The Turkeys

I certainly have a difficult time with the killing of any being for food.  It's certainly not something I look down on others or criticize others for doing; it just is part of who I am and I can't kill something or eat something that was once alive (though, admittedly, I might kill mosquitoes and ticks...).  As we populate the farm, the conversation regarding which animals to raise and for what purposes has been ongoing, lively, and, at times, colorful.  Otter has decided to be a vegetarian, except on special occasions or when he knows the animals have been raised happy.  Smoosh just does not like the idea of where meat comes from, but forgets quickly about the origin when faced with a plate of chicken or bacon.  Bean has been a vegetarian for almost 3 years now.  Squeaks would eat the meat raw off an animal if so permitted.  Clearly, there is a wide range of thoughts and opinions on the matter, all of which are treated as respectfully as possible.

After much thought and consideration, we all agreed that raising turkeys for a Thanksgiving dinner was an idea all of us could have some peace with.  I would most certainly prefer my family eating meat from birds we have raised and loved from the get go.  We found a local hatchery and ordered our first batch of turkeys, Bronze turkeys, a pretty generic breed that should give us an easy start for our novice poultry skills.

Squeaks claimed ownership of the turkey poults (as baby turkeys are referred to).  She was the one who provided the food and water for the first few days, as well as several loving songs and lullabies.

She named her little turkey poults, Rose, Crystal, Flower, Headband, and Birdpot.  Admittedly, I love the Birdpot name.  It's right up there with the barn cat that she named Catsoup.  I think we have about 10 different things named Rose around the place, ranging from fish to chickens, and now turkeys.  As we are finding with most baby animals, turkey poults are stinkin' adorable.  They make the cutest little sounds and have little brown spots on their heads.  They have already grown quickly and now have a home outside in the coop with the other poultry. 

River and Tree make three

As previously stated, we found out that geese like to flock and will flock with whomever is around.  We couldn't just sit by and watch as Gaia went from being a goose-pig to a goose-dog, so we searched out some appropriate flock mates for her.  Surprisingly, a farm right down the road specialized in her particular breed of goose - the Pomeranian.  The Pomeranian was a colonial goose kept in the early years of America. Unlike the colonists, we could easily acquire these goslings from Craigslist.  We ordered two goslings and excitedly picked them up one Saturday morning back in the early spring.  

 The girls were there to help pick them up, therefore, the girls named them - River and Tree.  We have one girl and one boy, not sure which is which as of yet.  They flock alright, but at the beginning, they flocked with us and were adorable.  They would follow us up and down the driveway, hang out in the gardens with us, and were just overtly cute adorable additions to the farm.

 Everybody loves baby birds... 

..everyone except for the resident big bird honcho, Gaia.  They tried to flock with her, but she just was not that interested.  Maybe when they are older?

For now, Willow is content to flock with them.

Introducing the New Animals....Gaia, the goose.

It is eternally frustrating to me to try to figure out how to get one technological piece of equipment to talk to the other.  While I was very excited about getting a laptop that might actually function, I did not anticipate the difficulty in uploading piuctures from the camera to the new laptop.  I've been working on this for the past few months, though clearly it has not been a top priority.  Outside has been.  Oh, and caring for the 20 million new animals that have found their way to the farm.  SO, for the pics that have uploaded I can at least show some of our new animals.  The first one to join the farm (when we actually did not see snow) was a Pomeranian goose.  This was a freebie from another farmer.  In her previous life, said goose was living as "one of the pigs."  Geese like to flock, she had lost her other goose friends to either coyotes or dinner, and had flocked with the pigs.  Like a pig, she had learned to live in the muck and was quite happy waddling around in their stalls.  When we picked her up, she was a brownish goose.  As soon as she arrived at the farm, we set up a pool for her and watched as she happily splashed around.  Out from the pool emerged this beautiful, white goose.  Thankfully, she had Willow there the whole time to help her figure out what to do. 

 It wasn't long before we found out she makes an excellent security alarm and "big sister" on the farm.  She honks whenever someone drives up, hangs out on the deck with the dogs, and will let us know if the dogs are wrestling or misbehaving in some other way.  She likes to be around people, but just not too close.  Several times I've been gardening just to look up and see her there, just hanging out, a few feet away.  Awkward at times, but still always worth a smile.