#and that is not how youd store your cattle

[master-gatherer]

I have

So many thoughts

On the Master's blood harvesting plant

[0408088]

sunday was slow and lazy. breakfast was too bland and i grew tired of the hotel room coffee. we went to a local shop and i enjoyed a smoothie too early in the day. we decided that we should barbeque then, and went to a local grocery store. its really funny how when youre in a new place something as simple as buying groceries becomes so much more fun.  someone has land next to the lake and they raise cattle on it. I said that one day i wanted to retire here and raise cattle. they asked me why youd want to do something like raise cattle when you retire. I couldnt answer.  we tried to drive to a picnic area to cook but it seemed they were all closed, however i had a good time watching the rolling hills and canyons near by. i wish we couldve gotten better pictures of those. i wish i could remember how small they made a person feel, but i dont think pictures do that justice. We cooked food and watched the sunset and enjoyed ourselves. we ate icecream from a vending machine that was too expensive and even though it was too windy and too cold, after i did the dishes, we went swimming in the pool.  we discovered quickly it was too cold for this and proceeded to turn on the hot tub. it was fun to relax and watch the steam roll off the water. we joked that the people across from the pool who watched us from their windows would call the front desk and get us kicked out after 10. we left at 10:30 and they never called.  I washed the salt from my hair that night and wished i was washing off my old self. wished i was the new town around the lake or wished i was born in the mountains. i wish i was always the girl sitting in the window in a cafe in austin. but i woke up the next morning and found out i still had the same problems.  the one thing i thought of a lot that night was the full moon.  as always, i love you. 

[grublypetcare]

The Best Dog Food for All Life Stages

The post The Best Dog Food for All Life Stages by Audrey Pavia appeared first on Dogster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Dogster.com.

If it were up to your dog, he’d be on a steady diet of pizza and cheeseburgers. Since those things aren’t good for dogs, your job as a pet parent is to pick healthy food made especially for canines. Choosing a food brand can be daunting enough with all the different choices out there. And what about type of food? And then there’s canned versus dry — which should you pick? Let’s break things down by the best dog food for all life stages.

The best dog food to feed a puppy

What is the best dog food to feed to a puppy? Photography ©cmannphoto | Getty Images.

When my Corgi, Nigel, was a puppy, I fed him the puppy food recommended by his breeder. It was a quality premium brand, and he liked it. He only ate dry kibble because his sensitive tummy couldn’t handle the canned version. Dry food has less moisture than canned, so Nigel was less likely to get loose stools with dry food.

Puppies are as different from dogs as human babies are from adults when it comes to what their digestive systems will tolerate. While Nigel had trouble with canned food, my parents’ Pomeranian, Monique, did great on canned food as a puppy.

Whether it’s dry or canned, what’s most important is that the food is made especially for puppies. “Puppies need more protein than adult dogs do,” said canine nutrition expert Mary Straus of DogAware.com, who added that, despite what some people think, high protein does not cause orthopedic problems in growing pups. “Too much calcium and overfeeding in general are the culprits there.”

The best dog food to feed a puppy is a food formulated especially for young dogs and to give the amount listed on the bag or can. Being a Corgi, Nigel would have eaten three times the recommended amount of food if I’d let him, but the result would have been an overweight puppy who may have developed joint problems. I had to deal with sad puppy eyes when he asked for more and I said no, but it was for his own good.

The best dog food to feed a growing dog

What is the best dog food to feed a growing dog? Photography ©UserGI15966731 | Getty Images.

Dogs in the age range of 6 to 18 months are ready for adult dog food. They need a lot of energy at this age, so the best dog food to feed a dog this age is a quality food with a good amount of calories.

My friend, Jorge, feeds his 10-month-old German Shepherd Dog a premium-brand kibble for adult dogs. Hemi is a bundle of energy, and Jorge finds it hard to keep weight on him. Hemi gets a big helping of dry food twice a day and is still hungry all the time. Dogs his age are very active and are still growing, so they usually have big appetites.

For some owners of young, growing dogs, money can be an issue. That makes dry food a more obvious choice. “Dry food is almost always cheaper than canned food, providing a comparable number of calories,” Straus said. “This impacts owners of large dogs more than those with small dogs, who may also have trouble getting through a bag of kibble while it is still fresh.”

