Today, Nick, the farm helper showed up on time....directly at 9:30! We're so amazed that he has come four times and all four times he came exactly when he said he was going to arrive. I THINK HE'S A KEEPER!!!! He immediately set to work installing the vinyl coverings on the remaining window openings of the barns and building which are open, except for the chicken wire used to keep birds and critters out. We install clear vinyl, with wood batten strips all around the perimeter of the window to hold it solid against the chilling winter winds that will batter it. Soon, we will send the turkeys to the processing plant to ready them for the customers who are on a list of people wanting them. They will humanely dispatch them, pluck and clean them, bag them and put them on ice for us to pick them up. Once we get them home, we will weigh them, tag them and place them in the freezer until pickup by the customer. The farm is slowly becoming more and more self sufficient and at the rate it's going, we will begin to exhibit a profit within the next year or two. It's a hard job, but creates a good life for two retired folks who enjoy animals and living a county life. The farmers market has introduced us to many fun and interesting days of learning new things and meeting new people. It spawned our day out in Vermont once a week, gathering product and seeing many new and exciting things we would not have been fortunate enough to see or experience before selling these products. Vick and I are truly blessed with life together in a lovely, historic place, where we constantly find new friends and new things to experience.
Vick is enjoying her painting and has in three short years, progressed from an aspiring watercolor artist to an inspiring watercolor artisan. I have progressed from an idle writer of poetry, to a published poet. I have finished the second book which is a biography detailing our journey to the fulfillment of our mutual dream...the building of a working farm...and it all began with a puppy. That is exactly why I settled on the title of this second book as "It All Began With a Puppy – Our Uncommon Journey". Vick is presently proof reading it and then sending it on to Mississippi, to be proofed by my cousin Bonnie, who will read it backwards, looking for errors. Once she sends it back and I correct all noted areas, it's off to the printer. In the mean time, I'm writing my third book, which is short stories about my childhood, growing up in an old central Pennsylvania mining town in the sixties. It was a hard time, in a hard area, for a twelve year old kid, but there are plenty of good memories to write about too.
The hospice gift shop electrical is completed and the electrician who signed off is arranging for the inspection and issuance of the tag. We are now ready to install the insulation and do the ceiling boards and wall boards. We're moving again and we're psyched again.... Nothing can stand in our way now as we have renewed energy and desire to finish this true labor of love. I think we should dedicate this dream of giving, in both my mother's name and Vick's first husband's name. Hum.....Carl and Betty.....Maybe we should call it, "The CarBet House of Nature's Friend's of Hospice".
I kind of like that..........
033221© Cluckin' "A" Critter Farm, LLC
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