Lead us not into temptation

Most anyone that's familiar with the modern dairy business is aware of the many opinions concerning cow comfort. Articles, research, and books have been written about how to keep a cow stress-free and happy. Most of which is common sense.

What hasn't been given a lot of attention is worker comfort. With all the tangible figures about stall size, feedbunk space, parlor throughput etc, nobody (to my knowledge) has given much thought to what makes a worker stress-free. Now I'm obviously talking about larger farms who employ non-family workers.

Modern free-stall dairy barns have mostly been constructed with exclusively the cow in mind. When building these mammoth barns, the only concern is construction that will generate a return via the cow. Naturally the owner has control over what the barn will look like.

And this brings me to my real point. The real trap of large scale dairy farming is not cull rate or if you use rbST or not, but it's the presumption of some owner that employees are dispensable at best and on the periphery at worst. Most large farm owners are more concerned with farm (meaning their) goals than they are with employee retention. Duh! The employees are the ones you enable to meet those goals. It's one thing to take advantage of an animal; it's quite another to take advantage of your neighbor.

Many well meaning people fall into traps. If you're a small farm and want to expand, ask yourself first 'how will this impact my neighbor?'.

Mere Humanity

Against the crude dogmatist of the Iconoclast, John of Damascus defined an image as "a mirror and a figurative type, appropriate to the dullness of our body." And he followed the Neoplatonists in treating images as a way of using the senses to rise above the senses, to the eternal world of divine essences. God's Incarnation in Christ was itself a recognition of the weakness of the flesh, of man's need of images. The Christian image of Christ, of Mary, or of the Saints was "a triumph, a manifestation, and a monument in commemoration of victory." When anyone viewed a sacred image, he participated in the victory of Christ over the demons. "I have often seen those with a sense of longing," John of Damascus recalled, "who, having caught sight of the garment of their beloved, embrace the garment as though it were the beloved person himself." Christian worship of icons showed similar affection for the image that was really addressed to Christ Himself. The Christian use of icons was not pagan but simply human.

Daniel Boorstin, The Creators, pgs 189-190

Oh We Go

October 2005 - After Hurricane Wilma rips off the church roof and drenches the sanctuary, Dr. Kennedy encourages the congregation, telling them this is "our finest hour."

Cider Basket

Blogger video takes too long so my videos are here.

Quality Craftsmanship

My kind of cartoon

This is just a test