Rural dad

vegan mistakes

2007-05-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

We were vegetarians for years before we started raising livestock, mostly so that we could feel good about eating animals. Even at my highest point in vegetarian idealism, I could never get the vegan thing...protein is too good, and soy is too bad. It would seem that these 2 took the vegan thing to a new and painful level.

via Jennifer

farm dogs

2007-04-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of farm dog nastyness, here's another bit of snark by Ryan Taylor regarding the ongoing pat food - melamine disaster

Pet food's been a hot topic as of late. There've been product recalls, contaminated wheat gluten, salmonella-laced pet treats, and lots of recipes for "homemade" pet food.

When we heard the news on our ranch, we didn't have to rush out and check the label on our dog food. I guess you could say our two ranch mutts have been on a bit of a homemade diet their whole life.

I wouldn't say their diet is free of contaminants, but it's never killed them.

I don't know that I could recommend the ranch dog diet to anyone who's concerned about the safety of off-the-shelf dog food. But I'll share with readers the ingredients that keep our dogs well fed and happy.

Carnivore canines

Our dogs have a varied, seasonal diet. In spring, they roam the calving pasture in search of the expelled placenta of parturition. I know it's pretty gross, but I'm sure I'm not the only rancher with dogs who prefer afterbirth to dry dog food.

In summer, they travel the calf branding circuit to gorge themselves on what we daintily refer to as Rocky Mountain Oysters. They'll eat all day long on the byproduct that results when bulls are turned into steers. They'll have a bit of a hangover the next day, but they're always recovered by the next branding.

Throughout the year, they trot up and down the byways in search of fresh roadkill. Sometimes they settle for less-than-fresh roadkill, or carrion as they call it. Rabbits, deer, raccoons - I know what they're grazing on because they usually drag a drumstick or two back to the yard.

Ranch dogs don't mind eating wild turkey once in a while. I've never seen this myself, of course, but I've heard of ranches where a turkey will mysteriously die on occasion when there're a hundred of them lined up on the feed bunks every morning.

Like all good ranchers with impeccable management, I, of course, never lose a cow or a calf to sickness, weather or chance. But I've heard of guys who lose calves and have a ranch dog or two helping with the carcass disposal.

Their dogs will disappear behind the hill for a couple hours every day, drag back a leg bone or two, and they see a noticeable decline in the draw down on the 50-pound sack of co-op elevator dog food they keep in the shop.

Not for all

Nobody needs to write and tell me how dangerous the ranch dog diet is for a loving pet and companion. I'm certain that these free-roaming eating activities are completely out of balance with the required nutrients, vitamins and minerals.

But I'm not about to chain them up. Part of the joy of country living is letting your dogs be dogs and enjoy some freedom. Of course, running free does have them eating like a coyote most days.

I think the diet does toughen them up a bit. They fend off salmonella, scoff at bacteria, and might even survive a dose of melamine in a contaminated batch of wheat gluten.

And, in light of everything that's been in the news, I'll let them take their chances out on our meaty domestic range before I head to town to buy any imported Chinese wheat gluten.

Are you gonna put that in your mouth?

2007-04-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

from kevin, in Time

They line the nursery section children’s toy stores like brightly colored candies: rubber duckies for bathtime, chewable rings for teething, soft-covered books for pawing and mouthing. Parents shopping for their babies can be forgiven if they assume that everything on those shelves is 100% child safe. So why did the city of San Francisco issue a ban last week on the sale of certain plastic toys aimed at children under 3? And why are activists warning holiday shoppers in the most alarming terms against buying them? “Sucking on some of these teethers and toys,” says Rachel Gibson of Environment California, a nonprofit, “is like sucking on a toxic lollipop.”

At issue are contaminants in plastics used to make the toys. Environmentalists have long argued that some of these chemicals can leach out and harm children, pointing to animal studies that link the substances to birth defects, cancer and developmental abnormalities. Those warnings are hotly disputed by the chemical industry and toy manufacturers, which cite stacks of scientific studies that have found the plastics to be safe at federally approved levels. But the issue has gained traction on the strength of new evidence from independent and university-sponsored studies. The European Union has banned some chemicals in toys since 1999, and now half a dozen state legislatures are considering similar laws.

Lactation economics

2007-04-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

(via Baby Roadies)

Mothers, kids health, and the natural world

2007-03-22T10:10:00.000-07:00

Plant knowledge key to childhood health in remote Amazon

...mothers who had knowledge of local plants well above the average were more likely to have children with better health, whereas mothers who had less than the average knowledge were more likely to have children with worse indicators of health and nutrition.

