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Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

Upkeep of Wood Floors

Saturday, March 4th, 2017

We have talked to several people who use the Walnut Oil on their floors and in response to your question – here is what they do:

Once a week – if you are the absolute-on-top-of-it type – use a soft cotton rag, which has a bit of Walnut Oil on the rag.  You can either pour oil on the rag for this, or you can keep Walnut Oil in a spray bottle and spray a bit on the rag.  This is only a little bit of oil for this job.

A couple people we talked to keep such a rag saturated in Walnut Oil, which they use for upkeep in a number of ways and have a special metal container with a top – in which they keep the rag – like last years’ fruit cake tin.  They use that rag and wipe up the floor so it has all the dust removed and a thin coating of oil on it.  The oil should dry in short order.  They keep such a saturated rag for a month and then toss it.  If they need to wipe fingerprints off furniture within that month, that rag does the job.  Or, if they need to wipe their dining room or other table with a bit of oil, in-between their yearly going over with the 0000 steel wool, they use that rag.

A couple people we talked to will do this once a month because they want to keep up their floors, keep them looking great, but do not worry themselves if a little dust shows.  Our observation – unless you have lots of traffic in and out of the house you only need to do this once a month and then it is a light wipe of the floor.

One person – ostracized after she told this story – uses a cotton mop onto which she sprays a bit of walnut oil in a spray bottle she keeps and then wipes the floor with the mop.  Since most of the people we talked to about this upkeep are – on your knees to do your floors kind of people – there were gasps when she said – others do this with a cotton mop with a bit of oil sprayed on the mop.  Our question was, is there a difference in results?  Of course, everyone thought their way was the best and absolutely the only way to get good results.

In defense of the “on your knees people”, they use that time for exercise while wiping the floor.  There are several exercises that can be done in the process – which most exercise books, or a search online will show you.

Those who do this upkeep once a month are the ones who hang drapes on all of their windows – who close their windows on top of air stops so outside air/dust doesn’t get in and they look constantly for other ways to keep dust from coming into the house including having people visiting leave their shoes at the door.

Hope this answers your question.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to                           bettina-network@comcast.net

 

Walnut Oil on Wood Floors

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017

I have just finished following your instructions and redoing my wood floors.

I am exhausted.  It was an incredible job, but worth every minute because the floors are beautiful.

Having used the OOOO Steel Wool and Spectrum Walnut Oil – tried for the best, no cheap oil on my floors –  and even taking the most expensive oil route it cost less than what I spent on these floors the last time I cleaned and waxed them.

I went over the floor with a damp rag to get off the top dust.  Then, I used the OOOO steel wool, pouring walnut oil on the floor and rubbing it in with the steel wool until all of the dirt and everything else was up.  I then wiped that up with old towels (which I threw away when finished, although my neighbor is trying the same thing and she washed her old towels after using them).  I then poured more Walnut Oil on the floor and wiped it up with a clean towel – and let the floor dry.

My neighbor tried to cut corners and didn’t do this last pouring on of oil and wiping it up with a clean towel so she had a bit of a mess on her hands, because her floor dried sticky and kind of gooey so she had to start over again.  I think that probably had to do with the steel particles from the steel wool still on the floor.

I did not put the furniture and rugs back, but let the floor sit overnight.  The next day, my floor was sort of dry, but still with parts looking wet from the oil so I had to re-wipe the floor with a clean towel.   I did not use more oil, the floor just looked a bit wet and in need of something, so another wiping with a dry, clean towel to help the oil either come up or soak into the floor – and 2 days later the floor is fabulous.  The down side was having to wait two days for the floor to dry – meaning, I could only do one room at a time.  That was fine because the smell from the oil and essential oil of gardenias will be in the house forever as I go from room to room cleaning my floors.  I am exhausted so I won’t try another room for a month or two anyway.

I should note here that my neighbor did it your way by doing a small area of the room at a time.  Which means, when she messed up with the oil and it was sticky she didn’t have her entire room to redo.  She moved the furniture and rugs from only a part of the room and moved the rest of the furniture over while the floor dried.  She was also not exhausted when she finished.  It was just part of her general cleaning – which she does without fail from 10-12 daily five days a week.  I wait for the woman who cleans for me to do all of that work – but she drew the line at kneeling on the floor to do this oiling.

My neighbor is continuing a small part of a room at a time using the same walnut oil to clean and oil her furniture in that part of the room.  I don’t have the methodology and discipline to do that.  I want it all done at once.  But then her house is a lot cleaner than mine.  Don’t know how she does it, but her house is immaculate anytime of the day or night you go over there.  Mine – not so much.  I have to clean before visitors come.  Maybe one day.  And with this new way of cleaning and oiling the floors – I suspect that kind of discipline will come because my biggie was not wanting to touch or be around the normal kind of cleaning stuff that has to be bad for your health.  I was sure they made my family sick with respiratory ailments.  Could be wrong, but the mind works in strange ways.  Even being exhausted after I finished the floor in one room, I was not ‘I’ll never so this again kind of exhausted.’  The smell and feel of the entire house changed with just this one room having its floor oiled and it was exhilarating.

My question – how to I keep these floor looking good?  They look great now, but things do get dusty and dirty over time.  I can’t go through this effort many times a year.  What do you suggest?

Your original suggestion was that this happen once a year.  What do I do in the meantime?

Thanks,

By the way – I love the smell of gardenia’s so I bought essential oil of gardenia and poured a bit into the Walnut Oil bottle when I opened it and my house smells unbelievable.  You were right about the benefit of adding essential oil to the Walnut Oil.  What I especially liked was that even though it took a lot of effort crawling around on hands and knees to do this cleaning because I couldn’t think of any other way to use the OOOO steel wool and even though it took all of the wiping up and around with old towels, the smell and off gases of what I normally used on my floors is not present.  That alone was worth the effort.  I can breathe!

I didn’t look into what was in the cleaners and waxes I used on my floors and couldn’t believe I have been using something with a kerosene base.  Looking around at the stores, most of the products sold – in the cleaning and waxing line are all mostly kerosene based.  This is what I have been exposing my family to all these years.  I knew the smell was foul – I just got used to it and waited for the smells to dissipate.  Now, I don’t want these smells to dissipate, I want to enjoy the gardenia and walnut smell as long as possible.

What I really love is the way my hands looked and felt after I finished.  I didn’t have to wear rubber gloves because Walnut Oil is good for the skin.  I hadn’t thought of that as a side benefit, but I love it.

Another BTW – the woman who cleans for me has been converted.  Her mother spent her adult life cleaning for others and is now in a wheel chair.  They blame the products her mother used and she, unbeknownst to me, was looking around for something else.  After watching me and standing in the room with its new feel and smell, she decided it was better to clean the floor on hands and knees than to use what we had been using – so she has taken over the floor cleaning and oiling job – and thank goodness.  Not having to wear rubber gloves and seeing my wrinkled hands smooth out after this bit of hard work instead of drying out and feeling awful even with the rubber gloves, convinced her.

Anxiously awaiting your response!

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to:

bettina-network@comcast.net

Makeup? – Never

Saturday, February 11th, 2017

I love best those ‘girlie’ breakfast conversations where everything is laid bare.  Free of all the things one does in the mornings to become the person you want to be – a reflection of all those make-up ads which show you women who are unreachable because their pictures have been blown, photo-shopped, with bumps and lumps removed and skin retouched.

Amazingly, this conversation included a stray male.  What he was doing in the middle of this conversation is unfathomable, but there he was, quite excited to be included in what he thought was going to be women revealing their innermost secrets – and to him.  Normally, he would be expected to smile politely and leave as soon as he could get away without being rude.  This guy loved every minute.

Color took center stage.

I thought I understood what part color played in this makeup business, but this breakfast ‘seminar’ changed that understanding completely.

Even though they were staying at a Bettina Network Hedge School, which is notorious for organic everything – no chemicals in the mix – no artificiality in anything – every woman at the table had on makeup.  All store bought and kept in a makeup case carried wherever they travelled.

What they wanted was re-enforcement that their makeup – as they applied it – looked natural and they did not look “made-up.  For me, that was astounding.  Raised in a family where the last thing in the world you wanted to do was apply make-up to your face and wind up looking like Godzilla’s wife full of pasty stuff on top of even more pasty looking stuff and a face where one could not smile without that makeup breaking into lines and cracking, we were very far apart.  I don’t think I have worn lipstick more than two or three times in life and I am now quite old.  So, there we were with stereotypes, but at two ends of the spectrum, very far apart.  As it turns out I was into as much make-up as everyone else at the table, only a different kind and applied at different times.

If you notice these things – as you age, your skin changes.  If you have light brown skin your face becomes a rather dull looking white with eyebrows that turn white, no matter their natural color when you were young, and that whitish dull skin does you no good.  I was very proud of my light brown skin.  I felt I looked healthier than most because of it.  I certainly didn’t have that so-called “white” skin which dried out and became very wrinkly as one aged, nor did I have that darker brown skin which sagged from maintaining its natural oils even as one grew older.  And here I was, about to reveal that my beautiful light brown skin, with its touch of a pinkish/red/orange color was not entirely natural, no matter how it looked.

