There are many good,books, one is Grass Fed Beef, and the other by Joel Salatin is Salad Bar Beef. Beef cattle are one live stock species that as long as you have good fences, good rotated pastures , and good water you do not have to be there everyday, but you should everyother day. Do not let cattle in ponds, I know people do, but if you want to be at your best do not, especialy if you are not present every day. Cattle can get caught in the mud and die, cattle can drown, cattle defecate in water and spread worms and disease, ponds are expensive, cattle are like bulldozers and evertime in and out they fill the pond with sediment and wear down the dam, the 2 books I mentioned discuss this in detail. Also the NRCS will help design and pay for water facilities and even ones that do not freeze in winter. You need to subscribe to the Stockman Grassfarmer, run a search to find the website, 3 year subscriptions are 56 dollars and well worth it, they have a great book resource, another good one is any one by Allan Nation, and Greg Judy. josh

Ack, lost another post somehow... hmm... Anyway, what I wrote was that I use a chopstick (as in Chinese food) and stick it into the soil at an angle so the point is directly beneath the seedling to transplant. I then move it up and down a few times to loosen up the soil. Then, I gently pull on the seedling to transplant. If it resists enough that I think roots are going to break, I work the chopstick a little more, repeating until it comes loose freely. I then immediately put it in a hole in its new pot, fill in the hole, gently tamp down the soil on the old pot, and water well the new pot. Once all seedlings are out of the old pot, I water it lightly. Only rarely do seedlings die in this manner, in my experience. In the past week, I transplanted about a dozen basils and a ronde de nice squash in this manner, and every one of them survived. A couple weeks ago I transplanted about two dozen tiny english daisies, and they did quite well too.

Milk prices are down for dairy farmers by 30%. They are working for 1970 wages and paying 2002 prices. Someone in the household needs to make money and cover health insurance. Farmers sell wholesale, but have to buy retail. The dairy industry is in sad shape! We import milk from New Zealand and other countrys. Cows are a worthless commodity right now. They are not worth the feed you have to feed them! I am not a dairy farmer, my wife works for a cow breed assosiation. In New Hampshire you can sell raw milk from the farm, I think in Vermont too. You can go to a dairy and buy fresh todays milk and maybe a dozen eggs here. Just like the old days, The cream floats to the top, you shake or stir then serve. More people should buy direct. When my children were small they loved going down to the farm to buy milk! You would have to bring your own container and if you went at mlking time you got warm milk. If you wanted to try milking they taught you. If you went when no one was around you helped your self. The milk would all be dated. The old milk would be fed to the pigs. A good cow makes alot of milk and when she freshens you get another animal! If you have a pasture, live on a homestead, like animals and have children a couple of cows and a flock of chickens go along way. Throw in a dozen pigs and a large garden you will not starve! You feed the pigs, grain, milk, hay and garden vegies. They love greens of any kind. You keep what you need and then post to your milk customers live ready to butcher pigs in the fall. They pay for the butcher and pick the pork up from the butcher. This is true country living that we need to get back too.

Kayaker: I have been pondering your question, wondering how best to answer. I think, as jonesy said, whether you work or not, is up to you. I think the definition of a meaningful life is very subjective. DH and I are retired schoolteachers. I absolutely loved my job and colleagues and felt "life was good and meaningful." Yet, a year ago, we both retired and moved to another state to a town we love which just happens to be where our two children and grandchildren live. At that time our youngest granddaughter was 6 months old and we babysat her when our daughter went back to work. Life is good and meaningful...but in a different way than before. We are thankful we can be involved in our children and grandchildren's lives. (Previously, we only saw them four times a year and missed all their birthdays and other special celebrations.) Both DH and I do not have paying jobs, but we may substitute teach later...if time permits!