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| Andreas getting all plucky...lol |
As most things go, we are slowly getting rid of all the superfluous roosters, and they have been a great source of meat for many months.. :)
This time round we slaughtered Squeeky, seeing as he was just turning out to be a really bad chicken! He had gotten loose one morning, escaped from the dome, and was just causing havoc in the veg patch. So as I tried to get him back into the dome, he decided to upstage me by attacking me... what a cheek!!
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| Its kind of cool when your kids get involved |
So after a battle of wills, I did manage to get him back into the dome, and in the same token achieved some scratches and bruises on my shins. After which I got our prime chicken catcher Rene to catch him for me, and bring him to meet his maker! I am sorry, but our homestead has no room for aggressive animals and this was not the first time that Squeeky had decided to lash out. We therefore promptly slaughtered him, and of course this was done humanly, with as little suffering as possible.
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| Turns out Andreas is not too bad at plucking |
We did the boiling water thing, and promptly started to pluck the feathers out. Andreas wanted to help so I allowed him to. I believe he is learning really valuable life lessons by participating in the chores which living like we do bring. On a homestead, everybody has a part to play, and its also good for him to understand first hand where our food comes from, and what needs to be done before it looks anything like what you buy in the shop.. :)
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| He actually did about halt the plucking |
Being 7 he had all kinds of questions, which we obviously answered to the best of our knowledge, and once Jan started to clean the chicken, and de-gut it even more questions came. Learning about animals and what they can provide, and which process they must go through before we can eat them was all very fascinating for him... and he did inspect everything!! The skin of the chicken after plucking, the different organs, the intestines got a really close look.. but you know what - Its good for him, because one day when he gets older and has to make life choices, he will remember these experiences, and take them with him into the world and in his own life. Its reality!
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| The concentration.. :) |
I would never have thought that choosing this lifestyle for us would have such an impact on our boys, but it has. They both love living here, and obviously because Andreas is younger he has grown with the homestead, and has gone through much of the emotion, and experiences as have we. Rene I think will always be a city kid though, even though he loves the mornings here, and waking up to the bird noises and so on. They both take part in feeding the livestock, and they both have other chores to do around the place, which gets done with minimal complaint.. so all in all we still believe it was the best move ever!
