I'm a believer!

I haven't given an update on my healthy food efforts recently, so I figured I would tonight. I recently went to see a naturopath, which is a doctor that prescribes earth, not drugs. I have ulcers, several of them. My stomach is a constant knot of pain. Such is the life when you work too much, and can't seem to figure out how to leave it at work. The doctor told me how to fix the ulcers - quit working so much. I already work the minimum hours I'm allowed to, which is still too much. To my credit, I have recognized this fact and am working on fixing it.

Until then, I'll settle for the other things she prescribed - licorice tea and cabbage juice. Yes, you read that right. Cabbage juice. And yes, it's disgusting. I went to Walmart and bought a juicer and some cabbage. I juiced the cabbage and took a swig, and nearly sent it back out as quick as it went in. But, alas, I am drinking it regularly now. And I am a true blue believer now. I had a nasty ulcer attack tonight, I seriously contemplated going to the emergency room. But Karl suggested I first drink some cabbage juice. So I relented, and I feel so much better. Who knew? And the licorice tea is really good. It doesn't taste anything like licorice, it's a smooth sweet tasting liquid. You boil some licorice root in water for 5 minutes, and voila, you have a delicious and healthy drink.

My next appointment is to determine if I am alergic to certain foods, most notably milk. I dread this discovery, as I love milk. But I have made the permanent switch to rice milk, and I've noticed less headaches. Don't know if that's a coincidence, but I find it interesting. Who knew your body and the herbs and natural foods you put in it could be so powerful and affect you in such crazy ways?

As for other fun stuff, we spent last weekend working on 0ur yard. We took full advantage of having Labor Day off, and we each took Friday off as well. We rented a backhoe and tore the yard up. Karl was nice enough to allow me equal time in the saddle, so to speak, which was fun. Other than coming within an inch of taking out our main electrical panel, I did pretty good. I tore things up, Karl came behind me and made it pretty. Despite mother nature's best effort to derail us by sending rain all weekend, we managed to get quite a bit done. As a side note, when I got to work on Tuesday, I discovered I had to go to a training class that afternoon. Guess what it was on......excavation. Go figure. I tried to test out, but they wouldn't let me. Whatever. I got in some more poker playing on my cell phone.

Anyway, here's some photo evidence of the damage:

The before picture, the driveway that we wanted to get rid of.

The new driveway we are cutting in:

Karl at work clearing out a turn-around area:

The new driveway after we've done some work:

The old driveway after the gravel had been peeled up by me. It's now ready for grass seed:I took the time to get a picture of Karl at play, but he didn't bother to get one of me. You'll just have to believe me:The somewhat finished turn-around spot and drive: Karl got to put the garage to use tonight to change the brakes on my car. You can see he's already moved in, despite not having a door yet:And as a side note, we have new neighbors:It's hard to see, but there's a baby horse in there. Pretty fun.

Anyway, that's it. The next step is to actually finish the garage, and get the final permit signed. It's been a fun experience, and it's cool we can say we built it. Hope all is well with everyone!