Heart Tracks

If I would have had these pictures on valentines day, I would have posted them then. My mom spotted these tracks in the drive way and took some snap shots of them. Almost looks like some one purposely made hearts in the snow. But, it was not on purpose, these are tire tracks, from me turning around the pick up truck and it made these almost perfect hearts.

more on Joel Salatin

This video clip is taken from a movie called "Fresh" which Joel Salatin is featured in. I don't know how I missed this one but it came out about a year ago. Looks like a good one. One we will want to put on our winter movie viewing list. Here's a link to the movie site where more clips are available. http://www.freshthemovie.com/

Sheep

Below are some pictures I took today of our sheep in their winter home. This area is also one of our summer time gardening spots. The sheep manure makes amazing fertilizer!

We were getting some heavy snow. That's what the white specks are in the pics. Not real good quality here as I took them with our video camera. Takes nice video but, pictures are a little grainy.

We have three pens set up here. We have two rams and have some ewes in with each one. We aren't breeding the 6 female lambs that were born in 09. We decided to wait a year to breed them in order to let them mature.

I'm very impressed with our Shetlands. They are extremely hardy. We have had zero problems and they are very easy to keep.

We are currently looking to get one or more livestock guarding dogs to keep watch over them. We've been wanting to for awhile now but, after last years run in with coyotes we feel a more urgent need to get something.

We've been looking into different breeds and once we narrow it down I'll probably blog about it later on.

Until Next Time

Some more news...

Here's a news story that is days old already that I've bee meaning to post. It has to do with food freedom and how there are agencies who want to dictate what we can and cannot eat or drink. When ever I see stories like this I like to post them here just to help spread the word. I saw this one else where then I noticed that WND picked up the story a couple days ago.

Here's the Worldnet Daily article.

UDDERLY RIDICULOUS
Feds mooove against farmer – for having cows!
Government complains: 'You produce food for human consumption'

Posted: February 18, 2010
12:25 am Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

U.S. Food and Drug Administration agents have demanded to inspect a Pennsylvania farm described by its owner as private, arguing, "You have cows. You produce food for human consumption."

The confrontation developed just days ago at a farm near Kinzers, Pa., belonging to Amish farmer Dan Allgyer.

According to a report from the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, the agents were Joshua Schafer and Deborah Haney from the federal government agency's Delaware office.

The agents "drove past Allgyer's 'No Trespassing' signs and up his driveway almost to his barn, where Allgyer happened to be outside," the report said. "Allgyer approached the car, the agents got out and Allgyer asked them why they were there. They produced a piece of paper, asked Allgyer if he was Dan Allgyer, which Allgyer confirmed, asked him his middle initial and phone number, entered the information on the paper, told Allgyer they were there to do an inspection."

The report from NICFA, which was based on information provided by Allgyer, said the agents then "started reading the paper to him, saying it gave them jurisdiction to be there."

"You produce food for human consumption," an agent stated, according to the report. "You have cows. You cannot be consuming all the milk you produce. If you get a milk truck in to move all this milk you sell milk to the public, therefore we have jurisdiction."

After Allgyer said, "This is a private farm, I do not sell anything to the public," the agents accused him of refusing an inspection.

A spokeswoman for the FDA's Philadelphia office, which has jurisdiction over the region, confirmed the incident occurred, although she did not have details.

"An attempt of an inspection was made, and he refused to allow the inspection to take place," she told WND.


Click here for the full article.

2-11 dud

Well I'm glad nothing came of the Iranian "threat". I saw some headlines about their celebrations and saw that Ahmadinejad made a statement that Iran is now a "nuclear state" referring to the ability to enrich uranium for producing electricity.

(Feb. 11) -- As hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets of Tehran to mark the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution and riot police clashed with anti-government demonstrators, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a pro-regime rally today that their country is now a "nuclear state."

Addressing a crowd that had gathered in the central Azadi (Freedom) Square to celebrate the overthrow of the pro-Western Shah in 1979, Ahmadinejad revealed that Iranian scientists had produced their first batch of enriched uranium. "The first package of 20 percent fuel has been produced. We are now a nuclear state," he said. "We have the capability to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or 80 percent but we don't enrich (to this level) because we don't need it." http://www.aolnews.com/article/ahmadinejad-says-iran-is-now-a-nuclear-state/19353148

Other than this the news was quiet regarding any "punch" to the west.

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Spring time in ND?

I got this picture in an email that was titled "North Dakota Springtime" with a caption that said "Ahhh Summer's almost here ...we can now see the deer moving around. Yep, won't be long."

Just thought I'd post this here to give our ND friends a chuckle.

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This winter there was enough ice on the lakes for Eagle River to make their traditional ice castle in the down town area. My mom took a few shots of it and sent them to me.

Here they are.

To make the blocks of ice they saw them from a nearby frozen lake. There have been winters since we've lived here when they didn't make the castle due to mild temperatures. I think it is a safety thing. If it is too warm they are afraid of the structural integrity of the castle. Seems to me they didn't build it last year. Anyway, it's always nice to see the castle when they have it up. Seems like it makes winter official.

The 2-11 "Punch"

I've been following the rhetoric between the U.S. and Iran for a couple years or so. Frankly I'm tired of all the name calling and political posturing between the two nations. But, when I first starting hearing it heating up some time ago, I was concerned that there might be an actual war. This was a couple years ago, at least. And I was concerned that a war with Iran might come with consequences not seen in the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. There was plenty of nasty things a war with Iran could produce. This time it might not be life as usual in the good ole USA.

We even did what I called an Iran War stock up. We laid up provisions in case the normal supply chain was somehow broken or disrupted for who knows how long.

But, here we are in 2010 with some more noise being made in the direction of Iran, again. I think it was last week when I began to see the headlines about some stuff the Ayatollah was saying. According to the website Breitbart he said that Iran would deliver some kind of blow that would "stun world powers" on February 11, which is tomorrow. I'm assuming that would mean the U.S. as well.
The story begins with this;
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a "punch" that will stun world powers during this week's 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

"The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel.
Click here for the rest of the article.

Today when I got home I was checking out the headlines on WND and in the top spot was this article What tomorrow's Iranian 'punch' might mean
The opinion expressed on World Net Daily was a little more in line with what my gut was telling me would happen. Basically more political posturing from Iran, if a read it correctly, but with a military muscle flexing. You can check it out for your self to see what I mean.

Personally I don't think that the big threat for tomorrow will amount to much. I hope I'm right. Hopefully it will be just some more of the wearying threats and mud slinging.

However, this has been going on for a lot of years now starting with Bush's "axis of evil" which Iran was a part of. It would seem that one day the pot is going to boil over.

Just in case, today we did a little more stock up in area's we were weak in. I think it is a prudent thing to do as I've stated many times before on this blog.


I really don't think much is going to happen tomorrow but, I am anxious to see what comes of it, if anything. There are folks that don't think the US will ever do much of anything to Iran because of the prophecy that would indicate an alignment between Iran/Persia and Russia in the "Gog Magog" war. The thinking is that Iran has to remain a deciding factor in the middle east until then.

We can only wait and see.

Until Next Time