OK, back to sustainability and DAIRY

So we have talked about the dog so I guess I need to get back to sustainability.

I have been told by more than one person if you are going to put your money anywhere when it comes to food put it into milk.  Not just milk of course, but milk and milk products we all eat a lot of like yogurt and cheese.  This really didn't matter to me at first.  I don't drink milk. I just don't like it.  Now I have a 3 year old that likes milk. I am not sold on the health benefits of milk so I don't over do it.  I haven't drank any milk since I was weaned from the bottle around a year old.  I have never broken a bone despite some falls from interesting angles and high places and I have pretty decent teeth.  I ate your normal amounts of cheese, yogurt, and ice cream and I have always loved leafy green vegetables which are a great source of calcium so no one ever worried too much. Through research have come to learn that we humans really weren't meant to drink milk much past the time all of our teeth grow in so about age 3. Being smart humans, we figured out how to nurse all of our lives off of a creature other than ourselves.  When you think about it that way, milk isn't nearly as pleasant sounding now is it?  I have also done research on the benefits of raw milk.  There are many, including greater availability of vitamins, minerals, and beneficial bacteria than in pasteurized milk. 

When Rose was younger and drinking a lot of milk, I bought organic milk. It cost about $5.50 or more per gallon depending on where I purchased it.  At a gallon a week that is $22.00 a month.  The biggest supplier of organic milk to major markets is Horizon, www.horizondairy.com. Although Horizon is a big fish and a big corporation, they do employ family farmers following USDA organic guidelines to provide their milk and I think they do a pretty good job for as big as they are and when you think about it $22.00 a month isn't a bad deal until you compare it to $8.00 a month I could be spending on Wal-Mart's Great Value brand milk.  

Then you get to  learning about USDA organic guidelines.  A cow must be fed organic feed (check) a cow must be allowed 120 days of pasture each year (check). Wait, ummm, where is the cow the other 8 months of the year?  In a feedlot, being cycled through a huge milking barn, just like any other dairy cow being milked for Wal-Mart's milk except the cow is being fed organic feed and if it is given any antibiotics or medications it must be removed from the organic herd for a longer period of time than just the withdrawal period of the medicaiton. Happy cows?  Maybe. Happier cows than those stuck in a feed lot situation all of their lives like a typical dairy cow. Trust me that cows in California are not any happier than cows in Colorado like the commercial leads you to believe.

Oh, and you do know that a cow has to have a calf to make milk, right? Usually a dairy cow is milked for 9-10 months and then allowed to dry up for a few months before she calves again.  This "dry" period is when a cow in an organic dairy is probably turned out to pasture. Back to the calf.  Cows that are going to calve soon are separated into different pens.  They calve.  Their little bitty cute as a bugger calf may be allowed to nurse some colostrum from its mama, or it may just be whisked away.  The calf will be tethered what looks like, or what IS, an oversized igloo dog house within site of other calves but allowed no contact with them.  It will be provided with ample food, water, and milk.  The heifers will be kept as replacements.  The bulls will be sold as soon as possible to anyone willing to buy them and raise them for meat or whatever they desire.  Nature's way, yes?

So where am I going with all this?  Raw milk.  In Colorado and most states, you must OWN a cow to drink milk from it that is raw or unpasteurized.  So these farms sell shares in the cow.  You actually co-own the cow.  In most co-ops, you pay $40.00 or so per month for 1 gallon of milk per week.  Yes, $40.00!!!!  I am not saying it isn't worth it, but compared to $8.00 or even $22.00 per month that is insane.  But now you are dealing with dairies where the cows have names, the staff are bottle feeding and oogling each calf that has been removed from the mother, that is if they have even removed them for the cow is perfectly capable of producing enough milk for her offspring and plenty of humans as well. Your milk is given to you in glass containers providing the nostalgia everyone looks for these days in addition to the sustainability of glass container.   Live in Colorado? Find out about it www.rawmilkcolorado.org. 

