City-slickers

We went to the Rodeo last week. As the 4th largest U.S. city, are we the largest to host a rodeo? I saw a woman wearing a cowboy hat on top of an Islamic headscarf. Themes: Culture, carnies, and c-uestioning carnivorism.



The kids got to help produce go from seed to market. Allianna's selling her peaches for $1 and shortly after bought a juice box. Tess thought the juice was pretty tasty too.

Mark and I aren't into that health-food, fresh-from-the-farm stuff. We wanted something of questionable origin fried up in a metal stand. We've now tried Fried Oreos. I'll go back to a funnel cake next time.

Allianna after the fried oreos.

Actually, no, this is because her chosen carnival ride suddenly wasn't working. Drama. Despondency.

After twenty minutes, it was working again. I think that's the recommended time to wait after having fried oreos anyway. I'm always game for a version of the tilt-o-whirl. Mark meanwhile, can't stand twirling around on his own two feet.

Getchyou next year Tess.

A story about the tilt-o-whirl: We only had enough tickets left to go on this ride. The lady operating it was having the worst time. She had to keep it running 3x too long for the people before us because her husband had gone to get a soda and taken the key to the doors to let people out of their dragons. So people were getting irate, queasy, and she was flustered and Mark noticed she loaded kids on without shutting their door and started the ride and a little kid was about to tumble out. He told her and she quickly hit the RED emergency stop button. And then let me on for free. So then, we had enough for the kids to go on this car ride. Poor lady. Hard life. I can hardly stand an hour of carnival, much less a whole lifetime.

Deja vu at the pig races.

There is an area called the Birthing Center. Initially, I was fascinated and thought this fit with my passion for and hobby of learning about childbirth. As I watched a cow labor for 20 minutes (with a crowd of 75 other people) I began to get really uncomfortable. Here she was, in an enormous very LOUD arena, surrounded on three sides by hordes of people staring at her and with bright flourescent lights above her. It felt very wrong and I decided to make a personal statement by walking away from it. What horrible conditions to labor under (right, ladies?)!!!!!

I wasn't relieved by where I went to next. It was sow solitary confinement. Here 500 pound sows are made to lay on metal racks on their sides for 2 days before birth, DURING LABOR, and for 2 weeks after. There are bars right next to them on either side, so they can't move. Mark approached the pig rancher (?) with our questions and she said they were placed like that so they wouldn't roll over and crush their piglets (A bit odd, seeing as we've breed them to be 500 lbs!). It's been a week and we're both still really disturbed by it. It just feels like there has to be a more respectful way to care for animals (even if we plan to consume them). The mentality of "they're just a dumb animal who doesn't mind and it would be more trouble to do it any other way" just seems too pervasive. After watching sheep prepare for the show arena and have their walk corrected by a jab in the anus, I'm not sure that we'll be going back to the rodeo. And we didn't even see a thing that goes on inside the big arena with the bull-riding and such.

Mark Says: What would happen if the public learned, for example, that panda bears were kept in 2 by 4 foot metal pens before and after birth for 3 weeks total?! It would be the only thing everyone talked about! It would be on the radio. There would be legislation. But for cows? Pigs? Chickens? I'm not sure what I am saying, but it has made me think a little bit more about how much livestock I need consume, or at least which producers I buy from. I understand that California has some pretty humane animal husbandry rules and that you can choose at the grocery store which kind of meat and poultry to consume. Having said all this I am a total hypocrite because I ate at Red Robin tonight! Perhaps I won't be a hypocrite if I don't eat anymore beef for seven days or something like that. Anyway, just thinking ... Emily, by the way, had a garden burger.

Finally, a simple, enjoyable dancing video: