Friday, June 28, 2013

Research Shows that Monsanto's Big Claims for GMO Food Are Probably Wrong

Fascinating science that may not make the light of day in mainstream news!

Research Shows that Monsanto's Big Claims for GMO Food Are Probably Wrong

The article below does a great job of explaining the details of this peer reviewed study, and I encourage you to read it in entirety.  Here is my summation of what they found:

1. GE crops have NOT increased yields overall.  Europe, which banned GE crops, had expanded in yields faster than america which has wide adoption of GE crops.  In fact America's production has remained constant over the years of GE adoption. There simply is NO increase in overall yield.

2. Ge crops, if they do well, are not necessarily due to the genetic alteration at all. The genetic alteration gives one trait to the plant, but the success or failure of the crop could be due to  the other aspects of plant life, having nothing to do with the genetic modification.

3. MOST IMPORTANTLY... there is an inherent flaw in the concept of genetic modification. This is in the concept of genetic diversity (or lack thereof).  GE crops, by nature, so not have genetic diversity. This causes all plants, grown across america, to have the same strengths and weaknesses  as each other. Anything that causes  that particular variety of plant to fail, will cause massive failure because they are all the same! The losses due to this law of nature are greater than any potential benefit from the genetic alteration, and therefore the entire concept of genetic engineering is inherently flawed!

Genetic diversity is a requirement of nature. Lack of genetic diversity is  "inbreeding". It leads to breakdown of genetic strength through common mistakes in reproduction, leading to weaknesses magnified each generation. This happens in plants as well as animals.  The genetic process of reproduction is similar in all of nature. With the adoption of genetically engineered crops comes a necessary lessening of diversity, a drastic one as these researchers found out.

What does this mean? Simple....  even if you lay aside the growing debate about safety of the genetically altered food, even if you lay aside the sure prospects of unintentional contamination of non genetically altered crops and subsequent extinction of pure genes, even if you lay aside the dangers of single corporations owning a bulk of the food supply through patent laws, even if you lay aside the evidence that truly organic production out performs any commercially supported GE crop,   even if you lay aside people's right to know what they are consuming,  even then.... there is the fact the genetic modification as a process violates a law of nature rquiring genetic diversity for survival.  Bottom line.... genetic alteration, even if sfe, responsible, successful, and ethical, WOULD STILL DEEPLY ENDANGER OUR FOOD SUPPLY through the lessening of genetic diversity.

Just one more reason to stop this madness and return to proven organic production supported by soil fertility built by humane animal raising.

Here is the article.. please read and share!
http://www.alternet.org/food/why-monsanto-wrong-about-gm-crop-promises?akid=10630.263650.qUeB-T&rd=1&src=newsletter860970&t=7&paging=off

Friday, June 21, 2013

Why stores sell milk so cheap

Ever wonder why milk sells in the store for $2 to $3 per gallon while milk direct from a farm cost $10 to $20 per  gallon?  How can the farmer, the bottler, two transportation events and the grocery make a profit at 5 times lower cost than farm direct  to consumer with no transportation? The assumption is usually that economies of scale are at work here, and there certainly is some of that. However economies of scale can't explain 5 to. 10x difference with 4 levels if business removed. There must be something else at play here....

There is. The government pays certain farms, larger farms, to produce milk. The price those farmers sell for had little to do with supply and demand, cost of  production, or any normal free enterprise businesses principles. It had to do mostly with how much tax money goes to sellers to producer milk. As soon as the tax payments to farmers end... Prices go up dramatically as large farmers are forced to actually price according to cost of production.

But this is good, many think... The government keeps food costs down. Well hold on. Someone pays the taxes... Government doesn't make money, it takes it from citizens. So this is just shuffling money around, not keeping food cheap. Those that don't drink milk are forced to pay to produce milk for this that do drink it .

More importantly, this tax scheme called the farm bill is unfair competition. Add a small farmer producing real milk, our prices can not compete. We have to actually cover costs of feed, labor, insurance, facilities, maintenance. Etc through only milk sales. The larger farms exist on tax money instead. If the government would stop paying for milk, direct farm prices would seem much more in line.  Then we could talk about economies of scale vs quality.

Even deeper than this is the forcing of centralization in agriculture through government control through handouts. If only one type or size of business get large handouts, government is essentially controlling the entire market. Tax supported milk is cheap, only large companies get tax supports, so small farms can not compete. Soon you Gav centralization into only large corporations. Quality slides since size of producer determines method of production. And method of production determines quality.

