Sunday, July 27, 2008

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.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

What, praytell, is a chicken plucker?

And, best wishes to Tabitha for an easy delivery!

In case you can't tell, I'm a city gal, lol.

Anonymous said...

OK... omg.. I googled it ... here's a youtube vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-pbRxIlpuw

Ya learn something new every day!

Omelay said...

thanks di, i amended my post to include your link

Anonymous said...

All three of my kids were born after I had cooked cannelloni with white sauce for my wife -- one on the due date, one two weeks early and one a week late.

I suggest you try it.

Good luck, and

Cheers.

Anonymous said...

Rome is already manifesting that stubborn, die-hard O'melay personality trait!
Apparently he doesn't want to be queued up yet.

Gaile said...

I love the chicken plucker video. That's brilliant! And sweet that Tristan is learning to use a knife carefully and is so good with helping. Really lovely. How do you keep the onions from rotting? the ones I buy in the store don't even seem to last a month in the wire basket I keep them in?

Anonymous said...

What does that chicken plucker do to the meat? Is it roughed up at all?

When my boys were at Scout camp, they always scheduled the wood carving classes to begin the day after parents' visit day. That way mom wouldn't see all of the little cuts the boys would get on their fingers.

One carver I know says a dull knife is much more dangerous than a sharp knife.

Ron said...

16 chickens! I'm sure the chicken plucker will make things much more pleasant.

Kids sure do learn a lot when they participate in things.

Ron

jenny said...

Kids can be wonderful helpers when they want to be! My oldest is 6 and every day she amazes me with something she says or does and I have to remind myself that she isn't 2 years old anymore.

I trust her with a knife, too and she was great when it was time to work the strawberries for the jam back in May.

I feel Tabitha's discomfort. Hang in there!

Sasha said...

Anthony is drooling over the Whiz Bang Chicken Plucker.

Beth said...

Have you seen this chicken plucker for $6? It might work for you until you can get the funds together for the Whiz Bang.

http://homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=130787&highlight=chicken+plucker

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...