Poults

The kitchen is again filled with the chirps of babies. This time we now have five bouncy turkey poults. Wobbly and tall, already two have been transferred into the shed under the ever useful heat lamp.
The guinea fowl eggs go into the incubator tomorrow

Strictly Come Dancing 2009

Seeing Natalie totally squeezed into a pink piece of tissue paper made my day
go for it girl you're a winner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

100 Years of the Hall and Turkey pips

If you look closely at this photo you can clearly make out the Tower of the memorial Hall nestled to the centre left of the village. The official opening of the hall took place this afternoon with an invited audience of locals and "dignitaries", and everything seemed to go to plan.
The Children for the village school performed a lively montage of eclectic songs (I managed to get a shy wave from my friend Geoff's daughter Helen) and the usual collection of suits gave their praises and platitudes with practiced aplomb.

I was most interested in the speech given by a Mr Hobbs (below) who was the husband of a relation of the Hall's original builder Michael Antonio Ralli, a former Greek Consul of Liverpool. Ralli (or Ralli Back which means small Ralli in Welsh!!!) funded the Memorial hall back in 1909 as a means of alleviating the severe effects of unemployment in the area at that time, and seemed to have been a hugely colourful character within the local community. Having his descendants present at the Hall today, was a nice touch

Welsh Assembly Member Sandy Mewies officially opened the Hall, and the afternoon was neatly concluded by some Stirling singing by the Trelawnyd Male Voice Choir

There was a buffet finish and gift mugs celebrating the first 100 years of the Hall could be taken home as souvenirs; as these bun fights go....it was all done very well.

I know many of the local people thought that the "official" ceremony should have been opened to the whole village, and I guess there is some mileage in this thought,as then no one would have been "left out" and therefore "put out".; however, organizing an event like this that pleases everyone is nigh on impossible to sort out, so I will reserve judgement on this

All I will say, is that organising the work and obtaining the funding for such a huge undertaking as the Hall's renovation was a Herculaneum task, and if it wasn't for the obsession of a selected few on the Hall Charity committee, nothing would have been achieved at all.

I got home after four, only to find a robust turkey chick staggering around the incubator. Two more are pipping....... I wonder how many I will have by morning

Scrubbed up

I have had a bath and am wearing CLEAN clothes in honour of the Memorial Hall opening...it's all go....my turkey chicks have started to pip and are breaking through their shells....
fingers crossed

Guilty pleasures

Longer nights are approaching, so the evenings will be soon filled with bad tv (most everything that is in fact advertised) bad/good tv (Road wars -above pic the sweetie traffic cop Charlie) and excellent tv (Strictly Come dancing!)
I have a feeling I need to start reading a little more

Masterclass number two,dog trouble and Memorial Hall set up

Bill called around this morning to give me my first lesson in chicken "dressing", and I couldn't quite get out of my mind that I was appearing in an episode of the 1970s Generation Game.
Patiently he showed me how to cut the head off and remove the crop without tainting the bird's flesh and like a surgeon he helped me to to understand the somewhat complicated workings of guts, viscera and gizzard. We cut off the feet with garden scissors, and removed the livers to be cooked later whilst all the time bantering about this and that..
In a matter of minutes he had dressed the first bird, and only a few minutes behind him, I had finished my first! and it was surprisingly easy! We cleaned the bird with care , and by doing so, I felt that the whole effort of killing the roosters was worth something.I was secretly quite proud of myself.
Now,I know I am not going to get into the habit of killing birds for the table, but I have found the whole experience of the last few days, sobering, useful and in a strange way very respectful to the birds involved.
I cooked the large Buff cockerel this afternoon,(below)....which was tasty enough......But I have to say that I am so happy that I didn't Kill Bill.........

We finished up at noon and after I had stored the two extra chickens in the freezer I piled the dogs into the car to go to the Memorial Hall to set up the Flower Show display for tomorrow's grand Hall re-opening. As we drove off, a neighbour who had been ill for a while came around the corner and I got out of the car to say hello, as I did so William deftly jumped up and depressed the central locking button on the car door. The bloody keys were in the ignition!, The car was in the narrow lane...and all four dogs (who all needed a pee) were trapped inside.....I was livid with myself.......Chris had the other set of car keys and could not be contacted, so the only route left to me was to ring the AA.
I rang and gave them a sob story of four desperate "bladder overflowing terriers" trapped in a berlingo and within half an hour a dog loving AA man with his van, who had put me on a priority call, had broken in to release them. I could have kissed him!

I got to the Memorial Hall late, but still manged to set up the display up before the village Friendship group had their afternoon's social. The hall looks lovely. with it's newly painted walls and woodwork gleaming and all shiny and new. A modern kitchen has replaced the old tired church-Hall looking old one and there is even a small lift installed so that the stage room can be reached by all.They have thought of everything.

The war memorial outside has been re landscaped too,and shrubs and turf has been laid where before there was nothing but scrub and dirt.

Tomorrow's opening is a celebration of a much used and much loved local landmark. I am so looking forward in attending

Bill

The one that got away....

Lesson One

This morning I had a good think about culling the cockerels and finally felt at peace with my decision to proceed. However as I know I am ever so slightly emotionally attached to the beautiful black male, I removed him from the shed early this morning and replaced him into the field. I am resolved to find him a new home, I think he is just too handsome to be killed and eaten.
The three males I finally picked are only a few months old, one buff, one large white sussex and a mongrel hybrid, and all three had been kept comfortable and quiet in the shed overnight.
Chris tried to wind me up this morning by intermittently whispering "chicken killer" when he ambled through the cottage,,.....I found it strange that in the film Julie & Julia last night, Amy Adams' character was tormented by her husband when she was try to kill a lobster, by whispering over and over again "Lobster killer!!!!"

Bill called down on time and immediately put me at ease with his relaxed professional approach to the culling. He used all of those techniques I employed in spinal injuries to coach inexperienced staff through stressful situations, and the whole "event" went ahead in a systematic and incredibly calm way.

Each cockerel was gently removed from the shed, and held until it relaxed. Then with a precise pull the cervical vertebrae was dislocated and after a few seconds flapping the bird was dead. It was as quick and as clean as that.

I placed the birds into a bucket of very hot water for a few seconds to relax the bird's muscles and then quickly plucked the feathers off before hanging it up . Bill explained that the birds would bleed into their necks and head and he would return tomorrow to teach me how to prepare the carcasses professionally before we can freeze them.

So that was it! within half an hour all three birds had been killed humanely, they had been plucked and hung and no longer resembled those pretty "boys" I was trying not to look at too closely this morning and I felt totally ok with it all. The trick is, I guess not to get attached to the birds I know I will have to kill...I made that mistake with the black cockerel, who I think deserves now to be named..........

I will call him Bill I think...