I've always been a plant person, and enjoyed learning the health benefits of our local flora. In college, there were always jokes that I was the "Level 3 herbalist" when a roommate dropped his bike into a thicket of poison oak, and I tracked down the mugwort to wipe down the bike and his hands. Now someone has quantified the effect on kids.

To a great extent, Tsimane survival and well being is dependent on their knowledge of local plants, in everything from managing their environment to getting food and preventing and curing disease, explained Reyes-García. "However, globalization threatens this knowledge to the extent that formal schooling and jobs in emerging markets devalue folk knowledge and provide access to products not made from local resources, but without providing adequate medical treatment substitutes,"

In our globalized world with disastrous health care policies, people who know the herbal treatments to common maladies will come out ahead financially and in terms of health. Now where's that homeopathy book???

Co-sleeping horror story, and misc updates

2007-03-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

We're about 10 weeks out now....this whole birth thing is going to get really, well, real here soon.

We're planning on Cosleeping, and have just ordered our Arm's Reach co-sleeper. Hypnobirthing classes went great. Our sunday afternoon review of Happiest Baby on the Block was enlightening, and now I've got techniques for reining in the squalling with the added bonus of not having to read the book.

And from the Lactivist, this trite piece of pseudo journalism. 'Nuff said.

Grandparents

2007-02-21T07:43:00.000-08:00

In the vein of circumcision, here's a partial transcript, reconstructed after the fact, of a conversation my wife had with her father (a non-practicing Jew married to a Colombian Catholic) regarding circumcision.

Wife: So we looked into circumcision for the little guy, and I don't think we're going to do it.
Grandpa: {silence}
W: Hello?
GP: Did you say cesarian?
W: No, dad, circumcision. You know, foreskins and all that?
GP: Why wouldn't you want to circumcize him?
W: Well, all of the medical data says that there isn't really a benefit to it. The APA no longer recommends it. And it seems a little cruel.
GP: Well what does your pediatrician think?
W: She fully supports not circumcizing.
GP: Well, have you thought about getting a second opinion?
W: From who, dad? {Seeing it coming from a mile away....}
GP: How about a rabbi?

More pork

2007-02-02T07:35:00.000-08:00

Why does the National Pork Board find a snarky tshirt sold by a lactation activist threatening? Too many lawyers. Read her whole post, then go buy a tshirt from her.

Names

2007-01-27T09:50:00.000-08:00

Following closely on the question "Boy or girl?", the name question is the second most common pregnancy question we get asked these days. While we're opting to not make any final decision until we see the little squirmer in our arms, we're doing some thinking, narrowing down the field.

This site helped the process, but mostly was just fascinating to watch the evolution of certain names over time. Why, oh why, did the name Paris make a launch in popularity in 2003? Same year, the name Emma launches to #2? Why did Arland go from 0 in a million births to 12 in the 1930's, only to drop back into obscurity in the '40s? I can only hope it's Marcel Arland, dadaist extreme...he'd appreciate it.

Someone with far more time than me, not to mention skills, should cross reference cultural events with the name phenomenon. Why do I know so many baby Zoe's, Maya's, and Fiona's?

PS....it's a boy

pork love

2007-01-23T15:25:00.000-08:00

We've got a saying on the farm....

"Never kiss a farm dog on the lips"

This should hold for any dog, really, knowing what we all do about their dietary preferences. Farm dogs, though, get a hold of a bounty of nastiness that city dogs can only dream of.

Anyway, I guess we may need to expand this rule to include kids, and pigs.

Pop quiz....which one is getting the nastier experience?

(via Daddytypes)

Punk fetus

2007-01-22T15:24:00.000-08:00

From Chris

... (why)I’m an avid supporter of legal, accessible, and affordable abortion services

Fetuses are goddamn punks

I mean, just look at ‘em. Sitting there all floaty and unconcerned, not taking any responsibility for the world around ‘em, content to just sit there and leech off of someone they don’t even know yet.

Happy Blog for Choice day. Whether you choose to have a baby, or choose not to, freedom lets you make that choice.

Speaking of, our little choice is 1lb 3oz from ultrasound measurements this morning, has 10 fingers and toes, and judging from his apparent thumbsucking, is getting a rip-roaring start on his future oral fixation problems.

So much worse than shoes

2007-01-19T13:54:00.000-08:00

As the weeks trundle by, the wife is getting rounder and rounder... to the point where I'm wondering how she's going to walk in a couple of months.

The other night, she mentioned that her belly is so big that she can no longer see her clitoris.

Wow. I mean.....wow, it never occurred to me that she'd lose sight of that along with which mud boots she was wearing. We may have to rig up a lighted marker to help her keep from losing sight of it.

In fact, that could be a pretty good product to market to teenage boys, too. Their girlfriends would buy it....

