His Newest Adventure

As some of you might know, Eric likes to be industrious. This past spring, Eric studied and researched honey bees. He got books and instructional DVD's from the library, he talked with people, he wrote a persuasive speech, and every time Mom, Dad, or I got on the computer, he would ask us to look up something or other pertaining to bees.
Dad and Mom were not too sure how it would work out here in town. A friend from church(Mrs. K) , along with her 15 year old son, has been doing bees for about 3 years. Mrs. K offered to let Eric go along with them and see how they took care of the hives and such.
She also told us about a scholarship where you can get all the bee things you need to start a hive.
The deadline for the scholarship application is in December, so Dad decided to wait until next spring to start out.
But the Lord had other plans.......A gentleman (Mr. A) from town also does bees, and whenever there is a swarm, people call him to remove it.
Well, when he got a call recently, all his hives were full, so he recommended they call Eric.
The Lord provided a swarm of 5000 bees for Eric to start out with!
Mr. A's uncle was cleaning out his barn about a week after Eric got his first hive going---What was up in the barn? Some bee hives!
It is amazing how the Lord prompted Eric to get all his research done, so He could provide the equipment.
Miles took all the photos, since I was gone......Enjoy!
(And if you ever want to know anything about bees, just ask Eric!)

















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

Chicken Butchering

This past Friday morning at 7:00 a.m. in the stillness of the north second street neighborhood, the loud protesting of chickens could be heard in the dim lit morning.Around 8:00 a.m., after our 71 chickens were loaded up, we drove out to our friends house, where we were butchering.

After unloading our stuff, we jumped into the action and started helping. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty chilly-around 35 degrees- so we had to take some "warm-up breaks" throughout the morning.
We worked our chickens, then started our friends-After a lunch break, we finished up, then spent a few hours cleaning up. I think we did around 225 chickens altogether.
It was a great experience and I'm glad to say we've done it! Thus our chicken escapades are ended for this fall-(Until next spring, that is!!!




We can fit 7 chickens in one crate.


Tying them down with cords-we don't want to
lose them on the way out!


Miles liked loading them up!


Once we were at our friends farm,
we got right to work-Dad gathered the
chickens and put them in the killing cones.



After their throats have been slit, blood has been pumped out,
and their heads removed, they are placed in
the "scalder" a big barrel filled with regulated hot water.
The scalding helps in the feather removal.

-In the foreground you can see the plucker-
-Behind the plucker are the chicken cones-

The plucker is an amazing invention
I was EXTREMELY grateful that we didn't have to pluck the chickens by hand!

Papa and Memaw got to come and help!
Memaw helped with the inside job of packaging and weighing.
Papa was the one who sorted the "innards"
All the yummy gizards, livers, hearts-Are you cringing yet?

The butchering table-There were always around 7-8
people doing the "evisceration" process.

After the are all finished on the table,
they chill in cold water, until they are ready to be packaged.

Round 2

On Friday, September 4th at 4:30 a.m. our second round of chicks arrived!!!
Mom had called the Post Office to alert them the they would be getting them, and they said they would call us when they got to town. At 6:30 we still hadn't heard from the PO, so Mom decided to call. We are friends with the post mistress, and she had decided wait to call us, and let us sleep instead. So around 7:00 we went to pick them up! Out of the original 78 chickens, only 2 have died! I'll be posting some more pictures soon as they get bigger!