More Busy Times-Boocha Dawk (Butcher Day)

It has been a very busy time this past few weeks.  The photos may be graphic, but that is just a part of our daily lives.  When you homestead, you have to except death because in order to eat, you must boocha.  That is how they say in Amishville.  In families, extended families among the Amish, they share in the boocha dawk.  It all started about 3 weeks ago at Harry’s house.  The girls made a fresh baked, 3 layered German Chocolate Cake.  I fixed a Mexican casserole because it is the custom that all the others that are helping the family butcher, bring all the food so the woman of the home does not have to worry about feeding all her guests.  It is mess on a butcher day and requires a lot more fuss than normal.  I brought for Edna Mae, since it was her boocha dawk.  We loaded into the open buggy, the kids and I.  Miles hitched up Abby the buggy horse, and away we went.  We arrived around 9 am and that is about start time.  The children caught the chickens while the girls (aged 16) cut off the heads and skinned the birds.  The women gutted and cut up about 100 hingle.  Hingle means chicken in datch.  We work, we laugh, we talk, we find strange things inside the chickens.  We learn about things as we work.  After all the birds are sitting in cold water, cleaned, midawk (dinner) is served.  Everyone lines up around the big country kitchen in silence for prayer.  The only thing that can be heard is the ticking of the clock until the quiet of prayer is broken by the eldest man clearing his throat to show that the time of prayer is over.  It is a time to thank God for all the provision, for safety, for blessing the hands that prepared the meal.  The afternoon is filled with chatter and the hiss and hum of the pressure canners doing their work to cook the bones.  All the women sit around the table and pick the meat off the cooked bones and every once in a while you can sprinkle a little salt on a piece of meat and take a taste.  After a long days work, all the ladies and children pack into their buggies and go home to prepare supper in their own homes, until next boocha dawk.  The following week we met at Martha’s for 120 chickens to butcher.  She needed all the meat cut from the bones to make chicken bologna.  Another full day of visiting, eating, the tables stacked with good Amish baked goods.  Jello, pudding, pies, cakes, boiled veggies, salads, and a great big potato and gravy casserole.   A literal feast!  That is just how they do it.
The following week was 66 hingle at Elvesta’s goat farm.  We met there same time, bringing dishes to pass, big stainless steel bowls for putting meat into, and some sharp knives.  We always are sure to bring a scarf to tie around our head to keep warm and a cruddy old apron for all the mess.  I like to tie the cruddy apron over the fresh one, so when we break for dinner, I have something nice and I can clean up better before I eat.  Elvesta had a touch of the stomach flu, so I was telling her about kefir and how I will be serving kefir to my family and I will not have to worry about getting it from her.  I brought some kefir later and all the kids that sampled the kefir did not get the sickness.  Otherwise, the Amish share their cups and double dip, so a sickness is bound to get around quick that way.  If you take the good bacteria like in raw milk kefir, if there is any sick bugs in your belly from sharing a cup with a sick person, the good bacteria will fight the bad bugs in your gut right away and you do not get sick.  Isn’t that marvelous!  It works for us every time.  That evening one of the ladies invited my girls to an Amish slumber party.  Since Molly is diabetic, I needed to come along and I usually do not allow sleep overs anyhow for other reasons.  We had such a fun time.  The Amish have certain games they play at sleep overs.  The first was called Uncle Andy.  One little girl laid on the floor covered in blankets with her head under the chair and her feet all the way straight down in front of the chair.  A hat was placed on the feet and a coat wrapped up around the lower legs to make up a fake man.  Then another girl will sit on the chair and ask Uncle Andy some questions.  He nods his head for yes or for no and the final question is always, “Do you like me?”  Then the legs pop up and the girl on the chair gets a quick surprise.  The next game was really clever.  It was called the dish washing game.  Mary Ester, the mom, was sitting there writing down a number 1-10 and the girls had to guess the right number.  If they chose the right number, they got to start the dishes.  When the next girl chose the next correct number because you keep right on picking new numbers, she gets to wash and the first girl bumps down to the rinsing station.  The next winner gets to bump all the other girls down, and she washes, the first girl is now drying the dishes and the second girl is now rinsing.  When the correct number is picked again, the first washer goes back to pick the number again, because she was bumped out.  I just though that was a clever way to make the dishes get washed in a really fun way.  Sometimes one just got to the dishes and got bumped before they could even wash one.  So fun!  I slept on the sofa and all the girls were on the floor right beside me.  6 little giggling girls.  After about an hour of giggling in the dark and whispering, they finally fell fast asleep which was around 11pm.  About 5 in the morning all the lights were on again and it was time for the kids to help milk the cows.  They all sat down for a nice breakfast and went on to the little one room school house.
We visited the school house on one very cold day.  We loaded up all the kids, all the books on the open carriage and headed down the lane to school.  The school was about the size of a double car garage with windows on both sides to let a lot of light in.  There was a girls cloak area where they placed their coats on hook, bonnets on shelves, lunch pails on other shelves and another cloak space on the opposite side of the back of the school for the boys.  They all lined up in their seats just as quiet as could be.  1st grade through 8th grade all in desks.  There were 2 male teachers and one female teacher.  They started the day with a prayer and a couple hymns.  Then they went into the Arithmatic.  There was a curtain to divide the younger pupils from the older ones.  We just sat in the back and found our math books and did the same as they did, in the same books.  I think the children found that pretty neat that we were on the same lessons in our books.  About 2 hours into the school day, they were left out for a recess.  They all were excused row by row until the room was empty.  Outdoors the children played softball, or kick the can.  Some started a volleyball game.  About 15 minutes later, they were called back in for school time.  They worked on reading and english until dinner.  When it was time for dinner, they prayed silently and row by row, went back to fetch their lunch pails.  We also brought a lunch pail and proceeded to eat with the children at their desks.  Miles brought the soccer ball and started a big game of soccer and they got all the boys going on that.  It was a very exciting game, indeed.  Mark plays soccer at home with the kids to get them practiced up.

