Things They Don’t Teach You

OK, the evidence is starting to pile up against sugar.  Statins may not be the beloved wonder drug afteall.  And cholesterol may not be the evil spawn of Satan.

I know two people (nameless for privacy) who had cholesterols ranging from 230-270.  Of course, this meant that their life span was going to shorten dramatically if they did not take statins IMMEDIATELY.

Lets call the 2 people Ralph and Sally.  Ralph did as instructed, but really didn’t change his activity or diet.  Within a month’s time, Ralph became lethargic, energy levels were low, and mysterious aches and pains occurred.  Within 3 months Ralph had a full blown case of rhabdomyolysis– a muscle wasting disease.  Rhabdomyolysis is the rapid breakdown of muscle; the by-products of this breakdown affect the kidneys and major organ systems.  Very quickly, you can be on death’s doorstep.

Fortunately, Ralph stopped the statins and began taking CoQ10 (ubiquinol).  Statins lower CoQ10 by inhibiting synthesis.  Low levels of CoQ10 cause muscle pain, congestive heart failure, and liver toxicity.  Within a few months, he was no longer bed-ridden and able to get back to life.

Sally took a different route.  Sally noticed that her cholesterol increased as she increased her sugar intake.  In study after study after study, it has been proven conclusively that healthy non-western people who eat nearly zero sugar become radically unhealthy when they assimilate the western high sugar diet.  Nearly every food product you buy has corn syrup in it.  Sugar is the real villain behind high cholesterol and heart disease.

Yet big pharma and physicians are not pointing the finger of guilt at sugar; instead they focus on fat (there’s more money to be made on statins).  But, it’s not the fat you eat.  It’s the fat you convert.  Sally was able to bring down her high triglycerides and cholestorol by diet, decreasing processed sugar, and not by ditching fats.

Any sugar that is not used for energy is converted to fat.  High fructose corn syrup (sugar on steroids) causes insulin spikes which damages everything in your body, including power losses within an hour of eating large amounts of sugar (the insulin spike clears all the sugar from your bloodstream but overshoots the mark).

This brings us to Mary Shelley.   In 1816 at the age of 19, Mary conceived the idea for her most famous book, Frankenstein.  Now the problem with good old Victor Frankenstein is that he experimented on other people, as well as other dead people, without their permission.  Victor needed more friends that he could experiment on!  I don’t think there would have been half as many torches and pitchforks storming his castle, if he had just asked a few of his friends to volunteer body parts.

As it turns out, I have a friend who is willing to become part of our experiment.  We have the experiment on my Mother-in-Law which will conclude in a few months.  And now I have a friend who is willing to give up all processed sugar and white food items for a month, to see if it brings her cholesterol down.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Did your Momma ever make you take a tablespoon of cod liver oil when you were a kid?  OMG, that stuff is nasty.  The first few weeks, Momma had to hold me down, pry open my mouth and pour it in.  A lot of gagging and screaming occurred.  After a while, you adapt, get used to it, and develop a taste for it.  Sort of like Stockholm syndrome.

My Mother always told me fish was brain food; the more fish I could eat, the smarter I would be.  I don’t know about the smart part, but it is certainly turning out to be the healthy thing to do!  I love fish.  When I’m on the road, that’s all I eat — morning, lunch, and supper.  Primarily salmon.

Of course, mercury is always a concern, so I also take fish oil capsules (molecularly distilled).  And I also take 5 grams of modified citrus pectin (MCP) early in the morning to remove the mercury from my innards.

Reuters published a story about MCP’s ( June 3, 2008) ability to work as well as chemo (without the toxicity) in advanced disease states.  MCP slows the progression, metastasis, and angiogenesis of several cancers.  A landmark study published in Clinical Medicine: Oncology, showed significant improvement of life for patients with breast, prostate, colorectal, kidney, lung, uterine, liver, pharynx, pancreatic, stomach, and melanoma cancers.

