APRIL 2012

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THE EARTH - Online Monthly Newspaper of the
"Ringing Cedars" movement.

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This section is devoted to the information that will be useful in the creation of a Kin's Domains.

1. Children's Upbringing and Education:

2. Meaning of Food in Our Lives

3. Health, Natural Methods of Health Improvement

4. Ecological Farming, Permaculture

5. Green Construction, Eco-friendly Technologies

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RUSSIA

The threat of a halt is menacing the creation and further development of the Luchezarnoe eco-settlement!

We are members of the Luchezarnoe Agricultural Credit and Consumers' Cooperative, created for the purpose of engaging in farming and constructing a modern ecological settlement on the territory of the Cooperative.

The Cooperative was officially founded in May 2008 on the initiative of private citizens by acquiring shares of land from the shareholders of the Zarechnoe Private Joint-Stock Company and registering these shares as the property of the Agricultural Credit and Consumers' Cooperative.

The settlement has a land holding of 300 ha in area, and is intended for the full-fledged residence of 123 families and their farming operations.

Over this time, we have, out of our own resources, developed the plan of the settlement, done the surveying, and divided the land into parcels, 50 of which have already been distributed and are being developed. The development of the parcels has begun in the form of the planting of orchards, vegetable gardens, parks, and woodland belts (approximately 10,000 trees have been planted). Tractors have been acquired, some of the most problematic sections of the road have been covered with crushed stone. Seven residential buildings have been constructed, approximately another ten have been started, a large number of summer structures and our own arts and leisure centre have been built.

In autumn 2010, we began work on the creation of a strategy for the development of the settlement. The basic goal of the strategy was the creation, on the basis of Luchezarnoe, of a working model of a qualitatively new agricultural locality. In its strategy, the Cooperative is implementing, in practice, 12 public programs from Order No. 1950-r of the Government of the Russian Federation of 11 November 2010.

The concept of the settlement is directed toward having several generations of a family live on each parcel. Capable residents will care about the older generation and occupy themselves with the raising of the growing generation. We intend to create families with large numbers of children, both our own and adopted. We have reserved 10 parcels for the families of military servicemen and the wards of children's homes.

The residents of the settlement together with the Central Botanical Garden of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences are developing a plan for the harmonious combination of the settlement and a wooded park. Special attention is being paid to the cultivation of rare and vanishing species of plants, methods for the restoration of the fertility of the soils without the use of chemical fertilizers, and raising their resource and ecological potential.

The threat of a halt is menacing the creation and further development of the Luchezarnoe eco-settlement!

On 13 February 2012, the Court of Arbitration of Novosibirsk delivered a decision respecting the confiscation of land from us in favour of the owner of the Zarechnoe Private Joint-Stock Company. The legal experts explain that there are instructions from above respecting the return of lands that had been partitioned from collective farms. The actual owner of the Zarechnoe Private Joint-Stock Company is a deputy of the Novosibirsk Oblast Legislative Assembly, a member of the United Russia Party, and managing director of one of the networks of the petroleum depots of Novosibirsk Oblast. He is a very well-off person. Formally, the rights of ownerships belong to his closest relatives and agents.

At a personal meeting, he declared that he intended to take the land away from us, and from all the farmers and peasants of Stary Iskitim who own land on the territory of the former collective farm.

We have information that he wants to sell it at a profit, and that is why he launched these legal proceedings against us.

Up until the final day, the lawyers were sure of our absolute victory. The judge behaved in the same manner, but at the final hearing, it was if he had been replaced, he seemed to withdraw into himself, the fire in his eyes was extinguished, he did not listen to anything more, but rendered the decision and closed the case.

Before the final hearing, the Director of the Zarechnoe Private Joint-Stock Company arranged a meeting with us. After threatening us, he distinctly said: "I shall buy any court, you will lose all the same!"

Will he be able to buy a People's Court?

http://poselenia.ru/
Translation Copyright http://www.ringingcedarsofrussia.org/


The holiday "Maslenitsa"

Vesta

Just like all the major holidays in the agricultural calendar of the Slavs, Maslenitsa was associated with the rotation of the sun. Up until the sixteenth century, the holiday was known as Komoeditsa, and was dedicated to welcoming the spring on the day of the vernal equinox, the day of the beginning of the astronomical spring, March 23. This was a two-week festival, which began one week before the vernal equinox and continued for one week following it. Thus, the new year was celebrated in Rus by seeing out winter and welcoming spring. And up to the fourteenth century, the new year began in March. According to the ancient Slavic calendar, on March 23 of this year began the year 7520 (2012). One year was the period over which the sun passed through one full astronomical cycle, and, correspondingly, on a figurative level, it symbolized the birth, life, and death of the sun god Yarila.

The origin for mankind of the four great solar holidays (celebrated on the days of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, and summer and winter solstices) dates back to the times of the Upper Paleolithic (the postglacial period), therefore in one form or another these holidays are found in the cultures of all the peoples of Eurasia and Northern Africa.

Morena

As a Slavic holiday, Komoeditsa was also accepted by Christianity, but not according to the solar calendar, but the lunar one. For that reason, in Christianity that holiday has a moveable date. Komoeditsa, or the Christian Maslenitsa, underwent a number of changes, over time it even practically lost its symbolic meaning, however the traditions of celebrating this holiday remained alive in people’s memory. Modern historians are resurrecting the meaning of the rituals according to folklore and the chronicles that have come down to our days. The true meaning of the rituals remains a mystery for the present.

In Komoeditsa, the ancient Slavs celebrated the arrival of the goddess Vesta - the image of spring - and accompanied the goddess Morena - the image of winter and death - away to her icy mansions. At that time, other gods of slumbering nature were also welcomed. The protector of animals in the image of the bear (a costumed youth) was regaled with treats, and, without fail, married off in jest. The sun-child Kolyada also became the sun-youth Yarila. At this time, nature awakens, and a readjustment of the hormonal system occurs in the human organism, the preparation for vernal forms of activity.

The send-off for Morena is carried out through the ritual of taking Morena's snow fortress and burning her effigy. Morena is a symbol of winter and death. In general, there were no bad images among ancient peoples, only afterwards did they begin to give these or those images a positive or negative connotation. Thus, Morena was not a bad image, she symbolized the slumbering of nature before new life, and also the transition of the human personality from one state to another.

Morena was made of large wooden sticks by fastening them together with red woollen thread. The torso and hands of straw were attached, the head was fastened on. It was dressed with old things. The effigy of the Goddess Morena was ceremoniously carried on a straw mare to toward the temple and placed in the middle of the snow fortress to wait its hour - the final battle between cold and warmth.

The taking of Morena's snow fortress and her effigy symbolized the battle of the forces of warmth with the forces of cold. In this battle, the men take Morena's fortress, which is defended by the women.

Men are the defenders of warmth and light, thanks to which new life will be born. Women are the symbol of stability and equilibrium.

The new circumstance must conquer in this battle. But not at first. Just as everything in the world hangs on a triunity (the unity of three worlds, represented by matter, information, and measure), so the victory is obtained only the third time. For that reason, in the ceremonial games, the men, when attacking the fortress, should prudently retreat the first two times, as if the defenders of the fortress were stronger. The third time, in spite of the repeatedly growing fervour of the women and girls, the fortress should nevertheless be taken entirely. The main task of the female contingent is the zealous defence of the effigy of Morena. The victory of Spring in that battle occurred when one of the men reached the effigy of Morena and carried it out of the Goddess's fortress.

Then, Morena was hoisted up in the centre of a pyre, and the participants in the celebration then hung on the effigy braids of rope, kerchiefs, scraps of old material, ribbons, articles made of straw or wood, and so on, mentally investing the image with everything they wanted to get rid of, and lit the fire. Around the fire, songs, dances, and merry games were begun that called an invitation to Vesta, the spring.

The most important attribute of Komoeditsa were pancakes known as blini. They were baked at the beginning of the celebration, and the first blin was given to bears - the protectors of animals. The women would carry the blini to the den of the bears, who would soon awaken from their winter hibernation and, of course, would be very hungry. Blini were considered to be a symbol of the sun - they were just as round, yellow, and hot. It was as if a person, when eating a blin, was eating a portion of the warmth and power of the sun.

It was expected that at this time the first migratory birds arrived, blini were set aside for them as well, so this delicacy was not hung on tree branches in vain.

In addition, each of the 14 days of Komoeditsa had its own significance and rituals. In many respects, these rituals were associated with the family, ancestors, and descendants. The rituals included the obligatory visits to relatives, as well as prayers for ancestors. It was essential to forgive everyone against whom grievances had accumulated, ask for forgiveness oneself, and get rid of all the negative things that had accumulated over the year in order to enter the new year with a pure soul.

http://rusfolclor.ru/;
Translation Copyright http://www.ringingcedarsofrussia.org/


Kin's Settlement "Ubertsy"

with Zepp Holzer

A settlement is being created in a very quiet and beautiful area of Lepelsky District.

Our kin's settlement is being built on the basis of a small village known as Ubertsy. There are houses for sale in the village.

In the area there are several magnificent lakes with absolutely clear water, the nearest is 1.5 km away (a 20-minute leisurely walk).

It is one kilometre to the nearest forest, a bit far, but this does not at all stop the rabbits and other small wildlife from running straight through the village.

One of the neighboring villages (1 kilometre away) is the village council centre, there is a store, school, hospital, and a post office.

On the territory of the village there is a communal building. Residents can receive guests, or people can stay in the communal building.

We will be very happy to see future neighbors and friends!

Contacts:
Leonid Ogurtsov
e-mail: admin@lepel.by
cell: +375 29 573-47-49

http://leonidogurtsov.ru/; http://poselenia.ru/
Translation Copyright http://www.ringingcedarsofrussia.org/


NEW: Kin Space online Community

New social network www.kin-space.org has been created in order to connect and assist like-minded individuals - readers of Ringing Cedars book series, people who care about tomorrow, and those who are longing for healthier happier lives.

Kin-Space has a potential of becoming a huge resource and is already able to offer its users an opportunity to find a soul mate, have a personal page, form clubs, connect with friends, communicate through the forum and messaging, create events, find eco-villages, educate yourself on various topics with the use of Kin-Space Resource Library, and much more.

Please take a look at Kin-Space Resource Library (http://www.kin-space.org/m/library/home) because this is the place that is meant to become your guide and inspiration in many vital matters from birth to food, from gardening to culture, and more. Articles are dedicated to encourage and support social and personal change towards green sustainable living.

Some other things you would probably want to know about Kin-Space: it is free of charge, it is well organized and secure, and it enables the information flow, including video and music.

If you have sustainability in mind, Kin-Space will prove itself to be useful to you. You may register and participate in the project by following the link www.kin-space.org. As Kin-Space project is very young, any kind of feedback is very much appreciated: info@kin-space.org.

http://www.kin-space.org/


Ringing Cedars Of Russia's New Facebook Community

Ringing Cedars of Russia has recently created Official Facebook community, which will allow Ringing Cedars' friends to share knowledge and ideas, instantly interact with other members, and receive occasional news and updates.

Please fill free to engage in social discussion or leave feedback on our "Wall". The "Wall" section will be periodically updated to include the latest news on variety of health related topics.

Our Facebook Community

For those who have already joined, we appreciate your show of support and interest in our work. Help us spread the word and expand our community further; by recommending our Facebook page to your family and friends.

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Poetry, art, music, photography and anything else that flows from the heart.

Art by Svetlana Sablina

"Dolmen - Pra-mother"

"Dolmen - Grandfather"

Watch Video:

"Voice of the Bard" by Dews of Clover

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Please visit the forum at Source of Life Association and share your opinions on the books of Vladimir Megre. Discuss Anastasia's ideas about harmonic life, and how you use them for yourself. Share your impressions.

You can now discuss your ideas on the following topics:

Let's build a strong community together. Support each other with positive thoughts and create a real plan for making our dreams come true.

Visit the Forum.

Forum Talk

Posted by 'Taylor11' in a topic 'Rites and Ancient VedRus Knowledge, Rites, and Rituals'. Join the discussion of this topic here:

YES! This is something I find I am thinking about alot!! Obvisouly our ancestors had knew of knowledge, and even Anastasia says we should take the best from the past for the future. So, I have been researching quiet a bit lately...I will keep sharing what I learn and find on this thread, thanks for starting it!...

http://www.ringingcedarsforum.com/

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed on this forum are personal opinions of individuals creating the posts. We are not liable for any information posted on the forum.

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This section is devoted to the information that will be useful in the creation of a Kin's Domains.

The Secret Language of Toddlers: What Their Behaviors Mean

By Hagar Scher

Two-year-olds act out their emotions in some pretty bizarre ways. Let us help you crack the toddler behavior code.

Your toddler is becoming a verbal, opinionated little person. In fact, he's downright bossy - he tells you where to sit, which pants he wants to wear, and exactly what he'd like for lunch. But when it comes to communicating more complex thoughts and emotions in words, he still has a way to go, which means you're often forced to interpret some weird behavior. We asked experts to help us decipher the hidden meaning of common toddler tantrums and body language.

He wants to take all of his stuffed animals into bed with him.

Translation: "I'm scared."

Not too long ago, your baby cradled his fuzzy blankie and slept soundly. Now suddenly, he demands to take so many comfort objects to sleep each night that his bed looks like a modern-art project. This is the age when a child's imagination takes off, and he starts having nightmares and populating the closets with monsters. Keeping familiar objects nearby makes your child feel secure as he drifts off to sleep or wakes up in the middle of the night.

Your response: Two-year-olds are literal beings -- the monsters they've imagined seem incredibly real, so it doesn't help to show them that there's nothing lurking in the closet. They'll just think you can't see monsters.. So let your child surround himself with as many comforting things as he needs. If you're worried that he'll roll out of bed, appeal to another toddler trait: the desire to make his own decisions. Ask him which three animals, two board books, and one toy he wants as bedmates that night.

He lifts his shirt over his head when he meets a new person.

Translation: "I'm anxious."

Think about the last time you went to a social event where you didn't know a soul. You probably talked yourself through the discomfort in your mind - It's good to be out with other adults. Oh, she looks kind of cool. I like her top; maybe I'll walk over and chat with her - and grabbed a glass of wine so you'd have something to do with your hands. Consider your toddler's behavior the age-appropriate equivalent of an adult's social awkwardness. "Your child's not yet able to work through his nervousness, so he negotiates the situation in a purely sensory and physical way. Some kids will chew on their shirt or tug at their pants, while others might clutch your leg, suck their thumb, or drop to the floor and bury their face.

Your response: Gently coax your toddler turtle out of his shell. "Young children look to their parents for cues on how to react to new situations. Relax your own shoulders, smile, say "Hi" to new acquaintances, and give your child a reassuring squeeze. This lets him know that his surroundings are safe and friendly. Then, give him time to warm up.

She won't look you in the eye.

Translation: "I'm embarrassed."

When babies avert their gaze, they're telling you that they're overwhelmed and need a break from being the star of the show. But sometime around her second birthday, your toddler develops the capacity for self-conscious emotions like shame. For instance, she knows that you're angry because she kidnapped her baby brother's teddy bear again. "When a young child refuses to look at you, it means she realizes that her actions may have disappointed you.

Your response: Acknowledge what your child did wrong in simple, short sentences -- "We don't rip books, "We never push" -- and offer up a way to make it right, like taping a torn page or giving a crying pal a hug. You want her to know that everyone makes mistakes sometimes, but it's important to take steps to fix the damage.

She hides behind the furniture when she poops in her diaper.

Translation: "I want privacy."

This common toddler behavior indicates two things: first, your kid is clued in to her urge to poop and knows there's a BM coming, and second, she's observed that adults do the deed in private. These are two positive signs that she's getting ready for potty training. But the number-one indicator? She immediately asks to have her dirty diaper changed. If a child doesn't care about sitting in her poop, then she's not ready for potty training." Most kids become interested in using the toilet between ages 2 and 3.

Your response: Encourage your toddler's search for privacy, but steer her into the bathroom. Just getting a child into the right room of the house is a positive step -- there's no need to pressure her to sit on the potty yet.

She transforms into a total brat - throwing food, hitting, breaking toys.

Translation: "I'm feeling out of sorts."

It's shocking - and troubling too - when your normally sweet, kind 2-year-old turns into Super Evil Child. But it's important to understand that her bratty behavior is probably just a reaction to the current situation and not a sign that her personality has changed. Usually, when kids this age act out, they want to tell you, "I'm bored," "I'm tired," or "I need attention!"

Your response: Try to figure out what's going on. If she's acting out because she's bored, bust out the Legos and play together or head out to the park for a change of scenery. A time-out may also be a good idea. "Toddlers need to learn that there are better ways to get your attention than throwing a fit. Putting your daughter in a two-minute time-out - she sits alone in some place that's boring - sends a clear message that you won't put up with inappropriate behavior." Then come up with a fun activity to do together.

He pitches a fit while you're cutting the strawberries she just asked for.

Translation: "I want it now."

Babies are born impatient as a matter of survival. They fuss and wail to be fed right now! Changed right now! Cradled right now! Your toddler's inability to hold her horses is a reminder that, though she's growing up at the speed of light, she still has a toe or two in the baby years. The prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain responsible for self-control - including the ability to cope with a delay in having her needs met - starts developing most dramatically somewhere between the ages of 2 and 7.

