You should never be alone (4/1/2019)

I was listening to one of the psychiatry shows on one of my favorite XM satellite radio stations (Doctor Radio) where one of the geriatric psychiatrists said something that sounded very profound to me: “There is a difference between loneliness and solitude.” I think that this is one of those phrases many introverts understand.

This got me thinking. Loneliness is a negative emotion. A person is or feels lonely when something or someone is missing; when no other person is with them. As common believe tells us we need human contact. It is one of the things that might prevent or at least slow down mental decline in old age; things like Alzheimer and dementia. This is also, why joining groups like religious communities and other clubs is so important, especially at advanced age (over 65 … help that’s me!).

Solitude, on the other hand, is defined as the state of being alone. It is the state of being alone without being lonely. Solitude, the definition goes on, can be especially peaceful and pleasant, an interesting distinction, indeed!

This is why that sentence stayed with me the whole day. We introverts often enjoy solitude and I have often wondered if my need to be alone is harmful to my mental health. Conversely, it seems now that my need for solitude means that I may not lose it when I get old. Introverts like me still surround themselves with their family, friends and often clubs and religious communities, but we need to retreat in solitude so now and then (more often than extroverts do) to recharge. We can probably survive by spending two thirds of our free time in solitude.

I am not sure if solace is related to solitude or not, but one would think so. The official definition for solace is “help and comfort when you are feeling sad or worried.” I find my solace from blogging, being with my bonsais, from walking in the woods, being out in nature, sailing or even just driving the backroads, all activities I do in solitude. While I enjoy retreating in the woods, I usually do not seek solace there. I do it because I am an introvert, a naturalist, a lover of nature and because of my nature deficit disorder. However, at times, I definitely have retreated into the solitude of the woods when I was sad and worried, in search of solace.

As I have described before, being out there in nature, in the woods, brings a certain inner peace to me. It clears my mind it allows me to concentrate on what is around me and not to obsess about what is in me, what is eating me. It all comes so very close to meditation, being in the moment, observing all that is going on around me; breathing in those phytoncides, lowering my blood pressure. 

Naturally, being a naturalist, it is just nice to be out there in those woods. I take any moment possible to get out there, take the dog for a walk and just be out in nature. I do not have to see or discover anything new; the regular, the common, is good enough. But that alone time, that solace is so sorely needed. 

Our walk through Pointsett State Park showed a beautiful ecosystem of oaks, loblolly and longleaf pines.  Oaks were covered by by Spanish moss.

Even on our vacation to Charleston, SC a few weeks ago, we had to make a side trips and visit state parks, the beach and spend a few hours hiking before we hit the hustle and craziness of this great town. We spent time in the Cape Fear Botanical Garden, in the Pointsett State Park and later on on Folly Beach and in the woods. Just being able to get out there and enjoy the natural world is so important. But so is being in and around Charleston. We got more enjoyment out of the stately trees (the life oaks) and peering into the gardens and courtyards than the oh so famous market. But even in the market which is full of people you can be utterly alone and lonely. 

The gardens of Charleston, SC.: live oaks, palmetto and other plants.

The cheapo multi-disciplinarian naturalist (3/18/2019)

I often explain in my workshops that biologists would make the great economists. Or, maybe better that economy and biology are actually very closely related fields. On the first hand, you may think I am crazy, but that will be one of the arguments I will try to make in today’s post. Today’s post is also about the beauty of being multidisciplinary. I do not strictly believe that we all belong in our silos, but that our professions and specializations can benefit a lot from cross fertilization and interaction. For example, in my sermon last year, I argued that biology, or my observations of nature, reveal order, mathematics and rhythm. Nature or biology, I argued also has parsimony, she really has so much more to offer or to teach us than just biology.

