A Thanksgiving to Remember

We got back from Phoenix (as in ARIZONA!) last night. Talk about a great trip! I think if we'd have stayed any longer we wouldn't have been able to stand it. Norman, Becky and I flew out a week ago today and the whole trip up till we boarded the plane was pretty much of a whirlwind. We were able to visit with each of Norman's three brothers who live there and their families. We do good to see any of them once every two or three years so it was a big deal for everyone.

Mom and Dad Horton were there too. There were too many Hortons for us to overnight in the same place at the same time with them, but we spent both Thursday and Sunday with the four families and them. Thursday was Thanksgiving of course, and Sunday was nephew Ryan's 21st birthday. Both were held at Keith's house. It was the first Thanksgiving my husband had spent with his family in 34 years.

Cindy came too. Where the kids were concerned . . . she may be 27 but she was the biggest kid there. It was wonderful to see them get to know each other again and bond. Seems to me there was a lot more bonding this time. Beck's hoping Zack and his family can go to Costa Rica with the church youth group this summer.

My personal highlights were getting to visit with everyone. It was neat to see what God was doing in their lives and share the different things we've learned as believers in Christ. We saw a lot of the area in and around the city. Three families and the parents bussed down to Glendale Glitters on Friday night. Ten of us spent Saturday at the Grand Canyon - an unbelievable place. Flagstaff was COLD and it's very dark out on the desert at night.

So we're weary today, but glad to be back in one piece and looking forward to another visit west some day.

Mama Roz's Economic Indicators

This week Starbuck's reported a loss of sales and now it seems the whole country is in a panic because a decline in latte sales means the nation's economy is in trouble.

What????

Seriously! Starbucks was one of our country's great success stories. Some guy started a coffee chain, gave the sizes funky names, provided a lot of options, decorated the places kind of funky, provided wi-fi and made a fortune. It was "the" safe trendy place for the young and young at heart to drive through or hang out. Lord knows my own kids have contributed to their bottom line. And I'm glad of it. Starbucks or a club? Starbucks, any day!

But as a non-Starbucks person, I have my own economic indicators. Four years ago it was the observation that people were selling items they had spent years collecting on eBay. More recently it's been that lease and finance companies have lowered themselves to making cold calls they're so desperate for business. My dh and I have always kept an eye on the trucking sector of the economy. They've had to operate leaner and meaner for some time to survive. For the companies who finance them to beg for business screams that the same otc companies aren't buying. Is it any wonder with the outrageous price increases in steel?

Today I had a show in Georgia. I sell several of my honey products, candles and other bee related items. Last year it was quite successful. This year . . . well, it didn't do so well. I've not counted sales yes, but I figure I'll do good to break even. Part of it had to do with the weather, part of it had to do with having a booth stuck in a bad location, but a most of it was that people just weren't buying. I take that back . . . I saw a lot of women buying frivolous overpriced items in trendy colors and styles. Sigh . . . maybe I need to be looking at priority indicators.

But that's life. I met some nice folks and made some promising business contacts. It may even out, it may not. But we had fun, that's for sure, and if nothing else I didn't have to stand in a long line for the Corn Dog Man.

Iodine and Health

This morning as I put together my next two weeks of supplements I realized that I've not said jack squat about iodine. Duh!

It was about a year ago that I had a health crisis. God graciously led me to a PA who incorporated holistic medicine in her practice and got me out of danger. One of the things I was ordered to do was read a book and start taking an iodine supplement. It didn't make a lick of sense at the time, but I didn't have anything to lose (besides my life!) so I followed orders.

