oxen

In this episode of Voices from the Field, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Tracy Mumma talks with Jim Gronau, who uses oxen as draft animals on his farm in Ontario, Canada. Jim describes some of the environmental, economic, and marketing benefits of using oxen, and he provides pointers for getting started as a teamster and for starting a young team of oxen. Jim also explains what an ox is and talks about how versatile oxen can be on a farm. Finally, Jim reflects on the magic moment when everything comes together and the animals and driver become a team.

Related ATTRA Resources:

·        Episode 333. Draft Animals 101
·        Draft Animal Power for Farming

Other Resources:

·        Draft Animal Power Network
·        Oxen: A Teamster’s Guide to Raising, Training, Driving & Showing
·        Oxen: Their Care, Training, and Use
·        Live Power in Agriculture: Working Equines and Bovines Class
·        Midwest Ox Drovers Association
·        All Things Oxen
·        Oxen in Canada
·        Small Farmer’s Journal
·        Rural Heritage
·        World Draft Cattle Symposium

 Contact Tracy Mumma at tracym@ncat.org.

Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.  

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.  

In this Bible Story, God is victorious over the Philistines and returns to Israel. He plagues the Philistines with tumors, and makes it known that he is the God above all other gods. This story is inspired by 1 Samuel 5-6. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a Year.

Today's Bible verse is 1 Samuel 5:4 from the King James Version.

Episode 77: All of Israel mourned the loss of the Ark as it was dragged to the city of Ashdod. There, they placed it at the feet of their god, Dagon. The next morning their statue of Dagon had fallen, and was bowing before the Ark of God. The hand of God was heavy against The Philistines, and He afflicted them with plagues of tumors and rats. And so the Philistines, recognizing what Israel and Egypt did not, sent the Ark of God back to Israel with gifts to honor God and beg for His forgiveness. Teaching us rightly to fear God and not take His name or power lightly.

Hear the Bible come to life as Pastor Jack Graham leads you through the official BibleinaYear.com podcast. This Biblical Audio Experience will help you master wisdom from the world’s greatest book. In each episode, you will learn to apply Biblical principles to everyday life. Now understanding the Bible is easier than ever before; enjoy a cinematic audio experience full of inspirational storytelling, orchestral music, and profound commentary from world-renowned Pastor Jack Graham.

Also, you can download the Pray.com app for more Christian content, including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories.

Visit JackGraham.org for more resources on how to tap into God's power for successful Christian living.

This episode is sponsored by Medi-Share, an innovative health care solution for Christians to save money without sacrificing quality.

Pray.com is the digital destination of faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store.

Executive Producers: Steve Gatena & Max Bard

Producer: Ben Gammon

Hosted by: Pastor Jack Graham

Music by: Andrew Morgan Smith

Bible Story narration by: Todd Haberkorn

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A short devotional on Proverbs 14:4.

Dan Schilling & Michael Blue examine Matthew 19 to look into the dangers of "doing" without "being" with Jesus. This is the third episode of a 3-part series. Our desire is to free you from the bondage of feeling like you are "not doing enough" for God. #ThriveinChrist

In this Bible Story, Elijah puts the God of the universe on display against the false Gods of Baal. 450 prophets of Baal and King Ahab gathered to challenge Elijah and the One True God. In front of the whole nation, God sent fire and rain down from the skies to prove his power and might. The blighted and unfertile land finally received rain. This story is inspired by 1 Kings 18. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a Year.

Today's Bible verse is 1 Kings 18:39 from the King James Version.

Episode 123: For three years the famine in Israel continued and King Ahab was desperate to find Elijah. One day, when his servant Obediah was out searching for water, Elijah appeared to him. Elijah tells him to send for the king and challenges king Ahab to bring all of his “prophets” of Baal and Asherah for a showdown on Mount Carmel.

Hear the Bible come to life as Pastor Jack Graham leads you through the official BibleinaYear.com podcast. This Biblical Audio Experience will help you master wisdom from the world’s greatest book. In each episode, you will learn to apply Biblical principles to everyday life. Now understanding the Bible is easier than ever before; enjoy a cinematic audio experience full of inspirational storytelling, orchestral music, and profound commentary from world-renowned Pastor Jack Graham.

