Re: OT: U.S. Dressage Olympics team disqualified!

Ah, I used to get more impatient and frustrated - patience came the hard way

- I'll leave it at that. But I do understand.

Don't you have a delivery service from the local grocery chain? Here the Giant (local) and Harris-Teeter have services that you can shop via the web, or a form, and then either fax, e-mail, etc the order in, and they'll deliver it. The Giant one is called Peapod, it's a great thing when you're either not up to doing the groceries, or have no time. Maybe you could check into what the local chains may have. Here, the surcharge is really, really minimal, and they will select organic, etc - whatever your restrictions/preferences are.

I have not doubt the USET is more upset than you are. Who knows how quickly they put stuff on their website. I doubt they update it daily. And there are different branches of the USET, the Dressage federation, the eventing federation, etc (eventing HQ is local to me here in VA). I'd expect they know all the illegal stuff, but you never know - some groom could have something, or they gave a med to an animal that should've worn off, or they didn't realize had an illegal component, or just plain screwed up. Who knows. I have some friends that are connected in Dressage world - I'll have to ping them eventually.

Ellice

I have been in the local WalMart with food - no thanks. Meat department smelled bad, produce looked worse. I don't buy a lot of pre-packaged thing due the salt and fat content.

Cheryl

Understandable. If I'm going to food shop in a box store - it's Target (which is slightly better on human rights than Walmart). I know the one thing I'm really spoiled with is the fine grocery stores - having Wegman's is awesome. And, honestly the local Giant is pretty nice, as is Harris-Teeter. I don't like Safeway here - never been happy with them.

I periodically take DH with me on the Wegman's run - which could be worse. Going there - the big thing is sticking to what you need, not getting distracted by all the special, pricey things.

Anyhow - let Mark do for you, and check into a service. Given your situation, it may be worth the few dollars.

Ellice

The local chains here all carry organic produce - some more than others, and their own labels organic milk, eggs, etc. For eggs, I actually buy free-range, veg fed - but not the organic (from the same producers), no pesticideds, etc. Milk, always organic. And most of our produce - fortunately the Wegman's iosn't as pricey as Whole Foods. The Target has some organic in their food section. I buy really excellent Fair Trade Organic coffee there - half the price of elsewhere it seems.

For meat - I buy mostly at Wegman's - their certified "food you feel good about" - which means no antibiotic/growth hormones, vegetarian feed, etc, and some organic. Was buying only organic free range chicken, then found a brand called "Smart Chicken" which produces boht an organic and non label - which I'd bet are processed close to the same - so we've gone with the slightly less pricey one. Although, our Costco carries Coleman chickens, which I buy, and Wegman's has their own label organic. Buy pre-packed organic ground beef at Costco or Wegman's, same with Bison, etc.

Recently Consumer Reports did an article about when to buy organic, particularly with respect to raw things. I tend to follow that. Try to stay with products that don't have the animal cruelty factor - hence the free range eggs (or here "Cage Free"), and certain meats we don't buy unless they're labelled appropriately.

Did the vegetarian thing in high school, and part of college. I'm not a huge meat eater at all. But, my hematologist went nuts a few years ago and insisted that I had to add more meat into my diet (the few times a month wasn't doing it). So, we do what we're comfortable with - I get that humans are omnivores - and that's what we generally need. OTOH, the dog also only gets no by-product, vegetarian feed source, etc kibbles. And, he eats cottage cheese and veggies mixed with his dry stuff - so it balances a bit. Don't suggest diet supplements to do the vegetarian thing - won't work for me due to gastric stuff that complicates my significant anemia.

Anyhow, I'm lucky that we have good though quite expensive compared to most of the US, grocery stores.

Ellice

Depends on the labelling. We buy "cage free, free roaming" .

We each make our own pact. And have to make do with our biology versus our conscious thoughts.

Ellice

I would so love to find free range eggs near me. They taste so much better.

Cheryl

On Sep 24, 11:25=A0am, Jangchub wrote: big snip>

Oh dear! If our chickens were really cage free and pen free, we would have lost them to local predators years ago instead of having the bear come by just this year and decimate the flock. We had them in a double pen system - one 12 by 15 chicken wire pen (about 30 chickens) with a wooden door and metal latch that we usually left open for the chickens to meander around the larger chain link fenced pen that was almost 1/4 acre. The chicken wire pen had a wire roof so they would scurry in there for safety when there was a hawk in the area. The chain link fence kept most predators out, except for the occasional skunk which crawled under or the occasional bear (two in 18 years) who would just knock down the chain link gate to get in or climb over the top. Over a period of time between May and early September Mr. (or Ms) bear returned repeatedly and we now only have one hen who managed to scurry into a back corner under the hen house. Hickety (she's a black hen) is now living in with the racing pigeons and they all seem to have adapted well to each other. The pigeon loft is close enough to the house that the bear doesn't feel comfortable coming after them . . . . . . . . yet? I miss the chickens but they were chickens and not really pets and we ARE living in the bear's backyard after all. We are currently working on rebuilding the chicken area so we can order new chicks for spring. Meanwhile, we will either take care of the bear ourselves or call Fish & Game.

To bring this all back to needlework, I did Claudia Dutcher's "Hen Party" tabletopper last year to keep for myself and then ended up giving it to our library director when she retired. She was always known as the mother hen with her 15 (branch library) chicks. She loved it and I know from visiting with her throughout the years that she will give it a good home. :-)))))

Now I HAVE to get the "Read" tabletopper. I'm even going to have to make it twice - once for the library and once for the Friends of the LIbrary to auction or raffle. Hmmmmm. Maybe another for the auction that the elementary school holds every year in late May. Well, maybe I should go hang the laundry on the clothes line first. :-)))

Liz from Humbug

Lol (though I understand it is not funny other than in a wry way) you make me think of a friend who moved out into the country and was going to raise ducks. Such a lovely layout with a duck pond for them to swim etc etc. Locals smiled as well they might, first time the raccoons came like wolves from the hills, no more ducks !