Friday we took the trip to get Double Stuf the pig. Long day in the car and even longer evening moving the lambs so we could use the pen in the shop for the hog. All of the evening chores and I picked 4 colanders full of raspberries.
Sweet delicious juicy raspberries. Some for my mouth, some for the colander. I threw them all in the juicer and start cooking them down. I have enough raspberry jam and frozen raspberries in the freezer for this winter so I juiced them out.
And I had great help with this task. She is quite my little helper.
Saturday morning I got up at 5 am after going to bed at midnight and I was ready to go. I took all that wonderful raspberry juice and started making syrup. I also went out and picked cherries and then Dale helped me pick more and I juiced all that down and made syrup out of that juice also. 10 pints and 1 quart of cherry syrup and 10 pints of raspberry syrup. YUM!
Then late in the afternoon we decided to go ahead and butcher the remaining 14 Cornish X chickens. It was 95 degrees yesterday and the heat was hard on them. I decided I was tired of giving them fresh water every couple of hours and several of them had developed leg problems so off we went to butcher. Dale, Josh, Mariah and I started off learning as we went who did what job best and how it worked the most efficiently. The first chicken Mariah was almost in tears about killing and by the last one she killed it. We learned as we went how to do it the most humane. My mom came up and helped us pluck the pin feathers and after I gutted them she helped make sure they were really clean. I really wished I would have did a better job figuring out the total cost to raise these and if I do it again in the fall I will most definitely keep track. The biggest problem being is that the ducks, geese, turkeys and meat chickens all eat the same food so I can't really figure out how many pounds of feed they consumed to do a cost analysis.
I also cooked a BIG dinner yesterday for the family and the main dish was the first Cornish X that we butchered early this week. We were all amazed at how good it was and there wasn't a piece of meat left on the bones. We were like vultures and plucked all the meat from the bones. It was delicious. I cooked it in the oven stuffed with dressing sitting on a rack in the roaster pan. I rubbed it with butter and seasoned it. Very, very good!
Today, brought us up early again. The neighbors had to have a big Red Fir tree taken down as it was dead. The power company came and did this about two weeks ago and today was the day to make firewood. We lucked out as they split it with us for exchange for helping them buck it up. Dale and Josh were ready to get to work this morning at 6 am and were joined by Dale's dad, Billy. Billy used to be a sawyer and we were very blessed to have him join in the wood gathering party. The neighbor and his son joined by our three made work of that tree in about 5 and 1/2 hours. This was a big tree and as a result of their hard work our wood shed is full. It is only the middle of July and it is FULL! Praise God!
While they were off cutting up the tree I was blessed to my Dale's mom join me. She is always so helpful and it was nice. She didn't mind one bit that I continue to do the stuff I needed to do and she keep Emmy happy. It was wonderful not to have an unhappy child following me around fussing. She hang my clothes on the line for me and then when my mom came she helped me fold them. I am very blessed to have both of these Moms in my life. They are truly special women who I continue to learn from all the time.
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