The Day of the Deed

Butchering chickens isn't fun and it is hard work, but a freezer full of healthy, well-cared for birds, is a great blessing.

Our day started at 8am with separating out all the White Plymouth Rock roosters into this little pen.  We were going to do 30, but we only found 27.  That was good enough.  In this small pen, some flew to the top to escape, so one daughter sat guard while we got ready.

The first step is the hardest.  This "killing cone" is behind the barn so the rest of the chickens can't see what we're doing.  My husband carried them over and put them in the cone head down.  The confinement calms the chickens and holds them still while they bleed out.

Our sixteen-year-old was ready to try her hand at killing.  It takes a lot of emotional strength, but only moderate physical strength.  It has to be done quickly so the chicken doesn't feel anything.  The first couple were rough, but then she got it figured out. 

After cutting off the head and dunking the bird in 140-150ºF water, they were ready to be plucked.  Dousing them in the hot water loosens the feathers so they pull out easily, but it still takes a while.  Three daughters worked the plucking and barely kept up.

I was at the end of the line doing the evicerating.  At first I couldn't remember how to do it, but it slowly came back to me.  First I cut off the feet.  Then I slice around the neck to remove the crop and skin.  All clean, I cut off the neck and save it.  Then I slice the skin inside each leg to open them up and slice just under the sternum.  The trick is to get the gut area opened up neatly without slicing into any of the intestines.

With it opened up, then I reach in and pull everything out in one package.  I cut around the tail bone and slice the tail off, removing the whole bundle.  We kept the heart, liver, and gizzard.

All finished, the birds went into a cooler filled with ice water and vinegar.  By lunchtime when we were done, the cooler was filled to the top.

A stray cat that has adopted us thought this was a great morning activity.  She watched with interest and was delighted when I threw her some guts.

After a quick lunch, we brought the chickens inside one at a time, rinsed them, cut the legs off and wrapped them in plastic bags (they don't fit in our bags very well if we leave the legs on).  I dipped the bag into a sink full of clean water to push the air out before giving it a final twist. 

With three of us working, one opening the door, one handing out twist ties, and another the birds away in the freezer, it went quickly.

They turned out pretty nice.  These chickens weighed 2.5-3 pounds.  I was hoping for bigger, but these are normal sized chickens for a century ago.  Today's chickens are almost exclusively Cornish Cross which grow very fast and have enormous breasts.  We raised a batch last year and the kids called them mutant chicks.  They were creepy. 

By the time we were finished at 2:30pm we were exhausted.  This was our third butcher day, so we knew what to expect, but it's still tough.  In the end, our freezer is full of 27 healthy, good looking chickens, that will feed us for the coming year.

Anticipation

We have been planning a long time for this period when Christina is dry.  It is our only chance to go camping and traveling.  We've done two camping trips in a week and now we'll spend a week at home getting ready for a 12 day vacation.

In addition to getting ready, we have a lot of homestead work.  Like butcher day.

These White Plymouth Rocks are looking good and big, even bigger than the full grown red chickens.

We all dread butcher day but it has to be done.  If we procrastinate the roosters will get a sharp taste, or so I've read.  And it's a waste of chicken food to let them keep going.  And it will give us too much to do when we get back.  OK, we'll just do it!

Many look at us like we're crazy to do our own butchering, but it's part of our commitment to these animals that they will be butchered with respect and reverence.  Even our tenderest-hearted daughters share the commitment to do it right and do it ourselves.

I think the biggest butcher day we've done was 25 birds.  This year we have 60 to do plus the entire old flock.  We'll split it into three butcher days.  Tomorrow we'll do 30 and then do two more days when we get back.

Today we'll clear space in the freezer, get out the butcher supplies, and encourage the chickens to have a good day.  Tomorrow we start right after breakfast.

Our herbs are all growing mature and ready for drying.  After two weeks of drying, we crushed up the basil.  Here is our annual harvest.

Today we'll hang parsley.

It's a day of getting ready and anticipation.

Failure

Remember when I enthusiastically wrote about canning cream and pudding for our trip?  That didn't work out.  I'd noticed that they were separating, and then I moved the jars and found the lids unsealed.  Something had been growing in there.  When we poured them out they smelled BAD.  The whole house stunk. 

Canning failures are a big deal.  The stuff in those jars was probably deadly poisonous.  I should have looked it up before doing canning experiments.  Lesson learned. 

Our sweet corn was a complete bust.  We only planted one variety and the whole crop failed.  This was an experiment with the "three sisters:" corn, beans, and squash.  The beans and squash seem to be doing well, but they're all flopped on the ground and the corn didn't even make it three feet tall. 

The short plants set some corn cobs, they're not enough to bother with.

This is soil that really needed fertilizer and the corn showed it.  I've read about the problem of monoculture at the large industrial scale (only growing one variety), and here we've had an example on the small scale.  It will be a year without sweet corn.

Like all failures, these are better thought of as God's teaching moments.  Our job is to learn.

It's Done

After ten straight months of milking, Christina's first lactation with us is done.  She is dry. 

