All of nature connects me to the gift of the present moment, but animals are especially good at drawing me in. Maybe it’s because they are experts at being in the here and now. Walking and training my dog, Marley requires that I be present and vigilant as he is constantly wanting to chase or smell something. We’ve made progress. Stroking the formerly feral Mama Cat is soothing as I listen to her purr which gets louder over time.
Is it time for our walk?Who’s that handsome guy?Purring on the Catio
The residents at the Farm Animal Sanctuary where I volunteer are always doing something interesting to help me focus on the now. At least once a week, I go there to cut produce and feed the two pigs and 11 roosters, then I hang out with the goats. There are also three sheep at the sanctuary who graze at will.
Goats Nuzzling Padre and BenniePatrick SmilingSimon the Rooster with Angel
For more on CFFC, visit our host, Cee by clicking HERE.
Today’s prompt for Just Jot it January is “surviving.” Thanks to Wendy for the prompt and to our host, Linda Hill, for keeping us going! You can learn more about #JusJoJan at Linda’s post HERE.
Until I started volunteering at Blueberry Lane Farm Animal Sanctuary, I hadn’t had much personal experience with chickens, goats, or pigs. Now, the menagerie is like extended family. At the sanctuary, they are not just surviving, they are thriving, and they are loved.
Every Thursday, I prepare lunch for the sanctuary residents. I cut up produce and feed it to the pigs and roosters and check to make sure the goats have plenty of hay. The pigs were rescued from factory farms and the roosters from kapparot where live chickens are twirled overhead. The roosters get along fine for the most part. After feeding, I like to hang out with the gentle old lady goats. The goats were rescued from petting zoos or breeders where they were not well cared for. Esther is one of my favorites. It’s taken a while for her to trust me.
Esther’s stomachs are permanently distended because she was not fed properly. When she arrived at the sanctuary, Esther was secretly pregnant. Her daughter, Mira, short for Miracle, was a sweet surprise. Mira, being born on the farm, is friendly and assertive. Now, Esther gets different kinds of hay, forages in the yard, and gets lettuce and other greens as a treat. She loves it when I pick an occasional green leaf off of a tree for her.
Surviving is usually better than not surviving, especially if there’s the hope of something better. Animals living in small cages, enclosures where they cannot turn around, as with veal calves and lactating pigs, or living in terribly crowded conditions on factory farms, may be surviving, but their lives are miserable. We humans can do better. This is why I’ve progressed to being about 95% vegan and why I volunteer at the sanctuary. If you’ve thought about reducing your meat consumption, it’s now easier than ever. Vegan alternatives and restaurants are popping up in most cities. Consider meatless Mondays. It’s a great time of year for minestrone or lentil soup!
‘The most ethical diet just so happens to be the most environmentally sound diet and just so happens to be the healthiest’ – Dr Michael Gregor (quote found here.)
Sheep and GoatsEsther and MiraGoat NuzzlingA happy pigPatrick and FrancisRooster Emmanuel likes hanging out with the pigs. Nice tail feathersOwl keeping watchLeo is so handsomePadre and Bennie in the summertime
Don’t forget to check out Linda and Wendy’s posts at the links above!
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood and Linda Hill has decided to have fun with today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “on the farm.” Find a word that has a farm animal sound in it, i.e. sMOOth, and use it in your post. Bonus points if you include three or more. Have extra fun! ___LGH
Hey Linda! Did you know your initials remind me of the word, laugh? Okay, then farm animal. I’ve always loved horses and had one of my own in my early twenties, but I have not been close to a horse in about a year. I’ll be going to Ashton Farm in June for some horse energy! But neigh reminds me of neighborhood.
I like my neighborhood. Some days, I love it. The houses were built in the forties and need some work. Mine needs a lot of work…. but the neighborhood has plenty of old trees and is quiet most of the time. It’s not perfect, we do occasionally get suspicious activity in a house down the street or a dog running loose, but for the most part, it’s great.
