Today ds1 had a follow up visit with our asthma/allergy specialist. He's been using the Zyrtec and the nasal spray, but has been resistant to using the Pulmicort. I just heard of Ask a Patient a few days ago which is a site where people can go to share their experiences and side effects from prescription drugs.
I was talking with one of my coworkers about ds1's reluctance to use the Pulmicort and she said maybe it's making him feel bad, but he can't explain that to me. She's right, he does have a hard time communicating at times. To make it more difficult, he has a habit of saying what he thinks I want to hear.
The doctor listened carefully to ds1's lungs and said he sounds fine. I explained that he hasn't been using any asthma medication. It was a relief that he is breathing okay without being on constant medication.
We stopped by Big 5 on our way home. OH, I never updated about my shoes here!!!! The shoes went on sale the VERY NEXT DAY!! From $54.99 down to $19.99!! I was so happy when I saw that on Monday. I am stocking up on these shoes while they are on sale. I was also able to use a 10% off coupon, so paid $17.99. My boss says she buys six pairs of shoes at a time when she finds one she likes, so I decided I would do that, too. I went back to Big 5 to see if I could get another pair, and also to get my money back as they have a price guarantee policy! I had discovered this from a different Big 5, one I went to in the big city. The lady said if the shoes go on sale within 30 days, they will refund the difference. The store I went to today, I explained to the cashier that I'd paid $54.99 for the shoes last Friday and they went on sale the next day, and handed her the receipt. She wasn't sure what I expected her to do, and verbalized that. I explained that I'd been told by another store that was their policy and she said she'd never heard of anything like that, but she'd ask. I got my money back, and they had one pair of my size shoes, so I bought them. Then I asked the manager if they could get any more of my size shoes, and he was able to find two more pair from another store. He warned me it could take as long as 2-3 weeks, and I told him that would be perfectly fine. I even offered to pay for the shoes in advance, but he said they preferred that I paid when the shoes came in just in case they weren't able to find any available.
Anyway, before I went into Big 5, I spotted a small owl. Dh stopped right there so I could get a picture. It was so surprising to see an owl at a strip mall! This first photo illustrates its small size. I think it might have lived down in the gutter which you can see behind it in the next photo.
I zoomed in with my camera, and got this awesome picture.
When I got home I did a bit of research online and discovered this small owl is a Burrowing Owl Athene cunicularia.
It is so neat to see a bird you've never seen before and find out exactly what it is. Simply fascinating. I guess I can understand a little bit the fascination with birding.
Until next time.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Burrowing Owl
Labels: ds1, Things You Don't See In The City
Friday, March 21, 2008
Fire Season is Coming
Labels: Self-Sufficiency, Things You Don't See In The City
We've had a lot of rain in our area and the desert is greening up nicely. The mountains in the distance look green, fields which were formerly brown dirt are green with desert grasses, weeds are springing up all over. Our neighbor who is vacationing (from Illinois) in their winter home said he was tempted to just let the weeds keep growing, they look so pretty and green. I told him he'd better rethink that and drag his property while the weeds are babies. We've lived here for six summers and when the preceding seasons bring lots of rain, we have a terrible fire season.
It's a big thing out here in the country, where most of us haul our water from the community well. Some people do have their own wells. Out in this area, you're looking at $20,000+ to dig a well that will have to go down at least 400 feet or more.
Since we don't technically have running water out here, we also don't have fire hydrants every few blocks. Actually, we have NO fire hydrants whatsoever.
The nearest fire fighting vehicle is 8 miles away and it belongs to a grain processing company. It sits there in the event that they has a fire. Its tank holds only 500 gallons. That's all our portable tank holds, but we have access to the community well, while they don't.
The next nearest fire engine is in the small city north of us. They are 15 miles away, but apparently they don't like to come out and help fight fires since that would leave their city in danger. There is a station on the Indian reservation about 15 miles away. The next closest station is to the east about 20 miles away.
On Sunday, on the way home from church, Kev received a phone call from one of our neighbors. The one for whom he hauls water, we call him "The Thirsty Wolf". The call went like this:
Thirsty Wolf: "Hey, uh, Kev, this is Alfredo, uh, could you bring some water? (his first language is Spanish and his accent is very heavy).
Kev: "Who is this?"
Thirsty Wolf: "This is Alfredo, you, uh, haul my water? I'm your neighbor?"
Kev: "Oh, hi, you need some water today?"
