The seasons seem to change quickly around here. Looking back at my farm notebook, it was a sunny 56 degrees just two days ago, and today we awoke to snow falling from the gray clouds above. December has been a hectic month being in the midst of another holiday season, and had some fairly abnormal weather, but today all was calm when I stepped outside to do the morning chores in my new insulated bibs that I got for Christmas, with farm cats tangled at my feet.
Dashing through the falling flurries, the farm cats, as always, were quick to help this morning, and grab a snack in the warm dry shed of some of the turkey feed.
Since I've checked in with everyone last, a bit has happened around here with our turkeys. A week ago, we moved the turkey trailer to its new location by the chicken coop inadvertently creating a sort of barnyard for our animals past the old Pennsylvania Barn up on the hill.
It's a rather haphazard barnyard created with bits and pieces of whatever we could scavenge up: an old shed door propped up with tomato stakes to act as a windbreak for the chickens, chicken wire and garden fencing zip-tied to the runs to give the chickens some extra space and new areas to scratch, and an overabundance of white string used to tie newspapers together, now tightly strung in a 6-8" grid to create an aerial barrier between the turkeys and freedom.
Unfortunately, this aerial barrier has failed us. Again. You may recall the turkey hen on the greenhouse roof from the last post. Well, after just hours outside the second day (at their new location), she was promptly seen checking in with the chickens from our window. I gathered her up, and stuck her back in the enclosure, and then spent the next thirty minutes securing the place she escaped through around the tree (witnessed by the turkey down stuck in the string nearby).
An hour after the repairs, she had escaped yet again. Again, I stuck her inside their enclosure. As dusk was now approaching, I decided to grab the hunting seat, and sit outside in the barnyard to watch vigil over the turkey hen to make sure she did not escape again. If, somehow, she did, at least I would know how she did it, and in theory, be able to get her back inside quickly.
Without missing a beat, at dusk, she glanced upward through the strings, and tried to catapult herself through to freedom. She hit the strings and flapped back down, defeated. Yes! It worked! She had been using the tree for leverage after all! After a few more failed attempts, I was satisfied that she would have to sleep in the trailer tonight. Just as I thought she had given up, she mustered up enough wing power for one last ditch effort, and through she went!
I spent the next ten minutes chasing her around, while the gobbler now tried to desperately hurl himself through the aerial barrier. I finally managed to wrestle her back in, but before I could turn around to secure her escape route, out she went again. This time she found herself on the trailer's roof (where I could not reach), and was eagerly eyeing up the mulberry tree above her head.
The Mr. had fortunately pulled in at the landlord's (past the white barn behind her in the above picture) around that time, and I was able to frantically call him and get him home. He climbed up to the trailer roof and grabbed her off, then promptly put both her and the gobbler to bed for the night. Presently, they are stuck inside for a few days until repairs are made to the enclosure that will hopefully keep them inside!
With the turkeys out of the garden, the Delaware cockerels are now down there alone in their chicken tractor, working up the ground and eating up the tall and small weeds. Our aim is for them to make it to the end of the garden before it gets too cold, and then they'll head off to the freezer so we can have some more chicken throughout the year.
As they work up the garden, we are finally starting to plan for next year's garden, but a little differently than before. In years past this was a quiet winter break where all the planning could take place for two months before seed starting began. This year, the greenhouse and cold frame are both still producing so there's only a limited break from the gardening. Who would have thought that I would have to weed in winter?! In December, we've harvested and eaten radishes, carrots, parsley, celery, and even tomatoes, though the plants of the latter are now pulled up. Although the plants inside were bit by the cold, both the greenhouse and cold frame are certainly extending our season!
So on this cold and snowy day, it looks like I'll be finishing up some of the year-end totals, and perhaps get to work on a new garden layout plan for the coming season as I've already managed to inventory all of our seeds earlier this month. After all, we can't harvest a seed that was never sown.
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