Some good friends of ours were going to butcher their meat chickens last Saturday, and invited us to join them. Lance immediately declined (he joined us for dinner because you don't ever turn down a chance to eat Connie's cooking). I am always up for an adventure so I joined another set of friends, (also city transplants) for a day of murder and mayhem. . .
The chickens are everything an organic cook could wish for - they live in a beautiful cage free stall, eat from the garden and range (safely fenced) on the property.
On death row. . . literally.
Getting ready to be put on the chopping block. I could not carry the live birds, but I did hold the wire (with my eyes closed) that kept them on the block. Myron performed his duties as executioner quickly - yes, that is my children laying on the trampoline watching. . .
Honestly, when someone says they were "running around like a chicken with their head cut off" , it will carry a whole new meaning for me.
Um, yes, he is holding what you think he is. . . I prefer to think of him as a biologist in the making. . . One of the chickens "ran (w/o a head)" under the truck and A very calmly crawled under and pulled it out. . . country kids are very tough.
Yep, that's my boy. . . This was about as close as he got, well this and racing his scooter through the trail of blood on the floor in the shop. . .
My girl - she even worked up the courage to pluck the chickens with us. Very strong kid!
This smelled as bad as it looks. . .
An automatic chicken plucking machine - created by our high school FFA program. It did not work too well for the chickens so we ended up working by hand. . .
Right about now, I am so grateful for my college diploma and job in a library. . .
As we worked, Connie, who grew up Amish shared that her mother (with the three oldest children) would butcher 50 chickens at a time. What a life. . .
Really, it was a great day. Perfect weather, amazing friends and lots of laughter. I left with a renewed sense of gratefulness for my "easy" life. Would I do it again? Sure, if Connie is cooking dinner. . .(photos taken by Elaine Sanders)
5 comments:
What a day! The picture are great, but your captions are even better. I was sitting here laughing out loud as I read them. :)
Wow! That is really cool, you guys really worked for you meal, hope it was tasty!
The meal was tasty - thankfully, not chicken! :)
I'll stick to my egg laying ladies. Good grief, what a process.
I just realized that with Jeff's name on the post, that first comment might seem a bit crude to other readers. I have egg laying hens, people. I'll stop while I am ahead....
Leslie
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