gobble, gobble...

we are finally in our new (old) house, unpacked and settling in further every day. the deal with moving, of course, is that it is both mentally and physically exhausting. we had the ability to move slowly, over an extended period of time, with a couple large truckloads of essentials at the tail end. not sure if this is actually a better way than throwing everything into boxes and trucks at once--it kind of extends the pain and the process. either way, we are home now. home, where we will be for a very long time. waking up here everyday is a little celebration. i am excited to show all of it in time.

the first step to really being home, of course, is to start living out all of the dreams that our old house and its location would not allow. please allow me to introduce the turkey poults, who joined us here on monday afternoon.
there were 7 in all, 3 got passed to very good friends who have aspirations similar to ours. the other 4 have taken up residence in an old chick-raising coop that was already on the property. we're hoping to get a pair to mate, but only time will tell on that. the rest will be dinner at some point--perhaps not thanksgiving as they are a bit young and a heritage variety slower to grow than the industry-standard broadbreasted white. truth be told, i'm more nervous about the ones that we'll raise to adulthood and keep than the ones that we are raising for food. a trip to the turkey ranch taught me two things: turkeys are big and turkeys are loud. the daddy of the babies we bought was taller than hudson and about 3 times as wide. he buried his head in my dress and mumbled things about going home now, mama. i felt a bit in over my head as we drove away from the ranch--lucy had begged and pleaded to hold one on the way home, and two blocks in on the drive, the little bugger kicked loose and went flying about the car. i pulled over, we collected ourselves and restarted for home, noting that three week old turkeys are a lot stronger physically than three week old chickens.

there are lots of lessons to learn. thankfully we have a wonderful place to learn them.