Martha I am not!

Orris root iris

The most important thing that happened this week is that I am going to be a granny again! Cody and Mel's second will be here around Ryan's birthday in November. We don't know whether Oliver will have a brother or sister yet but it's very exciting :)

Well, this pr and marketing push that wicked-pr is doing is very exciting and interesting! 

The funniest, to me anyway, but so far the most exciting, is interest by Martha Stewart Living Magazine! I mean really! If Martha could see where the wonderful mixes are coming from, she'd want to redecorate! And I am so not a fan of hers! But if we get a mention there, it's worth a huge amount. The only thing better I think would be to get on Oprah!

What's even more interesting is that they are pitching my story to other magazines and tv and radio stations! You know, the old gray mare may not be what she used to be, but she's still got a lot of get up and go sort of thing. What a laugh! So who knows where this will lead. They are calling it a second career! I look at it as a clutching at straws endeavor in the beginning, but now I feel so much more confident about what I can do. It's like I have, in the last seven months, been in a crash course in start up business, yet sometimes I feel like I've barely scratched the surface. 

But I think if more women and men who are retiring know what we really are capable of, when are feet are to the flames, maybe you'd see more of us gray hairs out doing something that is so far from our comfort zone that we might as well be on the moon. And loving it!

It's long days of everything from vetting the web site and hounding the developers to mixing and packing nuts to bookkeeping - and whatever else pops up. But the days are never boring, that's for sure.

But I am keeping perspective and not letting the work suck me in to where that is all I do. Yoga is becoming more and more important to me. It's quite amazing, really. It's about the only activity I know of where my mind doesn't wander from the physical; it is a totally whole body/mind experience. And even though I am just a beginner, I know it is making a huge difference in the way I feel. Now I just have to be more disciplined to practice at home. 

I am so enjoying my orris irises. They are corms I got from a house Susan had listed about three years ago and I planted them out in the bed against the bulkhead. This is the first year they have bloomed and I had no idea what color they would be - and they are gray! Apparently, the root is used in perfume and gin! But you have to have acres and acres and dry the roots for five years before they are ground and then distilled. My tulips are finally over, sad but they lasted almost a month and were a very welcome splash of color and spring rolls in. Next are the other irises, then lilies. We are going to put pots on top of the pilings with hanging plants which should look really pretty - probably petunias, geraniums and lobelia. Possibly nasturtiums too. The poppies are all about to pop too, which really is a surprise as it is about a month earlier than last year. But I love it, they take over the side of the sunroom so I don't have to weed.

It's hard to believe it is almost May and that in seven weeks, it will be the longest day of the year! Even now, the evenings are stretching out, but it really isn't warm enough yet to fire up the weber, but soooooon.... And the early sunrise is messing up the kitty schedule! Buddy thinks that because it is getting light - now at around 4:30 am it's time to go outside! I might have to get him a sleep mask!

Saturday is a Kangen Water Super Saturday in Seattle - well worth the trek over there. Lots of information from doctors and naturopaths, and lots other testimonials about the magic the water is bringing to so many people's lives, both health-wise and financially. So am looking forward to that, and looking forward to being more knowledgeable about it too so I can spread the word.

Winter in April

Sheesh! I thought we were done with all the miserable winter weather, but noooo! Yesterday blew those hopes away.

I woke up to a howling gale and torrential rains, which quickly turned into snow. Not just little snowflakes but big, fat, sticky ones that hung around for half the day! They were flying sideways across the deck, mixed in with flower petals from the fruit trees that really took a beating! Even the kitties, who always dash out in the morning, refused to go out and stayed inside the entire day.

And then, even though it stopped snowing, the rain and wind continued to torment us until it blew the lights out around 5. Bam! Everything off! So much for a quiet evening watching a movie.

But I actually enjoyed it. Fired up the airtight stove and got the house all toasty warm, and I was really glad I had bought a quarter cord of wood in the fall, just for emergencies. Set a pot of water on top for tea which came to a boil really fast! Without the constant electrical hum, it was absolutely silent except for stove crackling and the wind gusts, which finally settled down.  And candle light is so relaxing. I had planned to go to bed early anyway, so took several candles upstairs and read for a while before nodding off in the silence.

This morning everything is back on, so have been going around setting the clocks - looks like the power was off for about six hours! 

