[danb]

The problem with the health care plan as it is being proposed is it does nothing to bring down health care costs. We do not have a health care problem in this country; we have the best health care in the world. What we have is a health cost problem. And mandating that everyone must have health care insurance without dealing with cost will only make yet another super expensive, over regulated government program that we can’t afford. If health costs were brought down to a reasonable level, more people would be able to afford insurance without big brother’s help. You cannot find one instance in the history of the US when the government interfered with what was once done privately and made it run better. Don’t expect better here.

[danb]

I was curious if there was anything new to report on your community store. Were you able to get anything started this year?

[danb]

I receive several mailings (surveys, census, etc.) from the USDA each year or so. This year I have decided to protest NAIS by refusing to cooperate in any way with the USDA. I have made up a letter in which I state my opposition to NAIS, inform them that I will no longer work with them until they stop this nonsense and I include it with the unanswered survey (no postage necessary if mailed in the United States). I have done this twice so far this year. One of these surveys stated that my response was required by law. So when they come to get me, I wonder if they’ll let me bunk with Wendell Berry. Or better yet, maybe I can get solitary confinement so I can get caught up on my reading. Hope I can bring my easy chair.:D

[danb]

There is one huge problem with the notion that oxen can work all day without a break. In order for that to happen, the drover (that’s me), doesn’t get a break either. My legs hurt just thinking about it (lol).

[danb]

There shouldn’t be anything in a corn field that would harm oxen. But I doubt that straw or corn stubble would be substantial enough on it’s own to feed a working ox. There isn’t enough energy or protein. I would supplement with hay and oats/grain.

[danb]

As I reach back into the deep, dusty recesses in my memory, I sort of recall discussing poems like this in my english literature class in college (25+yrs. ago). I believe this would be called a interpretive poem (or something like that) in which the author plants mental images in the mind of the reader, and then allows the reader to draw his/her own conclusions regardless of the authors original intent. Personally, I think that about the time I hung a bunch of old pig bones on the clothesline I’d have some pretty serious explaining to do to the sweet and wonderful wife:D

[danb]

I’ve been waiting for this. The Cherry Creek sale barn in Cherry Creek, NY (run by Empire Livestock Marketing) has a note to Pennsylvania herds in a ad I found in our local paper: “PA dairy cattle, feeders and beef replacements may now be able to receive health charts at the sale barn with a PREMISE ID NUMBER. This service will be easier and save you, the consignor, money. Call the market for details if you plan on consigning.”
This is the government’s way of forcing the “voluntary” program down our throats. Sure glad I don’t sell much at sale barns!

[danb]

I took my daughter on the 4th. Haven’t been there since the last time it was in Mt. Hope. It has definitely gotten bigger with more vendors. We had a great time. I only have 3 complaints: 1) I should have gone both days to see more of the demonstrations 2) Huge crowds making it difficult to see some of the demonstrations (though that is probably a good thing depending on your perspective) 3) all the people who talked through Lynn Miller’s keynote address. There were plenty of places to carry on a conversation without doing it in a sale barn arena with it’s less than perfect acoustics during a speech.
I very much enjoyed Lynn Miller. He brought up several excellent points. Most notably the idea that as horse powered farming grows we are in danger of being flooded with cheap imports in the form of harnesses that don’t fit and equipment that doesn’t hold up or perform as expected. We probably don’t appreciate enough the reality that much of the equipment we buy today is engineered by people who use it as we do. Cheap imports will lack both the quality and the understanding of how the equipment should operate. And if people’s first experience with horse powered farming is marred by harness and/or equipment that cannot function as it should, they will probably never fully appreciate it.
The horse powered treadmills were interesting. Though not at all a new idea they have done a good job of designing attachments for them for a variety of uses. They showed a line shaft for wood working equipment (table saw;jointer;etc.), an air compressor that powered a chop saw, one powered a meat grinder and one ran a refridgeration unit, washing machine and flour grinder all at once. I’d like to have one to run a hay elevator and mow conveyer.
We would have liked to stay and watch the parade of breeds but we had hay to put in and company coming for the weekend so we had to leave.

[danb]

You might want to reconsider using a wooden barrel. New ones are terribly expensive and used ones are former whiskey barrels that could contaminate the brew and give it an off flavor. Of course I’m no brewmaster so maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the old whiskey keg will put a special zing into it.

[Author]

Posts