The critters have all been stuck in the corral since I took them off the pasture last week so it can recover over the winter. So I thought they’d be happy today when I put them in the backyard to graze. I figured it was tall enough it could use to be eaten down a bit, and there’s nothing back there I care about them damaging.

Of course, they still complain as soon as they see me – Baaaaaaaa!

Here’s Mom and her not-so-little lambs. Marian is in the middle, Indy is on the right.

Here’s Big Bird, he’s starting to get a tail. Unfortunately he’s starting to get those nasty spikes on the back of his legs too!

Just for comparison, here are two of my three buff orpington girls. Two of them look like the one in the top picture, but the third one is in the bottom picture. A lot more red on the face, and starting to get a tail. I think I might have an extra rooster!

Fall has set in and it’s a bit colder now, the grass is pretty sparse out in the field, and every morning I have a list of chores to tackle before breakfast. Let out the chickens (if I remembered to close the coop door the night before), and count to make sure no one is missing – lets see, there’s Big Bird, Penny, the three Buff Girls, Blackie, Big Red (in the nest box this morning), and Little Red – all accounted for. The sheep and llamas need their hay, but I have to get it into the corral without any over-excited sheep, goats, or llamas pushing their way into the yard. Chase Scoops out of the orchard where he’s filling up on windfall apples (the big pest pushed over the fence to get to them). Play with Barclay so he will rest and quit destroying things around the house for a bit. Look for chicken eggs (it’s like an easter egg hunt, I never know where they will lay them next). Then I can come inside and get to work!

Oh, and while chasing Scoops out of the orchard I noticed an apple tree I had not really looked at before, and it had some nice big apples on it, so I tried one – Fuji! Yum! I hope next year I can take better care of the orchard and really get some nice production out of it.

We had a little excitement around the farm this morning. To start with I had let the flock out to wander the yard, and they came up on the deck. So I had the back door open (screen closed) so I could hear them – I like the chicken noises! I was sitting there working on my laptop when I heard a fuss that was much bigger than the usual ‘hey, I’m pecking here, you go over there’ sort of squabbles they have. This was MUCH bigger! So I jumped up just in time to see a hawk flying off, and the rooster strutting around all ampped up! Apparently the hawk had gone for the hens, but the rooster protected them! So now he’s not just my handsome boy, he’s a regular hero!

So I got some scratch and enticed the flock into the covered pen in case the hawk came back, and they were all happy to go! Everyone was sticking pretty close to the rooster, and he stood outside the pen until everyone was inside then he followed. Once everyone was safe I went back to work. Then I heard another odd sound, a little ‘bok bok bok’ kind of noise, but it didn’t sound like a chicken – because it wasn’t!

It was a wild turkey!

He/she was about three foot tall, look at it in front of that bench! That’s a BIG bird!

He hung around the yard for a couple hours, mostly down in the corner by the shed, where he could see the chicken pen, but he couldn’t figure out to walk around to the other side of the fence, then he could have gone in the orchard and got food and water that was sitting right outside the pen. Then he went on his way. It was cool to have a wild turkey drop by. I didn’t even realize there were any in our area, but when I told the FedEx guy about it he said he saw a big flock of them a little further north a few days before.

We’ve been here almost ten years, and there’s still new stuff to see!