Rain
It spent most of the morning here raining. I don't think it amounted to a lot, but we could use any that we can get. I had planned to run the sprinkler on my garden this evening, but that won't be necessary now.
K was home this morning between appointments, and he took a nap on our bed. That's very unusual for him. I don't think he's felt well lately, and he hasn't been sleeping well. I didn't sleep well last night, either. I woke up just after 1 a.m., and was awake for a couple hours. I got up and watched Glimore Girls, which happend to be the best thing on in the night. I don't think I've seen it since I was up feeding my three-year-old in the night when she was a newborn. It's definitely gone downhill.
Tomorrow after vacation Bible school, I'm taking the kids to a friend of N's from preschool. I'm not sure if I'll just drop them off for a while or if I'll hang around and talk to N's friend's mother. She said I could do either. I'm not sure how my daughter will take my leaving. She's afraid of N's friend's little sister--with reason. About a year ago the little sister clawed up my daughter's face, and she hasn't forgotten. The little sister is two-and-a half. She and my daughter share a birthday except my daughter is a year older.
2 Comments:
Can you send me some rain? We're on hosepipe bans here. Not allowed to use sprinklers and only allowed to water on Wed and Sun during certain hours.
I wanted to ask about plucking your chooks. Ours were bantams so we never ate them but my dh's Mum used to pluck chickens in their kitchen. She'd plunge them in boiling water first and G reckons it used to stink the house out.
Friends who run a certified organic farm use a chicken plucker which is a large barrel with rubber fingers inside it. You pop the chooks in and turn the handle. The rubber fingers remove a lot of the fethers but they still need to tidy them up by hand.
Take care and save some rain for us!!
If we had enough rain to spare, I'd be happy to send you some. As it is, we aren't getting enough this summer.
My husband plucked the chickens. I watched him do one. He put an electric burner on our concrete bench outdoors, and ran an extension cord so he could use it. In a stock pot with a candy thermometer, he put water and a bit of dish washing detergent. He brought the water up to 180 °F. He dipped the dead chicken (held by its feet) into the water for about seven seconds. Then he plunged it into a cooler he had filled with water and a two-liter pop bottle he had filled with water and frozen. This was to keep the cooler-water cold. He pulled off the feathers by hand, starting with the wings, which were the hardest. Once the chicken was plucked, he gutted the chicken. Then he took it into the house and washed it up better in the sink.
Before I roasted the chicken yesterday, I tidied up the plucking job a bit more.
The chicken was scrawny, but the flavor was excellent. The meat was so tender. This was the first time we've kept chickens in a portable cage, moving it to fresh grass in the lawn all the time. It kept the meat from getting tough. Until this year, we've just had the chickens we were going to eat roam the yard with the rest of the flock.
I hope you get some rain soon. Isn't it winter where you are? How come you don't want snow?
Angela
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