Abundance. Solstice. Fire

"When we speak of magic we should speak of those moments that were the purest, when the stars were bright and the laughter was loud. Those are the most magic moments in life." Welcome to out midsummer solstice adventure.


Around our house ...
Celebrations are done with fire.
Cleansing is done by fire.
Canning is done with fire.

Its only been a couple hours since everyone left but the embers to the campfire are still keeping my toes warm at 1 in the morning. Curled up on the lawn chair staring into the fading flames gets the mind rolling. Gets one thinking about the night that just unfolded and the first six months of the year that has just passed. Hard to believe that its already June and the nights are getting increasingly longer. It wont be but a week before the shift will happen and the sun will start fading. Why is it that summer starts when the sun starts heading dark? A question I will never understand. Until the darkness comes again the best thing to do is live each day in the best way we can and enjoy the company of friends around the campfire - and that is what we did tonight.

The summer solstice has always had a special place in the hearts of many. The earth is at its fullest, the sun is at its highest and the beauty of nature has reached its full splendor. All most everything that is planted and growing is at its peak of freshness in the garden, the leaves are greening and the blooms are busting open for the fruit that will come in just a couple more months.


The solstice has been celebrated since the beginning of time. The longest day meets the shortest night and the growers spend a major amount of time outside in their fields tending their crops and waiting to see what the earth will produce. The long days are perfect for the growing season. We all do better in the hot summer sun, just as the plants we grow, we stretch we strive for better things. We get excited that our gardens will yield the perfect amount of veggies and fruit so that the preserving can start and the winter dinners wont be so bleak. Right now, in our garden the spring crops are setting their seed while the cool crop seeds are started in the shade.
Humming birds are fighting off the bees at the feeders, the black boys are laying dazed in the shade of the trees and the ocean is giving us the lowest tides of the year. There is a beauty that extends to every living thing, a glowing sense of virility and the most powerful heartfelt laughter can be heard from the mouths of happy people everywhere. Summer has her magic and she know how to use it on us.


We have an interesting way of celebrating the passing seasons and the passing of time. Not in the normal pagan or Christian ways, neither will you see normal celebrations that resemble much of anything from any culture but what you will find is all the above with a twist. To be an attendant to one of our campfire celebrations you must bring an attitude of adventure. You have to bring a wistful-go-with-the-flow time schedule. There is no rushing out on one of our parties. You just never know what you will find to do next or where the next laugh will come from and you will surly not understand why your laughing but you will leave at the end of your night scratching your head and thinking twice about some of the things that you do believe to be true. You will question your sanity or mine for that matter but you will be thankful for the hours spent around the fire with some strangers and some perfectly good long life friends. If you are ever handed a specially made invitation to one of our parties any one that has been before will tell you that its not something to just pass off.


Our solstice gathering this year was mixed with the graduation celebration of David's third and last man-child. The crowd was a mixed bag of teenagers, twenty somethings, and our adult friends. So to keep things a little under control and a not so far out there we celebrated with food, lawn dice, abundance prayer sticks and of course sparklers. The man-child requested bbq chicken, potato salad, beans and bacon, and dad of course had to have his Rolling Rock. An interesting game of lawn dice started with the kids - I didn't quite understand what it was that they were playing but if I had a bigger glass of punch I may of joined in. Maybe.
At one point during the early evening everyone gathered around the fire for their instructions and heartfelt thanks for coming to the gathering. Everyone received a piece of driftwood, a piece of paper, a piece of lilac purple lace and a sharpie. With this in hand they were sent off into the garden to gather thoughts and whatever they wanted from the garden's foliage to make their abundance prayer stick with - nothing was off limits. Not even the gooseberries!

Once the sticks were bundled and their prayers written we sent the messages off into the universe with the flames and the slight southern breeze. We had a good couple hours to talk and laugh, to be gathered amongst our fellow family members and catch up on each others lives since it had been a few months from Candlemas. Everyone's year has been progressing, some goals have been met while others were put on hold for new and exciting adventures. Some goals will take a little longer to accomplish but the summer night around the fire was a great time to renew our thoughts towards those goals and a great opportunity to start fresh, to renew our energies and to connect with a great support system.


