The Ten Commandments of Responsible Pet Ownership

My twin sis posted this on myspace and I thought it worth repeating.

1. My life is likely to last 10-15 years. Any separation from you is likely to be painful.

2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.

3. Place your trust in me. It is crucial for my well-being.

4. Don't be angry with me for long, and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainments; but I have only you.

5. Talk to me. Even if I don't understand your words, I do understand your voice when speaking to me.

6. Be aware that however you treat me I will never forget it.

7. Before you hit me, before you strike me, remember that I have teeth that could easily crush the bones in your hand and yet I choose not to bite you.

8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right food, I have been in the sun too long, or my heart might be getting old or weak.

9. Please take care of me when I grow old. You too will grow old.

10. On the difficult journey, on the ultimate difficult journey, go with me please. Never say you can't bear to watch. Don't make me face this alone. Everything is easier for me if you are there because I love you so.

Take a moment today to thank God for your companions. Enjoy and take good care of them. Life would be a much duller, less joyful thing without God's critters. Please pass this on to other pet owners.

We do not have to wait for heaven to be surrounded by hope, love and joyfulness. It is here on earth and has four feet.

the times we live in

Despite living a simple, frugal lifestyle and budgeting carefully, I've really felt the effects of a more limited budget the past couple of months. (I'll be posting more on this subject soon.)
In an effort to attract some added income I've become an affiliate for Mountain Rose Herbs. I chose this company because of their strong emphasis on sustainable agriculture and overall commitment to the environment, the reason Mountain Rose Herbs has been my supplier for organic herbs and supplies for the past several years. Their prices are some of the best as well. So you see, I have a lot of reasons for choosing to become an affiliate. The bottom line is, I love Mountain Rose and hope you will consider them for your herbs, spices, teas and other quality items. Please use one of the enclosed links or the sidebar link on my blog site to visit Mountain Rose Herbs and while there be sure to read their guiding principles. We need more caring companies like this! I hope you'll support them for your needs. In the process you'll be helping me out as well and for that a seriously huge thank you from my homestead heart.

As well as the aforementioned items, MRH carries natural health and body care products, carrier oils and bulk supplies as well as essential oils, aromatherapy products and gifts for the home and garden. Their list of herbs and spices is extensive and their customer service fabulous. I know!

Ending the Cholesterol-Heart Disease Myth

Some food for thought. I think I'd like to read the authors book.

by Andreas Moritz (see all articles by this author)

(NaturalNews) Why has there never been a record of cholesterol having blocked a vein in the body! What is it about arteries that makes cholesterol attach itself to their walls, while leaving the veins alone? Is it really the sticky nature of cholesterol that is behind the blockage of healthy blood vessel walls?

The answers to these questions may surprise you. The body actually uses the lipoprotein cholesterol as a kind of bandage to cover abrasions and tears in damaged arterial walls just as it does it for any other wound. Cholesterol is nothing less than a life-saver. However, for the past thirty-eight years, this lipoprotein has been stigmatized to be the number one cause of deaths in the rich nations - heart disease.

This is how the theory goes: For reasons not really known, a form of cholesterol that has earned the name “bad” somehow increases in the bloodstream of millions of people today; it sticks to the walls of arteries, and eventually, it will starve the heart muscle of oxygen and nutrients. Accordingly, the masses are urged to reduce or ban cholesterol-containing fats from their diet so that they can live without the fear of arterial occlusion and dying from a heart attack.

The tremendous concern of being attacked by this “vicious” lipoprotein has finally led to innovative technologies that can even extract cholesterol from cheese, eggs, and sausages, thus making these “deadly” foods “consumer-safe.” Products that claim to be low in cholesterol, such as margarine and light-foods, have become a popular choice of “healthy eating.”

Cholesterol is Not the Culprit After All

But as INTERHEART and other studies have shown, cholesterol isn't a serious risk factor for heart disease at all. An earlier study sponsored by the German Ministry of Research and Technology showed that no exact link exists between food cholesterol and blood cholesterol. Even more surprising, in Japan, the cholesterol levels have risen during recent years, yet the number of heart attacks has dropped. The largest health study ever conducted on the risks of heart disease took place in China. Like so many similar studies, the Chinese study found no connection between heart disease and the consumption of animal fats.

