The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Hummingbird recovery

Lost Cities

A week of hummingbird diet (low fiber, low fat, frequent small feedings) plus imodium has given me a new lease on life. I'd forgotten what it was like to be able to think straight!

A trip to the gastroenterologist has confirmed that I'm on the right track. If I can keep my current regularity while weaning myself off the imodium, I can slowly ease myself back onto my beloved vegetables over the next few weeks.

Zinnia wheelbarrow

That said, I'm not planning on diving right back into the daily grind. As Mark points out, the beauty of an independent homesteading lifestyle is that you can change your schedule to give your body the rest it needs.

Biological causes aside, I strongly believe I brought this entire episode on myself by getting stressed out this summer and then pushing through farm and business tasks that could jolly well have waited until I healed.

Yes, the farm won't be as perfect if I keep to my current schedule of only working half time (and not even that if my bowels complain). But what's the point of living on a perfect homestead if I'm too sick to enjoy it? Hopefully I won't forget this important lesson when my dreams get bigger than my muscles and I'm once again tempted to take on too much.



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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thanks for keeping us posted! And thanks to all who helped you recover to this stage. It's really not "your fault"! Love, momy

Comment by adrianne Sun Oct 2 08:17:07 2016
Anna, so very glad to hear you are gaining ground. Health is everything, and the ultimate aim of your lifestyle. "can do" people often "do" beyond their limits until their limits are established. The human body does have limitations, which increase exponentially once they reach a certain age, which you have not experienced yet, and hopefully will!
Comment by Maggie Turner Sun Oct 2 08:51:54 2016

Glad you're feeling better (-didn't know you were sick- been incommunicato for two months as I retired and we moved to WI & just got our internet connection established yesterday.)

I hope your GI guy either told you to take live-culture yogurt or prescribed a probiotic (same dif; yogurt is cheaper). Ninety % of the solids we excrete are just excess gut flora. After a bout of diarrhea, regardless of cause, we need to re-establish that population in order to get back to normal functioning.

Comment by doc Mon Oct 3 08:20:32 2016





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