Preparing For Heritage Turkey Arrival....

The Turkeys are coming! The Turkeys are coming! Yes, we will be receiving our Heritage Turkeys next weekend. It seems like a lot of time between now and the first weekend of April, but since we have so much to prepare before their arrival, time will fly.

The "brooder beast" (an old crate that was repurposed as a brooder) was in our garage and needed to be transported to the hoophouse. Yesterday, Chandler brought over his trailer, and with every bit of energy we loaded it up. The crate probably weighs 300 lbs and is an awkward 7' squared - so it was no easy task.

When we arrived at the farm, there was extra mushy silt in front of the hoophouse from the well drilling the day before. (It don't think we could have made it easy on ourselves if we wanted to.) So, with my father-in-laws help, we waded through the muck and got it in the hoophouse.

Brooding the turkeys in the hoophouse presents its own challenges. Making the "brooder beast" predator proof will be one of the top priorities. The lid will need to be converted to a secure screen top, hinged in the middle and locked on both sides. We have plenty of creatures that would love to make our turkey chicks a midnight snack so we will try to make invasion as difficult as possible.

In a hoophouse environment, temperature fluctuations will have to be monitored several times throughout the day.  During the afternoon, in full sun, the temperature can get very hot very quickly.


Black Gold Pile of Goodness...

Yesterday, we received a 30 yard delivery of organically certified compost. This will certainly sure up our field fertility and make it much easier to grow our plants. Our soil desperately needed the organic matter. After the delivery guy left, Nicole and I scooped up the compost and smelled its sweetness. It was beautiful!

The reality of having a mountain high pile of compost set in - it will need to be spread and worked in to the soil. Uhhhhh.. Like Nicole says, they don't call it back breaking work for nothing!

Seedlings Doing Good...

Since bringing the seedling over to the hoophouse last week we have gotten quite a growth spurt. The tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant love the 80-85 degree temperatures. Since the temperatures were so warm, we planted lemon grass, dill and basil in a raised bed Nicole made from the extra brick.

The worms are doing great. We continue to add buckets of cold lake water to the worm bins to keep them nice and cool. I never thought it would be so much fun digging around the worm bin looking for the worms, but I like it. I'm really looking for the baby worms which let me know they are happy and reproducing. A happy worm produces lots of poop, and that's what we want!

Quote:

"Nothing can resist the human will that will stake even its existence on its stated purpose."

Benjamin Disraeli