For "Mammal Monday":
Train Our Soldiers, Protect Our Animals
Advancements in technology allow trainees to practice these crucial and complex operations on sophisticated human-like simulators, providing a far better learning experience -- and better outcomes for injured troops, saving taxpayers money, and protecting countless animals from suffering.
The Battlefield Excellence through Superior Training (“BEST”) Practices Act requires the use of these human-based simulators for training, and prohibits the use of animals."
Contact Congress and tell them to reduce spending while protecting animals.
The Clock is Ticking
"By Thanksgiving, the 12-member congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction is supposed to finalize its recommended package to cut the federal deficit by approximately $1.5 trillion over 10 years.
As part of that package, they should scrap several wasteful programs that harm animals. By reforming programs on chimpanzees in laboratories, wild horses, animal testing, and lethal predator control, taxpayers can save more than a billion dollars.
Please send an urgent, polite message today to your federal legislators and the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to save money by cutting programs that are harmful to animals." 
Wayne Pacelle, President & CEO
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What exactly are Meatless Mondays?
"Find out why they're sweeping the nation, who's taking part, why they're doing it, and how you can join them."
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Meat-free meals have gone mainstream.
"Text MEALS to 30644 to receive a free, delicious and mobile-friendly recipe every Friday via text!"
Delicious and Nutritious
"Dear Friend,Eating meat-free meals is more popular than ever. Oprah Winfrey recently devoted an entire episode to encouraging people to eat more meat-free meals. And major companies -- like food service giant Sodexo and Mexican restaurant chain Moe’s -- are encouraging people to participate in Meatless Monday as an easy way to celebrate the difference we can each make.
See how The Humane Society of the United States can help you stand up for animals, the planet, and your health -- simply by sitting down to eat. Read our Guide to Meat-Free Meals and sign up to get a free recipe every week."
Sincerely,
Wayne Pacelle, President & CEO
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“There is no question that largely vegetarian diets are as healthy as you can get.
The evidence is so strong and overwhelming and produced over such a long period of time that it’s no longer debatable.”
—Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H., New York University's nutrition department.
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Standing Up for Animals, One Bite at a Time: A Letter from Paul Shapiro,
Guide to Meat-Free Meals
"By making better food choices, we all have the power to create a more humane society. Thanks for your interest in The HSUS’s Guide to Meat-Free Meals. There are so many reasons people choose vegetarian foods. Some do it for their health, others for the health of the planet.
Nobel Prize–winner Isaac Bashevis Singer offered another compelling explanation: When asked if he was vegetarian for health reasons, Singer responded, “Yes, for the health of the chicken.”
Farm animals, like the dogs and cats we welcome into our families, are individuals with personalities, needs, and preferences—and most important, the capacity to suffer.
Yet our industrial food system treats them like mere units on a production line with little regard for their suffering. In fact, many standard agribusiness practices are so inhumane, so out of step with mainstream American values about how animals should be treated, they would be illegal if the victims were dogs or cats.
Recent HSUS undercover investigations have revealed appalling abuses of cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys; sadly, these cruelties are common in factory farms across the nation.
Fortunately, each of us can stand up for these animals—every time we sit down to eat.
By making better food choices, we all have the power to create a more humane society. The pages of this guide are designed to help you make those better choices—choices that are abundant, enticing, and more than satisfying.
And remember: It need not be an all-or-nothing endeavor. Go at your own pace. A lifetime of ingrained eating habits can be difficult to break, so you should praise yourself for every step of progress you make.
No matter your reason for choosing vegetarian options, feel good about your decision and know that you’re making a positive difference in the world. Whether it’s for the health of the chicken, the health of the planet, or your own health (or all three), take pride in your commitment, and know that The HSUS stands behind you, ready to assist you on your path to humane eating." - Paul Shapiro, senior director of farm animal protection for The HSUS
Read more from the Guide to Meat-Free Meals »
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Eating for a Better World: Factory Farm Survivors Reveal the Faces Behind Our Food
Sanctuaries give new lives to rescued "production units"
Scarlett, the rescued pig
A pig. A hen. A bull. Just three among the nearly 10 billion land animals who suffer each year on U.S. factory farms. All were nameless “production units” bound for slaughter—until they escaped, and came into their own.
