Turkeys

Teen Son bought some Broad Breasted White Turkeys and we bought 6 Red Bourbon Turkeys.  So far 3 of the Red Bourbon’s have died.

  We have been working on getting Luca used to the turkeys so they will be protected instead of chased by our dog.  Luca isn’t real happy with the playful turkeys 

Thank You Brooks and Dunn

Stick Boy's first day with us.

When you have an adopted child the questions about how they were born isn't always easy.  Our family is complicated.  My oldest daughter’s birth mom’s grandparents are wonderful grandparents for all of my kids and I hugely appreciate that, we have been able to have a wonderful relationship with all the family.  At family gatherings with Oldest Daughters birth mom we just refer to her as an aunt for the rest of the kids.  We have a Facebook relationship with Stick Boy’s siblings that all live in different states. 

Today Stick Boy was very insistent asking me about his birth father.  This is hard.  His birth mother was a failure of the foster care system and after being bounced like a yo-yo between foster homes and her mother she ran away as a young teen to live off of the streets.  Stick Boy is the youngest of her children all were born drug exposed.  Stick Boys birth mom is blond, and so by looking at Stick Boy we know his birth father is of African ancestry.  When we got Stick Boy we didn't even know that much, we would play guessing games on his race; Mexican, Filipino, African American, Pacific Islander, and Native American, and seal were all regularly discussed. 

Stick Boy's adoption day.

Today Stick Boy didn't ask me generally about “dads” or his birth mom or meeting his birth siblings. Today his question was about HIS birth father - why did he leave his birth mom, why don’t we know who he is? Today I had to let my son know that all babies don’t come into the world after a mom and dad meet and fall in love and get married and then have a baby.  Today I let him know that sometimes people have sex and babies without being in love.  I could see his mind working.

Then Brooks and Dunn’s song, “She Used to be Mine” came on the radio.  Stick Boy looked at me and said “That’s the opposite of this song.”  Yes!  “I feel sorry for my mom then” and it was over.  For now with Brooks and Dunn’s help I have answered his questions.  

Butching Turkeys

Warning:

don't scroll down unless you want to see dead birds.

When we were at the fair Teen Son’s Ag teacher mentioned the person who had butchered the turkeys in the past was no longer available.  Teen Son found out it was $25  a bird to do the butchering and volunteered.  The problem is we are not real confident of the job we are doing!  So he gathered three friends, borrowed the pot a wonderful friend of ours uses to cook crawfish and got to work.  Well the kids got to work – I took pictures. 

 

The boys put the birds in a cut down traffic cone then cut the veins so the bird would bleed out.

 

One of the FFA girls older sisters knew what she was doing and gave lessons. 

 She sure did make the day so much easier!

They started doing the plucking with a plucker attached to a drill.  

These birds were 25 to 40 lbs and holding them in the air got old really fast.

 

The kids switched over to plucking by hand.

 

Posers!

 

Not to be out done by his big brother.

The first bird gook over 40 minutes and by the time we got down to the fourth turkey the kids had it down to 25 minutes.  4 kids working 25 minutes to earn $25.00 is not a great profit.  Teen son enjoyed doing the work and plans to raise a few turkeys to sell for Thanksgiving.  

Missing Tessa

Tessa was a wonderful dog.  

She was Luca’s leader, the two dogs worked together with her seeming to tell Luca what to do. 

Tessa had the energy to play with Dakota long enough to get him good and tired every morning and afternoon. 

She was the sheep’s alarm, if Tessa barked the sheep paid attention often moving closer to her for protection.  The cat’s enjoyed teasing her to the point that I warned the kids if one of our cats ended up dead I wouldn’t be mad at Tessa. 

 Tessa rarely let a human hand rest without her putting her head under it for a scratch.  She was the perfect loving watchful protective dog.  After Tessa died Stick Boy came to me in tears, “Now the only one I have to tell my secrets to is God”.  Tessa will always be missed.  

Poison

I came home from the fair early my back was hurting and I just wanted to be home.  Darling Husband brought me home and I checked all the animals I had not seen for 8 days then went to take a nap and stretch my back.  The week on the coast had not prepared me for the hot temperatures inland at 5: it was early to feed the animals BUT the fodder room is air conditioned so I decided to go up and hang out in the air conditioned fodder room. 

The last picture I took of Tessa was of her guarding a turtle laying eggs in our driveway.  The turtle was very unhappy with all the attention she received.  

 I stepped over Tessa as I walked up to the fodder room.  A few minutes later she came up to the fodder room with some blood on her mouth but I didn’t think much of it because she is such a hunter.  She leaned against me and I petted her for a few minutes then got back to work getting ready to feed the cattle. Tessa curled up by my feet.   I looked down a few minutes later and blood was flowing out of her mouth and as I called my daughter to bring the car so we could get her to the vet she died. 

Luca home from the hospital.  I am not sure if the cat is guarding me or Luca.

Two days later Luca stopped moving very much.  He wouldn’t come when called or eat so I called the vet we have been using who didn’t have any appointments for a few hours and gave us the number to the emergency vet after I explained what had happened to Tessa.  I called our old vet and when I explained what had happened to Tessa they just said to take Luca to an emergency vet the dr was in surgery. 

Luca happily jumped into the truck, and enjoyed the ride to the emergency office but on the way bruises started to form under his skin.  He jumped out of the truck and happily walked into the emergency vets charming everyone along the way.  I joked with the vet teck that he was faking being sick at home and just wanted attention.  I told them our other dog had died so they took him to be tested.  Luca’s blood had stopped clotting.  The dogs had gotten into poison or eaten animals that were poisoned.  We left Luca with hope that we would be able to pick him up the next day but they made it clear he might need to stay 2 nights to make sure he was safe. 

Luca decided his crate was a comfortable place.  The noise of his wagging tail banging against the side and the cats hissing at him made me go check.

We all kept thinking of Luca all day and finally late in the afternoon I called to see how Luca was doing and they told us to pick him up.  He was doing well enough to come home.  It has been a month.  Today hopefully, was Luca’s last blood test to make sure he is clotting propperly.  He has associated the cow’s pasture with his being hurt and is afraid to go into it but is jumping the fence to visit my neighbor who feeds him hamburger and other treats and back to being his playful self.  

Feeling good enough to play in the water and tease Dakota with a stick.