It's another random audience question episodes/blog posts where I answer the questions you send me. Today's topics (which are discussed more in depth in the podcast episode) include packaging chicken, the gym vs. the farm, homeschooling, the state of the world (August 2020), and "nice farmgirl nails." If you would like to submit a question for a future episode/blog post, please email it to [email protected]. 

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Packaging chickens

 

"I have a question that I'm not sure if you have answered yet in another episode. When you butcher, do you process them all as full chickens or do you cut everything out separately with the breasts or the legs separately? I ask because I haven't started this whole meat raising thing yet, so I'm used to finding a recipe, then going to the store and buying that specific type of meat. Like, if I need chicken breasts, I buy a package of 4-5 breasts and they are ready to go. How does that work in your world?? Has the way you cook changed since raising your own meat?" —Katie

 

After we butcher chickens, we package them whole—simply because piecing them out would add another step to our butchering set up. It's not hard to piece out a chicken, and if that's something that works better for your purposes, you can totally piece them out before you package them. 

Generally we will take a chicken or two out of the freezer to thaw, then cut the breasts out for a recipe (like chicken tacos) and then grill the legs, thighs, and wings. Or we will thaw a couple birds, roast them, and then pick the meat from the bone to be used in recipes.

It's a little different to get used to how to use your chicken if you're used to being able to buy multiples of one piece of chicken (like legs, thighs, or breasts) but it's certainly something you can adjust to, if needed. Good luck!

The gym vs. The farm

 

"I saw your TikTok about being glad to be back at the gym now that things are starting to open up. I’m wondering if you can tell us how you got the motivation to go? Were you just itching for things to open up again, or did you have to drag your butt there? Because I’m in the 'I should but I don’t want to' stage of existence. Also, can you speak to the topic of 'why a farm girl would need a gym membership'? Because part of me feels like I should go but the other part of me says I live on a farm, I do enough physical work.” —Lainey

 

When we think "farm" we often think "big farm". I think it's important to realize that not all farms are the same. While my farm keeps me busy, I don’t throw hay bales or feed bags every day. Farms are a lot of work, but just because you can lift 100 pounds doesn't mean you can run. Just because you can lift 100 pounds doesn’t mean your legs are strong or that you’re flexible. So while farm work can be a workout, it's often times not a sustained total body workout, multiple times a week. That's one reason I go to the gym.

The gym is important to me because physical activity is tied to my mental health. Having said that, the Covid shutdowns got me in a funk where having to stay home made it easy to just continue staying home after things started opening back up. What actually inspired me to go back to the gym was seeing a friend asking for childcare a couple hours a week so she could just have some time at the gym. There I sat at home with a pretty flexible schedule—and two teenagers able to go off and do their own thing! It was the boot my guilty, lazy butt needed to get back to the gym.

There are days I don't get to the gym. Obviously the farm is in the busy season right now and sometimes it just doesn't work to go....