Wacky Wednesday!

A Turkey's Lament...

When I was a young turkey, new to the coop,
My big brother Mike took me out on the stoop,
Then he sat me down, and he spoke real slow,
And he told me there was something that I had to know;
His look and his tone I will always remember,
When he told me of the horrors of ..... Black November;
"Come about August, now listen to me,
Each day you'll be thick, where once you were thin,
And you'll grow a big rubbery thing under your chin.
"And then one morning, when you're warm in your bed,
In'll burst the farmer's wife, and hack off your head;
"Then she'll pluck out all your feathers so you're bald'n pink,
And scoop out all your insides and leave ya lyin' in the sink,
"And then comes the worst part" he said not bluffing,
"She'll spread your cheeks and pack your rear with stuffing".
Well, the rest of his words were too grim to repeat,
I sat on the stoop like a winged piece of meat,
And decided on the spot that to avoid being cooked,
I'd have to lay low and remain overlooked;
I began a new diet of nuts and granola,
High-roughage salads, juice and diet cola,
And as they ate pastries, chocolates and crepes,
I stayed in my room doing Jane Fonda tapes,
I maintained my weight of two pounds and a half,
And tried not to notice when the bigger birds laughed;
But 'twas I who was laughing, under my breath,
As they chomped and they chewed, ever closer to death;
And sure enough when Black November rolled around,
I was the last turkey left in the entire compound;
So now I'm a pet in the farmer's wife's lap;
I haven't a worry, so I eat and I nap,
She held me today, while sewing and humming,
And smiled at me and said "Christmas is coming..."

Borrowed from a fellow member of http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/
Happy Thanksgiving!

Wacky Wednesday

Starting today I will be posting a ‘Wacky Wednesday” post. 

This will be a funny or wacky something related to farming. 

ENJOY!

Check out these chicks

I’ve been talking writing a lot about Thanksgiving coming up, lets switch gears a little.  Here is a series of pictures of some cute little silkie chicks.  I found these locally from a breeder and wanted to add to my silkie population to one day be able to breed my own.  The two adult chickens are Scarlett and Rhett they are currently raising these; they will soon be on their own but they still need the adults to keep them warm at night.

Here they are on the first time out of the nursery, it was a warm afternoon.

I think the picture above is awesome, dad is making standing watch as other big chickens are nearby.

 

They love bread left over from meals or the concession stand.

And

Of course I had to save the best for last. 

Check out this little fellow, smiling for the camera.

Have I come full circle?

According to the free dictionary http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/come+full+circle
come/go/turn full circle: if something or someone has come full circle after changing a lot, they are now the same as they were at the beginning .
I have mentioned my Great Uncle Hoolie  before in my blogging, he is the person who planted the crazy idea in my head to be a farmer.  I used to visit his farm as a child and he would teach me things about cattle, tractors, equipment, etc as well as let me play.   His son John Glen, my cousin was one of my best cousins growing up we would spend hours playing on the farm.  Well last night instead of going to the football game Maddie ( my third child), Chris, and Cassidy (John Glen’s second and third children) all spent the night with my Grand Mother.  This morning I was out feeding my animals when they all three walked over from Granny's.
Take a look.
   
Maddie and Cassidy with a turkey feather.

Cassidy petting Lilly.

Cassidy petting Bunniculla and Chris and Maddie looking at the eggs that were collected.

Cassidy collecting eggs, she washed then and carried them to her mother.

Chris hand feeding Sally.  The leash is because she was being walked by Cassidy to get fresh green grass.

Kenzie and Maddie showing them the pigs.

Feeding the pigs, bread.
This was so much fun watching them play on my farm.  It meant a lot to me.
So let me explain this again: I played on my Great Uncle’s farm and today his grandchildren played on mine.

Giving Thanks Party.

I read Jen’s blog and saw the Giving Thanks Party hosted by Lynn over on The Vintage Nest. While there are many things I’m thankful for, let me start by first quoting Brad Paisley

“But remember I’m still a guy”. 

FRESH TURKEY

While he is in the field today he will be on my Mother-in-Laws table on Thursday.

Until you try it you don’t know how good it is.

“Things that make you say hmm.” Eddie Murphy

Just because you have a hobby farm does not mean you have to have things like this inside your house. 

This was a gift from my parents, along with 3 chickens.  Granted my birthday is in August, I have been looking for a place to put this since then; still at a loss.

Some new creatures

This has been a big weekend at Rosebriar Farm.

