Green Beans!

I went out to the garden intending to pick a few beans for dinner and this is what I got! Maybe a few more like this and I will have enough for a canner load.

Hmmm . . . fresh green beans for dinner or save them until there are enough to can. What to do?

Roosters

I have a lot of roosters. I think originally there must have been more than 30. I don't really like roosters all that much but when you hatch your own eggs, or buy straight run from a hatchery, you don't get to choose what you get. So I have a lot of roosters.

I call them the "neighbor kids." Not the nice, polite kids that come over when they are invited and leave when it is time to go--I have nothing against them. These guys are the kind that come over and never leave, that play in your yard when you aren't home, that stand outside and yell for your kids to come out, that open your refridgerator and rummage around . . . you know, the Bad Neighbor Kids. Of course, the roosters don't do those things, but it is close. They come into my yard uninvited and scratch around, they steal the pigs' food, they fight amongst themselves, and they make their immature crowing noises all day long.



From the start my plan was to butcher all of the crossbreed roosters because I don't want to use them to breed with the hens. Then I would keep the ones purchased from the hatchery--the Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, Old English Game Bantams, Houdans, andGolden Laced Wyandottes. But out of the 25 chickens of those breeds, I think there are at least 12 roosters. Twelve too many, in my opinion. So now I am going to keep one of each breed. That's easy when it comes to the Old English, because there is only one rooster. Also, he is quite small, so he wouldn't make much of a meal.
Mustard

I think six out of nine Buff Orpingtons are roosters, and three out of 4 Black Australorps. It doesn't matter how many Houdans are roosters because they are too darn cute to butcher. I think, though, that there is only one.

Last Saturday I decided I was going to do something about the plethora of roosters. I cleared out the chicken house and then shooed a rooster inside. He went in nicely so I thought "Hey, this will be easy." I wanted about 8-10 roosters confined to the chicken house for the day to get ready for butchering. The next rooster I grabbed started squawking loudly. I looked down at my feet and there were FIVE! roosters getting ready to attack me for disturbing one of their flock. So I dropped that rooster quick and let the other one out to live another day. I went back that night with my husband and got the 8 biggest roosters to butcher in the morning.

Since then I have done 2 batches of roosters. On Sunday morning, I finally did away with our two Big Mean Roosters, Iaggo and Waddles. These guys were BIG and MEAN! No one should keep mean roosters. They are dangerous. They do not hesitate to attack small children and so before they were penned up I was always worried about my little ones when they went outside.

I am getting much better at the processing process. I did 10 chickens in 3 1/2 hours Sunday morning (before church, we were just a little bit late), and then last night I did 7 more. I had help this time and it only took a little over an hour from start to finish. I have finally come to the conclusion that things go much better with help. Next time I have a large batch to do I am recruiting help. Lots of help. What are all these kids around here for, anyway? I need one to do the cutting and scalding (16 years old), one to man the plucker (my husband along with the 9 year old), and one to pick off the feathers that the plucker missed, cut off the feet, and a few other things (13 years old). I will finish up the rest. As my daughter, the 13 year old, gets better at her job then she can move on to finishing up the chicken and the 10 year old can do her previous job. When I mentioned this to said 10 year old she wrinkled her nose and exclaimed, "Uh-uh, I'm not doing that!"

Now, I know I mentioned that I would not make my kids participate in the butchering if they didn't want to, but I don't consider picking off a few feathers to be butchering. Rather, it is in the category of "being helpful to your mother." Something the aforementioned 10 year old has a bit of a hard time with, whether it is cutting up chickens or weeding the garden. Bear that in mind when I ask what you thought my response to her was.

Was it: A)"Excuse me, you will do it if I tell you to!" B)"Okay, honey, I forgot you don't like touching chickens," or C)"I wasn't asking if you wanted to help, and I think it is important for you to know where the food comes from and how it gets there."

Yes, the answer is C. I also may have added a little something about how picking a few feathers off a chicken won't kill you.

Goodbye, Bad Neighbor Roosters, no more hanging out under the shelf swearing and smoking and whistling at the hens.

