Minerals and Summertime

 Why does it seem that atomic science is always associated with radioactive elements?  Maybe because you can do neat things with those elements, but Hey!  There is a whole rest of the Periodic Table out there.  You know the rest of those atoms are pretty cool too...  LOL!

Look at copper and all the neat stuff it can do.  Look at that , I am off track already.  Um, yeah its, uh, Summertime, the season of mineral deficiencies.  I have had some great success using minerals to help my recovery after strenuous work outside.  You sweat a lot more during the Summer, and electrolytes are a big part of that process.  So you are spending more electrolytes, and it would make logical sense that you would naturally be craving, or needing more.

Did you know that you can run out of electrolytes and potentially die from a severe deficiency?

Well, I have some experience with this.  I was hospitalized for Hyponatremia, which is an extreme sodium deficiency.  This was maybe 4 years ago.  I was aware of sports drinks, and even used them periodically.  I was nutritionally aware, thinking I was doing everything right.  I was, and still am taking a colloidal mineral supplement.   What I found out then was that I am not getting a large enough volume of the electrolyte minerals, not salty...

Now, just recently I had another event where the symptoms were very similar to Hyponatremia. This was very familiar to me in a feeling really bad way.  This time I have been getting more electrolytes.  Also still taking the colloidal mineral supplement.  I didn't really put it together until I tried something new.  I had been using a popular sport drink with a "classic" flavor.  I've got a nice, mined mineral salt that I use on food.  I'm getting lots of minerals, but somehow have a mineral deficiency.  The hard part is figuring out what mineral that is.

This was sort of a happenstance thing.  An associate had given me this trendy electrolyte powder that you dissolve into a liquid.  I looked at it cautiously, but took it.  Then when I was feeling really bad, and grasping at straws for a solution I remembered the electrolyte powder, and tried it.  It didn't have any instant effects.  It took a day or two to notice that I felt better.  I formulated a theory then dug into the interwebs.

So the mineral du jour is magnesium, and the deficiency is called Hypomagnesemia, a protracted deficiency of  magnesium.  The funny thing about this is that I have magnesium supplements, and I guess I don't like them.  They are gummies covered in sugar, kind of candy like.  There are some observations I have made about these things.

 The colloidal mineral supplement is great.  I'm going to continue to take it because it provides a large spectrum of minerals in tiny amounts.  This stuff is rather miraculous in this way.  What I wasn't seeing was that they are trace minerals which means there is a tony amount of each mineral.  With the electrolytes you need mass quantities...

The mined mineral salt is very flavorful, which is because it is loaded with trace minerals.  A large spectrum of minerals in tiny quantities.  I'll continue using this one because it tastes good.

The popular sport drink with the "classic" flavor had a critical omission for me.  It contains potassium but no magnesium.  I get plenty of sodium, no problem there, don't really need more.  Potassium was there, but maybe not enough.  It was the magnesium, not there, that was the root of the problem, and the sickness.  This illness kept me in bed for several days, and by what I have read could have been fatal.  Not eating the Gummy Magnesium and not getting enough magnesium elsewhere caused a dangerous deficiency.

Another product that I had been using in this same realm of interest is that seltzer with the plopping, and fizzing.  I think that is a good product, and I never really took it with the idea that it was for electrolytes.  However it does contain a massive dose of sodium, but I don't think you can consider it to be "electrolytes," plural, unless it has potassium and magnesium.

Since I have gone through this I looked at the market place and noticed that there are a lot of good electrolyte products out there.  You just gotta pick the one that has the right stuff for you, and your condition.  Stay Salty...

 

Little Obsticle

  Every project has its prerequisites, and deviations.  I try to look at these things before starting a project.  But sometimes I get surprises like that time when I found misassembled irrigation pipes was causing the fence to rot, Moisture and Fence Failure.  This time it is also moisture, but drainage, and preemptive.

 The vertical trench is my drainage trench, and crossing the drainage trench is a Maple Root.  OK, we just have to exorcise the Maple Root, and we can get on with it.  LOL!  Great Plan.

  So I go straight at the place where the Maple Root is in the way of the Drainage Trench.  To use the saw I have to get the dirt out of the way.  Red Flag #1, Texas Clay Soil...  Now starting to excavate...

Yes, this is close to the area where the trunk was, and this was a big tree.  After getting down into the ground away I realize that this root is a lot bigger than I visualized... 

 I'm gonna have to work this some more before I can get a saw on it.  But, you know there is always a silver lining.  Now I know exactly where the phone line, cable line, and irrigation supply lines are...

Chiles 2026

  I got to plant new Chiles this weekend.  I've been working on the yard mostly over the past couple months.  So I finally cleaned the winter out of the Chile garden, and am ready for the heat...

 There are some plants that have been there and persist.  Mainly I pulled out the winter weeds, and then planted the 10 cages.  The Chiles are Habanero, Cayenne, and Chile de Arbol.  What has persisted over the winter are Oregano, Sage, Onions, and Lemon Balm. 

 I pulled a lot of usual plants like Wild Strawberries, Clover, and Grass.  Also lots of my perpetual friend Trumpet Vine.  I did also find one tiny sprig of Poison Ivy, and made it go away...

