Chicken Slaughter: Take Two

We had a psycho chicken. Actually, I think she was just sick, and may have been missing a part of her tiny little chicken brain that should have told her to eat. The poor thing would stand in the same spot all day, while all the other chickens were out gallivanting around the property digging up worms and bugs and laying eggs. Even Captain Underpants (the rooster) didn't want to mate with her. And that means something. He is a male, after all. 

The last time we slaughtered a chicken, we chopped the head off since we had no idea what we were doing, and it seemed the easiest, swiftest way to accomplish the task. 

I've done lots of research since then, read a number of books and watched instructional videos online, and it seems that although there are differing opinions, hanging the chicken upside-down in a killing cone and slicing the throat (I know it sounds horrible) is actually just as humane and supposedly makes for less-tough meat. 

So, I finally ordered my killing cone, and it came in the mail yesterday. It was time to put psycho-chicken out of her misery. We didn't really want to eat her since we didn't know if she had a disease, so we decided to use her as an anatomy lesson for the kids. Homeschooling at its best! 

Here is the slaughtering area. It actually worked out great. I don't know that the previous owner of this property intended for it to be used for this, but it was as if it was made just for me! 

Before we slaughtered her, we gathered all the kids around and talked to them about why we were doing what we were doing. We explained that this chicken was one of God's loved creation, and that she was suffering and most likely in pain. We shared that it is our responsibility as her caregivers to ensure that she is not suffering if she doesn't need to be. They had all seen the miserable life she'd been living, and agreed that she was not a happy chicken. We made sure they understood that we respected her, and thanked the Lord for creating such a wonderful creature. I told them we were going to dissect her to see if we could see what was going on in her little body, and to see what the organs of a chicken look like. So, with that, I went ahead and put her in the killing cone. 

Unfortunately, she was a small chicken, and so she kept sliding around in the cone. Her feet stuck out of the bottom instead of her head. Hmmm...don't think that's how it was supposed to be. Superman helped re-position her, and then he took over the video responsibilities so we could have the kids' first chicken slaughtering experience on video. I slit her throat (with my brand new pinning knife--incredibly sharp!), and it only took a swipe or two, and she was bleeding out. I thought she was gone, so I let go, but that was probably a mistake. She started flopping around, and flopped right out of the cone, all the way across the slaughtering area, and right into the trash can! I guess she knew where she was headed in the end. 

After a few minutes, I took her out, cut her head off, and dropped her into a pot of scalding water for about 30 seconds. Her feathers came right off, and all the kids helped pluck her. 

In the end, the kids all seemed intrigued and honestly interested in learning about the different parts of her body. They weren't scared or crying or scarred. It was a great learning experience for all of us, and a really good reminder of just what goes into preparing the meat we just pick up from the store, nicely packaged and covered in plastic. Maybe not the way everyone wants to spend their Saturday morning, though. If there was any doubt in my mind whether I have fully converted to being a Country Girl, that is now vanished. I felt completely in my element and although I didn't enjoy the actual killing of the chicken, I believe it was necessary and justified. 

P.S. My new cowgirl hat is probably what completed my conversion. 

Chicken Little {{Graphic}}, My birthday, and 12 years of wedded bliss

So once again, two weeks has gone by and I'm not sure how. There's been lots of activity around here...

As promised, here is a visual account of our adventurous chicken slaughter a few weeks back.
My brother and I really had no idea what we were doing. We watched some tutorials online, but there's no real understanding until you've actually done the deed.

We were a bit worried that he wouldn't get the head cut off with one swoop, but in the end, he did a great job...

I just couldn't keep my eyes open. It's like how eyes automatically shut when you sneeze...it was just an automatic reflex. But, as you can see, he cut clean through!

People always use the term "running around like a chicken with its head cut off," but I really underestimated just how much she would be flopping around. She was flopping so much I couldn't hold her down and had to take off running!

Yes, she made it all the way over there all by herself...and with no head, to boot!

Airborne!

Finally done.

Draining.


Placing her into a scalding bath to loosen the feathers.

She was only supposed to be in there for 90 seconds, but it ended up being close to 3 minutes...I think that may have played a role in the toughness of the meat.

Plucking the feathers was actually quite a bit easier than I thought!




All the icky stuff.

My bro with his finished product:

Aw, she was a good little chicken...


My 32nd birthday was on July 1st.

We spent the morning picking blackberries and got $1 large sodas (which our kids never get!) at McDonald's.

Miss G just got water. Shh, she doesn't know!

My running partners gave me a gift certificate to a local cupcake shop. You know what these are? ROOT BEER FLOAT cupcakes! I kid you not. Seriously divine. I threw my "no sugar" vow out the window for my birthday. I figured I'd enjoy it while I could.

Superman's grandparents were really generous and gave me some spending money for my birthday. I decided to get a food dehydrator with some of the dough, and it's my new best friend (aside from my Kindle). =) We've dried some plums, and I'm making plum/blackberry fruit rolls as I type.


Kids eat free at Carrows every day for the summer, so we decided to go out one night. You get one free kids meal for every adult entree purchased, so Mr. C decided to draw a mustache on himself so he could pass as a grown up. It must have worked, because the waitress didn't even question us. He is pretty convincing, afterall...

And being that yesterday was 7/11, it was free Slurpee day at 7-11. It's become a tradition that every year for our anniversary (which just happens to fall on that day), we really splurge and go get the whole family free Slurpees. Mmmm....watermelon.

I'm really excited about a speaker who we are flying out to speak to our adoption network in November. I'll share more about her next week!

Preparing dinner and giveaway results!

First off, sorry for not drawing a name on Friday. My bro and his family are out here visiting from Idaho and our days have been full of fun-ness and activity.

Friday we butchered our no-longer-laying hen. We were slaughtering virgins, but we are no more. It was quite the experience. I think the fact that she wasn't a meat chicken and was a year-and-a-half old made from some tough chicken. It was more like chicken jerky. And oh, the term "running around like a chicken with her head cut off" is really just barely an exaggeration. That girl was practically chasing me without her head on. It may not have been actual running, but it was definitely aggressively flopping. My bro was actually the one to cut her head off. Nothing like some good ol' family bonding! I'll be posting pics soon.

And now, the results of the giveaway (Superman helped me out):

Congratulations, Essie! Just send me your e-mail address and I'll send you your Amazon gift!