In an 8-year long heart study, researchers observed 10,000 people with high cholesterol levels. Half of them received a best-selling statin drug. The other half were simply told to eat a normal diet and get enough exercise. The results stunned the researchers. Although the statin drug did indeed lower serum cholesterol, this had no impact whatsoever on death rate, non-fatal heart attacks and fatal arterial disease. In other words, the statin-users had zero advantage over those who received no treatment at all. However, they had just spent eight years taking a costly drug with hideous side effects - risking liver failure, muscle wasting, even sudden death. Lowering cholesterol either through drugs or low fat diets does not lower the risk of developing heart disease.

All the major European long-term cholesterol studies have confirmed that a low-fat diet did not reduce cholesterol levels by more than 4 percent, in most cases merely 1-2 percent. Since measurement mistakes are usually higher than 4 percent and cholesterol levels naturally increase by 20 percent in autumn and drop again during the wintertime, the anti-cholesterol campaigns since the late 1980s have been very misleading, to say the least. A more recent study from Denmark involving 20,000 men and women, in fact, demonstrated that most heart disease patients have normal cholesterol levels. The bottom line is that cholesterol hasn't been proved a risk factor for anything.

The current medical understanding of the cholesterol issue is more than incomplete. The argument that animal tests on rabbits have confirmed that fatty foods cause hardening of the arteries sounds convincing, but only when the following facts are omitted:

* Rabbits respond 3,000 times more sensitively to cholesterol than humans do.

* Rabbits, which are non-carnivorous animals by nature, are force-fed excessive quantities of egg yolk and brain for the sake of proving that cholesterol-containing foods are harmful.

* The DNA and enzyme systems of rabbits are not designed for consumption of fatty foods, and if given a choice, these animals would never eat eggs or brains.

It is obvious that the arteries of these animals have only an extremely limited ability to respond to the damage caused by such unsuitable diets. For over three and half decades, Western civilization assumed that animal fats were the main cause of dietary heart disease. This misinformation is highlighted by the fact that heart attacks began to rise when consumption of animal fats actually decreased. This was verified by British research, which revealed that those areas in the U.K. where people consumed more margarine and less butter had the highest numbers of heart attacks. Further studies revealed that heart attack patients had consumed the least amounts of animal fats.

In this context, it is important to differentiate between processed and unprocessed fats. It has been discovered that people who died from a heart attack were found to have many more of the harmful fatty acids derived from the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in their fat tissue than those who survived. These so-called "faulty" fats (trans-fatty acids) envelop and congest the membranes of cells, including those that make up the heart and coronary arteries. This practically starves the cells of oxygen, nutrients, and water, and eventually kills them.

In another more comprehensive study, 85,000 nurses working in American hospitals observed a higher risk for heart disease in patients who consumed margarine, crisps, potato chips, biscuits, cookies, cakes, and white bread, all of which contain trans fats.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53 percent over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study. While actually increasing LDL cholesterol, margarine lowers the beneficial HDL cholesterol. It also increases the risk of cancers up to five times. Margarine suppresses both the immune response and insulin response. This highly processed and artificial product is practically resistant to destruction, being one molecule away from plastic. Flies, bacteria, fungi, etc. won't go near it because it has no nutritional value and cannot be broken down by them. It can last for years, not just outside the body, but inside as well.

It is very apparent that eating damaged, rancid fats or trans-fats can destroy any healthy organism and should be avoided by anyone. In 2007 New York City banned the use of trans fats in its restaurants; however, the trans fats are merely being replaced with new artificial fats that have the same or worse effects.

Healthy Today - Sick Tomorrow

Unfortunately, high cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia) has become the dominating health concern of the 21st century. It is actually an invented disease that doesn't show up as one. Even the healthiest people may have elevated serum cholesterol and yet their health remains perfect. But they are instantly turned into patients when a routine blood test reveals that they have a "cholesterol problem."

Since feeling good is actually a symptom of high cholesterol, the cholesterol issue has confused millions of people. To be declared sick when you actually feel great is a hard nut to swallow. So it may take a lot of effort on behalf of a practicing physician to convince his patients that they are sick and need to take one or more expensive drugs for the rest of their lives. These healthy individuals may become depressed when they are being told they will need to take potentially harmful drugs to lower their cholesterol levels on a long-term, daily basis. When they also learn that they will require regular checkups and blood tests, their worry-free, good life is now over.

