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Red pill remedies
or ... what have you done that you never thought you'd do?
or ... where besides here can I find people who will applaud what I just did?
Today a friend and I processed chickens. Probably not a big deal for many of you here, but this was the first time either of us had ever killed anything bigger than a cockroach ... and I use the phrase "either of us" loosely as I shamelessly handed the chickens off to him and stayed out of viewing distance. I also cound not go as far as gutting them just yet, BUT! I've become quite good at plucking feathers, should anyone with massive acreage and a large henouse wish to avail themselves of my talents (I do come with 3 kids, a hubby, a cat and a dog.)
Hopefully there is an inverse exponential learning curve to this activity as it took us five and a half hours to do nine chickens ... or, to be more precise, since I convinced my 15 yo to join us for part of it, we put 13 man/woman/teen hours into 9 chickens ... almost 1.5 hours per bird. I understand Joel Salatin can gut one in about 20 seconds.
We weren't really surprised we couldn't convince anyone else to join us, but it was a little sad how many actually mocked the whole idea and dismissed their own disconnect to their food source by saying they'd go vegetarian before doing anything like this. I can't say I wouldn't have said the same 20 years ago and it got me pondering whether I would be pushing myself into doing some of these things if I wasn't convinced that (as Chris says) "the next 20 years will be quite different than the last 20 years."
I have wanted to homestead for a lot longer than I've known about our coming changes, but I don't recall the vision I had involving *all* that I am now attempting to learn. Yes, meat animals were a part of it, but somehow my fantasies went straight from throwing grain to my softly clucking brood to putting a fully roasted bird on the table amidst the ooohs and aahs of impressed and salivating family members. I'd conveniently skipped the parts with the floppy, bleeding head and the teen who now insists he is never eating chicken in *this* house again.
The question is, without the incentive of preparing for an unknown future, I wonder how I would have fared today? Would I have worked as hard to steel myself to something so challenging and foreign (to me)? Hopefully I'm not putting off those of you who do this on a regular basis ... the truth is, I wish I'd been raised doing this so it *wouldn't* be foreign and challenging. But I wasn't and it is and I'm willingly pushing myself to experience it so that hopefully it won't be so foreign to my kids - hey, the 7yo watched with healthy curiosity and as dh said later "doesn't seem damaged by it." The 15yo is another matter - his only reason for helping was to get on mom's good side so she'll approve him getting a driving permit. There is a certain irony when you compare our competing incentives.
Anyway, your mission - should you decide to accept it - is to share how taking the red pill has taken you out of your comfort zone in a positive way. What are you doing that you wouldn't have tried ... maybe it's something you've come to really enjoy, but you wouldn't have considered it before. It would be a way to note the benefits of taking the red pill as opposed to wishing we hadn't (which I do often enough.)
Saffron
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We learned to milk goats - well actually, the milking machine (made from scrap parts) now milks the goats, and soon it will milk the dairy sheep.The hard part was teaching the goats to GET milked. Now to teach the dairy sheep. I found if I teach them to follow the grain scoop (filled with oats), I can lead them nearly anywhere If they don't trample me down. Having a good head lock in the stantion and plenty of food so they eat until the job is done helps too.
Yeah, dairy sheep - if you've seen the 45 sec sheep sheering youtube videos - be sure to catch our 2.5hr - 2 people wrestling a sheep to sheer it video. The end result wasn't pretty as our sheep look like they went through a blender or are having a bad hair day. At one point the sheep got extra points for a straight on left hook to my right jaw. We only have 3 sheep and had to take breaks - a day long between sheep. You can hear about our little adventures in learning to farm on: MyBackAchers.com where we are detailing our experience in developing our zero net energy farm - though neither of us have more than casual farming experience.
And yes, our family thinks we are Bat-$#it Doomers and quickly change the subject when we are open and straight about what we are doing and WHY we're doing it. Luckly, we have a few friends who are as Bat-$#it as we are and we can all feed each others psychosis.
EndGamePlayer
EndGamePlayer
Butchering chickens is SO 2009....
I don't post here often but I do read frequently. I find many of these posts to be empowering, especially when folks talk about doing something, such as butchering, milking, etc. Significant Other & I have been working steadily, studying hard and making it happen. After getting the link on this forum for "my fifty dollar hoophouse" I am proud to say that we were eating chard and spinach in late March in Maine! We built 4 more raised beds and now growing for the local farmer's market. Purchased our first bee hive. Our freezers are full of homegrown pork and beef and chicken. And between us, S.O. and I, we work 4 part /full-time jobs. (gotta pay that mortgage!)
