Controlling Your Cholesterol Levels Naturally, I Did!

   I went from taking Statins a drug that helps control your levels of triglycerides and cholesterol (a poison to your body) to using vitamins and natural things to control my levels. But Why? Because the side effects of statins are horrible, accentually they are deadly! I personally was having lots of side effects. Mine side effects were hurting joints and muscle, to the point I could hardly get out of my chair and when I did it felt like I was carrying a 300lb man on my shoulders. I was having trouble with my mind, hard to remember things and focus on things. My body just didn't feel right! Think about what  statins are supposed to do, remove fats and cholesterol from your body, WELL, that’s what your brain is made of so first of all you're destroying your brain! So that should be enough for you to try to find an alternate way to lower your lowering LDL cholesterol levels and your cholesterol levels. But the main thing to know about stain drugs is that they are POISON for your body! Look I tried to use them for a well. 
The most common statin side effects include: Headache, Difficulty sleeping, Flushing of the skin, Muscle aches, tenderness, or weakness (myalgia) Drowsiness, Dizziness, Nausea and/or vomiting, Abdominal cramping and/or pain, Bloating and/or gas, Diarrhea, Constipation, Rash. Statins also carry warnings that memory loss, mental confusion, high blood sugar, and type 2 diabetes are possible side effects. It's important to remember that statins may also interact with other medications you take. So do you really want to chance destroying your body!

   Enough about Statins what about how I switched but first what were my beginning numbers?

   My Triglycerides numbers were in the 900 range, my bad cholesterol was so high they could not calculate it and my good cholesterol number was 17! I had molasses for blood, lol!

Ranges:

  All my levels now are good. My Doctor said when I went for a checkup yesterday “I was skeptical about you being able to control your levels without using Statins and using vitamins and natural supplements” but she said, “keep it up because its working and to help you with your cost I’m gonna give you a prescription of Niacin 1000mgs”, she went on to say “you are starting to make me a believer of using the natural stuff”!   So how have I lowered my levels to acceptable levels?

Here is my regimen: and remember I'm not a Dr. but I have stayed at a lot of Holiday Inn Express’, lol!

• Niacin: (flushing) 2000 mg’s daily, (1000 over the counter in the morning and 1000 Dr. prescribed at night). My Pharmacists and Dr. says that the non-flushing does not work, so don't waste your money.    
• Red Yeast Rice: 1200 mg’s in the morning                                                                                     
• Omega 3,6,9: 2 g’s you can’t take or eat too much Omega’s and the most crucial is the Omega 3’s. My Pharmacists says to look for a higher percentage of Omega 3’s on your fish oils rather than a high parentage of fish oils.                                                                                                                        
• CoQ10: 100 mg’s daily                                                                                                                  
• D3: 2000 IU or higher daily                                                                                                         
• L-Arininie: 1000 mg’s daily                                                                                             
• Magnesium: 250 mg’s                                                                                                                   
•  Diatomaceous Earth   (food grade) 1 tablespoon daily                                                              
•  Lecithin: Non-GMO 1200 mg’s

   Now, not all vitamins are created equally so do your home work. Tested and Pharmaceutical grades are the best! I use SwansonVitamins, via mail order.

   Know I have also cut out all white starchy foods like potatoes, pasta, breads, ect. Also I mostly drink water; I cut out pop and other sugary drinks. That helps as well. Well that’s how I did it and you can to if you really try. I do hope it helps because stains are very very bad and poison for your body. Just do some research on the side effects of them. But please talk to your doctor first. 

Maintaining A Healthy Rain Barrel

  It doesn't matter if you collect rain water for your own consumption or to water your garden, you still need to do a yearly maintenance to them. Why? Its to keep them in tip top shape and it keep's the water in them safe for you and your plants.You wouldn't believe the stuff that gets inside of them, especially when they aren't in much use (in the off season)! So what are the thing's you should do to your rain barrels or other rain collection systems? (Click her to learn how to make a Rain Barrel)  Also You may like Got Rain Barrel Questions?
  Take a good look at them before you even drain them and remove them from the stand you have them on. As you can see by from my pictures, the winter freezing of the ground made mine a little unlevel and some of  my connections come apart. So I will have to fix that as well!