I spent most of yesterday working on my Kangen Water business, which was quite productive and I am convinced that this is the way to a retirement for me. Not only will it generate a good income, but I can do it from anywhere in the world, which is SO important to me. I actually don't like using the word "retirement," I don't think I can ever do that, at least not like generations before me. I love being busy and having a challenge, which is what this and the nut business is. 

And talking about nuts, the media blitz will start soon, and the pitches to all the tv, radio and magazines hopefully will generate a lot of business. I had to write a bio on me the other day so wicked-pr can send it to AARP - ha! never thought I would be so old that old people would be interested in me! But time marches on, so might as well get on the ride!

Spring has sprung

I shouldn't say "finally," but Spring is here for sure now. The first tulips are open, the fruit trees are in full bloom, and the grass needs mowing! 

So now there is color popping up all over the place, and that is what turns this place into one of the most beautiful places to be - in the spring and summer! The weather is warming up, the heater doesn't come on nearly as much, and I can be outside without being totally bundled up! Definitely not barefoot weather yet, but doable. Today I will do some weeding, which for me is quite therapeutic. The weeds are growing faster than the flowers and am thinking that some of them are quite pretty, so maybe should cultivate them, instead of the ornamentals! It would make my life simpler, for sure.

My trip south for my birthday week was absolutely one of the best! I felt so good, and I think part of that is that I am feeling so healthy! I did miss my water, though and the water in LA is SO bad that I had to resort to drinking bottled water, which just about kills me to do, knowing what I know about it. But it is a step up from the tap water. 

Just spending time with family and friends is so important to me. And now I must fill out paperwork for a loan modification on this house and I have decided that if I can get the loan down to a reasonable amount, I will put a renter in here to cover it and then move down south somehow. Don't know how, yet, but it will figure itself out as I go ahead.

And when I do move, I will simply rent a truck, load the nuts and what I want to take in the back and kitties in the cab, hook the car up behind it and head south. It will mean finding a place to pack nuts, but I don't think that will be too difficult - if it comes down to it, we can use Ryan's garage. 

MyMixedNuts relauch will happen in the next couple of weeks. It has been a long slog, getting the stuff redone, with the developers and designers getting flu in the middle of it and slowing things down. And also, for some reason, they were not "getting" what it is we are trying to do, but finally I think we are there. So the new pages should be live next week for testing, the wicked-pr will start the media blitz, which means for me, I will be packing a lot of nuts! They are planning to send out sample bags to at least 50 media outlets so I have to be prepared for that, and will have more details on Monday. 

But it has been interesting as I learn more about SEO (search engine optimization) and all the internal linking within a site that makes it more searchable by google and other search engines. And once I have the new pages, it means a lot of content production, so I am going to be very busy. 

But I am going to have to find more work, as my income is just not enough - at the moment it barely covers my expenses and this is not how I want to be living. I would love to be able to do the writing and photography sort of thing I was doing for Country Life, writing about the social upliftment programs and stuff like that in South Africa. It would be optimum to be working for a NGO that needed stories and pictures like that who would send me to do them. It always felt so good to be able to help - mainly the women - the way the articles helped, by bringing new business to them, and showcasing what they are accomplishing. Although I wasn't volunteering or contributing to them financially, I knew I was helping in other ways.

So I have my work cut out for me, but I love being busy and having a goal. Now, Hinckley, off my lap, time for me to get dressed, and out in the garden to soothe my soul.

Family, Sun, Warm

OK, I have been a slacker about this blog. Lot's of excuses but none of them hold water.


So I am here in sunny Southern California, soaking up the warmth and the sun. I sat out in the sun for about 10 minutes and could tell I was getting burned - I am SO pasty - ick! Tomorrow I head down to Oceanside to see Cody, Mel and Oliver and will spend the night with the Straitiffs, then head back up here on Thursday for a birthday dinner that Les is cooking for me! What  a treat. I am amazed at how far he has come with his cooking. It was just about a year and a half ago that he could barely boil water and now he is in culinary school, whipping up gourmet meals like it's old hat! Tonight he is doing halibut and other wonderful stuff and for my birthday dinner, lamb chops. How spoiled I am - and loving it.


It felt really good to get away from Washington and the cold - and the negativity that has invaded my house. I do have empathy for him, but his thinking is so skewed and I watch him spiral himself in with the negative talk and it is just too much to deal with sometimes. And frustrating! Because I will not fall back into the helping mode and do everything and yet he won't pick up what needs to be done. It's as if the world owes him. So it's good to be away and get some perspective.


