Bonnie went for her last ride

We loaded Bonnie into Cliff's brother's stock trailer and hauled her a mile down the road to Nadler's butcher shop.  We don't need the ground beef, but as far as I'm concerned, I only had two choices: Have her butchered, or let Cliff shoot her and toss her in the ditch and bury her.  No way was I going to have her go to a huge packing plant where many of the cows are still alive when they start skinning them, thanks to the way the companies hurry the process so they can get maximum income from the fewest employees possible.  It isn't just the cows that suffer, either.  The employees of such plants are treated worse than animals.  
Had Bonnie calved a week later than she did, the butcher shop couldn't have taken her, because once deer season starts, that's all they process.  So I'm thankful the timing was right.
  
We are truly blessed to be neighbors with this butcher shop.  Cliff had a couple of things he wanted done differently, and the owner of the place came out and talked to us about those concerns.  For instance, while the ground beef from Jody is quite tasty, but there is NO fat in that meat.  Dairy cows don't have a lot of fat.  Since Bonnie is older, we were afraid she might have even less fat (less fat than none?  I know, that doesn't make sense).  We told Glen that if there was no fat on the cow, we'd like him to add enough fat for a 90/10 mix.  He said that's no problem, he'll add it if it's needed.  The other thing was the offal:  There's a charge for processing it, and we don't need or want it.  We still have the liver, kidneys, tongue, heart, and tails from the last two animals we butchered.  So Cliff asked if he could bring a bucket up tomorrow so they could just toss the offal in there and we can dispose of it, because there is an almost $18 charge for processing the offal.  Glen said that would be fine, just get the bucket there, with our name on it, by 8 A.M.  

Sometimes I forget all the perks of living in a small, close community.