What Became of the 35 Roosters

Here is what became of the 35 roosters that we butchered:  

In addition to this lovely collagen rich bone broth and all those other soups, we put 70 chicken breasts and 70 chicken thighs in the freezer. 

I froze all the entrails and heads in gallon ziploc bags to give to the dogs a little at a time over the course of a couple weeks.  It is excellent for their dental health to eat bones and feathers. Raw meat is what dogs were made to eat.  They need a couple days fasting between each meaty meal though, so their body can digest it properly. 

Nothing goes to waste with all these mouths to feed. 

We started a new unit of Meet the Masters art classes. We are doing the class at our friends' house now instead of here at our house. One week we did a unit on Van Gogh:

Another week we did a unit on Mary Cassatt:

This crazy cat tries to get in the house every chance he gets.  Sometimes he succeeds without us noticing him come in.  And then we find him in all kinds of funny and not so funny places. 

Someone had left the dryer door open and there he was enjoying a nice nap. I had to rewash the whole load of clothes. 

Things are going well out in the garden.  I harvested some of the couve tronchuda (soft Portugese kale) that overwintered in our front garden.  We ate it in a Korean beef and greens dish for dinner this evening. 

I transplanted a big patch of strawberry runners that grew outside the bounds of the already large patch in our fenced garden.  They will be acting as ground cover in one of my permaculture beds in the orchard. That bed is a triangle with a larger fruit tree (a persimmon, an apple, and a pear, I think) at each point and a group of aronia berry bushes around the center.  

My Nanking bush cherry looks like it should have a lot of fruit this year. Yum!

Our espalier apple is just about to blossom -- glad it's holding off because we're going to have freezing temperatures for the next few days.

My espaliered peach tree is already blossoming.  I hope that its southern exposure will help keep it warm enough in the upcoming frosts. 

The one grow bag full of carrots that I did not move to the high tunnel survived temperatures in the teens just fine!  It's growing carrots full speed again. 

This is part of my little French Sorrel patch.  It's a delicious perennial lettuce.  Unfortunately, the chickens seem to love it also. I need to do a better job barricading the garden fence. 

Our laundry room update is finally complete with these beautiful canvas prints of our livestock! My dad (Clockworks Photography) took these pictures of our poultry while he was here taking care of the livestock. 

These are some of the perks of being homeschooled -- working on schoolwork outside when the weather is fine.