Who cares what is on the boob tube when you have a myriad of entertaining critters like we do here at Cherokee Valley Bison Ranch. Goats we've found are some of the most entertaining. Curiosity got the better of one of our little bucklings and soon we were rolling on the floor with laughter while he unintentionally entertained us. To the right of him, his mother Crystal comments, "Nothing's funnier than a baby goat with a bucket on it's head. Ha! Ha! Ha! Unless of course it's your baby goat. I"m so embarrassed." Of course, we don't speak goat, so she could have just told him to quit playing with his food? Never a dull moment.
Till next time.
Carie and Jarrod - Ranchers
For those customers of ours that savored the taste of our heritage breed Narragansett turkeys for their holiday festivities last year, you know that it's something worth waiting for. Waiting is something that we had to do a LOT of last year in our efforts to actually get the turkeys to our farm. Narragansett turkeys are listed as "Threatened" by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, http://albc-usa.org/cpl/narragansett.html and as such, are not readily available. We went through two hatcheries that listed as having them available and were delayed by the first hatchery two months! Slower growing then the franken-bird Broad breasted white, July was much too late to reach maturity (and subsequently, the platters of our customers holiday tables) so we reluctantly cancelled that order. Hatchery number two promised early June and even then, that was getting late. Delayed until the second week in June, our precious birds finally arrived! We began our search MUCH earlier this year, but had a backup plan. As some of you know, one of last years Toms skipped out on his platter appointment. (Good survival instinct.) Lonely and following us around much too closely, we searched out a mate to keep him company. We brought home a beautiful Narragansett hen Mabel and hoped that he'd find her more interesting than us. It worked. Here at Wild, Wooly and Horny, the latter prevailed and our two half wild turkeys mated. Then we waited. And waited some more. This late winter Mabel began laying eggs and about a month ago, she began to sit. (More waiting) One week ago, our plan came to fruition as she began to hatch out beautiful, fuzzy little chicks. One by one, they emerged from under her protective wings. Here's a photo of the new chicks and the wonderful mother hen Mabel that hatched them out.
We still ordered some that are due to arrive next week (fingers crossed) but some are already running about - hatched here naturally on the ranch.
Until next time...Jarrod and Carie
Welcome to our ranch blog! Here at Wild., Wooly and Horny we hope to
keep you entertained, educated and enlightened on the daily life of a small
sustainable farm and the critters and caretakers that share the land.
Wild, Woolly and Horny may be just what you think, but then again....maybe
not.
Defined , Wild, Wooly and Horny may mean -
Wild - Untamed, uninhabited area, undomesticated.
Wooly - Fluffy, furry, shaggy
Horny - Desiring, passionate, randy, turned on
But they also have other definitions here on our farm. Wild describes
half of the origins of our heritage breed Narragansett turkeys, the bison that
once roamed wild all across North America and our baby chicks at feeding time.
Wooly can refer to the hair on our bison, the goats, the rabbits but also
the rip-roaring, unsettled, zoo-like nature of the animals that call this farm
home. Horny is well - mostly as described above. But our bison
(both males and females) have horns. And speaking of horny.
We just recently decided that it was time to breed one of our doe rabbits
with our buck. Head rancher Carie went to retrieve our doe
"Nellie" for a rendezvous with our buck
"Manly". Nellie was NOT in the mood and let us know by
"wildly" hissing and biting at us as we reached in to grab her.
We...er Manly... did get the job done though as he, falling under
the "horny" category, is always a willing participant.
Above is a photo of Carie holding this wild and wooly creature. The whole
situation gave me flashbacks to my fear of rabbits after watching
"Watership Down" as a kid. It gave us a new found respect for
rabbits. (Besides their delicious flavor.) As we're always
learning, things are never what they might seem here on the ranch.
