Nope. See, we do all our own killin' and guttin' and skinnin' and cuttin' up around here, thank you kindly. When people find that out, the responses range from skeptical but impressed, to ready to call Child Protective Services. One man even called me Laura Ingalls Wilder, saying my survival skills are such that after a nuclear WW III it will just be me and the cockroaches left. (Don't know what I'd have left to butcher if that were the case, but whatever...)
I will admit, that I was not always the 'do-it-yourself' kind of gal that I am now. Contrary to what people might think, I did not grow up raising or butchering animals. In fact, the first thing I actually participated in killing and dismembering (so to speak) was a chicken on my parents' farm about 5 years ago. Funny how far I've come since then!
No, it wasn't that I was cleaning gizzards from the time I was in diapers that brought me to this place. Instead, it's that I am fortunate enough to only have been one generation from people who were cleaning gizzards in diapers. Thankfully, my parents grew up in the time-honored, family-farm tradition of small-town Iowa, and they never forgot their roots. My mom and dad worked their whole adult lives so they could end up literally where they started - cleaning out the barn, baling hay, fixing fences, bottle feeding calves - all on the farm my dad grew up on. They paid their dues so they could earn back their independence.
Their decision to pack it all up, move back to the farm, and start anew (or, perhaps more accurately, 'a-old') was a big turning point in my life. I had already made the decision long before then to live concientiously, but was only walking it out in the shallowest of terms. I knew commerical meat production was dirty business, so I became a vegan. I wanted to do right by the earth, so I only ate organic. I wanted to save fossil fuels and support my local farmers, so I bought at farm stands in our area. I had tried to stop doing the 'wrong' things, and I was doing some of the 'right' things, but I wasn't really doing the best things - not for my body, for the earth, for my community, or for my soul.
Ok, ok... Andrea's gone off the deep end again, equating digging in the dirt with a religous experience. I guess what I'm trying to say is that just doing your best to not live against your principles is a whole different animal than living your principles out each day to the fullest. I believe, at least for me, that true personal satisfaction (that deep-down, in-your-belly, lasting kind of satisfaction) only comes from the latter.
So, these days I try to do better. I do right by the earth by doing the most I can with MY earth - my garden, my compost pile, my pasture. I support local farmers by visiting the farm stands, but also by getting to know my neighbors, helping them when their cows get out, peeling apples in the shop with them during apple cider season. That is a far more meaningful way to support local farmers than buying a bag of green beans every Saturday. And, I do right by my body by giving it the workout of hauling feed and water, pulling weeds, cleaning out the chicken house. I also choose to give it clean, healthy protein from the animals I raise and butcher.
In doing all of these things, I have found a simple prayerfulness and worship before the Lord that I never before had, a connection to my community I have sought for years, a rhythm for my family that brings us balance, and a connection with my past that grounds me and reminds me of who I am. I have found the expresesion of my desire for concientious living that I sought when I was younger. I have found a way to honor my parents' sacrifice by acknowledging that I, too, will do whatever it takes to continue the tradition and heritage that I received from them and from the generations before them. In short, I received a reprieve from the ordinary, and it sure has been a life saver for me...
You are inspiring!!
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