Girls Night.

About a month or 6 weeks ago I went on a girls night that was really special. 6 of us went to The City to go out for supper, then bowling, then out for dessert and then home in Di's van. We had a great time. What was really great about it is that these 6 girls have never done this together before and many of us hadn't seen each other in years. While others see each other monthly or more. We all have children with the exception of one who has the care of a little boy semi permanently. Between the 6 of us there are 13 children... all under the age of 5. J is the oldest. The youngest is only 6 or 7 months old. The really neat thing about us getting together is that 5 of us went to grade school together for several years. And all of us went to high school together but we all went our separate ways and now met up again, and 4 are living in the same town after living away. One is from Australia and visits with her 2 kids and another lives in the City with her husband and 2 kids. We've all been married for different lengths of time. (I'm not positive but we may all have been married different years.) Anyway we had a great time and really got to know each other again. Next time we get together we want to get the kids all together too. Should be a blast!

Pictures of Chicken Butchering.

Later is better then never I guess. I forgot I had these and just found them a bit ago. We had the perfect day for chicken butchering. Not too hot and just windy enough to keep most of the fly's away. There was 3 couples, my mom who just showed up and helped, and Momma T who brought her 3 little T's. Daddy T joined us later just in time for a store run and supper. So we had 7 adults and 7 children and we did roughly 200 birds in 6 hours. 2 of our cleaners only stayed until lunch then had to go. 1 came back later to help finish up. Not too shabby!! We used a hooded plucker and the maul gropen for a scalder. Papa did all the eviscerating and us 5 cleaners didn't even fall too far behind. My Mom and B, the above B's wife :), had never chicken butchered or hadn't in YEARS so we had a small training drill too. Everyone did really well and soon I stopped re-checking birds which made it go even faster. 8 hours after we started all the birds that needed cutting up were cut up and everything else except 10 were gone or in the freezer!!! Slick!! We cut them up for ease of use. With 4 people cutting up and 1 bagging this in incredibly fast. We cut up 65 birds in about 40 minutes... with delays and switch ups. That last 10 went the next day as planned. Momma T and I cleaning birds at the end of the day. Mrs. B took the pictures. Papa is in the back cleaning out the scalder. That black thing on the right is the plucker.

Mr. B, Glen and the 7 children enjoying a cool treat at the end of the day. Yes they all washed first. :)

J caught this chicken all by himself.

B and Uncle R making the switch from block to scalder. That's half of Papa you see.

J and Glen catching chickens with Girl T looking on. She caught a few too.

Here is our friend Mr. B carrying a chicken to the block. Mr. B learned a valuable lesson this day. He went to catch the 1st chicken of the day and jumped in there and scared the flock so bad that they just ran right over the fence and we spent the next 3o minutes trying to get them in!! And he missed the chicken!! We all laughed at him he was so excited to get this done. He laughed too. This is right after that mess. Yes we chop heads instead of hang in cones. Our cones got lost in the shuffle of too many moves and we find this works just as well.

Beans

Well for the 1st time EVER I used my pressure canner!! And actually I've used it quite a bit since then. We planted 2 rows of beans late this spring and with the help of some white row covers we got 18 jars of green beans put up. It would have been more but we ate a bit and I was saving some in the fridge in jars ready to be canned when I had enough and they 'went' on me. I'm not sure why?? Anyway now I know not to store them, just can them. The 1st time I used it I started it when the kids were up but watching a movie in the living room and finished it at nap time. When we weren't blown to bits and nothing else bad happened I started using it whenever and whenever I needed too. But the kids still stay in the living room. That's a constant when we are cooking anyway so they know the drill!! I also pressure canned Pork'N Beans and I'm planning on doing kidneys as soon as we are done the salsa and perishables this fall. I already have the dry beans and we never use them because I forget to soak them before I need them or don't have time to cook them so I thought why not? My beans are still producing but mostly we are eating the little bit they are giving. If we get another bigger batch I'll probably do some more quart jars full. At 1 quart of beans = roughly 2 meals for the 6 of us we've got enough for about 36 meals. Not so shabby for 2 little 25 foot rows!!

Day 6

The Train!!
A black bear.

The 7 Sister Mountains.

The Nechako River? Either that or the Fraser??

Some mountains on the way home.

Papa asleep in the window seat. What you see out the window is what we saw a lot!!

