Lone Wolf Forest

Oh sadness, we had our turkeys for 10 days. Theo was left out one night and in the morning I let him in and fed him. At about 9am I realized I had not heard the turkeys yet and immediately got a sick feeling and raced outside to see the chain link fencing on the outside run torn aside and feathers everywhere. Handsome was dead inside the coop with bite wounds to his back and Gretal was gone with a pile of feathers outside.
I was in shock and very sad. Over the course of the next few hours I realized it was Theo. He had a stomach as tight as a drum and only 2 weeks previous he had killed a chicken. I knew killing poultry was now firmly ingrained into his brain and we have no room for a poultry killer. Time to find Theo a new home. He is perfect in every other way.

It was easy to find Theo a home, the lady met him and all criteria was met on both sides so the family is coming on Saturday to pick him up.

All the work I put into setting up for the turkeys and heck I really liked them but the feathers are kinda out of my wings for now. Maybe in the fall or next year.

In the meantime our eyes are open to a new doggy friend for Winston.

Tomorrow the roof, we have the boom truck delivering all the shingles in the morning and a crew of friends coming so this is the weekend to get the roof done. Its high time. We were going to do it last fall but we missed the time frame. The shingles are so curled up that I dont think they can last another season. Dwight is so good at organizing this. My job is cooking for the crew!  You know there are some jobs that are just meant for the guys.

Busy with dividing plants, landscaping all the properties, clipping trails, checking out a site for the hobbit house..........hobbit house you say?  Stay tuned:)

The trillium's are ready to explode, the lilac blooms are about an inch long, day lilies are about 10" high, grass is getting nice and green. This week it is a bit on the cool side with minus digits every night. Not sure what that will do to things that are starting to leaf out and flower. Next week I will have to get back out on the trails and cut out brambles and saplings before they all start leafing and I cant see anymore.

Dwight is also very busy between work....might be moving up a notch and also with getting his timbers ready for the timber frame course we are hosting in June. Both the tractor and skidder have been giving him problems. The skidder in particular and no one can seem to figure out what it is.....time to call in a professional.

Their names are Handsome and Gretal. She has not started laying yet and the plan is that she will have hatch a brood of poults.  Dwight and I met them on Sunday and now I am working on their new home.....hope to have it ready by weeks end between all the other stuff I have going on.

Last week Dwight managed to get water at the yurt....it really is quite amazing.
You see we have this crystal clear pool of water about 400 feet from the cabin that is almost on top of a hill higher than the yurt. We discovered it years ago. It is about 20' long and 15' across and probably about 6' deep, always full and always clear. At the bottom of the hill it is always wet so we know there is a spring in it. Upon close inspection you can see that at one time long ago it was dynamited...looking for minerals.

Anyway we were up at the yurt doing some work and Dwight decided to round up the hose and see if we could get gravity fed water there. We have a 300 gallon reservoir there that is a pain in the ass to fill. Dwight would get water from the house in another container in the back of the truck and then with a gas pump he would pump it in the reservoir at the yurt. So you had to be conscious of your water consumption.

Siphoning the water from the pond worked and now we just leave the house running. For the drinking water there is a Berkey water filter system that works very well.
I dont think this water source will dry up like the one at the cabin does. This is great because Dwight and I are going to be living in the yurt for the month of July then moving to the cabin for the month of August.