Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[Lazy Gardener]

Love your description of the turkeys!

 

[Mini Horses]

Cut turkey recap. They have never been a bird known to be "the brightest in the bunch"

Are they being raised for the freezer?

Nice job on the new raised beds!

We used to get a weekly menu -- now, what?? You don't eat?

Since retirement, you guys must be chilling a little, on here.

 

[Britesea]

I haven't been able to get on as much lately, because the three of us fight over who gets the computer, lol. My son tends to win because he uses it for his college classes.

We bought 3 large-breasted white turkeys- two for us, and one is being raised for a turkey raffle fund-raiser for the Lions Club (we are members). I'm hoping we got 1 tom and 2 hens, because the hens stay small enough to fit in the oven for a Thanksgiving dinner. The tom will be turned into canned and frozen parts (I wouldn't inflict him on a raffle winner). Last year's tom was huge- his breast alone was over 25 pounds, and one thigh fed our entire family for supper. It's funny, my DH maintained for years that he would never want to raise turkeys because they are so stupid, but he adopted 2 nearly-mature turkeys last year, and this year we got 3 poults. Now he's talking about getting a laying flock of heritage breed. I don't mind, I like them.
I'm pretty sure we have at least 1 tom, because he is trying to display, and gobble... and yesterday he tried to lay a wing over one of the (I think) hens. Teenaged boys, they're all the same.

One good thing about all the work we've been doing in the garden is that I'm eating less. I got on the scale and found I'm at 229 lbs now. I haven't seen that on the scale for 10 years, so I am stoked! 79 pounds to go!

Today I want to get the herbal bed built-- a long narrow bed that will run along the fence, where all my spreading perennials and biannuals can duke it out among themselves... darwinian gardening at its finest!

As far as supper is concerned, I think it's going to be quiche, considering I have 4 dozen eggs sitting here. Add some spinach from the freezer, some tomatoes leftover from the Lions Club meeting, and some onions and some cheese and it should be a very nice quiche.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Quiche sounds good - haven't made one for over a year. With my diet starting up, it will be back on the menu since I can stuff alot of veggies in there!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hope your turkeys turn out to be the trio that you are hoping for. Congrats on the weight loss!

 

[Britesea]

Well, I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped... I spent several hours last Saturday transplanting some of my seedlings that needed more space for their roots. Working in the greenhouse, and not stopping to drink enough... I ended up seriously dehydrated and just shy of heat stroke. It took me at least 2 days of rest and rehydration to get me feeling ok again. So I only today finished one of the herbal beds I'm putting in. I planted orange bergamot, tarragon, sage, chives, horehound, thyme, and peppermint. Tomorrow I should be able to finish filling the second bed and that one will get parsley, more chives, comfrey, oregano, dill, and catnip. We have one bed ready for its hardware cloth bottom (to keep at least some of the vermin out) aandnd then we can fill it, then go off and get another load of soil.

I also want to plant the hops I bought along the southern wall of the house. I want to train it up some trellises to shade that side of the house in the summer while allowing the winter sun to help warm things in the winter. AND plant the fig trees (in pots) and the aronia berry bushes, and the jerusalem artichokes in the far corner of the yard, and the gooseberry that I saw and couldn't resist.....

It looks like we are on the home stretch of getting my mother's old house ready to rent. I hope I get some good renters after putting several thousand into fixing it up. But at least it didn't cost as much as I'd feared; I still have a bit of slush fund to put by.

It now appears that we have TWO toms and one hen in our little turkey flock... both the boys have started displaying now.

Well, time for me to go search for something for dinner. I know we have some ground meat and some bell peppers, so maybe some taco-flavored stuffed peppers are in order...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I have to remind myself to take in fluids all the time. DH is diabetic and it's worse for them - they need to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! So, glad you're feeling better though!

I love all the herbs you plant. I need to venture beyond basil and rosemary, lol.

 

[Britesea]

I did manage to get the second bed filled and planted, and one of the new big veggie beds is built and hardware cloth installed and awaiting soil and plants. We went into town during the hot part of the day to pick up a few things and got another pick-up load of soil. I got a beautiful 8-prong manure fork for my Mother's Day gift-- I think it will really help with turning the compost pile. I also picked up a big sack of basil on sale, and now I have 12 1/2 cup sized jars of pesto in the freezer (just the right size for making a pasta sauce or spreading on a pizza)

DH was going to grill some chicken thighs for us, but he hurt his back getting the soil out of the truck, so DS stepped up to the plate. That plus some more asparagus and a salad of baby spinach and baby lettuces made for a really nice Mother's Day meal.

 

[Mini Horses]

Sorry about the back injury for DH -- sometimes we aren't as flexible as we think Our brains think we can, our body doesn't


The rest of the day sounds GREAT!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hope he recovers quickly - back pain is no fun at all.