Tag Archives: Turkey

Farm, Holidays, Turkeys

Dressed or Undressed

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Before processing the Thanksgiving turkeys(30+), we went into the field to see if we could get some guesstimate weights.  Some of the Bourbon Reds were to be “pardoned” if they were underweight.  That’s fine, we allow for that as far as pre-selling goes, and they are such lovely birds to have around.

How do you weigh a turkey?  Well, it’s easy.  You go out into their field and pick them up, then step on the scale.  However much more than you weigh is what they weigh.  Dressed.

But it’s not really a science out there and our scale is lousy.

And I can’t really tell you how much the bird will weigh undressed.  As in, plumage, etc. removed.

I know that my terminology is opposite what the processing industry calls it, but practically speaking, with our plumage and barn coats intact, we are dressed.

And there’s no way I was going to weigh them naked.  They would’ve shivered.

Everyone is a little shy to step on the scale

Dressed

Undressed

The end result was that we had a broad range of weights – from 35 pounders to 6.5 pounders.  Five birds were pardoned to stay on and put on weight, forage, just hang out with the other poultry around here.

Promise to clean up our act in the next post.  This is meant to be a family friendly blog.  Anyway, now you know how we handle weighing of the turkeys.

Cats, Daughters, Family, Farm, Holidays, Mothers, Pies, Recipes, Travel

Thanksgiving days

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Last Monday morning, a local high school gathered for their Thanksgiving Assembly which included pardoning a turkey.  The school headmaster purchases his turkey from our farm each year and the staff thought it would be good fun to surprise him with the act of pardoning his own turkey; enter Farmer Tam.  ”Sugar”, our Bourbon Red, performed beautifully and though she stayed in my arms, mostly, she was equipped with a small harness I’d fashioned for walking her.  When I did indeed put her on the ground to walk, well, she pooped.  Which everyone thought was hilarious.

Ta-dah!

I warned him that she hadn’t been bathed…

Receiving an official headmaster’s pardon

The rest of the “pardoned” flock calling on us daily.

We had the whole family home – yay!  Shaggy son-one got a haircut from his sister on the front porch.  It was mostly successful.

sunny afternoon front porch haircuts

We ate our turkey on Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  Because we’re gluttonous that way.

We go to Grammie’s for Thanksgiving, and that means that we don’t have a leftover turkey for ourselves to nosh on for the next few days.  And no turkey  to send back with college kids that have apartments that really would enjoy MRE‘s from home.

So seeing as it also makes sense to sample our product and validate the quality, we test-drive ahead of time.

21 pound sample for quality control

On Thanksgiving, we went to Grammie’s and again enjoyed turkey, prepared her way, which is with a brine.  And a thousand other dishes that everyone contributed.  It was delicious.  My favorite part was the cranberry orange relish.

In my brother Larry’s honor, I ate turnip.  I’m not a huge fan, but Larry would raise acres of them each year and bring them to the feast.  Every year I have a “no thank you” portion of turnip and am waiting to love it.  It didn’t happen this year.  Maybe next year.

Leek Harvest – we’re responsible for the leeks at Grammie’s

Hosing the leek lineup

Curried Leeks to contribute to Thanksgiving dinner

Char’s “Jeopardy” game which we play with the cousins, aunts and uncles

 

Mother/Daughter coloring – you’re never too old

knitting and cats

College kids getting their fix of kitties and cats

We also went to see “Skyfall”, the new James Bond flick.  We thought the writing was excellent and it was overall great. Yes, that Aston Martin gets play!  I need me an ejector seat...  Our family soaks up the whole theater experience and so we enjoyed our sit down  from corny refreshment-stand ads to the last gaffer’s creds.

On the way home, we discussed whether the most popular role for a British actor would be Bond or Dr. Who.  It was split.  They’re both 50 years old this year.  What do you think?

