Hello again, you might remember us–Matthew and Jonathan from PotterVilla Academy? Yes, it hasn’t been that long, but a lot of things have happened since our last major update. Matthew butchered his 48 broiler chickens on the tenth–a week ago yesterday–and has sold all but one of them. His setup got reviewed by one of our friends on his prestigious blog, Iron Ink. This friend is the pastor of a reformed church in town; his nickname is The Poison Pen, and his blog used to be called Acid Ink. However, his comments on Matthew’s butchering wasn’t at all scathing, to the contrary, he seemed enthralled with my brother’s (as he called it in his blog) piece-de-resistance, the Whizbang Chicken Plucker.

We prepared one of the chickens to split between samples for the customers and dinner for us, and it turned out absolutely delicious. It cooked in the crock pot for about seven or eight hours, and when it was done, fell off the bones with hardly any water added. No seasonings either. The pasturing really paid off in taste, as well as economy.

On Sunday, I will be turning 17, and mom decided to get me my driver’s license for a birthday present. I finished driver’s ed about a while ago, but then it got put off until it was winter (I didn’t want to take my road test in the snow and ice), and then it got put off some more. However, we finally got around to setting up the test (I passed without too much effort), and then headed off to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The nearest office is in Lansing, about 20 minutes (and $8 of gas) away. Matthew had gotten his license previously, and so we thought we had a basic idea of what it entailed. We looked up (in the driver’s ed book) which documents we needed to take, I put on a nice shirt, and we were off. We also (as we do every time we go to Lansing) took a long shopping list. Matthew took three chickens he was selling to a member of the Lansing Homeschool group. Anyway, we got there, and after waiting in the initial customer service (or dis-service) line, were told that we didn’t have enough paperwork. The rules (made up by some high-ranking government official) had changed in January, and we needed my whole life history. So we just left, and did our shopping.

Today, we returned, bearing a file cabinet (just a file, really), including my birth certificate, my social security card, my state issued photo id, my road test certificate, my level 1 driving permit, mom’s photo id, and my bank account number (it’s the truth; they want two somethings that show that you live a a certain address, and a bank statement is one of the things that counts [junk mail from the army and the marines don’t count, probably since they got my address from the secretary of state–circular mailing]). Don’t forget a check made out to them for $25 to add to all the tax money they already get. And then, when we got up the the customer service desk, they asked us what our address was. This is documentary proof that the public school system is failing: even government employees have trouble reading. I mean, that address was on just about all of those documents. We haven’t moved, people!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, they finally did let us wait again, to fill out a second set of papers and to stand in front of a malfunctioning camera. Then, they give you a new piece of paper (to replace the old tattered one) that has one number changed. Boy, that was really worth it. But at least they’ll send a plastic one with a picture on it in the mail. :) And I can at least drive myself to Bible School, since mother can’t go because of her English tutoring classes.

I’ve also finished (mostly :)) the pottervilla.net webpage, putting up some of our chicken, etc, information.

My other recent project is dumping all of our home videos onto my computer; it’s very time consuming since it has to be done in real time, but it doesn’t require very many man hours, just computer hours. :) I’m getting to the end of it, the last 15 or so video tapes.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” – John 3:16-19

In His service,

Jonathan

We must buy the water we drink; our wood can be had only at a price.

Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but as always seems to happen in the spring, we’ve somehow become rather busy….not sure how that happens, however it appears to be a common affliction; especially among the more rural (agrarian) segment of the population.

[Note: To aid in organization I am going to insert headers (of sorts) in to this post–hope it’s not too distracting :-) ]

Chicken Tractors (and chicks too)

Some time back I ordered the first batch of broiler chicks and they arrived on Monday May 19th. Before they arrived I thought I’d better have a place for them to live, and so, after a trip to my “lumber yard” (which is actually a pole barn belonging to a very generous gentleman from church who has a little portable sawmill) I started putting a pen together based on Mr. Joel Salatin’s. Here are a few pictures that Jonathan took for me:

Here you can see the frame is complete, the basswood siding (sure beats the price of steel!) is up, and I’ve got one of the front doors covered with chicken wire.

The sheep farmer that I was helping several weeks ago, is also cleaning out a barn for his cousin, and has given me a few things from there. Among them is chicken wire. I was able to stretch one piece of 4′ wire to cover each front door. There’s a certain technique to it, but it worked out quite well. I secured the wire with one inch dry wall screws driven in at an angle.