Our routine of heading out to milk twice a day is at rest.   Christina will lounge out in the pasture for two months while we enjoy evenings without an alarm going off.  Even better, we can leave, only needing somebody to feed the animals.

Today we head off for our first camping of the season.  In years past, we did lots of camping in the summer, so going a summer without camping has been new for us.  But now we're going.  It's Fall, the air has begun to chill, but the mountains will be pleasant.  Even better, they'll probably be empty. 

When we got Christina a year ago, it was only seven weeks before she dried off.  It was perfect for us; enough time to learn to milk and then take a rest.  Back then I wondered if we'd make it for ten months of a full lactation.  We did.  Actually, as the months went on, the burden became lighter, just like the adjustment to each new child who has come into our lives.  Yes, it takes energy and commitment to milk a cow twice a day, but I've found that the best things in life take energy and commitment.  Christina is one of them.

But she doesn't need us now and we are going!  We are off to visit the face of God that lives in the beautiful Idaho mountains.  

Strength & Health

Just when I think we've reached the peak in garden production, it goes up again.  Yesterday morning we picked green beans, expecting a big harvest of a full bucket.  We got two. What a strong garden!

Snapping beans and getting them in the freezer is a good excuse to watch a movie.  We've been watching Gone With the Wind since the twins are studying Civil War history.  We sat around the table, snapping beans and watching a 70-year-old movie on my 1-year-old computer. 

After the bean snapping was half done, I got going on blanching.  I blanched and blanched and blanched. 

By the end of the evening, we had five gallon bags ready for the freezer.

Today we have tomatoes to harvest and three boxes of peaches to can.  The cucumbers are producing hard and we may work in a batch of pickles. 

An old friend came to visit on Tuesday.  He's gone back to school and was bemoaning the unhealthy patterns he'd fallen into — not enough exercise and too much unhealthy food.  I thought about how this lifestyle keeps us all healthy without trying or will power.  We just eat what the land gives us.  We work for the harvest and food preservation.  And God gives us strength and health.

Tiny Egg

We have reason to believe the new chickens have started laying.  This morning we found this tiny egg.  When chickens first start laying, the eggs are small.  As I recall, they get normal sized within a week or two. 

I wasn't expecting eggs yet.  I wasn't expecting the first eggs until late October or early November.  This is way early.  Well, we'll see what happens.  When our first bunch of chickens started laying there was one egg one day and a week later the nesting boxes were full. 

We are heavy into travel planning.  Tomorrow we will milk Christina for the last time and Friday we leave for our first camping of the year.  In the middle of trips we plan a butcher day, but if the chickens are maturing faster than I thought those plans might not work.  Hmmm.  We'll see what happens.

Tomatoes

The standard way to make tomato sauce is to skin the tomatoes, put them in a big pot, bring to a boil, use a food mill to remove the seeds, and cook until it's thick.  It takes a long time, uses lots of energy, and must be stirred the whole time.  I'm trying some new ideas to make it easier and use less energy.

This year I'm trying some dehydrating.  I figured if I dehydrated some tomatoes, I could add them to sauce as it started cooking and it would thicken the whole thing up.  After slicing tomatoes, we put them out in the sun and they are dry in three days.

This bowl of dehydrated tomatoes came from about half a bushel of tomatoes.  They are kind of leathery, not crisy.  I left them in the sun for four days and then they spent another two days in an open bowl on the counter, but didn't seem to change after the first three days.

Even though they were leathery, they crushed up pretty good in the blender.  When it was all done, we had about two cups of powder.

A friend mentioned that she doesn't skin her tomatoes, she just puts them through the blender.  What a great idea!  I thought I'd try it, but start with some solar dehydrating before it goes into the pot. 

Rather than only picking the tomatoes that are perfect, we've been picking all that look close.  The ones that are just a little shy spend some time on the counter to redden up all the way.  These will be ready in a few days.

This is a lot of prep, but I'm hoping it makes sauce making faster and easier.  Last year we didn't get many tomatoes, so this year we planted a lot more plants and so far we're on target for a good supply for tomato sauce.

Toe Nail Adventure

It had to be done. Christina's hooves had gotten so long that it's only a matter of time until she started limping and went lame. We had to get them trimmed.  But people who do hoof trimming only do large herds and we couldn't find anybody to come to our place for just one cow.  The dairy we bought her from was willing to give her a trim, but we had to get her there.  Our adventure began.

First we went to Nampa to pick up a lifestock trailer.  But it was too small.  Jersey cows are much longer than horses.  Then we found a place in Caldwell with a big enough trailer.  Back to Boise.  Getting Christina into the trailer wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  She wasn't fast and she did need some convincing, but she got in.  After an hour of driving, we arrived at the dairy she was born on.

First they put her in the shoot.  She's been in this shoot before and needed some reassuring.

After getting her all snugged up with straps under her belly, she was lifted just enough to take the weight off her feet.  Then they pulled her leg back, way back, and began trimming.

