Keep Praying for South Dakota

  My heart aches every time I think about South Dakota and what those folks are going through right now... Half of me feels sick and nauseous, and the other half wants to simply sit down and have a good cry. It's moments like this where I mentally scream, "Why!? Why!? Why!?" It's not fair. I know, life's not fair. But this is like, unfairest of unfairs right about now (and yes, I just created those two words right here and now).

  Are you wondering what I'm blabbering about? I wouldn't be surprised if you don't know. You probably won't see this on the news, because the media doesn't want to cover it (grumble, mutter, darkly threaten). Last week, South Dakota got a freak blizzard. In October. The storm went for a solid 48 hours, dumping 5 feet of snow, and spreading it all over the place with 60mph winds. It was totally unexpected, and lethal in its coming. You see, it's only October... The cattle were all still out on summer pasture, and were still slick coated with their warm weather coats. No fuzzy, insulated cows to be seen. The storm was too harsh and too cold for the cattle (and I've heard a lot of horses were lost too), and many of them perished.

  As the days fall away, the head count of dead and dying is creeping up. When the storm first ended, there was a head count of over 20,000 cattle lost. A few days later the count went up to 60,000... Then 75,000... This morning it looks like we've finally hit the 100,000 mark. These cows froze to death, died from exhaustion trying to walk to shelter, Got buried by snow because they took shelter in gullies and creeks, got hung up in barbed wire fencing that they unwittingly walked into and then either bled to death or died from freezing temps while trying to get untangled from the dangerous, metal barbs... 100,000 cows. Even if we didn't hit that number; what if it had stopped at only 60,000 cattle lost? Try to imagine that many cows, folks. Imagine that was your livelihood. Your business. And it's gone. These people can't even file any sort or report or claim to the government because not only is there NOT a farm bill that will helps these ranchers out financially during this natural disaster, but even if there was, it would have been shut down during this odd moment with part of our government not being in working order.

  There's a count of 6 people missing so far... I have yet to hear if this count is final or not; I pray it is.

 Apparently round #2 of this storm is brewing as I type this; but no one knows yet how mild or fierce this one will blow through. A friend on the Keeping A Family Cow forum lives in SD and is trying to keep all of us forum members updated on what's going on over there.

 If you want to read up more about South Dakota and this storm, I've got some links for y'all...

This one has pictures, to which I will warn that they are NOT pretty. So if you've got little kids, you might want to skim through first: October 2013 Snowstorm.

An article from The Blaze written yesterday.

More images, taken by the public and shared online (I haven't seen all the images yet, so I don't know if any are disturbing).

And lastly, a blog post from The South Dakota Cowgirl, which explains how devastating this storm has been for these people and their ranches.

  Keep prayin' folks... Keep prayin'.

It's A Start

Nothing is impossible. Just know that deep in your heart, dear friends. 

While talking with a gentleman at the meeting on Saturday, I mentioned that I was looking at the possibility of renting a farmstead in Willamina. The man perked his ears at this idea since he had food related projects underway in that small town and was looking for more farming people in his area. Of all things, it turns out that his grandparents used to live in the very house that I've been looking at. With a smile on his face he told me that the hill on that property is the best around for winter sledding. We talked more, about livestock, gardens and rent fees, and then, pulling out his wallet, he handed me a quarter. I cocked my head in a questioning manner as he still held the small coin in his hand; what was this for? I asked. 

"This is my contribution. Come to Willamina."

I grinned at his frankness and jokingly told him that I didn't think a quarter would *quite* cover the monthly rent fee for the house and land.

"Perhaps not", he said, "But it's a start."

I accepted his contribution and tucked the quarter in my pocket. The man was right about one thing at least: It's a start. Very rarely does anyone start out big and grand with anything. We start out in the trenches; scrimping, saving, making do... You start small and work your way up through blood, sweat, and tears. So for me, I am starting small.

I have a quarter. 

Stand Up for Fair Food in Oregon!

If you raise or grow food to sell, how would you like to wake up in the morning to this at your door?

They'll introduce themselves as the SWAT team, and they're here for you. Your crime? It could be many things. Perhaps you were selling some raw milk from your little goat to your next door neighbor. Perhaps you sold some organically grown vegetables to your aunt who lives in town. Or maybe you made a nice pound cake to sell at a fundraising event. It doesn't matter what it was. You don't have the freedom to do any of those things, and if your caught, guess who comes calling.... They do. 

