How can you tell Real food from Modified? Plus deck cleaner, softer towels and more

It's a lovely cool morning, just a light rain falling and will stay in the 70's. We have had a wonderful week of much cooler and less humid weather, enjoyed every day of it. Looks like the lower temps hold for another week, hurray!. Praying for God to watch over my traveling kids today, they are all in or heading to their dad's house, he lost his wife last weekend. It's a long trip, by car or air. And with the latest Malaysian mishap, things are not feeling real great. Hope we do not have a big to do over this, like another war or some such. Our world is certainly an insane place these days. Good Housekeeping magazine has an excellent article on modified foods this month. Fully 70% of food in super markets is modified. And now there is proof that those products hurt your kidneys and liver among other health hazards. How do we know what to pick? Vegetable oils, beet sugar, animals raised on modified feeds, even ice cream contain GMO's. This is termed "lab food" as opposed to real food. I have done a couple of blogs on the tomato growing in our area, they are truly bad to eat. Most of us would like to know what we are eating and asking for labels that define that. We need to avoid the Frankenfoods that are being pushed on us more and more. GMO foods are engineered with DNA from other plants, animals and insects. Even your tortilla chips are bad. Any thing from corn, cornstarch,(look for arrowroot) corn oil, sorry Mazola, contain bacterial toxins. Can GMOs harm your health? You bet, studies are showing they cause sensitivity to foods, like celiac and gluten disorders. Also allergies. A few non GMO crops for now are strawberries, tomatoes(fresh) and bell peppers. Asparagus is bug resistant so its good too. We want to know so we are hoping for labeling laws soon. Just do it! Mean time, shop the perimeter of the store, look for organic fresh produce, try farmers markets and ask questions. Better than being sick down the line. Got mold on your siding or deck? The back of my house faces north and never sees sun, so I use 1/2 gallon of white vinegar to 1 gallon of water and a good squirt of dawn, put into a spray bottle and coat the affected area. Do not wash off, leave for the rain, it will clean it up slick as a whistle. An alternate recipe is 1 cup of borax to 1 gallon of water, don't like it as well. TO clean a grungy deck, mix 1/2 gallon of Clorox to 2 gallons of water and 1/4 cup of dawn, mix in bucket and use broom to scrub. Rinse well. This will kill plants so keep away from flower beds. Are your towels and washcloths a bit older? Loosing their softness and absorbent qualities? I did this and like the results. Use hot water and add 1 cup of white vinegar to a load of just towels, no soap. After it washes and drains, set it back to wash again and add 1/2 cup of baking or washing soda and let finish as usual. Dry completely. Any moisture left in can get mildowy and smell funny. Lets make some safe hand soap. Hope you are avoiding anti bacterial ones, many studies say they are not good, we need to build up resistance to germs and won't with them. Start with 16 ounces of castile soap. I have been buying this from Swanson Vitamins, but Amazon also carries it as does Mountain Rose Herbs. I like the ones scented with rose or lavender. To that add 1 T aloe Vera gel, 1 t vegetable glycerin and a few drops of your favorite essential oil for scent. It cleans and softens, you will like it. Pump containers work well, hope you have saved one from before.. There is an ad on tv for Scott toilet paper, saying we toss 17 billion cardboard tubes a year from the center of the toilet paper roll. Enough to build two Empire state buildings. Well, Scott now offers a tubeless roll of tissue, great idea. Hope other companies pick up on this, need to cut down on waste as much as we can. So many things are "over packaged." Hope you have a wonderful week, hard to think they are pushing back to school and fall things already, seems like summer just got here. Take care, read labels and stay well.

