Nor do officials want every small producer to buy a $1,000 scanner, Mr.
Hammerschmidt said. “The tag could be read at the market or feedlot,
where they are more likely to have a reader,” he said, suggesting
looser monitoring than many ranchers fear.
What a moron....many small farmers sell directly TO the consumer. Like Michael Pollan says in his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, "shake the hand that feeds you."
I don't believe this is about disease control at all. After all, horses are included in this bs and we don't eat horses here.
If you can, email me. Seriously, I have never seen such a lovely set up in all my life. My house is small but I do have a half finished family room in the basement that we use as a school room. I hate how it looks and how it flows (or doesn't flow as the case really is) for part of this past spring time, we shared our learning space with 30 chickens and then 6 ducks as the weather was not nice enough for them to start out their fragile lives in the chicken coops. sigh. Did not make for very serious studies when little boys were chasing ducks around a horse trough instead of reading and writing.
I would post a picture of my basement, but I think that I would die of embarrassment. I simply cannot look at an indoor space and make sense out of it.
Thanks to my friend Kim over at Starry Sky Ranch for linking this for me to drool over. Hey Kim, I think I'm getting a complex over this whole thing! uuggh. Why am I so hopeless on housework?
What do you do when your gardening habit takes over your world?? Honestly, I'm thinking about hiring a housekeeper just to keep up on the inside work. Anyway, had an absolutely awesome day connecting with other local food nuts, talking about the need for a more local food source, and chatting with other passionate people about sustainable food supplies at the Monument, CO Farmer's Market. My small business is thriving and I'm happy doing what I love, growing food and being able to stay at home with my kids in some weird economic times. Life is good and my husband is busier than ever, so if you have been keeping us in prayer, we're grateful.
My 12 yo son wants to be either a lawyer or a farmer. I'm encouraging him to be both, you just never know. :) Thomas Jefferson was a great man and an excellent farmer. His dream was for the country to be a nation of yeoman farmers....hmmm, not thinking we're doing so well with that one.
Here are some tidbits from the local news people....I'm still in shock.
KKTV Meteorologist Brian
Bledsoe estimates from the video footage he's seen that the tornado
measured 1/4 mile in diameter at its peak.
Elbert
County Sheriff's officials say their dispatch fielded dozens of calls
of reports of limited damage from a tornado touching down.
The reports came from west and south of the town of Elbert. There haven't been any reports of people being injured.
Someone else took that picture, but that is exactly what we saw as we ran for the basement only closer. huge, and moving right at our house. It moved between the two houses directly across the road and was tearing up the field, there is a huge dirt spot now, and was moving right at us. I have NO idea how it missed us.
And you HAVE to watch this video clip on this link. After the clip of the tornado and the barn, there is a picture of our high tunnel. I guess they thought we lost the cover in the tornado.....hahahahahaha. funny. link to video of damage and a small clip of our place.
At this time it looks like the chance for severe weather is very low, with the best chance for severe storms to the south and east of E-470.
We will continue to monitor the storm situation throughout the day to see if that forecast pattern shifts more toward the metro area.
And that is from our local news in Denver....I'm hoping they are so right. But that "south and east" part bothers me, that should be our area and I have to be driving into town today, I think I'll take all the kids and dogs with me.
OK, I give up. Tornado today. Pictures to follow, thank God no one was hurt. Lindsay was home on lunch break and said, "hey Mom, that looks like a tornado cloud." I, of course, said no way, there's no tornado warnings...famous last words. The last pictures do not do it justice, when debris started flying we ran for the basement. I had all the kids and dogs in the basement, Lindsay and I were videoing and calling everyone. Our neighbor, 4 months pregnant and dragging 2 little kids jumped the fence and made it to the basement. It was the most scary moment of my adult life, I kid you not. The pictures on the local news are of a barn and house of one of our neighbors about a mile away. We were SO close to being hit, it was like the movie "Twister"...surreal. I was talking to John on the phone when it was touching down in the field directly across the road, I screamed, we lost power and all cell service. He called 911 and by the time he made it around the police road blocks and the 6 cop cars and at least as many fire trucks in the driveway all the excitement was over. I personally saw 5 tornadoes. It was amazing. I wish I didn't have to worry about the kids, but I had to stay in the basement to keep them calm. My neighbor Jack was in his car and called just before we lost phone service, then he pulled in the driveway and came inside helped himself to a stiff drink and sat on my deck as we all cowered in the basement. He said he was lucky, he's Irish, as the wild winds circled above our house. I wasn't willing to push MY luck so far the way things have been going around here. WARNING: Lindsay is videoing and she uses some adult language, so if your little kids watch the video, you might want to turn the sound down. Sorry about that.
by then we had debris on the ground, and we were running for the basement. Obviously it missed us. So we are glad, but heck, I grew up in the Midwest and saw plenty of tornadoes, let me tell you, this was a nasty sucker. Window out in neighbor's house.
