Today is an exciting day in the Higdon household, we are awaiting a new addition. No, not another Grandchild, and we certainly aren’t getting another dog. Sometime after 1:00 PM today the man from the used furniture store will be delivering a new freezer, well new to us:) This is actually a big day for us. We have been married for 28 years and this is our first freezer, well, not including the ones on top of the refrigerators. Come to think of it, I don’t think that my Mom and Dad ever had a freezer and I don’t think I ever remember seeing on at Karen’s parents house either.
I still have to laugh when I think of one of my favorite Andy Griffith episodes when the family freezer is not working well, and poor Gomer tries to fix it and almost gets asphyxiated. (I love Gomer) To this day when something needs to be repaired around our house and I say that I can fix it, Karen looks at me without a hesitation and says “Just call the man” which is what Andy tried to get Aunt Bea to do the entire episode, just call the repairman to come and fix it. Andy ultimately solved what was becoming a real problem, which included Aunt Bea being chased down the street by a pack of dogs, by simply replacing the freezer with a new one, which brings me to the reason that we are getting a freezer in the first place.
We are very blessed. Our church family at Cana UMC had a “real dilemma,” they had an “extra” side of beef that they just didn’t know what to do with, so they wondered if Karen and I could take it off their hands:) I have never been surrounded by such a group of kind and generous people in my life as I have been with the folks from Cana and Crothersville. Of course there is one catch, actually 2 catches. The first catch is that I have to be up and out by 7:00 Saturday morning to go help process the side of beef. This is actually one of the coolest operations I have ever seen, the family works like a well oiled machine processing a side of beef better than any meat packer could in just about an hour or so.
I have helped the family several times in the past, doing everything from running the meat grinder for hamburger, to scraping the fat off the meat. (They don’t trust me to use the saws or the sharp knives which is probably smart of them) The one thing that I did have to request was that I not have to help kill the cow, I’m afraid that if I had to look in those big brown eyes I might not be so excited about eating him, well, that might last about as long as it took for the smell of those 1 ½ inch T- bone steaks on the grill to start filling my nostrils:) (sorry to my vegetarian friends, but what can I say, I love meat) The only thing that I have done so far that has made me squeamish, to the point that I had to leave, was when they started running the livers through the meat grinder. I think that it must have been a combination of the sounds that the liver made, and what it looked like when it came out of the grinder that made me say, “Well, if you don’t need me anymore, I really need to get home and work on my sermon for tomorrow.”
The other catch was that we didn’t have room in our freezer for a side of beef, so after 1:00 this afternoon, that problem will be resolved, and by the time I get home tomorrow afternoon with the meat, the freezer will be all ready to put it in. For some reason this morning I feel like the guys in the Hillshire Farms Commercial: “GO MEAT” I can’t wait!
Blessings
I still have to laugh when I think of one of my favorite Andy Griffith episodes when the family freezer is not working well, and poor Gomer tries to fix it and almost gets asphyxiated. (I love Gomer) To this day when something needs to be repaired around our house and I say that I can fix it, Karen looks at me without a hesitation and says “Just call the man” which is what Andy tried to get Aunt Bea to do the entire episode, just call the repairman to come and fix it. Andy ultimately solved what was becoming a real problem, which included Aunt Bea being chased down the street by a pack of dogs, by simply replacing the freezer with a new one, which brings me to the reason that we are getting a freezer in the first place.
We are very blessed. Our church family at Cana UMC had a “real dilemma,” they had an “extra” side of beef that they just didn’t know what to do with, so they wondered if Karen and I could take it off their hands:) I have never been surrounded by such a group of kind and generous people in my life as I have been with the folks from Cana and Crothersville. Of course there is one catch, actually 2 catches. The first catch is that I have to be up and out by 7:00 Saturday morning to go help process the side of beef. This is actually one of the coolest operations I have ever seen, the family works like a well oiled machine processing a side of beef better than any meat packer could in just about an hour or so.
I have helped the family several times in the past, doing everything from running the meat grinder for hamburger, to scraping the fat off the meat. (They don’t trust me to use the saws or the sharp knives which is probably smart of them) The one thing that I did have to request was that I not have to help kill the cow, I’m afraid that if I had to look in those big brown eyes I might not be so excited about eating him, well, that might last about as long as it took for the smell of those 1 ½ inch T- bone steaks on the grill to start filling my nostrils:) (sorry to my vegetarian friends, but what can I say, I love meat) The only thing that I have done so far that has made me squeamish, to the point that I had to leave, was when they started running the livers through the meat grinder. I think that it must have been a combination of the sounds that the liver made, and what it looked like when it came out of the grinder that made me say, “Well, if you don’t need me anymore, I really need to get home and work on my sermon for tomorrow.”
The other catch was that we didn’t have room in our freezer for a side of beef, so after 1:00 this afternoon, that problem will be resolved, and by the time I get home tomorrow afternoon with the meat, the freezer will be all ready to put it in. For some reason this morning I feel like the guys in the Hillshire Farms Commercial: “GO MEAT” I can’t wait!
Blessings
3 comments:
Nothing like home grown beef. In our younger years, we had some of our own. Processed and wrapped the meat in our garage. Now, my husbands best friend (an X-civil engineer)raises beef cows...and goats. (we don't claim any of the goat meat) They spend a lot of time on "the farm". You will have to ask Chrissy about the 2 of them. Anyway when slaughter time comes...we are always blessed with good eating. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy
Not only do my parents have a freezer, but Ryan's parents have 3 that I know of. The really large chest kind. Ryan and I have a smaller chest freezer to bring home meat both from my parents, and from Ryan's dad's beef cattle.. YEAH MEAT!
It amazes me how much different the meat tastes that we have received from our Cana friends. I am not sure that I can figure out why, except that they take a great deal of pride in trimming the meat to get it just right. And Chrissy, I'm sure that my kids will be taking some of this meat home to their freezers as well:)
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