She got over an inch off in length and quite a bit of grinding on the bottom.  Cows need hooves that are nice and flat.  One of her hooves had developed a sizable lump on the bottom.  Just taking that off was worth the long drive.

Even though I know it's just toe nail, I still found it difficult watching her being worked on.  She wasn't too excited about being the one getting worked on either.  Several times she kicked and squirmed and tried to get away.  In spite of her struggles, they said she actually was pretty peaceful.  She must have been comforted that people she knew were there.

It took almost an hour with lots of grinding sounds, just like at the dentist, and the smell of hot hooves, just like burned hair.  And then it was over.  She looked resigned by the end, just patiently waiting it to be done but mumbling under her breath, "you suck."  I don't blame her.

Our twins had a wonderful time visiting the cows and visiting some new kittens in the hay pile.  We had a wonderful time being with people who love Christina as much as we do.  All I can think is that God must love us very much to send us to this dairy and to these people.

Then we all loaded back up, drove back to Boise, unloaded the cow, cleaned out the trailer, drove back to Caldwell, unhitched the trailer, and finally made our last freeway trip home.  The day started at 9am and wasn't over until 5:30pm.  It was long but so good to have a cow with healthy hooves.  She walked straight out to her pasture when we got home, had something to eat, and then laid down in her shed to rest. 

Tonight she's sporting nice looking hooves and doesn't seem the worse for wear.  But I think I'll go lay down.

Home Eating & Vacationing

As Christina dries off, we look forward to our first opportunity to travel. We are planning some camping and a long trip to California.  In the past our vacation food came in freezer bags and boxes.  This year we want to take some of our homestead with us.

The freezer in our trailer can take a lot, but not enough frozen milk for ten days.  Suddenly, I remembered the milk that I sterilize for culture and thought of canning milk for our trip.  The milk tastes cooked, but on oatmeal it will be good.  Yesterday, I canned 7 quarts of milk and 2 quarts of cream for my coffee.

We're also thinking of canning pudding.

Last week with a wonderful time with some friends.  We both decided the Fair was too expensive and we would do a home Fair Day.  My friend, Heather, wrote a wonderful blog post about it at Not A Carbon Copy.

Gentle Bursting

Today we got our first chili pepper harvest.  In this basket are serano, poblano, and jalapeno peppers.  I've never grown chili peppers before, so this is a new thing.  I have visions of chili powder for winter-time chili.  My husband is thinking salsa.  Whoever cooks first wins!

I did some searching on the internet on how to make chili power.  As best I can tell, you just dry them, snip off the stem, shake out the seeds, and then grind them up.  It says that drying in the sun takes about 2 weeks.

The tomatoes are really coming on.  This mountain was just from this morning.  Last year we didn't get many tomatoes, but this year they are growing so much better.  I'll wash these and put most of them in the freezer to make sauce later.  I might try drying some.

My husband is growing okra in the front garden.  I think okra is yucky, but he and the kids love it in jambalaya.  The flowers are beautiful.

Those celeries I planted way back on January 1st, have grown big and they look so healthy.  I put them in a part of the garden that is a littler wetter and a little shadier.  The plants are up to my knee and thick.  These stems looks wonderful.  I'm told that you don't harvest until after frost, so we'll keep an eye on them.

We're also growing celeriac, which tastes like celery but is grown for its bulb.  They are supposed to be easier to grow in hot climates like ours.  They are starting to bulb up nicely, although I wouldn't be surprised if the celery actually turns out better. 

It's September and the taste of fall is in the air, but the garden is gently bursting with harvest.  Every day calls us to the abundance God has waiting for us.  

Uh oh, I Have To Go

A friend of mine asked about my blog yesterday.  I admitted that I'm not doing much.  With the harvest coming on, I get photos taken, the post half written, and then get pulled away and never get back to it.

This week it's peaches!  Our peach tree is still young and only produced a few fruits.  We picked up seven boxes of peaches from the local fruit stand.

...uh oh, I have to go milk...

Milking is a two person affair in our house.  My husband does one side and I do the other in the morning.  In the evening, he does one side and one of our teenagers does the other. 

Speaking of milking, Christina is officially drying off.  After switching her to grass hay, which is lower quality so she produces less milk, yesterday we switched to one milking a day.  Christina gets these last two months of pregnancy to herself and we have plenty of milk in the freezer, but it's a little strange to watch the milk go down and down.  After nine months of 4.5 gallons a day, yesterday she gave 2.4 gallons and today 2.1 gallons.  She's going down, just like she should.

But back to peaches!  For three days I cut up peaches in the morning and put them in the freezer on big sheets.  The next day they got broken up and put into gallon freezer bags.  These will be for fruit smoothies and pies.

Last night a got a batch going in the dehydrator.

Today we are canning.  Canned peaches are my daughters' favorite.  Canning fruit is so easy that we'll probably be able to get four boxes of fruit done by lunch time.

The chickens have gotten pretty comfortable out on the pasture.  The first day beefy chased them back but now the cows seem comfortable too.  My husband was working out in the pasture and got this shot of nap time in the shed.

...uh oh, I have to go pick green beans...