So it looks like the government needs to step in and protect us from eggs now. From CNN:
“The fresh eggs from the recalled firms are being diverted to USDA-approved facilities for pasteurization,” Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Patricia El-Hinnawy said Wednesday.
Well honestly, that is about the expected result. Instead of fixing the problem (large scale centralized food production) we come up with another quick fix.
I just find it amusing (especially after raising a few hens in our backyard) that there is all this hoorah about some eggs. People really should just take matters into their own hands and raise a few themselves. But as we’ve seen, the government does NOT want that.
I mean just think. People could be responsible for themselves and there wouldn’t be a need for a .gov agency to oversee EVERY single egg this country produces and consumes. It really is laughable the lengths we Americans go to in order to feel safe.
Last night we decided to go to the Greeley Moonlight Bike Ride sponsored and put on by the Greeley Police Officers’ Association. Registration was at 8:30pm and the ride was to start at 9pm. Unfortunately for us, we are now on the chickens’ schedule because we have to lock them up at night to protect them from attack which means we had to wait for them to go in their coop at dusk. When they finally put themselves to bed, we closed them up and were on our way to the Greeley Police Station on bikes.
On my bike on our way there
The Police Station is only probably about 1-2 miles from our house, so we were there in short order. They had an acoustic guitar band called Girls with Guitars playing when we arrived. We signed in, grabbed a free snack and enjoyed the music.
We had encouraged our friends Matt and Jamie (and their daughter Hailee) to come, but didn’t think they would. They surprised us by showing!
Matt and Britton at Starbucks
Me and Jamie with Police Car
The whole event is free and sponsored by area businesses in addition to the Greeley Police Department. They said they’ve been doing it for 16 years! How did we miss this all the years before? The police rode with us and police cars blocked off whole streets as we rode.
This is route- about 12 miles round trip
We rode from the police station on 10th Street went east on 8th Street, rode past downtown, rode up through UNC’s campus and Reservoir Rd, through Sanborn Park where boy scouts had set up luminaries down the path. It was really cool because they glowed as we rode past the lake. Then we stopped at the Starbucks in Westlake Plaza where they served us free drinks. That was our half-way point. At this point we could see how many people came out by the sheer number of bikes!
And of course, all the people. Here they (we) are waiting for them to call out the door prizes of which Britton won one!
Police guy is on the table yelling out prizes
From there we rode up 20th Street to near 47th Ave and then turned into a neighborhood near 16th Street, rode through Bittersweet Park where the sprinklers were on! Everyone got soaked, it was pretty cool. Then we headed back in a round about way to the police station. I was amazed at the number of people who crashed going that slow. It was kind of funny once you knew they were ok. Now I know why they wanted everyone to have a helmet and light on their bike although they didn’t turn anyone away if they didn’t have either.
Once we were back at the police station they had free sandwiches from Jimmy Johns and drinks from a company called Oogave. They gave out a few more prizes and showed some biking clips on the big movie screen -a bike-in movie! We said goodbye to Matt and Jamie and headed back home by about midnight. And yes, the chickens were sleeping safe and sound.
We get the best sunsets without ever leaving our house in Greeley. Sitting on our back porch in the summertime, we love to watch the sun go down. It is so pretty. Here are a few pics I took tonight. It is like a painting that changes before our eyes. Click to enlarge to see it in more vivid detail.
Rose in the flower garden enjoying the display as well
Well, I thought I saw a cat the night the chickens were attacked. It jumped like a cat, it was black and sleek, had a long, thin tail and nails that scratched the front of the coop upon its return. I think I may have talked myself out of it being a cat because we’ve never had any problems with cats and the chickens. Ever.
I got a trap on loan from a guy I work with and figured we could try to catch whatever it was.
Setting up the trap
First we had to set the trap. On our first attempt we actually caught…Kitty! So we had to bring him inside for the night. Then, about 2:30am, I heard the SNAP of the trap. I ran out to see what we caught. I couldn’t tell right away, but with the mewing I knew it was a cat. I left him out there till the sun rose and when I looked in, it was Atchpay! Atchpay completely tweaked out, he looks a bit psycho now…
Guess who? Atchpay
This stray that frequents our backyard fits the description of the perpetrator and got snagged in the trap about the same time. So we decided to relocate him just in case. He is pretty feral and definitely wasn’t comfortable being that close to me. We drove about 10 miles north of town. Cassie wanted to go further, but I felt we had gone far enough. We will see.
Atchpay’s New Home-A farm field out of town about 10 miles
For those of you that aren’t familiar with how a live trap works, Schnoodle will demonstrate the live trap. We put cheese in there all the way to the back, when she steps on the lever it shuts behind her.