Nature offers us:

• Food
• Shelter
• Fiber
• Peace of mind (or sanity)
• Health
• Art
• Wonder
• Spirituality
• And many more benefits

We are part of nature. We come from it and have evolved from it, whether we want to acknowledge it or not. Some may think we have outgrown it, but we all still have that animalistic (or natural) instinct in us, from birth, until we we die. We are created true the animalistic (instinctive or some call it loving) behavior of our parents and when we die, we again become part of nature; we even refer to it in our ceremonies: “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

But there is so much more. The natural world has offered us some magnificent art; it started in the old cave paintings, and then just think of the greats like the photographer Ansel Adams, writers like Thoreau, painters likes Monet, and I am just scratching the surface. Nature offers sanity to the forest bathers, the meditators, those folks who retreat to nature. They all offer nature something in return, their admiration, love and desire to preserve and protect it.

About once a month or so I see that picture on Facebook that offers you $3,000,000 or some crazy price to go live somewhere in nature without a phone and internet for 3 months or some period. I wish it was a true offer, I would jump at it, and disappear for 3 months, or even longer, a half year?

This photograph captures the beauty of nature.  We went for a walk in the woods behind our home and after some bushwhacking we found this little creek meandering through the woods.  Who could not just live here for 3 months (were it not for the bugs, but I think I would even be able to survive them with the proper protection).

Back to what I want to write about today! In my classes I talk about parsimony and how parsimonious nature is. Let’s look at the word parsimonious. It has become one of my favorite words and it means: “the quality of being careful in spending.” You may also call it stingy, miserly, cheap, frugal, tight, or penny-pinching. You get the idea. Not that I live that way, but nature does not waste a thing (unlike most of us humans). If you don’t live as efficiently in nature as possible you have less reserves as your neighbor, something or somebody will outsmart you, out-compete you, hunt you down and have you for dinner. It is a dog-eat-dog world out there and if you don’t do it as efficient as possible you are literally toast or at least the stuff they put on toast!

Nature is very supply and demand oriented as part of this parsimony. If you can do the same thing as your neighbor and use less of the resources available to you, you can literally do more with what is available and out-compete those guys. It is survival of the fittest, of the most efficient, or the strongest. This is the most classic Darwinian concept, but also classic economic model you can find: Supply and Demand.

The German scientist/chemist Justus von Liebig (1803-1873), also known as the father of the chemical fertilizer, developed the “Law of the Minimum.” He figured out that plants (and in his case crops) always had one limiting factor. Once you alleviate that limiting factor, say through fertilization, something else will become limiting (another element or chemical in the soil or something else like water or light). By the way, von Liebig also invented the bouillon block that we use in soup. He was supposed to be a great chemist, philosopher and teacher.

It was around that time that biology really took off, we had Darwin who really figured out this thing called evolution; then we had Mendel who figured out genetics. It must have been an exciting time to live and learn. But both Darwin and Mendel illustrated that there are other forces in play than just biology, or maybe that biology involves economics, mathematics and statistics, just to name a few. Von Liebig had showed it involved chemistry. I always tell folks that I probably came the closest to a religious experience when I studied cell biology and learned what all goes on at the cellular level, or maybe what can go wrong on a cellular level. To think we have all these people and other living organisms running around on this earth, each of which have million of cells, some of which have hundreds of processes going on inside those minute cells, was a religious experience to me. It was absolutely amazing and kind of scary to think that if one of those processes does not work that cell could potentially become a cancer cell. But then I learned we have little organs in the cell that can repair these mishaps and that we even have suicide organelles (or capsules) in our cells and if it really goes wrong, the cells can commit suicide (an interesting concept in itself). This works most of the time, but if not, we grow older and those cells may mutate and could eventually develop cancer. It is all amazingly complicated and it all works; most of the time. But no, I never became overly religious, but I did gain a heck of a lot of respect and love for biology and I retained my spirituality.

