Meat Chickens

Well, it has been a while, to say the least!! Life happens around here, and so I have not focused on anything but family, laundry, cooking, school, etc.  Anyway, Ray asked me the other day if I had blogged in awhile and I told him "no."  He said he'd given me plenty to write about, so I better get busy.

Well, I must go back to the spring. This past year, right after the Ft. Worth Stock show, Ray's buddy, Don (aka. our youth minister) called and asked if we wanted in on a great deal on meat chickens.  (What are meat chickens you ask! I had the same question.) Meat chickens are different than layers. Layers are what we have raised up until this point.  They are great!! They walk around, eat the bugs, and lay beautiful eggs for us to eat.  They are usually pretty, and they are very low maintenance. Meat chickens are not raised for laying, they are raised for eating their meat.  They grow for several months, then you slaughter them.  Sorry for the faint at heart!! 

Anyway, Don said the FFA barn for Cleburne was getting rid of all the meat chickens that had not been good enough to take to the FW Stock show, and they were GIVING them away.  Don said there were about 40 - 50 of them, and counting on the fact that you usually lose 1/3 to 1/2 of them, he figured he would take them and at the end of 2 months put up 25 or so chickens in the freezer.  The only problem was that Don didn't have a chicken coop.  Well, he was planning on building one, so he went ahead and picked them up in 2 large wire cages.  They were fine at first, but what he didn't realize was that they almost double in size every day or so, when they are young and growing!! In only about a week, they were busting at the seems, feathers sticking out of every hole in these wire cages.  It looked like a "Looney Toons" cartoon.

Well, he called Ray and asked if we wanted to put them in our coop, since ours was already built, and he just hadn't had time to build his yet.  Ray said "yes" of course, and agreed to partner with him in this chicken venture.  They were planning on meeting after Ray finished clinic one afternoon, so that Ray could take them home and put them in our coop.  Well, the same day I was scheduled to head to the church and pick up a bunch of plants that we were going to take to our house, so I had the trailer, and had just finished loading up a bunch of bushes and plants, when Ray called.  As expected, Ray had gotten called into the hospital, and wondered if I could meet Don at the church and pick up the chickens as well.  Don showed up with 40 chickens, feathers coming out everywhere from the cages.  He threw them on the  back of the trailer with the plants and I had to head out to pick Jesse up from school.  All I needed was a rocking chair and we would have looked like the "Clampets" going down the road, leaves flying off plants, feathers floating through the air, and me driving slow, since I didn't like driving the trailer anyway.
I called ahead to the school, asking if they would let Jesse walk out to the road, instead of me trying to maneuver this crazy trailer load through the pick up line.  They agreed, but as I parked near the entrance of the school, I realized I was slowing up traffic, as everyone was slowing down to see what in the world was all this mess going on on the back of my trailer.  Jesse quickly ran down to the truck and jumped in, ready to get away from all the onlookers!!
We did make it home, and were able to dump the 40+ chickens into our coop.

After only a few days, we quickly realized that these chickens were eating their weight in food almost every day, and they were continuing to double in size every few days.  In only a week or so, they had outgrown our coop, and we had to let them have free range.  They were hilarious, as they all looked like really overweight hens, eating for a moment, then their legs would start shaking, and they would have to sit right were they were, to rest for a moment, before they would move on to eat again.  Crazy!!! Who knew that meat chickens did this?!

Well, with 40+ chickens doing this all day, we realized we couldn't keep this going for much longer.  There was chicken poop everywhere!! So, we scheduled the harvesting day.  Ray asked some great guys from our church to come help, his parents came over, and we had a huge chicken harvesting.
  
In all my life, I can honestly say, I didn't think I would ever experience this.  The kids were all involved, and honestly, except for some of the grossness, everyone really had a good day of harvesting chickens and fellowshiping with one another. Praise the Lord for good friends who would come over and help with this.  It was really hard work, and the guys were exhausted after about 5 hours of harvesting chickens.
  
The great news is, we are set for the year with chicken meat.  You can't believe how many chicken recipes I have found!!!
Oh the life of being married to and OB/Gyn/Chicken Farmer!!
JJ Ford

Pictures follow, if you are faint of heart, don't look!!!!

Esther catching the next chicken in line

Anna and Joshua taking a break from the harvesting

 Nana, Ray's mom, with Ruth and a friend, shucking corn, to feed all the people who were helping us

 Ray and a friend from church

 Chicken running around with her head cut off, literally!!

 Ray's Dad teaching us how it's done!!

 Ray

 Russ from church, with a bunch of "sumo wrestlers", oh, I mean chickens!!

 Boiling the feathers off

 Esther with another victim

 Hanging the chickens before we packed them up

 Cleaning the chickens

 Matt (another friend from church) and Jesse, cleaning them out

 One of Jesse's friends, Adam, helping as well

A view into our barn, or rather.....bathroom.

Disclaimer: I typed this last spring, but forgot to post it!!!!

