high hopes gardens is a living experiment. Can a creative, hard-working family make a living working with nature? Join us on the journey from idea to practice as we revive an Iowa Farmstead.
If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room!
We brought the turkeys into the locker this morning. They dressed out a good size for us - 15-23 pounds.
We took five of them and cut them up into one-meal sized packages. Emma is turning into an accomplished poultry cutter and works side by side with her mother here, cutting up the turkeys.
Success this year. We raised 10 turkeys this year and all 10 are still alive. They are now living out in the pasture and use an old hay rack for shelter/roosting. Even at 20+ pounds, they are still strong enough to fly up to the top rail of the hay rack.
These turkeys seemed particularly happy - one morning we were late getting out to feed them and we were surprised they en masse found a way to get to the back door of the house to announce breakfast was late!
Although we missed this storm, after it passed by us, it spawned some tornados to the southeast of us.
Like good turkeys, when the rain came, they sought shelter under the wagon, so they have at least a smidgeon of common sense left.
Today we had some students from a livestock class tour the farm. It sounds like a fun class - the students tour dairy, elk, goat, and a wide range of common and uncommon livestock farms.
We fit into the small and diversified category. Here, I am getting ready to demonstrate how owl hoots get the turkeys to gobble and fluff up their feathers.
I still remember when I learned this trick from a turkey hunter when I had a summer job at the Story County Conservation Board. I didn’t believe “Joe” when he said, he could make wild turkeys gobble. So one day when we drove down a gravel road into a small timbered valley, he stopped the truck, stuck his head out the window and gave some owl hoots, and out of the woods, came the turkey alarms. I didn’t think there were any wild turkeys living there, let alone that he could get them to talk. It even works on domestic turkeys. I guess the owls are one of the turkey’s enemies and if they hear an owl, they set out the alarm.
The turkeys have taken to roosting on the top of the back brace of the hay wagon. They crack me up. It’s actually a good place to roost, especially if your behind is over the back instead of over the wagon!
I wonder how long they’ll be able to fly up to roost as they get bigger? Nine are roosting up on top and one stays on the ground. I wonder if the ground-dweller is the mystic/philosopher of the flock or just the least intelligent one?
Joel Salatin would be proud of this cheap and easy temporary turkey shelter. The turkeys used to be in the “turkey tractor” (the moveable pen that is now upside down on the old hay wagon). But they were getting too big, so I just put a tarp over part of the wagon for rain protection, put the tractor on top as a rain porch for the food, hung the waterer on and voila - a movable turkey resaurant, hotel, and umbrella.
I had thought of building a small shelter for the food and turkeys, but this was much quicker and probably better than a portable shelter that would be prone to blow-over and perhaps not as easy to move as this one, already on wheels. The turkeys are all within a fence that keeps big critters like dogs and coyotes out, so they are free to roam a fairly wide range.
Here’s one of our thanksgiving turkeys. Today was the day they went to the locker - so they are fresh for Thanksgiving.
It was a rough start to the turkey season - first 10 of 15 of the poults arrived dead from the hatchery this summer. As the replacements weren’t sent for a month, we were worried about the turkeys getting to size. Then a feral cat, ate some of the other turkeys out on the range. At $5 a poult, it adds up in a hurry. We ended up with 9.
The biggest two were about 26 lb and the rest were 12-16 lb, which wasn’t too bad. We kept two - one 16 lb for Thanksgiving and the biggest one Emma cut up and vacuum-packed for many meals. We traded a couple of turkeys for some berkshire pork from Eden Farms. We fried up some chops tonight and they were the best I’ve ever had - literally melt in your mouth chops.
Does the turkey moon follow the harvest moon? Here are the turks heading into shelter under a full moon.
The turkeys have been growing nicely and have ranged up to an acre away - all the way to the cornfield.
It looks like the turkeys are once again reaching giant size. We’ve got some big Toms and they aren’t due to the locker until October 8th. A trick I learned when I was working with the Story County Conservation Board was to make an owl sound to get wild turkeys to call. Turkeys hate owls and sound the alarm.
We are growing the Bronze-breasted turkeys and I made an owl hoot and watched a Tom puff out his feathers and try to look menacing. The turkeys, I must admit, are a bit freaky looking, especially the waddle thingy that hangs down from their head. I’m sure there must be cultures who use this fleshy piece for things I would rather not imagine.
Tom’s big waddle.
Today, we finally picked up our sheep. We got four from Goat Girls Farm near Runnells. Emma has promptly named all of them in the vacuum left by her sister’s absence. Without further ado, this year’s sheep crop!
They are still a bit shy, only on the ground in their new home a few minutes when this picture was taken.
Did you hear about the two shepherds leaning on their crooks at the end of a long day. The first one says to the second, “So, how’s it going?” The second one sighs and shakes his head, “Not good. I can’t pay my bills, my health isn’t good, and my oldest kid was thrown in jail last night.” The first shepherd replies, “Well, don’t lose any sheep over it.”
We’ll have these until the grass dies in the late fall.
The turkeys are growing fast. Here are what our Bronze-Breasted look like today.
We drove home from Minneapolis yesterday and arrived home around 1:30. In contrast to the trip up, where Martin talked nearly non-stop. …right Dad? ….right, Dad? …right Dad? …right, Dad? He slept almost all the way home. I should hope that he keeps valuing my opinion as he ages! Today I got some of the thistles in the pasture mowed down, but that ended rather abruptly when the pulley came off the mower deck, along with some loose bearings. Not a good sign.
We moved some of the turkeys and chickens out to the chicken tractors. Right now they are close to the old hog barn, but will be moved out to fresh pasture daily.
Here are the handsome bronze-breasted turkeys.
