I'm still trying to rebuild stamina after my May bout of COVID (on top of being semi-bedbound for the past 5 years... if i wasnt doing the essentials (barn chores, vet work, cooking, laundry), I was lying flat in bed, as it was the position that caused the least amount of pain, and since I could get no pain meds from anyone, I couldn't even try to do therapy! I was surprised I wasn't more badly deconditioned than I was. But since COVID, I've been able to put in one big day, then I'd have to rest the next... not sleep, but sit around and do light work, sometimes with a nap I the afternoon. (I avoid naps like the plague! It's gotten a little better as I've gotten older, but I tend to fall into a deep sleep indont want to wake from, and I end upmfeel8ng worse...who needs TWO mornings?LOL)
But this last weekend got crazy. I watched the toddler Saturday morning while everyone else loaded up the freezer and products to go to the farmers market. She's a blast, but i was happy to put her down for a nap and take a break picking peas. I shelled and froze them in the afternoon, and packed up several large orders that had to go out Monday.
Sunday, DS had the dipping barrels full,of water and heating. I dragged myself down around 6;30 and we had the first birds in the cone by 7. We didn't have a baby sitter, so the kids were wandering in and out, checking out what a chicken looks like inside and asking what various organs do. The baby's take on her first butchering? "Yuck"! No distress apparent, just concern about why we were taking chickens apart in such a messy way!
(9h, totally off topic, but too fun not to share... DDIL had the toddler "E" in a backpack, while she was cleaning out nest boxes and complaining that when she caught the egg eater she was going to make stew. She was putting the eggs in a bucket behind her. Suddenly, E starts yelling "mommy, mommy! (Her vocabulary has exploded Suddenly, in a family of girl's where the oldest was using sentences st 8 months, she's a late bloomer)
DDIL looks behind her, and there is a hen, perched on the bucket of eggs, and pecking furiously trying to break one. E points at her, and clearly says, "stew!"
Anyway, we set up an assembly line in the cool, fly free shop, and had 67 birds cut up, breasts deboned, vacuum packed and frozen by 6 pm. That was with tak8ng time for a brief lunch in the AC and about a 30 minute siesta... all the birds were safe in ice water, and it proved to be a wise choice. All 4 of us came back with more energy, and we got the two youngest to take naps..
But only after we let the 3 year old (for another month) cut up a chicken. She was especially fascinated how you could find the joint to be able to cut it apart... the kid is fascinated with physiology.
So, I'd planned (and everyone understood) that I'd be pretty useless Monday. I figured I could hold off on dehydrating the hearts and livers, as I'd also parboiled them with some fresh garlic. We refer to the resulting product as "doggie crack"!.
But then about 30# of necks and backs and other scraps simply would not fit in any freezer. Of seven freezers! And I was not wasting that much good protein. So I set it up to simmer all night in the covered pavillion, , but a storm blew in at midnight, and blew the flames out. Fortunately, I'd gone down to check after a fierce gust. I out lids on, turned everything off and went to bed. Asked hubby to start it back up when he got up, so he got up early at 5:30 and watched it until imdragged myself out at 8. By then, it was thoroughly cooked (young birds... old stewing hens would have taken hours longer.)
I got the last jar of 12 quarts of broth and 36 pints of pure organic protein ( currently labeled "dog food", it was processed, handled, etc strictly by human food safety standards. In an emergency, I'm sure people would adapt to spitting out the few small bones it might contain, much as they do with fish now!)
I got up Tuesday to babysit the girls... I honestly don't remember walking to their house in the early morning! We had lots of fun, no screens on. DDIL asked us to supper, which I accepted with gratitude. I definitely "ate and ran "... concerned I might fall asleep walking the few hundred yards to the apartment.
I crashed in bed at 8 pm. I remember wak8ng up at 9 am, getting dressed, and lying back down after making the bed... and next waking at noon! then 3pm.. I had no appetite, and despite the high 80s outside, I felt chilled. I had no other symptoms except deep fatigue, and a fever that at one point reached 3 degrees above my normal, which is very low.
I treated the fever and back nerve pain which seemed to come from my inflamed spine (thank God for my Ouch! Liniment!), and after hubby made me a light supper, I went back to bed,mand without any type of herbal or chemical sleep aid or sedative, I slept through the night! And woke up Wednesday morning feeling refreshed and ready to go.
I don't know whether it was some sort of brief Covid "relapse", (the fever argues against it being simple over-fatigue... I think. But nothing I'd done was outrageous.. it's just i hadn’t done several of them in three days straight in a LONG time. My spine issues made them impossible. I'm amazed how far I've come, especially since my Covid-19 interrupted my PT.
Or maybe being 63 and *should be* out of shape... but miraculously, I'm not? I'm absolutely NOT in our wonderful Alaska Sue's class, but apparently the isometric and stretching exercises with periodic weight bearing maintained a lot more strength than anyone (including me!)expected . I'm just thankful to the One who arranged for me to avoid surgery on my spine. Whatever, it certainly was compounded by those very solid days we put in. (My fit, marathon running DDIL and DS were both drooping by the end of butchering day. But I'm not sure I should have been at the "36 hours straight sleep" level of tired!
And then why did it end so abruptly and completely (at least so far)?
Very strange, but it sure seems we're living in Bizarro world...
Summerthyme
We had a few inches of rain spread over three days but the soil between the rows in the garden looks like I could maybe walk on it long enough to pick the yellow pole beans that are ready. I'll put them in a crock pot with some bacon, onions, and a bit of either chicken broth and/or water to cook and add them to the menu with the fish dinners. I had picked up a to-go fish dinner for Hubby and had plenty left of mine, so I won't have to do much for supper.