Your response: Do not indulge your toddler's need for instant gratification by moving at warp speed to meet her every demand. Instead, tell her you've heard her request and will get her what she wants as soon as you can. Then gradually begin to draw out the time it takes you to fulfill her commands, talking her through the specific steps you're taking. Say, "Mommy's finishing the dishes, then she'll dry her hands, open the fridge, and pour you some apple juice." You're teaching your toddler a valuable skill - patience - by insisting she wait for things.

He yells, "No, my mommy!" when other kids approach you.

Translation: "Pay more attention to me!"

Clingy behavior could signal that your child feels like he's not getting enough of you, especially if you've been working long hours or have recently welcomed a new baby to the family. In the absence of any changes in the status quo, such possessiveness is probably part and parcel of your 2-year-old's blossoming sense of self. "The 'mine, mine, mine' phase is annoying, but it's actually a good thing because it means that your toddler is making progress figuring out who he is as a person. At this stage, his self-image is tied to the things that are most valuable to him, and Mom is right up there."

Your response: Hug your child, and tell him that, of course, you're his mother and you love him. You could also use this as a quick teaching moment about sharing. Say, "I'm your mommy, not Betsy's, but I can still be nice to other kids and say hello."

http://www.parents.com/

Images Copyright:http://gidbaby.ru/;http://bringchild.ru/

How to Help Kids Deal with Their Emotions

By Cynthia Ramnarace

In the first few months of life, an infant's range of emotions is pretty limited, but within just a few years, he'll experience the gamut. He won't understand what he's feeling, however, or be able to label emotions. Parents can help by translating feelings, putting a name to them, and teaching kids the proper way to react.

The First Three Months

If there is one skill a newborn has no trouble mastering, it's the heart-wrenching sob. Your baby is communicating a need - "I'm hungry" - but also an emotion: "I'm upset!" Newborns have two basic emotional states: happy and unhappy. "A content baby is sleeping or just observing what is going on around her. Everyone knows the features of an unhappy baby: tears, screams, and writhing. It's a full-body experience. All those theatrics are your baby's way of saying "Help me feel calm again." When you fulfill that need, you're teaching an important first lesson in emotions. When she's unhappy, a person who loves her will take care of her.

After crying, smiling is the second expression of emotion. Real smiles start at around 6 weeks of age. Just like adults, who can flash a polite smile to a person they pass on the street and an overjoyed grin to a beloved friend, babies have different kinds of smiles. The true "I'm so happy" smile requires the use of a muscle near the eye, a muscle that very few people can manipulate voluntarily. It's reflexive and controlled by the part of the brain that is responsible for emotion.

3 Months and Up

Starting at around 3 months of age, your baby's motor skills will improve, and he'll figure out all the fun things he can do with his body: roll over or kick at a dangling toy. The previous "good or bad" world of emotional experience is deepening and widening. These new emotions include curiosity ("Wow, I could stare at my hands all day!") and surprise ("Where's Mom? There she is! Peekaboo is fun!"). In addition to increased physical skills, cognitive skills have advanced to the point where he can set goals. This growing emotional intelligence allows him to feel the joy of success or the frustration of failure. Consider an 8-month-old whose hands are reaching toward a desired toy. If you stop a baby from trying to get something, that is going to make him mad. They have a goal, and they do not like that you're keeping them from it.

Fear is another emotion that appears before a child's first birthday, usually in conjunction with stranger anxiety. This new emotion is another sign of higher thinking. It's hard to be afraid of a stranger if you can't figure out whom you recognize.

Toddlers

As your baby reaches her first birthday, she'll feel excited about new adventures - walking up and down stairs or riding the slide at the park - but will also be apprehensive about doing it all by herself. On the one hand, she doesn't want any help, but she melts down easily when things don't go her way. Frustration is not a new emotion for a toddler, but there's an added layer to the babyhood version. An 18-month-old, told it's time to leave the playground, isn't just mad because she's not getting what she wants. She's also mad because she understands that Mom could give in but is choosing not to, which enrages her even more. Not surprisingly, this lack of emotional control, which increases between ages 2 and 3, is really a cry for help. Your child simply doesn't know how to handle the intensity of her emotions.

Consider what happens when you slam your finger in a drawer. Pain, anger, and maybe even fear will flood your brain. But you quickly sort through these emotions: your finger hurts, but you know the pain will subside, so there's no need to panic; you shake off your anger; you rule out fear because you can identify the severity (not very high) of the injury.

Toddlers, however, don't yet have this power to rationalize. They don't know which emotions to ignore and which ones are justified. This is why when a child falls, her first reaction is often to turn and look at Mom's face. Do you look afraid? Sad? Angry? This emotional referencing helps your child learn the appropriate responses to difficult situations. Kids need to know, 'I am feeling something but I am going to be okay'.

Toddlers are also becoming more self-aware. Put an 18-month-old in front of a mirror with a little rouge on his nose, and he recognizes himself and will try to remove the rouge. Before 18 months, they don't.Burgeoning self-consciousness brings with it several new emotions, such as embarrassment. When your potty-training 2-year-old has an accident at daycare and is laughed at, he understands that others are making fun of him. But this new emotional understanding also has a positive side: Your toddler now can experience the pride that comes from a job well done. Praise him for a colorful picture he drew or a tower he carefully built, and he'll smile brightly and puff up his chest.

But just because your child is experiencing these new feelings doesn't mean he can name them. At age 3, a child still describes his emotions in three basic ways: happy, mad, or sad. Ask a beaming child how he feels about his painting, and he'll likely have a one-word answer: "Good." When a parent says, "You must feel very proud!" you are then helping him develop the words necessary to articulate all the different kinds of "good" emotions he feels.

Improving verbal ability also results in another skill: negotiation. A 3-year-old, knowing that Mom and Dad are going out to dinner, might try to talk his parents into staying home. Though he may not be conscious of his reasoning, he knows one thing: I am going to feel upset when Mommy and Daddy go out. This is because a child of that age now has a new capacity: "He can anticipate the emotions he will have in a certain situation because his ability to remember has developed. As your child ages, and you go from kissing boo-boos to helping heal broken hearts, his problems will become more complex. But one thing will remain the same. What he wants to hear more than anything is, "Everything is going to be okay."

http://www.parents.com/
Images copyright: http://nafanka.ru/

Watch Video:

Parenting Tips for Healthy Kids : How to Identify Emotions in Kids

Organic vs Genetically Modified Foods

G.M.O./G.E. Foods

This post will examine the difference between organic and natural foods and the G.M.O. or G.E. foods now being engineered and flooded into our food supplies. G.M.O. stands for genetically modified organisms and G.E. stands for genetically engineered. These are interchangeable terms and indicate that a food, meat or plant food sources have been genetically engineered by modern science.

The idea is promoted as a manner to alter the natural DNA of an organism with DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one molecule to create a new set of genes. This DNA is then transferred into an organism, giving it modified or novel genes. Some touted modifications include food crop plants with newly added defenses against insects or the resistance to heavy applications of pesticides. This seemingly beneficial application of recombinant DNA techniques is questionable at best and seems laden with negative side effects. There are many studies that indicate how the compounded effects of including G.E. foods in one's diet truly are negative and unhealthful.

A Very Brief List of the Dangers of G.M. Foods

Recorded Deaths from GM
Near-deaths and Food Allergy Reactions
Cancer and Degenerative Diseases
Direct Cancer and Degenerative Disease Links
Infertility and High Infant Mortality Rates in animals fed GM
Viral and Bacterial Illness
Superviruses
Antibiotic Threat Via Milk
Antibiotic Threat Via Plants
Resurgence of Infectious Diseases
Increased Food Allergies
Birth Defects and Shorter Life Spans
Interior Toxins
Lowered Nutrition

It should take very little research online or reading such excellent books as Seeds of Deception by Jeffery Smith to understand how harmful G.E. foods are and how they have no place in one's diet.

Organic Foods

"Natural/Organic" foods are foods that are minimally processed and do not contain any hormones, antibiotics, sweeteners, food colors, or flavorings that were not originally in the food. This include fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and meats. In the Western Countries especially the U.S. it becomes important to seek out organic foods. Processed organic food usually contains only organic ingredients. Label reading becomes a mandatory skill.

Labeling

Look for Labels that expressly say "100% Organic" as there are label laws that allows food producer to mark labels as follows:

  • Single-Ingredient Foods- On foods like fruits and vegetables, look for a small sticker version of the USDA Organic label or check the signage in your produce section for this seal. The word "Organic" and the seal may also appear on packages of meat, cartons of milk or eggs, cheese, and other single-ingredient foods.
  • 100% Organic Foods bearing this label are made with 100% organic ingredients and may display the USDA Organic seal.
  • Organic. These products contain at least 95–99% organic ingredients (by weight). The remaining ingredients are not available organically but have been approved by the NOP. These products may display the USDA Organic seal.
  • Made With Organic Ingredients. Food packaging that reads "Made With Organic Ingredients" must contain 70–94% organic ingredients. These products will not bear the USDA Organic seal; instead, they may list up to three ingredients on the front of the packaging.
  • Products with less than 70% organic ingredients may only list organic ingredients on the information panel of the packaging. These products will not bear the USDA Organic seal.

So it is easy to see how confusing the labeling system in use by the USDA is currently. Also note that some seemingly healthy food choices like soy are not so healthy if not 100% Organic. It is interesting to note that the largest G.E. crops in North America are soy, corn, cotton and sugar beets which are processed into sugar. It is also interesting to note that many G.E. foods are in the feed given to livestock. This of course will adversely affect any consumers of G.E. fed meats.

Negative effects of Soy

Soybeans and soy products can not be considered a healthy alternative to milk or meat. It is ironic that soy is touted as such a great healthy alternative to dairy or meat. Soy is one of the top genetically modified crops in America right now. Something like 80% of the soy grown is G.E. The real harm is the phytoestrogens in soy also have a detrimental effect. Soy should never be fed to a child or infant. Feeding a baby soy formula will deliver through the phytoestrogens, the equivalent of approximately 5 birth control pills per day. The damage is incalculable. Soy in adults is linked to thyroid issues, infertility and cancer.

Go Organic

Organically grown foods are generally recognized as being superior in the nutrition they provide. These beneficial nutrients include antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids. The process of preparing foods through cooking, industrial processing, gassing and irradiating all destroy the nutrients in raw organic foods.It would be a shame to buy Organic then to over process the food through conventional cooking. This depletes and deters from the purpose of healthful food. Consider adding Organic Raw Foods to your diet for the most health gleaned from your foods.

Be Aware: Organic is the manner in which food is raised. This means the use of conventional non-organic pesticide (including insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides) is excluded. However, G.E. plants can be raised organically so it is important understand the definitions of these words and to seek out natural or heirloom organic plants and produce.

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GM food toxins found in the blood of 93% of unborn babies

By Sean Poulter

Toxins implanted into GM food crops to kill pests are reaching the bloodstreams of women and unborn babies, alarming research has revealed.

A landmark study found 93 per cent of blood samples taken from pregnant women and 80 per cent from umbilical cords tested positive for traces of the chemicals.

Millions of acres in North and South America are planted with GM corn containing the toxins, which is fed in vast quantities to farm livestock around the world – including Britain.

However, it is now clear the toxins designed to kill crop pests are reaching humans and babies in the womb – apparently through food. It is not known what, if any, harm this causes but there is speculation it could lead to allergies, miscarriage, abnormalities or even cancer.

To date the industry has always argued that if these toxins were eaten by animals or humans they would be destroyed in the gut and pass out of the body, thus causing no harm.

Food safety authorities in Britain and Europe have accepted these assurances on the basis that GM crops are effectively no different to those produced using conventional methods.

But the latest study appears to blow a hole in these claims and has triggered calls for a ban on imports and a total overhaul of the safety regime for GM crops and food.

Most of the global research which has been used to demonstrate the safety of GM crops has been funded by the industry itself.
GM: Ninety-three per cent of samples from pregnant women and 80 per cent from umbilical cords tested positive for traces of toxins. The new study was carried out by independent doctors at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, at the University of Sherbrooke Hospital Centre in Quebec, Canada.

They took blood samples from 30 pregnant women and 39 other women who were not having a baby. They were looking for residues of the pesticides associated with the cultivation of GM food. These include so-called Bt toxins, which are implanted using GM techniques into corn and some other crops.

Traces of Bt toxin were found in the blood of 93 per cent of the pregnant mothers – 28 out of 30. It was also found in 80 per cent of the umbilical cords – 24 out of 30.

In the non-pregnant group, traces were found in the blood of 69 per cent – 27 out of 39. It is thought the toxin is getting into the human body as a result of eating meat, milk and eggs from farm livestock fed GM corn.

The Canadian team told the scientific journal Reproductive Toxicology: 'This is the first study to highlight the presence of pesticides associated with genetically modified foods in maternal, foetal and non-pregnant women's blood.' They said the Bt toxin was 'clearly detectable and appears to cross the placenta to the foetus'.

Calling for action, the team said: 'Given the potential toxicity of these environmental pollutants and the fragility of the foetus, more studies are needed.' The director of GM Freeze, an umbrella group for community, consumer and environmental organisations opposed to GM farming, described the research as 'very significant'.

Pete Riley said: 'This research is a major surprise as it shows that the Bt proteins have survived the human digestive system and passed into the blood supply – something that regulators said could not happen. Regulators need to urgently reassess their opinions, and the EU should use the safeguard clauses in the regulations to prevent any further GM Bt crops being cultivated or imported for animal feed or food until the potential health implications have been fully evaluated.'

Biohazard: Millions of acres in North and South America are planted with GM corn containing the toxins, which is fed in vast quantities to farm livestock worldwide. The Agriculture Biotechnology Council, which speaks for the GM industry, questioned the reliability and value of the research. Its chairman, Dr Julian Little, said: 'The study is based on analysis that has been used in previous feeding studies and has been found to be unreliable.' He said the toxins found are also used in other farming systems and gardening 'with no harm to human health'.

Dr Little said: 'Biotech crops are rigorously tested for safety prior to their use and over two trillion meals made with GM ingredients have been safely consumed around the world over the past 15 years without a single substantiated health issue.'

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The Future of Food

10 Surprising Times to Hit the Gym

By Dr. Mercola

I have long extolled the benefits of a regular exercise program, as it offers improves virtually every aspect of health, from boosting brain function to helping prevent cancer and slowing the rate of aging.

There are many misconceptions about when exercise is appropriate, however, with some mistakenly believing that if you have a cold or arthritis, for instance, you shouldn't work out.

The truth is, there are many surprising scenarios when, while you might be tempted to lounge on the couch, exercise is actually just what the doctor ordered.

Everyday Health has done a great job of compiling 10 such examples, and I want to expand on each one of them below.

1. Recovering from Surgery

Hitting the gym after you've had minor surgery can be highly beneficial, helping to both decrease side effects and get you back into the swing of your daily life faster.

This includes cancer patients, who often receive surgery as part of conventional treatment.

A report by Macmillan Cancer Support notes that cancer patients and cancer survivors should exercise at least 2.5 hours a week,i and cites an excerpt from the American College of Sports Medicine consensus statement on exercise guidelines for cancer survivors, which states:

"Exercise is safe both during and after most types of cancer treatment... Patients are advised to avoid inactivity and return to normal daily activities as soon as possible after surgery, and during adjuvant cancer treatments."

You will, of course, need to be mindful of the level of intensity and avoid exercises that may stress a surgical incision or repair, but generally speaking the sooner you can get moving after surgery, the better.

2. You Have a Cold

Two long-forgotten studies from the late 1990s indicate that not only is it safe to exercise when you have an upper respiratory tract infection, it could actually make you feel better -- even if it doesn't speed up your recovery.

In a nutshell, the studies found that a cold virus had no impact on participants' lung function or ability to exercise, and did not alter how long it took to recover. That said, those who exercised were more likely to report that their workouts helped relieve their symptoms.

When you exercise while you're fighting off a cold, the "dose" of exercise is very important. Over-exercising can actually place more stress on your body, which can suppress your immune system, so it appears you should keep the intensity of your workouts on the moderate level if you're sick. As noted in Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews:

"Prolonged intense exercise causes immunosuppression, whereas moderate-intensity exercise improves immune function and potentially reduces risk and severity of respiratory viral infections."

So you might just go for a brisk walk if you are coming down with a cold, or simply tone down your regular workout. As far as prevention goes, there is evidence that regular, moderate exercise can reduce your risk for respiratory illness by boosting your immune system. In fact, one study found that people who exercised regularly (five or more days a week) cut their risk of having a cold by close to 50 percent.v And in the event that they did catch a cold, their symptoms were much less severe than among those who did not exercise.

3. Headaches

Inactivity is actually a risk factor for headaches, as physical activity works to alleviate headaches in a number of ways, such as:

Releasing pain-killing endorphins
Reducing stress and improving cardiovascular fitness
Improving blood flow to your brain
Reducing muscle tension and fatigue

4. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

If you have the lung disease COPD, exercise can help to improve your circulation, helping your body to use oxygen more efficiently. It may also help to strengthen your heart, improve your symptoms, and boost your energy levels so you can perform more daily activities without fatigue or becoming out of breath.