Luckily, dog food manufacturers usually offer kibble in different sized bags. You can find bags starting at 5 pounds all the way up to 50 for some brands. If you have a small dog, you should buy a smaller bag. You don’t want to store dry food for more than 30 days because it starts to lose its freshness.

The best dog food to feed an adult dog

What is the best food to feed an adult dog? Photography ©damedeeso | Thinkstock.

My 6-year-old Australian Shepherd mix, Candy, has a slow metabolism. When I first adopted her from my local shelter, she was about 5 pounds overweight. She was probably eating kibble at her former home, and I’m sure that’s what she was getting at the shelter. To help her lose weight, I started her on a quality canned food. Canned food is generally lower in carbohydrates than dry food, and since Candy isn’t a very active dog, I thought putting her on a lower-carb diet would help her shed the pounds.

Of course I had to be careful with fat content, too. “Too much fat can lead to weight gain, especially in dogs who are not very active,” Strauss said. “If the amount fed must be strictly limited to prevent weight gain, this could contribute to nutritional deficiency, so I would reserve higher-fat foods for young, active dogs.”

After a few months of eating a measured amount of canned food, Candy dropped her extra 5 pounds. I then put her on a maintenance diet, which consists of both canned and dry food. She’s now at a good weight on this diet.

My friend Michelle, on the other hand, recently had to increase her Australian Cattle Dog’s food portions because Annabelle was a little too lean. After her vet referred to Annabelle as “a Victoria’s Secret model with no fat reserves to fall back on,” Michelle upped Annabelle’s kibble ration. Annabelle quickly gained about 2 pounds. She still has a lean body, but you can’t feel her ribs or hips anymore. So, the best dog food for an adult dog really depends on your individual dog!

The best dog food to feed a senior dog

What is the best dog food to feed a senior dog? Photography ©Chalabala | Thinkstock.

My neighbor’s senior Dachshund, Maynard, has arthritis and some other health issues that mean paying special attention to what he eats. Not only are Maynard’s teeth not working really well these days, he also has a tendency toward a picky appetite. His owners feed him a brand of canned food that he really likes. The wet food is easy for him to chew, and it also gives him more water in his diet.

“The added moisture in canned foods may be beneficial for older dogs to help them stay hydrated,” said Straus, who pointed out that adding water to dry food can do the same. But in Maynard’s case, he doesn’t want dry food. He only wants canned. And at his advanced age of 16, Maynard gets what Maynard wants.

Once a dog gets to a certain age, giving him a quality food that he enjoys eating is the best approach, whether it’s canned or dry. “The question of canned or dry doesn’t have to be either/or,” Straus said. “It’s fine to feed both, either together or in separate meals, as long as it agrees with your dog.”

The best dog food to feed your dog on a fresh food diet

Straus said you can improve commercial diets of all kinds at any stage of your dog’s life by adding fresh foods to her diet, including:

Lean meats

Eggs

Canned fish without bones (sardines, pink salmon, jack mackerel)

Dairy (yogurt, kefir, cottage cheese)

Fresh fruits and vegetables (as long as you stay away from grapes or raisins, which can cause kidney failure in dogs).

If you share some of these healthy foods with your dog, only give him a little bit as a top dressing on his dog food. Too much of a good thing can upset his stomach — and leave you wishing you’d stuck with dog food.

The bottom line on the best dog food

Every dog, regardless of age, is an individual with specific needs. The best way to find the best dog food for your canine is to continually consult with your vet.

Thumbnail: Photography by Jaromir Chalabala / Shutterstock.

This piece was originally published in 2015.

About the author:

An award-winning professional writer and editor, Audrey Pavia is a former managing editor of DOG FANCY magazine and former senior editor of the AKC Gazette. She is the author of The Labrador Retriever Handbook (Barrons) and has also written extensively on horses as well as other pets. She shares her home in Norco, California, with a rescue dog named Candy.

Read more on what to feed your dog on Dogster.com:

6 Essential Rules for Raw Dog Food

Dog Feeding Schedule: How Many Times a Day Should a Dog Eat?

Sardines for Dogs? Your Pup Can (and Should!) Eat Them

The post The Best Dog Food for All Life Stages by Audrey Pavia appeared first on Dogster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Dogster.com.

[topsolarpanels]

China builds world’s biggest solar farm in journey to become green superpower #GlobalWarning

Vast plant in Qinghai province is part of Chinas determination to transform itself from climate change villain to a green energy colossus

High on the Tibetan plateau, a giant poster of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, guards the entrance to one of the greatest monuments to Beijings quest to become a clean energy colossus.

