Love, Loss and a Side of Beef

Once upon a time we had friends who decided they wanted to chuck the rat race and get back to nature.

So they sold their suburban home and bought a farm. Chickens, pigs, cows, victory garden and all.

They tilled and weeded, canned and preserved.

They nurtured and bred and fed the livestock.

They enjoyed the fresh produce that came from their labors.

They profited from the fresh eggs that came from the chickens.

They even managed to kill some of the chickens when necessary.

But when it came time to slaughter a hog they called in professionals.

The company they hired took away the animal, slaughtered and dressed it and brought back lovely little sterile packages neatly wrapped in butcher paper and all efficiently labeled ready for the freezer.

No fuss, no muss.

It was all good.

Then, one day it came time to kill a cow.

So they called the company they had used for the pigs.

They came in a shiny new truck that was equipped for the job at hand.

And right there, in the middle of the barnyard, they stunned the cow and proceeded to slaughter her in front of God and everyone.

The men were covered in blood, the barnyard was covered in blood, the truck was covered in blood.

When the job was done, instead of neatly wrapped packages ready for the freezer as they had expected, hanging in the barn was a side of beef! 

They were shocked! They expected the company to take the animal away and bring back the nice neat little packages like the other times! 

That's when they realized they weren't the pioneers they thought they were! LOL