Love is in the air....

I'm ecstatic to announce I've solved the aggressive turkey problem, at least I hope. Much to Gene's annoyance, my solution doesn't involve a 425 degree oven and a variety of seasonings. Since Dimsworth and Hawthorne turned aggressive because it's mating season, I decided it's unfair to penalize them for just wanting a little loving. Isn't that what every living creature wants? Someone to cuddle with during the long winter nights? I'm picking up two turkey hens on Monday, so hopefully that will distract them enough to stop attacking poor Fiona. Until then, I'm keeping them outside the pasture, which doesn't seem to bother them overly much. Since it's been so cold, I've been closing them in at night in the old chicken coop, then letting them and the resultant cloud of turkey stench out at dawn. I was worried about what they would do when it starts raining again, but Abigail laughed at me and pointed out that they aren't exactly waterproof in the wild, so they should be fine. I guess that explains why I couldn't find any patterns for turkey raincoats on the Internet. (Yes, I looked. Don't judge).

In other life-changing news, the quails have started laying their eggs! So far I've found one blue egg, and one speckled egg. They're actually quite a bit bigger than I expected. I can't wait to cook something gourmet, just to have an excuse to top it with a perfectly poached quail egg, exactly like they do on Master Chef. Now I just have to figure out how to poach an egg. Gene hasn't started building The Quail Sanctuary yet, mostly because it's too cold to put them outside right now.

I spend about 20 minutes each morning chipping quarter inch ice out of the wading pools and waterers. Not my favorite way to wake up, since I prefer my weather more on the tropical side. I love standing in the greenhouse on freezing days, basking in the warmth and humidity and eating strawberries right off the plants. As usual, my heated mats are full to capacity with all my tropical plants, plus plants I decided to grow over the winter, like the strawberries. On sunny days, even if it never gets above freezing, the greenhouse is almost 90 degrees inside. It's more like 50 on overcast days, but it still beats being outside. I particularly enjoy watching the colony of tree frogs hopping around, chasing bugs and basking in the rays of the plant lights.

In other news, Abigail wanted me to introduce her new puppy, Bay, to the internet public. She's an 8-week-old Catahoula, and super cute.  Kinda makes me want to get one too....