When you are young, your face is blotchy with break-outs all over and what you long for is that beautiful even-toned unachievable skin that is advertised in almost every cosmetic ad from the beginning of creation.

The women brought their make-up to the table and we examined it all very closely.  Amazingly, even the expensive stuff looked pretty similar to the stuff that came from CVS, Walgreens, and other such places.  Even more amazing was the ingredients – we could not pronounce any of them when ingredients were on the labels.  We could only conjecture what was in those bottles and jars which did not reveal their ingredients.  We didn’t find any ingredients we knew and when we did they were in minuscule amounts.

When these different ingredients were put on your face, we couldn’t detect differences between the stuff that cost a fortune and the stuff that came from the pharmacy stores.  Thy all seemed to give the same look.  The difference in the make-up on the table was the amount of disposable income different women at the table had to be able to spend on cosmetics.  One spent a couple hundred dollars a month and we gasped, in awe.

My ‘cosmetics’ that morning were Grapeseed Oil, AloeVera Gel and Beta Carotene tablets in oil in a capsule – all organic.  I had a lot more, but I wasn’t going to reveal all in one morning and I certainly was not going to reveal anything bringing me close to a couple hundred dollars spent in one month.  If I spent that kind of money on my face I would be super-thin, because I wouldn’t have money left to spend on food.

The first thing that left the table was the stuff used to take make-up off at night.  With all it was supposed to do, my grape seed oil did better.  The next thing out were the ‘astringents’.  My Aloe Vera Gel was better suited, did not have chemicals or preservatives of any kind, although it did need to be kept in the refrigerator and used quickly.  Not only was it a good astringent, but it also tightened into a mask.

The Bettina Beauty treatment for the face is a Bettina Blog written some time long past, but it is still among the Bettina Network Blogs so I won’t go over it here, but it is necessary to do on a two to three times a week basis to keep your face from sagging, crinkling, becoming pasty white and wrinkly and more. This mornings beauty regimen helps, but does need to be supplemented with other organic treatments.

That Bettina Network Beauty regimen makes all the rest possible.

After we put on the Aloe Vera Gel, we had a few minutes conversation about what it does, allowing it to tighten into a mask.  We then rinsed it off with the requisite ten splashes of water and moved on to the Beta Carotene tablets.

I clipped one to put on my face after it was rinsed of its Aloe Vera Gel and there were gasps all around.  I looked like something out of a cowboy and Indian movie and I was clearly the Indian – very red of skin and  oily of face with the Beta Carotene oil going into my hairline – deliberately.

I should say here that my hairline was showing the grey line around my face where the rest of my hair was beautifully colored, but the hairline was growing in and it was a mixed grey and black, but mostly grey.  My eyebrows were also a mixed grey and black, giving me a rather older look, so they took received an extra rubbing into them of the Beta Carotene capsule.

The women couldn’t wait to get to their bathrooms to put on their department store makeup to go out for the day.  I cleared the dining room and was left with my red face, dirty dishes and the one male person at the table.  He helped me with the dishes, but not before he used the beta carotene on his face.  Looking at him, I saw just how ridiculous I looked, but he was confident this was going to solve his problem.  He wanted instructions for the day on how to handle this, but I had none.  I just go about my day.  Rinse my face with ten splashed each rinse whenever I use the bathroom for other purposes.  So he left declaring he would do the same.

The next morning we all appeared at breakfast.  The women without makeup and their makeup on the table, as we agreed to the morning before.  Me and the one male with no makeup bottles or jars in front of us because we didn’t have any to put there.  And who do you think looked stunning?  The two of us did.  By then, the red had been absorbed into the skin and the constant rinses after having gone to the bathroom several times helped remove the excess Beta Carotene color.  Our skin glowed.

No grey around the face from hair growing out and our eye brows were a beautiful mixed color of dark, medium and lighter brownish red.  And you know, the most delicate and dangerous thing you can do when having your hair dyed or dying it yourself, is trying to match your eyebrow color.  That dye will put your eyes out if it goes to the wrong place and will probably also fool with your ability to see even if it is only absorbed a bit through the skin – which has to be absorbed through a bit of your eyelid to make the eyebrows look great.

I looked 20 years younger – with a face that looked slightly flushed, like younger skin looks when you are excited and the rest a beautiful even color.  The whitish grey look was gone and in its place a bronze look which almost approximated a day in the sun.  I looked very sun-tanned and almost as if I was blushing.  He looked the same.

Our one male person had been concerned about his eyebrows and mustache turning grey, but didn’t know what to do about it – and this was a middle to upper level business executive who felt he needed to keep a fairly young appearance to keep his job.

The women were flabbergasted because the only thing we did that morning was to rinse our faces with the ten splashes of warm water.  I followed my splashes of warm water with ten splashes of cold water just to look a bit more flushed – only that didn’t last.  The Beta Carotene created color lasts about two to three days.  On some people it will last a week through many splashed of water.  No soap, however.  We never use soap, ever, at all.

The women left their make-up on the table and used the beta-carotene capsules on their faces.  I don’t know how they faced the day because it takes, generally, putting it on overnight and letting it absorb with a morning rinse before starting out for the day – or – putting it on in the morning and leaving it on all day with several splashes of water rinses throughout the day for the color to become ideal.  It will then last two or three days before you need to reapply the beta carotene, but that didn’t seem to bother anyone.  They thought the results were good enough to make due and get together a new lifestyle routine to accommodate this new make-up regimen.  I would like to have followed their red faces around with a camera as they went about their day, but the dirty dishes were calling.

Whatever they did, the next morning they were all beautiful and ecstatic.  One mentioned the difference in cost between what she used and one capsule of beta-carotene, but I had to remind her that the cost added up to more than that because she did need to do constant upkeep with products like organic Aloe Vera gel, all of the oils we talked about and the Bettina Beauty regimen with Vitamin C, D, etc.  That didn’t matter to her.  Those oils last a couple months and so does the rest of what is needed so she was off to the organic store to supply her make-up case with everything new.

We all wondered how she would get through airport security.  They are accustomed to women’s make-up cases, but not those with oils and organic ingredients which are normally thought of as food. We imagined her being put into detention for days while airport security checked and re-checked her ‘new’ makeup for some new kind of terrorist plot.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to:

bettina-network@comcast.net

Weight Control and Good Health for a Lifetime!

Wednesday, February 1st, 2017

Look around – take a walk – go shopping – to the theatre – symphony – sports event and you will see many, many overweight people.

How on earth did this happen!  My mother’s generation didn’t share this overweightness.  Many in my generation have gaining weight and battling that weight gain as a constant.  In my children’s generation they are taller and heavier except those who border on bulimia or some other eating disorder.  What has happened to all of us? Something radical on this earth and in our environment has changed.

Have you noticed that diet food – diet drinks – exercise and body control programs – an entire industry has grown up and is thriving on your willingness to work hard and sweat even harder while that industry earns substantial amounts of money for either the foods they want to sell you to control your weight or their weight control ideas or body manipulations to feed your dream of  looking as though you are 15 years old again!

It is all a smoke screen!  A way to keep you from realizing the pit you have fallen into and can’t get out. The truth that you need to set you free is obscured and in your very distant past generations, mostly obscured from you by the need to maintain and increase the profit of this new “Health and Fitness Industry”.  That may be what it is called by many, but its goals are anything but.

Most of what you need is not in that Health and Fitness Industry, but in the secrets your past generations took to the grave.  The marketing, with which you were raised,  blinded you so thoroughly you didn’t want to hear what your ancestors had to say nor did you want to carry forward their lifestyles.  You particularly looked down on the knowledge and experience they gained from their lifestyles because you found more relevant the marketing and advertising dreamed up by those probably even younger than you are who were/are busy pumping out pipe dreams to maintain their jobs.

They were trained by experts at creating a new culture and a new lifestyle based on your giving them your money and potential possessions and they giving you the way to a miserable life – whether it be long or short – but profitable to their companies.   Is this what you bought and live by today?

Now, however, everyone around you seems to be calling you back to this glorious past where you will find redemption, salvation, a better life than we have today and at the same time those same people, industries and their marketing/advertising is creating a trap for you so you don’t even know what past you are being called to learn from and buy into.  A mythical, glorious past which actually never existed except in the movies and a scattering of novels.  What used to be sold on the ‘silver screen’ is now being sold as a distorted, pumped up on drugs, reality show which you are being told was the great, glorious past to reach back to, recreate and nirvana will arrive.

They hold out the promise of satisfaction, satiety,  for this something inside that is roiling your gut and telling you something is off and very damaged.  They hold out what looks like the cure to this wrong road you’ve taken.  Their message is full of  pretty pictures or accompanying videos so words alone no longer satisfy and those pretty pictures are characterized as the road to Oz.  But the curtain is seldom let down so you can’t see the wizard behind the screen doing all of this manipulating.

Let me lift the curtain for you – just a little.  To strip the curtain away entirely is something you are going to have to do for yourselves.  Unfortunately, it has been turned into a lifelong search and you are very devoid of the mentors who could shorten the search and reward your efforts when you hit a success spot.

