mud

Photo by: Myrabella / Wikimedia Commons, via Wikimedia Commons With the approach of summer, a timely study was published in the American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology on whether inflammation plays a role in heat stress-related complications in muscles. Heat stress is a major problem in the livestock industry. In the United States alone it is reportedly associated with a loss of approximately $158 billion annually in the swine industry. To cool off, swine seek shade and often mud baths (which mimic sweating by helping the animals cool off through…

Last night as I went about my chores, I was mulling over a possible post on how farming is actually easier than most people think it is. I'm winding up a stretch of time where Eric and the boys have been in NYC visiting Grandma, while I stayed at home to tend the farm. While Eric and I don't have a very gendered division of labor, we do have our customary tasks. Eric does floors, I do roofs, He does engines, I cut wood, I can, he bakes, when we had babies, I did input (nursing) and he did output (diaper changes). I got all self-satisfied about how well I was managing by myself, which of…

Picture courtesy reader Martin. Or maybe Martin doesn't actually read this blog, and it's just Wren. Anyway, thanks, Wren and Martin! Today's rock is a geopuzzle: What's up with these ridges? How did they get there, and what determines their size? I don't actually know the answer, so this is the best hint you're going to get out of me.