5. Pregnancy

If you are healthy and your pregnancy is normal, regular exercise can improve your and your baby's health, offering such benefits as:

Eases back and other musculoskeletal pain
Lowers maternal blood pressure
Reduces swelling
A lower risk of gestational diabetes
Improves postpartum mood, including sadness

Research also shows exercise during pregnancy has a beneficial impact on your baby's heart by reducing fetal heart rate and increasing heart rate variability, and may also help you maintain a healthy weight, and have an easier labor and faster recovery from birth. One way to look at exercise during pregnancy is that you are conditioning your body for labor and childbirth. As with most physically demanding things in life, if your body is in shape, you and your baby will have a much easier time of it.

6. Osteoarthritis or Joint Pain

If you have joint pain, exercise is a must; it helps prevent and relieve joint pain through a number of mechanisms, including strengthening key supportive muscles, restoring flexibility, improving bone density and joint function, and facilitating weight loss.

The notion that exercise is detrimental to your joints is a misconception, as there is no evidence to support this belief. Quite the contrary, actually, as inactivity promotes muscle weakness, joint contractures, and loss of range of motion, which can lead to more pain and loss of function, and even less activity. To break this potentially devastating cycle, regular exercise is essential.

If you have osteoarthritis or joint pain and you find that you're in pain for longer than one hour after your exercise session, you should slow down or choose another form of exercise. Assistive devices are also helpful to decrease the pressure on affected joints during your workout. You may also want to work with a physical therapist or qualified personal trainer who can develop a safe range of activities for you. If the exercise causes pain that persists longer than several hours it most likely was too much.

7. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Dietary strategies are key for healing irritable bowel syndrome at the foundational level, however exercise can help improve IBS symptoms, as well. In one study, exercise led to improvements in problems like cramps, bloating, constipation and diarrhea, with, 43 percent of exercisers showing a significant improvement in their symptoms.

8. Menopause

Just three hours of exercise a week has been shown to significantly improve both mental and physical health in menopausal women, including relieving symptoms of menopause and improving quality of life. While ideally you should simply continue your exercise program through menopause and beyond, it's virtually never too late to start an exercise program. So if you're nearing menopause and you're not yet a regular exerciser, now's the perfect time to start.

9. Chronic Pain

Exercise can help with long-term pain relief for a variety of conditions, including osteoarthritis, back and musculoskeletal pain. Furthermore, because exercise often leads to improved posture, range of motion and functionality of your body, it can help treat the underlying source of your pain as well as help prevent chronic back pain. Exercises that can be particularly helpful for chronic pain include stretching, resistance training, and swimming.

10. Quitting Smoking

Exercise is a potent ally in your decision to quit smoking, as withdrawal symptoms and cigarette cravings decrease during and after exercise. In one study, published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 25 male and female smokers, who had smoked for an average of 19 years, received a brief smoking cessation counseling session. They were also given nicotine patches. They were then randomly assigned either to an exercise resistance-training group or a "contact control" group. Remarkably, the exercise group was TWICE as successful in abstaining from smoking compared to the control group.

Are You Ready to Get Started?

There's an overwhelming amount of evidence confirming that exercise is a key player in disease reduction, optimal mental, emotional and physical health, and longevity. It's really a phenomenal way to get the most out of your life! After reviewing 40 papers published between 2006 and 2010, researchers found that exercise reduces the risk of about two dozen health conditions, ranging from cancer and heart disease to type 2 diabetes, stroke, dementia and depression. Exercise also slows down the rate of aging itself, even stimulating the regeneration of the energy-producing mitochondria in your cells, providing perhaps the closest example of a real life fountain of youth as we will ever find.

Ideally, you will have made exercise a regular part of your life long before you reach your "golden" years … but if you haven't, there's no better time to start than the present. Research has shown that regular exercise, even initiated late in life, offers profound health benefits.

Many public health guidelines still focus primarily on the aerobic component of exercise, but this limited activity can lead to imbalances that may actually prevent optimal health. This is why it's so important to maintain a well-balanced fitness regimen, that includes not just aerobics, but also strength training, stretching, and high-intensity interval training like Peak Fitness.

If you're exercising with a specific health condition present, always remember to listen to your body and if you feel you need a break, take time to rest. Even exercising for a few minutes a day is better than not exercising at all, and you'll likely find that your stamina increases and you're able to complete more challenging workouts with each passing day.

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Exercise and aging: Can you walk away from Father Time?

The clock ticks for all men, and with each tick comes change. For men who manage to avoid major medical problems, the changes are slow and gradual, but they do add up. Here are some things that aging can do to you — if you give up and let Father Time take his toll.

Some of the changes of aging start as early as the third decade of life. After age 25–30, for example, the average man's maximum attainable heart rate declines by about one beat per minute, per year, and his heart's peak capacity to pump blood drifts down by 5%–10% per decade. That's why a healthy 25-year-old heart can pump 2 1/2 quarts of oxygen a minute, but a 65-year-old heart can't get above 1 1/2 quarts, and an 80-year-old heart can pump only about a quart, even if it's disease-free. In everyday terms, this diminished aerobic capacity can produce fatigue and breathlessness with modest daily activities.

Starting in middle age, a man's blood vessels begin to stiffen and his blood pressure often creeps up as well. His blood itself changes, becoming more viscous (thicker and stickier) and harder to pump through the body, even though the number of oxygen-carrying red blood cells declines.

Most Americans begin to gain weight in midlife, putting on 3–4 pounds a year. But since men start to lose muscle in their 40s, that extra weight is all fat. This extra fat contributes to a rise in LDL ("bad") cholesterol and a fall in HDL ("good") cholesterol. It also helps explain why blood sugar levels rise by about 6 points per decade, making type 2 diabetes distressingly common in senior citizens.

The loss of muscle continues, eventually reducing a man's musculature by up to 50%, which contributes to weakness and disability. At the same time, muscles and ligaments get stiff and tight. Although men have a lower risk of osteoporosis ("thin bones") than women, they do lose bone calcium as they age, increasing the risk of fractures. One reason for the drop in muscle mass and bone density is a drop in the male hormone testosterone, which declines by about 1% per year after the age of 40. Though most men continue to have normal testosterone levels and reproductive capacity throughout life, many experience a gradual decline in libido and sexual vigor.

The nervous system also changes over time. Reflexes are slower, coordination suffers, and memory lapses often crop up at embarrassing times. The average person gets less sleep in maturity than in youth, even if he no longer needs to set his alarm clock. Not surprisingly, spirits often sag as the body slows down.

It sounds grim — and these changes happen to healthy men. Men with medical problems start to age earlier and slow down even more. All in all, aging is not for sissies.

No man can stop the clock, but every man can slow its tick. Research shows that many of the changes attributed to aging are actually caused in large part by disuse. It's new information, but it confirms the wisdom of Dr. William Buchan, the 18th-century Scottish physician who wrote, "Of all the causes which conspire to render the life of a man short and miserable, none have greater influence than the want of proper exercise." And about the same time, the British poet John Gay agreed: "Exercise thy lasting youth defends."

Exercise is not the fountain of youth, but it is a good long drink of vitality, especially as part of a comprehensive program. And a unique study from Texas shows just how important exercise can be.

The Dallas Bed Rest and Training Study

In 1966, five healthy men volunteered for a research study at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. It must have sounded like the opportunity of a lifetime; all they had to do was spend three weeks of their summer vacation resting in bed. But when they got out of bed at the end of the trial, it probably didn't seem so good. Testing the men before and after exercise, the researchers found devastating changes that included faster resting heart rates, higher systolic blood pressures, a drop in the heart's maximum pumping capacity, a rise in body fat, and a fall in muscle strength.

In just three weeks, these 20-year-olds developed many physiologic characteristics of men twice their age. Fortunately, the scientists didn't stop there. Instead, they put the men on an 8-week exercise program. Exercise did more than reverse the deterioration brought on by bed rest, since some measurements were better than ever after the training.

The Dallas study was a dramatic demonstration of the harmful consequences of bed rest. It's a lesson that's been learned yet again in the era of space travel, and it has helped change medical practice by encouraging an early return to physical activity after illness or surgery. And by revisiting the question 30 years later, the Texas researchers have also been able to investigate the interaction between exercise and aging.

A second look

The original subjects all agreed to be evaluated again at the age of 50. All five remained healthy, and none required long-term medication. Even so, the 30-year interval had not been kind. Over the years, the men gained an average of 50 pounds, or 25% of their weight at age 20. Their average body fat doubled from 14% to 28% of body weight. In addition, their cardiac function suffered, with a rise in resting heart rate and blood pressure and a fall in maximum pumping capacity. In terms of cardiac function, though, the toll of time was not as severe as the toll of inactivity; at 50, the men were far below their 20-year-old best, but they were not quite as feeble as when they emerged from three weeks of bed rest in 1966.

The researchers did not ask the 50-year-old volunteers to lie in bed for three weeks; that could have been hazardous. But they did ask them to begin an exercise program, and they wisely constructed a gradual 6-month regimen of walking, jogging, and cycling instead of the 8-week crash course that served the 20-year-olds so well.

Slow but steady endurance training carried the day. At the end of the six months, the men averaged only a modest 10-pound loss of their excess weight, but their resting heart rates, blood pressures, and their heart's maximum pumping abilities were back to their baseline level from age 20. All in all, exercise training reversed 100% of the 30-year age-related decline in aerobic power. Even so, exercise did not take the men back to their peak performance after 8 weeks of intense training at age 20. The clock does tick, after all, but exercise did slow the march of time.

The Dallas scientists contributed a great deal to our understanding of exercise and aging, but they did not seize the opportunity to evaluate many of the changes that men experience as they age. Fortunately, other research has filled in the gaps. To avoid gaps as you age, construct a balanced exercise program.

Endurance training. As the Texas studies showed, endurance exercise is the best way to improve cardiovascular function. It helps keep the heart muscle supple and the arteries flexible, lowers the resting heart rate, and boosts the heart’s peak ability to deliver oxygen-rich blood to the body’s tissues. A related benefit is a fall in blood pressure.

Endurance exercise is also the best way to protect the body's metabolism from the effects of age. It reduces body fat, sensitizes the body's tissues to insulin, and lowers blood sugar levels. Exercise boosts the HDL ("good") cholesterol and lowers levels of LDL ("bad") cholesterol and triglycerides. And the same types of activity will fight some of the neurological and psychologic­al changes of aging. Endurance exercise boosts mood and improves sleep, countering anxiety and depression. In addition, it improves reflex time and helps stave off age-related memory loss. All in all, many of the changes that physiologists attribute to aging are actually caused by disuse. Using your body will keep it young.

The Dallas investigators prescribed walking, jogging, and biking for endurance training. They could have achieved the same benefits with swimming, racquet sports, rowing, cross-country skiing, aerobic dance, and even golf (as long as players walk the course). A variety of exercise machines can also do the job, but only if you use them properly. The key is regular activity. Start slowly if you are out of shape, then build up gradually to 3–4 hours a week. A program as simple as 30 minutes of brisk walking nearly every day will produce major benefits.

Resistance exercise using light weights or exercise machines will enhance muscle mass and strength and preserve bone calcium. You'll need to learn what to do, and instructors can help. But with simple directions and precautions, most men can develop a safe and effective home program for themselves.

Flexibility training will help keep you supple as you age. Stretching exercises are an ideal way to warm up before and cool down after endurance exercise. Like strength training, 20 minutes of dedicated time two or three times a week is ideal. Yoga classes are very helpful, but most men can learn to stretch for health on their own.

Exercises for balance will also help retard some common effects of aging. They will help you move gracefully, avoid injuries, and prevent the falls that cripple so many older Americans.

Helen Hayes was right when she proclaimed, "Resting is rusting." But although exercise can do much to remove the rust of aging, it can't do it all. Even a balanced exercise program won't keep reading glasses off a man's nose or prevent cataracts from forming in due time. Exercise can't keep a man's prostate small or his testosterone levels high, but it can reduce his risk of erectile dysfunction.

To keep your body as young as possible for as long as possible, keep it moving. As usual, Hippocrates got it right about 2,400 years ago, explaining, "That which is used develops; that which is not wastes away."

Exercise, illness, and longevity

A proper exercise program will help men delay many of the changes of aging, particularly when they combine it with other preventive measures. And the same program can help ward off many of the chronic illnesses that too often tarnish a man’s golden years.

Heart disease is the leading killer of American men. Because exercise helps improve so many cardiac risk factors (cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and stress), it should have a powerful protective influence on heart attacks — and it does. Back in 1978, the Harvard Alumni Study found that men who exercise regularly are 39% less likely to suffer heart attacks than their sedentary peers. It was a groundbreaking observation, and it's been confirmed many times over.

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in America. Like heart disease, many strokes are caused by atherosclerosis, which is why heart attacks and stroke share so many risk factors. It's no surprise, then, that exercise can reduce the risk of stroke. Twenty-four years after its report on exercise and heart disease, the Harvard Alumni Study linked mild exercise to a 24% risk reduction; moderate to intensive exercise was even better, reducing risk by 46%.

Cancer is different — but exercise can also help fight the nation's second leading killer. Colon cancer is the clearest example; Harvard's Health Professionals Follow-Up Study found that highly active men are 47% less likely to develop the disease than their sedentary peers, and many other studies agree. Although the evidence is far less conclusive, regular exercise may even help prevent prostate cancer.

Helping to prevent heart disease, cancer, stroke — exercise is worth the effort. And there's more. Physical activity can help reduce your risk for many of the chronic illnesses that produce so much distress and disability as men age. The list includes hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis, and even Alzheimer's disease. It also includes "minor" ailments such as painful gallbladder attacks and bothersome symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia. And if that's not enough motivation, consider that the Health Professionals Study linked regular exercise to a 30% reduction in a man's risk of impotence.

Regular exercise helps people age more slowly and live healthier, more vigorous lives. And it also helps people live longer. Calculations based on the Harvard Alumni Study suggest that men who exercise regularly can gain about two hours of life expectancy for each hour of exercise. Over the course of a lifetime, that adds up to about two extra years. Maximum benefit does require regular exercise over the years, but it doesn't mean a trip to the gym every day. In fact, just 30 minutes of brisk walking every day will go a long way toward enhancing your health.

Calculations are one thing, observations another. Scientists have evaluated men in Hawaii, Seventh-day Adventists in California, male and female residents of Framingham, Massachusetts, elderly American women, British joggers, middle-aged Englishmen, retired Dutchmen, and residents of Copenhagen, among others. Although the details vary, the essential message is remarkably uniform: Regular exercise prolongs life and reduces the burden of disease and disability in old age. In reviewing the data, Dr. J. Michael McGinnis of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) concludes that regular physical activity appears to reduce the overall mortality rate by more than a quarter and to increase the life expectancy by more than two years compared with the sedentary population's average.

It's never too late

One of the most impressive things about the Dallas Bed Rest and Training Study was that the men responded nearly as well to exercise training at 50 as they did at 20. In fact, men can benefit from exercise at any age, though senior citizens do need to take extra care, especially if they are just getting started. Perhaps the most dramatic example comes from a Harvard study that demonstrated important improvements in 87- to 90-year-old nursing home patients who were put on a weight-lifting program. This study evaluated muscular function, but the Harvard Alumni Study examined mortality. The latter study found that previously sedentary men who began exercising after the age of 45 enjoyed a 24% lower death rate than their classmates who remained inactive. The maximum benefits were linked to an amount of exercise equivalent to walking for about 45 minutes a day at about 17 minutes per mile. On average, sedentary people gained about 1.6 years of life expectancy from becoming active later in life.

Studies from Harvard, Norway, and England all confirm the benefits of exercise later in life. It's important research, but it confirms the wisdom of the Roman poet Cicero, who said, "No one is so old that he does not think he could live another year."

Beat the clock

Aging is inevitable, but it has an undeservedly fearsome reputation. No man can stop the clock, but most can slow its tick and enjoy life as they age with grace and vigor. Jonathan Swift was right when he said, "Every man desires to live long, but no man would be old." Regular exercise, along with a good diet, good medical care, good genes, and a bit of luck, can make it happen.

Exercise and longevity — it's Darwin redux: The survival of the fittest.

(This article was first printed in the December 2005 issue of the Harvard Men’s Health Watch. For more information or to order, please go to www.health.harvard.edu/mens.)

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Is fountain of youth tied to exercise?

Masanobu Fukuoka's Natural Farming and Permaculture

Larry Korn

Masanobu Fukuoka is a farmer/philosopher who lives on the Island of Shikoku, in southern Japan. His farming technique requires no machines, no chemicals and very little weeding. He does not plow the soil or use prepared compost and yet the condition of the soil in his orchards and fields improve each year. His method creates no pollution and does not require fossil fuels. His method requires less labor than any other, yet the yields in his orchard and fields compare favorably with the most productive Japanese farms which use all the technical know-how of modern science.

How is this possible? I admit, when I first went to his farm in 1973 I was skeptical. But there was the proof - beautiful grain crops in the fields, healthy orchard trees growing with a ground cover of vegetables, weeds and white clover. Over the two-year period I lived and worked there; his techniques and philosophy gradually became clear to me.

I had not heard of permaculture at the time, but I can see now that Fukuoka's farm is a classic working model of permaculture design. It is remarkable that Fukuoka and Bill Mollison, working independently, on two different continents with entirely different environmental conditions should come up with such similar solutions to the question, "How can people live on this planet sustainably and in harmony with nature?" Both claim that the principles of their system can be adapted to any climatic area.

