Let's Play a Game

This post is inspired by an assignment DD2 had the other night for her AP Environmental Science class.  She had from the time she got home from school, until the time she went back to school the next morning (so, after cheer practice which ended about 5:30 p.m. until about 7:20 a.m. when the school bus picked her up again, minus the seven or eight hours she slept and not counting the time she spent working on homework for other classes. . .) to list all the poultry products she could find in her home.

So, now I challenge you to take a few minutes (because we both know you're not going to wait until tomorrow morning to come back and read the rest of this post) to think how many poultry products you have at your house.  We'll include indoors and out, because, well, that is what DD2 did.

Ready, set, go!

(Imagine Final Jeopardy music playing here)



Okay, time's up!  How many did you come up with?  At this little place here, DD2 came up with 13 items, which ended up being about three times as many as her classmates.  She was rather proud of that, even though some of our items were considered, well, odd.

Here's what we have:

1. Laying hens
2. eggs from the laying hens
3. broilers
4. packaged chicken in the freezer 
5. a turkey in the freezer
6. chicken bouillon in the kitchen cupboard
7. canning jars of frozen chicken broth in the freezer (for future soup stock)
8. jars of chicken dinner mix in my farmers market stuff
9. a down coat
10. feather pillows
11. cat food ("poultry by-product" listed in the ingredients)
12. several wishbones lined up on the windowsill behind the kitchen sink
13. chicken litter (ie. the floor of the chicken coop currently, meaning the mix of sawdust and chicken manure)

When the teacher commented on the chicken litter, DD2 said "At our house, we try to use everything.  Chicken litter makes good fertilizer."

That assignment got me to thinking.  How aware are we of what resources we have in our homes?  Do we use as many of them as we could?  I know all too often I don't make full use of what is around me.