Water Fun

After weeks of begging Dad for a pool to no avail, Will and Sam took matters into their own hands............

-Morgan

Full Quiver News

Our Turkeys have Arrived!
The baby turkeys (poults) just came yesterday, thrifty and cute. We put them into our warm cozy brooders and they’re doing great! If all goes well, we anticipate them being ready the weekend before Thanksgiving. These poults will go out on pasture in about 3 to 4 weeks. They are very fragile when young and need a lot of TLC. We check on them about every 20 minutes during the day to make sure they’re comfortable, so we take shifts. Are they too hot?, or too cold?, have plenty of water?, easy feed access?, etc. They are the most labor intensive animal that we raise during the first few weeks, but they’re a lot of fun to watch. Unlike chickens, they are actually very personable and friendly with people. They always seem to have a curious inquisitive look on their face as they check out their surroundings.

We also received some replacement pullets in the mail on Thursday. We got Black Sex-Link this time, they're really cute when they're so tiny!

FRESH

Last night, Dad, Mom and I went to a screening of the new movie "Fresh". It was a very informative movie. Dad got to be in the panel discussion afterwards along with several others, including another farmer, the Willliamsburg farmers market coordinator and the Weston Price chapter leader for our area. Mr. Terrance Jackson, the one who put it together, is a taxi driver who is from New York, he was appalled by the lack of availability of natural, local food in this area, after listening to the terrible health stories time and again from the folks he drove to their medical appointments he decided to put this program together to raise the awareness of the need for local, natural food in this area. He's thinking of showing another movie this fall, about the link between cancer and our diet, and then following up with Fresh again. I don't believe Fresh is available to purchase, except for screenings, but here's a link to the website which has some trailers for the movie. http://www.freshthemovie.com/ -Morgan

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

Panel discussion after screening will include:

Libbey Oliver, Williamsburg Farmers Market

Paul Hubbard, Weston A Price Foundation

Scott Wilson, Full Quiver Farm

Richard Morris, Polyface Farms

Bobby Hill, Hidden Brook Farm

A Huge Stink

Okay, if we thought yesterday's skunk incident stunk, boy were we in for it this morning. We awoke in our own beds to the suffocating smell of skunk. Apparently in the wee hours of the morning, Bess, our dog chased a skunk under our house and there it sprayed, the horrible scent permeated the floor boards, our clothing and even our skin! The smell was so intense some of us children who were awakened early, sought refuge outside where the smell had mostly dissipated. It was there Mom found us later when she and Dad got up. We begged Dad to let us have our Bible reading time outside because of the smell, but Dad refused saying we needed to get used to it as it could smell like this for weeks or even a month! So we all trooped back inside holding our noses and trying not to gag, we sat as close to the fans and scented candles as possible and were glad to head back outside for morning chores. It being Sunday, we worried that we would bring that terrible smell with us, maybe folks would ask us to leave! Thankfully, the smell faded from us pretty quickly, and our church clothes were not harmed, we also used plenty of lotion and perfume to cover up any lingering skunk fragrance. It is late afternoon now and the house is smelling better than it did, though some parts are still pretty bad. I think we've had enough skunks to last us a lifetime! Dad was thinking maybe last night's skunk was the mate of the one Katie and Will trapped, and he came up to the house because he smelled the scent on the trap.
-Morgan

A Big Stink

We've been having predator problems for the past while, something’s has been eating our chickens steadily every night! Dad and some of the others sat out for a couple nights and they saw quite a few foxes and a skunk as well, but they could never get a shot at them. So a couple days ago Dad bought six heavy duty steal traps and last night Katie and Will set them out with high hopes and plans to check their traps first thing. So this morning they got up really early and went out to see if they had been successful. The first five traps were empty. On their way back to the last one Will thought he spotted something.

“I think we caught something! I think we caught something!” He yelled, jumping an electric fence and dashing over to the last trap.

It was the skunk! When he saw it he started jumping up and down in wild excitement, completely ecstatic at trapping his first animal, "We got the skunk!!!!!!!" he yelled. And then, whooping and hollering he dashed back to Katie yelling. “High five me dude!!! This is awesome!!!!”

Katie started whooping with him, they high-fived and whirled each other around in giddy excitement! Their victory dance came to an abrupt halt though when they both remembered that it was early in the morning and they were right by our neighbors house. Whew did they stink after they took the pictures and brought up their prized catch! It was right before morning chores and Katie didn't want to stop and to clean up so she decided to just drowse herself with perfume in effort hide the horrible smell. When Will saw what she was doing, he decided it looked like a pretty good idea and he asked her for some, so Katie gave him a good dose of "Apple Blossom" too. Well, that was adding insult to injury. Now they smelled ten times worse! When Dad caught wind of them, he ordered them to the shower immediately! We hope to catch those crafty foxes next!

-Morgan and Katie