Belly Dancing In The Woods

This photo should get me a few hits. We camped last night at our friends place up near Boonville, CA. Usually we only go there for Memorial Day Weekend but Steve was celebrating his 60th birthday so we went to the party which was complete with live music and a belly dancer.

The belly dancer has been a Memorial Day camper for many years but none of us had ever seen her do her thing. She is very good. The best part; her body is not skinny. She has flesh on her bones, which I always think will be a plus if I ever get seriously ill. I will recover more quickly than those skinny minnies who have nothing on which to fall back.

Everyone brought Steve special presents: belly dancing, the band, origami cranes forming a small mobile around a bottle of Sin Zin produced locally; a hand cranked lantern to use when the power is out and so is the sun (they live off the grid) and many more. One fellow rode his motorcycle from Nova Scotia to Boonville to help Steve celebrate. His wife, I think quite wisely, flew into San Francisco, was picked up by friends and driven to the party. I made Steve homemade bread and butter pickles.

He is a fan of my pickles. In years past I've used my bumper crop of crook neck squash to make sweet pickles for him. I didn't grow any squash this year so I took store-bought cucumbers and made the pickles. I used the sugar/splenda combo to help reduce the calories and carbs. I made enough for Kerry and me too. We should be able to eat them in about a week.

On our 8-hour round trip drive to the party and back we listened to Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma." We've listened to five discs so far; eight more to go. The first several discs are about corn and its implications for the health of our planet. It was shocking. Right now lots of people immediately think of ethanol when they think of corn. Well, it takes a whole lot of oil to make ethanol so it's not the panacea to the energy crisis that the current administration is purporting. Also, corn fed beef is not good for the beef or for us. Beef cattle are not meant to eat corn that's why they are given antibiotics to keep them healthy. From birth to the slaughterhouse takes only 14 months. I highly recommend the book for the CD version.

Turtle Doug's estranged wife is the founder and CEO of Laura's Lean Beef; I'm going to make a point to buy it from now on. The cattle are allowed to graze, eat grass and gain weight the old-fashioned way without antibiotics and hormones. The web site for the beef is www.laurasleanbeef.com I'm not ready to give up beef but I just don't want all that extra stuff thrown in.