Saturday, March 28, 2009
ADS INVADING BLOGS
Is anybody else bothered by blogs that are smothered in ads!! Make money with ads! BULLSHIT! IF i see a blogs with ads i click right on by. No thank-you.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
lastest project
I finally finished this thing. I bought a vintage papier mach'e bust that was peeling paint. I don't know why i have this uncontrollably desire to cover things with other things.
As for this, i used vintage and new Victorian scrap paper. The theme being women and flowers. That what i had the most of. I have no idea what I'll do with it now, but, it sure looks great.
It's turning out to be a beautiful day! The lull before the storm. It's suppose to be snowing and cold again thru the weekend. I've been sleeping and going to work since Monday! A step back with my exercising. I just couldn't get out of my cocoon.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Go organic, Do the right thing
Since my last post. I've been doing alittle research. I've been trying to find farmers in a 250 mile radius that farms with animals the right way. I have made a decision to do the right thing. and support others that are choosing this way also. Where ever you live you can go to local harvesthttp://www.localharvest.org/ and find organic food. In Iowa city i can go to" new pioneer co-ophttp://www.newpi.com/ and find grass fed beef and hogs and chicken. I don't think animals have any sense of time. So, even if their life is 2 short years at least they were quality years. The way nature intended. Farms such as http://www.beelerspurepork.com/ are out there, you just have to find them.
Here is a letter i found that's worth reading.
More than one way to raise a hog
Hog farms can benefit rural agriculture and community
Posted by Steph Larsen (Guest Contributor) at 12:46 PM on 16 Oct 2008
I spent last Thanksgiving on a 320-acre farm in Pocahontas County, Iowa where Jerry Depew grows corn and soybeans, and for more than 10 years, has also raised hogs. Jerry never has more than several hundred hogs at a time, and while this used to be commonplace on Iowa farms, most small and mid-sized hog operations in the state were lost during massive industry consolidation over the last 15 years.
Jerry's hogs remained because he raises them differently.
The hogs I saw on Jerry's farm lived in hoop houses. These pole-supported buildings have a partial concrete floor (the rest is dirt), plenty of room for the pigs to move around, and open sides to let lots of fresh air circulate.
Jerry's sows have never seen anything like gestation crates, which keep pregnant pigs tightly confined and unable to turn around. On Jerry's farm, mama pigs roam around on a pasture, munch on oats, and give birth in small farrowing huts, which they can enter and exit at will. They are kept in the pasture by one low electric wire six inches off the ground, and many of the sows had just given birth as we showed up.
I had never seen a newborn piglet, so I went out to the pasture and opened a farrowing hut to take some pictures. While the sow got to her feet when I cracked the door, she remained calm and the piglets grouped around her and away from the cold air I let into their hut. Jerry's son told me that you can tell a good sow by how it lays down -- the slower her movements, the more time her babies have to get out of her way and the less chance they have of her crushing them.
Fast forward nine months to a conversation with a friend who sells hog feeders to giant confinement operations. After I told him about being in the pasture with those sows a day after they had given birth, he reacted with surprise because he thought the sows would have reacted aggressively while I was in the pasture. It occurred to me that he didn't account for the stress sows in confinement are under that amplifies their behavior.
It doesn't have to be this way.
I haven't been a vegetarian for a number of years, mostly because some of my family and good friends are farmers who raise livestock. They do their best to treat their animals humanely and with respect, and I want to support their efforts to change the food system. I also was moved several years ago by an excerpt from An Agricultural Testament by Sir Albert Howard:
Mother Earth never attempts to farm without livestock; she always raises mixed crops; the mixed vegetable and animal wastes are converted into humus; there is no waste; the processes of growth and the processes of decay balance one another; both plants and animals are left to protect themselves against disease.
When I lived in Washington, D.C., sticking to this diet of meat that reflected my values was easy. The Dupont Circle farmers market was open year round and situated a half-mile from my house, and I knew that my friends at Cedarbrook Farm and Eco-Friendly Foods were raising and slaughtering their animals in ways I would approve. But when I moved to Nebraska, I found that this kind of meat is more difficult to find, and occasionally I would eat the meat that is available.
After a recent tour of a confined animal feeding operation in North Carolina, my resolve to know my meat became much stronger. There are ways to raise meat that sustain our environment instead of polluting it and to help family farmers and communities thrive.
An unconsolidated livestock market made of many small and mid-sized independent family farmers built vibrant rural communities across this country. When the income from raising livestock is distributed to many farmers that money is often spent largely within the community. Income isn't the only thing that small and mid-sized farms help to spread around -- manure in the quantities produced on these farms is solid instead of liquid, and can be composted and spread on fields in quantities crops can readily use.