The pig was headed to her death on a two-level truck crammed with several hundred animals. Fresh from several months of “finishing,” when young pigs are packed in pens and fed as much as they can eat, she weighed 220 pounds—stocky and thick-legged. A tattoo over her rib cage identified her as one of more than 1,000 animals raised on an Ohio factory farm, the offspring of a sow kept tightly confined in a gestation crate—a mother the pig had known only during the few weeks she was allowed to nurse.
The young pig’s existence might have ended as an entry on a company ledger. Except that she tumbled out of the truck and onto the pavement. When volunteers from the Happy Trails Farm Animal Sanctuary came to her aid, she got a name—Scarlett—along with the recognition that she was more than bacon.
Adopted by Happy Trails employee Olivia Schlosser-Hogue, Scarlett became a mother to three smaller rescued pigs. And when the neighbor’s 3-year-old boy visited, she watched over him too, making sure he was all right if he fell.
Every morning, she has a special greeting for Schlosser-Hogue and her husband, pushing her nose close to their faces and making a loud huffing sound pigs reserve for individuals above them in the social hierarchy. In winter, she lies in the straw, waiting for people to join her there.
“There’s something really calming about her,” says Schlosser-Hogue. “She has always been the sweetest pig ever.”
The High-Flying Hen
The hen’s chance came as she listened to the panicked uproar of 80,000 birds housed five to a cage in a California warehouse. At one end of the building, workers were ripping hens from cages to send them to slaughter; the property on which the farm operated was being sold. Torn from the wire mesh, some lost wings and some feet.At the other end of the building, rescuers from a nearby farm animal sanctuary were gently lifting 2,000 chickens from their cages. The 1½-year-old hen, who was past peak egg production and would normally have been killed for low-grade meat, fell among the fortunates.
Named Sarah, she was placed in a flock of 50 rescued birds at Animal Place sanctuary. For the first time, she could revel in sunshine and grass. After living in a cramped cage, it took Sarah a few moments to realize she could walk. Then, “she would stand up and fluff up her feathers and run as fast as she could and take to the air,” recalls education manager Marji Beach. “She got the other birds doing it.”
When her atrophied muscles recovered, Sarah roosted on the top perch. Now 8 years old, Sarah is a happy, healthy bird.
The Ebullient Bull
The bull made his break when a semi hauling 34 cattle on an Indiana interstate slammed into another truck and burst into flames. Fifteen surviving cattle were rounded up. But the bull, though severely burned, refused to be recaptured. The 2-year-old Holstein led police and others on a 12-hour chase before being taken to the local animal shelter.Jay ended up at Farm Sanctuary in New York. When he arrived, staff removed his rope and halter. He wasn’t yet fully recovered, but he could move about in his spacious stall and touch noses with other cattle.
“Giving him that freedom really sealed the deal,” says Farm Sanctuary’s Susie Coston. “He’s blossomed. He licks your leg in greeting. We call him and he comes. We don’t even have to corral him.”
Before, the bull was kept penned indoors. Now he runs about, kicking up his legs.
“You look into any farm and there are thousands of animals,” says Coston. “But if you pull any one of those animals out, they are who they are.”
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5 More Reasons to Choose Meat-Free Meals
Opting for meat-free meals has far-reaching effects:"Large-scale animal agribusiness causes widespread suffering, but the consequences don’t end there. Here are even more reasons to reduce or eliminate animal products from our diets:
Greenhouse gas explosion
Many aspects of the meat, egg, and dairy industries—not just the raising of animals, but feed crop production, deforestation, energy use, and transportation of animals and animal products—play a prominent role in climate change and may be responsible for 18 percent of human-caused global greenhouse gas emissions.
