For Teena--

Is this the same dress you got for your wee one, too??

Look at her shoes! :o)

She always puts them on the wrong feet!

All By Myself!

With 3 roosters, the poor hens were getting ganged up on. I have seen one rooster grab a hen and try to mount her, only to have another rooster chase the first one away and then try to mount the same hen, and I swear, I am happy when the hen gets away before anything happens between her and the roosters. Poor hens. The hens stick together and go off into the woods and the 3 roosters mill about in the yard, chase my feet when I walk by and generally make nuisances of themselves.

Something needs to be done about those roosters.

I decided it was time to take action and butcher a rooster-- on my own. No Uncle here to help me this time around. To say I was nervous is an understatement.

I decided on the big Buff Orpington rooster. He was a pushy bird and was always pecking the hens on the head. Poor girls. They'd all be gathered around me, eating the scraps I tossed, and then the Buff would all of a sudden peck someone and the hen would squawk and run away and he'd move in and eat and the poor hen missed out on the scraps. His actions determined his fate.

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I got the area ready for doing the deed. Since my Uncle wasn't around to chop the head off for me, and I didn't have anyone to help me hold the chicken still, I used a tree trunk with 2 nails to slip the neck into. It took me a good 10 minutes to pysch myself up for it. I said a prayer of thanks for the chicken and then I did it. My hands were shaking afterwards, and I busied myself getting the hot water and my work area ready so I didn't have to watch the death dance.

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It was different without my Uncle there. When we worked on the first one, I was focused on watching him and how he did things, where he inserted the knife and how to cut... This time, I was on my own and I felt a little anxious and shaky, I had to take deep breaths and reassure myself that I would do fine.

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I dipped the chicken into the hot water and started pulling the feathers off. It definitely took me longer alone, than when my Uncle and I worked together on the last one.

Feathers plucked.

It took me about 45 minutes, from the moment I chopped his head off, to getting it into a zippy bag in the fridge. I need a higher work table to do this next time, as my back hurt from being bent over. I think next time, I'll just bring the chicken into the house after I pluck the feathers off outside. The kids snuck outside to watch me and they came out in time to see me pulling out the innards. I told them they could come closer to watch and they did. I forgot about the head still on the chopping block until Middle said "Look! There's the head!" Eeep! I quickly went over to get the head and tucked it under the pile of feathers to be buried later on. The head is not pretty to look at, and knowing my kids, they would be creeped out by seeing it. Maybe later, but not now.

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All in all, I think I did ok. I know the next one will take less time to process and as I learn and go on, each time I butcher a chicken, I will get more efficient. I already learned I used the wrong knife, and will change that for next time. I already decided, next time, I'll process the chicken in the house on a proper counter top. Just those 2 changes will make a difference.

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I have one more rooster I need to butcher. I have to decide which one. Both are good roosters, they keep the hens in check, I just need to figure out which seems the better one and then butcher the other one.

Hopeful Entries

It's official: I've entered my Rhuberry jam (rhubarb and strawberry) and my Crazyberry (my own blend of black raspberry, strawberry, blackberry and grape) for judging in the County Fair. It's my first time entering anything at the fair, so I hope I make good marks. Would be nice to bring home a ribbon or two. They send off the winning jams and jellies to Ball/Kerr jar company for judging, so I have visions of them contacting me and asking for my Crazyberry recipe. One can dream, right?

Wish me luck! I find out the results at the end of the week.

Speeders

We had a visit from my Dad and his wife and we took them sight-seeing around the area. In our local newspaper, they had an article about 'Speeders'. Little maintenance rail cars that used to speed around the rails to help make repairs on trains or tracks. Railroad companies no longer use these Speeders, but there are people who buy them and restore them and then ask permission from rail stations to travel through on the tracks. They travel all over the country and Canada, seeing the country in a way that many of us never get to see in our cars on the roads. The article said the Speeders would be in our area on Saturday, but I never thought we would have actually seen them! We quickly pulled over and watched the procession of Speeders speed by!

This group of Speeders had about 20 cars from all different railroads and we really enjoyed watching them go by. I had no idea they existed and when we got home, I quickly dug out the newspaper to read it more thoroughly. It was a nice little history lesson for us.