Goals for 2010: more hoop houses, root cellar and focusing on eating only food that has been grown within 50 miles of home as well as beginning to look at technology that works after Peak Oil, such as a hand pump for water, outhouse, etc.
And maybe most important of all: we have a new housemate, someone who is building a 12 x 12 cob cabin in the woods and will live for free in exchange for 2 hours of work on the farm a day. Woo-hoo! Our own little Transition Town! Please don't tell the tax assessor.....
Come on, folks, if we can do it, so can you! Live each moment like it matters, because it does!
The Maine dirt farmer
The raising chickens came naturally to this city-girl, but the thought of butchering them leaves me chilled....I mean the kids have names for all of them! Yet I know that I would and could.
I think what has challenged me the most is trying to learn and understand all the investment/finance part of the coming collapse. Trying to prepare by storing and growing was easy. Trying to figure out what to do with our money has been very difficult. I'm starting to think it would be easier to spend it all now buying more stuff...then it does not matter what camp inflation/deflation you are in.
Anyway back to the chicken slaughter...can't I just feed the family eggs??
South-East, Michigan
Yes you can just feed the family eggs. You can adopt a vegetarian diet.
V
PS The only remedy for the red pill is a blue one.
Anyway back to the chicken slaughter...can't I just feed the family eggs??
Sure you can; eggs are full of protein. But I prefer meat that I knew rather than what I buy from the store which is full of who-knows-what.
Do what we do with our 8 pigs- don't give them cute names. We name them after Yankees (we are in Maine, after all - Red Sox territory). We know they'll be slaughtered in the Fall. (ducking and awaiting Yankee wrath....)
Cheers!
The raising chickens came naturally to this city-girl, but the thought of butchering them leaves me chilled....I mean the kids have names for all of them! Yet I know that I would and could.
I think what has challenged me the most is trying to learn and understand all the investment/finance part of the coming collapse. Trying to prepare by storing and growing was easy. Trying to figure out what to do with our money has been very difficult. I'm starting to think it would be easier to spend it all now buying more stuff...then it does not matter what camp inflation/deflation you are in.
Anyway back to the chicken slaughter...can't I just feed the family eggs??
My daughter names our chickens too. I give them alternative names like: Noodle soup, Extra Crispy and Original Recipe....
Seriously tho, you just have to go to a different place in your mind.....a place in the food chain where all of us came from. Just do it quickly, cleanly with kindness, perhaps a blessing and it will all go just fine....
My daughter names our chickens too. I give them alternative names like: Noodle soup, Extra Crispy and Original Recipe....
Dude, this is hilarious, LOL!! Talk about exploiting psychology in ways I have never imagined 
Samuel
I have thought about keeping my darling chickens forever. Problem is they stop laying so well in a few years and then lay less and less. And you still have to feed them but for no eggs. I decided it is not so simple to just let them live out their days.
And if you have baby chicks, well, 50% of them will be roosters. Same thing. Do you just feed them forever ?
I have often thought about this whole ethical and vegetarian thing but keep thinking that if we domesticate them to keep them, we have to manage them somehow. But I am not wanting to turn this thread in to a vegetarian debate!
My red pill activities include starting a large heirloom vegetable patch. Not that its out of my comfort zone but is definately new to me.
Thanks for starting a great thread.
Amanda - we have always had a garden but this year started heirloom seeds in a greenhouse and just planted last weekend. I'm so much more excited about our crop! I can't wait to try an African Togo Tomato and see what Mayflower Bush Beans look like. I want to learn how to save and store seeds next.
I bought about 10,000 seeds from some super crazy seed lady on ebay (I know, I know I'm crazy too).
My husband loves hot peppers, I've got NINE varieties growing! This is really fun!
My blue pill friends just roll their eyes...but they all want my veggies come August.
South-East, Michigan
Hey Saffron,
Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm glad to hear the red pill has been somewhat palatable to you :)
Anyway, my parents have been vegetarians ever since before I was born. I've grown quite healthy thank you eating beans, tofu, yogurt, cheese, eggs, peanut butter and stuff like that all the time, and I never have cravings for meat. I quite like these foods actually, so I won't be butchering anytime soon, but one thing that has changed recently is that, I used to see gardening, farming, as a backward activity. My mom used to tell me: "Playing with your computer won't bring you food on the table, Samuel", "Whaa? I can go buy whatever food I feel like eating at the supermarket anytime I want!" was my reaction, and well she couldn't argue as she didn't understand all the technical stuff like Chris Martenson does... But recently, I started to grow a little garden in the backyard of my apartment. It's kind of struggling, but at least I feel like I'm learning something important, and what do you know, once I learned about its importance, it's actually a pretty interesting activity!
Samuel, the farmer