GardenersCardiff answers:

Over a year and a half ago my doctor advised me to take Vitamin E for my badly picked and bitten nails. I was ready to try anything, believe me! This worked beyond my wildest dreams! My nails are strong and healthy and ugly deformed bumps on my thumb nails disappeared. Now they grow and grow fast! I use a rectangular nail block to keep them a good length (no talons for me!) and I pamper them with good hand lotion and cuticle cream. I use Develop 10, from Amazon, which is a great strengthener as well as being a shiny clear polish that can be reapplied every few days. One trick that I found on my own is a real winner – I clasp my hands together while watching TV, sometimes massaging in hand cream at the same time. I also have worry stones (from eBay), inexpensive but beautiful smooth stones to rub when stressed) all over the place – in my purse or pocket, on the nightstand, near my couch, and a bowl of them as decor on the coffee table! I check for rough spots or snags on my nails regularly and go after them with the nail block so that no breakage will occur. I even use the nail block for dry, hard places on the skin around my nails, leaving nothing to bite or pick. I am very satisfied to have, finally, a routine that works!

GardenersCardiff answers:

You’ve got your yanswer in all your answers.

1. Have his teeth checked. If you don’t have the vet check him compare his poop to the other horse.

2. Be sure he gets his own hay. Is he by himself or with the other horse? Can the other horse steal his hay?

2. Make sure he gets enough hay.
I grow my own and hearing people refer to “flake” as a unit of measure is sickening. A “flake” is simply the hay in the chamber of the baler when the plunger makes a stroke. This is dependent on hay density, mower width, baler size, ground speed, etc. Moisture content of the hay plays in that too. You can save a lot of money by providing enough good quality hay. The rule is 2% of body weight a day in good quality hay. But it depends on quality. Right now I feed 8 roughly 30 pound bales to 10 quarter horses. My bales vary so much I make sure I over-feed and they usually over eat. When they leave hay and get really picky it lets me know to give a little less the next time. Don’t worry about hay-belly. My opinion is that will not be there with proper exercise.

3. As a measure to gain weight back, add cooking oil to his oats. Try just about 1/4 cup each feeding.

4. Be sure he is fed on a schedule. Horses are grazers. They are not like cows, Horses pretty much should eat continuously. If a horse goes too long without re-filling his gut with hay it can literally kill him. Like in a day. Had it happen. Feeding twice a day is the limit. More often is better. If you can break his ration into 4 feedings it will aid digestion. Never feed once a day unless you can ensure that he has a supply of hay (or pasture) that will last him longer.

5. Beet pulp is great. However its more money. You have to wet it. Had a Clydesdale that would bolt his beet pulp or grain. I Panicked once and called the vet. After that, I’d just laugh. His throat would unplug eventually. Wetting pulp or grain avoids this problem.. Is it that important he gains weight that quickly? (Even with beet pulp it won’t seem quick)

6. This will fire up a debate, I have started feeding corn to my horses. I have a neighbor where I can get it wholesale by the 100# bag for less than 2/3 my sweet feed price. Whole or ground. The most important thing to remember with corn is that it is like 3 times as powerful as a sweet feed. So if you feed 3 to 5 pounds sweet feed twice a day, you will only need 1 to 1-1/2 pounds corn twice a day. I currently use a Red Solo Cup and feed about two each feeding. It doesn’t seem like much but it all the energy they need. If you add oil it will help with the weight gain. With corn you can also feed it dried on the cob. Makes them eat slower. Just be sure to avoid mold. It can hurt them. As with everything, a little won’t really hurt just not all black and overfeeding.

Don’t let anyone bully you into exotic feeds and supplements. These work great but are very costly. People try to equate spending money with caring for your horse. Life doesn’t work that way and the only one that will feel better is you (and the feed store) Horses love hay. Oats or Corn are great too but they only add energy. Horses have lived healthy lives for all of time with grazing. What is important is they get enough in their gut.

Didn’t mean to get too wordy. The other wordy answer hurt my head, now mine is longer. I think my answer is pretty simple and can be sumarized one way. Good Hay, Good Hay, Good Hay.

