I don't know which is worse! UPDATE - JUST A FEW MORE LEFT...

[EggsForIHOP]

Summer bites! That's the nicest way to say it...heat, humidity, mosquitoes that try to carry you away, explosions of flies like biting horse flies and obnoxious little house flies, crazy buggy madness...it's TOO HOT to get things done in a timely fashion without having a heat stroke...by August I am begging for winter time...

But...I HAVE to admit...AT LEAST I CAN FEEL MY FREAKING FINGERS IN THE SUMMER!!!

I went out yesterday...and spent ALL DAY outside....it took me well into the evening to TRULY feel "thawed out"! I have 19 chickens outside that I need to start sending to freezer camp in groups...and the weather is supposed to be chilly all week and then rainy after that! I call El Toro Poo Poo on winter! the worst part is water for the critters - I swear that makes it feel as though it is ten times worse when you start doing the water! I am DREADING processing the broilers now because of all the water involved!

The high is supposed to be 55 this weekend, and I know I shouldn't cry because PLENTY of other places have MUCH colder temps...but I was born and bred in Orange County CALIFORNIA! I SWEAR I only remember "frosty mornings" like 2 or three times each year...I CLEARLY remember dressing in a hoodie sweatshirt and SHORTS because the "morning chill" was not that bad - in the middle of winter! I do NOT thrive in cold weather and I DREADING processing and all that water and my chill hands! I've already told my husband to be ready for me to set up the shower stall in the bathroom for plucking...I SWEAR I am contemplating it! He said if I pluck a chicken in the house, he gets to clean deer in the living room...I don't know...I might risk getting caught for the sake of my finger tips!

I really don't know which is worse, the sweltering temps and bugs in the summer, or the icey cold chill of winter I can't quite get rid of until April each year! If anyone has stealth tips for processing inside, share them with me...no garage here in the boonies or I'd do it there...no friends with garages either...and my shed is still full of junk and storage or I'd do it there! I think I may have lost my mind a little...but it probably froze and hasn't thawed yet!

 

[themagicash]

I just did my daily chicken duties and my nose is numb! I know Texans are supposed to be a hardy group but we sure don't like the cold! Its 22F out there with the wind chill and the sun hasn't hit my yard yet. Brrrr!

But I will take this weather over what we went through this summer...the heat, the drought, the fires....

My 10 cornish cx don't seem to mind this cold. I was worried their naked fat butts would be cold so a few days ago I filled their run with 8.5cu ft of pine shavings which they love. I hated to spend money on them 2 weeks before their harvest date but I didn't want to walk out to frozen, wet chickens.

 

[yinepu]

I feel your pain.. I have 11 to process this week.. had to put it off this past weekend because of the darn cold rain

I still prefer summer over winter.. my back hates the cold!

 

[1muttsfan]

come on up and visit in - oh, end of january, you can help with chores on a nice toasty -20 morning!

Thank goodness we dont get the terrible summer heat.

 

[themagicash]

-20? eeek!

 

[EggsForIHOP]

Quote:
no thank you, I will have to pass

I admit, putting up fencing when it's 114* bites too...but at least I can move at a slow steady pace AND feel all crucial body parts! I don't know how you do it! Don't get me wrong, I'm NEVER moving back to So Cal...I just want to know what happened to global warming and why it isn't warming me here in Texas!

 

[kizanne]

I'm sure this is going to get blasted.....

But any reason you can't process inside with a large sink?

I mean slit and drain outside but after that a clear counter and a sink? Use bleach to clean up?


You must forgive me I have not processed any myself so let the flogging begin. As long as it also contains useful info.

Edited to add... I don't intend to puck but skin since my family doesn't eat the fatty skin anyway/

 

[EggsForIHOP]

Kizanne - anyone who blasts you has to go through me! I THINK IT IS A GREAT IDEA! No really, I am VERY SERIOUSLY considered bleeding out in the yard, setting up the water to boil on the back porch and dunking them out there, a quick drip dry action then short trip inside, and plucking in our shower over the garbage can as they hang from the shower head (which I could just turn on to rinse them off) and then moving to the kitchen to gut....we do LOVE our crispy skin here...I just can't not pluck...I see no problems with this plan what so ever...

But REALLY...I told my husband this on the phone last night, and he said if I got to pluck chickens in the bathroom, he WOULD clean a deer on a tarp on our living room floor as soon as he gets home from working outta town this week and gets to go hunting again...he said IF I was lucky, he would bleed and gut in the woods and "just skin it right there while I watch TV in the warmth of my own home"...for real...I don't think he cares, as long as he can do it too! Redneck...only sometimes around here...just a tad...

I don't know that I could completely hide all of the evidence...but it sure is a thought! I don't mind small things in the house - he does doves over the trash can/sink like it's nothing....but a deer...on my hardwood flooring...even I have to admit that's a no-go bad idea tarp or no tarp! It's hard wood flooring for the pete sake! I can't let him find out if I do bring them in...and I have to be done by the weekend before he gets home...any takers in the area wanta come help with stealth chicken plucking? I'll pay the heating bill and provide all the soda pop and tamales for lunch!

 

[chicmom]

Hey IHOP, I'm totally with ya on the summer weather. Here in Ohio, we do get temps in the upper 80s and 90s, and the humidity is just awful. When I get outside to do my gardening or my chicken chores, I am drenched with sweat by the time I'm done......I often squirt myself down with the hose.......

Now winters are a whole different ballgame here in Ohio.....It's different every year. This year, so far it's been very mild. It's not officially winter yet, but in Ohio, the bad weather can start as early as October! Rain...hail....sleet...snow....ice on the roads......It can be AWFUL.

This year, we're lucky. So far the temps are still very mild, today in the 50s, but it has been rainy and gloomy grey skies.......One year, we even had dandylions growing in the yard in DECEMBER, it was so nice.

But TYPICAL winters in Ohio are just awful! Temps can get down into the teens and even below zero.......Wind, and even several feet of snow on the roads......Black ice is treacherous.........The thing I dislike the most about winter is watering the flock, which I do twice a day because the water freezes. I am prepared though......Muck boots, water proof gloves. I use those rubber buckets.....I keep two--one at the house near the outside spikot, and one in the coop. I just step on the bucket and the ice chunk falls out, and I only have to make one trip due to my bucket exchange thing I've got going.......

Really 55 is good for processing birds because it's not real cold, and it's not real hot....No bugs to deal with.......Get some good rubber gloves and you'll be in good shape!

Take care,
Sharon

 

[Avalon1984]

Quote:

cold is way better than hot humid summers. way too many flies! 23 degrees here in Muskegon this morning. You guys are probably much worse.