A month or two ago I sent an e-mail to the parents of my students asking if anyone had access to goose feathers, as we'd be needing them when we learned cursive. One mother responded that she would probably be able to get some.
A week or so ago she told me she had the goose feathers -- lots -- and wondered what size I needed. She offered to just send them in with her son.
A day or two later her son handed me a large plastic bag, which I took gratefully. I didn't look inside immediately, but when I did, I had a bit of a shock. There weren't just feathers inside -- there were wings (!), with some pink bits still on the ends.
They were probably from Christmas geese...and I guess it's a good reminder about where our food (and in this case tools) often come from, but oi. (Yes, I realize some of you have plenty of experience on farms + plucking birds, but I had, up until this point, not yet gathered such experiences :) )
Part 1: Plucking
That night, after having plucked many feathers (getting better + bolder as I went, as well as discovering a shaft cleaning trick) I played my violin for some Christmas caroling. And as luck would have it, I hold the bow at about the same place on my finger as I hold feathers to pluck...*ow*. But I survived and the caroling was cheery :)
I also stuck them in a plastic bag and put them in a freezer over night, in order to kill anything that might still be lurking on them. (Apparently mites don't live long after the feathers have been removed from the bird, but I figured it couldn't hurt.)
Part 2: Cleaning
I had somehow naiiiiively hoped that soaking + maybe swishing them in soapy water would be enough to clean them**. Turns out not. I'd found some tips to lather them up well + use a children's toothbrush.
I initially thought this a bit excessive, but it turns out that A - grime gets down close the shaft, B - 'swishing' doesn't get it out and C - a toothbrush (with fairly vigrous scrubbing) does! Isn't it good that goose feathers are more robust than I thought?
While cleaning I wondered if grey geese actually exist -- or if they are really just dirty white geese. Look how much brighter they are!
Part 3: Preening or 'Repairing'
The internet can be a wonderfully informative place. I've learned about wet + dry plucking methods, steam repair methods, etc. I initially tried the steaming and it worked out quite well:
However, it seemed a bit of a waste of power + teasing apart the little fibers + 'zipping' them back together was something I could essentially do (and partly needed to do) by hand anyway. So I did. A few seem as though a good steaming might help, but for the most part, they look fine :) (And wow! Nature is impressive(=God is impressive! Cool ideas, God!). Feathers are ingeniously built!
Part 4: Writing
I didn't want to waste any of the nice ones, that I'll be using with my class, so I just used one that was fairly damaged. (It turns out (again according to my internet research) that leaving the fletching on is a Hollywood thing. People probably took off all of the feathery parts for practicality, but it certainly looks cool!)
p.s. To round things off nicely, we had a goose for our Christmas feast. We stuffed it, trussed it up + ate it (or rather, are still working on it, as it was a big bird).
*Side note*: I think I figured out why there are so many myths around eating the heart of an animal (to gain special powers or whatnot), because otherwise you just wouldn't. That hard-working muscle is not very tender or tasty.
Here we are with our Christmas Eve sushi lunch with the Elders (the missionaries serving in our local congregation):
our Christmas Eve goose feast + tree ("Ricardo Björn"):
and my Christmas Day church finery:
**Feather Cleaning materials: I soaked them in off-brand Oxi-Clean for a few days (mostly because I didn't get around to processing them earlier--mutliple days was likely not necessary). Then I used warm water and fels naptha soap to clean them.
A week or so ago she told me she had the goose feathers -- lots -- and wondered what size I needed. She offered to just send them in with her son.
A day or two later her son handed me a large plastic bag, which I took gratefully. I didn't look inside immediately, but when I did, I had a bit of a shock. There weren't just feathers inside -- there were wings (!), with some pink bits still on the ends.
Part 1: Plucking
That night, after having plucked many feathers (getting better + bolder as I went, as well as discovering a shaft cleaning trick) I played my violin for some Christmas caroling. And as luck would have it, I hold the bow at about the same place on my finger as I hold feathers to pluck...*ow*. But I survived and the caroling was cheery :)
Part 2: Cleaning
I had somehow naiiiiively hoped that soaking + maybe swishing them in soapy water would be enough to clean them**. Turns out not. I'd found some tips to lather them up well + use a children's toothbrush.
The internet can be a wonderfully informative place. I've learned about wet + dry plucking methods, steam repair methods, etc. I initially tried the steaming and it worked out quite well:
 |
| (the ones on the right on the plate aren't yet done) |
I didn't want to waste any of the nice ones, that I'll be using with my class, so I just used one that was fairly damaged. (It turns out (again according to my internet research) that leaving the fletching on is a Hollywood thing. People probably took off all of the feathery parts for practicality, but it certainly looks cool!)
 |
| Not half bad! |
p.s. To round things off nicely, we had a goose for our Christmas feast. We stuffed it, trussed it up + ate it (or rather, are still working on it, as it was a big bird).
Here we are with our Christmas Eve sushi lunch with the Elders (the missionaries serving in our local congregation):
**Feather Cleaning materials: I soaked them in off-brand Oxi-Clean for a few days (mostly because I didn't get around to processing them earlier--mutliple days was likely not necessary). Then I used warm water and fels naptha soap to clean them.
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