Ouchouchouch

2007-01-11T08:36:00.000-08:00

Neil Pollack is one of those writers that I always check out when the RSS feed shows a new post...it's always an entertaining read.

His new book chronicles his entry into hipster parenthood...knowing a few hipster parents myself, I look forward to checking it out.

You can read a painful blurb of it in Salon about new parent decisions

Someone else's 72 things

2006-12-30T08:07:00.000-08:00

Catching up on posts, here's one...72 things a father must know.

5. Never tell anybody where your child was conceived, how long it took, or what song was playing.

Dammit...that means I'll have to stop telling people that it was at Brian's wedding, in the bridal room, during the cake cutting, with my hat on.

I'm also a fan of

29. It never hurts to videotape the baby-sitter.

Especially if she's hot.

(via Baby Roadies)

Alternative medicine

2006-12-30T07:41:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Pirate Papa for the link to the Pregnancy Today article, citing the slow, painful breakdown of the vice grip that western medicine has had on our lives.

When we started the whole fertility treatment thing, we started at the western end, while dabbling on the eastern end.

It turns out that advice given by the naturopath (check progesterone levels and treat with suppositories) may have been the key, but our regular doctor and the fertility doctor didn't think it was important. When she came back with very low progesterone, and started treating it, we got pregnant that month, after a year of trying. Hmmm.

Bad travel advice

2006-12-21T08:15:00.000-08:00

'Tis the season...eggnog, time with family, holiday travel. Just make sure that you don't mix the three in inappropriate proportions

A woman going through security at Los Angeles International Airport put her month-old grandson into a plastic bin intended for carry-on items and slid it into an X-ray machine.

Really, though, the TSA is doing fine...

On its website, the TSA posts extensive tips for travelers, including a section titled "Traveling With Children."

One item reads: "Never leave babies in an infant carrier while it goes through the X-ray machine."

I think we're going to be able to handle this parenting thing just fine...the good thing about stupid people is that they make you feel good about yourself.

Vl@gr/a or Trojan-man?

2006-12-07T13:47:00.000-08:00

In the 'no shit' category.....

Kids see too many anti-impotence ads

It's nice to see the American Academy of Pediatrics taking somewhat of a stand on something as fundamental as media literacy. Now lets see if they have the stones to stand up to the American Taliban, who are going to say that an ad for birth control is an ad for pedophilic, pre-30s, abortion-causing sex.

(thanks pirate)

more chocolate

2006-12-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

Judging by this article, our chances of another miscarriage are lessening all the time.

In a finding that should come as comfort to pregnant women who can barely manage a cracker without being sick, new research shows morning sickness lowers the risk of miscarriage by almost 70 per cent.

The worse the nausea, the better, according to a study published today in the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The dear wife is greeting every morning with a round of retching, even at ~15 weeks. Last night she took Unisom for the first time, slept better than she had in a week, and didn't puke on waking up.

Eating chocolate daily also appears to lower the risk of miscarriage. So, too, did ''feeling well enough to fly or to have sex,'' according to researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

I'm going shopping for more chocolate today, hoping that that makes her feel well enough for the other listed activities.

more duds for tykes

2006-11-21T07:58:00.000-08:00

I may have to get one of these for myself, but I don't know about the 3-button crotch thing...doesn't look too comfortable

link via cursor

work

2006-11-18T10:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the dearth of posts. A day job really cuts into your day. More next week, I promise.

Farm life with wee one

2006-11-07T12:50:00.000-08:00

Ryan Taylor is a rancher, writer, legislator, and dad in North Dakota, who writes about all of these hats he wears with a quick wit and a sharp eye. A recent column of his, Daddy Day Care on the Ranch(subscriber paywall...not as annoying as the NYTimes, but still...), is one of those narratives I can see myself living in the not too distant future.

Daddy daycare on the ranch

Ryan Taylor

There's a new hired hand on the Taylor Ranch. He works cheap - three square meals, at least as many diapers and the occasional juice box. He's just over 2 years old, long on ambition but short on direction.

Since the new baby brother hit our house last month, big brother Bud has become my full-time sidekick. Like Matt Dillon and Festus, the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Bert and Ernie. We look out for each other.

He has all the qualities of a good sidekick. Faithful, helpful, ready to go at the drop of a hat.

He doesn't travel light, though. It used to be I could pull down my hat, head out the door and go to work. Not so now.

These days, I need to make sure I have a sippy cup, a blankie, a little container of raisins, a spare diaper and some wet wipes. The back of my pickup has about as many toys as it does tools.

You can always spot a daddy rancher. Just look in the back of his pickup and see if there's a toy dump truck and bulldozer back there with his fence stretcher and post-hole digger.

We're still working on channeling his energy. Sometimes the bulldozer fills up my post hole while I'm digging it. Most times I can stay ahead of him.

