Farm Stuff (Vegetarians... look away!)

It's feeling very farmy round these here parts, what with horse-riding, butchery, and sending kids that seem far too young off on the school bus.

Harry and I had our first ride on Blue the other day. Blue is very very quiet. So quiet, in fact that I can't get him to move without a bit of a slap on the rump. Once he got walking though, it was fun. And I had plenty of practice at getting him moving round the yard because he kept pulling up for a feed. As I said... quiet! Harry looked tiny perched up on Blue and was ok while holding the reins but when Blue stretched his head forward he was a little uncertain. Or freaing out, depending on how you look at it! But there's no hurry, when he's ready will be fine. He did look little though, check him out...

And here's me, pretending I'm knowing what I'm doing.

We also worked on a bit of butchering. We've never actually done it ourselves before and it all seemed a bit daunting. Step one was to clean out the meat house and build the bandsaw. You can't see it here, but the meat house has a big lean on it on the other side. But other than that, and some gaps in the wall that need plugging up, it's in pretty good nick.

I left Sean to it to skin and gut the sacrificial lamb. There are some things I draw a line at! I was on hand to hold the odd shank out of the way when the slicing started next day though.

So far so good. Today we're watching more Youtube videos to learn the rest of the butchering process, then we're off to give the bandsaw a go. Thank god for youtube, is all I can say. We sampled a leg of lamb the first round of chopping - paddock to plate in under 24 hours. Got to be happy with that!

We made a kind-of-gut-wrenching decision last week. Harry goes to childcare twice a week, and its so good for him. He needs the socialisation. But the 40-50 minute drive each way, twice a day, is a killer - fuel, time, plus it buggers up Vicki's sleeps, and often we're only home a couple of hours before it's time to go back and get him. So we finally decided to put him on the school bus. Does it seem wrong to put an almost-three-year old on the bus by himself? Especially as he has to change buses at the highway? It definitely feels strange. He's well looked after by the bus drivers, fortunately, and the staff meet him at the other end, but it was an anxious morning yesterday until I could call and see that he was ok. And he was. He was happy as Larry to be going on "wheels on the bus", and chatted to the other kids. What a little champion. And it will save us 1800km every 4 weeks, which is fantastic.

Here he is, safe and sound back at our mailbox.

Righto. Off to cut me up some chops!