Farm Fresh: Thanksgiving Birds

I loved raising these turkeys.  They were curious and would always come and see what I was doing in the yard. They made cute yipping and gobbling noises. They ran to me when I fed them. People say that they are ugly, but I thought they were handsome in a dinosaur type way. The turkeys were allowed to grow about 3 weeks longer than was necessary because I wanted them to be freshly dressed for Thanksgiving.

Butchering day was sad, but we all knew that these commercial breeds (double breasted white and broad breasted bronze) would no longer be able to walk in a few weeks. I was glad to have some friends who wanted to come help with the work.
**Warning: Graphic pictures ahead*** Stop here if you don't want to see turkeys being butchered**
This is exactly why I wanted help with butchering these turkeys.  Look at this strong guy struggling to carry my hefty bird!

 Then we string it up (also a two man job).

 Put the burlap sack over it to secure its wings.  J got hurt by one of the birds flapping around.

  I was glad that J was willing to do the killings.  I can do it, but I hate doing it, especially on my birds.  They have trusted me so long. I can do the rest of the processing without any trouble though. 1. Dip the bird in 155 degree water.

 2. Hang it back up and start plucking.

 While we plucked J got the next bird ready.

  3. Finish plucking and begin gutting the carcass.  I start at the back end and get it all ready to pullout and then come around the front and cut out the crop.  Then I pull all the rest of the innards out from the back.

 Putting my hand in the chest cavity to pull out the innards.

S, C, and K, who were helping that day attend the homeschool co-op with us.  We did several turkey anatomy lessons along the way. They dissected the heart and a foot. 

Then we packed the birds in coolers of ice so that they cool down for 24 hours. My friends took some home, we brought one to the family that gave me a deer, and we kept two.  Processing the 4 turkeys took about 2-2.5 hours plus time for set-up and clean-up.  

Family Schooling Summary: Pilgrim Day and a Tour of the Snyders Pretzel Factory

One of the farms near our home hosts a Pilgrim reenactment for homeschool kids. They had 4 different stations that we rotated through, followed by a hay ride, a corn maze, and a pick-your-own popcorn field.  The first pilgrim we met talked to us about chores. It was hilarious when she spoke about chickens, M raised his hand and said, "That is my chore too. I let the chickens out in the morning and gather the eggs."  While she was talking about how the pilgrims learned to plant the 3 sisters (corn, beans, and squash) together I realised something new.  The groundhog and other animals don't like the squash vines so by planting the squash in a circle around the corn and beans, they deterred the groundhogs from eating those tasty bean plants that they love so much! I can't wait to try that next spring.

The American Indians near Plymouth were called Wampanoag or Massasoit. This chief spoke to the kids about how the pilgrims arrival looked from his perspective and why they eventually decided to help the poor whites.

We met some very tame farm animals along the way.

The kids played pilgrim games and learned about the kinds of toys that children might have had back then.  

  The get the ball in the cup game was one of them.

  Corn husk dolls were another toy.

This is the popcorn field.  We also saw two bald eagles while we were on the hayride, but I did not get my camera ready fast enough.

This popcorn is excellent.  Unlike that batch that we grew a couple years ago, nearly every kernel popped.  We are saving some of the kernels for seeds to see whether this type works better. 

Then the next day some fellow homeschoolers had organized a tour of Snyders Pretzel Factory.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside.  I found a couple online that show the same machines, though they were making tortilla chips instead of potato chips the day we were there.

 It was amazing how fast everything goes through. Our tour guide told us that if all the machines are working at once, they can make one million mini pretzels per hour!  We tried free samples of some new flavors like s'mores and chili garlic. 

Then on Thursday we had a playdate with some friends. The weather was perfect for getting our energy out at the park.

 

 

Happy Birthday to My Hot Wheels Boy

S requested pizza for dinner and strawberry shortcake for dessert.  Big Sister A helped me make an angel food cake.

S was so kind about sharing his new things with M.  He did not make a bit of fuss about everyone rushing in to play with his new toys with him.

Big Sister A and Brother S also had their first fillings at the dentist last week.  They had a big treat and then came home to brush and floss their teeth.

Train Day at the Library

Every year our local library hosts a special Train Day. They have all different model train sets running in the conference rooms.  This set was in the Lego Train room.

The boys like to wear their train costumes and other paraphernalia. Since his Thomas the Tank Engine costume was looking a little the worse for wear, brother S wore his Thomas jacket and hat instead. Brother M had his full costume on.   Everyone loved it and M enjoyed the attention.

 Tooting the big engine horn in the main library area.

This is L paying the fare, putting a penny in, and getting her ticket.

Recommended Reading: September and October

1. Felicity series and Julie series- It's great to be sharing these with my own kids. Love these historical fiction novels.
2. Magic Tree House series - These books are so annoying to listen to in the car. But the kids love them and learn a lot of history at their own level... so we continue to listen to them.  It seems like the series will never end.
3. War Brides by Lois Battle - About a group of Australian women who came to the US as war brides after WWII.  This book was interesting, but so sad. It seemed to be trying to portray everything very realistically and overcompensated for the tendency of many books to have hollywood endings with none of them.
4. Home Fires - One of those rare occasions when I like the show way more than the book.  I just could not stay awake while I was reading it.
5. The White Giraffe - Amazing story about a girl who has to move to a game park South Africa.  It kept us all enthralled from start to finish.
6. The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden  - This was a fun mockery of government and I enjoyed reading it, but it was not my favorite book.  It is totally original and I do recommend it as an interesting read.
7. Tales from the Arabian Nights: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Other Stories (Junior Classics) by Andrew Lang - We all enjoyed listening to these stories.  It is a great kid friendly version.
8. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - The unabridged version of this story is so full of morals and Christ-like efforts that it was incredibly uplifting to listen to it.  A lot of it went over the kids heads though, so we will need to read it again in a few years. Probably best for ages 10 and up since the language is a bit old fashioned and very wordy.
9. Wondla (again)
10. When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne - The kids don't let me read them much poetry, but I want them to appreciate it.  They like some of these poems.
11. Runny Babbit by Shel Silverstein - I love his poems.  This book was mind bending, but fun. The kids actually seemed to grudgingly like this one too. I need to get them listening to some of the others that are easier to understand.

Family Schooling Summary: Halloween Partying

This picture pretty well sums up how baby L felt about this Halloween thing.  She was very good at saying "Thank you" by the end of Trick-or-Treating. Of course everyone thought that she was so cute and gave her extra candy... 

We had our usual Halloween bash at co-op school.

I was in charge of the "Biting" for Apples station.  I dressed as a vampire. Letting all the kids bob for their apples in the same bucket caused a public outcry from all the germ-o-phobes.  I had to put single apples in my biggest mixing bowls and refill the water for each bobber!

Big sister A in her super spy costume.

My friend Jill -- she used dry ice to make steamy root beer.

As part of our history lesson (end of the Roman Empire) we looked at how various peoples took over the UK.

The kids exchanged their candy at a price of 10 cents per piece.  With that money and some of their allowance, they immediately ordered toys on Amazon.  Big sister A bought this cooking science kit.