Farm happenings
I'm impatient. I called Dr pat and said "Listen, I can't wait until the next heat cycle. What's the soonest you can check Bethel??" He said 35 days after breeding, so he's coming next week!!
We went to the Butchers Block in Lowell today to get some of Lloyds tallow. We got to talking and immediately I could sense that Diane (the owner) and I were most definitely kindered spirits. So I asked her if it was possible for us to have a field trip of sorts, to see the butchering process, from life to packaging.
She said "You want to see the slaughter?" with an extremely weirded out look on her face.
I said, "No, no. I don't want to see it......the kids do".
She said "They're kinda young, so if it's ok with you, it's ok with me".
I could tell this was not a normal request from customers and she was riding it out to see if we were from a hidden television investigation show.
So she said "Theyre back there right now working. Let me double check with the guys and see if they're ok with it."
Of course they were. How often does anyone get to see what they do, and how hard they work.
So back we went.
As we walked around the building and approached the back door, we saw the next live cow, waiting patiently outside.
Then it got real
Trey and Tori witnessed the slaughter, which consists of a hammer like gun that quietly puts a bullet in the cows head and they die instantly. So once the cow was lying down I peeked in. To the right of this cow, was one that had just been skinned and they were in the process of cutting it in half. Sometime during this process, the guts were taken out into a large bin and as he was pulling them out I heard tori identifying organs- "There's the intestines, there's the liver, there's the gall bladder." After the carcass was cut in half and cleaned, it went into the cooler to be hung and aged for two weeks.
It was a tough thing to watch. The kids didn't mind as much as I did. I've just had all this time of becoming disconnected from my food sources. It's so pretty in the grocery store that you forget where it actually comes from, and that a life must be taken for you to have it.
So I'm hoping to go back for the cutting. To see where each cut of beef comes from and how we get it.
Then we perused the consignment stores in downtown Lowell, and the hives on my eyes started
/#+##!!$;/'#
That's me swearing.
So we left and headed over to Settlers Pond to buy some honey. It's more local than the other jar I polished off this morning. While we were there, the kids cleaned out the cat house for her and spent some time with kitties. I sat in a chair and gritted my teeth because my eyes and neck were inflamed and itchy beyond belief.
So I am now home, with 5 lbs of tallow I'm going to render tomorrow, and hives on my face.....AGAIN. I was hoping to start rendering the tallow today but it takes hours and per The Prairie Homestead, it should be chilled overnight before working with it. So tomorrow morning it will have to be.
To any allergy sufferers, these allergies will.go away in the winter, no? After some hard frosts, I should be good, right? Please, please, please say yes
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