For those who don't know, that means when you're all warm and toasty in your beds tonight, my parents and I will be extremely stinky, a little silly, very tired and surrounded by thirty thousand chickens:
Not actually these chickens.
The chickens in these pictures are from our very first flock in 2008. They're now living the good life in the wide open country. At least that's what I hear.
You get the idea, so I'm moving on.
Momma goes to one end of the chicken house and I go to the other - 5 gallon buckets in hand because we're shortys - to "raise equipment".
{I like making up my own words but now I'm wondering should I have spelled it shorties... hmm? I think I like the Y best.}
Anyways, Daddy stays in the middle and uses a nifty little Dewalt drill thingy {don't you love my descriptions? I'm positive it's definetly called a "drill thingy"} to raise the brooders, feed pans, and water lines so the "catch crew" can bring their forklift into the chicken house without running over anything.
At least that's what we're trying to prevent... them running over anything.
Momma and I have to stand on our buckets and wrap the water hoses and other cables around the water lines to avoid them getting caught on the catching equipment.
And then we move on to the next house until all four houses are raised.
It's much more time consuming and tedious than it sounds and I've left out a few steps because it's boring and I'm not able to take many pictures of the process because it's dusty and my boss thinks I'm there to work instead of play photographer. The nerve! ha! =)
Since catch night is almost always during the middle of the night, we're usually all sleep deprived and goofy.
Momma and I have a tendancy to waste time by playing games, reading or talking the night away.
Daddy's nice enough to tolerate us. And he's been known to add to the entertainment a time or two.
It's suprising that so much laughter goes on during such a long, tiresome night.
Quality time spent sharing stories with my folks at midnight truly is one of the perks to my job.
Now back to the story...
Once the catch crew arrives, they dim the lights in the chicken houses so low you can barely see.
This helps keep the chickens calm while the "catchers" swiftly pick them up by their feet and put them into a cage.
Some of those guys pick up as many as four chickens per hand.
That makes my triceps burn just thinking about how much those chickens weigh.
And I thought my job was bad.
When the cage is full the forklift loads it onto an 18wheeler bound for Glory.
And they live happily ever after in the wide open country.
At least that's the bedtime story I'm tellin' 'em tonight.
