Saturday 9 October 2010

A day in the life of - warning: we lost another chicken

Hey folks. Firstly I would just like to say a huge thank you to everyone who commented on my ranty post about the chickens. You all rock. Jackie: I haven't read that article yet but I will this evening hopefully. Kristen: kung fu chicken? Love it!

So I thought I would do another day in the life of, it's been a while. Today is not really an ordinary day but it's quite a good one to illustrate my life I think.

7:15
Got up in anticipation of sorting out the last rooster. Out of the 4 original chickens we have been unlucky enough to get 3 roosters. 2 have already met their maker and been various meals. Today was the Turn of Boniface. Seems the little bugger knew what was coming though. Trying to get hold if him was impossible. Partly due to the fact that he was so much bigger than the others I just couldn't keep hold of both his wings. So Spadger had to come get him. Then he decided to take forever to die. Now I was holding him by the legs just like I did with Gregory but he took so long to give up that my arms are still shaking now. Exhausted muscles! Then it took me over an hour to pluck him. Those feathers were just not letting go. Plus he was really loose skinned on the chest and I tore it a couple of times. I felt really bad about that til Spadger said he'd seen his Grandad do that and he did it for a living.

10:00
Finally done I came down for breakfast. 3 slices of cheese on toast later (I was hungry!) and 1 cup of coffee I felt much better. My arms are still shaking though. Now we are just waiting for my Momma and Spagersdottier to get here and then we will go to the farm. We decided that while we are ok for her to see the dead chicken she really didn't need to be here while it was all happening. Baby steps.

6:35
The day at the farm was spent in the big poly tunnel harvesting the last of the tomatoes and cleaning up. We spent from about 11:30 to 4 in there and managed to clear out all the green matter, old plants and weeds, and clean and roll up on of the weed mats. It was good satisfying work and we managed to fill 3 of the large crates with toms. Most were green but that just says chutney to me. Since there were so many J~ gave us some extra on top of the share. Definitely chutney making this week! Once we got home a cuppa was in order and then on with the evening's tasks. Bread making for me as we are out and I also promised my brother some for tomorrow.

10:02
Spadger has just finished gutting and cleaning the chicken and it will be shower time for us soon. I get the feeling it will be straight to bed after that. It's been a long day and tomorrow isn't going to be any better. So I'll sign off for now friends. See you soon!

1 comment:

  1. I love your "day in the life" posts. :)
    Gotta say, I give you major credit for processing your own birds. More and more, I'm thinking Kung-fu Chicken would be so much more productive on my dinner plate. He rushed me again tonight when I was gathering eggs, and after I escaped, he kept throwing his big self against the door of the coop again and again. He freaks me out! I have to get up the nerve soon... kudos to you - you're a better farm girl than me!

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