The Van Vleets

No, Bart Simpson would not approve of that.

But, you can ‘half’ a cow. And that is what we did!

This past weekend, we bought half a cow (aka a ’side’ – but I like saying ‘half a cow’) from the A&M Meat & Science Center out in College Station, TX.

Now cows are very big animals and so a side of cow takes up a lot of space!! And that means all these packages of meat are taking over our deep freezer in the garage. Everything just barely fit!

So what does a half of cow actually equate to, you might be wondering? We were able to get 232 pounds of meat which was projected to include 1 brisket, 2 skirt steaks, 3 top blade steaks, 5 chuck roasts, 3 clod roasts, 12 ribeye steaks, 11 top loin steaks, 5 top sirloin steaks, 4 tenderloin steaks, 2 round tip roasts, 5 bottom round roasts, 9 cutlets, and approximately 72 packages of ground beef. Yes, SEVENTY TWO packages of ground beef (each weighing 2 lbs).

You could really say ‘holy cow’ here and mean it!

Our neighbors were outside in the yard when Rob was unloading the meat and it was fun to hear all the banter they were tossing around. They all had some great ideas on how to best go through all this beef before a whole year goes by. Rob said we could just set an empty coffee can in the garage and they could come over and drop their change in to take out whatever they might need for dinner. And then another person thought it would be a great opportunity for our girls to become little entrepreneurs and, instead of the typical lemonade stand, they could set up a meat stand out on the corner of the neighborhood and get a taste for some business management. It would be great to sell some of it off; because really, what in the world am I going to do with 144 pounds of ground beef!!! And in the mean time, I cannot fit anything else in my freezer.

The girls had different expectations of what their daddy was going to return home with when we told them he was going to get a cow. Sweet Gracie got really excited and asked if she could pet it when he came home. Well…. I hated to disappoint her, but there was no point beating around the bush with this kind of stuff. So I very matter-of-factly stated, no baby – it will be a dead cow, one that has been processed into lots and lots of meat for us to eat (I was smiling rather big to make this sound just as good as bringing home a live cow). This obviously turned a happy Gracie into a rather grumpy Gracie and she responded with “I don’t eat cow” as she crossed her arms in front of her body and scowled in disgust at this atrocity. I had to raise a doubtful eyebrow and ask ‘oh really?’ Then I ran a few questions by her where she answered yes, she did eat chickens/yes, she did eat fish/yes, she did eat bacon/ so yes, she did eat meat. And then an answer of yes, she did hamburgers. All this finally forced her to concede that yes, she did eat cow. I know that doesn’t sound very nice, but these are life lessons folks; best teach ‘em early!

And also worth mentioning (which is a bit of a disappointment to Rob), we are not eating red meat every day of the week for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! This purchase was still within our moneysaving-frugal style of living and we will be reducing our grocery budget for many months to come to compensate for the purchase. I have been one to ration the beers Rob can have per week and the handful of almonds he can snack on when he comes home from work, so I will also now be restricting his consumption in the meat department (because as of Friday we literally have our very own meat department). I am not really that mean about it, but nobody better mess with my grocery budget. It is one of the few things I feel I have control over in this crazy unpredictable world (but that is for another blog…)

Anyways, we have a lot of cow meet! So if any folks have great recipe ideas, please pass them on!!

Halle’s math lessons have lately involved her gaining an understanding of weights and measurement. So far, all of her assignments have just asked about pictures and number problems; to complete them we have needed only a pencil. No extra supplies have ever been mentioned so I was not expecting the assignment today to require the use of a real balance. And one can chalk it up to poor planning on my part or a limited home-schooling budget (both are factors here), but for many reasons, there is a lack of balancing instruments in the home that would be suitable for Halle’s school exercises today.

