Nine new employees will be arriving in less than a month. Like their parents, they will be put in charge of manure pat maintenance. As turkeys flip dry manure pats, looking for seeds and bugs, they break apart and scatter the pats, spreading fertilizer. We don’t use commercial treatments for fly and tick control, which can cause harm to these helpful inhabitants. Of course, these turkeys are a self-reliant food source for us as well.

As a side note, a neighbor’s son pulled in our driveway just before youth hunting season started. He heard some chatter and asked if he could hunt our pasture. A nice sized gobbler was harvested, but there are more on the way.