So next time you pay taxes, remember that you just paid, in part, your milk bill. The part of you milk bill that you don't see.

This post was inspired by the following new story.... Intended to be as political news story, but what I see as a small farmer is government sanctioned unfair competition through forced taxation.

"Trouble for Boehner, dairy prices? Guide to farm bill defeat - Fox News" http://feedly.com/k/12Zo62U

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Introducing --- Easy Peel Eggs!

If your like most people.. peeling hard boiled eggs is a real challenge.  Its a tedious meticulous process  where, in the end, you loose half the eggs  due to tearing of the whites or stuck shells.  Yet, hard boiled eggs are SO useful! Quick snacks,  deviled eggs, salad toppings, on and on... so many uses.  So we struggle through with this procedure or that procedure.. adding this or that to the water, cooking a certain way...  There is even a gadget on the market  that allows you to crack the egg before cooking into a plastic container and cook it in there like a hard boiled egg.

We have seen, and tried it all! in our effort to make pickled eggs at home in decent quantity without spending all day peeling ... we tried everything. Finally... we found it. A cooking process by which.. the hard boiled egg literally falls out of the shell!

We now offer pre-cooked hard boiled eggs in our online store for your convenience! Cooked once a week, on order, the day before delivery, these eggs are easy enough to peel to use any time. they keep for about a week in a cold fridge, ready for your use in a pinch!

Watch this video of yours truly peeling one of these eggs... first the chicken egg:



Duck Eggs, they are notoriously hard to peel! The whites are thinner, and the membrane tighter, so peeling a hard boiled duck egg is nearly impossible.  Virtually every one ends up with scars, holes, tears, etc.  But not with our newly discovered cooking method! Watch this video to see how easy a hard boiled duck egg can peel!


THE TECHNIQUE 

 to peeling an Easy Peel Hard Boiled Egg:

Step 1: crack the egg lightly all around, try for an even fracturing of the eggshell on all sides. dont hit it hard enough to brake the membrane, just to crack the shell.

Step 2:  Gently push with your fingers on all 4 sides as in the video to work the membrane loose and further fracture the shell

Step 3: When the membrane feels loose, simply slip it off. Sometimes it helps to open one or both ends first.

Do NOT try to peel the egg the traditional way, a little at a time.  Try to remove the membrane instead.  That makes it literally fall off these eggs due to cooking method.



Friday, June 14, 2013

NewsFlash! Now the ONLY certified organic AND non-gmo feed in North America

NEWSFLASH!

Scratch and Peck Feeds is, as of today, the ONLY livestock feed in all of North America that is both certified organic and verified non-gmo!

Today Scratch and Peck received their organic certification. All feeds milled June 13th and after are now certified 100% organic. This is in addition to the earlier addition of being the first feed company in north america to gain verified non-gmo status through the non-gmo project.

These certification are in addition to the more important fact that Scratch and Peck is the absolute best quality feed we have ever seen.  This feed has always been a nutrient dense feed with whole grains, high in omega 3 content, not pelleted, never heated, and a proprietary mix of healthy beneficial ingredients. It is also local, grown and milled on the west coast. You can not find a better quality feed through any other source, we know.. we looked for a very long time !

We are very excited at Little Sprouts Farm to be the Southern Oregon representatives for Scratch and Peck, stocking all their popular feeds locally for pickup or delivery through our local delivery service.

Watch for the CERTIFIED ORGANIC LABEL on  chicken, turkey, goat, hog feeds !

For information on how to switch to this awesomely healthy feed,  contact Little Sprouts Farm at :
541-826-4345
 or
email feeds@littlesproutsfarm.com

or go straight into our online farm store to order yours today: http://www.farmigo.com/store/littlesproutsfarm

If your buying chicken, pork, eggs, duck, turkey, from a local farmer, have them contact us to talk about offering this nutrient dense feed to their animals at bulk discount prices.

Donate to support this blog

Little Sprouts Farm is now accepting donations to support the information presented in this blog. Look to the right and you will see a new "donate" button that allows any size donation through paypal. If you  find the information here useful, or entertaining, we ask that you take a moment to donate whatever amount represents the value you receive by reading.  no amount is too small nor too large :)

All monies donated will be used to support our operations, including this blog. you will be supporting small farms, sustainable agriculture, humane treatment of animals, nutrient dense food production, beyond organic principles, informational sharing, traditional food preparation, and our efforts to educate the world on healing through foods.