Agriculture, Barns, Health, Holidays, Music, Turkeys, Weather

Turkey/Tofurkey Thanksgiving 2012

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Tweedling accompaniment to the march into the barn

Cue Chopin‘s “Funeral March“…

Tomorrow is the big day for processing birds around here for 35 Thanksgiving tables in this Tri-State area.  In their last week, my Bourbon Reds and Giant Whites have been consuming 50 pounds of organic grain a day.  I had brought them in the other day because we had a sudden, wet snowfall and they don’t have shelter now that the leaves are off the trees in the pasture.

Shivering off their weight is not part of the plan of raising the turkeys.  Also, as soon as they were snug and warm inside, we had cozy, bonding time together.  They’re so sweet.

Puppy dog eyes

I’ve said it before.  I love turkeys.  I love my turkeys. People in this area love our turkeys and they are exceptional.  I’m o.k. with eating turkey – I think it’s fine.  I’d rather have borscht or wonton soup or mushroom anything – those are my favorites(also, chocolate.)

But it’s time.  So today I tried feeding them a pile of tofu.  I accidentally over-ordered tofu through my local food co-op.  I meant to order 6 containers, but I ordered 6 cases.  That’s 72 containers.  That’s too much tofu for this family.  I gave away a fair amount to the local homeless shelter and tried to share with the local food cupboard.  The food cupboard folk said, “No thanks.”

But the turkeys – hey!  The primary ingredient in their pelletized grain is soy.  So why not organic tofu?  And then if we want to be savvy marketers, we can tout them as “Tofurkeys!”

In front of me, they want nothing to do with the tofu.  As soon as my back is turned, they gobble it up.  Go figure.

Tofurkeys

Driving, Farm, Fences, Hurricane Sandy, Morning, Turkeys, Weather

Great Turkey Walks

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“I’ve always been fond of birds, poultry in particular.”  - Simon Green

In the last couple of days, I’m reminded of an amusing and clever novel that my children and I enjoyed called “The Great Turkey Walk“, by Kathleen Karr.  Our star of the story is oversized Simon Green, who has just completed third grade(for the fourth time), when his teacher tells him that maybe it’s time he made his way into the world of 1860.  He may not be book-smart, but he sets out on a journey with a rafter of a thousand turkeys from Missouri to Denver to cash in on the meat market.  His caring teacher, Miss Rogers, bankrolls the trip and he and his dog, four mules, a driver and a wagonload of shelled corn are off.

This past weekend had our family prepping the farm before Hurricane Sandy’s arrival.  We couldn’t be sure of the extent of damage we might suffer, so we made the best possible plan for putting up hooved and feathered friends for the long haul.  This included stalling all of our free-ranged turkeys so they would not end up in the next county or state after the projected 60 mph gusts were upon us.

The morning of Sandy’s arrival, dawn broke lovely and lavender and our gang took on a “Breast Cancer Awareness” pink hue.  I waited to move the birds until I was sure that they’d foraged enough for the morning but we weren’t going to be fighting the elements for our short trek through the sheep chute and into the barn stall.  Also, I wasn’t quite sure they would follow as necessary and I didn’t want to run short on time while chasing and corralling 40ish birds on my own.

Today dawned less pink, with a Sandy-surprise in the pasture, but blessedly no casualties.  And after leading the gang back out to the pasture for some fresh air and foraging, sans too much wind-beneath-their-wings, they were delighted to find the new roost.  The rest of their day was spent arranging themselves and ornamenting the old Beech tree that had elegantly heaved from the earth and ho-ed to the ground.  I rather like the new set-up myself.

The day after Hurricane Sandy arrived, Wing and a Prayer Farm turkeys ornament the new pasture roost.

Last, but not least, enjoy walking the turkeys to and fro with us in the following clip:

Farm, Recipes, Turkeys, Uncategorized

White or Dark Meat?

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in the autumn of their lives

As I am one week away from putting 14 birds on various localvores’ tables for the December holidays, here I am, extolling the virtues of turkey again. This time I thought it would be fun to delve into the nutritional aspects of this favorite entrée. I am ashamed to admit it, but the crispy, salty skin of the bird has always been a delicacy to me.  My husband loves dark meat, but my kids and I will shame him into eating white meat because we’re always watching out for his diet.  (He is not, however, watching out for his diet!)

