Well it is nice to see folks reading such an old posting! I did want to mention that REGULAR, DAILY Bran mashes are now considered bad for horses. Bran is an old-time traditional feed for horses, but actually does nothing nutritionally as a feed. A horse with very loose stools from eating bran, is actually LOSING valuable winter water AND minerals from his system. The bran makes horse use lose more water out of his body system, than horse normally would without the bran. Few horses drink additional water to replace that water loss. The bran intake often, allows minerals to leach from the body and mineral loss is also a problem to the horse. I know I heard lots about feeding Bran mash in winter, how good it was for horse. Now has all proven to be a total fallacy in horse feeding. The wet beet pulp with hot water, hot water on hay cubes, add your snack bits of apples or carrots, is MUCH better in food and water intake value, than bran mash. Bran is actually harmful to horses when fed regularly and often. Does smell good though, about the only good part. Our horses LOVE the warm, wet beet pulp we feed at night. Do pay attention to individual horses. One of ours quit drinking inside. Daughter mentioned seeing her roll the evening before, as they lined up to come into barn. Odd timing for that to happen, so I was lookin at her hard when I did AM chores. Full water buckets in stall, 2nd morning in a row set off the alarm for me. I was watching her MUCH more closely when I turned her out that day. She was "off", didn't eat much hay, no drink from tank. I started doing hourly checks on her outside. She has always been a problem drinker when she doesn't feel perfect. She is atypical in her signs, still pooping and having gut sounds while acting out pain, usually laying down, not rolling. We NEVER do the "wait and see" with her. As she started acting odd, Husband came home and gave her a pain shot. Vet came and pumped her full of water mixed with a new med to break up forage material in her gut. This horse goes off and shows it VISIBLY at a very early stage, not a stoic pain endurance animal. We did everything right, she came around, but it was a LONG 24 hours before the wait was over. She still didn't drink well for another 2 days, ate some snow, was not offered much feed like hay. We wanted her gut more empty, easy to move what forage was in it. Wet beet pulp stayed in front of her, along an electric warm water bucket, She was turned out on small grassy paddock where she dug for old grass and ate snow. Room to move helps gut work. Alone in paddock allowed us to find and count poop piles to ensure she WAS going, gut was moving food. Just wanted to make sure you are checking individuals and each equine's water intake. We know our Princess well, her visible pain reaction EARLY, prevented her from being a statistic. Over this last weekend, the Vet said they lost 6 others to Colic, impaction from not drinking enough. One was the my kid's 4-H leader's horse, who showed no signs early. He was too far gone when found in the AM, rolling terribly, had twisted his gut along with impaction. Quite horrible to find, had to be put down. We think that mare was having a painful heat cycle, with new longer sunshine days getting her back going. Painful cycle probably was the origin of not drinking. She is in full heat now. Other folks have said they noticed colic problems with huge temp swings from cold to almost hot of early Spring or thunderstorm activity with pressure changes. Keep an eye on your animals, know what is normal for them. React quickly when they quit being "normal", before it is too late. Hope you all have NO PROBLEMS with your 4-legged friends.

Aloha, Even if coquis did get to Kauai, there are so many chickens over there the frogs would be eaten immediately! If we could get rid of the mongoose, then perhaps we could get enough chickens that they would eat all the coquis? Folks have mobilized to get rid of the coqui and the spread of it seems to be slowing down some. They got some new bigger County sprayers which can really cover a lot more area. A lot of the trouble is the easy time to get rid of them is when there is just one or two frogs in an area. Folks hear one and think it's not too bad. By the time they multiply to where folks can't sleep at night anymore, then it is a huge chore to get rid of them all. What ever happened to Amberskyfire, anyway? Did they ever get moved? They just seemed to have dropped off the edge. A hui hou, Cathy

