February 16, 2014 Processing My First Chicken

This morning I'm trying to find a budget tracker for my phone.  So far I have one I can track my food and gas purchases but it doesn't track my fun money correctly.  Kind of aggravating.  I found another to track my fun money but it doesn't track cents.  I'm kind of particular and think keeping track of cents is important.  I'll continue my search.  Update:  I found one and it looks good at first glance.  I'll test it out this week.

Part of homesteading, in my opinion, is being able to manage expenses no matter how small and pesky they seem.  If you've ever taken a jar, pile, or boat load of change to one of those money machines, poured it in, and see how much all that change is worth, then you know that pennies matter.  The last time I took my pocket change that had filled up a quart jar and half of a gallon freezer bag, it added up to $97.  There's a whole lot I can do with $97.

One thing I used that $97 for was starting a savings account for Rowan.  Now I no longer have to make sure I have cash laying around to give her for an allowance.  Thanks to the internet I can just move that money around and deposit it straight to her account.  She still has a grand ole time going to the bank and filling out her bank slip.  The ladies at the bank are always real nice to her and put her money in an envelope, even if it's only five dollars.

Today I'm planning on sending a chicken to freezer camp.  Jace and I talked about this yesterday.  I've been mentally preparing to do this.  I haven't done this before.  Maybe I should play music.  Something like Eye of the Tiger to get me inspired.  It's not something I want to do but certainly must be done.

 

I did it!  I worked myself up and really did it.  It wasn't very pleasant, but also not too unpleasant.  I thank the chicken for giving me an easy first time.  I think Rowan's face really sums it up.  The video that really helped was this one on YouTube.

 

 

Jace brought me my hot water and worked as my camera man.  I tried to have everything I needed already prepared.  I had a chair to sit in to kill the chicken.  I had my very sharp knife.  I had a tarp on the ground for collecting all the feather mess.  I had a fold up table.  I had a pot of hot water, which I had heated to boiling and kept simmering before I killed the chicken.  The one thing I forgot was a plate/pan to put the chicken on when I was done cleaning it.

 

 

Here I am cleaning it.  The feathers really came out unbelievably easy. 

 

 

This is a picture of its' tail.  Jace wanted a picture of the oil gland but it's really hard to see unless you know you are looking at it.  I was very thankful for this tarp.  After finishing I took the tarp over to the compost pile and dumped all those feathers and what not.  My last step was to simply wash the tarp off and put everything away.

 

 

Here's part of our dinner tonight.  I seasoned with lemon pepper and rosemary.   I have to say the flavor was exceptional.  It was slightly tougher than I expected.  I am definitely forging on with my plan of raising our own meat chickens.