We finally had the appointment for Lee to be evaluated for the DBS. He is not a candidate at this time. That is great news, yet still depressing. It means his Parkinson's isn't bad enough, but it now means back to playing with meds, increasing doses, and trying to get it just right. I have no doubt if they had seen him before his hospital trip in November he would be a candidate. One of the guidelines used is the dyskinesia, he was severe then with minimal relief from the meds. During the hospital stay they cut everything off, which decreased the dyskinesia, but worsened tremors.
Anyway...this doctor confirmed, for the third time, that he has a double whammy. He has an essential tremor on top of the Parkinson's.  Essential tremors are harmless, genetic in nature, and irritating. DBS is also used for the ET. They just use different target areas in the brain.
Surgery for this has not been ruled out. She is going to run it across a couple colleagues and get their input. As of right now the neurologist knows of no other case like this having the DBS surgery for either one. They don't know what would happen, what the side effects would possibly be... how surgery for the essential tremor would affect the PD. So, if accepted for it he will be followed by a panel of docs art OHSU and the Portland VA.
 On to new adventures...maybe...

Fun in yogurt land with a side of sourdough starter

And back in the land of food fun...
Tonight I put a sourdough start out. I used wheat we ground and filtered water. Starting at the second feeding I will use whole milk, minimally processed. I'm really excited for it. I love watching it grow, bubbling, becoming alive.

Tonight's second project is homemade yogurt.

                                           First step - heat milk in jars to about 185f

                                                 (or until a skin forms on the top)

Step two - cool to 110-120f

Step three- culture(live culture yogurt in this case) added

Step four - into the ice chest to incubate.

Many people fill the chest most of the way up the side of the jar with warm water, I used a hot pack and tucked a towel around the jars on top, slid the thermometer in, and closed it up. Twelve hours or so and we will have live culture unflavored yogurt.

You can flavor it with vanilla, fruit, honey...just about anything. I plan on doing one jar with strawberries, one with blackberries, and the third...haven't decided.

So, I will admit this my first attempt at making yogurt, so we will see how it turns out.

Apple Jelly part deux

Its been 2 weeks since the last apple jelly debacle. I learned that despite it not setting it is still safe, but I can reprocess it and try more pectin. So...which route did I go.... apple syrup...or apple jelly... Of course it would just be boring and bland if I did nothing and let it stay as syrup.
So, in a final attempt at corralling the elusive apple jelly I opened all the jars and dumped them all in a pot. Return to a boil, turn temp down. In a separate pot add the powdered pectin and water( the amount I can not remember at this point).  Bring that to a boil for a bunch of minutes and add to the jelly goo, then can per directions.
I took them out of the pot at the prescribed time...ping ping ping ping over and over. So then the wait begins. Overnight they sat on the counter and in the morning...2 weren't solid. and 5...well....they were interesting.   Globs of gelatinous goo floating like a globe in the middle of an Amber sky.
The center set, the outside is liquid. So once again Apple jelly eludes me.