Recently we acquired some new birds: 2 roosters and 5 new hens. Monte built a chookhouse for the new hens and one of the roosters. But we still had one rooster too many!

You might remember the story about the rooster who heard that he was going to be our dinner, and he ran away? Well, whilst away in Adelaide, our neighbour caught the rooster. When we came home, we brought him back and have kept him separated from the rest of the birds.

Monte sharpened the axe.

One cold night (of which there are now many), Monte gave me a smirk and left the cabin, shutting the door quietly behind him. I heard the chookhouse door shut. I heard a small ‘thud,’ like the sound of an axe gently hitting the cutting board. I sort of felt like I would vomit, but I remained calm. Afterall, I’ve been eating chicken all my life, except from the several phases of vegetarianism I went through (not eating meat is just boring).

After a while, my darling beloved came inside with a naked, headless, footless bird. He gutted it on the kitchen bench and we popped it in a big pot with water, onions and a bottle of nice red wine. The bird was cooked slowly on the wood stove for many hours. By golly it smelt fabulous – like baking bread, except it was baking bird!

The meat crumbled away from the bone. I used it to make a risotto, with mushroom and broccoli. The chicken stock was perfect for the risotto. Such a rich flavour! So tasty. We invited Tania and Ady and Evie for dinner, and we sat and ate the risotto with garlic bread and salad, and it was nice. It was different for me, because I usually only make vegetarian risottos! It was good. It was a fun night.