|
|
| #1 & #2..yes, those are their names! |
It all started Saturday morning when hubby and I went to buy a mating pair of Bourbon Red heritage breed turkeys.
We currently have 2 juveniles that are 15 weeks old and as such won’t be ready to breed for quite a while. We began with 6 poults & the intention of starting a Heritage Turkey business selling poults, fertilized eggs and holiday turkeys, but 3 died within the first week & Blue, the useless ranch hand, got the 4th, so this severely limited our options.
When we found the breeding pair on Craig’s list, we jumped on it and now they are settling in at the ranch.
This is Rosie & he is handsome & huge. I am quite in awe of the size & beauty of these birds. Rosie has spent the last few days strutting & gobbling along the fence line next to #1 & #2, letting them know that he is THE male. By this weekend, we will put them all together and see how that goes.  |
| Jefferson |
Turned out the calf hut was a good fit as it was spacious, washable (a key feature as Turkey poo smells really really bad!), portable and had venting on the top…everything we needed and once all the Turks are together, we can use it as an extra shelter.The hut was loaded on the back of the pickup and we headed back to the ranch just in time to meet Cindy from Stargazer Ranch in Loveland.
Cindy and John own Stargazer and have many wonderful and award winning alpacas. All 8 of our ‘Pacas came from them and when we purchased our herd, they all, with the exception of MacTavish, came with a breeding (for obvious reasons).
Willow, Liberty’s dam, was ready to be rebred so Cindy brought Barringer aka Bob (Liberty’s sire) with her for a breeding.
 |
| Liberty |
Cindy also brought back Princess who was at Stargazer being rebred.
Princess is our Miss Piggy…she has never seen a meal that she didn’t like, especially if it belongs to one of the other ‘Pacas!
But I digress….back to Willow & Bob. While Bob seemed to be very much in the mood, Willow was not. So while Bob mounted & with my hubby holding his lead rope, Cindy encouraged Willow to cush & Bob got down to business. Like so many other things that have happened on the ranch, I have never seen animals mate, & especially not alpacas…it was quite powerful for lack of a better word. 
Bob’s orgling was quite loud and very enthusiastic and while the other alpacas stood along the fence line watching, Willow finally did get in to the spirit of the thing, and the mating appeared to be successful in the sense that Willow did not jump up, throw Bob off and spit on him.
Finally, after a long day, we were able to sit down and relax for a while, but no sooner had we done that then a hellacious wind, hail & rain storm hit us. It was loud and violent & turned the ground white with the dime sized hail. All I could think about was the fact that my garden was most likely destroyed.
Sunday morning dawned bright and clear…so unlike the fury of the night before. Sadly, my worst fears were realized and my plants had been pummeled.
 |
| Potato plants before…don’t they look nice? |
 |
| Potato plants after..ugh! |