MyTown Monday: Rural Oklahoma

(photo credit YPN--see Psychic Niece, I did credit you!)

This My Town Monday post comes to you all the way from rural Oklahoma where Child #4 and I are hanging with DH's side of the family. Then, on Thursday, I'll be on a panel with four other Class of 2k8ers at EncycloMedia in Oklahoma City ("the City" as they say here). Yikes! So not thinking about that right now. So not getting nervous yet.

Anyway, today I visited Mark, one of DH's best buds from high school. From waaay back when. And this friend and his wife have their very own meat processing business, out here in the country off Highway 270. This is Mark, holding up a steer's tail, which, when boiled, makes great oxtail soup.

Mondays and Thursdays are killing days. I took this photo of a bull yesterday, on Sunday. You can do the math from there. WEIRD TRIVIA: If you're ever planning to have a bull butchered, make sure it happens before he hooks up with a heifer or...the meat will taste funky. Either that or have your bull castrated at birth.

The animal comes in from the pen outside to this pen inside where it's shot in the head. The side of this pen lifts up and the body is rolled out, then strung up by its hind legs way up high on hooks. A barrel is placed under the body to catch the blood. MORE WEIRD TRIVIA: Some people ask the butcher to reserve a jar of blood, which, after it gels, they slice up for fish bait. (Sorry, no pic of the hook system; they weren't descended enough from the ceiling.)

Then the animal us unhooked and laid out on this rack for skinning.

Then, it's back up on the hooks to finish the skinning and take out the insides.

The meat cures in the freezer for a couple of weeks.

The meat is cut into steaks, roasts and ground. A steer (a castrated bull) with a live weight of 1200 pounds dresses out to a bunch of meat packets weighiing about 700 pounds. WEIRD TRIVIA: What we call tri tip in California, they call brisket here.

Here's a bunch of packaged meat in a freezer, waiting to be picked up.



I know there's a gross element to all this, but, honestly, even as a totally citified girl, I found this entire visit fascinating. And not just because I'm a sucker for weird trivia. No, it's because this guy figured out what was missing in his community, filled the void and is making a pretty decent living at it.

And isn't that what it's all about? Finding out where you fit in in life?

Please visit Travis Erwin, the guy who spearheads My Town Mondays. He'll have a list of links to other Mondayers.