The Buzz about Germs

Everywhere I go, every mother I talk to, I am hearing alot about the flu, and "the vaccine."

"Should we get it? Should little baby K get it? Should grandma get it?"

People are calling their doctors and getting frustrated and angry that they if they can't get it. One mother I know is switching doctors because the doctor suggested that her baby will be fine, as long as she doesn't let anyone touch or lean over the stroller when she is out shopping.

But here's the thing. There currently IS no vaccine for the Novel H1N1 Flu. Not yet. The CDC website is very clear about that. Companies are working on it, and it "may" be ready in the fall. And once it exists, it won't be available until after a month or so of the minimum required testing, to make sure it at least doesn't kill people outright (so testing for long-term effects, or effects on babies in utero.) All flus, including the novel strain people are so worried about, is spread primarily through direct contact with an infected surface, sneezing and coughing. My friend's baby in the stroller will indeed be quite safe if she remains in her stroller, especially if mom throws a sheer scarf over it to discourage strangers from peering in at her baby.

And here's another thing. Right now, the "novel flu" virus is no more serious that your regular flu. It doesn't kill any more people than the regular flu does, and I don't get vaccines for that, either. I am pregnant, and my OB and pediatrician both agree that he is not seeing anything in the material he gets from the CDC or WHO to recommend that his patients get the vaccine for the novel flu if they aren't getting one for the regular flu. Medical language is scary to lay-people, but the fact is that this pandemic is not something to be terrified of. This is, frankly, one of the nicest pandemics we could get.

What I AM going to do is wash my hands more in the winter. I will wear my gloves all the time to enter schools and malls, and I won't wipe my gloves on my face. If I know someone is sick, I usually try not to see that person, even for several days after they are well.

Now, with my 3 year old son starting a Pre-K program at our local elementary school, you can bet that I just went out bought some hand sanitizer and will be using it every day when I put him in the car to pick him from school. Yes, this is coming from someone who rarely uses anti-bacterial soap, and washes her dishes with regular soap and warm water by hand. The fact is that schools are breeding grounds for ALL viral infections, and when I ran a health center for five years, it was the parents of school-age kids who got sick the most often. I personally would like to avoid that. I rarely got sick as a kid, and that continues as an adult, but still: I recognize that sometimes a little extra care is all that is needed. Baths for kids right after school, instead of at night-time, are not a bad idea either. Wash your hands before you cook or eat, and make sure your kids do, too.

Other things I am investing in are basic health supplements for the family. Think preventative care. Zinc, selenium and vitamin C in the diet all help the immune system stay strong, as do B vitamins and good nutrition in general. School age kids can benefit from a daily chewable vitamin, as well as some extra vitamin C during cold season. A chewable C with extra zinc can help knock out colds in their early stages. And when all else fails, I always have very good results from Hyland's cold formulas (especially "sniffles & sneezes for kids" and their cough syrup) and Olbas cough syrup...

Well. That is enough on that topic! As a mother, of course it has been on my mind. Even more so since I am pregnant, and the media is really going out of their way to strike fear into our preggo hearts. "There is nothing to fear, except fear itself." A little common sense and extra hygeine can go a long a way during cold & flu season.

First Blue Egg

Finally, at about 30-31 weeks old, one of my young Easter Egger chickens is laying eggs. She's laying one every other day or so, as most newbie chickens will. The color is so pretty, and they have a very delicate shape, long and skinny. Here is her first egg pictured next to my faithful Phoenix's Extra Large brown egg (Phoenix is a Hubbard's Golden Comet, and lays an egg every day, sometimes two!)

Easter Eggers are basically mutts, derived from a cross of any chicken with an Araucana chicken, though some people are trying to develop them into a recognized breed. Araucanas lay blue/green eggs, and come from South America originally. EEs are generally a bit for hardy with less genetic anomalies, but their egg color can be unpredictable: you don't know what color the eggs will be until they start laying. So I may get a pink, blue, green, brown or even cream colored egg from the other two. Time will tell :)

Most chickens begin laying between 16 and 24 weeks old. 30 weeks and up is very late blooming! But they come from good stock, so I am keeping the faith. At least, until thanksgiving anyways... Then we may be having chicken for dinner, lol.

New Puppies!

I stopped by my mother's house on Thursday and was greeted by an eerie silence. All the dogs from her breeding kennel were in the barn with the horses. No one was barking. What was going on?

