Day of the Dead

I've been waiting to post this because I thought the title was fitting for the work we've been up to around the homestead the last week. I'm sure most of you are already aware of this, but I killed my first chicken. Not that I took joy in the whole process, but to be quite honest, it was such a neat experience. I now feel confident in the fact that I can butcher, pluck feathers, and clean out the inside of a chicken. I am very proud of this new skill of mine and am excited about the thought of one day having my own chickens who will supply me with yummy meat.

We are finishing up chicken number
by plucking the feathers off. She
had just been dipped in a pot of hot water

A few days later, we were informed by Barb that Mona Mi, one of the cats, had been attacked during the night by an unknown animal. So we were instructed to set up a trap in the woods, and catch the culprit. The next morning, there was a big ugly opossum in the trap. I'm not really sure how we jumped from trapping the opossum to then deciding to kill it, but that is what happened. Matt was told to take some greens over to the neighbors house in exchange for borrowing a gun. So Matt jumped on his bike, with a bag of greens from the garden and came back with a revolver with a pink handle. I was not really apart of the whole opossum killing because I was busy working on fire starters (Fire starters can be made a variety of ways, but basically you stuff cardboard egg crates with lint or saw dust an cover them in wax. Once they dry you cut them apart and use them to help you start a fire. Very easy and practical). Although I wasn't directly connected with the killing, I could see the whole event from the picnic table I was sitting on. The plan was to let the opossum out of the cage, and Matt would shoot it with the gun. However, he was also told to turn his head when he fired, which he did, therefore missing the opossum. The opossum took off through the woods, with Matt, Barb and Adam (another WWOOFer) running after it. Another shot was fired, it was a miss again and the opossum climbed a tree. Several minutes later, I slowly walked over to where everyone was gathered only to find an even more ridiculous event occurring. Adam was standing on a latter with a long tree saw trying to cut the limb in which the opossum was hanging on for dear life. Barb was right below with a blanket ready to cover it and Matt was ready with the gun. This took a couple of tries but finally, the limb fell along with opossum, and that was the end of that. I tell this long drawn out story because it was probably one of the most ridiculous things I've ever experienced in my life. Being a farm that believes in not wasting anything, we most definitely skinned and ate the opossum and put it in a stew. It was a bit too gamy tasting for me, but yet again, I enjoyed the experience of learning something new. Its not everyday you learn how to skin a opossum.

It should also be noted that in the same week that we ate our chickens and the opossum, our neighbor brought over squirrel stew for us to try because I told him that I had never tried squirrel before. It was certainly a most interesting week of food.

I love any excuse to dress up like a silly person, so when a heard there was a costume contest at work, I was ready to get creative. Well because I didn't really want to spend any money I tried to work with what I already had in my possession. With my abundant supply of flannel shirts, hobo hat and puffy green vest; I thought it only fitting to be a lumber jack. The night before Halloween I helped out with our neighbors harvest festival and was in charge of the chickens. The kids could come by and pet a chicken or hold it if they were feeling oh so brave. Needless to say, I confused several kids with my costume.

Not such a smart way to hold a chicken because it most definitely peed in my pocket.