Author: louisaenright

I am passionate about whole, nutrient-dense foods, developing local markets, and strengthening communities.

Interesting Information: The High-Cost, High-Risk World of Modern Pet Care

Interesting Information:  February 4, 2017

The High-Cost, High-Risk World of Modern Pet Care

 

This article is fascinating, whether or not if you own pets.  It’s all about consolidation in the veterinary business–and yes it is very much a business.

I would also point out that consolidation is also going on in mainstream medicine.  Businesses are buying up hospitals and private practices, so medicine is, often, now about making money, not about either people or science.

What results is a “one size fits all” practice that is not good for either humans or pets.

Here’s a quote from the article:

An annual postcard reminding you that your dog or cat is due for its shots—“it’s time for the tough love”—is the main way veterinarians get pets in the door each year. That’s why many animal doctors, at every kind of practice, have chosen to ignore guidelines from the AAHA, which since 2003 has recommended dogs not be given what are called the core vaccines—for distemper, parvovirus, and adenovirus—more often than every three years. Indeed, the guidelines say a single series of these shots is probably enough to provide a lifetime of immunity.

Dog vaccines are NOT scaled to a pet’s weight.

Here’s another quote:

A pet may receive dozens of shots in a lifetime, at a cost of hundreds of dollars, but surprisingly little research has been done to find out how safe they are, and there is wide disagreement among experts. A 2005 study by Purdue University using Banfield data from more than 1 million medical records found 38 adverse reactions for every 10,000 shots, a rate of about 0.4 percent. Schultz and a research partner, Jean Dodds, argue the numbers are much higher, more like 3 percent or 4 percent, with about 1 in 200 dogs experiencing life-threatening reactions such as anaphylactic shock. “Vaccines can kill,” Schultz says. “If you don’t need to vaccinate annually and you do, you’re taking unnecessary risks.”

One size does not fit all.  Not for pets, and not for people.

This article, however, is much more about consolidation.  Treatments, like pushing vaccines, are just examples of how industry is trying to get more money from each person or pet that walks through the door.

 

Source: The High-Cost, High-Risk World of Modern Pet Care – Bloomberg

Turkey Tracks: Tula Pink’s 100 Modern Blocks

Turkey Tracks:  February 4, 2017

Tula Pink’s 100 Modern Blocks

Some Coastal Quilters have issued a new challenge for 2017 to members:  to make Tula Pink’s “City Sampler” from her book 100 Modern Blocks.

(We are sewing our Farmer’s Wife blocks into tops now.)

 

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Again, we will do about 9 blocks a month, ending in December.

These blocks are all about the fabric and, unlike the Farmer’s Wife blocks, are pretty easy.  Indeed, they are FUN!

I am going to use Cotton + Steel in all of my blocks, but will allow myself some digressions with other designers mixed in, like some of the Japanese fabrics I like, some Carolyn Friedlander, and some solids, including shot cotton.

Here my first 9 blocks:

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As with the Farmer’s Wife blocks, adding solids can work to sharpen other fabrics–which I did not do unfortunately.  The top left block needed some solids as the fabrics are too jumbled together.  What can be pretty when looking at big pieces of fabrics can…not be…when pieces are small.  You would think I would have learned that lesson after all the Farmer’s Wife blocks.  But, no…

The bottom right “jacks” block also needed more definition.  The aqua is too busy.

Having said that, as with the Farmer’s Wife blocks, they all look pretty when they get into a quilt top.

The main thing is to have some fun with each block and not to stress about perfection.  Some work better than others.

This collection came in the mail today, from Craftsy:  Cotton + Steel “basics.”  They should help with the basics problem.  If you haven’t discovered Craftsy fabrics yet, take a look.  Also, I like the Etsy store, Stash Builders for specific colorways, etc.  And, of course, I continue to love Becca Babb-Brott’s Etsy store, Sew Me A Song.

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I got my first low-volume monthly shipment from Pink Castle fabrics, and it was beautiful.  I treated myself some time around Christmas.  I have since changed this fabric club to Cotton + Steel, but I really loved the first low-volume shipment from them.  Hmmmm…  I continue to be enchanted with low-volume fabrics.

I hope readers are having a good quilty winter.  I know I am.

 

Turkey Tracks: Cabbage “Steaks”

Turkey Tracks:  January 30, 2017

Cabbage “Steaks”

I saw a recipe for cabbage “steaks” on Facebook not along ago.

