And the sheep get fleeced...

[altivo]

	Fleeced Again! 06May2006 Instant reducing diet. One minute they look fat (or is it fluffy?) and the next they are svelt. Anyway, with the rising temperatures, they are bound to appreciate the difference.
	Six Bags Full 06May2006 And here are the results, bagged and tagged, ready for sale. One gray, two black, three white.
	Disapproval 06May2006 The boys watch the goings on with considerable disdain. They know we aren't about to shear them, and they don't approve of sheep anyway.

Comments

[niko-winterset.livejournal.com]

*grins* Cute ponies. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Fuzzy lawn ornaments, you mean.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Eek! The sheep are nekkid!

(er, did I say that last year?)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I'll have to go look.

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

You know, this kind of reminds me of the ancient Egyptians and the ancient Israelites. The Egyptians who commonly used horses destested the Hebrews who were primarily herdsman and had no horses, but lots of sheep! Oi, sorry, must be my recent Bible study lessons leaking out from my brain ;)

I do say though, those boys are cute :) And now the sheep are nude. Bunch of exhibitionists ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The sheep are luxuriating in feeling cool at the moment. It must be a terrific relief to get rid of all that wool once the weather warms up. They get much more active, racing and jumping around, head-butting in play.

Perhaps the Egyptians agreed with me that sheep are quite inedible. I don't know how anyone can stand the smell, let alone the taste.

Actually the biblical conflict over lifestyles that I remember most vividly was that between the agricultural south and the nomadic herdsmen of the north in Israel. The culture clash appears repeatedly, all the way back to Jacob and Esau, and can be seen in the two creation accounts of Genesis.

[ebonypony.livejournal.com]

Why should one approve of such a lowly beast? They don't even have proper manes!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Because they are amusing to watch and inexpensive to keep. And I like nice warm socks and mittens and sweaters in the wintertime. Living on the coast of Australia you've probably never experienced the kind of cold we get here.

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

Life onna farm!

Oh how I'd love it.

Or maybe not, but it has its romance. ^_^;

Actually, when me grands came from the old
country a bunch of them ended up doing what
the Amish do these days; get a job in local
industry if the farming ain't doin' it.

That lead to me old pa being a steelworker
and...me having occasional nostalgia fits
for my uncles farm.

*goes off and listens to Red Barchetta from
Rush*

o/My uncle has a country place, that no one knows
about...he says it used to be a farm.../o

Sorry, your post struck a distant chord. ^.^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Life onna farm--> You get to shovel shit every day. But maybe that isn't so different from most office jobs, come to think of it. ;P

My grandparents all started out as farmers. All of them left the farm and went to city jobs for better money in the 1920s. (BEFORE the Depression hit, in fact.) I have photos of my mom's father making hay and cultivating using horses for power. They're wonderful old things.

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

I understand, in today's agribussiness its hard to even
contemplate small farming, though there are collectives
that you can join to sell to large supermarket chains, but
thats iffy itself.

As for shit...well I work with the handicapped...I get to
do that for a living anyways, shoveling up after hoss or
goat or sheep wouldn't worry me much. XD

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, the "system" is in the control of big corporations like Cargill now and small or very small farmers are shit out of luck. It is illegal here for me to sell eggs or honey unless I do it from my own property. I cannot sell them to restaurants, stores, or deliver them to buyers. The same rules apply to vegetables like tomatoes, eggplants, or cucumbers. Restaurants are forbidden to buy from me even if they come to me to pick up my product.

Are my fruits and vegetables more dangerous or inherently inferior to those from California mega-farms or imported from Mexico? Hell no. Every case of food poisoning, E. coli, or other contamination in produce, eggs, or honey in the past two decades is traced to commercial products or imports, handled by those big companies and not by small farmers.

My grandmother, as recently as 1976, baked pies in her own kitchen and sold them to local restaurants. Customers raved about them and begged to be allowed to buy whole pies and take them home. Today she would be forbidden from selling her baked goods because she did not own a "commercial kitchen, inspected and approved by the health inspector." And the restaurants offer "pies" that are made out of cardboard and sugar, as far as I can tell. No taste, no quality. No thanks. But Sara Lee or whoever is getting the money for those zero quality pies, and that's all that matters. Corporations always come first in America.

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

I've never checked into this locally but
its illeagal for you to sell your
produce!? @.@

Thats...very bad.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I can sell whole fruits and vegetables only from a stand on my own property or at an officially licensed farmer's produce market, which is much the same. I cannot sell honey at all legally. I can sell eggs only at home, not at the market.

The local grocery stores are not permitted to sell local produce. The local restaurants are not permitted to buy or use it. These are supposedly "public health" laws, but in reality they were lobbied into existence by the big wholesalers and mega-farms.

Yep, it's all true. I even know someone who had her eggs seized because she was selling them in the farmer's market, and someone else who was threatened with arrest and fined for selling honey.

If they could do it, I swear they'd make it illegal for me to EAT my own vegetables. Bad for business, doncha know.