The Circle of Life

We finally got some rain and hopefully we will get even more overnight.  It was invigorating to do tonight's farm chores to a soundtrack of majestic thunder and the glorious pitter patter of falling raindrops.  I got completely soaked and loved every second of it.  I am so grateful that this rain will give new life to my pastures and a boost to my vegetable gardens.  This food for my livestock and family was absolutely parched.  Hopefully this much needed water will get everything green and growing again.

On the topic of growing, our meat ducks are about done growing.  Ian and I harvested our first two tonight as a trial run for our poultry processing procedure.  We are growing meat ducks and chickens for the first time and so need to figure out the most humane and effective way to process these into food here on our homestead.

Everything went mostly to plan except that it turns out that plucking duck feathers is really hard and very time consuming.  The hot water dip worked better than not doing it but Ian spent a very long time tonight cleaning the two ducks.  Needless to say, more research is required to refine our procedure before continuing with the next eleven ducks. 

On the whole, it was an excellent learning experience and, as usual, we worked really well as a team even though culling and processing is far from the most pleasant job on the farm.  Working hard for good, healthy food from the very start to the very end is, without a doubt, incredibly satisfying.  Now we get to look forward to Sunday night supper of farm fresh roast duck with garden vegetables.  I might even try to make stuffed zucchini blossoms; roast ducks seems fancy enough to warrant these.  I cannot wait!