Sadly, even as the demand for naturally-raised meat is soaring, consolidation of the livestock industry has made the pork market unresponsive to high corn prices, so that even the premium Jerry receives for raising natural meat isn't enough to be profitable.
Since I was at his farm last Thanksgiving, Jerry has sold his sows and plowed up his pasture. It doesn't mean he won't ever have hogs again ... his buildings are still standing for now, and if the price goes back up he may buy more sows and start again. He can do this because he his hoop houses, unlike confinement buildings, did not require a lot of money to build. Farmers with large amounts of debt need to pay off their buildings regardless of hog prices, so they keep producing even if they cannot make a profit.
There is an opportunity here, however. We know that small and mid-sized family farmers can be revived, and that they can sustain both our environment and our communities. We must work for policy that breaks up the concentration in livestock markets and restores ownership and control to farmers. Policy changes don't occur overnight, so while we work we should also support farmers today who raise animals responsibly and in ways that create opportunity within their communities.
Now, that is something I can stick a fork in.
Here is a letter i found that's worth reading.
More than one way to raise a hog
Hog farms can benefit rural agriculture and community
Posted by Steph Larsen (Guest Contributor) at 12:46 PM on 16 Oct 2008
I spent last Thanksgiving on a 320-acre farm in Pocahontas County, Iowa where Jerry Depew grows corn and soybeans, and for more than 10 years, has also raised hogs. Jerry never has more than several hundred hogs at a time, and while this used to be commonplace on Iowa farms, most small and mid-sized hog operations in the state were lost during massive industry consolidation over the last 15 years.
Jerry's hogs remained because he raises them differently.
The hogs I saw on Jerry's farm lived in hoop houses. These pole-supported buildings have a partial concrete floor (the rest is dirt), plenty of room for the pigs to move around, and open sides to let lots of fresh air circulate.
Jerry's sows have never seen anything like gestation crates, which keep pregnant pigs tightly confined and unable to turn around. On Jerry's farm, mama pigs roam around on a pasture, munch on oats, and give birth in small farrowing huts, which they can enter and exit at will. They are kept in the pasture by one low electric wire six inches off the ground, and many of the sows had just given birth as we showed up.
I had never seen a newborn piglet, so I went out to the pasture and opened a farrowing hut to take some pictures. While the sow got to her feet when I cracked the door, she remained calm and the piglets grouped around her and away from the cold air I let into their hut. Jerry's son told me that you can tell a good sow by how it lays down -- the slower her movements, the more time her babies have to get out of her way and the less chance they have of her crushing them.
Fast forward nine months to a conversation with a friend who sells hog feeders to giant confinement operations. After I told him about being in the pasture with those sows a day after they had given birth, he reacted with surprise because he thought the sows would have reacted aggressively while I was in the pasture. It occurred to me that he didn't account for the stress sows in confinement are under that amplifies their behavior.
It doesn't have to be this way.
I haven't been a vegetarian for a number of years, mostly because some of my family and good friends are farmers who raise livestock. They do their best to treat their animals humanely and with respect, and I want to support their efforts to change the food system. I also was moved several years ago by an excerpt from An Agricultural Testament by Sir Albert Howard:
Mother Earth never attempts to farm without livestock; she always raises mixed crops; the mixed vegetable and animal wastes are converted into humus; there is no waste; the processes of growth and the processes of decay balance one another; both plants and animals are left to protect themselves against disease.
When I lived in Washington, D.C., sticking to this diet of meat that reflected my values was easy. The Dupont Circle farmers market was open year round and situated a half-mile from my house, and I knew that my friends at Cedarbrook Farm and Eco-Friendly Foods were raising and slaughtering their animals in ways I would approve. But when I moved to Nebraska, I found that this kind of meat is more difficult to find, and occasionally I would eat the meat that is available.
After a recent tour of a confined animal feeding operation in North Carolina, my resolve to know my meat became much stronger. There are ways to raise meat that sustain our environment instead of polluting it and to help family farmers and communities thrive.
An unconsolidated livestock market made of many small and mid-sized independent family farmers built vibrant rural communities across this country. When the income from raising livestock is distributed to many farmers that money is often spent largely within the community. Income isn't the only thing that small and mid-sized farms help to spread around -- manure in the quantities produced on these farms is solid instead of liquid, and can be composted and spread on fields in quantities crops can readily use.
Sadly, even as the demand for naturally-raised meat is soaring, consolidation of the livestock industry has made the pork market unresponsive to high corn prices, so that even the premium Jerry receives for raising natural meat isn't enough to be profitable.
Since I was at his farm last Thanksgiving, Jerry has sold his sows and plowed up his pasture. It doesn't mean he won't ever have hogs again ... his buildings are still standing for now, and if the price goes back up he may buy more sows and start again. He can do this because he his hoop houses, unlike confinement buildings, did not require a lot of money to build. Farmers with large amounts of debt need to pay off their buildings regardless of hog prices, so they keep producing even if they cannot make a profit.