These doctors cannot be blamed for the blunder of converting healthy people into patients. Behind them stands the full force of the U.S. government, the media, the medical establishment, agencies, and of course, the pharmaceutical companies. All of them have collaborated to create relentless pressure in disseminating the cholesterol myth and convincing the population that high cholesterol is its number one enemy. We are told that we need to combat it by all means possible to keep us safe from the dreadful consequences of hypercholesterolemia.

The definition of a "healthy" level of cholesterol has been repeatedly adjusted during the past 30 years, which certainly does not give me much confidence in a system of medicine that professes to be founded on sound scientific principles. In the early days of measuring cholesterol levels, a person at risk was any middle-aged man whose cholesterol was over 240 and possessed other risk factors, such as smoking or being overweight.

After the adjustment of parameters during the Cholesterol Consensus Conference in 1984, the population was hit by a shock wave. Now, anyone (male or female) with overall cholesterol readings of 200 mg percent (200mg per 100 ml) could receive the dreaded diagnosis and a prescription for pills. The claim that 200 blood serum cholesterol is normal and everything above is dangerous was scientifically unfounded, though. At least, this was the consensus of all the major cholesterol studies. In fact, a report in a 1995 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association showed no evidence linking high cholesterol levels in women with heart conditions later in life.

Although it is considered completely normal for a 55-year-old woman to have a cholesterol level of 260 mg percent, most women that age are not told about this. Also healthy employees are found to have an average of 250 mg percent with high fluctuations in both directions.

The lack of evidence linking elevated cholesterol with increased risk of heart disease, however, didn't stop the brainwashing of the masses. In the U.S. 84 percent of all men and 93 percent of all women aged 50-59 with high cholesterol levels were suddenly told they needed treatment for heart disease. The totally unproved but aggressively promoted cholesterol theories turned most of us into patients for a disease that we probably will never develop. Fortunately, not everyone has followed the advice to have their cholesterol levels checked but, unfortunately, millions of people have fallen into the trap of misinformation.

To make matters worse, the official, acceptable cholesterol level has now been moved down to 180. If you have already had one heart attack, your cardiologist will tell you to take cholesterol-lowering statins even if your cholesterol is very low. From the viewpoint of conventional medicine, having a heart attack implies that your cholesterol must be too high. Hence you are being sentenced to a lifetime of statins and a boring low-fat diet. But even if you have not experienced any heart trouble yet, you are already being considered for possible treatment.

Since so many children now show signs of elevated cholesterol, we have a whole new generation of candidates for medical treatment. So yes, current edicts stipulate cholesterol testing and treatment for young adults and even children! The statin drugs that doctors use to push cholesterol levels down are LIPITOR (atorvastatin), Zocor (simvastatin), Mevacor (lovastatin), and Pravachol (pravastatin). If you decide to follow your doctor's advice and take one of these drugs, make certain to read the list of side effects so that you know the risks you are taking.

If you want to obtain objective and untainted information on cholesterol, agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the American College of Cardiology are certainly not the places from which to obtain it. Until recently, they wanted you to keep your overall cholesterol level below 150. Then, in 2001, they finally admitted that measuring overall cholesterol levels makes no sense at all, so they began recommending an LDL level below 100. Now their aim is to keep LDL lower than 70. Every time they lower the target, the number of "patients" requiring treatment jumps dramatically, much to the benefit of the drug producers. Being officially backed by these agencies, doctors feel motivated, if not obliged, to prescribe these expensive drugs to their new patients.

The extensive promotional campaigns by the pharmaceutical giants have already brainwashed the masses to believe they need these drugs to be safe from sudden heart attack. Even if a doctor knows the truth about the cholesterol deception, these anxious patients will demand a prescription from him. This is not just affecting their health, but everyone's economic future. The massive sales of these best-selling drugs of all time drive up health care costs to levels that undermine economic growth and make basic health care unaffordable to an ever-increasing number of people. The masses have been so brainwashed with misinformation that this lurking financial crisis doesn't seem to be their immediate concern.

