Well.... I butchered one of my chickens today. That was a milestone. Yes, it was fairly traumatic but... I do feel good about it. (And I'm sure that just makes allllll the difference to the chicken. ~cough~). Anyway, as my friend Lee mentioned, it gives you a sense of accomplishment that you are putting food on the table for your family. Exactly.
And, oh look. Here he is in all his glory:
Tomorrow's Dinner
And, yes, I knew his name.
Well, have to go to bed! Heading to Grammies bright and early in the morning time. I'm supposed to clean out her basement (Oh. Hooray...). Then we're off to her doctor, errands, and... delivering chickens! I hope I get home in time to cook my chicken!
That looks like a tasty chicken. Isn't it alot of work to do that? It takes me two hours by the time I bandage up my fingers that I chopped off and clean up the huge mess...and I have to have it done by the time Gordy gets up because if the chicken does not look like it came from Costco he won't eat it.
ReplyDeleteSo, I got a turkey from a lady in Smith Valley this Thanksgiving...she processed 51 turkeys that day (and they have to be plucked BY HAND) with the help of her 3 little kids and husband, then she went off to deliver a baby as she is a midwife or duelly or whatever they call it. I will never whine again...until next time. Love you. Linda
Linda! So great to hear from you. Actually I have yet another rooster defrosting as we speak. I took him out of my freezer tonight AND I KNOW WHO HE IS. ~sigh~ I wish I didn't but I do. The poor old fella. He was good boy, too. But yet ANOTHER extra rooster I'm funneling feed into. So, tomorrow he shall be crock potted and I will be guilt ridden. Oh well. :0)
ReplyDeleteThe lady in Smith Valley sounds like my mother. Seriously. She is visiting now and I think her eyes are going to roll out of her head if I lament one. more. time. the passing of the aformentioned rooster. Yes, she'd have butchered a yard full of chickens, cooked dinner for twenty five field hands, and then gone out and worked in the field until supper... which she would have ready and on the table. And have clean house.
How do you all do it? I can't even keep my house clean and I don't have children or farm hands, or a farm, ...do mothers have some sort of time machine? Fess up.
ReplyDeleteYour roosters had a wonderful, comfortable life. Don't feel guilty.
I made a feather duster out of one of my rooster's feathers and some driftwood, red cord and beads...gave it to a friend who is a librarian...she HUNG IT ON THE WALL AS A DECORATION in the library instead of using it and leaving it in a drawer somewhere...so the whole town knows I am a murderer. "Oh, Linda made that out of one of her pets!". sigh.
We have three roosters right now including the huge black orp named Leon. Gordy can't bear to eat him...he is pretty nice, though not wild about being picked up. He is so huge...the Rooster of the Baskervilles. He was from the last batch of your beautiful hatching eggs, by the way! He could be a show chicken, so I will see if one of the 4-H people want him. He gets regulary beaten up by our little 6oz Belgian Quail D'Anvers hen. for some reason she likes to go after him. too funny to see her do that. He could swallow her! Have fun with your Mother. I miss mine every day.