The TRUTH about CAFOs!!!!!!!!

Oh boy, am I fired up!

A friend at work introduced my to a cool website that features a daily info-graphic.  Normally they are pretty informative and entertaining.  Well, NOT TODAY!

This is the pile of garbage I found:

I know it's hard to read, so I'll highlight the MIS-TRUTHS.

The following information was listed regarding CAFOs:  Confined Animal Feeding Operations:
1.  1200 lbs on a market weight animal in 6 months?!?!  Are you kidding me?  No, it takes at least 18 months to put that much weight on a beef animal.  Our average rate of gain is about 3 pounds per day, which may seem like a lot, but please keep in mind, it's all relative.

2.  A 93.4% rise in the number of Dairy Cattle in the U.S.?  Do you know what the world's population has done in those 10 years?  Grown by a BILLION.  That's a million million people, people!

3.  80 is the number of antibiotics allowed in cow's milk?  Nope.  There are STRICT regulations on what can be found in milk and (my area of semi-expertise:) beef.  When we treat a sick animal we are VERY careful about how old they are (or in other words, how far away they are from entering the human food supply).    And, again, it's SO relative!  If you could see the dosages we give to 1000 pound animals, compared to the size of a human dosage, it's PROPORTIONAL!  Dave gives injections behind the ear of a beef animal so as to not contaminate anything that might enter the human food supply.  I could go on for days about the restrictions, the regulations, and the integrity for the industry that are put into place and practiced so that beef is safe for the public.

4.  AND THIS IS WHAT HAS ME MOST IRATE:  What's in animal feed?  Plastic--NOPE.  Not at all.
Animal by-products to turn animals into cannibals--NOT AT ALL.  Ever heard of a little thing called "Mad Cow Disease"?  That's where that's from!  You think any decent farmer is going to a) do something as disgusting as this, or b) run the risk of Mad Cow on their farm?  NEVER.  And feathers or euthanized cats?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Who comes up with this crap?  (Actually, I'll address this in a minute.)
We feed our beef cattle a diet formulated by an animal nutritionist with a Ph. D..  In fact, I've heard that he will actually taste the feed when he stops by the feed yard to go over rations with the guys.  I just can't get over what I'm reading on this infographic!!!

5.  Finally, this whole bit about the waste.  Yes, animals poop and pee a lot.  Well, so do humans.  But, animals don't use plastic grocery bags, they don't put batteries in their TV remotes, they don't by their water in plastic bottles and then throw them in the ditch.  Every. Last. Ounce. of animal waste on our farm gets "upcycled".  It is loaded into the manure spreader, hauled to the field and is spread like dollar bills on our crops.  Yes, we LITERALLY assign a dollar value to our manure.  The nutrients that the manure returns to the soil is THAT valuable.  

So, while I haven't addressed ALL of the rest of the "facts" on the infographic, I think this is enough for now.  If you'd EVER like to see what our operation is like, PLEASE come for a visit!  I hope you'll be pleasantly suprised!

Now, let us discuss where the information for this infographic came from:
The ASPCA (you know, Sarah McGlauhlin and the abused dogs--whatever).  The ASPCA donates 0.05% of it's donations to actually protecting animals.  I said 1/2 of one percent.  Do you know where the rest goes?  Not to helping animals.  {If you want to help abused animals, donate to your local shelter! PLEASE!}

And the good old Humane Society of the United States is listed there, too!  Again, SO VERY LITTLE of their fundraising efforts go to anything remotely productive, it'd make you throw up.  {Find a local shelter to support!  PLEASE!}

Notice that NOWHERE are there information or numbers from somewhere like, oh, I don't know, THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE?  THE FARM BUREAU OF ANY STATE?  ANYWHERE REPUTABLE?!?!?

I follow a blog that aims to debunk the mis-truths about the poultry industry.    Please stop by www.onthebanksofsquawcreek.com and read about Katie Olthoff's turkey farm!  She does a FANTASTIC job keeping the crazies at bay!

So what if it's been 3 weeks since I posted on the blog?

School is coming to very slow finish.  It's like the tortoise part of the Tortoise-vs.-Hare race... School is c  r  e  e  p  i  n  g to a finish.  2 more LONG weeks.  Ugh.  But, the weeks have been jam-packed with life.  Our move out to the farm is getting closer, too.

Yesterday we had a (soon to be) neighbor (when we move out to the farm) (are you confused?) come over and help us re-survey our property so that we can move ahead with selling the place where we currently live.  It was really interesting!  Did you know that there are these giant pins in the ground to mark your property lines?  Yep, there are literally pins EVERYWHERE in the United States!  Ben had a metal detector that he used to find these pins, then he used fancy math to figure out where the rest were, etc..