We would like to thank each and every one of you in advance for your support!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Todays bacon experiment

Today we have homemade salt cured bacon wrapped around slivers of onion, sprinkled with paprika, chili powder, and a little dry mustard.
Oven roasted at about 400 degrees.
Yum!

Late Season Lamb Born!

We do not artificially  control the breeding cycles of our animals, who all live in communities of male and females, just as they would in the wold. This results in the occasional our of season birth.  This year we were blessed with a late season lamb born just this week!

I am happy to report that mom and baby are doing fine! As the only small lamb in the pasture, he is very adorable!

I hope to add a pick to this post soon so you can meet him!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Raw Milk Officially deemed a LOW risk food

Raw milk, the food of humans for thousands of years, vilified by the US government in the 1930's, is finally emerging as the safe, healthy food  that it has always been.  The Canadian government (CDC of British Columbia) has issues studies showing scientific proof that raw milk is in fact a LOW Risk food.


The reviewer, Nadine Ijaz, MSc, demonstrated how inappropriate evidence has long been mistakenly used to affirm the "myth" that raw milk is a high-risk food, as it was in the 1930s. Today, green leafy vegetables are the most frequent cause of food-borne illness in the United States. British Columbia CDC's Medical Director of Environmental Health Services, Dr. Tom Kosatsky, who is also Scientific Director of Canada's National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health,welcomed Ms. Ijaz's invited presentation as "up-to-date" and "a very good example of knowledge synthesis and risk communication."

That says a lot! so today, instead of banning rw milk, the government should be banning leafy green vegetables! they are inherently dangerous due to modern farming practices.

Will the US government follow suite? probably not. Our own government is pushing GMO everything to the world and exporting chemical based farming methods, already proven to fail in the long run even today. America is leading the world in destruction of the most basic commodity, food.  So, I would not expect to see anything positive from our government about raw milk for decades to come.

Now, that said.. in defense of our government.... raw milk WAS extremely dangerous in the 20's and 30's.  This was due to sadly faulty farming practices, geared to raise profits at all costs. During those days, brought on by unscrupulous dairy farmers, the government was right in trying to protect the public.  However, the mistake they made was blaming the milk for the farmer's mistakes. Milk was never inherently dangerous, any more than leafy green vegetables are dangerous. It is the farmers, agriculture focused on profits and conventional methods, that sicken people.  Any food can be dangerous if produced improperly.

So, we applaud the Canadian CDC for their bold admission of the truth.

Heartbreak is part of farming

Today we say goodby to a friend,  one of the first two milking goats of our herd. Rachael was overwhelmed by a severe case of mastitis that got out of hand too quickly to catch. Hunter was at her side when she took her last breath.

Life and death is such a constant on a farm. It is something you learn to deal with as best you can.  Times like this are especially hard because milking animals are very different from other farm animals. Most others are destined for meat production, and so you tend to keep an emotional distance. Milkers, are different. it is more of a partnership between man and beast. every day, twice a day you bond with them. milking on a small scale is a relationship. each goat is special, has a personality, a "way".

There are so many good aspects to the life of farming, but there are also periods of heartbreak.  This is one of those. Hunter, our oldest, worked with her diligently during treatment. Last night he spent time building her a special bed in  her private stall, caring to all of her needs. At bedtime, both him and kaelyn included her in their prayers. This morning he was up checking on her, and refused to leave her side when we saw she had gotten even worse. He was with her at the end. As a parent it is both heartwarming and heartbreaking to walk the children through this side of life. We know in our thoughts that this is a part of life we all must face, but still it is difficult to introduce a child to death of one so close.

Life is fragile. It is a blessing, but it can end at any moment for any one of us.  Each day we wake could be our last, or our loved one's last. It is a indisputable fact we all face daily.  Recognizing this inevitable fact can either bring dread of the future, fear, darkness.... OR it can bring a special enjoyment for the moment, the appreciation for life itself and the joys we are experiencing now.  It was said by someone that how we face death determines how we face life.  This seems especially true when so close to both.

My prayer for you, as you read this and think of our 10 year old with red puffy eyes, tears flowing,  is that you find a deeper appreciation for what you have in your life that is good, enjoy it, embrace it, and thrive. Our moments are limited, lets not waste any of them.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Solar Powered Self-Propelled Turkey / Hen Coops are operational!