See how the became unlevel

Check All The Hardware:
  You will want to totally drain your barrel before you get started. Then Check all your valves, connection, screens that you may have at the enter point and the overall condition of the barrel or container, replace anything that needs replaced. Look inside it, I am sure you will see lots of yucky stuff, maybe even algae but that's okay we are gonna take care of all of this shortly and even have some preventative maintenance. At this point just spray out with you garden hose as much as you can.

Clean The Inside:
  If you need to scrub the interior of the barrel a long handled brush will work well. Using a mixture of  light bleach and water solution; scrub the interior of the barrel’s walls and bottom with the brush. Then rinse your barrel again and let dry. This is something that you may not have to do if you have a constant flow of water going through your barrels. But if you forgot to drain all the water out for the winter, Yuck!


Tip: Paint your rain barrels a dark color to prevent the sunlight from directly hitting your water and promoting algae growth.

Purifying The Water For Drinking and To Maintain:
  You can add a little household bleach to your water to keep it maintained through out the year. A little won't hurt you plants either. I would put a little less in the water if you arn't gonna drink out of it and it will still keep the water cleaner!
   According to the Red Cross, “The only agent used to purify water should be household liquid bleach. Add 16 drops of bleach per gallon of water if the water is cloudy (with an eye dropper), stir and let stand for 30 minutes. (If it’s clear, only add 8 drops.)  If the water does not have a slight bleach odor [after 30 minutes], repeat the dosage and let stand another 15 minutes.”  Use household bleach (5.25% sodium hypochlorite as its only active ingredient) and yes this is for drinking!
 

How much bleach to use for purifying water for drinking (according to the Red Cross):

amount of water	clear water	cloudy water
1 quart	2 drops	4 drops
1 gallon	8 drops	16 drops
5 gallons	1/2 teaspoon	1 teaspoon
55 gallons	5 1/2 teaspoons	11 teaspoons

After I built a foundation out of railroad ties.

 Revelation 21:1"And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb."

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"Shadow or not there's still work to be done"

  February is here and whether the groundhog saw his shadow or not doesn't really matter to the gardener. Gardeners have learned through the ages that a ground rodent can't predict the weather any more than the weather guy on T.V. We know that God is the maker of the weather and only He knows what its gonna do! So shadow or not there's still work to be done. That being said here is a list that you can roll up your sleeves on and get to work! Here is February's Garden to do list.

Plants that you can start sowing indoors are:

• Head Lettuce
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Broccoli
• Cabbage 

Plants that you could sow in an outdoor cold frame or outdoors:

• Leafy salad greens
• Seed Onions
• Other Greens
• Peas outdoors

Other things that you can be doing in February is:

• Continue in payer and Bible study
• Cut back on feeding houseplants (do not feed dormant houseplants)
• Make sure all your supplies are stocked up, fertilizers, seed starting containers, starting soil, etc.
• Prune Grape vines
• Prune Blueberries
• Prune Deciduous trees and shrubs
• lime and fertilizers
•  Order your fruit trees

  I hope this gets you stirred up a bit and out of the house. If I have missed anything please share!

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. ⁹ For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; ¹⁰ and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

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January Gardening Tips, "Pay now, Play Later!"

  Well, since we all harvested our bounty from our gardens in the fall and preserved it for our winter consumption, it has been a busy time, with the holidays and all. But I am sure everyone is starting to get seed catalog's in the mail and you are starting to plan what you are going to plant the quick coming planting season? Remember this is the time of the year that other things us "Urban Gardening" junkies can be doing to make our lives a little easier come spring! It's a new year, a new season, so learn from your trials and errors and make this season more enjoyable! Dad always said, "Pay now, Play Later!"
  Create and "Urban Garden" for less than $100.00!
  Last Years "January's To-Do List".

