And the silence was deafening...

The big girls...and Buster are gone. (sigh) I told the crew that we needed to keep things calm and quiet. Everything was set up. We had ice in the tubs and the table was prepared. The water was at temp for the scalding and the cone was in place. My son told everyone that he would do the deed and we had a volunteer plucker. My husband was standing by to do any chore required. I placed the first chicken in the cone, my son walked up and pulled out his knife, paused, handed the knife to me and said,

"It's really sharp, don't cut yourself"

What!!?? So, my husband stepped in and took over. The boy was demoted to plucker.

It wasn't that bad, really. Now that we have done it, we know what we would do differently. The way we did it was very labor intensive. I did all of the butchering, not a big deal, but I could not make a fist for all of Sunday and Monday. Nor could I walk because the table was too low for me and my back and hip are now protesting.

We iced them down and brought them in to the house for packaging and freezing. I had only five more to go and I needed a break. So, I ran to the store for some dinner fixings. No body wanted chicken that night for some reason. When I got back....there were only four chickens in the ice tub, and there was a wet trail of crushed ice across the kitchen floor and down the hall. That was were I found Yogi. He had a chicken hanging from his jaws. I told him he was a Bad Dog, and he winced at me and hung his head as if to say,

"I was weak, so, so weak. I don't deserve you"

Then he sulked away (shoop, shoop) and curled up in a corner. I'm not buying it you brat! No treats for you!! Incidentally, dogs love the chicken feet. However, when you give them the feet, be prepared to experience the shocking scene of what looks like a chicken trying to escape from your dog's mouth.

So, there is no more cheerful crowing at 6:30am, no more busy sounds of clucking. There are no more little dust clouds as someone finds a delicious bug and gets chased around the chicken run. All is quiet in the coop...

Did you want white meat or dark ?.....

Peace and love to you all......