Toxic waste
Animals confined in U.S. factory farms produce three times more waste than the entire U.S. population. This manure can contaminate water supplies and emit harmful gases such as hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and methane.Down the drain
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, water quality concerns are most pronounced in areas of intensive crop cultivation and concentrated farm animal production facilities. Animal agribusiness also consumes enormous amounts of water: A pound of processed animal protein requires up to 26 times more water to produce than a pound of soy protein.Public health perils
Farm animal waste has caused outbreaks of E. coli, Salmonella, and other pathogens that contaminate food and drinking water. Studies have also found that people who live near factory farms disproportionately suffer from excessive coughing, diarrhea, burning eyes, headaches, nausea, and respiratory problems.Antibiotic resistance
To keep animals alive in overcrowded, unsanitary, and stressful living conditions, factory farms use massive amounts of antibiotics—many of the same drugs used in human and veterinary medicine. Antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria can be found in the air, groundwater, and soil around farms and may contaminate meat, eggs, and dairy products.
Read more from the Guide to Meat-Free Meals »
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Meatless "meats".
Field Roast founder David Lee began his food career cooking for men and women at Seattle-area homeless shelters. Field Roast
Check out Chef David Lee's recipes for Italian Sausage Rigatoni and Grilled Mexican Chipotle Sausage with Fresh Pineapple Salsa.
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From Me:
No, I am not a vegan, or even a vegetarian, but I will not knowingly eat factory farmed meat.
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On this day in 1980, Steve McQueen died: 
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen (March 24, 1930 – November 7, 1980) was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool.". His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s.
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Yesterday:
The change of time didn't phase me, I woke up at 5.30, (used to be 6.30) so I got up. Some people can lollop around in bed, but I can't. It was 65° on the screen porch, so I put the cats out there.
Around 8.30, while I was busy working and writing the journal when the phone rang, but as soon as I picked up, I could hear nothing. Thinking it was Jay fooling around I didn't think anything of it, until I found out that I had no dial tone on any of my phones. I thought maybe he hadn't hung up his phone.
I drove down there to get Pepper for his groom, and I found out that Claudia's land line was doing the same thing. Now this very rare for a Verizon land line. The second time in over 30 years.
The folks who have land lines bundled through the TV and Internet cable company were not affected by this, but they have had their share of outages in the last few weeks, and when it goes out I have to use old trusty dial-up.
Jay forgot that I was doing Pepper today, and wanted to work, but Claudia and I were both busy on our cell phones trying to talk to a real person at Verizon to tell them our problem. So Jay, Pepper and I didn't get back here for quite a while.
Jay made a template for putting the knobs on the cabinet doors in the cargo trailer, but he hadn't figured on reversing it for the doors that face a different way. It should have looked like this:
I couldn't stay out there, and show him how to make one, as I had to do Pepper, but we did put the mattress in the trailer, so I took pictures.
Twin bed and twin dinette, which will make a king size bed together. There is a separate narrow cushion at the head of the bed, as twin sheets are shorter than king.
Dinette table top slid to left, to have access to bed.
I took Jay home, and then started on Pepper. Usually, I clip any excess hair off a dog before I bathe them, so they dry quicker. But my "dirty dog" blades wouldn't cut his fur, they just jammed up. I ran them through blade cleaner and oiled them, but they still wouldn't cut. I thought maybe they needed sharpening.
If he had any sand or dirt in his coat it would dull my "clean dog" blades, so I bathed and dried him. But none of my "clean dog" blades would cut his hair either.
Now, 15 blades don't all go dull at the same time! This was getting frustrating, but I did what I could, and scissored the rest of him. I have groomed Pepper twice before and never had this problem. Something is different about his coat, probably a drastic change in his diet. He looked half-way decent when I took him back to Claudia's, but not as perfect as I would like.
I had this happen once before in my 50 years of grooming, but that dog was on some medication which affected his undercoat.
Another call to the phone company, but nothing resolved. I did what they said, unplugged all my phones, opened up the outside box, plugged a corded phone in there, then plugged each phone back in, but still no dial tone anywhere. That was to see if one of my phones was defective and causing the outage. It had to be something in that big Verizon switchbox here at the front of the subdivision.
Surprise, we had to turn on the AC again, it was 80°, but it was stuffy.
Hooray! I woke up to a dial tone on my phone today.
1 comment:
Wow Penny that trailer is really coming together very nicely. Good for you. That is very strange about about Peppers hair.
Take Care
Brenda
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