updated pictures:

More Vitamin D

I've been posting alot about vitamin D.  So I thought I'd touch on something a bit humorous regarding it!!  Here is my cat, soaking up his vitamin D.  His name is Snickers.

I learned that while you can generate vitamin D from sunlight, you can't get it through windows.  Hence, the window is open for the Little Man.

And secondly, cats get their vitamin D from licking their fur.  So I was happy to see him take a bit of a bath while soaking in the rays.

Check out this fun link to learn more:  http://antranik.org/the-offbeat-reason-why-cats-and-dogs-lay-in-the-sun-and-lick-their-fur/

http://antranik.org/the-offbeat-reason-why-cats-and-dogs-lay-in-the-sun-and-lick-their-fur/

Came Home From Vacation and Found This.....

So my Mom was babysitting the ladies (and the cat) while I was gone...  She emailed me while I was on vacation and said that Oreo had laid two MASSIVE eggs.  

Her small eggs are just a hair smaller than a commercial egg.  So these two large eggs are REALLY big!!!!

Cracked one big egg open and look what I found -- two yolks!!

I guess I shouldn't complain -- check out this video about a monster egg:

Los Poblanos Historic Inn and Organic Farm

We vacationed last week in Albuquerque and Durango, CO.  In Albuequerque we stayed at a lovely inn:  Los Poblanos Historic Inn and Organic Farm http://www.lospoblanos.com/

Oh it was just the nicest place -- and the food!!  The food was AMAZING!

There were lots of animals on the farm -- chickens, llamas, goat, and peacocks!  Here are the peacocks:

They also had a white peacock!

They had some cute chickens too:

Some strange birds (my Mom says they are guinea hens!):

And more animals:

So lots of interesting animals, beautiful grounds, and the most fabulous food you'll ever taste!!  All the food was made with local/fresh ingredients from the farm!

Hubby's Vitamin D Results

I'm referring back to this post:  http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/05/my-vitamin-d-results.html

Well my husband got his Vitamin D tested by the same grassrootshealth.net group -- and it came back deficient!   It came back as 39ng/ml, with normal being 40-60ng/ml.

This is a bit strange, since several years ago he got tested and it was around 50.  But, I guess things change, people age...  His diet is definitely better, and he was supplementing with 2000 IU of D already.  But still low.

Anyway, glad we know this now, and we can fix it.

My mom just completed her test and sent it off..........

Beware of the Chickens

This was sent to my friend, for reasons not particularly known....  (sounds spooky, no?)

Have You Ever Seen a Chicken Eat Potato Soup?

Look at that messy mouth!

They're eating loaded potato soup from the grocery store!

Crafts!!! DIY

I made silver spoon plant markers.

How to make a silver spoon plant marker:

1) Get an antique silver spoon

2) Using a cloth to prevent marking, pound the spoon flat (including the handle) using a hammer

3) Then draw some guidelines with a pencil -- and take a 1/8 inch letter punch and stamp plant labels into it ("mint", "chives")

4)  Polish/clean the spoon

6)  Use permanent marker to color in the punched labels you just made

7)  Use steel wool to clean the marker off

Another Egg Comparison

I've got several Oreo eggs, and one Butterscotch egg.  Here's a comparison of what I found:

All the eggs I've gotten -- you can see that Oreo's eggs have some variation in color

Dark Oreo egg and light Oreo egg

Butterscotch egg and two Oreo eggs

Here are the eggs...  Butterscotch on the left (smaller) and the two Oreo eggs on the right...  not much difference

Ceramic Egg Crate

I bought an egg crate, similar to this one, but in yellow, from World Market.

Super cute!!

Two Eggs in One Day! A First!

We got two eggs the other day!  Woohoo!  Way to go Butterscotch!  So we're averaging an egg every two weeks from her :)

Ok Eggs

Well we're back on track with Oreo laying eggs.  Those wind eggs the other day were just a little hiccup (my fault) due to the feed I was giving them.  Oreo's laying some nice eggs now.

I hard boiled one this morning.  MMMMmmmmm good.

It's 7:45am, and she's shifted her one-hour laying time to a bit later in the morning.  I anticipate an 8:15am start to her day.

More Pictures of the Chickadies

A coworker asked for more pictures of the chickadies...  So here they are!

Mini Backyard Remodel

I'm in the process of a mini backyard remodel.  I had ripped some bushes out, and so had some bare patches in my sod, so I got those filled in.  And then my mow strip had disappeared over the past 50 years, so I added that back in and re-mulched.

Well, I say I did this work, but I mean the company I hired (Point Loma Landscape:  http://www.pointlomalandscape.com/).

I think it turned out so pretty!

New mow strip

You can see in this picture above my dry/patchy grass (see previous post for description).  Point Loma Landscape just put down new sod in areas where things were completely bare (dirt).  I didn't ask them to address the patchy grass.  I figured I'd work on that on my own (see previous post:  http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/06/worm-castings.html)

New sod at lower right, and along righthand retaining wall, plus new mow strip and mulch

Worm Castings

I just got some worm castings in the mail:



I'm using that as fertilizer.  My grass out back has always been troublesome.  Patchy, dry.  I got my lawn aerated recently, to try to slap some life into it.  When they aerate your lawn they also want to fertilize at the same time.  Since I was aerating the backyard, where the girls are, I didn't want them putting fertilizer down, even though they claimed it was organic.  But even weeks later, my grass still looks really dry and patchy.

So I just put down some worm castings, and I watered.  So we'll see if this makes my lawn a bit more perky.  Here's a picture of my patchy grass.  It's wet right now, since I just watered the castings in.  But you can see how patchy it is.  And when it's dry it looks REALLY dry.

Patchy grass

If these worm castings do some good, I'll post some more pictures.

Fancy Chicken Feed

This is the chicken feed I use:



It has no soy, no corn, no GMO ingredients, no chemicals, no pesticides, and is US grown and made.

I mean, if you yourself are an organic health-food type person, then you should be feeding your girls the best food because they are feeding you.

http://www.scratchandpeck.com/

Update on Wind Egg

I'm referring to this post (http://veggiegardengirl.blogspot.com/2013/05/wind-egg.html).

So Oreo never laid an egg yestereday.  That no-shell egg was her's, from earlier in the morning yesterday.  She laid another soft shell today, but it was just a leathery shell, not a no-shell, and I can tell it was her's because it was definitely pink/brown.

I think I know what's wrong, and it's my fault.  I bought two bags of feed, the last time I ordered feed.  Grower, and layer.  I did this because I ordered it just about a month before I knew they'd start laying.  Well some how I got confused, opened both bags, and removed the tag of both bags.  So now I don't know which is which!

Well, they started laying, and I was still trying to use what I thought was the grower bag up, so I was sort of just doing 2/3 layer and 1/3 grower until the bag was used up.  Well, I think I've reversed the bags, and was giving 2/3 grower and 1/3 layer.  So I called the company, to ask for help determining which bag is which (I can see a green bit of tag on one of them, and I remember the other tag was yellow).  They replied immediately, and confirmed that I got the bags switched.

So I've switched the combination of the formula to what I hope is right, and I'm mixing oyster shell in their feed.