Day 1 of Shinmas

Its already the first day of Shinmas and I've got so many entries! In reality my birthday is in a little over two weeks, but I'm the type of person who wants to have my cake over several days and not feel guilty over it because everyone else is celebrating as well. Today we've got a lovely blog and a heartfelt story from two people who have recently contacted me - feel free to chime in any time!
The first posting spot is from my friend "Ignatz" who has been really into featuring his blog. He's just starting out with his beautiful blog and has a lot of great recipes even though he's quite the busy guy.

Here is one of the most suiting recipes I've found for this post and it also happens to be one of my favorite ways to prepare apples.

If you want to check out this blog and his recipe - here's the link!

http://ignatzziller.blogspot.co.nz/ http://ignatzziller.blogspot.co.nz/

The second person to message me last night had presented to me something that I haven't dealt with a lot on my blog. This has to do with animal welfare - their names are "Lou and Bill" and they are often called the Green Mountain College Oxen and they are from Vermont. After research I see two different sides that are both overtly-complicated and yet simple to explain (nothing is truly easy when lives are hanging in the balance). The debate between the two sides is that they want to slaughter these oxen, aged about 12 years, and serve them to the community instead of living out their old age. They have been battered and injured over time and people believe that the $300 a month needed to take care of them is un-necessary and that instead they should be used as food. On the other hand, these are 12-year old animals that have been living out their lives on the campus and that many people consider as "one of their own". I can see and understand both sides but as I feel it - why not just let the poor animals live out their lives and have fun? These animals were not 'raised' for meat
and I believe that no animal should just be treated as property, and so that's why I decided to sign this petition on www.change.org/.

It has also been stated that a sanctuary has offered to take in both Lou and Bill on their own behalf, but the school refuses to do so and instead wishes to continue the the slaughter.

If you wish to save these animals from slaughter you can click this online petition: http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/green-mountain-college-springfield-vermont-stop-the-slaughter-of-bill-and-lou-the-2-oxen-at-green-mountain-college 

If you wish to learn more about Lou and Bill you can any of the links click here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-friedrich/green-mountain-colleges-f_b_1967361.html

http://www.boston.com/news/education/2012/10/10/oxen-from-college-farm-slaughterhouse/BwDzvpIyREhVloN8tt4RZL/story.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-schmitt/green-mountain-college-oxen_b_1987920.html

Some of these links conflict each other to show you the different sides so feel free to look at all of them.

Happy (day one of) Shinmas! ^^