On Nashville’s Craigslist I found a lady giving away some pot belly pigs; this always makes me wonder why? Are they mean?, Are they escape artists?, etc.  In this particular situation they live in Hillsboro and the husband commutes to Murfreesboro, everyday to work.  They are depleting the animals and selling the farm.  I wanted the Holstein steer however they have plans for him to move to the freezer.  I did pick up one female pot bellied pig, she is about 1-1/2 yrs old and weighs about 125 pounds.  As with most of my animals Jen gave her a literary name; Ophelia (Hamlet’s Lover).  How fitting.

Hamlet (left) Ophelia (right)

We also took the opportunity to pick up another turkey because Tom’s days are numbered, literally.  Unless the Governor calls (my cell phone will be off, just in case), he is scheduled to die the evening of  Tuesday, November 23rd. 

The new turkey (left) and Tom, Thanksgiving dinner 2010 (left).

But wait there’s more.

As, I mentioned before most of our pets have literary names, this young lady however came with a name.  It could be considered a literary name if you think back to first grade to the Dick and Jane books, the younger sister’s name was, Sally. 

Sally has sort of a sad story, she was one of a set of triplets, whose mother died at birth.  The other two received most of the colostrum , from the mother before she died.  Sally is a runt,  she is now seven months old and only about half the size of her siblings.  That may have worked out best for her; she is too small to slaughter and also to small to breed, therefore we were asked to take her for a pet.

So here is our new lamb, Sally.

Sally meeting her new friends, Romeo and Maestro.

Newest construction, on the farm

Recently the goats moved into a fenced in area and stopped their roaming.  The week they moved in the pen from the back porch of the chicken coop, we had rain forecasted later in the week.  Here is a “bus stop” I built for them to get in out of the weather. 

The 4x4 posts are cemented in the ground because a goat will butt any object, 2x4s around the top, the top and sides are covered with the same tin as the roof of our other farm structures.  This is green tin that was given to me by a friend, the roofs of everything are green.  It has a roof and walls about 3-1/2 feet high this will keep wind and rain off them directly.  They have two bales of straw loose on the ground to lay on (and eat).  I did not want it to be completely enclosed because our summers are really hot and our winters are not all that bad. 
The next thing they needed was a place to play, before they could go into the woods and play on fallen tree.  They also liked to play on things like feed containers, the back porch and of course the picnic table.  These were the areas, where they played that were not approved by upper management Jen.  Here is what I came up with hint: it was mentioned in the last post as an idea but here are pictures.



That’s right, a wood pile.  They love it, you have never seen kids play king of the hill, like Kids (young goats do), they are so fun to watch. 
Their other toy is the feeder I purchased for them, but they have now figured out it can also be a place to wrestle over food; at the time of this picture Romeo was in control.  When I walk in the pen if one of them is in the feeder, I will spin it like a merry-go-round!

Thanks for stopping by and comments are always appreciated. 

I need your help....

When Jen agreed to let me start my midlife crisis lifelong dream, of having a hobby farm, she put one stipulation.  Under no circumstance is it allowed to look like a north Alabama Redneck Farm.  It has to look presentable. 

Having been to many farms in order to acquire animals, I have seen some really neat looking farms and I have seen some that I felt like I needed a shower just for stopping by.  Here are a few photos I have obtained from google that we would not deem acceptable for the look we are after at Rosebriar Farm.

 

Now where I need your help is I am wanting my farm to grow but I have to do this on a limited budget.  Seeing as I have to do within a limited budget but don’t want it to look like a redneck convention.  I need you ideas of ways to increase the size with real cost savings ideas. 

As you can see in some photos I have created the antique looking coop with recycled lumber from an old unpainted house.

I have made changes to the run since this was taken; this was a temporary fence.

My roosts were made from tree limbs...

For my goats a place to play I have created a wood pile from a tree a friend cut down, I do not have a picture but a pile of wood looks natural in a field.


Come on followers give me you ideas, and send a link to others you think could help.

The new fad in owning animals, but you can’t have a rooster...

I was speaking with someone last night, who lives in town and was wanting to know about raising chickens.  It appears raising chickens for fresh eggs is the new “in thing”.  For those poor unfortunate souls that live in town, you can not own a rooster.  I understand the reason because they crow, but dogs bark; enough of that or I will get on a soap box. 

Roosters have a purpose, they protect the flock.  I recently was taking some food scraps to the chickens, it was pomegranate (pictured with the cooked turkey on the last post) , something we do not use often.  The hens all stayed away until Big Dawg (Rhode Island Red)took the first peck and made  a sound then the girls dove into them.  There is a hawk that nests across the road on another hobby farm, when the hawk is circling, he will make another sound and all the girls will go either in the coop or into the woods, which ever is closest.  I have written before about Rhett (Silkie) he raises chicks; currently Scarlett is taking care of a 3 month old Americana who was stepped on by a goat and had broken bones, thus walks funny.  Rhett is currently taking care of three 5 week old silkie chicks. 