Library Day

Today was library day. Every other Tuesday morning we pack up the van and head to the library. I actually like this day even though it does have it's bad moments. It seems that someone always forgets a book or can't find their card. But it is a small price to pay for having kids who LOVE to read.

Today we were missing our biggest reader so the pile of books above isn't as big as it could be. It is pretty hard to keep track of all the library books so each person is in charge of their own. If they can't find a book and end up with a fine, they pay for it. To be fair, if it is my fault the book is overdue then I pay. For kids up to age 10 they are limited to checking out as many books as they are old. After that, it is a free for all. It helps to know absolutely that my 5 year old has to find 5 books and that the total number of books for the under 10s is 24.

Tips for a successful library day:

• Gather your books the night before (something I need to follow myself)


• Along the same lines, have a certain place the library books are kept. We have several "certain places" but it is nice to know where to look.


• Unless you want to participate in the lapsit story time, DO NOT go to the library on that day. It is a madhouse, trust me.


• Remember that you can use the computer to renew any books that may have been left home. I just got all of the PIN #s for our account so I will no longer have overdue books!


• Leave lots of time to browse.

I got several interesting books today that I am anxious to read. I think I checked out too many books to read in two weeks especially since I am still reading my new birthday books. But I can always renew them next library day.
Off to read!

Zucchini

This post is in honor of my sister, Megan, who has been so patiently reading about my exploits as a chicken butcher. She is a vegetarian so it can't have been too interesting, or even fun, for that matter. I have been meaning to do this for a while but I was waiting for some zucchini to be big enough for a picture. Because what would a post about zucchini be without a picture of that very thing?? THEN, I read this post by my other sister: Poohsticks: Backyard garden. Now it is going to look like I am copying. Or at least maybe rubbing in the fact that I have zucchini and she doesn't. Hmmm, poor soul, SHE doesn't have ANY ZUCCHINI. I do. And I am going to eat it ALL MYSELF.

Anyway, I love zucchini. Yes, mom, you read it right. Your picky daughter not only likes a vegetable (besides corn, and who doesn't like corn?) but she LOVES zucchini. Not only that, but my favorite way to eat zucchini is cooked. Actually, lightly sauted in a little butter. But the point is that while I do like several vegetables (like tomatoes, carrots, and...uh...that's all I can think of for now) the best way to eat them is usually raw---not zucchini.


Pick them small. No baseball bat zucchini here. Slice thin, melt a little butter in a frying pan and dump them in. I stir it up and put a lid on the pan for a bit. Keep stirring until they are done to your satisfaction. I don't like them too crispy. Never add salt until you are eating your zucchini. For some reason, adding salt during cooking does nothing toward changing the taste so it is best to add your salt as you eat. Salt a layer, eat it. And so on.

I can't properly put into words how I feel about zucchini so I thought "Hey, Google can help me out!" Quickly I type in the words "Ode to a Zucchini" into the box...and I find this:

Ode to the Zucchini

Green you lie before me, stretched
Your skin darkly, a little still of earth stains
Gently still your meat wähnt itself
My stroking does not draw noise from you

But my intention with you is clear
My demand fast obviously becomes
Because it says to you now my stomach
That over hunger it must complain

Gently drives the knife by your entrails
It does not want that one of us suffers both longer
I cut lengthwise you into small disks
So breath-thinly, as if must I you fast incorporate

Thus you are appropriate for O Zucchini, my vegetable before me,
And move last by my Kombüse
Schmaus will give me a lecker
But with your life is it now out.

Okay, so it doesn't quite do it. And really, it seems a little obscene. Maybe something is lost in translation, because the original version is in German. At least it made me giggle.
There is always this. Which isn't exactly true either, but at this point I am giving up. I guess I will have to write my own "Ode to the Zucchini" if I want it done right.


While on the subject of gardens I can't resist showing off my corn:



It is taller than me, and even more impressive, it is taller than my 6 foot tall husband. We will be having corn soon!

Lastly, not worthy of it's own post but exciting nonetheless is this:




The first load of wood for us to get started framing the garage. Pretty dinky. The next load is supposed to arrive on Monday. I say supposed to because this load was scheduled to arrive at 9am Friday and didn't get here until late afternoon. Hopefully tomorrow we will break it open and get started.

