Another Shot at Local Growers!

Jan. 25 -- New regulations, which go into effect at midnight January 25, address food safety concerns for in-home processing of milk and milk products. The regulations were proposed by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), adopted by the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and supported by majority members of the dairy industry. Opponents of the new regulations say the change unfairly hurts small farmers and will prevent families from consuming milk from their own family milk cow.
According to John Beers, VDACS’ Office of Dairy Services, the intent of the new regulations is not to prevent a family from consuming dairy products produced on their own farm. "The new regulations include what I would call 'commonsense legislation' to require that people who sell milk and cheese products to the public have to pasteurize the milk," said Beers. "If they are making cheese, they either need to pasteurize the milk or age it more than 60 days." Beers said the issue is basically a safety issue to cut down on the number of pathogens that can be present in unpasteurized milk. “Unpasteurized milk is the perfect food for humans, animals, and bacteria,” he added.
"This is only for those people who sell their products to the public," he stressed. He emphasized the new regulation will not impact farmers with a family milk cow who want to drink their own milk. "If you have a farmer who has his own goats or cows or any kind of milk animal, and the farmer and his family want to drink the milk unpasteurized, of course they can still do that," said Beers. "But if they sell to the public, then they are subject to these new dairy regulations."
The new regulations differ from current laws in several ways. Currently, cheese processors come under Virginia food laws, and this will move them under a series of dairy regulations. The new regulations will require that people who make milk and cheese products and offer them for sale must be inspected and must meet requirements for basic sanitation and temperature control. They will need to have a dedicated kitchen for that purpose when selling to the public rather than use the family kitchen. The area of processing doesn't have to be in a separate building and need not be anything elaborate but still must meet all sanitary requirements.
“In short,” said Beers, “these new regulations protect the public from practices that could promote the presence of harmful bacteria such as Listeria monocytogenes or E. coli in their milk products.” -copied from http://www.onthefarmradio.com/Farmnews.htm

VERY SPECIAL PIZZAS

So I recently made new friend. Actually I dont know if he is a friend or foe. Akhmed is his name; pizza is his specialty. He owns a business named Akmed's Deliverable Pizza's. Well this poor soul did not run a very managed business. He didnt even have a formal menu. All he knew was that he had "special pizza" and that you had better accept the bill for it. So I developed a menu for him(along with the help of family) and he is doing better than ever. I hear that he actually has people calling to order pizza instead of him calling people to insist they buy. I am very happy that he is doing so well and may be able to increase the variety of pizza's. He does have a bit of a problem with temperment which may come from his stressful lifestyle. Below is a taste of his menu:

AKHMEDS DELIVERABE PIZZA'S
"The bomb"

MENU
Hiroshimo- Akhmed’s ultimate supreme pizza loaded with all the fixin’s even if you dont want ‘em
Anchovie Explosion - A fantastic yet simple delicacy
Infidel Special - Loaded with ham and pork sausage from the devil hisself
Oozie Doozie - A wonderful four cheese pizza for those times you need some extra ammo
Chicken Allah Akbar - a specialty of Akhmed’s in which chickens are diced and loaded onto your choice of crust
Suicide - you gotta try this one. You’ll die! Loads of pickles on top of a peanut butter sauce
Pearl Harbor - take a flight to the islands by experiencing the sweet and sour taste of Akhmed’s pineapple and bacon pizza
Basket of Bazookas - 7.25 breadsticks
Jihad Family Pack- 2 medium pizza’s (Akhmed’s choice..no exceptions)
1 basket of bazooka’s
2 liter of Coka Cola


Prices vary for ethnicity.
No credit cards accepted. All payment expected in cash immediately on delivery.
No responsibility for ebola, anthrax, influenza or other biological infections are accepted by Akmed from consumption of these very special pizza’s.
In case of internal combustion please contact your local aid.


SUPPORT THE CAUSE!!

