Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Drum Stick

This is not an actual picture of our "volunteer pet" Drumstick, but I figured it would suffice.

I've been meaning to blog about the volunteer unexpected guest on our lot. A lone turkey. Alex named him Drumstick, but he looks more like a Mr. Butterball Foster to me as his official Turkey name. He showed up about a month ago. He roosts in our giant Eucalyptus trees on the lot. I made my friends special air popped popcorn (coat popcorn in a little olive oil and butter and grate parmesan cheese on top!) the other day and I swear Drum Stick could smell it. He came so close to us, almost daring Moki with brotherly competition as to who is deserving of the left over kernels. At dusk when he flies into the trees, he makes a funny gobble gobble sound and hardly camouflages himself with his chubby feather body in a lightly leaved tree. You can clearly see at all times where Drum Stick is sleeping for the night! I was planting trees yesterday and Alex was weed wacking and Drum Stick gingerly walked right in front of Moki. Moki just froze with wide eyes, but once Drum Stick passed him he stood up to get a better smell and Drum Stick angerly gobbled off up the hillside! It was a funny sight. Having Drum Stick as a lot companion has made me really want to seriously think about adopting peacock chicks. Or adopting a baby Nigerian Dwarf goat to keep our weeds down. Or getting dwarf bunnies to feed my compost too! 

Other tid bits of info: I did a native tree count on my watering last night and I counted 109 native trees! 

And for all my Washingtonian friends, Alex and I booked our tickets and we arrive July 28th (Wednesday night) in time for Sea Fair to watch the Blue Angels at my parents house. And we stay until August 17! I'm known for getting my whistle and clip board itinerary out, so let me know if there are any events I need to pencil in! That's a 19 day vacation! (12.5 actual working business days!)

2 comments:

Bookwerme said...

Shades of Aunt Laura! Goats? Turkeys? Ducks?

We have wild turkeys who come through here daily...they are not exactly tame, but we can walk in with them and the dogs have been trained to leave them alone. I hate turkey hunting season...it isn't hunting when they walk right up to you! GRRRR!

Wonderful about your native trees.

Fun to hear you are planning a trip to WA...we are too, but will be long home by the time you get there. It would have been fun to have crossed paths.

Hanni said...

We've got the turkey's too, and as Asta said, they aren't very friendly around here either. As for the goats, Chris and I are having a blast with ours. If fact 3 just isn't enough, I think we are going to get a few more. I highly recommend them as pets and as livestock, their milk is really delicious, not at all like the goat milk at the store. Anyway the only work of caution I have for you is they do love to eat tree's. Since you are in the process of planting so many you would have to fence the goat in or fence the goat out of your tree's.
Your property is just looking beautiful, I must say I'm alittle jealous of all your beautiful weather. One of these winters when I've had enough of the cold and snow, I'm going to have to stop in for a visit!
HJ