Michigan

[chicken grandma]

We are here! Just reading and trying to keep up with you all!

As far as farmers go - God bless them! That has got to be the hardest career in the world.
I mean a lot of people wants cheap food and how can you produce quality food cheaply? So I agree with you Juise. We got cheap food but lost the quality.

Since I am a consumer, I am guessing that supporting small local farmers is the best way that I can contribute to the solution.
Like going to the farmer's market and buying organic. Gettting meat and eggs from local farmers.

My concern is that the organic farmers are going to get overrun with salmonella or other illnesses in their animals because from what I have seen in Michigan, we have alot of animals moving around and a lot of disease (including migrating birds, we are right in the migration path).

Hopefully Olive will give us some ideas on how we can change the food production system. It is changing slowly!

 

[EeyoreD]

Ugh, you want tadpoles? Why didn't you just come over to my house with a net and bucket?

Haha! Seriously! Just come on by and mow my lawn with nets around your ankles. You'll have plenty of grown ones!

 

[BackyardFarmMom]

Do you guys and gals have a problem with new replys not popping up? I have to go to the page before then go back to the next page to read the new feeds and go from there... it won't even come up if I renew the page. WTH???

 

[EeyoreD]

Do you guys and gals have a problem with new replys not popping up? I have to go to the page before then go back to the next page to read the new feeds and go from there... it won't even come up if I renew the page. WTH???

I'm not but you may need to clear your cache (if you don't know how to do this, tell me what browser you're using). You can also try to hold down the Ctrl key when you hit refresh, that will bypass the cache and force a shiny new reload.

 

[BackyardFarmMom]

Okay, you are speaking Dutch. I have internet explorer... What is this cache you speak of??
I will be back in a little bit... I have 2 three year olds dying to go outside!!!

 

[Juise]

Quote:

We are here! Just reading and trying to keep up with you all!

As far as farmers go - God bless them! That has got to be the hardest career in the world.
I mean everyone wants cheap food and how can you produce quality food cheaply? So I agree with you Juise. We got cheap food but lost the quality.

Since I am a consumer, I am guessing that supporting small local farmers is the best way that I can contribute to the solution.
Like going to the farmer's market and buying organic. Gettting meat and eggs from local farmers.

My concern is that the organic farmers are going to get overrun with salmonella or other illnesses in their animals because from what I have seen in Michigan, we have alot of animals moving around and a lot of disease (including migrating birds, we are right in the migration path).

Hopefully Olive will give us some ideas on how we can change the food production system. It is changing slowly!

Absolutely. Please note that I am not lumping "farmers" together as one catagory. Farmers whose animals have access to sunshine, pasture, and space to live are not what I am so frustrated with. Obviously it is not the way I choose to live, personally, but it is not what aggravates me so.

I would also like to note that while we buy organic only, we are not rolling in the dough, if you know what I mean. For that matter, we often barely make ends meet, and sometimes we don't. The food we put into our, and our childrens' bodies, though, and the aggraculture we wish to support, are important to us, and we make many sacrifices to that end.

I do not buy many processed foods, I do not buy packaged foods, we do not eat out, I grow a lot, and I spend a lot of time preparing meals. We do not have TV, or spend on "extras" but on rare occasions. In part, that is a parenting choice as much as a frugal choice, I would not have TV, or all the new, plastic, electronic doodads for my kids no matter how much money I had available to me. I make most of their toys, and their own creativity and imaginations do most of the work in their entertainment.

Organic can be expensive if you buy prepared meals, however, when you make your own food every day... I doubt we spend nearly as much on our "organic only" food choices than many people do on conventional.

 

[Juise]

Quote:

Okay, you are speaking Dutch. I have internet explorer... What is this cache you speak of??
I will be back in a little bit... I have 2 three year olds dying to go outside!!!

Well, there's your problem, you're using Internet Exploder.

 

[RaZ]

Ugh, you want tadpoles? Why didn't you just come over to my house with a net and bucket?

Aren't you pretty far away from me?

Ribbet Ranching?

Sure, ribbit ranching, frog farming, amphibian agriculture. Bullfrog busting and toad taming a specialty.

I'm trying to get a breeding group of bullfrogs and green frogs here, so I usually buy a dozen or two each spring. Sometimes I get a call to go rescue tadpoles from in-ground pool covers.

 

[EeyoreD]

Haha sorry. (and I thought about running this post through BabelFish into Dutch for you but, well, I'd say I'm not that much of a jerk but the truth is I'm, just lazy. A lazy jerk.)

Skip this paragraph if you just want to know how to fix it. The cache in this case is very similar to a backwoods food or weapons cache. It's a place where things are stored for quick retrieval. Basically browsers will store information like pictures and even entire pages that you visit frequently so that they'll load faster. However, sometimes the cache gets overfull or glitches out and doesn't work the way it should. So you need to clear it out.

To clear your cache in Internet Explorer (if you don't see the things I'm talking about you may have an older version of Internet Explorer):

1) Click on the little gear-lookin thing in the upper right corner and select Internet Options.
2) a third of the way down you should see a section called "Browsing History" with a button that reads "Delete..." Click on that button.
3) A window should open, make sure everything is unchecked except: Temporary Internet Files
4) Click OK


It may take it a minute to delete those but that should help. This is the least intrusive way, you will still have you passwords and stuff saved but it should force your computer to refresh a little smarter.

 

[EeyoreD]

Quote:

Well, there's your problem, you're using Internet Exploder.

I was going to be nice and not go there... but you're right!