Thirsty Wolf: "Yeah, my house is on fire." (During the entire conversation he was very calm)
Kev: "WHAT?!"
Thirsty Wolf: "My house is on fire. I need some water, and so does another guy."
Kev: "YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE!?"
Thirsty Wolf: "Yeah."
Kev: "Okay, I'll be right over. We'll hammer out the details later."
The details meaning he wasn't sure what the Wolf meant by someone else needing water, too.
Since we weren't home, Kev called his dad who ran to the front door, looked out and saw the neighbor's roof bursting into flames only five acres away. He stopped making cheese and ran out to take our tank to the well and get water. That's what we do out here. When there's a fire, everyone gets their tank, goes to the well, fills up with water and heads for the smoke. Bring your shovels, too!! No telling what's on fire. Is it someone's house? A car? Barn? Just a field of desert grass traveling toward property that holds someone's home and life?
Kev and I were on our way home, we'd stopped to get gasoline when he received the call. We saw the smoke from miles away.
I felt relieved, seeing the smoke was white because that usually means they almost have the fire out.
Unfortunately, the first engine there ran out of water not too long after arriving. My dh arrived right when they ran out of water, but we didn't have any way to pump water into the fire fighting truck! They don't either! I couldn't believe that someone hasn't had the foresight to think since we don't have hydrants out here, but 80% of us have 500-1500 gallon portable water tanks, and we store our water in underground tanks of 1000 and bigger (ours is 2500), and in fact, Thirsty Wolf probably had 500-600 gallons in his own underground tank, that the fire trucks aren't equipped with pumps to move water from an outside source into their tanks!
So when we got there the fire was really moving all over the Wolf's house. Dh told us a guy had come by not too long ago that had a pump on his truck and was able to pump water into the fire engine. But the Indian reservation fire truck arrived and now the guys were being told to stop helping.
The fire fighters worked on fighting the fire for a couple more hours, and then I guess they just left. Now the fire fighters that we knew growing up (dh's uncle was a fire chief) would never have left a fire without making sure it was out. Especially not with the way the wind has been blowing!
At 9pm, Kev and I looked over toward the Wolf's house and it was still glowing with fire.
The next morning as I was leaving for work (I was late on Monday morning, usually it's pitch black when I leave) I saw a thin trail of smoke coming from the Wolf's house.
I went over to have a look, and it had burned to this point, and was still smoldering.
Later in the day, the smoldering embers finally ignited the rest of the place and it went up in flames again. Here's how it looks now.
On Sunday evening, dh started talking about getting a water pump, so we'll be better prepared for fire season.
On Monday night, when he saw that the house was STILL smoldering, he decided to fill up the tank and go over and dump some water on the embers, to see if he could have any effect on extinguishing them. With the wind blowing, there was still the chance that fire could ignite the weed filled properties to the east of the Wolf's and move to our property.
While at the well, he saw a sign with two water pumps for sale. He called the guy and went over to check them out after dumping the 500 gallons onto the smoldering embers.
Actually, they are small engines that hook up to go-carts and one had a water pump hooked up to it. Here's the 5HP engine, with the water pump hooked up.
If you look at the larger version of this next image, you can see how the water is just dribbling out by gravity feed.
Whoooo!! Here it is pump driven!!
Kev's trying to get the nozzle onto the hose while it's running. Doesn't he know the nozzle is too big to fit onto the hose? ;-)
And here he is all soaked.
So now we'll be much better prepared for fire season.
Until next time.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Chicken Mama - Things You Don't See In The City
Labels: Things You Don't See In The City
On the way home from work today, dh spotted a mama chicken and her three babies on the side of the highway. Pretty soon the rooster came running over to warn the family about me.
Until next time.
Friday, November 30, 2007
103 Dead and Counting
Labels: The Flies, Things You Don't See In The City
I went on a killing rampage this morning. The instrument of death:
Yes, it's that time of year again. The farmer across the road a field full of rotting melons and now we're sharing our daily life with millions of flies. Everywhere you go, everywhere you turn. In the house, on the porch, in the milking parlor, in the vehicles. Here they are on the porch:
And what self-respecting fly wouldn't be thrilled to call a garbage can his or her own?
I've blogged about the flies before:
The flies, the flies!!! June 27, 2006
The Flies Part II July 12, 2006
Hoof Trims in the Summer with a Side of Flies June 9, 2007
The 103 confirmed dead were in the kitchen. When I walked through the living room back into the kitchen, another 700 were in the kitchen, awaiting the smackdown of their lives.