But, that’s not why I take MCP.  It also removes heavy metals.  A study published in 2006, had 8 healthy people taking 15 grams of MCP daily for 5 days.  The investigators found that significant amounts of arsenic, mercury, cadmium and lead were removed from the body (urine samples).  The study used Pectasol MCP (which is what I use).

But back to the fish story.  A new study (reviewing 3 decades of data) published in Heartwire concludes that there is extensive evidence that omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil EPA & DHA) are beneficial for everyone — not just heart patients.

Dr. Carl J Lavie of Ochsner Medical Center, New Orleans, LA, published their report in the Journal of American College of Cardiology August 3, 2009.

“We reviewed everything that was published on omega-3 that was clinically important, and the major finding is that there are a tremendous amount of data to support the benefits of omega-3, not just as a nutritional supplement–people have known that for years–but evidence that it prevents and treats many aspects of cardiovascular disease,” Lavie told heartwire .  The largest study of 40,000 participants was the most compelling.

Lavie elaborated to heartwire : “The benefit is different in different studies but can be as much as 30%.” The effects are seen on total mortality, sudden death, CHD mortality, and cardiovascular mortality.

They are recommending to physicians that all patients should get at least 500 mg per day of EPA/DHA (equal to two fatty-fish meals per week).  If you have heart disease, up that to 1,000 mg per day.

I have taken 6000 mg of fish oil (2100 EPA, 1500 DHA) every day for the last 9 years.

I’m a country kid from the 50’s. We didn’t get alot of the health mandates from the government as the big city kids got.  One thing I really hated was going to the doctor.  There was this bleachy/Pine-Sol smell that will haunt me forever.  I KNEW that when I went to the doctor, I was going to get a shot.  Since we went to the doctor about once a year, it was a dreaded event.

I remember when I was 6 years old and had to get a shot before I could go to school, my family told me that I would get a pill and a lolly pop—no shot.  That was great!

So I waltzed into Dr. Smith’s office and said “I’m here for my pill and lolly pop.”  Happy as a pig in wet mud, that was me!  Dr. Smith told me to lean over his table so he could look at my back.  Suddenly, the nurse grabbed my arms, and my pants came down, and I saw the needle flying through the air towards my exposed butt.

They lied!!

Now bear in mind that I was a wild child. My Mother worked all the time, non-stop.  Which left me home alone wandering through swamps, climbing trees, wrestling wet dogs in mud, so I was pretty strong and pretty quick.  Seeing that needle heading my way like a missile also gave me a significant adrenaline boost.  I did a spin, a kick, and I rolled off the table and out the door I went.  With my pants around my knees (the normal way most teens dress these days), I ran down the street screaming “Liar!” at the doctor who was hot on my trail, needle in hand.

I never got that shot, by the way.  Don’t even know what it was for.

These days, kids don’t have the advantages I had.  A huge amount of vaccines are dumped on them just months down the chute.

Below is an article that was emailed to me by Vaiva (Thanks!) about one family’s experience with the immunization protocols.

How horrible for the parents in this news piece. This is a terrible way to prove a point about vaccines. But millions of other families will reap the benefits by saving their kids. The immunization program needs a serious, profound, detailed analysis and revision.

When I was a child, I had 3 vaccines — TOTAL. But, today, young immature immune systems in children that are barely out of the womb, are being assaulted and overwhelmed by more vaccines than they can handle—20+ are recommended by the time the child is 12 months old!!

The result are children that have extreme reactions (or dead) like this child or, on the other end of the scale, slight personality changes that result in subtly damaged children – irreversible and permanent.

A simple, yet effective analogy: You probably can’t lift 60 pounds with one hand today. But if you start lifting 5 pounds every day, and increase it 5 pounds a week, in 11 weeks, you will be able to lift 60 pounds with one hand. Multi-vaccine injections is like dropping a 60 pound weight on a tiny child without the strength or development to withstand that assault, and expecting them to lift it. How can that possibly make any sense at all?

