The Little That I Know....

Today marks three years of marriage for AJ and I.
What to tell you about that time… How to extract the important essence of our struggles and our joys?
I wish I knew!
 Instead I’m going to pass on something I’ve learned for every year we have been married: three lessons, three years.

Say I love you and say I’m sorry

Just because you both know you love each other doesn’t mean saying it is pointless. Sometimes all a situation needs is an “I love you”. A bad day can melt away with just those three words. Then sometimes you end up needing to say I love you and I’m sorry in the same sentence. AJ and I both are very stubborn, opinionated lovely people. Unfortunately, we can’t both always be right. When one of us was wrong, said or did something hurtful, we really need to hear the other person say I’m sorry. Acknowledging that you made a mess of things is what lets us move on from a fight. 
Oh, and food always helps too. 

It’s not about what you say, it’s about how you say it. 

I can’t count the times a fight started because one of us said something in a way that offended the other. Maybe we are a little hot headed but your tone and the words you pick when you talk to someone else do make a big difference in how they receive what you said. Phrasing concerns and needs with love and gentleness goes a long way towards preserving harmony. 

Take care of yourself first or you’ll have nothing to offer anyone else.

All of these were hard for me to learn but this one has probably been the hardest. I’m by no means a hold your hand let-me-get-you-a-glass-of-water wife and I’m sure I won’t be that kind of mother either, but I still forget that AJ and anyone else for that matter really has no idea what I’m thinking and probably only have the faintest idea of what I need. 
It doesn’t matter how much someone loves you, you have to put yourself and your relationship with god as a top priority. You gotta take care of your needs or pretty soon you will find that you gave and gave and now there's no energy , no purpose and really just nothing at all left of you. I do not think loosing who you are to another person or anything else for that matter is ok. So weather if it's taking a long shower, reading a book, planting some flowers (which the bees appreciate too you know!), cuddling a sundry baby animals, going to church, hiking, chocolate, massages, pedicures or all of the above, do something for yourself and I promise you will have so much more to give your spouse and everyone else and you will do it much more cheerfully.

Three years of marriage is not very long in the greater scheme of thing. I only hope I will have many more years with this awesome human being god has set beside me in life.

What advice do you have for us, or for anyone else to help a marriage be happy and strong?

Our wedding was photographed by Jessica Rose at Vol. 25 please go check out her Shop and Facebook page too!
This post is participating in the Share Your Cup blog hop, check it out to find other great blog hops like ours!

Butchering a Rabbit~ Part II: Eviscerating & Skinning

Go read Part I if you haven’t yet or if you need a refresher.
Now we are going to start the real work of turning a rabbit into its constituent useful parts.

Here are the materials you need from here on out:

A Sharp short knife you are comfortable working with, such as one of these that my husband makes. 
A length of rope or shoe lace
A water source
A large bowl and a small bowl
Something to tie a rabbit to or hang it from
A steel and wet stone or other similar equipment to sharpen blades * if you already sharpened your knives you might not need these.  Read this knife sharpening post if you need to learn how*
Courage
Patience

Alright, so now you have a dead rabbit, or more than one.
If you haven’t already you need to string them up someway that they will be secure and can be tugged on without coming free.
Now you are going to tube skin, eviscerate and remove the feet from your rabbits.

 
When I was a young my dad hunted and trapped animals for skins, that’s how I learned to tube skin. I prefer tube skinning because it keeps the meat cleaner, the pelt cleaner and seems more neat and tidy to me.
It’s also really easy on rabbits.

Tube Skinning:
Start from one of the back feet, you will probably find its easy to do the one that's tied first, unless you have them both tied which is fine too.
Whatever works for you.
Feel the foot for the place where the joint between the foot and the leg is. Now pull the skin tight away from the bone and with the edge of your knife, not the point, slice through the skin to where you can see flesh. 

If you are more comfortable using your hands instead of a knife you can do much of this with just your hands. If you want to save pelts take extra care to make sure you don’t ripe it to shreds, which is totally possible if you use too much force. 

Once you have a hole you use it to continue all the way around the leg. 

Now you are going to cut along the inside of the leg starting by the foot where you just cut around the leg all the way to the crotch. 