It ended up that he pretty much couldn't find ours, but had to survey the neighbor's property and then go from there...  It was supposed to take a couple of hours.  Six hours later he was packing up his tools, having wasted his WHOLE Saturday on our stupid project.  Oh well, a quick-claim deed and a few hundred bucks and we should be good to go.

Surveyor Ben brought along his 5 year old daughter and she and the girls became fast friends!

I spent the day priming my hutch!  I am excited to put the finishing coats on it this afternoon after church.  I think it'll look really nice.  Now I'm grappling with painting the base of the table that matches this hutch.  My reservations are that the table is round and only seats 4, unless pulled out oval-style, and I don't have 6 chairs to go with this table.  Hmm... I'm still thinking.  Any suggestions are welcome!

And I promise to be more faithful to the blog, dear readers!

A night out on the town! With 147 high schoolers...

Last night I chaperoned the PHS Prom with 3 of my wonderful coworkers and our principal.  It was fun.  The theme was "An Enchanted Evening", and the theme song was "Enchanted" by Taylor Swift.  Not a radio hit of hers, but this tune is becoming a new favorite of mine!

Here is a picture of the dress I wore.

This picture is for all of my coworkers who have been teasing me all week about the dress I wore to the prom in 1995.  Last week we had a "throw back" party where we all brought in Prom pictures and then awards were given for various categories, like "best use of taffeta", "best tiara", and I won the category of "best mom dress", as in "My mom probably had that dress in her closet in 1995, too", and one of my lunch buddies claims that her mom had THE EXACT SAME DRESS.  Doubtful.

photo credit to Lifetouch Photography!

Lifetouch Photography did a photo booth for all the prom goers, and it was huge hit! We chaperones also took a turn!  I LOVE this picture!!!

And finally, here are the top 3 take-aways from the prom of 2014:

1.  Nothing clears a dance floor like "What does the Fox Say?".
2.  No matter how easy and smooth I try to make choosing a meal, some one will be upset.  (EVERY SINGLE PERSON who bought a ticket to the prom back in April looked me in the eye and answered the question:  What would you like to eat?  Bacon-wrapped Sirloin, Stuffed Pork chop, or Cheese Tortellini.  Everyone answered, I recorded their responses perfectly, we transferred those responses to name cards perfectly, yet SURELY whats-his/her-name didn't order THAT!  UGH!)
3.  I am not a night owl.  9:30 pm is pushing it, I turn to mush at 10:15 pm.

Oh well, that's it for another year!

Spring is here to stay!

I hope spring is here for good, anyway.
I walked into the machine shed yesterday to put the wheelbarrow back and was stunned by the sight of the corn planter!

I hollered at the kids to come stand next to it so that I could snap this wild picture, thinking it would be amazing to see the magnitude of this beast!

The corn planter is relatively new to our operation, the guys up-graded to a John Deere model a few years ago and it has been relatively smooth sailing ever since getting rid of the old one.  The planter plants 16 rows at a time and the big yellow tank on the front applies fertilizer.  The little arms folded over (at the ends) fold down and make marks in the soil to show where you should line up the planter on the next pass down the field.  So, yeah, add another 10  feet on each end when it's all unfolded!!!  The guys don't use these markers much anymore, since most of the planting is done using GPS!   The planter folds in on itself so that it can get in and out of the shed and travel down the road, but the guys have been replacing the "row clutches", which are devices that monitor how much seed is planted in each of the rows.  The purpose of the row clutch is to prevent over population of seed and cut back on waste (seed corn is $PRICEY$)!

We plant a few different varieties, there is quite a bit of science involved in picking seed: from soil type to what was planted in the field the previous year.  Also, we don't want to put all of  our "eggs in one basket".  Some varieties of seed withstand high winds better, some are more bug-resistant than others.  By planting a variety, we are spreading our risk, should any sort of calamity arise.

And, the of course we must plant our refuge corn, as well.  Farmers who plant Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO corn)--like we do-- must plant a certain percentage of non-GMO corn for the insects that the GMO corn is specifically grown to resist have a place to live.  While this may seem counter-productive, farmers are inherently environmentalists and understand that EVERYTHING -good, bad, or ugly- plays an important role in the ecosystem.

If you'd like more information on GMOs, here's an interesting article on creating a GMO from "Popular Science" magazine.

Chicken & Asparagus Deliciousness in ONE pan!

I like making a meal, but if it requires a lot of work, then it doesn't happen on a school night.  Sunday nights are our 'try something new' night where Dave and I try to get along and accomplish a "project" together.  Some of our biggest successes have been Steak Diane, Smothered Cube Steak, roasted chicken, sweet and sour chicken and fried rice, and most recently:  chicken and asparagus in a cream sauce.  A version of this recipe was on the cover of "Family Circle" a few months ago, but we of course tweaked it a bit.

