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We ‘grow our own’ beef. If we’re dining out (rarely) I order seafood or pasta. I don’t think I’ve ordered beef in a restaurant in 25 years. We have plenty of bear, venison, elk and fish in our diet, too - hunted or caught by Beau.

Our current steer, ‘Stew,’ is on pasture now with the Heifers; will be through the first snowfall. I watch him with binocs from the front porch when they are at the tippy-top of The Big Hill. He’s still half the size of ‘The Girls’ but it takes 18 months to grow out a steer; those Heifers are already 2 years old. They have adopted ‘Stew’ as their Mascot and if it storms they put him in the middle of the herd to protect him. So sweet. :)

He will live a relatively free-wheeling life and then be ‘finished’ on sweet oats and hay through the winter. He’s well cared for, has LUXURY accommodations and I slip him a warm beer (Kobe Beef!) in with his oats from time to time. He goes to ‘The Spa’ in March. It’s a great life, right up until the last few hours...which is all ANYONE can hope for in this world. ;)

I would never eat fake beef to begin with, and the way cattle are treated in Feed Lots is also pretty horrifying. How’d you like to stand on asphalt all day with no shade, crammed butt to butt with your next of kin? That REALLY makes my heart hurt - but fake meat? Nope.

And don’t EVEN get me started on poultry farming, LOL! I don’t buy a lot of chicken, but every time I see a chicken breast I wonder, ‘What the H#LL are they feeding these chickens?!?!’

Raising meat birds is the next step on our quest for more self-sufficiency; we already have laying hens.

“I’m not the Chicken Plucker, I’m the Chicken Plucker’s Son. But I’ll pluck the chickens ‘til the Chicken Plucker comes!”