Also, you can download the Pray.com app for more Christian content, including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories.

Visit JackGraham.org for more resources on how to tap into God's power for successful Christian living.

This episode is sponsored by Medi-Share, an innovative health care solution for Christians to save money without sacrificing quality.

Pray.com is the digital destination of faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store.

Executive Producers: Steve Gatena & Max Bard

Producer: Ben Gammon

Hosted by: Pastor Jack Graham

Music by: Andrew Morgan Smith

Bible Story narration by: Todd Haberkorn

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

GainZ once again joins LoVibe and Point Man to discuss Crossfit for animals.  A novel concept that can improve the health of animals but has its challenges.

0:00 - Intro & Summary

2:00 - Movie Discussion

38:49 - Cast & Crew/Awards

44:55 - Pop Culture/Music

54:13-  Rankings & Ratings

To see a full list of movies we will be watching and shows notes, please follow our website: https://www.1991movierewind.com/

Follow us!

https://linktr.ee/1991movierewind

Theme: "sunrise-cardio," Jeremy Dinegan (via Storyblocks)

Don't forget to rate/review/subscribe/tell your friends to listen to us!

Looking to explore alternatives to Signal and heard of Session, but not sure what sets it apart? This episode, we're sitting down with Kee Jefferys, CTO of Session, to chat about their Session messenger and it's approaches to chat, encryption, and network privacy.

More about Kee Jefferys:

• Kee's guest profile -- https://optoutpod.com/guests/kee-jefferys/

More about Session:

• Website -- https://getsession.org/
• Twitter -- https://twitter.com/session_app
• Github -- https://github.com/oxen-io
• Non-profit behind Session -- https://optf.ngo/
• Running an OXEN node -- https://docs.oxen.io/using-the-oxen-blockchain/oxen-service-node-guides/full-service-node-setup-guide

Opt Out's Sponsors:

• Cake Wallet, an easy to use Monero mobile wallet -- https://optoutpod.com/sponsors/#cake-wallet
• LocalMonero, an excellent and privacy-preserving way to buy and sell Monero -- https://optoutpod.com/sponsors/#localmonero
• IVPN, an ethical, no-nonsense, non-logging VPN provider -- https://optoutpod.com/sponsors/#ivpn

Supporting Opt Out:

• Donations -- https://optoutpod.com/about/#donations
• Leave a review on your favorite podcast platform, if possible!
• Share it with your friends, family, and other communities!

Today,  we will be going through a brief introduction to the book of Numbers, followed by an exploration through the first 4 chapters of the book. We will learn about what the Hebrew people titled the book a long time ago, and the  significance of this. We will also learn a little bit about the tribes of Judah and Reuben, and how prophecies made by Jacob long ago, had great effects upon the tribes up  to this point. Also, what was the punishment for touching the ark of the covenant? These details and many more, will be discussed in today's podcast teaching. 

 Kat has one job while the trio enjoys a retreat in the Smoky Mountains. The wrong cabin has already battened down the hatches. Moose feels funky energy due to the cabin’s decor - yokes, a pitch fork and a scythe. Moose’s fears of heights and death inspire a potential Dateline episode. Professor Kat talks about the Samurai code of ethics. Kat and Moose have defined a theme song for our mountain retreat, and surprisingly it’s not Maggie Rogers, it’s by Lord Huron. We discuss trauma associated with turning our phones off, and the overabundance of group text messages. Kat teaches Moose about palpating, a technique she’s learned hands-on training at school. Kat wishes she cared less about what people think, and Moose has a thing for gingers and guys named Adam. Kat offers a different perspective on a note Moose left a crush long ago.

Visit us on the Interwebs! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook! Support the show!