I would enjoy seeing our own birds tested for nutritional value as the differences are obvious in the lesser amount of fat and greater amount of dark meat that they hold vs. the conventionally raised turkeys in the supermarkets.

Josh Ozersky from Time, US wrote a cute article about the “Dark Side” and I decided to educate myself a bit more, finding this handy table on FitSugar:

Calories in Dark Meat vs White Meat

Meat Type
(3.5 ounce serving)		 Calories Total Fat (g) Protein (g)
Breast w/ skin 194 8 29
Breast w/o skin 161 4 30
Wing w/skin 238 13 27
Leg w/ skin 213 11 28
Dark Meat w/ skin 232 13 27
Dark meat w/o skin 192 8 28
Skin only 482 44 19
Tofurky (1/6 of the roast) 300 7 42

In the end, as my friend Monique-Stickwood-Nikki used to say in college, “Moderation is the motto!”

We’ve enjoyed our turkeys prepared with customer and friend Linda’s following recipe from the New York Times:

Simple Heritage Roast Turkey

Published: November 7, 2007

Time: 2 to 3 1/2 hours, depending on size of turkey

1 12-to 18-pound heritage turkey such as a Bronze or Bourbon Red, thawed, with giblets and neck removed

3 tablespoons kosher salt

1 1/2 tablespoons black pepper

4 tablespoons butter, cut into four pieces

1 medium onion, quartered

2 stalks celery, cut in two or three pieces each

1 medium apple, halved

8 sprigs fresh thyme

2 cups turkey broth, water or a mixture of half water and half apple juice.

1. At least four hours before roasting, rub turkey inside and out with salt and pepper; refrigerate. Remove from refrigerator 45 minutes before roasting. Heat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Set turkey in roasting pan fitted with a V-shaped rack. Slip your fingers under skin to loosen it. Rub butter over breasts. Stuff vegetables, apple and thyme into cavity. Tuck wingtips under bird.

3. Pour broth or water into pan, around bird. Put turkey in oven and roast, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 325, baste turkey with pan juices, cover with a foil tent and return to oven. Cook for another 30 minutes. Remove foil, baste again and place foil back on turkey. Cook for 30 more minutes. Remove foil.

4. When turkey has roasted for a total of two hours, insert a meat thermometer straight down into fleshiest part of thigh, where it meets drumstick. Check a second spot, then remove thermometer. (Do not let thermometer touch bone.) Thigh meat should reach no more than 165 degrees. Juices should run clear. (If bird is larger than 14 pounds, keep foil on longer and begin checking meat temperature at two and half hours.) To assure perfectly cooked white and dark meat, you may remove bird when meat thermometer shows thigh temperature at 155, then remove legs and roast them separately for another 15 to 30 minutes, depending on size of bird.

5. When bird has reached desired temperature, remove from oven and let rest for at least 30 minutes, covered in foil and with a damp towel on top of foil, to retain heat and allow juices to return to meat. Remove foil and towel and serve.

Yield: 8 to 12 servings.

100% delicious

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The Good Life

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I have to say that I’m short on words at the end of this Thanksgiving Day.  I baked a slew of pies and brought them to my mom’s where she served one of our turkeys and the rest of the menu.  The turkey was exquisite and we shared a lot of laughs with the family.  

fresh from the oven - 9 pies

Mom & our Wing and a Prayer Farm turkey

Thanksgiving buffet

My mom lives but an hour away so we were able to be home in time to tend to the evening chores without worrying that the animals had to wait too long for their Thanksgiving dinners.  After the build-up to this day with all of the turkey-doings this past season, I am looking forward to some November quiet before it slips away.  I am crazy for Christmas and all that goes with it, but I’m also in no rush.  With kids to bottle feed, sheep, turkeys, chickens, ducks, peacocks, horses, ponies, bunnies, dogs & cats to tend, as well as a family whom I love to dote on, it will be nice to focus on simply that tomorrow.  

Sadly, tomorrow Jody is going back to Virginia to finish the semester, but we look forward to his quick return after finals for his winter break.  

