MINI COWS! +
I’ve been impressed with miniature cows for a while. We don’t have enough land (live in the city, ya’ know).
What is neat about mini cows is that they eat about 1/3 the grain or need ½ the pasture, but produce more milk or meat per acre than full-size cow breeds. Of course, being lighter, they are easier to transport and fence. If one lives in a northern state or a place where there are fewer natural resources, they drink less water and need fewer bales of hay to produce the same amount of milk or meat (per herd, not per cow).
Two full-size cows usually need at least an acre, but some mini-cow breeds allow up to twice the animals per acre. That makes them ideal for small farms.
The problems with mini-cows includes that you shouldn’t put them in a pasture with full-size varieties; they could be injured. A quality mini will be more expensive to buy and difficult to breed (you need a mini-bull or a neighbor with one). The vet bill is about the same as it would be for an average cow. You probably won’t be able to make a living raising them unless you have a larger farm.
RENEWABLE ENERGY
California doesn’t need wind or solar farms to produce electricity. It has geothermal. In fact, they have so much geothermal that they don’t need ANY other type of power generation. The geo pools are in excess of 425 degrees F. which means they have enough stored energy to make steam to run generators which could power the state for hundreds of years. This is true for many western states (Idaho, Oregon, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado).
Those states could produce enough energy to power every home and car there without using any coal, oil, hydro, natural gas, solar, or wind generation. Yet California produces less than 7% of their energy from that source and nearly 60% from non-renewable sources. In fact, they produce more energy from nuclear than geo.
What are the advantages of geo power? No ugly wind turbines which kill birds and become unreliable in stormy weather. No ugly and highly restrictive nuclear sites which produce hundreds of spent rods. No pollution from non-renewables. No dams on rivers. No irritating solar farms which are at risk from hail damage. Oh! And the power is constant 24/7/365; it doesn’t rely upon rainfall, wind or sunshine. Even the “spent” steam is re-used as hot water ready to be made back into steam and run the generators in that closed-loop system. Very efficient!
SEMI-FAMOUS DOGS
Have you heard of Balto, or Tilly, or Judy, or even Laika?
Most of heard of the first dog in space, although some have forgotten the name LAIKA. She flew for the Soviets. She died in orbit in 1957 because she was never intended to return alive. They just wanted to know if space flight itself would kill a passenger (and they wanted to test a few systems … the cooling system failed).
But have you heard of the only dog listed as an official prisoner of war? That would be JUDY. Judy was a pointer which became a ship mascot prior to WWII. War broke out and, after a long evacuation march she and several of the crew were taken prisoners by the Japanese. Her “owner” persuaded the camp commander to list her as a POW. She is the only pet known to be an official POW. She had some skills and saved many lives during her service, scaring off pirates, finding fresh water when the men needed it, and other exploits.
Then, BALTO saved an entire town in Alaska. Nome was suffering from a diphtheria outbreak in the winter of 1924/1925. They needed serum. The only way to deliver it was by dogsled from Fairbanks, over 670 miles away. It was minus 30 degrees F. during the last 55 mile push and Balto did not give up even though his musher was almost frozen and blind. There is a statue in his honor in New York’s Central Park.
TILLY just loved to roam the mountain trails at Indian Fort (“The Pinnacles”) near Berea, KY. Hikers often were escorted by this friendly dog. They named a park after her and she has a website. Her tag told visitors her name, that she was not a stray, and that she would love to go for a walk.
[PLEASE NOTE that Don is always open to discussing the thoughts and opinions he shares here and welcomes comments as shared in the comment section. He doesn’t use other social media platforms and won’t see whatever you’d like to share with him if you post it elsewhere.
ALSO, Don is always open to offer his thoughts on various topics. If you have a specific request, you can let him know in a comment; he reads – and replies to – them all. ~ Sherry]
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