Yesterday we hit a milestone!  Finally, after months of delay, we re-activated the fist of our solar powered self -propelled turkey / hen coops. If you recall form a previous post, the last design worked ok except we struggled with the anchor point (ground would be too hard in the summer)  and the constant extreme tension was pulling the winches and lumbar apart.  This latest design solves both problems!

fist, we created the coop anchor. This is a 1000 lb block of concrete encased in old tires (recycling!)  with rebar hooks for moving and attaching the coop winches to.  At 1000 lbs, the anchor is heavy enough to outweight the coops themselves so we no longer have to drive a series of stakes in the hard ground.  We simply use the tractor to pick up the anchor by hooking the tractor forks through the top rebar loop, move it, and set it down.  The coop winch cable connects to the anchor easily, and  presto,  a self-propelled coop. The anchors cost about $50 in concrete and rebar... the tires are of course free.


The winch anchor in place. notice the cable form the lower front  loop. 

here is a shot of the extended cable. this is the stock cable, about 75 feet long. We can add a 150ft cable  to allow for less labor. 

The second problem,  constant tension, took more thought.  The winches are auto-braking type, meaning once the run to a point they brake there and hold tension indefinitely. most cheap winches do this. The only way to remove tension is the revers the winch slightly after running it to pull the coop. But how to do this without adding yet another timer?

Where there is a will, and some creativity, there is a way! I ran across an unorthodox idea.... using a large capacitor  as an inline timer circuit. I say unorthodox because technically, this use is bad for the capacitor and cuts its life. We'll see how much that is.  I dont think it will be significant.

I built a simple inline RC circuit to reverse the winch any time it was operated, just enough to release tension.  The inch itself has a relay drive. you connect 12v to one relay and it moves forward, the other and it moves backward.  My timer output is a relay contact also, with both positions (NO and NC). TO make this work, we connect the common of the timer relay to 12V, the NO contact to the forward winch relay, and the NC contact to the inline timer circuit, The timer circuit is just a capacitor (about 4000mfd) in parallel with 500 ohm resistor.  This goes inline with the winch control wire for reverse.

How does this work?

When the hourly timer triggers calling for a coop move on schedule,  this triggers the winch timer. The winch timer energizes its internal timer relay giving 12V to the winch control relay. The winch moves forward pulling the coop. the timer goes for about 5 to 10 seconds and moves the coop 1 to 3 feet.

In the reverse timer circuit ( the capacitor and resistor), there is now no voltage applied to the circuit since it was connected to the NC contacts of the timer relay. Therefore, any charge within the capacitor bleeds off through the resistor.

When the timer stops, the timer relay de-energizes. This removes 12V from the forward winch relay and the coop stops moving.  At the same time, the NC contacts of the timer relay close again, providing 12V to the top of the reverse timer circuit. Since the capacitor is discharged, it immediately charges to 12V. This energizes the reverse winch relay for about 3 seconds. Once the capacitor is charged, the current stops flowing and the reverse winch relay stops.

So, as long as the winch runs for long enough to discharge the capacitor, the end result is forward movement followed by a removal of all tension from the winch cable.  This repeats each time the schedule timer runs. (a further improvement would be to adjust the resistor size so that the trickle current in between winch run times is minimized to save power. )

So there you have it... a solar powered, self propelled turkey / hen coop  that can house up to 100 chickens, complete with nesting box, or 50 turkeys. They live on real ground, have safety from predators, self contained water and feeder, roll away nesting box for clean eggs, and get fresh green grass hourly. All we do is fill the water, feed, and collect eggs, then every 3 to 4 days move the winch anchor with the tractor.

here is the winch, ready for action. the small box on the left is the winch relay box. 

The electronics hiding under the solar panel. Before rain comes I'll need to enclose this is some sort of plastic box.  you can see the battery, the solar charger, with two timers mounted on top. Wires could use some tidying up. 

here is a shot of the electronics. The schedule timer, with up to 20 set times per day to activate. Above that is the winch run timer. the white circle control sets how long the winch runs per activation and thereby how far the coop moves. at the top right is the reverse timer circuit. I used 2 capacitors because we didn't have one single large enough. 

the electronics and solar panel ride alongside the coop on a pallet mounted on skids. the pallet is  hooked to the coop by a small chain and hook. before wind hits, i'll need to mount he solar panel to the pallet more securely. 