The Great American Cattle Drive 2020 was an exciting trip for us, with farm visits to see American Milking Devons, Ancient White Park Cattle, and Yaks.  Wait – Yaks?  Okay, so the “Cattle” in “Cattle Drive” part was a little fast and loose on the list near the end (we try not to limit ourselves, if you can tell).  The genus “Bos” does include cattle, aurochs, bison and yaks, but yaks, including “Bos grunniens” are technically not in the “cattle” clump, so we stretching GACD a little.  With a name meaning the “grunting yak” (the domesticated version, anyway), you’ve got to step off the beaten path a little. 

     Suzanne Drumm of Bentwood Alpacas and Yaks gave us an up-close look at a yak herd, and we were captivated.  That’s an impressive feat, as it was July in New York, but these animals are ones you just have to see to get your head wrapped around.  Board member of IYAK (volunteer, no less), restaurateur, fiber producer, and nice human being --  it’s people like Suzanne that make things like GAC(&Y)D memorable for us.  Even if we didn’t make it to Alaska, Steve.

     We’ll post a few videos soon on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/BackyardGreenFilms/videos), but until then, we hope you enjoy the conversation with the truly gracious Suzanne Drumm.

Links:

http://www.bentwoodalpacasyaks.com/ 

https://www.iyak.org/leadership-team 

https://www.sunnyhillranch.com/ 

https://www.milkingdevons.org/ 

https://twitter.com/BkyrdGreenFilms 

https://www.facebook.com/BackyardGreenFilms/ 

https://www.instagram.com/backyardgreenfilms/ 

https://www.youtube.com/backyardgreenfilms 

www.backyardgreenfilms.com 

https://sheepandwool.com/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yak_fiber 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bos 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_yak

Rick, Elara, Little Mule (newly named car) and Bessie (not-quite-newly named trailer) are nearly home after almost 6 weeks on the road on the Great American Cattle Drive 2020.  After a quick detour across historic Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California, they have decided that they definitely have the good life travelling in the modern age.  Especially with air conditioning.

 The Oregon Trail.  The California Trail.  The Mormon Trail.  The Bozeman Trail.  The Pony Express Trail.

At least this time Elara didn’t eat it halfway across, due to Cholera (all of you 70’s and 80’s gamers got that one, we’re sure).

 Links:

https://www.nps.gov/oreg/planyourvisit/maps.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platte_River
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/photo/trails-west/ https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/oregon-trail-ruts http://milkingdevons.org/ https://classicreload.com/oregon-trail.html

  Backyard Green Films is on the route home on the Great American Cattle Drive 2020, with another 2,000-odd miles to go.  As it happened, we recorded this episode from the banks of the Mississippi River, only an hour from Pepin, Wisconsin.  Some of you might know that spot as the original starting point for Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the beloved Little House books.  Her adventure with a wagon pulled by oxen was much more difficult than ours should be, and any kind of of journey is a big idea to tackle.  But pioneer girls had to be tough in those days, and apparently that characteristic still lives in the spirit of the American girl.
   Our podcast today is with Andrew Van Ord, of Ox Hill Devon Farm in northwestern Pennsylvania.  He breeds Milking Devons, makes equipment for oxen, and passes on the family skill set — driving (oxen) — right on into the next generation.  Andrew was the last of our American Milking Devon Cattle Association interviews on this trip, and he helped us to get a new perspective on what it meant to be a teamster, the outside-the-standard-box uses for cattle in all kinds of pulling adventures, and where he thinks it might go in the future.  And he practices what he preaches.  When we got to the farm, Andrew’s daughter Lily — and her little heifer — were already up and working to pull a tire up and down the gravel road in front of the farmhouse, with a stubborn fortitude and a pioneer spirit that was hard to miss.  Who says a girl (and a heifer) can’t play the same game as the big boys (steers)?
   As we leave the banks of the Mississippi River, and drive our own little wagon westward, we are grateful for reminders of the past, the ability to live in the present, and the possibilities for the future.  And the reminder that they can often live in one place, if we let them.

Westward, ho!
 
Links:
www.oxhilldevons.,ocom
www.milkingdevons.org

We're still GACD - Great American Cattle Drive, that is.  

