Cleaning and Eating the Roosters

I hope my last post was not gruesome or too over the top! This post is dedicated to sharing what we did once the deed was done.

Based off of our quick internet search we had tow options for cleaning the chickens: we could pluck them or we could skin them. It did not take us long to realize we were not committed or prepared enough to pluck these birds. One of the first steps of plucking would have been to dunk the rooster in boiling water. We do not have a pot big enough for this. We moved on to the next option, skinning.

First you completely remove the head from the body and then cut the legs off just below where the feathers stop. Ideally this is where one would cut to keep the bottom joint of the what would soon be the chicken legs intact. I managed to cut above the knee and therefore our chicken legs looked a bit off as they were missing the bottom joint. 

Removing the neck, wings and legs of the rooster was the most difficult part of the entire process. As I stated in my last entry this was our first ever time processing a chicken, and we were not as prepared as we could have been for this. We killed the rooster with a sharp pocket knife but how were we going to cut through its bones? I'll tell you how. We used a combination of craft scissors, a hammer, paint putty knife, and probably the most effective was a small pair of hand clippers I use in my garden. I will not go into too much detail about this experience as it was labor intensive, embarrassing, and ended in a broken putty knife.

After removing the legs comes the skinning. We were not 100% sure where to cut or what would be easiest so we cut a slit lengthwise down the neck and began... peeling (sounds a lot worse than it was) off. I did this first and once I removed the skin from the neck I ran into the wings rather quickly. The wings do have some meat on them but are considered not quite worth the hassle. I removed the wings and continued peeling away the skin working my way to the bottom of the chicken. 

The skin came off with brute force. As the skin and feathers pulled away, I was left with a very familiar looking chicken, one you might find in a grocery store. Pulling the skin off the legs was like trying to get sweaty socks off of your feet or a sweater that is a bit too small over your head. 

Getting the skin to come away from the bird was not a problem except for the neck, everywhere else the skin came away with ease. The skin needed to be ripped down the belly as it was too narrow to simply be pulled over. At this point I was elbows deep into the process and did not have time to second guess my slight squeamishness with ripping the skin off the body of a rooster. Also with the head removed and the "naked" body looking like something I have previously bought from Publix, I was becoming much more comfortable with our decision to eat the roosters, and not just kill them and throw them away.

There were two points during the skinning that I doubted whether I could continue forward. First was when I was cutting the legs off of the rooster. I had moved on to using the hand clippers but was still struggling with getting them to cut through the bone. I had the rooster's foot in my hand while yanking with the clippers in an attempt to get them to cut through. The clippers slipped and placed pressure on a ligament in the rooster's leg... This led to the rooster and I holding hands. The grip from its little talons around my fingers was enough to cause me to jump about a hundred feet high, and there was a good three or four seconds where my lungs refused to pull air into my body. At this point I needed a couple minutes to regather myself before more carefully removing the second leg.

The second instance where I thought I would not be able to continue on was when Sean was pulling the skin from around the body of his rooster. We were both engrossed in his actions as, for whatever reason, the skin from the rooster was not slipping off as easily as mine was. He placed his hand on the body of the rooster for leverage when all of a sudden a not so subtle squawk of protest escaped the rooster he was currently attempting to skin. We did not know what to do except gape at one another until a nervous laughter bubbled out between us. In truth, it was as horrible as it sounds.

Once the skin was removed we had to gut the birds. This is done by cutting around the anus, very carefully, and pulling out the insides. We did this by cutting around the anus and then shaking the bird upside down until the guts presented themselves. While this was not the most efficient way, and this is definitely not what youtube videos suggested, we were eventually successful. 

Using the hose we finished cleaning the birds buy rinsing off any of the residual unwanted parts (including feathers). When we finished, we were both so proud of our handiwork, and immediately put them in the fridge to begin plotting how we were going to cook them.

Almost everything we saw online advised us to bake the birds whole in the oven. The first bird we cooked, we decided to stuff it with a whole onion and added some rotisserie rub to the outside. It cooked for just over an hour. Periodically we opened the oven to poke a thermometer in it, and to make sure we weren't completely ruining it! It turned out to be very delicious! What did it taste like you ask?  It decided just like chicken :) Arguably it was more gamey and the flavors from the meat were more prominent. 

The second bird we baked whole as well but this time we combined a bit of something from three recipes we could not decide. First, we stuffed it with some box stuffing. In the bottom of the tray we placed some cubed potatoes, chopped onion, and some dried prunes. The recipe  called for plums but those were not in season when we cooked the birds back in February. Not only that but we placed twenty or so whole cloves of garlic in the bottom of the tray as well. It was quite the eclectic meal, it came out wonderfully. I do however wish we could have gotten the potatoes to crisp rather than become more soggy/ smushy. 

The experience from start to finish is one I am glad we both have under our belts. Our adventures are constantly introducing us to new things and giving us opportunities to help us grow together. When we talk, its always at some point in the future that we will be farmers... However, I'd say that we aren't doing so bad for ourselves now :)

Look out for my next post about the garden my Papa, Sean, and I put in over Spring Break.

Killing a Rooster, Two of Them

          For those who may be unaware, Sean and I have a small backyard chicken flock. While there were a number of obstacles when we started up (like local feral cats and hornets' nests) we managed to preserve 8 of our chickens through the winter.

          At some point at the end of November, we were at 99.9% sure 3 of our 8 chickens were roosters. By December when the crowing started, we were 100% sure. Our roosters grew into strapping young chickens as they grew out their feathers and strutted in the chicken run. The crowing was only mildly disruptive, and besides they all seemed very possessive of the lady chickens which we felt was a good thing.

          End of December and into January became a stressful time for our chickens as the days got shorter and the nights got longer. The weather cooled down considerably, and the chickens looked to one another for warmth. It was at this time the roosters showed their true colors.

         As first time chicken owners the crude and persistent nature of the roosters wore down on Sean and I's tolerance. It became quite clear three roosters to five hens was a horrific ratio... especially for the hens. The thought of killing the roosters did not really bother Sean much. He was in full on "farmer mode" while I was still trying to put off the inevitable. In my defense, I had raised them from just days old! I turn around to move turtles out of the road, I wasn't ready to kill my roosters!
It was not until an afternoon in February when I came home to find the back of one of our hen's heads (Booty) ripped open (she's fine now) that I was able to face reality and do what needed to be done. I texted a friend for some quick advice, searched the house for the sharpest knife, and of course googled how to kill a rooster.

         There were a number of options to available to me for killing the rooster. Hatches, neck wringing, and throat slitting were among the most suggested. I did not have a hatchet, nor do I feel comfortable enough to hold a squirming rooster while not chopping my hand off. Neck wringing seemed doable but I wasn't sure I would get the job done correctly and speedily. As I read up on something called the killing cone, I knew I had discovered my preferred method.

           Ideally one would use an actual killing cone, made of metal with bracket to attach to a tree. I did not have one of these handy tools, so I improvised. Taking the plastic cone from a previous vet's visit, I used duct tape and will to get the cone to what I imagined to be the appropriate size needed. Next I needed to find a space to kill the rooster. This space needed to be away from our the young girls who live next door, and apparently, it needs to be out of site from the chicken coop. This made me the most nervous as a few sites made a point of sharing how killing a flock member in front of the other chickens could cause the remaining chickens to become terrified of my presence. My options were limited, so I locked the chickens in the coop just to be on the safe side.

         After choosing a spot I attempted to use our staple gun to attach the cone to a tree in the backyard. This failed miserably. So I decided to nail it into the tree. My options were four inch nails or half inch finishing nails. Obviously I went with the four inch nails however it did take me an embarrassing amount of time to puncture through all the layers of wrapped plastic from the cone. When I finally managed to attach it to the tree to my satisfaction I had to find a tool. I knew it was going to be Ms. Given in the yard with a knife, the two questions left were, Which knife? and Which rooster?
         
          It was apparent after this fiasco that I needed to invest in something sharper than the tools I possessed. I ended up choosing a two inch pocket knife because it had the sharpest blade. The rooster I chose was the one who seemed to have the least amount of remorse about latching himself continually onto the backs of our hens. Now that I had the knife and the bird picked out, it was time to set things in motion.

         As other sites suggested, and I recommend, carrying the rooster from the coop to the cone should be done by carrying him by his feet upside-down. This does two things: first it begins the process of moving the blood in the body towards the head and second carrying it by the legs meant I didn't have to hold it to my chest or really look it in the eyes. It made me feel more like I was completing a necessary chore rather than a killing.