1.  When salting to melt ice on walks and driveways, spread it carefully to avoid damage to nearby shrubs, trees and grass. You could use sand or sawdust instead.Using "Epsom Salts in the Garden".
2.  Brush snow from evergreens as soon as possible after a storm. Use a broom to sweep off snow. Serious damage can be caused by heavy snow on the branches.
3. Do your lawn mower maintenance!Make it easier to mow your yard, get rid of the hard to mow spaces. Eliminate angles in beds and borders. Combine single trees or shrubs into a large planting connected with ground cover. Put the bird bath in a flower bed or surround it with ground cover.
4.  Try not to walk a lot on the dormant lawn. Dry grass is easily broken and the crown of the plant may be severely damaged or killed.
5.  With the catalog's coming in, its time to review your vegetable garden plans. Perhaps a smaller garden with fewer weeds and insects will give you more produce or my favorite, "Raised Beds". 
6.  Do not wait until late in the winter to order seeds. Many varieties sell out early.
7.  When looking at your garden catalogs for new vegetable varieties to try, an important consideration is improved insect and/or disease resistance, look also for drought-tolerant types.Also Heirlooms varieties!
8.  If you all keep any, study last year's planting, fertilizing and spraying records. Make notes to reorder the successful varieties as well as those you wish to try again.
9.  Check all of your stored fruits and vegetables such as potatoes and apples for bad spots which may cause decay. Remove or use those which show signs of spoiling.
10.  Don't forget your house plants, Turn and prune house plants regularly to keep them shapely. Pinch back new growth to promote bushy plants, Check for insects, the most common is ants, here is a natural way to deal with them!
11. Don't put your houseplant around hot electronics like T.V's, ect and give the an area with good outside light. Your house gets dry during the winter, so make sure to take a spray bottle of water and mist them or do like mom used to do and set them in the bathroom and turn a hot shower on, the steam will help them.
12.  Clean all your pots, add one cup each of white vinegar OR household bleach to a gallon of warm water and soak the pots for about 12 hours. Another use for vinegar in the garden!
13.  Move garden ornaments such as urns or jarsinside to prevent damage during the cold winter season.
14.  Feed the birds regularly and see that they have water. Birds like suet, fruit, nuts, and bread crumbs as well as bird seed. Clean their homes or bird bottles!
15. And don't forget, this is a great time to into the meat of the pages of God's Word, "The Bible". Spend lots of time with Him. He even gives you tips on "How To Garden", in His Word! 

 
2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new"


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"Roof Maintenance isn't fun but Nessesary"

 Maintenance on your house or garden shed roof isn't fun but necessary, if you want your roof to last for a long time. Its part of "Fall Garden maintenance"! There are just a hand full of things to do but I think the must important one is cleaning the debris of so as it won't lay there and rot and must of it makes great compost anyway! Probably the second most important is cleaning out the gutters. If you don't do this the water tends to work its way back under the shingles and cause the roof boards to rot and at extreme, water can leak into the building and cause major damage on the inside!
  So here are the tools you need: 1) Ladder 2)Small hand shovel 3) A Broom 4) Hammer 5) A tube of black tar and caulk gun and 6) Gutter guards if you choose.

Debris on roof!

Very full Gutters!

  As you can tell by the pictures my workshop/garden shed set under trees. So I needed to climb up on the roof and clean, so why not do the other maintenance while up there? Lets face it a roof is something you want to last for a long time!
  1) Use the broom to sweep off all debris. As you do this look for roofing nail heads that may have worked up. When you see this situation, lift up the shingle to expose nail head, put a little tar under the head and drive it down with the hammer. The tar will seal any leak that may have been there. Also look for any damaged shingles, you may have to replace those as well.
  2) Use the little hand shovel to clean out the gutters. As you go give the gutter nails a little tap with the hammer, the nails tend to work out over time.
  3) To make life simpler next time you could do like I did and put gutter guards on. There are many to choose from, you just pick what you think is best!