I had a feeling maybe my mother's beautiful standard poodle "Dancing Daisies" was birthing her litter a day early -- so I crept up the stairs and went into the spacious master bathroom my mother uses for whelping and saw. . . 5 black puppies, sleepily suckling :)

This is the first litter from Daisy, pictured in the middle of the photo here with a summer "sporting cut", who whelped her puppies in the wee hours of the night between August 26th and 27th. The puppies are large, black and mostly boys (just one girl!) Pictures of the puppies to follow soon.

The best laundry rack. Ever.

Finally. A drying rack I can hang a whole BIG load of laundry on. A drying rack that won't crack, warp, creak or bend. A drying rack whose rods don't fall out. Who folds up compactly and will last for years and years with no special coddling.

After my last wooden drying rack gave out and I bought a new one, I was very disaapointed. I bought one from Target, who usually has great products in my experience, and after the second round of drying it was listing to one side like the Tower of Pisa, and the top rod that hold the whole thing together was bending at an alarming angle.

So after some internet searching this week, I found the FROST rack at Ikea. Wow. It is sturdy coated steel, and had space for about 1 and half full loads of laundry. And, it costs just under $20. I am in love. Really.

Knitting and purling

A few weeks back I went to visit my grandmother in Florida. She's 83 and more active and energetic than anyone I know... My mother and I are close runners-up, according to our friends and family. It seems to run in our genes.

So, my grandmother always has several knitting, crocheting, and corss-stitch projects going on at a time, in addition to watching her stocks every day, bleaching everything in site, and gardening up a storm. Whenever I see her I return inspired to knit, needlepoint and clean, clean, clean. It is great. Too bad she lives so far away!

So far, I have knitted two sweaters: a brown collared vest for my 3 year old (I'll post that one later, when he has a chance to wear it!) and this blue/purple sweater set which I sized for newborn to 3 months. Our baby is due at the end of January, so a warm sweater will see quite a bit of use.

I made the pattern myself (much to my mother's dismay, who only goes by patterns) and made the sweater entirely in stockinette stitch, hence the cute little curled edges. Stockinette stitch is made by knitting one whole row, and then purling one row, and so on. Although I have knitted for over twenty years, I have never really done much with fancy stitches, and stuck mostly to just knitting. So, this was my practice project to make sure I really have the purl down before I move on to some more complicated stitches. The sweater was very easy and fast to make with a thick yarn and size 10 needles. The front consists of two panels -- one which goes only as far in as the neck opening, and the other which crosses over and covers most of the front. It is closed with one button.

Next up: a light purple baby blanket! Some people feel purple is not a unisex color, but I disagree. Most purples are very unisex, tho some of course are better suited to girls. The purple yarns are mottled and also have blues in them, so they are even more unisex. I have plenty of green white and yellow baby things knitted by my grandmother (and others), and my mother is going with turquoise for her baby projects, so I am going to stick with purple for now :)

Bacteria = Green Technology?

Fascinating Article from Discovery News:

Bacteria Desalinate Water, Generate Power
by Eric Bland, Discovery News

Aug. 25, 2009 -- Bacteria can be used to turn dirty salt water into electricity and drinkable water, according to new research from scientists at Penn State University and Tsinghua University.
The research presents a new spin on microbial fuel cells, which have been used in the past to produce electricity or store it as hydrogen or methane gas.
"The idea of a microbial fuel cell is based on taking organic waste and turning it into a source of energy," said Bruce Logan, a scientist at Penn State and co-author of a paper in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
"In this newest discovery, we figured we would desalinate water by modifying the electricity generated by the bacteria."
The researchers start with a cup full of water from a pond or other natural source. Among the millions of microbes in the sample, some of the bacteria (scientists haven't identified the specific species) will naturally produce electrons and protons inside their cells and transport them outside themselves.
Other bacteria scavenge those free electrons and protons and use them as fuel to create hydrogen, methane or other chemicals, which can serve as energy sources.