LEXICON

Altruist-someone who makes charitable donations intended to increase human well-being; im finding it amazing and downright joyous to see how many people are of this nature at this time
Ambidextrous- ambi comes from the Latin meaning both, about, or around; dextrous means skillful in physical movements, so generally means being able to use both hands at once it seems likely that it could be used for doing many things at once such as the popular term of the day: multi-tasking
Mezzanine- an intermediate floor just above ground level but which came from the French meaning middle...(credit given to Davey Ray for introducing me to using this word in its French original sense)

I'm having the urge to measure some loblolly pines.

Are these times contagious
I've never been this bored before
Is this the prize I've waited for
Now as the hours passing
There's nothing left here to insure
I long to find a messenger

Is there a cure among us
From this processed sanity
I weaken with each voice that sings
In this world of purchase
I'm going to buy back memories
To awaken some old qualities

(Collective Soul)

NEXTRA EXTRA MADNESS!!!

There is something unnatural with working in an office. Anywhere that you have to walk around aimlessly every 30 minutes just for sanity and back's sake has to be designed by aliens to drive the human race to madness.

Time, time, time
See what's become of me
While I looked around
For my possibilities I was so hard to please
But look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter.

Madness..its all madness!!!!!! Running two computers in a single moment or two computers running my single moment.

To deflect and counter a sword blow: step up and into the blow, with your arms held against your body. Push at the blow instead of trying to absorb the blow. If the blow is aimed at your head have the sword parallel to the ground and above your head. Always move out toward your opponent, even if you are defending and not attacking.

You may need to know this if you ever travel back through time and have to fight Sir Gawain. It is possible ya know ...soon...through quantum physics. If this is the case we will have a new issue to deal with. Should we change the past? But would be able to change it or rather would we merely attempt to but because we existing in the future we would be futile in our efforts. Our efforts to change the future seem normal and we often feel like we are changing things but maybe we are not changing anything that would already happen. This is a depressing thought that we could never change things. I would rather think I could change the future. We often say we can change the future but not the past. What if we could change the past? We once said we couldnt fly and look now. Theories abound and are never proven but does this make them less true. Even today most of what we take as "real" or "scientific" is being bombarded and questioned. Science is often proven wrong. Art changes science while science changes art. But hey really the only way new theories are formed is by someones creative thinking. We laugh at people's theories but Newton only had an idea and Einstein, Da Vinci, ............ Soon these crazy ideas were "proven" as fact. What can be proven? Only what we choose to believe.

OK..so Ive been sitting at a desk for too long!

SHITAKE LOGS 

SHITAKE INOCULATION 

VAPORIZED!!! 

A NEW YEAR!!

New Years Eve Day
9:30 AM - Left Columbia SC headed for Meadowview VA
11:00 AM - Begin to wonder what I would do for the bringing in of the new year
11:10 - Decided MD would be a good place to go
11:15 - Made plans via the brain cell destroyer with friends in MD for the evening
11:20 - Diverted path to MD's eastern shore with one tank of gas and two pieces of pizza
5:00 - Crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel for the first time ever
6:30 - Entered Salisbury MD
7:00 - Had dinner with Amanda, Phil, and David and caught up on water consumption
9:00 - New Years Eve begins
10:00 - Dancing begins
12:00 - PARTY DOWN!!!!!.......CHAMPAGNE!!!!!......more dancing......more loud music
1:00 - Stupidity sets in
2:00 - Removal of juniper bushes from host's front yard using David's F350 and a chain
3:30 - Crash

New Years Day
12:00 - Hoops and YoYo go to Starbucks and try to drink off (coffee of course) the hangover(from staying up all night of course)
1:00 - Hoops and YoYo go to the mall
3:00 - Hoops and YoYo go to the beach
6:00 - Hoops and YoYo watch movie
9:00 - Hoops and YoYo crash

Day after New Years Day
Sadly head back to VA after a fabulous weekend on the shore.
Happily look forward to seeing the mountians and old and new friends in SW Virginia.
Selectively choose a pit stop along I-66 in DC.....these are hard to come by especially after a large coffee an hour beforehand.
Pestered the older brother-in-law who will be turning 34 (your welcome TODD) via the brain cell destroyer.
Made it home by 11:30 PM.