More of our chicken raising adventures.

This gets a little graphic.

We harvested our first chicken (rooster), gutted him, cooked him in a pot and ate soup made of the broth and meat.  

When I say "we" I mean the four elders and Jenny Jump from our ward.  When one elder found out we were harvesting the rooster, he wanted to help.  But really all four wanted to help.  I guess they see this as "manly stuff."  

This is Elder Francom, ready for the deed. 

Elders tying up the rooster. 

Letting it bleed out and ready to pluck.  

Elder Sunderland, Elder Walt, Elder Francom, and Elder Heder.  

Elder Sunderland was the one holding the feet and letting it bleed out, but the wings were still flapping and blood got on his clothes and face.  He was a trooper and didn't drop it.
And thank you Jenny for all your help through out the whole experience.  

This is the soup we made from the rooster.  

We had named the rooster Oreo the day we got it as a chick, hoping it was a hen.

But we got one rooster out of 6 chickens.  Since we got them for the eggs and we live in the city limits, the rooster had to go.

Here Abby is enjoying leftover Oreo soup, as we called it at dinner.  

Even Sarah, now 4 years old, yelled at the dinner table, "will someone get me some Oreo soup?"

We shared it with the elders who helped us.  Jenny Jump couldn't eat it since it had gluten in it.  Sorry Jenny.

This is the more graphic part, the kill.

Jenny Jump cleaning up the and showing our kids the anatomy of the chicken.

This is a short one of the kidneys.

I can't believe that I am finding satisfaction in all this stuff.

A person develops greater respect and gratitude for what you eat when you raise your own food.

Oh, I did want to share our banner self reliant dinner we had the other night.

Soup made from our own chicken (meat and broth)

Quiche all from our own chicken eggs,

homemade bread, I grind the wheat and use my own starter that I have to keep alive

homemade fermented lemonade (has probiotics in it and tastes good)

homemade milk kefir with fruit and stevia (fruity drink with probiotics)

brownies made from black beans and my freshly ground wheat flour.

(I need to figure out a way to keep the brownies from getting a little dry by the end of the evening. Any suggestions?)

One of the elders gives me a weird look every time I share these things with him, 

but he is a good boy and eats it, anyway.  I think he might even enjoy it in the end.  

The others were great sports and ready to try all of it.  

Abby's Gymnastic Recital

The end of Abby's first year of gymnastics.  

On the bars. 

(Not the best camera sometimes)

Abby is doing her floor routine over on the far right of us.

Abby doing the volt.  She didn't get a chance to do the round-off off the volt, so we can't show you that.  

Abby is really close to getting her back hand spring, maybe next year.

Thank you to my generous sister and brother-in-law for making

 this possible during this last year while Frank was in school.  

Our chickens are getting bigger.

Here are Abby's favorite pictures of our chickens. 

These were taken in the second half of April, so they are even bigger now.  

Our New Coop

My dad wanted update on our chickens.

  

 Frank built the coop Saturday.  Here it is by the back porch.

(for now, we will be moving it around.)

 We let the six chicks play in it for a while today.  It was a lot of fun.  

 Sarah played in the new sand box under the over hang.  

It is just sand from our yard.  

Look at the dirt on her.  She had a great time.

Oh, she put this flower behind her ear and called it her new "hair do".

 They each took turns playing in the coop with the chicks.

Dan and his Legos, outside of course.  

February 2014

We got to go the Orlando Temple this last month for a Primary activity.  

 Angel Moroni on top of the temple.  Sounding the trump for the Savior to come back.

 The north side of the temple with the primary. 

 It is a 2 1/2 hours to drive to the temple, but we had a great turn out 

with all those kids.  It was a just another great time to be a primary leader.  

This is the gingerbread Parthenon  we build. 

The other Aiello's Christmas has begun.

Wopping Fog Hole Snow Village is all ready.

Rose Ann painted the background,

Added a waterfall,

Made it three layers high,


Has 65+ buildings,

Numberless amount of people sledding, caroling, getting married and who knows what...

And then there are the seven churches on top of the amiore.

It is all a sight to behold.  Nice work Rose Ann (Frank's mom).

Halloween 2013

 Dan entered 3 entries for the 4H county fair contest.  He entered chocolate muffins, a pumpkin drawing from art class with Meme and this dinosaur collection.  He told them more about dinosaurs than they wanted to know.  All three entries got blue ribbons.  It is more of a skill level for these ribbons.  They later go into a contest for best of class.  

 Abby entered 14 entries.  A pillow, doll pajamas, pot holder, doll toy made out of a clothes pin, a 18 inch doll snack vendor cart made from a show box and other recycled items.  A drawing of a pumpkin from art class with Meme, needle point of a pumpkin, her own pajamas pants she made, a set of pine cones she decorated to look like the four different seasons.  Our families favorite peanut butter candies, fresh cut flowers from our yard and finally cornmeal pancakes she made all by herself.  They thought she was very creative and crafty.  She got 11 blue ribbons and 3 red ribbons.  She his hoping to get a best in class with her pumpkin drawing from a comment the judge made.  

They did very well explaining themselves and participating in the event.  I think we will do it again next year.  

 Dan is being a herbivore stegosaurus for Halloween.

Abby is a rock star and Sarah is a ballerina fairy.  I think a ballerina fairy was made up for little girls who want to wear a tutu and wings at the same time.