May 27, 2008

• A Memorable Memorial Weekend...

   Here is a rundown, largely in picture form, of our Memorial weekend. First time I've done any sort of celebrating it in years. Frank was usually at work and all. I guess, my warning with this post is that it involves some of the processes involved with Poultry Executions, and therefore certain videos will have a warning with them. I did not post anything showing the actual butchering, but I do have pics of the dead chickens being plucked, etc. Read and View at your own risk...off we go.

  First up, Fri. evening we had a girls sleep over with cousin Shayna, no pics, but it was a typical girls night...yes, I let them watch a movie and have chips and stuff...what are moms and aunt's for?! The girls all slept in the big room on the pull out couch...or I should say...they played in there a good part of the night.  After gun shots were heard around 9:30 which took mom and I a few minutes to decide whether we should call 911 or the police dept. directly, seeing as how we hadn't heard any screams, or even saw anything conclusive. It was determined we should call the police, who then routed us to another number. This operator informed us that a unit was already at the park behind our house in response to several other callers on the same thing.  Good to know. And before you think we're nuts....(uhh...too late) it was definitely not fire works, and it also sounded as though whoever was being shot at , kept coming...it was like this " Pow!.......pow!...pow!pow!pow!"  a bit unnerving. Nan spent the remainder of the evening laying on the other couch in the big room telling wildly made up stories to the girls before they settled down.

  Sat. Am, we grabbed donuts on our way out the door for our 1 hour drive to our friends homestead. Mr. G is in the Navy and he plans to run his family farm when he retires. Today they were butchering meat poultry and we actually volunteered to help! So, the pics will explain a lot. Hannah actually butchered a chicken, with Mr. G holding her hand, holding the knife. Then she watched as it was boiled to loosen feathers,put in the homemade plucker, and she watched the initial part of the viscerating declaring that her chicken was "lovely". She then went off to sit on the defunct riding lawn mower while the G's teenage boy pushed her at full tilt down the drive. (I bet he slept well)  It took me a bit to get into the spirit of the thing, I had to talk my way through the viscerating...and eventually learned how to gut a chicken...a skill worth having should I ever be trapped in the wilderness, starving, and a wild chicken strolls across my path....

  The basics are: a chicken is placed head first into a cone, then it sees light at the bottom and pops its head out. Mr. G grabs the head and cuts the jugular vein. The chicken then basically bleeds to death, but it kinda doesn't know, as it faints from blood loss, and then ...just doesn't wake up. After we're sure they're dead, the chicken is then put into a hot water bath with a little dish soap (since chickens have an oil gland for their feathers) for 1 minute to loosen up the feathers. Then the bird is cooled off with water as it's put into the Chicken Pluckin' Contraption which then bops the chicken around without hurting the skin, but gets nearly all feathers off. After that, the final plucking of the guys-I mean, of the chickens by the guys...then the chicken (which looks remarkably like a rubber chicken) is handed off to the ladies for final feather picken' and chicken cleaning.

  

  The Chickens!                                                      The Executioners Cones

  

  Mr. G & son running the Plucking Contraption              Pulling off stubborn feathers....

  

  These are young laying hens...they have this cool chicken tractor for the older layers, they move it around the property, so they're kinda free range..

  Here is a video of a chicken being washed and then put into the plucker:

  And here is a film of a chicken in the plucker...it's not gruesome, or bloody, but it may not be pleasant if you're of a very sensitive nature...but for those who are interested in how the contraption works...:

  

  Me learnin' chicken guttin'                          Hoppy and her "lovely" chicken

  

  Amanda G. teaching my Lizzy & Shayna      Our "official" certificate

   

  Across the fields from the G. homestead

  

  Shayna bringing back eggs from the chicken tractor.

  And a sweet video, Life on the Farm:

  And on the drive home, mom randomly videoing scenery...:

  Sunday was the church picnic at New Quarter Park in Williamsburg. It was very lovely, but poor Hoppy got a tick which I had to pull out...very dramatic for her.

  

  Monday we did housework, it was bread baking day and laundry day.  We made a Covenant Patriarch Cake, that is a King cake with 5 babies as opposed to one. .  It was delicious!  We had it after a cookout provided by my sis and her family...steaks and hot dogs on the grill, baked potatoes, salad, corn. It was all delicious. We were especially glad to be able to celebrate with all of their family, their sons being off from work. Here's a pic of the Covenant Patriarch Cake:

  

  All in all it was a very rewarding and memorable memorial weekend. I hope next years is as interesting and fun.

  Thanks for bearing up under the bizarre recollections of our chicken experience, (several people had asked for details) and for more pics than I'm sure you needed. Hope you all had a blessed Memorial Day. May God save our troops physically and spiritually.

  ~Kate.

  • 10:36 pm
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