the "turkey whisperer"

So I'm now being referred to as the "turkey whisperer" on the farm. I suppose it is fitting; after all I have a particular obsession with the turkeys that no one else seems to possess. Sometimes I wish I could just sit and watch them for hours at a time. I'm even trying to learn how to mimic their calls, so I can communicate with them. I'm definitely obsessed. Here are some recent pictures of my babies.

Hot turkey

Inquisitive turkeys

frustrated turkey

boy turkey flirting with girl turkey

turkey stand-off

turkey with the whisperer

A pig in every forest, bacon on every plate.

I want to own pigs and lots of them. 

Last week we visited a forest-fed pig farm where the pigs roam free in 75 acres of forest. These were the happiest looking pigs I have ever seen foraging for roots and grubs in the soil, hanging out by the stream, and wallowing in the mud.

The guy who owns the operation, delightfully named "Babes in the Woods", singlehandedly cares for all 150 pigs and an additional 50 piglets which is pretty impressive. (http://www.forestfed.com/) 

Now I just need about a hundred acres of land so I can make my dream farm a reality!

little, reddish-colored Tamworth piglets

The daily grind: a photo essay of sorts.

Everyday I wake up to the first streaks of sunlight breaking through the misty fog of the morning.

As I make my way up to the farmhouse I’m greeted by our three donkeys who nuzzle my arms and nibble at my hair as I hop the fence and take a shortcut up the hill.

Morning chores begin with a visit to our mini flock of sheep who come running at the sound of the feed buckets knocking against one another as I make my way through the high grass to their shady corner of the back hill.

Feeding the goats is a bit trickier; I always find myself dodging horns and hooves as try to fill their trough without getting injured.

By far the highlight of my morning is visiting with my baby turkeys. We recently moved them into pasture and they look happier than ever foraging among the tall grass and practicing flying around their enclosure.

The summer harvest is in full swing! We dug up all of our garlic and hung the bulbs to dry outside.

 I cut bunches of heirloom celery and arranged bouquets of edible flowers for the farmer’s market on Saturday.

I visit with the chickens in the late afternoon to collect eggs. 

My day wraps up as the sun begins to set, and I'm lucky if I'm in bed by 11pm!

Oh Shenandoah.

Sundays are for hiking.

My first weekend here I bought a one year pass to Shenandoah National Park hoping to hike a different trail every weekend while I'm here. So far I'm 3 for 3. While some people might prefer to relax on their one day off, I prefer to exhaust myself further by going for 4-5 hour hikes! The first trail I chose was recommended to me by several friends and it was just as amazing as they had promised. The 8.8-mile circuit I hiked included part of the Whiteoak Canyon Trail, the Whiteoak Fire Road, and the Cedar Run Trail past dozens of waterfalls and a natural rock slide. 

the lower falls at Whiteoak Canyon

Last weekend I attempted to hike up Hazeltop Mountain and down around the Rapidan Camp area, but I made a wrong turn right at the outset and just hiked the Appalachian Trail from Milam Gap up past Fishers Gap and back. Unfortunately there were a lot of people on that part of the trail, but it was an otherwise beautiful hike. 

lots of dead hemlock, pretty eerie. 

This weekend I hiked the trail I had intended to hike last weekend along the Mills Prong and Laurel Prong Trails up Hazeltop Mountain and then back down along the AT. The trail was shorter than I expected, only 7.4 miles, and it only took about 3 hours which was kind of a bummer. The best part was that there were so few people on the trail that I really felt like I was out in the wilderness. 

headed North on the AT

two weeks and counting.

dusk settling over the fields.

I did the math today to figure out how many hours I’ve worked so far (mostly to see how much money I’m making), and I figured out that I am averaging 12-hour workdays; and that doesn’t include the time I spend doing chores around the house like cooking dinner, tending to the dogs, general cleaning, etc.  It’s kind of ridiculous when you think about it. I’m also averaging about 6 hours of sleep a night, which is really not working for me. The good news is that even though I’m not making anything close to minimum wage, I’m racking up a bit of money with all the crazy hours I’m working.