I am one of those people who LOVE all roasted vegetables, so I thought I’d try this one.  I’ve roasted cabbage sliced thin into shreds before and like it a lot, especially if there is garlic in the mixture.  In this recipe, one slices cabbage into rounds, drizzles olive oil over the “steak,” adds salt and pepper and whatever else one wants, and roasts in a 350º oven for something like 40 to 45 minutes.  The edges of the “steak” will get brown, as will the bottom.  (I cover the pan with parchment paper as I long ago stopped using toxic aluminum foil around food.)  Thicker steaks might take longer.  One that is about 1/2 inches or a bit bigger is about right.  The thicker the “steak,” the longer it takes to get that caramelized sweetness roasting can bring.

Here’s what the “steak” looks like on a plate alongside fresh peppers and carrots and some roasted haddock:

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Yumminess!

Interesting Information: Honey and Cancer: Sustainable Inverse Relationship Particularly for Developing Nations

Interesting Information:  January 30, 2017

Honey and Cancer:  Sustainable Inverse Relationship

DIL Tami Kelly Enright is the director of The Bee Cause, which seeks to sustain bees via educating people about bees.  By placing hives in public places (schools, stores, parks, etc.), people can learn about bees and bees can have a protected place to live.  Whole Foods has been a big supporter.  And the whole project was initially started and funded by The Savannah Bee Company in Savannah, Georgia.  Tami has won a number of major funding grants along the way.

Anyway, Tami sent me this study, which shows an inverse relationship between honey and cancer prevention.

Source: Honey and Cancer: Sustainable Inverse Relationship Particularly for Developing Nations—A Review

Turkey Tracks: Sew Sweetness Aeroplane Bag

Turkey Tracks:  January 21, 2017

Sew Sweetness “Aeroplane” Bag

I love this bag!!

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The top is pieced in the “Becca Babb-Brott” style.  Becca helped me a lot as this bag was a huge learning curve for me.  I love, also, the way the charcoal shot cotton fabric looks for the bottom and the straps.

I had to put the top zipper in THREE TIMES before I got it right.  Oh my!!  Don’t even ask…why…  Dense seamstress who has not put in zippers in probably 30 years or more.  AND what I think is a kind of misdirection about how to handle the ends of the zippers in the pattern.  Probably everyone else who sews in the world “got” what to do or not do according to the type of zipper one had, but not me…

I also learned with this top zipper that one has to sew a generous quarter of an inch on the first basting in of the zipper or the inner lining will not come up far enough to be caught when one does the final top stitching.

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BUT, I loved the way the inside zippers and red pockets came out.  Those I mastered right away.

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Can’t wait to use this bag AND I can’t wait to make another one.

The pattern comes in two sizes; I did the LONG bag.

Interesting Information: “Which Milk Is Most Nutritious: Soy, Cashew, Almond or Coconut?”

Interesting Information:  January 9, 2017

“Which Milk Is Most Nutritious:  Soy, Cashew, Almond or Coconut?”

This article comes from the “Well” section of The New York Times.

The general consensus is that “in terms of nutrients, nut milks pale in comparison to cow’s milk.”

I would add that raw cows milk is a much better choice than commercial cooked milk with added nutrients.  There is a lot of information on raw milk in the Mainely Tipping Points essays on this blog.

One factor considered in the article is the amount of protein available.

Another factor considered is the amount of nutrients that have been added back to a product that has destroyed the original nutrients.  I would also argue that these grocery-store milks are basically fake foods and that if you need to or want to make substitutions for cows milk, learn to make your own alternative milks using real ingredients that you will minimally process.  There are plenty of recipes on-line.  I’ve made coconut milk.  It’s easy.  You buy an organic dried coconut and, basically, pour boiling water over it and let it steep before straining out the coconut bits.

The article points out that the “good” of any of these milks also depends upon the particular manufacturer.  READ LABELS.

I would also NOT touch soy milk.  There is plenty of information on the dangers of improperly processed soy products on this blog.

Source: Which Milk Is Most Nutritious: Soy, Cashew, Almond or Coconut? – The New York Times

Turkey Tracks: “Bee Land” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  January 9, 2017

“Bee Land” Quilt

I can’t quite believe that I have finished this quilt.

I started it in Charleston, SC, Thanksgiving 2015 as my “take along” project.  I used scraps from my 2 1/2 inch square bin.  It felt more than a little daunting to take on a project this size with so many tiny (1-inch) pieces to make by hand using English Paper Piecing.

I called it “Bee Land,” after finishing the binding a few days ago.

The design is from Edyta Sitar’s “Flower Garden,” which is on the cover of her book HANDFULS OF SCRAPS.

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I did NOT attempt to do Edyta’s amazing applique borders, as you can see.

As a side note, I met Edyta in Houston in October 2014 and saw this quilt in her booth.  It is so gorgeous “in person,” as is Edyta Sitar.  It was a pleasure to meet and talk with her.  I have many of her books and so love her tiny, tiny pieces and exquisite work.