It was a good game, and all three of the boys were helping play.  Molly and Megan played kick the can and enjoyed that as well.  We packed up the buggy and rode home.  Wow, it was calt (cold).  The wind was strong and forceful against our faces.  I would have lost my bonnet if I did not pinch onto it with my finger.  Our faces were so cold that they became numb.  I thought that soon we should get out the old top buggy for days like that.  The top buggy has windows and shelters you from the wind and rain.  It was a great experience and we look forward to another school day!

Now it was our turn for Boocha Dawk.  Last Monday, Mark picked up 100 laying hens from Harry’s farm.  Miles cut all the heads off.  It is not a pretty job, but it is a part of our lives, we just learn to not let any of this bother us.

One of Harry’s girls came for the day to help skin, as well as one of Martha’s girls.  Elvesta also came to help skin the 100 chickens.

The four youngest children and I gutted all 100 chickens by ourselves.  Junior was getting really fast and they each cleaned about 20 chickens.  Megan was sneering and acting like she could not handle another moment.  I just told her that it was part of our life and that she just had to get used to it, no one really likes gutting chickens.  But it just has to be done.  After a short time, she was tolerating it quiet well.

Here are the things we saved inside these laying hens.  The rounds yellow things are yolks.  You can save them to make noodles.  We even got some fully formed eggs.  The kids think it is special to find one like that.

After we have the bird cleaned, we store them in ice cold water over night in a wash basin.
The next morning, same time as usual, all the buggies started to arrive on our homestead.  Marth, Orpha, and Edna Ellen all came by way of buggy loaded down with little children, pressure canners, big bowls, sharp knives, and plenty of good eats.  Martha brought the casserole that day, because it was my butcher day and my mess.   That was really nice.  At this point, the wash house was barely done.  There was no running water out there except  a cold garden hose.  We had to walk around to the front of the house to get warm water.  It was cold, but Mark managed to have a couple table set up, another propane stove for the canners which made 2 total stove tops.  You can set two big canners on one stove.  He also hooked up a floor burner that we could also get one canner on, which made it so we could have 5 canners going at one time!!!! Now that gets the job done in a hurry.

Martha, Orpha, Rosa, and Edna Ellen all helped cut the legs, thighs and wings from the cold birds.  We put all these pieces into a big wash basin for canning whole.

Then we cut all the breast meat off and set those in another basin for canning into chunk meat.  You just cut it into little cubes and pack it cold into the quart glass jars.  Add a little water and a teaspoon of salt.  It is then pressure canned for 90 minutes at 10lbs pressure.

The breast bones and pelvic bones are all packed into the 5 pressure canners with one gallon of water to each cooker.  As those were cooking down for broth, we took a break for dinner or midawk.  Edna Ellen made a coffee cake that was divine, Martha made a potato and meat casserole that was really tasty.  Orpha put together a 3 tiered pink jello cake with frosting and Rosa made her usual dessert which we all lovingly call “mommy pudding”.  We call it that because she is the Grandmother, and in datch you would say “Mommy”.  She makes a cooked pudding with egg yolk fresh milk, vanilla, and flour to thicken it.  It is very good.  After dinner we started picking the hot steaming bones for all the meat.  The broth is saved into another metal bowl until all the bones have been picked.  We put half meat and half broth in each jar and then add one teaspoon per quart jar.  We managed to can about 40 quarts of broth.

We washed all the greasy jars off and placed them on our shelf in the cellar.  How nice!  That will make for easy soup meals this cold winter.

The women all went home around 5 pm after a long, hard day of canning.  The kids helped me with the rest.  We stuffed the whole pieces into the jars that evening with adding a tsp of salt and filling in some water to the neck of the jars.  Molly and Megan packed the jars carefully, Mikey added the salt and water and wiped the rims off, and Junior added the lids and rings.  We loaded up all the canners and by 10pm that night, all was canned.  Mark so lovingly stayed up to finish out the work since I was not even able to walk after 5 pm. It is great to have as much help as I do, for I would not be able to do any of this alone.

Here is a photo of the legs, thighs, and wings all canned up and on the shelf.  This winter I can pour the meat carefully out of the jars after I heat the jar a little.  Then drain all the broth out to make a nice gravy to add to noodles or potatoes.  After that, I can roll the pieces into some seasoned flour and fry them down in some butter.  That will make some tasty meals, indeed!

Here is the breast meat all canned up in chunks.  This will be handy to make a one dish casserole.  I can dump my chicken chunks out, add a stick of cream cheese, seasonings, crushed Kale, rice, and grated cheese for a delicious chicken dish!  If I use noodles, it becomes like a chicken lasagna.  Really easy to fix and fast!  Just the way we like to do it around here!

This is a satisfying photo to look at:  All the things canned up for winter.  This is only one shelf of many.  But it is looking better every day.  I have my 100 cans of tomatoes, hundred of chicken, salsa, I have fruits, pie fillings, beef, pork, potatoes.  It sure keeps us busy, but busy is good!  Try and find more ways to save money in the long run, work hard together, and enjoy the fruit of your labor all the while building great fellowship as a family. You can’t lose out this way!