Get Real

This memo is for all the treee huggers out there that are working SO hard to save the wild mustangs. I'm sorry but you've been watching too much TV. Wild horses are NOT native to the Americas. The indigenous people (or the first immigrants to the area) did not have horses. Horses were introduced by the Old World invaders - most notably, the Spaniards. Horses are an invasive species.

Hello? Anybody listening? Horses are an invasive species. Like kudzu or the nasty little clams trying to attach themselves to your boat. Or Formosan subterranian termites. Horses cause a TON of damage to the ecology. Just look at any pasture that has horses in it - torn all to h*ll. Nothing but dirt. And that's what happens when they are allowed to run wild - they like to go back to the same spot and turn it into dirt. The western ecosphere is way too fragile to allow the uninterrupted consequence of wild horses. All the "wild horses" - call that feral horses, need to be gathered up and taken care of.

Now you may be weeping and moaning and gnashing your teeth at the idea of gathering up the feral horses. Just like feral cats, this would be a better life, or end of life solution to a massive problem. I'm not suggesting that this land would be better used as pasture for sheep or cows - not at all. It takes years for the land to recover after horses. Give it a rest, then decide what to do with it. Restore the native grasses and let nature take it's course.

Now anyone that's had a horse for more than a minute will tell you - they need tons of care. Their feet need to be maintained. Their teeth need attention. Nutrition for elderly horses is ghastly expensive. Stallions will fight to the death. Mares reproduce like bunnies. The wild horse lifestyle is not all running with the wind in their hair. Adequate forage is difficult to find, shelter in harsh weather is non existent. As a custodian of the earth, these animals need to be gathered up and taken care of.

The next problem that needs to be resolved is slaughter of horses. Again with the weeping and wringing of hands. I'm not saying that the way it's been handled in the past is appropriate. ALL livestock needs to be treated with dignity and respect. Cows included. Chickens included. Turkeys included. But eliminating the slaughter of horses has had some unexpected consequences that the tree huggers need to be aware of. In the past, the slaughter of horses gave a floor price to the value of a horse. Even the most miserable, bad tempered horse was worth "x" dollars a pound. If a horse bit or kicked or had no teeth and was loosing weight, the slaughter house would take it. The value for the worst horse was at least $500. Let's be realistic, there ARE bad horses out there. And the poor animals that end up in a riding stable would be better off with an adequate end of life solution.

An old horse needs incredible amounts of calories in order to maintain their weight. Senior horse feed is pelletized for old horses that can't chew hay. It runs $15 -$20 a bag and an old horse can go through 2-3 bags a week. For an old, sway backed, past it's prime, no use, lawn ornament. I knew a lady that had her son's first pony, still on the farm, sucking up senior feed. Her words? "D*mn thing is 32 years old and just won't die!" Multiply that times thousands, hundreds of thousands, MILLIONS of old horses, left out in the field to slowly die, their owners unable to afford the expense of special feed.

So if we "Get Real", a few things would happen. Humane slaughter of horses would begin. The wild horses would be rounded up and given new homes, the old, infeeble, would be taken care of in a humane fashion. The horse market would return, the value of a horse would return and the slow miserable starvation of horses would end. It's the right thing to do.

Sorry about the delay...

To my fan,

Sorry about the delay in posting to this blog. On the advice of my attorney, it was recommended that I keep my mouth shut and not use "The F Word"....(Frito). But upon reviewing my past blogging, it's too late for that. I think I just about said my piece when it comes to the Frito empire and it's management. Nothing like a year (or in this case 15 months) to put a little distance on it. Now it's in the hands of the attorneys and I just hope that it's not wasted money.

Out here in the woods, it's summer. and not like any other summer y'all ever saw in California. It rains here in the summer. Then it gets hot. Then it gets real, real, real green. And bugs. Lotsa, lotsa bugs. I am caviar and filet mignon for insect invaders. Bugs like to bite me. It looks like I have measles. Not ticks so much, since the woods are too overgrown to hike in right now, but chiggars (little suckers that dig under your skin at the sock line), mosquitos, and biting flies. The biting flies are the worst, since they bite right through fabric. When you feel the bite - too late, they've had their meal and off they go. Itchy, itchy, itchy!

But the green is amazing. My little garden is running amuck! I planted canteloupe, gourds and butternut squash in a newly reclaimed area of the chicken yard - and the stuff is growing up the fence and out into the cow pasture. The gourds are so cool - all mixed varieties, and just so cute! I hope the livestock doesn't eat them before they get mature - they are supposed to the proper size for birdhouses. When they are mature and dry, you cut a hole with a drill bit for door knob holes and shake out the seeds, paint them white & the martins will use them for nests... or so I've seen. The good thing about this, when the martins leave for the winter, you simply throw away the bird houses. Regular martin houses have to taken down and washed out every year - ugh, don't like to clean bird cages, did it enough as a kid! Martins are supposed to be a very beneficial bird, as they eat flying insects. They do make a wonderful little chirpy noise as they swoop and fly around their bird houses. So, overall, I think I'd like to have some houses out for them, just not the maintenance of bird apartments.

I have watermelon growing, I planted this for my family. I'm not particularly fond of watermelons, they don't agree with me, but the family loves them. I planted these on the side of the driveway, out in full sun. I do have a dirty horse that has decided she like canteloupe vines and is pruning them back at the chicken yard, I sure hope she doesn't notice the watermelon - I actually have a lovely melon about the size of a basketball & I sure don't want it's vine munched by this stinky filly. I've never grown watermelon before, so this is kind of neat to watch it get big.

enough for now, I have to do something with the zucchini I've picked. I wasn't getting much zucchini, the yellow crookneck was doing way better. Until we had some rain and it pushed the leaves around and then I saw them. Moby Zucchini. Three of them. Probably the first ones that started, hidden under the leaves. Zucchini has to be picked daily, if they are allowed to fully develop, you don't get many. So here I had the 3 originals. 2 feet long, 20 pounders. ugh. pitched them over the fence for the cows to eat. I did have 1 great white shark size which will be shredded and baked in bread. been putting that off - why would I want to start the oven in this heat? I did see one recipe for fried shredded zucchini - looked pretty good. I may shred, squeeze out the water and freeze some of this stuff. just to get it out of the refrigerator and off the counter. Green beans are starting up and those I want to keep. It frightening to see how many big lovely green tomatoes are out there - I will have to can those guys when they are ripe, I still have some frozen ones from last year! I think I'll try to can some salsa, THAT I'll eat, just add the cilantro after I open the jar, since I don't want to cook it during the canning process.

yep, nothing like train of consciousness blogging. hehehe. multi tasking thinking: gardening - freezing - canning - food processing all in 1 paragraph.

my next task is to get photos posted. just have to figure out how to get the camera to talk to me, or maybe get a newer camera that has directions...