First step:  Boil asparagus in about 1/2 inch of boiling water (in my biggest skillet), about 4 minutes.  Then run it under cold water to stop the cooking process and keep it nice and green.

Now that the skillet is empty, fry up about 4 slices of bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces.  Once the bacon is crispy, transfer the bacon to paper towels and put the bacon grease in another dish (like a cereal bowl).

Now that the skillet is empty (again!), fry 4-6 chicken breasts (that have been salt-n-peppered) in about 1 Tbsp. of bacon grease.  This takes about 5 minutes on each side.

Remove the chicken breasts (like onto a plate) and throw about 1 Tbsp. of flour into the empty (again!) skillet and whisk in a can of chicken broth to form a roux.  Add about 1 tsp. of the bacon grease to this liquid and bring to a simmer while stirring.

Add the chicken and asparagus to the cream sauce and spoon some of the cream sauce over the tops of the meat and vegetable.  Cover and cook for about 5 minutes, until everything is heated through and the roux has cooked down to desired consistency.  Throw the bacon on top before serving!

Dave felt the need to add a quartered lemon because he thought it would bring out the flavors; I'm not a big fan of lemon like this, so I'll leave it out next time.

This dish was REALLY good, and I really didn't have too many dirty dishes! It was kind of time-consuming and wasn't something you could walk away from, but it was REALLY good, so it was worth it in the end!!!

I'm looking forward to Illinois' asparagus season (if spring ever gets here)!  What's your favorite way to eat asparagus?

P.S.  Thanks to Danny Daly for being the official photographer of this endeavor.

A new addition to the family!

Drew's 4-H cow had her baby yesterday!  Even though it's April, it still feels like late November--bad day to be born at the back of the pasture!

Dave and my dad brought Mackie and her calf up to the barn (the cow walked, but the calf rode on Dave's lap in the back of the truck,) and put her in a stall with a little nest under a heat lamp for the calf.

When we came out to see him, Dave got the calf up on is feet and told him it was time to eat!

As we stood there and watched, it was amazing to see his little calf instincts at work, he kind of stumbled around his mom, finally figuring out where he needed to be.  Just as he was almost in "position", Mackie swung her head around and gave him a little bump on the backside as if to say, "Yep, that's it!  Go to town!"

He's a cute little guy, I'm sure Mackie got him all licked off and once his tummy was full he settled back down under the heat lamp and had a nice nap.

As we walked back out of the cow lot, Dave had to love up his favorite cow, "Red".  I didn't realize he had this special relationship... I guess they're quite good friends.

Holly found this baby sleeping by the fence while his mom was up at the hay feeder.  Notice this one's WHITE head?!? I'm sure that this is what baby George will look like the next time we see him.

Oh, yeah!  Drew named him George because he was born on Grandma Georgeanne's birthday!  Happy belated birthday, Georgeanne :)

A week (of spring break!) inside a teacher's head...

I may be only speaking for myself, but I am hoping that all my teacher-friends will weigh in and *hopefully* agree with me about what goes on inside a teacher's head this time of the year, otherwise I guess this means I need therapy:

Friday, the day before spring break starts:  "I can't stand any of these kids.  If I never see any of them again it will be too soon.  A meteorite could hit this town for all I care."

Saturday night, the first official full day of spring break:  "I need to start looking for another non-teaching job because I am NEVER going back to work at Pecatonica High School EVER again.   I should get on the internet and job search.  But, I think I'll just do anything else, because I may come across something school -related on the computer"--insert gagging sounds here.

Tuesday evening, day 4 of spring break:  "I wonder how L__ and her family are enjoying their trip to the Keys...I hope they are having a good time... I wonder if A___ and her friends made it to her aunt's house in St. Louis... I hope they are having a good time....  Oh look, there is the softball team practicing in the lot next to the grocery store!  Aren't they having a good time!  How nice for them!... I wonder if B___ is behaving himself... I hope he is, he's such a good kid, deep down inside..."

Thursday evening-carried over to Friday morning, days 6 and 7 of spring break:  "Hmm, we start the chapter on radical expressions and radical equations when we get back on Monday. I sure love that chapter!  I'm really excited about playing that game I learned a few years ago that introduces simplifying radicals!  This is going to be a great! Hmm, what else can I dream up to make next week fun?"

Saturday noon, day 8 of spring break:  "Wow!  When we get back to work on Monday, there will only be about 8 weeks of school left!  Oh no!  I'm going to miss these guys next year; I've really had a good group of kids this year!  Now I'm sad."

Sunday, last day of spring break:  "Ok!  I CAN do this, I AM excited, this is going to be GREAT!  And boy am I glad I had a week off to regain some of my sanity...Good thing a meteorite didn't actually hit..."