In 2004, there were already 36 million statin candidates in the U.S., with 16 million using LIPITOR alone. When the official LDL target level drops to 70, another 5 million people will be eligible for their use. At the consumer markup price of $272.37 and an actual cost of $5.80 for a month supply of LIPITOR, you can understand the incentive that the pharmaceutical industry has to push their products and make them a mass commodity.

Excerpted from Chapter 9 of Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation by Andreas Moritz, (www.ener-chi.com) or (www.amazon.com) . Check out the book for more information about statins, cholesterol and heart disease, or any of the related topics listed below

* The Secret Cause Of Heart Disease - And Why It’s So Easily Reversed

* The Beginning Stages Of Heart Disease

* Major Contributing Factors

* Meat Consumption And Heart Disease

* Yes, Your Body Can Store Protein!

* Protein Storage - A Time Bomb

* The Revealing Role Of Homocysteine

* C-Reactive Protein Reveals The Truth

* How And Why Heart Attacks Really Occur

* Heart Attacks Can Occur In A Number Of Ways:

1) New Studies Question Value Of Opening Arteries

2) Risk Indications Of A Heart Attack

3) What Statins May Do To You!

4) But Doesn’t Aspirin Protect Against Heart Disease?

5) Dangers Of Low Cholesterol

6) Cholesterol - Your Life And Blood

7) When Cholesterol Signals SOS

8) Balancing Cholesterol Levels Naturally

9) Overcoming Heart Disease - Two Encouraging Stories

10) Non-Dietary Causes Of Heart Disease.

11) A Lacking Social Support System

12) Greatest Risk Factors: Job Satisfaction And Happiness Rating

13) Your Need To Love

14) What A Loving Spouse Can Do

15) The Healing Power Of “Loving Touch”

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About the author

Andreas Moritz is a medical intuitive; a practitioner of Ayurveda, iridology, shiatsu, and vibrational medicine; a writer; and an artist. He is the author of The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush, Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation, Lifting the Veil of Duality, Cancer Is Not a Disease, It’s Time to Come Alive, Heart Disease No More, Diabetes No More, Simple Steps to Total Health, Diabetes—No More, Ending the AIDS Myth and Heal Yourself with Sunlight. For more information, visit the author’s website (www.ener-chi.com).

smelly dog syndrome

I’m grinning here as I type this. I mean, just looking at the title of is post. (I also have that old Skynyrd tune in my head, ooh, ooh that smell...) If you have a dog I’m betting you at least have some idea of what that means. If not, well by all means lemme explain….some dogs (not necessarily all) seem to have a built in tendency to want to roll around in smelly stuff. No one is sure exactly why, but it's assumed that they are trying to disguise their own scent. I think they just like stinky stuff. Whatever the case may be, some dogs do it. And when they do they seem to be extremely enthusiastic about it…at least my dog Timmy is. You’ll maybe recall my mention of him doing so at three o’clock one morning and him being quarantined in the garage until I could give him a bath.

When I complained to my sis about his behavior she told me what cured her dog of many years prior. One day, after bathing him she sprayed him with her musk cologne. As time went by she noticed that he obviously wasn’t practicing his smelly dog habit any longer. So, every so often she would give him a spray of musk cologne and that seemed to resolve his need to roll. I thought it was worth at least a try. Anything within reason was worth a try. If you've ever had the smelly dog experience you know what I'm sayin'.

Since cologne is something you won’t find in my house, but essentials oils are, I concocted a spray to try on my boy Tim. I chose two that I felt were earthy and kind of musky. I placed a dropper full of patchouli along with a few drops of vetivert into a spray bottle with about 6-8 ounces of water. “Here Timmy boy, come to mamma!” This dog is so good, he just stood there and let me spray him all over. When done, he raced into the living room and started rubbing and rolling all over the floor, just like he does outside when he finds something as wonderful as duck crap. He seems to love it when I spray him with the stuff! (I don't mean the duck crap, although he would love that bottled in a spray I'm sure.)

It’s been over a month now since I began the practice of spraying him down about once weekly with this blend and I am elated to say he has not once (to my noses knowledge) rolled in anything to make him come in smelling like a litter box in dire need of cleaning. And believe me, I have checked. For a couple weeks I was in the habit of sniffing him over every time he came inside after a jaunt outdoors. Now, not only are we humans no longer suffering from the effects of SDS (smelly dog syndrome), Timmy smells real purty all the time.

