Done In

Saturday a week ago the turkeys and geese went on to their reward. Or punishment, as the case may be.

They were originally scheduled for the event a week prior, but a family engagement and crummy weather (too much wind for the propane burner) gave them (and us) a week of reprieve. The turkeys enjoyed it, escaping into the garden twice and raiding the tomatoes.

We did 9 birds total (2 geese, 7 turkeys), and I don't know how much they weighed or what they cost, because I've been busy. But they look tasty. The turkeys, anyway. Not so sure about the geese, but I've googled some recipes that we'll try out.

Hubby did most of the work, since the darling little bassinet in the shade of the apricot tree had a demanding resident at times (everyone should eviscerate poultry with a darling little bassinet parked nearby). I've decided it's easier to butcher poultry 6 weeks before having a baby than it is 6 weeks after!

I took a few pictures of the geese, since that was a first. Step 1: Have Hubby crawl into goose pen and grab a goose.
Step 2: Have Hubby drag goose out.


Be careful! Those wings can be lethal, I've read. Better be careful...


In fact, why don't you tie those wings down. Or, uh, ok... electrical tape would work too...

(No, I don't know how or why a dining chair got out there...)

Here's the wingspan of the larger gray goose. She ain't what she used to be, lemme tell ya.


I think the highlight of my day was making room in the freezers. All that leftover birthday ice cream just couldn't go to waste now, could it?!?

Catch Up

I'm happy to report that while I've been absent from this blog forever, it's not because anyone has mastitis or is hospitalized or on bed rest or suffering from a wicked, debilitating infection. One-handed typing though; yes, I suffer from that greatly these days.

What has happened?

There are tomatoes in them thar jungles. Some are quite big (where the soaker hose worked quite well) and some are tiny (where the soaker hose didn't work much). I've only put up about 6 quarts (with a few more half-done as I break to nurse this baby), but I have several bags left from last year, as Hubby has been off tomatoes since Thanksgiving or so. *sigh* Oddly enough, without ANY special attention from me, the weeds have grown waist-high and tower threateningly over my garden boxes, laden with evil seeds. I always lament Adam's disobedience this time of year, fantasizing about what an un-cursed land might produce...

We had planned to kill the geese and turkeys last weekend, before remembering that Saturday was Hubby's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed seeing some extended family for the occasion, and I was so thankful I'd put a loaf of banana bread in the freezer last week! That, and a loaf of homemade bread with peach jam was our contribution to the potluck! Organique only peed her pants twice and, um, did something else on the kitchen floor once (panties and pants were drying, and grandma's t-shirt was her dress), and Big Sister only once inadvertently smacked a second-cousin in the face while playing too roughly. Leave it to the homeschoolers in the bunch to make scenes, huh? *sigh*

We rescheduled the bird-deaths for Sunday, but awoke to sudden fall weather instead. The wind convinced us that the propane burner would be rendered ineffectual. We'd been enjoying days in the high 80's, but that day never hit 70. We are warming up again, though, so Saturday is it! It must be!

Monday was Organique's birthday! She's officially 2 now. Grandma, Papa, and aunties all came for oatmeal cake and organic ice cream. There was a pinata in attendance, which Little Artist suggested be placed on the floor and 'whacked with sticks' from there. :) Hubby managed to hang it over a clamp placed on the little dividing ridge between dining and living rooms, and the kids alternated between using a stick (no blindfolds, please. I'd like the piano to stay unscathed.), and "doing karate." The unicorn finally gave up it's stash of baggied 'natural' goodies. :) (c'mon - at least I didn't fill it with carrots and celery as threatened.).

Earlier that day we had a real scare with a freak accident that resulted in a harried dash to the local doc office for the birthday girl. Turns out everything is fine, and what could've been truly horrific wasn't, and I am ever and completely grateful to God. He watches over us, and His hand protects us.

I've finished painting 2 walls in the family room. I'm not sure what, if anything, I've posted on that project, but it's slow-going, so there will be time! There's only so much I can do in a day with a newborn and a toddler. Plus, everyone likes to eat three times per day, at least. Yikes.

Well, the laundry beckons, as do the scalded tomatoes!

Geese = Gross

Do you remember how much I loved those cute little goslings? Aw, but they were sweet! They peeped a lot (and pooped a lot), were so fuzzy-soft, and loved to nibble clover and grass we picked for them.

I was worried that I'd keep liking them so much and be sad to see them go.

I should NOT have worried.

My sweet goslings underwent the most disappointing of metamorphoses, truly. It DID take them quite a while, but all sweetness left the premises. Their voices changed to a deep, growly honk. They became quite big enough to not be hawk-bait, so we let them loose, where they daily mowed the lawn.

And nightly ruined the porch. es.

I cannot tell you why, nor how, but we have 3 exits to our home, not counting the garage. Each night, the geese would choose one exit and sleep there. RIGHT on our front welcome mat (as opposed to all the porch-space that is NOT where we step out of the house), RIGHT outside the sliding glass door, or RIGHT on the back step. And I suppose it wouldn't have been too bad if they would actually only SLEEP there. But while they eat copious amounts in the day, they, um, get rid of it in the night. All. Over. My. Porches. SO disgusting. Were I not quite pregnant at the time, I'd have lopped off their heads with a machete. Instead, we were finally able to herd them into a little chicken tractor, where I locked them in without a care if they ate or drank. Hubby, occasionally, did care, so they yet live.