As you can see, biology can involve a lot of disciplines, ranging from spirituality to mathematics, to economics to actually life science. I do think multidisciplinary thinking is extremely important. We lose sight of the whole picture by being overly specialized. While writing this post I was going through my old posts knowing that I wrote about using old experiences in development of my classes. It was amazing when I reread some of my posts. There are a lot of reoccurring themes here, and I have always wondered if I label too much. However, this shows my multidisciplinary interests, my scattered brain and my love for knowledge (or the unknown). For example, I am currently studying about the construction of embankments and how to compact soil. This is something fairly new to me, I have learned a little bit about it when thinking about the rooting of plants, but never really about building dams. It is fun, and it will be something new to think about and to teach. Life is never boring this way, and all I can say is: go out there yourself, put yourself out there and don’t be afraid to learn something new, something you had absolutely no idea about; become an multidisciplinarian, we need more of them.

You are what you eat (3/12/2019)

Recently, our minister Andrew reminded us in one of his sermons of the four main elements of this world:

1. Air (Wind)
2. Water
3. Earth
4. Fire

I am not sure what the correct order is, but who cares? The fascinating thing was that I realized that at least every molecule of air and water has probably passed through every person in history, the good ones like mother Theresa and the bad ones like Hitler, Mussolini and my (not so) all-time favorite Idi Amin. I acutely became aware that I was connected to everyone in our sanctuary at that moment, and that I probably had shared at least one or two air molecules with each one of them that morning already.

Water, as Reverend Andrew reminded us, may actually (partially?) originate from comets and connects us to rest of the universe. I remind my students of its unique properties as a solvent, but in particular of the fact that it is the only chemical compound (that I am aware of) that expands when it gets colder. Since a lot of my guys work for the Department of Transportation, this is a fact that is not lost on them. Expanding or freezing water is the origin of potholes in our roads and the source of their job security.

There is not much I can share with you about earth and fire, except that they are the origin and we cannot live without them. I have witnessed the virtual lack of life on the core of the earth in an area of Newfoundland. The Tablelands Areas of Gros Morne National Park is amazing; this area had no (top)soil or earth, and visible life was scarce. It looked like Mars; and word has it, NASA seems to has tested there Mars rovers there.

This picture was taken by my wife during our trip (2017).  To the right is a wetland pocket where some low vegetation is possible but the majority of the Table Lands look like what is in the foreground.

In my workshops I often tell the attendees that “you are what you eat.” No, as most of you know I do not teach nutrition courses, nor do I give motivational talks hoping they lose some weight or get healthier. I sometimes do get a standing ovation after taking for six hours straight, which I find terribly embarrassing to tell you the truth. Most of you know I am somewhat of a dilatant: a sailor; bread baker; cyclist; naturalist; biologist; photographer; a shin kicker; and amateur philosopher; and a teacher. In other words, I can talk about a variety of subjects for hours. So yes, I could probably give a health talk and yes some of my students could stand to get in shape (but so could I) or stop smoking. But when I mention “you are what you eat” I do this in context of my workshops on soil, plant nutrition and establishment.

The latest bread I baked.  It is a banana sourdough and was an interesting bread to make.  No artificial ingredients: bananas, flour, water, salt and natural yeast, that's it.  Honest ingredients, you are what you eat! 

What I tell my students is that when you give your plants a good, healthy, nutritious soil you get healthy plants, or a good vegetative stand, like a lawn. But is you give them a crappy soil you get a crappy vegetative stand or sickly plants. Makes sense doesn’t it? One way of achieving this is by adding organic matter to the soil. Organic matter or compost kick starts the soil microorganisms that are so sorely needed for a healthy soil. This is why I got so angry in this blog at my neighbors for bagging their leaves.

One way of ensuring a healthy soil is by taking soil samples and getting them analyzed by an accredited lab. They should be able to let you know what nutrients are missing in the soil and what you need to add to make it better. I am no enemy of synthetic fertilizer, except for the fact that it takes a lot of energy to produce or transport some of them. But in fact, I really do not think there is a heck of a lot of difference where the nitrogen or phosphorus comes from. However, I am in favor of sustainability. Moreover, a lot of the organic fertilizers bring in micro-nutrients and organic matter which are good for the soil and thus for the plants.

