The Chicken Gift

Just before Christmas we were given a generous gift from one of our workers, Charles. It was a gift of a huge, live chicken! In October, Charles had asked Keith to name his baby boy. This is quite an honor. So the chicken was a gift to thank Keith for naming his son - Nathan. Olivia took one look at the chicken and started crying so she is not in the picture. The two older girls were helping Grandma Bev make Christmas cookies. Alek liked the chicken but said it had a "mean face".
I came into our kitchen after lunch and asked Dailes what she was cooking. She said boiling water for the chicken. Okay, no wasting time. So Charles sawed it's head off with a very old, dull knife and Dailes used the boiling water to pour over it loosening the feathers. I watched while she prepared our big bird. She gutted it and I saw four round things on the tray. She said they were eggs! They looked like the yellow balls of yoke in varying sizes. How strange, I have never seen anything like it. Alek watched the chicken killing and was a bit mad at Charles for a couple days "because he wasn't very nice to the chicken, even though the chicken looked mean!" It looked good cooked up but Keith was disappointed to know that bigger birds aren't always better - pretty tough, old bird.