Charlotte had put together the most adorable video to the tune of “Everybody” by Ingrid Michaelson and after watching her edit and polish, I had her permission to include it for others to enjoy a slice of Wing and a Prayer Farm.  It occurred to me that while I could fill a page with the blessings I am grateful for this year, high on that list would be exactly what she has encapsulated in a 3 and a half-minute video.  So here is a sincere hope that your Thanksgiving  was pleasant, and enjoy the tour:

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Driving, Farm, Pumpkins, Recipes, Turkeys, Uncategorized

Turkey Triflings

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the Shaw boys driving the turkeys in from the fields at Garden of Spices, the processing business we use in Greenwich, NY

Turkeys

by Mary Mackey

One November
a week before Thanksgiving
the Ohio river froze
and my great uncles
put on their coats
and drove the turkeys
across the ice
to Rosiclare
where they sold them
for enough to buy
my grandmother
a Christmas doll
with blue china eyes

I like to think
of the sound of
two hundred turkey feet
running across to Illinois
on their way
to the platter
the scrape of their nails
and my great uncles
in their homespun leggings
calling out gee and haw and git
to them as if they
were mules

I like to think of the Ohio
at that moment
the clear cold sky
the green river sleeping
under the ice
before the land got stripped
and the farm got sold
and the water turned the color
of whiskey
and all the uncles
lay down
and never got up again

I like to think of the world
before some genius invented
turkeys with pop-up plastic
thermometers
in their breasts
idiot birds
with no wildness left in them
turkeys that couldn’t run the river
to save their souls

“Turkeys” by Mary Mackey, from Breaking the Fever. © Marsh Hawk Press, 2006. Reprinted with permission.

the special cover Jim made for the bed of the truck for driving our turkeys to Garden of Spices

At this point I would like to say an enormous and heartfelt thank you to my friend Kerry & her willing son Tristan for their generous and spirited, giving hearts.  They both volunteered in the dark of night to assist me in a solo-loading job before the adventurous drive last weekend.  At Kerry’s suggestion, we took advantage of the subdued turkeys to eliminate the stress of a daytime disruption.  It was a brilliant idea.

Turns out the most difficult and time-consuming part of the whole job was trying to get the anchor-points to release on the side of my truck so that I could attach the cover with bungee cords.  Between Tristan’s little engineering mind, Kerry’s tenacity and my willingness to hammer away at the darn things as well as liberal applications of 3-in-1 oil, we finally got them to cooperate.  The anchor-points are on some sort of spring-mechanism and store inside the truck-bed wall.  You’re supposed to be able to simply depress them to get them to release up, revealing the handy-dandy hitching post.  But those babies were stuck, stuck, stuck!

Well, at the end of the next day I had taken my truck to the carwash and washed it twice before loading for the homeward trip, transporting 504 pounds of dressed poultry. Part of the reason I like working with Ben Shaw & Garden of Spices is that they are a very clean outfit.  Pretty important when you’re talking about the main course for families.  As soon as I got home, I took the turks from the iced coolers in my truck to the 35 degree refrigerators at a local apple orchard which is closed for the season…yet more generous neighbors, willing to help me out and support me by allowing me to use their facilities for the proper storage of so many big birds before they go to their final destinations.  Dawn & Fritz don’t mind me popping in and out of there several times a day to select birds that are going to be going in many different directions.  For example, today I had to deliver a 22-pounder which is going to Ohio and a 15-pounder to Rupert, VT, my sheep vet’s home.

And so to be sincere, it wouldn’t be a very good endorsement if we didn’t “test” the product ourselves.  The 23-pounder that we’d cooked for our own pre-Thanksgiving dinner passed the test of deliciousness, moistness and depth of flavor that a free-ranged turkey is reputed for.  I wondered if I’d be able to taste the pumpkins and apples that the gobblers had been enjoying all fall…but that would’ve been a stretch!  A surprising note is that though the turkey should’ve been in the oven for about 4 hours, it was done in a little over two.  The same was true last year that the birds cooked more quickly than conventionally raised turkeys.