I don’t have a problem with the absolutely essential vaccines (polio, smallpox, measles), but they should be staggered; not given in a single day. Give the child time to adapt.

I’m glad this video is out there. In case it suddenly “disappears” from the web, I have made a copy for anyone to download. https://rcpt.yousendit.com/723420205/103e5dbcd8750546eecdcc8e4553281f

Here is the article by Dr. Andrew Moulden; it is very long, very detailed, but if you have 10 minutes, it’s worth the read.

Here is the original news article about the vaccine injured child.

MMR vaccine

BOCA RATON, FL — Boca Raton father, Ben Zeller, says his son, Ben, Jr., was a normal 11-month-old when he received the Measles, Mump and Rubella shot in November of 2004.

Within days, he had a complete febral seizure.

“This was a reaction to the MMR shot, there is no doubt in my mind,” Zeller said.

Zeller was one of the first to prove his case in the Federal Vaccine Court.  Last July, the court ruled his son would not have experienced the seizure if it weren’t for the MMR vaccine.

“We have thousands of cases and we can show all vaccines are causing the exact same problem,” said Dr. Andrew Moulden, a Canadian physician gathering evidence to support a class action lawsuit.

Moulden is spending the next week in South Florida interviewing families like the Zeller’s.

“To stop this from going on, we have to go to the courts,” Moulden said.  “They won’t stop doing this until we hold them fiscally responsible.”

Moulden has gathered more than five thousand images of children’s faces taken before and after the MMR vaccine to help prove his case.

The photos highlight children’s eyes turning in and out as well as the corner of their mouth dropping.  “These are classic signs of a stroke and clearly a direct result of vaccines,” Moulden said.

Still, many doctors and Health Departments say shots are not only safe but needed.

“It prevents death and disability from 14 childhood diseases so it is very important to give vaccines to keep kids healthy,” said Deborah Hogan with the Florida Department of Health.

Moulden disagrees and says the proof is in the pictures.

“It’s time for them to listen,” he said.

Dr. Moulden is asking all families who believe their child may have had an adverse reaction to the vaccine to send him pictures before and after.

You can click on the newslinks tab on the WPTV homepage for the link to Dr. Moulden’s site.

Some people need to be preserved and protected.

I loved my Mother. She knew Shakespeare, was a math wiz, a writer, a painter, and best of all, my friend. I miss her. She passed away over 30 years ago, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. Kind to a fault, everybody in town was her friend. It saddens me to think that her DNA was put in the ground, irretrievably lost forever. Unfortunately my kids will never know her.

People like my Mother deserve to live. You have to do everything in your power to protect them. My wife is like that; an unimaginable treasure. She’s good people. And fortunately, so is my mother-in-law.

Good people have to be preserved as long as possible.  My wife and I have power-of-attorney for each other.  I am a member of Alcor, and will be cryogenically frozen when I die.  My wife is ambivalent about having herself frozen.  I’m sure the future will need her wisdom & insight just as much as the present does. So if she kicks the bucket before me, she will end up in the cooler at Alcor, right next to me…. decision made.  It’s really hard to debate power-of-attorney at negative 346 degrees Fahrenheit.

A month ago, the doctor gave my mother-in-law the news of her bone scan. It wasn’t good. Severe osteoporosis. As with everything I do, I set out to research how this could be, and what to do about it.

If you examine our diets these days, we get very little of the nutrients from our food that God intended. Especially if you’re on a fixed income and artificial food also happens to be both plentiful and cheap. Artificial food is all the processed stuff manufacturers call “cheese,” nutrient re-added potatoes, and milk that has been pumped full of pesticides and estrogens. You might recall the scandal about the dairy industry: more than half of American cattle are injected with hormones to increase growth rate; dairy cows are injected with genetically engineered rbGH to increase milk production.  I won’t even talk about the pesticides they’re sprayed with and the garbage they eat.

