Caution: graphic post.

On Thursday I slaughtered chickens for the first time! I'm wishing I'd taken my camera because my family likes gross things like that. My chiropractor told me he had six roosters that he needed to get rid of, and didn't have room in his freezer for them, did we want them. So Jason and I went over (he lives just across the highway from us) Thursday night expecting to just pick them up. Well, they weren't dead yet. They were just 6 or 8 weeks old. It takes that long to tell if they're male or female, I guess, and too many roosters in one yard cause problems. His daughter caught them in a big net. Then he showed Jason how to hold it by its feet, put his foot on its head, and pull the head off. Then they just threw the body off to the side to let if flop around and bleed out, and threw the heads to the dog. Ew. They finished catching and killing (I couldn't do that part) and then he showed me how to skin them (Jason couldn't do that part, so we make a great team). It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was kind of like skinning a chicken from the store, except that the skin was covered with feathers, it was warm, and the skin actually comes off more easily. And the guts are still inside. That was gross. After we skinned them, his daughter (she's 12) did the gutting. She's been doing it her whole life, and likes that part for some weird reason. There wasn't as much blood as I thought there would be. It wasn't bad. And we took home 6 fresh tiny young chickens. I haven't cooked them yet. I've been told by lots of people that fresh young chicken is the best, and there's a noticeable difference from store chicken. It'll take 3 of them to feed us, they're so small. I'm looking forward to it!

-Mindy

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Courtney's birthday! Happy Birthday Courtney! We hope you had a wonderful birthday! I want to say you're 14 but I could be wrong. I'm pretty sure I'm right though! Anyway, happy birthday cute girl!

Fun Trip

Jeny and family just went on a trip to Moscow, Washinton state and Vancouver. There are a bunch of new posts, so take a look. You will want to go back through the "older posts" area because there are too many for the front page of the blog. The post titled "Mindy and Jason's House" is the first blog posting, and probably the best one. Check out the giant pizza and the crooked sister!

Dragon Update and A Lost Tooth

Jonah lost his first tooth a couple of weeks ago. That's out last first tooth! Sad. He was pretty excited about it.

Also, here's Tiger at 3 1/2 weeks old. He's healthy and happy. Probably only Jeny will care, but I will put on periodic updates of his growth. You can see he's already grown a lot from the new hatchling pictures Jeny put on her blog. He's so fun! Jonah loves to hold him and he's very careful.

A Whole Lotta Birthdays!

Things have been crazy for me lately to say the least. Anyway, I have quite a few birthdays to catch up on. Sorry if you are one of them and felt left out! I promise it wasn't intentional!

On the 7th:

It was Tarquennis' Birthday!Uncle T turned 50 this year!

On the 15th:
It was Josh's Birthday!

He turned 8 and will be getting baptized this Saturday!!

Yesterday-the 18th:
It was Shannon's birthday!

She turned 3!

And finally today- the 19th:
It's Kelsey's birthday!

She turns 22 today!

Happy birthday to all of you. We hope all your birthdays were just great! We love you all and we're so glad you were all born into our family! Congrats to Josh for getting baptized this Saturday! We can't wait to hear about it!