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Do not paint every meat producer with that broad brush. I personally find that to be an attack on me. Shame on you.

My husband, myself, and our children spend everyday of every year producing high quality beef in humane conditions. Our goal is to be profitable, and profitable enough to justify the extreme amount of time and hard work we put into it. But our livestock is never abused. It is fed very high quality forage and grain that we also raise ourself. Everyday is spent working hard to keep our livestock comfortable and healthy. The beef cattle are inside confinement barns. They are not packed tight. They can move freely and can lay down if they want. But they are not given so much room that they can injure themselves. They always have fresh clean water - ALWAYS. Our family will go without before the livestock does. They are cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Could someone with an agenda go in and film inside these barns and make it look bad - absofuckinglutly. Are some animals produced in a manner that I don't agree with - yes. Chickens and turkeys are bred to be heavy breasted. I don't like that anymore than a lot of you do.

I watched a grown man break down in tears because every bird in his turkey barns had to be euthanized (that is not a pretty process) because bird flu had been detected in one of his barns. Every barn had to be euthanized. He will recoup his money. But that was not why he broke down. His life was dedicated to raising clean healthy birds, and just killing them about killed him.

We had a situation were a large amount of our cattle had fallen into a pit. My husband contacted our insurance. We could not quickly euthanize them. The only way we could file a claim is if the cattle drowned. DROWNED. My husband risked his life by quickly building a device to allow the cattle to walk up out of this pit. And I am not kidding when I say he risked his life. I was on the edge of hysteria at one point in fear for his life. He said he would die before he let all those cattle drown. So your comment really pissed me off.

Getting locally farm raised meat is ideal, but good luck feeding the population with that. It is too expensive. And it is only getting worse.

Consider yourself lucky if you can choose to never buy a $4.99 chicken to feed your family, because that is all you can afford.

People who know nothing about agriculture can conjure up the most inflammatory statements that are not fact based, or the facts are skewed to their agenda.

Ag use is why a lot of these canals were created. Then people moved in and took the water too. It's a complicated matter for sure. But something does have to change. People waste SO much water!

I bought a huge sheet of heavy plastic to fit my area rug on to shampoo. I vacuumed it 7 ways to Sunday first. I even flipped it over and vacuumed, and got a surprising amount of dust out, and even more when I flipped it back upright.

Then I shampooed ... oof. They are 20+ year old rugs. No pets, but kids, and a farmer husband. I am not religious about shoes off in the house. So I knew they would be dirty. Dang! I shampooed about 4 times, the last time being plain hot water.

What surprised me was how much dust and sand I vacuumed out AFTER the rug had dried. But I felt like the rug was really clean. I had three 9'x12' rugs and did one at a time, so I could have the plastic under it - to protect the wood floors. It was a workout!

Sweet cherries or sour/tart cherries? Either way - yummy!

Sweet cherries I would just eat until I was ready to explode. LOL

Tart cherries are THE best pie cherries. Pit them, and make sure you have all the pits out. You can measure the amount you need for a pie and freeze them in that quantity. Tart cherry pies need sugar when you make them. I use Minute tapioca pearls to thicken them - just add some to the cherries & sugar before baking. Oh yummy!

I would cry for any kind of food delivery! I have to drive at least a half hour to even get to a restaurant.

The only thing I can get delivered is my mail. LOL Even Amazon takes forever anymore.

When I see people complaining about working 5 days a week, I think they are lazy. That would be amazing~

It really wasn't a think when my kids were younger.

We all share our location on the Snap Map now. I like that. It's just fun to see where they are sometimes. I call it proof of life too. LOL

They check up on me more than I do them!

Ugh! That is so dissapointing!

FYI - I watched the video. Not a cow. It's a calf. It's little. LOL Cowboys did a great job roping.