To avoid the inevitable burnout that comes with working such intense hours I'm taking off again this weekend (well, I'm taking off Sunday anyway). I'm thinking that another big hike in the Shenandoah is just what I need to rejuvenate me. 

I still have to work tomorrow though, and I have my work cut out for me with mowing around the vegetable plots, transplanting some seedlings, and tons of weeding. Thankfully because I'm house sitting and taking care of a dog for some friends this weekend I get to start work a bit later, so hopefully I can sleep in a bit. 

this is Cara our new herding dog, still just a puppy though.

life and death on the farm.

This has been kind of a rough week because we had a couple of animal deaths on the farm; death is a very real part of farm life, and, in a way, it’s been a really important learning experience for me. The first to go was one of our chocolate turkey poults; after days of refusing to eat, it had grown so weak that it couldn’t hold it’s body up anymore, so we decided to euthanize it rather than have it suffer any longer. Even though there was nothing we could have done to get it to eat, I still felt responsible for it’s death, which made it particularly difficult for me to accept.

A few days later a similar problem was spotted with one of the goat kids who appeared to be sleeping all the time and never eating. After a couple of days like this we tried bottle-feeding her, but she started having seizures and passed on shortly after. It’s really amazing to watch nature run its course through life and death. As humans we evade the natural course of our lives and cheat death time after time, but it just doesn’t work like that in nature; nature won’t let live what isn’t meant to live and that’s that. 

And, to be honest, one death in an entire herd of goat kids and in a whole clutch of turkeys isn't really that big of a deal. Some deaths are to be expected, and the vast majority of the babies are doing great. So far twenty of our goats have had their kids, and the barn looks like a nursery with all the kids bouncing around.

At just over a week old, the turkey poults are already getting their feathers and attempting to fly! It's amazing how quickly they grow!

Frederic is still alive too! And his eye is starting to open up slightly, so maybe he'll make it after all!

The Full Report

Since things slow down a little around here on the weekends I've finally had some time to take in my surroundings, compose my thoughts, write some letters, and just breathe a little bit. Things were moving at such a breakneck pace early in the week I was getting a little worried that I wouldn't have anytime to just enjoy where I am and what I've been doing. Other than taking care of the baby turkeys, the only other thing I had to do today was visit the Madison and Charlottesville Farmer's Markets so I could get a feel for them before I start running our booths there next week, and that was really more fun than work. The Charlottesville market is pretty cool because there are people selling art and handmade things in addition to the typical vegetable and plant vendors. There were lots of musicians too, including these guys who were playing amazing bluegrass/folk music. 

The guy sitting down was playing guitar, harmonica, tambourine, and using a foot pedal to play his suitcase like a bass drum--now that's skill!

Back at the farm things are going really well. We've been tying up berry bushes to get them ready for picking which should start next week, doing a lot of weeding and basic maintenance of the fields, and we've been trying to finish the last of the planting for the fall harvest. We're just getting into the really productive part of the season, so we should be starting to harvest a lot more in the coming weeks.

My daily responsibilities include feeding all the animals in the morning, collecting the eggs from the hen house, washing and packaging the eggs, and taking care of the turkeys. I was also just given the job of kombucha maker, so I have to start new batches of that every few days so we have enough to sell at the market. 

A lot of our attention lately has been focused on the many new arrivals to the farm. Twenty or so of the goats are pregnant right now and every day a couple of them have their kids. So far we have about a dozen or so goat kids (moms usually have twins or triplets) and we're still awaiting a bunch more. These were the first two to be born. 

Then came these...

The best part about having all these baby goats around is that if you're having a bad day you can just go outside and hold a baby goat and all your problems just melt away.

Tomorrow's my day off, and I'm going hiking in Shenandoah National Park!