When I looked into switching to a better food several years ago the links on the Tails of the Tundra Siberian rescue website had some great info. I've included a link below. *********************************************************** Also, on a different forum I came across a "food grading system". . Its a method of analyzing the ingredients of the food you feed and determining whether its a high quality/healthy kibble. You will need your kibble's list of ingredients, as found on the bag (or oftentimes their website). Please note, however, this is for ingredients ONLY.... so before feeding a pup be sure to look at the protein and fat and calcium and calories in the Guaranteed Analysis. Start with a grade of 100: For every listing of "by-product", subtract 15 points For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat, meal or fat) reference, subtract 10 points If there are no specific meats or meat meals, subtract 25 points For every grain "mill run" or non-specific grain source, or grain "middlings", subtract 10 points If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 15 points If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five ingredients (i.e. "ground brown rice", "brewers rice", "rice flour" are all the same grain), subtract 5 points for each occurrence If the protein sources are not (specific) meat meal and there are less than 2 meats in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 5 points If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points (subtract 5 if corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients) If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 3 points If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic to other protein sources), subtract 2 points If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 5 points If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isnÂt allergic to wheat), subtract 2 points If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isnÂt allergic to beef), subtract 1 point If it contains salt, subtract 3 points If it contains corn syrup, molasses, or other added sweetener, subtract 10 points Extra Credit: For every different specific animal protein source (other than the first one; count "chicken" and "chicken meal" as only one protein source, but "chicken" and "turkey" as 2 different sources - do not count egg, cheese, or other similar ingredients), add 1 point If the food contains 3 or less different mentions of grains (or other high-carb plant-based foods like potatoes), add 5 points If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points (if the number 1 ingredient is organic meat, add 10 points) If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 3 points If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points If the food contains fruit or vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3 points If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are pesticide-free, add 1 point If the food contains barley or oats or oatmeal, add 1 point If it contains sunflower, hemp, flaxseed, or other polyunsaturated vegetable oils, add 3 points (add 5 if it is the #1 fat) If the vitamin and mineral sources are chelated, add 5 points 94-100+ = A 86-93 = B 78-85 = C 70-77 = D **************************************************** If this info helps even one person find a better quality food then it was worth the time I spent digging it up again.

Okay, you twisted my arm. I've bought a new card reader for my camera and I'm posting some temp photos which will be deleted soon. I'm making supper here--chicken to work over (fat globs and other scraps go into trash), sad looking salad greens and peas (too hot outdoors and the lettuce has bolted), herbs to chop, veg and onion ready to be cut up. I usually sit at stool but DH stands here. Compost tray runs along side of blue drawer organizer (repurposed container we got with Alaskan shrimp in it). Remember--our top drawers were made shallow because of pull-out board. If I had it to do over, I'd make them just a big deeper by shortening the drawers and bins below--to prevent items from jamming drawers. I am grateful for 90 degree countertop edge because I can brush things into the trash or the pan so reliably and it cuts down the cleanup. If I did not have the pull-out board, I'd put the pan parallel to the countertop, as suggested above. Makes good sense. We used to put a big bowl or dishpan on a stool below the edge of our chopping surface when we needed to work over lots of veg or apples for freezing--same idea. I can put this pan into my top drawer under baking area pullout board also--can receive excess flour sprinkled on the countertop or the breadboard or dough scraps. You could do the same in any drawer next to a baking surface. I've extended the drawer far enough for you to see the pan within; usually we don't pull it out very far unless the front of the pan is already full or unless we're working with sloppy things like tomatoes. I put my eggshells into the pan when making breakfast--the drawer glides out so easily! I try to remember to crush them in my fist as I do this so the composting begins sooner and the shells get mixed with other items sooner. The compost bin is an Ikea item which I think has been discontinued; you buy taller ones now with the same footprint. This one has built-in handles. The boot below it allows me to roll it out with one hand. Lid is not tight and can be opened with one hand. The long compost tray is a bit awkward to handle when it's full and needs to be emptied--in an earlier moment in the evolution of the kitchen I used a different skinny pan and it was perfect to sling around, but it held a lot less. I'm used to this one now so it doesn't matter but at first I dumped it on the floor a few times when using one hand, aargh! The lesson is...don't put off emptying it when you're cleaning up the kitchen.

Was Henchard a basically good man? I think so. In fact, I think that Hardy flubbed the ending of this story rather badly. There is too much grovelling abjectness on Henchard's part--it's almost maudlin. Yes, his last will is meant to wring our heart-strings. Maybe I've read more Hardy than a person should, but I can't help thinking of similar situations in some of his other novels: Isn't Eustacia Vye's mother-in-law wandering about Egdon Heath in The Return of the Native in a similar state of despair and self-effacement? And then there is Jude's pathetic little boy, who hangs himself and leaves the pitiable note: "Done because we were too menny" (in Jude the Obscure). Those two novels have a much more effective use of somebody's humiliation and despair than The Mayor of Casterbridge does, in my opinion. Henchard need not have reduced himself to such a pitiable state. He is largely responsible for the low opinion of himself that leads him to his sad fate. Other Hardy characters in other Hardy novels are driven more by fate, I think. wrmjr considers this a novel about an alcoholic. I agree that it at least starts out to be about an alcoholic. In fact, like Pam 3, I was expecting Henchard's drinking to become a problem when he reached the end of his 21 years on the wagon--but his drinking from then on is hardly mentioned and seems to dwindle out of the picture. --As it has to do, if Hardy is to have the ending he has. Are we to assume that part of Henchard's ultimate miserable state is a result of his resumption of drinking? If so, we aren't shown any of his drinking. For instance, he might have turned up drunk at Elizabeth-Jane's wedding. Instead, he just forgets the poor goldfinch. He wouldn't have been tragic at all if we'd seen him drinking in the last part of the book. He would have just been a pathetic, besotted old goat, crying in his beer. It's as if Henchard's drinking became an inconvenience for Hardy's plot at some point and just got dropped. Nevertheless, it was his drinking that set the whole story in motion, and so in that way the novel is about an alcoholic. As for humor in this story, I agree that there are humorous touches in the speech and customs of the village folk, who seem to function as a sort of Greek chorus in the story. Did Hardy want to impress upon his readers a sense of continuity with the ancient classical world? Did he feel that this emphasis would put his story in better perspective? --These are just some random notions I had while rereading this book, which I liked much better the first time I read it than I did this time. I did still like it, but I started seeing problems with it that escaped me on a first reading.

Thanks for the head's up, ratherbesewing. I've tentatively booked the 2nd dose for a long weekend in October b/c I don't know if I'll be able to take time off if I'm sick with things so crazy due to covid. Hate to possibly ruin a long weekend, but we've always had trouble getting substitute teachers in for us when we are sick and now, who knows. Most of our subs are retired teachers and I'm pretty sure most of them are not coming in until things settle down. mimou, thank you so much for finding that link. My DD is heading back to school across country next month (against our counsel, but what can you do) and I'm going to need that link anyways even if I missed out on it this time.