Everything we eat is chocked full of soy, high fructose corn syrup, aluminum, and hydrogenated oil. If you eat these chemical/hormonal cocktails mislabeled as food, you might as well start buying bigger clothes and put your name on the list for a scooter-chair. Because very quickly you’ll be too fat to move, on insulin, and taking a dozen pharmaceuticals to control your myriad of health problems.

Reading through the literature, I find that a doctor will prescribe bisphosphonates for osteoporosis almost automatically; sometimes even if you don’t even have osteoporosis— “You’re the right age for it, let’s give it to you just in case.” And if your bone scan doesn’t get worse in a year, then it’s a success. No improvement, mind you—just doesn’t worsen. That’s a success?? Plus you have all these wonderful side effects to deal with: GI problems, head aches, as well as the nasty rare side effect called osteonecrosis. And did you know that once the bisphosphonates get in your system, they can stay there for as long as 10 years even if you stop taking the drug?!?!

I sought to find something that would IMPROVE my mother-in-law’s condition, not just stabilize it. And remarkably, there’s plenty of supplements (backed by clinical studies) out there that will make you better. The only problem with these “supplements” is that nobody makes any money off of them—therefore, they’re no good, they shouldn’t be considered, lets use the expensive drugs with all the horrible side effects that only possibly maybe stabilize but not improve your condition. It’s all about the money.

When I was 20 years old, I hurt myself pretty severely. Not just once, but several times.  I blame God for this, because for some reason when I was manufactured, the owner’s manual was not included with my model (I’m sure you got yours).  So I didn’t know you could not do stupid things, and expect no long lasting ramifications.

As a result, I live with pain on a daily basis.  I have learned to live with constant pain, work long hours, and have a happy family— all without becoming an alcoholic or prescription drug junkie.  I think I would have made a good spy; I can take pain.  So when the KGB started pulling out my fingernails, I would just smile through gritted teeth, tears rolling down my face—- AND TELL THEM ANY DAMN THING THEY WANTED TO KNOW!!

The years of pain pushed me to be in the best physical shape I could be in.  I took martial arts, I peddled thousands of miles on my bike, swam hundreds of miles in the pool, lifted weights, ate right, and took a zillion supplements.  Initially, I did all this to reduce the pain.  By and large, it works.  Along the way there have been unfortunate miscalculations (Oh my God, I took 2000 mg instead of 20 mg??!), as well as brilliant revelations (Wow, I can lift a truck!).

I promised I would outline the supplements that I take, why I take them, and what they do.  And I’m almost to that point.  But for this column, I want to talk about a mistep that brought a revelation.

About 10 years ago, I tried my hand at day trading.  I was getting fairly good at it, and was making some nice change on the side.  Unfortunately, I don’t have the personality to do this!  When you’re shuffling $10k-20K around with only minutes to react, your stress level goes up astronomically.  And I developed constant heartburn which evolved into esophageal reflux (GERD).  At its worst, it no longer felt like heartburn, but more like someone driving a stake through my chest, as the hydrochloric acid ate little holes in my esophagus.  I could easily identify with a vampire’s death at the hands of Buffy.

After months of doctor visits and dreadful tests, and wearing a ph monitor for several days (a wire stuck up your nose and into your belly. Nonstop fun that DeSade would have enjoyed), I was finally put on Prilosec, then ultimately Nexium.  And this seemed to control it.  The only side effects was muscle cramps (no acid in stomach to absorb minerals and B vitamins), and constipation (poorly digested food in intestines because of no acid).  Over time, I could deal with the reflux thanks to Nexium.  But, I progressively began to feel “not quite right.”  To the point that it would interfere with my bike rides and swimming (muscle cramps).

