Riskier Back Surgeries on the Rise. Beef.

“A study of Medicare patients shows that costlier, more complex spinal fusion surgeries are on the rise -- and sometimes done unnecessarily -- for a common lower back condition caused by aging and arthritis.
What's more alarming is that the findings suggest these more challenging operations are riskier, leading to more complications and even deaths.

Dr. Charles Rosen, a spine surgeon at the University of California, Irvine, founded the Association for Medical Ethics to nudge doctors toward scientific evidence over vested interests. Forty-nine spine surgeons have joined, pledging to refuse any type of compensation or earnings from companies for using a product.

Rosen applauded a provision in the new health care law that requires device makers and others to file annual reports to the government on their financial ties to doctors. Patients will be able to look up possible conflicts in a government database.

"Too much fusion surgery is done in this country and often for inappropriate reasons," Rosen said. While complex fusions are needed for some conditions, he said, patients "should not hesitate to get a second opinion." “ 
More at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36197896/
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For last night's dinner, I ate some meatloaf that Claudia had made, and started itching a little while later.  So I am allergic to beef, or something that has been fed or added to it.   She gets her meat from Sam's Club, and if they do the same as WalMart, it has been cut up and packaged in Bentonville or somewhere, and trucked in.  So, no doubt it is full of preservatives or something to keep it red.  As much junk as they feed the cattle in the feed lots these days, there is no wonder folks have allergies!  
I have some range fed, organic beef here, so I will try that.
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What About Grass-fed Beef?
" Feeding grain to cattle has got to be one of the dumbest ideas in the history of western civilization.
Traditionally, all beef was grass-fed beef, but in the United States today what is commercially available is almost all feedlot beef. The reason? It's faster, and so more profitable. Seventy-five years ago, steers were 4 or 5 years old at slaughter. Today, they are 14 or 16 months. You can't take a beef calf from a birth weight of 80 pounds to 1,200 pounds in a little more than a year on grass. It takes enormous quantities of corn, protein supplements, antibiotics and OTHER DRUGS, including growth hormones.

Switching a cow from grass to grain is so disturbing to the animal's digestive system that it can kill the animal if not done gradually and if the animal is not continually fed antibiotics. These animals are designed to forage, but we make them eat grain, primarily corn, in order to make them as fat as possible as fast as possible." 
More very interesting info at: http://www.foodrevolution.org/grassfedbeef.htm
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This morning, Ray did some more Dicor caulking, and smoothing on the B+ windows, they should be ready for painting tomorrow.

Jay took off the gutters over the big doors on the workshop, they weren't doing much good the way they were.  Just a place for pine needles to collect against the roof.  I will have to get a different kind.  Ray inspected my roof while we had the ladder there.

In the grooming room, Jay and I packed up the hand-held vac back in it's box, as it is just too heavy, so I don't use it.   It is easier, and quicker, for me to use a broom and dust pan.  By the time it would take to get the hand vac opened, emptied, filter cleaned, and put back together, I'd have it done. There is a stick vac kept plugged in the grooming room, for sucking up stray cut hair, then for deep cleaning, I have a shop vac.

 
Then we hung some more winter clothes up in the store room attic, for sale later in the year.  The consignment, and donation places don't want them right now.  Spring has really sprung, so we put away my electric mattress pad, too.
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Grifters!
Yesterday afternoon, a fancy new truck with a roofing company name on it, pulled up in my driveway. The uniformed man with a clipboard said he was supposed to check all the roofs in the area because of the bad hail storm we had on the 7th. April.
He got a ladder out of his truck, looked at my roof, and said he could see white places where the hail had damaged it.

How can a black asphalt-based 30-year shingle roof have white places on it.  I wasn't born yesterday!

Pollen, The Dust of Life. Hail! New Dog.

After yesterday’s post about the pine trees shedding their little cones, here is something about:

 Pollen The Dust of Life 

(But don’t knock it, our lives depend on it. !)

“Two pounds of honey requires that bees make about ten million trips to individual flowers.

WHEN springtime comes around, bees get busy and pollen fills the air. For people who suffer from allergies, pollen seems to be a curse rather than a blessing. But before we dismiss pollen as just a nuisance of nature, we should keep in mind the role this unique dust plays. We may be surprised to learn how much our lives depend on it.

The Way Pollen Travels
 “Probably the most important contribution made by insects to human health and well-being,” explains Professor May Berenbaum, “is one for which they get little credit: pollination.” Fruit trees usually have flowers that depend on cross-pollination to produce a good crop. Hence, you can see how important the transportation of pollen is to our well-being.

