Synthetic Hormones In Beef Linked With Cancer

Beef produced in the United States is heavily contaminated with natural or synthetic sex hormones, which are associated with an increased risk of reproductive and childhood cancers, warns Dr. Samuel S. Epstein, Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition.




In Increased levels of sex hormones are linked to the escalating incidence of reproductive cancers in the United States since 1975 - 60% for prostate, 59% for testis, and 10% for breast, Dr. Epstein says. When beef cattle enter feedlots, pellets of these hormones are implanted under the ear skin, a process that is repeated at the midpoint of their 100-day pre-slaughter fattening period, Dr. Epstein explains. These hormones increase carcass weight, adding over $80 in extra profit per animal.



Also Dr. Epstein says, "Not surprisingly, but contrary to longstanding claims by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), residues of these hormones in meat are up to 20-fold higher than normal."



Click here for more information >>>

http://www.healthfreedoms.org/hormones-in-u-s-beef-linked-to-increased-cancer-risk/

Small acerage And A Plan

OK, so you have some land.  What are you going to do with it?  You are concerned about the political climate in this country and you feel like you need to use the land to provide for your family.  A very legitimate concern given the uncertainties of the national food supply, nutrition of it and where it comes from, among other things.

Or, you just want to eat healthy, keep your children healthy, naturally.  Provide, in general, for the overall well being of your family.  You have some land and want to use it to provide good, real food-all natural.

You might, like I do, love meat.  Can you provide your family meat on small acreage?  If so, what is the best way to go about it?  I don't think I know the best way in anything, but I think I can point you in the right direction.

For the duration of these discussions, we will approach this subject with the assumption that you already have the land and that it is five to ten acres.  I really want to focus on very small, because there are a lot of us out there.

To start with you have made the determination that you will work toward self sustainability.  The first thing to do is have a good understanding of what that means.  Biblically, a big part of that is taking care of what God has entrusted you with.  That means a conscious decision to treat you land and animals as belonging to Him.

For this, the first, post on this subject we are going to assume you are going to build your home, either hired out or by yourself.  In a sustainable environment, it should be considered how you are going to heat, cool and electrify your home.  Remember, we are focusing on "sustainable" and small acreage.

Heating with wood is a great way to start.  The initial expense can be stout, depending on what you decide to use.  An outdoor wood stove can will save you time and money, in the long run, but are quite costly.  You will need to know the square footage of your home to determine how big a unit you will need.  The nice thing about these is that you can load it up in the morning and go all day and into the night without re-filling it.  A down side is that you will not only have the expense of the furnace, itself, but you will have to wire for thermostats, blower and pipe in duct work, all adding to the expense.  Don't get me wrong, we have friends and family that have outdoor units and they love them.  I just want you to be prepared for the cost.  If you are like us, and I think most of you are, money is an obstacle.

We went with an indoor unit with a glass door, for the romantic side of us.  Ours is made by a very reputable company with a great history called Hearthstone.  It is your typical cast iron frame but has the top, sides and bottom made of soapstone.  I am not afraid to tell you that all the claims Heatrthstone makes are accurate.  We love our stove and the heat it gives is wonderful.  But, don't limit yourself to my suggestions.  Do the research and find the right stove for you and your home.  If you can, in planning your home, do plan for wood heat, you will not regret it.

I will stop for now.  I can't cover everything in one post, so you will have to come back for more on wood heat on your homestead.  Thanks for stopping by and leave some feed back, I love to hear from you.

More to come.

The first post of a series on five acres and sustainability is coming soon!  Probably tomorrow, so hang in there!  I thank you for your patience.  Life just gets in the way, sometimes.

HCS/HJR 86 in Missouri

If you live in Missouri and own livestock, you need to get on the phone to your senators and tell them you support HCS/HJR 86.  This bill proposes a constitutional amendment affirming the right to raise animals in a humane manner in order to protect Missouri's agricultural economy. 

"No law criminalizing or regulating crops or the welfare of animals will be valid unless based ongenerally accepted scientific principles and enacted by the general assembly."  In other words, regulations will be under the authority of the legislature instead of scare tactics generally employed by activist groups and the like.

This bill has passed the House, so call your Senators and tell them to support this bill.

Five Acres And Sustainability

Over the next few weeks, done on a peridic basis, I will explore the idea of small acreage and how to be sustainable.  Not that I am an expert on anything, but we are working toward this end, ourselves.  We are doing this for several reasons, but the top two are the fact that the government and current political climate leaves nothing to chance and the stewardship of God's land.

