scatterbrain

There has been a lot to think about here lately and I'm too tired to make it really pretty, tidy and clever, so I'm going with point form tonight.

-firstly, that sick lamb has not been responding the antibiotics so I had called the vet to come by today to check it out (to be perfectly honest, the first vet was a small animal vet and I was wanting a large animal vet to have a look).  The diagnosis was a bit inconclusive, although she claims that it's basically footrot, in the mouth.  Gross.  Anyway, it's supposed to respond to penicillin and hasn't, so no one is really sure what is going on, but I'm hating watching the little guy suffer.  The vet seemed pretty keen on getting a post-mortem done which says more than anything else I think. 

-secondly, Rosie calved Sunday morning and had the CUTEST little jersey heifer.  Everything was fine until today when I went over to take a picture of little Rhubarb (Barbie for short) and Rosie was struggling to get up and had all the signs of milk fever.  Of course, this was after the vet had already left from seeing the lamb, so call #2 went into the clinic.  By then, Rosie had gotten herself jammed in the corner behind the water tub and was down for the count.  The vet had quite a time getting her neck craned around to get the calcium into the vein, but about 2 minutes after it was all over Rosie was back up on her feet.  The livestock cost this farm considerably more than they made today.  But gosh darn, that calf is CUTE! haha

-I had registered to hear Dr. Vandana Shiva speak (yep, she was in Canada this week) in Truro on Saturday, but the weather prevented that from happening, so I spent a good part of the day feeling sorry for myself and watching all the pictures and reviews come up on Facebook from people who had gone.  I got a call on Sunday afternoon from my friend Beth, outgoing executive director for ACORN (of which I'm currently secretary), to say that there was an empty seat at the supper table with Dr. Shiva that night in Sackville.  I bundled up and headed over and had a really amazing evening.  Supper was great and her talk afterwards was so inspiring.  I had taken my rubber boot (cleaned) over to get her to sign it and she did!  Ya know, like getting an NBA star to sign a ball or a rock star to sign a guitar.  I also got a couple books signed and gave her some of the "Acadia" wheat seeds that we've been increasing (and Wendell has been painsakingly cleaning!).  I have so much in my head about her talk that I can't put it together elegantly at this point, but I'll work on it.

One sentiment that really struck me was when she was talking about the farmers in India after the 'green revolution' who were growing Bt cotton and commodity crops for export and I thought what she said was also applicable to here.  "When farmers are told to buy certain seed, grow it a certain way and sell it at the dictated price, that is a modern form of slavery."  She's referencing the no-saving seeds, using only GM seeds and the price of the seed, the use of the chemicals sold by the same company and then the pre-determined prices, no matter the seasonal differences, market demand, etc.  And it's not that different here.  We feel like we're in control, but if we cannot save our own seed, we really are at the mercy of the corporations.

She will be appearing on George Stoumboulopoulus this week if you want to check her out.  Or, there are tons of youTube videos of her speaking. 

-I 'gave up' GMO's for Lent, which is to say that I want to take this opportunity to watch exactly how much GM food I eat and prepare.  I thought that it really wouldn't be that difficult given how much organic food we eat, but between the glucose (GM corn), lethicin (GM soy), maltodextrin (GM corn) and canola oil, our food system is in big trouble.  I've had to be a little lenient on the meat front, since the pork we source is 'free range', but is fed conventional feed which almost certainly contains GMOs.  Thankfully Rosie calved just in time, so that in a couple days I won't have to buy milk and butter anymore.  Whew.  I am so grateful that we can source so much of our food locally and that we can buy quality whole food.

-Well, Mark is at another meeting tonight and I have big plans to get to bed early tonight, so I'm signing this chaotic entry off right here.

I hope you feel inspired by your food often.

-Sally