Rosalie ’s- Shelby, NE by Dawn

I know that Diane blogged about this already, but I feel it's necessary for me to mention my respect for the women we met in Shelby, NE. Wow! I have never met a group of more passionate, smart and determined women. They also happened to be caring, kind and very funny.

We went to Rosalie's house to talk about pie, and that didn't happen. These women taught us about the struggles they are facing near their homes (due to factory farming) and how much this disturbs their lives on a daily basis. Laura Krebsbach drove us to Rosalie Gable's house, where we met up with Marge Gonnerman, Lori Fischer, and Diane Schroeder.

Marge, who made wonderful chocolate mint meringue treats, also knows about every politician, law and issue in Shelby and beyond. She talked passionately and knowledgeably... and was disguised as someone's sweet unassuming grandmother. Lori, a local photographer, is fighting to keep her photography studio usable. It is positioned where the overwhelming smell of a nearby factory farm is keeping her business closed up to 1 month out of the year. Steve (our film maker- and more!) asked her, "How do you keep motivated?" Lori answered, "You get PISSED!" And Diane- raises the chickens who layed the eggs for my egg salad sandwich, farms beans and works hard to keep the factory farms out of her community- she also had stories about Connor Oberst, (of Bright Eyes). Supposedly Connor and I both had visions of chickens in little outfits when Diane told us she was "dressing" them. Turns out that funny vision is pretty much the opposite of what "dressing" them really is... I liked my idea of a chicken in a little tuxedo much better.

And, I'm not forgetting Laura and Rosalie! Laura is passionate about everything she does. She has been working to fight against factory farms for years and I would definitely want her on my side if I were fighting... well, anyone. Rosalie is nursing a sprained ankle from 2 years ago when she was trying to find out where a bad smell was coming from in her community... this is a very interesting story, and an issue that she is still pursuing. We were able to record an interview with her, and I hope that we will have it posted on the website sometime soon. Please check back to our video section to hear the whole story!

And just one more interesting note about Shelby, NE... There was only one gas station in the area, and they had biofuel. Shelby was full of surprises.

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