Ranchers worst nightmare! The sheriff called one night because a semi had hit some cows on a blacktop near one of our pastures. My quick thinking husband ask "what color eartag" - yellow - "not ours". Whew. We did go out just to make absolute sure, and to make sure they didn't need help.
So are farm girls! My girls got called to help other people get their cows and horses back in quite a few times.
As a livestock owner, we do keep some pretty hefty insurance in case our cattle were out and caused a wreck. We work VERY hard to keep our fences good and hot. We check them twice a day, but I know a lot of guys check theirs on a semi weekly basis. When we have cattle fenced along the highway, we have a 2 barb top and woven bottom along with a very VERY hot string along it.

Deer really are hard on fences, no matter how many times you check them a day and keep them in good repair. When the deer are moving a lot, I just plan on a long morning of fixing fence and doing it again the next day.

Amen!

It's so good! LOL


@chaosisapony - try cooking it differently. I only bake my bacon in the oven now and it is transformative! I line a very large rimmed backing sheet with parchment paper. I put the entire package of bacon on it at once (it is a big 15x10 sheet pan). I use the large/wide parchment paper so it contains the bacon fat.
I bake at 350º until it is crispy - but watch it so it doesn't get over done. At about 10 minutes, I go in and move each piece around so it doesn't stick/cook together.
By slowly baking it, it renders a lot of the fat out, leaving what is behind so light and crispy.

I remove it from the pan and lay it out on paper towels to remove as much of the liquid fat as I can. I wrap it in a clean paper towel and put it in a large zip bag for sandwiches and burgers during the week. SO good>

My favorite is Farmland Thick Cut Hickory.

Yes they do. They are supposed to not be allowed in migratory paths, but those paths are not always exact, as storms can throw off the paths. And just general bird flight.

Some people swear it affects the weather pattern. In my gut I know this isn't fact. But it still creeps into my mind. Since the big ones went up around us, the lack of moisture is distinct and follows the path of these farms. So it's hard to not wonder about it. But I resist putting on my tin foil hat.

They changed blades in a big wind farm in my area to bigger blades. Buried all the old blades in a pit. Isn't that nice.

Windfarms seem great until you live near one. Not so awesome.

Keep it simple. Keep it short.

A 'come & go' is my favorite type of bridal shower. That way I, as the guest, do not have to stay for hours. I HATE games with a passion, and almost everyone I talk to hates doing them at showers also.

You mentioned charcuterie and champagne and that sounds great.

Set the time for a couple hours and say it is 'come and go' - people can stay or leave.

You don't have to go crazy with decorations.

I have 2 gun safes full and an ammo safe. I do not store ammo with the guns. The guns are never left out of the safe when not in use. The ammo is never left unlocked.
I have long guns, hand guns, antique guns, family heirloom guns from the late 1800's, WW2 collectable guns. Most never see the light of day. The gun that gets used the most is my little .22 varmit rifle, which is a bolt action and a 22 pistol we use to put down animals, usually using .22 FMJ. Had to do that yesterday.
I do have a couple AR models. These are ArmaLite Rifles - which is what the AR stands for. I have an AR15 and an AR17. The AR15 is the same gun as Grandpa's old Remington .223 - it just looks scarier. Same gun. My husband prefers the AR15 or AR17 for varmit control.
We use laser sights, night vision, etc. No suppressors. I would 100% support the ban of large magazines.
We do not hunt, other than varmit control, although one of my kids did a little pheasant hunting as a youth. I had the "You kill it, you clean it, you cook it" rule for my hunter. He was more of a fisherman.
My kids had long guns as youth, that I purchased for them. Same rules - always in the safe when not in use.
My kids do know gun safety and all took hunter safety even though only one hunted.

If you handed any of my kids any firearm - they would first check it to see if it was loaded, even if they just watched you check. They are extremely cautious with any firearm.

I taught them as children to never point a toy gun (even a 'finger') at a person. Never. Ever. No air soft or paint ball "wars" were allowed.

A couple of my kids competed in rimfire and sporting clays.

2 of them have conceal to carry licenses, but they do not carry as a rule. I have my conceal to carry, just to make it easier to transport guns when I need to take one somewhere. I don't actively carry, but a great many people I know around here do. Most would be surprised at the people who do carry, especially in their vehicle with a concealed weapon under their dash.

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That is an automatic weapon.