All Done

Finally, the meat birds are ALL DONE!! Monday the DH was home and we worked diligently from about 0930 - 1230. We had quite the system down....I got the live bird out of the pen, did the 'deed', let it drain, dipped it in the hot water, & plucked it. His job was to filet the breast from the bone, and cut off the leg/thigh portions. In writing, my job seemed more elaborate, or harder, but in truth, it wasn't. There were times when I was helping him (rinsing meat, etc) and times when he helped me with getting another live bird ready to go. We had the radio going, and yes it was hot out, but we worked hard and it went very smoothly. I say this because usually we cannot do a project together. But this time we did really well. There wasn't a whole lot of 'chatting', but we seemed to speak without uttering a word. It was very nice. And once we were finished, we did the 'happy dance' and collapsed on the deck in the shade. Although we had a cooler FULL of meat that still needed 'finishing', the bulk of the work was finished and it was a great load off of our shoulders.

We then showered, and then took eggs to the Farmer's Market. No, we didn't sell many, but it was nice to sit in the shade on the square and just relax for a bit. Coming home, we dove right into finishing the meat in the cooler and putting it in bags for freezing. No, I don't know how much meat (weight wise) we ended up having, but I know that our two freezers couldn't hold it all. We ended up having to put about 6 gallon size bags of meat in the MIL's freezer. I can say I don't want to eat chicken for this week!! LOL

I was thinking that we actually did this and the garden at a good time. I say that because of the flooding of the Mississippi River. With the millions of acres of crops being completely ruined, the news is saying that food prices will be on the rise. Hopefully my garden does well, I will be able to can the veggies and obviously have meat, so I should be able to save money this winter.

Speaking of the flood.....

I live close to the river. And depending on where I go, depends on how close to the river I am. Twelve miles West of me the town of Dallas City, IL is flooded out. Thirty six miles North West of me Burlington, IA is shut off. I have no worries about the water reaching me, as I am too far inland. If I see water coming to my house, lol, there is a HUGE issue and I am running for the hills!! Many people (family that doesn't live here) call and ask "are you under water?" um...LOOK AT THE FREAKIN MAP!!!! Thats all I can say. The link to see pictures of the towns West of me that are flooding is www.kbur.com