Horse trailer on one side of the road...
axle on the other.
This is a sheared off telephone pole. There were 6 poles broken off.
This is the barn that is on all the news channels, just under a mile north of me, as the crow flies.
neighbor John and Gail's place, 2 houses to the west of me. They had huge damage to their place, removed a 100 year old barn from farther out in the field and these old pine trees that the kids were walking on. Amazing that the house didn't get more serious damage and everyone was OK. They are missing at least 10 cows.
You might be a redneck if....you think swimming in a field and ditch full of water is the highlight of your Sunday afternoon.
This is the storm the night before, just before we started digging ditches to stop water from flooding the basement.
and the next day, the fun began.....
And this is Colorado, a semi-arid state! This amount of water is unheard of, but the kids had a great time. Lindsay is right, she'll never get married.....it is hopeless.
I think I'm stalked by angry weather gods. But I can't be, cause I'm Roman Catholic and don't believe in false gods. Too bad, I'm about ready to sacrifice a small animal to appease the angry gods. Just kidding, just kidding. We had a pattern of wild weather over eastern Colorado this week that was amazing. On Saturday, as our local weathermen assured us that it was moving out of the state and I was selling salad greens at the market and assuring customers that I would try to be at the market every week, a storm was brewing that would wipe me out. Later Saturday evening it started to rain, and then it rained some more, and then the hail came. Our yard flooded and we had to dig drenches across the driveway in the driving rain to drain the front yard, the water then filled the north field. Major bummer. I am cursed I tell you cursed. I told my husband that I am moving to a more mild climate.....I am thinking Hawaii. I can get a tan right and learn to surf??
Rain filling my front yard, we have a little grotto area we use as a BBQ bit and it was soon filling with water, which means flooding the basement. So we broke out the shovels and dug a trench across the driveway (that we had just had put recycled asphalt on, so try shoveling through that!) to drain some of the water to the north field. That rainbow is deceiving, that darned rain circled the high plateau that we live on and came back for another round of storms.
Happy dogs, the ducks loved it too.
Before: beautiful rows of red and green lettuce mix. After: not looking so good.
That splash is my son jumping into the ditch full of water....
I thought I had read most every book that was good about gardening. I have old, out-of-print books, new books, books by farmers and backyard growers. Greenhouse growers and field growers. Market garden books and seed saving books. Books about the loss of genetic diversity in the plant world and books about high altitude challenges in gardening. I gave in to temptation and bought another book. And am I ever glad I did!
If I had to give a short list of my top ten must have books on growing, this one just might be number ONE! It is that good. The author, Steve Solomon, founded Territorial Seed Company in the early 80's and now lives in Tasmania, still growing. He begins in his introduction, to talk about how he "marched to the beat of a different drummer" and how the advice of "Everyone Else" just didn't work for him. Well, that got me right there. The rebel in me, what is left of that part of me, sat up and paid attention. I do love the alternative opinion in most everything.
The book is Gardening When it Counts, Growing Food in Hard Times.
Now this isn't a dry read, with lots of technical information suitable for agriculture grad students, it is written for everybody, especially those beginning to grow. I cannot tell you how his writing style and simple explanations please me. I highly recommend this book. Easy to understand and implement, using common sense, LOW COST tools and ideas. Especially attractive for the frugal grower because his ideas utilize old-time, low cost tools and inputs. From buying seeds (names names of good/bad suppliers) to saving seeds, planting seeds to transplants, watering to weeding, this one has it all.
OK, I'll stop waxing poetic now, but if you are inclined to purchase any gardening books or grow a garden for food, get this one right away.
This from California, no big surprise, a couple has been instructed to cease and desist a Bible Study that they hold in their home.
A
San Diego
pastor and his wife have been told they cannot have a Bible study in their home.
The couple says they were interrogated by a
San Diego
County
official, then threatened with ever increasing fines if
they refuse to stop the Bible study. (See news article
here)
According to the couple's
attorney, they were questioned about the Bible study. "'Do you have a regular
meeting in your home?" The pastor's wife replied, "Yes." "Do you say 'amen'?"
the official asked. "Yes," she replied. "Do you pray?" Again she said, "Yes."
"Do you say 'praise the Lord'?" Another "Yes." The official told the pastor and
his wife they were in violation of county rules.
The Bible study usually has an
average of about 15 people.
A few days later they got a
written warning that listed the home Bible study an "unlawful use of land." They
were notified to "stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit,"
which could cost them thousands of dollars.
Hopefully, this nonsense will be straightened out in a court of law, but to even have a county "official" asking questions is ridiculous! There are plenty of families who would be in violation of this sort of regulation if they wanted to go looking. I'm wondering if we now have to start being afraid of who we make angry among the powerful or those who think they are powerful. I think, perhaps, our good officials need to have review about where all authority comes from. Natural Law dictates that it comes from Almighty God. And to forbid the study of His word among a few people in a living room begs for restitution!