They even bring along their own port-a-potty!

Check out the Hampshire Reviews' youtube video here to learn more about Speeders
(sorry, it isn't captioned)

Overwhelmed and Overflowed

Our septic tank backed up into the basement. I think it was a combination of being full and a clog somewheres in the pipes. The Husband mentioned several times before that we should get the tank pumped out, but money was always an issue, so it got bumped down to the bottom of the list.

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I had piles of clothes on the floor by the washer, sorted and waiting to be washed, and they are now soaked with septic water. I cannot wash clothes until we get the problem resolved. Called around and found a local guy that would pump for a reasonable price, but does not dig. So we had to remember what the previous owner said where the tank was and start poking around with a rod. Found it!

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I took measurements to remember, in the future, exactly where to dig. I'm relieved that we were not too far off from where the lid was.

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The tank was FULL. If I remember right, the former owners told us they had the tank pumped before they put the house up for sale. This means there is about 5 years of poop and pee and other waste in here. Didn't stink too bad.

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1500 gallons of waste pumped out and taken away.

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Water is still backing up into the basement. I suspect there is a clog and we are currently waiting for the guy to come back with his de-clogging tool. The name escapes me. Super-powered snake something or other. I hope that it does the trick. I want to mop and disinfect the laundry room. When it backed up, the flow dripped into and onto the washer, so I also need to disinfect the washer. It will take me many washes to get all the clothes that were on the floor clean. The septic water also flowed to other areas of the basement and it gives me a good excuse to throw away some now-ruined things. Some of the plush toys got wet, the rolled-up rug from the playroom is wet, and some other various items.

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We went to the lake beach yesterday and I was looking forward to having a shower last night. I am dirty, my head itches, we are using wipes to wash our hands, no flushing of the toilets, dirty dishes are piling up.... I hope, if it is a clog, that it gets unclogged and things will return to normal again. If it is something else, I don't know what we will do. We cannot afford much else.

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***Edited to Add:***

We got the pipe unclogged! Water is flowing freely through the pipes and into the septic tank! I really appreciate being able to use our water now and have just gotten out of the shower into clean clothes. Ahh!

Hell Froze Over

I finally gave in and joined that crazy thing called facebook. I had gotten plenty of invites from people to join in and I told myself that I never would. Well, I got curious... and signed up last week. Good grief! In the span of 48 hours, I went from having 2 friends to over 50 friends! I had no idea I was so popular! I realize though, that there are people who add friends just to boost their numbers.





Anyway, I picked this for my profile picture... I think it says enough about me. From the looks of the picture, I must live somewhere with lots of trees, I'm holding a chicken, so maybe I live on a farm, and there is some sort of building behind me, what's that? And oh, look-- trash! I must be white trash! :o) Maybe I need to change the picture? Hmm..





I am keeping my facebook and my blog separate. I know that there are some old classmates that read this here blog (Hi!), but it doesn't mean I want the whole school to read it! I think I would start to second-guess myself and censor things if I knew everyone was reading this, and I don't want to do that. This blog is for ME, it's my way to give my kids a connection to me when they are older and I get this printed out in book form.





Back to facebook. It's been interesting. It's like a class reunion without having to fly anywhere and dealing with the BS of having to repeat over and over what I am doing with myself these days. I like seeing how people have changed, or stayed the same, who married whom, and how many kids they have, if any. I don't think I've changed much since high school... see?




I was 17 in my senior picture, taken in '91. I wore glasses then, but chose not to wear them for the picture. I was trying to copy my Mom's senior picture, where she did not smile, but I thought it was the most beautiful picture ever, of her. And yes, that is a little rat tail you see peeking out on the side there. What can I say? It was the style at the time. The back of my head was shaved, too, so that when I had a ponytail, you could see short hair back there, and that's when I discovered I have the same cowlick that my dad does, on the back of my head.




There are some schoolmates that look so different, that when they have tagged me to be their friend on facebook, I've had to study their pictures to try and place them-- especially when they have changed their names. I can usually remember faces and then match names with them, but some of those faces have changed so much!




