Update: Family

There have been so many changes over the last number of years in our family that I'll do by best to bring you up to date.  Here goes......

Sir Knight.....Sir Knight is now a full-fledged butcher, processing more animals in a day than he used to be able to process in a week.  He and Master Hand Grenade work together every day, side by side, processing hogs and beef and the occasional goat or lamb.  Business has grown steadily in the 3+ years we've been in business.  We have struggled and learned and improved....and we march steadily forward.  Last June, Sir Knight had an accident (potentially life changing) that left him in an eye patch.  I'm thinking he totally rocks the pirate look!!!

Rockin' the eye patch

Maid Elizabeth.....As I've mentioned, Maid Elizabeth sold her home where we used to live and bought a home directly across the creek from our butcher shop.  Our town is very small, and finding a job was a major challenge - a faith building challenge!  After a couple of false starts, Maid Elizabeth interviewed, tested and was offered a job as a 911 dispatcher for our county.  It has been the perfect position for her.  She is particularly good in emergencies and her medical training is a real bonus.  She has become an indispensable member of the emergency services team.

Dispatching....

Master Hand Grenade......Master Hand Grenade is working, working, working.  Not only does he work at the butcher shop 5 days a week, he also works at our local grocery store another 2 days a week.  He's working steadily toward a number of long-range goals and has already achieved a few.  One great joy has been watching him mature and grow - what joy it brings!

The guys

Master Hand Grenade on a walk

Miss Serenity.....Miss Serenity also moved here with us.  She worked as a Wildland Fire Fighter, moving up the ranks quickly - first becoming the crew boss and then Forman.  Last summer, one of her crew members lost his life in a local river.  The effect was profound in Miss Serenity's life and it left her wondering how she could make a real impact on young lives.  With this in mind Miss Serenity applied to work as a cadre at a residential military academy for troubled youth, and was immediately hired.  She is now working with her second round of cadets and seems to have been custom designed for this job.  She speaks into the lives of broken "children" (they range in age from 15-18) every day, with characteristic Miss Serenity wisdom.

Miss Serenity ready for work

Talking a cadet through a water challenge

Princess Dragon Snack......Is almost 16!!!!  Can you believe that??  I know I can't!  Dragon Snack is still in school, of course, and on top of that, she works at the butcher shop with me.  In addition to school and work, she has another job - she is a barista in a local coffee shop!  She is full of fun and whimsy......with Dragon Snack, there is never a dull moment!  Her short term goal is getting her drivers license and her long term goal is to have horses and live somewhere that doesn't resemble Narnia in the winter!!!

Princess Dragon Snack and her love

At one of her two jobs!

Master Calvin.....I no longer have littles.....Master Calvin is a teenager!  Yes, really!  He, too, is doing school and he has become his Grandfather's right hand.  Right at the moment he is doing little but shoveling snow.  Lots and lots of snow!  He is keeping us shoveled out, as well as shoveling out the neighbors.  He's not complaining, however.  He is steadily adding to his dirt bike fund!

Master Calvin thinks it's time to move up!!

And me.....I am working, and learning - constantly.  I am learning there is no such thing as "menial labor" - that every job is worthy as long as you are working for your Father.  I am learning that my only job is obedience.  I need to obey Jesus in whatever He brings for me to do today - and that is enough. 

The girls and I

And that, my friends, is a quick family update!!

Life in the Highlands

I'm a little slow.  I think I may have mentioned that before.  I've noticed over the years that change affects me in a huge way.  After major life disruptions, it takes longer and longer to get my feet back under myself.

We're closing in on 3 years.  Three years since we sold "Little Shouse on the Prairie".  Three years since we've lived off-the-grid.  Three years since we began building a butcher shop.  Three years since we've had a stable, consistent income.  And now, just now, I'm beginning to feel like myself, not just someone treading water.  I'm beginning to be able to focus on things other than just surviving.  I am once again expanding my horizons and opening my home to new friends.  After nearly three years I'm finally able look beyond myself and again minister to those outside my immediate family.  After nearly three years, life begins anew.