Over the past couple generations we have put in place a modern lifestyle which started with our need to work constantly to be able to afford more, even though we were using so many new inventions that cut our work load in half.   We haven’t been able to get off that rodent’s wheel long enough to see if it really was generating the ‘more/better’ it promised.  Most of us are afraid to stop because the bleak future pictured by doing that is something we can’t stand to allow ourselves to imagine.

So let’s take this one thing at a time:

starting with – Our food supply and food habits.  That alone has taken books, videos and endless self-help sessions to describe and to either mislead us or to help us understand what is and what has happened.  The story that starts with once upon a time ends with corporate farms using chemicals and other substances which destroy our bodies a tiny little bit at a time so we can’t identify or point to that as one of the reasons for our current dilemma. The marketing and advertising has us in a constant ongoing argument with each other which both sides lose, because in this great information sharing age, the crucial information is kept locked up and very seldom shared.

Just a couple for instances:

Flour – that which was the staff of life for our forbears and was in many breads and other dishes is something we are warned against today and which has developed around it and trying to take its place – a new industry – gluten free – because so many are now allergic to what sustained life in their past generations.  And gluten-free is a much more lucrative end result of processing than is flour, which is now depicted as the enemy of health in so many characterizations and advertisements.  One little dirty secret = it is substantially more profitable.

How could that be?  Who did this thing?  The one substance which you could practically live off of alone is now claimed as our bodies enemy.  If you are not allergic to it, then certainly you know it makes you fat!

Flour as a profit center is what happened and the machinery went into high gear to figure out how to make ever more money giving even less to the general populations:   Farmers were encouraged to put all kind of chemicals on their wheat and to experiment with new kinds of wheat developed because, thereby,  much more could be grown on a small plot of land and even beyond that – large corporate farms popped up, quietly destroying the farmer.   The substantially increased profit to be made on land growing this ever new kind of wheat was too much for some to pass over and certainly was not to be shared with the non-corporate types.  And so ‘crush them’ was the mantra of the day and it was successful.

Greed called those susceptible, into the flour business, to press as much money out of it as possible giving to the populace whatever smokescreen and story board was necessary to hide the real reasons for that substantial profit increase from something as basic as wheat.  And along came the hiding  and holding back and creating myths for the populace (us).  The wizard was very busy with all of this going on behind the screen.

The best place to start to tell this part of the story is at the end of the processing line – the point at which flour has been robbed of everything that gave us life and all of that replaced with that which takes life and good health away from us.  The large silos in which the “finished” flour was put to be held until it could be packaged harbor many ugly secrets.  Predictably, those silos were infested with bugs and our new kind of logic said bugs needed to be killed with pesticides and that happened.  None of the silos escaped.

There was no way to get the dead bugs out of the silos so let the flour stay until the bugs deteriorated.  No one would ever ask what those black specks were in the bags of flour, if the bags and the marketing were such as to make the flour more convenient to buy and prettier to look at with the mythical story about how much ‘cheaper’ it was.  And the bonus – something light brown or a dark ivory was made very white!  The background color of this ‘revolution’.

There was no way to get the pesticides out of the flour because it just became one with the ground grain.  So the department, in the United States, which kept the public’s food supply safe just issued a proclamation which said there was not enough pesticide in the flour so it wasn’t worth demanding that the pesticides be removed – that would be too costly – nor was there enough to warrant a note on the packaged flour letting the consumer know the product they were buying was tainted.

And so, the flour moved off the shelves into our homes where it wrecked havoc with our health without most of us knowing why we were developing these low levels of something that made us feel not quite up to par;  some of us becoming quite ill with allergies; some of us succumbing to viruses and various bacteria much easier and more frequently than in the past.

….And so another industry sprung up to address that and to take us further down the rabbit hole and those addressing that issue further up the profit margin generator.

Milk – Another one of those ‘basic for life’ foods that we all eat or drink that has added to this horrendous lifestyle we are living.  We have become so accustomed to the problems with milk and other foods, we have simply adjusted and move on.  It is becoming unpatriotic to question.

Many of us are horrified if we have to drink “Whole Milk” – as though this would poison our system.  We have come to believe most assuredly that would put more weight on us and probably fool with our fat/cholesterol count and from that would come hardening of the arteries or high blood pressure or something equally awful.  Some science I remember from a small child doesn’t exist in the public mind anymore – “drink your milk, you need milk fat and milk protein in your system at the same time. ” And that is Whole Milk.  The other kinds of milk simply lowers your health and increases the corporate profit.

But, what if ‘whole’ milk was not the culprit, but the growth hormones fed to the cows producing the milk was at fault.  The growth hormones which apparently move from cow to human and cause our bodies to react by being tricked into believing the one ounce of food we just ate was really four ounces so where we want our cows to become fatter on less so our profits would be more, what really doesn’t matter to those so trapped in that profit center is the fact that they are passing that little tricked-out and chemicalized out food to the rest of us as we get just as fat as the cows and for the same reason.  Doesn’t matter if it is ‘whole’ milk or the other kind with the fat taken out.

What if problems occur because, while the cow needs to be heavier with more pounds per cow on less food per cow to increase profits, humans need to be lighter with fewer pounds per human to be healthier.  So – what to do —

Develop,  to address this problem –  a very large health industry to compensate for the health and wellness problems caused humans by this and other such food developments.  And so it should be and so it is.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg!

You should get the message by now so do your research and you will be appalled at what you find.  Some have already discovered much of this and adjusted their lifestyle and diets accordingly, but not even close to a majority of us.

Food has been turned into a political topic to maintain its outlandish growth into the nether regions, those where you can legitimately ask if this is really food when it is mostly chemicals and instead of working together for the health of all we are arguing pro and con totally ignoring reality and facts in our arguments – especially the most popular ones.  Listening to the arguments one would think some of us are not human, but our bodies have some other kind of existence.

The real culprit comes into play in our everyday lives and how we have incorporated meals into this growingly outlandish lifestyle.  Out of the food industry has come the processed food industry and the fast food industry – all detrimental to our health.

Once upon a time, meals were a family community event.  Well, that’s gone by the board.  Meals are now a catch when you can thing and mostly made up of the fast foods and/or the processed foods found everywhere.

And in-between those very unsatisfying fast food meals are the fast food and sugar or salt loaded snacks.  Today, however, it is increasingly salt and sugar in the same food product because it was recently found that combining the two makes for a quicker and more substantial addiction.  Hungry between meals?  There are thousands of snacks you can pick up to get from one “meal” to the next – competing for the title of “I can damage this body quicker than you can”.

I could go into other food groups in addition to milk and flour, but you have to do something!  So I will leave that to those interested.

Alternatives?  What did our ancestors do!

Soup:  Was a ‘go to’ dish.  Not the soup one makes with individual ingredients like pumpkin soup or butternut squash soup or, etc.  But the soup, kept on the back of the stove, constantly hot so if anyone was hungry between meals you went for a bowl of soup.  You simply found a soup bowl, ladled out as much as you felt you wanted to eat and enjoyed a very filling, satisfying and nutrient rich ‘snack’ that kept you satiated between meals and did not add extra pounds or lower your immune system making you susceptible to whatever came along.  A side benefit from this ‘family soup pot’ was the fact that if company dropped by unexpectedly you had something very lovely and elegant to serve them and in an instant.  Set the table, ladle out the soup and enjoy your visitors.

Everything was put into that soup.  Vegetables left over – instead of letting them spoil they were cut up and put into the soup.  Meat-turkey-chicken-venison, whatever,  left over from some dish or other or was not being used as quickly in another dish as expected because time to use it had run out – that was added to the soup.  It was constantly adjusted with different spices to make it something really special, very filling and incredibly nutritious to keep you in good health.

Custards and puddings were constantly being made.  Left over rice went to make rice pudding as did bread that was beginning to go stale.  As was ——etc.

Breads were used even when stale.  All one had to do was to pass the bread under the faucet to wet it a bit and then put it in the oven to heat.  The result was bread that tasted as though it was freshly baked and just out of the oven.  Today, we throw away stale bread and rice and other grains instead of reusing them and keeping them in the refrigerator for their next use – that is, those of us who still eat such things.  Or we keep them in the refrigerator, expecting to use them, but once we finally remember them when going through the refrigerator, we find them full of mold.

Cakes were baked from scratch.  They can be baked today and just as quickly as those from the box – tasting far better and with more nutrition.  The boxed cakes give you nothing.  The freshly baked cakes are a dream.  For a recipe – try the 1-2-3-4 cake.  Easy recipe to remember.  With a mixer it takes less than 15 minutes to put together ready for baking.  Make enough for more than one cake – use the stale left overs to make custards more interesting.

So many recipes are available for quick and nutritious foods – made from scratch.  But even our cookbooks have been compromised.  When I see one which says take a can of…… out it goes in the trash.

Looking for the old cookbooks is difficult because they have been so cast aside.  I find mostly the file boxes in which someone has filed recipes they had from grandparents, aunts, uncles, old friends who brought food stuff for the sick and shut in, including the recipe they used to create the dish they brought.  That doesn’t happen so much anymore – can’t when you’ve stopped at a quick food store to pick up something on the fly.