Using only two thin pieces of plastic, the researchers have discovered the key to harnessing the power of these microbes. The membrane created by the Penn State scientists can draw away the electrons, ions or gases created by the microbes, towards an anode or a cathode, which are positively and negatively charged electrodes.
Anode, cathode and membranes are all encased within a clear plastic case about the size of a small tissue box. Add a cupful of pond water between the two membranes, and the bacteria start their jobs. The entire process leaves almost pure -- about 90 percent -- water behind.
The exact purity of the water can be changed depending on the needs of the scientists or the desalination industry, if the process is scaled up commercially. These microbial fuel cells can create pure, drinkable water. It may also remove most of the salt from water to make conventional purification methods cheaper by reducing the amount of electricity necessary.
Whatever the resulting salinity, "this is the first time that any one has used a microbial fuel cell for desalination," said Hong Liu, a scientist at Oregon State University also developing microbial fuel cells.
"(Using this approach) you basically need zero power input, and it could even produce energy if you use organic material as the input," said Liu.
For now, microbial fuel cells, whether they desalinate water, generate electricity or create hydrogen, methane or other gases, are limited to small-scale laboratory devices. That will change next month, however, when Logan and his colleagues install a larger microbial fuel cell to turn waste water from a Napa Valley winery into hydrogen gas.
"This project is just a demonstration for now," said Logan. "But ultimately (the winery) could use the power generated by the microbial fuel cell to power cars, forklifts or other vehicles."

Laying Low

Well, the heat has really been getting to me this year, I blame it on my new bun in the oven, who is raising my blood volume by about 35% at the moment.... So I don't have much to blog about, because I haven't been doing much of anything!

One great thing I discovered in the past few weeks after I lost ALL my prgrams on my computer was OpenSource programming. I have used it here and there, but now I am using an art program that is every bit as good as Photoshop -- but free! It is called GIMP which stands for Graphic Image Manipulation Program. I love that. I am also using OpenOffice from Sun Microsystems which replaces Microsoft Word and Excel. Fabulous!

For those of you who like to be kept up to date, I have added a little pregnancy ticker at the bottom of the blog -- enjoy!

Back from techno-doom

After a few weeks of computer silence after my windows OS crashed and burned, I'm back! Starting a sister blog (earthlodgehealing.blogger.com) and catching up on all sorts of work for my web and graphic design clients. New posts, on the way!

Happy August, Maya

Fresh Broccoli Pickle

Last week I tried a new pickle recipe adapted from "The Joy of Pickling" by Linda Ziedrich. It's a simple recipe, and after letting it cure for a week we tried it today at lunch. WOW! I meant to only eat one piece, but I had at least 10. If your kid likes pickles but doesn't like broccoli, give this a try. My 3-year old, Lucas, couldn't stop eating them either.

It is really, really, good. And good for you, too!

Here is the recipe:

1.5 pounds of broccoli florets
2 tablespoons chopped garlic (I used garlic scapes, of which I had a surplus)
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1 tablespoon whole mustard seeds
two tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon olive oil
2.5 cups apple cider vinegar
2.5 cups water
1 tsp pickling salt

Pack a 2-quart jar with the broccoli and herbs.
Combine the vinegar, water and salt. Stir until the salt dissolves and pour over the broccoli.
Pour the olive oil into the jar.
Cap and refridgerate at least one week before eating.
Will store in the fridge for several weeks.

NASA does it again.

So. Just how smart ARE rocket scientists? Well, in a recent discovery that went unnoticed for 35 years, NASA has admitted that they have LOST the original tapes of the first moon landing. Oh, and, um, in typical American litterbug fashion, they left the camera, which also has data on it, on the moon.

How did they lose the tapes, you ask? Well, you see, they aren't positive, but they think someone probably recorded over them. Back then, NASA policy was to record over old tape reels in order to save money. And apparently someone didn't think that these were important enough to save. Who'd want that lame video? Anyone?

Gosh. Good thing there aren't any skeptics out there who think the moon landing was a hoax. That would really make their day.

How to build a Solar Dehydrator in 30 Minutes

Today I built a simple solar dehydrator in about half an hour, using a few household items. If this works well (and judging by my test run this afternoon it should) I will most likely build a more permanent one next summer made out of plywood, glass and screens.

What I used:

2 cardboard boxes (one large enough to hold drying racks, and one shallow one to collect heat)

Packing Tape

Black Non-Toxic Tempera Paint

Paintbrush

One Large Ziplock Bag, cut open (plexiglass or saran wrap will also work, anything clear to create a greenhouse effect)

A box-cutter

Scissors

First I taped up the large box. Then I cut a large door on one side, and small vent holes at the top opposite the door. Then I cut larger vent holes in the bottom of the box where my "heating box" will be attached.

