Farm Friend Friday - My Follies with Fowl

My morning begins with a trip to the barn. After seeing to the horses' needs I enjoy indulging in a cup of coffee and catching up on the latest blog posts. Then, if I'm lucky enough to have some extra time....I start hopping to other sites from those blogs. This morning I was checking up on Punkin's Patch and found a link to Verde Farm, where Amy has invited farm loving bloggers to participate in a Linky list. For information on how to join the list visit Amy's site.

So, I am a frustrated farmer. Well, actually I am not a farmer at all - but I fall into the 'Farmer Wanna-be' classification. My cherished childhood memories are those times I spent visiting my aunt on her small farm and the times I visited my grandparents on their ranch. I love all animals. My aunt had ducks, geese and chickens and she still laughs at my fascination of her feathered fowl. Actually, what makes her laugh most is that I evidently named one of her more obnoxious hens 'Allene'. Um, sorry, mom. I was young and foolish, don't you see?! Perhaps my aunt found humor in this because she too felt the hen exhibited similar characteristics to her sister.
Fast forward many years. I am now living in a small southern town and I stop by the local food market (think small, very small) and hear a 'peep, peep, peep' coming from a box on the floor near the cash register. Looking in I see a number of darling, yellow ducklings. Easter is approaching and, horror of horrors, our local market owner is selling ducklings for kids' Easter baskets. I cringe when I think of the various fates that could befall these innocent creatures. But, I decide I want one for my husband. A duckling would be the perfect gift in his Easter basket, don't you think? Doesn't every 30 something guy that you know want a duckling? Sadly, all of the ducklings have been spoken for. Now, being the sort of person I am, I don't take kindly to someone smashing my plans. I have set my heart on having a duckling and I WILL have one. So, off I go to the nearest city of any size on a quest. I stop by the feed and seed store. A wonderful old guy with the weathered face of a farmer asks if he can help me. I indicate that I am on a quest for a duckling. He tells me he has none, but my ears pick up the 'cheep, cheep, cheep' of young birds coming from the back of the store. I inquire. He responds. 'They arh baby turkeys. You don wanna have one a dem. They be so dumb they gonna lif they'ah heads up an look at de rain and dey is gonna drown."
I want one. I leave the store with one baby turkey and a small bag of starter mash. The kindly gentleman sold me the amount of food he thought I'd need before the Turkey did something stupid enough to end its life. Have you ever heard the racket one baby turkey who has suddenly found himself all alone with not another feathered friend in sight can make? My husband was on the other side of the house when I pulled in...and he could hear it, even with the doors of the car closed tightly. So, there goes the vision of the cute ugly little bird in the Easter basket the next morning. The turkey was beside itself. We couldn't stand listening to the plaintive cheeps. That evening my husband and I returned to our little market to see if maybe, just maybe, one of the cute little ducklings hadn't found a home afterall. We could hear the lonely little duckling the minute we entered the market. We recognized the panic. We returned home with the duckling. Duckling and turkey became best buddies and lived happily ever after. Well, sort of...but that's a story for another day!

Pictures may follow if I can get my scanner to work!