We could go into the cosmetics industry, the environment, and more – but the clouds start to form and those with vested interests become interested in us and we like to travel under the radar.

Life can be really simple because that even goes to how you clean your house and the substances you use with which you clean.  Our mantra is simple – don’t use anything to clean with that you would not eat.  Well, not as a snack, but you get the message.  And don’t put anything on your skin you would not put in your stomach.  It winds up in your bloodstream in seconds.

All of that marketing and advertising on which we have been raised is hard to undo and get out of our minds.  We have given top priority and attention to what which is put out for the purposes of selling a product – the mythical world – rather than anything factual about that product.  And far too often, that which our family and older friends have tried to teach us gets thrown out with the dirty wash water.

Our conditioning is almost complete – except for the cracks in the wall that a few have been trying to widen to let back in the flood of information that has to be kept out if our current – modern – lifestyle is to be kept and built upon.  That lifestyle is a building built on sand.  What you need for yourselves and your family is a building with a strong foundation.  The story of the three pigs comes to mind.  Each built a house on something different and the storms came or was it the fox who huffed and puffed and blew all of the pigs houses down except the one who built on that solid foundation.

The same goes for all of us as we build our lives and try to pass along the lessons we’ve learned to our children.  Hopefully, something happens which gets them to listen.  I’ve given up on that and have written many notes for them to read after I die.  That isn’t a sure thing either – because most of your belongings are given away or thrown away after death so some other way has to be found.  Libraries were one way, but the internet has sounded their death knell – so the search goes on.

In the meantime, I realize this topic needs a book not an article so let me stop here and leave the rest of this up to you.  Hopefully, you will walk the path that puts you in good health and those around you in a wonderfully supportive environment.

The one great discovery I’ve had is that walking that path gets rid of simple things like a cold.  We haven’t had colds in over five years.  They are not normal, as we have come to accept, but an indication that something in your life and in the lives of your family members who come down with colds and other such temporary illnesses has a cause that can be eradicated if you change your lifestyle.

All of these such illnesses were unheard of two generations ago.  The movement to build a huge and lucrative health industry, which depends upon regular outbreaks of bad health, has grown very quickly.  Such outbreaks are necessary for that industry  to grow, expand, and constantly see increased profits. New viruses and other infectious agents have to multiply and get stronger for the health industry to continue on its upward path and we have not disappointed.

It is not an industry that is working to put itself out of business by helping the populace in its move towards better health.  When we notice that hospitals have become profit centers with stock holders and all the other trappings which require regular profits and substantial increases in profit each quarter and year over year, we realize our health is being preyed on directly as is our food supply indirectly.

Your feedback and/or new information is always appreciated.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

Care for Wood Floors

Tuesday, January 10th, 2017

I read a Bettina Blog quite some time ago which talked about caring for wood floors without using the petroleum derivative products and others, which are harmful to humans.  I don’t remember its title, but it made a lot of sense to me and I used its suggestions and have added a few of my own.

The one I found sensational is caring for wood floors with coconut oil – organic, expeller pressed, coconut oil and nothing else – except a soft rag and 0000 steel wood if the floor is really dirty with stuff crusted into the wood.

The first time I cleaned my floor with coconut oil I had to use the 0000 steel wool and it took a long time because I could only do a section at a time.  My energy didn’t last for the entire floor, but that worked in my favor because I could move furniture over in a small section of the room – go over the floor, pouring a bit of coconut oil onto the floor and wiping back and forth with the 0000 steel wool.  I then went over it again with a soft rag pouring the coconut oil sparingly onto the rag to wipe up the remains of the steel wool, dirt and whatever else this process got off the floor.

I let the floor dry for a day or two and then wiped it with a soft dry rag.  There was a soft film over the floor and the dry, soft rag wiped it off quickly leaving the floor unbelievably beautiful.  It looked like the real mahogany wood I loved so much when it was first installed.  It did not have that look of a plastic covering, only being able to see the real wood through that thick coating – it had the look of well taken care of mahogany wood.

That was a couple years ago.  I first tried olive oil on the floors, but after a couple cleanings, that left a sticky surface.  And I tried a few other oils, but the one I am sticking with is coconut oil.  I put the glass jar of coconut oil on top of the stove before cleaning so it will be liquid.  I now clean my floors once a year with the coconut oil and after only about three years, the floors are now easy to clean – I rarely need the 0000 steel wool anymore and each time I clean the floors with the coconut oil, the floors look better than they did the time before.

What a fantastic and simple way to keep your house clean.

A bonus comes from the really nice odor the coconut oil leaves.  No one can put their hands on exactly what is the smell, but people now notice and comment when they come in the house.

I now put a bit of essential oil of lavender in the coconut oil before using it and that has enhanced the really great feeling of the house – and its odor.

A friend of mine has taken up the habit after she saw my floors.  She puts essential oil of roses – which she calls rose otto – in her coconut oil and her house smells great.  That is her preference – wouldn’t be mine, but I still enjoy the odor when I go to visit.

Thanks for that!

Keep those suggestions for this organic kind of house keeping coming.  I feel as though I have added a few years onto my life and the lives of my family.  No off-gases from those other kind of cleaning ingredients, which I think are dangerous to your health.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

37,456 PEOPLE

Thursday, December 1st, 2016

The Number of People

who read Bettina Network’s Blog

in November, 2016

was 37,456.

Starting this month you are able to sign up to have Bettina Network’s Blog delivered to your email box whenever a new Blog is posted.

Up until now. you had to go to the Blog to read the newest one and you didn’t always know when a new blog was posted.

Just sign up using the green form which comes up on the page about 9 seconds after you start reading.  When the page becomes green, that is your sign to join a truly great group of people who are reading what Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community has to say.

If you are a member of that community you are able to have your blogs posted.  Just send what you want to say to bettinanetwork@comcast.net and we will post your blog – maybe editing a bit, if that is necessary – and maybe having a bit of conversation with you before posting. if that is necessary.  You can send pictures, drawings, whatever, to include with your blog.

The topic is up to you.  ACADEMIC PAPERS – because we have a very large academic readership; FUN QUOTES; with the advent of Donald Trump the interest in politics has zoomed up so feel free to send us POLITICAL ARTICLES, COMMENTS< and you can even tell us how to vote – not that we will take your advice, but its worth a try.

While we are using the blog structure, this is really becoming a newsletter and on its way to becoming a newspaper – written by people in the community who want what they have to say circulated to others.  If you have a response to anything, please feel free to send that via email.  We do not have the comments section of the blog open to anyone who want to comment so you will have to email your response as an article.  This is a CURATED BLOG.

COMMENTARY on whatever; RECIPE’s for your favorite foods; “MEMU’s you have experienced which sent you to heaven; CONSPIRACY THEORIES; ART – CRAFTS – MUSIC Videos that you have created; In other words – no end to the possibilities.

And we hope the end result is of interest to all of our readers.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

Ghanaian and Columbian Skin Care

Wednesday, September 21st, 2016

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2016

We have not had enough time to test this out on several people over a long period of time, however, for a few days on about 3 people it has had stunning results.

A previous blog was about Pineapple Skins for Skin care – an old Ghanaian treatment.  In conversation over breakfast about that blog we had a Columbian guest who made an addition to that recipe.  So, of course, we had to try it and love the results.

In addition to the steam treatment with Pineapple Skins – add Papaya skins to the water before steaming and let the Papaya Skins and the Pineapple Skins simmer together until steam rises.  Follow the same method – put a large towel over your head and your head over the steaming pot of water and skins and let the steam from all of the ingredients get into your skin for several minutes. You can do this however you are most comfortable – either over the stove with the water simmering or move the pot off the stove and put it on a nearby counter.  If you want to continue and the steam dies down -put the pot back on the stove until the steam comes up again and continue.  We chose five minutes because that was all we could handle standing over a steaming pot.  Someone else was able to try 10 minutes.  The results were spectacular.  I would think once or twice a week – depending upon your age and the condition of your skin – would work beautifully.  Once-a-week if you are young and your skin shows no damage from age or the over use of cosmetics.  Twice a week if you are aging and your skin needs work.

Follow this facial steam bath with lots of splashes of cold water on your face and pat dry with a soft towel.

Then – if you are retiring for the night – use nothing.  If you are getting ready for the day out and about, use a capsule of Vitamin A on your skin to add to the results from the Pineapple and Papaya Skin Steam treatment.  Actually, I found it takes four capsules – clipped and used one at a time to cover my face.  I use 25,000 IU’s.  Whatever you use would be up to your judgment.  I use this immediately upon rising in the morning and after at least 20 minutes with the Vitamin A on my face I rinse it again with cold splashes of water, pat dry and I am ready for work.  If I am staying home, I let the Vitamin A stay until I remember to splash the cold water.  Using the Vitamin A, including on my eyelids and under my eyes can cause a bit of a discomfort while it is on.  I ignore it and keep going.  The result seems to be an increase in my ability to see without the use of glasses.  That might be genetic, but everyone before me had glasses by the time they were 55.  I am way past that and only need glasses when I read a lot.  During the day, I can refresh my face with more splashes of cold water when I go to the bathroom for other reasons.  That is such a rejuvenation and a perk-me-up that my face instantly responds and looks as good as it looked with the first splash in the morning.