Today the air had turned sharply colder and my son, home from college, convinced me to play hooky and go fishing for a couple of hours with him.  With so much to do on the farm, how could I make it work?  Well there are more important things in life than work and when opportunity calls, you answer.  So I went fishing with Jody.  We had a great time even if we froze our butts off!  I was grateful for the opportunity to spend a few hours in the quiet of nature with my son, catching up.  It was a well-timed reprieve, as it turned out.

Jody shared tips from the bow of the boat on November angling

Raising turkeys is not without a certain amount of anxiety from beginning to end.  The associated stress of the past week had me nursing a headache and exhaustion everyday.  There is a good amount of physical labor, especially in the final days, and my back won’t be right for a few weeks. However, it goes without saying that there is a beautiful reward in all of the work when you are passing off the fat bundles, looking new and old customers in the eyes and being able to personally wish them a blessed Thanksgiving.

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Peace, Love and Turkeys

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Which one is the turkey?

This year we are selling fresh turkeys again.  I doubled my poult order(from 20 to 40) after last year’s successful harvest and it has gone well. We are taking orders for Thanksgiving and Christmas, though this is not meant to be a commercial.  We have had a predator-free year, excepting for the barn kitties, Wasabi & Niska, doing in a few of the little poults in their first days here.  That was depressing.  And also in the arrival of the first batch of poults, 5 of them were dead and 2 more died within the first 24 hours which was also quite unfortunate.  The company made good on them and claimed that it was likely they suffered stress in shipping and that they may have been next to an air conditioning vent which depleted them. Very sad.

Turkey poults old enough to be out in the pasture

Feathered out and ready to be pastured poults!

My main complaint about the flock is that they could do me a favor by staying in one area so that it would simplify filling their waterers.  However, they redeem their straying tendencies by greeting me with sweet singing and bright “how do you do’s!”

Beautiful Bourbon Reds

It is true, I love turkeys.  I could extol the virtues of raising them here on Wing and a Prayer Farm, but I don’t want to brag.  I would like to illustrate some of their finer points, though, which have nothing to do with being raised here in Vermont.

Song:  Turkeys are lovely singers.  Their tweedling is melodious and uplifting and when they all call, it is like a gorgeous chorus.

Sociability:  Friendly to a “T.”  In fact, one year one of our turkeys, a Chocolate, was named “Friendly!”  They are so curious and enjoy being in your company, in each other’s company, in the rest of the farmyard’s company.  If you throw an apple into a flock of turkeys, they’ll play with it together!  Definitely imparting the feel-good vibe on whomever’s property they happen to be on.

Do you think we could get a table for 4?

Table for 4, please?

Intelligence:  I know, many would argue that they have very small brains.  I disagree that they are not very intelligent.  Yes, sometimes they are confused.  But usually their decisions have much to do with survival instincts and managing resources.  They can fly, if they need to, but stumbling around on top of each other works also.  They could go up and over the gate or fence and be with their buddies if they needed to, also, but sometimes pacing and puzzling all day is a great way to pass time!  Really, I don’t know what the answer is to the age-old argument that they are not very smart, but I tend to want to defend them.  There is a popular misconception that a turkey will stare at rain until it drowns.  Not true! I read that in the early 1990s, scientists discovered a genetic condition called tetanic torticollar spasms which means that sometimes they cock their heads and gaze skyward for 30 seconds or more.  Additionally, I have watched them fall into my swimming pool and then do the breast stroke, so no fear of drowning there.  No, they’re just misunderstood.

Jackie & Char coach Mark Spitz

Jackie & Char coach Mark Spitz

Beauty:  Oh, not just because of their gorgeous plumage, but it is also their soulful, searching eyes that have me at “hello!”

I am fascinated by the large, naked reddish heads, throats and wattles on the Toms. On their heads are the fleshy growths called caruncles. When the Toms are excited, yet another fleshy flap on their bill enlarges along with the wattles and bare skin which will become engorged with blood that all but closes their eyes and covers their bills.  Though not beautiful to me, it is quite a show! The Tom’s also have a snood which looks like a fleshy sock hanging over their beaks. And better than any mood ring, when the Tom is excited, his head turns blue and then red when he is ready to duke it out with the competition.

Profile Picture!

Efficiency:  They forage and graze, fertilizing as they go.  Of course they love it when grain flies their way, but they will also happily tweedle along while selecting tasty bugs, grasses and seeds all day long.  They’ve also mastered pumpkin carving around here.

loving the pumpkin garden

Delicious!:  A free ranged turkey has a depth of flavor that is absolutely impressive as compared to conventionally raised birds. They rely on their legs to move all over the farm, not so much on their wings, and so their active muscles are full of blood vessels. The myoglobin in the blood vessels delivers oxygen to the muscles and the more that the muscles contain, the darker the muscle.  Because the turkeys fly more than they would if they were raised in an enclosed area, they are using their breast muscles more.  This means that the oxygen is distributed to the breast muscles and improves the flavor of the breast meat as well.  Overall, the feedback from customers, and my own family, is that it is an unparalleled taste.  I had easily lived without the main entrée at the Thanksgiving table, in the past, and ate my fill of squash, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. I hadn’t realized that I would enjoy turkey so much until I raised my own and now there is no turning back.

Grammie cooked this one up -some of last year's birds were 33 pounds!

Rainbow cast

On the whole, it was a great year for this batch of Broadbreasted Bronzes, Whites, and Bourbon Reds.  The Bourbon Reds are a heritage breed and flightier.  That works out alright because they are interested in staying with the flock, more or less, and are definitely food motivated.  And speaking of food, they eat everything they can graze upon as well as grain which I throw for them daily.  I used to keep a hopper full for them last year, but I learned that unless I wanted more super-birds, that scattering their grain on a once-a-day basis would be a better way to conserve grain and save money.  The grain I buy is sometimes organic, sometimes not.  So for that reason, they are not entirely organic birds.  The organic grain expense is considerably more as well as it is not always available.

grain rain

Ben Shaw at Garden of Spices in Greenwich, NY helps process my birds.  Ben has about 70 acres and runs a great poultry business himself, which he markets in the City.  His wife Jeanette and several children, (I think it was 11 last Thanksgiving), all help with the work and coming upon them you witness what it must be to see live Matryoshka dolls, lined up in overalls and pinafores with matching rubber boots.  Ben is also very helpful throughout the year if I call him with any questions.

Garden of Spices in Greenwich, NY

the sign at Garden of Spices where my turkeys are born again, sort of...

Jim made a snazzy truck-bed insert so that they can transport comfortably and safely.  This is important because even though you may suspect they are going to their death and what does it matter, stress-free transport and handling up until that fateful moment all contribute to a better end product.  Truly, if you have seen how bruised poultry dress out, it is most unfortunate that you would raise them their whole lives and in the end not have the finest to show for it.  If the purpose of the bird is for the table, then take good care of them from beginning to end.  And to sum it up, be good to them from beginning to end anyway, no matter what the purpose is of keeping any animal. Like I always say, “Peace, Love, and Turkeys.”

Fasten your seatbelts!

the Good Life

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Cell phones and Eggs, Chicks and a Sense of Humor

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Our Shetland Lambs this spring, whom I shall introduce further in a future post!

A few days ago I went with my son to the phone store to troubleshoot his telephone woes.  We ended up upgrading his phone and I adopted his phone(which had its woes straightened out.)  It was lovely for me to own the new-old phone with its shiny touch-large-touchscreen and I felt so very hip.

The next day I was doing chores in the a.m. and as it was 50ish out, I threw on my oilskin barncoat which I wear all winter.  I slid my phone into the pocket as you never know who might call you at 6:45 a.m….no, truly, I was awaiting a call from the post office that morning because I had ordered chicks which were due this week.

An egg on the ground outside of the henyard…silly chickens.  Sometimes I find a stray egg but when I saw it, I said to myself “First I’ll do all the waters and feeders, then I’ll grab that egg before I go over to the barn to do the chicks and sheep” knowing that there’d be too much jostling and such while filling the waters and the egg was, of course, fragile.