There is also another very valuable reason to have roosters because extra roosters are made of chicken.  Not those things packed full of hormones to grow to processing size in 6 weeks.  That is one of the reasons we raise our own. 

These big fellows were about 6 months old when they were processed.  Yes that is quiet a bit older, but what does that mean? You probably don't want to fry them, but anything else is a go. 

Nana (my mother-in-law) took one and made fresh dumplings, WOW.  Without hormones these fellow averaged 8 pounds a piece; after processing.  That means the same way you would get one in the grocery. Have you every found an eight pound chicken at the store; didn’t think so.  If you did, it probably cost quite a bit, especially if he was organic.


Everyone has asked what have you been feeding them.  Mostly nothing, they find their own food; besides, we do not have a lot of bugs, ticks, etc.  Chickens take care of them.  They do love their food scraps, popcorn, fruit, etc as well.

Is he strutting his stuff or strutting for stuffing?

While our tom is starting to show some size I’m still not convinced he will be ready to eat in 21 days, therefore he may get a last minute stay of execution.  This is only going to be the case if I can find another organic raised turkey big enough to kill process by Tuesday, November 23rd.  

Process on Tuesday, go thru rigor on Wednesday, and cook on Thursday, and they never see the freezer.  

Before you decide to call PETA on me let me further explain:

You know this looks good!

 

This was one of my farm raised turkeys of from last year.

And besides I’m a member of PETA.

P-people E-eatingT- tastyA- animals

The title of the post will be at the end…you have to read the story first.

Have you every wondered why I named my little farm Rosebriar Farm? 

Could it be my love for roses? 

  

Well you see, I have 31 rose bushes (but who’s counting), I have even managed to start one of my own.  That was a milestone for me, it was like a kid getting a new bike for Christmas when I realized I had started my own bush from a root of one I had transplanted months before.  This is no easy task mind you, EVERYONE has to go buy their bushes either as really small plants or in larger pots from a nursery. 

Jen and I also have a few plants that mean a lot to us.   She has a small Lemon tree,  still in a pot on the back porch that was kind enough to bear its first lemon this year.  I have a plumeria, that was purchased for $6 in Hawaii in 2006, when we went to Wil and Holly’s Wedding.  I often joke of this being a $10,000 plant that came with an 8 day Hawaiian vacation.  Many of the family member bought back similar sticks (plumeria cuttings); we work so hard at keeping this tropical plant alive it now has 9 braches that produce flowers.  Each year it produces more we now get about 100 blooms from June until just before the first frost, when it is relocated to our bathroom to live for the winter, where the steam of the shower provides a green house effect for it.  By the way NO ONE else in the family has every had theirs bloom; I’m not bragging (well maybe just a little) just stating facts.  Thanks to Laura “Ninnie” Bevel, she is where I acquired my green thumb.

We have a cute little fruit garden which consist of the following: blackberries, blue berries, raspberries, strawberries, plum trees, peach trees, and some roses, of course.  This is all contained in a fence to keep the chickens from eating the berries.  The cute little goats Romeo and Maestro have been free roaming since they were kids (pun intended) , they sleep on feed storage boxes on the back porch of the chicken coop.  Well we all know what kids grow up to be DAMN DEMENTED GOATS teenagers. 

The other day, I had walked outside to check on something, when I walked back into the house and slammed the back boor where everyone in the house came running to see what the problem was, as I scream at Jen to post of craigslist I have two Damn goats to give away or find me a fondue recipe and I really didn’t care which.  As she looks at me, she see me holding a green lemon (mind you lemons are not ripe until they turn yellow.) She says “I take it YOUR goats broke my lemon off the tree?”  Well no joke I sure as heck would not pick a green lemon,  I told her it was not that they broke the lemon off the tree but the way they did it.  They climbed onto  the plumeria pot (2-1/2’ diameter) to eat the leaves, it turned over and broke a limb and the lemon.  This all happened on a Sunday afternoon……fast forward to Monday.

After work Brad and I moved everything: 5 trees, 3 roses, and about 20 fruit bushes (all with thorns mind you) out of the fenced fruit garden since the chickens will have no interest until spring when the berries begin to bloom.  You can come help me build a fence this winter, if you would like.   We finished under the headlights of vehicles, as this took about 4 hard hours of work. 

Guess what we moved into the fence? Yep that’s right the GOATS!

Since then I have had to build them a climbing toy (a HUGE pile of firewood) and a shelter similar to a bus stop kids use in the north while waiting for the school bus. 

Why?

All because Jen did not want to try Goat Fondue!  (the title)