If you try this, we would appreciate your feedback as to how it worked for you.

We chose the Vitamin A after the facial steam bath because we read the Bettina Network Blog – a long time ago – about the Vitamin A – dry milk – Vitamin E treatment which is also fantastic so we only need to use the steam – probably once a week – maybe not even.

I don’t even use powder on my face anymore.  If I have a grease spot or the weather has caused a particularly greasy face, I simply use powdered milk.  It is super fantastic.

God bless Alicia Keyes.  Hope others will join her in her dedication to no cosmetics.  She simply appears the way God made her and she looks like a fresh flower in the middle of plastic replications.  I hope she is ready for the attacks of jealousy which are definitely coming from this stance.  So many people so very threatened.

Isn’t it great what sharing can do?  The need to be better than has caused us to have to live with cancer, obesity, heart disease, diabetes and all the rest because we can’t give credit to possible cures and improvements that other societies use on a regular basis.  We must be the continuing Colonials whose way is the only and the best way.  I think this collaboration between Ghanaian and Columbian is what it is all about.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

Pineapple Skins for Health and Beauty

Thursday, September 15th, 2016

A suggestion we picked up from a guest from Ghana on using the skins of a pineapple to help cure a fever.

This is something Hillary Clinton could have used to deal with the fever which apparently caused her trouble at the 9/11 Memorial.  A little steam infused with pineapple skins before going to the Memorial might have eliminated her problems.

Take the skins of two pineapples – I chose two for very arbitrary reasons.  We had fresh organic pineapple for breakfast and used two pineapples.

Fill a large soup pot with water, add the skins from the two pineapples and bring to a boil.

Let this boil for about 20 minutes.

Put your face over the soup pot while it is boiling and make a tent over your head with a large towel to trap the steam.  Let the steam get into your pores.  Keep your head covered with the tent and over the pot for about five minutes.

This should take care of your fever and in addition, your face will look fantastic as the nutrients from the pineapple skin get into your skin as you let the steam get into your pores.

It will also give you a great hairdo.  The steam will make your hair look as though it has increased four fold.

This is an old recipe from Ghana to cure the fever.  We added the side beauty treatment to remove wrinkles, produce a beautiful gleam to your skin and do a little feeding of the skin in the process.

We could take this one step further and suggest you use the pineapple skins to make tea.  It is done the same way. However, for tea, we suggest you take it to the next level and add fresh organic ginger before boiling the pineapple skins – skin and slice the ginger,  add it to the pineapple skins with either honey, maple syrup or organic turbinado sugar to taste.  You will have a wonderful tea to put in glass jars until you want to either heat and serve this as a proper tea – or drink it cold.  Either way it is exceptionally good.

Let us know, via email, your experience with this.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

A Sample of Bettina Network’s Lessons and Requirements!

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2016

Bettina Network, inc. has guidelines and lessons for those who join the Network with a talent, body of knowledge, wisdom, art, craft, etc that they want to share.

To give you an idea as to what these small lessons and requirements are, we share the following:

“We understand all of the marketing behind stainless steel and other kinds of utensils for eating.  However —-

In Bettina Network, inc. as a Host Family and Hedge School Facilitator we require that you use silver utensils when serving any kind of food.  If you are using  stainless steel and/or other materials for your knives, forks, spoons and other utensils which go in the mouth, please change to silver as soon as possible.  They are a bit more expensive so you can take six weeks into joining the Network to change the utensils you use.  To be efficient in the use of your resources, you might want to sell your current utensils at an estate sale, or yard sale, etc. to find the money to replace them with silver, if necessary.

Why?  Because silver has anti-bacterial properties and we want to make sure guests and those coming to learn are as protected as possible.

Silver plate or sterling silver are equally fine.”

Some of our homes have moved even further and adopted the old German habit of using silver pots and pans for cooking.  That is the ultimate, but instead – if you can’t afford or don’t understand how to use these silver pots and pans and are a bit squeamish – you might try converting to a combination of iron and glass pots and pans.  Give the idea of silver pots and pans a bit of time and you won’t want to use anything else.  Corning used to make a fantastic set of pots with the blue cornflower on the side which is great either for cooking on top of the stove or for using in the oven for baking.  Cast iron – which you will need to  oil (season) after each use, is excellent also.  Please don’t oil these iron pots with Olive Oil.  It goes rancid quickly and defeats the purpose.  You might try Peanut Oil – Coconut Oil – or etc.  Stable oils which you use to cook foods when the temperature is higher than ‘slightly warm’.

If you have questions or comments, call or send us an email.  If you want your email published as a blog, please so indicate.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

English Biscuits for Tea

Sunday, May 22nd, 2016

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2016 for Marceline Donaldson

Tea time is one of my favorite times of the day.  And what helps it to be favorite is what is served.

Not all tea times are equal.  Some are fantastic and some are so bad you just want to forget they happened.

One of my favorite foods, to go along with Organic Tulsi Tea, or organic peppermint tea, or organic hibiscus tea are these English Biscuits.  They take about five minutes to put together and about 15 minutes in the oven.  Hot and fresh – there is nothing like them.  Pastries are great, but home baked is far better, especially when you know what went into those pretty pastries and so called ‘tea cakes’.  I keep trying to eat them because folks keep bringing, sending, having them for tea when I join them, but I’ve just given up.  I enjoy looking at them because they are beautiful and that has to suffice.  I’ve had to make some ridiculous excuses for not eating those lovely confections when I have been invited for tea, but today I just look, don’t touch and don’t try to justify not eating them.  They are works of art, not food for the stomach.  Those who serve them should know better so I will not justify their bad taste anymore – neither the bad taste of those serving them nor the equally bad taste of the pastries.  They taste sweet and little else.

English Biscuits*

*Please remember:  American-style biscuits are savory.  English Biscuits are sweet – what we would call cookies in America.  Although this is not a cookie recipe that looks anything like chocolate chip cookies.  It is a sweet made especially for tea time.

One cup organic whole wheat flour

One cup organic pastry flour

1 teaspoon himalayan salt

1 tablespoon baking powder (no aluminum, please)

1 stick organic butter

1/2 cup or to your taste of organic raisins

One cup (or to your taste) organic turbinado sugar

One cup organic heavy cream (or if you are squeamish – one cup organic whole milk)

One or two tablespoons Organic Hazelnut Oil or whatever taste you want to add – Organic Vanilla Oil – Organic chocolate, etc.

The Process

Put the two kinds of flour, salt, baking powder in the food processor and process for a few seconds

Add the organic butter to the mixture in a food processor and process until they are one.  The mixture will look basically the same, except a little as though it is wet

add the raisins and sugar and process again for a few seconds

add the milk and process until this mixture seems to hold together.  The longer you process the more gluten develops – so judge your time as to how you like your biscuits.  More bread like and rubbery or more crispy and flaky.

Smear a cookie sheet with butter wherever you are going to put one of these biscuits.  This recipe makes about 12 English biscuits

Take lumps of the mixture, roll it around in the palms of your hands until you have a nice ball

Each ball makes a biscuit and put the balls on the cookie sheet (no aluminum cookie sheets, please)

Bake at 350 degrees until done – about 15 minutes.

If you like ‘stuff’ on top of your biscuits – use 3/4 cup organic turbinado sugar in the biscuit mixture and sprinkle the rest on top of these biscuits before baking.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

Women, Get Back into those Constraints!!!

Tuesday, May 17th, 2016

Women, girls, ladies, transgenders,  your life is about to change.  The fashionistas amongst you are going to really suffer for the next decade.  For those of you old enough who were fashionable in the 1950’s and 1960’s this will be a historical return to a very unhappy and uncomfortable time.  For those of you young enough to look at this as an adventure, you are in for a rude awakening.

The young Hadid followers are looking at getting you back into those horrible girdles.  There are comments and rumors that the girdles and corsets and other things that push your innards together making them scream for air and relief are making a return.  All during the time you were so constrained and constricted and felt this breath of fresh air when that all went away, that relief is going away and those straight jackets, stomach pinchers, breast-shape changers are returning.  Some of the neglige’s and other night wear is also coming with constraints so look at this as a possible 24/7 phenomena.

It was nice being able to go out and about without all of those underpinnings.  Look at the work women have been able to do without waistlines pinched in and stomach almost touching one’s back.  Well, that scared a lot of menfolk and after a little conference – the higher up machismos decided it was time to bring back one of the little mores that led to inequality and men performing their jobs better than women – men didn’t have those corseted constraints.

There have been periods in history of constraint and freedom.  Look at the flowing robes of the Greeks and the tightly laced up underclothes of the Victorians.  The freedom side of fashion only lasted a fraction of the time the constraints were in place.  Freedom had to come or all women would have the diseases and struggles and depressions and staying home all the time attitudes that used to exist when they had to stay in those body reshaping undergarments for such long periods of time.

