The "Otherness" of Animals

I just finished reading Dogs Never Lie About Love by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, a writer whom I have only recently learned about. I heard an interview with him on NPR recently about his latest book—The Face on Your Plate—and discovered among his dozen or more books are several on animals. A vegetarian and "near-vegan" (his words), and a PhD Sanskrit scholar, he brings wide-ranging research to his writing. I've acquired four of his books on animals and they are all heavily footnoted, yet very easily read.

In Dogs Never Lie About Love I read a passage that struck me as very helpful—about the "otherness" of dogs; that the world they inhabit is different from our own, and how often we overlook the deep sensibility and sensitivity by which they operate in their own world. The context of this quote is as follows: the emotional way in which his German Shepherd dog, Sasha, (one of his three dogs) relates to his two cats:

"Whatever [Sasha's] behavior means, it is clear that [she] is filled with feeling for these little kittens. It is clear because she moans and groans and follows them from room to room, and cocks her head and looks puzzled and intrigued. That is why I say she is possessed. She wants something from them, she feels something for them, and she seems to want to express those feelings.

"It is hard to empathize with her because humans generally do not walk behind kittens sighing and groaning. There does not seem to be an equivalent for us. Perhaps, then, Sasha is demonstrating to me one of my 'pet theories:' As well as the emotions animals and humans have in common, animals can also access emotions that humans do not share, one different from those we know, because animals are other; they are not the same as human beings. Their senses, their experiences, open them to a totally different (or new) set of feelings of which we know little or nothing. That a whole world of canine feelings remains closed to us is an intriguing notion. Some of these feelings could be based on the dog's sensory capacities. According to one early authority, a dog can smell 100 million times better than we do (I will return to the topic in Chapter 5). But even if the true figure is significantly less, the fact remains that when Sasha puts her nose to the ground, she becomes aware of a world about which I can only make guesses. Similarly, when Sasha cocks her ears, she hears sounds of which I am altogether unaware." (p. 6)

Masson is self-described as "not religious," so writes purely from an evolutionary perspective. But the above perspective holds interest for me as a Christian for how it addresses the issue of the animal kingdom created by God. I have thought (and stated in various stumbling ways) that Christians don't have a workable "theology of animals"—a way to describe what animals are "for;" why God created them. We enjoy the domesticated ones, eat the mass-produced ones, fear the aggressive ones, and are clueless about what to think about the rest. It is their "otherness" that confuses us. They are not like us, yet we haven't recognized that the sensory and feeling world in which they live is just as valid as ours in its own way. God understood their "way" since He ordained it, but we have not given them credit for having a way that goes much beyond responses of petting, eating, and fearing them.

I don't know what the answers are, but am interested in finding them for many reasons—not the least of which is supporting the (biblical, I believe) idea that animals were created for a higher purpose than being eaten or mistreated by humans. And I found Masson's simple description of the interaction between his dog and cats as illustrative in a helpful way of how much more we have to learn about the "other" animals. I think most sensitive Christians would agree with all this if they were asked to think about it. Most curious to me is that, among evangelical, Bible-believing Christians, it is for the most part not even on the agenda—so they continue to do what they've always done: pet, eat, fear, and cock their own heads at the curiosity of the animal kingdom.

Organic Teabag Fertilizer

The 2009-2010 catalog from Oikos Tree Crops arrived this week, and it is a pleasure to read. I learned about a product I've never seen elsewhere which makes great sense: organic fertilizer "teabags" to be dropped into a planting hole providing slow-release fertilizers to a new seedling. They sell them for tree starts, but my immediate thought was using them in the bottom of tomato and other transplants. They are rated at 7-7-2 with trace elements Ca, S, Mg, Zn, and Fe (Calcium, Selenium, Magnesium, Zinc, and Iron). Read more about them here.

Yard Farm 3

The abundant rain of late has been good for all things green and growing. Here's how the little bed I started in the front yard looked on April 17:



Here's how it looks today -- the two basil plants have doubled in height and breadth (I'm out there daily pinching off the new leaf pairs to force the basil to expand its breadth) and the two pepper plants, stripped of their leaves by a rabbit (?) the night after being planted, are putting out new leaves. The spinach, beets, and two kinds of kale are all growing well -- especially the kale:



The little dogwood I planted last fall has been an interesting study. My neighbor got three dogwoods from the wooded property of a friend who lives in the country, and gave one to myself and my next door neighbor and kept one for himself. As a rule, dogwoods in the wild get "leggy" (grow tall and thin, reaching for sunlight that filters through the tree canopy). All three of our dogwoods looked the same when they were planted, but mine looks different: it has gotten bushy with leaves that are 2-3 times the size of the leaves on the other two. Here they are by comparison:

One of the neighbor trees:



The other neighbor tree:



