Meat and Oooops!

Good morning! I haven’t had time to read anything interesting this morning to tell you about but I did read a couple of interesting things last night before I went to bed.

First, about the Supreme Court’s decision, I guess at least most of the controversy was over ‘emergency’ birth control. I take that to mean, “Ooops! I had sex last night purely for enjoyment, if I might have conceived, I’d better do something about it.” Problem: conception often doesn’t even occur for a day or two after the act, sometimes up to five days. Problem: if you and the man you were with were so unable to control yourselves that you had to have sex, it isn’t my problem to fix; go fix it yourself. You want to have sex for pleasure? Feel free. But not on my dime.

It is interesting that this ‘emergency’ birth control would not be necessary if people did not have sex before marriage and employed other forms of birth control. It is also interesting that this seems to be a wholly heterosexual issue as two men or two women will never need ‘emergency’ birth control (unless a lesbian sleeps with a man and ‘ooops!’).

Second, I’ve finally begun reading Woman’s Life in Colonial Days by Carl Holliday. It is a Dover reprint of the original book which was published in 1922. The views expressed in the book are very interesting, especially given when Holliday was writing. For example, he wrote, “...wives and mothers gave much closer heed to the needs and tastes of husbands and children than is the case to-day; for women’s only sphere in that period was her home, and her whole heart and soul were in its success. Probably, too, women more thoroughly believed then that her chief mission in life was to aid some man in his public affairs by keeping always in preparation for him a haven of comfort, peace, and love.” In the early 1900s, most women were still not out in the work force; were they more concerned then with other things than the home and family? Fast forward to today and you have even more interesting comparisons.

Currently, I’m in Chapter IV: Colonial Woman and Dress. I did not know that the Puritan elders believed everything could and should be controlled by law. Even how people dressed. Really? That sounds suspiciously like the plan of the serpent to me.

Yesterday Leroy and Bailey went the way of all the earth. You remember my mentioning Bella and Raven in the past? Well, Baraka is a friend of theirs and was interested in goats for meat. He and some friends came over yesterday and took care of both. Paul said that they were probably happy because Bella makes them use a gun to kill the animals; I let them use the knife. Honestly, they were very good; neither of the bucks made a sound and they were all done in less than three hours. All done including cleaning up; if I didn’t know where they’d been working, it would be hard to tell. The flies are kind of a dead giveaway but they’ll not be around forever.

Some might think it cruel or mean that I let the butchering take place here. I mean, I do have four children at home (five, counting Joanna, but she’s 19 and has a pretty healthy view of such things) and Jessica was here. However, I really believe that it does no good to shelter people from the way things are. I told them all what was happening and told them that if they didn’t want to see it, to not look out any of the back windows. Seth watched some and I think Cedric did as well but not as much. Seth gave up after a while because there really wasn’t much to see as they were working in the shade of the trees and it was hard to see what was going on. Seth told me that the guy who did the actual butchering had sharpened his knife (and it was a big one) before killing the goat. I asked him if he knew why and he said, “So it would be sharp.”

“Why do you think that was important?” I asked.

“Well, so that it would cut better and not take so long.”

We had a pretty good conversation about the whole process. I think it turned out to be a good thing even for those who did not want to watch. Jessica did mention that she couldn’t eat an animal she’d butchered. I don’t think she could butcher an animal. And, that might not be a bad thing, but I do think the people don’t think much about such things. Where do people think the meat in the supermarkets come from? I guess the same place all the food in the boxes and cans come from—some magical place where there is no death, no life, no anything. I mean, when someone says to me, “Oh, I could never do that!” I really just want to say, “What planet do you live on?” Or, “When is the last time you had a piece of chicken or a steak, or even a hamburger?”

Sariah and William Armstrong came over yesterday to help move a few things. The thing I really wanted moved we ended up not because it’s so heavy (an old metal hospital bed) but we did get moved three other things which cleared out the library so that the boys aren’t playing on the computer in a cave any more. Amazingly, we now have at least most of the spoons back as well as a couple of bowls and a ramekin. The amount of trash back there was ridiculous and of course, none of them claim responsibility for any of it.

I have decided that we really need to invest in some blinds for some of the windows. In the summer they would help to keep the heat out and in the winter they would help to keep the heat in. Honestly, though, I’m not concerned about winter but I do not like being hot. I hate summer and am ready for winter already. I don’t think we need many; five or six would be enough for downstairs. Right now we could use three, later we’ll need six across the front, and later in the afternoon we’d need two. So six would be sufficient for downstairs. Upstairs, it would be nice to have enough for all of the windows in each room. I like light but darkness tends to be cooler and I would really like to be cooler. We could get the rods that are like shower rods so we wouldn’t need any permanently attached hardware and light colored fabric to reflect the light thick enough to keep out the heat. I suppose insulated fabric would work but it’s probably more expensive and I’m sure my idea would work well enough for what I’d like.

Zak's cake. Look at the fire on that thing!

Joanna had her second to last class yesterday and got to work two shifts. Pretty exciting, I think. Next week she’s going to Puerto Rico with Zak, his mom and sister. It’s going to be really got and humid and I do not envy her. The heat and humidity here are more than enough, thank you very much. Still, it will be an interesting experience for her, I’m sure.

And the smoke! Holy cow!

Other than that, not much is going on. This afternoon I told Seth that we could go to the park and this evening we have church activities. Well, some of us do; Seth and Joseph do not. I’d love to be able to leave them home but unless Joanna will be home, I can’t because Paul won’t be.

So, with that, I will bid you adieu. Have a splendiferous day!