I was one of those and know how painful and full of stress it was to walk around smiling with your kidneys, lungs, stomach and other assorted organs in the body being pushed into one another.  How I survived is nothing short of a miracle.  I think it was the feminist revolution that was my salvation and is the reason for any achievements I have been able to make since then.  Burning the bra – with some of us burning the girdles at the same time was no cutesy thing, it was crucial to the success of the movement.  I remember being at work wondering how I was going to get to the end of the day without keeling over and feeling a great sympathy and simpatico with Japanese women who had heavy constraints and the Chinese women who had their feet bound.  My feet weren’t bound, but they were as constricted as they were when I used to dance in toe shoes.  Toe shoes are those dance shoes that make a ballerina, when she walks around with no shoes on,  look great from her ankles up and like a candidate for surgery from her ankles to the tips of her toes.

Panti-hose were a god send.  But even those began to be made as girdle tops and stocking legs.  I even complained about those because my freedom made those feel like a constraining garment.  Some women – but not me – ran around with a beautifully made shift and nothing else.  They were free of bras, girdles, pantyhose and it was an enslaved persons dream.  Well, women made great strides under those circumstances.  You looked great – and men drooled – but now, those who regulate such things have been constantly appalled that the strides women made were too great and it is time to move you back into the dark age of girdleship.

I remember feeling so sorry for those Victorian women who needed help to get dressed because first they had to be laced up in that girdle to give them an owl glass shape.  I don’t know what these new girdles will produce because the fashionistas don’t have any meat on their bones to push in and their organs are crying out for food.  Maybe constraining them through these new girdles will make them so pushed together their organs will start yelling for more space; for some freedom; and will forget about food.  That will help those of us who couldn’t pull off the starvation diets to wear those size o clothes.  Girdles certainly do control weight, but they demand a heavy price.

Maybe its time for women to demand constant ongoing freedom.  Don’t spend your money on your own oppression.  Opt for freedom of body, mind and spirit.  It is the only way to go and those underpinnings coming down the road deliver slavery, not freedom.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

More on the Weight Blog

Thursday, April 14th, 2016

I am happy the person wrote to you about not using soap.  I haven’t used soap for years.  He uses Apple Cider Vinegar when he gets really dirty in places.  That’s fine – I do that also, but I also use organic dried milk to clean up.  A little in the hand and then rub it onto the wet areas needing to be cleaned beyond just water.  I assume the person writing is a ‘he’ since he talked about shaving.

You have a blog – from years past – which I picked up on, which is where I got the dried milk idea.  You put it out for a facial.  Wet your face, wash it with dried milk, let the milk stay on your face and lie down for about 20 minutes.  The dried milk rubbed all over your face dries and gives you a skin tightening experience like no other.  Rinse lots after your 20 minute rest, dry your face and add moisturizer – not the commercial kind, but clip a vitamin A capsule and rub it all over your face – followed by a vitamin E capsule, to make the A last longer.  Before you go out for the day, rinse your face with cold water and pat dry.  You will look stunning.  If you have a problem with oily skin, use the powdered milk as a powder to keep down the shine and you are good to go.  I don’t use the powdered milk as a powder, I have dry skin.

If I weren’t lazy I would give you the particulars of that facial in this blog, but you can look it up for yourselves.  As I recall it was one of your first blogs way back when and I have been a devoted follower ever since.   Keep on keeping on!  And thanks!  This is one place I know I can come to and not have to worry about marketing and advertising people selling me something in the guise of giving me information and knowledge.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

A Better New Year’s Beauty Regimen!

Monday, January 18th, 2016

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2016

Now, Marceline, I am not competing with you – heaven forbid, I couldn’t stand the fallout – but I think I have a better regimen.  Based on your work, however.

Follow the regimen set forth in the preceding blog but add the following:

First thing in the morning – have an organic lemon squeezed into warm water and drink it down.

Use the liquid vitamin C and the whole plant aloe vera, but add to it Vitamin D3 which you get by clipping and squeezing a capsule onto your fingers and massaging it into your skin after you have applied the liquid Vitamin C and the organic whole plant aloe vera.  Let all three stay on your skin for at least 1/2 hour, but most of the day or night if you can.  If you have a little bit of money try this on your face.  If you have more money give yourself an all over massage before going to bed – in cotton pajamas.

It is transformative.

You might not want to print in the blog what follows, however, if you do –

I have a problem which probably stemmed from my bad diet as a child.  It caused constipation and lots of gas and now I have what I think are hemorrhoids and couldn’t go many places until I discovered a sort of cure –

I can go out in public by using a Vitamin D3 capsule, clipping it open and inserting the oil – you know where – and I am good for the day.

I’ve tried everything and nothing worked.  This does.  I should add – this works for me, I don’t know if it will work for you.

That lemon juice in warm water has helped me control the foods I eat.  It starts my day off by cleansing my digestive tract and making me feel as though I just had a great meal.

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

The Beauty Regimen of the Year

Tuesday, January 12th, 2016

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2016

We have experimented with lots of ingredients to attempt to get the best beauty result over the years.  The one that stands out from 2015 is a combination of liquid Vitamin C and Organic Aloe Vera – the whole plant.

They are an amazing combination and from our experience have given the most healthy looking results.

Mix half-and-half in a cup – half liquid Vitamin C with half organic whole plant Aloe Vera.

After your shower give yourself an all over massage with the half liquid Vitamin C and half Organic Aloe Vera mixture

Then you can do one of two things –

1) Put on cotton pajamas and cotton socks – if you are really into this you should also put on white cotton gloves and go to bed.

In the morning, take a shower -because the mixture will be sticky and all over.  After your shower give yourself a massage with either Avocado Oil or Coconut Oil – try alternating the two.  And then you are ready for the day.  You will feel your energy level at high pitch.

2)  If you prefer doing this in the morning – after a shower or very warm soak in the tub – give yourself a massage with the half-and-half mixture – put on your work clothes, for work around the house – and after an hour or so take another shower to rinse off the mixture.

And again – give yourself a massage with Avocado or Coconut oil and you are set to get dressed for the day.

Your energy level and beauty/health look will be fantastic.

Whether you use One (1) or Two (2) depends on whether you like to do your beauty regimen in the morning or at night.

We prefer the liquid vitamin C which is in the orange bottle.  Some people tried the liquid C in the smaller dark brown bottle.  The problem we had with that C is the fact that it seemed to us to be full of sugar, although the ingredients did not list sugar.

Two to three times a week will be great – less is alright, but does not produce the same results.

Inbetween times, take a long 1/2 hour soak in the tub.  Put a quart of Organic Apple Cider Vinegar in the tub with you and just enjoy.  Eventually, your aches, pains, will go away and if your experience is like ours you will find yourself free from the colds, and other things that those around you seem to constantly suffer.

You will find yourself craving oranges or lemons if you stop this regimen so be prepared.  We think your body becomes accustomed to the vitamin C.

One New Years resolution – don’t put anything on your skin that you would not eat.  They say you have a barrier which prevents stuff from getting into your body, however, we have discovered that what you put on your skin shows up in your blood stream in minutes.

P. S.  When you shower, never – ever use anything except clear, warm water.  No soap or anything else.  It will ruin the goodness of the above beauty and health treatments and do nothing except pollute the water going down the drain in the shower.  Created by Satan is that thing called soap.   It destroys your body’s natural oils, which are very protective of you, and it actually does nothing that could be called good for you.  The marketing and advertising people have created the need for soap over the generations and have been very good at their job – just as they have created the need for your house to smell like chemicals.  Truth has been missing in all of the marketing and advertising.  They have gotten us to believe a really foul odor created by chemicals, is actually  “clean smelling.”

Be extra vigilant in 2016 of every ingredient in everything you buy and use.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

A New Year’s Suggestion for Better Health!

Friday, January 1st, 2016

We would like to start the New Year by wishing you the happiest and healthiest of days which will extend to the entire year.

We also wish you a year of the kind of work and play that will keep you healthy and will also help change the world.  Take care  of and empathize with those with whom you share this earth – not just humans, but animals and all the other creatures.  Too often we think only humans matter and we generally can also eliminate some of them from our care and concern.

An example of what one man did with a small part of his life during a very difficult time in the United States:  “Dr. Paul Bragg opened in NYC, Macfadden’s 7 famous “Penny Restaurants” during big Depression Era. They fed millions of hungry people with healthy vegetarian meals for only a penny! Inspirational music and literature was given out to inspire and guide them.”

To pass along to you something else from the Bragg family – their motto – ” “You are what you Eat, Drink, Breathe, Think, Say, & Do!”

Sometimes, or should we say most times, we act as though what we Eat, Drink, Breathe, Think, Say and Do has no affect on us whatsoever when in reality that is the sum total of who we are.

Finally, we recommend that you subscribe to the Bragg family newsletter.  It is free and always full of sage advice.   To subscribe you will find a box on the first page of their web site, which can be found by clicking on this link – www.bragg.com – fill in your email address and you are set to receive their monthly newsletters.

