All the small things add up

From an organic gardeners perspective, there are very few things in this world better than compost. Much of what other people put in their green bins is recycled into free fertilizer for the garden. Even better, there is nothing in compost that will harm or discourage the birds and bugs that are often necessary for the gardens success.
It takes more than compost to grow a great garden. Long before there are the satisfying bits of good things to harvest and keep, there is a seasons worth of chores that need doing. The beans I've been picking for the last couple of weeks wouldn't be so bountiful without the tilling and planting and of course weeding and feeding that comes before.
In my opinion, there are very few downsides to gardening. Its great exercise. Its done outdoors. I am physically able to do all my gardening and harvesting and preserving .... in realspeak that means its not only a rewarding hobby it is an 'achievable objective'.
Around here, I'm certainly not the only one who grows a garden. The garden beds that seem big to me are often dwarfed by the farmers fields around here. Unlike my little home garden, one person certainly couldn't handle the workload for these commercial gardens and farms.
Experienced farmers know they will need a variety of equipment, skills and labour to get their harvest in. Even more importantly, they need to market their crops if the farm is to be able to continue. They need more than a roadside stand and will look for a variety of buyers .... from farmers markets to commercial food processors.
And of course they need advertising, and these days the successful farms do not overlook the benefits of web exposure. Here in Kings County, the municipal site has an online Farmers Markethttp://www.county.kings.ns.ca/cgi-bin/classifieds/classifieds.pl . As a sidebar note to that, the Taste of Nova Scotia folks came up with a very clever idea a couple of years ago ...called the Incredible Picnic http://www.selectnovascotia.ca/?cid=56&gclid=CMzr37bvqpwCFYwF5wodBAzNkA
But.... I'm wandering afield here. As the farmers have discovered, its not realistic to expect the customers to come to them. Nor is it sensible for any animal rescue group or shelter to expect the adopters to simply show up at their door.
I know I go on like a stuck record about this, but according to Stats Can, ther are over 350,000 households in Nova Scotia. If only ONE PERCENT of these homes adopted a pet, there would be No More Homeless Pets in Nova Scotia.
This morning on petfinder there are 367 cats and 86 dogs listed for adoption. Of course this number does not include whatever cats and dogs are at the Cape Breton SPCA .... the few dogs that they had listed suddenly vanished off their Petfinder site last Wednesday and at this point in time their branch has a listing for two doves.
Before the keyboards catch on fire, I am the first to say that spca...adopt a dog ! is a great idea and it is wonderful to see these hardworking volunteers taking pets from the Cape Breton Branch out into the public eye. In the same way, transferring dogs from the Cape Breton Branch to Metro and beyond is another great life saving tool.
Does that mean the branch doesn't need to use its Petfinder listings? Of course not. If the branch has not found that their petfinder listings have helped in the past, perhaps there would be more success if they were to include more than a picture of the pet.
People who browse petfinder are looking to adopt. Even better, they also tend to be compassionate people who would respond to a need if it was expressed on the branch petfinder site.
Kind and compassionate they may be, but they are still looking for the right fit for their own home. Petfinder listings need to be complete in order to be effective. How old is the pet? Is she spayed? House trained? Good with kids? Cats? These are all essential things that potential adopters need to know.
What time is it? While its wonderful to see the work that the spca...adopt a dog ! is doing for the animals, the branch should still be doing its bit and taking advantage of the free web exposure that Petfinder offers.
None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.Mother Teresa