The busier I get is directly related to the time between posts. I'm sorry if I have worried anybody unnecessarily. I am feeling fine and doing good. New Year's Eve is probably my favorite holiday because it gives you scheduled day to reflect on the past and look forward to the future. I'm not much for schedules but sometimes if something isn't scheduled it never gets done, you know?
There has been a lot going on lately. Irie started walking at 10.5 months and is now running and climbing at 13 mo. She still doesn't talk but she has no problem communicating. Quinn is halfway through his first official year as a homeschooler. In fact, a week from today we have our first evaluation with the county board of education. He's learned his addition/subtraction facts so next will be multiplication. Mike has been busying himself lately fixing up our Pittsville house. Our renters moved out right before the big cold snap and unfortunately our pipes there froze. It gave Mike an opportunity to re-insulate and re-plumb the place his way and then rant about what a brain dead way it was done before. He loves that. Alli will be moving in there as soon as he is done and we will be moving our Hip Klip office there too. More about Hip Klips later.
Mike also has bought out 5 acres here from the CREP, a government program to keep your land in trees, and fenced in some goats! We now have 6 goats: 2 original ones from Holly, 2 from a farm in DE where we got our second dog, Baily, and 2 more goats from the auction a couple weeks ago. At that auction he also bought two pigs who were nearly full grown. A day or two after he brought them here he discovered one of our pygmy goats had a broken leg. He fashioned a splint for the thing and wondered what in the world could have happened. The next day the other little goat was limping too. He then realized what was going on when he spotted the pigs chasing the goats out of their grazing area. The pigs were attacking the goats. So... we had some pork chops that night!
Ok, back to Hip Klips. We had a really busy holiday season since we had picked up a couple new and productive reps in a tradeshow in Ft. Lauderdale this summer. We were sending orders out almost every day in November and nearly ran out of klips! We thought to ourselves that Dec. would be even busier and wondered if we could keep up. December came and we hardly sent anything out. We realized then that as a wholesaler your busy season is before the holidays, not during. Alli just got back from a tradeshow in Atlanta. I still can't go with her since Irie hasn't been weened yet, so the only person available to assist in this trip was her mom, Holly. We kept Alli's older son, Shiloh, and on the way to Atlanta she dropped off her younger son, Sir Juddah with her sister in Greensboro, NC. It worked out well. I was in charge of taking him to preschool every morning and making sure he did his homework. He's a very picky eater who hardly ate a thing other than raisins while he was here. I teased him that he must be a plant since he seemed to live off water and sunshine.
Now here we are. Alli and I have lots of orders to fill in the coming months. Now all we have to do is get more product! Yikes. This a rare quiet moment in the morning. The kids aren't up yet. I should be doing some yoga. I should be getting my web work done... and the dishes... So many things to do... so little time.
Folks. Because I care about each of you, PLEASE either rent "A Crude Awakening" from Netflix NOW, or go here and read all about something called "Peak Oil". This is not some crazy ranting; it's not some silly Y2K fear; it's not some wacko leftist theory; it's real. It's unimaginably far reaching effects will eventually lead to another great depression and I fear the dominoes are starting to fall. If nothing else just humor me, OK? I'll wait.
Happy New Year
The eggs and meat from our animals -- and soon milk when we get our dairy goats -- supply all of our protein requirements and a large portion of our calories; protein and calories that formerly came from tofu, veggie burgers, and other foods that required significant human, petroleum, and natural resources to get from the fields to our stomachs. Thousands of people would have been involved in growing, harvesting, storing, processing, packaging, shipping, and shelving our food just to have it reach our table. Given that only a tiny fraction of all the people involved in this process would have been vegan themselves, the simple act of buying tofu for a year would have inevitably resulted in far greater suffering than the quick death of a handful of chickens and couple pigs, and there was certainly far greater environmental impact.
Now that we are raising our own animals and providing this nutrition for ourselves, all of these middlemen and the resources consumed in the process are eliminated. I have personally slaughtered all of our animals, and right up to the point of death, I ensure that they live happy, healthy, natural lives. Our chickens and guineas are not confined in any way, and while the goats are in fact kept inside a electric fence, it is mostly for their own protection, and they can get out if they really want. But since they have several acres of tall grasses and brush to run around and forage in, and a nice house inside the fence to retreat to when it's hot, cold, or rainy, they are quite happy on the inside.
When it comes time to kill an animal, it's done as quickly and as painlessly as possible. A chicken, for example, is taken from the coop at night while it is roosting, walked to the chopping block, and in one swift motion its head is axed from its body. The pigs were shot between the eyes as they grazed. In all cases the animals lived peaceful, comfortable lives right up to the point where they were killed, and very few natural resources were consumed during their lives. Quite the contrary, their lives actually benefited the local ecosystem, as they provided us with pest, weed, and brush control without the use of chemicals or mowers, and their manure provides a rich source of fertilizer for our garden.
So yes, technically I suppose this diet cannot be called vegan, but I believe it is actually a step forward in supporting the fundamental principles that most vegans stand for; namely minimizing suffering to sentient beings and minimizing our environmental impact on the planet.
Check to see if information is correct. Please let me know your specific cancer diagnosis - the medical term. Also the year you were diagnosed and anything else you think is relevant for the listing such as a transplant. If you have written a book or memoir, I can feature it in a special Cancer Book List section. Please include the name of your blog in the email so I can put the information in the correct listing.
Cancer Blogs I & II has been a very popular (over 8000 visits) and valuable resource for folks. It allows people to view what others with a similar diagnoses have gone through. And it brings additional attention and traffic to survivor’s blogs. It is helping to build a strong, vibrant community of survivors.
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Please see my January 10 post - New Year’s New Face - for additional changes in the website. WIshing you a happy and healthy new year.
Dennis Pyritz, RN
leukemia & transplant survivor
beingcancer@att.net
www.beingcancer.net