Monday, December 29, 2008

Killing Your Own Food and a Giant Spool of String - Monday 12/29/2008


Wrote in the morning. Went to the dentist to have a permanent crown installed.

Had a very interesting conversation with the tech about killing and eating one's own food. He is going to Arizona for New Year's Eve. They'll hunt and kill a wild boar and eat it.

I just talked to my brother, Texaco, a couple of days ago. He and his wife live in an area of Texas where there are few regulations on how you can use the land. They have about 8 acres now and are looking to add more. They're going to raise chickens for eggs and meat, rabbits and maybe goats.

I was going to say that I have complicated feelings about all this, but when I really think about it, I don't guess they're all that complicated after all. Although I was a vegetarian for about 5 years in my thirties, I grew up in a farming area where my grandmother butchered her own chickens and one of our neighbors butchered a hog in his front yard every year. My brother bow hunts and gets a deer every year, which they use for food.

Killing simply for sport is abhorrent to me, but I can't really fault people hunting for food. I think one of the reasons we overuse meat in the U.S. is that we don't really pay attention to the consequences, or think about where it came from. It seems a lot more honest than picking up a package at the meat counter in the grocery.

Anyway, it was an interesting conversation and I think he gave me the framework of a little story I can use in my novel.

What about the giant spool of string? That's what Hydra spent his afternoon hunting. He uses it to fix part of Dodger's playset, which Dodger promptly destroys. We couldn't find a small ball of it in the grocery stores. They had it at Smart & Final though! Wow.

Hmm, turns out the photo is mildly relevant since people use this culinary grade string to tie up roasts.

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