By Marc J. Elzenbeck With much care, and over months, our foster cow Leslie’s terrible wound began to heal under daily debriding and cleaning. Amazingly, what had been a deep, two-foot-long gash in her left shoulder, imitating for all appearances a hanging flank steak, gradually closed back together and began smoothing out into short-haired Holstein…
By Rainier Maria Rilke, translated by Marc J. Elzenbeck You who I foreseethe lost beloved who never comesI won’t know your favorite songsso have stopped trying to stopthe waves of your next momentswhich will surely obliterate this landscape. The cities, towers and bridgestwist and turn in their coursesof lands forever tremblingin the thrall of intermingling godswho…
By Marc J. Elzenbeck Washington State is eager to further cut carbon emissions. To that end, it’s anticipated to pass a law requiring residents to buy ultra-low rolling resistance tires when replacing original (OEM) equipment. Officials promise this will save hundreds per driver in fuel costs. This is true. For a given car or light…
Vashon Theater’s “Backlot” has hit its outdoor big screen stride. A late summer Sunday night performance by the up and coming St. Ophelia was hopping, gathering a full crowd that enjoyed superb sound and visuals. Blending elements of Head and the Heart style lyrics with high-level country-ish composure, the group is distinctive and easy to…
By Marc J. Elzenbeck Cattle were domesticated from wild aurochs starting about 10,500 years ago. Roughly speaking, an auroch is to a farm cow as a timber wolf is to a cocker spaniel. These were amongst the biggest, baddest land-borne mammals left over from the Pleistocene, so by “domesticated,” what they mean is “captured and…
By Marc J. Elzenbeck The Pacific scales in at about 70 million square miles. Thousands of islands, far fewer than you’d expect, scatter across its vast third of the Earth. Ours is nestled deep into the ocean’s easternmost pocket, bobbing on maps like a jagged splinter of cork near the bottom of a curvy wine…
Short of being plugged directly into Hanford’s nuclear power reservation, Vashon and Maury Islands are the ideal run-about ranges for electric vehicles. Although the Island has enough elevation changes to be notorious to visiting bicyclists during the annual “Passport to Pain,” we sit at a confluence of undersea cables sending us clean, stable, and practically…
In last month’s “Farming Is Easy,” we introduced our foster cow Minnie, the purebred yearling Holstein whose name was upgraded on delivery to Leslie Lou Minnie Moo. Standing barely shy of six feet at the shoulder, my personal code name for her, “Cowzilla,” was rejected by one and all as too negative, human-centric, and bovine-shaming….
Empty pastures are like the vacuums which nature abhors. If you happen to have one, fenced and reasonably capable of growing grass, things will appear to fill it. Soon enough, someone is bound to notice, and ask, “Would you like a slightly used goat? How about two?” If you respond, “Yes, but only if you…