Playing Catch Up

Ok! I got through Christmas. And, while I should have announced that I was taking a blog vacation in order to get things done, I did not. Sorry! My cousins I saw at my grandmother's Christmas party expressed that I needed to get my butt back in gear and post some new stuff! Love you guys! You make feel like this isn't a waste of my time *wink*.

Let's see... now, I have gotten quite a bit done and it has snowed A LOT! Every week if not a few times a week. That's Maine for you, every winter has it's own personality. This year is full of precipitation in an annoying fashion. So, I shall recap the best I can.

First, Puzzle Boy turned SIX! What?! He's getting so so so big. And, he knows it. This is the cake I made him...

Second, we butchered those darn chickens! Yup, and right before a massive snow storm. Ah, it was a wonderful day... we woke up early intending to get an early start but it was still dark. So, we patiently waited until the sun decided it was time to get up. Then we had breakfast and bundled up, after all, it was only 6 degrees F outside! Montana Man fetched his machete and the stump and I the first chicken. (I'm being sarcastic, can't you tell?) Alright, the day was not wonderful. Quite honestly the only easy part about it was the killing! We did all 15 chickens in one(ish) day. On this same day we happened to be on a deadline to be done by 3:00 because we were taking the kids on a magical train ride in the city. If we hadn't been under the pressure of the impending snow storm we would have waited a day and been a bit more relaxed. Instead I was bleaching down the kitchen at 2:45 after shoving the last of the plucked chickens into a cooler of ice water and leaving them on the deck outside to cool down. 6 birds had yet to be eviscerated. What have I learned? No more than 5 birds at a time and if I can't do that than spend the $3/bird at the butcher and have him do it. The end.

Then, we had Christmas. Over the last few years we have begun to simplify this holiday in many ways as both our own family unit and our extended family. We still exchange gifts but in a smaller in quantity, greater in meaning way. My husband will tell you that the two gifts I got most excited about this year was a digital scale from him and a large dial scale that has a 50 pound capacity from my mom. And, I can't wait to haul in some garden produce this summer and weigh it! I have to say though that we enjoyed watching our kids open their presents the most. So much animation and excitement! We had dinner at my grandparents' home with our usual fare plus a couple updates. It really was a wonderful day.

I will add pictures as I collect them from family!

I hope everyone had a blessed and special holiday season. Now about this new year...

Til next time!

Update: Meat Birds

Update time! We finally got that stall organized and outfitted for the meat chicks. We used pallets to section off one side off it...

We used pallets because, well, that's what we had! It didn't require much of any construction other than nailing them to the stall walls to keep them steady. The middle one I can remove for cleaning and it also turns into a partition while I clean to keep them from taking off.

Getting big aren't they? After some trial and error and a sick chick that spent the night in my bathroom because she got squashed, I decided to feed them with more structure. Free choice was causing them to grow too fast so I feed them twice a day and let them run out in between feedings. The result is very lively and alert birds that don't lay around the feed dispenser all day. Yes, they are growing more slowly because of this but, I decided it was worth it in the long run because it's a more kind way to raise them. It won't be effecting my bottom line price per pound amount but it does push butchering time back about 2-3 weeks. We're looking at the first week of December right now as a rough estimate for butcher time.

Something I have learned when I switched to using shavings instead of straw: put the feeder/waterer up on a block of wood about 2-3 inches high. This keeps it from getting clogged with shavings the chicks like to scratch around. Ideally I would hang these but I don't have a good way of doing that at present time. In the official chicken coop we'll build at the house we will have a hanging set up.

Speaking of the house...

Footing forms are going up today! We have the inspection on Wednesday and then we are free to pour the concrete. Our ICF blocks should also be here Wednesday or Thursday this week and we will likely have the foundation walls up next week sometime. We are already getting snow showers here so we need to get this hole filled and covered up!

Til next time!

The Chickens' New Digs

Yay! The chickies have a new house! Montana Man built this out door enclosure on Sunday and the inside nesting area yesterday. I love it.




