Northwest Preparedness Expo

I'll be a speaker at the upcoming Northwest Preparedness Expo on May 2 and 3 in Prosser, WA (right outside of the Tri-Cities area in the SW corner of the state).

I'll be giving three talks (two subjects) -- Preparedness 101, and Prepping on a Budget.

Friday, May 2
- 2:30, Preparedness 101

Saturday, May 3
- 1:00, Preparedness 101
- 2:30, Prepping on a Budget

As a speaker, they're giving me a table where I'll have some copies of the Simplicity Primer available for sale; but if there's room, I may be hanging out at the Backwoods Home Magazine booth (not sure which).

Admission is $10 for anyone over 13, but I have some $2 coupons available, if anyone would like one. If you're interested, please drop a note to ruralrevolution@hotmail.com and include your name and mailing address.

Please do NOT request a coupon unless you honestly believe you can attend (in other words, I won't be mailing any of these to readers in, say, Florida or Maine or something).

Hope to meet some readers at the expo!

Happy Resurrection Sunday

Our Sunday started out beautiful and sunny. Here the morning shadows stretch long from the east.

The animals lounged under the awning.

Smoky greeted the morning on top an old tire.

Everyone seemed pleased by the mild spring weather...

...including pretty little Dusty.

Later in the morning we attended a community-wide church service, since it was led by our pastor. We’d never been to a service this large – so big, in fact, that it was moved into a college performance hall.

We didn’t know what to expect, but in fact it was splendid… even if things were a bit more “showy” than we’re used to. But the pastor gave a rip-roaring joyful sermon (he's a joyful guy anyway), and we came away energized.

No one in our neighborhood potluck had any special plans for this weekend, so we decided to have a Pascal feast (at our house, since it's our turn to host). As I post this, we have a turkey roasting in the oven. The house is clean, the stuffing is made, and our Lord is risen.

Happy Resurrection Day!

Easter or Earth Day?

Here's my WND column for this weekend entitled Easter or Earth Day?

Missing the point

Here's a comment representing an alternate viewpoint that someone just left on an older post on butchering one of our young bull calves, Beefy.

Killing is always painful. Beefy lived with you as a family member with the hope that he is safe and protected in your family. But you people butchered it. Instead of rearing more animals restrict and protect the existing animals. They will feel blessed and you in turn will be blessed by jesus to compensate for the loss. Just save one animal and see. You will feel great when you see it happy.

I'm afraid this person is missing the point of raising cattle. We're not raising them for pets -- we're raising them for milk and meat. We're not looking to expand our herd so we can be blessed with more cattle -- we're looking to expand our herd to continue feeding us.

Just saying.

Anyone missing an old photo?

This morning I received an email from a woman named Mary Ellen as follows:

I purchased a copy of "The Simplicity Primer" at Goodwill in Nashville TN and found a snapshot inside of a lovely young woman holding a precious baby. On the back it reads, "spring or summer '52." Goodwill of course has no clue as to owner. I thought if it was someone who followed your blog, and you mentioned it, they would get in touch with you and I'll send it to them. The photo is in excellent condition so it meant something to someone. Thank you.

I thought it was very kind of Mary Ellen to try and reunite the photo with its owner, and she gave permission to post her email.

So -- if anyone recognizes this photo, please contact me at ruralrevolution@hotmail.com and I'll forward your claim to Mary Ellen.

Life without Ruby

Thank you for all your support for our difficult decision to butcher one of our herd matriarchs, Ruby. The butchering went off without a hitch last Monday.

So what is life like without Ruby? As predicted, much calmer.

And I mean, seriously calmer. The big test comes each morning and afternoon when we feed under the barn awning.

Up to this point we fed over two fences -- the barn awning, and another fence into the feed lot. The reason for this is because Ruby would literally take over either one feeding spot or the other while she ate, while much of the herd would ebb and flow to the other feeding spots in accordance to Ruby's whims. Anything to get away from those horns. With that jittery dynamic no longer a factor, everyone has been grazing more peacefully under the awning, protected from the weather as they're supposed to be.

The animals still jockey for position, of course, but that's just normal pecking-order stuff.

I've been keeping an eye on Alice, Ruby's calf. At ten months she's certainly old enough to be without her mother, but that doesn't mean she wants to, if you know what I mean. But because we always make sure butchering is done out of sight of the herd, Alice doesn't know her mother is dead, just gone. So far she's adjusting fine, with a minimum of fuss.

But I did catch her sneaking a drink from Matilda, along with Matilda's calf Amy.

God bless Matilda, whom we affectionately call our Universal Donor. At one point three calves were trying to cop a drink, which is pretty funny since she only has two working quarters. But it's nice to know there's a little comfort food for Alice if she needs it.

One of the reasons we were anxious to see what life would be like without Ruby is because we plan to build feed boxes this fall, under the awning. Feed boxes would reduce the amount of wasted hay, as well as keep it cleaner (out of mud, poop, and urine). But feed boxes assume you don't have a domineering horned animal going around goring everyone.

So for the moment life is peaceful once more. It's really amazing how one animal can affect the herd dynamics so strongly.

Our other herd matriarch, Jet, has been in the bull pen with Samson, our bull, for the winter. When she comes out, we'll see what happens as far as dominance goes. Jet is also fairly bossy and she has horns, but she's never had an ornery mean streak as Ruby had, and was never inclined to gore other animals.