To Xis right, on the road leading to what is reputedly the biggest solar farm on earth, a billboard greets visitors with the slogan: Promote green development! Develop clean energy!

Behind him, a sea of nearly 4m deep blue panels flows towards a spectacular horizon of snow-capped mountains mile after mile of silicon cells tilting skywards from what was once a barren, wind-swept cattle ranch.

Its big! Yeah! Big! Gu Bin, one of the engineers responsible for building the Longyangxia Dam Solar Park in the western province of Qinghai, enthused with a heavy dose of understatement during a rare tour of the mega-project.

The remote, 27-square-kilometre solar farm tops an ever-expanding roll call of supersized symbols that underline Chinas determination to transform itself from climate villain to green superpower.

Built at a cost of about 6bn yuan (721.3m) and in almost constant expansion since construction began in 2013, Longyangxia now has the capacity to produce a massive 850MW of power enough to supply up to 200,000 households and stands on the front line of a global photovoltaic revolution being spearheaded by a country that is also the worlds greatest polluter.

The development of clean energy is very important if we are to keep the promises made in the Paris agreement, Xie Xiaoping, the chairman of Huanghe Hydropower Development, the state-run company behind the park, said during an interview at its headquarters in Xining, the provincial capital.

Xie said that unlike Donald Trump, a climate denier whose election as US president has alarmed scientists and campaigners, he was convinced global warming was a real and present danger that would wreak havoc on the world unless urgent action was taken.

When I was a child, rivers usually froze over during the winter; heavy snowfall hit the area every year, so we could go skiing and skating people werent very rich, and nobody had a fridge, but you could still store your meat outside, the Qinghai-born Communist party official remembered. We cannot do that any more.

Sheep graze amid the panels at Longyangxia Dam Solar Park in Chinas Qinghai province. The plant has the capacity to produce 850MW of power. Photograph: Tom Phillips for the Guardian

Anders Hove, a Beijing-based clean energy expert from the Paulson Institute, said that as recently as 2012 solar power was shunned as a potential source of energy for Chinas domestic market because it was seen as too expensive.

No more. Costs have since plummeted and by 2020 China which is now the worlds top clean energy investor hopes to be producing 110GW of solar power and 210GW of wind power each year as part of an ambitious plan to slash pollution and emissions. By 2030, China has pledged to increase the amount of energy coming from non-fossil fuels to 20% of the total.

Earlier this month, meanwhile, Chinas energy agency vowed to spend more than $360bn on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind by 2020, cutting smog levels, carbon emissions and creating 13m jobs in the process.

The numbers are just crazy, said Amit Ronen, director of the George Washington Universitys GW Solar Institute, who described feeling awed by the scale of the Chinese solar industry during a recent trip to the country.

Activists now hope Beijing will up the ante once again following Trumps shock election.

Amid fears the billionaire US president will water down attempts by his predecessor, Barack Obama, to fight global warming, campaigners are calling on Chinas rulers to seize the mantle and position their country as the worlds number one climate leader.

As Mr Trump drops Obamas legacy, Mr Xi might establish one of his own, Greenpeace campaigner Li Shuo told the Guardian on Wednesday .

That campaigners are now looking to China for green leadership underlines the once unimaginable changes that have taken place in recent years.

While China remains the worlds biggest emitter, thanks to its toxic addiction to coal, it has also become an unlikely figurehead in the battle against climate change.

Longyangxia Dam Solar Park in Chinas Qinghai province. Photograph: Tom Phillips for the Guardian

Last September campaigners hailed a major victory in the war on global warming when China and the US jointly announced they would formally ratify the Paris agreement.

Our response to climate change bears on the future of our people and the wellbeing of mankind, Xi said, vowing to unwaveringly pursue sustainable development.

Ronen said: A decade ago, Chinas attitude was: You guys put all that carbon in the atmosphere growing your economy, we should be allowed to put a lot of pollution up there too to grow our economy. Now look at where we are.

Sam Geall, the executive editor of China Dialogue, a bilingual website on the environment, said Beijing viewed having a climate change denying US president as a rare and unexpected opportunity to boost Chinese soft power by positioning itself as the worlds premier climate change fighter.

[China sees it as] an opportunity for them to show leadership, he said. Ive already heard that from people who work in environment bureaucracy in China. They see this as an opportunity for China to step up.