Muckworking

 There is another fence project on the west side.  If there is an untamed portion of the yard it is the west side.  It is open, and level which are problems that I want to take care of this spring.  First it is open which creates traffic through my side yard, wildlife, and otherwise.  Next it is level, the one part of the whole yard that is level.  This is a problem because the water doesn't move.  Peanut Galley erupts "You need a French Drain!"  No, I need drain slope.

Previously there was a lattice structure here that held climbing plants.  There was a white Rose plant that grew on it for years.  But I had issues with whatever I was growing there because of drainage issues that took a long time to realize.  I always knew it was swampy, but didn't make the connection to the problems with the plants in that area.

 As I started to dig into the problem I realized also that there was only a couple of inches of top soil, and then hard clay underneath.  This is a problem for plant roots, and absorption, and retention of water.  Also the entire side is level so low spots turn into long lasting ponds.  The biggest pond is right where I want to build.

 This area is typically overgrown with Ruellia which are a cane like plant that produce purple petunia like flowers.  They are commonly called Mexican Petunias.  Well they hide this swampy patch well, and love the water.  They grow like crazy, and hide the swampy mess underneath.

 So, first before I build anything I need to drain this area.  When we did the fence work here it was relatively dry because it had not rained for weeks.  But this area was still moist, and I used mulch to limit the muddiness.  So the next thing to do is to make a drainage trench to get the water out of here.

 I'm looking for the lowest spot I can get to be the outlet of the trench.  Then I work up the hill into the level area.  This will help me map the low spots in the side yard, and I can begin to move soil around to expedite the drainage.  I call this Muckworking because we have had some significant rain this week, and the west side yard is sloppy wet, and I am digging.  Very messy, but good because I am just a kid playing in the mud...

Winter Pizza

 Snowed under in North Texas by 2 inches of sleet.  Its too cold to work outside with the ice pellets covering everything.  So this kind of weather usually pulls me into the kitchen.  I've had a new flour I've been meaning to try, and this is a good time.  Pizza is solid comfort food for frozen weather.

 I have a Pizza Doh! recipe that I have been making for many long times.  But this time I am using a recipe from the manufacturer of the flour.  This one is double ought Pizza Flour, specifically for Pizza.  This one is high in gluten which is the protein that gives Pizza dough its characteristic chew.  The gluten is formed as protein molecules bind together, and form chains during the kneading process.

 The recipe for me is very different than my usual Pizza Doh!  It is only half the size of my normal batch which produces around 40 ounces.  This recipe produced 18 ounces, and I wound up making one large pizza with it.  I let the dough proof for around 12 hours on the counter, and another 8 in the refrigerator

 This recipe has no oil in it.  I was a hesitant to not add oil.  I can't think of another recipe that I have seen that did not use Olive Oil.  But, well OK, I'll try it, and assembled the recipe as instructed.  The result is that the dough is whiter, and not as rich, but closely resembles New York style dough.  It worked correctly as a hand formed, and not rolled, flatbread.

 The toppings are going to be the usual stuff I put on a pizza so all other things are the same, and only the dough has changed.  For me Pizza is the main course so it is protein packed with Pepperoni, and Sausage.  Next we'll toss it into the Thermal Reactor at 500F for a while.

 I cook Pizza on Stone, and use Corn Meal beneath the Pizza to make it moveable.  This dough is very moist even though I added extra flour to dry it out a little.  If the dough is too wet it is more like batter, which is not the way pizza works.  Maybe I added a little too much water at first, but adding a little more flour will balance that out, and take the mixture back to dough.

 I think my Pizza Stone is almost 15 inches.  So this Pizza is maybe about 14 inches.  It is much larger that the pies that I normally make.  So I think it will probably be a couple meals, and some snacking.  Dior is more than OK with that.

Renewed

New to Old comparison...  New, January 2026...

 The Old in October 2025...

 This is after I started working on it.  It did have all its pickets before I started...

East Fence Alignment

 The East Side Fence is the bottom of the property.  There are more rotted post in this area than all the rest of the fence.  The fence line was pretty messed up, so the first thing to do was to get the fence back in line...  Notice the blue line in the picture.  That is where the fence should be, sort of...

 The rotten pasts can be leveraged to make the fence straight again.  Posts usually rot right at the base of the post where it sits in the concrete slug.  The rot starts at that line but travels up and down, leaving a weak spot right at the ground level.

Of course the top of the post comes off, but you can dig down into the concrete slug and remove the rotten post there.  In this case the center of the post had composted into dirt.  This leaves a hard footprint to hold a temporary post.  I was was able to dig into it a few inches, but that is enough to hold the bottom end of the post temporarily.   Replacing the floppy, rotten post with a solid post puts the foot of the post in the right place.

 With the bottom end of the fence in line now we get all the posts plumb.  You get the long construction level, go down the line making each post plumb.  This is a little more than just pushing the fence in a repair.  I have been adding support posts, and also using old support posts.  Some of these repair posts are in the wrong place, so I have to shim the bones to fit the fence line.  Then we have a straight fence, and can begin adding new support posts, and repairing broken posts.