LONG FRIDAY

I have been awake since 4:30am. 20 hours. I spent the morning at the hospital with my sister and nephew. I will update more on that over the weekend.

Then I got to work about 11am and put in 8 hours. Got home at 7:45 and decided to weed the front flower bed and feed the weeds to the chickens. That took 1/2 hour or so. Look what I found when I was weeding!!

Have you ever seen a grub so big? It must be the rabbit poo.

When I took the weeds back to the chicks I found that they had murdered another one of their brothers. Their time has come to an end.

I fed the weeds to the adult chickens. Prepped my processing area. Table cloth on the makeshift saw horse table. Shop light plugged in behind me. Fire on to heat the water. Kitchen shears. Cold water in the turkey pan. Everything was ready. Now could I do it?

Well all it took was one more look at the dead meat chicken and I had no problems. The method had been watched at my grandmothers home many times. And although I thought it would be hard, it was not. They are not big heavy birds. Yet right now my tennis elbow is hurting a little.

^

Each bird cleaned probably weighed about a pound. 1.5 max. Here is how I figured the cost of me processing:

^

2.25 hours total process...start to end of shower

135 minutes
10 meals not counting broth and cat food

13.5 minutes per meal to process = $6.07 of my time to process each bird

^

Although I can do this, if I can find someone to process these birds for 2.25 each, that would be much better.

^

Now that I know I can do it if I need to, I feel better.

^

I learned a lesson though. It is pretty tough trying to slaughter and process a bunch of chickens while they are giant june bugs dive bombing you, gettng in your hair and shirt, and landing on the chickens. So I did the skinning outside and when they were all naked, I took them inside to do the rest. Kinda makes the kitchen stinky.
^

Here are my 10 meals. The size of the pieces are smaller than at the store, but one chicken breast at the store is twice the amount of meat we are supposed to eat at one meal. I put two breasts in each bag and 4 leg/thigh combos. I have to tell you though that the leg/thigh is more like a little rabbit rather than a chicken. If I seperated them they would be about the size of wings at the local chicken wing eatery.

Thank goodness for the food saver vacume sealer. it made that part fast and easy.

Now, I have to learn how to make Southern Fried Chicken. I make great garlic mashed potatos, biscuts, green beans, salad out of the garden, and Texas Toast. Ok I am hungry. I sure wish the Advil would kick in soon!