Gutter Guards

  Like I said its not fun work and must people won't even know you did it but it is very necessary to the long life of a roof, especially if you have trees around. The work of a gardener is never done! 

Matthew 8:8  The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed."

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Winterizing Your Lawn Mower!

   As you can tell my lawn mower has seen its better days, lol! I can't even remember how old it is, as a matter of fact I received it used many years ago from my dad. It used to be blue but a couple of years ago, I decided, since all the blue paint had peeled off, that I would paint it, so off to Lowe's we went. 

By the:Redeemed Gardener

  When we got there, I told my daughter, that was 10 years old at the time, "pick out whatever color you want and I will paint my mower that color."   WHOOPS!
  She took her time and was really thinking this over, then handed me Bright Lime Green! Reluctantly I said, "Are you sure about this color?"
  Without blinking an eye she said, "Well daddy, I was gonna get you hot pink but I figured that was to girly!" I looked at her without saying a word, put the Lime green paint in the buggy,  and left, lol! Hay, the bright side is, we had a few lawn mowers stolen in the area this year but mine wasn't!
  Well, must of us in my area of the world are getting ready to put the old lawn mower up for the winter months. But do just wheel it into the out building and expect it to start right up next spring. If you want it to last you for years to come, here are a few helpful hints to help it last longer!

1. Change the oil and filter on your lawn mower. This simple step gives you an opportunity to check the system for any contaminants and ensure that you’ll start the next mowing season off with a supply of fresh oil. Drain the old oil while the engine is still warm in order to get a complete flush and prevent any contaminants from settling back into the mower's oil pan. 
    
2. When storing your lawn mower or any tool that you have with a engine, either drain your fuel tank completely or adding a fuel stabilizer. Since fuel can begin to decompose after being dormant for a month or more, the stabilizer will help protect against carburetor clogs from old fuel. After you add the fuel stabilizer, run the mower engine for about 5 minutes. 
    
3. Now is a great time to tighten all of your mower's nuts and bolts as well as check the belts, filters and safety shields. Repair and treat any chipped or scratched metal surfaces, and apply a very light coat of engine oil to pivot and wear points to prevent rust. Even sharpen the blade!
    
4. Check your mower's operator manual for any other winter storage suggestions, such as checking the battery, if you have one. Then be sure to store your mower in a safe, dry building. If you store your lawn mower outside, cover it with a waterproof tarp.

So just remember as you put your tools up, they will last longer, if you take proper care of them! And then when it gets as old as mine, you can start adding Synthetic oil to the mower every time you put gas in it to keep it from locking up, LOL!

  

"Good habits are hard to acquire but easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to acquire but hard to live with."

Aprils "To Do List"

  I am a little behind this month with my to do list for the month of April and with going back to work tomorrow, after being of work for 5 months due to shoulder surgery, it is gonna be a challenge to get posts up and going! I am tossing around the idea of trying to get some help! Anyway Lets see what the calender has in store for us from The West Virginia Dept. of Agriculture!

Calendar For April!

2..... Seed Swiss chard and carrots (outdoors).
3..... Seed onions, beets and radishes (outdoors).
4..... Plant cabbage and kohlrabi.
5..... Plant potatoes and raspberries. Seed beets and kale (outdoors).
7..... Seed or plant broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower (outdoors).
9..... Plant blackberries. Seed parsnips (outdoors).
10... Plant or seed Swiss chard. Plant fruit trees.
11.... Plant peas and seed radishes (outdoors).
12... Apply crabgrass control.
13... Plant collards.
14... Seed leaf lettuce (outdoors).
15... Bed sweet potatoes for transplanting.
16... Fertilize lawn. Seed or plant collards. Seed late tomatoes (indoors).
17... Plant perennials.
18... Start compost pile.
19... Remove row cover from strawberries. Loosen mulch on strawberries.
20... Refresh mulch in landscape beds.
21... Plant peas (outdoors). Transplant leeks.
23... Seed new lawn.
24... Seed Swiss chard.
25... Seed carrots. Plant sweet corn.
26... Apply pre-emergent landscape weed control.
27... Plant summer-flowering bulbs.
28... Begin spraying fruit trees after petals fall.

