Better without Guar Gum & Erythritol

Since ditching the guar gum and erythritol, I feel like I'm 41 again. It was the age I started doing low-carb and had the energy I should have had in my 20s. The problems I had until recently--the pounding heart and breathlessness--are gone. 

With this newfound energy, I dug up a boxwood bush and a juniper and potted them for a focal point among my raised beds, having dismantled the fire pit and put the stones along a border by the garage. Tonight I moved some of the beds a few inches to make room for pavers. The spaces between the beds have a thick mat of weeds, thick enough to make weeding a major undertaking, but not thick enough to stop erosion. Back in Denver in a dry, shady part of my yard, it took me years to win the battle of the goatheads in the driveway reclamation area. I'm not going to win such a battle in lush, green Indiana where my weeds are inches from rich soil of raised beds. 

"Use gravel for paths!" people say. "Use wood mulch!" "Use landscape fabric!" A few years ago, I spent an unpleasant day pulling landscape fabric out from under gravel and weeds. Weeds here grow right through gravel and tiny critters eat wood mulch for lunch. Mulch and other dead plant material quickly become soil on top of landscape fabric and weeds move in. It even happens in the gutters of abandoned houses--little trees sprout in them. 

So on an impulse yesterday, I ordered some mats made of recycled tires for the paths between the raised beds...then found out they can leach chemicals and minerals. I don't need chemicals in my vegetables, and Indianapolis doesn't need any more soil contamination than it already has. While chemical contamination does fit the the pre-war theme of my yard, I'm nevertheless trying to cancel my order. 

I've decided on cement pavers instead. Not only are they free of weird chemicals, they're a lot cheaper. Weeds are going to sprout around them, but I'm hoping they'll be easy to keep in check with a weed whacker. The pavers will hold the soil in place, too. 

To make enough room for a double-row of pavers, I moved three raised beds a few inches. It was surprisingly easy considering they had soil in them. 

I've had more mental energy, too. Six years ago when I moved here, I tried to learn how to work with databases with the aim of getting a better job. But once I got a stressful job at Adidas, I didn't have the energy to continue, and after getting a better job, I gave it up. Now, though, I've put together some fairly complicated spreadsheets involving power queries and functions. They're not complicated by the standards of professional programmers, but now my coworkers can find the status of their documents and see how tax returns are coming along without looking at screen shots or having a manager spend an hour updating three spreadsheets. The information only takes a few clicks to update.

Life's been a lot better without the weird chemicals. I'll update with pictures when I get the pavers in.