If that changes... well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Life's little mysteries

On my "daily constitutional," I pass a tree by the side of the road, one of thousands. But last fall I noticed a pile of branches at the base of this tree, as if someone had trimmed and piled them there haphazardly.

Branches come down all the time in the forest, but not in such quantities -- or such order. These were piled only on one side of the tree, not scattered all around the base.

The big mystery? The branches were clearly snapped off from way up high.

They were definitely broken, not cut.

This is not a small tree. I'm guessing -- 70 feet tall?

The snapped-off branches are just on one side, from about 40 feet up. No other branches were damaged except this one spot.

It's like something very, very heavy was flung against the tree and snapped branches as it slid down. It wasn't lightning (thunderstorms are pretty rare around here) and to the best of my knowledge northern Idaho has no native roc populations (a mythical bird of prey capable of carrying off elephants).

We get fierce winds here, but this particular tree is locate in a dip where the wind isn't as bad.

So... I'm clueless. I have no idea how those branches were snapped off one particular spot on the tree and fell in a pile at the base. Just one of life's little mysteries, I guess.

Common Core in a nutshell

A reader sent this. I thought it very apt in today's educational climate.

Palm Sunday cantata

Younger Daughter was informed by her music teacher, Mr. B, that she would be participating in a Palm Sunday cantanta as part of a small orchestra accompanying a choral group. (Ahem. Her participation was not voluntary.)

This was a contemporary classical piece by a composer named Pepper Choplin. The students only had two weeks and three rehearsals to get the music down, so Mr. B requested that everyone practice for at least one hour each day. Younger Daughter found the cantana on YouTube and practiced and practiced and practiced.

Apparently so did everyone else. From the first very rough sight-reading rehearsal to the second and then third rehearsals, Mr. B was extremely pleased with everyone's progress. Yesterday was the performance.

Here's the dress rehearsal. The performance took place in a church in a nearby town.

Mr. B was conducting so fast his arm was blurry.

This was Younger Daughter's first time playing with a group of more than one or two, and she carried herself splendidly.

Mr. B is one of the most beloved music teachers in the area, the kind of person who can pull together fifty or more people of different ages and skill levels and do a lovely performance at almost the last minute.

The cantata played to a packed house. Every pew was full and some people were lined up against the back walls.

Younger Daughter did wonderfully.

Everyone did wonderfully.

Thank you Mr. B!

A difficult decision

Tomorrow is butchering day. We have a steer, Chester, who is actually only a half-steer. That's my fault -- I did a lousy job with the banding -- and as a result this randy fellow has been happily coasting around with our young heifers, who aren't old enough to breed yet. So he's going in the freezer, even though he's pretty young.

This isn't a difficult decision. Steers always have a date with the freezer. It's just a matter of when.

However something happened this week that caused Don and I to add another animal to the freezer list, and that's one of our herd matriarchs, Ruby.

We got Ruby and Jet shortly after we arrived in Idaho, when they were about nine months old. Right now these ladies are about eleven.

Both have horns, and both have very different dispositions. From the start Jet has been very sweet and mostly gentle. From the start, Ruby has been an absolute pisser. She's very much the dominant animal on our farm.

Nonetheless I milked her and Jet for several years, and she has faithfully birthed a healthy calf every time she's bred. She's an excellent mother and produces beautiful calves, which is why we've put up with her for this long.

But there's no question her dominance affects the dynamics in the feedlot. I feed over two fences (our goal is eventually to build feed boxes), and Ruby usually sweeps the other animals out of her way. Often she ends up with the whole awning almost by herself...

...while the rest of the herd makes do with the feed by the other fence.

This demonstrates how much our animals are held hostage to Ruby's dominance.

Then something happened this week which made me mad enough to spit nails.

I was feeding the cattle in the morning in the feedlot. Parts are still pretty muddy from the winter snowmelt, so the cows have to pick their way to dry ground.

As usual Ruby came along and swept everyone from her path under the awning as she searched for the choicest hay. One of the cows she swept out of her path was Polly, our purebred Jersey. Polly lunged away from Ruby, tripped, and got momentarily mired in the mud and couldn't get up.

Instantly Ruby was on her, attacking Polly as she lay helpless on the ground.

I leaped into the feedlot and started whaling on Ruby with the back side of the pitchfork. Startled, Ruby broke off her attack and this gave Polly the chance to start heaving herself to her feet. But then Ruby went after Polly again, so I continued whaling on Ruby until Polly had a chance to get away.

To say I was furious is an understatement. Poor Polly has a scarred backside from putting up with Ruby's temper. The last thing she needs is to be gored by a mean cow.

So after discussing it with Don, we called the mobile butchers and asked them to add a second animal to dispatch when they come to our farm. Enough is enough.

Yet I am not at peace with this decision. Butchering Ruby will leave little Alice orphaned, always a sad situation. Alice was born in June and is now ten months old. She's plenty old enough to wean, but it will be hard on her at first.

Yet butchering the steer, Chester, will deprive his mother Raven of her calf... and I'm not having bad dreams about this decision. We need to do what's in the best interest of our farm.

I know butchering Ruby is the best thing in the long run and will make life much more peaceful for the rest of the critters, but I confess I've been having nightmares (literally) about it. I've been walking around with a knot of dread in my stomach for the last couple of days. This is one of the few butcherings I won't attend. I plan to head into town tomorrow morning and hang out someplace until the deed is done.

It's hard to say goodbye to an animal we've had for ten years, even if she's a bad-tempered twit.