Apparently our government doesn’t have enough damned work to do so they are out harassing hard working people (the Amish, for crissakes!) over selling raw milk.  Really?  REALLY?

It isn’t bad enough that the government is allowing Monsanto to pollute our seed stock and then take legal ownership of it, but now they have to step in and tell a dairy farmer to stop earning a living?

Oh, but no.  This shit just don’t fly with me.

Full story on NaturalNews.com.

That’s right, I’m breaking the law but I’m a rockstar, that’s what we do. 

In this case the container in question (a bread rack) was discarded when a local supermarket closed and I salvaged it because it will be a perfect seed starting station.  I find it laughable that someone would rather a perfectly functional item be relegated to the landfill than to find a new long term use.

Also salvaged on that day were:

• An old snack display with powder coated white wire shelves
• a few milk crates that will be repurposed as nesting boxes in the chicken coops
• discarded wooden pallets that will be used for everything from temporary fencing to goat pens.

It goes without saying that I don’t advocate theft outright, but in cases like this I see what I did less like theft and more of a rescue and recovery mission.

Earlier the same morning I had to go to the local landfill and while there I discovered several pieces of wooden shelving and a solidly constructed wooden stand that happened to be the perfect size for my chick brooder.  I left the landfill with more than I arrived with and I don’t see that as a problem.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. 
– Thomas Edison

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When the work schedule gets a little crazy and I spend more time in my office than on my farm it is easy to forget how lucky I am to have the life I’ve got.

Case in point: here on the farm we have two hens setting right now and in order to keep up with births and such I keep a fairly detailed calendar.  According to that calendar, one of the hens was due to begin hatching eggs today.  Our human calculations can only take us so far and sometimes Mother Nature needs to remind us that she’s still in charge.

When I checked in on the Black Japanese Bantam hen at lunchtime yesterday, I saw a tiny head poking out from under her.  In that instant it was as if the stress of the day had disappeared as I was once again caught up in the wonder and beauty of the natural world.

That moment reminded me that for our own good, sometimes we just need to shut the hell up and breathe.  For all the good that has happened over the years thanks to technology, nature can still take care of itself.  Chickens will lay eggs, hatch eggs and perpetuate their species.  Plum trees will grow and produce fruit.  Of course some of any species are going to die, that’s how things happen.  We can step in and try to help Mother Nature and sometimes we can be successful while other times the results are not what we would have hoped.

It is good to remember that life will go on without us.  For me, that knowledge pushes me to appreciate my life and the life around me just a little bit more.

As if that was not bad enough I awoke this morning to the same dog digging his way underneath the brand new chickgloo (chicken tractor) that is home to the week old chicks recently purchased to be raised for meat.  There were 25 of them until this morning, and now there are 20.

Here’s the chickgloo yesterday:

And here’s one of the chicks.  His name is Pecker:

Don’t pray for patience.  Just don’t.

Here’s a closeup of the newly planted basil in the bed:

To hopefully put a stop to this behavior I’ll be cutting down a leftover picket fencing panel and affixing it to one end of the bed. This will give me something to use as a base for a clematis that I rooted last month.