Bad Choices, Bailouts and my thoughts for what they're worth

So, here we are bailing out these mega financial companies because of poor decisions and practices. So, my thoughts are this; if it's a necessary and prudent choice to do so for the good of the country and the economy, then should it not be equally as necessary to forgive the common folk their poor choices and judgment and bail them out as well? I mean, you know, for the good of the country and the economy?

It seems the little people who made poor choices in home loans are living the consequences of their mistakes. So, perhaps we should let the big guys do the same. I really don't know nor do I have the answers but these are questions that take up space in my brain.

Congress will likely approve the 700 billion dollar (plus) financial rescue plan. If so, how about just giving the people a leg up...like a place to live by giving their homes back to them? Now there's a rescue plan that just might restore a little more faith in the American way. With all the money being spent on bailouts and war, why not? Call me idealistic, but I tend to believe that if something doesn't work for everyone then it really doesn't work. Just my thoughts at the moment.

From telegraph.co.uk - Homeless encampments dubbed "tent cities" are springing up across the US, partly in response to soaring numbers of home repossessions, the credit crunch and rising unemployment, according to a report.

I'm on a mission and I can't be stopped

I’ve been on a kick for a week now, sorting, organizing and trying my best to arrange my home in a more orderly fashion. I think it’s because throughout the past two months I’ve been a tad bit overwhelmed with clutter while canning. Now that’s behind me I seem to be on a mission to streamline things…well, as best I can. And when I say I am done with canning this time, I really mean it. I thought I was done several times, but ended up with a few more quarts of this and a few more pints of that. The week before the wind storm I canned pear sauce. Then last Monday, the day after the storm, I got a bargain on a big ol’ box of peaches. How could I resist? Nearly ¾ bushel and I paid $5 for them! So Monday night and Tuesday morn I was canning peaches. I love peaches and was thrilled to find them marked down so low. A few were over ripe, but 99% were just fine and all nice big, tree ripened peaches. Tasty! Earlier I had called around local orchards and they were going for $36-38 a bushel. That’s way beyond my budget so finding a deal like I did was awesome! And how about this; I had just enough jars left to can them…just enough. So yes, I am done now because I am out of canning jars. That, my friends, is hard to believe because I had a load of jars at the beginning of the season.

Anyhoo, about the mission…I have reworked the kitchen a little to suit me better, switched things from one cupboard to another and somehow I actually found storage for my small appliances; the crockpots, the food processor, the blender, etc. I still haven’t figured that one out because I actually eliminated the sideboard. Trust me; I’m not questioned how, just celebrating the fact, lol! Today I unintentionally worked on the living room and rearranged enough to make it feel more spacious. With the cooler weather here and more time being spent indoors as the weather turns to fall, I needed to feel less closed in. The truth is, despite my simplified life, I have too much stuff and too much furniture. I am limited as to how I can arrange things and still maintain my own sense of aesthetics. But I pulled it off and managed to open the living room up a bit for a more spacious feel. Damn I am good! *snicker* I did take note as I was reloading the shelves with books and pretties that I need to go through these particular things and get rid of some of this excess stuff. But for the moment I am just going to feel good about what has been done.

My mind has been drifting to the holidays already. That means I must be picking up on my crafting soon since we give primarily handmade gifts. I have always enjoyed the creative process and my skills come in handy, especially on our budget. Not only when it comes to gift giving, but also in our everyday lives. Recently I crocheted a scarf for the top of the toilet tank. I felt it needed a little something to make it a little prettier. I happened to have some green cotton yarn on hand so I worked up this “doily” in a simple V stitch.

I also like to make shawls and have a couple I’ve made for myself and use regularly. They’re the nicest things to wrap up in on a cool morning or evening. I use mine in place of a robe around the house. I especially like to take one along when we go to the concerts in the park during the summer. The evenings can get quite cool and they are the perfect wrap.

Well, speaking of wrap, I think I’ll wrap this up. But before I do, check out the boys, Timmy and Arther. I think they’ve adapted well to one another.

Happy Autumnal Equinox

As you, O Autumn, take pleasure in your great beauty,
let me also delight
in the abundance of the simple things in life
which are the true sources of joy.
With the golden glow of peaceful contentment
may I truly appreciate this autumn day.

~Edward Hays~