Ronen said Chinas renewable revolution, which has seen sprawling solar and wind parks spring up across its western hinterlands, was part of a dramatic political U-turn that culminated in Beijing throwing its weight behind the Paris climate accord last year.

He said part of the explanation was air pollution repeated episodes of toxic smog have convinced Beijing it must take action to quell public anger and part was climate change.

They are very much impacted by a lot of these climate change weather patterns that are particularly troublesome: drought in the north, flooding they are very vulnerable to, Ronen said.

But Paulson Institutes Hove said the key driving force behind Chinas low carbon quest was economic.

Most of the things that China is doing related to the environment are generally things that China wants to do for the economy as well, he said, pointing to Beijings desire to rebalance the economy away from investment-led heavy industry-focused growth while simultaneously making itself the key player in an industry of the future and guaranteeing its own energy security.

Hove said Beijing saw a huge investment opportunity in exporting low-carbon technology such as high speed rail, solar power or electric vehicles to developing nations in Africa, south Asia and Latin America. This is a 20-30 year mission to develop [clean] markets, he said.

A recent report captured how China was already dominating the global clean energy market, pointing to billions of recent investments in renewables in countries such as Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam.

Xie, the Huanghe chairman, said his company was now making its first steps into Africa with solar and hydro projects under development in Ethiopia.

We are actively going global, he said, warning that the developing world could not copy the wests dirty development model without bringing about the destruction of the world.

Geall said one indication of whether China was prepared to become the worlds premier climate leader would be if it was seen helping to finance more low-carbon projects beyond its own borders such as a huge Chinese-built solar park in Pakistan.

Youd hope to start seeing more of those sorts of projects around the world being financed rather than [China being] just a source of cheap finance for dirty energy projects.

Not all are convinced China is ready or even willing to become the worlds top climate leader in a post-Trump world.

Zhang Junjie, an environmental expert from Duke Kunshan University, believed China would stick to its Paris commitments out of self-interest, particularly since the fight against global warming empowered its environmental agencies to crack down on toxic smog despite strong resistance from vested interests.

[But] if China needs to do more, to commit more, I dont expect that is likely, Zhang added, noting that China wanted to be a climate leader but not the climate leader. Leadership is not just power it is responsibility.

With Chinas economy losing steam, Zhang said tightening regulations on greenhouse gas emissions further would inflict major trouble on its manufacturing sector. Chinas clean industries were not sufficiently developed to provide jobs for all those who would be made unemployed as a result. I would say, dont count on [China to fill the gap left by the US], he said. China has its own troubles now.

Chinas push to develop renewables has not been entirely plain sailing either, with concerns about over-capacity, falling demand for electricity and curtailment, the amount of energy that is produced but fails to make it to the grid.

Hove said despite the rapid growth of the sector, wind still accounted for just 4% of Chinas electricity last year and solar for about 1%. Government subsidies meant many of the biggest solar and wind parks had been built in sub-optimal locations such as Qinghai, Gansu and Xinjiang, far from the southern and eastern metropolises where the energy was most needed.

Those behind the worlds largest solar park admitted obstacles such as energy wastage and transmission had yet to be overcome, but said there was no looking back as China forged ahead towards a low-carbon future.

New energy is surely the future … Its hard to predict the future but I believe that solar energy will account for 50% of the total in 50 years, said the engineer Gu.

Xie said authorities in Qinghai were now so confident the future of China was green that they were planning two massive new solar parks on the Tibetan plateau, with the capacity to produce 4GW of energy.

In a sign of the central governments support for the renewable revolution, Xi recently visited Xies company, urging staff to make every reasonable effort to develop the PV industry.

Xie, who hosted the Chinese president, scoffed at Trumps suggestion that climate change was a Chinese hoax and said such claims would do nothing to dampen his countrys enthusiasm for a low-carbon future.

Even if President Trump doesnt care about the climate, thats Americas point of view, he said. The Chinese government will carry out and fulfil its international commitments as they always have done in the past, and as they are doing now in order to try to tackle climate change.

Xie concluded: I dont care what Mr Trump says I dont understand it and I dont care about it. I think what he says is nonsense.

Additional reporting by Wang Zhen

Read more: www.theguardian.com

The post China builds world’s biggest solar farm in journey to become green superpower #GlobalWarning appeared first on Top Rated Solar Panels.

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