We Bought a Farm: Community makes it Funner!

Yesterday we processed 59 turkeys on the farm. Processing days are long and hard. We are on our feet a lot and are usually incredibly sore the next day. 

But here's what we've learned in five years of processing chickens and turkeys: 

COMMUNITY MAKES IT MORE FUN!!

We put on music and buy some junk food (the kids will do nearly anything for Gatorade!) and we simply enjoy spending time with each other. 

We have one rule: 

SHOW THE ANIMALS RESPECT!!

Outside of that, nearly anything goes. 

This year we had our normal crew: 

• Our family of six
• The grandparents
• Kotynskis (so valuable!)
• Jacob (family now!)
• Anni (family now!)
• Jessica & Bailee (this was their THIRD processing day!)
• Erin Law & her two daughters!

That's 22 people. We worried this might be too many people, but it was anything but that. It was perfect. Everyone did their job and did it so well.

So what were our jobs? 

Well, Isaac and I started off on the turkey catching portion of the job. Normally, when we do chickens, the kids do this entirely themselves. But these babies are BIG (like 15-25 pounds!) so we need an adult on this job. Here's a video of what this looks like:

About halfway through the day, I relinquished my job so that I could move into the garage and start working on packaging. We realized the tour chill tank was almost full of birds so we had to start moving some out. Here is a video of Erin Law taking over my job:


Erin Law and her daughter Allie took over catching. Little ol' Allie was actually able to catch and carry these guys over to the kill cones. We were so impressed. Here is a picture of Allie in action. This kid is a rock star when it comes to strength:

From there, the turkeys are killed, put in a scalper to loosen their feathers, and then put in a plucker to defeather them. Eddie and Did worked on the station to get the birds into the kill cones and put them down. (They were so big it took two people.) Gabe and Anni ran the scalded. Anni ran the plucker. And then they went to the table where Jacob and JB handled all the evisceration necessary to get to your table! Here is a video I took to show all the stations so you could get an idea of what is going on:

After that, Grama and a rotation of girls helps clean the bird of any feathers. Here are a few pictures of that process:

Abigail, Bailee, and Ana

Allie and Haley

Here is a video of Abigail teaching the never-been-a-farm-kid-but-quickly-learning-the-ropes-Bailee how to "quality control":

The girls also helped keep up on the chill tank. We use frozen jugs to ice our tank to avoid spending hundreds of dollars on ice. Here is a picture of the girls at the tank:

And here is a video of them moving a bird from the table to the chill tank:

We then went to the garage with the birds and Hannah Kotynski, myself, and a smattering of children helped package the birds and get them in the freezers. We had enough freezer space which was great news!

While all this was going on, Jessica Price was keeping the house in tip-top shape. With 22 people going in and out, it's taking quite a beating. But she kept people fed and happy and clean while we all worked outside.

We took 15 turkeys which would be broken down for the Kotysnkis and ourselves into ground meat and brought them into the house where JB broke them all down to grind the meat. Here's what that looks like:

Once again:

#Ican'tbelievethisismylife

But once again, I am amazed at how much more fun things are to do them with community. People make it fun! Teamwork makes you feel less alone. 

I really hope we can keep this team together for the long haul! It was a great combo of people, and it went soooo great!!!