Being down here also reminds me of how much I need the sun - and people. I know I will have to work for the rest of my life so I might as well find something that I really enjoy doing, in a place that I like, around people that I want to be around. So the old idea of the B&B in Costa Rica resurfaced and I think of how much fun that could be, near or on the beach, people around, and I can get back into doing the type of writing and photography I love to do, which has been shoved on the back burner. I also realize that I can do the nut biz from just about anywhere - as long as there is someone who can physically pack and ship the orders. Wouldn't that be cool? A warehouse in California or somewhere, and me in the tropics, taking care of the "stuff" while somebody else does the grunt work! 


The site is coming along with the revisions but as usual it is always slower than anticipated. Especially when the designer is off sick and then the Project Manager is sick. And of course there are the constant glitches - I had no idea what really went on with web sites in the background. So often, on a site, there'll be something that doesn't work quite right, and I gloss over it, but when it is your own site! Oh dear, what a difference that makes. 


We are gearing up for a media blitz as soon as the site is revamped and that will be a lot of fun. The PR guys are getting stuff organized and have been a big help so far. I get to meet them on Friday. Now that is going to be a treat as I am meeting them at a Farmers Market in Hermosa Beach and apparently they have the best tacos! Real Mexican tacos, not the wimpy Washington ones. And the Farmers Market is year round, what a treat - not just the months it's ok (sort of) to be outside. I'll post pix.


And then I am getting my hair cut by Tate, a friend of Ryan's who has wanted to cut it for ages! The last cut I had in Port Townsend was terrible and I have let it grow out so he will have a lot to work with.


So it's all good! I just keep a vision of the B&B in the tropics and know that I have a direction to go. 

techie geekie stuff

Well, the last few days have been all about tech stuff that is tweaking my brain! 

Who would have thought this could get so complicated and stressful!

We're into Phase 2 of revisions on the site and one of the things that had to be done is to move the site from one type of hosting service to another. The original business hosting was basic on a shared server. This means that there are other sites also hosted on the same one and it apparently couldn't handle the video stuff we want to be able to use. So I checked into VPS, which are virtual private servers so you basically get your own home server that would be able to handle what we wanted. More money of course! 

But then when we started the revisions which are not going to use as much video, I asked Charles of wicked_pr about the VPS and whether we should still migrate the site. He explained that being on a shared server is not a good idea because if you share with some nasty site (you don't know who your room mates are!) who gets blocked, that means we would get blocked too as we have the same address. And I thought, well, when you google nuts you get a lot of porn sites, so decided to move to the more robust servers.

I was told that it would take from 24-72 hours to move and that the original site would remain live during the migration.

So guess what? The site disappeared! I was on hostgators live chat for what seemed like hours. Initially I was told everything was ok - it was just taking time. I had done everything right, changed nameservers and IP addresses to point correctly. So I waited. And waited.

Last night late and still no site! YIKES!

So back on chat for what seemed like forever! First thing they said, you're not supposed to cancel your original account! Well, of course I hadn't. Oh! So then they dug deeper, and found there was a problem on their end with the nameservers they had assigned to us. Several emails later and back and forth between godaddy (where the domain was purchased)  and hostgator, name changes and IP changes and the site popped up! 

What a relief! "Wow, what a beautiful site," from the hostgator tech guy! That was cool :)

So this morning, more emails, changing stuff again, back to different nameservers and IP addresses and now I am waiting for the updated usernames and passwords so I, and the programmers, can access the back end, or behind the scenes part of the site so we can continue on.

Man. talk about stressful! Good thing I go to yoga today!

But now I can move on to the rest of the stuff that needs to be done.

It's OJT for me, very cool.

This is all wicked stuff :)

Well! They say keeping your mind active keeps you young! I think I am 20 again :) Maybe my mind, the rest? Well, we won't talk about that. 

Working with the wicked_pr guys is really interesting. It is SO good to get a different take on the site, getting more eyes on it. I've mentioned before that I have felt like I am working in a vacuum, with very little feedback, and I know from writing and editing, after you have looked at something, whether it's text, images or a web site, after a while, you become so familiar with it, that you don't see what is actually there and glaring mistakes or missed opportunities get by you. So all the suggestions and input is wonderful.

Now I am working through the doc Charles did and distilling it down to make sure I understand what it is that we are going to do and have both Charles and Brian go over it. Then I will work with the group in India who will make the changes. 

It's all good stuff!

