Tomorrow is Pioneer Day here in Utah, the day locals celebrate the first Mormon settlers to this part of the country. In fact, this holiday holds special sway, surpassing even Independence Day in importance, with July 4th commemorated as more of a practice holiday for Pioneer Day, provided it doesn't fall on a Sunday.
One of the great things about Northern Utah, though, is that it was settled as a mostly isolated agrarian society. Unlike much of the Rocky Mountain West, the folks who moved here came to stay and attempted to be largely self sufficient. Examples of this exist today, such as the fact that the Salt Lake valley and surrounding metropolitan areas still get all of their water from local sources in the Wasatch Range. What other western city can make that claim? If the West is ever required to rely mostly on it's own resources, the Wasatch Front could make a fair go of it (again, a difficult task for places like Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and others).
Since we have moved to Utah and embraced this pioneering self-sufficiency, it seems fitting that tomorrow we will slaughter our first chicken. S. has been studying the killing and evisceration, and today I made the killing cone, and hung it next to the compost heap:
With those preparations made, tomorrow morning, after we milk the goats and care for the horses, we plan to pull one broody hen from the hen house and try our hand at this. With luck, we'll kill the bird and celebrate one small measure of self sufficiency with chicken soup in the afternoon.
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Another step in our effort to be fully aware, responsible inhabitants of our planet. These chickens are old, and barely laying anymore. At this point, our options are to continue to feed them high-carbon-cost grain, then let the chickens get sick and die, or kill them and make use of them. Even eggs don't come without cost.
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