New Books

For my birthday I got 2, count 'em, TWO Amazon gift certificates! It took me over a month to pick the books that I wanted to buy. There were so many choices. When I buy books I like to get information books rather than fiction just because I don't usually read fiction over and over but I do keep going back to my informational books. It makes it nice and handy if they are sitting on my bookshelf. Today I got the first two of the seven(!) books I picked.

Backyard Market Gardening: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling What You Grow and Small Scale Livestock Farming: A Grass Based Approach for Health, Sustainability, and Profit They both look interesting and I can't decide which one to read first. So I will probably read both at the same time!!

The first book starts out telling a little about how to grow, what to choose, and tools that are handy. Then it moves right into a large amount of information on how to sell, different selling options, choosing what is good to sell, marketing, etc. There is a short section on business in general and building a business plan, then of course at the end of the book they couldn't resist putting in a "Plea for the Earth" chapter and a chapter on mulching, composting, and sustainable farming. Looks like loads of good info even though selling produce from my garden is probably some time off. Actually, my dream is to sell berries on a small scale--blueberries, raspberries, and possibly strawberries so hopefully this book will help me with that wish.

The next book has kind of the same information, except the subject is animals, not gardens. Lots of good stuff on livestock and the environment, holistic management, and rejuvinating pastures. Then it goes on to talk about marketing, finding a niche, and planning a business. It has some great appendixes at the end that cover most farm animals and their nutritional needs as well as the nutritional composition of "common feedstuffs" so you can try concocting your own feed recipes. Cool!

Thank you Mom and Dick! Thank you Dad and Shirley!

School at Home

Eleven years of homeschool books

I admit, I am a little burnt out on homeschooling. We are getting ready to start our 12th year in a few weeks and I am a little scared. When we first started, lo, those many years ago, I had one little boy in Kindergarten. He was just as new to the process of learning as I was to the process of teaching. Last spring, at the end of his 10th grade year, he decided to go to school. You know, real school. As if what we have been doing all this time isn't real. So after I waved my teary eyed goodbyes one March morning(stop laughing), I headed back in the house to...clean it? start on one of the million projects I have been meaning to do for the last 10 years? No, I headed back in to get started on our home school day for the other 4 kids still doing school at home. And this September I am getting ready to teach Kindergarten for the 6th time, 2nd grade for the 5th time, 4th grade for the 4th time, 6th grade for the 3rd time, and 8th grade for the 2nd time.

Darn it, I am tired of being tired of teaching. I want it to be fun. I want to make models of the ear out of boxes and blankets and toys. I want to run around the outside of the house singing "Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho!" at the top of our lungs. I want to go out to the field and hunt for leaves and things to make art projects with. Again. Because I have done all those things with that one little Kindergarten boy. As the years have passed and I have gotten more and more overwhelmed with the sheer number of children in my care I have let the fun go and have gone to just getting through the day. We just do the basics and forget about the fun science experiments and art projects and history lessons that aren't just reading and answering questions but are acting and playing and cementing history in their minds forever. I put the books in front of them and then get frustrated when they seem to have no interest in learning.

With that in mind, I have changed my plan of attack for this year. I have actually planned out the science experiments and history projects that we will be doing. I have all the supplies ready to go so when it is time to do a project I won't have an excuse not to do it. Now all I need is the patience to sit back and let the kids do the discovering instead of wanting to hurry through. Usually when I get in a hurry I take over the experiment and they watch. Yeah, that sounds fun. Oh, and in case planning out the all projects sounds like a set up for failure ("what happened to FUN and SPONTANEITY," you ask incredulously) you are probably right. So another part of my plan of attack is...ready?...you sure?...Flexibility. Yep, you read it here first. Not only am I planning on having some patience, but I have introduced a new word into my vocabulary: Flexibility. Sure I planned the whole school year, but the nice thing about having all my plans on the computer in a program called Homeschool Tracker is that I can use the "reschedule" feature. Or even the "delete" feature.
We have some challenging subjects planned

And some that look a little more fun

Yet again I am feeling optimistic about our upcoming year. Possibly even excited. My goal is for the kids to learn that while your work isn't always easy, you can still have fun with school. Oh yeah, and when it gets hard, Mom is there to help but she isn't going to do it for you. Hopefully we will have lots of pictures of cool projects to share.

