Little Miss Mouthy

A while back I talked a bit about the sounds on the farm. I especially love all the new ones I'm hearing. The most annoying but still hilarious is our Colombian Rock hen. Oh my goodness she has a potty mouth! To date as soon as she sees me or anyone coming to check on them she just lays into us.

BUURRROOCKKK!!!! Over and over! It came to a point I was concerned thinking there was something wrong. She looked to be in perfect health, still I checked her vent. (By the way a vent is the "exit point" on a chicken and if it becomes clogged it can be extremely painful and death can occur.) There are some things you just have to do as a farmer.
So back to the brat. This morning stacking firewood, I start to hear a commotion up at the barn. It sounded like an animal had gotten in with the chickens. Shouting a certain expletive I was off like a shot up the hill. Charging to the barn door ready to deal with the situation, it suddenly went quiet. The chickens were up on their roosts staring at me like I was nuts! This was bloody weird! I looked around and saw no evidence of anything else in the barn which may have bothered them. So all the while I'm asking them what the heck is wrong with them and you guessed it the ring leader, Little Miss Mouthy starts in on me. Well I gave it right back to her glaring at all eight of them. Finally throwing my hands up in the air I left. 3 steps out of the barn the sounds started up again. That's when I realised what they were doing.
The freaking birds were singing.
Are you kidding me? Laughing my ass off I went back to work. Farm life just keeps getting better.

Heavy Wet Snowfall

Last night’s rain turned to heavy wet snow. Slowly one thing went out at a time. First our satellite, then the Internet and shortly after that the power started flickering. Quite frankly the power put up a good fight but finally lost out just after midnight. It’s amazing how black it is when the power goes out here in the country. So different from the city with no vehicle headlights or neighbours running generators. Funny how there seems to be more people in the city who have generators than in the country, must be a population thing.

I have always been one who is prepared. It is very comforting knowing we could easily survive for at least 3 days without power probably longer. No I don’t have an emergency preparedness kit, I've just adapted my way of life. A stocked pantry, water jugs, wood stove, a compost toilet when needed and a bunch of games and books to keep things interesting. Plus we always have music! Of course I love my modern conveniences but I know we would easily survive here without a worry even in minus 20 degree weather. It's a good feeling!

This morning after breakfast and the animals were fed, it was time for damage assessment. At least 8 inches of snow fell and was now weighing down everything. The power lines were drooping and all the trees and bushes bowed over. Unfortunately I’ll be out there with a chainsaw tomorrow to take off all the broken branches of a number of trees that snapped, including my favorite across from the house. My young orchard thankfully survived and it’s already warming up so hopefully the snow will drop soon and everything will lift back up.

The power came on this afternoon around 1pm. It had been out for over 12 hours. This was our first power outage on the farm and personally I think it went by without a hitch. The pictures are from later in the day once my phone was charged. I wish I could have shown you how much snow there was earlier! 

I must tell you we all cheered when the satellite came back on around 2pm. It is Championship Sunday after all!

Sighting

We knew something was living near the barn. Listening to the sounds it was either a partridge or a pheasant. Finally one day we saw it. At first it looked like one of our chickens, nice and plump except my chickens don't just fly off high up into the trees. Numerous other times we would catch glimpses until finally I was able to get these pictures. It's a Canadian Partridge and I think it is absolutely gorgeous.

Bumping Off The Turkeys

Driving the kids home on Friday, Anthony, my 7 year old, asked "Mom, are you bumping off the turkeys and rooster tomorrow?" My response was "Yes."

I had been put in contact with a farmer down the road who was willing to come and teach me. Saturday morning was rainy and cool and I was starting to get a little anxious. This was something I had only read about, never even witnessed.

I was raised eating meat. Now that I'm an adult I personally prefer to have a mainly vegan diet with occasional meat/fish and some dairy but not often as I'm lactose intolerant. Frankly I think most people don't know where meat comes from, they just take it for granted and perhaps don't want to know. In my opinion if you are going to eat meat you must realise yes, you are taking a life and you should make sure that it had a good life and death. I remember watching a show where Jamie Oliver had to kill a pig before being allowed to cook for a family in Italy. He was profoundly effected by the experience and it made me feel I could do this.

