To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug-out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those — or excerpts thereof — in the Odds ‘n Sods Column or in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!
Jim Reports:
We had a great two-day belated Thanksgiving visit with our kids and grandkids last weekend, here at the ranch. As usual, our #1 Son Jonathan cut a Christmas tree out in our woods, to take home with him.
On Monday and Tuesday, we slaughtered and butchered two batches of excess roosters. On Monday we did a dozen. On Tuesday we butchered ten more. As usual, I did the slaughtering, beheading, de-legging, gutting, and wingtip removal. Lily did the scalding, plucking, carcass cleanup, and freezer-bagging. Of the thirteen that were skinned, Lily boiled down 11 of them. Those were deboned and the meat put in quart freezer bags and frozen.
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Now, Lily’s part of the report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
We had two sunny days this week, then the fog and clouds returned to our valley. Our temperature highs were about thirty-two and our lows about thirty. Our ground is freezing which is great for the animals in the corral and loafing areas. My mint growing against the house froze and died this week.
I was a very busy woman this past weekend with cooking up a storm and cleaning for our family get-together. Since we don’t celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving is our big family time together. We often give each other gifts, not wrapped, during this holiday, just because… We love and are thankful for each other and it’s fun to give creative educational gifts to the grandsons and to watch them assemble and play with them. It’s not in the name of anything at this time, because there is so much paganism in both Christmas and Hanukkah traditional celebrations.
For the first time since marrying and homesteading together, this week was the first time I had plucked some of our butchered chickens. It wasn’t that bad. I had plucked chickens once, with some friends about thirty years ago, but had forgotten what it was like, since from the beginning of our marriage, Jim has always skinned the birds. I built a fire in our homemade standing fire grill. We built it from cinder blocks. I started a fire in it and boiled a large pot of water.
Jim slaughtered and gutted a bird. I picked it up, walked it to the pot of boiling water, dipped it, and swished it around for about a minute, then took it out, waved it in the air for a moment to allow the hot water to drain off, cool down, and the feathers to relax. Then I commenced plucking. The feathers pretty much lifted off the bird. Once they were mostly cleaned they were brought inside to be finished up. Inside the house, I removed any remaining feathers, the lungs, the kidneys, and extra fat. Too much chicken fat, specifically, gives me serious heartburn. Then I washed the birds well with water, drip-dried them, and bagged them. I put them in the fridge for twenty-four hours to get them to relax from rigor mortis. Then I froze them.
We had had too many roosters. We waited a month too long to cull them. About a month ago they had come into sexual maturity and had been ravaging our girls for the past two to three weeks. We had a ratio of one rooster to about three hens, too many and in the last week, when we decided to keep the birds in the coop and run, instead of letting them out, the conditions for the hens had become intolerable. We felt bad, and had to quickly reduce the male population ASAP. But in my defense, I wanted to be darn sure who a rooster was, some of them were still developing their combs and tail feathers. In the past, we have accidentally butchered a few females that looked an awful lot like young roosters.
I also like keeping about eight for genetic variation for breeding and egg hatching in the spring and summer and had to, wanted, the chance to really decide which I wanted to keep. We had a lot of truly handsome boys that were butchered. So sad. One further reason why we waited so long is that we had to make room in the freezer for them, since I don’t care too much for pressure canning. Though I might still pressure can some of these frozen roosters in the future…
Wednesday, after the butchering, I cleaned out the hen house and put three of our eight or nine remaining roosters in the inner Chicken coop. There were still too many roosters for our hens. Poor girls. I want to keep about six to eight for genetic variation purposes, but I need the girls to have some relative peace so they can recommence laying eggs…
On Friday, when I went into the coop, there was definitely a new atmosphere in the coop. It had greatly improved. The girls were freely hopping around and eating and drinking, with the few roosters mingling among them. Great, just the way a hen house should be!
This week, we three, celebrated a family birthday by all going to Triple Play in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The daughter-in-law with the three oldest boys joined us. Our daughter-in-law is quite pregnant, so Jim and I and Miss Violet took the three older boys on many of the attractions. Laser tag, Bumper cars, the drop seat, and the giant slides of Raptor Reef were the favorites for all of us. Afterward, back at #1 Son’s house, we all enjoyed a pizza dinner with birthday cake and ice cream. A great fun day was had by all.
I did not get in too many walks this week and those that I did were on the shorter side. I need to get back at it.
May You All Remain Safe, Blessed, and Hidden in Christ Jesus,
– Avalanche Lily, Rawles
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As always, please share and send e-mails of your own successes and hard-earned wisdom and we will post them in the “Snippets” column this coming week. We want to hear from you!