Doin' up the chickens

This post is not for the faint of heart. The pictures may be too graphic for some. You should know that my chickens had a much, much better life than they would have had on a factory farm. They had fresh air and sunshine. They were moved to fresh pasture almost every day so they could scrunch their little toes in the grass. They were treated to classical music daily and I read to them every night before bed. Hahaha just kidding on that last part. But my point is that even though their lives were short they were treated very well.


Saturday was the big day. I had 31 chickens to process, 24 of those were sold to people so they needed to be perfect. I did a trial run of 4 chickens the night before and things did not go very well. The scald set up was not hot enough so the feathers wouldn't come out very well. I ended up taking the skin off 2 of the chickens rather than pluck by hand. Then my husband set up an old gas stove to heat water on and that seemed like it would work.

I got up at 5:30am to get started. I was doing the job by myself so I wanted to get it done as quickly as possible. When I was getting the first group of chickens they were squawking so loud the roosters from the other group of chickens came and started attacking me! After a while my husband came (surprise!) and caught chickens so I didn't have to keep walking out to the field to get them. That was sweet of him because he really isn't all that interested in being involved in the butchering part of farm life. So I try not to require his help too much and when he does help I appreciate it a lot.


First I hang them upside down.


Next I wrapped them in the feed bags to keep the wings from flapping too much. It didn't work very well though. Then I did the dirty deed.


Next they go in the pot of hot water. The water has to be just right. Too hot and they start to cook, too cool and the feathers won't come off. So 145 degrees for about a minute seems about right.

The plucker is the coolest thing ever. We built it last year for our first batch of broiler chickens. I can do 3 chickens in less than 20 seconds. Compare this to about 10 minutes or more per chicken plucking by hand.






The plate in the bottom of the plucker is attached to a motor and spins about 240 rpm if I remember correctly. The rubber fingers sticking out take the feathers right off.




If things go well there will be very few feathers left. Just a few tail feathers and maybe some in the armpits...er, wingpits.



Bucket o' chicken, anyone? Time: 8:30. All 31 chickens are in the buckets. I took a break at this point to go take a shower and feed the baby. So the chickens sat in the ice buckets for about half an hour.

After breakfast I started the second part of the job. I will spare you the details but here is the finished product:

and here:



and here:


The front two chickens in the above picture are the heaviest (6lb7oz) and the lightest(3lb14oz) of the ones I weighed. Most of them were over 5 pounds. I charge $1.85/lb so I should make a little profit. Hopefully this is the start of something that I can grow a little bigger each year.

If you made it this far, thank you. I think it is really important to know where our food comes from. For our kids to know where our food comes from. They don't have to participate in the carnage if they don't want to,(and a few of mine don't) but it is okay for them to know how it is done. I would much prefer to have my hands in a little blood and guts than to have to partake of factory farm chicken. I know that MY chickens haven't been sitting in poop water for hours and that they weren't fed parts of their dead friends. I like knowing that I am feeding my family the very best I can. If I could afford it I would buy everything natural or organic. Since I can't, I do things like planting a large garden and raising my own animals for food(eggs and meat). I would love it if more people would do the same!

Garage Progress

Finally, we are getting somewhere on the garage. When we moved here a year ago we knew that this tiny 3 bedroom house was not going to be big enough for a family of 9 and a baby due any day. So we set out to build a building that we call the garage, but it is really more like a school room/play room with a bedroom in the upstairs. There is also going to be a mud porch, something I am very excited about.
We moved here in August, had the baby, then got to work. Sort of. First we got our dimensions worked out--measuring and laying out the best place for it to go. Then again. And again. You see, we kept forgetting things and changing things since we weren't working on it all that frequently. MY excuse was the new baby. You would have to ask my husband what his excuse was. Finally in October we got to the drafter. He kept getting things wrong so there was a lot of back and forth with that. He was cheap, though. At the end of October we got the plans in to the city. We aren't in city limits but we are in the urban growth boundary so, Oh joy, we get to go through the city planning department. Come to find out, there is a 6 week wait. So we wait...and wait. Then we get a letter with all the things we need to change to make it right. Sigh. Now I know why other people pay so much to have someone else do their building.

