Yesterday I was blessed with the opportunity to learn about chicken butchering. It was a bit of a surprise-- one friend from our church called to see if they could get a ride with us, because otherwise someone else was going to drive out and get them. Well, we weren't going, but if someone was driving out our way it would work for me to go. After securing parental approval and Mom making sure there was room in the car, I ran around like a chicken without a head, got ready, and headed out into a beautiful fall morning.
So I went to help a family who were butchering 300 of their own chickens, 16 of their turkeys, and 75 of a friend's. They had already started when we got there, but we were quickly given jobs. The process was set up as an assembly line. I was put at the end, with about five other people. We were checking for feathers, guts, etc, that had been missed earlier in the process. It was a clean and pretty easy job, and the only problem was trying to go quickly while still making sure nothing was getting past you.
Throughout the morning and afternoon, we sang at intervals while working. We sang from memory, so I couldn't sing each one, but the ones I knew I enjoyed singing and the ones I didn't I enjoyed hearing.
It was too busy to take pictures for most of the time, but after we took a lunch break at around two in the afternoon I took a few.
Then after lunch it was time to bag, weigh, label, and sort the birds. They were pulled out of the ice water we'd tossed them in after final inspection, bagged, and sent to the scale, where I wrote their weights on plastic bag tags, and then either someone else put the tags on, or, if the chickens were coming slowly, I did it myself. Finally, we were finished bagging! People started tossing water at each other, resting, and talking. A few people kept working, finishing off the gizzard cleaning.
It was a really good day. I wasn't squeamish, as I worried I might be, the work wasn't really complicated (at least what I was doing), and it was great to work alongside others in the church family!
Update:
You can read three other accounts of the day's activities from my dad, JFC, and Micah David.
5 comments:
Chicken murderer!! What kind of a nutball are you? Honestly, you done good, and was a big help.
Off note, I got my very own blog thingy going. micahdavid.blogspot.com
Peace of Christ
MDB
Do you know what the first two words to catch my eye were? "Chicken murderer!"
Thanks! I'm glad I done good. Does that include starting The Song that Never Ends? Or not?
Welcome to the blogosphere, Micah! :-)
Thankfully, The Song that Never Ends did, and rather quickly. But the rest of the music was heavenly. I bet the Hebrew people sang the same Psalms as they worked together. And I am of the opinion that MDB's dad resembled a Hebrew priest after a day of sacrifices.
I hope you get to put several of the pictures up.
JFC
lol! Poor Gracie! :-o
I didn't actually kill any chickens...which was ok with me. :-)
I prefer handling chickens when they are either alive and squawking or in the form of meat!
I'm planning on posting a few pictures...one of dead chickens (in ice water) and one of the table set up.
Hopefully the pictures don't give Gracie (or anyone else) nightmares!
Oh, that sounds like so much fun!! I wish that I could have been there.
Who was there? I had no idea so many people from our church were going to go!
~Kailey
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