Like what kind of fungus? Internally or growing on my skin?
I don't see anything on my skin as far as my head can turn but I used to have little round rashes here and there before going primal/paleo. Those are gone now.
I was tested for Aspergillus and I'm highly allergic to all of them, I think 185 total LOL.
I can't tolerate humidity at all because of those little fungi buggers. But they also grow in soil and at high elevations, they're also present in desert sands.
But those wouldn't be the ones you're talking about, right? They also grow and are present on most leaf plants (grass, dandylion, lettuce, trees, etc), could they end up in raw milk and mess with my pipes?

I was referring to internal fungal issues but they can present symptoms externally as well.
I personally feel that I am dealing with systemic Candida. I happen to present Tinea Versicolor in direct correlation to carb ingestion as well. When I maintain a low carb diet the Candida symptoms and the Tinea go into remission but if I binge on higher carb foods (such as I did during my vacation the beginning of September) the symptoms come back with a vengeance.
I'm not trying to diagnose what you might have but you may find it useful to read up on fungal infections and determine if it has any bearing on the symptoms you've experienced.

Or most probably it's because your body became accustomed and stopped to react to poisoning, just like it happens  for every noxious stuff if you consume it regularly for a sufficient long duration. In other words, the immune system, being constantly overwhelmed by an antigen, goes on strike against it because it has invaded every cell all over the body and to destroy all the cells marked with such a recognition antigen would mean destroying the whole body.

With some luck, that may remain ok until you reach a venerable age, but with bad luck some cancerous cells will happen by coincidence to be marked with the same recognition antigen the immune system is "on strike”and thus won’t be destroyed. So the end result of milk consumption may emerge by a cancer 10, 20 or 40 years later, when this forum will no longer be here. 

Good luck!

This is the Primal Sub-Forum Iguana. We should be less critical of dairy here.

My personal experience with raw milk is that it is the lesser of two evils. I don't do well with either but I do "less bad" with raw milk. Of course this is just my own experience.

I hope you continue to find success with your experiment Brady.

I have cut down from 2-3 gallons of raw milk to 1/2 a gallon of raw milk over the last 2 weeks and here is what I've observed :
My clouded mental state that I used to get after drinking (this raw) milk is gone. I have no longer the feeling of wanting to take a nap after drinking this milk. It used to make me calm when being slightly angry or having anxiety over something...I don't need to be medicated with milk anymore to deal with stress. The fact that I don't feel tired and exhausted or lazy, sluggish all the time drinking raw milk has given me a boost of energy or motivation to get up and do things. I've noticed I have slightly less mood swings, I am the same character with the same mood every day and it takes a lot to get me angry. No more emotional ups and downs.
I no longer suffer from a constant bloated gut that looked like someone blew up a balloon in me. And the biggest improvement was I no longer have a horrible BAD sewer breath after drinking all this milk. My breath seems fresher and the stinky sock breath is gone. Also, my underarm sweat smells much, much cleaner. My body oder has improved a LOT since going paleo/primal but since cutting down to 1/2 a gal. of raw milk per week it's gone down even more. No more bad smell coming from my arm pits at ALL, even when sweating.

Have you considered a possible underlying fungal issue Waldpfad? In my past personal experience steady carbs in my diet has presented similar symptoms (without the body odor). I have self-diagnosed with fungal issues and find that I do best with minimal carbs in my diet or these symptoms come back.

Another item I've noticed which I have to comment on:
I was performing my reps on something like a 4/2/4/2 count but I've slowed it down even further to more of an 8/4/8/4 count. It's a really slow controlled motion but it's really working well to build strength. The funny thing is I'm seeing these guys come in and fly through the circuit really jerky, quick, and definitely uncontrolled but when I get to their machines their weights are always less than mine and oftentimes by 25% or more. It's great fun to have a guy twice your size get worked up that your so slow on a machine, pass you, and then stare him down as you put the weight up on the machine he just struggled through (it's happened more times than I care to admit the past few weeks).

Eating carnivorously my muscles are markedly smaller at the same strength levels as others at the gym but I'm thinking this will be a really good thing in the long run. Less muscle to maintain means I'll need less caloric intake to keep things in maintenance. I also hope it means slower atrophy when I miss time at the gym.

Exercise is going great and I'm definitely seeing steady gains in muscle and strength. Unfortunately I'm not putting on any mass but I'm not losing it either so I guess I'll just end up ripped at 175 pounds.

