Saturday we finally had our first on-farm Lunatic Tour of the year; we canceled the two in April and I was supposed to be in Europe most of May, so this was the third scheduled one and ended up being the first actual one of the season.

By now all of us are well aware about the glitches in the meat and poultry processing food chain in the U.S.  It's severe enough in pork and poultry that animals are being euthanized rather than going to processing.  Beef will probably not get to that point simply because beef grows slower and therefore has more forgiveness.  A month of holding pattern for a chicken is a long time; for a beef it's not that long.

Rural America is slowly losing its options.  The phone companies no longer want to maintain hard infrastructure; they've gradually abandoned them over the last 10 years expecting wireless to take over everything.

By now all Virginians know that today our Governor Northam implemented new executive orders mandating wearing masks in all businesses. Graciously, he said if you were eating you could take it off. And you don't need to wear it if you have "health reasons."

Teresa and I co-own a small abattoir (slaughterhouse) in Harrisonburg that employs 20 people and is our closest federal inspected facility. We get our beef, pork and lamb processed there; it's about 40 miles away.

The PORK Checkoff Report is the official mouthpiece of the American pork industry.  It's funded by a mandatory tax on pigs.

Today is Memorial Day, a time to appreciate sacrifices America's forebears made to secure a place with more freedom and opportunity than anyplace on the face of the earth. But if Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci, along with others, get their way, I weep for the loss that appears coming.

Flying back yesterday from LAX after doing the Joe Rogan show gave me a lot of time to contemplate face masks. The airlines now require face masks in order to board. Interestingly, I was catching up on my issues of THE ECONOMIST magazine and stumbled across an article titled "Maskarade."

Today I'm flying back from Los Angeles after doing the Joe Rogan Experience program yesterday.  You can see the program today; it's up.

 Like local-oriented direct-market farms around the country, we're dealing with a tsunami of  interest.  Suddenly everyone wants our meat, poultry, and eggs.  Where were they last year and the year before?

As people respond to the shock of the pandemic, it's interesting to hear their perspectives about pre-pandemic days. One that caught my attention this week in a newspaper column was an interview of a bunch of people responding to the shock of the whole thing.

Went to church yesterday for the first time in 9 weeks.  Masks on one side; non-masks on the other.  Every other row of chairs empty.  Families sitting together, which of course kept the teens from sitting in a mob.  Both masks and unmasked were admonished to love and respect each other.  Amen.