Butchering Day

Well, the first day of butchering is finished. It was a very long 8a.m. to 10p.m. day, and we killed and butchered 40+ chickens. We still have 18 more chickens to do, but we have some friends who could not be with us for the first day, who want to learn how to do it, so a second day will be scheduled.

This is how we started, after all the setting up, the girls would bring Jeff a couple chickens. In the back of the house they were, killed, scalded, and plucked. Then they were brought into the house for cleaning. After cleaning they went into ice to cool, and in the evening they were packaged for freezing. Our production line worked well, but at the end of the day, Jeff and I were very tired.

Robert is standing ready at the killing station. Although, Jeff did all the killing himself, He will assure you it is not fun.

Here is the chicken plucker. It was worth every penny. We could put two chickens in, and after 20-30 seconds almost all feathers were gone from the chickens.

By the end of the day, it took about ten minutes to get from live chicken, to clean ready for cooling.

Is it worth all the time and effort? I'm not sure yet. We gave several away, and have only cooked one, which was, ok. When we have cooked several, and the reviews of the giveaways come in, then we we know if we will do this again. It is, for sure, a day will never forget.

Spring Pasture Maintenance

back of barn after a month

front of barn

back of barn in March

Kathleen pulling the plugger with gator

gathering equipment and seed

Last month the entire family worked many long hours and days in an attempt to bring our horse pastures back to life. We gathered rocks and branches, we filled holes, and kicked poop, we plugged, seeded and harrowed. Now a month after a few rains and some warm days, we are beginning to see more green than brown. Today we actually let the horse graze in the back field for the first time this year, and oh were they happy.