         The rooster should be placed head first through the top (widest) part of the cone. Ideally the head will be reachable from the narrow/ bottom part of the cone. It was just my luck that the rooster did not quite need to poke his head out the bottom if he was in a stressed and clenched state. As I placed him in the cone his head popped out the bottom momentarily and then he tried to bring it back up to his chest. I ended up having to pull his head out of the bottom by the comb. (It is at this time that I should tell you I may have been having second doubts/ I was really thankful I was wearing gloves so I couldn't really "feel" him) There was a bucket placed under the cone where I estimated the blood would flow. I had never seen a rooster be slaughtered, for whatever reason I thought there would be gallons of blood... Obviously this is not the case as the rooster himself weighed in at closer to ten pounds not twenty five.

          Once I had his head stretched down towards the ground in front of me I was ready to make the killing cut. A blog had told me to cut under the ear if I wanted to puncture the largest blood vessel in the neck. The blog thought this was something I should be able to feel with my fingers... This was most definitely not the case. Thinking to myself I wondered if the particular vein would be under both ears or just one? I opted to cut from ear to ear in an attempt to hit anything and everything. I slid the blade down through the feathers to ensure the knife was coming into direct (or as direct as possible) contact with the skin. Then I slit the neck. I am unsure how deep or how many times was necessary to kill the rooster but I'm sure I did more than that! Somewhat frantically, I cut across the neck in the same spot numerous times until I was at the bone. I'm sure if I had been using a better knife it would not have taken me very many cuts at all to reach the neck bone. The rooster did not thrash or squawk or struggle. It did not take very long at all for him to die or for his blood to drain. While it was not easy or fun, I have to admit it went more smoothly than I had originally anticipated.

I also sent a small prayer before executing the killing to ask God to bless the meat. This is customary in many religions, it was suggested to me by my Mama.

          This is how I killed the first rooster. The following day, Sean went through the same steps to kill the second of the three roosters. It went just as smoothly, more so because everything had already been setup. We have decided to keep the third rooster until further notice. He is a Frizzle Ameracauna rooster and does a good job of watching his hens. However he is pushing his luck by crowing almost consistently every hour on the hour (including through the night!).
Next entry I will share how we decided to clean and cook the roosters.

Jeju

Chuseok (Chew-sock) is the Korean’s Thanksgiving holiday. We were thrilled to find out that we would be having a five day weekend in honor of this holiday and we decided to do something with it. We went to Jeju Island, which is Korea’s version of Hawaii except much closer to the mainland.

Jeju Island is a large island just south of the Korean peninsula. It is a beautiful place and much larger than I had originally thought. It is home to what seems like a million different landscapes and attractions, and Sean and I were on a mission to see and do as many of them as possible!

We opted out of flying to Jeju because of the prices and the sold out tickets. Instead with the help of our super awesome, amazing, beautiful, fantastic coworker we bought two tickets on the speedy ferry, which ended up being totally worth it. We left for Jeju on Saturday morning.

We left our city on the direct bus to Gwanju, which was an hour and a half long. The bus we took got stuck in horrendous holiday traffic and we arrived in Gwanju about two minutes late for our free three-hour shuttle ride to Wanju where wqe planned to catch the ferry. We found the free shuttle bus help desk and they ended up literally running us across the bus terminal to get us on another bus to Wanju which would hopefully arrive in time for the ferry. I will have you know that I fell flat on my butt in the middle of the Gwanju bus terminal… Very embarrassing. People laughed. Sean assured me they weren’t but they did, I know.

We got on our new bus and did in fact make it to Wanju in time to get to the ferry. In fact the ferry left twenty minutes later than it should have! Anyways, exciting thing about the ferry was there was room to hang out outside, and we met a dude from FSU. Although it was a chilly ride, this large boat did not treat its passengers kindly and standing outside was the easiest way to avoid motion sickness. Sean’s FSU hat attracted the attention of another passenger and we ended up talking to him and his friend for the duration of the ferry ride. Seminoles are slowly taking over the world, apparently we are starting in Korea.

I would like to make a side note of how beautiful the ocean aand the ferry ride were. It was a great day and it felt really good to relax on the boat and enjoy our surprise vacation.

Apparently where we had been planning on staying was destroyed by the typhoon that came through only a few weeks before. We found out pretty quickly that the rooms offered to us were not what we had in mind and left to scout for a different venue.

