I promise I’ll explain soon the reason I couldn’t get Oracle off my mind during my vacation-in spite of the scenery and activities. This is the time of year I do some fairly aggressive hiking in preparation for my annual hunting trip. Hopefully mere mention of such a seemingly controversial activity will not alienate any readers. Hey, it’s my blog and I’m one of those folks that knows food comes from somewhere-even before it shows up in a market. Anyway, I thought I’d post a few photos. Enjoy!
BLOG UPDATE: Several of you readers asked to see the full size versions of these shots. Here is a link: Photos on Flickr
Kevin Closson's Blog: Platforms, Databases and Storage 
I’ve often looked at the photo at the top of your site and wondered where it was taken. Now all these photos are strengthening my guess that it is somewhere in the Rocky Mountains… Perhaps Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, or Arizona.
Am I close?
Paul,
Good guess, but no, this is Central Oregon. Oregon has about the most diverse terrain in North America ranging from rain forests of the coast to the Cascade mountain to the high desert of Central Oregon to the Alpine Blue Mountains and the Columbia Gorge to boot…
Thanks for stopping by!
HI Kevin,
I’d really like a closer look at these — particularly the last one — but the larger versions don’t seem to be available.
Cheers,
Dave.
Log Buffer
Fantastic scenery Kevin…though, as you’d probably expect, I’d find it better with the fauna, than without, in my humble opinion.
My wife and I are anti hunting / pro animals as I’m sure you know…but since my mother in law is a rural countrysider and pro hunting, we’re quite used to respecting everyones opinions on the subject – each to their own, even if it’s not to our taste as it were.
😉
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
I appreciate your agree-to-disagree take on the matter. I also respect your position. I’m confused a bit since you didn’t state whether or not you are also vegetarian which seems the perfect complement to your other convictions.
I’m anti-industrial-farming / pro-animal which might not differ as drastically from your position as you might think.
Kevin
We’re probably taking a lid off the worm can right now…but hey ho, I’m game – no pun intended!
My position, is that I’m an animal lover to a certain extent. I’m anti industrial farming of any product – animal or otherwise. I eat meat but I prefer to eat meat that has come from livestock which has had a “decent” life and was killed humanely. I don’t for example, eat foie grois or veal as I regard the way they are created as cruel and unreasonable.
My wife takes it further still and eats only fish and chicken and has done for “taste” reasons most of her life. There are times when she feels unhappy about even eating those meats. She’d like to be a vegetarian and whilst it’s perfectly possible for her to do so, she also has type 1 diabetes which kinda makes her life already “difficult enough” and so she eats those meats infrequently.
Since it’s more difficult to cook two different meals, I find that I tend to “fit in” with my wife’s dietary needs more often than not – when we go out for a meal I can have free rein with the meats on the menu.
We do eat a reasonable amount of vegetarian meals at home and we also use soya based products to “substitute” for meat although I personally feel they are a poor substitute as their texture is “weird” in comparison.
As the years go by, we’re finding that we are eating less meat products and it’s rather strange for me, as I remember having many an argument with my friends in my younger days about vegetarianism and that we are “designed” to eat meat (incisor teeth, it’s the only place to get all the essential amino acids (not quite true since Soya has them as well I believe) etc…)…now I find that I’m heading slowly down that path.
I’m sure I won’t reach the end of that path because I actually like meat as a food – in fact being a bit of a foodie and a chef I’d find it almost impossible to give up meat.
I remember watching “Super Size Me” by Morgan Spurlock a while back and thinking that it was the classic example of the kind of industrial manufactured rubbish that I don’t want to have any part in my diet.
There were also a number of programs recently on British television regarding how preprocessed foods (Ready meals) were made and some of the unhygienic conditions this occurred in – made us glad that we tend to buy fresh items and cook them ourselves. We use organic products quite a bit bit not exclusively and we also try to look for ethical producers, like Fairtrade.
I think the next thing on our horizon is to try and move towards buying our foods nearer to our home – to support local agriculture and reduce food miles. If we had time, we’d probably grow some ourselves as well…but this Oracle stuff kinda gets in the way 😉
It’s the kind of subject on which I think people probably make decisions without being fully informed – myself included. There are also different ways of looking at it, for example, one could ask, does a vegetarian feed their dog a vegetarian meal or a meal including meat? A dog is even more designed to eat meat than we are I believe (short intestinal tract) but that means an animal had to die for it to get a meat meal – how does that stack up in the vegetarian’s mind? The same in the wild, in Africa, when a lion kills a zebra or some such, does that upset the vegetarian or are they comfortable with that?
We could even go on to talk about cows and the methane they produce and global warming…I did say, this subject was all one big can of worms right?
To sum up, I’d say, I’m not a vegetarian, but I support the ethical treatment of animals in all respects, whether for food or companionship.
Cheers
Jeff