I just heard about a bill approved by the Iowa House and Senate agricultural committees that I find to be quite disturbing. It seems that government and lobby organizations are once again trying to attack and limit the freedom of speech and press. Here is a link to the article I am referring to.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5inNOen3iBaaLihd9-Tqaz85F5nSw?docId=c413088268864a5c86c5744f46b9768f
While I may currently be a vegetarian, I do not object to people eating meat.  I strongly believe that people have a right to know where there food comes from and how its processed.  I find this bill to be a dangerous step towards deregulating the food industry.  It is my opinion that law abiding citizens and processing plants have nothing to hide.  When a video is released showing the apparent mistreatment of animals, I believed that citizens are by and large wise enough to know if the conduct shown on the tape is something that should or should not be happening.   The videos that tend to go viral (the modern slag for wide spread) are typically only those that show a true problem or issue in the production of our food that needs to be addressed.  To criminalize the sharing of such videos is a dangerous step telling the agricultural industry that there is an acceptable level of abuse, neglect, and unsanitary conditions that we can turn a blind eye to as long as we have a burger on our table.  I strongly believe that we need to follow the advice of Micheal Pollan and other advocates like him that stress the importance of knowing where our food comes from.  Citizens have a right to know where there food comes from and how it was raised.  The agricultural industry needs to quit raging a battle against the consumer and rather learn to listen to the consumer.  If one of these videos causes a temporary negative backlash towards a product, it is the consumers way of saying that they are not ok with their food being treated in this way.  If the agricultural producers are following regulations put in place, they have nothing to fear unless the regulations were something they pushed through that the average consumer would not agree with.

I adopted a guinea pig from the dubuque humane society.  He was born in January, so he is a fairly young pig.

Blackjack

I am officially the new director of environmental education at camp ewalu in  east central Iowa.  It feels great to hold a full time job with benefits.

I just returned from a wonderfully relaxing canoe trip down the Upper Iowa River ending in Decorah.  Even though it was only a 3 day venture, it was a well needed vacation and extremely relaxing.  Now I’m looking forward to Zaffke’s wedding tomorrow up in spring grove.  It is truly a week of good times and relaxation.

So it’s official.  I have a cabin group this summer.  I’m going to spend the 2nd half of next week counseling mini-camp.

This week has been really interesting. On Thursday night, we received 9+ inches of rain, making the river fairly high. However, it has already receded to near normal levels.

This past weekend was Nordic fest. Nordic fest was a blast despite the fact that it didn’t seem as well organized as previous years. Saturday night didn’t even have a street dance following Nordic dancers, but the Ewalu folk started our own to the tune of an accordion player in front of Keparts playing polkas and waltzes.

I know its been awhile since I’ve posted, but I have some news to share.  I am going to be working at Camp Ewalu until August as the Interim Environmental Education Director.  I’m still keeping my fingers crossed to find some full time permanent employment, but at least this will be about 5 months of steady employment doing something that I enjoy.  It will sure be different to be the head person over the program instead of an instructor like I was before, but I’m up for the challenge.  I’m looking forward to starting work the end of this month.

So, I thought I would give a quick update on what I have been up to lately. The second Saturday of the month was trail crew. They made a great thanksgiving meal and like always it was a blast. I also got to help Allen, our law enforcement, with some of his dog training. That was really fun, but also slightly intimidating being that the dog is 100 pounds. Now off to the news that prompted the title of this blog. This morning I headed up to Lexington to look at a used car and I purchased a 2004 ford Taurus. Its a nice upgrade from my 93 sable which for a lack of a better description I would say is on the fast track to becoming a clunker.

I got out on my first wildfire today.  We were able to catch it early so it only burned about 5 acres, but it was a good learning experience.  I spent most of my time on a 3 person engine crew.

So I realize that its been a while since I have posted.  I haven’t been up to a lot of crazy stuff besides my usual endeavors.  I am currently in the market for a new vehicle as I continue to have trouble with the sable.  However, I lucked out greatly on my last repair, getting a transmission line and 2 brake lines replaced for only $75 parts and labor.  As I like to say, the repair was on the good side of ridiculous. 

For work I’ve been up to a lot of the same old tasks with the exception of some project work down south of the gorge in big sinking.  This work has involved a fair amount of off roading which always provides for some fun.

A little over a week ago, Andy’s mom was down and Brad, Andy, and myself toured a couple of bourbon distilleries with her.  I have to say that it was really cool to see some of the process on how its made.  We took tours of both wild turkey and makers mark.  While makers mark seems to be the better tasting of the 2, I was not nearly as impressed with their tour as wild turkey’s.  Maker’s mark just had to much of a commercialized and touristy feeling surrounding their tour.  However, it did provide a good comparison to wild turkey.  I really thought the wild turkey tour was great, giving more of a behind the scenes feel.