maple

We have a new pup! We adopted Maple, a Basset, Jack-Russell mix from our local humane shelter this weekend. Sofie is thrilled. I hear her saying, “You’ve given me a sister!”

They run and tumble, wrestle and play-growl, then trot along together checking out the property. When they’ve had enough, they plop down near the house to rest and ready themselves for the next adventure.

Maple is probably around 4 months old. She still has her baby teeth, but is no longer teeny-tiny. She’s a goofy, stout little thing with a wagging tongue and lots of love to spread. She has made a wonderful addition to our family this week.

Will next week bring chickens? If so, we won’t name them.

Jeff has decided he no longer wants to be a vegetarian. He is going to eat chicken and fish. I believe he might even eat the chicken we raise ourselves. He has decided that chickens are stupid enough and not pet-like enough that chopping off their heads when you’re hungry does not constitute a breach of animal/owner trust.

He has been a vegetarian for as long as we’ve known each other, so this is a big diet (and dogma) change for him. He is citing a desire to get his body clean again. He wants to ditch the processed crap that’s been making him sick, as well as the copious amounts of cheese and beans that he has to consume to get enough protein in to maintain muscle. He thinks a diet of some meat protein, perhaps once/day, plus lots of vegetables, cleaner carbs, and very little fake foods will do the trick. We have agreed to only local, humanely-raised meats with no factory-farmed suffered meat at all.

Sounds good to me, since it makes my life in the kitchen a heck of a lot easier and can make us more self-sufficient, too. It’s darn hard to support the bulk of your family’s diet off your own land unless you include some eggs or poultry, at least. And since he doesn’t like eggs, then dumb chickens it just might be.

And deer meat. My husband, vegetarian for the past 15 years, has decided to start hunting deer. He has always said, for all of those 15 years, that he isn’t against eating meat, but only if you have the cajones to kill it yourself, not distance yourself from it. Now, he’s walking the talk.

He put up some laundry posts for me yesterday and I s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d my clothesline across them today. It was such a beautiful day for it. Reaching high above my head, I would look up and see huge blue sky with big puffy white clouds resting here and there. Nothing but blue and white and bright sun beyond the clothesline. It made me smile. Then I grabbed a sunhat for my Magpie.

My little Magpie…..finally, a screen name. Why Magpie? Like the magpie -- the crow -- she watches. Her little eyes dart here to there to there to here. She is aware. She makes connections. She is knowing and observant.

Tomorrow Jeff will pick up our new washer and Tuesday I can (hopefully) run a load of clothes. Expect a lovely picture of clothes hanging on 4 clotheslines behind our house to follow.

Perhaps I will also include one of Jeff’s first non-vegetarian meal. He’s planning on fried chicken – from Tewes’ of course.