Rain makes it worse. We're expecting three inches of rain.
Until next time.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
TYDSITC - Rattlesnake II
Labels: Things You Don't See In The City
I don't have the time to chronicle the event, but ds2 blogged about it here:
Second Rattlesnake of the Season
Until next time.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
TYDSITC -Tadpoles!
Labels: Things You Don't See In The City
On the way to church this morning we took a different road. A country road. A one way road. Under power lines. The main highway that we normally travel is being resurfaced so sometimes there are delays.
Ds2 asked me to stop right at the beginning of the power lines, right at this canal. He said he wanted to take some pictures. He stepped out and told me there were a ton of tiny little creatures swimming around in the ditch.
It turns out they were tadpoles. Every little black spot you see below are tadpoles swimming around. Click on any image to see a much larger photo.
Here you can see some baby... toads? Frogs? We usually don't have frogs because the desert doesn't have much water, so we usually have toads. But these were green tinted, more like frogs than toads.
Here is a tadpole with backlegs.
I managed to catch one of the tiny little things.
Here it is in the bottom of a styrofoam cup. That's a sunflower seed shell next to it. Heee!! It's so tiny!
I tossed the little thing back into the water and it swam away.
Here are some more lounging on the beach.
Until next time.
Monday, March 12, 2007
More Electricity
Labels: Song of the Day, Things You Don't See In The City
Over the past two or three weeks, new electrical poles have gone up on the main highway in my area. A new subdivision is going up and they need more power! I drive to work in the dark, so I didn't notice the poles being put in place, but finally noticed when the wires were draped from one pole to the next. It was very interesting watching how the heavy wires are hung. They use several pullies on each pole. Today they were taking the pullies off each pole. I was able to pull over and snap a photo of the three linemen in a row.
Song of the Day: No Ordinary Love by tobyMac (Portable Sounds 2007)
Until next time.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Coyotes Yipping
Labels: LJ, Things You Don't See In The City
I was awakened this morning before my alarm clock went off with the yip-yip-yip-yodeling of coyotes nearby. Times like these make me VERY, VERY happy for my pack of dogs. What you say? They cost a lot to feed? Pshaw! $40 a month is nothing compared to the nice feeling of knowing they aren't going to dig their way into my property and try to kill all my chickens or young goats.
LJ sleeps in bed with me and he also woke up, head alert, ears perked. I've trained him to not bark while in the house, so muffled sounds were coming from his throat. He kept jerking his head back and forth, trying to get a better listen.
The sounds the coyotes make is just freaky. Even worse when you are outside, it can make shivers run down your spine and raise the hair on the back of your neck.
Finally we both got up and I let LJ out the front door so he could investigate with the girls. Soon the coyotes left and LJ was at the front door ready to come in.
I feel tired already.
I did put a roast in the crockpot so that we have a headstart on today's dinner.
Until next time.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
TYDSITC - Brahma Bull
Labels: Things You Don't See In The City
This guy is HUGE. We get our hay at this farm sometimes; they raise Brahmas. I asked the lady today what function the hump on the back serves. She said, "Nothing. When they are butchered, it is just another roast."
Oh. Our satellite Internet was installed on Thursday. My free AVG Antivirus conflicted with it for some reason and I could not download my email. I noticed my AVG was greyed out and tried to update the virus definitions, but was unable to connect. I decided to uninstall it to see if that would make any difference. It did. I was then able to download my email.
I'm still having a few minor problems, but that should clear up once I switch my email address and am no longer using my old one.
Ds2 got a new bike on Friday. He and I have started taking bike rides in the evening just before sundown.
I worked with dh today and will tomorrow. I'm looking forward to having Monday off.
Until next time.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
The Not So Twin Peaks
Labels: Memory Lane, Things You Don't See In The City, work
Worked with dh again today. The current jobsite is 88 miles away. On the way, 12 miles in the distance we can see these mountains that ds2 has named The Not So Twin Peaks. And here they are close up.
Worked on a few different things... like spraying the master bathroom shower with some stuff that's supposed to remove the calcium and lime, then working on the kitchen counter. I'm replacing some of the strip pieces that are broken. I will try to post some pictures tomorrow.
And dh found this critter -- a 4 inch long scorpion -- when he was moving the old front steps to the back door.