I am no friend of pesticides or chemicals that control weeds and bugs. For one many of these chemicals break down and seem to transform to estrogen type compounds. Honestly, estrogen is not something I want to have a lot of in my body. In addition, I strongly believe that we are all connected in this world and that we depend on each other. Many of these chemicals will travel far and impact and harm more folks and species than we ever intended.

So, where am I going with this post? Talking to my students in workshops, I tell them you are what you eat. The plants they eat represent what they are being offered in the soil. Water, nutrients, organic matter, contaminants and agricultural chemicals including pesticides. We are what we eat: those plants, or animals who eat those plants, the (contaminated) water that we drink. We are the top of the food chain, unless you get mauled by a mountain lion or a grizzly. But in the case of those mountain lions or grizzlies, don’t you want to offer them the cleanest, least contaminated food possible? But in any case, those contaminants are not good for your health neither for for those creatures below in the food chain or potentially above you. Let’s just try to keep our environment clear, our air, water, earth … and fire!

My "Go to" bread (2/14/2019)

In various posts <here and here> I have mentioned that I am a home baker. I have posted pictures of my breads on Facebook and Instagram and I am a member of two bread baking groups on Facebook.  Recently, I was asked by a friend of my wife why the bread her daughter was making had a horrible crumb (it was crummy and never stayed together).  So my wife volunteered my "go to" recipe and asked me if I would be kind enough to share it with her.  In other words, I spent an afternoon typing it up in a way that someone else could execute it, after which we thought I might as well publish it here on my blog.

This is my latest bread.  It is slightly different.  Instead of 300/600 whole wheat/bread flower (see the recipe below), I did 300/50/550 with the 50 being buckwheat flower.  Buckwheat makes the bread taste slightly nuttier, but more crumbier (looser).  Buckwheat has no gluten and gluten makes bread stick together.

So this is my go to bread.

First, I work in grams and baker's percentages, and for those of you who do not know how that works let me explain it.  Don't worry, I also have the recipe in cups, but that is so less precise and often the reason why things fail.  You need to buy a scale that works in grams if you want to be a serious bread baker; they are cheap (mine was $16 and is good enough).

How do bakers percentages work?  Solids like flour and oats (in this recipe) together are always 100%.  Some bakers just say let's start with 1000 grams, but sorry, as you will see, this recipe starts with 1020 grams.  The liquid you add makes the baker's percentage.  You add water (sometimes milk, beer or cider) and the ideal is about 70% to 80%.  If you want a baker's percentage of 70% you would add 700 grams of liquid to 1000 gram flour (solids).  Less liquid (60%) makes to bread denser and heavier more liquid makes it softer and more open. High moisture breads, 80% or higher makes foucaccia.

In the recipe below you have 1020 grams solids and 760 grams water which give you a baker's percentage of 760/1020=75% (whole wheat and oats are thirstier than only white flour).

This recipe uses oats. I sometimes use Bob's Red Mill 10 grain cereal instead, or cracked rye, a mix of the two, or of all, just keep it to the 120 grams.  The other day I actually put in 120 grams of baked sweet potato, this made a very nice tasting bread, especially when toasted.  There is a lot of moisture in a baked sweet potato so you could reduce the water a little (say by maybe 10 or 20 grams; just experiment) or add a little flower (not too much).

As I mentioned, I will leave the cups in the recipe, but I found it not accurate enough, and it gives you not enough dough to sufficiently fill two 9 inch bread pans. In the grams recipe I have increased everything by approximately 20% to get a nice loaf for our standard U.S. 9 inch pans.

