The Riley Factor #101

The Riley Factor
Fort Plain, NY
June 17 2011, Issue No. 101
(All the Rock Creek Farm news that's fit to print, along with unfit to print rumors, prognostications & bloviations.)

Riley -- We are experimenting with allowing Riley outside with us, untethered by leash or other tie-down.  He is about a C+/B- student.  Some days, Riley will stay within 50 yards of Susan for hours when Susan is out in the greenhouse or gardens, without wandering away at all.  Other days, he runs immediately into the pasture to chase chickens or guinea fowl back and forth, following the menace he secretly hides deep within his golden dog brain.  Overall though, he is making progress and behaving fairly well....  To be continued.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish -- The Pond Experiment -- A little over a year ago, we put four dozen carp (think gold fish, 3-6" long) into the lower pond.  Most of the fish were orange, with a few being silver with orange and black spots, and one fish was totally black.  We did not see much of them swimming last summer and fall, but also didn't see any floaters or escapees.  The pond is about 100 feet in diameter and 12 feet deep at the center, so they can tend to get lost.  Well, we now see hundreds of one to two inch long fish swimming about, mostly black, with some orange, and also some black and orange or black and silver.  And many of the original big fish are also still swimming around.  It is peaceful to sit by the pond in early morning or early evening and toss pond fish food into the water to see the feeding frenzy.  The Riley loves to swim around when they fish are feeding, and they don't mind him much.

Planting and Plowing -- The last of the planting was done on June 6, with the final few rows of sweet corn going into the ground in the greenhouse garden.  The corn is already growing, and a few small tomatoes, cucumber and squash are showing.  The potato plants are looming large, hopefully developing subterranean crops.

Horses -- In the great heat, Lady and Rio are inclined to remain in their stalls all day.  They do consume large quantities of water, sometimes 10 gallons per day each in the barn, in addition to what they gulp from Rock Creek.  When pasturing, horses and cattle get 70% of their fluid needs satisfied from eating grass.

Herd of Three -- The cattle are content, with much mooing.  On one day of pouring rain, the herd got caught on the other side of Rock Creek.  All day, they ate grass while being rained on -- leather coats were shrunk to fit.

Mowings, Musings and the Woods -- Deer sightings are everywhere these days, mostly does with their recently born fawns.  One day, Susan came across a mother leading her newborn fawn out in the trails -- the fawn was so small that it first appeared to be a rabbit, but was really the smallest deer she has ever seen, with legs only about six inches long.  The next day, The Riley locked his radar onto a large doe and chased her back and forth around the trails.  Both were running about half speed, not really wanting to run away or catch anything.  On our way to Amsterdam one day in the pouring rain, on three separate occasions miles apart, we saw beaver waddling next to or crossing route 5S -- very peculiar-looking creatures, complete with buck teeth and wide flat tails.

Fowl Weather -- The French Guinea Fowl apparently learn nothing from seeing their brethren run down by speed demons on route 163.  Of the original batch of 16 chicks that arrived in April 2010, only three remain.  The past couple of weeks have been especially bad, with four of the Keets being hit by traffic.  I fear that the remaining trio should be placed on our endangered species list.

Visitors -- One for the record books >>> With her last appearance in Fort Plain, Stevie has visited us here in Middle-of-Nowhere every month for a year straight.  And she says in a recent e-mail, "I'm riding one horse next time I come up! Be prepared!"

Blog -- The Riley Factor has its own official blog site, located at http://the-riley-factor.blogspot.com/, and you can see all issues to date.  (If you actually spend the time and do this, you may need more help with your life than we are able offer....  But we digress.)

Best Lines --

     Best headline this week following Boston Bruins' Stanley Cup victory, after a 39-year hiatus from the team's last hockey championship in 1972 >>> "Out of Hibernation"

     Best headline, from the New York Post, following President Obama's harsh criticism of NY Congressman Anthony Weiner's photo sexting >>> "Obama Beats Weiner"
     Best new opening pick-up line, from movie Hall Pass  >>> "Do these bar napkins smell like chloroform to you? ...  Just kidding.  Can  buy you a drink?"

Quotes of the Month --

     Any success I have ever had has come form working hard. -- Tim Thomas, goalie, Boston Bruins

     Blessed are the cheese-makers. -- Monte Python

     Job creation on main street has collapsed. -- National Federation of Independent Businesses, June 3, 2011

     Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. -- Thomas Edison

     You cannot trust Chinese companies.  You cannot build a small or large fortune in China without committing high crimes and misdemeanors.  That is their way of life.  That is why China is doomed to fail. -- Gordon Chang, Author
    
     China is a totally corrupt country, to which we have given a pass due to its economic might. -- Doug Schoen
     You did not bear the shame.  You resisted.  You bestowed an eternally vigilant symbol of change by sacrificing your impassioned lives for freedom, justice and honor. -- Memorial to the German Resistance, Berlin

     Unnecessarily restrictive gun control laws empower bungling bureaucrats, and make it harder for law abiding citizens to access guns to defend against criminals. -- Robert Farago

     Nothing is so healing as the human touch. -- in 2005, final words of Bobby Fischer, former world chess champion
Facts of the Month --

     25% of the world's food supply is lost to spoilage.

     Jobs lost during the Obama Administration: 2.5 million.  Jobs lost since the recession began in December 2007: 6.8 million.

     More people access the Internet now by smart phone than by PC. -- John Reed, CEO, Robert Half Technology

Commentary of the Month --

The High Cost of Cheap Meat

Published: June 2, 2011, New York Times

The point of factory farming is cheap meat, made possible by confining large numbers of animals in small spaces. Perhaps the greatest hidden cost is its potential effect on human health.
Small doses of antibiotics — too small to kill bacteria — are fed to factory farm animals as part of their regular diet to promote growth and offset the risks of overcrowding. What factory farms are really raising is antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which means that several classes of antibiotics no longer work the way they should in humans. We pay for cheap meat by sacrificing some of the most important drugs ever developed.
Last week, the Natural Resources Defense Council, joined by other advocacy groups, sued the Food and Drug Administration to compel it to end the nontherapeutic use of penicillin and tetracycline in farm animals. Veterinarians would still be able to treat sick animals with these drugs but could not routinely add the drugs to their diets.
For years, the F.D.A. has had the scientific studies and the authority to ban these drugs. But it has always bowed to pressure from the pharmaceutical and farm lobbies, despite the well-founded objections of groups like the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization, which support an antibiotic ban.
It is time for the F.D.A. to stop corporate factory farms from squandering valuable drugs just to promote growth among animals confined in conditions that inherently create the risk of disease. According to recent estimates, 70 percent of the antibiotics sold in this country end up in farm animals. The F.D.A. can change that by honoring its own scientific conclusions and its statutory obligation to end its approval of unsafe drug uses.