Mollison and Fukuoka took entirely different routes to get to essentially the same place. Permaculture is a design system which aims to maximize the functional connection of its elements. It integrates raising crops and animals with careful water management. Homes and other structures are designed for maximum energy efficiency. Everything is made to work together and evolve over time to blend harmoniously into a complete and sustainable agricultural system.

Mollison and Fukuoka

The key word here is design. Permaculture is a consciously designed system. The designer carefully uses his/her knowledge, skill and sensitivity to make a plan, then implement it. Fukuoka created natural farming from a completely different perspective.

The idea for natural farming came to Fukuoka when he was about twenty five years old. One morning, as he sat at sunrise on a bluff overlooking Yokohama Bay, a flash of inspiration occurred. He saw that nature was perfect just as it is. Problems arise when people try to improve upon nature and use nature strictly for human benefit. He tried to explain this understanding to others, but when they could not understand he made a decision to return to his family farm. He decided to create a concrete example of his understanding by applying it to agriculture.

But where to begin? Fukuoka had no model to go by. "'How about trying this? How about trying that?' That is the usual way of developing agricultural technique. My way was different. 'How about not doing this, and How about not doing that?' - this was the path I followed. Now my rice growing is simply sowing seed and spreading straw, but it has taken me more than thirty years to reach this simplicity."

The basic idea for his rice growing came to him one day when he happened to pass an old field which had been left unused and unplowed for many years. There he saw healthy rice seedlings sprouting through a tangle of grasses and weeds. From that time on he stopped sowing rice seed in the spring and, instead, put the seed out in the fall when it would naturally have fallen to the ground. Instead of plowing to get rid of weeds he learned to control them with a ground cover of white clover and a mulch of barley straw. Once he has tilted the balance slightly in favor of his crops Fukuoka interferes as little as possible with the plant and animal communities in his fields.

This is not to say that Fukuoka did not experiment. For example, he tried more than twenty different ground covers before noticing that white clover was the only one which held back weeds effectively. It also fixes nitrogen so it improves the soil. He tried spreading the straw neatly over the fields but found the rice seeds could not make their way through. In one corner of the field, however, where the straw had scattered every which way, the seedlings emerged. The next year he scattered the straw across the entire field. There were years when his experiments resulted in almost a total crop loss, but in small areas things worked out well. He closely observed what was different in that part of the field and next year the results were better. The point is, he had no preconceived idea of what would work the best. He tried many things and took the direction nature revealed. As far as possible, Fukuoka was trying to take the human intellect out of the decision making process.

His vegetable growing also reflects this idea. He grows vegetables in the spaces between the citrus trees in the orchard. Instead of deciding which vegetables would do well in which locations he mixes all the seeds together and scatters them everywhere. He lets the vegetables find their own location, often in areas he would have least have expected. The vegetables reseed themselves and move around the orchard from year to year. Vegetables grown this way stronger and gradually revert to the form of their semi-wild ancestors.

I mentioned that Fukuoka's farm is a fine model of permaculture design. In Zone 1, nearest his family home in the village, he and his family maintain a vegetable garden in the traditional Japanese style. Kitchen scraps are dug into the rows, are crops rotated and chickens run freely. This garden is really an extension of the home living area.

Zone 2 is his grain fields. He grows a crop of rice and one of barley every year. Because he returns the straw to the fields and has the ground cover of white clover the soil actually improves each year. The natural balance of insects and a healthy soil keep insect and disease infestations to a minimum. Until Bill Mollison read The One-Straw Revolution he said he had no idea of how to include grain growing in his permaculture designs. All the agricultural models involved plowing the soil, a practice he does not agree with. Now he includes Fukuoka's no-tillage technique in his teaching.

Zone 3 is the orchard. The main tree crop is Mandarin oranges, but he also grows many other fruit trees, native shrubs and other native and ornamental trees. The upper story is tall trees, many of which fix nitrogen and so improve the soil deep down. The middle story is the citrus and other fruit trees. The ground is covered with a riotous mixture of weeds, vegetables, herbs and white clover. Chickens run freely. This multi-tiered orchard area came about through a natural evolution rather than conscious design. It still contains many of the basic permacultural design features. It has many different plant and species, maximizes surface area, contains solar sunlight "traps" and maintains a natural balance of insect populations.

Fukuoka invites visitors from Zone 4 anytime. Wild animals and birds come and go freely. The surrounding forest is the source of mushrooms, wild herbs and vegetables. It is also an inspiration. "To get an idea of the perfection and abundance of nature," Fukuoka says, "take a walk into the forest sometime. There, the animals, tall trees and shrubs are living together in harmony. All of this came about without benefit of human ingenuity or intervention."

Author Larry Korn with Fukuoka

What is remarkable is that Fukuoka's natural farming and permaculture should resemble each other so closely despite their nearly opposite approaches. Permaculture relies on the human intellect to devise a strategy to live abundantly and sustainably within nature. Fukuoka sees the human intellect as the culprit serving only to separate people from nature. The "one mountain top, many paths" adage seems to apply here.

Natural farming and permaculture share a profound debt to each other. The many examples of permaculture throughout the world show that a natural farming system is truly universal. It can be applied to arid climates as well as humid, temperate Japan. Also, the worldwide permaculture movement is an inspiration to Fukuoka. For many years he worked virtually alone in his work. For most of his life Japan was not receptive to his message. He had to self-publish his books because no publisher would take a chance on someone so far from the mainstream. When his experiments resulted in failure the other villagers would ridicule his work. In the mid-1980's he came to a Permaculture Convergence in Olympia, Washington and met Bill Mollison. There were nearly one thousand people there. He was overwhelmed and heartened by the number and sincerity of the like-thinking people he met. He thanked Mollison for "creating this network of bright, energetic people working to help save the planet." "Now," he said, "for the first time in my life I have hope for the future."

In turn, permaculture has adopted many things from Fukuoka. Besides the many agricultural techniques, such as continuous no-tillage grain growing and growing vegetables like wild plants, permaculture has also learned an important new approach for devising practical strategies. Most importantly, the philosophy of natural farming has given permaculture a truly spiritual basis lacking in its earlier teachings.

Fukuoka believes that natural farming proceeds from the spiritual health of the individual. He considers the healing of the land and the purification of the human spirit to be one process, and he proposes a way of life and a way of farming in which this process can take place. "Natural farming is not just for growing crops," he says, "it is for the cultivation and perfection of human beings."

Text and images copyright 2003 Larry Korn
http://www.permaculture.com/

The Scoop on Poop

Although not as glamorous as compost and other organic fertilizers, animal manure is a good thing for the garden. Manures offer lots of soil improvement advantages to an edible gardener. They help build the organic matter content, add nutrients, increase microbial activity, and improve drainage in heavy soils and moisture retention in sandy soils. The key to using animal manure is knowing what type you have, when to apply it, and how to spread it. So here's your guide to the scoop on poop.

Compost That Poop

It's best to either compost fresh manure or used well-aged manure that’s been sitting for at least six months. Fresh manures can contain bacterial pathogens such as E. coli and parasites such as roundworms and tapeworm that can infect humans. If composted properly to 140 degrees F, these hazards are minimized. Check here for the proper technique on building a hot compost pile.

If you're having a farmer spread fresh manure on your garden, it's best to apply it the fall before you garden. This will give it time to breakdown. If you must apply undecomposed manures in spring, do so 120 days before harvesting any leafy green crop or root crops and 90 days before harvesting any above ground fruiting crops. Never use uncomposted animal manure as a side dressing on existing plants.

Not All Poop is Created Equal

Not all animal manures are used the same way or have the same in nutrient content. Some, such as chicken and bat guano, are "hot" manures, high in urea nitrogen. These should be used carefully on plants even after they’ve decomposed because they their high nitrogen content can burn tender root systems.

Cow, sheep, and horse manures are not as hot, but because they are often mixed with high carbon bedding such as sawdust or hay, they are best used composted so all the materials have a chance to break down. Other manures, such as cat, dog, or pig, should be avoided all together because they may harbor diseases that can infect humans even after decomposition.

If you have a small garden, consider using worm castings. These are high in soluble nutrients and can be used directly in the garden. You can buy bags of worm casting, but raising your own worms is fun, although you'll need a lot of worms to produce enough castings to amend a large garden.

A better way to use worm castings is to make a compost tea. The tea water is rich in nutrients and is a great way to give your plants a quick boost as a foliar fertilizer. In fact, you can make tea from any manure. Here's a little more information on making manure or compost teas.

Which manure you use may also be a matter of availability. Horse, cow, and chicken manures are probably easier to find in the community than sheep, bat, and rabbit. Buying bags of composted manure is easy and safe, but it can get expensive.

Here are some tips on the benefits of various types of manure.

Cow Manure

This is a good all purpose manure. It has a good balance of nutrients, but they are low in quantity. It's more often used as a soil conditioner to improve soil structure by adding organic matter than as a way to deliver lots of nutrients to plants. However, because of its low nitrogen content, it tends not to burn the roots of tender plants as easily. Since cows have 4 stomaches and their food is well digested, the organic matter and weed seeds are well broken down.

Chicken/Bird Manure

This manure is highest in nitrogen and phosphorous and the nutrients are quickly available to plants. The urea nitrogen can easily burn plan roots, so this must be used carefully around plants. However, the high nitrogen content makes it great for leafy greens. It has few weed seeds and diseases.

Sheep and Goat Manure

This manure is drier than other manures, so it’s easier to use. It has a low odor and is a richer source of nitrogen and potassium than cow and horse manure. It doesn't burn plants, but can have weed seeds.

Horse Manure

Probably one of the easiest manures to find locally, it's a good all-purpose product, but like cow manure, not necessarily high in nutrients. Since a horse only digests one-quarter of the grass and seeds it eats, its poop is high in weed seeds.

Worm Castings

A great source of macro- and micronutrients, it's odorless, doesn't burn plants, even if applied fresh, and is good at stimulating microbial growth in soil. You can buy worm castings or raise the worms yourself. However, you'll need lots of worms to make enough castings to feed your garden. It's best to stretch the castings by making a tea out of the castings to feed plants more readily.

Exotic Manures

As people start raising other types of animals around their homes as pets or for commerce, you may find more exotic manure available. Don't shy away from trying their manure in your garden. Rabbit, alpaca, and llama are just some of the exotic animals that produce usable manures. If you're near a zoo, you might find elephant and rhino poop for sale. Now that's some good organic matter.

How Much Poop?

As a soil conditioner, generally you can use 40 pounds of composted manure per 100 square feet of garden. That's about a bag or two of purchased composted manure. If applying composted manures to existing beds that are already very fertile, a 1- to 2-inch thick layer is probably sufficient. On poor soils, double that amount.

http://www.garden.org/
Images copyright: http://www.clemens-hobbytec.de/; http://www.animallaw.info/

Watch Video:

How to make your own compost tea

Earthship Construction

So, what exactly is this thing?

Christened an "Earthship" by designer/architect Michael Reynolds, literally hundreds of these homes (made primarily from old automobile tires and beer cans) have been constructed in the Southwestern U.S. This project is the first Earthship constructed within the state of Ohio.

The concept is pretty cool - taking advantage of the natural heating and cooling properties of the earth, the passive heat of the sun, discarded and problem waste materials and mixing these with an embracing attitude toward your environment - the result is a comfortable and peaceful place to live. If you want to find more background on the concept (and a whole lot more), check out the source at www.earthship.org.

Our Experience

After attending a workshop put on by Solar Survival, reading all the books, and purchasing a set of generic blueprints... we were ready to go. We decided to give this thing a try, taking our vast background in construction (in other words... none at all) and figure it out as we went along. It became our summer project for a number of years. Progress was interrupted by work and a few years in Europe, but we returned in the autumn of 2004 prepared to finish this project and build a sustainability center in the process. This was the beginnings of Blue Rock Station.

Back sometime in the early 90's, Annie was listening to our local radio station in Tampa (a great little community radio station called WMNF) to an interview with Michael Reynolds describing an interesting house he had designed for actor Dennis Weaver. She looked into it a bit, then suggested we consider building one on some property we owned in Ohio. Foolishly I nodded my head and soon found myself in Taos, New Mexico - out in the middle of the desert pounding dirt into old tires.

So just how do you go about building an earthship like this? There are a lot of great web sites out there that do a terrific job in describing the process. There are also a number of books available that are quite helpful if you want to go further, but since you are here - we put together a fairly basic overview to give you a taste: Pounding the tires...

Pounding the tires...

We all know the problem... hundreds of thousands of tires fillings landfills for generations to come. Nobody pretends that Earthships are the sole answer, but they are a great way to put thousands of these eyesores to good use.

We all know the problem... hundreds of thousands of tires fillings landfills for generations to come. Nobody pretends that Earthships are the sole answer, but they are a great way to put thousands of these eyesores to good use.

We used about 1,400 tires in the construction of our Earthship.

The tire itself is little more than a mold to hold rammed earth in place. It generally takes about two wheel barrow loads of earth to fill each tire. Simply take the stuff that has been excavated from your site, shovel it into the tire and spend the rest of the summer swinging a sledge hammer.

Many people ask if there is any regulatory issue (or code issue) in using the discarded tires. I suspect it varies greatly from place to place - but here in Ohio at the time we were building, we were required to contact the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) since we were going to use more than 100 tires (less is apparently not regulated). The folks there were great to work with and actually provided us with the tires from an illegal dump site. They visited several times to make sure we were storing the tires properly (avoid mosquitoes) and even helped pound a few. Someone was kind enough to share the current regulations, so we will share them here with you.

Beneficial Use of Tires (from the Ohio EPA, GD #671)

After a couple of tires, you will find you develop your own style. Most people end up pulling the inside rim of the tire up with their hands and shoving the loose dirt into the tire. Then you begin pounding with the sledge.

Once filled to the brim, level the tire to itself and in respect to the tires around it. If you do this right, the entire wall should end up standing straight and tall.

The good folks at Solar Survival don't seem to suffer from some of the same difficulties we encountered during this phase of the project. We were told that they often have so many volunteers showing up on site, that they interview them and only accept those that show promise.

We, on the other hand, placed ad after ad in the local newspaper trying to get anyone who could swing a sledgehammer to come out and work - and we even would pay them, with Catlyn supervising.

Admittedly pounding tires is really hard work, but we still managed to go through about 60 "strong young men" during the course of the summer (in an effort to keep 3-4 working at any one time). Some lasted less than a day.

Surprisingly we found the people who lasted longest and did the best work were middle-aged men and young women. I don't know what that says about anything... but I thought I would throw it in for all to ponder.

Laying the Foundation...

After selecting the suitable site, you clear your patch of heaven and lay out a rough image of the Earthship's footprint. All that dirt and clay and rock that is being scraped away is what you will use to fill those hundreds of tires.

The house "floats" on this foundation - which typically causes traditional builders to cringe (they want to build deep footers). I am perfectly happy to buck conventional construction wisdom (as I know no better). Fortunately we did not have to put this theory to the test as we were resting on bedrock after scraping off the topsoil.

One thing that the experts (Earthship experts that is) recommend is that you pile your earth right in the middle of where you will be working. This is good advice, saving miles of pushing a wheelbarrow around before your project is finished.

Of course you need to be very careful in placing your first layer of tires, as everything keys off these. Measure and check and double check and measure again.

Then you just keep building up the courses, ensuring they are level and solid. It is also a good idea to level them vertically as you go, avoiding future work when it comes to mudding.

The Earthship's roof...

Perhaps one of the trickiest challenges we faced in this construction project was to build a roof that didn't leak. Since Earthships were born out in the desert southwest, I suspect the folks out there didn't give it much thought. But here in wet southeastern Ohio, it is a major concern. The unique "V-shaped" design of the roof is especially vulnerable. So take great care.

Once you have finished pounding tires, you must then build a sill plate that binds the top row of tires together. How you do this is outlined in the Solar Survival books (and you thought you were going to learn everything you needed to know from this site, eh?)

The composite "I-beams" span the gap created by the "U-shaped" tire walls. Some folks will use felled trees as rafters - which gives a very rustic appearance. Just remember the span is quite wide and the beam needs to support a great deal of weight.

In the center of that trough, you must build a "cricket" that sheds the water off in both directions. Our design (the basic plan from Solar Survival) has two cisterns that catch the water from the roof, one on each side of the main structure.

In each of the three rooms, we have placed a skylight. These are essential (in our view) as they provide a tremendous amount of light. But they are also a pain - being the weak point where most of your leaking will occur. Be prepared to do plenty of flashing around them. We also coated the entire roof with a Neoprene rolled surface, then covered this with salvaged slate (reclaimed from those old barns we tore down).

And of course, insulate your roof well. We used rolled insulation in the face and blown-in insulation in the main rooms. The Earthship is remarkably snug. We have found that even in temperatures of - 15° F the house stays at 55° F or more, even without a heat source. When we light the wood stove, the entire house is soon 70° F.

Building the face...

The face of the structure (or greenhouse area) is the passive solar heart source of this building. In order to gather in the maximum amount of sunshine, the entire structure must be oriented to south-south east (assuming you're in the northern hemisphere).

The face is also angled based on your latitude, so that on the winter solstice it is at a 90 degree angle to the sunlight (at 40 degree N we positioned it at a 50 degree angle, at 45 degree N you would position it at a 55 degree... and so on).

When we got ready to do this phase of the project, it seemed a bit overwhelming. So we tried to get some "professional" help - but were soon put off by the price. Eventually we were able to do the job for about 1/10th the best estimate. As you can see, we even managed to get it to look somewhat like the diagram.

