"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."

----Buddha

Imagine....

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Written & Performed by the great John Lennon over 28 years ago, more relevant now than ever in my opinion.

"He was really thinking in terms of a concern for the future of the human race. And the planet. And he had this love - this deep, strong love -- for the human race and its future." ~ Yoko Ono.

The Slow Poison

What if someone were to tell you that a chemical (MSG) added to food could cause brain damage in your children, and that this chemical could effect how your children's nervous systems formed during development so that in later years they may have learning or emotional difficulties?

What if there was scientific evidence that these chemicals could permanently damage a critical part of the brain known to control hormones so that later in life your child might have endocrine problems? How would you feel?

Suppose evidence was presented to you strongly suggesting that the artificial sweetener in your diet soft drink may cause brain tumors to develop, and that the number of brain tumors reported since the introduction of this widespread introduction of this artificial sweetener has risen dramatically? Would that affect your decision to drink these products and especially to allow your children to drink them? What if you could be shown overwhelming evidence that one of the main ingredients in this sweetener (aspartame) could cause the same brain lesions as MSG? Would that affect your buying decisions?

And finally, what if it could be demonstrated that all of these types of chemicals, called excitotoxins, could possibly aggravate or even precipitate many of today's epidemic neurodegenerative brain diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, ALS, and Alzheimer's disease? Would you be concerned if you knew that these excitotoxin food additives are a particular risk if you have diabetes, or have ever had a stroke, brain injury, brain tumor, seizure, or have suffered from hypertension, meningitis, or viral encephalitis?

Would you also be upset to learn that many of the brain lesions caused by these products in your children are irreversible and can result from a SINGLE exposure of these products in sufficient concentration?

How would you feel when you learn the food industry hides and disguises these excitotoxin additives (MSG and Aspartame) so they can't be recognized? Incredulous? Enraged? The fact is many foods are labeled as having "No MSG" but in fact not only contain MSG but also are laced with other excitotoxins of equal potency and danger.

All of the above are true. And all of these well known brain toxins are poured into our food and drink by the thousands of tons to boost sales. These additives have NO OTHER purpose other than to enhance the TASTE of food and the SWEETNESS of various diet products.

I don't know about you, but I feel as though I am now forced to box myself in and start from scratch... *sigh*

Hidden Sources Of MSG In Foods From the book
'Excitotoxins- The Taste That Kills'
By Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD

♥ My Little Man ♥

Long ago, beyond the stars in heaven, there was a human soul. It lived among the radiant colours of the angels, heard their heavenly music and listened to their wonderful song.

But the soul grew restless.

“How can I become closer to God?” it said. “How can I learn to be worthier of him?”

The angels replied, “There is only one place in the whole universe where you can learn that lesson. You must go again to the earth.”

So the human soul prepared for the great journey to earth, and one of the angels guided him.

Their path took them down through the kingdoms of seven great stars.

The Spirit of the first star-kingdom wore a mantle of deep, deep blue. This spirit had a memory greater than any you can imagine. He could remember everything that had ever happened in the universe. As the human soul passed through his kingdom he said, “I will give you the gift of memory, so that when you are very old on earth, you will be able to remember your whole life - all the things that have happened and all the people you have met.” This and other things was the gift of the first star spirit.

The Spirit of the second star-kingdom wore a garment of rich, royal orange. This spirit had wisdom greater than any you can imagine. When the soul passed through his kingdom he said, “My gift to you is the gift of wisdom and thinking, so that on earth you may think clearly and judge wisely.” This and other things was the gift of the second star spirit.

The Spirit of the third star-kingdom word a garment of strong, radiant red. This spirit had courage and energy greater than any you can imagine, and strong truth in his words. As the soul passed through his kingdom he said, “My gift to you is courage of the heart to face your lessons on earth, and the gift of speech so that you can share your thoughts and feelings with your fellow human beings.” This and other things was the gift of the third star spirit.

When the guiding angel led the soul into the fourth, the middle star kingdom, they met a wondrous Spirit greater than all the others, clad in a raiment of shining white. This spirit was filled with peace and all-encompassing love greater than any you can imagine, for this was the Spirit of the Sun. “My gift to you,” said the Sun Spirit, “Is the gift of goodness, so that you may fill your deeds with love and make yourself worthy of God.” This and other things was the gift of the Sun Spirit.

The spirit of the fifth kingdom wore a garment of a delicate and beautiful green. This spirit had beauty and gentleness greater than any you can imagine. As the soul passed through her kingdom she said, “My gift to you is the gift of beauty, so that in all you do, in all you create on earth, you can make the earth more beautiful.” This and other things was the gift of the fifth star spirit.

The Spirit of the sixth kingdom wore a garment of sparkling, radiant yellow. This spirit was full of movement and joyful quickness greater than any you can imagine. When the soul passed through his kingdom he said, “My gift to you is the gift of movement so that on earth you can run and dance with your feet, work skillfully with your hands, and move quickly and easily in your thoughts.” This and other things was the gift of the sixth star spirit.

The Spirit of the seventh star-kingdom wore a garment of deep purple. This spirit had imagination greater than any you can imagine. When the soul passed through her kingdom she said, “My gift to you is the gift of imagination, so that on earth you can see things in your mind when your eyes are closed, and can use your imagination to create pictures and paintings and many new things.” This and other things was the gift of the seventh star spirit.

