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Issue #14: Winter 2006, Built to Last

Covering It:
Built to Last, by Kylie Loynd
We dug our earth house out of the hillside this summer. Without its sheltering layer of dirt, our cozy hobbit-home looked foreign and immense to me. Standing outside, surveying the progress, I thought back over the last few years and my reluctance to admit that nothing short of rebuilding the entire drainage system would remove the dampness. Today, in retrospect, it seems so obvious. Yet the sheer length of time that I accepted the situation - without feeling any urgency to resolve it - led me to examine how deep that habit might go: Where else in my life do I distract myself with short-term solutions when a completely new perspective, and perhaps a good bit of hard work, is needed?

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Whole Foods:
Fabulous Fennel, by Sarojni Mehta-Lissak
Sometimes the best food discoveries are made when we venture beyond our comfort zones or when we come upon a new ingredient by chance. I had this experience with fennel many years ago, when my sister-in-law served it as a salad next to a tomato-based pasta dish during a family meal. From that point on, I was hooked.

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From the Ground Up:
Bountiful Bees by Kirsten Traynor
Apitherapy, the medicinal use of bee products, has helped humans heal for thousands of years. Hippocrates, often considered the father of modern medicine, recommended the use of numerous beehive products to treat a variety of ailments - from arthritis to infertility. In issue #13, I discussed the benefits of pollen and propolis; now I will cover the healing qualities of beeswax, royal jelly and bee venom.

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A Balance of Health:
Sleepless in Seattle, by Dr. David Ramaley
I'm sure we've all had those nights when we have trouble sleeping. For many people, however, the occasional insomnia can turn into a chronic problem and be quite severe. I cannot tell you how many times I have had people come to me and say, "You know, I keep waking up in the middle of the night, and I just can't get back to sleep." For years, I have used a technique that has produced a positive change in hundreds of people's sleeping behaviors. I have seen people who did not sleep well for years who, after one to three treatments, can now sleep fine. I call this technique "Resetting the 24-Hour Clock." (read the complete article)>

Everything Herbal:
Ginger: The Spice of Life by Kylie Loynd
I spent last winter snug in thick woolen socks, gazing out the window while my hands cradled a steaming mug of tea. Our girls would rather I had joined them in the blustery woods for some frozen fun, but I couldn't seem to get warm enough to be enticed outside. This winter, though, Sally King, director of RavenCroft Garden, offered me ginger, a root designed to move my energy. It's a terrific tonic for the digestive system, excellent aid to circulation and a potent ally for the prevention and care of the flu, colds and fevers - the fact that it's an aromatic and delicious spice is pure bonus. (read the complete article)

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Musings:
Avoiding the Blur by Susanne Wichert
It is the beginning of fall, and my birch trees are once again idly dropping leaves on children walking to school. The end of summer always takes me by surprise, and I have learned to take care, lest this year, like others before, finds me in January feeling that I have missed something of consequence. At 57, having lived through many versions of the holiday season, I find that more than anything, I want to be reflective and mindful during these coming months.(read the complete article)

Terrific Tips:
Handmade Holiday Treasures, by Blair Stocker
The holiday season used to create a big challenge for our family. I felt pressure to find original, special gifts for friends and family. My children spent too much time making long lists of things they wanted for themselves and not enough time thinking about what to give others. Disturbed by this behavior and weary of over-consumption, I wanted to find a simpler, more meaningful way to celebrate loved ones. Three years ago, I decided to designate one day each holiday season as gift-making day. Even if it was for only a moment, it really did become all about the giving, and the getting part was temporarily forgotten.

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This Spinning Earth:
Hot Water from the Sun, by Marian Wineman
When you talk about using any kind of solar technology in rainy, grey western Washington, most people look at you blankly and ask, "Here?" In rainy, grey northern Europe, however, solar energy is the norm. Recently, even in the non-sunbelt states of the U.S., a revived interest in solar energy is growing, especially for heating hot water. Heating water uses a large portion of household energy. To discover more about solar hot water, I spoke to several people who have been using these systems for a number of years and I toured my parents' new solar hot-water system while visiting them on Cape Cod. (read the complete article)

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Life Out Loud:
Free to Learn: The Clearwater School, by Stephanie Sarantos
Like most 17-year-olds, my oldest son stays up late. Unlike most 17-year-olds, he recently spent many of those late-night hours studying math in preparation for taking the SAT. Until about four months prior to the test, he had never formally studied math - he had never needed to divide fractions, had never heard of quadratic equations and knew nothing about graphing parabolas. Now, he feels at ease with most aspects of pre-college math and struggled only with the most difficult test questions in his SAT practice book. (read the complete article)

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A Very Touching Book, reviewed by Sarah Schlichting
In my former professional life running a social service agency, the insidious tragedy of child sexual abuse was a daily reality. One resource we turned to often was called A Very Touching Book.

