Morgan James / Flickr
Managing a miniskirt - farm sometimes boils down to make a serial of determination : which animals to raise , what harvest to plant , watering methods , when to prune , when to fertilize , how to fertilize — I think I ’ll just go back to bed , ’cause it ’s wearing me out just thinking about all that mentation .
The brute choice was a tough one , because if I follow my first pulsation , I ’d have baby critter everywhere : stooge , piglet , one of those littleDexterorHighlandcows , rabbit , and of course , chicken .
But then I had to look at the Job those beast would in reality do , and what it would take to manage them consequently . chicken , without requiring a cock , can produce eggs day after solar day for years . Winner . But with Capricorn and cow , even if I was only concerned in their Milk River , I ’d still have to let them bring forth a minor or a calf every yr or so , and because I do n’t have room for more than one cow and maybe two laughingstock , the question of what to do with the issue is a serious one .
Does and heifer , I might be capable to betray to other dairy buff , but the buck kids and bull calves would most likely end up on a dinner party plate — mine or someone else’s — and this is where I stumble into some weird hypocritical territory .
I ’m a marrow eater . Yep , bitch , chicken , Capricorn the Goat meat , porc , lamb , venison … if it walk , fly , or swim , I ’ll fairly much stir - fry , grille or sauté it up with a side of ’ tater and some kale . So why am I fine with chowing down on a slab of beef or a pork barrel chop that I got at the local farm pedestal , but reluctant to serve up my own ?
It ’s the pet element , pure and uncomplicated . I can’tnotturn these animate being intopets . The second a chick hatches or a nipper or calf or piglet slides into my small world , they ’ll have names . They ’ll be cuddled and pet and scratched behind the ear . And once that fall out , the possibility of their future as butcher - newspaper enwrap freezer - fillers becomes jolly much naught .
So because my philosophy that every animal on my farmlet must serve a purpose is in direct fight with keep them exclusively as pets , I do n’t have the kids and calves and bunny rabbit of my fantasy . I have chickens , because they ’ll keep producing for a prolonged period of fourth dimension , and when they ’re done , I do n’t have a problem with them withdraw in peace . They ’ll have earned it .
I ’m incur now that I have to apply that same philosophy to the veg plots . For years , it would have been unthinkable to pass on Halloween cutting pumpkins out of the garden plan , but now that the young lady one and the boy one are elderly adolescent , I ’ve skipped it for the last match of year . Once they had driver ’s licence , they met my offers of pumpkin - carving sessions with the same vacuous looking as if I ’d asked them if they wanted to sit on my circle while I readThe Lorax . ( Although the “ we ’re too previous for that , you ninny ” attitude does n’t seem to extend to Easter Baskets . Apparently , we will be necessitate to provide these until the kids are well into their 30s . )
So , for now at least , it ’s ix - nay on the sculpture pumpkins — although I still plantsugar pumpkins for pie and general eatingpurposes — and on animals that expect butchering in Holy Order to provide welfare . Yes , I eff , if I have that position I should probably go veg , but I ’m willing to embrace my inner phony for now , and I source my meats from local free - range informant as much as possible . Someday , I may forgo either my carnivore nature or my reluctance to eat Sammy or Bucky or Wilbur , but not just yet .
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