Later in the morning, after filling the buckets, the feeders, letting the sheep out to graze, checking on my new Freedom Rangers, my new turkey poults, feeding the barn cats and the bunny, I realized I’d put that egg in my pocket.  I checked my pocket.  DANG!!!!!!!  There it was, smashed cozily against my shiny-new-old-cellphone!!!!!

I peeled the jacket off and tried to up-end it to get the pocket emptied.  The egg and phone were glued into the pocket.  I was not happy, Bob.  So into the house I went, made an attempt to clean the phone, complained and complained, updated my FB status with the woes, and then went through the day phoneless.

Later that morning, the Post Office did indeed call and some of my Runner Ducklings had arrived.  I skipped down to Bennington to pick them up and bring them home, settling them in with the 30 layer hen chicks I’d gotten the week before.  They are “Blue” but right now they are grey and fuzzy and ADORABLE!  They acclimated quite nicely with the chicks and I was glad I’d already had an area set up for them.

We need a traffic light!

Could we get a traffic light in here?!

Still later that day, a friend asked if I wanted a few White Broadbreasted Turkey Poults that were left over from an order at the farm store, “Whitmans” that she works at.  I thought that’d be fine and picked them up.  They also settled in nicely.

Yesterday I got a call from the Post Office to pick up still more turkey poults.  I’d ordered 40(somehow in my head I’d thought it was 50) Broadbreasted Bronze’s and Bourbon Reds.  I had to run north a half hour to go to my dentist’s that a.m., but had time to dash south to the Post Office and pick up the little gobblers.  Sadly, I got them home and found 3 of the Bourbons had already been dead, several of them were having difficulty holding theirselves up, one Broadbreasted Bronze was completely leg-straddled.

one of the Broadbreasted Bronze poults givin' me attitude!

Twas an incredibly full day, as they all are, and every chance I got I checked on my little poults to see their status updates.  Two more Bourbons were dead at one checking, one more struggling mightily.  I could do nothing for them.  I hand fed and watered them, but left alone they just couldn’t support theirselves and they were getting trampled if I left them with the other active ones.  This meant they were isolated which also stressed them.

I called Murray McMurray Hatchery to report this and they told me that if I called Saturday morning, the 48-hour guarantee would mean I’d be reimbursed for any that I’d lost.  The lady on the phone was trying to be helpful saying it could’ve been that they were near an air conditioning vent during shipping that stressed that side of the box…suggesting sugar water or Karo syrup by tiny increments to boost their energy…  My big worry was that the Bourbons had a disease which was going to spread amongst my healthy chicks and poults.  Ahh, me…

Late in the day I drove to the phone store with my young “adopted” son Jimmy. Jimmy is an amazing kid, an invaluable tech-source, and loves the farm.  While my daughters were having an LOTR-marathon, Jimmy helped with some computer stuff and cleaned the barn(everyone needs a Jimmy!)  He assisted me in explaining my egg-phone woes and we learned that the phone was indeed kaput.  Fortunately I still had my lesser-phone with me and they were able to reactivate it.  I just couldn’t retrieve any of my contacts.  Oh well, worse things in life are happening…as I type I reflect on the fact that Saudi-women are not able to drive(insane, ridiculous, how can these things be?!?!?!)

So last night’s FB ramblings had me changing my name (from “Turkey-Tammy” White to “Egg” White) and then cracking(pun intended) horrible egg and tempura-coated-cell-phone jokes far and wide.  My husband had had enough of my humor and went to bed!  I’m still chuckling at myself!

What to do about those little turkey-poults?  I would love to be able to get more as I’ve already got orders for some of these guys and know how successful last year’s Turkey-Raising was.  Not one to accept defeat, I shall persevere.

For today, I look forward to safely carrying my cell phone whilst choring about the farm, gardening in the rain with my wonderful 27-year old niece, visiting with the Farrier, Tim Wall, when he comes to shoe the horses, and then a Scrabble Girls Night with my good friend Ellie whilst my son and husband are off on the Lake Champlain International Father’s Day  weekend Fishing Tournament.