July 30th

I killed a chicken.

We plan on keeping chickens eventually for eggs and meat, so it was going to have to happen one day. Mona mentioned that they were going to be killing a few soon, and I asked if I could see how they did it. I watched her do one, and then she asked if I wanted to try. What do you say when someone asks if you want to kill a chicken? My first instinct was to say “No, that’s okay. I’ll just watch”, but then I figured, I was going to have to do it sometime if I wanted to keep chickens for meat....may as well do it with someone that knows what they are doing. There wasn’t much too it…they keep them nice and calm while holding them, stretch out their neck until it breaks, and toss them in a bag until they stop flapping about. Afterwards, I watched while her oldest daughter (who handles all the birds around here) plucked and prepared them.

I think I can handle having chickens, but we’ve yet to see a goat slaughtered and that part I’m still not so sure about. I definitely want to have them though. I’ve enjoyed helping with the milking, and although I’m still much, much slower than Mona and her daughter, I am improving. My hands are still sore each day, but I’m getting a little quicker. I watched this evening as the goats were getting their hooves trimmed. There’s so much we have to learn about the animals we want to keep and foods we want to grow, but I think Carter and I both are more excited than ever about doing it.