He's pretty good at bringing me stuff, even stuff I don't need. But it pleases him to bring me every tool out of the tool box, or empty a can of nails one by one and it keeps him occupied. It doesn't take me long to put them back en masse.

He helps me appreciate my surroundings. "Windmill, windmill, windmill!" "Cows, cows, cows!" "Trees, trees, trees!" You can't slip anything by him. And he appreciates quick confirmation of everything he's identified.

I guess you could say that my first born and I are spending a lot of quantity time together. There may be some quality to the quantity, but basically our relationship is blessed with sheer volume. It's a lucky father who has that opportunity.

It reminds me of the barn cat theory of parenting related to me by a reader who's a farm-raised family doctor.

He figures children are like the batch of kitties you find in the hay mow of your barn. You have to get out there and start petting and playing with them when they're little, before their eyes are open. Lots of love early on and you'll have cats that are tame and useful their whole life through.

If you wait too long to spend any time with them and their eyes open up without any taming and petting, you'll have a barn full of hissing, spitting cats that'll be wild the rest of their days.

When it comes to children, the time their eyes open up is teen-aged adolescence and the time to be with them and tame them down is when they're infants and toddlers and little kids.

Everything I do on the ranch takes twice as long when my sidekick is helping me. But it's not wasted time.

I'm sure there will be days to come when his eyes open up and I won't be his idol and he won't be my sidekick. Right now, he's pretty sure I hung the moon. And I think life on the ranch without him would be pretty dull.

I wouldn't call him tame by any means, but we are putting in the time.

Tunes

2006-11-01T14:18:00.000-08:00

If I'm blogging, I'm probably blogging to Boot Liquor (realplayer warning). Maybe you should to.

hands across the crib

2006-10-31T13:17:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else find this disturbing?

I know this opens the bag of worms that is co-sleeping, as well as that of working parents, single mothers, and perhaps even vaccination madness. Not a chance I'll tackle all of those.

I'm just a little creeped out by disembodied hands holding a baby.

Happy halloween, I guess.

(via sara)

Rules

2006-10-30T11:55:00.000-08:00

Note to self: The five second rule does not apply when you're talking about vaginal progesterone suppositories.

When it hits the floor, man, it's gone. Plan your partner's prescriptions accordingly.

Infertility Sucks I - The Miscarriage

2006-10-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

When we decided that we were ready to have a kid (spring 2005), the dear wife was very gung ho on all of the prenatal things...the vitamins, the ovulation charting, the whole works. It seemed pretty easy, because within a couple of months of 'hitting that' ovulation window, she was pregnant. Hey, that was easy.

Not so much.

About six weeks into that pregnancy, she had a miscarriage. As the guy, you're bummed, sure, since you're looking forward to having a little one that you can warp and weft. But, I was totally unprepared for the depths of depression that my wife went through. We've always been able to work out problems, but this was one that we couldn't help each other out with.

A fair bit of our response bleeds into the next post (Infertility sucks - Why can't we get her knocked up again?), but we found ourselves in a monthly swing...timing when we can have sex for the month, hoping that I don't have a work trip planned for that week, sometimes getting our timing together, then waiting 2 weeks, only to have her go through a swing of negativity and crabbiness when the negative pregnancy test comes through. It got so I would welcome the chance to get the hell out of dodge and let her stew by herself. But, I know doing that doesn't help the problem.

Fortunately | unfortunately, we had some friends go through the same thing early this year. They're in a similar mental state now...him doing the "guy thing" and trying to put it past him, mostly by keeping busy, and she's still hoping to "just cuddle"...she wants some down time to spend with the two of them. These things express differently for everyone....but come to think of it, not so differently.

Infant duds

2006-10-02T15:48:00.000-07:00

I have no doubt that this topic will be covered in many and varied ways, at it has at many other blogs, but I like McSweeney's take on acceptable vs unacceptable verbiage for infants (via baby roadies)

I'm quite fond of "Property of Child and Family Services".

"Mommy needs a drink" from Bumberlam is a close second.

Counting down

2006-10-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

After a miscarriage, then a year of trying to get pregnant again, it would seem that we've managed to conceive our first child....again. But our fingers are crossed, because anything can happen.

We are a married, mid-thirties couple living in a rural area of Oregon. It would seem the daddy-blog phenomenon is focussed on those who live in cities and towns, while leaving out the very unique challenges posed to those of us who love where we live in the sticks.

I guess I could have called this blog 'redneck dad,' but it doesn't really fit my blue-state mentality. While I have a pickup, a dog (2, actually), and a shotgun, my chewing tobacco consumption is minimal, and I do not own any motorized recreational toys.

Our christmas lights do stay up all year long, however.