I discovered later that dh moved the steps over especially for me, because I am too short and out of shape to easily climb up from the ground to the floor inside the home which is 34" off the ground. I was using a 5 gallon bucket turned upside-down. That was very sweet of him.
I find that most people have a "thing" against manufactured homes - the stigma I think comes from the "trailer trash" trailer parks. But it's not just that; the value of your property is less when the home is a manufactured home. Especially if the manufactured home is not "affixed" the land - which is a fancy way of saying you have turned in the motor vehicle department certificates! "Affixing" the home to your land means you can never move the home again. So the land becomes more valuable, I guess because they are taking your word that you will never move the home. And you can actually get a normal home mortgage once those certificates are turned in.
We were blessed that our current home is a Cavco. When we were looking for a place out here, we didn't know anything about manufactured homes, so it was not something we were focused on. After all, I'd lived in a "mobile home" and a "trailer" and I've never had anything against them. I was so grateful as a young person, in my early twenties, to be able to afford to rent my own little home which was a trailer. It was small, but I had a bedroom, kitchen, living room and bathroom! If memory serves me, it was 8 feet wide and about 23 feet long. Sure, if you walked too fast you passed right by the bathroom into the bedroom. The bedroom was nearly from wall to wall with a full size bed. It was quite cozy and I loved it. $200 a month. This was in the 80s and at that time my other option would have been a studio apartment. But with this place I even had a tree in my very own little yard. One of the really neat things was the neighborhood I lived in. Lots of seniors and I loved to make friends with them, sitting and visiting in the evenings. I had lots of time on my hands back then, even though I worked forty hours a week and sold Avon on the side. Yeppers, I sold Avon for a few months in my twenties. I had an incredible first campaign, and was given a second neighborhood, where I did great there, too. But the success was short lived, as the neighborhood was full of low income folks who had not had an Avon lady for several months. After those first campaigns, my luck dwindled.
My trailer was similar to this one here, although this one is actually a hobby toy. Thank you, Lucky Irish Man Discount Hobbies site. I hope you don't mind that I borrowed one of your pictures.
The mobile home we lived in for the past 8 or 9 years (prior to moving here) in the big city, was located in a mobile home park. Purchase price: $10,000.00. My paternal stepgrandparents loaned me the money and it was paid back within 8 years time at $150/mo. We struck an agreement to pay back at 3% interest. I think it was 35 years old. It originally came from back East, so it was well insulated and constructed to withstand cold regions.
All the "trailer" homes I've lived in, the trailer, the mobile home and this one, have all been constructed very well. In fact, seeing the construction of new homes going on in my town, I'm sure our manufactured home is made better than those. How can chicken wire and styrofoam make a well built home? This Cavco is so well built, and so well insulated that we have never once used the heater in the winter, even though it gets down to below 20°F on many days.
Anyway, my whole point in reminiscing about the "trailer" homes (it's really not correct to call them that, they are MANUFACTURED HOMES! lol) I've lived in is to say the manufactured home we are working on now has got to be the most cheaply made home I've ever seen! Most of it seems to be plastic. Doorknobs, faucets even! I'm astonished at the low quality, and even more grateful that our home is a 12 year old Cavco. Cavco's are said to be the "cadillac" of the manufactured homes.
Until next time.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Dragonfly Nymphs
Labels: dogs, LJ, Things You Don't See In The City
A few days ago, ds2 noticed there was some kind of thing swimming around in the dog pool. It is a little pool that the dogs drink out of, and sit and lay down in to stay cool when it's so hot outside, like this cute fellow!
Ds2 came into the house and had absolutely no idea what he was looking for, but he began putting keywords into Google Search. Dh and he began guessing what it could be. From the start, ds2 thought it was a dragonfly something or other.
He actually was able to figure out that we have dragonfly nymphs in our doggie pool!!! Once he had a name for what we were looking at, I was able to put the word into Google Images and find many pictures of the insect to confirm that that was indeed what we were looking at.
So I noticed a lot of what looked like mosquitoes floating on top of the dog's wading pool this morning. It was getting pretty mucky looking and green algae on the sides. The mosquitoes had finally died down somewhat so I don't want them to get started again.
On the way to the grocery store, I asked dh if those insect things were still in the wading pool. He told me they were gone, they had died. He said he guessed they needed shade and couldn't survive being in the direct sunlight. I told him I'd seen what looked like mosquitoes on top of the water, and that we should clean out that pool just in case there were mosquito larvae in it.
