Farm-sitting, Day 3

How now, black cow?

We got a call Sunday night that a cow was out on the road and can we come get it.  Sure, no problem, we shrugged.

"What are we going to do if we find it?" I say. 

"Chase it back I
onto the farm," Barry says, as he roars off in the BMW.

"Don't damage the Beemer," I say.

Update today: This is the runaway caught on video.  The end of the story is that he's still an outlier.

And, when there's an outlier, there's a Deep State.

And a Deeper State.

Chicken factoids:

1.  Why some eggs are white and some are brown.

White-feathered chickens with white ear lobes lay white eggs and red-feathered ones with red ear lobes lay brown eggs. (And sorry, you Whole Food-ers, both brown and white are equal nutritionally.)

These hens lay brown eggs.  I haven't gotten a photo of a white-ear-lobe chicken.

2.  Meat chickens eat a lot and don't move around much.  

They grow so fast that their feathers can't keep up.  (see photo below).  They eat high protein feed, poop a lot and don't like bananas.  If you want to grow such critters in your back yard, know that there are things called tractors, which are different from static coops.  Tractors can be moved so the chicken poop rests in different places. Write that down.

3.  "Meaties" are always in a bunch.  Like Tribbles, their purpose in life is to eat.

Also ran

Vicki actually did some work.  Finally, the masters degree paid off.

Filling water container for chickens.

Gathering warm eggs

Most of the time, I looked like a journalist photographing and taking notes while Barry did the work. 
             Although........

I did help put about 40 baby flying turkeys back in their coop one night.  As you can imagine, not exactly an expert-looking effort.  We tried to open our arms like giant birds and herd them, but that didn't fool them.  Mostly done turkey by turkey.  There has to be a secret.  Update: secret is long stick moved horizontally along ground to herd.

Beech Hill Farm even has a bucolic pond.  

It's swimmable, but Barry would not demonstrate his cannonball dive. 

"Welcome to Our little Paradise"

It has catfish (to be fed, of course)

"Jaws" looking for food.

Reader response to my plea for egg recipes:  San Diego friend Erika made this recommendation.  Shakshouka, the "apex of eggs-for-a-meal" recipe.  It's eggs baked in a tomato-red pepper sauce and spiced with cumin and paprika.  It's either that or chocolate chip cookies.

That's all folks.  We never made it to the movie.  We're too tired. 

Oh, and if you find yourself depressed because of a lack of purpose in your life and the antidepressant isn't working, buy a farm.  --  Vicki