England. Veni, Vidi, Voravi.
It was 'home' again for the holidays. True to expectations, I got a horrible cold from the airplane flight. I had it the entire trip and now I still am suffering. I think we didn't have time to rest properly and now are suffering the consequences.
This trip was solely dedicated to eating, in retrospect. I had rabbit, pigeon, pheasant, liver and all other forms of creepy English food which gives most Americans nightmares. Now that I have a farm, though, I see where the traditions come from and why it's important to eat the entire beast, from nose to tail, rather than cherry-picking the tenderloins and t-bones because it's what we prefer. It's at least what we think we prefer, since most are too squeamish to be adventurous.
I also got to go on a pheasant hunt, which was new to me. It seemed to me that the beasts outperformed the humans and a vast majority got away.
It was wonderful to see family again. Part of me, though, always had my mind here worrying about the animals and fencelines needing fixed. You can never leave a farm, at least, not without some bad consequences.
I lost one ewe lamb who broke her leg jumping in and out of the cow feeder. Another did the same thing and also has a badly injured leg. From all the stress she dropped a little lamb yesterday, probably a week premature. A goose and duck were also eaten by something while we were gone.
If you want to be "always there" when the animals need you,t hen you can never leave your driveway. So, it's a hard price to pay going on holiday. Then again, I guess it still could have happened if we were here.
Regardless, it's back to work, once I can stand the cold air on my lungs. We'll have lambs and kids starting as early as next week, and we have yet to set up our jugs.
So, here I am at a proper "local butcher":
The wifey and I in front of York Minster:
It was 'home' again for the holidays. True to expectations, I got a horrible cold from the airplane flight. I had it the entire trip and now I still am suffering. I think we didn't have time to rest properly and now are suffering the consequences.
This trip was solely dedicated to eating, in retrospect. I had rabbit, pigeon, pheasant, liver and all other forms of creepy English food which gives most Americans nightmares. Now that I have a farm, though, I see where the traditions come from and why it's important to eat the entire beast, from nose to tail, rather than cherry-picking the tenderloins and t-bones because it's what we prefer. It's at least what we think we prefer, since most are too squeamish to be adventurous.
I also got to go on a pheasant hunt, which was new to me. It seemed to me that the beasts outperformed the humans and a vast majority got away.
It was wonderful to see family again. Part of me, though, always had my mind here worrying about the animals and fencelines needing fixed. You can never leave a farm, at least, not without some bad consequences.
I lost one ewe lamb who broke her leg jumping in and out of the cow feeder. Another did the same thing and also has a badly injured leg. From all the stress she dropped a little lamb yesterday, probably a week premature. A goose and duck were also eaten by something while we were gone.
If you want to be "always there" when the animals need you,t hen you can never leave your driveway. So, it's a hard price to pay going on holiday. Then again, I guess it still could have happened if we were here.
Regardless, it's back to work, once I can stand the cold air on my lungs. We'll have lambs and kids starting as early as next week, and we have yet to set up our jugs.
So, here I am at a proper "local butcher":
The wifey and I in front of York Minster:
