Turkey Day by the Numbers

Thanksgiving has now come and gone and most of us are recovering from our tryptophan hangovers. Obviously, the turkeys are no longer gobbling in the pasture.  Good thing, too...there is now close to a foot of snow out there.  Anyway, the turkeys very much exceeded our expectations with their amazing growth.  The hens dressed out at 22, 24, 24, and 27 pounds.  In case you need a reference for how heavy that is, my car alarmed at me as I was delivering them because they were sitting in the passenger seat and were not buckled in.  

We prepared the other half of Big Ken for our dinner.  That was another 18 pounds of amazing pastured turkey.  Brining is a winner.

Pow-wow in the Pasture

Cat Nip

Eric brought Mr. Harvey home some cat nip plants.  Shortly thereafter, Harvey discovered them...yum!

Gotta love November snow

Woke up today to a snowy mix.  The goats and chickens remained inside, even Harvey refused to venture out.  Winter is coming, ready or not!

Another Brick in the Wall...or stone

Last Monday began the re-build of our stone wall and less than a week later, Shambo Stone Masonry has rebuilt the entire wall!  They even brought in a huge excavator to remove the giant maple stump.  

Before and After photos.

So here is the finished wall.  Another project checked off the "to-do" list.

Why I love Vermont...

Set Scene:  8:45am on a Saturday morning.  The sun is shining, the air is crisp and smoke is billowing out of the chimney from the wood stove.  

The door bell rings. 

One of our neighbors is there with his huge smile, holding a bag of frozen moose meat for us.  I love this place:)

We're losing birds left and right!

Farm-life continues and this weeks theme seems to be poultry.  

Over the weekend we processed the last male turkey.  We think he weighed in between 35-40 pounds!  He was named Big Ken by our guests.  We then cut him in half with a hacksaw so we could fit him into the oven.  I only hope the females are a bit smaller.

This morning was sad as we found one of the Barred Rocks dead in the chicken coop.  It's unclear if she flew into something or simply died of other causes.  We're now down to 13 chickens, which seems like a rather unlucky number.

Thirsty Kitty

Mr. Harvey is in the fun habit of snagging a free drink whenever he can.  He will cry for a drink out of any sink in the house.  I think Harvey believes that by crying and rubbing the faucet that he can control the water!