New life is abounding everywhere.  We are enjoying spring, everything is turning green, all the animals seem to be giving birth. New goats, New kittens, New bunny, and even new chicks.  But the chicks have needed a little Dr. Ford OB/Gyn intervention!!
How lucky our chickens are to have an OB/Gyn as their owner!! You see, our chickens were not being very broudy, (for all you non-farming people, that means they didn't want to sit on their eggs, thus, no hatching), so we, or rather Dr. Ford, had to intervene.  This is what he does for a living, saves lives of unborn babies, and does all he can to help get them into this world, healthy and strong.
So, Ray headed to Tractor supply to purchase an incubator.  Again, Ray, being taken aback, by the price of the durn thing, turned on his heels, and headed to google, to see if he could figure out how to make his own.  And low and behold, wouldn't you know it, we had everything we needed right in our own home, to make our own incubator!!!
Ray, wanting to make this a family affair, gathered all the kids together on a Saturday morning, and we built our very own incubator to hatch our own eggs.  How exciting!! We used an old white styrofoam ice chest, a light bulb and socket, some old chicken wire, straw, a bowl of water, and a thermometer, that measured temp and humidty.

We began the next day, collecting eggs, marking them with their dates, then carefully placing them in our homemade incubator.  Much to my dismay, the only place in our home, that we were able to acheive the perfect humidity for them, was OUR bathroom, so for the next 3 weeks, we had this glow, every day and night, coming from our bathroom, from the incubator.

As we got closer to the due date of the eggs hatching, excitement was rising in the household.  At last, the first egg cracked!! Amazing!! Did you know, that even before the first crack happens, you can hear cheeping coming from inside the egg?! I do know, because we heard it in the middle of the night, coming from our bathroom!! 

The next morning, the whole family could hardly leave our bathroom, as we hovered over the incubator, watching the first signs of life emerging from the oval eggs.  It is a miracle, whether human, as my husband gets to experience on a daily basis, or animal, as this was.  Every birth is a miracle!! 

What a beautiful picture of new life.  Christ gives us new life, through the cross.  I love spring, especially being married to Ray Ford, who seems to bring it, not only right up to my doorstep, but into my  bathroom!!!

Happy Spring,

JJ

Opportunities and Creosote

I can't believe it has been 9 months since my last post!! We have had alot going on.  Alot to do with my Dad's fight with cancer, and keeping his blog up to speed. Dad went home to be with our Savior on Jan. 21, 2012, and we will greatly miss him.  You can read about his last few months or even the last few years and the memorial service on my other blog www.teamjanszen.blogspot.com  . He was an amazing man.


Knowing that scripture says, laughter is good medicine, I have a few things to share about another amazing man in my life.....
We have had some ups and downs this past year.
Some of them have been opportunities......."opportunities" are what Ray calls his projects for the whole family!!
The pool..... Well, this past summer, it turned green, and looked natural, for the second half of the summer. We had an extreme winter, and then very hot summer, so our pumps froze, cracked, then melted because of the temps in Texas this past year. We limped the pool along half way through the summer, then when it finally all died, we decided we had to get it fixed or fill it in.
  
Oh please, don't fill it in, the five kids love the pool, and it is a great place to have people over and cool off in these hot Texas summers. But, we can't swim in green, or we might as well be swimming in our pond! 


So, after Ray got several bids on fixing the pool, and about had a coronary every time he received one, he made the famous announcement, "I will fix the pool and save us thousands!!"
Oh boy, here we go again. Honestly I doubted, and kept praying that he would give in and let me call someone to come fix it.  But no was the answer to that, and as we began to receive large boxes from the UPS guy, with the words "Discount Pool Supply" stamped on the side, I knew it was inevitable. We were going to fix the pool ourselves.


Well, life does not stop, nor does Ray's schedule, babies coming, emergencies at the hospital, so the pool continued to turn into a deeper, lovely, aquamarine color, all while these large boxes sat posed on the back porch, ready to be unpacked and installed.
  
Again I asked if I could hire someone to come finish the job....No way!  
Eventually, the job began to unfold, as Ray would find little sections of time to unpack the pumps, begin the fitting process, and carefully place them onto the concrete slab, to connect to the already existing pool equipment that had not died. 
Well, these pumps are heavy, and awkward to lift, so as Ray was working on this, he was also working on making his back worse. (he has some disk issues) 
So, about 2/3 of the way into the job, he was out, with back surgery!! 


Yikes!! what are we going to do now, not only with the pool, but with Ray's work?


In short, God got us through, He provided, and He used some of the men in our church to help meet the need. As a matter of fact, I had 2 of Ray's good buddies tell me, "When Ray tries to do something stupid, call me, and I will come do it for him." (Partners in crime :) ) (He was supposed to be on total rest for 2 full weeks after his surgery!!) Needless to say, he was out trying to work on the pool equipment to finish the job, the day after surgery!! I quickly called these guys, and they came over several times during the week, and helped him finish the job.  They truly were the "hands and feet of Christ" to Ray.  Literally!!


I have to say, I never thought the water would be crystal clear again, aside from hiring help, but it is!  He did it, Wow!!! What a man. And really without much encouragement from me, I am sad to say. It only took a few extra months, but he "gotterdone!"


