Books I am Reading, October 2015

Last month I posted on the books I was reading that month. My intention was to write a post each month, near the middle of each month. I did not have time to do so this month so I am playing catch-up a little here. I am still reading On Writing, Firewall,  and It Takes a Witch. I have added a few others though.

One of the students that I get to work with enjoys ghost stories. We searched online and found Ghost Stories of Minnesota by Gina Teel. We searched together on Amazon and ordered this book. We don't get to read it every day but we try to do a short story from it once a week or so. It will probably take us a little while to get through it. It is full of short stories about ghosts and unexplainable things in the state of Minnesota. Some of the towns are even towns that are near us so we find those ones the most interesting.

Another of the students that I get to work with is very into vampires. This student had been reading fan fiction online because they had not been able to find many teen vampire books to read that they had not read. I went shopping at Barnes & Nobel during their Teacher Appreciation Days and I was able to buy a bunch of books at 25% off! That is an awesome thing in my life. I found a few books for this student, but the one we are starting with is Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. We have read about 2 chapters and it has been very interesting so far. The books starts out with 2 girls, one being a vampire and the other is basically her guardian. From what you gather at the beginning, they ran away from a vampire school and have been running for a couple years or so. They don't want to be found for some reason and it has to do with the protection of the vampire girl. The books starts off with action and a foot chase! This one will take a little time to read because we are reading it together and we only get to do this about 1 time per week.

My husband bought me The Scorch Trials because I was enjoying The Maze Runner. The book is nothing like the movie. It is completely different. After being rescued from the Maze Trails, the Gladers wake in a dormitory that they arrived at the night before. Their wake up is jarring and scary. The realize that Teresa is missing and a new boy is in her place. Nothing is what it seems and strange things happen. They are eventually told that they all have The Flare and that they must make it to a place in the mountains called Safe Haven and they will be given The Cure. The entire book is action packed. Running, dodging, fighting, blood and gore; this book has got it all! Unexpected twists and turns are in each chapter. This book is not for the week at heart, nor it is for small children. There is a lot more violence in this book than the first in the series. I finished this book last night. I can't wait to start the third book!

I could not resist Cinder by Marissa Meyer. It looked so interesting that I just had to buy it! Cinder is a part girl, part machine girl. Basically, she is a cyborg; less than a person, but more than an android robot. She is s second class citizen and has no real rights, but she is also a gifted mechanic; the best in the land. She was adopted by a man who died of a mysterious disease that shows up randomly to the citizens of earth. She has an evil adoptive mother, and 2 adoptive sisters, though one is sweet to her. Her best friend is an android that her adoptive father programed. The Prince of her nation comes to her, asking her to fix one of his androids. Through dangers, illness, and the dreaded rival of the vicious Lunar Queen, Cinder makes surprising discoveries not only about her adoptive father, but also about herself. I am about half-way through this book and am greatly enjoyed.

These are the main books of this month. I will post November's books more timely next month.

A Week Off

The entire school had last week off!

You read that right, I had a whole week off. Whether you want to know or not, I will tell you about my week.

Just Kidding.

I had a busy but good week off. I ended it on Friday by going to a book sale and the Aurora Public Library. I bought 2 1/2 boxes of books. I am very excited to keep filling my bookshelves.

The new week has started and I hear rumors of a new adventure awaiting us in the next couple of weeks. I wonder what the will be?

Turkey Butchering

You read that right. Turkey. Butchering.

As I was getting ready for work my friend Stella sent me a text:

Sometimes we start our day this way...usually because it is so hectic in my house

she starts the conversation.

This is how the conversation progressed:

So see? You are not alone in thinking that I have a strange job.

The day progressed and we butchered turkeys. I did not take photos of any of the blood and guts, so do not worry about seeing that. I might go into some details though. If you are someone who does not believe in eating animals, please read no further.

The farm we were at raises their own food to feed their own family. They are also Ojibwe Indians. At the start of the day we all came together while the adults of the family explained why they raise their own animals for meat. A few reason are:

• Hormone Free
• Antibiotic Free
• Fed non-GMO food
• Raised in a wonderful environment with plenty of room and food

As they hatched at bought their animals they would explain to the animals why they were raising them. They told their animals that they were going to be their food and then they thanked them. The Ojibwa belief is that the animals are happy to give up their lives to feed those who care for the properly. So this farm practices this with their animals.

We went outside and students were sent to grab some turkeys from the shed where they had been led to the night before. Then the turkey was held and calmed, it's head was placed into a bucket (5 gallons maybe") with a hole in it. Most of the body was in the bucket but someone held the feet and the part of the body that was out. This seemed to have a calming effect on the turkey.

The farm adult then slit the throat while thanking the turkey for being willing to feed them. The turkeys were surprisingly calm. They did not injure themselves and they did not beat around wildly like you hear about in the expressions "running around like a chicken with its head cut off". After the turkey passed, the head was cut off.

Then the turkeys were brought to the garage to be dipped and de-feathered. This is where I was working that day.

Here they were dipped into very hot water. This loosened the feathers so we could de-feather them. We hung them from ropes by one foot and started pulling feathers off of them. My hands were pretty sore from this. We did about 30 turkeys and 10 chickens!

The above turkey is almost completely de-feathered.

After de-feathering (listen, this word sounds so much better than plucked, ok?), the turkeys were taken over to another table. At this table we had a vet! Really! A vet came and gave the students a bird anatomy lesson! They learned about the heart, intestines, gizzard, and more. She then emptied their cavities and took the feet off. 

During this part of the process one of the farm dogs, a pug (who is rather large), kept stealing the intestines. At one point she was eating the intestine of a turkey and backing away slowly. The owners had said that she would be sick if she continued to eat these. (I am sure we would be ill if we ate intestines too.) As she backed away an intestine, about as long as she is, was hanging out of her mouth and she was swallowing it whole. I walked up to her and pulled it out of her mouth. It seems to keep coming out. Ryan talks about it as one of the grossest things he has ever seen.

Some of the above have been gotten some not.

After the last of the feathers were gone we bagged them up and placed them in the freezer.

When we ran out of bags we used freezer paper. The farm adult showed us how they wrapped meat before we had plastic bags.

That is a chicken. This chicken seemed so small compared to the turkeys!

Though I had butchered chickens in the past I had never done turkeys. They were very large! I did learn some thing that day. I enjoyed learning about the way the Ojibwes treated their animals they keep for food. I learned that it was much cleaner to slit the throats of the turkeys than to just chop the head off. It also seemed much more humane. I learned how to pluck a turkey (I had skinned the chickens I butchered so I had never pluc...I mean de-feathered before). Finally I enjoyed how so many people helping made the work seem less like work and made the day less tedious. This was a great way to demonstrate the saying, "Many hands make light work."