Now the soul and his guardian angel drew near the earth, and the angel opened his hands and showed the soul a huge picture of his life to come - all the places he would see, all the people he would meet, the challenges he would have to face, and the life lessons he would have to learn to become worthier of God. “But remember,” said the Guardian Angel, “I will always be at your side.”

And the angel caused a sleep to fall over the human soul. The soul fell deeper and deeper asleep and grew smaller … and smaller … and smaller, and began to forget heaven and the star-kingdoms.

When he woke up, he was a tiny baby! And the baby’s parents called him Chad. And Chad learned to sit, and then to crawl, and then to walk, and then to talk, and then to think.

Verse Out of heaven bright, And the seven kingdoms of light, Came our Chad With gifts from the stars. Down he came to Mother Earth, And found a place and house of birth. Time has passed, and now can be told: Today he sits here 8 years old.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday's 'friend' party was celebrated in Guelph at the Galaxy Cinema. Chad had the opportunity of being led up to the projection room and he started the movie they all watched (Race To Witch Mountain) followed by a quick tour. That was a big surprise to him and thought it was very cool!

Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things.

Believing hear, what you deserve to hear:
Your birthday as my own to me is dear...
But yours gives most; for mine did only lend
Me to the world; yours gave to me a friend.

The Growing Challenge - Week Two

The Growing Challenge - Week Two

The Challenge: Grow one additional type of fruit or vegetable than you did last year, and grow it from seed. Post about your gardening experience once each week.

The Goal: To push ourselves to grow a little more food than we have before.

The Challenger: One Green Generation

After two weeks of waiting, they finally arrived! What, you ask? Why SEEDS of course :)
Beautiful organic heirloom seeds. That will eventually turn into fruit and vegetables, some herbs as well, and finish up quite nicely on our dinner plates.

I can NOT WAIT to start gardening...... my green thumb is losing it's color and needs some bird chirping weather stat!

By next week I will have many of these seeds started out in my front room where the suns warmth will help them grow. Pictures will accompany next weeks post.

The New Foals

Our two foals are doing fabulous! Just look at how much they each look identical to their Mom's!

They leave next week for Kentucky to be bred and will return in about 2 months. We will miss them. Our next mare is due today (March 15), but looks like she is at least 2 weeks away. We shall see :)

Coogee Sunrise & 09 Foal

Go Go Neigh & 09 Foal

Blessed are the broodmares :)

Sunshine

FINALLY, a day of sunshine and warmth.

My favorite weather is bird-chirping weather.

All for one and one for all

My brother and my friend

What fun we have

The time we share

Brothers 'til the end.

~Author Unknown

My alphabet starts with this letter called yuzz. It's the letter I use to spell yuzz-a-ma-tuzz. You'll be sort of surprised what there is to be found once you go beyond 'Z' and start poking around!

~Dr. Seuss

Meet Chichi Chimp

This is Chichi. She is a chimp made of wool. Chichi is showing off her glamorous outfit and striking a pose.

This is Chichi posing again after she received her new shoes. She loves her shoes :)

Chichi has a brother. His name is Chacha. Chichi is patiently waiting for him to arrive.

This was Chichi yesterday, before she received her down-like stuffing.

And this was Chichi just after her fabric was cut and sewn to create her plump little body and outfit.

Cole and Chad love how I created Chichi from a few pieces of fabric we picked up from the quilt shop. They are now getting ready to create some stuffies of their own, shhhhhhh! It's a secret, I can't tell you any more details. So come back soon to find out what they created okay?

*LOVED making this little chimp! I am thinking that I will be making plenty more with the hopes of catching the eyes of little girls & boys who would love to adopt one.*

The reluctance to put away childish things may be a requirement of genius.

Born 12:05 AM March 12th, 2009. Another colt!

First Foal of the Season

At 12:45 AM, our first foal of the season was born.
Welcome little one :)

The horse is God's gift to mankind. ~Arabian Proverb

It took our new little colt about 4 to 5 hours before he could finally stand on his own. I have never had a foal who didn't stand within 2 hours after foaling. This little guy was enormous though, and it didn't help that his legs are as long as a giraffes.

We don't usually interfere with the natural birthing process, however, after three and a half hours and the foal not nursing we had to step in. I have assisted in the births of many horses and am an expert at collecting milk from mares so that is what I did. The mare was very calm and allowed me help, I think she knew we were only trying to help. After collecting her milk (colostrum) Jim and I took turns nursing the foal while the mare stood over us watching with her very protective eyes. The small amount of milk gave him the energy he so desperately needed to help with getting him on his feet. About an hour later, he finally stood.
As with human babies, bottle feeding before nursing may complicate the whole process and we were worried, however, the foal had no problem suckling and hasn't stopped nursing since! *Whew*

The picture below sure isn't a pretty one, but it is what this little foal lived in for over 11 months.
The placenta.

By 6:30 AM I had finally gone to bed while Jim stayed in the barn to ensure that the foal was having no issues with standing up on his own. He is so proud of the new little one :)

The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit, and fire.

Chad and Sarah's Family Birthday Celebration.

Pictures speak a thousand words.........