Today, we'll bring you a visit with a family that we think is peachy keen, absolutely fabulous, and the cat's meow (and yes, there were cats there, too).  Three generations of the Freier Family hosted us for a delightful morning at Every Season Farm, learning about life on a dairy farm (and mini science lab) in the rolling hills of Seneca Falls, New York.  

With the patriarch starting the milk jug rolling, and a pediatrician and an E.R. physician in the next generation, it's no wonder that the third generation of Freiers wowed us with their current progress and future potential in both agriculture and science.  Two budding veterinarians, a potential agricultural engineer and a future ag law environmental specialist bustled about in the milking barn while we grilled (interviewed) Dr. Dale (Jr.). 

The whole family has "truly likeable overachiever" written all over them.  While we were there we were treated to a draft display by two teams and two Frieres and a grant writing discussion from a lad young enough to have recently received his driver's license.  We learned that there is the intellectual equivalent of a "poultry bowl" Jeopardy! competition, at which one Freier excelled (humble though he was about it).  A blue-ribbon bunch all around, and not just with the Virginia State Fair and showing their Milking Devons.  We will definitely have a Part 2 Podcast of this get-together, but...

After all that, we felt it was important to cover the "milking" part of "Milking Devons," and this was the perfect place to do it.  Dr. Dale and his intrepid crew are in the midst of studies on the output, content and nutritional values in the milk they gather, and the information might just bring some interesting insights into variances of production due to genetic diversity, even within a single breed.

We hope you enjoy listening to the hustle and bustle of a milking barn, filled with kids, kittens, cows and camaraderie.  What a joyous time we had.  

P.S.  
Got Milking Devon?

Links:  
www.everyseason.farm
www.milkingdevons.org
www.livestockconservancy.org

We’re still in the Northeastern United States on our Great American Cattle Drive.  This is the area where much of our country’s important paperwork is kept.  The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the documents in the Hall of Records, and the Milking Devon Herdbook, Volume 8.  We just had to add that last one and take another little teasing dig at John Hall, President of the American Milking Devon Cattle Association, who owns the only copy (we know of) of that particular book. Those documents we just mentioned sound pretty impressive, don’t they?  But really, when it comes down to it, paper and the things written on it are just carbon and words.  Dead trees and ink.  So why is it such a big deal to keep records, and preserve them over time?Writing things down serves to remind us of the meaning and value that might be lost when we forget, and need a little nudge.  When one generation fades away, and another rises.  When the initial excitement of a new business fades, and gives way to daily transactions and difficulties.  It’s a contract between parties, that clarify an understanding of terms, like purchasing a car or getting married.  The documentation of the specifics of value, like a certificate of authenticity on an important piece of artwork.  The family tree that decides who lives in Windsor Palace and gets to wear the big hat. Our written words -- or the electronic equivalent these days –are the formal representation of the meaning and value of things that people shed blood, sweat and tears to establish.  They are kept to remind us of those things in the present and the future.So when we're dealing with our agricultural breeds and seeds, with the food that nourishes us, that keeps us alive, that represents hundreds or thousands of years of culture and history and evolution, doesn't it make sense to dedicate a little paper to that? And who's going to do that thankless task? The registrars! Every breed organization has one, and they are custodians of one of the most important jobs any breed organization has:  Documentation. 

Today, we bring you Bonnie Hall, who valiantly volunteers her services for this important (and often thankless) task for the American Milking Devon Cattle Association.  We know that someday, 200 years from now, someone will want to buy or sell a Milking Devon.  They will have a paper trail to follow, and Bonnie's name will be on that book. 

Links:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/423156.King_of_the_Wind#:~:text=King%20of%20the%20Wind%20is%20the%20perfect%20example,itself%2C%20they%20simply%20added%20its%20heart%20and%20soul.
https://www.amazon.com/King-Wind-Story-Godolphin-Arabian/dp/1416927867
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_the_Wind
https://www.milkingdevons.org
http://www.maplebreezefarm.com/