SLAUGHTERHOUSE SLOUGH #218: THEY ALL POOP IN THE SAME PILE

My wife, Teri, and I made a trip to the A to Z ALPACAS' farm this weekend.  We had lovely hosts, and they even let me sit in the pasture and sketch for a while!

SLAUGHTERHOUSE SLOUGH #217: NOPE

I've heard some amusing things from folks looking at my drawings over the years.  I wasn't present for this one, but a Slaughterhouse Slough reader was generous enough to share this conversation with me!

SLAUGHTERHOUSE SLOUGH #216: WANNA DANCE?

This week's comic celebrates my first Jazz Festival in Lethbridge!  Each event we attended was wonderfully intimate and featured some wonderful musicians from around Canada.

Featured in this week's comic are Oliver Miguel; Louise Rose & Lethbridge's Juran Greene!

SLAUGHTERHOUSE SLOUGH #215: SMASH-EM UP

I would have to say the Derby was one of the strangest and bewildering things I've seen in a while.  

SLAUGHTERHOUSE SLOUGH #214: ONE CLEAR VOICE

I'm looking forward to meeting & mingling with Hutterite families at the Farmer's Market this summer.  Keep your eye open for bus tours to colonies from the Galt Museum as well!  http://www.lethbridgelivingonline.com/events/get-outta-town-bus-tour-hutterites-a-history

----UPDATE-----

A really thoughtful & well-written comment (yes, there is such a thing) on the comic on facebook, courtesy of Bing Cormier:

"I lived close to a colony in for a bit, a long time ago.

One local, who was very friendly with them, explained that another reason there are prejudices towards them is economics.

Hutterite colonies generally do not deal with banks, try to be as self-sufficient as possible and when possible, will prefer to do business with other colonies, rather than local businesses. 

When things started to go very bad for family farms in the late 70s/early 80s, Hutterite colonies, in contrast, were ''in the black''. Colonies are governed by strict social rules and when a colony approaches 150-200 members, they will prefer to split. 

This fact, along with long-term thinking and lots of free capital means that a lot of family farms got bought and turned into Hutterite colonies. 

That probably gives lots of ammunition for the bigots.

On the whole, I really enjoyed every moment of contact with them. In general, it is a kind, caring and humble culture and even though I can't really admire their gender politics and seeming lack of democracy for the members, they are most definitely ''walk-the-talk'' Christians who are more concerned with love and kindness than hell-and-brimstone."