Bakes 2 loaves (again, the grams recipe is more accurate and is 20% more than the cups recipe)

• 1 cup oats  ...  120 grams
• 2 cups of boiling water  ...  760 grams
• 1 Tablespoon molasses or honey  ...  2 Tablespoons for the grams recipe (lately I have not been using any honey or sweetener)
• 2 teaspoons salt  ...  8 grams
• 1 cup whole wheat and  4 1/2 cups bread flour (all-purpose flour is ok too)  …  900 grams (300 whole wheat and 600 bread flour) 
• 1/2 Tablespoon instant yeast (I only use instant or bread machine yeast, which does not need blooming)
• 1 Tablespoon butter or oil, plus more for the pan  …  2 Tablespoons (I use coconut oil, but lately I do not use oil at all.  Fat makes the bread softer; just do not use an oil with a strong flavor like olive oil)

1. Place the oats in a large bowl. Bring water to a boil and pour 200 grams over the oats. Stir in the sweetener and butter if you are using it. Let stand and cool for 20+ minutes (make sure it is cools to 110 to 100 degrees). When it reaches that temperature stir in the yeast.

2. While the oats mixture is cooling mix the flour with the remaining cool water.  Mix and knead just enough to incorporate all the flour and water together. Let the mixture rest (covered) for 15 to 30 minutes.

3. Mix the oat mixture into the rested dough and add the salt. Knead in the bowl until a shaggy dough comes together, then pull out onto a floured work surface and knead, adding more flour as needed, until the dough is no longer sticky and relatively smooth (the oats won't make it completely smooth), about 15 minutes. Resist adding more flour in the beginning, it will start out very sticky, but after 10 or so minutes it should get less and less sticky.

4. Shape the dough into a ball, place back in the mixing bowl, cover with a dish cloth and place in a warm, draft-free spot (like a turned-off oven) to double in bulk (about an hour).

5. Butter two standard loaf pans (I use Pam or some other cooking spray). When the dough has doubled in bulk, gently pull it out of the bowl onto the work surface. Carefully cut the ball in half. Do not knead, but gently fold and shape the ball into a loaf shape the length of the loaf pans. Place each piece of dough into a pan, cover anew with the dish cloth and let rise until doubled in bulk (about an hour).

4. Remove from the oven, if that is where you were letting the loaves rise, and preheat to 425. Approximately 5 minutes before the loaves go into the oven place a roasting pan on the bottom rack in the oven with some water in it to create steam.  Remove the dish cloth and place the pans in the oven.  I score the loaves with a sharp knife. When putting the pans in the oven watch out for the blast of steam!  Bake for 20 minutes with the steam.  After the 20 minutes remove the baking pan with the water (watch out for the blast of the steam) and continue baking for another 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy, The bread will keep in a bread box for 4 to 5 days or can be frozen in plastic freezer bags.

About kneading:

I love kneading, it is very meditative. But there is also folding and I am really starting to like that technique. This involves a quick knead in the bowl in the beginning to get everything incorporated and then letting the dough rest. After a half hour you grab the dough (with wet hands) at one side and you pull it over itself (without tearing the dough) and you go around on all sides for a few times. You then rest the dough for a half hour and repeat. You do this three or four times and then you rise it for an hour and pan it. This method it often done with sour dough and if you do it with yeast (as I do it with this recipe) I half the amount of yeast, which makes the first rise (or proofing) go much slower (approximately 2.5 to 3 hours). Some books say let it double others say triple the size. YouTube is full of demos on folding of dough and shaping of dough into loaves.

Bread making is fun and so much healthier.  For me it has become flour, water, yeast.  Nothing more and maybe just a little salt (yeast needs salt to function properly), no additives, nothing.  Healthy, honest bread.  At times, I may knead some sesame seeds, flax seeds or sunflower seeds with it.  But only do that when shaping the loaves at the end.  Enjoy!

The Swiss-Army person (2/6/2019)

I often explain in my classes that biologists would make the great economists. Or, maybe better that economy and biology are very closely related fields. On the first hand, you may think that I am crazy, but I'll try to make an argument for it today. 

I do not strictly believe that we all belong in our silos, but that our professions and specializations can benefit a lot from cross fertilization and interaction. In my sermon, I argued that biology, or my observations of nature, reveal order, mathematics and rhythm. Nature or biology really has so much more to offer or to teach us.