I was ready to just help Halle guess which item/items might be ‘heavier than’, ‘lighter than’, or ‘as heavy as’ and call it a day. But Halle had the great idea to actually make a balance! Quite ambitious she is and she had some great thoughts on how to create such a device. We were in the process of punching holes into some plastic trays so we could attach string to them and tie them to a hanger when Rob came out from working (his new job has him office-ing at home when he is not out on a construction site). His comments were quite contrary to what I would hope from a supportive dad. It would be encouraging to hear him offer up praise like, ‘oh my, how cool is that!’ and ‘what a great idea!’ But no… this engineer/construction-minded brute came out and questioned the accuracy of our scale; asking the whereabouts of a fulcrum and throwing out terms like equilibrium and proper weight distribution. What? I don’t think your opinions were called on. Sir, please just go back to the office/bedroom whence you came and leave us be. It is not like NASA will be calibrating our instrument for precision or anything. And besides we were perfectly content with our little make-shift balance using a hanger, plastic lids, and some string. Also the elliptical trainer that has sat untouched in our dining room since the day we borrowed it (many months ago) served as the perfect place to hang our balance and conduct all our experiments. This worked great for our weight comparisons of keys, rulers, pencils, toy cars, and coins.

To help set the premise for this post (and most likely for the many to follow in the same topic area…) it will be beneficial to mention Rob’s undergraduate degree was in Parks and Recreation with a minor in Outdoor Education. Yep, you can major in such a thing and he actually received grades and college credit for taking backpacking and hiking trips! Rob loves the outdoors and he chose that degree because his desire was to go into full-time camp ministry. And for that matter, he did pursue that type of role during our 3rd and 4th years in marriage when we were on staff with Young Life. We worked first at Wilderness Ranch and then at Snow Wolf Lodge which were both geared for taking kids on long backpacking trips out in the beauty and majesty of the Colorado mountains. But that season of life was short-lived and our current situation is very far removed from the day-in/day-out camping scene. Yet Rob’s heart for the outdoors is still beating strong and he would love to foster in our girls that same fondness for enjoying God’s creation and sleeping under the stars.

Knowing that we wanted to slowly ease our girls into an appreciation of the outdoors and to acquaint them to the idea of camping in a positive way, we decided to rent a trailer for their first wilderness adventure (you can see that story here). And because that trip (from a year ago) was quite the success, we thought the next step to transform them into little hiker/backpackers want-to-bes should involve sleeping in tents. And so that is what we did. Two weekends ago, we headed out to a campground in Canyon Lake, TX along the Guadalupe River , it was a good place to try out as it was well kept and maintained. But there were also lots of rental cottages there and places for RV hook-ups and lots of power lines all in near proximity, so the rural and remote charm we were hoping for wasn’t part of this experience. But we did appreciate the nearby bathrooms! And the covered picnic tables that were scattered about the property ended up proving themselves to be a welcomed amenity when the rain came the next morning.

Our friends Mike and Megan Roberts came along too and we had a great time hanging out with them. And thanks to Halle, we also ended up spending some of our evening and morning with a father/daughter duo that were staying in an RV right next to our site. She couldn’t resist going over to the little girl who was watching us set up camp and introduce herself. The father later told us how entertained he was by all Halle’s conversation topics she covered in the first couple minutes of their encounter. He recapped her dialogue with how she started off with ‘do you know about Jesus?’ and then when he said ‘yes’ (probably not in the way Halle was hoping for) she then moved on to mentioning some of her mom’s restrictions on eating (probably including the no hydrogented oil or high fructose corn syrup rules) and then relayed a brief synopsis for many of her extended family members. Needless to say, he probably had quite a few conclusions about our family before he actually came over and met us personally himself.

We will definitely do this again and again. But while the kids are young (and too small to carry their own 50lb packs) we will most likely stick to car-camping and further hold off on Rob’s true wish to escape with us all into the back country donning only a backpack with just the essentials for survival. Someday Rob, someday…

These are old backpacking picks and will give you an idea of what Rob ultimately would love to have the girls experience.

I know there is an expression out there that either says “A picture is worth a hundred words” or “An expression is worth a hundred words” (and maybe ‘a thousand words’ was the ending of the quote???? I just don’t remember…)

Whatever it is, the old saying works here on this picture of Halle’s expression below!

You have to know that I am the one taking this picture and hence I am the recipient of this look. Also, remember that I am the least-favored parent to whom the “I like you” note was bestowed upon, instead of an “I love you” one like her daddy received _{(that post is here)}

So with that said, I am guessing this expression of hers is probably conveying words that the dimwit taking her picture (that would be moi!) is most unfavorable in her opinion. And that she is obviously superior to the person her eyes are condemning.

But my limited vocabulary doesn’t help me out with putting words here, but I am sure they are out there!

What words come to your mind when you see this look?