Jameson, the bull calf, is doing well. He is continuing to nurse on his mother in a stanchion each morning and gets a bottle of milk replacer in the evenings. I think he is lonely though. On Sunday Dad and Mo visited. Here are photos of Mo meeting him. He is such a sweetie.
FYI, this is a photo of Summer, Jameson’s mother when she was a calf. She looked remarkably similar, I think.
I have also gotten some skirting done of the shorn fleeces that have now been dried. Here they are. The two brown fleeces are felted but should make great felted rugs. The two black fleeces are not felted and spinnable. Hodor’s, in particular, is soft to the touch and lovely for an older sheep.
Here is the calf nursing Monday morning.
Today I received ten turkey poults that I had ordered online from Metzer Farms. They had good reviews for birds arriving healthy so I chose them. The birds do seem to be in good shape. They appear to have a warm pack and some nutritional gel in the box with them which I haven’t seen before and seems like good ideas. They are a Heritage turkey mix.
But then also this morning turkey poults arrived at our local feed store. So Tom drove there and picked up 5 more Heritage birds. They also seem to be doing well.
Since the calf seems lonely, I let the goats out of their pen into the barn to meet him. They were scared of him and wanted nothing to do with him. So that didn’t seem to work.
I rechecked the poults. Some of them were out and about in the weasel-proof pen in the afternoon warmth. There are sunbeams coming in between the barn’s wood slats.
I then decided to let the calf out into the alleyway. So this is his first time outside.
I thought with this, his mother could get to know him a little better through a fence. She had seemed interested in him but can’t see him through the barn walls and doors. She was paying attention to him as he explored the new area.
It was a pretty afternoon.
I still have some hope that they will figure it out.
P.S. We have been eating well recently. We have had Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Banana Bread (from bananas left over from Easter), Classic Vichyssoise (from leeks and green onions I recently harvested), Oven-Roasted Chicken Shawarma (from one of our chickens), It’s So Dreamy Parmesan Halibut using Duke’s Ready Anytime Seasoning, and King Salmon with Pesto (one of my favorite recipes from my Alice Bay cookbook, page 105, and I was able to use up the frozen nettle pesto from last year).
