About two weeks ago we had to butcher a young cow that had ripped her uterus while trying to calve. It was either that or just shoot her and call the dead animal wagon. Not wanting to see a perfectly healthy animal be more wasted than she already was, my husband and I skinned her out and took her to the little market over in the next community. The gentleman there used to process deer and beef until he became sick and said he could no longer lift and carry to do the processing. He said we were welcome to hang her and we were welcome to use his equipment but he wouldn't cut her up for us.

Well, yesterday was the day. Neither of us have ever run a meat saw but we got our lesson yesterday. The two of us started at 9:00 and we finally finished at 6:45 last night. I was totally pooped. Fortunately the owner of the store did show up at critical times to tell us where to make cuts and he zipped out the steaks and roasts. I could have kissed his feet for the help he gave us. Processing beef isn't a woosey job. Though we had the beef quartered the front ends were still more than heavy.

While I certainly didn't turn out any product that would have been fancy enough to sell it will be fine for us. At least I know somewhat what to do the next time. And I suspect there will be a next time as finding folks to do stuff like that anymore is getting harder and harder.

Anybody out there that still processes their own meat?

Janet