Okay so here’s the deal…

This year we slaughtered our meatbirds ourselves.

I was a little nervous I must say.  I had meatbirds when I was a wee lass growing up on my parents hobby farm back in the 70′s (am I showing my age?..eek). If you lived in the country back then you probably grew your own meat… it was the norm!  Little House on The Prairie was all the rage and “homesteading” was on every rural dwellers lips; BUT that was a million years ago (well it feels that way sometimes) and times have changed.  There’s either vegetarians giving you the evil eye or animal rights activists behind every tree.  Well guess what?  That’s not what made me nervous cause I’m not giving up meat and I treat my animals very well, thank you very much (proof here).  What made me nervous was the challenge of getting back to my roots and not screwing it up in the process. I wanted to make my parents, grandparents, great grandparents…….

PROUD

 I don’t want to be “dependant” on the giant corporations of today with their mass production and ever expanding price tags anymore…..We wanted to prove to ourselves that we have the courage and work ethic that our forefather’s had. To prove that we can be more independent than we think.

Our ancestors did it long before we were playing with our iphones.

Hmmmmm did we have what it takes?  Yes! And it surprised me because I’m a HUGE softy….

My brother caught them, my husband killed them and plucked them. Then it was off to me and my Dad where we gutted them and my Mom weighed and bagged them.

I have pictures to prove it…and a video….and I’ll be posting it here in the near future.

This “next step” in our hobby farming adventure, to grow our farm and our experiences is an exciting step towards self sufficiency.  So far we have been able to supply ourselves with free range chicken and duck eggs…what a treat!  Raising meat birds was just another rung in the ladder.    It gave us confidence and above all ….

Security

As some of you may remember when I discovered how many miles it took just to get a meal on our plate I was stunned.  After further research and reading about the economy, peak oil and climate change we decided to take this next step.  As we NEVER buy chicken unless it’s on sale (and sometimes even then it’s too expensive or just looks too gross and questionable).   It is such a blessing to know where our meat comes from, what it was fed and to KNOW that it had a GOOD life while it was here – scratching in the sunshine and the grass, eating bugs and laying in the sun instead of in a dark overcrowded ammonia filled commercial “facility”.

Soooooo as I build this website and show you how you can do the same, keep this in mind…… If you’re squeamish don’t look.  If you’re a vegetarian don’t write to me.   If you’re an animal activist be assured I take VERY good care of my animals and  if you are like the masses out there that want to or NEED to make a change because of financial, moral or health issues or you just want to try it yourself…….

I hope you can learn from our experience.