AUTHOR'S NOTE: I dumped this entire long ahh wall of text into Kaloomte Soloman's iMessage inbox -- come back to this later to shorten it
HUNTING, FISHING, FARMING, DRIVING MEAT UP TO CHICAGO STUFF
Butchering season already started but Iāmma contact my Aunt Kathy again tomorrow get set up with her directly and hopefully get out there asap. She is regularly like āBring your city friends and their kids down here so we can teach them how to shoot/hunt/ride horses/be part of sustainable and honorable cattle ranchingā, but a ranch in the middle of nowhere with no cell signal is kind of a hard sell for some people ā ļø
I took one boyfriend there in college and he was like, super uncomfortable at how deserted it was so I didnāt bring anyone else, not even my ex-husband, just because its such a sacred place to me, but I think the world is ready again and that these skills matter a lot.
While Iām out there I might be able to get some game too (rabbit, quail) and bring that back for when Iām poor again. I have to look into hunting practices in the midwest, but me and a lot of country Indian /cowboy people would be able to meet our protein needs much more easily if we were allowed to hunt. I have to connected with the indigenous nations of the hunting territory and I can only hunt with people who are committed to doing it with honor/expressing love and gratitude for the animal, but if I can get set up with hunting here then I can get my own game, add it to my someday deep freezer, and not have to experience rapid protein loss if Iām poor again
Iron and B-vitamin deficiency is my most common ailment in these most recent years. The stomach acid from bulimia just really truly wrecks the inside of your mouth. Steak helps with the iron and itās like a very low-energy needed meal for me but thereās other ways to fix my iron and other deficiencies.
My plushcare doctor referred me to getting my labs done like, last year, but I was like āwho in the world has time and money to do thatā, so I have never had my labs done. I get blood tests when I have a really excruciating endo pain ER visit but I have managed to stay out of the ER for months and Iād like to stay out of it for years, I hate hospitals lol (is your fam okay, btw?)
Anyway, thatās three messages so I will cease to add new messages and paste these in the blog instead, but the TL:DR; is just that my country cowboy fam wants to take care of me and I want to take care of them back (by selling their beef, I think? Iām brainstorming other forms of mutual aid for my fam that relies on agriculture to survive; things change so rapidly in this country that weāre pretty much living year to year).
The gun laws in the midwest seem like its going to be tough to bring out a hunting rifle, so Iām going to ask my cousins to teach me how to hunt with a crossbow or a bow and arrow (theyāre excellent and generous hunters and I want to team up with them anyway to get hides for my leabthercrafting).
My cousins are like rodeo/calf-roping champs and they taught me the basis of lassoing/calf roping but I want to get better at it (I want to be able to do horseback archery hunting after the supply chain collapses). I really gotta start writing down the costs and steps associated with being able to hunt what I need for my own well-being / for my family because its what gives us dignity and keeps us safe
ANYWAY thanks again for your patience and sorry for the ramble. Thisāll go in the blog under something like āHunting and Personal Sovereigntyā or somethin idk haha . I am tryna unmask and let my inner accent and stuff come out again but I spent so long fighting it that now unmasking is a challenge haha. The thing cowboys and Indians all have in common is that we like really aggressively prefer to hunt and provide in the traditional ways, with honor, and it can be tough to explain that (the divide in this country isnāt red vs blue, I feel like itās urban vs rural but Quien Sabe/Who knows)
Tomorrow we can definitely talk about the Hunting and Ranching stuff but I am going to try to commute to the gym at least daily if I can cause its like the only place I donāt experience depression and anxiety haha. Taking myself there is a form of self care. If we ever get more members who rely on the old ways (hunting, fishing, and growing) to provide for their family or themselves I wanna link up with them asap. Especially country people of color