Next I cut the top off the shallow box, cut off one side at a 45degree angle, and cut small vent holes in the opposite side. These small holes are where air will enter the box, become heated, and rise into the dehydrator box, drying fruits and veggies, and then rise out the top vent holes carrying moisture out with it.

I painted the inside of the heat box with non-toxic water based black paint and then I taped it very securely below the larger box, centered over the vent holes. I used the leftover cardboard from the heat box to make 2 triangular legs and taped them on the opposite side. This is a very stable dehydrator, despite being made out of cardboard!

Finally, I taped clear plastic over the heat box to create true greenhouse environment. Obviously, I would prefer to make this setup out of glass and wood b/c it is A) much more permanent and B) is less likely to off-gas fumes, but I am happy with this temporary setup for now. If it works fantastically well, I will definitely go on to make something more permanent... In the meantime, I am allowing the dehydrator to off gas for a few days before using it to dry food I will eat.

Drying food is great way to save your harvest -- few nutrients are lost, and no canning means they take a lot less space to store. No freezing means they use a lot less energy to conserve. And if you use a Solar Dehydrator instead of an Electric one, you also save a lot of electricity.

I am using drying racks which I have from my electric dehydrator, places on top of a metal baking rack to insure the air flows through up through them. I did not insulate my dehydrator, although many do... I am not sure it is needed in this climate, though I suppose in cooler weather it would be a good idea.

Up to my elbows in berries

OK. So I have made blueberry preserves twice already this season (the last batch used lemongrass and cardamom for spices, mmmm) and today, what did we do? We found another place to pick berries,at $2.00 a pound. Needless to say, we picked a lot! I am a bit preserved out for the week, so we made an upside-down blueberry cobbler (recipe below) and I am drying the rest of the berries in the deydrator. We began building a solar dryer today, but it's not quite ready yet -- maybe by next weekend!
Also among today's harvest was three pints of white mulberries from an old tree near our town green behind the bank. A bit weird to look at, but good in a cobbler (hey, when you're baking, might as well fill the oven, right?) Mulberries are not as sweet as other berries, so generally they need up to twice as much sugar in a recipe.



* UPSIDE-DOWN COBBLER *

2 Cups fruit
1/4 Sugar
6 Tbs Butter, Melted
3/4 Cup Flour
3/4 Cup Milk
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Preferred Spices (optional)
Oatmeal or Granola (optional)

Preheat Oven to 350*F
Pour butter into 8" pie dish
Mix Flour, Milk, Baking Powder and Salt together, pour batter over butter in pan. Spices, Oatmeal or Granola are all tasty optional additions to the batter.
Mix Fruit and Sugar and pour over batter in pan.
Bake 30-35 minutes.

YUM-EAT!

Incandescent Bulbs Return to the Cutting Edge

This "enlightening" article in the New York Times caught my interest today...

When Congress passed a new energy law two years ago, obituaries were written for the incandescent light bulb. The law set tough efficiency standards, due to take effect in 2012, that no traditional incandescent bulb on the market could meet, and a century-old technology that helped create the modern world seemed to be doomed.

But as it turns out, the obituaries were premature.

Researchers across the country have been racing to breathe new life into Thomas Edison's light bulb, a pursuit that accelerated with the new legislation. Amid that footrace, one company is already marketing limited quantities of incandescent bulbs that meet the 2012 standard, and researchers are promising a wave of innovative products in the next few years.

Indeed, the incandescent bulb is turning into a case study of the way government mandates can spur innovation.

"There's a massive misperception that incandescents are going away quickly," said Chris Calwell, a researcher with Ecos Consulting who studies the bulb market. "There have been more incandescent innovations in the last three years than in the last two decades."

The first bulbs to emerge from this push, Philips Lighting's Halogena Energy Savers, are expensive compared with older incandescents. They sell for $5 apiece and more, compared with as little as 25 cents for standard bulbs.

But they are also 30 percent more efficient than older bulbs. Philips says that a 70-watt Halogena Energy Saver gives off the same amount of light as a traditional 100-watt bulb and lasts about three times as long, eventually paying for itself.

