I use to live on a 120 by 200 lot with about the same number of animals before I moved where I live now.My new property is near Kennetcook in Nova Scotia.I bought four acres of treed land at the end of April.It's my intention to build on the land.I had planned on erecting a barn for the livestock and moving my dogs and cats as well as myself to a rental house for the winter.Now that idea is on hold.I am currently living in a town close to my job. I have the same two neighbours looking in on the cats for me.I try and make it out to the property at least once a week.I lost a few weeks of work because of what happened.I thought that the SPCA would return and it took me nearly a month to realise that was'nt going to happen. It has been hell and I can't help but worry that I'll never see either of my two dogs again.The farm animals mean something to me as well but nothing like the two dogs.It was the worst feeling to come home and find both gone.I had been warned that the goats would be taken if I did'nt erect a barn for them in six weeks time.That moved me and my neighbours to work on the pole barn.Nothing like trying to balance a new job,care for the animals and worry about getting a barn erected in time.When the six weeks passed my neighbours and I thought that the SPCA had been blowing smoke. No such luck,and now I have a pole barn that is half completed,I sort of lost interest for a few weeks,but have decided to finish it in hopes the SPCA will contact me about what is required to regain ownership of the animals. I worried so much about the goats and dogs when they were first taken.Thought of how much stress the dogs would be under,my female most of all.She shuts down if she is scared and will refuse to move from the spot she is in.She's never bitten but I don't know how she'd react to someone she did'nt know grabbing her.My male is the opposite and probably greeted the officers when they entered my home that day. As for the goats the big thing was the feeding change they would face.I had been feeding my goats timothy hay as well as a variety of fruits and vegetables.Daily they were getting lettuce,squash,potatoes,tomatoes,corn and stocks,apples,bread,kiwis,avacados,turnips,cabbage,greens,beets,beans,peas,ect to eat.I had made arrangements with a local fruit and vegetable stand to let me have their older stock.The only thing wrong with it was age.It had to be taken off the shelf to make room for newer produce. I plan on returning to my property in early December and finishing the pole barn.It won't be anything fancy but I do hope it will be good enough,if there is such a thing,for the SPCA.I am still hopeful that I'll have Meagan and Schooner home for Christmas.I really don't know what prompted them to take the two dogs with the rest of the animals.They claimed that the shed was'nt large enough for five goats.It may not have been but two were suppose to be slaughtered early in November.At that point the goat shed,at 32 square feet was more then large enough for three does.AS for the chickens they had a coop.Not a large one only about 30 feet square but it was 8 feet high and none of the birds seemed to have any problems with overcrowding. The rabbits,as I have since found out,can live outside as long as they have covers over the cages they live in.I had that for each and every rabbit I owned.I asked a fellow breeder of rabbits how long a 25 KG bag of pellets should last 30 rabbits.Her answer was about a week,which was how often I had to buy a bag.Every 7 or 8 days I was buying a bag for them.The lifespan of the pellets is 30 days so the bag I purchased two days before the raid is now too old to use.By the time I found this out the pellets were nearly 25 days old so I can't even give them to anyone else to use. I'm sorry this post is so long but I needed to vent.It may prevent someone else from going through what I've been dealing with.There is nothing worse then raising animals from the time they are babies and then having all your hard work taken from you in a single day.Sherry P.S. Which area of Canada are you from?

"subk3 - have you read the posted link? Me thinks not." Well I read the part where it said "ban the sale" and "place a moratorium." Which part do you think I'm missing? And how long do you think it takes the Federal government to do a review? Because of drought conditions I have a specific weed problem in about 30 acres of pasture that will respond to one or two treatments of the aforementioned class of herbicide OR 4 or more applications of a herbicide with a much shorter half life. Anybody think spraying 30 acres 4 or 5 times with a less effective chemical while managing appropriate grazing rotation for the livestock is either insignificant in terms of the cost of fuel, product, man hours or organization and timing? I manage and personally use my compost from the animals that graze these fields and as long as I'm aware of the herbicide situation I have plenty of use for the resulting "bad" compost--just not on my gardens. And taxcrusader I think it depends on your definition of compost as to whether "everything" ends up as compost. If anything that comes out of the back end of an animal is compost then yes your are right. If you narrow that down to waste that is specifically managed then used to promote vegetation that may be tender than that's a whole 'nuther ball game. That class of livestock waste if very, very small. I've been in the horse business 30+ years. I'm one of the very few I know who purposely composts stall leavings with the intent of a specific end product. The vast majority of stables I know either pay to have it hauled to a landfill--this happens closer to urban/suburban areas (Yes, cringe, I know) OR they spread it on their own fields--a case where the residual herbicide can have effects a farm manager likes! OR lastly they dedicate an area and just pile the stuff up to deal with much later. None of those situations have it coming in contact with the tender plants it's a problem for, and that's the overwhelming majorty of stuff that comes from the back end of a horse. I live in a very horsey area. I know of two businesses that create and sell compost from horse leavings. One is a huge horse boarding facility that also produces their own hay so they are controlling the process from the beginning. The other contracts with only a few stables to collect and haul it away--I don't know how they manage the quality of hay intake--but they have told me it's a 2 year process from start to finished product which may help the situation. "Labeling" will not solve this problem and any government official who thought it would is an idiot. The problem arises because the composter is usually at the end of a long line of vendors away from the guy who read the label in the first place. A typical bale of hay could be sprayed and cut, sold to a distributer, who sells it to a merchant like a farmers Co-op who sells it to a barn owner who sells the resulting leavings to a composter. With several possibilties of additional middlemen. Educating livestock owners/farm managers is closer to the answer. I participate in a horse forum much like GardenWeb. It's a much more educated group than the average horse owner and the folks on that board are completely clueless that this is a problem. I did not learn about it until I came here. It isn't the chemical. It's using the chemical without knowing its end destination--which is simply inappropriate use. If I paint manufacture used a toxic chemical in the manucturing process that they didn't know how or where it would end up that would be a problem too. I don't see that this is much different.

