twentyeight to the fourth power

614656 to 1

tristan, kassi and toly were all born on the dark of the moon. if rome decides to hold out until july 31/aug 1 his odds will be 614,656 to 1 that he was also born on the dark of the moon.

although, tabitha is ready today.

i finally slopped boca's pen out last night. she mostly did her business in the one end of her pen. i'd never heard of a cow being discriminating about where it goes.

pre-baby tension hangs thick in this house. one might think that the aroma of dehydrating onions would penetrate the tension. alas no, their pungent smell is only a subtle under current amidst the treacle of waiting for rome.

i butchered 16 chickens yesterday. only five more to go of the last batch of broilers. i have officially decided that we need a chicken plucker.

i could almost butcher chickens by myself if we had one. especially since i plan to solicit tristans help next year.

yesterday tristan helped peel onions again. his nimble little fingers are amazing. he started to race me and easily peeled onions faster than i could cut off the ends in his queue and slice them after he peeled them. i have been gradually showing him how to use a knife. so i let him cut his own onion ends off for peeling. imagine a five-year-old using a knife that i had earlier sharpened to butchering standards. i monitored him closely for good form and safety. he did wonderfully.

all the while he kept telling me how we are saving these for winter. so many lessons were learned and he was likely more helpful than many adults would be. he inspected each onion and removed any bad rings that were damaged during our storms. such a good boy.

just over half the onions are officially put up.
- 8 heavy braids over 8lbs each.
- 5 loads of 7 lbs each in the dehydrator
- 13 chickens queued for the freezer*

* i gave the thompsons three birds for shanes help in butchering.