Things You Thought You'd Never Do

Spring Balance Scale

                 

Typical Grocer's Scale

  Today, I found myself in the improbable situation of  having to hang one of my chickens upside down from a scale strung in an oak tree in my backyard, after having tied her feet using a slipknot with a piece of my cotton kitchen twine. The scale was a c.1900 "Foster's Improved Balance Scale" which I picked up at an antiques auction nearly 15 years ago and which has hung on my wall as a decorative item ever since. It's accurate, even after 100 years. I know, because I weighed a bucket of water on my digital, battery-operated scale and the spring balance scale measured the same weight. Until we purchased said digital scale, we used a grocer's scale belonging to my husband's greatgrandfather--a shopkeeper in Philadelphia in the early  1900s--to weigh ground beef, grout and other such typical things. Anyway, the chicken weighed just shy of 5 pounds. How much do feathers and guts weigh, you might ask? Well, the dressed weight of a broiler is 75% of the live weight. Should I wait a while longer? Not sure yet. Just another ordinary day.