Best of Luck

GardenersCardiff answers:

(-: My problem when I see all these “Slash Your Bills in Half” sorts of articles is that I’m already doing a lot of these things; there’s not a lot left to slash (that they mention, anyway).

I don’t drink expensive coffees. I buy bottled tea about once every three months, then haul water in those bottles (disinfected with bleach weekly) to work. I do a lot of my own cooking, and my family gardens and preserves. We eat processed foods, but only when the convenience is high and the price is low. There is no public transportation where I live — the nearest bus stop is 7 km away.

To help the economy, we need to spend our money on valuable, long-lasting things. We need to retrofit our houses with solar, so we can spur that industry and also to help with some of our electric needs. We need to put in insulation. We need to look into passive solar alternatives. We need to learn to grow our own foods — not all, but some. This will help us appreciate just what we are getting in the grocery store!

We need to put the money into education, and into research. Not into Happy Meals. Not into stupid and violent entertainment.

I think those are some things that might help. We do need to keep spending — but we need to realize that every dollar we spend is a vote for the kind of civilization we want. Vote wisely . . . .

GardenersCardiff answers:

Over a year and a half ago my doctor advised me to take Vitamin E for my badly picked and bitten nails. I was ready to try anything, believe me! This worked beyond my wildest dreams! My nails are strong and healthy and ugly deformed bumps on my thumb nails disappeared. Now they grow and grow fast! I use a rectangular nail block to keep them a good length (no talons for me!) and I pamper them with good hand lotion and cuticle cream. I use Develop 10, from Amazon, which is a great strengthener as well as being a shiny clear polish that can be reapplied every few days. One trick that I found on my own is a real winner – I clasp my hands together while watching TV, sometimes massaging in hand cream at the same time. I also have worry stones (from eBay), inexpensive but beautiful smooth stones to rub when stressed) all over the place – in my purse or pocket, on the nightstand, near my couch, and a bowl of them as decor on the coffee table! I check for rough spots or snags on my nails regularly and go after them with the nail block so that no breakage will occur. I even use the nail block for dry, hard places on the skin around my nails, leaving nothing to bite or pick. I am very satisfied to have, finally, a routine that works!

GardenersCardiff answers:

Milk coffee since I first asked my parents to join in – age 5 – in a grown up coffee cup. Still drink my coffee with milk . Tried all the designer coffees but nothing soothes like basic coffee with plain ol’ milk – in a cup, not a mug. Amazing that you acquired a taste for it all on your own. Showed savy to just order. I actually prefer hot tea for the taste but the memories keep me fixed. You have a great one.

GardenersCardiff answers:

New research about the possible health benefits of coffee
Coffee lovers may be raising their cups—and perhaps eyebrows—at the recent news (in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry) that the drink contains soluble fiber, the type that can help lower cholesterol. With about 1 gram per cup, coffee’s fiber impact is modest. But the report is the latest in a growing stream of positive news about coffee.

Some of the most promising findings come from studies of diabetes. When Harvard researchers combined data from nine studies involving more than 193,000 people, they found that regular coffee drinkers had a significantly lower risk of type 2 diabetes than those who abstained. The more they drank, the lower their risk.

And, despite coffee’s reputation for being bad for the heart, recent epidemiologic studies haven’t found a connection; some even suggest coffee can be protective. A study in February’s American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that healthy people 65 and over who drank four or more cups of caffeinated beverages daily (primarily coffee) had a 53 percent lower risk of heart disease than non-coffee-drinkers.

It’s even more beguiling when you consider that the immediate effects of drinking coffee tend to go in the opposite direction, raising heart rate and blood pressure and temporarily making cells more resistant to insulin. “But those effects are probably short-lived, as people develop a tolerance,” explains Frank Hu, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, who has studied coffee extensively. “In the long term, beneficial components in coffee may have stronger, more lasting effects.”

