Wednesday my family set up at another fair. They took the show box and all their equipment and prepared the area in the barn assigned to them for the coming of their cattle. Thursday, they took their quilting and sewing, rockets and models, woodworking projects and art to be registered for judging and then they loaded the cattle onto the trailer and hauled them to the barns. Thousands of children have done this throughout the summer. It is a fun time and a time of very hard work.
Friday was the day for the judging of the cattle. The children washed, clipped, and fancied up their animals that they had spent the entire year feeding. These animals have been taught to lead on a halter by walking with them daily. They’ve been given baths several days each week, and they’ve come to trust their owners. My children had a good day, and they came home with two division reserve champion ribbons.
Today is Saturday, and this is the day that everyone will crowd into the sale barn and offer to buy the children’s steers, hogs, lambs—whatever is for sale, and then all of the children understand that these animals will be butchered.
This is farm life. We raise animals for others to eat. This is 4-H. We teach our children how to feed the animals and care for them. But if we are going to raise animals for food, then we are going to have to butcher them, right?
That is when the tears begin. How do you say goodbye to that big brown-eyed steer who likes to eat your shirt? What about the animal that chews its cud and looks ecstatic when you rub it in the right spot on its back?
What puts it all into perspective is that all of these children are most likely to be back next year to do the same thing. They have counted the cost. The children are growing up and are learning to deal with life in the raw. I suppose that is good. But it still makes me teary-eyed to watch their sorrow.
Keep them in your thoughts and prayers today.
My son's deer hunting stand received a blue ribbon at the fair. Everyone chuckled at its being the biggest woodworking project they'd ever seen!
2 comments:
Oh Jean. This is the most poigniant blog entry ever. I just cannot IMAGINE having been a child to have raised and then sold off an animal like that. I know it's "real life" and that my ground beef right now thawing on my counter didn't come from a styrofoam box but ohmygoodness.
((((Jean and her 4H children))))
~Jo
That is one fine looking deer stand! It looks very sturdy!
Good for the young carpenter!
Donna
(((hugs)))
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