For the first time ever at our little farm, we slaughtered animals (in this case, chickens) without the help of an expert. We did have a friend, Eva Marie, volunteer to help us, but she knew nothing about slaughtering animals, so this time around Brandi and I were the "experts."

I warned Eva (who I actually call "Ave Maria"), that we didn't have much of a clue as to what we were doing, but we were pretty certain we'd be able to figure it out. We've killed birds for meat exactly four times in the past, but it's always been under the tutelage of a bird killing guru. Not so this time.

On a lighter note, we actually had some eggs hatch today -- of all days, the day of the slaughter! -- so we were looking at the full circle of life, from "newborn" chicks to chickens that were about to fulfill their destiny.

One of the new ones.


Death row.


A chicken meeting its maker.


Brandi and Ave Maria watching a chicken die. (Brandi can't bring herself to watch, actually.)


A few processing photos.




A bonus shot of our broody duck hen. Her ducklings ought to hatch in about three weeks.

We're still alive! I've been a slacker on here, obviously, but we have much going on at our little homestead. I hope to post a proper update soon. In the meantime I'll just say we're gearing up for spring. We're contemplating slaughtering a few roosters pretty soon and tilling our garden for planting. We've got three broody birds right now (two bantam chickens and one duck hen), so we should see anywhere from 20 to 30 baby birds hatch pretty soon. :-)