I read this article today while eating breakfast.  It’s about how India has hope in the stalled fight against polio.

It’s about how the oral polio vaccine is cutting down on the number of cases, though they still cannot seem to fully eradicate polio in the poorest of areas.  When casually reading the article it leaves you thinking, why yes this vaccine is life saving.  Thank goodness they have something to stop polio, thank goodness someone is out there vaccinating the poor!

But then I was chewing my cereal and I realized, like many vaccine related topics, there’s a carefully masked second side to the story…the logical side, unfortunately.

First of all, why do these children have to be vaccinated so many times against the same disease?  I understand there are different strains of polio and they have updated/improved the vaccine, but not 50 times!  Why did none of the 12 times the 3 year old was vaccinated work?  Surely she couldn’t have had diarrhea all 12 times she was vaccinated.

“Lalti Kumari, a shy 3-year-old, limps alongside her grandmother. She had been vaccinated 12 times, but still caught the disease in March 2009, likely because malnourishment or diarrhea made the doses ineffective.

“I don’t know how it happened,” said her mother, Sharmila Devi.”

“Rajkishore Tanti, a 45-year-old who estimates his two children were vaccinated roughly 50 times each, said the eradication program is the only government service that reaches the village.”
First of all, why do these children have to be vaccinated so many times against the same disease?  I understand there are different strains of polio and they have updated/improved the vaccine, but not 50 times!  Why did none of the 12 times the 3 year old was vaccinated work?  Surely she couldn’t have had diarrhea all 12 times she was vaccinated.  If the area is so poor, why do they waste money vaccinating and re-vaccinating against the same disease?  The article even comments on one huge factor that went into eradicating polio in the USA…

“As contact with polio-laced sewage became less frequent, people no longer contracted the disease in early infancy, when side effects were rare.”

Yet Bill Gates is spending $102 million dollars vaccinating these poor areas against polio, over and over?  Do you realize how much money $102 million dollars is for a dirt poor Indian village?  Think what all $102 million could buy!

Bill Gates has the power to buy them fresh water wells.  He can set up a clinic, one that keeps the oral re-hydration solutions and zinc to treat the diarrhea that supposedly interferes with vaccines.  He can have a huge impact on the lives of these people.  He could help build outhouses or some way to treat sewage, since polio is spread through feces.

Oh and want to know my favorite part?  They are giving these children the oral polio vaccine.  This is the version of the vaccine that contains the live virus, which means the children who get the vaccine shed live polio virus in their poop.

Now follow my logic: They are giving the live polio virus in an area where the article says children poop by the side of the road, an area so poor they don’t even have a ball to play with, let alone a place to wash their hands.  An area so poor that the people are constantly ill, they have poor immune systems due to lack of nutrition and sanitation.  WHY would they give these people a vaccine that is not to be used around people with a compromised immune system?  It is possible for others to catch polio from those that have been vaccinated!

In the United States when they used to give the oral polio vaccine some people would get the disease from it.  You weren’t supposed to be around any cancer patients or those with weak immune systems for an extended period of time after being vaccinated for that very reason.

It makes great sense to give this vaccine to the unhealthy poor, those who will be spending time all around the poop of vaccinated children sheding the live virus.

So instead of improving their quality of life with nutrition and medical care, Bill Gates wastes money vaccinating the same poor, rural population…the same kids 50 times.

The villagers even question this!  It says so in the article.

“Villagers complain that the vaccinators are the only health workers they ever see. One asked why they didn’t bring other medicine; another demanded clean drinking water.”

“If the road department, the electricity department, all the other government departments functioned like this polio campaign, our plight would be over,” he said.”

So…why?  Why does Bill Gates not spend some of that $102 million on something more logical, on a long term solution that would impact the lives of these people?

I’m sure Bill Gates realizes that infectious diseases will always be present in groups of people who don’t have the proper nutrition and health care to maintain strong immune systems.

Why wouldn’t he then spend money on helping these people build stronger immunity with nutrition, sanitation, vitamins, food, and clean water?  Then more people would be able to fight off all kinds of diseases, not just polio.

There has to be a good reason, right?  I honestly don’t know what that reason is.  I suspect it has a lot to do with Bill Gates’ ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Ok, so it’s almost the end of January.

That means it’s almost February.

Almost February means that I need to start planning my garden because a few things (peas, spinach) need to be outside as soon as the ground can be worked in March.

This makes me happy!

I’m doing something new for my garden this year.  In previous years we had a triangle-ish shape of garden space at the back corner of the yard.  This didn’t work out well because it got over grown with weeds, and mosquitoes ate me alive every time I set foot in it.  Plus the neighbor behind me (the same old people who kept making the anonymous chicken complaints while smiling to my face) have their garden right on the other side of the fence, and they douse it with Miracle Grow and Sevin dust.  That kind of makes my organic efforts pointless!

Yeah.

