This weekend we celebrated Zechariah's birthday. The Lord gave us a beautiful day. The weather was as near perfect as it gets here in Tennessee in July. We spent the morning fishing down at the Nut Cave trout farm in the slow rain. The boys caught two catfish and 7 trout. We had a fish fry with hush puppies and cole slaw for lunch - it doesn't get a whole lot better than that in the South. Zechy's favorite gift was a new Mandolin (a special thanks to Laura B. for setting it up for him). We spent the evening out at the Lake and let the kids swim while we fixed some hambugers on the grill. When it got dark the boys played some music and we sang some songs to the Lord. It was a beautiful end to a lovely day spent with our family and considering the things of God.

This was our first year in many that we have attempted to plant a garden. This is also one of the driest years on many people can ever remember. To show just how our garden has performed we harvested a few ears of corn. These are normal sweet yellow corn plants. For size comparison we placed a small regular ear of corn and some blueberries in the picture. We are still grateful for the rain that we have received. It reminds us of our utter dependence on God for our very life and breath. It is good to be reminded of that when we live in a self-centered, independent society here in America. I thank God that He has been ever so gently in constantly directing our attention back to Him and away from ourselves.

Trisons Chickery Farm

A Rooster, A Hen
and
3 rooster chicks


Friday June 23, 2006
Subject: Processing broiler chicken

ROOSTER: SHERMAN
When we moved to the country boy were we in for a real surprise!! Being city folk all our lives we were in for a “rude” awakening. That first happened with some roosters next door. Did you know those things crow all the time!!

But now we got our own flock, and I have grown used to the crowing all around. Now when folk visit us and ask me: “Do those roosters ever get quiet?” I just say, you just have to stay here long enough!

Now we have lots of stories to tell you even though we have not been here at Trisons Chickery Farm for even a year. So along the way should things get boring I will tell you about how we got here and our “Beverly Hill Billy” Adventure to Tennessee. But first just this past Friday we had us our biggest chicken killin’ yet………………….

MAMMA HEN: LAURA

Well I must say, that I did help with the first one. And it was not as bad as I thought it would be. And it is a must read story (about Crunchy the first bird to be dinner!!) I still wear gloves though and there are certain “inner” workings I do not care to participate in, but simply pluckin’ doesn’t bother me!

But this time our friends brought their chicken plucker! So since we had help, I had a certain responsibility (haha) I felt to keep the ladies busy & entertained. Since I had prepared dinner already we made greeting cards, while the men got the chickens in those pretty white wrappers for me!!
Maybe we should send the guys a card they sure were worn out?!…………

The next morning while my husband and I were having coffee together, I thought I was going to have coffee come through my nose when he told me this story of the previous night: My 8 year old Zechariah was bringing de-feathered birds from the plucker box over to the table to my husband and then pushing up and down on the breast of the chicken making the voice box crow over and over!! Yes only him! I thought, I could not believe it. Science always happens when I am not there!!I made chicken and dumplings the next day and they sure were yummy! The bird makes all the difference in the world! That was my science experiment!


ROOSTER JUNIOR SAMUEL:

We’ve had two different batches of chickens, we slaughtered some of each on Friday June 23, 2006. I will tell you some about the chicken processing time from my point of view. The first set of chickens was just a mixed group of chickens. We had cullled out a number of roosters already, so we decided to slaughter two more on this day. These had been around since late January. Now let me tell you about the un-natural birds. We had twenty-five Cornish cross broilers that we were going to kill. These had only been around for eight weeks but the average weight was around six pounds! You just got to look at these birds and say dinner! Because that is just about all that they are good for. I did not enjoy taking care of these birds because they were pigs on two feet!
Now let me tell you about how the processing went. Understand we had some experience with chicken but we had never slaughtered that many at a time. We invited two families over to help process the birds. The family that was bringing over a chicken plucker arrived first so we went ahead and started and the other family arrived soon there after.
The first thing that we did was two pull the broilers out of the tractor ( a movable pen) and then tie a string around its legs and then hang it upside down. Next we would cut its throat and debrain it. Then it was stuck into a fired up turkey fryer with the water at approximately 150 F for one minute. Then we stuck it into the chicken plucker and the bird was clean in 15-20 seconds. Then it was taken to a table where the feet were cut off and the insides pulled out. Then whole fryers were packaged in two plastic bags and some chickens were parted out.
I helped do practically every job besides clean the insides out and chop off their feet. Also it was my job to take pictures. Probably my favorite job was beheading them and running the chicken plucker. Overall I just did what needed doing. I really didn’t care for the steaming part.
Then we cleaned up and Buttinz (Which is our dog) was so sad that her pot of guts got thrown out. The scraps smelled something’ awful over the weekend though. We then ate dinner with the other two families and parted ways. The grand total for the days was 27 chickens in the freezer with approximately 160 pounds of chicken.