These birds in my opinion had a great life. They were given free range during the day and put in a large coop at night. They wandered all over our farm, scratching for bugs, eating the crickets and grasshoppers my boys found for them and showing that wow, turkeys can soar one heck of a distance.

So I set up a table up at the barn, covered with plastic and a clean cardboard box spread out on top. Knives and 3 buckets nearby to hold the "extras" for the pigs, another for the necks, hearts and livers (they make the best gravy!) and the last one big enough to keep the birds chilled until I could finish them for the freezer. Once he arrived we set up his propane burner and started filling his gigantic pot. We placed a full bucket next to it to top it up if needed. The boys and Paul were up there to watch.



Warning: This is where this post may get a little graphic for some people.















Time for our first bird. We went into the barn and I brought one down from their roosts in the rafters. Outside he knelt with the pea hen (female turkey) between his legs, and put her head to the ground. I was shocked at how docile she and all the other birds turned out to be. He quickly stabbed her brain through her beak and cut the major veins in her mouth. Then held her upside down for the blood to drain out. There wasn't much, maybe half a cup.

As her nerves fired she was held tight and then it was over. Later birds I held though this and he killed them. I wanted to kill the last one but just couldn't bring myself to do it. So he took my hand and we did it together. I almost cried but kept myself together.

Next step was scalding and plucking out the feathers. The water was checked for a temperature of 150 degrees. We dunked the bird 3 separate times for a few seconds each. Then checked to see how loose the feathers were. You don't want to leave it in too long at once as it will start to cook the meat, so we made sure to give just a quick dip.

Then holding the bird up we pulled the feathers. It was remarkably easier then I had been told it was. Just grab handfuls and pull. The wings were the harder ones. After most of them were off we went to the table to start butchering. He did the first one to show me how and I did the rest of the birds. I'm quite handy in the kitchen and I loved Biology in school so I was up to the task.

First off come the feet. Then we used a machete hit with a hammer to get the head off. I'm sure we could have used an axe too. Then I pulled back the skin at the neck and loosed the crop from the surrounding tissue. Future times he told me I can keep them off feed for the 24 hrs previous. Now I'll know for next time. With the grain in the crop, once the organs are removed it will have to come out the top of the bird not the bottom. No issue just an added step.

Next came a slit across the belly being careful to make it shallow and not nick anything inside. Once through I opened it up a bit to the sides to make room to get my hand in. I was nervous about breaking the gall bladder but he said I was doing great. Just loosen the organs from the body and reach up to the top grabbing hold of the windpipe, grip and pull. You should have seen my face when it worked. Awesome! Then get your knife again and carefully cut out the vent. I carefully pulled the livers off of the gall bladders and pulled off the heart and placed them in a chilled bucket. The rest into the bucket of extras.

Last thing is to cut out the neck. I cut away at the muscle on the top and sides,  reached my hand up into the bird holding on and grabbed the neck, twisting it off. This part took a bit of strength. At this point they were set to chill and we moved on to the next bird.

Due to instruction time the 4 birds took about 3 hours from start of set up time until they were ready for me to finish in the kitchen. This took me about an hour removing all the remaining feathers and making sure the birds were cleaned out and rinsed. Then into the freezer bags they went and were weighed. The chicken was 4.75 lbs and the turkeys were 7.5 lbs, 8.5 lbs and 10.5 lbs.

My fellow farmer thought I did great. He asked if I would be interested in coming to his farm to help him with his chickens in the spring as I would be a real asset. I was overjoyed at the compliment and very proud.
These birds were just for us. I will certainly be raising meat birds and layers again in the spring and hope to keep breeding flocks of each. All the meat birds will be going to a processing plant so I can sell legally to the public. I'm so happy I now know how to do it myself if I have to. It is a humbling experience.

The boys did very well, each one happily taking up the "extras" for the pigs and asking lots of questions. I even talked Anthony into plucking some feathers. Paul did great taking pictures and not throwing up. Poor guy. However he was very supportive and I was so thankful to him for cleaning up the kitchen and making us dinner.

All in all it was a tiring but great day and I was happy to relax later with a beer watching the game.