The Day I Became a Man (but not really.) Warning: Graphic Pictures!

     Last Friday started out as quite an interesting day. I walked out onto the farm not knowing what to expect. I knew it was Merry Lea's annual 'butchering day', where we thank the turkeys and chickens that participated in the Farmcraft program, then butcher them in order to provide the staff of Merry Lea with birds for Thanksgiving.

WARNING: There are some pretty graphic images, as well as videos, throughout this blog. Please do not continue if you cannot handle images of the butchering process!

NOTE: If you want to see the videos of me butchering one of the turkeys, they are at the VERY bottom of this post.

      By the time I arrived, the butchering process had already begun. I looked all around me and literally things were happening everywhere. In one corner, between the buildings, Paul's sons were helping thank and butcher the chickens. Then, I would turn around, and there would be several chickens tied by the feet onto a clothes line being butchered by the 'sawing' method, in which you hold the chicken's neck taught and basically cut through it with an extremely sharp knife.

      I could not watch this process, and luckily it wasn't the popular method of butchering for the birds. Then, close to the clothes line, chickens were being skinned and having their feathers removed. A few feet away were several birds being de-feathered on the back of the Ranger vehicle. Near that was a large cauldron of boiling water over a roaring fire in which dead birds were being dunked before having the feathers removed. Apparently boiling the birds for 10 seconds helps the feathers come out more easily.

      Little did I know that when I stepped into my beloved Cider Press, it would become the sight of a nightmare. I walked in to see several Merry Lea staff hard at work removing the inner parts of the chickens. As I watched, I think that I was still in shock about everything going on around me. They were hard at work, and it seemed like everyone had done this before. I had never seen anything like this at all in my entire life...

     Above, Paul's son, Skye, says goodbye and thanks to one of the chickens. Now, as soon as I got a grip on everything happening in the Cider Press, and got over my initial shock, I had several people asking me if I wanted to participate. My response was "I don't know" for about fifteen minutes. I wasn't sure if I could handle it! Then, Janie stepped in and told me she'd slowly guide me through the process. So, away I went to grab a pair of gloves and do something I never thought I'd do in my entire life.

      Above, David, the Agroecology intern, helps Paul submerge a bird in the boiling water. 

     Above, Sam helps Paul skin a chicken. Can you tell that maybe Paul has done this before?

      This is the part you've all been waiting for! Photographic proof that I had my hand stuck inside of a chicken and that I cleaned the entire thing myself. For those of you who saw my Facebook, I heard the comment, "Your cutting board was too clean for you to have cleaned that chicken yourself!" Well, that picture was from the very beginning. Also, why would I post a bloody cutting board on Facebook? I think that's flat out disrespectful to my friends who can't handle that kind of stuff.

      There were a few moments that made me want to stop the entire process. To be honest, I did have to step outside a few times to get some fresh air away from the butchering smell. For example, the sounds that were made while I was cleaning were disgusting. Also, some sentences of instruction said by my helper made me a little sick regarding removing the neck area of the bird. 
     Pictured next to me is Laurina, a Merry Lea graduate student from last year's cohort, who is an expert on this whole cleaning ordeal! She was telling the others which organs were to be harvested, how to properly remove them, and she knew the entire internal anatomy of the birds! Someone would pull out an organ and ask her what it was, and she could immediately tell them. She knew what she was doing. Also, the bowl in the middle of the table was there for the gizzards and other parts that could be harvested.

      Above is a picture of me overcoming my fear of sticking my gloved hand into a still-warm chicken. I asked Jonathon to take pictures because "my family back in Texas will NEVER believe this unless there is photographic evidence!" Just think, not even three hours later I would be butchering a turkey for the first time. At the moment I began cleaning the chicken, that idea was still a distant thought!

      I was working really, really hard to clean this bird properly. I also wanted to show those who doubted me in the beginning that I could do it. There are so many things you have to be aware of (and prevent from happening) while cleaning the insides. For example, you HAVE to be sure that you do not cause any excrement to come out while cleaning. That is VERY BAD because then you have to cut and remove ANY meat that came into contact with it and disinfect your entire area all over again. 

      It took me slightly longer to clean my chicken than it took the others. That's okay, though, because everyone else had their first times cleaning a chicken and they were all understanding. Janie was there to guide me through the entire process and help me know what I needed to do. I appreciate her patience and willingness to assist me!

      I think this is my "I still can't believe I'm doing this" face!

 Janie, in the red sweatshirt, was helping me figure out how to properly clean and remove the insides of the chicken.