Actually, the construction of the face is fairly straightforward. You build a wooden frame onto a foundation of pounded tires, setting it at the proper angle and securing it to the main structure roof with really heavy-duty rafters. The wood we used was mostly salvaged from local barns that we dismantled (arranging with the farmer to salvage the wood before he burned them down).

There are some fairly complicated methods for constructing the large windows... but we took the lazy way out. We purchased a number of patio doors from a warehouse (these were returns and seconds). In this way we avoided a lot of problems with leaking that we read about on various web sites. We had the windows delivered before we began framing the face. I have read of problems some people have had matching custom windows with the openings, but we avoided this by having each window right there on site and checking and double-checking before hammering in that final nail.

After securing the patio door panels in the various slots, we constructed three "dormers" where we could place traditional windows that open. This is simply a matter of taste and we have seen a number of Earthships that skip this step entirely. By doing this, you lose a bit of sunlight, but we placed them in the bathroom and the utility room - so good ventilation was more important to us than passive solar heat in these locations.

By design, the face takes the full brunt of all the elements the world will throw at your Earthship. It intentionally takes as much direct sunlight as possible, as well as all the wind, rain and snow your locale can dish out. So worry a lot about drainage and waterproofing.

We addressed this problem by encasing the entire face in coated aluminum, using a gutter break to fit each piece. If you don't do something like this, the different expansion/contraction rates of the various materials will open up micro cracks and water will find its way into your snug little home.

The Wetlands, your indoor garden...

The wetlands are an important part of the Earthship concept. All the wastewater (other than the toilet) is drained into these structures and used to grow your indoor garden. Excess water can even be filtered through the wetlands and used again.

The walls of the wetlands are built using old cans or bottles, these serving as air gaps in the concrete leaving a very strong "honeycomb" support structure. The plumbing drains are then fed into the wetlands at one end, the unit sloped away so that water entering will flow downhill (through a mixture of stone, sand, charcoal and dirt) being purified along the way.

Our home has two wetlands, one at each end of the "face" area of the building. One receives the water from two sinks and the shower - the other from the kitchen sink and the washing machine.

The above grade surface of the wetlands walls can be finished as you like. Typically these will receive a smooth adobe finish similar to those of the interior walls. Our wetlands are not yet completed, but you can see that a few "volunteers" have already made themselves at home.

Building a can wall...

The interior walls of our Earthship are all non load bearing, so there are quite a few options. Typically they are constructed using old cans and bottles, along with cement or mud (depending on the amount of water that will be present - for example we used cement in the shower area).

We built these walls using two main styles - a framed structure (building the frame out of wood and then filling the cavities with the can wall) or free form (just building layer upon layer of cans).

The first step is to create the "mud" - a mixture of sifted clay (from on site), sand and a bit straw and water. Then, nail a few bits of plaster lathe to the wood frame. These will help anchor the can wall to the frame.

Lay down a layer of mud, pressing cans into it. Repeat the process, filling mud between and on top of the cans. It's a good idea to squeeze a small dimple in the middle of the can, so it is no longer perfectly round. That way you cannot "pop" the can out of the dried wall.

At the appropriate level, you press the lathe into the mud, anchoring the wall. You will find you can only do a few courses before it begins to feel a bit unstable - at which point you just let the thing dry before continuing.

After you build up the wall, and it is dry, you can begin to finish the exterior. In our case, we finished the walls with a mud mixture. We will talk a bit more about this process in the section of this web site that demonstrates how to finish the interior tire walls.

Finishing an interior tire wall...

The tire wall is the "heart and soul" of the Earthship structure. This feature, probably more than anything else, gives the home its unique look and feel. When you tell folks about the home, this is the thing they have the hardest time visualizing. So let's take a look at what you do to finish off the interior wall.

You begin, of course with the pounded tire wall. Notice the electrical lines are mounted on the exterior. Slowly fill in the cavities between the tires with a mud/sand/straw mixture, pressing in empty cans to fill in the bigger spaces.

You don't have to be dainty at this stage, and can sling as much mud as will stick (sounds like a Louisiana politician). Anyway, the goal here is to build the entire section out so that you have a relatively flat surface.

Next comes the "rough" coat. Without getting too bogged down in details, the various coats require a slightly different mix of the Mud... this coat just gives you a uniform coated surface. You scratch up the surface while the mud is still wet, so the following coat will adhere well.

There are probably as many techniques used to mud a wall as there are people, and you will no doubt find your own. After you let the surface dry, wet the wall with water, then apply the next layer to the wet area. I found it most comfortable to use a spray bottle and a mortar board with pointed trowel - but some of the guys found it easier to just use a bucket of mud and spread it with their hands (until the final coat, anyway).

As you build out the wall, you will incorporate the wiring as well as the outlets and switches. Below you can see an outlet box (the mud wall will be built out to level... and we will clean off all the mud, don't worry) as well as a switch (where the wall has already been built out).

Plumbing systems...

Our water supply is obtained by collecting rain from the roof. The original design called for 2 - 5,000 gallon cisterns (one on each end of the house).

We have operated for 15 years with only one cistern finished and functional without problem - so we figure one cistern is probably enough given the large amount of rainfall we receive in this part of the country. So we knocked a door through the wall of the other cistern (not an easy task) and turned it into a root cellar.

The water is pumped from the cistern to a pressure tank. All this is relatively conventional. In fact we had a regular plumber create the system and it was fully inspected and approved by the local authorities.

The shower room is separated from the toilet area (European style). The walls of the shower are made of cans and bottles, coated in concrete, and then tiled.

Heating systems...

Our Earthship uses three methods (in tandem) to heat our home. These include:

Thermal Mass - the earth itself provides the lion's share of of the heat (and a bit of cooling in the summer). If you have ever been in a cave, you will know that the temperature feels cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Typically they stay about 56 degrees F year-round. The earth that is rammed into the tires, plus the earth that is mounded against the north side of the building keep the temperature in the home at least 50 degrees F no matter what the outside temperature may be. During construction, we noted one day when the temperature was -14 degrees F outdoors, inside the temperature was 50 degrees F with no sun and no additional heating source.

Passive Solar - the orientation of the home, facing just east of south is key in generating heat within the house when the sun is shining. The angle of the glass is designed to maximize solar gain during the winter solstice (and the weeks surrounding it). Based on latitude, our windows are angled at 50 degrees as we are at 40 degrees N latitude (take 90, subtract your latitude and you will find the angle where the sun will penetrate at right angles on the solstice).

We have found that too much sun, rather than not enough is the major problem on sunny days. If we had it to do over, we would have placed the windows vertically to avoid leaking (windows are just not designed to be placed at an angle).

But the passive solar gain is impressive and the house warms up to 60 - 70 degrees F when the sun is shining, regardless of the outdoor temperature.

Wood Stove - we have one wood burning stove that supplements the heat. This is located in the living room. Since we have about 30 acres of woodlands, securing firewood is easy and free (aside from the sweat and cursing). Running this wood stove will raise the heat in the living room to the mid to upper 70's. We installed a bathroom vent fan at the highest point in the living room, sucking hot air into the center "U" when turned on. There is a second fan installed in the center "U" that can draw air into the third "U". This provides additional heat as well as allows us to move the air around within the home.

Finishing the thing...

It seems that the finish work takes forever. One thing to remember in any building project is that it will take twice as long as you think it will and cost twice as much.

In keeping with the concepts of an Earthship, we have tried our best to use what is available locally. We happen to live in rural Appalachia and so there is plenty of old barn wood (local farmers seem to like to burn them down), slate and assorted other bits and bobs.

We have made our own cabinets and shelves from the barn wood. Each winter I sign up for a cabinet making class at our local high school - which gives me access to their workshop that would make Norm Abrams green with envy.

The roof is slate, as will be the floors (we have constructed slate floors on other projects and they are absolutely beautiful. In one of the rooms we also put in a recycled barn wood floor.

We managed to buy heavy industrial stainless steel counters for our kitchen at auction (when they tore down a local school - we do a lot of tearing down around here and not much building up). Other sinks and materials we bought at various auctions and a habitat store in Columbus, Ohio.

We also managed to find some old pressed tin for the ceilings - bought for almost nothing from a guy who raided a demolition site 30 years ago - salvaging the tin but then never using it.

If you wander the web looking at Earthships, you will find that most are located in the western US and reflect that building style. Our home is quite different - reflecting our locale. You will also find that many of these homes cost a bundle. Ours was constructed on the “cheap” using mostly scrounged or salvaged materials (as it should be, he added smugly).

http://www.bluerockstation.com/

Interview with Michael Reynolds: Earthship creator

Earthship n. 1. passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials 2. thermal mass construction for temperature stabilization. 3. renewable energy and integrated water systems; an off-grid home with few or no utility bills.

Q: I want to begin by asking what caused you to think about using waste products such as tires and cans for building materials?

Michael Reynolds: The idea started almost thirty years ago after I watched a television special with Charles Kurault and Walter Cronkite. This was back in the times when soda and beer cans were made of steel rather than aluminum as they are today. The special showed the tremendous amount of cans and bottles that were littering our national parks and streets. Charles predicted a major garbage problem in the future. That was thirty years ago, before the word “recycle” became part of our everyday vocabulary.

In the same segment, Walter Cronkite talked about the clear-cutting of timber that was occurring in the Northwest, and predicted a serious rise in the cost of wood and housing.

I had just graduated from architectural school, and within two weeks of seeing this on television I was building blocks out of cans. Shortly after that, several buildings were created.

Some years later, when the energy crunch hit, people were trying to figure out how to store temperature in buildings by using thermal mass. Several of us were already building with garbage, so we decided to see if there was any solution to the current situation by finding some type of garbage that we could utilize to fit the problem.

We looked at tires, and found that if we beat earth into them we created thermal mass. We then added tires and solar electric to our experiments with building.

Then, the news started talking about water shortages, and rivers and streams being polluted. So we began catching water on the roof of our structures rather than drilling into the aquifers. We also began treating our sewage in contained systems, reusing the water we caught from the sky, and didn't let anything go into the aquifers, rivers and streams that would pollute them.

So what I'm saying is that thirty years ago we listened to the news and that's where it all began. Continuing to listen to the news has made what we do evolve. And any time we hear of problems, we try to incorporate solutions into our building concepts.

At this point we've been working long enough to have a fully sustainable home built from recycled materials. We call it an "Earthship."

Q: Are there any other materials you use for building besides tires, bottles, and cans?

Michael Reynolds: Yes. We've just started grinding up plastic, since we have a tremendous number of plastic jugs and bottles in our garbage.

Our sewage systems actually have to have an aggregate of gravel or pumice to make them effective. So now we've started mixing in ground-up plastics - kind of like "hamburger helper." We buy less gravel and get rid of our plastic, and it works just fine.

In our 650-acre community in northern New Mexico, we can actually get rid of all our garbage and not have to put anything into the municipal waste dump except for disposable diapers and a few other weird things. And its very successful.

Q: Why use tires?

Michael Reynolds: Well, you can certainly achieve thermal mass in a building using stone, concrete, or several other materials. But we've found tires to be the one material that is actually the best. And tires are globally available, indigenous to the entire planet. But it's not the tires in and of themselves. They are most effective when beaten with earth.

Q: What do you mean "beaten with earth?"

Michael Reynolds: Filled with earth and compacted.

Q: In terms of a waste product, aren’t old tires considered one of the world’s greatest garbage problems?

Michael Reynolds: Exactly. By using tires to build homes you are addressing this problem.

Tires are very low tech. They take no machinery to remanufacture. You just gather them up, beat them full of earth, and use them for bricks.

If you're looking to make changes in our building criteria, nothing hits as many environmental issues as tires, and they are structurally as good as, if not better than, most materials.

I look at it this way. The planet produces trees. We like trees and need them to create oxygen. But we are using far too many of them. This planet also produces tires, and we don't have a use for them, and we don’t know what to do with them. So why not stop building with trees and start building with tires?

Q: Why do you think it’s such a problem to get people enrolled in this idea? Of course there are certain types of people who do get involved, but the mass population does not.

Michael Reynolds: Well, tires have a stigma. They are considered garbage, and people don’t want to have anything to do with garbage.

I say time and time again, "If I were paid a million dollars to invent the best building product relative to a variety of factors, I could not come up with anything better than tires."

To me, a big mountain of tires is like a gold mine. It's a city, it's a forest, it's a fantastic thing to have at our disposal. They are a natural resource and people are slowly beginning to understand this. The idea is growing.

We just recently produced a book called Comfort in Any Climate. Our main objective in this book was to get people to understand that buildings, especially homes, should be made out of thermal mass. We think that no matter how people build, they should do so out of mass, because mass holds and stores temperature. If you put a large amount of warm water in a room, it will heat up the room. It might cool down a bit, but it stays stable for a long time. Like the human body, which is about 80 percent water — when you eat, the body heats up that water a little bit and causes you to be able to maintain a constant temperature of 98.6 degrees. If you had no water in your body you couldn’t maintain a temperature. You’d have to eat all the time to stay constant. You’d wear out your digestive system and eat everything in sight. It’s because of this water mass that we are able to stabilize.

Homes are the same way. You constantly have to feed them fuel for them to stay warm enough for people to live in. If a home is made of mass, you don't have to keep feeding it fuel. If the house has enough mass you can feed it fuel every time the sun is out and that's enough.

Here in New Mexico, it drops considerably below zero at night. However, the homes we are building now don't even have backup heat. We put in fireplaces just for fun and we can plumb them for gas so the owners have backup heat if they want it, but we don't even have to put them in. We are not using any energy for heating or cooling, and this is because of thermal mass construction.

Q: Could we liken it to a cave where the temperature remains constant?

Michael Reynolds: Deep in the earth it's always a constant temperature. A cave will most generally stay about 58 degrees, and that's because of mass. Now, this is not comfortable for a human, but you won't freeze to death, and your pipes won't freeze. So with no sun, mass will keep you alive. Add sun, which we all have some of, and you have comfort.

Of course sun alone just goes away at night, and your house gets cold. But sun with mass, to store what the sun did during the day, makes it. And its equal/equal. You can't do solar housing without mass. Building a house like your body is built is a very good analogy.

Q: I notice one of your homes on your website is built above the ground — the one call the Nautilus.

Michael Reynolds: The Nautilus is a perfect example of an out-of-the-ground Earthship, veneered with straw bales. The reason it's done that way is that the site is on lava rock, and we couldn't go into the earth. If we can go into the earth, we will. Then we are tapping into that 58-degree baseline, and we know the temperature won't go lower than that. Then we introduce the sun, and that brings us up to about 70 degrees. We can even get over 70. It depends on how you manipulate the sun.

Basically, what we say is, the building is designed to encounter the sun, to encounter the mass of the earth, to encounter the rain, to encounter the biological aspects of plants for treating sewage, to encounter the wind. We even encounter other phenomena, like condensation to collect drinking water. So we are basically "encountering" the earth rather than manipulating and recreating the earth or devastating the earth.

I was just sharing an example with someone the other day of how I see people on the earth.

I was in the mountains of Nevada a while back where a lot of Ponderosa pine grows. I saw a very healthy pine tree with a little bit of mistletoe on it. Mistletoe is a parasite, and as long as the pine tree is healthy, the mistletoe is healthy. And I looked around and saw a tree with a little more mistletoe, and it was starting to look a bit ragged. I saw another pine tree with a lot more mistletoe on it, and it was literally dying. Then I saw a dead tree with a bunch of dead mistletoe on it.

That's the way I see us humans on this planet. We are basically a parasite. If we do not completely suck the earth dry of everything it's got, then the earth can support us. But if we kill the earth it will result in death to ourselves.

What I'm saying is, we can change our method of relating to the earth, and rather than extracting from the earth, we can simply "encounter" the elements, the phenomena of the earth - especially the phenomena you don't have to worry about running out of, such as sunlight or rain.

It's amazing. People are piping water and damming rivers and making canals all over the place and totally manipulating surface water and aquifers, when almost all over the planet, water falls from the sky. Our Earthship community is in a very arid area, for instance, but we have enough water because we reuse it four times. We actually flush our toilet with water we took a bath in yesterday.

We take a bath in the water, it runs through our indoor system and gets all cleaned up, and then we flush our toilet with it. We cut our water usage in half right there.

One of the things I think is archaic and ridiculous is how we have pipes and wires going everywhere to deliver energy - not to mention the production of energy itself, which is devastating to the planet, through nuclear power plants and coal fired power plants.

With our method of encountering natural phenomenon on site, you do not have to deliver power, water, and sewage anywhere. You encounter it all right there.

Q: What happens to the "black" water?

Michael Reynolds: The black water ends up going outside to the same kind of system that we have inside. It is contained in a rubber lined planter that you landscape with.

For instance, Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico, are promoting what they call zero-scape landscaping, where they plant cactus, which uses very little water, and use gravel instead of lawns. Well, that's because we have a water shortage. Yet those same houses using zero-scape landscaping are dumping sewage into the Rio Grande River.

What we do with the Earthship concept is contain the sewage and use it for lush landscaping inside and out. Therefore we don't have to dump it into the river. We don't have to pipe it. We're not polluting anything. We're taking advantage of our own sewage.

Sewage has the same stigma as tires. Sewage is considered bad. But I see sewage as gold. It gives us something to use.