The adjustments of our new life have been unexpectedly difficult.  Our relationships have changed and grown, as have our expectations.  Our challenges have been different, but no less "challenging".  We have been surprised by what we don't miss!

Master Calvin (He isn't actually smoking a pipe!)

Princess Dragon Snack getting a little reading in!

The weather in the Highlands has been a breath of fresh air.  Our Shouse was situated in the middle of a windswept prairie, where the harsh winters were only rivaled by the blistering summers.  Wind was our constant companion, creating untenable weather conditions and embracing us in a real-life "man against nature" reality. And summer, with its blistering heat (and constant wind, of course), did little to offer a soothing balm of relief.  Our new home in the Highlands is a constant source of joy.  The winters, although filled with snow and cold weather, offer almost no wind and crisp, clear days with skies so blue that the contrast against the Sub-apline Firs are positively breathtaking.  Summers are warm but not hot and the cool of the evening revives even the weariest of souls.  I traipse down tree -lined avenues, cross bubbling streams and wiggle my toes in sweet meadow grass.  Every walk ministers to my soul and every perfect winter day brings with it the joy of life.

Getting ready for our Thanksgiving feast (Miss Serenity and Sir Knight)

Our living room...in anticipation for a crowd

The newly remodeled scale shack/guest house!!

The new kitchen (with an extended counter and built-in refrigerator)
The oil lamp is a gift from a friend!!!

Serenity Cottage has a queen sized bed!

And a cozy wood stove!!

Our business has brought us the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  We didn't fully understand what would be required to launch a butcher shop (something with which we had no experience).  The money and energy and effort threatened to overwhelm us.  We made many mistakes and learned many lessons.  We struggled and we triumphed.  And now, after nearly three years, we are gaining confidence and customers.  It is beautiful indeed.

Sir Knight with his helpers, Miss Serenity and Maid Elizabeth

An amazing prime rib, produced by Sir Knight and Master Hand Grenade

Sir Knight and Princess Dragon Snack

What an amazing life we lead.  God has walked us through this life, brought us through the wind and the fire and placed our feet on this good and fair land.  Life is hard and sweet, full of struggles and sunlight.  And God, in His infinite wisdom, has placed us in the middle of it.  This is life in the Highlands.

The Business of Butchering

What a year this has been!!  Our butcher shop has been open for almost a year -  November 20th will mark our 1 year anniversary.  It has been a year of ups and down, of learning and struggling, but mostly of getting our feet under us.

Although we started off slowly, with crazy busy times thrown in for good measure, we have continued to have just enough work to keep us going.  We have had return customers and customers that have been referred by our other customers.  And as fall has drawn closer our calendar has begun to fill.  In fact, just today, I scheduled 8 beef to be slaughtered, along with 2 pigs!

Last week, our county fair came to a close and we were called upon to slaughter a number of the animals.  We filled our cooler with 14 additional swine and 4 additional steers - and this week, the animals just keep on coming.

As we work our way through the domestic animals in our cooler, we are also butchering wild game.  Our area is the gateway to incredible wilderness, known for an abundance of game, so we've established a "Hunter Hotline" allowing hunters to get ahold of us after hours so that we can get their game into the cooler.  We've already processed 6 elk, and hunting season has barely begun.

In anticipation of our busy season, we made a huge order to the butcher supply that we use.  Butcher paper and hand-wrap plastic arrived by the pallet load, along with roast netting, knives, and aprons.  "Not for Resale" tape and polyester freezer labels are stacked deep and we have 72 milk crates due to be delivered this week.  We are ramping up for what promises to be a busy year.

