Memory Lane

From the first year of our marriage, Curt insisted on raising and butchering our own chickens. The first year was a little hard as I was about 4 months pregnant by the time that the butchering day came around. There were not just regular old chickens but 28 lb turkeys waiting for me to eviscerate and scrub down as well. Nausea from the pregnancy and the nature of the job sent me to the bushes a few times but I did hang in there to finish the job. Into the late afternoon i continued with the meticulous scrubbing and cleaning of the birds in my large sink in the little rental house we lived in at the time. I was going to prove to him that I could be a tough little farm wife and keep up with whatever he threw at me. After all, I had worked tougher jobs than this before marriage. I think he too was trying to show off to me. Showing me all the things he had to "teach" me to make me a good wife....I was trying to prove that I didn't need any "coaching" i knew it all already. (prideful little thing) So there we were, working like dogs to prove what a good deal the other one had gotten in this marriage of ours. Curt always used to say "You can't get this taste from a store!!" I secretly thought "I sure could and it would be a whole lot less of a pain in the butt!" Looking back, it was something that we both really actually took pride in being able to do together. We disagreed on a lot the first 4 years, but doing chickens was something we both came to actually enjoy. Today Curt came home with a large bag of 5 huge fresh chickens that he bought for a great price off of the Hutterites. I began cutting them up, saving the "backs" in a separate bag for soups and bagging the rest...It all came flooding back. I'm glad i wasn't scrubbing today!