New Year's Resolution: to paste the term "Eco-Terrorist" back onto the forehead of logging companies, newspapers owned by logging companies, bushmeating companies, ranchers and farmers who use our money to destroy wildlife and rivers, and anybody who thinks killing things is "fun," or life is to be "harvested." Carl Hiaasen can help. I wish I had an emoticon for "barracuda."
Showing posts with label survival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label survival. Show all posts
Monday, December 01, 2014
Monday, February 28, 2011
CHICKENS AND SKIN MONKEYS
So scared the chickens were not going to be all right in the bitter cold -- but they're out there eating popcorn for a treat & drinking the freshly-replaced water AM & PM, & still laying. The crows insist on their own big bowl of popcorn too, and swear at me if they don't get it. Whadaya gonna do? Now I'm a bird flunky as well as a cat servant.
I was worried about the poor cold chickens and was trying to figure out how to warm them, when I realized if I did, they'd lose their natural resistance to cold. It's like losing your night purple after using a light in the dark. The best cure for cold for outside animals is lots and lots of good food, so they can lay on lots of fat.
Wild animals all have houses; their own tough skins. WE lived in deserts, lost all our hair, had to wear clothes against the sun. It must explain why nudity is a sin in the middle-eastern religions; it's DANGEROUS to run around naked in equatorial deserts.
The more "purebred" Makah up here run around in sleeveless t-shirts on miserable, cold, rainy days. It's the 70-degree days in summer that make these big guys miserable.
People have asked me, "What about coyotes?" Have you never heard of the miracle of chicken wire? The local Cooper's Hawk skidded to a hover over the cage and we pointed and laughed; you've never seen a hawk drool. This is the same bird that got into a neighbor's cage and ripped the head off a chicken. She'd left a hole the size of a football in the chicken wire.
If we're going to raise farm animals near predators, we have to be aware of these animals' versatility. In a film taken with a camera on the back of birds of prey, we see what the Cooper's largest relative -- the goshawk -- does with small spaces at speed (there's an ad, but it only lasts a few seconds). Makes me wonder if people who have been animating movies about flying on dragons haven't referred to the real thing.
Remember, if a predator gets your domestics, it's your fault. Don't think you can ultimately solve it by killing stuff; everybody doing that has decimated natural animal populations. And if you're raising stuff to sell to eat and taking shortcuts by killing wildlife -- what ELSE won't you take a shortcut with? And why should I buy your stuff?
I was worried about the poor cold chickens and was trying to figure out how to warm them, when I realized if I did, they'd lose their natural resistance to cold. It's like losing your night purple after using a light in the dark. The best cure for cold for outside animals is lots and lots of good food, so they can lay on lots of fat.
Wild animals all have houses; their own tough skins. WE lived in deserts, lost all our hair, had to wear clothes against the sun. It must explain why nudity is a sin in the middle-eastern religions; it's DANGEROUS to run around naked in equatorial deserts.
The more "purebred" Makah up here run around in sleeveless t-shirts on miserable, cold, rainy days. It's the 70-degree days in summer that make these big guys miserable.
People have asked me, "What about coyotes?" Have you never heard of the miracle of chicken wire? The local Cooper's Hawk skidded to a hover over the cage and we pointed and laughed; you've never seen a hawk drool. This is the same bird that got into a neighbor's cage and ripped the head off a chicken. She'd left a hole the size of a football in the chicken wire.
If we're going to raise farm animals near predators, we have to be aware of these animals' versatility. In a film taken with a camera on the back of birds of prey, we see what the Cooper's largest relative -- the goshawk -- does with small spaces at speed (there's an ad, but it only lasts a few seconds). Makes me wonder if people who have been animating movies about flying on dragons haven't referred to the real thing.
Remember, if a predator gets your domestics, it's your fault. Don't think you can ultimately solve it by killing stuff; everybody doing that has decimated natural animal populations. And if you're raising stuff to sell to eat and taking shortcuts by killing wildlife -- what ELSE won't you take a shortcut with? And why should I buy your stuff?
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Hector's still here!
He can barely walk, now, but his spirit is still there. Cats hang onto their spirit until the bitter end. He still purrs and staggers off to drink water and rest where he wants during the day. He just went into the back bathrooms to drink his helping of hot water, and then sat down to suck up a load of cold. He is doing better today.
A less beloved animal would have been gone by now. You know how it is.
He can barely walk, now, but his spirit is still there. Cats hang onto their spirit until the bitter end. He still purrs and staggers off to drink water and rest where he wants during the day. He just went into the back bathrooms to drink his helping of hot water, and then sat down to suck up a load of cold. He is doing better today.
A less beloved animal would have been gone by now. You know how it is.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)