Excerpts from their JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2016 newsletter follows:

T. Colin Campbell launched a revolution when he published his breakthrough book, THE CHINA STUDY. Dr. Campbell spent 40 years researching nutrition around the world. What he found consistently and repeatedly is that too much animal protein in the diet – anything that comes from an animal like beef, chicken, fish, dairy, eggs – causes not only cancer, but heart disease, and a long list of other diseases. Doctors and Scientists everywhere are corroborating his findings. Legions of medical and lifestyle experts are joining the chorus: the Epidemic of Disease that is currently plaguing the United States is in large part due to the American Diet. We’ve been brainwashed by advertising, and tempted by low-cost, government subsidized industries to eat too much meat and dairy. Not only that, much of the commercial food in our country is now tainted with pesticides, GMOs, growth hormones, and other cancer-causing toxins! Want to stay healthy? Eat more fresh, organic fruits & vegetables, and Dr. Campbell recommends eliminating animal protein or cutting back to 5%. Your body will love being healthy and the planet needs you too!

January — New Year Resolutions for a Healthy New 2016

Don’t be part of World’s Health Crisis, be part of the Solution! 2016 is the perfect time to begin your new lifestyle: switch to a plant-based diet for you and your family; create a workout schedule and stick with it; learn yoga, meditation, or just plain deep breathing to help eliminate stress. What we eat today is walking and talking tomorrow. Exercise enhances circulation which is critical for elimination, and delivery of oxygen and nutrients to your cells. Stress is negative energy that can build up in your system and ultimately cause your immune system to collapse. Most people can stay healthy by making these simple, lifestyle improvements. Here’s to healthy 2016!

February is “American Heart Month”

Heart Disease is STILL the Leading Cause of Death of Men and Women in America. But did you know that heart disease is not only preventable, but reversible? And in many cases without surgery? Our country has a handful of brave, pioneer medical doctors like Dr. Dean Ornish, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, who are standing up against the “system,” and curing heart disease by putting their patients on plant-based diets! And, as mentioned above, exercise and stress management is also important as well as abstinence from tobacco and alcohol! Learn more from the Bragg “Healthy Heart” book and other publications on www.Bragg.com.

ENJOY BRISK WALKS DAILY & HEALTHY Stationary Jogging

Do while watching TV, talking on phone, or at work breaks. It gives your 70 trillion cells a great massage that promotes healthy circulation! TRY IT! You can truly walk your worries away!
Dr. Paul Bragg opened in NYC, Macfadden’s 7 famous “Penny Restaurants” during big Depression Era. They fed millions of hungry people with healthy vegetarian meals for only a penny! Inspirational music and literature was given out to inspire and guide them.

Dr. Patricia Pays Tribute to her dear friend, publishing guru, Dan Poynter

Many years ago, Dan Poynter was an avid hang glider. Wanting to learn more about the sport, but discovering there were no books on the subject, he decided to write his own. The book became an instant Best Seller in the self-publishing world. Since then, Dan wrote over 130 books, became the go-to authority on self-publishing, and lectured around the world. He was Patricia’s friend and consultant for over 40 years! Dan passed away recently, an accident took his life. He will be fondly remembered in a Memorial Service at the Bragg Organic Farm in Santa Barabara, California.

Dr. Patricia Recognized on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars!

Celebrities, V.I.P.‘s, and throngs of Bragg Followers flocked to Palm Springs recently to honor Dr. Patricia for her life as a Health Crusader. A “Star” engraved with Paul and Patricia Bragg’s names was instated for all perpetuity. Patricia also gave health lectures at several Palm Springs venues, including the Palm Springs Health and Fitness Expo where she spoke to standing-room-only crowds!

“You are what you Eat, Drink, Breathe, Think, Say, & Do!” Patricia Bragg, ND, PhD

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifetystyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to – via email, bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 or 1-800-347-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

A Response to “Dogs = Emotional Slavery”

Sunday, November 8th, 2015

Thank you for your blog on dogs.  I didn’t think anyone would have the guts to say what many of us are thinking and afraid to say because all around us are people who are so totally into their dogs it is pathetic, while the rest of the world just shakes its head in disbelief.

My pet peeve is the filth that dogs bring.  We are afraid of rats and talk about the diseases they bring.  It takes over 500 rats to make the kind of ‘shit’ that dogs make with one bowel movement and the smell is awful.  Does the real difference in the way we think about these mammals comes from the fact that we control dogs, but can’t control rats?  It is clearly not cleanliness or the spread of disease.  Dogs are, hands down, able to spread disease much faster and more lethally than can rats.

I’ve also noticed how dogs walk all over the place and when they get home they walk into the house bringing whatever is on their feet and the first thing they do is to shake themselves to get rid of all the ‘stuff’ their hair has collected during their walk.  Dogs themselves aren’t so filthy, they know what to do to keep themselves clean, it is their interaction with owners who either don’t know or don’t care about the negative reaction of their dogs with the rest of society.  What comes off when they shake is amazing.  Check it out and see if some of your diseases haven’t come from your home collecting all of this stuff.

I am so tired to taking other people’s dog shit out of my garden that I would like to outlaw dogs in my neighborhood.

What is most amazing to me is the fact that dog owners take their dogs for a ‘walk’ twice a day – at least.  Actually, they are taking their dogs to the bathroom to pee and shit in another area – at least several blocks away from their own homes and gardens because they don’t want that mess, germs, bacteria and smell close to them.

I’ve seen dog owners take their dogs to other peoples gardens and hold the dogs to pee on the flowers and recent plantings that others have paid for and are taking care of to beautify their homes and neighborhoods. Why do the dog owners do this?  So they don’t have to pick up the filthy shit.  I’ve seen people walking their dogs with bags in their hands to pick up the dog excrement.  Do they use the bags?  Many don’t.  It is mostly for show.  If the dogs have a bowel movement in your garden, the owners can walk away from it and leave it there.  The same thing with the small garden areas around trees, especially if there are plantings around the trees which cover the dogs shit so it isn’t found until they have moved away from what they have turned from a lovely garden into a dog toilet which does not flush.

It is time for this to stop.

I love dogs – but the dog owners are making life impossible.  I read your blog when I had just come in from picking up dog shit off my lawn.

How do we get this to stop?  It is time to stop romanticizing dogs and look at the reality of their lives amongst us.  Particularly,  their owners need to be trained and to understand this is not playtime or snuggle time, but reality time.  The reality here is its not the dogs who are the problem, but their owners.

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

Bettina’s Fried Chicken – the Ultimate Recipe

Friday, August 28th, 2015

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2015

This is fried chicken the way Grandmother made it.  And remember – taste happened in Grandmother’s recipes.  Todays’ processed food and processed food recipes have to use lots of salt and sugar to make their food taste.  Grandmother used very little sugar in anything and even less salt and the sugar she used was not the over-processed, over-refined sugar which delivers nothing but a sweet taste that gets old and ugly when you begin to wake up your taste buds with real food.

  1. Pour enough organic milk in a bowl to cover the chicken you are going to fry.
  2. Add organic apple cider vinegar.  Use your judgment for how much – you really do have taste and really do need to stop slavishly following recipes without using your judgment on the ingredients, etc.  Each recipe you use should become your own.
  3. Let the milk and vinegar sit for several minutes while it bubbles and becomes like buttermilk.
  4. Instead of the organic apple cider vinegar – or if you want a change, squeeze a couple lemons into the milk and let sit until you get buttermilk.
  5. Put organic chicken pieces into the milk and let sit for a couple hours or preferably overnight.
  6. When you are ready to fry the chicken – the oil you use is crucial because it adds to the taste and health benefits of this dish. We use a couple.  Half organic butter and half organic coconut oil in a skillet to about 1/3 the way to the top of the skillet.  Or, if you want a change and a very different taste try organic peanut oil.
  7. NO! Don’t use olive oil.  That is used beautifully in a salad or some other dish which you do not cook.  You don’t want rancid oil as the basic taste of what you are cooking.  It becomes a taste you recognize and like if you use if often, but it is not a good one.
  8. After heating the oil, rinse the milk mixture off the chicken under cool running water
  9. Put the chicken in organic flour and coat the chicken.  Let sit a few minutes for the flour to sort of harden before putting chicken in the skillet.
  10. Sprinkle himalayan salt, cayenne pepper, thyme over the chicken before putting the chicken in the skillet.  And of course, those are all organically grown spices.  If you are Italian or have those taste buds, you can add organic oregano to the spices you use on this chicken.  We think the combination of these four spices gives the ultimate taste, but it is your judgment call.
  11. Cook, turning when the skin turns the color brown you best like in chicken.
  12. There are two ways to finish this chicken.  You can continue frying the chicken in the iron skillet until it is done or when the chicken has browned you can put it on a baking pan in the oven at 350 degrees and bake until done.
  13. Enjoy a powerfully great fried chicken.
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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Dog Post Response

Thursday, May 28th, 2015

A response from a member of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community to the post on “Dogs, Dogs and more Dogs!

“Thank you for that post.  I was overjoyed to see someone pointing out how much we spend on our pets in view of some desperate human beings who have to fight to get a meal each and every day.

