Category: Rant
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Customer Service: The Good and the Bad
Four recent incidents have prompted a mini-rant about customer service. First, the bad. We were one of the very first users of Sprint’s PCS service. We were in San Diego and had a Pioneer Plan phone. The deal was that the phone was to have no monthly fees for life, but it had a very… Continue reading
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Chicken Dreams
Gardeners wait for seed catalogs to arrive in the middle of winter, but for me, the first sign of spring is the arrival of chicken catalogs. Full of promise, plus breeds that are rare, common, colorful, and plain, the chicken catalogs hint at the coming summer. The poultry world is at your fingertips! All of… Continue reading
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Painting Finished and First Hay
The painting of the new shop is finished. It came out looking really nice. We have a few things left to finish on the inside, and then, we’ll finally be done. Today, we got the first of the hay for the year loaded into the barn. We received three loads of about 70 bales each.… Continue reading
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Food Safety and You
Well, there has been another major food contamination issue with meat. It’s the largest ever beef recall for E. Coli contamination. I want all of you to look behind the headlines to see the system that allowed it to happen. I also want you to consider the problems that it presents to small farmers, and… Continue reading
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Back on Pasture and Why Labels Are Misleading
The early snow has pretty much all melted, and we got one batch of ram lambs back out on our triticale pasture regrowth. We made sure they were all pretty full of hay before putting them out, and we made an aisle of electric fencing to prevent too much plugging of the permanent pastures. We’ll… Continue reading
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Emergency Preparations for a Farm
Watching the news about the big fires in San Diego yesterday and today prompted me to review our farm emergency plan. We used to live in Ramona, San Diego, one of the towns in the path of the fires. The latest data indicates that our old house was either on the very edges or was… Continue reading
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Off to the Wool Festival (And Bears)
I’m heading out today to attend part of the Taos Wool Festival. I’m taking my second revision of a Monmouth cap, plus the start of a scarf from a chart that I’m having issues with, in hopes that I can get some help from friends there. Some of my knitting friends will fortunately be attending.… Continue reading
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US Organic Is Cruel and Inhumane for Livestock
US Organic is cruel and inhumane to livestock. This statement will shock many and be denied by others. US standards for organic production of livestock are cruel and inhumane. They are a travesty of what “organic” should be. In an ideal world, buying organic would mean the products you purchase were produced in a fair… Continue reading
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Labor Day Musings
On a farm, every day includes at least some labor. Today was no exception. We started the ewe sorting process today. Any that were marked for sale or butcher went into the winter corrals for further evaluation. While this may seem like it’s just physical labor, it’s actually a skill that’s rife with subjective judgments.… Continue reading