  And get more Bible study and prayer into your schedule Click Here to listen to Sermons!

                                                                                                                                                          

Psalms 1:3 "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

March Garden "To Do List"

   Can you believe that it is already March? February flew by so fast! Well this is the month that things start to get moving and moving fast here in West Virginia or in Zone 6. Farmers will start having lots of additions to their live stock, fields will have to be drug and gardens tended to. Gardeners will have to start their seeds, and get stuff ready for the growing season ahead. I hope that most of you have already got things planned out for this growing season. If you don't you better get with it!

  Plants that need to be started indoors are plants like:  Kohlrabi, Leaf Lettuces, Spinach, Tomatoes, Peppers, Swiss Chard, Turnips, Head Lettuces, Eggplants. You can wait on turnips until the end of the month and directly sow outside if you want! It still isn't to late to start your Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, ect. indoors either. From more on seed starting CLICK HERE!

  Plants that you can directly sow outside this month are: Peas, Turnips, beets, onion sets and radishes. My grandmother always planted her potatoes after St. Patties Day. Her family was Irish and she always told the stories of the Irish Potato Famine. She wasn't part of it but I remember telling us about it and I always have put the two together now.

  Other things that need to start being done are:

1. Plant Broad-leaf Evergreens
2. Prune Raspberries and fruit trees
3. Build High Tunnels
4. Plant nonflowering trees and shrubs
5. Plant Roses
6. Fertilize Spring bulbs
7. Plant Asparagus
8. Set Strawberry plants
9. Plant Rhubarb
10. This is a good time to divide your perennials 
11. Get Row covers ready for freeze protection
12. Also make sure not neglect your time with God, in study and prayer

  Other big events that are happening this month are on the 11th we spring forward on "daylight savings time". The 17th is St. Patrick's Day, and on the 20th is the first official day of spring, even though it has felt like spring for two months here! 

  March 9,10&11 will be the WSAZ Home and Garden Show at the Charleston Civic Center! You can also visit West Virginia University Extension Service for exact dates to plant for your specific area of West Virginia!

  Well get started and remember always keep your eye focused on the must important thing and that is the Almighty God, the Creator of everything that we are so excited to get out and in!

Ecclesiastes 12:1 "Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”

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February "To Do List"

  February is here And if you haven't ordered your seeds or planed your garden you better get on it. There are other things that you can start doing in the southern part of West Virginia to start preparing for the spring planting. If you want to start a windowsill garden you can do that as well. Just pick a window that get ay least 6 hours of sunlight in your house and start sowing seeds in pots, with a little water and TLC you will have plants popping up in a few days! You could either pick plants like herbs to use in your kitchen or get a head start on some of your garden plants for the garden!

Plants that you can start sowing indoors are:

• Head Lettuce
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Broccoli
• Cabbage 

Plants that you could sow in an outdoor cold frame or outdoors:

• Leafy salad greens
• Seed Onions
• Other Greens
• Peas outdoors (south of U.S. Rt. 60)

Other things that you can be doing in February is:

• Continue in payer and Bible study
• Cut back on feeding houseplants (do not feed dormant houseplants)
• Make sure all your supplies are stocked up, fertilizers, seed starting containers, starting soil, etc.
• Prune Grape vines
• Prune Blueberries
• Prune Deciduous trees and shrubs
• Apply lime and fertilizers
• Order your fruit trees

This is Leap Year so you have a extra day to get caught up if you have procrastinated through these winter months. Although with the weather we have had here this season you may be ahead of schedule and maybe even still have things like Broccoli. I just a couple weeks ago harvested some for soup! Thing is there is always something you can be doing. If you have everything caught up in the garden you can use this opportunity to get everything else caught up around your house so you can spend more time in the garden when it comes time to, as my wife says I am doing, "piddling around" in it. So hurry up and get things done!