 I was laughing to hide the tears! I'm just kidding. I kept making faces because the sounds would be disgusting. I went outside multiple times!

 Here we are, hard at work, trying to clean and process my first bird!

These are not my un-gloved hands... but just in case you wanted to see the inside of a chicken, here is your chance! If you could have lived your life without seeing this, then I apologize.

 I think there is a domino game called Chicken Feet... that I can't play ever again.

 The Sustainability Semester in Residency students came over after lunch to help speed up the butchering/cleaning process.

 From left to right: Janie, me, Jane and Laurina try to finish cleaning up the chickens so we can begin to butcher and clean the turkeys. 

More pictures of the crew, and the young daughter of a volunteer, cleaning the birds. I did not take pictures of the turkeys going through this process, well, because you get the idea by now.

     Now, how did I get the notion in my head to butcher my own turkey? Well, I was sitting on a wooden bench by the cauldron, taking a break from the whole scene, when Dave approached me and told me there were still a few turkeys left. He then asked me if I wanted to participate. My initial answer was, "Let me think about it." However, I also wondered when I would ever get the chance to challenge myself like this again.

     Somehow I mustered up the courage to take the ax in my hands and take a few practice swings. For those of you who know me well, this is not like me. I mean, I like challenges, but not ones that involve ending the life of an animal.    

     However, after taking care of these birds for several months, repeatedly having to clean up their poop, realizing how disgusting and unintelligent they are, and getting turkey poop smeared on the bottoms of almost every pair of shoes I own, I in no way had any emotional connection to these birds. If anything, I miss their noisy antics, but for the most part am relieved that I don't have to take care of them anymore. That being said...

(to view the video, click the "play" button on the lower left-hand side at the bottom of the box)

 This video is Carol testing out my phone's video in anticipation of recording me butchering my first turkey. In it you can hear me asking Dave to choose the turkey for me because I didn't want to, which he kindly did.

This video is of me taking my first practice swings. Since I have never chopped wood before, let alone held an ax, Dave took a few minutes to teach me how to hold an ax and hit my 'target'.

Now, here we have the highly anticipated video of this Texas city girl butchering her first turkey. Three hours prior to this, I never would have thought I'd be swinging an ax. If you watch it and think the same thing that my dad posted on Facebook... 

"geez- it took the same amount of whacks to put Marie Antoinette out of her misery! Poor turkey."

...just know that this was an entirely new learning process for me because although I did NOT miss my target on the first swing, Dave neglected to tell me the amount of force I needed to include along with not missing the target. So, I did not miss, but I did not swing hard enough.
     On the second swing, my brain had not fully processed what had happened, and that I was unsuccessful, so I did not swing much harder. The third time, however, my brain registered what needed to happen so then I delivered a more swift and final blow. 

 Above is a picture of my headless turkey, post-slaughter.

     Before this day, Paul made a valid point when he said that if you are an omnivore, you need to know where your food comes from and the process it goes through to get from the farm to your table. I can genuinely say that I have a new and profound appreciation for where my meat comes from.
      At the end of the day, my brain was completely overwhelmed, and I was tired. But, for those who doubted me and my ability to accept and excel at any challenge, this one's for you. :)

Samantha Comes to the Windy City!

     I am such a lucky girl! Last Friday, my best friend Samantha flew into Chicago from Dallas to visit me and The Windy City! She arrived pretty early in the morning, but since I had an impatient teacher who wanted TWO in-class visits the same morning Samantha arrived, she had some free time to look around and explore Chicago while she waited for me to pick her up!
     She took the blue line train from the Chicago O'Hare Airport and hit up a pub for lunch, took a boat tour of the Chicago architecture, and made it to Navy Pier for me to pick her up. I was so excited that the three hour drive felt like an entire day!
     Once I picked her up from Navy Pier (which was surprisingly easy!), we drove to Goshen for First Fridays. The theme for First Fridays-- which is a downtown festival that happens on the first Friday of each month where retailers and restaurants are open late and there are street vendors, music, etc-- was City on the Go: Goshen Arts Tour. There were local artists and paintings all along the street, but we were hungry and ready to eat dinner and celebrate Samantha's arrival to Indiana!

     We met up with Aaron downtown and waited to get a table for some delicious local fare and yummy drinks at The Constant Spring. The "Spring" is a Goshen restaurant which specializes in organic, natural foods that are ordered from local farmers, cheese makers, etc. They pride themselves in knowing where ALL of their ingredients come from! We had a delicious dinner and hung out for a little while until it was time to go home. We had a busy day planned for Saturday!

