[Downthestretch55]

Blood

Anyone that's ever spent time on a farm knows that there's a time when there's going to be blood. Sometimes, it's not very nice.
One of my first memories was about some pigs that came to live behind the hen house. There were four of them, and I was warned not to name them.
They were so cute when they first showed up, skampering around in their pen, roooting in the mud.
They grew quickly on all the corn, table scraps, and everything that was thrown in to their "room".
By fall, I was picking up wind fallen apples from beneath the apple trees in the orchard and giving them a bushel basket full each day. They sure loved those apples.
Came the day in early November when, despite my pleadings to let them live, a "hog scalding" had been arranged. For those that have never attended one, it starts with a fire under a 55 gallon drum filled with water. When it gets close to boiling, the hogs are brought near. A 22 to the forehead and a quick thrust to nick both juglars ends their earthly existance with out suffering. Then they are "gutted" and dipped in the 55 gallon drum to losen their hair so they can be scraped. Then the "cutting up", and then the smokehouse.
My job was as a "gutter". Not an especially nice job, but soon the thought of having blood up beyond your elbows goes away, to be replaced by the thought of "let's just get this done with".
When it was finished, the blood washed off, and all that remained was a lot of meat, and the memory...that I just shared.

Today, the Pentagon released the names of thirty-three military that had been killed in Iraq this past week. May they rest in peace, and may their families find comfort. May all of us pay hommage to the sacrifice they've made.
And may those that put them in that situation also note that their valiant blood is beyond their own elbows, and no amount of washing will ever remove it.