MORE PLANS!

I had a pretty peaceful day yesterday. Got up in the 90's for a while but I have been there before. My beans are looking good and starting to dry. Should be a good crop. Like I was saying, I am not too worried about food for the present time. I have some food and some weaponry and some tools and a decent building to live in. We have plenty of water. I can, of course, think of many things it would be nice to have but I can make it with what I have for a good amount of time. As the world sinks into a major economic slowdown it will be nice to be able to eat and drink.

I hope the Mill gets to cutting this Summer. I can use the lumber. I want to raise chickens for meat. I did it as a kid and I know how it works. I can get two crops a year with no problem and not have anything to do with cold weather. Chickens just don't take that much time to grow to eating size. I won't be using steroid laced feed or anything like that so I can give them two and a half to three months to develop. I do not like big fat chickens. I get these packages of chicken parts from the stores and they have incredible breast and legs. Way too big to fry in a skillet. Hard to get done through and through. And I ain't gonna eat any under-done chicken. I just don't trust it. I don't like the way these meat factories bleed their birds, either. I never had that much blood in a chicken after I bled them out 50 some years ago. Today's processors are not getting the job done. No way. Not even close.

We always made chicken day a family affair. We would kill 'em and drain 'em and scald 'em and and pluck 'em and cut 'em up all in one day. 50 or 100 at a time. When it was all over with we had chicken running out our ears. Folks would take chicken home with them and all that and we would still have a ton of the stuff left over for ourselves. And we damn sure were not stingy with the meat. I would like to see those experiences instituted here in our present home. Grow a bunch of meat and give it away. My kind of process!

We bought milk in half gallon paper jugs back in the day. Stiff, hard paper. Waxed inside and out. Didn't leak. Mom saved the damn things and washed them out and put them up. When chicken day came we filled them with chicken parts and stuck them in the freezer. Lots of them. Got them out for thawing long before the cooking of them so they were ready to go into that hot grease. Had to be hot or else the grease would go into the breading and what not and make it too greasy. There is a tip for you amateur chicken fryers.

If I can get a chicken yard fenced alongside the coop I will save feed and have better meat. You just have to go let 'em out every morning and lock 'em up at night. You make the coop strong so that Brer Coon and Brer Fox can't get in there and kill all your chickens at night. And they will! Believe me they will. We humans are not the only critters who like good chicken.

I have never been associated with laying hens. I mean, I have been around them and I have gathered eggs and what not, but I have never raised and cared for those kind of critters. A whole new field of learning for me! I suppose I will do it wrong at first but I will be trying as best I can.

One of the main reasons I wish to grow chickens is so I can have chicken manure for my garden. Some of the best fertilizer known to man. It will make your corn grow big and healthy. And it sure does help the other plants too. You just bring home a pick-up truck load of sawdust every now and then and you use it for your bedding. Those chickens will get on that sawdust and do their business and you will have the best plant food you ever saw. You have to let it work in a pile over the Winter but by Spring it should be cool enough to let you till it under and plant your seed. Amazing stuff. Don't use TOO much of the stuff or your soil will get too hot to grow anything. We'll have more on that later. But if you let it compost out it should be alright for about anything you wish to do.

Breakfast is about ready and I like breakfast above most other meals. You all have a fine day and remember to stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net