So there it is, almost perfect! Just a few finishing touches and.. well.. build 6 more !

Monday, June 10, 2013

Blaptica dubia coming to Little Sprouts Farm

 The Blaptica Dubia are coming!

Due to arrive this week is our starter set of 500 of these little jewels. 

So what are Blaptica Dubia?   Well.. they are free food, easily produced, fast growing, and excellent for chickens, ducks, and turkeys! It is an in sect, a roach, that offers higher nutrition than a meal worm with a shorter lifecycle.  We are still working on our meal worm farm, in fact we will be building the next phase of meal worm habitat within 2 weeks. But adding these Dubia Roaches brings a further variation in diet and an even more balanced diet for the birds.



Why Dubia Roaches?  here's a list of the things that contributed to our decision:

  • Shorter lifecycle, long life
    • they reproduce in about a month but life for 1 to 2 years, making at scale production easier
  • Simple needs
    • they live and reproduce with only fairly simple environment controls. heat over 80 degrees and humidity over 60 %.  These conditions are easy enough to maintain at scale
  • Higher nutrition
    • these bugs have higher meat to skeleton ration than most, providing more nutrition per bug. n fact, a single dubia roach is equivalent to 5 to 6 crickets
  • Slow moving
    • makes then easier to catch, feed, contain. 
  • No Smell
    • we will verify this once we start this project but reports say they dont smell with minimal care. unlike crickets and other critters that have an obtrusive aroma
  • No bedding needed
    • these guys seem to prefer clean floors to substrate (bedding) making habitat maintenance easier.
  • Dont fly nor climb smooth walls
    • this is a big one! bugs that fly are notoriously hard to produce at scale. These guys do actually fly (males do) but like a chicken, they only fly downhill, so escape is nearly impossible. The also can not scale straight smooth walls. containment is relatively simple. 
Why raise bugs?  Because we raise birds, lots of them! Bugs are a prime food for birds. In the natural habitat, grains and seeds are only a small part of their diet. Birds need bugs to be healthy and produce healthy eggs.  So.. we are raising bugs! Chickens and turkeys are simple NOT vegetarian, not by any means. In the wild they will go after a bug (meat) over grain any day! 

Our goal for our birds is 1/3 bugs, 1/3 grasses, and 1/3 grains. (when all goes well). Adding more bugs, produced at scale, will further cut our reliance on grains and outside input. It will also dramatically increase the already high nutrient content of the eggs. 

As we get the bug habitat installed and operating, we will post pics of how it is going.  

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Eggs, Conspiracies, and Corporate America Self Interests

This is a touchy topic, but a topic that I feel must be addressed from time to time. This post could be easily mis-understood so I appeal to you to keep an open mind while proceeding through this post and refrain from jumping to conclusions.

I feel the need to defend.. or at least explain... corporate america. many of my friends in the health food movement are now picking their jaw off the floor. Defending corporate america is.. well.. un-america, un-natural, dangerous, and unwelcome in many circles that also support natural foods, natural living, and true health.  Surely you have heard and maybe even contributed to the complaints against the rich, the 1%, evil corporate america  behind xxxxx conspiracy, corporate greed, crony capitalism, etc. There are many names to call, all speaking to basically the same idea. The idea that those in power are evil and conspiring to destroy the rest of us through some specific or even non specific way.

Conspiracy theories abound today. Whether it be based around GMOs, chemtrails, climate engineering, money controls, etc, etc. Choose your conspiracy of the day and there is a group of people passionately attached to it and promoting it with facts, half facts, and assumptions. each conspiracy theory is based on some facts, some truth that can not be denied. Each also stretches it to some degree either willingly or unknowingly.  I AM NOT HERE TO DEBATE ANY PARTICULAR CONSPIRACY THEORY.  let me make that clear.  I am offering a look at another side of the story that we should consider.

As you know from our story played out here on this blog, I come from "corporate america".  Yes, its true. I have spent many years as an executive in small firms, dealing directly with large firms, fortune 1000 and fortune 100 companies. I have spent time personally with CEO's and other executives from these companies. Expensive dinners lavish surroundings, etc etc. I have been to the other side of the tracks so to speak... and met the "enemy". I have experienced fist hand their thought process, their motives, their approach to things.

