Rusty is in the critical phase of the TA, which starts February 3. He can’t talk or think about cruising right now, he has to be totally focused on work.
I, however, find myself increasingly thinking about our departure. Today, I started my cruising menus so I can get started on my provisioning list. We are trying to eat Paleo and Gluten Free which means a totally different approach to food provisioning. I am use to baking bread about 3 times a week when we are cruising and it was a big staple in our cruising menu. Pasta was also a major factor in our menu’s. I think for the next month I will be trying out Paleo/Gluten Free recipes that will work without fresh produce since that is always in short supply.
Let me stop here and say something about Paleo/Gluten Free diet. I have long thought that our diet has too many chemicals in it and I did not like the idea of genetically engineering our foods. The Gluten Allergy I thought was being way overdone. I have a friend who has celiac disease and truly has severe reactions to gluten. But I thought it was a “fad” that now suddenly all these people had “Gluten allergies”. Because of my friend and his wife I kept giving it a second, third and fourth look. Then I saw a Dr Oz segment that showed that Gluten allergies were on a continuum from those who were severely allergic like my friend to those who were only mildly allergic. I decided to try a little experiment of my own with an open mind.
Over the last few months I did a trial and error. I would go gluten free for a while (maybe a week) and then I would get off ( it usually was not planned). I started to notice that when I was off of gluten my “arthritis” was not as bad. I could move around without pain a lot more easily. Over these last few months I am convinced that gluten can cause an inflammatory process to occur and that it does affect me. I have long known that sugar is a bad thing for me so…..new eating plan. As a side note I am also trying to give up milk because I drink way too much of it…….like way too much. All of these issues are requiring I develop totally new menu’s. I am making smoothies with almond or coconut milk and it works fine. I don’t like either of them well enough to just drink a glass of almond or coconut milk but for smoothies they work. If I have organic milk in the refrigerator I will drink glass after glass until it is gone. I LOVE milk….but I can’t drink 2 days worth of my total calorie intake in one day in just milk. Anyway, back to my cruising menus. If produce were readily available it would be easy…..but produce is not available where we sail except in Georgetown. So I will be trying new recipes. I tried Paleo Salmon Cakes last night and they were pretty good. I will put the recipe on our Facebook page.
There are a lot of logistics to figure out between now and when we leave for Florida with the biggest problem being we are starting off so late in the season: we have two fifth wheels to get back home (ours to Hemphill and Erin and Michaels to probably the Kemah area), how and when we are going to get the box trailer from the lake to Aransas Pass, the boat refit completed, finalizing plans on what we are going to do with the car we drive to Florida (i.e. are Mark and Julie going to bring it back, do we get Stuart or someone to deadhead in the car, store the car there, etc.) I will need to unpack a little when we get to the lake and of course all the provisioning for our cruise has to be done. All doable but the master doer is unavailable right now. Having said all that, I have learned that it WILL all work out even if I don’t know how at the moment. It is really hard to not share my excitement with Rusty but I know that is not what he needs right now so…….I’ll just verbalize here…..
Sea Yawl Later!!
Linda
. I am still trying to get my mother and Daddy Joe’s wills probated…..what a mess. A side note: if you don’t have a Will….get one and make sure you have a least two back ups for executor and power of attorney.