My newest idea is the family dairy cow.  Our own family milk bar could provide us with milk to drink, make cheese, yogurt, and ice cream. Would I like one? Yes. Is it feasible? I am not sure.  A cow must be milked twice a day each and every day for 9 months or more per year to stay in full production and her udder doesn't care if it is 20 below or 100 degrees and sweltering, it must be milk and the milk must be properly handled and stored and you will have a date with every 5 o'clock or 6 o'clock of this world for as long as you plan to milk a cow. You need to buy the equipment.  You need to buy the COW.  A halter broke, friendly cow you can milk by hand an run you $1,500 and up.  Heifer calves to raise up gentle and breed yourself? Virtually unheard of, and if they are at the sale barn you can assume there is something wrong with them. After you buy the equipment your initial investment is going to be at least $2,000 and then your monthly upkeep of lets say, $25.00 per month to feed your lactating wonder. I don't even want to do the math to see how long it would take to break even.   So the moral of this story is:

Wal-Mart Great Value Milk - Great value.  For you.  Not for the cow in a concrete barn or her calf in little hut in the throes of mid-west or Colorado Winter

Horizon or other "big ticket" organic companies - Great value for the product. Better for the cow. Still not so good for her calf in the little hut.

Raw Milk - If you are really serious about this sustainability stuff, do your research and join a raw milk co-op in your area and see how you like it.  Most of them have a starting fee, but it will be refunded if you choose to leave the co-p so you don't have much to lose. You can tour the dairy and meet the cows that are giving you your milk and their little doe-eyed dears that came into this world to give it to you and even give one a bottle.  Cute.

A dairy cow in your back yard - Only if you are crazy.  I am a little, so don't be surprised if you see Bessie in the front pasture when you come over next spring.

Our sick pooch

Our rottweiler, Teddy, didn't seem quite right last Sunday.  He was just lethargic and had no appetite.  This was very unlike him, so off to the emergency clinic we went.  They did some blood work on him which showed he was anemic and had an extended clotting time.  They asked us if we thought he could have gotten into rat poisoning.  I couldn't say for sure that he hadn't, so they started treating him with Vitamin K. He was also running a fever, so started on antibiotics for that.  His condition didn't really improve or get better through Tuesday, and we took him in to see his regular vet for a follow up.

The blood work came back similar, except this time he was more anemic than he had been Sunday.  Sparing you all the details of how his diagnosis came to be, his veterinarian has decided he has a condition called Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia.  Basically, the body decides its red blood cells are the enemy and starts to attack and kill them.  The treatment for this is a) suppress the immune system as much as possible.  This is done by use of steroids b) if red blood cell values continue to decrease, a blood transfusion may be necessary.  There are other steps to the treatment, but these are the main ideas.  With treatment, dogs have about a 50% chance of remission.  Without treatment, they will certainly die.  Age, physical condition, etc. seem to have nothing to do with how well a dog will do with this disease. The odds are just as good for a  young dog to survive it as the old, a dog with other health conditions may do better than a dog that is 100% healthy otherwise.

So here we are.  I'm embarassed to say how much we spent just to come to a diagnosis, and now we have to treat the disease.  He is taking steroids and an anti-rejection drug used in human transplant patients to suppress immune response.  And what caused this disease, might you ask?  Well, that is kind of up in the air among some professionals.  Some breeds are more predisposed to it than others.  Not rottweilers though.  Sometimes, the dog's immune system goes hay wire when attacked by another infectious agent and the dog gets IMHA as a secondary problem.  But most of the time, veterinarians are seeing this as a vaccine reaction to the vaccines we normally give our dogs to keep them healthy. Teddy can never receive another vaccine, he will have a medical waiver for rabies vaccine/tags that are required in our county.

Now I have to decide if vaccinating my other dogs is worth it.  Sure, I don't want my dogs getting parvo but I have to weigh my risks.  One out of four of my dogs was afflicted with this potentially fatal disorder from a vaccination.  It may seem drastic, but I am choosing NOT to vaccinate any more of dogs, current or future, after their initial puppy series and 3 year rabies after initial rabies. 

If you have a dog, especially a cocker spaniel or schnauzer or other breed that seems to have some genetic predisposition to this disease, do some research about IMHA and make your own decisions about the risks and benefits of vaccinating your dog every year.  Ask your vet. I should have. I do my own vaccines. I found out that my particular vet clinic has decided to recommend vaccinating with a regular 7-way vaccine once every 3 years due to the increasing incidence of this disorder.

