Girl scout cookies are HERE!

'Nuff said.

Saturday field trip: Veal farm

Today we went to a very well managed veal farm.

We discussed the crap the veal industry gets, when it's really not that bad.

People envision lil baby cows tied up so they can't move. That may be the case with bad apple farms, but most well managed farms don't do that because that's just plain WRONG.



You see these babies are kept in separate pens for the first 8 weeks of life so they can get vet treatment. We spoke to the farm vet who was cool.
Then the babies get moved into pens in groups because baby cows want to and will be healthier if they stay in groups.



The babies are fed diets with proper amounts of iron, but not enough that their meat turns red.

We did some research and it's pretty clear that veal farms cost the most to maintain! That's because each baby needs vaccines and a lot of vet care, and they all need their own pens. It limits the amount of protein production a farm can yield.

(One baby escaped!)

The babies are not sold to meat processing places as BABIES. But they are sold at around 500 lbs. That's like, 20 weeks old I think.



Here are some big boy bulls, that are INTACT. I will say I was intimidated by them.... oh yes. They are near term. That's how big they get when they are sold as veal.

(The babies have space to move, but the space is limited mostly because of the size of the farm. Not all the animals can roam free like dogs or cats or organic farms. Most farms are limited in size like this or the animals are a little crowded)


The babies like to lick!



The big boys are big and scary...


And we talked about nutrition and all that jazz. It turns out "bad" farms produce veal that is grain fed and sell it at the same high price as a milk-fed veal. That's cheating. Because milk-fed veal, like these ones, are the highest quality and grain-fed are the cheapest. Milk-fed makes the muscle color whitish.



Marcho farms created their own veal milk replacer formula that is extremely successful. We spoke to the doctor who conducted the research and came up with the formula. Smart people.

So yeah, you can think whatever you want to think about veal farms. All I can say is that we went to this particular farm because it is known worldwide for its humane production of veal and it's high quality. It was really well managed and shows that not all of the veal industry is bad. But there are certainly bad farms out there, just like there are bad pet shops, bad meat packagers, bad schools and bad people.

Blowing glass at the Corning Glass Museum

Here's a glass blowing demonstration at the museum. Really cool.

We got to blow our own glass, but only blow it. Which is expected considering the glass is 1000+ degrees F! We got to choose the colors and design we wanted though.

Shows how soft glass can be.

Corning Glass Museum: PREPARE TO BE AMAZED!

Today, Jake's parents graciously took Jake, Sofia and I to the Corning Glass Museum in Corning, NY. Not very far from campus.
The drive up. We saw lots of road kill and hawks!! Good stuff!




This place actually looked like a museum! Just like the Museum of Science back home. I was so happy to see a modern-looking building.

That's glass! Crazy.



I wonder how people make such incredible pieces with GLASS.


I like the deer in this one.



The colors remind me of Mexico.
This is a fish bowl! What a great idea.

Oooo.



I thought this one was cute.





Jellyfishes!
An illusion with a funky mirror.


The inside of a camera lens.
A fishy!

The gift shop~

Giant pumpkins!

19th birthday

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!

It's been a tough week, so I'll celebrate over the weekend.

Cortland apples, not bad

Hey y'all, just thought I'd let you know I had some Cortland apples the other day.

Cortland is the next town/county over Ithaca. I went to an organic dairy farm there.



Anyways, yeah. They were okay.

Locally grown apples! yeaaaaahhh!!!

Getting in the Halloween spirit

Cornell is getting into Halloween mode. I don't know what the "50" means, and I don't really care, but this is Mr. A. D. White (founder of that amazing library I showed you guys earlier). He's sitting with some pumpkins... and wearing a Cornell Hockey hat.

AWESOME!!! This is McGraw tower, the bell/clock tower. Here, the clock has turned into a jackolantern!!!!!
Reminds me of the Nightmare Before Christmas...
Fall is beautiful here. You should already know that by looking at the gazillion pictures I put up last week.