Northern Farmer

This is fine and dandy tonight, I think I have the stomach flu. Anyway, I hope that’s what it is. Belly is puffed up and I feel like what I was spreading out in the field this morning. But such is life. The weatherman is predicting that we might see sunshine in a couple of days and I’m afraid that most people around here won’t know what it is. Boy, talk about some gloomy weather the last 12 days or so. The cattle yards are turning to mud, everywhere a person walks its glare ice, at least the bone menders at the hospital are getting a brisk business. I’m even missing church tonight, that’s a first, I suppose I could of made it, but I don’t believe in spreading around these flu bugs if it can be helped.

This afternoon we took the step and purchased a big used Hobart meat saw, and a (I hate to use the word) “industrial” meat grinder. These ain’t the kind that you find in the huge chain stores for sportsmen and the like, this is the real thing. Purchasing things such as these is always hard for me because I have to shell out bucks. But just like a woodstove they’ll just keep paying back, year after year. Now, there’s no red eyed cow that’s safe around here. Snort at me the wrong way and it’s ground beef time. So as long as there’s electricity this farm will be totally set up for all it’s own meat processing. If electricity becomes scarce, well, nothing a person can’t do with knives and an axe. I sold a steer to some Mexicans one time and they butchered the whole thing with knives and an axe, faster than the regular butchers around here. And there wasn’t one thing that I had to haul out when they were finished. I was amazed, to say the least. And I learned how efficient these folks are compared to our culture, nothing wasted, absolutely nothing.

Everything as far as meat processing is being brought back to the farm, everything. That includes hams, bacon, sausages, you name it. Can’t wait till this next fall making ham and sausage like I did years ago. Naturally smoked with oak, maple, or apple wood. It don’t get much better than that. And friends and family working together on all of this. And canning beef, pork, and old laying hens, life don’t get much better than these foods. More and more a goal will be to get away from dependence of the modern day freezer. Along with the canning of meats, the curing of meats will be the old method, cold smoking, so the meats are preserved more on their own.

As time is moving on here on our family farm I have to smile at the huge and not so huge changes taking place almost daily and sometimes at break neck speeds around here. Life is a constant adventure, and sometimes I think I’m like a little kid, all the excitement and fun I’m having changing this farm. Wow, what a life! The breaks were locked in the race toward industrial agriculture here. The insanity skidded to an abrupt halt. The land is becoming alive again; the family is waking up and seeing what families are supposed to be like, and loving it. The kids have a huge interest and love in the farm. We’re making a living when the experts say it can’t be done. Our family’s faith in God has been restored after years of slowly dying in the modern church. And some call us foolish, but we take that as the greatest compliment in this culture.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2006 at 9:29 pm and is filed under Northern Farmer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.