The best way to do this is to hold onto the rabbit give yourself resistance and use the tip of your knife,  back of the bade towards the meat, and run it along to open up the skin. 

Like so

Now you are going to do what you just did all over again on the other leg.
Practice makes perfect, right?

Once you have the fur on both legs open you need to cut around the business parts and pull the fur down off the legs. Don’t worry about cutting the tail free yet, we will get there shortly.

Like you did to cut around the leg, pull the skin away and use the edge of the blade to cut through the skin. Pull the skin away as you work so you can see what you are doing. 

If you’ve never skinned anything before figuring out the knife technique can be tricky and you will probably make some unnecessary cuts into the meat.
It’s not the end of the world, you have to start somewhere and things worth learning aren’t always easy.

Now you’ve cut all the way around the tail and what not. 
Pull the skin down off the legs so it's about even with the hips. This is easiest if you work it free all the way around starting where the leg and foot meet and then pull it down with a moderate even pull.

 Rabbit skin at the age when most are butchered is pretty fragile, it comes free easily so too much force just makes a mess of things. An older rabbit it a bit more challenging and you may find you have to use a knife or fingers to remove connective tissue between the skin and meat. 

Once you have the skin evenly pulled down around the hips you can get a good hold on either side and pull it all the way down the rabbit to the front feet. If you pull down and not out you shouldn’t rip the skin. 

Make sure you have the fur pulled all the way down to the join that connects the feet to the legs. Move the front feet back and forth to find the joint, and cut on either side of it, fold them in towards the body and you should be able to cut through the tendons and either pop them off with just a twist or use the point of your knife in the join to separate it, then cut it apart the rest of the way. You can also use shears for this if that’s how you roll.

Lookie there, it's skinned and two feet are off already!

Next up


Eviscerating:
Just a fancy word for gutting.
You are going to go back up to the patch of fur around the tail. 

There is muscle that connects from the thigh to the pelvis, you are going to use the edge of your blade to carefully cut it away on both sides. Then you are going to take both thighs and pull them back to open the hips and crack the pelvis. 

Keep carefully cutting the muscle and connective tissue to expose the intestines, be careful you don’t want to nick the bladder or the intestines. 

When you have the muscle and connective tissue cut you can open the pelvis up more like you did before to break it. 

Next you are going to cut the tail off. Pull the fur up the tail and bend the tail to find a joint, cut through at the joint.

Now use your fingers or just the tip of your knife with the back towards the animal, to open up the stomach.

Gather the tail and the fur around the butt hole up, cutting any connective tissue holding the intestines in place away and pull it forward.

 If the bladder is full carefully lift it out of the animal and cut it out high up as close to the animal as you can. 

During this process if you get poop or pee on the meat stop and wash it off.
One little pellet popping out isn’t the end of the world just don’t let anything get smeared on the meat or stay there for long.

Now that you have the tail and end of the intestines pulled forward and in your hand, reach into the body cavity with your other hand as far as you can and pull everything you can out. 

Usually the heart and lungs will still be inside behind the diaphragm. You should be able to break that with your fingers and full the heart and lungs out too, the esophagus will often come with it. 

Now you just need to remove the back feet. 

You might have to cut the fur back until you get to the joint. Move the foot back and forth to find the joint and cut into it from either side, until you cut through the tendon and can pop the joint with your knife. Then you just have to take the foot the rest of the way off. You might find it’s helpful to untie it at this point and cut the foot tied up off last while the rabbit is resting in your big bowl. 

If you or another human plan on eating the liver the gallbladder should be removed. You can see it here, it’s the green sack attached to the liver. Cut it off with extra liver around it. I don’t do organs but I’ve read that breaking the gallbladder will make the liver taste bad so make sure not to do that. On the other hand if you are going to be feeding it to your dog or cat you should leave it on. 

We feed or dog and cats the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys and ovaries.
The feet, head and guts the animals aren’t feed go into the compost. If your dog is interested in them you can totally feed them the feet and head. Our dog is a strange picky creature who barely even likes rabbit and won’t have any part of eating rabbit head or feed. A chicken head though, she will gobble that down like candy. 

If you are doing multiple rabbits its a good idea to have your bowl full of water to put them straight in once you have one done and are ready to start on the next. 

