Just wanted to pop out a quick post of all the excitement from this past weekend since it was such a good one.
My friend Sam, who I hadn't seen in a long time, came over Friday. We went through a bottle of tequila and some hard seltzers while we talked and played a few games of Uno. Sam and I stayed up til about 4:30 talking and starting to catch up. There's a lot to catch up on. That was my first 24 hour day since I got moved off of night shift almost a year ago.
We cooked a rabbit in the Dutch oven and later in the evening made a small fire out back. As a providential sign for a fire, there was a dead branch that fell from one of our trees earlier that day while I was at work.
Whole rabbit, including the rabbit heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and bones.
Chorizo (Spanish for sausage)
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Onion
Salt
Pepper
Non-salt seasoning
Butter
Bacon grease
That ended up making five meals: one each for Sam and I Friday evening, one for farmer Sam and I Saturday morning, and one for me Sunday after church. I've concluded that a life without kidneys to eat is a life I don't want to live. And lungs are insanely good eating. That makes me all the more excited to be raising and harvesting rabbits.
The broth from this meal was the best broth I've ever eaten. Sam agreed, which is a big deal because, in my circle, he's the master of making broth.
Before Sam came over, I went to meet Tommie. Tommie is a local farmer that we've brought into our men's group as a supplier for pasture raised eggs! So, much like we do with the milk co-op, we are now running eggs like moonshiners. Twenty nine dozen eggs went out on the first run.
So after my grand total of two hours of sleep, there was work to be done on Saturday. Another guy from the men's group was meeting me at the dairy because some of the guys were wanting in on the raw milk co-op and he wanted to see the place. On the way back, I stopped our two-truck convoy to go talk to a guy that was chipping a tree in our neighborhood. He said he'd swing by and drop them off, like over a dozen crews have said before, EXCEPT THIS GUY ACTUALLY CAME THROUGH! He brought us a small pile and dropped it right by the community garden.
Later that day, the friend that went to the dairy with us was hosting a chainsawing class for the group. Farmer Sam, being eight and growing, has been pretty mature lately. I decided to take him along to learn. He didn't chainsaw, but he learned some about chainsaw safety. He ended up hauling poles for us after they'd been felled and stripped of the smaller branches. With five men and one Farmer Sam, we cleared probably the area of a large house of undergrowth and harvested many dozens of poles and stakes.
After the chainsawing class and work, farmer Sam and I headed home to tend our own forest. We mulched eleven trees before supper, leaving plenty to do later. The process was to fill the half-tote and drag it to the garden. It probably weighed 200# half full, which was all my tired self could manage at the time. Mucho worko. Too much work.
But I do love the look of a fresh-mulched fruit tree...
Sunday we didn't do a damn thing except go to church, play games, and on my part, nap.
Hope y'all have a great Monday. Or as great a Monday as Mondays can be. I'm gonna go build trucks.
Love from Texas
Nate 💚