ROOSTER JUNIOR JOSHUA:

Let me tell you about the chicken processing from a Bird’s Eye view!

I knew when I got up this morning that something was wrong. I could feel it in my bones. I wobbled over to the feed trough knocked a few guys out that had fallen asleep there last night and began to gorge my “crop” to the “top”. Yeh, I say, some thing ain’t right. We did not get our fill of feed yet this morning. They are late. What’s up with them folks, don’t they know we birds is hungry out here!

Lots of squabbling by noon, alls we got today is water! And we are all squished in this tiny little contraption. Not to mention stepping in everyone else’s, well let’s say, POOP! I am up to my elbows in it! It seems like ever since we have been here all we ever do is eat, sit and poop!! I think that is all about to change today!! But what is up??
It is late afternoon and top dog is home. He is doing some strange things today. He is hanging a rope from a tree with two hook huh……..He’s getting out tables, coolers, oh I know they are going to have a “cook out” A party!! Then people began to arrive…………

UTOHSPEGTEIO some one ‘s a coming finally, maybe they are gonna give us something to eat WHOOOWHOOO! AOH AHO What’s this, what are you doing with me? Get you hands off my wings, hey that’s a hang nail ya know!! Careful you’ll mess up the hair do. Hey where are we going……………a strange boy picks me up turns me upside down, another kid ties strings to my feet and hangs me up. I am beginning to think ……I am the “game” of the party! But instead of “pin the tail on the donkey” it is “run the knife to end the life”!! Hey wait a minute here, they mean my life!! What kind of “chicken outfit is this anyway”???

Back at the mini coop 25 set of pea brain eyes are staring with horror at the fate of their fellow feather friend! What will become of them?? Will they play the knife game too? After the last crow of their fellow bro, they took him down place him on the “party” table and down came a HUGE (from their prospective) clever knife and cut off his head. Then I guess they thought he needed a bath so they soaked him in a sauna for a bit then put him in a box. And shock of all shocks, it made an awful noise, then to the shame of all “chick-kind” our friend was naked!!!! Not a feather on his poor body!! How embarrassing! I know he was long dead and perhaps that is good knowing what was to happen to all his presciuos feathers. Then if that was not bad enough he lost all dignitiy when the big man cut out all his inner pieces. After that another person cut off his feet, he was rinsed off and tossed in to what was thought to be the “party ” cooler of ice!

One by one they left the coop all doomed to end in the coolers. But I was planning a great escape! So when it was my turn, I tighten my neck a stiff as I could and sure enough the boy did not make a complete cut. So as soon as I saw my chance I “ran” for it. I flapped it up good and made good my escape. Slinging blood in the boy’s mouth knocking him over! Triumph!! Unfortunately all the over indulgence in the “crop” to the “top” made me trip and then I was caught by a quick hand and well……………
The rest is history and resting nicely in the freezer!


ROOSTER JUNIOR ZECHARIAH:

Hi my name is Zechariah I am 8 years old. And I LOVE being in the country! I named my first chicken Crunchy. And true to his name he was!! I was sad the day he died. We had actually hatched him from an egg to a little chick to a big rooster. But he was a mean ole thing and got loose one day and we had to shoot him. Then we plucked him and ate him. This got me so TOTALLY prepared for last Friday night when we killed 27 chickens at once. My job was bring the birds from the coop to the tree, hang it up by it’s feet. I also helped with the scalding and feet cutting. The feather plucker was really cool! Ain’t never seen so many flying feathers in all my life!