When we finally got back home, I threw hay to the goats and started filling their water buckets. I observed the doggie pool again with the insects lighting on the surface. Armed with the knowledge that the poor dragonfly nymphs had died, I uprighted the pool and dumped out all the water. I saw a lot of wormy shaped things flow out, and I began to examine more closely. Because I know that if you see worm-like markings in the bottom of a water container, it is the mosquito larvae moving around at the bottom. So I started looking really closely at the water which was seeping into the earth. I noticed a lot of tiny -- like pieces of thread -- tiny, red worms.
I asked dh to come look at the red worms, to show him that I thought they were mosquito larvae. Then I saw a dragonfly nymph! I found two more! I picked them up and put them into the doggie pool. I then went inside to get the camera, so I could take a picture. To see if I could get a good closeup of one.
I got back outside, and there was LJ sitting in the doggie pool! So of course I had to snap a few pictures of him. After a minute or two, he jumped out and took off.
I was looking around on the ground again, to see what the mosquito larvae were doing. Since the water was seeping into the earth and it will be dry as a bone within a couple of hours, they have no chance for survival. While doing that, I found TWO more dragonfly nymphs!
So now we have a total of FIVE dragonfly nymphs. One of the things I read said they live in the water for one year. Ds2 tells me they shed their skins 14-15 times.
And I just now read that they are carniverous insects and help to keep the mosquito and fly population down. ACK! I just drained out all the mosquito larvae! Poor nymphs, now what will they eat!?
Until next time.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
TYDSITC - Rattlesnake!
Labels: goats, Things You Don't See In The City
Yesterday my dh and I had a BIG MYSTERY. I was sleeping in, and he took the milking buckets, etc., out to get started on chores. I meandered out to help about 6:15. When I got outside, he had already milked L, Z and had just finished N. I looked at N's udder, felt it, and said to him, "She's not empty. Are you sure you milked her?" He said he had just gotten a pound, but his hand was cramping up, so he probably didn't get all her milk. So I said I would finish milking her. I milked and milked and milked -- this is the one with teeny, tiny teats and when I was finally done, we weighed it and there was an unbelievable THREE pounds in the bucket! She has rarely given us three pounds total in a day with two milkings!
So this morning... again, dh got started on the chores 'cause I was sleeping in late... I got out there at 6am (note that I'm usually up at 4:30am). As I walked up, he told me he hadn't milked N yet, he was waiting for me so we could see if she would give me 3 pounds again.
I began to milk N, and he went into the barn to milk L. He finished milking L, weighed her milk and was standing on the milking shed porch, by our old washing machine. L was finishing off her grain inside the milking shed, I was still milking N and we were still talking about the BIG MYSTERY. All of a sudden, we heard the warning rattles of a rattlesnake!! It was close and LOUD. My dh looked around and said, "OHMYGOSH, it's RIGHT THERE!"
He said to me, "Get N off the stand, move her out of here NOW!" At this point, I had not seen the snake, and did not know where it was. I reached up and unhooked the stanchion, pulled N with me off the stand and ran out of the area. L was still in the milking shed, on the milking stand, finishing off her grain!
Let me illustrate our positions with a photo. Where you see the letter "S" pointing down to the mustard bottle which is circled -- the snake was coiled there, ready to strike. My dh was standing to the right of that where the arrow is pointing at a can of Fight-Bac teat spray. He was maybe 3 feet from the snake. Back in the dark is the milking stand, that is where L was on the milk stand eating her grain. I was sitting on the right side of the metal milking stand to the front.
As I got up and moved N off the stand, I saw the snake. It was a big one, my thought was it was at least ten years old. They grow one rattle every year of their life. As we were deciding what to do next, my dh kept a close eye on the snake, because we needed to know where he went, so we could catch him and relocate him. He slithered into the shed, and soon L hopped off the stand and was not at all aware of what was going on.
In retrospect, I sure am grateful to God that we put up the milking area fence. We did it several months ago to keep the dogs out of the milking area, and to keep the does in the milking area. After they are done being milked, they sometimes decide to just take a walk or run away from us, instead of going back to their pen. This makes it a lot easier to keep them contained, plus today, it kept them out of the area.
My dh told me to get the gun, and the bullets and to get our ds2. I ran into the house, ran into ds2's bedroom and in a panic said, "Where are the bullets?!" He was up in a flash, running to them and I explained there was a rattlesnake in the shed.