Then I read an interesting article by Dr. Robert Rowen ( go to http://www.secondopinionnewsletter.com to join).  He quoted an article by Dr. Ricardo Pereira that followed 351 patients with heartburn.  The study lasted almost 4 years.  Patients were given a proton pump inhibitor (omeprazole ) or a supplement cocktail (proton pump inhibitors are drugs like Nexium or Prilosec).  After 40 days, 100% of those patients taking the supplement cocktail said their symptoms were gone; whereas only 67.5% of the omeprazole group showed improvement.  So as usual, I decided to experiment on myself.

Before I go into the supplement cocktail, let me tell you about proton pump inhibitors.  The proton pump (think of them as acid factories) are used throughout your body, not just your stomach; but also in your bones.  If you take a drug to shut down the proton pumps, then your stomach and bones no longer use them.  Alkaline minerals in your stomach (like calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, etc.) need acid to be dissolved; suddenly you’re not getting these life essential minerals.  In your bones, there are two cells that work constantly to make strong bones; osteoclasts (break down old bone), and osteoblasts (build new bone).  Osteoclasts and osteoblasts are constantly tearing down and rebuilding vibrant, strong bone.  But, if the osteoclasts can’t tear down the old bone (because proton pumps are shut down), then the osteoblasts deposit new bone on top of old, making bones denser and more brittle.

Dr. Yu-Xiao Yang of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine published a study in JAMA that detailed hip fractures in people over 50, compared to a similar group of healthy people.  They found that after just 1 year of using proton pump inhibitors (PPI), your risk of hip fracture increased 44%!  Long term PPI users’ (taking higher doses) risk of hip fracture increased 260%!!

That’s not good, and I didn’t want any of it.  I’ve take care of osteoporotic patients whose spinal bones have collapsed; constant agony and debilitated.  Not for me, thanks!

Fortunately I read Dr. Rowen’s article, but also another study (http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2007/may2007_report_cimetidine_01.htm) about cimetidine.  Cimetidine was sold for years as Tagamet, and is used for heartburn relief.  It decreases acid production by inhibiting the acid producing cells in the stomach, a different pathway than proton pump inhibitors.  A side benefit of cimetidine is that it was discovered to inhibit tumor cell growth and metastasis.  That’s for me!

So I took  Dr. Pereira’s supplement cocktail for relieving reflux (GERD) and added the cimetidine 200mg at night.  My thinking was that I didn’t need acid production in my stomach at night; so no night acid that could splash or ooze into my esophagus when I went to sleep.  Putting blocks of wood under the head of my bed to keep my head elevated (so acid wouldn’t run downhill out of my stomach), was now a thing of the past, and unneeded.

Here is Dr. Pereira’s supplement cocktail: melatonin (6 mg daily), L-tryptophan (200 mg daily), vitamin B6 (25 mg daily), folic acid (10 mg daily), vitamin B12 (50 mcg daily), methoinine (100 mg daily), and betaine (100 mg daily) to fight heartburn.  I take the melatonin and tryptophan at night because it makes you sleepy.  Melatonin inhibits acid production and reduces nitric oxide which relaxes the doorway between your stomach and esophagus (this doorway, sphincter, keeps acid in the stomach).

So what did I learn?  Pharmaceuticals are not always blessings.  And when we interrupt one process in the body, we fail to consider that we may be disrupting thousands of functions we didn’t know about—until it’s too late.

As for me, my reflux is gone and I haven’t taken a proton pump inhibitor for 2 years.

As you know, I base my life on current clinical studies.  This was a a big mistake 20 years ago.  Fat was evil back then, so I swore off all fat.  Never realizing the damage this was doing to my body.  We need fat to build many of our hormones and enzymes. As time passed, I adapted and so did the studies.