How coffee might work isn’t clear; the studies weren’t designed to identify cause-and-effect relationships. Antioxidants, such as chlorogenic acid (related to polyphenols in grapes), are likely players: coffee has more of them per serving than blueberries do, making it the top source of antioxidants in our diets. Antioxidants help quell inflammation, which might explain coffee’s effect in inflammation-related diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Magnesium in coffee might help make cells more sensitive to insulin. And caffeine seems to have its own beneficial effects; the diabetes studies found that those who drank regular coffee had lower risks of the disease than decaf drinkers. Caffeinated-coffee drinking has also been linked with reduced risk of Parkinson’s disease, gallstones, cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Bottom Line: For healthy adults, having two or three cups of joe daily generally isn’t harmful and it may have health perks.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Over a year and a half ago my doctor advised me to take Vitamin E for my badly picked and bitten nails. I was ready to try anything, believe me! This worked beyond my wildest dreams! My nails are strong and healthy and ugly deformed bumps on my thumb nails disappeared. Now they grow and grow fast! I use a rectangular nail block to keep them a good length (no talons for me!) and I pamper them with good hand lotion and cuticle cream. I use Develop 10, from Amazon, which is a great strengthener as well as being a shiny clear polish that can be reapplied every few days. One trick that I found on my own is a real winner – I clasp my hands together while watching TV, sometimes massaging in hand cream at the same time. I also have worry stones (from eBay), inexpensive but beautiful smooth stones to rub when stressed) all over the place – in my purse or pocket, on the nightstand, near my couch, and a bowl of them as decor on the coffee table! I check for rough spots or snags on my nails regularly and go after them with the nail block so that no breakage will occur. I even use the nail block for dry, hard places on the skin around my nails, leaving nothing to bite or pick. I am very satisfied to have, finally, a routine that works!

GardenersCardiff answers:

Over a year and a half ago my doctor advised me to take Vitamin E for my badly picked and bitten nails. I was ready to try anything, believe me! This worked beyond my wildest dreams! My nails are strong and healthy and ugly deformed bumps on my thumb nails disappeared. Now they grow and grow fast! I use a rectangular nail block to keep them a good length (no talons for me!) and I pamper them with good hand lotion and cuticle cream. I use Develop 10, from Amazon, which is a great strengthener as well as being a shiny clear polish that can be reapplied every few days. One trick that I found on my own is a real winner – I clasp my hands together while watching TV, sometimes massaging in hand cream at the same time. I also have worry stones (from eBay), inexpensive but beautiful smooth stones to rub when stressed) all over the place – in my purse or pocket, on the nightstand, near my couch, and a bowl of them as decor on the coffee table! I check for rough spots or snags on my nails regularly and go after them with the nail block so that no breakage will occur. I even use the nail block for dry, hard places on the skin around my nails, leaving nothing to bite or pick. I am very satisfied to have, finally, a routine that works!

GardenersCardiff answers:

Over a year and a half ago my doctor advised me to take Vitamin E for my badly picked and bitten nails. I was ready to try anything, believe me! This worked beyond my wildest dreams! My nails are strong and healthy and ugly deformed bumps on my thumb nails disappeared. Now they grow and grow fast! I use a rectangular nail block to keep them a good length (no talons for me!) and I pamper them with good hand lotion and cuticle cream. I use Develop 10, from Amazon, which is a great strengthener as well as being a shiny clear polish that can be reapplied every few days. One trick that I found on my own is a real winner – I clasp my hands together while watching TV, sometimes massaging in hand cream at the same time. I also have worry stones (from eBay), inexpensive but beautiful smooth stones to rub when stressed) all over the place – in my purse or pocket, on the nightstand, near my couch, and a bowl of them as decor on the coffee table! I check for rough spots or snags on my nails regularly and go after them with the nail block so that no breakage will occur. I even use the nail block for dry, hard places on the skin around my nails, leaving nothing to bite or pick. I am very satisfied to have, finally, a routine that works!

GardenersCardiff answers:

You can bring it in. There are no special customs regulations for coffee.

In the cities you can find a good selection of coffee in the really good high end supermarkets. You will have no problems in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing etc. I am not sure about Hunan though, but I would always prepare for the worst.

PS: I meant coffee beans, not the plant. You may have a problem bringing in life plants.

Starbucks is also selling coffee beans – for a price. If I remember correctly it’s about RMB70-80/250g. The quality is good, but prices in China are very high.