As the night drew on and the sun set lower, the fire burned brighter and my heart began to over flow with kindness, with a sense of overwhelming love for the group of people that were surrounding our hearth and home. I sat back and listened to the jokes, watched that laugher become tears and was very thankful for the time of kicking back and observing the people around me. This is exactly what makes my heart sing. Conversation. Connection. Community.

Then it all changed.

Three long skinny boxes emerged from the darkness, it was a sigh of wonder kinda moment. One of those moments when the gruffest of men melted, the strongest of women giggled like little girls. Each on of us had a light, a sparkler of hope that glimmered but for a few short nanoseconds before the glittering flame vanished but in those seconds we lit up the darkness with our hands raised high for all to see the smiles that was coming from our sparklers. It is very interesting to me that the light can dispel the darkness and still manage to bring joy. Guess that was the plan after all for a single shred of light ... to bring hope.


Our secret!? Well our secret is this: nights under the brightest stars, kindness spread without thought, love of friends and family but most of all its the living in the moments that can only be shared with a sense of wonderment and adventure. To long for things that are different, to celebrate in ways that are strange yet unearthly satisfying but mostly its about creating the moments that we know will last forever.

Lyme's. RMSF. Update.

Hey there!

Here it is my most recent update and I am camped out under my very large green and white stripped patio umbrella that has become my closest friend and all I can do is shake. I feel the bitter cold running threw my veins as I literally sit in the warm soon-to-be-summer sun. Yes, my body chemistry is a little off right now due to the meds or the more recent lack of meds.

Just a quick update to fill you all in on my new found lifestyle of living with Lyme's Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF). I have become allergic to one of the antibiotics that help ward off the lovely bacteria that is running chaotically through my body. Dr. Mandy has me on three different medications, one of them is Doxycycline which is to help keep back the Lyme's Disease, one is to balance out the yeast build up in my body from the first, and the last drug is Tinidazole and that is to ward off the RMSP. I have been off all three of the medications due to the burning that my hands have received. I have recently posted pictures to all of the Saucy Roots social media sites asking if people had an easy at-home remedy that could help ease the massive pain that I was in. At first, I thought it was a chemical burn due to a reaction from the meds and the glue or latex of my work gloves but even after I stopped using the gloves the burning and the blisters continued. So once again I headed back in to see Dr. Mandy (ok it was only after the local pharmacist yelled at me for asking for a burn cream that could help and he so bluntly told me that I was to run straight to the hospital for a prescription for what he thought could have been 2nd degree burns, wow I am a really bad judge of burns, didn't think it was that bad.). Dr. Mandy was baffled but seem to be convinced that I had developed an allergy to one of the meds. So we are now doing the elimination test on all three of them. No meds for a week. This was the freedom I found last week when I got to actually have a drink of our homemade wine! Yum!



My hands started clearing up as we expected that they would, of course there was really tough leathery like skin on my thumbs and my pointer finger where the worst of the blistering had taken place. My hands as of a couple days ago were feeling pretty good and nearly back to the right skin tone of any normal white Caucasian ginger. Gleaming white! There were a few pink spots where the new flesh has grown in and what looks to be left overs of peeling skin that resembles and bad sunburn. The healing has truly taken place from the inside out.

Last Saturday I had started to feel the effects of being off the medication for 56 hours. The crash began to kick in. Course it really didn't help that mother nature had to send Aunt Flow for a visit on top of it all. So yesterday morning around 4:30 I was determined to go back on at least one of the meds to figure out which one was causing the burning in my hands. My crash was not easy. I was sleeping more than I was awake and it felt like the bacteria in my body was coming back with a vengeance. Needless to say I posted on Facebook the wrong emotional battle and by the end of the day things were starting to turn around. Thank you all for your posts, comments, emails, text messages and so on each one of them really did bring a smile to my face and helped bring up my serotonin levels which we all know from the Turkey. Brazil Nuts. Sex. post that was published those levels suffer dearly.

