When I make chicken soup it takes most of one day and part of another, which just happens to be the same for the quantity of chicken required. If your axe is as sharp as my kitchen knife you can get to cutting things up so they end up nice and neat. Now about a chicken and a half and maybe 17 mature ash trees will get the job done. I don't change recipes to much so try if you try this, try with no substitutions, at least the first time. On chilly cloudy or overcast days and real early in the morning with the heat in the yard and the crock pot on low, I toss the portioned birds in with some diced onions, a few pats of butter, a dash or two of my seasonings and go cut wood. In that it takes most of the day to get all those trees dropped I move at the pace of the big old crock pot on slow, no sense rushing a good thing. After the first pile is stacked up nice and neat, I wonder how much of that meat is tenderly falling off the bone and that makes me cut more wood. After my back gives out, and it may sound odd, but every time I cut wood I get tired and hungry so I come in the house to rid the bird of any fat, gristle or other inedible parts to my way of tasting. Then I rest me and all that deboned chicken overnight. Now come the next morning I'm ready to go at it again so I start off with yesterday's onion water adding the boned chicken meat and some more onions, then its back to the wood lot to chunk those big fat logs into more manageable pieces of firewood. By late afternoon the days warmed up to my stomach telling my back enough is enough and I put all my wood chopping stuff away knowing I plan on ladling all afternoon. So I come in and add the carrots, rice and maybe a bit too much butter, again, more of my own blend of seasonings and then it's about one more hour to simmer during which a wee nap may transpire until oral perfection. So now finally I put some soup in my big old wood soup bowl and set myself down in front of the fireplace enjoying all that warmth. And if you're wondering, this recipe will yield almost a cord of cut stacked wood and eight big bowls of soup. The trout whisperer