Hazel, how exciting to hear about your plants! It's a fun and rewarding time of year, isn't it? I have decided not to worry so much about doing every little thing just so, Dawn is right, plants know what to do. SO. . . when did you plant your beans? You planted them from seed? What kind of beans did you plant? I have not planted mine yet but I'm thinking I need to get on the ball and do it. My habit has been to plant later rather than earlier and I think this year I want to go ahead and get my seeds in the ground. It's been a warm and extremely dry season so far. I'm sure the colder temps are behind us. I just want RAIN!! My carrots and beets are still very small but at least they have a start. Everything I started indoors, under the grow light I made, I have been very disappointed with. (I'll do my homework for next year) I started my squash and cukes too early and I'm just going to plant seeds next week. My tomatoes are just pitiful. I think I'll keep trying and transplant next month and have a back up plan with plants from a nursery. Here in Enid, my selection is a joke, BUT actually last year I bought a cherry tomato plant, variety unknown, that just did marvelous and produced till the frost did it's number on it. My peas that I planted from seeds look great, about 3" tall now. Oh how I hope I get a good crop, I do love my peas! My asparagus is doing superb, almost all of the 18 or so plants have sprouted and are now covered with soil and hay. Dawn, you have so much experience and give great advice, so here is a question for you. What kind of Espoma do you use? I had no idea there were so many to choose from! I also have been adding organic material to my soil for the past couple of years and it's looking good, I would like to simplify things and get a basic fertilizer, if that is what can be done. I have had the OSU extension center do soil sample tests on different parts of my garden for a couple of years and my pH is good, just needs a bit of potassium and phosphorus, which I have added. Thanks all!

Sherry, Well, I think you can plant them and have limited success. Onions have to be in the ground and achieve a certain amount of growth before bulbing is induced. Since bulbing is induced by a combination of daylength and temperature, it is going to happen when the daylength-temperature combo is achieved, whether the onions have been in the ground for one week, one month, or whatever. So, that is why we have to plant onions so very early--to get maximum growth before initiation of the bulbing process begins. Most onions needs to be in the ground a minimum of 90 to 100 days before bulb initiation starts in order to size up fully, and some need 100 to 120 days. Short day-length onions will begin to bulb up once the daylength (hours of sunlight) reaches about 10-12 hours in combination with the right temperature. Intermediate day-length onions need 12-14 hours days to bulb up. Long day-length onions will begin to bulb up once the daylength is 14-16 hours and the temperature is right, which is why the long daylength onions are not grown in our part of the county. (Our daylength here maxes out around 14 hours.) So, if the onions go into the ground late, they will grow and they still will bulb up once bulb initiation occurs. They'll just be smaller when bulb initiation occurs, thus, they will be smaller at maturity than onions that were planted earlier. One reason that short day-length and intermediate day-length onions planted in the southern third of the country get bigger than those EXACT same varieties grown in the upper 2/3s of the country is that our weather allows us to plant the onions up to 5 months prior to bulb initiation, and the northern states' colder weather does not allow them to plant until approx. 75 days before bulb initiation. So, if you plant late this year, you'll get onions that are "northern-sized" instead of "southern-sized", but you'll still get onions! If you don't mind knowing you'll get smaller onions, go ahead and go for it. It would be a good learning experience if you've never grown onions before. Some commonly-sold short day-length onions are TX 1015Y (aka Texas Sweet or Texas Supersweet), Yellow Granex, White Bermuda, Southern Belle Red and Contessa. Some commonly-sold intermediate day-length onions are Candy, Stockton Sweet Red and Superstar. Some commonly sold long day-length onions (and these should NOT be sold in our region) include Borrettana Cippolini, Red Torpedo Tropea, Ailsa Craig (there's also a tomato by this name), Copra, Big Daddy, Red Burgermaster, Red Zeppelin, Walla Walla, Yellow Sweet Spanish and Ringmaster. I've already planted my main crop of onions, but I do continue planting onions in various spots around the garden as companion plants, and I will, probably through mid-to-late April. Of course, I don't care if those companion-planted onions bulb up or not. Sometimes I leave the companion plant onions in the ground until the following year, and let them bloom in the spring. Their tiny flowers attract a TON of tiny pollinators and beneficial insects, and are quite attractive as well. Dawn