Q: I was thinking of my travels to the rainforest in Ecuador. If you relieve yourself in the rainforest, it disappears within about six hours, because all the organisms of the forest utilize it.

Michael Reynolds: That's the way we should live, and it's what Earthships are trying to do - to simply be like the earth is already.

I have said many times that the earth doesn't care if we destroy ourselves. It will prevail. Once we take it down where it can't support us and we die off, the earth will come back.

It's just a matter of us killing ourselves. If we're stupid enough to do that, then we'll do it. I don't look at it as a moral thing. I just wonder if we are stupid enough to kill ourselves or smart enough to encounter the earth and survive.

Q: What kinds of people have come to you for help in building Earthships?

Michael Reynolds: Many people come wanting to build communities.

One group came to me and we talked about setting up a sustainable community. Then the conversation turned to their need to have underground caves and places to store ammo.

I said that even if they had the stomach to shoot that many people, there was no way to store that much ammo to protect themselves from people who don't have what they have. The best way of protecting oneself is to help everyone have what you have. I think this is a very good global philosophy as well.

There wouldn't be any war if everyone had everything they needed - and by everything, I mean the means to survive. I don't mean gold and oil and wealth and all of that. I mean, if every creature, every human were provided with the knowledge and minor technology that it takes to make homes for themselves, homes that encounter the elements so they don't have utility bills, then everybody would be alive and happy. Then if you want to go be a capitalist? Go for it! But the thing is, most people on the planet don't even have "survival," even though the survival I'm speaking of is very, very available.

In our area we are trying to make the Earthship technology accessible to everyone. We have a school program. We try to illustrate that it can be done. We don't try to cram it down people's throats.

I don't think these ideas are moral or spiritual. I think they're just logical.

Q: Let's talk about cost. It says on your website that the packaged Earthship is the most popular design. So on average, what would the cost be for a one- or two-bedroom Earthship?

Michael Reynolds: The cost really depends on how you approach building it. One of the things we try to do is get owners to participate in the construction. That could bring the cost down by as much as 40 percent.

I can best explain Earthship construction cost by comparing it to conventional frame construction, which is built for the most part by contractors and then sold to consumers.

If you utilize a building contractor, the cost for building an Earthship will be about the same as for a frame home. Prices will vary from area to area. But there is a huge difference. The frame home, in addition to the mortgage payment, will have a $200-$300 monthly utility bill, including water, electricity, and sewage.

The Earthship has no utility bill.

What I see, which is even more important than the price of utilities now, is the availability of them. Not too long ago, the people of California, no matter how much money they had, couldn't get power.

It's going to be that way with water availability and sewage disposal. These problems are going to keep cropping up. We don't know everything that was occurring in California, but we know people suffered and didn't have what they needed. What I'm saying is that people don't need to be in that situation.

We are trying to weave the Earthship concepts into the "real world" marketplace. Banks are finally beginning to loan money for them. We have a company out here called Southwest Mortgage, and another bank that will provide construction money. Depending on what's going on in the world, insurance companies go back and forth about insuring them.

Q: So what I'm hearing you say is that you can compare conventional building prices with contractor-built Earthships "apples and apples."

Michael Reynolds: Exactly. But you also have the option of building it yourself.

A conventional home has so many trades and crafts needed that it is very difficult for everyday people to really build it themselves and do a good job. But the packaged Earthship is very simple, and we have a simple "how to" book that is as easy to read as a coloring book. It would probably compare to the books in the '60s on how to repair your Volkswagen Bug. We are trying to give people the opportunity to building themselves, and probably 60 percent will take advantage of that option. But if they can't, they can have one built for them.

We know that many people can do it.

We have this phrase "putting housing back into the hands of the people." We set up communities where somebody could come by with a hundred dollars in their pocket, and we would show them how to start building their home and provide the land to put it on. Part of our battles have been legal - introducing law, fighting old law, getting in trouble for breaking the law. You know, it's just constant. But we are still alive and well.

Q: If someone were going to build an Earthship, where would they go to get tires? What would be the cost, and how many would they need?

Michael Reynolds: It takes about a thousand tires to build a house, and most places will be thrilled for you to take them away because they have to pay to dispose of them. So if you go to a tire store and ask if you can haul away some of their tires for the next few weeks, they would be thrilled. That’s the way we do it here. We get most of our tires for free.

However, Earthship construction has become popular here in New Mexico, so there have been occasions where a bunch of people were building, and we had to buy them from a place in Colorado and pay 75 cents apiece for them, delivered.

The guy was sitting on 6 million tires in his tire dump, and now he perceives himself as a millionaire because he can sell them for housing.

Q: Are there other communities besides yours in Taos?

Michael Reynolds: There's lots of talk about intentional and sustainable communities, and many people doing solar. Others are doing "catch water," and others are playing with the concept of recycling sewage. But to my knowledge there isn't anyone that is offering an entire package of a home that heats and cools itself, that makes its own power, catches its own water, contains its own sewage, and is built from recycled materials.

Q: I notice the designs are very whimsical. They bring out childlike feelings for me, the Nautilus especially. Do you find that people gravitate to that kind of look?

Michael Reynolds: Some people are scared off by the Nautilus. It looks too fairytale and too strange. Some people want just a simple-looking house that makes no statement at all. Some want their house to look like everyone else's. And for a long time we didn't care what they looked like - we just wanted them to work.

But there are quite a few people - more than half - who are moved by the shapes of the Nautilus. It's a castle. It's a fairytale. And we have a lot of designs that are like that. It's not limited, it can go any way you want it to.

If you're trying to cross the ocean in a boat, your main concern is that it will float. You don't care about what it looks like. And that's kind of how we developed this. Now I have to say that after thirty years we know what we're doing. So now we can play with the aesthetics to a certain degree and try and make it palatable to more and more people, because looks alone will stop someone from going in this direction.

What I want to do is make the Earthship available to everyone on an emotional, physical, and financial level. Then if they don't want it, fine - pay utility bills, be lost in the shuffle when the power goes down, or whatever. It's up to you - it's just logic.

Q: I notice there is one home that is listed for sale. Are there others in your subdivision?

Michael Reynolds: Yes. We just opened the second phase of our subdivision. It's really amazing to have gotten a sustainable subdivision open, because subdivisions are about utilities, and we've got a subdivision without utilities. It was kind of Catch 22 to get the county officials to even approve it. But fortunately they were forward-thinking.

We will always have one or two houses available in different income levels, because we have about 80 or 90 still to build and we will always have one or two available to rent, to show people what it is like to live in one.

We are starting another community about the same size not far from here. It's on highway frontage - and that's a lifetime of work, right there.

Q: Do you host on-site workshops?

Michael Reynolds: Yes, we have about five seminars every year where people come from as far away as New Zealand or Japan.

We have what we call a seven-day demonstration unit. We build a room in seven days that actually shows much of what we've been talking about.

We did one of these programs in Belgium a couple of years ago. We were running around in Brussels to the tire stores and grocery stores getting tires. The TV stations ended up putting the finished room on TV, and people were amazed. It was a beautiful little room sitting in this woman's back yard.

We did a program for the Lakota Sioux in South Dakota and one in Mexicali a few months ago. We've done one in Japan, and one at fourteen thousand feet in Bolivia.

Someone from the UN contacted us a few months ago and is trying to get funding to take this kind of approach to the refugee situation. The idea was for us to teach people to build their own homes, rather than just passing out blankets and food to them, as we do now.

There are lots of different applications. There's the refugee angle, which is down-and-dirty quick survival. And there are people talking about several-million-dollar homes that illustrate the high-end market.

Think of those 10-million-dollar homes in Telluride. Their owners panic when the power or gas goes out because those homes don't work any more. With the Earthship concept you can show the wealthy that they can have their million-dollar homes with all the luxuries, and they will still work if the grid goes down.

Q: So you think there will be a surge of interest soon?

Michael Reynolds: Yes.

Many people think that just because they have money they don't need to worry about anything else. But people are starting to realize after September 11, and after California's energy crisis, that they are vulnerable no matter how much money they have. So we are getting wealthy people building what they call "safe houses." They want to build their second or third home somewhere in the mountains, all beautiful and big and fancy, and that's where they will go when everything fails in the city.

So, fine, if that's the door in, we'll take it.

Q: Michael, thanks so much for the good work you're doing.

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Cedar Resin – the Nature's Miracle

Siberian Cedar Resin

The majority of articles and abstracts about resin point out that it is named "zhivitsa" in Russian thanks to its ability to heal wounds effectively and rapidly (the verb "to heal" in Russian, zazhivit, has the same root). This is, of course, true, but there are other, more substantial reasons for such an evocative name. According to Jack Tresidder's dictionary of symbols, resin signifies immortality, a symbolism based on the popular belief that resin is the undying spirit of long-living trees.

Many examples may be cited of the special relationship of various peoples to this mysterious substance, but the purpose of this article is to solve the riddle of this unanimity: perhaps our ancestors knew something about resin that we are only just beginning to learn through the misty veil of time.

So, where shall we begin? I, for example, would be interested to discover just what botanists and chemists think about resin. If you do the maximum amount of sifting through the scientific slang, you find the following. Resin is a substance excreted by plants during normal physiological metabolism, and also in the event of physical injuries for the healing of their own flesh. It is produced by special tissues of the roots, leaves, wood, and internal bark — the sapwood. The living epithelial cells in which resin is formed divide, forming resin channels or passageways. These channels are often strongly branched, so that in the event of an injury to one of them, the wood resin begins to flow to the injured portion from far away. Scientists are surprised that sometimes wood resin is found inside cells and cell membranes. It is not being used as reserve nutrients, so what is the biological sense of the presence of wood resin there where it should not be? I have a hypothesis that the wood resin appears in cells and cell membranes when the necessity arises for the plant to defend itself against the unfavourable effect of the environment. When reacting with oxygen, wood resins easily oxidize, and in the oxidized state become unusually resistant to external influences (it is interesting that this circumstance is well known to scientists, but they have not succeeded in analyzing it and coming to any conclusions). Wood resin exerts a similar action on the human organism as well. When you ingest resin, you are insured for several hours against the harmful influence of toxins entering from the environment.

What is resin made up of? Volatile substances make up 30–35%: resinous spirits and their ethers (turpentine and its derivatives), and oxygen compounds. There is a wide spectrum of fatty and resin acids (including succinic acid), plant matter, vitamins C and D, and also substances of an obscure nature, known under the name of rubbers. Wood resins included in the composition of resin are substances that are hard and amorphous — that is, they do not have a crystalline structure. They do not dissolve in water, but yield to organic solvents, such as alcohol, and fatty and essential oils.

Wood resin molecules are connected to each other not by chemical bonds, but by intermolecular cohesive forces, which are easily disrupted when heated or dissolved. In the process, on the surface of solutions appear free, unconnected molecules of the resin components that have a large supply of free energy. Because of this energy, they are able to capture and hold molecules of other substances that approach the surface of the solution. This property of wood resin makes it possible to concentrate or intensify its properties by the addition of other natural components.

So, let us repeat, wood resin is found in the state of a volatile solution in plants, and this substance is called "resin (zhivitsa)." Over time, the essential oil evaporates, the resin hardens, losing its stickiness and strong aroma. Even so, a small quantity of essential oil still remains. Even amber, which has lain for tens of millions of years in the earth and become hard as rock, contains approximately 6% essential oil. It can be completely removed only by distillation, that is, heating it to a high temperature.

The amazing long life of wood resins can be explained by their suppressive action on microflora, which, on the one hand, cannot use wood resin as a nutritive substrate, and which, on the other hand, dies under the effect of its bactericidal properties. And the main thing is these properties may be preserved over the course of millennia.

You must agree that all this is interesting. And for a person who has experience in using resin, this explains much. Once ingested, it accurately but relentlessly, like an experienced employee of a cleaning service, cleans out everything that it considers unnecessary and foreign in the living organism, moreover, notice, it protects the organism from the aggressive effect of the environment, which in our time is never ending.

And now, let us clarify: what is "everything"? No one will deny that what is unnecessary in our organism includes parasites, moulds, fungi, all types of pathogenic microorganisms and radionuclides.

Turpentine Balsam - 5%, 10% and 20% extracts available

A special miracle is the "behaviour" of resin with respect to bacteria. Performing the function of an antiseptic and antibiotic, it acts intelligently and selectively, and recognizes useful microflora, supports and restores it, but destroys and recycles pathogenic microflora, which, by the way, suppresses the development of "native" microorganisms.

And viruses! Here I propose a short tour of the subject.

All representatives of the earth's flora and fauna have genetic links to viruses. Of the human genome, 30% consists of information copied by virus-like elements, which can cause mutations, including such significant ones as chromosomal reorganization. Some of them, that is, the most promising, obtain a selective advantage. This is constructive, since the organism must manage to adapt to the continually changing conditions of existence. And in our time, changes in the living environment have acquired exceptionally high-speed characteristics. Notice that for the present we are speaking about natural changes related to evolutionary processes.

This suggests the conclusion: a certain category of virus-like elements are the material carriers of the program for the development of all living organisms.

But there are thousands of varieties of other viruses. Killer viruses. Their prime living environment is the intracellular and intercellular space, there are also those that damage the cell nucleus. In the event of an infection in the cell, special mechanisms for antiviral defence are activated. The affected cells begin to synthesize signal molecules—interferons—which take the surrounding healthy cells to an antiviral state and activate the immune systems. The damage produced by the multiplication of the virus in the cell can be detected by systems of intracellular monitoring, and this cell will have to terminate its life in the course of the process known as apoptosis (programmed cell death).

The virus's survival directly depends on its ability to overcome antiviral defence systems. Therefore, it is not surprising that many viruses in the process of evolution have acquired the ability to suppress the synthesis of interferons and deceive the apoptosis program. In essence, the virus begins, with impunity, to reprogram the host cell. Some of these may enter a latent state, practically not interfering with the processes occurring in the cell. They are activated in certain conditions. The multiplication strategy of several bacteriophages, for example, is constructed in this way — as long as the infected cell is in a favourable environment, the bacteriophage does not kill it, but in this case is inherited by daughter cells and is quite often integrated into the cell's genome. When the cell enters into an unfavourable environment, the pathogen takes control of cellular processes in such a way that the cell begins to produce the materials from which new bacteriophages are made (the so-called lytic, or cell-destroying stage). The cell turns into a factory capable of producing many thousands of bacteriophages and, having multiplied repeatedly, they burst the membrane, thus killing the cell. This phenomenon is related to the appearance of certain oncological diseases.

In general, all diseases are caused by morphological change — gross non-inherited changes in the phenotype of the organism under the influence of extreme environmental factors. And here I have in mind the aggressive nature of the environment caused by inappropriate human activity.

So, the claim exists that viruses that take root inside a cell, especially in a cell nucleus, are impossible to remove, even with the use of the most modern methods of cleansing.

This claim is true, but just not for resin. Since it easily penetrates a membrane, resin destroys and removes from a cell not only all viruses, but poisons as well, toxins of varying origin, including those from intensive chemotherapy, and foreign bodies, for example, radionuclides and heavy metal salts.

Moreover resin neutralizes the consequences of such human "inventions" as alcohol, tobacco, vaccinations, modern methods of processing and storing food products.

Ultrasound examinations are quite another topic! I have the impression that few people know about the harmful influence an ultrasound examination has on the organism. Although the truth is not hidden from us. The results of experiments done by biological scientists are published, although not widely. A chromosome, placed in clean water, emits pleasant melodic sounds, moreover the musical phrases never repeat. The sound is coded information, and in this circumstance, it is genetic. After a chromosome is acted upon by ultrasound of the frequency used in an ultrasound examination, the melodic sound is replaced by a plaintive drone. This means that a portion of the genetic information has been destroyed.

What to do about this? A majority of people have experienced ultrasound examinations repeatedly! And it is especially a pity for pregnant women.

In these cases, wood resin is genuine salvation. When wood resin comes into contact with the human genetic system, it eliminates the destructive programs that have taken root in the genome and restores the lost natural programs. This property to some extent is possessed by all biopolymers, but the most universal in their action on the human organism are the resins of the Siberian cedar and larch. The results of many years of practical experience confirm the possibility of genetic rehabilitation. I shall illustrate with this example: a novice user of a personal computer, having removed files from his Trash, thinks that he has gotten rid of them forever, but any programmer can restore the lost information in a few minutes. Thus also, a person cannot irretrievably lose anything that Nature has endowed him with.

Within this topic it is interesting to compare the properties of resin and water. Water is a very sensitive, mobile, and responsive substance. It may be conveniently used as a carrier of information — it can be recorded, overwritten, cleared, and given the properties necessary for the solution of a concrete problem. Resin, on the other hand, carries standardized natural (or divine, if you like) information, and a person cannot influence, erase, or reprogram this information. Thanks to this property, resin indeed fulfills its basic mission: to revitalize and revive, clean, restore what was lost, and protect from harm. That is, to preserve.

Nikolay Mechin
http://www.strannik.ru

http://www.RingingCedarsofRussia.org/
Used by permission
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Medicinal properties of the needles

Cedar Needle Essential Oil

The medicinal properties of cedar needles are well known. They contain many biologically active materials that have a medicinal and stimulating action. The needles of the Siberian cedar are rich in ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and carotene. As far back as 1786, the academician P. S. Pallas wrote that the young shoots of the cedar "contain the most pleasant taste, very similar to a citrus rind, and are a very good medicine for scurvy, if they will be used moist, if boiled in beer or water." And further he adds, that from the tops of young cedar "it is possible to make a very medicinal, anti-scorbutic and refreshing beverage."

