Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho, It's Off to Work I Go!

Today, for the first time, I went to work. Actual work. 

 Yep, this farm girl got herself a job this week! Whoohoo! 

Some friends of mine run a small poultry processing business about 15 minutes away from me, and the wife was mentioning how shorthanded they were this year. Somehow, less than 10 minutes later, I was signed up for a job working for them! So today was the first day, and I know this is going to sound strange, but I enjoyed myself. :) I never in my life would have guessed that I would one day be butchering poultry as a day-to-day job, but I wanted to help my friends out, and it's a job that I'm already good at!

 Today was a quick day; hours are usually 8AM to 5PM, but this morning we just worked until noon. We all worked double time and got 400 chickens done in exactly two hours. We were expecting 100 ducks as well, but those got delayed until Friday...

It's a pretty nice gig, I have to say. I'm not an "employee", I'm a "contracted worker", so taxes are different (almost non-existent), I get to choose my own working days and times, I can take a day/week off at the drop of a hat, and I get to choose when I get paid. Not too shabby for a first job; I'm content with it. 

So right now, I'm in training to be an "over seer" (in a nice way; no, I don't have a whip. LOL). The area is split into two parts: one half is where the birds are dispatched, scalded, plucked and eviscerated. The second half is where the birds are looked over by hand, to make sure all the feathers are off, then they're chilled, cut if the customer wants it, bagged, sealed, weighed, labeled, and given back to the customer. The second half also does office work and takes orders. My job is making sure everything in the second half of the area is going smoothly, and helping where things need another set of hands. 

The wife was a little disappointed that I might be gone for the summer next year, as that's when they have the most business, and they need every hand they can get! But we decided that we'll worry about that when the time comes. 

All total, there are seven other workers. The husband and wife, of course, their 10 year old son (he puts my work to shame! Man, that little guy can go fast!), plus three other workers in the first half, and one more worker in my half. 

So now I'm home. I won't be going back to work until next Wednesday, but after that it should be pretty regular. It's a welcome bit of income right now; that's for sure. Since I'm not selling milk this winter, the job will help bring in money that I otherwise would be stressing about. 

Okey dokey, I'm off to go start some soap now!