Sunday, April 13, 2014

Swimming, dandelion jelly and the new milk goat

The boys are loving the swimming pool and it is hard to break their focus of it.  The weather has been nice, but now it is raining again.  Good for my pond fish and good for the gardens, bad for doing much else.

Before it started we went out and gathered dandelion flowers to make jelly with once we have enough.  I am already thinking about the fair and entering canned stuff.  I want to have so much more then we entered last year.  I got third in the state on something, but I have forgotten which jar it was.  Maybe this year I will get a second place in State, that would be nice.  I am hoping to enter at least five flower jellies.  Kudzu, rose, dandelion, violet, and maybe elderberry.  We will just have to see as the time draws closer.

I and Glenda went to almost Salem yesterday and picked up a new milk goat. She is a La mancha from a different line then ours, but the same breeder. She is about half the size of the one I have now.  The two goats met this morning and it did not take long for Ice cube to show the new girl that she was the boss.  They called the new one Love, hate it...Michael thinks we should call her knuckle head, as she does not listen well.  I am thinking some think nicer, but I have not come up with a good name yet.  I will have to work on it.  She appears to be a bit of a terror, took Michael quite a bit of time to catch her and bring her in to be milked.

I walked around the gardens today, looking at all the new life, it is really amazing what a few nice days can do.  We picked the first of the asparagus, some curly dock green and some field garlic to go into tonight's supper.  We will make some thing with the left over turkey as our big meal for the holiday will not happen quite yet.  To be honest I am no feeling the whole Passover thing right now.  Not many people seem to read the part in the Torah where it tells you to stand up and eat in haste.  I just think a forced sit in, well it is just not my thing!  I think I might even feel a bit offended over it all.  When G-d being holy removed the Jews from Egypt it was not because we were slaves in the way we think of slaves, I doubt they were walking in chains, many were known to have slaves of their own.  I think it was more of assimilation issues, they were so much like those they served, they were living much the same as the Egyptians were.  They were owned a lot of stuff, much like to day. All of us to some degree have made ourselves slaves to the things we own, the life styles we lead.  Our ancestors could never imaged the lives we lead today, with so much stuff.  Even the computer I am typing from is a form of bondage.  Just see how much you can get done in the real world with out it.  My point is that if we really wanted to remember that G-d freed us, maybe we should quit putting the chains back on.  I think it is wrong to though the motions of any event, just because it is tradition, to be blinded by this is its own slavery.

I am not a slave my clothes, my cars, my home or anything else.  I wear what is comfortable to me, it need not be fancy, I dress in a lot of black, not because I am Jewish, but because I like black and it shows dirt less, and well let's face it, I am a bit clumsy...lol  I wear my hair long, so does every one in my household, I do not change when the styles change, this is how I am.  Even if Pork were Kosher, I still would not eat it, I turn up my nose , so to speak at many Kosher food items, that even with the Orthodox label are not even close to Kosher enough for me.  I only eat Kosher bugs, i.e. certain crickets and grasshoppers.  If it is made from cactus bugs and has a Kosher label on it, no thanks.  If it has GMO ingredients, I will pass as well.  I judge the Rabbi who put the money in his purse to in error for allowing it to be so.

One of the reasons I raise my own meat on the farm is because the Kosher butchers to me are now where I deem them questionable as our the farms. I dislike commercial farms very much and feel it is wrong to treat any animal in such a manor.

I do not want an animal to suffer on my count so it can be my food, and I am not against the eating of meat.  I love meat and we make us of all we can and give the priest share to the poor and widowed and yes the stranger in the land.  When a animal is killed it should be killed quickly and be treated with respect.  It gave its life , so that you would live.  A very deep emotional bond should be between us and our animals, they should live happy healthy lives and have a kind death.  Being a farmer is not a job, it is a life style and while I see Homosexuals fighting to protect their life style chose, there are few fighting to be farmers.

As a farmer, I feel we should live in kindness, I am not a communist, I am not even sure I a capitalist, I feel I am a realist. I see the world for what it is.  I know I can not fix everything, but I do not have to stand by and watch it all go down the crapper either.  I can chose to grown our food, raise our children in a way that merits G-d and the earth.

To those of you celebrating the holiday, I wish that it is peaceful for you.

Be blessed from the Mountain

Shekhinah

No comments:

Post a Comment