What a Weekend!

We learn something new every day.

On our quest to be more self sufficient we took our first cow in to be butchered and on Thurday we picked up the meat. We decided back in 2008 to add a few cows to our place so we headed to a dairy and picked out the sweetest 2 day old bull calves. Many bottle feedings in the rain and cold later we watched our little "Hinze" grow to be a shit. He was curious and would always have to come see what you were doing. He would follow most people around like a lost puppy, but when it came to me it was a game of tag. His last game involved me being trapped in a building in my pj's after seeing he had made a great escape out of the pasture. I thankfully had my cell phone to call James to find help and he did. Every time I thought he was gone I would peek out only to see his big eyes looking back at me. If I tried to run around one side he would double back and come around to face me. Then he started running his horns down the side and back of the building so I knew where he was. I waited for what seemed an eternity for help and finally it arrived. James had summoned help and I have to thank Kevin and his son for leading Hinze back into the fence. It is safe to say that after sitting down to rib steak, fresh picked sweet corn and fresh picked green beans I am not afraid of Hinze any more!

For some crazy reason we bought chicks this spring and decided that we would butcher them. This was after vowing we wouldn't do it again last year, and the year before, and the year before that. This weekend was the end of the road for them as well and after sweating and cussing and vowing again to not do it again our chickens are now at freezer camp. I am sure like every spring we will see the cute little yellow fuzzballs and Colton will ask, "Mom, can we get some?" and we will drive home with a box of noisy, pooping machines.

I canned this weekend as well. We have roast cut into big cubes in broth sitting in jars waiting for a snowy cold winter evening to be turned into stew or beef gravy for mashed potatos. I also browned 20 lbs of hamburger and then dehydrated it for use in last minute meals or to take on camping trips. 320 ozs of ground beef dehydrated turns into 63 oz of what someone may think is coffee grounds. At least if we lose power I don't have to worry about meat spoiling!

We are looking forward to this next week. I am hoping to get more knitting and crocheting done as well as more soap made and poured. At least I can keep busy and stay out of trouble!