I still want to find a house in the mountains some day, too. That’s very much in the dreaming stage. Dreaming about a house, a cottage in the woods. My house is a little urban cottage near the coast. Ahhh. Dreams….. I don’t want a homeowners association fee though and all those rules. Neigh, not for me. Unless the house is otherwise perfect because anything is possible!
Love your neighbor as yourself means don’t forget to love yourself, too. That means I need some freedom to be me and let my yard go a little wild and woodsy. Not manicured. That’s just me. If someone asks you to do something that feels unhealthy or like you would be betraying yourself, then, just say neigh. Not for me. But what might be for me is bonus points if I can find two more words with farm animal sounds.
OINKER. My husband says he’s an oinker. Not that he’s fat, overweight is more PC, (Sorry. It’s SOC) though we’ve both gained a few pounds since we got married. Here’s what he means by oinker:
One
Income
No
Kids
Expecting
Retirement
Did you know that pigs are more intelligent than dogs? I’m tempted to say, that’s why I don’t eat them. But I have to come up with one more animal sound/word. So I’ll go with something easy.
Moon, Moon, I love the moon. Do cows ever howl at the moon? I guess they’d moo at the moon. I bet it’s happened.
While she was jumping
over the moon,
she mooed.
Wouldn’t you?
I don’t eat cows either. I’m never in the mood anymore for burgers. Don’t miss em. Never liked moon pies much. But dark chocolate, that’s calling me. Dark chocolate makes me want to howl at the moon. Here’s a song about the moon by America. I had not heard it before now and stumbled upon it looking for “Blue Moon.” You never know what you might find.
For more farm animal sounds in the Stream of Consciousness, visit Linda’s post!
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.
Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt is a touchy subject for me. The word is, “ham.” Being an “almost vegetarian,” I don’t want to get preachy because I am so imperfect. But ham is one thing that was never hard for me to give up. It has something to do with pigs being mammals and at least as intelligent as dogs. Why do we live with dogs and love them so much, but eat pigs?
Chicken and fish are another story. Is it right that I haven’t had the same success with giving up eating animals that are so much more different from me? But when I watch those videos about factory farmed chickens, that has given me strength. I’ve just about got the chicken thing down. A piece might slip in through a broccoli casserole, but most of the time, I’m done eating chicken.
I’ve been reading a book about raising chickens by Kelly Chripczuk, called Chicken Scratch, Stories of Love, Risk and Poultry. It’s a sweet little easy-to-read account of her adventures raising chickens. She makes them sound so lovable, or maybe it’s because she is so loving. I met Kelly at a writer’s retreat at God’s Whisper Farmwhere of course they have chickens, along with goats and beautiful Great Pyrenees dogs, but no pigs as I know of. I wonder if someone would write a book about pigs like Chicken Scratch. But the problem is, pigs don’t lay eggs, so…. let’s not get too complicated. Pigs could make good companion animals. They’re really smart, so they could be service animals -fetching things, letting you know when someone’s at the door…..or they could just be pigs for pigs’ sake.
So, yeah. I have no trouble not eating pigs or cows and most of the time chickens. Fish and shrimp are a bit of a challenge, but lent helps. During lent, I can be a strict vegetarian, knowing it’s just for 40 days. Dairy might be included this year in my abstinence plan for lent. Almond milk is pretty good once you get used to it. It tastes lighter somehow and seems to keep longer than cow milk. That reminds me of this commercial from a few years back that just tickled me. Let me see if I can find it.
I enjoy watching the new milkman keep a straight face.
Talk about ham!
(The pig photo is from pixabay.)
The Saturday Stream of Consciousness is brought to you by Linda G. Hill at
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.
Lent – the forty days between Mardi Gras and, Easter – is the only time, so far, I’ve been able to be a true vegetarian. Not vegan (I still eat cheese – still working on that) but vegetarian – no beef, no pork (the easy part for me) and no chicken or fish (the harder part.)