We did recently lose one of the girls to my brother's dog. She wasn't mangled though so after some enraged tears I decided to do the homesteady thing and butcher her for eating. We have not cooked her yet and I am a bit hesitant wondering if the fact she was killed in fear (meaning there was A LOT of stress hormone) and she had internal bleeding will make the meat taste bad. No way to know until we try though!


Happy chicken in a shelf!


The chickens LOVE their new house and were enjoying the sunshine and dirt bathing. Last night I went out to see if they were roosting inside and much to my surprise all of them were on the top shelf box. 11 birds. It was a sight!

Butchering the Ducks *Caution: Graphic Pictures*

So we did it! The weekend of the 18th we slaughtered the ducks. We did not save any, quite frankly they are gross and I didn't want to deal with their mess any longer. Selfish as that sounds, that's farming. Animals are not pets in the barn. Our ducks had a good life with pool time and food and fresh grass but they were intended for food. So anyway, I will get on with the post!

Below is the first duck that went. I guess I will explain how we did the killing seeing as most people are concerned with how 'humane' you do it. We thought it out carefully and decided that a good old fashioned stump chopping block and a very sharp machete were the way to go. After I retrieved a duck and brought it out of sight of the others Montana Man would quickly slip a small noose around the neck, I would gently let the duck down and he held its head up on the block and swung fast and hard. If you are wondering if the rope strangled the duck the answer is no. By the time I let the duck down it's head was already in striking position and it was really just to keep MM's other hand out of the way so he could swing hard without risk of chopping a finger off. It all happened in about 10 seconds.
As soon as the head was off it was my job to grab the now wildly flapping body and hold it upside down over a tub to let it bleed out properly. When it would "calm" we tied it by the feet up on a little stand and let it finish and relax.


By the time we got to the fourth duck to be dispatched, the first was ready to come down (there was only room for 3 on our stand) and we just kept going until all six were done. All this took about 20 minutes start to finish.




I did not take pictures of the plucking because ducks are hard to do by hand and I was on the clock to get them prepped and cooled down in a timely manner. I will say that I probably will send them to our local butcher next time or only do one or two in the same day because of the time it takes to pluck, even with proper scalding. It sucks. Gutting was the easy part, although stinky if you nick a bowel (I did it on only one). I would encourage anyone who has not butchered before to search out a more detailed blog post about it or get a book. I would try to explain but you really need pictures!

I did choose to vacuum seal my ducks and freeze all of them the next day. I borrowed a friend's vacuum sealer and bought bags (thank you friend!). Because we only raised 6 and ducks are kind of a long process to cook, they are for special occasions. I will be curious of the taste of homegrown though when the time comes!



There you have it! First animals we have raised for meat and many more to come.

An Unexpected Chance For Learning... Butchering a Wild Turkey

Well, I did not expect to have a turkey carried into the yard today! But I volunteered myself to help the handsome gentleman in the picture above (my brother... shhh, he doesn't want me writing about him, let's call him The Redneck) pluck and gut it. It was a very nice tom turkey. Since neither of us had done it before but I was the more educated on it by reading, I dictated how we should go about things. I was so excited to put my knowledge to work!

First we got a huge pot and heated water to about 140-150 degrees and poured it over the bird in a large metal tub outside. It took 2 pots of water to scald him good. Then we hung him up by his feet so we could both pluck him easily over plastic sheeting (makes clean up quicker). After he was plucked enough I cut the tips of his wings off buy going through the joints. Then we hung him by his neck and proceeded to gut. The Redneck did this part and I watched closely. Admittedly, I was still a bit unnerved about the warmth of the body. But I will be gutting 6 ducks soon so I will get over it!

We finished up by cutting the feet and neck off and rinsing it with the hose. It will sit in the fridge for a few days and then I believe he plans to fry it! Fun.

Evil as it sounds, I look forward to processing our ducks... these are survival skills and farm skills. Butchering is something I aim to be good at.

Night all!