There is an opportunity here, however. We know that small and mid-sized family farmers can be revived, and that they can sustain both our environment and our communities. We must work for policy that breaks up the concentration in livestock markets and restores ownership and control to farmers. Policy changes don't occur overnight, so while we work we should also support farmers today who raise animals responsibly and in ways that create opportunity within their communities.
Now, that is something I can stick a fork in.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
window to our future
our future "BLEAK and dark". We are going down hill fast. Poor Obama isn't a magician. But, he'll give it his best.
I just saw "death on the factory farm". A HBO documentary about undercover filming on a hog farm (hog confinments) it made me physically sick. I'm so discusted by it. I have made a vow to myself to cut out pork (my fav) . What have we become? If the saying "you can judge the goodness and integrity of a people by the way they treat their animals" or something like that.
Corporate, corporate Greed, all about the money. It's so far out of hand, where does it stop. Sows and hogs , piglets ARE LIVEING CREATURES> THEY FEEL. Kept in a standing position for their lives. They can't even lay down. If they dare get lame and can't produce piglets, out back to be hung by a chain around their neck until they are dead. into the big death pit where thousands of dead hogs piglets are thrown. covered with dirt.
i have been avoiding watching it.
but, i decided if they can make a film like this i can watch it. If your an animal lover it has to be very hard to make this kind of film. They are trying to expose this atrocity, let people see where their food comes from. MY THANKS to you. Speak for those who can't!!!! We are spiraling out of control.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
A Great letter!!
Orange County California Newspaper
From: 'David LaBonte'
My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC Register which, of course, was not printed.. So, I decided to 'print' it myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel so inclined. Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the Orange County Register:
Dear Editor:
So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry.
Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.
They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture. Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity.
Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought alongside men whose parents had come straight over from Germany, Italy, France and Japan. None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan. They were defending the United States of America as one people.
When we liberated France, no one in those villages were looking for the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were... It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.
And here we are in 2008 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules; one that includes the entit lement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.
And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty, it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill... I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.
(signed) Rosemary LaBonte
i couldn't have said it better myself
From: 'David LaBonte'
My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC Register which, of course, was not printed.. So, I decided to 'print' it myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel so inclined. Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the Orange County Register:
Dear Editor:
So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry.
Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.
They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture. Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity.
Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought alongside men whose parents had come straight over from Germany, Italy, France and Japan. None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan. They were defending the United States of America as one people.
When we liberated France, no one in those villages were looking for the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were... It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.
And here we are in 2008 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules; one that includes the entit lement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.
And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty, it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill... I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.
(signed) Rosemary LaBonte
i couldn't have said it better myself
Sunday, March 8, 2009
The big job ahead of me (the before) picture
Bill and i spent the day at fin and feather (sporting goods store). They were having a camping equipment sale. I needed a new large backpack and a day pack and other stuff for our trip. But, it is DONE. I have a few more things to get. My poor old jansport finally bit the dust.
Bill and i are veterans at packing. Less is best!! I can wear the same clothes or just get some cool stuff where I'm going and voila I'm set.
When i get back from the big adventure, the building will be waiting for me. It's a total wreak but, i know what it can look like. All the mulberry trees that have taken over are my biggest problem. I'll just dig in and BELIEVE. Yes i can, Yes i can. What do you think? This is the official "Before" picture.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Take me back
Maybe if i click my heels i can be back on the big island of Hawaii riding the most scenic roads I've ever been on. I went on a "Women tours" bike trip to Hawaii acouple of years ago. I had the time of my life. Great place, a great bunch of women and doing something we all had in common. It was 360 miles or so. with lots of major hills. I'm ready to go again. "CLICK,CLICK.
Spring is on the way
WOW, i haven't had much time to blog. This trying to get into shape is keeping me busy. I got my bike out today for my 1st little road trip. i went a mere 12 miles. The wind was brutal, so it felt like 20. Then every other day I'm walking for 45 min to 1 hour. That's been going good. I take the two girls with me, they don't feel like they have to piss and mark every post. Then go to work, I'm pretty tired when i get home, 2:00 in the morning.
on other note. i picked up a copy of "Cloth paper scissors" and one of my blogging friends deb did ithttp://diddebdoit.blogspot.com. She make wonderful cloth dolls, that are featured. congrats on being published deb.
The buds are popping out, and the warm air is finially coming around. none to soon.
on other note. i picked up a copy of "Cloth paper scissors" and one of my blogging friends deb did ithttp://diddebdoit.blogspot.com. She make wonderful cloth dolls, that are featured. congrats on being published deb.
The buds are popping out, and the warm air is finially coming around. none to soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)