A decision has been made and yesterday I ordered one of the "Barnyard Combination" packages from McMurray Hatchery. We'll be receiving 9 ducklings and 6 turkey poults sometime during the week of the 29th. I'm not sure I want that many turkeys so I might see if the guy at the feed store will try and sell 2 or 3 for us.Of course I should probably take into account that some of them won't survive to adulthood. The package we ordered lets the hatchery choose which varieties of the poultry they send, so it should be interesting to see what we end up with, they will probably all be just plain white! They are also a "straight run" which means a mix of males and females. I'm looking forward to the possibility of duck eggs, I hear they are pretty tasty.
The rain has continued and is supposed to continue continuing, so getting any seeds into the garden this weekend is looking more and more doubtful, but we shall see. At this point everything I have planted has sprouted, parsnips are finally up and the cabbage is just starting. The onions are enjoying the drenching, they look amazingly healthy. I still haven't finished fencing in the garden, have to get on that before rabbits and deer clean us out. If I do get anything in this weekend it will be sweet corn and pumpkin seeds and maybe a few tomato transplants.
Nikki took some really great pictures yesterday of a rainbow to the south of the farm, even got a few with the pigs in the pasture and the rainbow behind them. I put a few in the Pigs album at the pictures link. I also tried using one of them as the new header for the blog, seems to work differently on different PCs, I don't know why. I guess that's why I'm not a web developer.
3 comments:
Hi OP, isn't that a great picture?
I was all set to give you a flippant answer, but I am going to be serious for a minute.
I feel much better about eating a pig that I know was raised humanely than a pig that is kept in a crowded shed it's entire life and fed steroids and antibiotics even when healthy just to make it grow faster.
Jack Krell, the guy that we got our pigs from, said it best, "as long as they get some sun on their butt they are happy".
I like having happy smiling pigs and they are really happy having all of that pasture to root around in and grasses to munch on. I want their quality of life to be the best it can be, right up to the day that they are killed in the quickest way possible.
Sorry for pontificating, but this is one of the reasons we got pigs in the first place.
There is a great book out right now called The Omnivore's Dilemma that discusses getting to know the origin of your food. I recommend it to anyone.
Why would I need another bomb shelter? ;)
P.S. No bacon for you, smart guy!
No steriods or antibiotics? No thanks! Eating pigs and chickens pumped full of these cleared up my rash last year....not to mention my nice set of man brea...where did that come from? When did you build the new bomb shelter? I know you have the two above the house, the one by the pond, and the one back behind the barn.
By the way, the new header looks awesome! Great job bro.
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