Walking down the road we went into the first hotel we saw, Motel Samoa. It was a five story building facing the ocean. The lady at the desk gave us a rate we couldn’t refuse and gave us a key to go check out the room to see if it was good enough. We took the key up to the fifth floor, walked into a clean room with the biggest T.V. I have ever seen in a hotel room ever. The room was clean, and the pillows were fluffy so I was sold. The T.V. was giant and the cable had about a million channels including many high definition ones so Sean was sold. We had saved money and gotten a better room!!! It was very satisfying.

During our stay in Jeju we did tons of awesome things. We went horseback riding, zip lining, hiking, and sightseeing. We rode the bus all over the island, e even rented scooters in the city on the southside for a day.

Jeju island is supposedly pretty well known for its horses so of course it was on our list to go riding. Sean has only been a few times and although I am no professional I am comfortable on the back of a horse. The first place we showed up to would not even let us get on horses because apparently Sean was too “Fat”… Jerks. The next place we went to we were not even allowed to hold the reins of the horses because it was “too dangerous”. We had rode the bus to the middle of the island to be thoroughly let down by the two businesses.

We decided to go back to the first place and just have me ride. We scouted out back to see if this place let you hold the reins and found that much to our disappointment they did not. I was so upset. One of the men working there approached us and said he could speak English. We told him how we wanted to actually ride, not just be led around in a circle. After giving it some thought he agreed. He also said Sean could ride! I was much happier. It wasn’t until we got on the horses that I realized what he had in store for us.

He had procured the three fastest horses on the little ranch and took us away from where most of the tour groups walk. When we were out of sight of the groups of people we took off!!! Yelling back at Sean I gave him firm instructions to hang on tight and not fall off. We raced our three little Jeju horses across fields and over hills. The guy took us through winding paths and only slowed down when we climbed a steeper hill for a great view. It was so amazing!!!

Our zip lining adventure wasn’t as exhilarating for me but I think Sean got a rush from it. We spent hours trying to walk to it from the nearest bus stop. We went down small back country roads passing all sorts of fields of flowers. Of course we stopped and had random photo shoots because how could I resist such temptation.

It felt great to walk and breathe the cool air. Our hotel may have been near the ocean but this was all open fields and mountains. After walking for a couple of hours we stopped and realized if we didn’t call somebody quickly we would miss our reservations. We called the place up and they offered to come pick us up! We only had to wait another fifteen minutes before they arrived and took us to the location (we were still about another hour away by walking). Seeing how they spoke broken English and they found us on the side of a random road near a restaurant/ factory/ building I was already impressed.

The zip lining consisted of four simple runs from one tower to another. They suited us up in full body harnesses and snet us on our way. Apparently Koreans’ thrill tolerance is easily met because we weren’t allowed to do no hands or go upside down. It was still fun though! We went over small tea fields, and the sun was setting so we had a great view from the tops of the towers. Every time Sean and I went first and the other riders all cheered for us for being so brave =]

One of the restaurants we went to twice ended up serving my all  time for favorite breakfast of Eggs Benedict (that’s not entirely true as I also am a corned beef fanatic/ B&G’s kinda girl). It also had some sort of Korean fettucini alfredo which was alright and an odd take on ceasar salad. It was called the Lighthouse Restaurant and we had a coupon for it. A big plus was that the chairs there were actually couches! I was sold.

Our trip to Jeju introduced us to gas station “gimbab” for a grand total of 70 cents. Apaprently on the actual holiday absolutely nothing is open! We ate at fast food joints and from 7-11’s all day. “Gimbab” is a seaweed wrapped snack with rice and something on the inside. We had Triangle Gimbab with some tuna and chicken salad. It was way better than I expected.

One of the other big adventures we went on was to this giant cave! “Manjaggul” is a pretty big lava tube formation on the island. It is a neat little outing. You have to walk about a mile and a half to get to it from the bus stop but the walk is gorgeous! The cave is not particulary well lit and is very wet but I would go there again.

In the same area is a giant maze park =] This was tons of fun. They give you a map in case you get hopelessly lost and you enter a hedge maze about twelve feet high. Sean let me take the lead and I ran us around the maze for twenty minutes until he took over. The entire time kids were zooming around and the sound of a bell was clanging in our ears (when you reach the end of the maze you get to ring the bell so it was irritating to hear it being rung so often). The lady who had given us the map was actually a native English speaker and had given us a bit of a hint at the begnnign. Unfortunately we forgot what it was until we found it. Apaprently there was a bridge you have to go over! Once we found the bridge it didn’t take us long to find the bell.

