Did the deed.

No pictures in this post - you'll thank me later!

We finally got around to it and butchered a goat. I'm proud to say we did an excellent, if slow, job. His final moments were peaceful and stress-free. (I covered his ears when we shouted "Dead goat walking! on the way down to the creek.) Craig did a good job on the kill.. no pain at all. He lived a great life, died clean and made his contribution to the farm.

I'll spare the gorier details, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. After my initial townie dismay wore off, it was actually kind of interesting. It was also a good feeling to be able to see the clean, healthy organs and know that the herd is in excellent health.

We're experimenting with aging meat as well, and this first butchering will not be aged. The next one we'll age for 2-3 days, and another later for a week to see what difference it makes in the meat. I'm currently monitoring temperatures in a room in an old trailer that we're using for storage to make sure we can successfully set up a cold room that doesn't get too cold or too hot for safe aging. Hopefully this will work. Otherwise I may have to send the next ones off to the butcher shop for processing which defeats the self-sufficient goal.

I'm happier to report that goat meat isn't bad at all. It's kinda tough, but that could be due to the lack of aging. Even braised in a 200 degree oven for over four hours it was still pretty chewy.