Turkey's in the Midst!

The song "I've Been Everywhere" by Hank Snow fits these fellows.

As usual we made plans, did research, revamped our plans and then, finally, placed our very first poultry order. Meyer Hatchery was our final choice for this very first farm poultry order. Ordering at this time of year is less common and selection is different. We also found some interesting differences in how hatcheries describe their birds.
Ralph wanted Australorpes, his experiences with them have been good and he knew them as very broody and versatile. We have read a lot of information contrary to this, people who find Australorpes less than ideal for a homestead bird. Murray McMurray states their Australorpes as 'Not broody'. Meyers list theirs as broody. We made the decision to try Meyer.

 Australorpe Hen

Then hatching dates and availability came into play. We wanted the chicks to arrive at Cub Run, we have to get the power to Cub Run. So more figuring went into organizing what was available, what we wanted and when they would be shipped and when we would have electricity.

We decided on our breeds of Chicken: Black Australorpe, Buff Orpington and Buckeye. The Buckeye and Australorpe arrive in Cub Run on September the 8th. The Buff Orpington are unavailable.

Buckeye hen and Chicks

 Buff Orpington

Then we decided on a mix of colors for the guinea hen order. We knew after all the ticks we picked up while we planted and worked the new garden area, that guinea hens were a must.

 

 Pearl Guineas

 Lavender Guineas

 Royal Purple Guineas

 White Guineas

The Duck choices are Cayuga, Khaki Campbell and Blue Swedish.

 Cayuga

Khaki Campbells

Blue Swedish

Then came the turkey order. We both enjoy turkey however there are only two of us so we knew the commercial White turkey's were out, I mean 27 or more pounds of turkey is just too much! I have loved the look of Royal Palm turkey's for years. So since they are a smaller breed they made the list.

Royal Palm

Bourbon Red turkey's were on our list but unavailable, and availability became our biggest issue. It seemed if we wanted turkeys that would be able to start laying in the spring...we only had until August 28th to order them. We knew we would not have possesion of the farm yet or have the electric hooked up. The advantage of having grown birds by spring would be huge, but would they travel? Could they deal with a move after getting settled in New Castle?

 Bourbon Red

To get the number of poults we wanted we decided if we could not get the Bourbon Reds we would get the Slate Turkey's.

 

Blue Slate

 

The final selection was Chocolate, I had not heard of them but they fit our requirements and are beautiful too! Imagine eating 'healthy Chocolate'!

Chocolate Turkey's

This decision was very difficult, one of us would have to turkey sit. We had always envisioned taking our new keys and just spending time together assessing our tiny corner of God's world. I knew getting the start on our turkey flock would pay off so, gritting my teeth, I told Ralph to place the order.

Now today I am listening to the peeping of poults, 30 of them. These little balls of fluff are going to be well travelled. We received a tracking number from Meyer. The poults come all the way from New Mexico to Virginia. They travel by air for part of that distance. We will then haul them to Kentucky.

 

This is the first set of heritage breed poults I have had anything to do with. They are way more active than what we are used to. On their own, without any help at all they found the water right away, set to eating with gusto and even try to catch the odd fly. They race back and forth and flap their little wings. When we approach the brooder set up they come running and are so curious, looking up at us, pecking at our fingers and being very social.

I might have got the best part of the deal, Ralph is on the road to the farm, he has to unload books, canning, chairs, and other assorted stuff. Yes he does get the keys but I get to watch these marvelous little creatures. I get to laugh at their antics and of course listen to the cheerful peep peep peeping from the porch.

The decisions we have researched, looked forward to and finally made are crucial to our physical and mental health. The poultry we have purchased is more valuble to us than gold. You cannot eat gold and it most certainly does not reproduce itself. So starts the learning curve on our farm. And the lively little turkey poults are in the middle of it all!

God Bless you all.

An Extravagance

Corinthian Bells is what they are called and we have been planning on this extravagance for 6 years. it all started when we first moved here to New Castle. One of the very first Sundays after we had moved into his little house we awoke to the sounds of church bells calling people to service. The sound was wonderful and the blending of the bells from several churches made a comforting and soothing sound as the peals drifted off into silence, then sounds of a normal day in town would start.

I had at this point always lived too far from town to hear church bells and now they had become an integral part of our life. Then there were the wind chimes on the veranda of the big old house across the street. This little town almost always has a breeze and these chimes are of good quality and make a wonderful background counterpoint to birds, children, barking dogs and other town sounds.

 

Both Ralph and I voiced our like for the chimes on a regular basis. Then one day we stopped at our local Southern States. They had an amazing array of wind chimes. I made the mistake of gently pulling on the striker of one. It was very nice but higher pitched than I really like, Ralph tried one and we grinned, it was better, deeper and richer toned.

We tried a lot of them and I have to admit we probably annoyed the staff! There were three or four we really liked but we had no where to properly hang them and  did we really need wind chimes? This wind chime shopping has gone on almost every time we shop at this Southern States store. One day after finding an especially lovely chime we somehow knew this was going to be our big splurge. These really good chimes are horribly expensive.

We discussed cheaper chimes and that dilemma was solved when our new neighbors to the left of us got cheap chimes. They were and still are dreadful....the best thing we can say about them is they get tangled up and then don't ring anymore. This will last several weeks then the young couple will untangle them, mutter about how annoying it is they get tangled and go back in the house.

Well today, as we got chick starter, we talked to the lady who does the garden centre at the Southern Sates store [It is actually a Rockingham Co-op now] and we went chime shopping in earnest. She was actually placing an order for the store and she invited us to her office where we wandered through the chime selection. The funny thing was the site she had up had an amazing selection of chimes but you could  not hear them. I asked her if there was anyway we could here them as I had found a website or two that had the tones of chimes. She was more than happy to do that and we spent time listening to all the choices.
The 74" Corinthian Bells made the cut. They sound just like the church bells that we hear each Sunday morning and it is such soothing and  heartfelt sound. Our set will be in a color called "Patina", the color of copper left to the elements. One other thing we are so pleased by is these chimes are Made in the USA!

So there you have it, the story of an extravagance and a realistically not needed in anyway purchase for the farm. We are so pleased to have ordered this treat and Ralph is thinking about where to hang them.  We will have "our" church bells in the country and the wonderful tones will sooth our spirits as we make our new world in Cub Run.

PS: Ralph gets the keys to Cub Run today, I am turkey sitting but that is another story!

God Bless you all and remember to take time to listen and enjoy the simple sounds around you in these troubles times.