COW PATTIES


The day finally came for "RIBEYE" the steer to start on his way to becoming steak and hamburger. The killing went fairly quickly. The first shot took him down, the his throat was cut to let him bleed out. Ribeye tried a few times to raise up and kick Keith as he tried to chain the legs for hoisting. He wasn't quite ready to give up so a second shot was in order. This brought him to a quick end. As you can see from the picture Ribeye isn't half the cow he used to be and it took a lot of guts to get him that way. All four quarters are hanging nicely now in the Allelon Farm basement (see their blog sites for a more complete photo journal of the event). The butchering of the meat will take place after the beef ages for 3-4 weeks. Stay tuned for that adventure.


I think the other cows are looking for Ribeye!


The boys work diligently at preparing the hide for tanning. A first cut (pun intended) was made at fleshing the hide (only the bug chunks). Tomorrow we will get back together to finish the fleshing process and prepare the hide for the next step in the preservation process. If the cameras are ready we will catalog the whole process for future reference and laughs. This has truly been wonderful experience for our families. It is nice to know where your food comes from and that the animals had a good life before they were slaughtered.

I am looking forward to processing our next batch of chickens. They are still a little small but hopefully they will fill out a little more by mid November. We plan on keeping two cornish hens to cross with our buff orpington rooster and hopefully raise our own meat bird stock.

Our Nanny goat is very pregnant. Hopefully we will have some milk in a month or two. We are looking forward to raising the goats and trying our hand at making butter, cheese and soap.

God has been very gracious to us. We are thankful for the circle of brothers and sisters in Christ He has placed us in.