Today we killed and cleaned 60 chickens. (Photos here, taken by Michael, Blaise and Luke.)

I have never been part of such a big project; and now that I have, I’m not sure I’ll be part of another one. But it was such an interesting experience, I’m certainly not sorry I did it.

Our good friends, the Rosses, invited us to share the bounty of the chickens they had been given, and I eagerly jumped at the chance. I wish you could have seen the gleam in Isaac’s eyes when he heard he would get to use his knives for a real killing job.

It was a long hard job, but it was filled with fascinating tidbits. For instance, who knew that Isaac would fall in love with the chickens and spend much of his time carrying around a hen before finally being forced to hand it over to the executioner? And who would have thought that the children would so thoroughly enjoy chasing chicken-escapees all around the farm? (I suspect they turned the chickens loose on purpose a few times just to be able to chase them down again!) And believe it or not, I found it fascinating to see exactly how a chicken’s insides are tucked inside of itself. I think the most interesting part of that was seeing the eggs still inside the hens. Oh, and of course the children were amazed at how long a chicken can still move and cluck after it is already “dead”.

At one point, Grandpa Kauffman (who volunteered to help with our project) looked up from the chicken he was cleaning and said, “Welcome to the good ol’ days.” I realized he was quite right! Maybe the folks in the “old days” didn’t kill 60 chickens at once, but they were certainly no stranger to the hard work of preparing a chicken for the pot.

No doubt the “old days” also included friends working together on projects, children playing until the sun went down, and people who slept very well at night after being out in the fresh air all day.

There was one more lesson I learned today. I have decided that the chicken in the store that’s already killed and cleaned and ready for cooking is a wonderful value!