Keepin' It Real

It's Spring and birthing has been mostly the main theme of homesteads and farmsteads!  Blossoms are filling the air with honey-like scents, and kids are being born, goat kids that is!

It was March 28th, and Meatloaf was born without any complications!  That's the name he got when we determined he was a boy.  We already have a buck who isn't related to the does.  So, that means he'll be one of our sources of good, humane, clean meat one day.  We watched mother and baby to make sure he began suckling within an hour, and about 35 minutes or so later, he did!  After mom got him mostly cleaned off and he had his first drink at the bar, we moved them both into the main barn overnight.  That way they were undisturbed through the night, but still immediately next to, and in sight of, the rest of the herd.

This is the very same doe who was attacked by a dog.  You can read about it here.

The boys have no trouble seeing or eating our own meat sources.  They've watched and listened to us as we helped a neighbor clean his deer.  A week later they watched us all working together butchering, packaging, dating, and freezing the meat.  They know where meat comes from and will never be one of those people who have actually said things like, "Hunting is inhumane, why don't you just go to the store where they MAKE it?"  Yep, that sort of comment is very real, coming from very real people, who have had the misfortune of not having access to their own humanely processed meat.  There is a very real disconnection between the realities of where food comes from and how it gets to the supermarkets.

Nowadays, cattle ranchers are up against this mentality.  They like to remind as many people as possible that if their operations are shut down by new local, state and federal laws stopping or seriously hindering them, then in less than three days, the supermarket shelves will not have any beef on them.  The alternative is higher priced meat from outside the country like China, Australia, and South America.  Personally the only source I'd be more likely to trust is Australia.  Problem is, you still cannot know the quality of your meat unless you actually hunt it or raise it and process it yourself.  Modern meat 'production' is borderline inhumane or it IS inhumane.  Even our egg production in this country is largely inhumane.

All good reasons to support your local homesteads and farmsteads!  You can find fresh milk, eggs, veggies, fruits, and yes, even meat!

It's the good life!

Join the Barn Hop and enjoy more of this good life which others are so gracious and eager to share!

I'm also linking up with the exciting Farmgirl Friday hosted by the gracious Deborah Jean,

and Amy over at Verde Farm's Farm Friends Friendzy blog hop!

It's great fun linking up with so many exciting homesteaders and farmsteaders!


And thank you for stopping by!