to kill or not to kill... a turkey

though it's a bit late, i thought i'd put this link up to a radio program we heard while on our drive to thanksgiving events. the guest brings up a couple of topics:

contrasting happy, healthy turkeys with plenty of land on which to graze with factory-farmed turkeys, whose lives consist of dark, cramped quarters and growth hormones among other things;

discussing the seeming disconnect between being an 'animal lover' while eating them and turning a blind eye on the way animals grown for meat are treated;

discussing whether or not it's okay to ask someone else to kill an animal, if you would be unwilling to do it yourself. i'm sure i could think about it a bit longer and find plenty of jobs i would not do myself but am perfectly content to 'ask' others to do, but is this job different?

if you're envisioning crazy peta rhetoric, not to fear-- he discusses this in a very un-peta-like and un-self-righteous manner and is challenged by some callers. it's worth listening to (click on listen to this program in the upper, center of the page).

in other news... self-portrait at 23 weeks...

saturday scribblings

power returns

continuing from the last post, and three weekends ago, the natural bridge lending its name to the natural bridge state park...

the largest in the state. alas, not so tall when you compare it to natural bridges even one lake michigan away, but impressive nonetheless.

the shelter beneath it. thought to potentially have been at least a temporary stopping point for people as long as 12,000 years ago. when woolly mammoths were pets.

more fall colors and blue skies...

fall sweater.

spotting cows...

that same weekend, the next day, was the first annual halloween celebration for the neighborhood...

carving pumpkins...

a close-up of the puppy in the last picture...

a second puppy...

greg, dressed up as an engineer...

the next weekend... two weekends ago... we were back up in the same area of wisconsin for an 18k trail run. greg's first official trail run.

while greg ran, i hung out with oliver who, it turns out, is a masterful cricket hunter...

although that weekend's pictures end there, greg placed third in his age group, and even won a chocolate bar in the raffle. woot!

finally, i think this picture was taken about 2 weeks ago now, so needless to say it's a bit out-of-date, however, you get the idea that i am, in fact, beginning to show.

fall colors

oh so many days have passed since i updated veralouie, and now, a broken power cord has me in a race against time... so, i will have to focus on one event for now and hope that all who read this are happy to look at fall colors and a little brown dog.

a couple... or has it been a few now... weekends ago we drove northwest to natural bridge state park. a wonderfully, fun little voyage which began with an early morning at manna, the best cafe in madison...

on the way home to pick up ollie we spotted this little brown dog running through our neighborhood... a tailless fox...

oh, the battery runs low...
onto the drive and some of the colors and evidence that wisconsin is a tall state...

oliver...

colors and dried fields...

can you spot the dog?

the husband...

more evidence of wisconsin's height...

okay... i have too little time to download more pictures... so i will end this post for now and publish. until next time!

halloween, from their perspective...

not for the faint of heart. click here to watch.