With this in mind, I have to believe that there are folks out there that are where we aere 12 years ago.  They might be concerned about the state of things, or just want to live a healthier life eating real, whole foods.  Again, I am no expert, but, over the next several weeks/months, I will share some ideas, pictures, anecdotes and general things we have done.  This effort will, I hope, inspire others to a life more sustainable on small acreage.

With that in mind, I want to refer you to an old article I wrote on sustainability to give you a good understanding of what I am refering to.  One thing is for sure, you can grow crops and much of your own food on a small amount of land.  I would argue that you can do a bunch, even in the city (of course, I would get out of the city, if you can).

I look forward to sharing ideas with you and hearing from you.  Come back often and enjoy your visit.

Square Foot Garden Construction

A Week And A half Of Rain

Rain, rain, go away
My grass will soon be hay

trimmed it must be
or we shall have to flee

our homestead is bound
should you come 'round

in thickets snared
so be prepared

for this is a redneck's paradise to see
and a Chevy hidden in the grassy sea

Time To Smell The Roses

After spending the last two evenings repairing the barn roof from Monday night's wind shears, I paused to see God's beauty.  It really is all around us.  Here are some pictures from the wild rose bush in our back yard, enjoy.

Fresh, The Movie

If you haven't already, you need to see this movie.  Here is a teaser.

Rabbit-The Other, Other White Meat

Some nice prospects for the freezer!  Good stuff.

Our Chicken Tractor Water Solution

These are a couple of pictures showing my solution to the water delivery problem we had with the chicken tractors.  As I said, the problem we HAD.  It is now solved.  The bucket acts as a resivoir for the bell waterers and is elevated high enough for gravity to feed the waterer.  All that is required for labor now is to move the tractors (3) twice per day.  This obtains a mob density grazing effect similar to cattle.  (Use the links to the right to read more on mob grazing.)  The birds are happier with their new hanging feeders I made and a constant supply of water.  Less stress equals a heathir bird equals a heathier you.  Thanks for stopping by.   

Eating Wild Carrots

Today we found out that our oldest daughter has a skill that we weren't aware of.  She was outside, somwhere, for quite a while, when she came in the house with a large handful of wild carrots.  She had found them, dug them and was even munching on one.  She said that they tasted good, so I tried one.  I have to admit that it wsn't that bad.

This is something to consider when faced with a survival situation, wild herbs.  There are plenty of them our there and they are good for life sustaining food.  You just need to know what to look for.  How Abbie knew, I don't know.  I asked her and all she told me was that it looked like an herb that mommy has so she dug it.  I guess she didn't really know it was wild carrots, but now she does.  The best thing, especially from a homeschool standpoint, is that she discovered this for herself.  I am impressed.

This has got me thinking.  What do we know about wild, edible foods?  Things that can sustain life in a crisis?  Things to bone up on, to say the least.  Identifying edible, wild plants is a definate skill and very useful to have.  If we want to survive, these are things to know.

Pasture Crawling?

If you follow rotational grazing, or, mangement intensive grazing, you know that pasture walking is an important aspect of your management.  It is important to get a look and feel of the condition of your pastures, to see bald spots or other damage that needs repair.  Or to find holes that might need filled.  Most importantly, you can get a feel for the condition of the soil, based on the life on the surface.  We have been working on this soil, here, for several years now.

Today, I did a pasture crawl.  Yup, you heard me right, I got down on my hands and knees and crawled around on the ground.  No, my eye sight isn't so bad, yet, but I did want a closer look at some legumes and I just stayed down there.

I am excited as we have legumes, clover and Korean Lespedeza, growing, voluntarily, in our pastures.  These two legumes are spotty, but there none the less.  This is good news.  Legumes are nitrogen fixers.  They capture the N in the air and transfer it to the soil, which makes for healthier grass.  Grass need N to grow at all.

This is something that I have not been very pro-active about planting.  Not because I didn't want to, but, because I just haven't, for what ever reason.  I did throw down some seed a few years ago, but never saw anything from it.  I grazed it way too soon after soing that it was probably eaten before it got established.

I have written before about inadvertant planting, and I think this is how the clover and lespedeza got there.  When I feed hay, I scatter it in different places, trying not to feed in the same place twice.  There are seed in the hay and the cows, with their magnificent hooves, plant the seed for me.  It is quite wonderful to watch God's creation do what it is supposed to do.

While down on my knees, I tried a clover leaf.  The first taste seemed good, but then there was the after taste.  I'm glad cows like it, I didn't think too highly of it.  I will stick to eating it in the form of meat and milk.  It tastes much better that way.

Leave some comments sharing what you discover on your pasture walks, or, crawls, as it were.