My SECRET, and The Rooster

Chicken!!! Yes, I am! I am a quite conflicted "Green Mama" You see, I must confess something, a BIG something in my life and my line of work......

I don't do dead things, and I have never intentionally, personally killed anything.
WHAT, YOU?? Yes, Me. Momma, Rancher, Meat Eater, Hunting Wife, Avid Shooter, Natural Girl, horse lover, cow hugger, Animal Welfare Fighter. Yes all of those me's.

Tomarrow, we are going to have Rooster Noodle Soup. Yep, we did it, we took care of our MEAN rooster. That thing has chased J, and spurred her. He has chased me around the barn (I defended myself with the hose, and he didn't learn). He chased Beau, and met the shovel, and didn't learn. And, he has been mean to 7-Up. So, today he is no more.

It was particularily disturbing. You see, chickens are like snakes (STOP READING IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH) they keep moving after they are no longer living. I have been on many hunting and trapping trips and talked to many who have harvested chickens, and I was still not prepared for this.

Beau took the 410 (rifle- OK Had to edit this! I know, I can't type. A 410 is a shotgun. The smallest shotgun that they make, but none the less a shotgun. Please accept my apologies for the original typo) out to the barn this morning, (we had a babysitter so we could work all day) and made a perfect head shot. It kept running around (I know, y'all told me it would, but EWWWWWWWWW!) I kept hollering at him to "shoot it again" (cause it JUST wasn't right), and he said I shot it and it has NO head. I hollered again, and he asked if I wanted anything left. So, I just turned around and didn't watch. Please keep in mind, this whole process took less than 60 seconds, shoot to him bringing me the bird, and Beau did take off the head with a perfect shot. Beau was even kind enough to do all of the plucking and cleaning all by himself. I did have to hold a leg while he cleaned (but my head was turned away).

So now you know my secret. I will even tell you that when Beau and I met, I held the philosopy that "I will not eat 'anyone' I have met". I wouldn't feed the beef steers and I wouldn't participate in the hunting process until everything was skinned. Remember, "I don't do dead things".

But, I love my life. I live on a ranch, and "dead things happen" and someone (sometimes me) has to take care of them (But, I don't have to like it). And I now figure, that if I take care of our food as best as I possibly can, then I have done right by the animal.

I am a HUGE (H.U.G.E) animal WELFARE person, and I do not tolerate any mean-ness or too much aggression to ANY animal (mine or otherwise). But, there is a difference between animal welfare and animal rights. (Maybe, I will blog about this whole topic another day)

So, my secret is out and I feel better. And, I will enjoy some goooooddd soup tomarrow night, and I enjoyed my beef tonight (one of our own grass fed steers). Now, I hope some of you might share one of your secrets....