Well today’s newsletter was going to be about the arrival of yet another seasons day old turkeys but the hatchery called yesterday and said they would not be able to ship them until next week.  Next week is too late.  I haven’t called them yet to cancel the order but most likely will today.  Now procrastination is part of the problem here as I waited until the very last minute to order them in the first place.

As some of you know, last years turkey behavior was so crazy that at one point, near the end,  I came stomping into the house telling Betsy to never let me order another bird.  It was the Bourbon Red heritage breed birds who were the bad actors, fighting with each other, picking on the Broad Breasted Bronzes, killing each other, making my life far from tranquil.  Over the winter I slowly weakened thinking about the benefits to the farm from manure and bug eating, and of course everyone’s interest in them.  I began to think “well if I just raise the mellow Broad Breasted Bronzes, it would be easier”.  It would not be helping to save the endangered heritage birds but it would still give us all the other benefits of having turkeys on the farm.

Through the spring I continued to go back and forth until finally one day I decided I had to give this new variation a try to see if, in fact, it would make our quality of life better.  Much too late (only two weeks ago) I called and they said that there were none available the first week of June, my preferred date, but yes the second week.  I breathed deep and said OK.  Now the problem is on the other end of the season.  If the birds come next week (the third week of June) it will put their processing date up into October when we are planning on being out of the country.  Last year was similar with processing happening two days before we left town and Cov had to pick them up from the processing plant and deal with them.  Too many added complications on top of the normal ones associated with going away for a long period of time.  I haven’t called yet but the stars are not lining up well.