It is cold here this morning! I went out at 6:30 to let the chickens out, and the ground was nice and crunchy with frost. I was considering trying to catch a few more minutes of sleep when I got back inside, but the cold had me wide awake!
Friday morning we loaded our chickens up and headed over to the Dawson’s for butchering. It was funny to hear crowing coming from the trunk. I didn’t do the killing or dunking part but learned to pluck, clean, and singe the hair off. Then they were put into ice water to chill. It really was not that bad over all.
The chickens were placed in these cones until they were all bled out.
Then they were dunked in the water a few times before we plucked them. The feathers came off easily.
We cleaned them out on this table outside.
Donna’s pastor’s wife showed us how to singe the little hairs off using brown paper bags.
Saturday morning the power went out at 4:30 and finally came back on around 6:45. We got up and got ready then headed to Dollywood. The park was all decorated up and the lights were beautiful!It was their opening day for their Christmas season. Boy, was it packed! It was sunny and in the 70s so that was nice. We rode some rides then stood in line for The Polar Express in 4D for an hour and a half. It was definitely worth the wait. Quentin rode the Wild Eagle while we waited for him at the church and listened to Christmas music. It was another long wait for the Wild Eagle. Then we watched their Christmas on Ice show and fought the crowds out of the park. Thankfully we had eaten Subway on the way in and stopped at Shoney’s on the way home so we didn’t have to fight the crowd for food.
Quentin waiting in line for the Polar Express with Yukon Cornelius from Rudolph that he won.
Monday morning we jumped right back into our school week. We were starting to get burned out and really needed the break from last week!
OneAndaHalfAcreHomestead 
We learned to butcher our chickens years ago when the kids were little. They helped us pluck them. Now we take them to be butchered we don’t have a lot of time to do it. It is nice to know how to do them. Harold’s aunt and uncle showed us how to do them. His aunt showed me how to cut up a chicken also. I had never bought whole chickens and cut them up because I always did a hack job on them. It looks like you had a nice day to do them.
Have a wonderful day with your family.
~Cheryl
Love the photos from Dollywood. We have never been during the holidays. Quentin looks like he is enjoying himself.:) I’m sure you guys learned a lot from the chicken killing. I don’t think I could do the actual killing but the rest I could handle. I think that is so interesting and I wish we could raise our own birds for meat and eggs. That wouldn’t fly in the city though. (No pun intended. LOL)
I know what you mean about getting burned out on school. Your sounds like so much fun and I bet is what exactly what you needed! Hope you have a great day.
Blessings,
Tiffany
I’m glad you had friends to work with as you processed the birds. Oh my, butchering chickens is no fun if you have to do it alone as I well know.
It sounds like you had a great time at Dollywood. I think the crowds are the biggest this time of year. They do go all-out with lighting displays.
Have a great weekend!
.
Looks like everyone had fun at Dollywood. Did you do a one day thing or did you stay over? We had a fun day doing the chickens. It really wasn’t too bad at all. Talk to you soon. God bless.