I love yoga! But I had no idea how stiff I am! I've never been a limber person. I think that all my swimming in those early years lengthened my muscles but did nothing for flexibility, so I am really having to work at some of the poses! Or should I say, contortions! But pretty soon I will know the basic poses and be able to do them correctly so will feel more comfortable doing them at home without hurting myself. 

It's also really good to get the hell out of here those two days. As beautiful as it is here, it is so far off the beaten track, I might as well be living on an island. So yesterday was fun, as Mardelle from Chicago was in town and Susan and I met her at Undertown, a very cool cafe in Port Townsend. It literally is under the town, under one of the old streets of Port Townsend and it also serves as an art gallery, with frequently changing exhibits. The seating is wild too, everything is different, as if they got the furniture from the thrift store! But it fits with the old brick walls, exposed electrical and utility fittings. Oh, and they have great coffee too.

Dr. Jadin got back to me about the meds and I have to have more tests to find out if I need to continue with the treatment. I hope I don't! But will set up with the local clinic where I can order the tests myself and then email the results to her in South Africa. It will be very cool if I can just handle this all through diet and exercise. Just means I have to be even more diligent about it, forcing myself out every day to walk my 3.5 miles, but I draw the line at walking in the rain! That's another reason I must get good at the yoga poses, then on rainy days I can still get the exercise I need.

Philosophers Notes are awesome! I am really enjoying them and getting so much out of them. Especially reading as many as I am to catch up, it really immerses me in a positive mind set, there's no room to get depressed or anxious about anything. Very cool. This Einstein quote really sums up what the notes are all about: 

"The problems we face today cannot be solved from the same level of thinking that created them."  Albert Einstein

Your thoughts become things, so choose the good ones.

Saturday morning and it's dark outside

It's Saturday morning, still dark out, but not freezing. This has been the warmest January on record so far and there is no sign that that is going to change. If this was a normal winter, I could live here year round. But we all know it's just El Nino doing her thing and we will most likely be slammed next year. The opposite is true for California where they are experiencing more cold than we are.

It's been a quiet week, with time for contemplation and yoga, both a real treat for me. And still plenty of time to complete work that needs to be done on the site, and to prepare for work on the dockside project. The wicked-pr guys are starting on the nut project next week in earnest. I made some changes to the site that they recommended and after talking to Annie briefly, have created more signage for the shipping boxes and bags. Still tweaking things on the programmer side and they will be onboard to make changes when Brian and Charles (wicked guys) make their recommendations. Both Brian and Charles are about Ryan's age, which for me is so much fun, as I so enjoy working with young people. Their ideas and energy are wonderful energizers for me. Sometimes I actually wish I worked in an office environment with youngsters like them - then think, hmmm maybe not. I would lose my sense of freedom - maybe part-time? Something to ponder.

Because, getting up way early for me seems to work, that way I can get lots of computer work taken care of, take time in the middle of the day for things like yoga and then pick up again in the later afternoon. It takes some planning out, but works. On yoga days, I plan my errands around the class, seeing as it's not just a matter of popping round the corner for my class. It's a 40 minute drive to get there so it's a big chunk out of the day, so I make it worth while by going to the bank, the grocery store etc. You get the picture. So I figure I will be gone for four hours, but then I don't have to deal with icy roads and darkness if I were to run errands after a traditional working day.

I love working for myself!

All the stuff for taxes for last year is almost completely gathered together - this will be a first to get them filed by April 15! And I can't see why I will have to pay anything at all - in fact, I think the government might even owe me. That would certainly be a bonus.

It's time to think about starting my veges and building the raised boxes. I watched and helped Chris last time, so I know how to do it. They are not going to be so big this time, as it is only me here. And I hope I can find some recycled lumber to use. Freecycle might work - a wanted post usually gets me what I need. I will most likely make two 4x4 18" high beds. And get the organic soil from Roger Short's farm, as I know how he makes the soil and that it really is organic. Then when the time is right, plant out the starts from the sun room and pretty soon will be eating fresh mesclun and then all the other wonderful stuff.

The M.S seems to be under control, haven't had any bouts of headaches or tiredness. The only weird thing is I get hives (urticaria)!  I don't seem to be allergic to anything, they just happen out of the blue so have taken to carrying antihistamine pills around with me, and pop one when I feel and itch coming on! They disappear as fast as the show up. Very weird. Debbie is making an appointment for me with Dr. Jadin so hopefully I will be able to understand her with her strong French accent. It's difficult enough in person, long distance phone might be a challenge, but I need to do it so I can continue the treatment.