I tried to add a morning run, as well as morning/evening squats (4x25) and push-ups(4x10)  to my routine but I've found it takes more out of my body than I have to give if I'm looking to have steady gains at the gym. I think it may be a glycogen deficiency but if I push to do all of that each day I find that I'm plateaued or I lose progress. I'm going to slowly work it in instead so I can get used to it and it doesn't deplete my reserves as much. Ultimately I'd like to go run a couple miles, do 4x50 or 4x100 of squats (2 in morning, 2 at night), and 4x25 or 4x50 push-ups each day on top of things. I should probably throw some pull/chin-ups in there as well. It's just a matter of slowly increasing my strength in areas so it's less taxing on me.

KD or others: Once I start with weighted squats do you recommend deep squats? There's lots of mixed thinking out there but I value the input you guys have as you're doing this and not getting hurt.

I can't blame you on that one KD.

We went and had simple body assessments done at the gym yesterday. They used calipers to determine body fat, took our weights for BMIs, and did our measurements.
I am happy to say that I am now squarely in the healthy body fat area now as opposed to where I was a couple years ago. Using the calipers, which are obviously not the best tool for it, I was calculated at 16.9% bodyfat. A big difference from the very unhealthy ~5% bodyfat I was back in 2006 (the last time this was calculated). I was around that same percentage for most of 2006-2009 with some fluctuations up when gorging on allergenic foods. One of my big fears eating as I do was  would I put enough bodyfat on to maintain healthy reservoirs. I guess the answer is yes.
My BMI was ~22%. All numbers & measurements were upper "fit" or the highest, "excellent", categories. The only number the trainer felt I could work on was my abdominal measurement (I think it was ~34" or 35" whereas my waist was 32"). She said I should focus on core and try to take an inch off off it over the next 12 weeks.

I mentioned to my wife on Saturday that I'm going to set some longer goals for the weights. I think I'm going to shoot to press 2x my bodyweight which would put me at a 350 pound press. I guess I should think of some others bu to be honest I'm still so "green" with most freeweight exercises I don't know where to start or what to aim for. I'm going to have to read through a bunch of the exercise sub-forum to get more familiar with things.

Oh yeah, diet.
I've decided that rather than eat a bunch of organ here or there as the mood (and stocks) allow I will be buying those organs my farm has and making my own organ mix. I'm going to coarsely grind them in a food processor and freeze as "organ cubes". I'll thaw one out each day and toss it in with my lunch or dinner. If I find myself not craving them I'll skip them for a day or two.
This is all as a result of what has been my most noticeable complaint about how I eat now. My night vision has gone to shit while driving, particularly on rainy nights, and I think getting more organs into my daily diet might remediate this.

Be excellent to each other.

The wife and I have been doing Nautilus circuit training for the last 3 (I think) weeks and I'm seeing very steady gains in everything. I personally think I'm seeing such good progress because I'm being very conscious of maintaining good form and performing the reps with slow & steady motions (art least a 4 count concentric contraction, hold for 2, 4 count eccentric contraction). I figure the weights only go to a certain point on these machines so I should get the most I can out of a set weight (and avoid injury at the same time).
I'm feeling really good with the regular weight training. Interestingly I've found that I'm not putting on weight (holding steady at 175) but I am steadily adding muscle mass and losing further pockets of fat I have on my body. Of course I'm only getting around 8 1/2 hours of sleep each night. If I got the full 10 that feels best I think I'd add some weight.
I spent some time this week on the rowing machine and damn is that a good workout. I'm really looking forward to more time on it.
I'm going to keep the circuit training up for 3 days a week for another couple weeks then probably add some true weights in at least one day a week. At least Friday nights so I've got 2 days of recovery before my next weight session.

On my wife's front she's doing fantastic with her weight loss. She's down to 259 (began the latest round from around 330 but was 380 at her heaviest a couple years ago) which is less than she weighed in 9th grade. She's also been so much more positive as it's come off and it's really just brought out a whole new person in her. She's more confident, happier, and has a drive for the future. She's already planning on skydiving next summer ().
Coincidentally my wife is also now eating 2 out of 3 meals a day raw. She eats a small breakfast of raw grassfed beef and a larger lunch of the same. She will usually have a cooked dinner (medium rare beef or fully cooked chicken/fish) but 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

Hope everyone else is enjoying life like we are.

I forgot to mention something that cracks me up. My wife and I had stopped with my In-Laws at Arthur Avenue in the Bronx on Saturday (after spending the day with them at the Bronx Zoo) and were looking around at the meat markets. We found some "Wild Boar" which we took home (the butcher didn't know what it's diet was so we took a chance-a few small bites and I knew it had been reared on grain so gave it away). After we got home my wife remarked how she was disappointed that they didn't have testicles as she would have liked to have them again.

