Butchering Chickens

Last Sunday the chickens were tried and convicted of being food.

I opted for the hatchet method as it seemed the most humane and fool proof for the inexperienced. It took much less power than I expected to sever the head and the chickens were more cooperative than I had thought they would be. All in all it was a quick an clean process. I still had an adrenaline rush that lasted several hours.

The plucking was tedious. Fortunately there were two other people there who were interested in keeping birds and wanted to get some experience. I scalded the birds in 150f degree water to loosen the feathers but I think the water had cooled off a bit by the time my bird was dunked. It was under 20f that day. Since I ended up skinning the birds and keeping the skin for stock I will probably be less picky about how clean of feathers the birds will be in the future.

For the actual butchering I found this web site to be extremely helpful.

http://butcherachicken.blogspot.com/2007/09/introduction.html

The first bird took a long time. Largely because we were fascinated with the anatomy aspect. The second bird was done in a few minutes. It had been at least 15 years since I prepared any kind of meat that still looked remotely like an animal. I was strangely comfortable with the process and it was not nearly as gross to me as plucking the feathers.

The next morning I ate my first flesh in 13-14 years. The livers were saved and fried with some eggs for breakfast. It was so flavorful that I had to eat small bites to keep from it being overpowering.

Now there are 3 frozen bird carcasses in my freezer ready for the crock pot. Some time in the next 2-3 weeks I'm going to have a chicken pot pie dinner/party and invite my friends over to celebrate this mile stone in my life.

HR875/S510

I've been seeing a lot about The Food Safety Modernization Act going over the internet for the past couple of years. When people first started posting links to the actual verbiage of the law I read about half of it and did not see anything indicating the wild claims that were being made about it. The worst I saw was that it was written with vague language. Granted that vague means it can be interpreted a number of ways but I saw nothing that supported claims like farm animals being marked with GPS radio tags.

Since there seems to be no end to recirculating the claims about this bill I wanted to add a small (tiny really) piece of the internet dedicated to reason.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/organic.asp

This bill is not the problem! Our representatives being controlled by the business oligarchy while parading around as a republic is the problem. By the time the bill gets passed there will be a considerable amount of amendments that benefit the corporate food industry the bill is meant to regulate. This is America after all.

Harpoon

House progress has been steady but not worth mentioning in a while. Finally grouted the fireplace, hung more drywall in the addition room, almost finished the drywall in the bathroom, made a room in the garage and hung drywall on it. Nothing is done though. However this isn't all about houses this is about projects and here is the latest.

I'm not a holiday person and definitely not a costume person so my Halloween costumes tend to be sparse and allow me to wear my regular pants. This year I'm going as a cetaphobe. Cetaphobia is the fear of whales (Cetacea being the order of marine mammals) and what better place for a cetaphobe than the mountains in the middle of a continent? Any way the costume will consist of carrying around a harpoon. Harpoons aren't the easiest to come by so making one out of scraps in the garage seemed the way to go.

First the haft. This is a piece of rough cut red oak left over from a table I made years ago. Through it through the planner, drilled a hole for the shaft, routed the sharp corners and put some boiled linseed oil on it.



Then the metal bits. The shaft is left over round stock from a treadle lathe that has been on the back burner for the last few years. The hook is from some sheet stock (14g?) left over from armor making days.



I forgot how to braze. After four attempts and a trip to the Depot I gave up and used silver solder. Maybe it was because the flux I was using was from my great grandfathers welding equipment? It looks better with the silver solder anyway.



Cleaned up the metal and put some rope on it.



I also resurrected the guillotine. It is shorter due to some of the parts having been used for other things but it still cuts melons with frightening efficiency.

Dancing Rabbit

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to visit an intentional community along the eco-village vein called Dancing Rabbit.

http://www.dancingrabbit.org

They are located in rural northeast Missouri near two other communities. They are committed to creating an alternative to main stream consumer culture. The use of fossil fuels is discouraged as well as new building materials. Here are some pictures of straw bale houses they have built out of local materials and reclaimed lumber.

Summer update

It didn't seem like much was getting done but I was wrong.

In July I took a 2 day class on straw bale construction. It was by the same teacher that taught the natural finishes class and although she has a lot of experience and is good with sharing it I was much happier about the hands on the other class had. The class used to be 3 day and losing a day was noticed. We did get to tour some pretty cool houses in various stages of construction.




Then the last of the siding was fixed. It doesn't look like much here but it is a vast improvement. Now the house can be painted. There was also an issue with the gutter that was leaking water back behind the soffit. I'm pretty sure the cause has been located and some flashing should fix the issue.





There is a curve in the transition between the kitchen tile and living room floor. This means that there is no way to buy a transition strip. The first thing that had to be done was that I had to make a decent router table. The straight pieces were pretty easy and although I've got to redo one that is too short they are essentially ready for varnish. The curved piece is a whole nother story. Probably should be it's own post once it is complete.





Some fun was had too. Got to go on two hikes so far this year. I'm looking forward to the kid getting old enough to come along. Next year or the year after?

EGG!

The first egg was left this morning. It is speckled greenish/blue so it must be from the Araucana. When I checked their water and food this morning there was no egg but 30 minutes later when I came out of the garage there was an egg. I would have expected to hear her, maybe since the egg was small she didn't make much noise?

The bearded layer herself,



Said egg, (the flash washed out all of the color)

Edible 'weeds' in my yard.

After pulling thousands and thousands of dandelions I finally broke down and ate some. It was pretty tasty, as far as leafy things go. While pulling other weeds I started wondering what else was edible. Turns out quite a lot. The chickens will eat most of it too.

Dandelion, Taraxacum Officinale


Purslane, Portulaca Oleracea

Pretty tasty, has a crisp lemony flavor. There were several plants last year but none growing this year so no picture.

Mallow, Malva Neglecta

I ate a couple of seeds and it made me feel weird.

Lamb's Quarters, Chenopodium Album


Prickly Lettuce, Lactuca Serriola


Suppose to be bitter and not worth dealing with the prickles.

Wild Lettuce, Lactuca Virosa

Also known as Opium Lettuce. The sap can be collected and dried to make a compound that is used as a sleep aid.

Pigweed,Amaranthus retroflexus

There are many species of Amaranth that grows in the western US and most are edible. I'm pretty sure there are two growing in my yard, maybe three. Retroflexus is the only one I'm confident about the identification.

Dill Weed, Anethum graveolens

Not really a native but it is definitely a wild weed in my yard now.