The quilting went so well on this quilt.  Lucy the Longarm behaved beautifully.  And I like the warm old gold thread color I used.  The pantograph is a 12-inch version of “Simple Feathers” by Anne Bright.

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The doll faces look lacy from a distance.

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I had another fabric for the borders, a blue fabric with medallions, but discarded it in favor of the warmer red/orange.  AND, I had TWO other backings, one to go with the blue fabric and another modern fabric that was whimsical.  At the last minute I settled on a more traditional fabric that I had bought in last year’s April “Shop Hop” for 40% off.  It’s perfect for this quilt.

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It is a really good feeling to finish a quilt you have spent a year +++ making.  There were hours of sewing pleasure with this project  It is all done by hand except for the binding and the quilting on Lucy.

I would love to make this quilt again using low-volume fabrics that are very light and bright, whimsical fabrics.

Books, Documentaries, Reviews: EUPHORIA by Lily King

Books, Documentaries, Reviews:  January 5, 2016

EUPHORIA by Lily King

I recently listened to Lily King’s novel EUPHORIA, downloaded from the Maine library system.

This novel was listed among the years ten best in 2014 by The New York Times.

I really enjoyed this novel, which is somewhat based on an episode in the life of Margaret Mead, but which is so much more.  King captures in the novel competing views on how one goes about practicing anthropology, something that is developing and changing anthropology in Mead’s time.  What is at stake is the recognition of what can actually be learned from explorations into foreign cultures.  The novel also asks what those cultures might learn about the anthropologists and their western culture.  Thus, peripheral, but present in the novel, is also the impact western explorers have on previously “undiscovered” cultures.

The novel is dynamic and the story moves forward in good time.  It can be read at the surface level of romance in an exotic place, but, as I said above, King is after more than that surface level.

Here’s The New York Times book review.  I have dropped in a quote from the review:

In “Euphoria,” the novelist Lily King has taken the known details of that occasion — a 1933 field trip to the Sepik River, in New Guinea, during which Mead and her second husband, Reo Fortune, briefly collaborated with the man who would become her third husband, the English anthropologist Gregory Bateson — and blended them into a story of her own devising. The result is as uncanny as it is transporting. “Euphoria” is a meticulously researched homage to Mead’s restless mind and a considered portrait of Western anthropology in its primitivist heyday. It’s also a taut, witty, fiercely intelligent tale of competing egos and desires in a landscape of exotic menace — a love triangle in extremis.

Turkey Tracks: The Reveal of Bonnie Hunter’s “En Provence”

Turkey Tracks:  January 4, 2016

The Reveal of Bonnie Hunter’s “En Provence”

I finished the last clue last night.

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And, now THIS…

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…is going to turn into THIS!!

 

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The above is Bonnie Hunter’s computer rendering of “En Provence.”

You can see her real version at quiltville.com–on the blog.

I have the Farmer’s Wife blocks on the design wall, and I think I’ve finished moving them around now.  I will sew those blocks into a quilt top before starting turning all the “clues” into a quilt top.

Books, Documentaries, Reviews: SNOWDEN

Books, Documentaries, Reviews:  January 3, 2016

SNOWDEN

First, SNOWDEN is an Oliver Stone movie, so one has to take that fact into account.

But, this movie is really interesting, especially today with all the information about Russian hacking.

I had no idea that Snowden was so brilliant.

Somehow, I thought he was “just” a contractor when he was far, far, far more than that.  Snowden always worked at the highest level of technological intelligence for the CIA, the NSA, etc., attached to companies with projects at that level.  He is also the kind of boy-scout patriot who would be and was terribly troubled by the kind of invasive spying on people, on countries, on…everything that could be spied on apparently.  He was sickened by what was being done with the information, how people were being blackmailed and so forth.  So, he is, I think, a whistleblower about those practices.  What he wanted was to reveal the extent of the spying so that Americans could have a debate about being “safe” versus the loss of privacy.

Laws have since been passed that shut down the spying on US citizens.

But…

Senior officials associated with these programs lied to Congress about what they were doing at the time.

There is so much power involved in knowing what this kind of technological spying produces.  Can the “powers that be” resist doing what they do so well?

And, as always, we dumb citizens who just want to live happy lives, have to trust that what is being done “in our name” is in “the right hands.”  Yet history is replete with stories of what the CIA did across the world “in our name”–and it was always already about facilitating American companies seeking to work in places where riches were to be had.  (See THE BROTHERS, Stephen Kinzer)  And, take a moment and think about how easily this information could be turned against private citizens if it is being wielded by “the wrong hands.”

It’s also an “everybody is doing it” problem.  One that I think is not going to go away.

It’s an interesting movie.