Full Freezer and Basement

We're all set for the winter now.  Last Sunday Hubby, my two stepsons, our nephew, and my mother and father-in-law all helped us cut, split, and pile 5 cords of wood.  Today, my very good friends helped us slaughter and clean our 10 turkeys.  What a job that was, almost as bad the the day we cleaned 25 chickens.  The difference is the turkeys were so much larger than the chickens were that we had a hard time to maneuver them in the sink.  They were only 3 1/2 months old and the largest bird was 29 pounds (tom) and the smallest was 15 pounds (hen).  So glad that's done.  Now I'm relaxing after a nice long shower.   I'll check back in tomorrow....

D-day has arrived

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but lots has gone on.  Since my last posting, we had hens, meat birds, turkeys, bunnies, and 3 dogs.  We lost our Bandit (our Husky) this summer to old age.  It was a sad day.  Two weeks ago we decided to find homes for our other two dogs, the hens, and bunnies.  We were able to find them great homes all by the end of the week.  We've slaughtered and cleaned 60 meat birds (chickens) that we raised from little chicks, and tomorrow we're doing the same with our 3 1/2 month old turkeys.

It's pretty self-explanatory as to why we took care of the meat birds and tomorrow the turkeys, for food. But, why find homes for our hens, dogs, and bunnies?  Hubby is allergic to pet dander, and although getting the dogs was his idea, he was the one who was really suffering all this time.  The last straw was two weeks ago when he ran out of his inhalant medication and couldn't get it refilled until the following Monday.  He went so far as to sleep in the car so he could breathe.  It wasn't an easy decision, because I get so attached, sooooo easily, but enough was enough.

As for the meat birds and turkeys...well, it was definitely an experience, one that I'm all set with for a few years.  Seriously considering NOT doing this again for quite a while, basically because we were tied down so much.  Now that Hubby has graduated from college and is now working, we couldn't go anywhere with the kids on any vacation, not with all of those animals.  We have friends who could have helped us out, but we didn't want to burden them all with our animals. We also have 2 horses and 3 cows.  I'm hoping the horses don't get sold, but the cows are definitely arranged already.

As weird as it, and will be after tomorrow, not having the the birds, bunnies, and dogs around, it is liberating knowing that I don't have to worry about getting them more feed or trudging over to give them food and water before heading out to work.

Well, signing off for the night.  Got a big day cleaning turkeys tomorrow.  As one friend stated... gobble! gobble! Ack!!  Although Hubby and I have some great friends who will be helping us, it's still going to be a big job.