A Death in the Family

        Ash, my "dream" dog, had been breaking into the chicken pen and herding the chickens.  They did't like it much, but I thought she was having a good, harmless time, so I laughed it off.  Then the inevitable...she took one down.  I'm guessing the chicken had enough of Ash's control tactics and they went head to head.  But alas, Koenig, one of the babies whom we raised from day two out of the shell, went down.  It was bloody.  Eddie won major masculinity points by putting her out of her misery.  We were sad, yes, but I'd read plenty of accounts online of raising chickens and almost always the owners had some run-in with varmints and predatory birds that eventually killed their chickens. I was expecting it at some point.  And we had always meant to keep them as dumb chickens and not friends or babies (yes, I confess I have been calling them our babies since we got them).  Needless to say, we had a few moments of silence for her.  I used the moments to collect myself and determine if I was gonna cry or cook her.  Eddie broke the silence and sheepishly asked, "Do you feel like chicken tonight?"  We all decided to laugh; except Jesse and Tera (Ash's parents) felt terrible and now refer to Ash as "murderer".
   So began the preparations.  Eddie tied the chicken to the clothesline to drain.  It promptly froze.  Less than ideal.  Then I went to Guillermo's, our vacated neighbor's house, and stole his grill that he left.  In the front yard, 'cause we're classy like that, Eddie built a fire in the grill, boiled the water, and dipped her in.  With ski gloves on, we plucked and filled the garbage can with down feathers. I regret not saving them for a pillow. Ew. With the garden shears that Dad sent for Christmas, I snipped of the wings. Next, I You-Tubed how to gut a chicken and started the gruesome task.  Gross! After wrestling with guts for an hour, Jesse came in and took over and cleaned the thing out in 2 seconds.  Oh by the way, he's done this at least 30 times in Arkansas.  Then, I soaked it in the rosemary brine left over from Thanksgiving and let it sit overnight.  The next night, voila, a feast complete with sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, cabbage, and roasted CHICKEN.  She was delicious!

Hanging her up to drip

Plucking

Surgery aka guts removal

"Murderer"