It's that time of the year when everything starts to flip on its head. We are bearing down for the last haul until Thanksgiving. Once we process all these turkeys, we get to hibernate. But remember when I said my brain never left hibernation mode? It hasn't, and it's really looking forward to hot chocolates again.
Thank goodness for 10+ years of data and spreadsheets to keep this place moving even when my brain just wants hot chocolates and my feet just want fuzzy slippers.
The end of summer is when the farm flips. We got our last batch of baby turkeys this week. That's it, no more babies. In 3 weeks, all the baby birds will be out of the barn, and we can tear the brooders down to make more room for hay. We'll start bringing in the big hay bales, too, and set a date for getting firewood. The last of our meat chickens will be processed in September, and meat ducks will start slowly finding their way into the freezer, too. Extra roosters will join them. The Farmer's Market will end. The last wave of late spring lambs will go to the processor in November, in time to be in the freezer for Thanksgiving sales. All the beginnings are becoming endings and that's how the farm flips.
The final turn is when the ewes start having their winter lambs, so at least the end starts a new round of begin again.