The line, for now sold exclusively at Home Depot and on Amazon.com, is not as efficient as compact fluorescent light bulbs, which can use 75 percent less energy than old-style bulbs. But the Energy Saver line is finding favor with consumers who dislike the light from fluorescent bulbs or are bothered by such factors as their slow start-up time and mercury content.

"We're experiencing double-digit growth and we're continuing to expand our assortment," said Jorge Fernandez, the executive who decides what bulbs to stock at Home Depot. "Most of the people that buy that bulb have either bought a C.F.L. and didn't like it, or have identified an area that C.F.L.'s don't work in."

For lighting researchers involved in trying to save the incandescent bulb, the goal is to come up with one that matches the energy savings of fluorescent bulbs while keeping the qualities that many consumers seem to like in incandescents, like the color of the light and the ease of using them with dimmers.

"Due to the 2007 federal energy bill that phases out inefficient incandescent light bulbs beginning in 2012, we are finally seeing a race" to develop more efficient ones, said Noah Horowitz, senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Some of the leading work is under way at a company called Deposition Sciences here in Santa Rosa. Its technology is a key component of the new Philips bulb line.

Normally, only a small portion of the energy used by an incandescent bulb is converted into light, while the rest is emitted as heat. Deposition Sciences applies special reflective coatings to gas-filled capsules that surround the bulb's filament. The coatings act as a sort of heat mirror that bounces heat back to the filament, where it is transformed to light.

While the first commercial product achieves only a 30 percent efficiency gain, the company says it has achieved 50 percent in the laboratory. No lighting manufacturer has agreed yet to bring the latest technology to market, but Deposition Sciences hopes to persuade one.

"We built a better mouse trap," said Bob Gray, coating program manager at Deposition Sciences. "Now, we're trying to get people to beat a path to our door."

With the new efficiency standards, experts predict more companies will develop specialized reflective coatings for incandescents. The big three lighting companies - General Electric, Osram Sylvania and Philips - are all working on the technology, as is Auer Lighting of Germany and Toshiba of Japan.

And a wave of innovation appears to be coming. David Cunningham, an inventor in Los Angeles with a track record of putting lighting innovations on the market, has used more than $5 million of his own money to develop a reflective coating and fixture design that he believes could make incandescents 100 percent more efficient.

"There's enormous interest," Mr. Cunningham said. "All the major lighting companies want an exclusive as soon as we demonstrate feasibility."

Both Mr. Cunningham and Deposition Sciences have been looking into the work of Chunlei Guo, an associate professor of optics at Rochester University, who announced in May that he had used lasers to pit the surface of a tungsten filament. "Our measurements show that the treated filament becomes twice as bright with the same power consumption," Mr. Guo said.

And a physics professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Shawn-Yu Lin, is also seeing improved incandescent performance by using a high-tech, iridium-coated filament that recycles wasted heat. "The technology can get up to six to seven times more efficient," Mr. Lin said.

Despite a decade of campaigns by the government and utilities to persuade people to switch to energy-saving compact fluorescents, incandescent bulbs still occupy an estimated 90 percent of household sockets in the United States. Aside from the aesthetic and practical objections to fluorescents, old-style incandescents have the advantage of being remarkably cheap.

But the cheapest such bulbs are likely to disappear from store shelves between 2012 and 2014, driven off the market by the government's new standard. Compact fluorescents, which can cost as little as $1 apiece, may become the bargain option, with consumers having to spend two or three times as much to get the latest energy-efficient incandescents.

A third technology, bulbs using light-emitting diodes, promises remarkable gains in efficiency but is still expensive. Prices can exceed $100 for a single LED bulb, and results from a government testing program indicate such bulbs still have performance problems.

That suggests that LEDs - though widely used in specialized applications like electronic products and, increasingly, street lights - may not displace incumbent technologies in the home any time soon.

Given how costly the new bulbs are, big lighting companies are moving gradually. Osram will introduce a new line of incandescents in September that are 25 percent more efficient. The bulbs will feature a redesigned capsule with higher-quality gas inside and will sell for a starting price of about $3. That is less than the Philips product already on the market, but they will have shorter life spans. G.E. also plans to introduce a line of household incandescents that will comply with the new standards.

Mr. Calwell predicts "a lot more flavors" of incandescent bulbs coming out in the future. "It's hard to be an industry leader in the crowded C.F.L field," he said. "But a company could truly differentiate itself with a better incandescent."