Our poultry knows spring’s coming

 
Take a look at our tom turkey!  He’s been strutting up a storm, thruming his wings so he makes a roaring sound as he dances for the hens.  Even the ducks are nodding and bowing, getting ready to breed and nest.  We have a lot of fun watching all that activity in the barnyard right now.  Our old Tom is half wild turkey and can fly like his wild parent.  Where the hens roost on the straw in the barn, Tom flies up to the rafters, eight feet high.  But you don’t want to be standing in  his landing strip when he comes off the roost in the morning!  One day I opened the barn doors and he flew down, hitting me in the chest.  I ended up on my back, wondering why I keep turkeys.  He weighs over 20 pounds and with all that momentum, he really hits hard.  I learned to open the doors then go do something else until he is on the GROUND.
 
Today I canned up the leftover Canadian bacon I had roasted for Easter dinner, complete with the pineapple and cherries.  I just baked it again until it was very hot, then quickly cut it to fit into hot wide mouth jars, poured hot juice over it and processed for 90 minutes because I did two quarts and three pints.  All sealed and look oh so good.  That’s at least five more meals out of the two two pound pieces of Canadian bacon I got for $1.99 a pound.  No fat, no gristle and no waste.  Best of all, we had a lucious dinner and plenty of leftovers.
 
I’m canning all the meat I can because in a few months I predict that the price of meat will go sky high.  Both grain prices and fuel prices are outrageous and that will soon affect the prices of ALL agricultural products.  We’re trying to figure out housing for a couple butcher pigs and a steer calf; they’re cheap now, but that’s only relatively temporary.  Then they’ll go way high for quite awhile.
 
We hope to raise a batch of young turkeys this year, along with the 25 meat chickens I ordered with my friend, Jeri.  Now if our turkeys will just cooperate!

Readers’ questions:

Vegetable garden fencing

We are preparing our vegetable garden out here in the Colorado plains. It’s 50′ x 150′ divided up into 3 long strips similar to John Silveira’s dad’s garden in the chickens book. The coop is not yet built, that’s next years project. I want to fence it in to keep out the numerous gophers and rabbits around here. I know to concrete in my corner posts, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how to get the fencing to extend below the ground, to keep out burrowers like I’ve read in my gardening books. They say to fence 18" below the ground. Unless I submerge my concrete below the ground that much too, how do I stop the burrowers?

Kevin Long
Elizabeth, Colorado

IF it is reasonably possible, it’s best to bury 1" chicken wire 18" below ground to keep out diggers.  The best way to do this in a large garden is to rent or borrow a trencher and use that to dig your trench for the wire.  A DitchWitch type trencher is quick and easy to use, UNLESS you have lots of rocks.  You CAN do it by hand, but I’ve never found that it was worth it.  I’ve lived where there were lots and lots of rabbits and gophers, and really didn’t have trouble with them digging under the fence.  I used chicken wire all the way to the ground, then made sure it was turned toward the outside of the garden a few inches.  This "skirt" I buried with soil and rocks.  I didn’t have anyone dig underneath.
 
There’s always a BEST way to do something, then there’s reality.  Of course the more you do the best way, the less headaches you’ll have later on down the road.  But sometimes it just isn’t real to do it the way folks do where the soil is nice and loose; easy digging. — Jackie

Should I move to the wilderness?

I’m a single mom of 2 children and I’m tired of living in town. I’ve alway wanted to live a wilderness life style and my question is "Is it unrealalistic for me to want to take my children and move to the wildrness when I don’t really know anything about the wildrness?" I feel a conection when I’m in the woods or when no ones around. I really want that conection with the wilderness and I want my
children to have that same kind of conection as well!

Shauna Starner
Troy, Ohio

I guess it all depends on the level of "wilderness" you’re talking about.  I would hesitate to recommend that ANYONE who is totally unfamiliar with wilderness skills and living to pull up stakes and move to, say, interior Alaska, to a fly-in-only wilderness homestead.  It has certainly been done with success, but the chances of a dream come true experience are much less than if the person had a lot of experience doing for themselves.
 
How about a compromise?  Or perhaps your idea of "wilderness" is less wild than mine, which it could certainly be?  You can find some pretty wild country that is still accessible by four wheel drive, on a maintained dirt road.  Whether you choose on or off grid could still be quite flexible here.  We live in the middle of big woods, hear wolves howling at night and regurlarly see lynx, bears, wolves, fishers, deer and an occasional moose.  You see the stars at night, the northern lights and huge moonrises.  There are no traffic sounds, sirens, neighbors or a paved road past our house…or any road, for that matter.
 
But in reality, it is not my idea of "wilderness".  We have a mile + long two track dirt trail for a driveway.  However when we get out that, there is a blacktop road.  People live a mile from us.  Not wilderness wilderness, but we knew we would probably be taking care of Mom and Dad and knew we had to have a place accessible to them for medical reasons.  So it is wild enough to satisfy the need for wilderness, but it is also realistically do-able in our situation.
 
Perhaps something like this would work for you and your children.  Wild country calls to a lot of us, and there is definitely a good life out there!  The very best of luck in finding it.
 
In the meantime, how about learning some wilderness skills?  Wood gathering, splitting, gardening, driving in backroad/off road conditions, building a wood fire, maintaining a chain saw, raising chickens, digging fence posts, etc.  If you are in town, offer your labor in exchange for the learning experiences in an add in a local shopper that reaches rural areas.  Read all you can and build up a library of how-to books.
 
Read and subscribe to Countryside Magazine, as a companion to Backwoods Home Magazine.  It tells of real-life stories from many people who have done just what you are talking about; their successes and failures and what could have been done differently.  It will inspire your dream. — Jackie

Forget the caponizing

I am ordering some Jumbo Cornish X Rocks from McMurray. I love having chicken in my freezer! Anyway, it says I should have the males "caponized" at 2-3 weeks.

Marty Rapisarda
Huntington, Massachusetts

Forget the caponizing.  It just isn’t worth it.  It’s not that hard to do, but those Cornish Rock meat birds get plenty big enough without it.  Too much fooling around and there always IS a chance of losing one or two.  Caponizing was popular in "the old days" when chickens just didn’t get as big and meaty as the current hybrids do.  Heck, mine were as big as small turkeys, especially in the breast department!  Save your time and energy…not to mention money.
 
I’m really, really enjoying my new filly!  She is SO level-headed and people oriented.  And today she was able to go into the donkey yard with them all day.  Yesterday my young jack, Moose, kept trying to pin her in a corner and kick her.  Today she kicked back and that was that.  Not buddies yet, but they tolerate each other! — Jackie