All that’s left now is to clean it up, cut it up and cook it up!
Coming soon


This post is participating in the HomeAcre and From The Farm blog hops, check them out to find other great blogs like ours!

Rabbit Slaughter ~ Part I : Preparation, Equipment & Dispatch

 
Since you are reading this I want to congratulate you.
You are (probably) here for one of a few possible reasons: either you have decided that you want to raise something for meat and are trying to decide if rabbits are right for you. Translation: can I really kill and eat something so cute and fuzzy?!
Or, you’ve already taken the plunge into rabbits. Maybe have a litter that needs butchered soon, maybe should have already been butchered, and you realize you really aren’t too sure about this whole 'turning an animal into meat" business and could use a little honest advice and information.
Awesome!
This is one of many first steps in a long often difficult journey to being more in touch with, responsible for and appreciative of your food!
I 10000000% guarantee it is worth it!

I want to start off by saying there are many different ways to do all this that work just fine so if you aren’t sure my way is right for you I can promise there are many other ways, this is just what I’ve found works best for me.

Necessary Equipment

A Sharp short knife you are comfortable working with, such as one of these that my husband makes.
A large cleaver like this, butcher knife (This one is shaped just like mine) or high quality pair of meat shears, I would love to recommend a pair of shears to you but unfortunately I have yet to find a brand I'm happy with.
A length of rope or shoe lace
A water source
A rag to wipe your hands or knife on.
A large bowl and a small bowl
Something to tie a rabbit to or hang it from
Metal or strong wooden broom stick, length of conduit or rebar.
A flat area of ground such as cement, soil that isn't sopping wet or super squishy, or a good solid board on flat ground large enough to fit a rabbit on.
Knife sharpening equipment
Courage
Patience

Preparation: The Butcher

You ready for this?
Being mentally prepared is just as important as having all your knives sharp and equipment laid out. As soon as you have rabbits that might end up being eaten you should start thinking about them in that light. You need to make sure you are being honest with yourself about that fuzzy rabbit turning into dinner. I think how meat animals are raised and treated is very important, if you think more on that topic would be helpful read this post.
People I talk to often have a hard time with just the idea of eating rabbits because they think of them as sweet little pets. While I might disagree with that naive view of rabbits I also have to argue that chickens, sheep, cows, goats, turkeys and all the rest are cute too! I think most folks just aren’t around them enough to realize how cute they actually are.

I really really encourage you to find someone who will let you watch the whole process if you haven’t been around slaughter before. You need to be able to act- not freeze- when the time comes. You don’t want to freeze up and not be able to follow through, that will cause your animals more pain and distress than anything.

I will never lie and tell you it’s easy, at least it shouldn’t be if you have a properly functioning sense of compassion. With practice the acts of slaughter do get easier to do. The mental cost is always the same for me though.
I come face to face with my own mortality and that is never easy.
You on the other hand may not have an over active mind and have a much easier time.

Preparing Your Equipment

You want a fence, hooks in a wall or ceiling so you can easily hang rabbits while you skin and gut them. Whatever you attached it to and whatever you attach it with need to be strong enough to stay put if a good tug is put on them.
Also make sure if the rabbit is going to rest against a wall or fence that the area is clean and paint or rust isn’t going to rub off on the rabbit. You can always staple or drape a clean feed bag over the area to keep everything clean.
There are endless uses for feedbags I tell you!



Sharpen your knives. If you are using shears you should test them on a chicken wing or neck, if they can’t cut through that easily they are not going to work and you shouldn’t even try to use them. It won’t be pretty and it won’t be a good experience.
If you are doing three or more rabbits you may need to sharpen knives midway, you will only likely need to run it over a steel to straighten up the burr but it’s good to have a stone handy while butchering just in case they end up needing a little more work. I’m not going to get into the art of sharpening knives in this post but it is an important skill to get under your belt that I cover in this post.

Preparing The Rabbit


I prefer to leave them with water but make sure they don’t have any feed the evening before butchering. Some people don’t take anything away from them others don’t even leave water. If it’s your first time it’s a good idea to withhold food so the digestive track is smaller and easier to work around. The bladder will also be smaller since the rabbit won’t be eating which generally means they aren’t drinking as much water either. Don’t move them into a smaller cage if you can avoid it, especially a solid bottomed one. They can and will hold their pee because they don’t want to be in their own mess.
A full bladder is much easier to break and you really don’t want pee on meat.
Just sayin’.

