I was cold

Roger took this picture of me in DC

As he points out, you can see the flags around the Washington Mounument in my glasses.

The chicken and/or the egg?

For those of you who have not had farm fresh eggs... you will not understand this.

Farm raised, free range chickens eat many things. Chickens are omnivores - when they are allowed to scavenge on their own, they eat lots of bugs of which this protein goes into the egg - making it much richer.

So - I'm thinking about raising chickens. Let's look past the bird dogs for a moment.

How do you figure out what it's worth? Yes they are better, yes we like eggs, yes they would be better for the environment and the chickens, yes they would be antibiotic and hormone free - but the initial investment is not cheap.

Basically to get started it is going to cost me 800 dollars ($700 house, $50 dollar posts/wire, $50 dollars for birds/supplies).
I can buy a dozen eggs from the local farm for $3.5 dozen. (We will not count what I can buy them from Costco, because they really are not equivalent)

This enough for 6-8 egg layers. They will average 40 eggs/week, 170 dozen/year. At 170 dozen a year - it would pay for its self in less than 2 years.
However - we really can only eat a dozen/week. So I'll have to give the rest away (not interested in selling), so then it will take us 4 and 1/2 years, and I'll be sharing the benefit with friends.

The house will still be worth while in 5 years, though I will have had to replace the chickens at least once.

What is the worth of being "ONE" with the food you eat? Egg laying chickens have a horrible life.

What is the worth of doing the right thing for animals that produce your food? How do you figure out that price?

Say hello to Ollie

We picked up Shine (now Ollie) 2.5 weeks ago.

I've never adopted an adult dog before, and now I know why. I love puppies, but because I am gone so much - I am unable to do a puppy right now. I wanted a dog for a friend for Ripley, but Ollie is causing me much stress and worry.

He isn't potty trained (as I was led to believe) and I'm struggling to get him there. I took a few more days off of work to work with him, and while it's going better - I'm not able to leave him in my house as I had hoped.

While Ollie is sweet boy, he comes with alot of baggage. Someone has not been good to him. I've been doing this a long time and I know I am good at it, but he brings me new challenges that I knew I didn't have time for right now.

I haven't posted anything about him because I haven't been sure how it is going to work out.

We got him from one of the Pointer Rescue Organizations that I work with.

I'm Back-k-k-k

In Baghdad, that is... Uneventful trip with an entire row of seats at my personal disposal across the water, and no crowding on the new civilian flight from Kuwait to Baghdad. They're flying a refurbished, yet still very old, DC-9 on the short 1-hour flight, but it costs an arm and three legs for the speed and convenience you just can't get with the UselesS Air Force, or the US Air Farce -- pick your own favorite moniker. At least these guys will fly if it's dark, the sun is up, or the wind is blowing...

Saying good-bye to my husband.

I took Roger to the airport this evening.
I think he is dreading going back more than I have ever seen. :-(

It will probably be late June before he returns home.

The philosopy books

Here are the 4 books that I have to read

(along with many other off the web)

Wisdom of the Elders

http://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Elders-Sacred-Native-Stories/dp/0553372637/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232139102&sr=1-1

Gaviotas

http://www.amazon.com/Gaviotas-Village-Reinvent-World-10th-Anniversary/dp/1603580565/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232139208&sr=1-1

Dwellings

http://www.amazon.com/Dwellings-Spiritual-History-Living-World/dp/0393322475/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232139238&sr=1-1

Earth's Insights

http://www.amazon.com/Earths-Insights-Multicultural-Ecological-Mediterranean/dp/0520085604/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232139279&sr=1-1

A Day in DC

Roger and I spent Monday in DC.

We saw most of the Monuments

Everyone knows what they all look like - I'll just post a couple.WWII Memorial

A 360 of the inside of the WWII monument.

Koren War Memorial

It's one week before the inauguration, and it's almost deserted...

except for the thousands of port-a-potty's.

Philosophy 443:

"Worldviews and Environmental Values"

Okay - so some of you have probably heard that I am starting on a new BS degree. I got accepted into an OSU (Oregon) a couple of months ago, and I've finally decided to bite the bullet.
Why? Well I guess because I don't have ENOUGH to do! :-)

No - I'm not moving to Oregon, I'm just transferring the credit through them (and taking some classes online).

It's scary to start again...wish me luck, it starts in 3 hours.