respublica

Thus far the vegetable garden

Our raised beds now have a number of plantings growing. All are currently the type which deals well with cooler temperatures. It will be some time before we put in tomatoes and peppers etc. You may notice Dale is big, really big, on using big stones.

Lettuces and cilantro in the back corner.

Brussel sprouts in one corner, we have a few more in another spot.

The ground looks awful here, but the rain and sudden cold did this, the soil is actually excellent. Radishes in front, then onions, and finally garlic in back.

These are strawberries with asparagus in those weird wood frames Dale insisted they needed. Behind all this are potatoes and red onions.

Hunger appeaser

For the past several months I've taken to eating popcorn around 10:30 in the morning. We get up really early and get a lot of work around the house and yard done. And I'm starving. Popcorn satisfies me in a big way. But, not popcorn covered with oil or butter, just a bag of air popped corn with some salt.

This has driven Dale a bit nuts and recently he can't help but comment on this habit every day. But, haha, more and more he asks for the bag when I've had enough.

So this health story from this morning was right up my alley. Eating popcorn may reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease!

I ran right in to Dale with this story.

One of the poorer ideas

Ah the 1980's. Remember water beds? Not such a good idea as it turned out for many owners who woke up soaking wet.

News we probably don't need

From the Guardian: The Average Westerner's eating habits leads to the loss of four trees every year.

"Chocolate consumption in the UK and Germany is an important driver of deforestation in Ivory Coast and Ghana, the scientists found, while beef and soy demand in the US, European Union and China results in forest destruction in Brazil."

Now I have to take issue with one thing. Chocolate consumption in the US certainly has to be as high or higher than in the UK and Germany. Otherwise this is one weird conclusion on tree loss.

Stop eating trees!

 

They're the real thing

I took Frank's advice and went over to Fairmont City this morning to look for Mexican Coke. I stopped in at one Mexican grocery store which is next to what used to be Bako's Hardware. It is a small place with several aisles of interesting food items among the more traditional foods. They had Mexican Coke, but as almost always, they're sold in individual bottles. However, my heart leaped up as I realized these were bigger than the usual 12 ounces bottles. They're 16 ounces!

Part of the label reads: Medio Litro which means medium liter. More specifically it means half of a liter. These bottles have 500 milimeters and there are 1000 mm's in a liter.  The more common 12 ounce Mexican Coke has 355 MM's.

So I'm happy for now. I asked the woman working the cash register if she'd mind if I bought 6 and she said, sure. I don't slug this down like water every day, but I do drink a sip or two every now and then during the day.

Dale's Sunday School Video

Last week Dale went out to a farm field near Glen Carbon to do a selfie video for this week's Holy Cross Sunday School lesson. I wrote about this effort and our work to get it actually uploaded to where it was supposed to go. We did it. Ha. With help from our church's vicar.

If you are interested in what he did, here it is.

It's the berries

A story headline caught my attention this morning. "Why Dick Van Dyke Eats This Fruit Every Single Day."

Part of my interest was the fact that Dick Van Dyke was the subject. It's been so long since he has been a major public figure and anyone growing up during the time his TV program was a hit, will remember him. He is almost 95 and still going strong and his wife is 46 years younger.

He has had a number of health issues over the years and credits the discovery of the health benefits of Blueberries to his current vigor.

"There is substantial evidence that supports the notion that blueberries are a highly nutritious food. Blueberries are loaded with phytochemicals, including anthocyanin pigments, which give blueberries and other red, blue, and purple plants and foods their color. These anthocyanins might be the healthiest phytochemical element of blueberries."

According health experts in the article, "This phytochemical has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that positively impact "vascular and glucoregulatory function. Regular, moderate consumption of blueberries or anthocyanins from other sources is linked to a reduced risk of death, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. Moreover, blueberries seem to encourage healthy gastrointestinal microflora. All of these help to protect against the body's aging process."

I may pick up some blueberries today....along with Mexican Coke. :)

 

 

This will be awful

Once again the way to get to St. Louis from Illinois will be messed up with road work. And this project by IDOT is going to really mess things up. The three right lanes of eastbound Interstate 55/64, the ramp to southbound Illinois Route 3 and the ramp to southbound Tudor Avenue in East St. Louis, will all close as early as April 1. 

Can you imagine the semi trucks during this time? They dominate that route as it is.

That's 3 lanes and ramps! There will be no way to get over there without sitting in a long traffic jam at any time of day. For us in Illinois, it will probably mean taking the Musial bridge and then meandering all over the north side of downtown St. Louis to get back over to 64/40 or points south. Thankfully we now live in Collinsville and don't have to make daily trips over there, but unfortunately Dale still teaches a class and is on some seminary committees. He'll be stuck with this trip a couple days a week.

Every year it seems like IDOT or MoDOT is messing with the Poplar Street Bridge or points east and west of it. Will there ever be a time when they don't? I doubt it.

Grocery Secrets

This isn't really surprising news, it's been around for a while. But it is a good refresher for all of us who go grocery shopping more often these days. Grocery stores don't just place items willy nilly on shelves, there is a purpose to everything. That purpose is to get us to spend more, buy more, walk through the entire store.

Some of the more popular items are at the back of the store which has us having to see more things and probably plop them in our carts as we head for, say, milk or ice cream, even beer. Milk is like this in most grocery stores. You go for milk or cheese or ice cream and have to pass through just about everything else. Only Dale is able to go for milk and not get anything else.

What is also true is that the more expensive food products are at eye level, the cheaper off brands are up high or down low. However, what I've noticed at all Schnucks stores is how much shelf space is now taken over by their own house brand. Yes, they may cost less, but I've not been impressed with most I've tried. These Schnucks brands are in every aisle. Check out the cheese and pasta aisles and see for yourself. Frankly as a loyal Schnucks shopper 90 percent of the time, this annoys me.

At the Collinsville Schnucks the liquor aisles are smack in the middle of the store. Surely there is a reason for this. And on this subject, the wine selection at this store is not very good compared to others in the chain. And we can't get Mexican Coke in 4 packs of bottles like other Schnucks stores. However, the people who work at this store are some of the most congenial and friendly of any of the other Schnucks I've shopped in.

Dale's first selfie video

Dale is off this morning to make a short video for our church's Sunday School. Each week since the Coronavirus shut things down, Holy Cross Sunday School has had members and staff making videos pertaining to certain Biblical lessons. Many are fun, others serious, some with music. They are then posted each Sunday on Facebook. Dale was asked to make one and the scripture he received was from the book of Ruth.

Now one thing is for certain. Dale has never made a video, selfie or otherwise so I volunteered to do the video while he taught his Ruth lesson. We spent some time after church yesterday talking to our vicar who has sort of been the middle man between the film maker and the guy who edits and uploads it. Our concern was how to get the file to them. Emailing a video takes a lot of space and won't work. The vicar showed me on my phone how to use Google Drive to send it to them.

Dale wanted a refresher on this today before he left and it got so muddled I told him just bring it back and we'll get it sent from here. He had been putting off doing this until yesterday when all of a sudden he got very excited about it so I have to wonder just what he has in mind. Instead of doing it inside like most people, he chose to go out to a farm field near Glen Carbon. The last thing I mentioned when he was leaving was "maybe do this in landscape view rather than portrait. And of course, he said he was going with portrait.

So we shall see by the end of the morning.