Bird Flu in Menomonie

It's a beatiful day in Menomonie! These days are what summer is all about. We've seen quite the transition as of late...from the mid and upper 90s to the low to mid 80s during the daytime. It's been quite cool at night. That makes for good sleeping weather (lord knows I need it, I've been so busy).

I was reading the newspaper from Sunday (I always get it late because I need to wait until I find a copy floating around) and read an article about the Bird Flu being found in a horse Dunn County. Apparently it is the first horse testing positive in Dunn County this year. According to the article, it is possible that the West Nile Virus can be spread to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito.

This has me particularly concerned due to my current lifestyle. I am in the woods most of the time where there are tons of mosquitos (especially since the recent rains). Wendy MacDougall of the Dunn County Health Department says that "The West Nile Virus seems to be here to stay, so the best way to avoid the disease is to reduce exposure and eliminate breeding grounds for mosquitos."

She also had the following recommendations:

• Maintain window screens in good repair to devrease indoor contact with mosquitos. This means I'll have to make sure the tent is good and secured.
• Avoid being outside during times of high mosquito activity, specifically around dawn and dusk. There's nothing I can do about this. I'm outside permanently, and I catch my breakfast, lunch, and dinner during these "high activity" times.
• Wear light colored protective clothing such as long pants, loose fitting long-sleeved shirts and tuck pants in socks when outdoors. I guess that this is a good tip for me...I can do all of these things.
• When outdoors, consider using an effective mosquito repellant containing an active ingredient registered by the EPA, such as DEET, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus. Hey! More good ideas! Can't afford bug spray though. :(
• Do not provide a breeding ground where mosquitos can lay eggs. Fair enough.

This all seems to be standard knowledge. Here's a fact that I didn't know about. Most people who are infected with West Nile do not get sick. Huh. That's interesting. So, I may actually have it, but I guess I wouldn't know if I do not have symptoms. This leads me to believe that the symptoms must be worse than the fact that you are infected. Does this make sense?

So I went to google looking for ways to avoid bird flu by using items in nature, and found the website of a local "professional classical homeopath" named MaryBeth Buchele. On her site I located an aricle named "Bird Flu or Cash Cow". In this article I found many fascinating points.

One point that the author of the article, Eve Hillary, made was that "In our practice we found very few drugs were in fact necessary for heling and disease prevention." She reports that patients who get proper amounts of vitamins, minerals, 0mega oils, antioxidants and other natural supplements had rarely experienced sickness and infection.

It seems that the government is very quick to announce the latest "epidemic of the week". It's very interesting because when these epidemics are announced, the drug companies kick their "pill of the week" into high production. So here is the order of events: one person gets sick --> government announces "potential epidemic" --> drug companies boost vaccine production --> drug companies make lots of money --> drug companies pay polititians. See where I'm going with this?

Anyways, apparently 10,000 wild birds have died, countless horses, and 146 Americans. There are also 200,000 infected that are alive and well. The info I have read leads me to believe that it may not be as risky as the government and media make it out to be. I guess for the time being I will do my best to follow the recommended "avoidance guidelines" though.

There were many other interesting points that were made in the article (too many for me to regurgitate at this moment). If you are interested in checking them out, visit MaryBeth Buchele's website: http://www.healthnaturally.biz/ .

Well, it's hard for me to pass up a great day like today. I need to pick up some supplies from Lammer's. I actually enjoyed a delightful "Wisconsin Forest Salad" last night. It would have been better with some dressing, so my plan is to pick up a small bottle of vinegar (which is good for me anyway). I may as well enjoy the salads while they're plenty. Other than that, I guess I do not have too much to report. I've been busy collecting firewood. Oh, for everyone's information, I did build my squirrel trap. Haven't caught one yet though. I'll let everyone know how that's going.

I hope everyone is doing well. I'll talk to you soon.
Eli

PS- If anyone has any other natural food ideas that are available in my area, be sure to let me know. I'm getting sick of eating fish, hot dogs, and white bread.