The anti-scorbutic properties of cedar buds was noted by Doctor Espenberg as far back as 1812, he used them against scurvy during his journeys around the world aboard the ship Nadezhda under the command of I. F. Kruzenshtern. In his report, Espenberg wrote that the broth made from the buds of dwarf cedar trees cured scorbutic diseases and even made abscesses on the feet disappear. Many expeditions of those distant times were saved from scurvy by an infusion of the needles of the Siberian cedar and dwarf cedar trees. B. Tikhomirov and S. Pivnik note that the needles of our northern trees (pines, firs, Siberian cedar, and dwarf cedar tree) may be equated to lemons and oranges with respect to their anti-scorbutic properties.

According to the data of V. S. Fedorova, the needles of the Siberian cedar contain from 250 to 350 mg of vitamin C.

As reported by G. A. Sokolov, one ton of cedar needles can yield five thousand daily portions of vitamin C.

I. I. Grom considers the cedar needle to be a natural concentrate of vitamins. It is especially valuable in the winter period, when the consumption of fruits and berries is limited.

According to the report of A. Skarzhitskiy, from the young shoots of Siberian cedar is obtained an essential oil, "very highly valued in folk medicine; it is used internally for kidney and gall stones, and externally it is used for wounds, abscesses, and rheumatic pains." The essential oils contained in the needle are recognized as most important antimicrobial substances. The last ones are especially active in the summer months (in July and August), as a consequence of which at this time the bactericidal and fungicidal activity of this plant increases considerably.

Cedar Wood Essential Oil

Siberian folk healers recommend to sleep on a bed made of cedar wood, and to have a cushion made of fresh cedar boughs instead of the usual downy pillow. The same advice they also direct to those who have disorders in the activity of the cardiovascular system, in whom the respiratory organs are sick. Cedar needles yield an essential oil, chlorophyll, vitamin concentrates, produce vitamin flour, which is rich in bactericides, vitamins C, E, carotene, trace elements (copper, cobalt, iron, manganese, phosphorus). A kilogram of flour obtained from the needles of cedar shoots contains 70 mg of carotene, up to 35 mg of vitamin E, and also vitamins B, K, B. Needle flour is produced from needles that have already been processed, i.e., needles from which the essential oil and vitamins have been extracted. First, half of the vitamin C contained in the needle is extracted, in this case its concentration reaches 500 mg for a litre of water. The needles continue to be heated by steam in order to separate the essential oils. From 500 kg of cedar boughs are obtained 2.5 kg of essential oil. The essential oil obtained from the needles is a constituent of some preparations used in diseases of the kidneys, liver, etc. In the form of broths and infusions, cedar needles are used in the same cases as pine needles. Apart from vitamins, the needles are rich in tannins, alkaloids, and terpenes. Needle infusions and broths are drunk as diuretics.

Russian folk medicine uses cedar needles in the form of broths and infusions in cases of bronchial asthma as an antiasthmatic agent. Cedar needle broths, infusions, and tinctures are drunk in diseases of the respiratory organs of both a catarrhal and infectious nature: bronchitis, tracheitis, inflammation of the lungs, pneumonia, tuberculosis, etc. Needle broths and infusions have an expectorant action, they aid in the elimination of phlegm and the purification of the respiratory tract. The broth of the cedar needle is a remarkable gargling agent in cases of angina, for rinsing the oral cavity in cases of stomatitis, and rinsing the nasal passages in cases of a head cold. Rinsing the mouth with an infusion made from needles strengthens the gums and teeth, and protects the teeth from decay. Cedar needle broths and infusions are recommended for inhalations, phyto-applications (compresses). In the form of a beverage with the addition of honey, needle broth has been given by them to children in cases of rickets. A needle beverage is also helpful in cases of scrofula. It is good to bathe children with scrofula and rickets in needle baths. Drinking needle broths and infusions is useful for people suffering from cardiovascular diseases. The cedar needle contributes to the cleansing of the vessels, increases their elasticity, improves the composition of the blood, cleans it of harmful substances. Needle broth was once taken as a hemostatic agent in cases of excessive hemorrhage in women. A tincture of the cedar needle in alcohol or vodka is an effective wound-healing agent. For the preparation of the tincture, 200 ml of alcohol is poured over 100 g of the ground needle, it is infused in a dark place for seven days. The bast of young cedar trees was used for the extraction of arrows and splinters. A needle broth from the boughs is used to wash minor wounds and abscesses. In the form of lotions, it is used in cases of pustular lesions of the skin. An alcohol tincture of the cedar needle is rubbed on the joints in cases of rheumatism, gout, arthritis.

Cedar Cone Essential Oil

Beverages from the cedar needle are useful for convalescents who have undergone serious illnesses or operations. A cedar needle infusion or broth is drunk in cases of some poisonings, for example, smoke, alcohol, exhaust gases. In cases of headache or migraine, a towel soaked in a strong needle broth or infusion may help if applied to the forehead and temples; the infusion is also taken internally.

Siberian folk healers think that the constant use of a cedar needle infusion increases the protective powers of the body, and strengthens the nervous, immune, and cardiovascular systems. An improvement occurs in the well-being and health of the body as a whole.

Cedar needle broths and infusions, and the bast of young trees may be anexcellent anti-scorbutic agents and vitamin-containing substances. Baths from cedar needles are recommended - they are both generally strengthening and therapeutic. They act in a calming manner, eliminate fatigue and nervous tension. These baths are helpful for those suffering from rheumatism or gout. Needle baths are prepared for children ill with rickets or scrofula. The cedar needle is a constituent of different preparations. Since it is oxidized by atmospheric oxygen, the essential oil contained in the needle releases ozone - triatomic oxygen - into the atmosphere. Ozone makes the human body as a whole more healthy. Cedar forests differ from other forests by their extraordinary cleanliness and the curative properties of their air. This air is recommended for patients suffering from tuberculosis, and chronic and other diseases of the lungs as the very best therapeutic agent. In cases of radiculitis, it is good to apply steamed, ground needles or steamed cedar tree sawdust to the painful area. A chlorophyll-carotene paste is produced from the needle. It is used in surgery, dentistry, in cases of ulcers, and also as an external agent in burns and different skin diseases. Cedar needles can also have a purely practical application. In the first half of the 19th century, S. I. Gulyaev found a method for the production of "forest wool." His invention was tested in Tomsk, where at that time a factory installation for processing needles was in operation. "Forest wool," i.e., the fiber obtained from the needle, proved to be an excellent packing material for soft furniture and mattresses. Today, in industrial circumstances, from a ton of cedar needles are produced approximately 5000 daily doses of vitamin C, about 5 kg of essential oil, 10 kg of needle extract for therapeutic baths, more than 200 g of the finest cellulose threads, which are only slightly inferior in quality to the fibers of the cotton plant.

D. Ternenko, Biologist
Kiev Polytechnical Institute, Ukraine

http://www.ringingcedarsofrussia.org/
Used by permission
Copyright CedarInfo.info

Our Unique Production Technique:

Cedar Nut Sheller
This equipment and method of shelling Siberian Cedar Nuts brings the difference in the quality of "RINGING CEDARS OF RUSSIA" Siberian Cedar Kernels and Siberian Cedar Nut Oil

Cedar Nut Oil Press
This equipment and method of pressing Siberian Cedar Nuts brings the difference in the quality of "RINGING CEDARS OF RUSSIA" Siberian Cedare Nut Oil

The brand name "THE RINGING CEDARS OF RUSSIA" stands for business integrity, decency and the highest possible quality of product. All products marketed under this brand name convey the primordial power of Nature and the warmth of our hearts. We offer:

A variety of high-quality cedar products, including cedar nuts and cedar nut oil.

Huge plantations of cedar trees grow in the Siberian taiga, said to be the ecologically purest area of the world. The virgin forest of the taiga has never been treated with any chemicals or artificial fertilisation, nor abused by agricultural machines.

Cedar nuts (the seeds of the cedar tree) take two years to mature, during which time the tree accumulates a huge volume of positive cosmic energy. Crops of nuts are harvested manually by people lovingly devoted to this task, working in a pleasant environment without undue haste to create unique products full of positive energy reflecting the infinite powers of Nature. Specific preparations include:

We pick only cedar cones which fall naturally from the trees, thus ensuring that only ripe cones are selected. We always avoid hitting the trees to shake unripe cedar cones down (as happens with some other commercial operations) -- a practice which causes the nuts to lose their healing power.

Cones are then manually shelled with the help of wooden shell-removers. Nut centres are separated from their shells using wooden rollers.

Cedar nut oil and cedar nut flour marketed under our brand name are obtained by the cold-pressure method, using manual wooden oil-presses.

Cedar nut oil is then stored in special containers and packed in a small village near Novosibirsk by name "Kandayrovo" using unique technology to avoid any contact with metal. The whole process is strictly supervised to ensure it complies with all sanitary requirements.

Final products are placed in special packaging to prevent daylight penetration, and stored at a temperature of 0C to +5C to better preserve the product's natural components. The resulting product is a bright gold-coloured liquid with the pleasant smell of cedar nuts. It is a 100% natural product with strong healing powers.

SIBERIAN CEDAR NUT OIL

Siberian Cedar nuts (cedar nuts) contain about 60% oil. They are therefore pressed to obtain Cedar nut oil, which is available on the market as a very expensive gourmet cooking oil. Cold pressing in all-wooden presses is preferred to retain the nutritional properties of nuts and derive the oil of highest quality.

The Cedar nut oil bearing "The Ringing Cedars of Russia" brand comes exclusively from wild-harvested Siberian Cedar nuts - one of the most nutritious Cedar nuts in the world. In comparison, other Cedar nut oils are usually pressed from the Italian pignolia Cedar nuts, which are not nearly as potent and are often harvested from trees growing in plantations. Our Siberian Cedar nut oil is extra virgin (100% cold pressed from freshly shelled raw Siberian Cedar nuts), whereas most Cedar nut oils on the market are either not cold pressed or even pressed from roasted (!) Cedar nuts, which significantly decreases the oil value. Finally, "The Ringing Cedars of Russia" Siberian Cedar nut oil is the only one which is available on the market anywhere in the world pressed with wooden presses in accordance with traditional techniques described in Vladimir Megre's life-changing book "The Ringing Cedars of Russia". In contrast, all other Cedar nut oils are pressed using steel presses, which immediately degrades them (contact with steel oxidizes some of the Cedar nut oil's most important ingredients such as vitamins, and is known to remove the 'life force' from the oil).

Cedar nut oil has also traditionally been used in ancient Russian and European natural medicine to cure a wide array of ailments - ingested (decreasing blood pressure, boosting immune system resistance, etc.) or applied externally (a range of dermatological disorders). It is also used in expensive cosmetics.

Cedar nut oil contains pinolenic acid, a polyunsaturated fatty acid, and is marketed in the U.S. as a means stimulate cell proliferation, prevent hypertension, decrease blood lipid and blood sugar, and inhibit allergic reactions.

Copyright: http://www.RingingCedarsOfRussia.org/

QUINOA, CEDAR NUTS AND MUSHROOM STUFFED PUMPKIN

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa
1 cup sweet onion diced
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup cedar nuts
2 cups mushrooms, diced
1/2 cup apple diced
2 small sugar pumpkins

Preparation:

Hollow out pumpkin. In a 350 degree oven, cook face down for 1 hour. Prepare 1 cup of quinoa. Saute onion and garlic, add mushrooms and apple and brown. Mix quinoa, mushroom mixture and cedar nuts.

Fill pumpkins. Brown lightly in a low oven (200 degrees Fahrenheit). Serve your Mushroom Stuffed Pumpkin.


BARLEY AND CEDAR NUT CASSEROLE

Ingredients:
1 c. pearl barley
1/4-1/2 c. cedar nuts
3 tbsp. butter
1 med. onion, chopped
1/2 c. minced parsley
1/4 c. minced chives
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
3 c. vegetable stock
Chopped parsley for garnish

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rinse and drain barley. Toast cedar nuts in 1 tablespoon butter. Remove nuts with slotted spoon and set aside.

Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter to skillet, add onion and barley, stirring until barley is toasted. Stir in nuts, parsley, chives, salt and pepper. Spoon into a 1 1/2 quart casserole. Pour hot stock over casserole and mix well. Bake uncovered 1 hour and 15 minutes. Garnish chopped parsley.


BAKED ASPARAGUS WITH CEDAR NUTS AND GRUYERE

Ingredients:
1 lb. med. asparagus, trimmed and peeled
1 tsp. unsalted butter
1/2 c. grated Gruyere cheese
3 tbsp. cedar nuts
1 tbsp. cedar nut oil
Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large, oven-proof skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Line up the asparagus on the bottom, with the tips facing in one directions. Add 3 tablespoons of water and cover the skillet. Position it so that the thicker ends of the stalks are over the center of the burner, and steam the asparagus for 2 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat, and sprinkle the cheese over the stems, but not the tips. Strew the cedar nuts on the cheese, then dribble the oil on top. Sprinkle the asparagus with pepper.

Place the skillet in the oven, and bake, uncovered, until the cheese has melted, about 5 minutes. Serve bubbling hot.

http://visualrecipes.com/; http://www.cooks.com/

For Educational purposes only
This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
These articles come directly from researchers and are passed on to everybody. The company assumes no liability for any content in these articles.

For more great articles go to http://www.ringingcedarsofrussia.org/cedar_nuts_and_ringing_cedars_information.php

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WRITE YOUR FEEDBACK AND RECEIVE 10% OFF YOUR NEXT PURCHASE!
THE BEST ONES WILL BE PUBLISHED

These Promotions are available worldwide from the following warehouses: USA, Canada, Europe.

Special Promotion - Receive a Cedar Pillow FREE

Your Healthy Sleep for the entire night

Dive into freshness of Siberian Taiga with the Cedar Bed Deal: buy 2 comforters any size and 1 pillow and receive second pillow for free!

Use one comforter as a mattress and cover yourself with a second comforter, immersing yourself into delicate aromas and purifying phytoncides of Siberian Cedar Woods.

LIMITED STOCK - PREORDER NOW!

For the followers of a healthy life style and admirers of mountain fresh air, the cedar comforter will become a real treasure.

Made from a thoroughly purified film of cedar nuts, the cedar bedding products have remarkable orthopedic properties. It is flexible enough to provide firm yet comfortable support to the neck and spine which results in a deep, restful and healthy sleep.

The cedar nut film delicate aroma is able to create a virgin vastness of Altai Mountains and Siberian Taiga in your bedroom immersing your body and soul into atmosphere of comfort and coziness giving you refreshing rest.

Cedar nut film is a perfect temperature isolator, and because of this fact, the cedar bedding products keep thermal balance of the body protecting you from hypothermia at cool times and hyperthermia in heat.

The high hydroscopic properties of cedar nut film enable the cedar bedding products to absorb and remove extra moisture from your body. This property and the healthy thermal effect prevent accumulation of extra body fat.

The health benefits of a cedar comforter are immense:

- Antimicrobial properties of the cedar nut film purify the air in your bedroom

- The cedar film is rich in essential oils and phytoncides. The essential oils in the cedar nut film, get absorbed into the blood steam with every breath you take and expend your arteries, which allows for a much quicker blood circulation; and therefore is wonderful for prophylactics of various respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

- Cedar comforter helps to eliminate depression, stress, and improves performance capabilities

- It lowers fatigue, normalizes arterial blood pressure and eases the symptoms of asthma and allergies.

- The antioxidants found in cedar nuts and cedar nut film, neutralize the toxins produced by your organism. At the body temperature of 36-37 C the antioxidants are easily absorbed by the skin leaving it younger.

- The folk healers believe that the cedar comoforter has fantastic healing properties, and when it is placed against a painful bodily area it has the ability to minimize the pain syndrome.

- The bioenergy healers claim that cedar comforter creates natural energetic shell of 1 meter radius that can protect your family from the harmful emissions of computer and home electric appliances.

Produced from a natural material, this comforter does not have any contraindications and prevents accumulation of static electricity.

Qualities: Cedar comforter under the brand name "The Ringing Cedars of Russia" has a distinct Cedar nut smell, possesses antiseptic qualities, and is of a medium softness.

Uses: For the full benefit of a healthy sleep.

Consists of: Fabric - 100% flax. Content: dried, extremely thin layer that exists between the nut and the shell of a Cedar nut. Fully natural and ecologically clean components.

Cedar Comforter has a great history in ancient folk medicine. Healers believed that Cedar has a variety of different benefits:
- Relieves nervous tension.
- Assists in deep relaxation.
- Assists in deep healthy sleep and rest.
- Assists in stress relief.
- Gives a feeling of morning freshness.
- Improves blood circulation.
- Normalizes blood pressure.
- Decreases pain in both spine and neck areas.
- Cedar ethers mobilize spiritual aspects of a Human being.

Cedar comforter under the brand name "The Ringing Cedars of Russia" is a unique product which carries the purity and power of the Cedar forest. It is made in consistence with ancient technologies.
You can use one comforter as a mattress and cover yourself with another one. You will surround your body with a magic of cedar forest!

Supply is very limited.