What I learned shocked me. Not only was I iodine deficient, it was shockingly clear that the entire country probably is. Several facts I learned:

1. The iodine in our table salt is not enough.
2. The iodine in our table salt does not contain the types of iodine our bodies need.
3. Other substances, toxic halides, take the place of iodine in our cell structure. Our cells require iodine and when there isn't enough, fluorine, chlorine, bromide, all present in our daily life, take its place. Result - improperly working cells . . . result - many types of disease with very few traceable to the underlying cause . . result - medications that treat symptoms and cause other problems, and on and on and on.
4. Lack of iodide (a form needed by women in particular) is a precursor to breast cancer.
5. People with medically diagnosed thyroid problems need iodine too, in fact they may need it more as a deficiency probably led to their condition.

Getting on an iodine supplement changed my health. It took a couple of months to detox the halides out, but it's made a world of difference. My immune system is stronger than it's been in years; I went through the winter of 06-07 with barely a sniffle. I take Iodoral, an otc product that contains both iodine and iodide.

I continue to be alarmed about this issue. Earlier this year I learned that a cousin was dealing with breast cancer. Turns out an md. had misdiagnosed her with a thyroid condition and she'd taken medication that interfered with iodine absorption for 15 years prior to the cancer. I wanted to scream. More recently a beautiful 21 year old niece was diagnosed with Graves disease, an old people's thyroid conditon.

For anyone who may wish to learn more don't take my word for it. Do your own research, prayerfully consider what to do, and start slow. I built up to a full Iodoral tablet over a couple of weeks without noticing a thing till one day I realized I felt 25 again. The book I read was Iodine, Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It. Dr. Brownstein who authored the book has written another one that I've not read, Overcoming Thyroid Disorders. I would recommend it as well.

Thursday Blessings

While a lot of life is humdrum, just doing our daily thing with work, errands, responsibilities, etc, once in a while God sends a special day our way - sometimes for encouragement and sometimes to remind us what's really important to Him, people! Today was such a day for me. Without doing a blow by blow account, God arranged for me to talk to a couple of ladies that needed encouragement and also encouraged me. I got a call that one of my kids (one of the ones I didn't give birth to) went into labor with her first child. (I'm still praying for this wee slip of a girl and the baby!) I ran into another of my kids the next county down that we'd lost track of when God had me turn the car around and stop for lunch. And of all things the teacher at the seminar I had to attend in the afternoon was an old business associate, actually the head of a state agency who had helped me sort through all the oddball title transactions that landed on my desk over the years. We'd never met face to face, but he certainly remembered me.

So thats what when on today. You just never know what God will do with a day when you give it to Him. The main thing is give Him first place in the day. He's certainly capable of taking us and every situation where we're supposed to be!

My baby is seventeen today. It hardly seems possible that so many years could have gone by but seventeen she is, and more of a woman than a girl I'm afraid. Every year with Becky has held it's own particular issues and challenges, this last one more than we would have ever imagined in our wildest dreams. While none of us understand it all at this time, by faith we know God's purpose is good and right and look forward to the day when we "understand it better by and by." At this writing she's written off a half a dozen colleges and is pretty much settled on Northland. There again, God knows what he's doing and is giving me a year to get used to the idea of such a great separation. I'm reminded that my own parents let me go to the Chicago area completely by myself. At least Beck will have friends there already.

So that's what's going on and is today's Big Deal. We'll go to the Peanut Festival tonight (Farmer's Night - no charge!) and will eat World Famous Corn Dogs and drink hot cocoa. I'll hunt down my annual chocolate covered banana on a stick and Beck will probably get one too as she learned the joys of this thing last summer. It will be fun; one last peanut fling with the baby. She'll probably go again later this week with her friends. It's all part of that growing up and breaking away thing.

Blessed Saturday

Today has been one of those Saturdays I live for. Let me rephrase that, I don''t live for Saturdays, but once in a while I have one that leaves me quite fulfilled. Today was such a one. I didn't accomplish everything I hoped to do but that's ok. What was done was worthwhile. Highlights:

Hitting the Mother of All Good Yard Sales. Good products, good prices. Among other things I purchased three cast iron skillets (0ld seasoned ones!) for $2.75. Sweet!!!