Not my usual post, bear with me, hear me out

I am listening this morning to the reports of weather all over our country. Lightning killing people, floods, winds, heavy rain, extreme heat, and a polar vortex that brings storms as it brings a cold front. Have you ever really thought about how weather, among other things has changed since 1962? That's when we were forced to take God out of our schools, and slowly out of our government and many other places. Much like the old Israel, we came here and built a new country, based on religious freedom, and other freedoms which we have pretty much lost too. Both the old Israel and our "new" country were God protected, God sponsored. And we did pretty well, there are always problems, but the more we push God out, the bigger they become. Think about all the shootings in schools, malls, theaters etc. the past 10 years. Why? And why is there so much illness, bad health, cancer, gluten intolerance, dementia and on and on? The more we progress, the worse it gets. And sadly, these changes are brought about by 10% of the population that stands up and makes themselves known. The rest of us, the 90%, just sit here and say nothing. Maybe we deserve all the ills of live that have come upon us. Shame on us for being so blasé about life in general. I am going to share a website with you, please set aside enough time to listen to it, we have the power to retake our country and our lives, but it will require much prayer and thought. If we don't act soon, the world we are handing off to our children and grandchildren will become worse and worse, in fact it may cease to exist as we know it, if it exists at all. I am old, and no longer afraid to say what's in my heart. I thank God for all the blessings He has given me, and pray for the safety of my future generations. Here is the site, it is well worth your time to listen. http://www.lighthousesource.com/ministry/love-worthfinding/videoplayer/willgodimpeachamerica-414799.html

Face mask recipe, still trying to shed a few pouinds? Ideas to help

It's an absolutely lovely, cool morning on the mountain. Was 60 degrees when I got up. Have changed sheets, washed and dried laundry, been out and planted arugula and red peppers, and watered my deck flowers and herbs. Have a pot of veggie soup simmering for lunch, I make it with turmeric, curry, coriander and lots of garlic, so its smelling really good. Need to do a little more garden work this morning, and plant a few more beans., Have been picking a nice amount of beans and freezing them every 4 days or so, and need to get my yarrow in and drying for winter cough potions. Ran across a recipe for a moisturizing face mask, in a little bowl mix 1/2 cup steel cut or regular oatmeal, the juice from an orange, 3 T plain Greek yogurt and 2 t orange peel(powdered). Just mix, should be thick, spread it on your freshly washed face, avoiding eye area and leave on for 15 to 30 minutes. The rest will store in the frig for a week or so, and when time is up, rinse face with warm water. Don't let the dried orange peel throw you, next time you have an orange, just put the peels on a paper towel, and leave in your oven for a long enough time to dry, then run through your food processor, I never toss peels these days, can freeze, dry, and use them in cooking or cleaning products. Waste not, want not. One of my favorite cleaners is the peels of a couple of oranges in a jar, covered with white vinegar and steeped for 2 weeks, then drained. Makes a great disinfecting kitchen cleaner, and smells nice. Leaves a little shine too. Did you know there are things called obesogens? These are found in our foods, ,and cause weight gain. I had not known about these til I read an article in my Mother Earth magazine. Here are things to avoid, and will help you not gain more weight and maybe drop a few pounds., Avoid plastic containers, use glass or steel for storage. Avoid plastic baby bottles. be aware that even BPA free harbors endocrine disrupting chemicals. Filter your drinking water, never use chemical pesticides in your yard. Avoid microwave popcorn. The bags are lined with PFOA to make popcorn not stick , instead use air pop, skillet popped or do it in the microwave in plain brown bags. Dust and vacuum often to keep chemicals that accumulate in dust under control. Don't use non stick cookware, go for stainless, enameled or cast iron. Take your shoes off at the door, keeps all kinds of harmful stuff out of your house, Using organic foods cuts back on many pesticides. I have found my glass canning jars to be great storage containers, you can freeze things in them too, just leave a couple inches of head space. I don't buy things in cans, and if I get a glass jar, once it's empty it becomes pantry storage. I am sure you can buy glass containers, my mom had lots of them when we were growing up. No plastics back then. And we were never sick, must be a connection. I remember some square, stackable green glass dishes she used a lot. Never see those now days. Sometimes it seems the more we advance, the more we hurt ourselves, our environment and our world. Maybe we are not as smart as we think. I am also aware these days that a lot of minority groups have a huge influence on the vast majority of us, mostly because the 90 percent or so that are the other part, do not stand up and yell, "no, we won't go for that." So many parts of our lives are changing, and not always for the better. Why is it we allow that? Starting with our government and working down to our local groups. I am getting to where I will stick up more for things now, and the heck with what people think, I am allowed to have my thoughts, beliefs and rights too. It's Independence Day, so be happy and be independent. There will be a lot of picnics, swimming and fun going on today, hope you all stay safe. My favorite Fourth show is not running on TV this year, love Keith Lockhart and Pops goes the fourth, was broadcast from the esplanade in Boston, with fireworks out on the water after a great concert. Will be a strange holiday without them, hope some network picks them up again for next year. Have a safe and sane fourth!!!