So at the end of last year we built four boxes for raised beds.  They are 4×4 feet and two feet deep.  I have to get some soil to fill them in soon.  I’ve been doing some research on where to get the cheapest quality soil, and I found a local place that sells 50/50 top soil compost mix for $10 per cubic yard.  I calculated, and my boxes will take 1.18 cubic yards of soil.  So I figure I’ll get 2 cubic yards and use the left overs for potted plants and whatever else.  $20 for all of that rich soil, not bad!  The only catch is that I can’t figure out how to get it to my house since we don’t own a truck.  2 cubic yards fills an 8 foot truck bed.  My FIL owns a truck, but I hate asking him for stuff like this.  :(

These are my new garden beds right after we built them.  The space in the middle is for herbs and flowers.  The two tubs on the left side have dwarf apple trees growing in them.

We put bricks around them because Tyler hates to weed eat and I wasn’t about to try to garden in weeds filled with bugs.  This way I can stand on the stones!  I plan on filling the cracks between the stones with sand to cut down on sneaky pop-up weeds. We also have to cut those trees up on the left way back so the boxes can get enough sun.

My old garden was back there behind the swing set.  If I can convince Tyler to do a privacy fence with some of our tax return money, then I might do another couple of raised beds back there in the old garden space.

I want a privacy fence badly.  Our current fence is rusted saggy chain link. I cut my arm on a piece of rusted metal sticking out into the old garden space off of the fence two different times last year.  I still have a scar from one of them, it flayed the skin wide open!

A privacy fence would solve so many issues–the grumpy old people could no longer see my chickens and spy on me and call government officials.  I hate the feeling of being watched, it makes me so uncomfortable.  The privacy fence would also mean that Hank, my hound dog, can no longer hop the fence and go to the neighbor’s door.  Remember that debacle of how she keeps feeding him and luring him over?  Overall it would also look so much nicer.  My grumpy old people neighbors have this giant pile of rotting wood that I stare at out of my kitchen window all the time, up against their dilapidated garage.  Instead I would see nice neat wooden fencing!

If we do get privacy fencing I’d like to use that empty back corner garden space as a pen for Nigerian Dwarf goats.  Of course that will never happen, because we aren’t zoned for goats.  I know, that wouldn’t really stop me…but Tyler would have a hissy fit if I forced us to get dairy goats.  He doesn’t think they are adorable like I do.  We also probably can’t afford to feed them, so I should just let that fantasy go for now and be happy with my 25 chickens and two ducks.

Anyway.

I also got this other great idea.  I want to get a couple of cattle panels to make arches for trellising plants in the garden!  They’ll look so spiffy.  I can grow cucumbers for pickles, peas, melons, and pole beans on them.  I would like to do one arched trellis with just bright red flower vines on it, that would be beautiful.

Here’s what I’m talking about.  (Photo stolen from interwebs.)

Isn’t that cool?

I don’t think it will be hard to do at all, as long as we can get the panels home.  They’re only $18 per panel and we already have a bunch of posts.

Those are my big plans for this year’s garden.  We’ll see how it goes.  I can’t wait for warmer weather!

In Kentucky most plants go into the ground after the last frost, which is around the end of April.  Ada will be a whole year old then.  Wow.

After four or five years, I am officially abandoning no poo.

Yes, that’s right.  Done!

Baking soda and apple cider vinegar worked great on my hair for the first few years, but since my pregnancy with Ada my hair has been too dry.  My scalp has this itchy dry peeling spot in the front center, yuck.  It itches so bad, and I’m not kidding–entire layers of skin keep coming off!  I have a theory the baking soda was drying it out, even though I didn’t rub it directly onto my scalp and even use baking soda that often.

So many people recently suggested the Curly Girl routine to me.  I looked it up and decided to give that a try.

It’s similar to no poo, kind of.  At least my hair won’t have to detox from shampoo build up!

Curly Girl tells you to rub conditioner into your scalp, then into your hair, let it sit for five minutes, and rinse.  That’s it.  Then scrunch and apply gel.

I went to the health food store last night and scoped out the conditioners.  I chose a Desert Organics conditioner, it had the best ingredients and the most affordable price, and it’s not artificially scented.  (Chemical scents make me feel sick..allergies…blah.  I’m also severely allergic to tea tree oil, it gives me migraines!)

My hair loved the conditioner.  It soaked it right up.  I got a Kiss My Face brand gel to use.  I think I’m still going to put some coconut oil on my hair, because my hair really likes coconut oil…

So far so good.  My hair is soft, fluffy, light, and curly/wavy.

Best part?  No flaking from that scary peely spot!  It’s not even itching right now!  I rubbed lots of conditioner onto it.  Maybe it just won’t come back?  I can only hope…

My curly hair and my scalp are naturally dry.  If I didn’t wash my hair for a month it still wouldn’t be the least bit greasy.  My hair soaks up oil like a sponge.  I think the conditioner routine will be good for it.  Maybe I won’t cut it off.  I really love long curly hair, when it’s cooperating…

Just so I’m not boring you with hair talk, this is one of Rosie’s favorite past times.  Dancing wildly while we play music.  (Poor Ada needed a nap desperately, and got one as soon as we turned off the video!)