Drought

They say it is the worst drought in over 50 years and I am in the epicenter of it. I don't think I have ever been in the epicenter of a natural disaster before (yes we were officially declared a disaster zone last week.) All I know is, the corn is shriveled, short, and turning brown. The soybeans still have a chance I hear if we get rain in the next week or so. Our yard is brown. But that is ok because so are all of our neighbors' yards. Our garden is hanging in there, thanks to our garden hose. If you see any rainclouds, send them to our soybean fields. Your cows and tofu will thank you later.

To answer the questions about the expensive cows: The milk, cheese, and ice cream that the dairy from the previous post produces is actually all just a byproduct of the real money maker: genes. Embryos actually. Cows are only worth so much in the last few years because we developed the technology to be able to harvest a large number of embryos from a single female and implant them into surrogate mommy cows. The expensive cows became so expensive because of their fabulous milking abilities, udder quality, and quality in general and therefore their genes are an international commodity.

To explain about the squirrel: We were concerned that squirrels would strip our peach tree as they have been known to do in the past so we borrowed a live trap and started catching them a few weeks ago. Alex skinned the first one he caught and stuck it in the fridge but we couldn't ever bring ourselves to eat it and eventually threw it away. We've caught a handful of squirrels so far and we just need to keep them away another week or so. (Our squirrel trapping permit ends in a couple weeks anyway.) Joe is welcome to come shoot as many as he wants too :)

And, because no post is all that fun without a few pictures:

Panda on the left and Ernie on the right. Panda was my very own dog when I was about 12 and I sure loved her. She chased cars and the UPS truck ran her over. 

Jessie, I love your hair. Ben, I love your face. 

Yes, I used to wear bows like this. Thank you mom. 

My first 4-H lamb, Lana. 

E-I-E-I-O

A few weeks ago I organized a tour to visit a dairy farm that I saw as a vet student. I originally saw the farm on a large animal ambulatory rotation because they wanted some advice from the university's theriogenologist and I was tagging along. I was fascinated at the time by two things: 1) the fact that they had two or three cows worth over $1/4 million and 2) the fact that they were planning on making a cheese cave.

A few friends and I visited the farm again, about two years later. I was hoping to see a fully functioning cheese cave but it turns out that the owner's son who was originally in charge of the cheese-making part of the business was killed in a tragic accident and the whole cheese thing nearly got scrapped altogether. They are making cheese today, but I believe on a smaller scale than was originally intended. Anyway, I basically wrote all that just so I could post this picture:

We unfortunately didn't get to see cheese making in process, but we did meet the exotic cheese maker from Holland (? I think) with an exotic name like Diego or Raul or Fabian or some such name that is actually Dutch.

Just think, one of the cows in this picture (I don't know which one or ones) is probably worth more than your house.

The cheese tasting was fun too.

The end.

By the way, there is a squirrel in my fridge.