The test started with the Tinidazole. There was a sneaky feeling in my guts that it was this one that was causing the burning. After a week of being on the drugs the very first time my hands would tingle and start feeling weird but I shrugged it off as the medicine doing its work on the RMSF. Well as you probably all saw from the pictures that was not totally the case. My hands were frying from the inside! Boiling my finger bones before my very eyes. (Insert a little dramatic music here and an eye roll.) As it turns out I am now off the Tinidazole forever, they will soon be flushed down the toilet as soon as Dr. Mandy finds out what the out come was. OR I could sell them on the black market for a heft price to pay for the next round of medicine in a couple weeks since I don't have insurance!? (That part is only half a joke or ... is it half serious?) Yes, my hands flared up and the new skin started steaming up, getting irritated and red. New red spots appeared and the burning kicked in about dinner time. So now to wait four more days for that to clear up so that I can get back to the Doxycycline and see if that will do any damage.
Will keep you all posted as things go along but please don't think that I am going to post regular updates since I do not want to be known as the poster child for both diseases. Please note that I am trying my hardest to worry about bigger things such as the fact that I have friends that will be homeless and that there are still too many starving children in this world and clearly not enough people growing their own food. My problems effect me right at this moment and yes, they are huge problems to me but there are other issues that need more attention. I will try to keep my posts on social media to happy thoughts and not of emotional spews or rants. Hell that's what this blog is for!! :)

As always, thank you again for your thoughts, prayers, suggestions, helpful information, and links to anything that I can read about or get my hands on. I do appreciate all the love and support that you have shown over the last couple weeks.
Will leave you with this quote and an update on the garden and how it looks right now! Enjoy!

Lime. Lyme's. Limes

Where we all live there is a new battle raging around us whether we like it or not. Old battles rage on but the new ones take new shapes and forms in hopes of taking the world by storm and conquering every last human. This time the battle starts with a little tiny bite that you may not feel, may not sense or may not see any reaction from. The worse part about the new raging battle is you might not even know that you are even involved or completely unaware that the creature causing so much grief is after you as a host. Seems a little unfair since they attack and you may not even know it until the fever kicks in and your joints start to ache.

The physical location of our small garden is in the archipelago of the San Juan Islands. We hail from the island that has been known for the war over a shot pig and the production of lime for at least a century.  Lime mining for the purposes of building construction materials such as bricks, mortar, cement and other such related things. Massive lime kilns dot our western coast line and a long history has been written about our deep water harbors where the giant wooden schooners would sail in and haul out tons of the lime that had been fired down into a new usable form. You are more than likely one of the recipients of the cement by products that I am talking about (maybe not from our specific kilns but you get the drift). These same kilns are now part of a living history of our special island paradise and can be viewed as you play a game of horseshoes right out side the hotel you are staying at. You can read infographic signs complete with pictures that will walk you through the entire process from start-to-finish. Plus, you can have a stranger take your camera and snap a happy picture with you and your loved ones standing in front of them. Ahhh ... the treasured memories of a great trip to the islands, meanwhile, the battle rages on just steps away from the happy scene.

One of my favorite fruit is the lime. Give me a whole lime sliced up in my margarita and I am a happy girl. One thing I really like about our community is that I can ask for double or triple the limes and they don't look at me strange anymore. They have come to expect it. Limes are also great when made in Limeade, of course! A dab of fresh squeezed lime juice in a quart size mason jar filled with water and a tablespoon of stevia for sweetener equals perfection!! Lemon is also a good choice and a more common choice but the lime is one of the best in my books. Most people tolerate the taste of lemons and limes with a sweetener of some sort like sugar or stevia. Since I am not allowed sugar my cupboards are filled with jars of stevia and in one corner of the garden a lonely stevia plant grows. New fascinating facts are coming out recently about the powerful weapon that stevia has become. It is almost more powerful in the battle that rages then even the drugs it takes to kill off the bacteria that is given from the bite that you may or may not have been the lucky recipient of.