     We couldn't go home without getting some local Goshen treats first! Our goody bag contained two chocolate crinkle cookies homemade by an Amish vendor at the Farmers Market, and these beauties seen below made by a famous chocolate shop on Main Street. The chocolate ones are maple creams, my FAVORITE Indiana specialty. The white pumpkins... well, the description will do no justice to how yummy they were. They were white chocolate truffles with pumpkin pie in the middle. They were knock-your-wool-socks-off yummy. It was one of those treats that you get sadder with each bite you take because you know the yummy goodness is about to come to an end in your stomach. Yummy!!

     Below is a picture of a list of things I put together to explore when Samantha came. Not listed on there is a neat little Amish community called Grabill, an area we had a lot of fun exploring!
     We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning, and after getting Samantha warmed up and the ice scraped off of the windshield, we were off to Fort Wayne to have Spyro's for breakfast!

     Before we left for breakfast, Samantha insisted that I get a picture of Reith Village because of how beautiful it was amidst the frost.  It's beautiful every day, but this day was cold and still-- something that people in Dallas never get to see! 

     We had to stop at Spyro's-- a restaurant I found for my dad and Erin when they came to visit-- for a delicious breakfast! Once our tummies were full of biscuits and gravy and French toast (and bacon!!) it was time to find the "Trader Days" going on in downtown Fort Wayne.

     We found the building where Trader Days was happening. I expected, from looking at the website, for it to be this big festival. I guess since it was cold, not as many people were there that day. Trader Days happens on the first Saturday of each month, and Native American traders get together and sell homemade goods. They also make delicious frybread as seen in the pictures below!

      In the picture below, Native Americans at Trader Days make Indian frybread, which is a tradition from the Navajo. It's basically an "Indian taco" that tastes delicious with salsa. I remember eating these in South Dakota with tatanka meat, beans, salsa, shredded lettuce and cheese on top. Yum!

       The smell of deliciousness was almost unbearable! Too bad I couldn't bring myself to eat frybread at 10 am. Instead, we walked around, looked at the crafts, and met some new fuzzy friends...

     Time to meet some adorable alpacas! They were funny to watch, even though they looked like they'd eat your clothes right off of you if you tried to pet them.

     Since "Trader Days" were a lot smaller than we expected, we decided to go antique shopping downtown. We found a lot of great shops, and we both found things we wanted to buy! Alas, I did not want to spend $55 on a pink glass antique perfume spray bottle, and even though Samantha found some shutters and craft items she desperately wanted, there was no way to magically get them back to Dallas from here. However, we did find some funny signs in our day-long pursuit to see an actual horse and buggy!

      Once we were done perusing the antiques of Fort Wayne, we decided it was time to find a little bit of authentic Amish culture. Boy, did we find what we were looking for! About 30 minutes outside of Fort Wayne is a small Amish community tucked away in an area called Grabill. The town was so cozy and inviting! We had to explore downtown and go shopping.

     We found a HUGE building with antique/etc vendors inside of it. When I say 'huge', I mean that the rooms went on FOREVER. It was like a maze and every corner had new stuff to look at! We looked and looked, and finally found some things that we decided would make good Christmas gifts! 

     I had to take a picture of the sign below because it described everything the building had been up to this day. It reads: 
"Welcome friend!
     In 1907 our husband and father unlocked these doors directly behind this sign opening his harness shop for business.
     The windmill on the corner was sold to his father in 1908 and worked on the Souder homestead until 1970.
     These walls have housed a jail, doctors office, fire engine house, cream station, barber shop, saloon, hotel, two schools, butcher shop, wool market, fair store, bank, drugstore, harness shop, buggy shop, variety store, tire store, gas station, farm equipment store, appliance store, grocery store, dry goods store, shoe store, and furniture store.
     Come on in! Browse and relax in one of the few genuine country stores in America.
     Thank you,

         The Souders"
Can you BELIEVE the list of all the things that this building has housed? I was in disbelief and pretty impressed! 

     Speaking of the Souders, now it was time to go around the corner and check out the famous H. Souder & Sons General Merchandise Store. I absolutely love general stores, and I was in heaven when I opened the doors to this one. There was so much to look at! I love stores like this!

 LOOK AT ALL THAT STUFF! I was in love with this store!

     "Be on the lookout for a horse and buggy!" Suddenly, here comes a horse and buggy! We quickly took a picture and watched as the young boy, probably around 10 years old, took the reigns and led the horses past us. Their culture is so interesting!