A week or two ago I decided to give them another chance. And since it's nigh time to butcher them I didn't want them living their last days in a yucky pen (for the sake of my dinner, not their bliss). The first night or two was fine, but soon they remembered the joy of their transgressions, and soiled all three sites again. And bit Organique on the leg, leaving a nasty abrasion dripping blood down her leg. So now they get to spend their time within the confines of their yucky pen again. Yes, it could be moved, but not by me (yet), and Hubby hasn't been so inclined, I guess.

So. Do we eat them? Do we get them to fresh grass for a time? Do we just do them in for the sheer joy of being done with them? I don't think we'll be raising them again. Turkeys are so much more pleasant, plus I know they taste good.

Farm & Garden, June 2

In the garden:

All but 1 tomato plant are set out.  The 1 was the victim of the stroller-smashing accident, and when the whole thing was mostly busted off, I set it like a flower in a cup (a sippy cup, actually...).  It sprouted wonderful roots!  It's been hardening off on the porch, and hopefully I'll be feeling moveable enough to set it out today.  Total tomato plants will be 27.  The girls had messed with the plants, and several little packs of tomatoes were missing their labels, so I'm not sure what's out there.  I do have 3 "juliet" salad-style tomatoes, 3 "old german" stripey-lookin' things, 6 "mountain fresh" which I bought because they were tall and their tag had only a handwritten title, and no other information (I think that's why they were still available).  I called my neighbor and had her google them.  I also have 4 little bush-type plants, and I forgot their name (but the tag is in my apron pocket, I think).

The SFG holds 4 peppers, a huge bell, a 'chocolate' bell, a 'sweet cherry', and a 'garden salsa' - hot one.  I have 3 more of each Sweet Cherry and Garden Salsa with the tomatoes.  10 total pepper plants.

The onions in the SFG have sprouted!  The carrots are getting their first real leaves, if/when Organique will stop scooping out handfuls of dirt and seedlings.  I also don't like it when she scoops up 'weedy' garden dirt and adds it to the SFG.  Argh!  And I can never move fast enough to intercept...

The lettuces are getting bigger (again, the ones Organique hasn't uprooted to add to her 'soup').  The largest are maybe a fist-sized clump.  Not sure when I'll be able to bring myself to pluck any.  They're so pretty!

The SFG potatoes are really growing.  Four per square foot seems excessive to me, but maybe the fancy dirt makes up the difference?  I also have 5 garbage bags set in the ground with about 6 potatoes each.  They're beginning to sprout.  As are 5 little seedlings in a row across the surface of one... I'm not sure what they are or how they got there.  They look possibly like melon or squash, maybe even sunflowers.  Maybe I should transplant them...

The SFG has 7 cucumber plants.  I don't know if I'll get a trellis built, or let them wander off into the wilderness.  So far they haven't died, but they don't seem to be growing much either.

I have several herbs in the SFG.  Chives, sage, thyme, oregano, cilantro.  I started basil seeds, but they're not acting real hardy yet, and I don't know that they'll get there or not.  There are still a handful of empty squares that had assignments on paper, but not yet in reality.  I may change my mind.

Yet to do:

Set out pumpkin starts, zucchini (I found some eventually), yellow squash (I'll be hatin' the squash, huh?), and the butternut squash a friend gave me.  Of course, the sippy-cup tomato.

Have Hubby rototill a spot for the sweet corn he ordered.  So much to do on his off-time!  So little off-time to do it! :)

Critter-wise, most of the Mutants are still eating and drinking.  Hubby is on call this weekend, but Sundays are usually slow; maybe we can do it then (with the plucker!?!), or on Saturday evening if he's not too done-in.

The seven little white turkeys are alive and well, which surprised me some.  As soon as they could (and it was soon), they would jump up onto the edge of the bedliner/brooder, occasionally getting down to the ground.... the same ground the Meat Mutants occupied for some time.  Turkeys are susceptible to chicken germs or something like that, and I was worried.  Hubby never got around to moving the hoophouse, and eventually ALL of the turkeys made it down below, and there was no trying to capture all 7 every night to put them to bed.  They're still down there, knocking over their feed and water daily.

The 3 geese are quickly outgrowing the garden cart.  I'm not sure what to do with them yet.  They and the turkeys are both without heat lamps, after surviving one night where we forgot to plug it in.  I think that's always how that works out.  They're so big, but they're still 'babies' - 3 weeks old today, I think.  Their feathers are still the soft, fluffy kind, and they'd probably still be hawk-bait if they were somewhere exposed.  They LOVE green stuff, and eaven choked down several morning glory vines the girls tossed in.  They prefer alfalfa and clover, of course. :)  I'd like to know if they'll eat thistles...  Then I might know where to put them. :)  A guy at Hubby's work grew up eating farmyard geese, and warned him they were the greasiest meal he'd ever eat.  Sounds like a self-basting bird, to me!  I hope we like them.

Still to do:

Take the plucker shaft/flange back to the shop and have them figure out how to center the shaft.  The guy got it off a bit, and the balance just won't work that way.

Get the plucker operational (it should be, after putting the shaft back on) and kill the Meat Mutants.

Find a better home for the geese.  They're still too small to stay inside field fencing, I think, and I'm not sure if poultry netting will keep them in (it's not electrified).

Maybe kill a rooster.  One or two of our four are a bit too aggressive.  Organique ended up with a scratch on her hand due to one of them.  Too bad he's the prettiest.  The big Light Brahma is really mellow, as is the Buff Orpington.  It's the Brown Leghorn and the Black Australorp that are problematic.

Fix the shed to keep chickens out, and fix the coop to keep chickens in.  That way we can find their eggs!  And my porch will be more presentable...