First "New Friend" Visitor!

Today we had our first "new friend" visitor (meaning, someone we've met and befriended since moving here). Faith from church came to see our farm and help in any way she could. She went to Texas A&M, and worked for a bull semen-processing center for a year out of college. Her employer was the only lab in the world able to cell straws (the holder for the semen that's put into the cow) that could supply a specific gender.

So we got to hear a bit about how the artificial inseminators gather the semen. I've wondered. They can either put a little electric shock into the bull's rectum, or they put a steer in with the bull and somehow get the bull to mount the steer. A man with an artificial vagina jumps in and collects the semen. That's pretty amazing.

And then the lab checks for the number of sperm with motility (forward movement) and morphology (proper shape), as well as rough live v. dead count.

We planted 15 trees and finished our second row. Sixty done, or 15 percent!

I planted a full package of poppy seeds. I love poppyseed cake and poppyseed muffins, but have a hard time finding them for a reasonable price. I will try to grow my own.

Phil went to the Bessettes this evening to process the meat with Ara. I went over to bring Ziplocs and buckets for bones, and got sucked in to watching Ara's artistry. He took the 20 pound or so haunch and cut it just so, and out popped the hip. Cut again and there's a ham. And another. And another. There was the beautiful ball joint staring up at me, a little round grey ball in the midst of pink flesh. Cut again and there's two small yellowish sacs: the lymph nodes.

There may be a small part of me that hopes to butcher my own meat at some point, but Ara's speed and dexterity amaze me. I'll let him do it, as long as I can.