     By this time, our tummies were hungry again. We asked the cashier at the antique vendor store about local places to eat that were close. She recommended we go to The Grabill Inn, and so we did!
     We both had chicken fried steak. I got baked beans and "American potatoes" while Samantha got mac n' cheese. It was yummy!

     Last but not least, we drove out into literally the middle-of-nowhere in order to find this "country store". When we walked in, there were three younger girls dressed in traditional Amish dress behind the counter. We were not acknowledged, but ignored, which was strange for both of us because we were not accustomed to that type of greeting. It was interesting to look around the store, and Samantha got some neat Christmas presents!

     You would think that the girls would be happy that we were supporting their store, but they were in a hurry to get us out. Oh well, we wanted a cultural experience and we certainly got one!

     Needing a break and to sit down, and since we had plenty of time before our comedy show, we decided to find a place with good margaritas! Where did we end up? A restaurant called "La Margarita", of course! We relaxed, watched some football, and had some chips and 'white' queso. Before we knew it, we were bored and wanted a new adventure. What else is there to see in Fort Wayne, you ask?

      Why, you guessed it! Johnny Appleseed's grave site! How random is that? We parked and got out, and right across from the site is the "Coliseum". We laughed at all the strange looking dogs that were out on the grass in pens. We decided they must be having a dog show because of a woman who was parading her mastiff around on the grass next to us in a bright blue suit. Back to Johnny Appleseed!

     If you want to read the text on the picture, just click on the actual picture. It should then open in a new window, allowing you to more easily view the text. It was a pretty interesting site!

 John Chapman "Johnny Appleseed" Died 1845 -o- Erected by Indiana Horticultural Society

     Finally, it was time to head back into town and get to the comedy club called Snickerz. We had rsvp'd for the early show! I was ready for some laughs. Even though these guys weren't that funny, I think it was because their jokes and references were for an older crowd. They kept tossing around jokes and themes that were too 'old' for me to understand. 

     One of the comedians, Ross Bennett, has been on several well known XM radio shows and has been featured on Comedy Central several times. He was lined up to be the main act tonight. Therefore, I had high hopes... but it was average. If asked to return, I probably would not go back. Quinn Patterson, the comedian who preceded Ross, wasn't that great and was hard to understand at times. The host... well, he needs to reconsider a job in comedy. A lot of his material I had already seen on internet memes or on Pinterest under 'humor'. That being said, the set was nice...

Two Texans Take On Chicago!

     On Sunday, we drove to the Harlem part of Chicago. We parked the car and hopped on the blue line to head to downtown Chicago! Boy, were we in for a surprise when we got off the train -- it was FREEZING cold outside! What is funny is that when I got out of the car, it was sunny and I was warm. I asked Samantha if I should leave my coat in the car. She saved my life when she said to keep it on! The clouds rolled in, and the temperature dropped. What an incredible change from the temperature in Dallas!

     We decided to meet one of Samantha's friends in downtown for a delicious lunch at Lou Malnati's pizzeria. The wait took longer than we expected, but it was totally worth it! The Chicago-style sausage pizza was DELICIOUS. The Chicago-style pepperoni pizza I had a Giordano's was delicious, too, and when asked to compare the two I simply could not do it. 

     Samantha's friend then informed me that Giordano's considers their pizzas to be "stuffed" pizza, while Lou Malnati's considers their pizzas to be "Chicago deep dish". Apparently this is the root of heated arguments in the Chicago area!

 Mmmm.... if only you could taste through a computer.

      Happy with our lunch and ready for new scenery, we were off to find the giant silver jelly bean! We enjoyed taking crazy pictures of our reflections, trying to get a picture under the bean while on our backs (it was so cold!) and simply had fun being stupid. We got some cute pictures though, even though we were freezing our beans off! (See what I did there?)

      Photo credits go to Samantha! After we enjoyed looking at the bean, we went to get something warm to drink! I had a white hot chocolate across the street, and it was SO delicious. Samantha had a pumpkin chai latte. We felt like true Chicago-ans sitting at a table on the sidewalk being coffee snobs and talking about what pedestrians were wearing. When our fingers began to freeze again, we decided it was time to get back on the train and head back towards Harlem.     $2.50 and 30 minutes later, we were back at Harlem and it was time to get out the luggage and say goodbye. I was so sad to see her go, but I know I'll get to see her around Christmas! I'm such a lucky girl to have such an amazing friend who found the time to come spend a weekend for me. Not only did she spend a weekend with me, but she braved the cold! I'm so proud! :)