I also watch the dogs outside my window.  There is a park and we have a leash law.  I see dogs playing off their leashes every morning with their owners watching.  They run, chase what their owners throw and have a general good time.  Which is great for them!  However, I also watch in the afternoons when parents come with their toddlers and let the toddlers run around the park – right where the dogs relieved themselves.  Your intro about the disease may have been in fun, however, shortly, there is going to be a serious outbreak when a mother’s child comes down with a disease from playing where the dogs crapped.  The city does nothing about stopping the people from letting their dogs run without leashes.  That law was passed for a reason – basically to protect people and dogs.  If anything serious happened in that park – even a loud noise – there is no way to control the dogs who then react in fear.

Keep writing – I will keep reading.”

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

Dogs! Dogs! and more Dogs!

Wednesday, May 27th, 2015

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2015

Oh! Isn't that cute! I can leave it where it drops, the leaves will cover it up.

Oh! Isn’t that cute! Such a thoughtful dog, we can leave it where it drops, the leaves will cover it up.

 

NEWS FLASH!  New terminal disease discovered which is killing the population.  It is fatal within two hours of a human becoming infected.  Scientists have found the cause – the huge amount of animal fecal matter spreading rapidly and piling up across the world.  The main spread agent – dogs whose fecal matter turns into this rare form of disease when expelled.  No cure found!  Babies under one year are the most susceptible.  Humans on earth are confounded.  Hospitals are not overcrowded because people infected with this new dog caused disease die before reaching the hospital or a doctor!

 

Everywhere you go there are people with their dogs.  Some on leashes, some running free, all peeing and dropping their fecal matter on the sidewalk – in the gardens around the trees – everyplace except where it is supposed to be dropped.  Some people pick up their dog’s crap.  Some don’t.  Some pick it up and drop it on top of their neighbors garbage cans or in another neighbor’s garden.  Most humans are pretty thoughtless about other people and are only concerned about their own comfort and convenience.

This was a pretty emotional breakfast.  So many feelings about all the dogs multiplying, increasing exponentially in a society which still has homeless and young children without enough to eat – no one to care for them – needing clothes, education, comfort and love.  None for you, my lovely and needy children, it is all going to the dogs.

WHY?

Our little band of temporary friends decided it is because dogs worship humans.  A self-absorbed society adds to its self-absorption by bringing in an animal that gets happy when it sees its “master”; wags its tails strongly to show how happy it is to see this human being who feeds them, etc;  gives companionship in a master/servant kind of way and will never try to become an equal; and the biggy – isn’t going to stage a revolution for its freedom.

What would this world look like if all the money and other resources being spent and lavished upon dogs were spent and lavished upon those who are in need.  Is that enough to end poverty? To end homelessness? to end children on the street selling their bodies for a meal and a roof over their head?Buy a dog or adopt a child!!!  Take care of a dog or help a family take care of its children!!!  Spend tons of love and care on dogs or spend tons of love and care on humans in need.  We have clearly made our choice – the dogs win.  The humans think, care, act! Dogs just worship!

It is much harder to deal with your own kind than to deal with a group you have designated as less than.  That master/servant relationship isn’t going anyplace.  It is firmly in control of most of us and we seem to not be able to stand on our ethics, our principles, our own two feet and we especially don’t want to be inconvenienced or put out in any way.  We won’t even pick up our own servant/dogs poop – or dispose of it properly.  For every one person who does, there are at least 10 who don’t.

His new teeth cost a fortune, but it was worth every penny!

His new teeth cost a fortune, but it was worth every penny!

So what is the answer?  We couldn’t find any.  Get this dog problem under control and we will probably only be able to do so by putting another situation in its path that will turn into something worse than what we are now experiencing.  Everybody at the table, including those with dogs had a horrible dog story to tell about a neighbor, a friend, a relative and that persons dog.

While we talked at breakfast about the incredible number of dogs every place you turned, doing damage to human life and health, we were in a dining room with a window which looked out on the street and we counted twelve (12) dogs going by with their owners – and this in less than an hour.  The dog owners stopped in front of the tree which was surrounded by lovely flowers.  That was a clear signal to the dog – pee and crap now and in this spot.  The dogs simply walked into the flower bed, encouraged by its “master” and peed.  We were sure that flower bed would soon be barren.   As it is, the flower bed was bedraggled from the dog traffic and our host didn’t want to go out to continue to cultivate it after watching all the dog pee going into the ground.

Contrary to dog owners claims – dog pee and dog fecal matter are not garden fertilizers.  They are garden destroyer.

They can't be talking about me! But I am so cute, anyone would be proud to have me lick their face!

They can’t be talking about me! But I am so cute, anyone would be proud to have me lick their face!

What does it do to the human spirit and the human soul to lavish all of the resources now being spent on animals and ignore the need of humans who are going hungry – are without basic shelter – have no way to get out of their current tragic existence.  How would you feel in those circumstances sitting on the sidelines watching pampered pets go by?  We have more compassion for “rescue” dogs than we do for another human being.  We talked – finally – about seeing friends getting all misty-eyed when they see a dog in need and turn hostile when they see a human in need.  There is something basically wrong here and we are clearly not dealing with what is missing in the human spirit which allows this and blind-sides us to our part in this tragedy.

When you die will it be your dog who greets you with its tail wagging or will it be the humans you denied because of your inability to face your own mortality and morality?

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

Marceline’s Brown Biscuits

Wednesday, May 20th, 2015

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2015

Named by a guest, these ‘biscuits’ are easy to make and they destroy the marketing mythology that cooking and baking are difficult and one must, instead, decamp to the local store to buy the instant variety of anything because we don’t have the time or knowledge enough to cook – we must buy instead from the ‘professionals’.  For us, such prepared  food has too much salt – too much sugar – too many preservatives and other things which don’t belong in food.  We like plain ordinary ingredients which one can quickly turn into great biscuits in five minutes of prep time.

These biscuits can be made in many versions.  One can make plain biscuits for a great breakfast, dripping with butter; or one can put cinnamon, apples, onions, peanut butter, cheese, nutmeg, sugar, etc. into your own version of these biscuits and call them Theodore or JoAnn’s Biscuits.  (Hi JoAnn, thanks for naming my biscuits.)   Only your imagination limits the possibilities.  We have been known to put everything except the kitchen sink into our biscuits and the more ingredients, the better the biscuit.  Want something really special, try making these biscuits with raw, unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk.  Now there is a biscuit that harkens back to the time when food was food and not a conglomeration of chemicals.

Start with one cup organic whole wheat flour in the food processor.

Add one cup organic whole wheat pastry flour

Add one teaspoon salt – or to taste

Add one teaspoon baking power

To remember the ingredients – it is biscuits with the power of one plus six. What is the six?  The number of ingredients.

Turn on the processor and give it a few twirls to mix these dry ingredients.

Add one stick organic butter to the ingredients in the food processor – slice the butter to make it quicker to incorporate

Turn on the processor and let it twirl until all ingredients are mixed and it looks like tiny little balls

Add 2/3 cup milk and twirl for a quick second until the ingredients are in a kind of ball.

Use organic butter to make rounds of grease on a cookie sheet.  Each round is where you will drop a biscuit.

Take a small handful of the biscuit dough and roll it lightly between your hands to form a ball. If your hands get sticky during this process, put a bit of flour on the palms of your hands and keep rolling the biscuit dough between them.

Drop the biscuit ball onto one of the greased rounds on the cookie sheet

When all are done, bake at 350 degrees until done.  Maybe 10 to 15 minutes depending upon your oven.

Let them cool for a few minutes after you take them out of the oven or they will break up and you will have to eat biscuit crumbs.

These should be very light and lovely and give you about one dozen biscuits.

For variety – use organic coconut milk instead of cow’s milk – or goats milk – or almond milk – or whatever you like.  We loved the coconut milk.  It was a subtle taste.  You knew something great was in the biscuits, but you didn’t know quite what.

To the plain biscuits, add grated cheese before baking.  Grate cheese and just push a small amount into the biscuits.  Top with a square of butter, sprinkle salt over the biscuits and then bake.  These are super fantastic.  The addition of the cheese, salt and butter takes these out of the everyday category into the universe.

To the plain biscuit dough, add a heaping tablespoon of organic ceylon cinnamon. Use organic coconut milk instead of regular cows milk. Add sugar to taste – a lot if you want sweet biscuits, a medium amount to make these ‘dressy’.  Grate a bit of nutmeg into the biscuits or sprinkle the tops generously with nutmeg and sugar before baking.

Add chopped apples to the sweetened biscuits.  Apples give an unexpected taste and texture to these dressed biscuits along with the coconut milk plus.

NO! ABSOLUTELY DO NOT SUBSTITUTE WHITE FLOUR FOR ORGANIC WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR.  Organic Whole Wheat Flour is what gives these biscuits the taste of ones grandmother used to make.  The good grandmother, who knew how to cook with solid, organically grown ingredients.

It takes, at most, five minutes to mix these biscuits and another ten to fifteen minutes to let them bake in the oven.  The effort is minimal, the results are spectacular.

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

 


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