Whew... this is a tough time of year! We finally got the last of our meat birds processed this past weekend, so a few less mouths to feed. We hardly notice difference, with over 100 turkeys roaming around, the feed it disappearing pretty quickly.
I hope some folks REALLY want some big birds this year. Remember that time I explained how I ordered the wrong birds in April? Yeah, those toms are 30+ pounds now. Really hoping the girls keep their size in check, and come in closer to 20 lbs, but there are some big turkeys out there.
Speaking of turkeys, don't forget to reserve yours for Thanksgiving. We are more than half-way sold out, and usually sell out by the end of the month!
I did just unofficially finish canning season. I need to put a bigger table on the front porch, as I have lots of canned stuff to sell, but most of it goes to the basement to help us through winter. I'll probably finish another batch of something with some green tomatoes, thanks to our early frost last week. And I am sure I'll get my hands on a few more pie pumpkins for pumpkin butter, so the canner can't retire just yet. But my complete commandeering of the kitchen for untold hours on end is now over.
We have a big goodbye to say this week, too. Our lovely little D-Day isn't so little anymore, and he's off to, as they call it "Freezer Camp". This is our little buddy a year ago. He's not so little anymore, but still so sweet. I'll take some goodbye photos of him hopefully tonight. Such a good mooey-cow, we are going to miss him.
It's time to start thinking about winterizing the farm as well... putting away the chicken tents, bringing out the heating elements and making sure all our water sources are warm and toasty. We've moved the last of our new laying hens into the chicken truck. Thank goodness chickens are smart, I like this batch. I checked last night and they all took themselves into the truck on their own! If only turkeys could do the same!
So now we wait until November, where we take care of most of the turkeys, if not all, on the farm. We wait to see if Tank, our big ram lamb, did the job and we could have lambs as early as November, as late as February, so we should have some new babies joining us this winter.
Here's to hoping I can maintain my sanity from now until December!