Up In Flames

I spent three hours today burning chicken guts in my yard…

Even I am speechless.

Slaughter Day

My parents live on 10 acres of land, and a small petting zoo to boot. A skittish donkey, two attention loving dogs, three mischievous cats, five ornery goats, and a coop full of chickens. It is the later that created today’s adventures.

This past summer, in an effort to add to their current flock of hens, my father acquired a batch of chicks, but didn’t sex them. He ended up with several roosters, which are essentially a waste of feed. Our neighbors hate them because they crow constantly and they abuse the poor hens. Apparently a rooster's main goal in life is to be an annoyance to both man and beast alike. My father’s brilliant solution was to raise the roosters to full size, when we could eat them.

Killing the chickens is easy enough, but preparing them to be eaten is not. A chicken must be drained of it’s blood, plucked and properly gutted. As shocking as it may be, that packaged pink material doesn't magically appear in shrink wrap. Having grown up in suburbia, none of my family, had ever carried out this process. Thankfully, my sister bought a book to instruct us in the proper slaughtering techniques. (I apologize to my vegetarian friends, who will be horrified by this whole idea.)

After months of fattening and planning, today was slaughter day. Of course, I was assigned plucking duty, which is seriously the most thankless job. You never realize how many feathers a chicken has until you are asked to removed them all. Four hours and six chickens later, my hands were stiff and sore, and my whole body smelled like wet chicken… There are people who are professional pluckers, and let me just say, those people must have the strongest hands. A good chicken plucker can pluck a chicken clean in a matter of minutes. I think I averaged an hour, and was frequently tempted to simply remove limbs to avoid having to pluck it.(I mean, how much meat is on the wing anyway?)

I almost wish we had pictures of the ordeal. It was freezing cold outside, so we ended up moving inside halfway through. By the end of the day, the slaughtering area was a mess, our kitchen was full of feathers and chicken pieces, our clothes were smelly, and we were all exhausted. All this for a few lousy pieces of meat…

Slaughtering chickens is hard work!

Licorice Tasting

There are many things I love about Placerville (Akin- don't roll your eyes). Sweetie-Pies and the Old Tyme Candy Store are just two.

On Saturday, my sister and I wandered into the Candy Store. She had never been inside, and I was craving something sweet. Secretly, I was hoping beyond hope to find something with chocolate and ginger.

In the back room, we discovered a whole wall of licorice, which I had never noticed before. They must have had at least 30 different flavors. Jackpot!! Much of their licorice is imported from Holland, Finland and England. I told my sister about how the Dutch like their licorice salty and finally we found a place that had salty licorice for her to try. (Be warned- the double-zout is very very salty. The lady sampling with us actually gagged and spit it out.)

I love licorice, not the sweetened licorice whips, but real black anise flavored licorice. (Just ask my grandmother, who is constantly filling her licorice bowl after I leave.)

We sampled so many different flavors that I left with a severe case of licorice-belly. But we walked away with several bags to enjoy at home...

It’s who you know…

Good Friends are hard to find. I just wanted to take a few minutes to rave about a couple I am privileged to call good friends. From their brains to their heart, the Caldwells are just awesome. Here are some reasons I love them:

1. They get the Boy and his Britishness. (Too many Americans can't understand sarcasm.)
2. They have a crazy little cat child, who Nolan once tried to get drunk.
3. They are generous (opening their home to me whenever I pass through SF, and even picking me up from the airport).
4. A is faithfully available (always willing to listen patiently to my freak out sessions). She is straightforward and open about life. Marriage is hard and I value her insight and wisdom. (Ahh, the benefits of learning from others experiences…)
5. A is one of few people, with whom I can talk about sex or anything else without awkwardness.
6. They are just plain good company (hanging out with them is bound to lead to fun and lots of laughter). Plus, I can’t have a conversation with Nolan without learning something new.
7. I love how proud A is of her husband, and I definitely appreciate her example as a wife and friend.
8. A actually gets results with Wii Fit (and I am totally impressed with the abs!)

Of course, I could add more, but the bottom line is: I love these two. Thanks for being you, Caldwells!

Home Again

I fly home tomorrow and while I have a huge list of wedding stuff to work out, I am dreading it just the same. Leaving is always the hardest and I am fighting back the inevitable tears. It feels so unfair to have to live so far away from the one you want to share your life with. However, I am holding onto the fact that this is the last time we will have to do this. June is only a little ways away. Then we will be married and we can be together until we are sick of each other.

At least I will be able to see Akin when I land. She is always a welcome sight and her futon is pretty comfy, especially if there are warm blankets. And then there is Milo, who is endlessly entertaining with his evil deeds.

Wedding Website

During my free-time, I have created on a website for our wedding. With so many out-of-town guests, I needed way for people to access information without bombarding me with phone-calls. I am really proud of all my efforts.

Check it out:

www.RossandJennie.com

Off to Scotland

After having a great holiday, which included spending Christmas Day in the ER, I am off to Scotland for a few weeks. It actually was a really lovely Christmas and I am even more excited that by next Christmas the Boy will be my husband!

I am so thankful that we were able to afford this trip to Scotland, because I am not ready to say goodbye yet. Even though we are getting married in June, being apart is still hard. In fact, I find the long distance is getting harder to bear. I plan on taking advantage of these next few weeks together, because we will have to endure five more month apart before the wedding.