06/21/2026
To say the last 24 hours have been challenging is an understatement. For those that don't know, our area was devastated yesterday afternoon and evening with severe storms. 90 mile an hour winds, nickel to ping pong ball size hail and three inches or more of rain in just 90 minutes. We've been in a drought and the ground was so dry it couldn't absorb the rain fast enough, leading to flash floods throughout the area.
Our little homestead was not spared.
The garden is absolutely leveled, what were healthy and strong plants yesterday morning are nothing more than stems sticking out of the ground now. Only time will tell if any of them are able to bounce back, but we aren't expecting to have much yield this year.
We moved our meat chickens to their pasture earlier this week. They were thriving, loving the space and scratching and pecking as God intended them to live. A fundamental belief that I live by, is that although the animals we raise ultimately will have their lives cut short to sustain us and others, those animals will always be allowed to live the best life I can give them.
By the time the hail storm slackened and we were able to get to them, their chicken tractor was inundated with a foot of water, they had to no chance.
I hardly slept last night, I couldn't shut my brain off. At 5 this morning, I slid out of bed, dressed and went outside. At 6 I was digging a hole to put their little bodies in. At 7, I was loading their cold stiff forms in a tote and by 7:30 they were covered with earth.
I was angry last night. I was angry this morning, and I'm still angry. Not for the financial loss, but for the waste of life. As I was digging a four foot hole that was three foot deep this morning, I reflected and lamented on just that, the waste of life, and how our society no longer values life and it not only enraged me, but deeply saddened me as well. I reflected on the value of those little pullets lives, and how much I revered what their sacrifice in two months would have meant. I thought of how people today are so disconnected from where their food comes from, how they never see or experience or want to witness how these animals are raised and how appreciative we should all be for what that means for our sustenance and success. It sickens me.
I've been an outdoorsman for as long as I can remember. Taking of life is never a casual affair. When I hunt, it's not for trophies, it is for sustenance. A good hunt means bringing the harvest home, nothing ruins it for me more than wounding an animal and not finding it or killing it and not being able to utilize the gift. As a homesteader, it rings more true to me now than ever, experiencing and sharing every day that those animals live under my care.
In Genesis, God said "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea, and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and the wild animals, and over all the creatures the move along the ground." God never said for mankind to waste something as precious as those animals lives. And that's what angers me. As a society, we waste it constantly. Life has no value to the vast majority of people today, whether it is livestock or human.
And I suppose that is why I am making this post. Yes, I'm extremely saddened, angry and upset for our loses, but more so I am disgusted at what we have tricked ourselves into accepting, out of convenience, laziness and selfishness.
