Category Archives: Toastmasters

Toastmasters Clubs bring communities of like minded individuals together for mutual self-improvement in a secular, non political and multicultural environment of 14,000 clubs in 130 countries. www.toastmasters.org

Toastmasters

OPTIMISTS’ CLUBS NO-LONGER OPTIMISTIC

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optimist 1955

After being forced from my marital nest I cast my sense of belonging net over a wide swath of clubs for self-improvement, self-serving and serving other selves. The range of my search for self-actualization spanned the gatherings of Alcoholics Anonymous, Kiwanis, Lions, Toastmasters, Rotary and even the Optimists club.

Now, re-martially nested just behind the front-lines of World War III, I am ever-more attuned to socio-economic world events. My take-away from living seven years in China is not even the Chinese know what’s going on in China. As in China, I am an illiterate in Turkey and rely on a once a month info-dump from my English speaking landlord.

When asked if I was going to vote, I said that I already had spent $27 twice for Bernie. Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary and Optimists clubs eagerly sought out political office seekers to speak at their breakfast, lunch and dinner meetings. Choice in politics always meant “the lesser of two evils” or “better the devil you know.” The Clinton-Trump dilemma harkins back to the 1954 Los Angeles Optimists club meeting pictured above. An updated version might read; “why worry about it we’re already broke.”

Goat Farming 101, Toastmasters

Dairy Goat Farming: Experiential Learning

https://youtu.be/wc81FriTWQo

One day we ran out of alfalfa and the milk tasted bitter or ‘goatie.’ What was the meaning of that? Don’t run out of alfalfa. One time I visited a dairy goat cooperative in Dolores Hildalgo, Mexico and their goat’s milk tasted way more better than mine. Why? Their alfalfa was harvested from soil unchanged since Cortez and the Aztecs time. Dairy is like wine; the taste is determined by the soil. This is also true for eggs, meat and poultry. My wife and I moved to Sao Paulo in 1975 only a Jack N Box, no MacDonald’s. Why? The red clay soil of Brazil made the grass fed beef taste un-MacDonald like.

The crime of the 20th century was the pasteurization of dairy in 1912; for over 100 years Americans in particular have not had a drop or curd of nature’s most digestible, assimilate-able, protein food source.

Food Circle

GROUPS Four and Seven were essentially removed from our diet by WWI, while Six and Five fell to the industrialists after WWII. The USDA and Monsanto are busy killing off One, Two and Three.

What I Learned Down On the Farm

  • P&G invented Crisco and Margarine 1905/10
  • Teddy Roosevelt outlawed raw dairy 1912
  • We took the cows off grass in 1950
  • MacDonald’s came along in 1955
  • Fish, chickens, eggs and pigs became manufactured food products 1970-80
  • UHT (Ultra-high temperature processing) 135C (275F) milk, soy milk, juices, even wine, 1970’s.

Most important lesson sustainable family farming is doable, enjoyable and can be very profitable.