The market did have a nice selection. They had calf brain, 2 types of beef tripe, lamb tongue, as well as sundry other organs from sheep & cows. Unfortunately it was all grain-fed.

I moved this to Off-Topic as it is not pertinent to RPD and should therefore not be in the General Discussion sub-forum.
I also shrunk your link down. I know why you did it but I view you posting it that large as spam. Leave it normal sized.

I've bought both the suede and perforated, and prefer the suede. The perforated are black and the black dye in the leather seems to stain everything with any amount of moisture in it, including my skin and even toe nails. The suede stains a little if they get wet, but not remotely as bad.

I've got the perforated and had the same issue for a while. After enough time though they have stopped staining anything for me.
Do you notice if the suede have much more insulation to them? I was thinking of getting a pair for the winter.

I was looking at your pictures again and pondering if I had the ganas to create anything similar.

It's really not that hard. It takes a little planning and a lot of back-breaking work. I only began reading up on building ponds during the winter of 09/10 and built the first section that May.

Are those actually roses GROWING IN them water??? 

Nope, none of the roses are growing in water. As far as I'm aware all roses like well drained soil. We do have roses growing right at the edge of water and this has seemed to encourage better growth (I think they like the moisture and positive ions in the air around moving water). The only flowers growing in the water are water lilys, Iris, and some wild forget-me-nots.

I hear that people rescue tortoises a great deal because people have no idea of what they will grow into. It doesn't surprise me that turtles also need rescuing.

Sulcata tortoises seem to be the biggest issue there. They easily grow to 100 pounds and need LOTS of room and a warm place to overwinter if in a colder climate. They're adorable as babies but start to get too large for most people in 5-10 years.
On the turtle front Red-Earred Sliders are the most abandoned. They start out the size of quarters but females grow to be 10"+ and males aren't much smaller. As a turtle needs roughly 10 gallons of water per inch of shell you can see the commitment the little baby hatchling will need when he/she is fully grown.

It seems like the best fish tank in the world and maybe like your wife did you a bit of a favor maybe? 

That's debatable but I personally agree. They get to live as they would in the wild including full sunlight but have less predators. You do have to conscious of raccoons and herons though.

Dan,
Could you give a dimension for your tank?

Indoors we have a 40 gallon utility tub set up with a 6'x4' land enclosure for some semi-terrestrial turtles (a Reeves and two Wood), a 40 breeder for an African Sideneck, and a 55 gallon for our indoor fish (4 goldfish, some cory cats, another catfish (I'm not sure of the species but he's a forager-downward facing mouth), some otocinclus, and some apple snails).

The ponds outdoors are roughly:

Upper Setup:
Topmost retention basin-6'l x 6'w x ~18" average
Middle "bog"-12'l x ~5'w x average of 4" water over pea gravel
Lower pond-12'l x ~11'w x maybe 3' average depth (42" maximum, sharp slopes to the edges to deter herons

Lower setup:
Upper section-~12'l x ~5'w x ~12" average water depth
Lower section-~18'l x ~12'w x ~3' average depth (48" maximum, large shelf at 2')

New Frog pond:
~7'l x ~3'w x ~12" deep
I just built this today as the previous design for the total setup didn't work out and I was leaking in the stream connecting top to bottom. I couldn't locate where it was leaking so finally gave up and moved this piece of liner to give the frogs a better place to lay their eggs.

Note: I haven't finished this yet and it shows. This is definitely a work in progress (I did a fair share of this this summer) so keep this in mind.

On to the pictures:

View out of our door-


Closeup on the Copper Rose since my wife adores it so much-


Another angle from the corner of our sidewalk-


Same spot but looking toward the ponds-


Overall shot of the upper pond-


And a shot from the other side-


The top retention basin which filters water through floating plants-


Close up on some of those plants-


The middle "bog"-


Close up-


The bottom pond-


Shot of the waterfall-


Some of the fish-


Here's "Crackers" (our second turtle, who we rescued after our little gal "Soup") clearly visible at the bottom of the pond 3 1/2 feet deep. Crackers runs the show outside-


Onto the lower set of ponds. Here's a shot from uphill-


The upper piece flowing into the lower-


And the lower basin (this is where most of the turtles hang out and I'm letting it stay green to protect them and the fish as it has more shallow areas)-


"Cooter", our rescued Red-Bellied Cooter, was curious what I was doing-


The new frog pond I made today with the moved liner. Still have lots of work to do on this one-


Hope you enjoyed the tour.