Saturday, June 11, 2011

This and that

We have put Clyde on the schedule for butchering at the shop up the road.  Tuesday is the day we'll bid him goodbye.  I know city folks can't understand how on earth I can name an animal, watch it grow, and then eat it.  Well, the first time is somewhat difficult, until you realize those white packages of meat in the freezer look nothing like the furry animal you raised.  At this point in my life, I enjoy knowing my beef comes from an animal that had a name and a good, happy life, and was never mistreated.  
It's a little more complicated these days, since Cliff sold the pickup.  Although the butcher shop is right up the road, we'll drive about twenty miles one way to borrow a friend's pickup and livestock trailer so we can haul Clyde exactly one mile from home.  
There's the matter of freezer space:  I spotted an older chest-type deep freeze on Craigslist that's not so far from home; maybe we'll pick that one up.  We wouldn't be using it year-around, just when we first butcher.  


Yesterday was my day to go to therapy.  I swear, that man manages to hurt me more each time I see him.  It hurts so much that I absolutely cannot keep from groaning.  I told him, "Next time I'll have my camera with me so Cliff can take pictures for my blog while you're hurting me," and he said, "That's fine; I'll even smile while I'm hurting you."  
Funny man.   
Oh, I get to stop taking coumadin Monday, the four-week anniversary of my surgery.  That's a good thing; I hate taking that stuff, although I haven't had any problems with it.  
We got an inch of rain last night, so today would be a good time to mulch my tomato plants while there's moisture in the soil.  Oh, and after several days of unrelenting heat, the high temperature today is only supposed to reach the mid-seventies.  What a treat!  I was sitting here by an open window until it got too cold to suit me, and I closed it.  
Oh, good news:  the temporary loss of appetite caused by my surgery and recuperation has gotten me below 160 pounds!  Let's hope I can maintain my weight there, or even lose more; it will be much better for both my real knee and my new artificial one.  I expect to start going on our daily walk again within the coming week, although I may forgo the steepest hills at first.  I've been putting in ten minutes on the exercise bike every other day, keeping it at level five.     
Direct TV is giving us a free weekend of HBO, and we enjoyed it yesterday evening:  one we watched was a Paul Newman movie from the '90's, and the other was "Bill Cosby:  Himself", which I've seen many times.  However, it had been years since I watched it, and I laughed out loud throughout the thing.  I love Bill Cosby!  It was rather sad to hear him talk about his only son, knowing that the boy would eventually be shot and killed.  

6 comments:

  1. After a very humid and hot and rainy start to the weekend here we are to get those cooler temps and sunshine tomorrow. At the least the weekend won't be a complete washout. Very often it seems we have the same weather as you only a day or so later. Glad you are happy about the weight loss, but what a way to loose it. Hope your Saturday is a great one!

    ReplyDelete
  2. We're in the high 60s/low70s here, but could use more sun. It sounds like things are going well; how much longer do you have to do the PT? My MIL used to name all her animals on the the farm and then butcher them too. Can't be too sentimental or you'll starve.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maybe y'all could just walk Clyde to the butchers! ;-P

    ReplyDelete
  4. Poor sweet Clyde! ((((lol))) Bless his heart! Enjoy! Hope you get the freezer.

    ReplyDelete
  5. LINDIE11:36 PM

    We did like you do, raising a steer, naming it and butchering it. I liked knowing what went into it, no chemicals, etc. Worst thing that happened to us was we went for a weeks trip after bringing one home from the butcher and coming home home to a broken freezer and ruined meat.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think the only people that would protest would be the ones that refuse to consider where hamburgers come from. As a vegetarian I find it strange when people will go on about not killing for fur while eating a roast beef sandwich! It just doesn't make sense and as I've always told people that protest my husband hunting - just because you didn't kill it doesn't make you better, it's almost worse that you're so ok with someone killing it for you. I've found friends that raise their own meat and hunters tend to be much less wasteful since they are the ones that did the work for it.

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!