Cow Tipping or, You Can't Keep a Good Cow Down

Leigh Rubin has gone and done it again, made me laugh with yet another bovine funny!
You can now engage in the interesting act of cow tipping, in the privacy of your own home yet.
Presenting the cow bop bag, tip him and he comes right back, complete with a full color booklet
with 30 of Leigh's cow related cartoons.  Love it!

About Leigh Rubin and Rubes Cartoons

Denise Rich, Bob Dylan, Farm Aid

Denise Rich is an artist, her birthdate is May 24.  Bob Dylan's birthdate is May 24, and he's an artist.

                                                             "Horse"  Bob Dylan 2010

Denise Rich is learning more about American Farmers every day.  Bob Dylan is one of the founders of Farm Aid, helping to support American Farmers.
Farm Aid started as an idea at the Live Aid Concert when Bob Dylan said on stage, "Wouldn't it be great if we did something for our own farmers right here in America?"

You can read all about Farm Aid, what they do and why on their website here.

"There are no more farmers...." Quote from an interview with The Barefoot Farmer

 If you read much about farming in America, you can't help but have Monsanto enter the picture.
Genetically altered seeds are the topic of much conversation.  I'm working to be as informed about the food I buy as possible, gathering information here and there on the internet, and found the viewpoint of Jeff Poppen, known as the Barefoot Farmer, to be quite thought provoking.

Barefoot, dreadlocks (including his beard) and of the opinion that "there are no more farmers" because dumping chemicals on the ground doesn't count as farming, Jeff has a lot of interesting viewpoints, as written in this interview on Portrait of a Farm blog, you can read the entire interview at the link below:

STEWARDS:: Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee: Jeff Poppen, Long ...: "We heard of Jeff Poppen as 'the Barefoot farmer' when we were in Asheville and were told that we should really try to meet this amazing ma..."

 Feel free to comment about your opinion of Jeff's ideas.

Van Ommering Dairy, one of my 'go to' dairy farms here in San Diego

Meet Ben and Jerry, two calves from our local Dairy Farm, owned by the Van Ommering family.
This is the farm where I first fell for cows, on a trip with my daughter's kindergarten class to see where
milk comes from and visit their yearly event not to be missed, Oma's Pumpkin Patch .
Not only do they have a yearly pumpkin patch, with a hay maze and cotton seed mountain, petting zoo,
but local San Diego county kids can have a farm birthday party.
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I owe a lot to the Van Ommering family for putting up with my many visits to take reference for paintings.
Here's Dave Van Ommering taking time from his busy schedule to help me corral a few of the girls together for a special reference photo I needed to get.  Thanks again Dave!

What's cuter than a cow? A miniature cow!

Miniature cattle are becoming more popular than ever, a lot of ranches are downsizing as a means of
cutting costs.  I don't know if it's the wave of the future for beef farming, but I do know I want one for a pet!









 Mini Hereford Mom and Baby, a commissioned painting from a client photograph
of her Miniature Herefords.
The Herefords are 20"x30

99 percent of California Dairy Farms are Family Owned

 Some time has passed since I did the commissioned paintings for the California Milk Advisory Board.
The focus has gone from the immensely popular
"Happy Cows" to the source and roots of dairy farming, which is the California Dairy Farmers.  The name even changes from Real California Cheese to Real California Milk.  It's an interesting fact that when I tell people I'm from San Diego, California and my main focus for my paintings is cows, most look surprised as if I should live in Wisconsin to find cows to paint.  They are in for a real surprise because in fact, California is the top dairy state for milk production, followed in order by Wisconsin, Idaho, New York
and Pennsylvania.

Another interesting fact is that 99% of California Dairies are family owned.  You can meet the farmers and their families, meet the cows in a series of beautiful mini documentaries that show the families, the farms and make me want to live on one here.

(Artwork shown is graphite and charcoal study for one of the six paintings I did for the California Milk Advisory Board.)

An adopted Mustang, Bureau of Land Management Wild Horses and Burros vs.

 A friend of mine has horses and often rescues, rehabilitates and re-homes them.  This is a Mustang she adopted from one of the BLM Wild Horse and Burro events.  Her name is Sadie.
I understand there is controversy over the wild horses, and whether or not the Bureau of Land Management is handling it well, or if they should handle it at all.  I don't know enough about either side to take a stand, but am interested if you'd care to comment and share your view.