Sheep Butchering

It's a...live. The blog is alive. It isn't dead, really, I have just been doing other things. Better things. Family things. Have I told you lately that I LOVE SPRING???  I love getting dirt under my nails, spraying goat milk on my children as they walk by, snuggling day old goat kids, chasing escaped leghorn chicks, working in the warm greenhouse, watching all the little starts lift out of the soil, kittens, broody hens, dandelions in chubby fists, worms, sun with warmth, the woodstove only burning at night and the kids outside squealing away.

Here is a brief synopsis of my new ventures this Spring. Just when we think we have tackled everything we'd care too, something new pops into view and off we go. This Winter/Spring I have decided to persevere to feed my family healthier food while on a budget. Those two have never worked together for me, but after prayer and gleaning wisdom from other wonderful women in my life, I am learning. My children(and us parents) are eating a lot better and reaping the benefits. I am brewing kombucha every other day religiously and everyone is LOVING it. How delish and refreshing. Then we are also brewing 2 qrts of kefir every morning for breakfast(I never thought I'd do this). Again, everyone loves it, I couldn't ask for better children...really. Kefir isn't something one takes to immediately. Then there's chevon(goat) and mutton(sheep) we butchered ourselves, a first for us. On my to-do list this Summer is lacto-fermenting foods. After reading Nourishing Traditions by Sally Falon I am more than inspired to give it a go.

Junie our milking doe gave birth to twin doelings and Nice, our new doe, gave birth to Maple. All doelings this year! Yippee! Junie's kids are going off to a family this Wednesday and Maple is staying with us. We will then have Junie all to ourselves. Oh the joy.

The children are all doing well, schooling, working and playing away, Jess has been soaping and enjoyed being a teen leader for horses at the WC Youth Fair, Jacob has been welding, woodworking and reading. Daniel, our theologian, has been roping every moving animal and woodworking. Emma took her goat to YF and enjoyed the socks off learning how to care for a goat and also building forts out in the tall grassy field. Micah is a fireball of energy, always talking, questioning and reasoning. He is on his bike most all the time. Gracie. Hmmm...Gracie. She found Jessie's old Loving Family dollhouse and will sit in front of that for hours if let be. She loves banana's and the sandbox. Elijah Wilhem also loves bananas, his baby sister Lydia and his new trike Grandma bought him for his 3rd birthday. Lydia will be 10m next week. She is walking around the furniture, NO teeth, can play pat-a-cake, say mama and raise her hand at the dinner table.

Life is good, life is purposed, life is continually weeded and kept uncluttered as best as we can. These times are so sweet we can't rush through them only to look back and grieve. It just isn't worth it.

Enough already. So. We had this sheep. remember last year when Paul came home with two lambs in the back of his truck for Daniel? He was ecstatic and loved being a shepherd for a year. There was a blond sheep and a black sheep. The black sheep, David, grew this really large rack of curly horns and became rather...well...mean. The blond sheep had these little 1" horns and was really nice. It is at this point I will admit I am the one who castrated them, and I am thinking that I only got one of the two on the black sheep so he was more male than we thought. My bad. Anyhow, David will knock down my little kids when they are in the pasture so he was given the death sentence by Daddy. Not wanting to miss a future homeschooling opportunity Daniel, Jacob, Emma and I sheered him bald and placed his wool in a sack. Here is where the story begins.

Daniel thinks he is pretty hot stuff after winning second place the WC Youth Fair for roping in the Jr. Rodeo. Even though David will walk right up to him, he roped him.

Danny did a great job raising this guy. He loved his sheep, he was a great shepherd, but knew their purpose. These kids amaze me at how level-headed they are when it comes to taking an animal's life. Now me? Being a city kid, I would cry b.u.c.k.e.t.s when my caterpillar/dog/rat/cat/hampster died, as if it were my sibling. As a family, we thank God for the animal, we thank him for His provision. Each animal that finds it's way to our family is respected and cared well for, but everything has a purpose and is either producing or harvested, that's just life here, there is no room for dead weight.

Everyone 7 and up chose to watch as Daddy shot and drained the sheep. Pretty non-eventful.

Then these two guys had knives placed in their hands and everyone else stood back and watched the smoke rise from these master butcherers. Really. These boys are crazy good. I think so.

"Take your coat off and stay a while" "Don't pull the wool over my eyes" Oh the puns. It was bad.

Jacob and Paul trimmed off meat while Daniel QC'd.

Dan with the heart and liver and the bowl of meat to the right. It was coooooold out. I stoked up the fire for them to warm them up. I love my hard working men!

Dan was impressed by the size of the liver. Don't quite know what we'll do with it yet. No, I don't want recipes..no way. We spent an hour hand grinding half the meat, there must be a better way. We cycled through all the children, Daddy and I.  Our biceps were aching. I cut up a bunch of stew meat, but there is a good 30lbs to grind. Thank you Lord for our first sheep harvest!