Evening Chores

I just love evening chores, especially now when it is cold and all of my peeps are confined and without grass. When the back door slams shut and I walk out singing and they hear me. The turkeys are the closest and they start squabbling, the chickens hear them and start cackling, the ducks sing their song and the geese honk loudly.

They eagerly wait for me, ears or eyes up, and smiling their little animal smiles... Dinner.

Bunny often hops towards me, nose wiggling, hoping for a carrot or piece of apple and some kale. All of the fresh summer/autumn goodies are almost gone. It was 30 degrees F last night.

Those little turkeys aren't so little anymore. We kept two. She is so curious and always hoping for kale or broccoli leaves...

And the girls? They know when it is time to go to the barn. They hear the buckets and hear me sing and come to the gate hoping for food.

Our Aracaunas are our newest and youngest flock. No eggs yet, but lots of pretty feathers and happy personalities.

The original flock. They head in on their own around 4:00 these days. The sun is setting so much earlier now. They go in to eat and get ready to roost.

Our three ducks. As the evening draws in and I walk out they turn and run to their house, eager, hungry and cold.

And finally, my two wonderful geese, Toulouse and Flory. They still think I am their mom so they go pretty easily as I herd them far across the yard back to their little house next to the turkeys. They honk, but go willingly.

Yes, I love this time of the day.

I never regret my chores. I really enjoy seeing all of my friends, singing to them, feeding them, and tucking them in for the night. It makes my heart feel so full, so right with the world when they are warm, well fed and content. I have done my job as their protector and partner.

The simple things in life give us so much joy.

Life is good.

Living the good life.

We got our little baby broiler flock last Sunday early. We drove to Vermont to pick them up! Thirty-five little, fluffy babies. It is our second year, I know the routine. I give them love, very good food and lots of grass and bugs and they give us meat. It is the reality of our food. My husband and I decided last year, the night before the harvest that if we couldn't do this we HAD to be vegetarians... some one else is doing the harvesting somewhere and at least we know that our babies are raised humanely, with love, good food and no stress or pain. We rarely eat beef and we try to only eat fish that we have caught in a river or lake that we know... and I have to say that our chickens are the most delicious we have ever eaten.

Our mobile chicken coop, totally made with beg, borrowed and recycled material. Not too cute, yet. A little green paint and oh well, you know, I will make it cute! We are going to move it out behind the horses in the field. We are trying to be good grass farmers and have the pasture well divided. So to keep the field healthy, I bought an old scythe last winter and we plan to cut/save some grass for the geese the old fashioned way this summer. And for the chickens we use our electric webbing fence that just sticks into the ground so that we can protect our flock and they can move around freely!

Have you ever read Small Farm Journal?

We want to wean ourselves off of corporate, industrial food. We try to eat like localvores, it helps being so close to Vermont and all of these farmers up here. It is like stepping back in time to live in New England, they are very proud of their farming, small town heritage. It is truly amazing and wonderful, especially for a flat lander like me. So every summer we are getting closer and closer to our goal of living simply and feeding ourselves for the entire year. We are hoping to build a root cellar in our basement this summer and green house out back... fingers crossed. So far we have a big chest freezer, a dehydrator and natural drying box.

Here are two of our four baby turkeys, two Bronze Breasted and three White Breasted. We hope to start breading the bronze and Narragansett next year too. This is our first year raising turkeys.

My darling holding one of our two lovely, sweet, kissable, huggable, Toulouse geese. He is holding Flory, Toulouse is in the pen. We got these two just as pets, no foie gras... they make great watch dogs and they are the cat's meow....

We hope they will keep our lovey goose company this winter...

And me, farmer girl, in clean clothes, such a rarity these days... you can't see the dirt on my hands, always have them in the earth these days! Life is good....

"Do the best that you can in the place that you are, and be kind." Scott Nearing.

Ah, my mantra.

Sunset in heaven....

My husband and our son spent the afternoon canoeing on the lake. As they silently glided along the silver surface our son whispered, "This is my dream." That is heaven. He had to take a few jumps into the ice cold water before they left for home.

With all of the ecological nightmares going on at this very second, so terrible I hesitate to mention them, I can't even bring myself to discuss them, I just read about them and my soul weeps, I actually feel guilty living such a wonderful life...

Our three day turkey poults. White Breasted and Mammoth Bronze Breasted. We have five little babies now. If the two Bronzes are male and female we are not going to harvest them. Seems so strange to talk about them that way, but their life will be wonderful....

Here is their home. We did buy the wire new and some of the lumber for the frame, but we scavenged all the rest. The windows, the plywood, the siding, the tin roof, all of it from left over stuff or from friends that donated their scrapes. We have so many predators around here that if we leave for the day the kids will have to hang out locked in the patio, otherwise we have a electrified web fence that we can move around the turkey pad so they can graze. Momma fox and her kits were playing outside of their den yesterday at my neighbor's house. I have read enough Beatrix Potter to know how sneaky a fox can be.

Hope you have a peaceful day!

*By mid-summer of the first year we ended up putting in a wooden floor over the screen to protect their feet, they grow so big, so fast. It is 2017 and we are still using it! Summer for chickens and in winter, sides covered, for the ducks.

Life is good.

Raindrops

My lawnmower and manure spreader...

Mullein and melted snow...

Spiral herb garden made for me with love by my love...

Garlic

Over wintered leeks and the very last of the mache, grown and eaten all winter long in an unheated cold frame covered in two extra layers of plastic.

I snapped this picture of two sleeping girls through our wavy, 150 year old window...  looks dreamy.  

Ah, sleeping late is such a guilty pleasure...

Peace.

The birds

Our new guest has become part of our family.  I think he will stay, I hope anyway.

He is a rescued, tame Canadian goose we took in at the end of January.  He was weak, skinny and very cold.  He can't fly and now has a new home.  

He follows me around the garden, he is lovely, just lovely.

Our neighbor gave us this chicken house last fall.  I put on the window and the nesting box.  I still have some work to do, a coat of paint, a better latch...  so far it is working out great.  The nesting box keeps the eggs so clean.

It only took me a few hours to make two nesting boxes this size.  My idea worked!  I think knowing how to sew helps so much in the construction of any project.  It is all the same idea, creating a three-dimensional, usable object/garment from an idea or prototype, just a different medium... 

Easy to open, easy to clean.

The girls.

The "big" chicken house.  We made it a few years ago out of salvaged or leftover wood and found windows.  It has a bigger box, there are four nests in this box. 

Sista lookin' out into the sun.

Bandit, our rooster.

The gift....