My husband and I raise birds, we have a wide variety of chickens and a couple of white Pekin Ducks. We raise our birds for the eggs the produce and to keep the bug population to a minimum in our yard. Our birds are given free range access during the day to our 5 acres and put up at night because in the beginning we lost several to predators. We have even caught a fox in our hen house with one of our hens in its mouth. We have used live traps to capture them and working with animal control released those animals back into the wild on the game reserve. So as you can tell we are all about making sure all animals be they ours or wildlife have the highest quality of life possible. We purchased 6 of these birds from our local feed store. Not knowing what they were thinking they were white egg layers. Imagine my surprise when I got home and did a little research to discover that our most recent addition to our flock were Cornish Rock and their health and history. It broke our hearts and of those 6 birds only 2 survived to "adulthood". We named our roo and hen Romeo and Juliet. They became pets and as soon as released with the rest of our chicks for the season began following us around, coming when called (yes you can train chickens to come when called). And I do photography and they would literally climb up in my lap while sitting outside to take photographs of our yard. I love macro photography and would not only take pictures of the native plants but also of the birds doing what birds do best finding bugs and eating things. I became very attached to our little surviving duo. I was overly protective of them partially because I knew they had a very short life span and partially because they found a way to break through my normally gruff exterior and worm their way into my heart. I found Juliet at 15 weeks of age. Lying in our yard. It appeared she had just laid down and died. It wasn't uncommon for them to nap constantly in the yard. They would peck for a while and then lay down. The other birds would often ignore them or not include them in their chicken games of chase and where is the worm. They were a flock unto themselves. As I mentioned earlier we also have Pekin Ducks and poor Romeo began to hang out with them once Juliet was gone. It broke my heart to watch him wandering around the yard searching for his mate but never finding her. Now when visitors come over he will follow them around and beg for attention. He even went so far as to try and get in one visitors car. He is a loving bird who only wants the companionship that was offered by his own kind, but lacking that has learned to get that attention from humans and ducks. I think what they do to these birds is beyond cruel. I have had neighbors who also have purchased these birds not knowing what they were and either found them lying dead in their yard or the poor birds legs literally broke under their own weight when they were kept with growing chicks that are fed constantly. I was outraged when I read about how these birds are treated by Tyson and tasty or not they are a living breathing life force that deserves our respect and care. After learning what I have learned about these types of birds and that the major producer of this breed is Tyson chicken I cannot walk past a freezer unit in our local grocery without wanting to cry. I know I am an old sentimental fool, but when you mess with nature you mess with your own food source. When our other chicks died they were disposed of the same way anything that dies is on our farm. And although my other chicks were often dug up by night predators poor Juliet still lays in peace, because even the wildlife won't eat her. A lesson we might all take notice of. If wildlife won't eat it should we?

"Also, get out of the habit of eating." I think that's a big key, right there! Since it's become just so inconvenient to eat, I barely care anymore. Although, right now, I'm splurging on gluten/wheat-free pancakes, mixed with shredded coconut, egg whites(from my own chickens and I can actually eat the whites!), almond meal and topped with fresh local honey and raspberries from the garden! :~) So much of my family's life has revolved around the kitchen. The last house that we built was designed with it as the focal point! Now, with everyones diet so restricted, I'm not sure what we'll do about it. We have, literally, hundreds of cookbooks. Everything from professional, ethnic/regional and even ones from my grandma. With the exception of many of the Asian ones, they're sort of useless now. :~( I've been doing massive amounts of harvesting and freezing all sorts of berries and veggies. I'm going to start making preserves out of beet sugar. (I used some in my coffee and it's actually drinkable now.) I've wanted a large cold storage for fruits(apples, pears, etc), potatoes and whatever else, for a long time and just might put one in. Also, the only good pizza place in town, was wiped out. A motorhome drove through it this summer! :~0 I'm now almost down to what I weighed in high school. At least, as a junior! My coach kept wanting me to move up weight classes, for sports. We used to weigh-in and if I didn't make it, I'd have to go eat and try again. Everyone else was starving themselves to make a lower weight. Eating far more than I needed became a very bad habit and hard to stop, even 20+ years later. Wow! I'd look like a corpse at 130lbs!;~) I don't think that my body would take that. I figure that 190'ish(+-) is around my ideal weight! I'd just be far too thin at anything less. Even the clothes that I bought the last shopping trip are getting baggy. Not that I'm complaining!! ;~) I wondered where my cheekbones went to! "As a bonus, I have the most marvelous tan ever, getting comments...." Never been much of the tanning type! Especially, at my age now!;~) God forbid I start getting wrinkles! All of my friends that spent years tanning around pools, in Palm Springs, look twice my age! :~) Laying in the sun w/o protection, lots of booze and cigarettes will do that to you.;~) Being fa..., ahhh larger, I kept to the shade and fully dressed...thank you very much! ;~) I don't mind a few character lines. I just refuse to look like an old crone, just yet! ;~) Especially, now that I've lost weight!! Scott

I just want to tell my story, just because I'm a bit sad about it. I moved to my new place almost six months ago, and I had to store the plants in pots at my parents' place until I get things organized, so I started moving them to the new place slowly. The new place has a central courtyard and walkways around that I can put pots on outside my apartment, as well as a patio in the back. I had a lot of stuff to move, so one day I put the plants I just brought over beside my car in the garage. I figured, it's in a back corner by a brightly-lit back door, and they are just plants, mostly ones that didn't look all that impressive, since they are just returning from the winter, so they should be okay for a couple of days (I did this once before with no problems). I went out the next morning, checking on the plants on the way out, and they were there. When I went out again in the afternoon, they were all gone! They weren't plants that I needed for my arrangement necessarily, and there was nothing particularly special that I couldn't replace, but many of them were seedlings that I've been nursing for over a year, so that they could possibly flower next year, like irises that miraculously germinated despite the seeds being old, a vancouveria, the lone-surviving geranium from a batch that didn't quite make it, etc. Now, what I don't understand is, why would anyone roam around a garage looking to steal plants in plastic temporary pots and a few clay pots that look piddly to begin with? I am sure most people wouldn't even be able to identify most of them from the state that they are in (four or five 8-in iris seedlings don't look like much other than weedy grass). I do hope that whoever ended up with them take care of them well, and they aren't ones I've figured into my patio garden anyway, but I would just like to know what in the world were they thinking?!? Are they stupid, plain malicious, or simply pathetic? They aren't worth anything to anyone (especially in our apartment building) except to the person who grew them and knew their history. Sigh.

Pancreatic cancer is aggressive and usually terminal- no matter how early they find it. My dad was in his late 70's when diagnosed. He lived 4 months with excrutiating pain until thankfully he passed on. It's funny, he had never been a religious man/christian, though he did believe in God. The pastor from our church came to visit him many times during his illness. The day after he finally accepted Jesus as his savior, he died quietly at home. Pancreatic cancer has also taken the lives of a few of our close friends, some in their early 30's. I agree that we hear of pancreatic cancer being more prevalent now... or maybe we're just hearing more about it now. Terrible disease.