the learning curve . . .

Wow did we ever learn a heep tonight after going through our very FIRST butchering session! It was one of those times that as we were doing it, we were already making changes for the next time we process birds. It's a good thing that we only went through a few birds to learn some needed, valuable steps for next time we work on it. I started off demonstrating the way to bleed, scald, and pluck the feathers first. The children were a little nervous, and excited, to process their own birds.

Grandma came over for a visit today not knowing that we were going to be butchering. She helped out by giving the children encouragement and instruction on taking out the pin feathers. Notice the bird in the cone behind her. :) The first attempt at bleeding taught us that we needed to cut the cones shorter so we could get their heads out the bottom of the cone. And as well, that we needed sharper knives. I had an Amish friend of mine build me the cone station were we can process four birds at a time.


The children did a god job working through the whole process from start to finish of the whole butchering process. Next time we are going to work at individual stations to make it run a little smoother, do the jobs we are good at, the work we like best in the process, and to get more done in less time.