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One of those moods….
….sometimes you just don’t feel like going out and feeding the pigs….and that’s when you get what might be called “off topic posts”. Though as I confessed in my very first post, I have no idea just what the topic of this blog is. I like this for the spirit and an insight to one of the many things going on that we never hear about. The Miami Dolphins cheerleaders recently put together a music video for our troops in Afghanistan. Some creative types over there took time out from “surviving” to respond with a video of their own….perfectly mirroring the cheerleaders. Watch to see some young people enjoying themselves in dreadful…
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Baring their “all”….or almost all….
….a group of young farmers in southwest England got together for an unusual concept for a fund-raiser: a nude calendar. Don’t know what it is about the Brits and their nude calendars (remember the movie “Calendar Girls“? In Devon circles, about as racy as we get is a calendar featuring cows…unclothed…but nevertheless still cows. Warning: we’re about to show one of the pages so if you are easily offended, go away and come back in a few days. While you search for the “back button” we will fill with the report of the chap who put this all together. Rob Willcoxm, Somerset County chairman and now known as Mr December,…
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A few helpful tips….
….from our farm manager Duane Ard, who spotted this on Facebook and now has a few years of experience with an “Old Farmer”: Advice from an Old Farmer: – Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong. – Keep skunks and bankers at a distance. – Life is simpler when you plow around the stump. – A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor. – Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads. – Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you. – It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge. – You cannot unsay a cruel word. – Every…
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Getting to know you….
….our first English bull, TDA Churchill, is introduced to that mysterious creature…a female. In this case, this heifer is a Devon-Senepol cross. This will take some getting used to. Churchill is still young…just 17 months…and so we’ve put him in a pasture with just three females. They were all born late in our normal calving season, too late to be bred with the other heifers in their class. So Churchill has his own little harem to begin his education. He’s an extremely gentle bull, even for a Devon. Moderate-sized but beautifully proportioned. Exactly what the three Devon breeders who make up Traditional Devon America hoped for when they began their…
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What’s in a name….
….apparently quite a bit, according to “leaders” in the mainstream meat industry. Enough that simply “pork chops” will no longer do. Here’s the article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-bye-bye-pork-chop-hello-ribeye-20130403,0,6636326.story We’ve found that, generally, our meat customers remain suspicious of anything that isn’t one of the most familiar steaks: NY Strip, T-Bone, Porterhouse, Filet Mignon. So we mostly grind the rest for hamburger, setting aside just a few cuts such as Silver Tip steaks for family use. On occasion a family that orders a side of beef will specify a rarer cut and our butcher can handle that. For instance, we recently had a request for “clod steaks”, a term we hadn’t heard before. But the…
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The “whole” truth….
….about fat-free skim milk. I’m still surprised that some parents continue to feed their kids skim milk, or use it themselves for weight control. The literature is pretty complete on the subject: skim milk actually will cause you to gain weight…it is usually combined with powdered milk in processing to get rid of its natural blue color and that injects toxins (and the government does not require they note that on the label)…and that Vitamin D they add, has no value at all. Skim milk is, in fact, a waste product that Big Ag discovered they could market as a health food after they had removed the fat to make butter. …
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An ancient saying….
…which I translated from the original Sanskrit overnight: When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no need. Ayurveda proverb The picture is of Dhanvantari….incarnation of Krishna, Lord of Ayurveda. Okay, our farm manager Duane Ard, came across the quote and knows I’m a sucker for this sort of thing. The rest is from Wikipedia. While I like the quote, I’m not so sure about Ayurveda, a forerunner of what we now call alternative medicine. Seems to be that “the lord” and his followers prescribed a lot of questionable medicines, things that were somewhat heavy on the heavy metals.
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Well, if Harvard says it….
….it must be true. Get plenty of Omega 3 and us old folks will live a lot longer. Not sure if the world really needs that but… The article recommends fish as the Omega 3 source but you get just about as much from grass fed beef. Thistle Hill grass fed beef. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-fish-dying-older-adults.html#nwlt Note the companion links about Omega 3s benefit in combatting Alzheimers.
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What a wonderful world….
….so why do we keep insisting on messing it up? I know, corny and all that but still, wouldn’t it be nice….. http://www.youtube.com/embed/auSo1MyWf8g?rel=0 Thanks to our dear friend, Gisela, in Koenigswinter, Germany for the link.
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Spring is in the air….
…37 degree air, but nevertheless. At Thistle Hill we decided today to declare Spring has arrived. We announced the news this morning to a line-up of our young bulls. That means some new assignments. For instance, Green Field, winter home for ease of taking care of our young bulls, is now reduced to six. Their buddies have been detached for duty at satellite pastures about 5 miles away. One bull is already on the job, breeding some young heifers for a farm in South Carolina. And another will be sent to still another satellite pasture to romance another group of heifers. Despite the temperature, green has begun to show in…