We have learned so much in the past 10 months.  We've refined our systems and tuned our methods.  We've learned what works and what doesn't.  We've learned our plant's strengths and its weaknesses.  An unexpected weakness that we found was our rail system that comes through the door onto our cutting room floor.  We purchased a rail system that had been removed from a university's Meat Sciences department.  It was designed and built by the same university's engineering department and had served the university well for years.  We have used it for 10 months with no problems, until.....a huge beef, weighing 800 pounds a HALF came through our doors.  Apparently 1600 pounds of beef flesh was just too much for our 3/8" flat bar - it crumpled under the pressure!  We had to do some fancy footwork to get the beef in the door and then we had to remove the bent flat bar and replace it with 1/2 flat bar!

The bent rail

Butchering the huge steer!

The phone is ringing off the hook and we are putting animals in little white packages just as quickly as we can.  We truly have been blessed beyond measure in this business of butchering!

Shall we Reacquainted Ourselves??

I'm so very sorry for my silence over the last few months.  I have been hoping and waiting for a "new normal", but I've learned that, for now, there is to be no "new normal".  Our lives have taken such a drastic turn of direction that I seem to be constantly running to catch up.  This is not a bad thing.....just not what I was expecting!!  My "new normal" is that there is no "normal".  Please bear with me as I adjust and re-adjust and adjust again.  This is a great adventure!!

A few pictures to catch us up!!  As some of you know, we now live in "open range" country.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  A blessing because it means we live way out!!!!  A curse because we are constantly running over cow pies - my least favorite sound ever - and we have to fence to keep these destructive critters out!  We spend our summers opening and closing cattle gates every time we leave our house!  I'm telling you, that gets OLD!!!

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this summer!!!  50 years!!!  Our family is not one to have huge parties - we're rather quiet folk - so we just had a simple gathering in the back yard with our closest of close.

A backyard celebration

The ever-present gramophone

All set up for tea and cake

Almost ready

The one unique thing we did to celebrate their anniversary was have a cake made to look like a stack of stones.  Why stone you ask?  Because we wanted to remember and be reminded.  So many, many times in the Old Testament, God directed His children to stack piles of stones so they would remember what He had done for them.  He instructed them to tell their children and their children's children what He had done.  He instructed them to stack stones as a memorial to His providence and care for His children.  And we stacked stones with my parents.  The stack of stones in their cake represents the mighty work that God has done in my parents lives - the trials that He has brought them through and blessings He has poured out upon them.  As we visited and laughed and drank tea, my parents told us of His mighty works.  They remembered His goodness.  They told their children and their grandchildren and we remembered.

Sir Knight and Master Hand Grenade

Our joyous, intimate celebration

Sir Knight cutting the Stacked Stones cake

Master Calvin churning ice cream

We haven't been the only busy ones this summer - Miss Serenity has been spending her days fighting wildfires!  She spent many, many hours on the fire line, along with unending hours digging hand lines around potential fire sites.  She worked hard and had the honor of being assigned to a specialized task force that was stationed for initial attacks on fire within a 3 hour radius of her location.  She was on the dozer crew and worked 15 hour days for 21 days in a row!  Such an experience!!

The girls and I recently took a 10 hour road trip and saw some incredibly beautiful country!  On the way home, we stopped at a wooden suspension bridge over a particularly amazing river.  What views!!!  And the bridge itself is a work of art!  It was a much needed pit-stop!!!!

Princess Dragon Snack walking across the bridge.  It swings as you walk!!

Incredible engineering

The water is so clear!!

And this is what we picked up on our road trip!  Now the butcher shop office will be nice and warm!!!  After freezing our toes off last winter, this will be a life-saver!!!

The butcher shop is doing well.  It has been steady, but not busy, through the summer and now we've begun our busy season.  Over the weekend we picked up 14 pigs and 4 steers at the county fair, along with 2 steers, a lamb, 3 pigs, 3 elk and a few other things already hanging in the cooler!  We have a full house!!!

I hope this summer has been a blessing for all of you.  Until next time......