The Pollinators

FLIES AND BEETLES

These are some of the unsung heroes of pollination. If you enjoy chocolate, you can thank a tiny fly that does the vital job of pollinating the flowers of the cacao tree.

BATS AND POSSUMS

A number of the world’s most majestic trees, such as the kapok and the baobab, depend on bats for pollination. Some fruit bats not only feed on nectar but also eat the fruit and disperse the seeds, thus performing a double service. In Australia small marsupials known as possums visit flowers to feast on nectar. During the course of their visits, their furry bodies transport pollen from flower to flower.

BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS

These attractive insects depend largely on nectar for food, picking up pollen as they fly from one flower to another. Some beautiful orchids depend entirely on moths for successful pollination.

SUNBIRDS AND HUMMINGBIRDS

These colorful birds constantly flit from flower to flower, sipping nectar. Pollen gets deposited on the feathers of the birds’ forehead and breast.

BEES AND WASPS

The hairy bodies of bees pick up pollen as readily as a pair of spectacles picks up dust, making bees ideal pollinators. Just one bumblebee can carry as many as 15,000 grains of pollen. Thanks to the introduction of bumblebees from England in the 19th century, clover fields now flourish in New Zealand, providing vital forage for the country’s livestock.

 Commenting on the result of that remarkable activity, Jesus said: “Take a lesson from the lilies of the field, how they are growing; they do not toil, nor do they spin; but I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these.”—Matthew 6:25, 28, 29.

Thanks to pollination, plants thrive and produce the food on which we depend. True, pollen may cause discomfort to some of us, but we should all be thankful for the busy pollinators that distribute this dust of life. Successful harvests depend to a large extent on this marvelous natural process that testifies to the amazing handiwork of our Creator.” Here is the full article: http://www.watchtower.org/e/200704a/article_01.htm


So next time you complain about the pollen, remember it is ‘The Dust Of Life’.  We would have no flowers, fruit or vegetables without it.
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Late yesterday afternoon there was a terrible racket, and I just couldn't figure out what it was.  I went to the back door, and there was HAIL the size of mothballs, coming down in buckets.  Thank goodness the RV was back in the RVport, as these missiles where hurling down.  As soon as it stopped I took the new dog out into the back yard, and some were larger than that.  The dog thought they were neat and tried to eat them.  Once it was all over it really cooled down, less humid, and there was no more need for the AC. 

Now about this new dog:
It was running loose in our subdivision.  She had been hanging around in Leon’s, Jay’s, and Claudia’s area, down by the lake.  She had been sleeping on Claudia’s cushioned porch swing.  They had all been feeding her.

She had an ID tag on her collar,  and the name Ginger, but when Leon called the phone number, they hung up on him.  These people at the address on her collar had moved to Beaumont, and just left the dog.  So Leon was ready to call the pound. Something had to be done, so I brought her here.

I didn’t want her to go to the pound as she looks so much like a Pit Bull, that they would just put her to sleep, and she is really sweet.  I checked online and she is an American Staffordshire Terrier. http://www.akc.org/breeds/american_staffordshire_terrier/  and the Pit Bulls were bred from them.

I called her Pixie, even though the name on the collar was Ginger.   She didn’t know the name Ginger.  As soon as I fixed her a comfy bed on the grooming room floor, fed and watered her, she was out like a light.  She was so glad to be around people again.  Those breeds are like that, all they want to do is please people.  She is a very young dog with a puppy mentality,  so I took her walks, rides in the car, and she was so calm and good, but I knew I couldn’t keep her.

Of course, the foster cats had to stay in the house, as there was no way they could all be in my grooming room.  Even if I had locked the cats up in their big cages, Pixie could have destroyed them if she wanted to.  She could open the Dutch door going into the Middle Room where the cat cages are!

I spent a long time emailing lots of Pit Bull Rescues, and they are all full.  (When will people stop breeding dogs, especially anything that looks like a Pit Bull).  These dogs need lots of exercise, and many people can’t give them that, so they get rid of the dog.  They are difficult to find forever homes, as Pit Bulls have a bad rap.  It is people that make them mean, they aren’t born that way.

By this time Pixie had got her second wind, and was bored being in my grooming room by herself.  She started tearing up my dog beds, and hurling my clippers on the floor!  Large pups can do that, and I am not set up for them.   I was just about to set up my big Great Dane cage, when Shay saw her, and said “ That’s Ricky’s dog”.

I called Ricky, who lives down the street, on his cell, and he gave me a very accurate description.  Yes, this was his month long missing “Bella”.  He asked if I would keep her until he got off work.  So the folks who stole her must have put their “Ginger’s” collar on her.  As soon Ricky's daughter got off the school bus she was right here to pick up her dog.

That made my day!