La Casa Grande Colectiva

Tag: health

  • My pre-existing condition was no health care access

    (Rob wrote this song in the direction of the health care debate. It is the product of less than 24 hours of work.)

    Jacob, “MC Utterbot” and udderbot
    Andrew, “Professor Heathwaite” and 23-tone electric
    Rob, “Hello” and drums

    Lyrics:

    I need a lever, cause yo, I’ve got a fever
    Need some accessibility to the health care facility
    What’s the public option when the option ain’t publicized
    I’m still waiting in line you better recognize
    your health is mine, to deny it’s a crime
    50 million in urgency so check the emergency… **CRASH**

    All the other wealthy industrialized countries have universal health care systems — that means, every citizen has access to health care. Except in the United States. Yo! MC Utterbot, I think they need some contents to make some sense out of this nonsense…

    The clock ticks… I’m talkin’ ’bout one-in-six
    Only hard to understand with insurance in hand
    When y’read they propaganda, s’hard to understand-a
    They take our activism and they call it socialism
    Or portray the U.K. as a place with no x-rays
    where you wait in line for days but it’s worse here I dare say…

    Excuse me sir, we only assist robots in this emergency room — WILL SOMEONE TURN OFF THAT CAR ALARM. What’s that? You are a robot. Oh. I’m sorry but your insurance doesn’t cover that procedure. Please see the secretary down the hall and fill out more paperwork…

    My pre-existing condition was no health care access
    I had to treat myself based on my best guess
    While corporations are playing me like a game of chess
    Still I’ve got to say, nevertheless
    I want health care parity and solidarity
    A social contract yo this ain’t no frickin charity
    The blue dogs know they’re gonna have to go
    and when I get to the do’ I wanna hear something just like

    Hello…
    Hello…
    Hello…
    Hello…
    Hello…
    Hello…
    Hello…
    Hello…
    Hello…
    Hello…

  • Fowl Pox – Avipoxvirus, not chicken pox

    About a week ago I noticed some black crud on the comb of one of our ISA browns.  At first it just looked like some dirt, but then I saw it the next day and the next.  I’ve read that people new to chicken keeping can get caught up in the excitement and novelty of their flock and overlook the health of the birds.  I’ve been trying to avoid that mistake by routinely checking each bird and noting any apparent changes.  After doing some online research and finding photographic examples of different diseases, I went out this morning to photograph the sick chicken for comparison.
    Fowl pox? on ISA brown comb Fowl pox? on ISA brown comb

    The black crud went away and now there are small white lesions on both sides of her comb.  This tells me that she has fowl pox, a very common viral infection in poultry around the world.  From what I’ve read online there is no treatment for fowl pox and it usually runs its course in 3-5 weeks.  [USDA info page] I’m going to make a call into the local Extensions office on Monday to seek advice and see if she should be quarantined form the rest of the flock. My inclination is yes, but I don’t where we’d put her at this point. Prevention through vaccination seems to be the only way to deal with fowl pox, which makes me wonder which if any of our birds were vaccinated.

  • plantingplantingwateringwatering

    go superfood!
    go superfood!

    More beds are being dug for our lightly ambitious garden. As of today actual seeds that have been placed in the soil of the garden itself are: sugar pod peas (yummm!), about 5 different lettuces, carrots (scarlet nantes, danvers), chard (5 color silverbeet, ruby red), purple radishes, yarrow, moonflowers, persian cress, yellow mangel beets AND chia. yes, chia of chia pet fame. But talk about an underutilization of a plant. The seeds of this good old indigenous plant are what could be considered a superfood. Here are a couple of links so that if you want to know more you can:

    Chia For Health

    Chia Seed – The Ancient Food of the Future

    p.s. Someone mentioned that Seeds of Change is now owned by the Mars candy company, which is too bad, but at least we got our seed packets via the time-honored art of dumpster diving.