Now, one of the additional things Ray wanted to do, was build a shelter around the pool equipment, so that we would not have this problem again. (you know, protect it from the heat and cold) He did wait another month or so, to let his back heal, before he began to tackle this job.  When he finally did, he headed out to Home Depot to purchase a prepackaged shed to build around the equipment.  Again, he came home with just some lumber and nails. 
"What?! where is the package deal?" I asked. 
"Oh, those stinking things are so expensive..... I can do this for so much less!!!"  Really?!


Oh boy, so here we go again.  Jesse and Ray started building the foundation to this shed, trying to level it, trying to get it just right.  I have to say it actually looked pretty good, but because of time, it was a slow process.  Over the next couple of weeks, they completed the floor, but before adding the walls, we had a friend stop by, who is a professional builder.  Such a kind young man, who loves Ray.  Ray took him out to show him his progress.  
He didn't say anything negative, he just offered to come help Ray out with the rest of the job. He said he could come the next day, but that was Ray's surgery day, so Ray wouldn't be available until later on in the day to work with him.  The friend came on out anyway, that morning, and when Ray got home that afternoon, He had completely redone the entire job, it was perfect. 
Ray had mixed emotions, sad that what he had done was gone, and obviously had not met the professional builders specs., but also amazed and thankful/overwhelmed at what he had accomplished in such a short amount of time. :) 
Again, the hands and feet of Christ, at work in our lives. Ray accepted the help from our friend, to get the walls and roof on, but Ray and Jesse are finishing the job, as I type, of putting on the tin roof, and building doors to the shed.  I saw the doors a little bit ago, and they are amazing.  


Who knew?...he can deliver a baby, save a life, and build some pretty good looking doors.  Maybe he needs help on leveling the floor of a building, but, hey, you can't be good at everything!


As I think back over the past few months, Ray has tackled a few other great feats.  One that stands out was burying the large square trampoline in our back yard, like Kanakuk's if you've ever been to Kamp.  


Some asked "why are you doing this?" Ray said "Why not?" Sounds like what Robert Kennedy said,

 "Some men see things as they are and say why. 

I dream things that never were and say why not."

It really is cool, and the kids love it.

Digging the hole

The funny thing was, that when Ray finally got the hole dug, this took weeks, it is a huge trampoline, he wanted to line it with creosote soaked railroad ties, to keep the dirt from caving in.  He found some at the local feed store, and was so excited to get these ties cut and in the ground. 

 Ray finishing the logs and the trampoline leveling.

Well, did ya'll know that creosote burns??  We didn't!!

Ray was working on this job alone, for some reason, all the kids were gone, and he had a free Saturday, so he attacked, knowing he could get it done if he just kept plugging along. I was in the house, it was hot, hot summer, but would occasionally go out with a glass of lemonade, or an encouraging word, to cheer him on.  

He would use the tractor to lower one of the logs into his hole, then use the chain saw to cut the log into the exact length he needed.  

Chain saws usually cause sawdust to fly in the air, and coat whatever it lands on.  Ray, being careful, had protective goggles on, but because of the extreme heat of the summer, had on work boots, with shorts, and a short sleeve shirt, along with work gloves.  

After several hours of cutting, moving, placing, and shifting railroad  logs, he noticed a little burning on the exposed parts of his skin.  He assumed it was the sun, and he was feeling the affects of a sunburn.  He thought if he could just keep going, that he would finish quicker, and get in out of the sun, so he kept working.  

He was almost done with the lining of the hole, when I looked out and noticed him, almost hopping around.  Puzzled, I walked outside and asked if everything was ok.  He said no, and by the sound of his voice, I could tell things were not good.  He said, "I'm on fire, something is burning me!!!" 

What?

Then he hollered something about creosote.  I ran back in and googled creosote.  The first thing that popped up was, "Danger, do not touch creosote with bare skin, can cause severe burns!!"

Oh crud!!! I then quickly read what the treatment was, and as I ran back to the back porch, Ray was running, no, sprinting to the house.  I hollered what I had just learned, and instructed him to remove all clothing that had creosote on it.  Well, this included everything he had on!!! Thank goodness all the kids were gone! As he ran from the back of the yard toward the house, clothes were flying, leaving a trail behind him.  As he came in the house, I sent him straight to the shower, where he was to rinse off with soap and cool water for at least 20 minutes.  I then made ice packs, and had him lay in the recliner, where I had to rub "Preperation H" of all things, all over the burning parts of his body, which was most of his legs, arms, and face, then we packed him in ice packs.  This was supposed to stop the chemical from continuing to burn.  I felt so bad for him, but kept thinking, this is great stuff for the blog.....you can't make this stuff up!!!

The good news is, the treatment worked, and within a few hours, the burning had completely stopped. Thank the Lord for google.

I am never short of being amazed at the crazy life the Lord has given us to live here.  We truly are trying to worship the Lord through all of this stuff.  God is good, and funny at times. He is faithful, even in, and especially in, our crisis.

Thanks for reading.

I will post again soon, Lord willing,

JJ Ford