Monday, August 30, 2010

My How They've Grown

Remember this view from Bok Bok Cottage recently?




This was one of the three "hens" our neighbor gave to us, of which all turned out to be roosters. So this rooster was pretty young, not yet fully grown and born in April. Since we decided to raise all of our meat this year, we raised up some "broilers" and processed them this month. Much to the pleasure of can't-bend-over-for-chicken-feed-without-getting-blindsided hens, we got rid of 2 roosters with our batch of meat birds. So check out this next photo, it is a picture of two chicken thighs. One belongs to the rooster, and the other to a younger (by about a month) genetically hyperdriven meat bird.

proceed with caution vegetarians..
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Fascinating right?

I don't mean to disrespect the life of these birds by the way.

Speaking of genetically hyperdrives, my little guy turned 5 this month.


Lucky for me, Grandma Cozy had the kids for a sleepover (in the camper wahoo!) and Vanilla Wafer was able to wake up with a special breakfast and wishes for a good time as a 5 year old. Here's Grandma with princess cousins Olivia and Ruby.



It was just one year ago I was pulling out all the stops for his 4th birthday party.


Adorable right?

...Here's another recent view from Bok Bok Cottage. Our little baby goats when they were a few days old.

Cheesy I know, but sometimes it's nice to hold something like a baby that you didn't have to bleed, sweat, and cry for.

But even these little goats grew up faster than I wanted. Here they are just a couple weeks back.

That picture was for the online classifieds. Boo!

I was relieved when a young family bought them to help their kids learn how to raise goats for 4-H (no immediate butchering...yay!). But my mother heart was breaking when the mama goat Matilda was desperately bleating for her little babies for a couple of days.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm really cut out to be a farmgirl.

over and out...

8 comments:

paula said...

I'm pretty sure it would rip my heart out to hear the momma goat bleating for her babes too. There is a pasture about a mile away from our house that we walk to almost daily so my little guy can "feed the goats"....it's been fun to see how fast the babies have grown. They are cute.

paula said...

....but you know what? Goats have freaky looking eyes....I don't care how old they are....don't make eye contact.

Mrs. Olsen said...

Ugh. Seriously just a couple hours after posting this I found mama goat Matilda dead. She had curiously wedged her head into the neighbor's pasture, caught the live wire behind her horns, and collapsed and suffocated. Oh dear! It was absolutely horrible. So this post is to my favorite goat, the tender (and constantly bullied by her sister) little Matilda. R.I.P.

Anonymous said...

I'm so sad to hear about Matilda. Loved the post. Is your cell phone working?

The Flat Broke Foodie said...

Wait, so the skinny thigh is from a rooster? And the fatty from the genetically modified yacketty yack? Maybe I've been genetically modified. Hmmmm.
Oh, and sad about Matilda. She was a sweetie.

Mrs. Olsen said...

No my cell phone is not working. Sorry I keep missing your calls mama.

And yes---skinny thigh from the older rooster. Genetic modification is cool and disturbing at the same time. These "meat birds" have a hard time walking they grow so fast. Not 100% sure they are the best for us, but they get big fast.

Lee Family said...

Again, sorry about Matilda. Cute, cute pictures of the kiddos!

Holly said...

I love this post. :)