These people are not monsters, sitting alone in ivory towers conspiring to destroy the world like Lexx Luther in a super man movie. These people, every one that I have met, are people. they have wives, children, grand children. They have similar fears, problems, dreams, needs, wants just like the rest of us. We are all people, we all work basically the same way. They have children suffering from autism, ADHD, food allergies, developmental problems, health issues of all sorts. They are pained watching their children struggle just like anyone else. They are people, humans living through the same "human condition" as you and I.

These executives are not intentionally destroying their grandchildren's world for their own profit, BUT they have been misled by the lies of common knowledge. They have bought into the common knowledge of health, medicine, environment, etc. They are simply doing and believing what the experts say. Vaccinations, flouridation, modern medicine, food groups, low fat diets, etc etc. all these things have experts behind them touting the benefits. It is hard.. as I and those in natural health circles know, it is hard to buck the system. it is personally challenging to believe that the common knowledge is wrong. My point here is that these executives do not wake up in the morning thinking "what part of america can i destroy today", they wake up thinking "i will do good today, based on what i have been taught is good".

of course there are bad apples here and there.. that fact of reality is across all economic and social levels. bad apples exist everywhere.  I am speaking of the majority, not he exception.

But  wait you say, if these are people just like me, why do they do such evil things!?!? no, they must be evil conspirists.  I would never do such things to destroy our world, our country, our children. NO you say NO, they are monsters focused on spending their life destroying mine!

Well take a step back a second.... I am proposing that you dont need to have a conspiracy to do evil things. and whats more.. we, you and I, are doing EXACTLY the same thing on a smaller scale. Our world of influence is much smaller, but we are in charge just the same, and we make the same decisions, same mistakes, within our world.  let me explain.

corporate executives are there for one reason to make money for their employers... stock holders.  if you own stock, you are their boss.  that is a business reality. it is the stock holders who collectively wield all the power. executives are "bound" by the will of the people, to create a stock profit at all other costs.  Is it right to point to the one pulling hte trigger, or the one making the plans to pull the rigger, demanding the trigger being pulled?  It is the stock holders who have said "make a profit for this stock or you are fired".

Do you own any stock? any retirement funds? 401K?   if so, then YOU, my friend, are the ultimate decision maker within corporate america. The very OWNING of stock by you sends a mandate to the CEO to make that stock increase in value, or you will fire him.

Ok, perhaps your reeling a bit from that point, or perhaps you are saying "but i dont own stock".... this next point hits even closer to home.  You are in charge of a piece of the world. each of us are. no matter how rich or poor, we have a sphere of influence where we are the king. What have you done with yours that is different from corporate america? lets explore a bit.  Jus as I said earlier that executives dont wake up thinking how to destroy something, so to, you and i, wake up thinking how to do good based on what we believe to be good.  But, my friend, you and I have been misled also.

Have you ever used commercial fertilizer on your lawn? have you ever used weed killer?  how is that different from a commercial farmer doing the same on the ground under his control?  Have you ever used conventional soaps, perfumes, cosmetics, shaving cream, toothpaste, etc... ever look at the ingredients? are you really giving these things to your children? they are full of unknown chemicals you probably can even pronounce! Ever used conventional cleaners with strong aromas to make cleaning easier, the ones full of dangerous checmicals and fumes? laundry soaps? ever used dryer sheets or detergents with brighteners that lave chemicals in the clothes to make them look brighter or softer but also let chemicals soak into your child's skin?  sunscreens full of known cancer causing agents on your child?  do you drive a car? a vehicle known to produce dangerous, even poisonous gases with every mile? Do you use electricity? known to casue countless tons of gases and poisons to fill the environment somewhere else?  Do you have non-stick pans  to make cooking easier, covered with chemicals that come off into the food that you feed your own children? Do you buy cheaper conventional vegetables so that you can have more money for recreation, allowing your own children to absorb poisons to a level where it can be easily tested for in their urine? Does your shower curtain smell of vinyl, a cancer causing aroma? Have you taken your child to the dr and given them round after round of antibiotics for ear infections, even thought they do NO good? Have you given vaccinations to children under 1, even though those vaccinations are useless?

I think you get the point... we, each of us, in our own sphere of influence are making choices and decisions every day based on what the common knowledge is, just like corporate america. WE are causing just as deep of damage to those in our own control as they are to those in their control. Sit and think about your children, once grown, realizing that the things you did without thinking, caused them or their children health problems that can not be fixed. they come to you demanding an explanation "WHY DID YOU VACCINATE ME WHEN YOU KNEW IT "COULD" CAUSE LIFE LONG PROBLEMS FOR ME AND MY CHILDREN". they could accuse you of being that evil on in control, making choices for your own good, you own comfortableness, at their risk.