Comforters sizes:
Double/full, dimensions: 38 in x 76 in (99 cm x 191 cm).
King/Super King, dimensions: 76 in x 80 in (193 cm x 203 cm)

Click here to go to our online store

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KEDRA TOOTHPASTE Gift Set (Buy 3 get 1 FREE)

SPECIAL PROMOTION for everybody! Purchace our KEDRA TOOTHPASTE PROMOTION and receive 1 KEDRA TOOTHPASTE FREE!

Buy 3 Toothpastes with Cedar Nut Flour and Cedar Nut Shell and get 1 Toothpaste with Cedar Nut Flour and Cedar Nut Shell FREE!

Click here to go to our online store

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PREORDER: Cedar Nut Oil Enriched with Cedar Resin

and receive ADDITIONAL 5% OFF

Estimated arrival - April 2012

Now available 5%, 10% and 20% extracts!

Exception: 5% Turpentine Balsam is available is Europe and excuded from this deal for Europe.

Additional 5% discount on the price of Turpentine Balsam is applied on top of quantity discounts (3 or more items - 10% off, 7 or more items - 20% off )!!!

INGREDIENTS: 100% natural Cold-pressed Extra Virgin Siberian Cedar (Pine) Nut Oil, 100% natural Cedar (Pine) Resin.

The oil from cedar nuts is being extracted for a long time in the Ural Mountains and Siberia. Our ancestors ate cedar nut oil and used it for medical purposes since the ancient times. In XIX century cedar nut oil could be bought on any Siberian market. It has been home-made with the use of only the simplest machinery. It has a soft taste, gold-and-amber color, and a wonderful smell of nuts.

In old Russian folk medicine consider that Siberian cedar nut oil eliminates a chronic weakness syndrome, increases overall strength of an organism, physical and brain activities. Siberian cedar nut oil taken regularly improves immune system. Any vegetative oil can be substituted by Siberian cedar nut oil, but nothing can fully substitute cedar nut oil. It can also be used as a facial night cream for returning a natural beauty of the skin.

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FAQ

1. Q: Is it Cedar Nut Oil?

A: This is 100% natural Cedar (Pine) Nut Oil cold pressed from wild harvested, organic, not certified cedar nuts, but it also has all the benefits of Siberian Cedar Resin. It was not blended with any other substance, it was enriched with Siberian Cedar Resin vitamins and minerals by means of extraction.

2. Q: How the extract is made?

A: The extract is made by inserting Cedar Resin in the Cedar (Pine) Nut Oil and is kept there under a vacuum for certain time, until Oil extracts all the minerals, nutrients and vitamins as well as natural color from the Resin. Its another name is Turpentine balsam.

3. Q: What is Cedar Resin Extract beneficial for?

Cedar Resin Extract has a lot of energy, it is a perfect anticeptic, strengthens the immune system and it's great for skin. It promotes the renewal of the structure and functions of the cells of the liver and pancreas. Resin Extract is great for infections, viral diseases, colds, soar throats.

The Cedar Resin Extract is also beneficial for:

  • all types of catarrhal diseases
  • bronchopulmonary and ear, nose, and throat diseases
  • diseases of the gastrointestinal tract
  • cardiovascular and endocrine diseases
  • skin and stomatological diseases
  • diseases of the nervous system
  • diseases of the locomotor system

4. Q: Are there any negative side effects?

A: There was no reported evidence of Cedar Resin Extract causing adverse reactions or negative side effects.

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WRITE YOUR FEEDBACK AND RECEIVE 10% OFF YOUR NEXT PURCHASE!
THE BEST ONES WILL BE PUBLISHED

Canada, British Columbia

"Phoenix Naturals", 211 Blaine Dr., Burnaby, BC V5A 2L7, Canada

e-mail: candace@bewelldrink.com

Tel: 604-312-8147

Wangaratta, Australia

"Plant and Food Medicine", 26 Faithful st, Wangaratta VIC,3677, Australia

www.plantandfoodmedicine.com

e-mail: info@plantandfoodmedicine.com

Tel: 613 5721 9139

Sherman Oaks, CA

"Lotus Consulting Service Inc.", Lilia Kilimnik, 5205 Buffalo Ave, Sherman Oaks, CA, 91401, USA

support.lotusinc@gmail.com

Tel: 818-905-0740

Canada, British Columbia

Nutrilife Health Food, Port Coquitlam, BC, V3C 6C7

Tel: 778-285-3588

Canada, British Columbia

TRIANGLE HEALING PRODUCTS

770 Spruce Ave., Victoria

trianglehealing@shaw.ca

Tel: 250-370-1818

Buena Vista, CO

Alternative Choices Wellness Center, 411 E MAIN ST, BUENA VISTA, CO 81211, USA

Alternative Choices Wellness Center, providing holistic healthcare from different practitioners. Karen Lacy the owner offers QNRT (Quantum Neurological Reset Therapy), Allergy Reduction Conductive Laser Therapy, Bio-Energetic Bodyscanning, Anti-gravity Field Balancing, Ionic Footbaths. We carry the Ringing Cedars of Russia products.

Call us at 719-239-2007

For a full list of our distributors please click here.

BOOK REVIEWS:

We loved the books. The purity and the wisdom of Anastasia have inspired my whole family to live a better live. We hope that through these books people will finally see the beauty of life in the simplest things. We have hope Anastasia will make it all possible...

Terry White, OH, USA

* * *

What was given as a simple gift from my friend, has captivated my heart. The feeling is so strong and overwhelming, that grows with every page I finish. God bless Anastasia for giving us all a push to change. This is a must read series for all ages.

Synthia Gorden, CA, USA

* * *

These books are the solution to the world's problems. I don't care if its fiction or not, its not important to me, the message is right and needs to be heard! It is an example to how we can live in peace and in harmony with ourselves and nature.

Carla Oprea, Melbourne, Australia.

FEEDBACK ON PRODUCTS:

I love your products and have a plan to become a distributor, here in South Africa. The products have helped me so much, I feel absolutely great and I want to pass it on to the people here. I already have a list of people, and I will be making my first large order from you this month. The cedar nut oil in green packaging is my absolute favorite!

Hugh Fraser, Western Cape, South Africa

* * *

We feel great connection to the products you sell. They have been very beneficial for us, especially the Cedar nut oil with resin. I saw now that you will now sell the 10% and 20% resin, and its GREAT NEWS, cant wait to try those. We are behind your company 100%, you have been always there for us.

Greg and Donnie Morton, NY, USA

* * *

LOVE THE OVAL PENDANT!!! Its so cutee! Makes a great gift . I feel so relaxed when I wear it, I feel so close to the Taiga Forest. It's my little treasure that I never take off.

Christina Nerroli, WA, USA

WHAT CUSTOMERS SAY ABOUT OUR COMPANY:

Absolutely fantastic customer service. You are always there to answer questions in a polite manner.

Susan Headley, London U.K.

* * *

Im very impressed at how quickly I received my Pendant. Thank you for updating me on the preorder status. You are always so quick to reply to email, I usually get a reply either the same or next day!!!

Valerie Uberg, CA, USA

* * *

Last time I had an issue my order wasn't going through the system online. I called in and the reps were so polite and they said I was shopping from incorrect warehouse that is why I was getting an error...silly me...I love the feeling of always being able to reach you, it's important for me to have support when I shop online, and knowing you are always there is absolute great

Polina Kozelchuk, FL, USA

www.RingingCedarsofRussia.org contact information.

All services are available 24 hours a day / 7 days a week / 365 days a year!

www.RingingCedarsofRussia.org currently has three regional warehouses in Europe, USA and Canada. Our Customer Service department is available to serve you 24 hour a day, 7 days a week including ordering by phone and inquiry assistance. Ringing Cedars of Russia Customer Service Representatives respond to our customers on a timely basis with accurate information. We work hard everyday to improve our customer service to the level of satisfaction our customers deserve and have come to expect. Personalized attention is what we provide. Understanding your questions and solving any problems as quickly as possible is of great importance to us. Our customer service department is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Please feel free to contact us in the manner in which you are most comfortable. We will be happy to get back to you as soon as possible.
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1Mailing Address USA
130 Church Street Suit 366
New York, NY
10007
USA

Customer service and orders
Tel: 646 - 429 - 1985
Tel: 1 - 877 - TO - CEDAR (862 - 3327)
(Toll free within US)
Fax: 1 - 877 - 549 - 6902
(Toll free within US)
sales-usa@RingingCedarsofRussia.org
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customerservice-usa@RingingCedarsofRussia.org
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Outside USA:
Tel/Fax: +1 - 646 - 429 - 1985

1Mailing Address CANADA
1057 Steeles Ave. W.
P.O. Box 81768
M2R3X1
Toronto, ON
Canada

Customer service and orders
Tel: 416 - 994 - 6495
Tel: 1 - 888 - 994 - 6495
(Toll free within Canada)
Fax: 1 - 888 - 994 - 9495
(Toll free within Canada)
sales - can@ringingcedarsofrussia.org
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customerservice - can@ringingcedarsofrussia.org
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Outside Canada:
Tel/Fax: +1 - 416 - 994 - 6495

Mailing Address EUROPE - WIDE
Maybach Str.16
Recklinghaysen
45659
Germany

Customer service and orders
Tel: +44 - (0)870 - 068 - 9694
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1Customer service in ENGLAND
Free Phone: 0800 - 027 - 0874
Tel: 0870 - 068 - 9694
Fax: 0870 - 068 - 9693
sales - uk@ringingcedarsofrussia.org
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customerservice - uk@ringingcedarsofrussia.org
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Outside UK:
Tel/Fax: +44 - (0)870 - 068 - 9694


Any general questions
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ESSENTIAL-OILS.PRO

History of Aromatherapy

For millenniums humanity has been discovering mysterious properties of plants. Knowledge obtained through experiments and researches and its systematization resulted in a new science - Aromatherapy.

Aromatherapy is an art of healing by means of plant aromas. Aromatherapy emerged long before it was thought as a science. Have you noticed how easily you breathe when you are walking in a forest? How nice it is to feel piny wood scent and redolence of green pine needles and resin! This is a natural aromatherapy.

According to the first manuscripts with fragrance recipes aromatherapy has been used for 6000 years! In Egypt the use of aromatherapy is confirmed by earthenware tablets that described embalming process by means of aromatics.

Ancient people perfectly understood aromatic and therapeutic properties of plants. Contemporary civilization just begins to uncover the value of aromatherapy hidden treasures.

In the ancient times aromatic, antiseptic, antimicrobial and wound-healing properties of essential-oil plants were known and widely used from Babylon and Persia to India and China. In the old medical texts of these countries, written around 3000 years ago, many herbs and their utilization were described. Plants whose aromas were able to impact on consciousness were burned during religious ceremonies.

The resins that were used for incense were highly therapeutic; they influenced on respiratory system and immersed priests into meditative state. Egyptians applied fragrances from perfumery and cosmetics to medicine and mummification. Some perfume jars still smell with fragrance that was kept there 3200 years ago. Also Egyptians used aromas for skin care, washing clothes, added them into vine and food. Frankincense oil used to be burned in honor of Egyptian God Ra, it also was a great component in skin care recipes. Cedar and Myrrh oils were used for embalming. As it turned out essential oils of cedar and myrrh contained elements with strong prophylactic and antiseptic properties, which allowed mummies be preserved for a very long time. Egyptians acquired a reputation of perfume experts; however, they were not familiar with essential oil extraction methods and used only infusions and ointments.

Greeks continued researches in aromatherapy. They found new uses for essential oils in medicine. Ancient thinker and pharmacologist Pedanius Dioscorides wrote a book about healing with herbs "De Materia Medica". This book had been very popular in Europe for 12 centuries. Many recipes offered in this book are still useful today. Another Greek physician Hippocrates - the founder of contemporary scientific medicine composed a work where 236 plants and their medical use were described. Reflecting Greek philosophy of his time, Hippocrates approached patient as a unified whole and as a part of nature. He believed that plants contain medical elements in optimal combination and thus they heal better when unprocessed or as natural juices.

Romans based their knowledge on Greeks' aromatherapy achievements. Their innovation was in bringing aromatic plants and ingredients from Aravia and Eastern India. With new plants more deceases could be cured. Romans paid a lot of attention to the aromatic properties of plants. In antique Rome and Greece perfumery with floral scents was booming, the essential oils were widely used in steam baths as a daily ritual. Many Greek doctors served in Roman army and carried their aromatherapy knowledge through different countries. Ancient Greek philosophers believed that essential oils were given to people by Olympus Gods as a means of supreme light, awakening love.

After the collapse of Roman Empire, Arabic perfumers improved aromatherapy knowledge. They were the first who applied steam distillation for extracting essential oil from rose petals. This invention is believed to belong to Avicenna, philosopher and a physician of Middle East. He described more than 800 medical means that were mostly of botanical origin. In his book "The Canon of Medicine" he described steam distillation method which is used nowadays as well.

European aromatherapy was developing in medieval times. During crusades Arabic fragrances were spread over entire Europe. Plant's medical properties were intensively studied at the times of pestilence spread. Branches of lavender and cypress were burned on the streets. It was the only protection against Black Death that people knew.

In the ninetieth century with the development of synthetic pharmacology the importance of aromatherapy began to decrease. However, when it was noticed that synthetic products caused multiple complications the interest in aromatherapy arose again.

In 1930, French scientist-chemist Rene-Maurice Gattefosse put into practice a term of Aromatherapy. His family owned a perfumery fabric, and, according to the legend, Maurice, working in a laboratory, burned his hand badly. By reflex, he dipped his hand into lavender oil that was standing by. Later he was so amazed watching mystical recovery and disappearance of scars on his hand. As a result he dedicated his live to researches about essential oil cosmetic and dermatological properties.

French physician Jean Valnet significantly expanded uses of aromatherapy. He was using essential oils for disinfection of wounds and for internal organs spasms relieving. In 1964 he published a book "Practice of Aromatherapy" triggering the aromatherapy practice in Europe. Homeopathic clinics, practicing aromatherapy were build in Paris, Sveden and England where obvious rejuvenation properties of essential oils were studied.

Contemporary aromatherapy is first of all a prophylactic and healthful method of maintaining good psycho-emotional and physical fitness. It is a therapy that relieves everyday stress and prevents development of infirmity. In Canada, US, Europe and Japan thousands of aromatherapy clinics operate, aromatherapy books are published and scientific laboratories are working, continuing the tradition of aromatherapy use.

With the growing popularity of aromatherapy many people get familiarized with therapeutic properties of essential oils and start using them at home on a daily basis.

On the current market the world leading Essential Oil company is Young Living Essential Oils. Young Living's line of pure, therapeutic-grade essential oils and essential oil blends are sourced from the world's finest plants. They are not diluted with chemical and synthetic additives and are carefully prepared to maintain plant integrity. This commitment to purity makes Young Living products the world's highest-quality essential oil line.

Part of the proceeds go to the creation of an Eco-Village.

http://www.ringingcedarsofrussia.org/
Used by permission
Copyright http://www.youngliving.pro/

For Educational purposes only
This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
These articles come directly from researchers and are passed on to everybody. The company assumes no liability for any content in these articles.

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Message submitted from: Radha Theresa,

Address: 83 Cassilis St Coonabarabran NSW Australia Phone number: 0268424778
Email: capricorndancer@live.com.au
Title: Vedruss Kins Oasis
User classifieds ad:
Calling Vedruss! A Kin's Village is called into being in Coonabarabran, Australia. If you feel called to participate, please email Radha or Chris for more details - capricorndancerlive.com.au

Shambhala-Shasta

SUCCESS!!!
The Anastasia Eco-settlement project has found its home in North America on Sacred Motherland!

Many great thanks to all of you who contributed to this success and to many who have supported this dream and vision with your love from near and far.

Shambhala-Shasta community has taken back 466 acres of prestine motherland. Free and clear. No debt. No Encumbrances. No liens. Free and clear!!!

To freedom, independance and sovereignty!!!

The community will steadily grow out from here as we are bordered on the east and north by national forests.

More to come soon after our visit to our motherland in the next few days.

We have several settlers who have begun the intake process and purchased their domains. If you are ready and feel the beat in your heart, come and join!!!

http://shambhala-shasta.org/become/

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This Classifieds column is created specifically for the announcements related to the "Ringing Cedars of Russia" Movement (please view example below). If you wish to submit your message please fill out the form below and click "Submit" .

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Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Earnest request to authors of articles and scientific works to please send your materials to us to the address info@earthlife.info with a subject "Articles" . Upon a separate agreement your works may be published in the internet newspaper "The Earth" , in separate collections, in the Resource Library of the Source of Life Association, and on the pages of the websites devoted to the "Ringing Cedars" movement.

Also you can open a tread on a forum devoted to readers of Vladimir Megre, at http://www.ringingcedarsforum.com/index.php and publish your works.

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Please send your works of art, poems, songs, and paintings, inspired by the books of Vladimir Megre to the following address info@earthlife.info with a subject "Art" . Best ones will be published in "The Earth" Newspaper. Also, you can open a thread in the ART OF SOUL section of the forum devoted to readers of Vladimir Megre, at http://www.ringingcedarsforum.com/index.php and publish your works.

For a possible answer to your question we advise you to review with the content of the internet conferences held by Vladimir Megre for the readers of the "Ringing Cedars of Russia" series of books and our Frequently Asked Questions.

You can direct your questions to the Letter Department of EarthLife.info website. Your question will be answered within 7 business days.

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