Carol: I'm happy and proud for Holly. Autistic children are VERY SMART, and VERY GIFTED. Jess: I was puzzled by the 40 lbs. mistake too, I saw your hand in one of the pic., it's a slender hand. I'm happy that it's only 20 lbs., due to the kilograms conversion. Twenty pounds is easy to lose. It took me 6 months to lose 20 lbs. when I had the time to eat salad & apple & carrot & exercise. Then I got busy & get into fast-food & IV myself with juice ... and gained back 20 lbs. WEIGHT-LOSS is a life-long-habit to MAINTAIN, rather than a goal to achieve. People achieve that goal, go back to the old habits, and re-gain all-over again. Jim: Thanks for that link on processed meat, I read the entire article. I wish it would say how many people were involved in that study, or how many test-subjects. Re-post info. from Huffingpost on tips to lose weight: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tips-losing-weight_562e8606e4b00aa54a4ab51b "Aim for 20 to 35 grams of fiber a day from plant foods, since fiber helps fill you up and slows absorption of carbohydrates. " Portion control: Popular “100-calorie” food packages do the portion controlling for you Eating mindfully means giving full attention to what you eat, savoring each bite, acknowledging what you like and don’t like, and not eating when distracted (such as while watching TV, working on the computer). Chew slowly, and savor each bite: Keep in mind also that the most pleasure often comes from the first few bites of a food; after that, it’s the law of diminishing returns. Thus, you should focus on those first few tastes of chocolate, cake, or other indulgences, as this may be enough to satisfy. Get protein in all meals: Some research suggests that distributing your protein throughout the day also helps in weight loss, rather than eating the bulk of it at, say, dinnertime. According to a 2015 paper in theAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition, higher-protein diets that include at least 25 grams of protein at each meal may reduce appetite and thus body weight, compared with lower-protein diets. Limit variety at meals. Don’t drink your calories. Allow for (controlled) indulgences. Consider weighing yourself regularly—at least once a week." Huffington Post Tips. **** From Straw: I agree with the above. My lowest weights were achieved when I snacked on high-fiber & high-protein cereal with soy milk ... with at least 35 gram of fiber per day. Also at least 25 g. of protein for each meal, be it peanut-butter or eggs for breakfast, beans for lunch, or fish/meat for dinner. I gained weight whenever I forget to weigh myself at least once a week. Really love their tip of " Keep in mind also that the most pleasure often comes from the first few bites of a food; after that, it’s the law of diminishing returns." So true, I really enjoy the first 4 bites of peanut-butter toast, that's all I can remember ... the rest was just to fill my stomach. Dolly Parton stays slim with her life-long habit, she eats 3 bites of a yummy food, and NO MORE. Practice portion-control is actually fun, once it becomes a habit. So proud of myself last night, I had a sour fruit, so I grabbed a fig-bar, took 3 bites, it was too sweet ... Instead of finishing that, I told myself "You don't have to eat that, you can give it to God." So I wrapped the rest and put away, GREAT FEELING! It felt good to be in control over a piece of junk, and turning something over to God, rather than torturing my body with that.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038071706005190 Trace and nutrient elements in manure, dung and compost samples in Austria Although the high amounts of K and P were beneficial, there were some high concentrations of Na in biogas residues and pig manures. Intense additions of Cu, Zn, and Se are reflected in high loads in the respective excrements, as Austria is a low Se area. Composts and sewage sludges were higher in Al and lithophilic trace elements than were the excrements ... Factor analysis traced phosphates as the main source of Cd. Cr in processed matrices was significantly higher, and abrasion from tools should be considered in future investigations" *** From Straw: antifungal trace elements, listed in the order of most potent: Silver, Mercury, Copper Cu, Cadmium Cd, Chromium Cr, Nickel, Lead, Cobalt, Zinc Zn, Iron, and lastly calcium. Selenium is also a strong anti-fungal agent. My personal experience for the past 6 years: horse manure and chicken manure together works better than applying lime before acidic rain. Have really bad experience testing Encap compost on pots, due to the quick lime. Aluminum is toxic to plants (Milorganite sewage sludge was bad for both my lawn and roses), and I'm glad that chicken manure is high in zinc, copper, and boron. http://www.ontariosoilcrop.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/V2Gen1.pdf "Zinc and Copper are included in monograstric (swine and poultry) diets at much higher levels than minimum requirement for "normal" performance since when fed at higher levels they promote growth. Horse manure samples in the study were particularly high in chromium, nickel, aluminum and iron. The source of nickel and chromium is not clear, but race harness bits used in the industry are often nickel or chrome plated and may have contributed to the concentration of these two metals. " I also checked for trace elements in oyster shell lime: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/18465435_Trace_Metals_in_Oyster_Shells " Measurements using atomic absorption spectrometry have established the prescence of Pb, Hg, Cd, Zn, Cu, and Cr in shells of the oyster Crassostrea virginica in amounts considerably higher than their concentration in sea water." BOS LIME is made from Ocean Shell, (Bluff Oyster Shell / Kina Shell). Trace elements and micro minerals such as Potassium Oxide, Magnesium Oxide, Colbalt, Zinc Oxide ." http://www.boslime.co.nz/pages/products_001.html