My husband respects my goals on this so much, that he voluntarily doesn’t eat “red meat” at home and doesn’t eat much meat in my presence, besides chicken and fish. A few weeks before lent, he asked me if I minded if he brought home some red snapper someone at work had offered him. Since I’ve occasionally indulged in seafood (except during lent) I said okay. As a tomboyish youth, I took pride in cleaning fish myself, but this time, I was happy to leave that job up to my husband. The night being cold, he scaled the fish and cut off the heads in the kitchen. The smell was not pleasant.
Then I saw it – The eye of the red snapper, staring at me, from my own kitchen sink. The eye’s blank look confirmed that it was dead. But it was still shiny. The fish had been frozen until it thawed in my sink. Could the eye possibly still see me?
I think I’m going to get better at this vegetarian thing. It’s about time. I’ve been working on it for about 40 years. Not eating cows and pigs has been easy. And after watching enough videos of what happens to baby chicks on factory farms….. well… I think I’m done with chicken. Now the eye of the red snapper has given me an extra push toward being a true vegetarian. Even though the taste of its well prepared flesh was flaky and mild, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have, if I had not seen the eye.
On the eve of lent, during my church’s annual Shrove (aka Fat) Tuesday oyster roast, I only ate three oysters – well done and dry, not slurpy. Oysters don’t have eyes, but I wonder: Are they still alive when the heat of the roasting fire forces their shells open?
Sometimes I wish I didn’t think about such things.
Now, for a somewhat humorous, yet honest, look at this issue:
It’s about progress, not perfection.
(The red snapper image is by “Paulk” via Wikimedia Commons)
“Beef.” I don’t miss it. Not one bit. I don’t miss pork either. I stopped eating those things in my early twenties. Maybe I was twenty. If so, I’m coming up on being beef and pork free for 40 years!
I’m not comfortable with today’s stream of consciousness post being “beef.” It does give me an opportunity to share, to encourage, movement toward vegetarianism. But I don’t want people to think I’m being judgmental. I don’t want to force my eating habits on anyone, anymore than I want to force my religious beliefs. But they are mine, and this is my blog, and this is my stream of consciousness post on “beef.”
I have to be honest. I’m not a perfect vegetarian. I still eat fish. Not often, but sometimes I get tired of nuts as my main protein source. I’ve gotten way better at abstaining from chicken. And during lent, I am able to be a strict vegetarian, moving toward being vegan on some days. In case you don’t know, a vegan is someone who does not consume any animal products at all. No eggs, no cheese, no leather goods. I know that it’s quite possible to do. But I haven’t gotten there yet on a consistent basis.
The chicken was a challenge for years, especially barbecued chicken, when the sauce gets a little burnt….okay lets step away from that. It’s also a challenge when there’s a really good casserole with just a little chicken in it. Guess I might need to refresh my memory with some videos about what happens to chickens on factory farms, especially the little baby boy chicks discarded in heaps, like pieces of trash and not living things. But I don’t have to watch the videos. I have a good imagination. I can remember.
Here’s a link that seems to just have photos and words, a little easier than the videos:
If you’re on the fence, the videos help. But they are hard to watch. Interestingly, I never had that much trouble not eating cows and pigs. Because lets be honest, beef comes from cows, and pork comes from pigs.
It all started in the late 70’s, in college, when I read an article by a hunter who wrote that anyone who opposes hunting and eats meat is a hypocrite. I thought about it. And then quit. I am aware that animals hunted and killed quickly after living a natural life have it much better than animals on factory farms. But most of us have enough other options available to us, that neither is necessary.
I’m thankful that there will be plenty of alternatives to turkey this Thanksgiving. Like pumpkin pie. Mmmmm!
Today’s Stream of Consciousness post prompt was the word, “beef.”
If you’d like to jump into the stream, start here:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.
Anything is Possible! 