The gun was only a secondary tool to use against the rattler. My dh devised a snake catcher when we first moved here. It is a long piece of PVC pipe with a piece of clothesline running through it to make a noose at one end. You dangle the noose over the rattler's head, then pull the noose taut. But if worst comes to worst, ds2 is standing by with the gun to pick off the thing.
Dh thought the snake was under the corner shelves, so he moved a board around underneath the shelves. Nothing, no rattling, nothing. We brought in a hose to try to "flush" him out. No response, nothing.
Ds2 decided to have a look in the chicken pen, which borders the backside of the shed. Perhaps the snake had gotten through a hole in the floorboards of the shed and escaped. A couple of minutes later, he yells to me, "Was the snake about eight inches long?" I couldn't believe he was joking at a time like this and thought maybe he really was seeing the rattlesnake, so went to have a look. He had found a tiny snake, about as big around as a pencil, with narrow yellow, red, white and black rings. He teased that maybe this was really the snake we saw, and the big bad rattlesnake was just a figment of our imaginations.
We made our way back to the milking shed, where dh was still trying to "flush" out the snake.
We decided to disassemble the shelves, because there was no way to see under them. Between the bright sunshine coming into the doorway, it really made the inside of the shed seem extra dark. So dh started taking things off the shelves and handing them to me, standing far back from the bottom of the shelves, in case the thing decided to strike. We got the top three shelves moved out, and the bottom shelf was left in place. Dh moved it carefully to one side, and ds2 peered carefully around the corner. He backed up instantly and said, "WHOA, he's still under there!"
Then the guy started rattling his tail... dh pried the shelf up even further, using a 2x4 from the end of the 8 feet length, and then pushed a 5 gallon bucket under the shelf to hold it up. Ds2 was positioned to shoot the snake, but dh decided he might be able to use the snake catcher. He was able to get the noose around the rattler and bring him out.
We counted his rattles on his tail... there were TEN rattles. I was right, he was a ten year old snake. Since there are still large open spaces out here, we are able to relocate snakes ourselves (as opposed to calling a "professional"). This is the 24th rattlesnake we have caught since we've lived out here.
Rattlesnakes are so damned scary. I am really glad that I was there to see this, because I have not been present for most of the other snakes, and I am lax about watching for them. I go out in the morning dawn to milk, and it is still dark and I just walk out to the milking shed without a flashlight and step onto the porch without a worry at all. Of course, all morning long I was walking hesitantly everywhere I went, peering carefully around everywhere to make sure there were no rattlesnakes coiled to strike!
Needless to say, we forgot all about the BIG MYSTERY. I didn't even finish milking N, spraying her teats, all thoughts of milk totally forgotten.
Until next time.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
TYDSITC - King of the Mountain
Labels: Things You Don't See In The City
On the way to the grocery store, we go by two feedlots that can be seen from the highway. There are Holstein steers for as far as the eye can see. The feedlot must be at least a mile long and a mile wide. In this picture, the "mountain" that you see is manure. The ranchers bulldoze the manure into these mountains, and the steers seem to enjoy playing "King of the Mountain". The smell from these feedlots, where the steer spend most of their lives, varies from week to week. Sometimes it can be very strong and overpowering, and other days not. But most of the time it's pretty obnoxious. A housing development is being built right across the road from one of these feedlots. People expect to have meat in the case at the store, but they don't want to know about the smelly feedlots. Then they move out of the city, into the "country" and expect the feedlots to find someplace else to live.
It seems like the ranchers must have to feed antibiotic-laden feed, in order to keep these animals from dying from the living conditions. Indeed, today we saw two dead cows near the highway. Anyway, even though I know it is going to be difficult to actually follow through, it makes me feel a little bit better knowing we are raising our own beef.
Until next time.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
*TYDSITC* Sheep
Labels: Things You Don't See In The City
BTW, the subject header stands for Things You Don't See In The City. We see a lot of things out here in the country, that you just don't see in the big city! I've been thinking for a while that it would be fun to start sharing some of those.
Often as I'm driving into the small town 22 miles from where I live, I'll see sheep in the fields. Today was one such day. I had an appointment with my asthma/allergy specialist and told myself I'd stop on the way back home and take some pictures.
Upon closer examination of the photos, lookee what I caught! How sweet!! :-) This lamb is half as big as its mama, it has to be at least six months old. In the image above, this ewe and lamb are in the top left hand corner, I have three white triangles pointing to the pair.