Thanks to
Pets Emergency 
www.petsemergency.com
and Dr. Archer whose last minute decision to give Teddy a steroid injection might have saved him from a blood transfusion
and
Wellington Veterinary Clinic
http://www.wellingtonvets.com/
and Dr. Tracey Jensen for her wonderul care of Teddy during this adventure!  Wellington Vet clinic has provided excellent care for our personal pets and many foster kittens from Weld County Humane Society over the last 4 years and has been a great resource despite seeing NONE of them on a regular basis, since we do all routine care ourselves.

A Bento on the go!

We have been on the go since Sunday morning, as one of our dogs is very ill and we spent most of the day Sunday at the emergency clinic with him.  I will do a post about what is going on with that in the next day or so, because the information applies to anyone that owns a dog.  For now, here is a slightly prettier bento then the one I prepared for Rose the other day.  She had diced hot dogs, Annie's organic cheddar bunnies, banana slices, and some panda cookies. 

Biscuits, the ultimate comfort food

I have been sick the last 4 or 5 days, so nothing really sounds good to eat. The plus is since I am not that hungry and can't really taste anything, I think I have lost a couple of pounds.  Yesterday, biscuits sounded good.  I have been semi-successful in crafting biscuits in the past so I thought I'd try a batch.

My master helpers and I whipped up a batch of these heart shaped biscuits.  Rose thought they were cake and wanted icing and sprinkles on hers. What could it hurt? She ate every bite.  Later, my neighbor Tonya stopped by to look after the horses she is keeping here and she came in for a taste test.  She thought chocolate icing sounded pretty good too, so she had one a la Rose and also one with just butter and gave it a thumbs up both ways. I thought they were a little lacking in the salt department, but that may be because my taste buds are on hiatus. Once taste buds return I'll probably make them again and find they are as salty as hard tack made with sea water.

 

So here is the easy recipe:

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt 

3/4 cup milk

4 Tbls. butter

Dice the cold butter. I used salted butter.  Salt is good, I like it. I rarely by unsalted butter. As Ina always says (www.barefootcontessa.com), cold butter is the key to anything flaky (crusts, pastries, etc) Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder together.  Cut in the butter chunks. Rose did this, she liked stabbing at the stuff. Slowly add the milk.  I used my hands to mush it all together. Oh, you are supposed to pre-heat the oven, right?  400 degrees.  Now that you have flour all over your oven knob, roll out the dough on a floured surface.  Me? I hate rolling pins, so we just used our hands to push it out to about 1/2 inch thick.  Cut out your biscuits and you are ready to roll.  I got 11 heart shaped biscuits and one random dough ball out of it. 12-15 minutes in the oven. 

Rose's Lunch

I was reading a Parenting magazine this fall when a saw a little blurp about a blog and had an inkling to check it out. The blog was www.wendolonia.com. For some reason, her cute little lunches she packed for her son to take to preschool just seemed so cool. So I started doing some research on Bento lunch packing, which is a traditional japanese style of packing to go. There are many interesting types of food that that japanese use, and some folks get really fancy in their crafting of Bento lunches. You can see what I mean here www.hapabento.com/.

Not wanting to devote my life to making lunch, but still intrigued I ventured on my quest to create some Bento lunches for Rose. Much like those on Wendolonia, they are simple and not too artsy. The goal of the Bento lunch for me is to be fun and visually pleasing. Visual pleasing = color. Color = lots of fruits and vegetables. Bento boxes = reuseable = sustainable. I pack a Bento for Rose many days when we will be out for lunch. Today, I packed one at home. It isn't the prettiest. Rose had apple slices, peaches with sprinkles, 2 baby carrots, 2 miniature peanut butter hearts on multi-grian bread, and the "scraps" from the hearts. Rose at everything but some of the peaches and 1 apple slice. I think that is pretty successful for a pre-schooler for lunch.

I use a stainless steel Lunchbots container that is the perfect size for a pre-schooler. LunchBots Pico Stainless Steel Lunch Container
I hope to add some Hello Kitty and other themed Bento boxes. I purchased some silicone baking cups to use as dividers. That is what the peaches and apples are housed in. I also have some pics for food like grapes or ham cubes, but I didn't use those today.  Today I couldn't get too pretty because Wyatt was very fussy from having his shots yesterday afternoon and I had to do most of the lunch preparation with him in my arms, but I will post more Bentos in the future.