Nature offers something to the artists; just think of the greats like the photographer Ansel Adams, writers like Thoreau, painters likes Monet, and I am just scratching the surface. It offers sanity to the forest bathers, the meditators, those folks who retreat to nature. They all offer nature something in return. Without the interaction there would be no preservation of the natural world. 

About once a month do I see that picture on Facebook that offers you $3,000,000 or some crazy price to go live somewhere in nature without a phone and internet for 3 months or some period. I wish it was a true offer, I would jump at it, and disappear for 3 months, a half year.

But back to what I want to write about today. In my classes I talk about parsimony and how parsimonious nature is. Let’s look at the word parsimonious. It has become one of my favorite words and it means: “the quality of being careful in spending.” You may also call it stingy, miserly, cheap, frugal, tight, or penny-pinching. You get the idea. Not that I live that way, but nature does not waste a thing (unlike most of us humans). If you don’t live as efficiently in nature as possible something or somebody will outsmart you, out-compete you, hunt you down and have you for dinner. It is a dog-eat-dog world out there and if you don’t do it all as efficient as possible you are literally toast!

Nature is very supply and demand oriented as part of this parsimony. If you can do the same thing as your neighbor and use less of the resources available to you, you can literally do more with what is available and out-compete those guys. It is survival of the fittest, of the most efficient, or the strongest. This is the most classic Darwinian concept, but also classic economic model you can find: Supply and Demand.

Then there was the German scientist/chemist Justus von Liebig (1803-1873). Von Liebig also known as the father of the chemical fertilizer developed the “Law of the Minimum.” He figured out that plants (and in his case crops) always had one limiting factor. Once you alleviate that limiting factor, say through fertilization, something else will become limiting (another element or chemical in the soil or something else like water or light). By the way, von Liebig also invented the bouillon block that we use in soup. He was supposed to be a great chemist, philosopher and teacher.

It was around that time that biology really took off, we had Darwin who really figured out this thing called evolution; then we had Mendel who figured out genetics. It must have been an exciting time to live and learn. But both Darwin and Mendel illustrated that there are other forces in play than just biology, or maybe that biology involves economics, mathematics and statistics, just to name a few. Von Liebig had showed it involved chemistry. 

I always tell folks that I probably came the closest to a religious experience when I studied cell biology and learned what all goes on at the cellular level, or maybe what can go wrong on a cellular level. To think we have all these people and other living organisms running around on this earth, was a religious experience to me. It was absolutely amazing and kind of scary. But then I learned we have suicide organelles (or capsules) in our cells and if there is anything wrong, the cells can commit suicide (an interesting concept in itself). This works most of the time, but if not, we grow older and those cells may mutate and could develop cancer. It is all amazingly complicated and it all works; most of the time. But no, I never became overly religious, but I did gain a heck of a lot of respect and love for biology and I retained my spirituality.

Your's truly sitting behind his desk at home, trying to do some work.  It's a little cramped and I desperately need to clean it up ... maybe this weekend. (photo courtesy of my wife)

As you can see, biology can involve a lot of disciplines, ranging from spirituality to mathematics, to economics to actually life science. I do think multidisciplinary thinking is extremely important. We lose sight of the big picture by being overly specialized. While writing this post I was going through my old posts knowing that I wrote about using past experiences in development of my classes. It was amazing when I reread some of my posts. There are a lot of reoccurring themes here, and I have always wondered if I label too much. However, this shows my multidisciplinary interests, my scattered brain and my love for knowledge (or the unknown). For example, I am currently studying about the construction of embankments and how to compact soil. This is something fairly new to me, I have learned a little bit about it when thinking about the rooting of plants, but never really about building dams. It is fun, and it will be something new to think about and to teach. Life is never boring this way, and all I can say is: go out there yourself, put yourself out there and don’t be afraid to learn something new, something you had absolutely no idea about; become a multidisciplinary persons, we need more of them.  It does not have to be biology, that is just me, just do not stop learning and experiencing.