One of the things I think so many people over look is keeping their animals tame and easy to handle. I think it’s so important it's in my 10 commandments of good animal husbandry! This whole thing is going to go much easier if your rabbits don’t have a panic attack when you open the cage, never mind attempt to pick them up.
Keeping animals calm during slaughter is not just about being kind and humane. A stressed animal uses up the carbs stored in it's muscles and the meat doesn’t age properly.
 A Stressed rabbit is a tough tasteless rabbit.

We have come to the big question: How do you kill a rabbit?
Most importantly, very quickly.
A scared or hurt rabbit will scream. It just about breaks my heart in half and sends me into a total panic.
I’ve had three rabbits scream so far, every single one because I screwed up.
Slaughter is not for the faint of heart my friends, it’s not for everyone. While that rabbit is screaming like to shatter your heart into a thousand pieces you have to keep your head and finish the deed.
That is why it’s so important to know exactly what you are supposed to do even if you have never done it before. That’s why you have to be committed to the act.

Now, I’m not saying this is going to happen your first time or ever, I don’t know how many rabbits I’ve butchered now and I’ve only had three scream.
 Eventually it is going to happen though.
I’m giving you a preemptive hug right now; I know how hard it can be but lets put it in perspective.
 Animals raised in Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO’s) don’t have a good life, don’t get to be happy, healthy, or express their true nature and they sure don’t have the person dispatching them caring about them as much as, or in the same way that you care about your animals.
Okay, onward!

The method I use is called Broom sticking.
The premise is that you quickly break the head away from the spine instantly killing the rabbit, the fancy term for this is cervical dislocation. There are other methods with the same basic idea. There are also gadgets you can buy or make that do the same thing just not on the ground. I think would be a good option and I might have one eventually.
I was going to have my husband film me slaughtering a rabbit but I just couldn’t feel right about it.  I feel like it’s a very personal thing for me and the animal and I’m not comfortable taping it and having it loose on the world wide web. I have been thinking about offering classes and if folks are interested I would love to teach people.
That said, this video is an excellent example of the method we use. I urge you to go watch it!
 It’s actually the one that made me decide this was the method for me. Done right it’s fast, someone without a lot of brute strength can do it and as far as I can tell the rabbits are not extra stressed, did I mention it’s fast?
The catch is your rabbits have to be handle-able to make this work, and you have to be comfortable handling them as well.

This is How it Works:

This is where the whole knowing exactly what you need to do and not hesitating thing is gets really important. 

First make sure you have everything you need in arms reach.

Now in as close to one fluid movement as possible and almost all at once you:
 put your rod on the ground, one foot over one end of it
put the rabbit on the ground under the rod
Put the rod over the rabbit’s neck, right behind the ears against the skull. There is kind of a little indent there, make sure the rabbits front feet are not under the rod by pushing them out to the side instead of straight in front.
Step down on the other end of the rod while pulling the rabbit swiftly straight up, a little forward and a little back by the hind legs.

You will feel the neck break. At this point I pull the rabbit out from under the rod and move a little away from the dispatching area, hold the head steady by stepping on an ear and pulling back on the legs to stretch it a little, cut the head off leaving as much neck and fur attached to the body as possible. 
 Twitching is totally normal. The rabbit is dead, it's just the nerving firing; it will stop shortly.
 If you are strong or dispatching a smaller rabbit you may remove the head all together. 
I've done it and I'm no hulk.
It's not something I strive for but it happens; thankfully the animal is already dead by then.
I move away from the dispatch area because once you cut the head off the rabbit starts to quickly bleed out. You don’t want to slaughter the next rabbit in a pool of blood or with a bloody rod. They will -rightfully- scream.


You just slaughtered your first rabbit; take a moment to collect yourself because we aren’t done yet.

In the long run it's more time efficient to slaughter all the rabbits you are doing and then proceed from there, that may not be a great idea if this is your first time or if it’s a warm day since you are going to be pretty slow even though this process with rabbits is 12,367,000 times faster than with chickens.
Make sure to string them up however you like as you go to keep them as clean as possible and to facilitate the carcass bleeding out. 

