Sometimes Silence IS Golden...

Every three weeks or so, we do a complete muck-out of all of the cow stalls and fill the girl’s “bedrooms” back up with fresh straw. Think of it as cleaning out the cat box on a GRAND scale. Even though we do daily maintenance and clean-up of manure inside their stalls, this time of year the groundwater and mud get carried in to the barn as the cows walk in and out, eventually churning the straw in to a muddy,but (on the bright-side) highly compostable mess. This past weekend marked time to do a barn cleanout, and the day thankfully was sunny even if it wasn’t all that warm.

Despite the back breaking labor of manually moving thousands of pounds of muddy straw and manure, I actually enjoy the days when we work outside for several hours with the animals. They seem to enjoy our company, too, and they are affectionate and interested in everything we are doing.

Which brings me to the dancing turkeys – because it’s that time of year! I caught this little fellow doing his self-conscious mating dance in the center of the barn. I tried to figure out who he was performing for, and then ultimately realized that this was entirely for our benefit. As a sidenote, this turkey is aptly named “Mute,” because he was born with a defective voicebox and has always been completely incapable of making a sound. The hens seem partial to his near-silent gobbles and calls – I guess ultimately proving that sometimes, silence IS golden.

Matt's work schedule was a little lighter this past weekend, and as usual, he volunteered to make butter on Sunday to free up my time to make some felt for some projects I've sketched out over the past couple of weeks. I used churro wool that I got from Ovie Ranch when we picked up our churro lambs last Summer to make felt this time, and it has an interesting, long-fibered texture that I think will be fun to play around with. It also has a lot of natural variegation, which made for a more interesting wool color without dying.