Beside the Stream

The buffalo is a grand American beast  (this photo is my edit of someone else’s shot).

Of the estimated 350,000 buffalo alive today, 250,000 of them are privately owned and raised for meat.  If you want more buffalo grazing the Plains, buy buffalo meat instead of beef.   

Which brings to mind my lovely little chickens.  These birds are starting their 9th week.  I think they’ve been a little slow growing up because they ran around for those weeks, and because it stays cool at night.  But the truth is I been waiting for them to get bigger because I think they’re nice animals. 

My frig has never been cleaner, because they love dubious leftovers. 

They’re handsome birds,

and they are easily entertained.  I rearranged the stump and ramp, and they all tested it: they ran up the ramp and jumped off the stump, and then they changed direction and jumped onto the stump to run down the ramp.  

I move the hoop house every day or two, so there is never a chicken poop build-up.  They’re no trouble at all.  And still I have to make the appointment. 

So I bought an extra 50 pounds of cracked corn, and have been cooking up great potfuls and spiking it with vegetable oil, making a tender mash that they adore and trying to figure out this social contract.

Their existence depends on our willingness to eat them.

Or, better to eat animals with a happy life.