Cooking for the masses. I have breakfast for our Sunday School tomorrow. Part was cooked today, part will be tomorrow.
Chased chickens off the porch

Cleaned Sewing Room. It needed it bad.
Set up table for Beck's studio.
Awesome quiet time with God.
Chased a chicken out of my kitchen.

Cleaned back porch, sort of.
Reorganized screen porch, at little.
Decorated front porch. It looks real nice now.
Fed the cat.

Hauled stuff to the barn.
Took clean empty supers off beehives and put them into storage.

Scored points with the cows by giving them hay. Lost points with the horses by not letting them bully the cows to get said hay.

Mowed the grass.
Made supper.
Loaded more stuff in the truck to move

Stung Norman and myself. Yeah, that sounds strange. I did confer with L. Thompson about it beforehand as he's the apiatherapy expert. Norman had been wanting me to do it for something like a wart on his arm. I had something similar on my calf so took a hit too. It's one thing to get a random sting when you aren't expecting it. Picking up a buzzy little girl with a pair of tweezers and deliberately putting her pointed little rump in a specific spot is a whole different experience. It's not easy to pick up a wiggly bee without squishing her. Anyway we each took one sting tonight. Monday we'll each take two an inch apart on either side of said wart thing, then three in a triangular pattern around it on Thursday. He called it "circling the dragon." After that we'll see what happens or what else needs to be done.

The best part of the day was laughing and working with my family. Beck was gone most of the day but Norman and I had a good time doing stuff. He followed me around the yard on the big tractor for a while just for laughs while I was mowing. Passerby had to think we were nuts. I'm glad to have that done as it will make getting pecans so much easier. Looks like a bumper crop this year.

Presently I'm fixing to (that's a southern term for "about to") pass out. I'll finish that cooking in the morning before church. G'nite all.

Since I had to write a report for our local beekeeping newsletter I'm giving it double duty by republishing it here. The event took place one week ago today and what I didn't mention was that I taught one of the workshops. My topic was Teacher's Toolbox and it was basically sharing ideas for people to talk to groups about bees. I was the only regular club member from our area. One of the state inspectors let me ride up with him (thank you Randy!) and Rachel brought me back Friday night.

The other thing I didn't mention was that I played a couple of numbers (harmonica) with that bluegrass group. Wicked good fun worth staying late for!!!

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State Meeting Report
Ros Horton

This Year’s Alabama Beekeeper’s Association annual meeting was the best I’ve attended in three years of going to this event. Ron Sparks, our state Commissioner of Agriculture spoke to us at the opening. He acknowledged the importance of honeybees and pollination and shared how he helped with his grandfather’s bees as a boy. He pointed out that it was Alabama to catch China importing tainted and toxic products to America several years ago when we found their honey contained unlawful chemicals. Many Chinese products since (fish, toys, baby products, etc.) have followed suit. He also announced the state’s intention of setting up our own laboratory for honey and bee related testing.

Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk was our main speaker and he shared the background, techniques and technical development of using honeybees to find landmines. The University of Montana pioneered research in training bees and is working in partnership with civilian companies to do this around the world. This project is close to his heart as it has the potential of saving many lives for many years around the world. The same techniques used to find landmines are being applied to research for finding meth labs and buried human remains.

Another nationally recognized speaker was Dr. Elizabeth Cantrell, a naturopath physician who spoke about the health benefits of honey, stings, etc. This presentation was a bit disappointing to me. Everything she presented was a generic version of the information we received at our September meeting when Lawrence Thompson spoke to us on the same topic.

There were several breakout sessions during the day that included soap making, lip balm and candles. Even though I’ve attended these type workshops before I always learn something new.

Kelley’s, Rossman, Brushy Mountain and Daniel’s Scientific were all present with many products. If nothing else attending a statewide meeting is a great way to save on shipping costs. Many nice door prizes were given out and the day ended with a steak dinner and fine bluegrass music. Even though I was only able to attend the one day, it was well worth the trip and I look forward to going back both days next year on October 10 and 11, 2008.