Nov. 3-9, 2019

Weather | 11/3, 30°, 56° | 11/4, 39°, 51° | 11/5,  31°, 51° | 11/6, 36°, 59° | 11/7, 23°, 36° | 11/8, 14°, 34° | 11/9, 30°, 56° |

• Sunday, 11/3: I put 5-foot long pieces of 3-foot wide steel roofing up between steel fence posts to form one of our three compost bins. In the past, I used copper wire to hold these steel pieces to the posts, thinking that the copper won't corrode. It doesn't, but the problem is wind wiggles the steel against the weak copper wire, breaks the wire, and then flips the steel roofing pieces around. Today, I quadrupled electric fence wire and twisted the 4-strand wire through holes in the steel and around the posts...much stronger and if it rusts, there's enough wire to hold it. At 4 wire ties on each fence post, it equals 16 wire connections that I put up. It took all day to put it together. I raked up 2 wheelbarrow loads of leaves and put them in the compost bin. Mary dug a third row in the far garden and planted four varieties of garlic in the second and third rows. That finished the planting of all garlic for the year. She grabbed the remaining unplanted garlic cloves and put them in a plastic bowl to use up in cooking, which she added to a venison stroganoff that we had for supper. Bill texted us and sent a photo that he was listening to the Vikings game and drinking a bottle of his first-made beer. We were going to butcher chickens tonight, but decided to wait until tomorrow night to start. Initially, we were going to butcher 6 per night for 4 nights. We've now decided to do 12 per night for 2 nights. Six a night works best earlier in the year, when nighttime temps are in the 60s, but now they're in the 30s, so 12 a night should work out okay.
• Monday, 11/4: While sending out yesterday's blog, I asked Kristen and Don, Mary's sister-in-law and brother, if they wanted to see this. They said yes, so if I seem redundant, I'm explaining ideas to them. Mary loaded several wheelbarrow loads of tall grass from the east trail that I recently weedwhacked and piled them next to the compost bins to use as compost biomass. She moved dry grass clippings out of the second grain bin into a large blue plastic industrial barrel, while dumping old clippings from it into the compost grass pile. Mary mowed new grass clippings that she set out to dry in the second grain bin. I got the machine shed ready for nighttime chicken butchering by hanging an old 300-watt equivalent CFL light from the rafters and setting up 4 east, west, north, south lights, all aimed at an aluminum meat hook. I hang each chicken upside down from the hook while butchering it. I got all buckets of water set out. Mary set up the 10-foot long digging bar stretched atop 2 step ladders for hanging dead chickens from. I sharpened 9 knives. I weedwhacked another gas tank full on the south leg of the east trail. We started butchering chickens at 7:30 pm. Finished killing 9 Austra White and 3 Buff Orpington cockerels at 9:30. Then, I skinned and gutted each chicken, after which Mary sectioned each bird, cleaned any remaining organs, thoroughly washed them, bagged them, and froze them. At the end of 6 birds, we took a tea and jam on toast break at midnight. We finished all 12 birds at 2:30 am. These chickens were big for their age (2 days shy of 14 weeks) and had tiny gonads. Obviously, the feed was excellent. I heard leaves rustling as creatures passed through all night. Could have been possums, raccoons, or even coyotes. Lots of coyotes howling after midnight, 1 barred owl, and a distant coon hound on a chase. We also heard snow geese flying over in the dark. Smart geese. You don't get shot at when you fly south during the nighttime. Went to bed at 3:30 am with the chicken butchering finale due several hours in the future.
• Tuesday, 11/5: Got 4 hours sleep. Mary took an hour nap at 2:30 pm. I gassed up the weedwhacker and cleaned up more of the East Trail. Sharpened knives, then took a 45-minute nap. Started knocking off chickens at 8 pm, then started skinning, gutting, and processing our 7 Silver Wyandotte and 5 Buff Orpington cockerels at 10 pm. The Wyandottes were smaller...harder for me to skin, but easier for Mary to process. Mary threw away a 30-year old U.S. Navy hooded sweatshirt that after 9 years of chicken butchering was in rags. We had an hour tea and toast break at 12:30 am. While working on the final 6 chickens, I heard a sound, turned around and saw a possum reaching up to chew on the head of 1 of the dead chickens. I hollered for it to scram, but it didn't move. So, I got close and stomped my boots. It ran a couple feet, stopping under our 16-foot Lund boat, so I grabbed the boat and banged it around. It ran another few feet and stopped under the 8N Ford tractor's wagon, so I kicked the wagon's plywood sides and it finally ran off. Obviously, bloody chicken heads are hard for a possum to leave behind. Finished with all chickens at 4:30 am. YAHOO!!!
• Wednesday, 11/6: Ate breakfast, after finishing with chicken butchering, then did chores. The 2 pullets left from the younger chickens (we always seem to wind up with a couple females when we order a couple dozen birds from Cackle Hatchery's "Pan Fry Special" of cockerels) were very timid about meeting our 4 older hens and the rooster, Leo. The new girls include a Buff Orpington we're calling Golden, and a Silver Wyandotte we've named Silver...nice originality, right? We both took a 2.5-hour nap at 8 am. Then after eating a meal,we drove the 8N Ford tractor pulling a wagon down the East Trail and cut firewood from an ash tree that blew down this summer. Unloaded a trailer load of firewood into the woodshed. Probably a possum hauled off some of the chicken feet I threw in a pile on the machine shed floor, so I cut the baling twine off 48 chicken feet and tossed them into the north woods. Mary covered the chicken guts in the compost pile while I cleaned up buckets.  Chicken butchering is not a fun job, but it results in several chicken meals throughout the year. We are super tired tonight, with the woodstove kicking out nice wood heat. It's blowing a stiff NE wind outside, which is why we elected to do two 12-bird butchering nights, rather than four 6-bird events, which would have put us into cold, windy conditions.
• Thursday, 11/7: Mary cooked up 2 pumpkins and froze 18 quarts of pumpkin for future pies and cakes...YUM! She also raked up maple leaves and put them in the compost pile. I nailed a 2x4' sheet of 1/2-inch plywood to the top of the Wood Duck deer stand to cover up holes chewed in the existing plywood by squirrels. I also finished weedwhacking the trail to the southeast deer blind...lots of big deer tracks at the 2nd crossing of the ditch on that trail. I also removed the inner wall of the chicken coop that once divided the hens and rooster from the new chickens. The remaining 2 pullets, Goldie and Silver, stayed on the roost while I disassembled the wall. I put all of the pieces of the wall above the rafters in the machine shed. Mary made a shopping list.
• Friday, 11/8: We shopped in Quincy, IL. I picked up my new glasses. The sides of the lenses are thicker...starting to look like Mr. McGoo, but I can see much better. Bought food, including birdzilla, a 23-pound turkey...need big, since Bill is showing up for Thanksgiving. Actually, we use it for several meals after turkey day. Bought Christmas wrapping paper after laughing at seeing black and white colored paper in Walmart...come on! Ate nachos after coming home and putting things away. Watched Ever After, starring Drew Barrymore and Anjelica Huston, a good movie.
• Saturday, 11/9: Mary washed clothes, then cleaned the chicken coop and put in new hay on the coop's floor. I used 3.5 tanks of gas to weedwhack the trail to the Bobcat deer blind, a trail I haven't cleaned up in a couple years. Now, all trails to deer blinds and stands are finished. Mary and I walked to the Bobcat deer blind as the sun set and Mary spotted 2 big deer running off through the woods.