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One Bad Day

I thought I would take a minute to help explain a part of the homesteading life that seems to throw people off. Let me first say that we hate killing our animals. But ultimately, there comes a day when we prep and plan to do just that. The animals we have on our property have a purpose. The dogs help alert if there are predators after our critters. The chickens produce eggs and meat for the freezer. We also raise rabbits. We have a few that we keep for breeding purposes but their offspring will eventually be harvested. On “killing day” our anxiety is usually high, hoping that everything dies as humanely as possible. Again, we don’t enjoy killing these animals that we have raised since birth. At the same time, we’re not just raising pets. We are raising animals that will help sustain us.



All of this was new to me until a couple of years ago. I didn’t know how I would handle the slaughtering of our livestock. But I knew that if I wanted to live a life of self-reliance, I would have to at least try. Andrew takes care of the killing of our chickens and rabbits. I am there to help take care of the carcass after he has plucked feathers or skinned and taken out the guts. I have the kitchen ready to help put cold water on to soak for the night and then follow up the next  day with quartering the carcass to help fit into vacuum seal bags.

After my first experience of taking care of chickens, I knew that I could do this; raise animals to help feed the family. I found myself looking forward to raising other types of animals to in turn give us a variety of meat for the freezer. Rabbits seemed to be an easy animal to raise. They are incredibly cute. I mean seriously, nothing is cuter than a baby bunny.



I tended to these bunnies turned rabbits every single day, ensuring that waters were full, feed was present, boxes were dry and comfortable. I petted and held and snuggled lots. And I thought when their time came I would have a difficult time watching this sweet, beautiful creature meet its demise. But the killing process went by so effortlessly that I felt peace knowing that our rabbits had one bad day. Even up to the time when it was time to break their necks, they were held and comforted. They didn’t know what was happening. And it brought a bittersweet sense of a circle coming to a close.






You see that’s the thing. When you raise livestock to eventually feed your family, you have to realize that when it is done right your animals have one bad day. From birth they were met with loving hands, plenteous nutrition, and beloved appreciation. On that final day when they drew that last breath we said thank you, to the One who gave us the animal and to the animal that would feed us. It’s a beautiful circle that I wish more would understand and appreciate. I get it if you don’t or don’t have any gumption to this way of life. Just know and try to realize that from our standpoint it’s a means of survival and we do everything in our power to ensure that our critters only have one bad day, a day that immediately turns to good for the person who put so much time and energy to ensure that their animal had a good life.






One bad day, for our good. The good Lord’s intentions.


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