Here’s another shot of the lovely basswood siding. It started out 1″ thick, and then we planed it down to about 1/2″–that really made the colors stand out. It’s quite pretty I think.

Here it is temporarily installed behind the garage (for brooding purposes)

This is the great brooder–repaired after the great smoldering (near fire) of ’08, not too much worse for the wear. The dark stuff on to of the plywood is dirt. For insulation. Less flammable than wood shavings. ‘Nuff said.

And here’s the little peepers settling in for the night:

The other chickens are doing quite well–eating, growing, and somehow getting out occasionally. The latter adds some spice to life! We at least have Baxter–the super duper chicken dog. (He has helped me catch a chicken on two separate occasions now–both involved the same not-so-smart, soon-to-be-in-the-freezer rooster! He escaped twice within two or three hours. Just another month or so and the roosters will be the first to try out the Whizbang plucker. Except for the two Buff Orpingtons–I think…)

Which leads me to my next topic….

Whizbang Adventures

I finally started on the ‘tub-style mechanical chicken plucker’! The same trip for boards for the chicken tractor, I also got enough lumber for the plucker. I’d purchased the hardware back in February, and ordered parts from Mr. Kimball (I wrote about it here) and then got busy. (helping with lambing and other various and sundry things….) My aunt was able to find me a food grade barrel and so now I’m in business. Sort of….

The plans (as laid out in “Anyone Can Build A Tub-Style Mechanical Chicken Plucker”) are quite easy to follow (just make sure to read the entire segment about what your doing before you start in on it–just like any good recipe, for ,oh, say, chocolate chip cookies…) I got the frame whipped out and the barrel cut out in one afternoon (as I recall), and by the time I quit for the night, I had pulled fingers and got the feather plate and shaft assembly bolted together. Then I ran out of parts…I forgot to order the pillow block bearings. I also had to order the driven pulley since they’re not available locally. Someone had sent through a website on the yahoo Whizbang plucker group–SurplusCenter.com They have really great stuff–really cheap. Even cheaper that McMaster/Carr. I found some great tires that I ordered–10″ solid rubber with steel hubs and traction tread for only $6.95 each. They come in right and left wheels. I got them to mount wheels on the plucker, because I thought that it was hard enough to pick up and carry around without the feather plate, motor, pulleys and tub –the wheels should make it quite easy to wheel around. (there’s also mention of wheels in the plan book) So then one day I stained it and now it looks like this:

In this picture you can see the 3/4″ rod stock I got for axles: two 3′ pieces. One for the plucker, and one for the Whizbang Garden Cart!

Here’s a photo documenting the mess :-) That means progress!

Dad and I went to the big consignment sale the first part of this month. I’ve gone for several years, and every year it keeps getting bigger and bigger. That’s where I bought the blue plastic barrels in the background. They make the best movable work tables! Just the right height. I also got three steel barrels, a potato planter (it’s really nifty gadget), and a couple of buckets of assorted fencing junk. Dad got a neat little table top drill press (one that you mount a electric drill in) and we also bought 13 boxes of canning jars! 24 1/2gal and 9 boxes of quarts. (now we just need a pressure canner) Not a bad haul. It filled the truck right up. (you’ll notice we mostly bought containers!)

Any way, back to the plucker…

My Uncle gave me a motor:

A big old green beast!

I also have some Ideas for a semi-portable butchering station which involves this old slate counter top that another friend gave me….

There’s three pieces, and I think that if I put two on one side of an old deep porcelain sink that I can get for free, it should work pretty slick….

Well on to….

Growth in the Garden

The onions are coming along nicely, and the tomatoes are starting to take off again after I transplanted them into the hoop house. One kind of peas are coming up, and we had some fresh lettuce on our hamburgers the other night. The radishes are coming along nicely in two waves, as is the lettuce, and the beans in the hoop house are up two or three inches. Here’s a look into the hoop house:

And these are the onions:

Another gentleman from church (the one I cut wood with) is letting us put a big garden in over at his house. The one garden is about 180′ long by 80′ wide. We can also use part of the spot where is regular garden is. He’s very generous. In fact a lot of people are being very generous to us/me. I feel that God it really blessing me through them.

And speaking of blessings, Mr. Shropshire over at Promised Land has recently posted a really great essay on a vital topic. I would encourage you to read and dwell on it, if you have not already. (read the comments too–there’s another whole post down there)

Well that’s all for now….

Until next time–May He who is able to do more that we can ever imagine bless you and yours, grant your desires and shelter you under his wings.

Matthew