John 15:12 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit."

Finding that perfect plant!

   Now that you have located the perfect spot for your garden and prepared the soil. Its time to find the seed or plants of what you have chosen to plant. I love going to my local greenhouse nursery (not the big box store) and look for plants that are ready to put into the ground but normally I start browsing through the seed catalogs really early. Usually in December or January they start showing up in the mail box. My wife gets so aggravated when the start showing up. She always tells me, "everything in those catalogs you can view online". But there isn't anything like looking though, reading about the plant and just learning. A good catalog will have all kinds of information about the plants and other items they sell. You can also get hard to find and unusual plants from catalogs as well. You will have to make a decision, are you buying plants or starting them from seed? That's up to you!

 Here are some links to some of my favorite:
http://www.botanicalinterests.com/
http://www.southernexposure.com/
http://www.tomatogrowers.com/
http://www.burpee.com/

"Q&A before you start tilling"

   Before you start planning what you are gonna plant in your garden you need to determine a few things to be successful. Things to think and survey before you start planning your garden.

1. What planting zone are you in?   http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html
2. When is your last spring frost and your first spring frost? West Virginia's are approx. April 20/Oct. 20. This may very do to the elevation or area you are in. 
3. Where will I get the best sunlight? Full sun all day is the best, but if you don't have that, pick a spot that gets full morning sun.
4. Do you have a good water source? Plants need lots of water and city water isn't the best for them because of all the chlorine and fluoride in it. If possible collect water to water your plants and it will save you money.
5. What type of soil do you have? It ranges from sandy to clay soil.
6.  What is the PH of your soil? Plants are like people, they don't all like to lay down roots and eat the same thing.
7. A few things you can do to get the soil ready is to, work in compost or manure in the fall, leaves and straw help as well. If you can attract worms to the garden, they are awesome little creations of God's. They will do a lot of the work for you. Just work into the soil table scrapes minus fats, meats and oils and they will move right in and start to work.
8. How big is your garden gonna be? Gardens range from pots on your deck to raised bed gardens to full size conventional acre size gardens. If you have never gardened before start small and don't do more than you can handle.
9. From experience, protect your garden from children playing and you wonderful pets. This past year I had so many volleyballs hit my plant I thought for sure they would all die and Maple well she was a little puppy, need I say more?

Now after you figure out where your garden is gonna be. you can start to plan it out and order your seeds or plants. Have fun and God Bless!

January "To Do List"

    We have had really nice weather for a January and we could actually be getting a head start on all the things that we would normally have to do, when things start growing faster than we can handle them. You may not think that there is much to do in the month of January but there is.
Here is a list of things you can be doing:

• Repot houseplants as they outgrow current pots. If you see roots when you look at the drainage hole in the bottom of the pot, chances are it’s time to transplant.Transplanting into larger pots helps plants grow stronger and healthier.
• Sketch garden plans, including what to grow, spacing, arrangement and number of plants needed.
• Order seeds and plants from mail order catalogs or online retailers as early as possible for best selection. There are so many variates to pick from and it's a fun thing to do as a family.
• Use your hand or a broom to gently brush away any heavy snow that may accumulate on shrubs before it freezes.
• Fertilize spring-flowering bulbs as they break ground. Use an all-purpose granular fertilizer according to label directions, or apply a light dusting of compost. I like to try to use as much organic as I can.
• You can also use this time to really catch up on some of the Bible studying that you may have let slip away from you during the busy Christmas season. Another great family activity!
• Getting everything prioritized makes things so much easier, so take this slow time to prioritize those areas needed. 
• Get organized in the tool shed, garage, attic, house or any place that maybe a little messy. This is one area that I really struggle in. I always straighten everything up with good extension to keep it that way. But as you can ask my wife, it just never seems to stay that way.

I am sure that if you are like me I have put off so much stuff that I have plenty to do. Just try to make a list, prioritize and get started.