The rainbow never sets

"Of course, otherwise I couldn't tell you this. The girls always make a terrible fuss about looking away when the gory parts happen, but we don't mind. After it is clean, they expose the sinews of the hind legs and put a strong wooden bar through it, and a hook. It had to be hung up with its back on a ladder, which was leaning against a tree, head down. Then the stomach is slit open carefully, so that nothing inside is damaged. All the intestines and internal organs are then inspected to see whether they are healthy or not, and a piece of meat is sent in to the meat inspector, who tests for trichinosis. The intestines are cut and thoroughly cleaned, as they are filled with sausage meat the next day. Then the carcass is quartered and hung in the cellar also for the next day. That's when the real meat processing starts."

And I told him how the following day everyone in the household was busy. The liver, kidneys, lungs and some fat was boiled, finely minced and made into liverwurst. The legs were sent off to the smoking chamber to be cured as ham. Much of the other meat was minced and made into salami, which also had to me smoked. Weiss-wurst is really white bread soaked in fatty broth with some meat, and black pudding is white bread soaked in blood and again some meat. All these were pressed through a sausage machine, filling all the available guts. Sometimes additional guts had to be bought. Except for the salamis, all other sausages were boiled in the large copper. If one or two sausages burst in the process, we had a better and more substantial wurst soup that evening for supper.

"That's quite a lot of work, then?" "Yes, but it is well worth it. There is nothing like home made liverwurst or home made salami! You'll see for yourself at supper time."

"I'm already looking forward to it." "Are you getting hungry? What do you think, can we finish our tour first before we turn in, or do you want to go home straight away?"

"Oh, let's finish first, there can't be much left." "Actually, there still is quite a lot to see."

I showed him quickly the chicken house, which had chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks, all again for our own use. Then came a building for the calves and heifers and at the far end were the stalls for the bullocks, which were used as draft animals. Around the corner was a long barn. Some steps led to the cellar where our fresh milk was stored before it went to Posen. The door in the middle of the barn was an entrance to the grain store, and behind that was another barn.

"Before we come to the last building, I want to show you our forge and carpenter shop. They stand here in the middle of the yard. Let's see the forge first."

As we entered the forge I said: "I would like you to meet our master smith Kowalski, and these are his two assistants." "Good afternoon, what can we do for you?" "I just want to show my friend here the bellows. If you pull this lever, it

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