Lyme's Disease is the new black, also known as Lyme borreliosis, it is an infectious disease caused by a type of bacteria known as Borrelia. (This is a rewritten sentence from Wikipedia so the links work if you want to check it out.) Well come to find out the army that carryies this infectious disaster has moved into the islands and is slowly taking charge. Few cases have been recorded and unfortunately my name has been added to the infectious disease record. BUT get this! I am also one of the few that has the prestigious opportunities to not only have one version of the tick borne infections but I have two! Guess, if I am going to do something I better do it up right. Go big or go home, right!? It is really too bad that we can't light the end of the ticks ass burn it to smithereens and turn it into a useable form of lime that could be spread on the garden. Hope springs eternal. Tell you one thing, The Center for Disease Control is just all giddy about the facts that are rolling in with the discovery of either a new species of tick that has been carried in to the island or the importation of the tick from the Rocky Mountains carrying Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Yes, this is the other lovely disease that is trying to rid me of this world.

Lets think about this for a minute. We are located in the beautiful stunning most Northern island of the Pacific Northwest, literally an hour and a half from mainland America and just about the same boat ride length of time from Mainland British Columbia, Canada. Nowhere in that statement did I say anything about Colorado, Montana, Wyoming or any other gorgeous state along the Rocky Mountain Ridge line. Needless to say some grateful host brought back this black little monster from the forest to our hideaway. Not really a hideaway when more then 1,000,000 people a year hit up the west side of our island to watch Orca Whales in their natural habitat. So here we are with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Oh joy. Oh wait ... oh joy! Luck me! Please pick me to torment! Oh wait ... you did. (Insert a seven letter word that you want to describe a person or thing while in a heavy emotional state of anger F _ _ K E _S!)
So here I sit under our shade tree typing you this blog post with all kinds of links to both diseases so you can read all about them - like I have - and you will understand what most of the people of the world with both or one of these lovely diseases deals with. Now imagine yourself in the position if you don't already have one or the other or both and how would you feel, physically, emotionally? Now that you have a good idea of what it looks like on you, scratch your head on this idea:

You have never been bitten by a tick.

Keep picturing if you will: some how the blood work from your last 9 vial draw reported back that you have both. Talk about a war.

Hold please ...
Hold on I need a drink of my limeade made with the bacteria fighting qualities of stevia.

Some of you may be keeping track of all my doctors appointments over the last couple years and have watched the process of my food habits changing and all the other dietary "crap" that I have had to contend with, if you haven't been counting the pills and supplements that line my counter well then here is a current count as of this morning. 12. This is either pill form, power form or liquid form. Four times a day I am in the kitchen mixing up anew concoction to feed myself.

Complaining you ask? Yes, a little.
Regretting every going to see Dr. Mandy in the first place? Yes, a little.
Thankful that I started seeing Dr. Many in the first place? Yes, a whollata grateful!

The best line from Dr. Mandy came right out her mouth at my second appointment after the blood work revelation. "You must have a strong constitution, 30% of the people that contract Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever die in the first week"! I laughed and said "oh, honey this isn't going to kill me." Luckily, I am passed the dying stage. (Haha! you will have to read more Saucy posts from me from now on!) If it wasn't for getting my body straight, clean, and healthy in the first place, switching our eating habits from the grocery store to the garden then my "strong constitution" would be a different story and I maybe lying wrapped in a brightly colored 1970' fabric quilt with a folded afghan for my pillow in a new fashionable Spring 2015 wicker style coffin with a magnolia tree guild planted on top of me.

