Duck Lust
12-12-12
I woke today just like I would wake on any other day of the week. Tired. My bother in law is in town; sleeping in the living room on a comfortable air mattress waiting to be woken up by the smell of cooking food or my two little ones jumping on his belly. Mikey doesn’t come by all to often since there is an unfortunate seventy-five mile gap between our home and his, and we generally have opposing schedules. Today though, is not one of these days. He, Sarah, the kids and I are going to have a blast and we don’t even know it yet.
Mikey made it a point to be the one to cook an amazing breakfast with our wonderful tasty fresh eggs, most of which were laid this morning while we slept in a bit. There was non left to scrap out to the birds after we had our fill. Sarah made us French pressed coffee with a splash of sugar cookie creamer to sweeten the bitterness of Black Silk. After most breakfasts we plan out dinner and the rest of the day, this wasn’t one of those days. I kinda knew what was going to be for dinner but no one was really talking about it.
My nephew showed up shortly after breakfast and Sarah started planning our afternoon. We loaded up the kids and headed to the sponge docks and enjoyed an afternoon of store front shopping. We took our time and lots of pictures, after getting home my nephew went home too. The fun started shortly after Sarah’s return from dropping off Hunter.
After a few informational YouTube videos and a little bit of planning; My brother-in-law and I were ready to harvest a couple of ducks for a nice family dinner. We set up several strands
of twine for tying off anything that needed tying, set up a log with an empty five gallon bucket for catching anything that needed catching. We prepared a hot bath for loosening feathers, empty trash can with a fresh clean out bag. I sharpened my machete and butchering knives. We enjoyed a few shots of fireball and a half and egg sandwich before the harvest started.
Mikey and I tied off the first birds neck to a loose noose, Sarah got the video camera ready for filming and that’s when the life lessons began. Holding the duck by his wings I rested
his breast on the seasoned log, Mikey pulled firmly on the twine. I swung my machete down upon the unsuspecting duck with sorrow and joy. In one swift blow it was over, a second smaller slice to remove a little bit of remaining flesh; the body (only bleeding slightly) went to the bucket and the head to the ground still bound to the twine in Mikey’s hand. Sarah was only slightly mortified the event but did not scared away. There was very little movement from the body and after just a couple of minutes in the bucket to bleed out the lifeless semi white bird went to a hot bath for one minute to loosen the feathers from their strong hold and then hung by the foot to a nail to be plucked. The plucking process took the most time to accomplish and was very tedious. Mikey and I worked on the feathers for some time and it didn’t take long for Sarah to join in on the plucking. My wife continued to help us until the skin held no more feather. From the plucking station the bird went to a tray to have the insides removed. Mikey evacuated the chest cavity with little effort. We saved the liver and the heart to be eaten tomorrow. The feet were removed and hung to dry for later uses. From that station the bird went inside to be cleaned, quartered, cleaned again and then into the fridge to await its partner. Sarah bleached everything and Mikey and I prepared the next bird.
The second bird went just about the same as the first. I held the thin twine this time as
Mikey held the wings and machete. Sarah stayed inside to tend to the kids; she didn’t want to watch this time. There was a swing of the machete, body to bucket, head to the ground, hot bath, then to the nail to have only the breast feathers removed. The second bird was going to be skinned, cleaned, and then quartered. We only put a small incision along the breast bone and worked the flesh free by hand only using the knife for stubborn tissue connections. the wings were cut free to dry out as were the feet later on. Mikey cleaned the chest cavity on this one too and again the heart and liver were saved. The carcass was cleaned, quartered and cleaned again. Sarah, Mikey and I cleaned everything again with bleach, bagged all the unusables and started getting everything for cooking.
Its hard to explain the feelings I had during this ordeal. There wasn’t any pleasure, I think I just felt determination the most. I knew once everything started there was no going back. As soon as my arm fell toward the duck I knew that not just this ducks life was gone but so was the others. After the blow was landed it really felt like instinct took over and the cleaning process was just natural.
The ducks did taste great though and we will be having duck and vegetable soup for lunch tomorrow.
any questions let me know
Michael Trump
Goodnight and God bless.
Michael Trump 
Leave a comment