December 15th was the big day. We went down to the city and forked over our $800 and they gave us our permits. Yay! Then, "It's almost Christmas," we said. "Let's wait until after Christmas to start on the foundation." Good idea, right? With 8 kids Christmas is a bit time consuming. But this is Oregon. What does it do in winter in Oregon? If you are in the Willamette Valley, it rains. So it did. In fact, we got so much rain that a good amount of our property was flooded and the neighbors said they have never had this much flooding since they moved here 17 years ago. I think it rained most days between the end of December and the end of April. The nice thing about all the rain was that we now knew how high we had to have the pad.

To make this really long story a little shorter, we finally did get to start on the foundation in about May. Somewhat, anyway. Between soccer and gymnastics there were very few open weekends for us to get much work done. Also we really didn't know how to do what we were attempting to do. But we did it and about 3 days before our permit expired we got our first inspection. Whew! Safe for another 6 months! I thought that being summer, work should go pretty quickly. Not. We poured the first part of the foundation in Mid-June and didn't pour the second part (the pad) until the first of August. My excuse is 4h fair and numerous other activities. My husband's excuse is that he doesn't want to work on it without me. Awww. How sweet.


This is a picture of where we are right now. The lumber list should be ready today and then we will start framing. Probably next week. I'll get back to you on that.

Pets vs. uh...Dinner

They say: If you're going to eat it, don't name it. Apparently my kids haven't heard that though because they insist on naming the chickens that they know we can't keep. Or maybe they are hoping that Carmel, Iago, and Waddles will make the cut, so to speak. Don't get me wrong, I love animals. Maybe it's because I grew up on a farm where we butchered animals on a regular basis, but it doesn't bother me in the least that the Waddles the Rooster, whom I heard crowing this morning, will be on our table in a few weeks. Or that I can go out to the freezer and pick out a package of Puddles the Pig. Not at all. In fact, I rather enjoy the idea. These animals aren't my pets, name or not. They are part of life on the farm. And I love them for it.

This weekend I am going to pull out the ole' Whizbang Chicken Plucker, dust it off, and put it to good use processing the 35 chickens that we have been raising for just this very purpose. In June we purchased some CornishX broiler chicks. They were cute and fluffy at first. Now, well, I guess "Robo-Chickens" would be an accurate description. These chickens are not meant to be kept much past 9 weeks old, they grow so fast.

This chicken weighs probably about 7-8 pounds right now at about 8 1/2 weeks. You can't tell so much in the picture but he is really large.

So. Edgar the Dog; Daisy and Misty the cats; Cinnamon, Honey Bunny, and Jackaroo the rabbits; even Henrietta, Mustard, Lemon Drop, and several other chickens: Pets.

Broiler chickens, extra roosters, turkeys, pigs--including Bob, Sam, Waddles, Iaggo, and Carmel: Really great animals to have around for awhile, but ultimately---Dinner.

Busy Summer Days

Yes, our days are pretty busy. Eight kids combined with all the farm animals can't help but make for a busy day. I am enjoying the busy-ness right now since by December we will have said goodbye to most of the animals. Currently, we have more than 100 chickens, 9 turkeys, 4 pigs, 3 rabbits, 2 cats, and a dog.

Next weekend 35 of the chickens are "leaving" us. Some into my freezer and some into the freezers of our chicken customers. The next week after that around 30 more are going too. This time all are going into my freezer. These are the roosters from the batch we hatched out in the spring. Unfortunately, we just can't keep all the roosters. This is one of the down sides of hatching your own chickens. The up side is at least they are good for something. Then the week of Thanksgiving the turkeys will bless our table and the tables of several other people. When the pigs are big enough--around December, I am guessing--they will depart as well. So all that, along with another chicken butchering when the "new" hens start laying (to glean out the old, less productive hens), will deplete our little farm to pretty much just the pets and 30-some hens for eggs. But I would like some goats if that counts for anything.