Tending the flock

Helping Vince in the in the morning feeding and rotating the turkeys in the pasture. A turkey mobile shifted every other day in the pasture to give them access to fresh grass and bugs. A natural balance of the pasture feeding the turkeys with bugs and the turkey's manure fertilizing the pasture. The whole time Rosy and Jewel, huge draft horses, towering over us hoping to get a nibble of the feed. Rosy weighs almost 2500lbs! The biggest horse I've ever seen and many farmers besides. It is a bit intimidating to constantly have to shoo away an animal that weighs over a ton looming over you hungry for the bucket behind your back. Luckily she is gentle, though apt to temper tantrums I hear. The steps of her hooves shake the pasture!

Many chores and tasks of different sorts in the garden on Tuesdays. A harvest day for the CSA. In the afternoon heading into town wandering by the grocery store and flipping through the local magazine swap. Hitchhiking a ride back to the farm just in time to do my chicken chores for the day. Two buckets of feed, one dry and one wet fermented grain. The thirty or so chickens on the lawn lining up beside their little rope fence in a comical crowd trained almost on the hour. Buck..bu..buuCaw...the commotion grows... Three roosters but the red one runs the show, at least until I arrive. Turns out earlier in the year they lost about 12 chickens to eagles! One of the other black roosters survived an attach and has a gnarly scar on his chest and even lost an eye. He is so scrappy though the next time an eagle attached he ran straight at the thing in full charge unfazed. Talk about some fearless, no?

After giving out food and checking the water I go around the side of the hen house, or as Jim calls it, 'the coop de ville', of course, also mobile. A little chicken wagon of sorts with little laying cubbies on the sides that open from the outside. Walking the side line and picking up eggs as I go. Its exciting. You never know what you'll get! Usually about 15 or so, down from the last couple weeks. Sometimes you open up and there is still a hen just sitting there you have to gently nudge off like this one.

...but they know its all part of the trade. Tending the flock.