Excited for our cow to arrive!

I relocated some of the items I don't use much to make room in my

freezer until she gets here. I didn't want to toss all the kibble nor the meaty bones.

You gotta be careful giving these kind of thick meaty bones or they can chip teeth.

Did you know quail eggs freeze really well?

Eh, was that a cow you say? Indeed it was, but she will be dead. I upgraded and bought a freezer chest last week for a song, and what better to fill it with than food for the dogs? Yesterday little Bessie the beef cow went to heaven in a humane way on her farm, and she dressed out at about 350 lbs of prime grass fed free range, antibiotic and hormone free, home grown beef. My parents are taking some of the ground and choice cuts (she came from a friend my mom works with) but I specifically requested organs, tongue, heart and tail, along with some prime cuts, no ground. She should fill the locker nicely. I can't wait till she gets here, I've been waiting for ever.

Weekly Shibatudes: A Rat

Beebe and Ike have a new favorite game. We call it, "Get that Rat" and it's immediately followed by Shiba screams and a frantic attempt to locate the Rat that has been seeking to burrow beneath my Quail pen. We have greatly enjoyed this new game ever since the discovery of a break in and one badly maimed hen and missing eggs. As poisons are out of the question, I'm trying some natural pest control and using my Shiba girl in a role she is well suited to, after all, they are excellent vermin hunters. They excel at killing laser lights, anyways. Once again, my neighbors must think I am incredibly cruel beating my dogs until they holler :)

The Shibas Enjoy Raw Meat

First raw organ meal (beef liver)-check

First by product meal (bison heart)-check

First whole prey item (smelt)-check

Growing my own quail eggs to throw in every day or so-check

No more kibble-check

Amazing coats-check

Next step-whole quail

We went to the butcher shop and selected a most unusual array of locally raised meat products including bison tongue and hearts, flash frozen smelts and whole rabbits. We weren't brave enough to take home the sweet breads or spleens, but next visit I would like to buy some chicken feet, sardines, whole pheasant for variety, and some venison for red meat-but I'm not sure what cuts to get.

If anyone is ever interested in that old-timey butcher shop feel, seriously go check out Green Valley Meats in Auburn, WA on Black Diamond Road. They don't have a web page, but they have an amazing selection of locally raised and hand butchered meats. They also process wild game (like quail!)

Consequences of Growing My Own

Well, I was attempting to sex/segregate the birds as the juvenile batch is getting older, and some of the males are starting to fight over the few females of reproductive age. As I was doing this, one of the big guys flew right up passed me and out of the coop. After a thrilling little chase with the bird net, he was recaptured (I wasn't going to hold a little thing like that against him, I would have done the same), and returned to the hutch...where he immediately began attacking the other birds. That wasn't going to do at all. So, to make a short story even shorter, I now have a nice big fat Quail decorating the inside of my freezer. In a week or two, he will belong to the dogs.

Don't worry, I'm an old hand at this and it was fast. Seriously though, isn't this all apart of growing your own foodstuffs and getting back in touch with the Urban Farmer in all of us? Is it any better to blindly walk into a supermarket, be completely disassociated from the veg, egg, milk, meat or kibble you have purchased, and take that home to feed your pets instead not knowing what went into the animal or how it was treated before and after death?


I still felt bad, and I have decided firmly that I won't be eating the birds I grow or the eggs, they are for the dogs or perhaps to barter down the road with someone else for a foodstuff the dogs can use in their raw diet. I have also decided that a goal in feeding raw, aside from the primary health benefits to my dogs, will be to attain home grown products from small family farms and to support small, local business thru barter or trade. I won't be supporting companies like Tyson or ConAgra, and I accept the fact that although it may be more inconvenient, I will need to seek out those elusive old timey butcher shops from time to time and do what people did before there was kibbles.


Some exciting news, a family relation is raising a herd Kobe beef and my mom has some hearts, livers and kidneys waiting for me in her freezer, for free. I think the dogs are liking this Japanese themed raw diet!