As it turns out, it’s not fat that is evil.  There are 3 things we need to fear.  Whether you believe in evolution or not is irrelevant.  We creatures called homo sapiens were either designed or evolved, or both.  However, we got here, the DNA of our ancestors grew up on, and adapted to, a particular type of fuel.  We definitely need the polyphenols from plants to stabilize us.  But, it is not animal fat that is our enemy and causing bad cholesterol and triglyceride levels.  The 3 DNA enemies are:

• Processed sugar;
• Omega-6 fatty acids;
• Heavy metal contamination (lead, mercury, cadmium, etc.)

These 3 are given and accepted. Over and over again we see comparisons of natives migrating from non-Western diets that are very low in sugar intake, to areas of Western diets high in sugar.  The end result is that peoples with low heart disease, low cholesterol, and low blood pressure, now have dramatically higher values once they start eating the Western sugar diet.  The Tokelau Island Migrant Study is an excellent example of this.

Omega-6 fatty acids are found in vegetable oils, poultry, eggs, etc.  Omega-6 actually increases pro-inflammatory compounds in the body.  There is a delicate balance here.  We need omega-3 fatty acids to balance the omega-6.  But with soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup in everything we buy, we are tilted to inflammation—which equates to accelerated aging.  People living in high fish consumption areas (Japan, Norway) have much lower cancer than people eating Western diets (which are low in omega-3).

And heavy metal contamination of our food supply  is rampant.  Jets flying overhead dump unburned jet fuel into the eco system by thousands of tons.  Mercury in the oceans (only buy distilled fish oil) and lightbulbs (break a CFL and you have a biohazard).  And good Lord, lets don’t talk about lead poisoning!  Sexual dysfunction, mental decline, hypertension, heart disease.  A study published by New England Journal of Medicine said that for every 10 mcg/dl of lead increase in the blood, IQ drops by 4.6 points!

But, there is one additional enemy that you may not be aware of.  Its called the FDA.  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/prescription/hazard/independent.html

The FDA is owned by Big Pharma; pharmaceutical companies pay for the majority of FDA funding.  Very much like the fox watching the henhouse.

This has led to medical doctor’s “standards of care.”  Note the next time you visit your doctor.  He/she carries a book that has a list of drugs to treat every disease/symptom.  The doctor may or may not choose to use their diagnostic skill to evaluate your problem and try to help you.  They may just look in their little book and give you the “standard of care” for your set of symptoms.  The standard of care takes away possibly dangerous medicine, but it also removes the search for what is wrong with you— and creative ways for fixing you.

I discovered this a few years back.  For various reasons (injuries, etc.), I developed low testosterone.  I was lethargic, had no drive or energy to do just the basic things in life (this developed over several years).  I went to the doctor, and it was their opinion that I could be fixed by boosting my T3/T4.  So I was given a script for thyroid hormone.

Over a period of months, I found my energy levels increased.  I was feeling better.  But then I started having trouble sleeping.  And my head was pounding constantly.  I made several trips to the ER because I felt like my head was going to explode.  I went to see my doctor, and my blood pressure was running 160/100.  VERY HIGH!

So he prescribed blood pressure medicine.   The BP medicine fixed the problem, but I rapidly started feeling worse, even though my BP was now normal.  I had the constant feeling that I was about to fall off a cliff; as if any moment, my heart would just stop.

In my research, I read an article that correllated high T4 levels with high mortality.  I was taking Synthroid, which is T4.  I found another article that suggested I should treat low testosterone directly.  So I stopped the Synthroid.  My BP came down once I stopped the Synthroid, and I started Testim (testosterone) 1% gel.  Within weeks, I was feeling great.

What did I learn from this experience?  The Synthroid was causing my high blood pressure.  Instead of taking me off the Synthroid, I was prescribed another medication to lower my BP.  I was starting the classic downward spiral so many Americans have taken:  one med causes side effects, another is prescribed to treat the side effects, it causes side effects, and another med is prescribed to treat those.