I've said it before.... Our food system has been corrupted. The small farmers who have their head screwed on straight get raided by SWAT teams, and are arrested. They provide good, clean food and get punished. Meanwhile, the big Ag bosses continue to sell contaminated food, that people continue to eat, and they are rewarded with tax subsidies and are given no trouble. Am I the only one who sees something wonky with this picture?

I wanted to let y'all know that the Food and Water Watch is collecting signatures for their Fair Farm Bill petition, and you Oregonians are needed! FaWW would like to deliver 2,000 signatures to Senator Wyden, here in OR, next week. Right now they have a little over 1,400 signatures and only have 6 more days to get the last 600 people needed! Of course, you don't have to live in the State of Oregon to sign the Fair Farm Bill petition. Once 50,000 signatures from all over the nation have been collected, they will be delivered to the members of Congress. We need to speak up and let our government know what we think!!

To read more about the petition, and to sign it, click HERE. 

That wonderful feeling of... Indecision

Last September I sent in an application to have our farm become Certified Naturally Grown. Days passed... Weeks passed... Months passed....And still no answer on whether we passed the requirements. Then, out of the blue, I got a reply this morning about it! We have almost passed all the requirements needed to get the certification. There is just one thing remaining if we want to become certified. And it depends on our neighbor.

Our neighbor sprays his crops with conventional chemicals, and while CNG (Certified Naturally Grown) has said that we have a adequate buffer between us, they want to know how often he (neighbor) sprays his field, what chemical he sprays, why he sprays it, what he uses to apply it, what the slope from his property to ours is like..... The list goes on.

So now I am undecided; I really, really, really,don't want to call our neighbor and bombard him with all these questions. Should I just give up trying to be certified? Or should I at least try approaching said neighbor? 

Methinks I know not....

Heifer International

You can give a man a fish, and feed him for a day. Or, you can teach a man to fish, and thus feed him for life. Heifer international is probably my favorite charity. They are really making a difference in people's lives....

A starving nation?

Third world countries aren't the only places with starving people.

Sometimes, starvation shows different symptoms than what we would normally think of....

Americans these days suffer from many illnesses and diseases that third world countries rarely have problems with: Cancer, heartburn, heart failure, diabetes, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, chronic obesity... What is going on here?

America is a starving nation.

"Wait a minute!" You say, "How can you call us a starving nation, when we have such a bounty of food! The grocery stores are packed! If you're hungry, just go and get something to eat!"

And you are right; our stores are filled with foods of every kind. We are very blessed.

It's not that we are eating too many bad foods, that is making us prone to so many diseases today; It's that we aren't eating enough good foods! Our bodies are starving for good foods that will nourish us. Heal us. Boost our immunity. We aren't eating those foods that would do us worlds of good, and consequently, we are are suffering needlessly for it. 

But, lest you think that I am some sort of person who only eats healthy foods and condemns anyone who so much as whispers the word "chocolate", ;) I really like Reese's Peanut butter Cups. :) Second to that, I think I would choose a raspberry 'Zinger'. I'm human too, and I have quite the sweet tooth. 

My motto is "It's not what you eat every now and then that gets you, it's what you eat every day." I won't die if I eat a candy bar every once in a while, but if I started eating them everyday, I really only have myself to blame when I start having health problems.

Living the life of a farm girl can be overwhelming for me at times. In my hands I have the power to grow and raise clean, nourishing food that will help people. Wow. I may not be able to save the world, but I can help those around me by providing for them good food that will help, rather than harm. I can provide raw milk that will lower the chance of getting osteoporosis, strengthen bones and muscles, enhance the nerves and boost the immune system. I can offer clean meat that contains no hormones or arsenic. Meat that will nourish and provide much needed vitamins and minerals needed for optimum health. I can provide pesticide/herbicide free heirloom vegetables and fruits that will also provide vitamins and minerals, lower chances of getting cancers, heart diseases, etc...

And it's not just me! I only live on 1 1/3 acre of land. If I can raise good food on this bit of land, then you can surely do it too! Do you have a backyard? You can raise chickens and/or turkeys in a "chicken tractor". Do you have a window? You can grow vegetables pots! Have a garage, shed, or some other sheltered place? Rabbits make excellent eating! 

We can make a difference. We can provide good food to those around us. Some nights, I dream about being able to start giving away food, or animals to people. You can give a man a fish and feed him for a day, or, you could teach a man to fish and thus feed him for life. I would love to be able to give cages and rabbits to people, so that they could begin raising their own food too. Then they would give away some of the resulting rabbit offspring, and it would continue on, and on.... Same thing with chickens and chicken tractors. Or goats, or cows.... What can I say? I'm a dreamer. ;D