That sweet, skinny, scrawny little guy, whom you once told, "I'm not interested in you that way, I just want to be friends", is now big and buff and handsome! That cute, popular guy that all the girls swooned over, is now fat and balding. That geeky girl that never had a boyfriend is now too gorgeous for words, with a cute husband and cuter children. It all sounds so cliche, but it's true! I see it with my own eyes, how we have all changed and I hope that people will look at me now, remember me the way I was, and say: She looks the same. She was nice to me then.

Painting and Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

The yard sale fell through. First, the weather man predicted rain for Friday-- uh-oh. Sure enough, it rained all day on Friday. No way was I going to set up in the rain and then have to dry everything off the next day. Then my Mom, Aunt and Uncle came over for a visit and we all had lots of fun talking and enjoying each others' company. Husband's boss also called and changed his working schedule so that he ended up having to work early on Saturday, which meant I'd have to set up the tables and put all the sale items out alone. So we didn't have the sale after all. That's ok, we'll do it again some other time.

The girls wanted to paint more shirts with freezer paper. So we came up with new designs and made these. Middle wanted a caterpillar with grass, Youngest wanted a tree, and Oldest wanted a butterfly. The heart on the bottom ended up being a way to cover up a glob of paint that dripped on there. I definitely see more freezer paper painting in my future!

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In chicken news-- I asked my Uncle to help me butcher a chicken. He's a farm boy and has butchered many a chicken in his lifetime. I asked him if he'd be willing to show me how and he was happy to help.

We butchered the mean, ornery rooster that pecks every passing foot and hand.

***WARNING***

There may be some pictures here that sensitive readers might not want to see.

I did not take pictures of the whole process because I was helping, but if you don't want to see a chicken with it's head cut off, feathers being plucked, then a naked chicken, and chicken parts:: don't look.
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After we chopped the head off and let the chicken do his death dance (which was not as bad as my mind had thought it would be. I expected much more blood), Uncle dipped the chicken in a pot of scalding water. I expected to be grossed out a little, but I was not in the least.

I was surprised at how easy it was to pull off the feathers. I'm not sure what I imagined, but I thought there would have been more yanking or struggling with the feathers. The only hard part was the tips of the wing feathers where they were big and thick and I had to pull them off one at a time.

With the two of us working together, we had it plucked free of feathers in no time.



Here, Uncle is burning off the pin feathers. I'm glad he pointed them out to me, because I thought pin feathers was something entirely different. I thought they were the teeny tiny feathers that were hard to grasp and pull. Turns out, they look like what they are called, long thin feathers, thin as a pin. Almost like fur. It's easier to just burn them off than to try and pluck every single one.

The part about butchering a chicken that made me the most nervous and what many other websites caution against, was cutting around the chicken anus and being careful not to puncture or cut any of the organs that would contaminate the chicken. You know, who wants poop on your food?

But once I watched Uncle cut and he showed me where and how, it really allayed my fears and I feel much more confident about doing it myself next time. Here, Uncle is pulling out the rest of the internal organs. He got thrown off by the sight of two white organs and it took him a while to figure out what they were. Ah-ha! We were working on a rooster, not a hen... they were testicles!

All cut up and waiting to be rinsed then put into the freezer.

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I appreciated Uncle showing me how to butcher a chicken and it was nice to spend time with him, learning and also listening to stories of his childhood.

We kept the kids away-- they knew what we were doing, but I didn't want them to see the killing process just yet, until I saw for myself first, and then I can decide how much I want them to witness and be a part of. I made sure that when we got the chickens, I talked often about how the chickens are going to feed us; some with eggs and some with meat, so that they had no illusions about them being pets. They seem to understand that and wanted to see the meat after we got back in the house. Middle said she didn't want to eat him, and I said that was fine. I won't force her to eat it. Eventually, I will probably wean them into the process, backwards:: seeing me cut up the naked, whole chicken; then seeing me gut it; then seeing me pluck the feathers, and so on.

It was a good experience, and I am still taking it and letting it all sink in. I feel pretty good about having to do it myself next time.