Alright folks, there’s the first part, next up  Butchering a Rabbit ~ part II: Eviscerating & Skinning



This post is participating in the Homestead Barn, HomeAcre, From The Farm and Homemade Mondays blog hops, check them out to find other great blogs like ours!

Knife Sharpening Emily Style

Alright, let’s just start this off by me saying I’m not any sort of expert when it comes to knife sharpening and this is just a crash course.
My husband is a Knifesmith ( here's his Etsy shop and his Facebook page) but I don't think I have much of an advantage as far as knife sharpening goes because of it. I learned what I know mostly from watching older family members sharpen knives and I learned how to use a steel during a pig butchering class given by Farmstead Meatsmith’s in a college program.

I know there are other ways to do all this that might even work better. I also know my ways work and I’m content with them until I learn some new superior method.

Equipment You need 

Stone or sharpening block - such as this ,this or this

Steel- this is the closest I could find to the one I have

I made a video because I know I couldn’t learn to do this without watching someone so I supposed you might not be able to either. I know it’s not the best, and my sharpening in it is more than a little strange since I’m trying to watch the camera to make sure I’m still in view while sharpening.
Oh and yes, that chiefs knife needs washed. Don’t hate me for being lazy and making bad videos!
Here’s a blooper where the camera falls over and I make strange noises, in case you haven’t laughed yet today.




Here’s the actual useful video, if you’re interested.





 Where to start?


If you’re not sure if your knife really needs sharpened just run it on a steel a few times and check the blade, many times you can bring an edge right back with just a little bit of steel. If a little steel love doesn’t work then you will need to use a stone.

I always start from the handle end and go towards the point, I vaguely remember being told that’s the right direction but I do it mostly out of habit although I think it would be much harder to do it the opposite direction.

One of the most important things is to the match the angle you hold the knife to the stone, sharpening block or steel with the angle of the edge on the knife. Otherwise you won’t sharpen it right. 

Make sure to keep the number of strokes on each side the same, this helps keep the burr aligned, too much on either side will make it roll over. 
Also try to keep your strokes even, long and consistent, that way the edge will stay consistently sharp. 

 I think using composite sharpening sticks or a natural or artificial stone is best. I am not a fan of those sharpening block things. Please, this works better, I promise!
 
To check if the knife is sharp run your finger across the blade, not up and down. Across it, like across the road or across the river. Not down, or you are might cut yourself and I don’t want that to happen on my account!
You should feel a grab running your finger across the blade either direction. If one direction feels smooth the burr is rolled over and you need to work more on the opposite side to get the burr straightened up.


What does the steel do and why do I need it?

The steel works by straightening out the “burr” which is the microscopic cutting edge of the knife. When the knife is used the burr eventually rolls over and stopped cutting as well, eventually at some point it wears off, the knife gets dull and needs really sharpened then.

When you sharpen a knife on a stone (or whatever) always run it on a steel afterwards to make the edge nice and straight. 

Other bits of info... 

Make sure to wipe your steel off every once in a while and clean your stone when you are done with it.

Depending on what stone you have you may need to use water or oil or neither with it, make sure you know what you should be using and use it! Using the wrong thing could damage your knife or your stone. 

Learning to sharpen is definitely an art a well as a science, I highly encourage you to use a cheap knife you don't care about as a guinea pig when you are learning. 

Go forth and make yourself a kitchen full of sharp knives!

This post is participating in the Homestead Barn, HomeAcre, Share Your Cup, From The Farm and Homemade Mondays blog hops, check them out to find other great blogs like ours!

Good News On the Horizon

If you saw my post on Facebook you know I have something exciting to tell you about. 

I'm in a program at my college for first generation, low income and disabled students. It's there to give people who are least likely to finish college a hand up and a support system throughout their education.

 I'm first generation and low income so I very much qualify for the extra help. It's nice to have someone nag you every once in a while, you know?

This morning I got this email from my advisor:

Hi Emily,

Can you give me a call as soon as possible?  It’s about your aid for next year…  no worries, just a detail to discuss…

I’m at the number below J

Hope you’re enjoying your time off from classes and homework and bus rides, oh my!

Yeah, she's a funny one, the emails still sent me into a minor panic though.

When I called her I could tell something was up.

Turns out I a got a full tuition wavier for next year!

