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A tractor, A Fox, and the dirt
Oct. 30th, 2006 05:49 pmAfter months of being down and lazy, I'm finally working more on my farm again. Happy me. This morning I went to prep my field for wheat planting and found that there was much more to do than I thought. So... I'm NOW ready to do the part I wanted to start at 8AM, which is hook up my little disk harrow and prepare the seedbed for the wheat. But it turns out that the weeds/grass were too think where nothing had been planted this summer (corn was supposed to go there) and I had to mow, then plow it first. In order to get the plow out of the barn, I had to put a whole lot of stuff away. I'm feeling the effects of not working much, and my back and shoulders hurt from plowing (yes, I know it looks like just driving the tractor, but it's not got power steering, and the plow controls are very fussy).
In the process of all this, I saw a beautiful red fox. Sorry, no picture, I really need to remember to strap a camera to the tractor all the time... The fox took a drink from the pond, and I bet he was eyeing my layer chickens. Alice reported seeing Pedro Dog chase a fox away on Friday.
Now I'm off to play in the dirt some more.
In the process of all this, I saw a beautiful red fox. Sorry, no picture, I really need to remember to strap a camera to the tractor all the time... The fox took a drink from the pond, and I bet he was eyeing my layer chickens. Alice reported seeing Pedro Dog chase a fox away on Friday.
Now I'm off to play in the dirt some more.
Headlines from the Eco-Farming Rag
Oct. 28th, 2006 10:04 amI'm browsing through my on-paper November issue of Acresusa (www.acresusa.com) and figured I'd share some of the news that is noteworthy to the general population.
Probably the most interesting is the backstory on the Spinach Debacle - The culprit was CONVENTIONAL spinach being processed in a facility that also processes Organic spinach. As it turn out, the Organic spinach was not affected at ALL. In the same vien and location, some milk had been reported to be infected with E. Coli, and fingers were pointed to an Organic producer. That producer, who rigoursly tests his milk, also did a test where he added E. Coli to a sample and reported that it "refused to grow".
On the NAIS (National Animal Identification System) front, "The USDA's plan if Foot-and-Mouth diesease occurs in the United States is to draw 10-kilometer kill zones around infected animals and kill every susceptible animal within those zones." Elsewhere in this story "the USDA continues to propagate the myth that proper nutrition and low-stress livestock management make no difference to the incidence of disease."
Something is terribly, terribly wrong in this country....
Probably the most interesting is the backstory on the Spinach Debacle - The culprit was CONVENTIONAL spinach being processed in a facility that also processes Organic spinach. As it turn out, the Organic spinach was not affected at ALL. In the same vien and location, some milk had been reported to be infected with E. Coli, and fingers were pointed to an Organic producer. That producer, who rigoursly tests his milk, also did a test where he added E. Coli to a sample and reported that it "refused to grow".
On the NAIS (National Animal Identification System) front, "The USDA's plan if Foot-and-Mouth diesease occurs in the United States is to draw 10-kilometer kill zones around infected animals and kill every susceptible animal within those zones." Elsewhere in this story "the USDA continues to propagate the myth that proper nutrition and low-stress livestock management make no difference to the incidence of disease."
Something is terribly, terribly wrong in this country....