My tree -- notice how much it has grown out instead of just up, and how thick the foliage is compared to the other two. Don't misunderstand -- this is not for bragging rights -- it's to demonstrate the power of food. I have fertilized (fed) my tree consistently since last fall, whereas my neighbors have not. I don't know that my tree is healthier, but it is certainly more robust looking -- which I'm taking as a vote for diligent feeding. The size of the leaves on this tree are amazing. The neighbor who provided the trees came over the other day and wanted to know why mine looked different from his, and I offered him the same liquid concoction I created that I've used to water mine:



Some more pics -- including the first (tiny) tomato:



The eggplants are about to flower:



The planter-spinach is already being eaten for supper (thanks for the seeds, Priscilla):



The little patch of Bordeaux spinach is growing:



The chard is doing great -- along with five volunteer tomato plants that have come up in the midst of the bed from last year's dropped tomatoes:



The container herbs and veggies are healthy:



Especially this tomato -- it seems to love its pot, though I need to prune the suckers to divert its energy into fruit:



And the tomatoes/peppers (bottom) and bean/pea (top) buckets are doing well (the parsley in the end bucket didn't make it, so I'll take this bucket down and move it among the containers so the beans can get plenty of sun):



Another shot:



Beans (don't know the variety) from my neighbor on the top, cherry tomato on the bottom:



So far I'm encouraged by this idea -- though the beans are ultimately going to suffer without more sunlight -- still thinking about a solution:



And yet more veggies to plant or give away -- these are from the seeds I started in the Winstrip tray. The seeds from my parents' yard in Alabama never made it, though I have saved the soil they were in. Who knows -- they might spring up someday:



There is such pleasure in being around healthy, growing gardens. A taste of Eden-past and neo-Eden to come.

Losing Chlorine

Chlorine gas will evaporate fairly quickly out of city water, even more quickly if the water is sitting in the sun. Found a quicker way to create garden-use water with my air pump and stones:



P.S. Alack and alas! I left the pump running for about 45 minutes and came back and it had stopped working. Will have to call "tech support" and see what else besides the diaphragm might be wrong.

P.P.S. Pump now working after installing a second replacement diaphragm.

New Town Farms

Went to New Town Farms (between my house and Waxhaw) today to pick up my CSA box for the week. Took some pix while there -- it's such a wonderful place I thought readers would enjoy the tour:

The CSA box is getting more full each week as the season progresses:



In this week's box, from left to right: in the big clear bag, three HUGE heads of lettuce (green leaf, red leaf, and Romaine); bag of spinach; the red root veggies -- until Sammy sends his list later today I don't know if these are a red radish or a turnip; lacinato kale; white turnips/turnip greens; bundle of turnip greens. Just picked this morning!

Update from Sammy's email that just arrived: in the bag with the three heads of lettuce there is a head of Escarole -- a heavier leaf with a little more flavor than lettuce -- great as a salad green (along with Romain and leaf lettuce). The "bundle of turnip greens" are, in fact, Broccoli raab, a "hearty Italian cooking green usually cooked wtih garlic and red pepper and tossed with pasta and cheese." The long red radishes are shunkyo radishes.



Farmer Sammy on the phone:



Gespar, Sammy's Mexican helper for many years, lives on the farm with the family. I get to use my very broken Spanish with Gespar:



Beautiful rows of nutrition:



Kale:



Garlic:



Cabbage and more greens:



Many varieties of potatoes:



Eggplant:



Even the best organic farmers battle the eggplant leaf hoppers: (this was the only bad eggplant leaf I saw)



Blueberries (there are twice this many bushes):



Grapevines:



Movable chicken "tractor:"



Porkers -- a small herd of pigs supposedly descended from the ones kept by George Washington at Mount Vernon. While these will end up on the table, they have a full two acres of woods in which to manifest their pigness and porcine sensibilities. One had just given birth that morning back in the woods to a litter of babies:



The lake separating Sammy's farm from his late father's 25 acre homesite:



Sammy's greenhouse for starting plants in the spring:



Sammy's late father's home which he and Melinda are turning into an event site, rentable for dinners, family reunions, and other events. Their oldest daughter Zoe is headed to college this fall to study hotel/hospitality management and she will come back to run this facility in the future. A gorgeous setting. In a couple of weeks, Slow Food Charlotte is having a big wine-tasting event at "the Inn" featuring an organic California vintner and food from local farms and chefs -- a typical use of the property that they plan to expand in the future.





Ah, the traditional Southern tree-lined lane to the "big house:"



Another (larger) mobile chicken "tractor" on his father's property:





Great farm, great family -- since they homeschool their eight kids the older ones are all active in the farm, helping to load the CSA boxes, etc. Had a nice visit with Melinda but didn't have my camera with me when I chatted with her. She's a gracious, hard-working and hands-on woman/wife/mom -- with the farm and with her children. A great place to hang out.

P.S. There is another entry further below with additional pix from New Town Farms.