I saw this video on someone else’s blog. I thought it was extremely heartwarming and needed to share it with you. The audio is a bit off, but the story is wonderful and you still get the gist of it.
I think we finally have this butchering thing down.
We butchered our last rooster this morning. He was our biggest one. We have our process down, and have learned how to pluck easily. Getting a pot of water up to at least 150 degrees, then submerging the chicken and swishing it around until the feathers on the legs can be easily rubbed off with a stick. Today we didn’t have to put any effort into removing the feathers, they just came right off when we ran our hand across them. Much easier than the last birds we did.
He ended up being really fat. lol He was a pig and ate a lot of food. In the end he dressed out as a 4lb roaster. Not bad!!
Yesterday I finished a box of ramen noodles, so I set the box on the floor but forgot about it. Last night I looked over, and Walter managed to squeeze his chubby self into it. It was a pretty funny sight.
Then, this morning Thomas decided to give it a try. It was a big of a tighter squeeze for him b/c he is quite a bit bigger than his brother is.
These boys are such a hoot. I love seeing the things they come up with each day.
Our new chicks are a week old today! That means they got their first trip outside. At first they were scared, but after only a minute or two they loved it. They had fun eating some clover, digging in the dirt I gave them, and even catching a bug or two. The fun had to end when it started to sprinkle, but they’ll get to go outside again tomorrow. It was fun watching them play.
Our chicken started laying eggs recently! Woohoo! They have changed in color slightly over the week. Her first egg was almost an olive color. The next two were a blue-green color. Now, the one she laid today is a beautiful turquoise color. I love it!! I’m so excited that she lays eggs that color. That is what I was hoping for.
She has been separated from the other chickens b/c of her prolapse, but I put her in the coop last night and then let her free range again today. She had been laying her eggs on the ground in the tractor she was in. Today I made her a makeshift nesting box (until we can get the permanent ones built into the side of the door in the coop) out of an old cat litter container. She came and watched me set it up, but still didn’t quite understand what it was for, so a while later my husband found her sitting on a self-made nest under our mini coop.
Luckily she hadn’t laid yet, so I picked her up and put her in the coop and locked her in. I had put her last two eggs into the nesting box so she could get an idea of what it was for. About an hour later I went back and looked inside, and she had laid an egg in the box!! I was so happy and proud of her! Hopefully she lays there tomorrow also.
Aren’t they beautiful? The one in the back is the one she laid today.
Mary Anne Radmacher
We found her!! This morning, after the sun came up, she appeared on our patio. She was soaking wet, but otherwise no worse for wear. I was so happy, I about started crying. Pretty silly, huh? She’s my pet, though, so it would be no different from most people who lost their dog or cat. I’m just so happy to have her back.
This evening at around 6:00 it looked like it was going to rain, but I wasn’t too worried about it. We’ve had thunderstorms before, and all of our animals have fared through them just fine. We checked the radar like we always do and we figured we would just get a little rain.
At 6:45 I was out on the front porch when all of a sudden, out of nowhere the wind picked up and a storage container that was sitting right next to the side of our house went blowing halfway across the front porch. The wind was SOOO strong! Our chickens came running onto the porch (we have a full length covered porch) but one of them wasn’t with them. Cricket was missing. I started to look for her, but a torrential downpour started so I had to stop.
It rained heavily for about an hour. I was busy doing something else, but at 8:00 my husband went to look for the bucket that blew away, which at that point could no longer be seen. He found it down the road, quite a ways away. He came to tell me that he still couldn’t find Cricket. It was at that point that we started a search party.
We looked for her for almost an hour, and most of the time it was in the dark. We looked all over our yard and into our woods. We thought we heard her call a few times, but never did find her. We ended up just putting the rest of the chickens into the coop and hoped she would show up in the morning.
She is my favorite chicken and I hope we find her tomorrow. If she is out there, I hope she stays warm tonight. It is wet and cold out there. Poor Cricket!!
{this moment} – A Saturday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember.
If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.
My baby is officially in junior high!! Bawl!! It seems like just yesterday he really was a baby.
So tiny! He wore preemie clothes for over a month.
6 months old
11 months old
Tales of a Transplanted City Girl 