Cherry Pickin'

A few weeks ago a friend from church, who happens to be our neighbor, invited us over to pick cherries off his laden tree. We took him up on his offer, and went over in the cool of the morning to pick some juicy red cherries. The boys weren't able to come-But, the rest of us enjoyed our time and there weren't even any bugs!
Earlier this week, we had a big storm with lots of wind. Another of our neighbors lost quite a few branches, and there was even a tree that uprooted! They also had a cherry tree with lots of fruit still on it.......They don't even like cherries that much, so we were also able to get some cherries from them! We've frozen 10 bags or so of pitted cherries, made cherry soup (see pic) and cherry limeades! YUMMY! We actually have a cherry tree-5 feet tall and we got a whopping 1 cherry from it this year. It was hard to split 7 ways, but we managed.
When we got all these cherries, we saw how good the Lord was and how He provided for us since we don't have a flourishing tree yet!


The BIG tree!





Each branch had many clusters of cherries!



Yummy!











Look, Elizabeth! It's CUUTE!



Cherry Soup (Maus (spelling?) is the German word for it)
It is basically like cherry pie filling.

Spring Butchering 2010

Well, it's finally over....again. Our spring butchering went very well, with around 20 people helping us butcher 296 chickens (not all ours)
We started at 7 AM and finally finishing around 5 PM.
We start by raising the chickens from cute and fluffy yellow chicks, to squawking young hens and roosters, to fat and smelly 8 week old birds. They get good care from Eric, as well as some worrying and fretting from Mom and the rest of the family.
Such as this scenario.
One night about 10 PM we heard sprinkler hitting some tin outside. After Dad goes outside with the HUGE flashlight, Mom calling Eric from the top of the stairs, and the rest of us trying to sleep with all the racket---We find out that Eric accidentally set the chicken pen over the sprinkler head. So, a huge blast of water was soaking 50 chickens while they are clucking and squawking, and the rest of us are running around like chickens with our heads cut off.......Smile!
Needless to say, we had a good year! And we are thankful that it is over until fall!
Here are some photos from our big day!

The CREW







YUCK!



AAAHHH!






Isn't Kaleb's face (yellow shirt) hilarious!



Here is the butchering process for those who have never seen it.
(Texas folks, y'all listen up now!)

We store them in crates before we butcher them.


Getting them off the truck



Then they go to "The killing cones"


Evisceration (aka gutting) table


The gizzard cleaner


The gizzards---Kind of pretty---In a gross, slimy sort of way!


Finally we weigh and bag them.


While we were working, Caroline and Katy kept Karly and Susanna occupied with lots of things to do! Thank you, girls!


Playdough!
c

Having a good chat after a long day of work!
Thanks to all who helped!