Soldiers

The other day I got an email from a reader that made me feel really good about doing this blog. He'd dropped some cash in my tip jar and I sent out my standard "Thank you for your donation, here's Jane" spiel. Here's his reply, and you'll see why it made me feel all warm and fuzzy:

Ma'am

No need to thank me, reading about people living normal lives kept me sane for a 15 month deployment. So I should be thanking you. Seeing people able to have those freedoms that we gave up to serve reminds me of why I do my job. Good luck with the truck search and thank you.

Brian

It really brought home to me how the little things can make such a difference when you're so far from home. We've got so many men and women out there who probably wonder, at times, if we here at home remember what they're doing for us.

Regardless of whether you agree with what's been going on, or the timetable for pulling out of Iraq, or anything that they've been ordered to do, the fact remains that they're out there, serving their country. They're out there serving us.

We didn't ask them to, they volunteered.

So when there are such simple ways to make things easier for them, to make them smile, or just to make a crappy day a little bit better, why would anyone refuse?

You don't have to start a blog, either. Organizations such as Soldier's Angels have programs for sending care packages to specific soldiers who have been submitted to their organization. These soldiers may have been submitted by family who can't give their soldier the support that they would like to, or by friends, or fellow soldiers. You can send care packages, or write letters, or just donate some money to the organization to help them with their projects.

There are other organizations out there, like Any Soldier and I'm sure you can find others if you look.

Personally, I signed up for the letter writing team at Soldier's Angels.

Go tell a soldier that you appreciate them, just because you do. We shouldn't save that sort of thing for Veteran's Day.

And to reader Brian- I know I said it already, but again, thank you for your service. And thank you for reminding me that the little, normal, everyday things are sometimes the most important.



*Soldier's Angels and Any Soldier did not provide me with any compensation for this post. So go spit up a rope, FCC.

Jane

Kind of got back-burnered over the holidays. Now that things have slowed down I'll get back to getting you guys semi-regular chapters.

Honest.

2010

It's strange, when I was in high school I remember looking forward eagerly to the year 2000. I knew that nothing would really change, it wouldn't be the brave new world that so many people thought it would be. Still, it was a thing that I would tell my grandchildren one day.... I rang in the year two thousand.

Now it's ten years later. It's still not the brave new world that the new millennium was supposed to be. I'll have still more stories to tell my grandchildren. The kind my great grandmother and my grandfather told me, about living through the depression. About living in a time of change, of a fluid sense of the world.

Is our society today that different from that of the people who lived through the stock market crash, the dust bowl? We hear the stories of those who suffered and persevered through those hardships, because they are the ones who made it through. When this economic crisis is over, when the country breathes easy again, will we be, once again, a nation of survivors?

Will we tell stories of those who lost all their material goods, and having nothing else in their lives that they believed were important, took that final leap or that handful of pills?

Will future generations think of us as survivors, pioneers, the ingenious ones who made it work when others were foundering?

Will things get to that point or will it seem so from the perspective of a future time?

So many, many questions. The only answer I know is this: When the time comes and my children and grandchildren ask me about this time in my history, I would like to be able to hold my head high and tell them truthfully that I am proud of the life I lived and that although I made mistakes I learned from them, and they made me better, stronger.

So, my wish for all of you in 2010 is this: May you have joy, and knowledge, and end the year stronger than you began it.

Happy New Year

To all of you going out and partying tonight, be safe!

To all of you staying in and partying tonight, have fun!

And to all of you going to bed early and saying "to hell with it" tonight, don't worry. We'll make sure the year gets here and is waiting for you in the morning!

A Late Christmas Gift

Some of you may remember this post in which I shared a discount offered by the company and dreamed about a pair for myself, in a wistful sort of way.

Well, today I got a call from the Post Office... it being a small town there was much excitement about my receiving a package with, as I discovered when I stopped by to pick up the package, foreign language labeling. Chinese is a beautiful language, written or spoken, but I admit that I was fairly stumped.

When I opened the package, I saw this:


Pretty packaging, and I'll be keeping the box.

Once opened, it showed me these:


I adore them!

I'll let the kind and observant soul who sent me these remain anonymous, since they tried so hard to keep themselves that way. But for all you folks who want to anonymously surprise someone with a gift here's a protip: Make sure your phone number isn't on the shipping label. (I found it later going back over the label, trying to figure out a way to discover who I needed to thank.)

Regardless, I adore them and plan to wear them as much as possible! Comfy and toasty warm.




*Whooga boots did provide, months ago, an offer for a discount to my readers. I am unaware whether this discount was used by the person who sent these to me, or even if it is still in effect, however, Whooga boots did not directly provide me with any inducement, monetary or otherwise, to make this post or endorse said boots. So if the FCC is snooping they can go spit into the wind.