The area around the maze had little gardens. The lady who gave us the map worked in the store. Her boss and her gave us traditional Korean Chuseok food when we came in! The food is called “Song-Pyeon” and is always made and eaten on Chuseok.

One of the days we spent over on the far side of the island in Seogwipo. We found a little sketch scooter rental place that would break the law and rent us a scooter. We motored all around that little island! (We did have to sign every right away that we ever had or didn’t have to begin with but it was so worth it).

Having one scooter ith both of us on it and neither of us having any experience was definitely a relationship building activity. We had to trust one another not to kill us while clutch to them with everything we had. After having the scooter for an hour it was easier to breathe and the ride was more exhilarating.

Busses and cars fly past as you travel on the big roads. There’s a lot of congestion was so we had to fight our way through traffic jams as well. We found tons of cool things including a couple waterfalls.

One of the more surprising places we went to was called “Love Land”. Love Land is this odd park filled with sexual pornographic statues. Korean culture is so subdued and conservative that finding this park here was a complete shock! I posted a couple of the photos we have, I would hate to ruin the surprise slash make anyone blush too much.

Checking In and Journal Prompts

Sean and I have come quite a way since the last post. We finished up our one year in Korea, and even though there are no blog posts to prove it, we kept up the adventuring big time!

We currently reside in the Raleigh area in North Carolina. I have finished up my Master's Degree in Teaching English as a Second Language this past December from Meredith College. I currently teach at a middle school in the area.

Sean is halfway through Law School at NCCU. He is currently focusing his interests in law on Death and Taxes. Like a fish to water, Sean is excelling at Law School!

We currently have four dogs, 8 chickens, a rabbit, and small freshwater fish tank. We actually do want to be farmers now, as our previous posts (before Korea) had suggested. Christmas trees and sunflowers are our crops of interest! Looking forward to future visits to Beechtree Farm to hone our skills :)

Coming back from Korea was a whole new kind of culture shock as we readjusted and wondered if our lives would/ could ever be as interesting... I am here to tell you it can! Being one another's best friend makes everything an adventure!

I plan on using this blog to continue to share in our adventuring. As an English as a Second Language teacher I encourage my students to write and write some more. This blog will be my way of writing and sharing my thoughts, as well as reliving memories by transforming them into text.

Writing for middle school students can be tedious and boring. I collected some writing prompts to get their "brain juices" flowing. If you have more ideas for journal prompts for middle school aged students, please leave me comments below!

Explain your favorite past time and why you enjoy it.

Given the choice would you rather live near the beach or live near the ocean? Explain.

What types of reading materials do you enjoy? Explain.

What single experience do you think every human being should have, and without it their life would not be complete? Explain.

Are robots a blessing or a curse to the labor force? Explain.

Do you believe that it is the responsibility of the young to provide financial security to the elderly? Why or why not?

America has many regional foods. What food would you recommend to a traveler who wanted to experience Southern food? Explain.

What would you place in a time capsule to allow the people 2,000 years from now understand what a middle school student was like in the year 2015?

If the human life span were increased to 200 years old, what would you expect to change? Explain.

Would you like to live in a big city? Explain.

Everyone has a favorite holiday. Before you begin writing, think about which is your favorite holiday and why. Now write to explain which holiday is your favorite.

A pet peeve is a particular source of annoyance or irritation. Every person seems to have one. Think about a pet peeve you have. Now write to explain your pet peeve and why it is a source of annoyance or irritation.

Write about your favorite childhood toy.

What would you do if you woke up one morning to find yourself invisible?

What would you do if you were able to communicate with animals?

Write a list of at least 50 things that make you feel good.

Invent a monster and describe it.  Tell where it lives, what it eats, and what it does.

If you were ruler of the world, what things would you banish absolutely for all time (rain on weekends, eggplant, and so forth)?  Make a list.  Use your imagination.

Begin a list of questions that you'd like to have answered.  They may be about the future or the past.

What's, if anything, would you be willing to fight or even die for?  Explain your answer.

Is there a machine you feel you could not live without?  Explain.

What would you pack in your suitcase if you could not go home again?

What if you were named principal for the week?  What would you do?

Would you rather have a brother or sister? Why?

If you had three wishes, what would they be?  (Do not ask for three more wishes)

Imagine yourself as a teacher.  What type of student would you like to teach and why?

Describe the one thing that gives you the most comfort.

Describe the most difficult thing about being your age.

Describe your dream house.

What would be your ideal job when you grow up?  Explain.

What is your definition of success?