We are not so different from those with a greater sphere of influence.

But wait you say.. they are spraying our atmosphere with toxic metals to destroy the soil so that they can sell GMO foods only!  you say. But wait.. dont these people still have grandchildren? do you honestly believe that they purposefully will destroy their own grandchild's world for today;s profits?  the grandchild they bounce on their tired knee?  I don't. (except for the occasional bad apple) These are people like you and I. Perhaps they honestly believe GMOs are fine, no danger. perhaps they believe the majority of scientist that say so, with proof. Perhaps they seriously wish to feed the world and believe the majority of our higher education thinkers who say that only gmos can solve world hunger.   You believe that antibiotics help a young child with ear infections... they believe gmos can solve world hunger. Same thing.. different sphere of inflence.  that does not make them any more evil than you and I.

What does this have to do with eggs? why are eggs i the title?  Another very important and related issue... profit.

It is easy to accuse corporations of doing evil things to make profit. The first point i make above is that .. yes, there are there to make a profit... stockholders, regular people  with 401K's in a mutual funds, demand that this be done.  BUT, sometimes  we accuse them of things they are not guilty of.  For instance...

Eggs are a very important part of the healing GAPS diet. to do GAPS properly requires a huge amount of raw egg yolk. A person on GAPS should get close to a dozen raw egg yolks a day.  THATS A LOT OF EGGS! you can not , should not, ever, consume that many eggs unless they are from a known good source. The eggs must be fresh (hence not store bought), pastured, soy free, and organic. This is nearly impossible today. We realized this in our own family and started producing our own eggs to match our need. It is expensive to do this. We then started offering these eggs to others, at a small profit.

Now, today, when someone starts out on a healing diet to cure autism for their child, I will automatically recommend lots of eggs, but only of the type we sell on our farm, at a high price.

BUT WAIT you say... follow the money... you have no created an expensive product, that you advertise and push to people that need it, to make yourself a profit! I am doing hat corporate america does.. anything for a profit!   You are taking advantage of the fears and needs of people to make yourself a profit by increasing the demand of that product and selling it for a high price!

No, absolutely not.
We realized that eggs, done right, are required for healing.
We realized that eggs of this type can not be found in most places, they do not exist.
We decided to produce the product people need
We priced the product at a reasonable price based on actual cost to produce.
We push this product to people that need to heal.

Is that evil?  If I was a large corporation i could easily become a target for doing what i think is right, trying to help others. If you didnt believe that eggs could heal, you would surely accuse me of being part of the corporate america plot to bury the world in chicken poop.

People like Dr Mercola live off the sales of expensive health supplements that they spend time pushing. Is that evil? If you had something that you KNEW would heal people, would you not try to produce it and push it to people that were suffering without it? Would you need to charge enough to make back the cost of production? is it wrong to make a profit so that you can ONLY produce that product and still feed your family?

Look, here;s the bottom line of a long post.  CEO's and such are not evil people trying to destroy you, they are people just like you and I. They have been misled by the common knowledge, the system, just like you and I. They have a greater sphere of influence, but you and I have made the same innocent mistakes with grave consequences, only the scale is different. Most of us can only affect our on families, not an entire continent.

Before we support conspiracy theories, before we "follow the money", before we attack others, at an economic level,  for destroying our world, perhaps we should look at or own piece of the world and see that we do not do the same mistakes.

Perhaps we should focus on our own sphere of influence, and make sure we do not have a log in our eye, before trying to pull a splinter out of our neighbor's.



Saturday, June 8, 2013

Coop anchor

We finished our first test design of a moving coop anchor. If our math is right this should weigh 1000 to 1100 lbs. That's just enough to serve as an anchor for our self propelled solar coops and yet easily moved by the tractor.

It consists of 3 old tires, rebar, and lots of concrete. Total cost about $50. There is a carry hoop on the top nice and wide so the tractor forks can easily catch and pick this up to move. There are also rebar hooks on each side, between the lowest and next tire. These serve as the place to attach the hook from the winch cable. 

In theory, we will use the tractor to place the anchor in position where the coops should end up. Then we can attach up to 4 coop winch cables to it and it will allow the winches to pull the coops to itself over the next 3 to 5 days. , then you move it and repeat. 

It will sit until next week to cure, then we will test it.