Hunting And Gathering

I was gone from the farm most of yesterday.

When I arrived back at the farm, it was just in time for

late afternoon/getting ready to close up for the day - chores.

I spent a little time with my piggy gals...

and snapped a few photos as Hubbs was handing out treats.

(Warning...the rest of the photos will not actually go with the text...

so don't look for some hidden correlation!)

Yesterday was the traditional day of hunting and gathering...

ie: grocery shopping for Thanksgiving.

If you've never visited the farm over Thanksgiving before,

then I will give you a little explanation of our family tradition.

Because we are a blended family (two of his, two of mine),

and our children are all grown with their own families,

we celebrate our family holiday on an "off" day.

It works out for everyone, I think.

The kids have one less place to try to fit into their holiday,

and we have a better chance of everyone showing up on our chosen day.

And so, we celebrate Thanksgiving with our family on Black Friday...

or as we used to call it Black and Blue Friday.

(When the kids, as we, were younger, we would all play paintball

"capture the flag" in our woods.

It was great fun, but we have all gotten older 

and now there are little ones who would not be able to play.

Hence, no more black and blue.

Instead, we spend the day playing other games and visiting

and eating and just enjoying each others' company.

We've strayed away from the traditional Thanksgiving feast,

mostly because everyone will have eaten that feast on Thursday

with other parts of their families.

Instead, we do a non-traditional farm feast on Friday.

This year we are having a big taco bar with:

Blackened shrimp tacos

Pork carnitas tacos

Spicy roast turkey tacos with cranberry chutney.

I make a lot of salads and sides and desserts as well.

So, there you have it.

My refrigerator is stocked.

My oven is baking away.

The crockpots are busy slow cooking meats...

and by Friday morning, everything will be ready.

I received a rather nasty note on my facebook messenger from

someone using a pseudonym.

They wrote: (and remember, all "caps" connotes shouting)

"You take care of and love all the animals....BUT YOU STILL EAT ANIMALS!!!! SHAME!!!!!!"

Yes, we do eat some (not a lot, however)meat... certainly not any of our beloved animals,

but, we are not vegans.

To me, this is a personal choice and not one that should be criticized by others.

I take great care to source all of our meats locally...

making sure that I can see the animals and how they are raised...

pastured and handled humanely.

This is our choice.

I would never shame someone else for their choice, so I would like

the same respect in turn.

I am saddened by the blatant un-kindness that is propagated through social media.

I suppose that when one can write words instead of saying them face-to-face,

it is easier to just let judgements fly.

I take issue with this.

None of us has the right to judge another for their personal choices.

We can teach.  We can inspire.  We can empower.

But... we cannot judge.

Everyone is on his/her own path.

I choose kindness for mine.

We are spending our day with this little one today.

We will be going to her pre-school to watch her Thanksgiving program

and then taking her out to lunch and to the movies

to see the new Disney Frozen movie.

It's going to be a fun day!

Last, but not least, I wanted to share with you the amazing 

trick that MaryAnn can do!

Here she goes.... with a treat as motivation....

she lifts her right front foot off the ground!!

Applause, applause!!!

Kidding... she actually gets both feet off of the ground in an attempt to beg.

Tricky pig!