Yesterday the weather was amazing. It felt like early fall. Low humidity and a constant cooling breeze makes for a bunch of happy animals. I was able to open the doors and windows and turn my overworked air conditioner off.
Considering it was a Sunday, it was an unusually early morning for me. My last remaining tom turkey started gobbling incessantly well before I usually get up to feed. There was an urgency to his gobbling that woke me abruptly. I ran to the window and everyone appeared to be fine.
I fed everyone early and my tom kept gobbling. Gobbling incessantly is usually something he only does during mating season. Everything in the barnyard appeared to be fine. I decided he was being noisy in response to the cooler weather.
His gobbling continued all morning and he didn’t take his usual after breakfast jaunt over to the neighbors. He just stood outside the barnyard….gobbling, gobbling, g0bbling.
Around late morning I heard a loud commotion coming from the barnyard. I went outside to find:
A large pine tree had fallen in the pen. I ran to the pen to check on the animals. The tree is so large I couldn’t budge it. I did my best to locate any animals underneath the thick layers of needles and there didn’t appear to be anyone who had been struck by the tree, thank goodness. I’ve had enough death around here to last a very long time.
The tree barely missed the chicken coop, fortunately. My tom hasn’t gobbled since the tree fell. They have excellent hearing so I imagine he could hear the tree giving way or sensed something was about to happen. It’s something Rupert was always good at, watching over everyone. Maybe this tom, my last one, will step up into those big shoes Rupert left behind.
I have no idea how I’ll move the tree but one thing’s for sure. The goats will have plenty to snack on for awhile. That should help lighten the tree load a bit. And the best part is the babies have a new giant toy to play on.
Someone was watching out for my babies. We were very lucky today. I always listened to Rupert’s alarms. I guess I’ve learned a lesson that my other tom deserves the same respect.
xo