We crammed so much into this weekend, I am sure we'll all sleep well tonight. 

The whole family worked on cleaning up the yard on Saturday and Sunday.  After this winter, there were about a million sticks, twigs and branches littering the yard.  The boys were absolute gems while we worked to clean them up. 

When we weren't working on that, we were digging up an area to put in a natural pond.  I've been reading up on ponds because I have always wanted one and was debating between an ornamental pond with fountain, or a natural pond.  I've decided natural is better...and easier.   It's not complete yet, but it was much easier to dig out than I thought. 

The boys in the pondCheck out this awesome bug we found!To top it all off, we had a delicious turkey dinner, built a fire outside and made s'mores.  It was about as close to a perfect weekend as I've come.

my favorite boysHave a great week!

~Kelly

Today, we got some snow. Not much, but it was enough to get the kids excited and to cause some changes on the farm.

The birds didn't get to go out of the coop. They love to get outdoors and scratch around for bugs and other tasty tidbits, so when they don't get their freedom, they get upset. Snow and cold temperatures can hurt their feet and combs.

I plugged in the oil pan heater on the tractor, too. Since it's been so cold, that helps to get it started during the winter. We use the tractor to plow the lane to the road. I enjoy doing it more than I thought I would.

I'm also happy that we got a delivery of firewood last weekend. Although we have a lot of trees on the farm, I wasn't able to spend much time on firewood this year. We love, love, love the wood furnace, so we'd much rather spend the money on wood than propane.

Which reminds me: I forgot to water the seedlings in the greenhouse today. (We have a propane furnace in there, too.) The broccoli sprouts will be ready to eat soon, but the lettuces haven't germinated. Sometime in January, we'll have Tom Thumb and mache salads.

-Brian

Today, we will be eating our first farm-raised turkey. My sister-in-law is roasting it today, and I'm excited to bring this experience full-circle.

In May, we received a batch of 15 Holland White heritage turkeys. By the time that we had them slaughtered, we were down to 11, and now we have four. One tom and three hens make up our breeding flock.

Anyone who has visited the farm in the last few months has inevitably been followed around by a flock of gobbling turkeys. There were a lot of toms in the bunch, so they were loud, loud, loud! Now that there's only one male left, the gobbles don't sound so powerful.

At least one of the hens has taken to sitting on eggs, both chicken and turkey. Turkeys are not the most graceful birds, so a few typically are cracked by the time that we gather them. I'll be anxious to see how well the birds sit in Spring.

There's always something to anticipate on the farm. I'm thankful for that.

-Brian

We got the turkeys processed this morning. Since they were so much bigger than the chickens and we are not equipped with things like killing cones, we decided to pay someone else to do it. They're in the freezer right now.

I can't wait to eat one. Before we started on our "organic trip," I loved getting whole turkeys. It gave me a great excuse to cook multiple meals. While we transitioned, I had a difficult time adjusting to the price of chemical-free food. Buying a turkey meant $60+ instead of the artificially-low $0.69/lb around the holidays.

Now, after we spent $7.50 per chick, fed them, watered them, protected (most of) them from our dogs, shooed them into the coop every night and listened to their constant gobble-gobble, the price seems more accurate. We get no government subsidies. We don't have 10,000 square foot buildings. We put our own labor into producing food that has had a chance to live life.

One tom and three hens were spared. They will be our breeding stock for next year. Our hope is that we can develop more self reliance by growing from what we produced the year before. Just like saving seeds, we would like our animals to increase our stock naturally instead of buying from a hatchery or breeder every year.

Plus, who wouldn't love to see them hatch in Spring?

-Brian