Suddenly, you’re on a dozen medications, and you feel like you want to die.  All based on the “standards of care.”  Doctors are not completely at fault.  If they do something beyond the “standards of care,” they could lose their medical license, their livlihood, and be subject to fines, lawsuits, jailtime, etc.  Its terrible that they can’t use their brains to fix the problem.  Remember, the FDA is not here to help you.  The FDA is here to sustain their existence, validate their reason to be.  And Big Pharma pays the light bills.

In the end, I fixed the problem, not the symptoms.  Watch yourself.  Don’t get caught on the drug merry-go-round.

We bought a new house last year; finally moving out of the congested city and back into the country.  My wife and I are both country kids, so working in the dirt, digging, planting, composting, and eating stuff we grow is fun.  20 years ago, we moved to the edge of Katy, TX.  There was 1 fast food restaurant and 1 Walmart.  Now, all the trees are gone, HEB, Best Buy, Applebees, LA Fitness, Kroger, a half dozen gas stations, mattress stores, Burger King, Dairy Queen, Hartz Chicken, & Palais Royal were all a 5 minute walk from my house.  The traffic jams were horrendous!

About 15 years ago, we saw this coming and bought 40 acres in Missouri; out in the middle of nowhere, right next door to nothing.  I figured in 20-30 years, there would be a Walmart nearby and thats all we would need in life.  But, ohhh, there’s something they don’t teach you in high school!

When I bought the land in Missouri, I had no idea that so many of the residents were “disabled.”  It seems that you can go to Missouri, develop a mental or physical ailment, be classified by a doctor as disabled, and live off the taxpayers—early retirement, plus medical!

Now I wonder how the Missouri government pays for all that?  Hmmm?  Well, not only do they have a state income tax, they also have a property tax, AND a personal property tax.  I very quickly learned that Missouri is not where I want to live.  I would immediately take a HUGE pay cut because of all the welfare/disabled folks I would be supporting.

So now the Missouri property is up for sale.  Wished I had learned about researching state taxes in high school BEFORE I bought the property.  The only benefit is that I have met some really hard working, good natured folks in Missouri.  Too bad they have to work so hard to pay for the other folks.

Fortunately, Texas doesn’t tax its citizens to death, so that is where we will stay.  And the added benefit of being out in the country is fantastic.  We have tomatos, peppers, figs (the Celeste version is the best); OMG, the figs are to die for!  Plus growing some hard to grow stuff like an Australian Eucalyptus tree (supposed to grow 6 feet a year and smell like… well.. eucalyptus).  My wife is composting, and we’re going all natural on fertilize and pesticides.

So here’s another thing they don’t teach: sod!  We moved into this house, and its expected that you landscape.  $8,ooo later, we have an irrigation system and Palmetto St Augustine (engineered for this area).  The summers here are hot!  And the $8,000 lawn requires a lot of water.  So our benevolent water company increased their rates 84%.  Because of the water company, we learned quickly about the wild grasses and wild flowers that don’t need much water.

For example, just down the road from us is a lot full of gorgeous Texas Blue Bells.  These are amazing plants (I hate to see the development mowers come each year and mow them down).  We’re in the middle of a drought (no rain for 35 days), and these flowers are bright, huge, and vibrant.  Fantastic!

What did we learn from all this?  We learned not to buy into the standard rhetoric about where to live and how to live.  Stay away from states that tax you.  Don’t plant grasses and flowers that require a lot of water and fertilize.  Avoid water companies (drill your own if you can). Buffalo grass is the natural grass that God planted here, needs very little water, and our wildflowers look fantastic from spring to fall.  Check out these folks:

http://www.wildseedfarms.com/

Two more tidbits:  fireants and black widows.  If you’ve never been stung by fireants, count your blessings!  These aggressive little spawns of Satan deliver a nasty sting that blisters and itches for days.  You can poison the crap out of them, but I guarantee you, they’ll be back.

We also have black widows out here; huge black widows.  These things can deliver a nasty bite that will land you in the hospital, or could even land you 6 feet under (unless you’re a member of Alcor).

