Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

Clouds, fire, and water are gnarly in the sense of being beautifully intricate, with purposeful-looking but not quite comprehensible patterns. Rudy Rucker

A private group has been formed to oversee the National Animal Identification System. The United States Animal Identification Organization held their first meeting via teleconference this week, where the board's first three members were elected.

One leader of the organization is NCBA member Rick Stott of Boise, Idaho. He says the group is a non-profit, independent organization with just one purpose: to provide an industry controlled entity to manage the National Animal Identification movement database.

With the way I see NCBA/meat packers manipulating the whole NAIS I don't feel at all good about this "Private group" being formed. I am sure it's packed with people who are towing the line to the meatpackers/NCBA/USDA line of bull we are being fed. Just another group to keep an eye on.

There is a danger that the freedom to transform everything embraces the freedom to transform our own nature and even to destroy that very freedom itself. Leon Kass

I found this story over at Northview Diary and it reminded me of a similar story of my own.

One day many moons ago I was moving a cow with a 4-5 day old calf from one pasture to another. The pair was running along in front of me and disappeared over a slight hill in front of me. When I crested the hill there was the cow running down the fence but no calf in sight. I galloped down to turn the cow since I didn't want her going out the gate with out her calf and then tried to figure out what happened to the calf.

After I turned the cow she realized there was no calf with her and started looking for her calf too. We finally found the calf down a large hole I didn't know was there just over the rise of the hill. The hole was so deep it was all I could do to reach down and get a hold of the calf and pull him out. The mama cow was not real sure about me messing with her baby but she left me alone while I worked on the situation. When I started to lift the calf out of the hole the horse I had thought the devil himself was rising out of the ground and left the country. Strange things like this sometimes spook horses pretty bad. Luckily all this happened within a half mile of the corral so it was a pretty short walk to get my horse again. It was quite an experience I will tell, you. I did manage to get the cow out when all was said and done.

If you've heard this story before, don't stop me, because I'd like to hear it again. Groucho Marx

P.S. I left the story in the comments over at Northview Diary but decided I wanted to record it here too.