In case you are still lost: I applied to a whole bunch of in house scholarships last year and as far as I knew didn't get any of them. Turns out the person who does all that got sick, super behind and just recently finally got around to handing out the scholarships.

My advisor had known for months! 

All the while I was boo-hooing about not getting any of the scholarships I had applied for, she had pretend not to know anything because it wasn't "official" yet.

I have to say I'm impressed with how well she can keep a secret.

What will this mean for us?

It's a huge weight lifted off my shoulders! 

This means that next school year is going to be much less stressful and we won't be rubbing our pennies together hoping for a miracle.

So to celebrate I'm going to share the essay I wrote for the scholarship with you, and some chicken photos cause that's how I roll.

Without further ado ~

In my heart of hearts everything I do stems from my need to nurture, create and understand. I want to see growth and improvement, to leave everything I touch better than I found it.  My academic interests have grown out of my desire to leave health, resilience and beauty behind me; like the trail of growing and blooming things Crysta, in the movie Fern Gully, leaves in her wake.  Really though, who doesn’t want to be a fairy with magical abilities to heal, make things grow and talk to animals?

When I was seven my parents divorced leaving my mom a single parent of two. She was a junior high drop out as was my grandma; as far as we know all the previous generations of women were just as or even more uneducated. I’m from rural north central Washington. It’s a beautiful place but dependent on agriculture and tourism, making for a brutal job market, especially for a single mother with minimal education and job skills.  What happened between then and when I left for college could fill a novel. Suffice it to say, we all worked hard all the time. There were good times and dark times.  Times we almost managed on our own and others when we couldn’t even keep a roof over our head without family, community and church friends filling in the gaps.

I think many people who’ve had hard childhoods try to forget what they went through, they want to be just another “normal” person as soon as possible. I understand but don’t feel that way. I will carry my childhood with me always. It has forever colored my perspective.  The seven hundred odd dollars of financial aid a month is more than we ever had growing up.  Living on such a small amount might be unimaginable to you but I honestly don’t know any other way of living. Don’t get me wrong, it is hard. We just scrape by and continually pray that we won’t have any unexpected expenses.  This scholarship would make our current situation easier but more importantly, enable me to finish with a degree that will allow poverty to become a pungent memory instead of a way of life. 

Before getting involved in TRiO I had no idea there were organizations that helped first generation students like me succeed in college. I think many of my fellow low income high school students could have desperately used support to just get to college, never mind succeed there.  I grew up having to be self sufficient and learned early to take care of things on my own. Asking for help is not something that comes easily to me. Having people who are on my side, able and prepared to help me has been a surreal experience. I know being in the program has provided me with a safety net that takes a lot of stress and uncertainty out of being a first generation student. I can’t turn to my family if I have questions about college or want support.  In fact, I have been actively discouraged by them at times. If I weren’t involved in TRiO, I would be navigating college completely on my own. For that matter, I wouldn’t be writing this application letter without my advisor’s nudges.   

My goals after college are not going to make me rich. I’m afraid if I leave with debt I won’t be able to make my dreams a reality. Instead, I will be working to pay it off. I know if I can just make it out of college debt free my goals will be achievable, goals that involve helping others live better, more sustainably. At Evergreen I realized that while my childhood was hard, it also broke stereotypes about living in poverty. Research shows that low income people often eat a higher proportion of unhealthy, nutrient deficient food.  I know from my own childhood that doesn’t have to be true. Cooking from scratch, preserving food, gardening, foraging, hunting and raising livestock can enable those living in poverty to eat much better.  Realizing that many people lack the skills and knowledge that enabled us to be healthy and gave us more control over our lives in difficult circumstances has made being able to share what I know even more important.

Right now, even with my hectic school schedule, I’ve started a blog to share some of this hard-won knowledge to enable people to feed themselves better and live a more self sufficient lifestyle. I plan to eventually return home and teach skills that enable people to feed themselves well while at the same time give them a sense of pride, self sufficiency and confidence.  I especially want to work with low-income families and single mothers and children.  I dream of making a piece of land a healthy and resilient ecosystem while being a place that nurtures people so they can achieve their full potential; making that a reality fuels my drive.

This post is participating in the From The Farm blog hop, check it out to find other great blogs like ours!