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Our Picks:
Armchair Shopping, by Patti Pitcher
I love to shop from home. No crowds, no rush; and it's all at my own pace. I used to shop by mail, but recently I turned my attentions to the Internet. And let me say, shopping on the Internet is a liberation. I can find anything I want, no matter how obscure, without ever getting into my car. My daughter wants a bumper sticker for her car that says, "Grace Happens" (her name is Grace). It will be a whole lot easier for me to find that online than by running around town. I also avoid trips to the post office by having presents shipped directly to the recipient. I save gas, time, hassle, trees and, most of all, my serenity when surfing the web.

Musings:
Boys and Girls, by Jeremy Adam Smith
When I was a kid in Saginaw, Michigan, I played the flute in my junior high school band, the only boy to do so. There were 12 chairs, and for the first half of the first year, I was dead last. The drum section - all macho schmucks - teased and bullied me relentlessly.

Birthing Dreams, by Kerstin Barker
Yesterday, my best friend told me that she is pregnant. I howled and rejoiced. I also felt panic and terror streaming through my veins like adrenaline - it felt as though I'd gotten the news that I was pregnant.

Treading Lightly:
Breathe Easy Indoors, by Gary Delfiner
Our son was born 10 years ago. He appeared very healthy, and everything was going as hoped. Simultaneously, we were winterizing our recently purchased Northwest home. Immediately after fiberglass insulation was installed under the floor, we noticed a very strong chemical smell - much stronger than the usual odor from fiberglass insulation. We soon realized that we had received a bad batch of insulation, overly saturated with urea formaldehyde - an industry standard component of the glue that binds the batts together. (The use of urea formaldehyde in foam insulation has been banned since 1982, but it's still in use as a glue component.) The manufacturer agreed to replace it, and I found a spun-fiberglass insulation product by Owens Corning called Miraflex that contains no binding agent.

Reclaimed Wood, by Susan Gately Peterson
Back when I was a regular visitor to the largely vanished institution known as the town dump, I came across a pile of redwood boards that had been part of a pool fence. I grabbed every one that was whole and hurried them home to use in a re-work of my bedroom. After sanding off the paint, I was delighted by the rich color of these clear, dense-grained old-growth boards. Recently, my husband called up a local supplier of recycled lumber in search of some southern yellow pine to repair an old wooden boat. When he was told that it was going for $6 - $12 a board foot, I wasn't surprised.

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In Print (book reviews):
Paper Clips, reviewed by Lee Revere
Whitwell Middle School in rural Tennessee had only one Hispanic and five African-American students in attendance in 1998, so the school's staff developed a program to help the students learn about diversity and tolerance. Paper Clips, a documentary released in 2004, is the heartfelt, but never sentimental, story of their multi-year Holocaust project.

All Made Up, reviewed by Helen Landalf
I'm usually pretty quiet when I'm reading. But when I opened All Made Up: A Girl's Guide to Seeing Through Celebrity Hype…and Celebrating Real Beauty by Audrey D. Brashich, I had to shout out loud. Here was the book I'd been waiting for, the book I'd love to hand to every pre-teen girl I meet.

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Looking Within:
Moving Betsy, by Vicki Noll
I volunteered to move Betsy across town. It's what friends do. There were a few of us who willingly spent a Saturday morning packing all her possessions in boxes and labeling them with black magic marker in simplistic terms such as "kitchen," "bedroom" and "living room." After all, moving is filled with simple procedures like categorizing things, emptying cabinets and filling boxes. There's nothing complicated about it.

Crazy About Crosswords, by Marie Richmond
I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but somehow, in the last six months, I've become addicted to crossword puzzles. Crosswords force me to think outside the box, twisting my mind with the type of mental gymnastics that leave me both swearing in frustration and eagerly anticipating the next puzzle. My new interest in these brainteasers has given me a heightened awareness of the myriad ways in which a crossword can be completed. It's also allowed me to embrace what I've always believed to be true: Real intelligence is not about how many facts you know or how prestigious a job you have. Rather, it's about having a willingness to push beyond set limits, to appear and feel completely clueless and to be gloriously nonsensical in ways that allow you to tap into your inherent creativity.

Backing Out:
Larger than Life by Lee Revere, Editor
In our busy and specialized society, "community" is often limited to a group of people gathered together with a very narrow focus. It might revolve around our kids' school, a hobby or a work-related event. While belonging to these groups can be fulfilling, I also enjoy community that includes a wider variety of people of different ages, ethnicities, races and interests. I relish being around older people who share their wisdom and show me how to live gracefully and with a sense of humor. And I'm pleased when my son meets a new friend at the park who teaches him a few more words in Spanish.

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