The Pictograph's

Our hotel room. Above is the entryway, mini bar and coffee pot. Below is the bathroom with it's TV mirror!! In the top of the mirror was a TV with a remote and everything.

Day 6 had us leaving our plush hotel room early and heading downstairs to our waiting taxi. We arrived at the train station right on time and entered the mostly empty train lobby to get everything ready for the train ride. Within minutes the place was crawling with people. And when we finally did head onto the train we found out why. The train car that we were on, economy, was pretty much FULL. There were only 2 or 3 seats left on the whole car. Groups of people got to go on first so that they could make sure and sit together. Some people we know happened to be on the train with us and we chatted to them for a bit. They were hoping to get dropped off on their own train crossing and later managed this very well. She has MS and has a scooter which was most of the problem. The scooter drove right out on to a pickup bed and there was no problems at all. This was really nice for them because they'd had to start out over a hours drive from home when they went to Rupert and this made their train ride several HOURS longer!! (There is, we're told, several hours of wait time between the 2 towns.)

The train had 2 stewards or stewardess that proved to be entertaining and enlightening. They made regular announcements over the intercom about the towns and areas we went through. They also alerted us to a bear on the side of the tracks and some pictograph's on a rock wall during the trip. They also brought a cart of 'goodies' down the aisle every few hours. Later in the day Papa bought a micro brew off them to enjoy while we rumbled along! We headed out of Rupert and found almost instantly that it's not at all like driving in a car except that your moving. LOL. The highways up North are cleared for fire lines and also for animal sightings. It's nice to be able to see the moose on the side of the road instead of just hitting them when the come blasting thru the bush onto the road. With the train they don't clear the sides unless there is another track or a natural open spot. Or a town. So you see a lot of green trees and branches right beside your window. If the trees are thin you can see mountains, streams, towns, fields through the trees. I found that I could not look out much at all as it hurt my eyes. Papa felt the same way and so must have a lot of others because a lot of them, including Papa, fell asleep. I dosed once or twice but mostly stuck my nose in a book and looked up every once and a while when people started moving. Others must have been looking out because every time something cool would come up they'd get up and cross the aisle and take pictures so I missed very little of the 'good stuff' and still finished my book. By the time we reached Smithers the car was only 1/3 of the way full and it made for a nicer friendlier atmosphere. We had a 40 minute wait at Smithers so Papa and I dashed down town and got an ice cream and dashed back to the train. Papa wanted to saunter but I was really worried we'd miss the train and be stuck in Smithers so we dashed!! It was nice to get out of the train and get some fresh air. After that we started looking for landmarks we knew and tried to figure out where the train went compared to the highway. We totally enjoyed going around Fraser Lake (the Lake not the town.) which I had no idea that it was that BIG!! We saw our favorite swimming beach and the backs of several Log Mills. We saw some beautiful streams, mountains and rivers. Then we were pulling into McCall crossing and our friends were getting off and heading home. Soon it was time to get our bags together and get ready to get off. As we pulled into Town we saw our bags heading down past us to disembark and we looked ahead to see if we could see Grandma and Grandpa and our children. We could not! But wait there they are!! Grandpa in a white shirt holding J and L's hands. Grandma in front of the stroller where R was sitting with wide eyes and holding E's little hand. All the kids dressed up and waiting. E in her little orange dress. J and L each holding flowers, freshly picked. And all of them with a aura of wonder on their faces. Then smiles as Papa and I walked off the train and hugs all around as the people on the train waved and some took pictures and the kids waved back and the chug chug we had heard all day started up again and then the train was gone. And we stood and chatted and laughed and smiled. Happy to be home. R looked at both of us with a funny sort of shyness on her face. She ducked her head but smiled at me when I picked her up and kissed her. Then she grinned back. It did take her a while to really beam at us like she normally does. But by the time we got home that night she was back to herself. J and L and E had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and several times that night we heard, "Grandma, oh I mean Mom." or "Grandpa oh no Papa!!" We heard all about the movies they'd watched, the people they'd seen, and the things they had done all week. Then we broke open the surprises and shared them all around. Finally we headed home both Papa and I eager to check on the place and the kids happy to be going back to our family and our life. The pigs were fine and IN which is important. The cow was well fed and also IN. And my green house and garden had grown well. We fixed and ate a simple supper and tucked everyone into their own beds and I slept soundly for the 1st time all week.