It has been very busy in the frogpondsrock household lately. Well to be be completely accurate I should say, The Spouse has been very busy, while I have just been jumping around, hugging myself with excitement and being a bigger nuisance than normal.
I am getting two eight week old piglets in early January and I am drooling with excitement. The thought of home grown pork has me skipping with happiness. Whilst for some strange reason all The Spouse can do is groan loudly and mutter phrases containing key words such as, bloody women, hard work, enough to do and no idea.
Two piglets squeeeee!!! I will keep you posted.
We went and picked up three new chooks last weekend that were offered on freecycle. The Spouse groaned and muttered about bloody chooks, shitting everywhere,whilst I promised fervently that I would remember to lock them up every night. The spouse then muttered something under his breath about not making promises I wouldn’t keep. He does a lot of muttering, that man.
These three older hens are used to being handled so it will be lovely to see how Amy interacts with them. My resident hen is very skittish and runs away and hides in the bush, when anyone other than me approaches her. So I am really looking forward to having some tame hens about the place again.
Last night there was a brief expose on 60 minutes revealing the horrible conditions that our pigs are kept in. Whilst I thought the expose was rather tame, I was really pleased that the plight of the pigs had been taken up by the mainstream media.
I firmly believe that the way we can change the world is by thinking about how we spend our money and making informed choices as consumers.
Plastic kills albatrosses. Simple answer, stop buying plastic bottled water.
Pork farmed in horrible conditions. Stop buying cheap supermarket pork.
It is working for the battery farmed hens. A major supermarket chain recently announced that they would stop selling eggs from caged birds. We consumers did that, by not buying battery farmed eggs it became economically unviable for the supermarket to stock them.
Small communities seem to be leading the way with Bundanoon becoming the first town in Australia to ban plastic bottled water.
Coles bay, a Tasmanian seaside village banned plastic bags ages ago. I really think that it is just a matter of us slowing down for a minute or two and thinking about the consequences of our own buying actions.
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Thanks Kim. I think that a big problem is that people take a product that fits a specific need and they see that it was also work for a (less important) need in their own life. Disposable nappies for example–great if you are travelling, great for mothers without easy access to washing facilities. Not required for other families. We appropriate things for a much wider useage to build “convenience” into our lives. We often cannot see the long term consequences.
OH Kim…
When my daddy dragged me kicking a screaming to the country, he bought pigs to raise for um, consumption… Unfortunately for us but luckily for the pigs, he fell in love with them so decided to get them pregnant and then we could consume the product (ewwwwy ewwwwy ewwwy – city girl remember). Well he fell in love with THEM and we were inundated with freaking pigs.
Stupid animals. ;P
I hope they are not banning reuseable GLASS bottles. I buy some of my milk in recyclable GLASS bottles and pay a $1.50 deposit that I get back when I return the bottle. I know from visiting beaches in the 70’s that glass can be a real pain as well, though.
I think returnable glass bottles are a real good answer.
Lots of food for thought in your posts. Well done on the dead ‘birdie’ bowl. Intriguing but I must admit I wouldn’t like one on my house – but it does convey the message .. loud and clear!!
Woo hoo Kim and never mind the muttering spouse! I don’t know that I could raise animals for food, think I’d probably turn vegetarian. My spouse and the younger son wouldn’t be too happy about that! Have bought very little pork since an earlier post but have to get some for Christmas. Now looking for free range and will just have to a smaller piece. Unfortunately we have less choice out here in the sticks but I will find some somewhere.
I also remember the campaign of celebrities against KFC since they treat chicken very badly.