I don’t want to use poison out here to kill all my friendly varmints, so I came up with a great way to get rid of both fireants and black widows.  Its called a blow torch.

If you do anything to a fireant mound (pour vinegar on it, water, gas, whatever), they will be back.  But what if you killed the queen and her eggs?  Ah Ha!  So when I find a fireant mound, I carry a garden trowel and a blowtorch.  The moment you touch the mound, 10,000 ants swarm out to sting you to death.  But, I deliver the fire right back and turn them into toast with the blowtouch.  Digging and burning at the same time, I finally reach the queen and her eggs.  Once they’ve been barbequed, the game is over, the mound is dead.  All natural pesticide, with zero environmental impact!

I do the same thing with black widows; hunt down their hiding spots, and roast them.  Can’t have kids accidentally finding these lethal devils.

Oh, almost forgot the armadillo.  This is a destructive juggernaut!  An armor plated digging machine, it is making swiss cheese out of my yard and plants.  Nothing stops it or deters it.  And when struck with a shovel (I would never do this.  I’ve just heard stories), it is amazingly fast, and can outrun a human.  I am in the process of trying to trap them before they dig under my house and disrupt the foundation.  If anyone has any thoughts, please share.

The last 3 months have been very entertaining. I’m the kind of person that loves financial disasters.   I’m an event trader.   I always keep a stash of money aside for these “disaster” buying opportunities. Whenever someone does something ridiculous, if you’re ready, and watching, you can make some cash. I remember a few years ago, the media really hyped Israel retaliating for missle strikes— it was the end of the world! And the market dropped big time. I went on a buying spree and made some quick cash, because within a few days, everybody got used to missles flying in the middle east, and the market went right back up—and put money in my pocket.

The housing bust was the same opportunity, only amplified greatly. I’m glad I was able to keep my job!! But this was a buying opportunity. So when the DOW got down to 6700, I bought AAPL, FXI, QQQQ, and several others. At the worst of the market, my portfolio was down $110k! As of today, I’ve made $36k profit on the purchases I bought at DOW 6700, and am now about only $20k in the hole.  I’m pretty conservative.  Some folks lost half their portfolio, and may take years to recover.

The stimulus package has been more hype than reality. Only about 7% has been spent, so its not doing much. As more of it gets spent, the economy will heat up, inflation will rise, and I’ll start looking for a time to cash in my winners. Once the DOW hits 10,500 ( and/or the S&P hits 1150) around October or November, then I need to back away from the table. Because the next disaster is just around the corner— inflation and credit cards. It will be the end of the world again, and everything will collapse. And another great buying opportunity will present itself. It’s always good to be ready.

One of the things they never teach you in school is investing. Most people learn by trial and error (me), which can be very expensive when you make mistakes. Warren Buffett has the right idea. Buy stuff you know about, that you use, that you understand. For years, I despised Apple products. I didn’t understand them. I’m a PC guy. With a PC, you learn to fix everything—tinker with the OS, the hard drives, video cards, the registry. With Apple, you turn it on and use it. What’s that all about?!? Why would you pay an exorbitantly higher price for that luxury? But, after I played with the IPOD, I got it. The Apple stores are always full, too. So over the last few years, I’ve made some nice bucks off of AAPL.  I bought some at 93; now its 157.

So, what have I learned from the stock market? Research a list of 10 stocks that everybody has to have to live. Keep that list handy, and enough cash on the side to buy what you want. Then wait. Wait for disaster to strike in the news media! Doesn’t matter if its real or absurd. Take that idiot Kim Jong-il. He’s gotten alot of press because of nukes. But, he’s being ignored again because people are used to his idiocy. So what can you do next to get attention? He’s going to have to launch one. Or what about Amadinejad? He’s threatening a nuclear strike on Israel. That would certainly drop the market for at least a day or two.

So, keep your eyes open. Money is out there, you just have to be alert, be informed, and be ready.