Musings Upon Politicians

In re-reading a bit of one of my favorites, I stumbled across a passage that I believe is all too apt today:

"I don't mean that a business politician won't steal; stealing is his business. But all politicians are nonproductive. The only commodity any politician has to offer is jawbone. His personal integrity - meaning, if he gives his word, can you rely on it? A successful business politician knows this and guards his reputation for sticking by his commitments - because he wants to stay in business - go on stealing, that is - not only this week but next year and years after that. So if he's smart enough to be successful at this very exacting trade, he can have the morals of a snapping turtle, but he performs in such a way as not to jeopardize the only thing he has to sell, his reputation for keeping promises.
But a reform politician has no such lodestone. His devotion is to the welfare of all the people-an abstraction of very high order and therefore capable of endless definitions. If indeed it can be defined in meaningful terms. In consequence your utterly sincere and incorruptible reform politician is capable of breaking his word three times before breakfast- not from personal dishonesty, as he sincerely regrets the necessity and will tell you so-but from unswerving devotion to his ideal.
All it takes to get him to break his word is for someone to get his ear and convince him that it is necessary for the greater good of all the peepul. He'll geek."
-- Lazarus Long, Time Enough For Love by Robert A. Heinlein

The application of these descriptions to today's situation is left as an exercise for the reader.... but it's something to think upon, no?

New Calves (And A Primer on Black Angus Beef)

Momma cows are fat, their udders are huge poor girls, and the calves they are a-droppin.

These will be our first calves out of the new bull, so we're excited to see what we're getting.

So far, we're pleased. Small calves means easy calving and less worry. Knowing the mommas and looking at the bull, I don't think rate-of-gain is going to be an issue.

Also, black calves are good! We've been getting good prices at the sale anyway, but in general, black cattle sell better right now. So far we're getting about 80% black with the other 20% being an acceptable solid red.

Why do black cattle sell better you ask? Well these days there's a big hooplah about "Black Angus" steaks. Frankly I think it's a bunch of hooey except for one thing: the steaks marketed as "Black Angus" are selected for quality and tenderness. I won't say flavor because if you've never had home grown beef then you have no idea that beef actually has a flavor.

Chances are that your Black Angus steak has in it's ancestry some mutt of a cow, much like ours. By the whims of fate the steer that wound up in your steak turned out black and looking vaguely like that breed of cattle that is called "Angus." Except for registered "purebred" Angus cattle, delivered as directly as possible from the breeder to your plate, you're highly unlikely to be getting "real" Angus beef as most people think of it.

Even amongst the oh-so-pure herds of registered breeding stock, you can breed a Black Angus bull to a Black Angus cow and get a Red Angus calf.

Because the difference between those two is nothing but the color gene, which is as slippery and contrary as any high strung cow in the working alley.

Even leaving aside the vagaries of your steak's genetic ancestry, the assertion that Black Angus beef is somehow inherently more tender or juicy or what have you than other kinds of beef is frankly hooey.

There are some breeds that have the characteristics that tend more towards tender meat, yes. Those characteristics include good muscle mass, a relatively easy going temperament, and a general leaning towards the big and square look.

But these characteristics are found in plenty of breeds, and mixed breeds, and do not guarantee good meat as the inevitable outcome of the process that starts with a bull and a cow and ends on your plate.

Tender meat has something to do with the animal that you start with, yes. But you want to select for those characteristics that I outlined above, to give yourself a good start. After that, the end result of tender meat depends upon how you feed and handle the animal.

Yes, you can get tender, delicious meat out of any breed of cattle, so long as you do things the right way. Longhorns and the lean breeds will tend more towards the flavorful but a little tough end of the spectrum in general, and the bulkier breeds will tend more towards the fork-tender side. But a steer, fed on mother's milk and grass (and ignored other than routine vaccinations and of course castration at as young an age as is practical to accomplish the task) for the first two years of it's life, then transferred into a pen with a hay bale and daily grain for two weeks before making the final trip to the processor, will, inevitably, turn out a better steak than anything you will find on the supermarket shelves. I'll take home-grown beef over that silly Kobe stuff any day.

It's my belief (with no real research to back it up, bear in mind) that while meat labeled "Black Angus" in the store really did come from a black bovine of some variety whether it be real Angus or some muttly mix, if for no other reason than to head off at the pass any false advertising claims, the superior quality of the meat is less due to the color of the cattle and more due to adapting, as much as possible in a mass market situation, the same technique that we use for the steers that we intend to eat.

Because lets face it folks, by the time it hits your plate you have no idea what color that steak was when it was up and walking around. I can tell you what colors the last two steers we butchered were, but not which steak came from which steer.

It seems that anyone who has tasted our beef has raved about it, which gives me no little amount of pride. But between you, me, and the wall, no one who has eaten our beef has had a single bite of what, when walking around, could have been classified in the loose methods used by the cattle industry for the most part a "Black Angus" steer.

In a couple of years, yes, we'll be eating beef that was once black, perhaps. But then, when a coat color can get you another three to five cents a pound at the sale.... why not?