WHY it Hurts

Ultimately, the primary reason we got this animal is to provide for our family. She gave us milk. That was her primary purpose. And what was it like the very first time we made butter? It was exciting because It was like, here we have this animal that can give us something that we love so much. She gave us meat and her calf that was a male that became a steer and will eventually be in our freezer. She gave us manure. Cows manure anywhere between 20 and 40 pounds of manure every day. She gave us urine. This is the urine catching bucket. Turn the problem into a solution. Even her urine. Even her peeing in the stanchion was, dare I say, delight, because we would get, you know, urine in there, and then we dilute this with water and we'd have a 5-gallon bucket of fertilizer to put on the, the garden bed. Being that her chief purpose for providing food for our family, then why was it so hard to harvest her? Is it because we hope for a long life of milking service to our family and we didn't get that? Yes. Is it because we might have actually grown to be attached to her and to actually love her in an emotional way? Yes. Is it because we actually feel sorry for her and wished it would have turned out differently? Yeah, I mean, Josiah stood right over there. Well, he sat and he cried. And we said, what's the matter? And this is before we had to harvest her. And he said, Yeah, I just feel sorry for her. He's a very sensitive soul. And yeah, there's that element too. This needs to go upstairs to be washed. Those are the obvious, but I think there is something more subtle going on, deeper, as to why it is so hard. Let's grab this alfalfa. Apple cider vinegar. We use that with other animals. The meat we raise has a story. What is this? Or more, who is this? This is no doubt the best ground beef you can buy in the store. Organic, 100% grass-fed, good stuff. But who is this? Does this beef have a name? This is probably multiple beefs and they probably didn't have names. Pretty sure they had numbers. There's probably several numbers in here. This meat has no story, or at least I don't know that story. This, on the other hand, this is Biggie. This is our sheep. Mega story, and not just story, story we were a part of. We moved him every day with his buddies. We got you nice tender grass over here, folks. We built him a shelter. Jonah learned how to catch and submit a sheep on Biggie. You got it! Get him on his side, get him on his side, get his legs that are close to the ground. Yep, there you go. This monster, this is a sea monster. Cornish Cross meat chicken. The only label on this thing is Beauty's handwritten tape label indicating the weight. Another big story. This is a sea monster who we raised just like this. Access to a lot of fresh grass, special electric fence so they can't get out when they're small. It's got small webbing. We try to get them out as soon as we can. We've got to keep them in to keep them safe. I built them this custom shelter. No walls, complete freedom inside of this electric fence. They get shade, protection from the rain, and we move this every day to get them off their excess manure. And it's a fresh grass. And freedom wasn't enough, we give them soaked feed. And not just soaked feed, soaked organic feed. Let me through, guys, let me through. Hungry little boogers. The soaked feed helps them digest it, makes that go further. It breaks down anti-nutrients and it makes it 15 to 25% more digestible. Clean out this water every single day. I, I've done the sea monsters, everything but soak the feed, and you need to get them some more dry feed down here. Is that okay? Yeah. Can you guys do it? Can you guys lift The 50-pound bag? Okay, good. All right, go and do it. Look at that manure load on there. It's like they want to say, remember me forever, because that grass will be greener forever right there, thanks to them. Notice though that our food isn't just a story. It's a story in which we played a big part. Two more things, couple buckets of minerals we put on our alfalfa. Even if we knew the story of our meat bought from somebody else, even if we went and bought it from a local farmer, we would still be on the sidelines watching and not necessarily a part of that story. It's milk stand. That up. Now this is sad. Look, piece of her body still here. Hair. She struggled to lose that hair, but she tried. All animals make that sacrifice, but her sacrifice is hard because we got her fresh grass. See how low they mowed it? Definitely can't put them in there any longer. Let me compare it. Okay, so this is what they did. This is where they're going. See that tall, beefy grass? We made sure she had fresh and clean water. This water just moves down the lane and they can always access it. If they're grazing here, they can always come to the water. When I move it there this afternoon— we'll do that this afternoon— they can come down and get it. We got her the supplemental minerals she needed. It's all in here. Beauty has marked it on the 2x4s. We're missing one, but we just need a tray. We're missing two trays because we ended up going with 18. Yeah, because we want to put kelp in there, and then 16 isn't enough for us. We had to have 18 minerals. Well, we wanted to have some flexibility because you just never know. When she got sick When she was sick, we helped her. And as a provider, we always made sure she had what she needed. So when we provided for her like that, we were pouring our heart and soul into her. In this case, volunteer tomatoes already coming, trying to relive grass seeding right there, showing me that life goes on. We won't even let her hair go to waste. Put it on the compost pile. Therefore, we gave her a piece of ourselves. So when she goes, part of us goes too. In honor of Violet, as a way to remember Violet, introducing Violet's Pasture. When we come out here and mow and we move chickens and pick up the scarecrow and we plant trees and we work and we invest and we give something to this land, We will remember Violet, and we will remember that part of us that went with her.