Back to the comment NEVER BEEN BITTEN BY A TICK. I have never been bitten by a tick. So Dr. Mandy informed me that I didn't need to be. So guess what everyone!? You could just run straight into the larva and not even know it and end up with both infections. Doesn't that just sound FAB!!? As you may or may not have read the symptoms list for both. I really don't want to list it here but I will tell you that the only one ... the very single one that I have felt through this so far has been tiredness. My daily schedule has had to change because of the medicine. Before the sun comes up I am out in our small garden weeding, tending, harvesting or just after the sun goes down I am out watering and nit picking. As the sun comes up the huge hat goes on the long sleeve roll down to my wrists and the long pants stretch to my ankles, and I am off to other peoples landscapes to weed, tend, and so on. By noon I am home again for the second dose of meds and a 2 hour nap. (this is heaven, I know your jealous) Usually wake up in time for a protein shake full of antioxidants, more meds and a plan for dinner. Only to be downing my night-night meds with a big ol class of dark chocolate Almond milk (Thank you SILK) by 8 p.m.!  Then off to bed again. Sounds just absolutely glam, right!? More like annoying.

I like to be outside.
I like to be in the sun working and doing fun projects but noooooooooo, for the next 14 months I will be outside fully covered from my head to my toes in skin-covering clothes, 70 or 90 Banana Boat creams, massive hat, and a newly found patio umbrella that follows me everywhere. (literally) Thanks to the medication, I will burn easier than I could ever imagine for a ginger, I am no longer allowed any of our own homemade wine or any alcohol for that matter, no sugar of any kind (except for the chocolate milk which I sneak) since one of the antibiotics is for yeast infections, and of course no mid day trips to the beach to paddle board. (Unless you can help me figure out a way to mount my massive patio umbrella to the board to keep the sun off? Hahahahaaa! What a sight that would be! I could use it as a sail, less work on the paddling part!)

Hold on while a get another massive swallow of my limeade.

Makes me think every time I take a big swig that I am a pirate sailing the seven seas with my grog and fighting off scurvy with every drink. Limes were the hidden top military secrets for years when fighting off the natives at sea. Good gawd, that's a whole other topic of discussion "Natives" don't get me started so here right now I raise my limeade to those who fought scurvy with their limes. May I be just as successful! Arrgh!
Recent studies have shown that the bacteria Rickettsia rickettsia, (Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever) loves the taste of stevia. Clinical trials are so new on this and it all could be very wrong but what it is sounding like to me is the bacteria loves the stevia so it excepts the medicine easier to get more stevia, which in turn is killing the virus in its entirety. Common sing it with me now ... "A spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down, the medicine go down, in the most delightfu way"! Like I said not much is being published on this yet - so don't go around quoting me - but it just sounds crazy enough for anyone to believe so I will stick to my quart jar full of limeade and the healing promises of stevia.

Hold please ... Need a drink.

At this point it would be great if someone could just drop a shot of tequila in there by accident so that it would really taste good. After being informed of the news I haven't had a chance to drink my troubles away. Never really been one to do that anyways but to me this looks like it could be the best opportunity possible to start a drinking problem.
As for the stinking war, I stand firm right now that them there ticks will not win over me, why I do declare. I may have lost the battle because of a sneak attack from the left bank but this bacteria will not win the overall war. The fight will continue to rage and if, I say IF, I could go back and relive that sneak attack over again I would with a little more warning and with a little forethought I would have squashed that little shit with my shoe before it had a chance to strike! I am bigger then this and I will win. Hell, I got the drug of its choice! I got the stevia!! So really I look at it this way, I got what it needs! I got the sweet addicting stevia that it craves, so with out me Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever has nothing! So who is hosting who?

For now, the war will rage, the medical bills will pile up, my complaining will stop sooner or later, and I will be drawing up new fancy stylish ways to be outside in the sun, editing my building blocks for the soil in my garden to include a little more lime for the veggies, and I will be designing that 1970's quilt that I will someday be buried in on this awesome incredible beautiful island that I call home. Have I painted a pretty picture about coming to this island of ours? Are you ready to make that reservation for the ferry and come over to the place where unexpected dangers could literally jump out and bite you leaving you with a huge bulls eye marking from the bite mark that could eventually lead to heavy fevers and sore achy joints all because you wanted to see the killer whales from an over priced whale watch boat in the natural habitiat? Anyone want to come for a visit? ;)