December 2002

Do you find that if something's going on in your life, whether that be a pregnancy, an illness, a celebration, a trauma, someone somewhere has an horrific story to tell about their experience? Lorraine greeted this new and busy month with a dose of shingles and the horror stories came flooding in. Well, to set some kind of balance to the whole situation, once the doctor confirmed it and sent her home to rest, she took some Rhus Tox homoeopathic remedy and treated herself to a lie down every 2 hours (well more or less and usually less) with hot and cold compresses on her back. The result was 3 or 4 days when the patches or spots and blotches were very sore and burning, other than that, there was some irritation, (not helped by the hot flushes that continue) and within a couple of weeks, things were looking pretty much back to "normal". So, when you next year of someone with shingles, by all means pass on this story. I'm pretty sure the compresses, whilst not the most pleasant way to spend 20 minutes, helped enormously in the speed of recovery.

As I was laid up with shingles, Rupert, the palamino among our herd of horses, started throwing off copious amounts of bright yellow discharge from his nose. It turned out to be strangles, a virus that causes many horse owners and yards to shudder. As it is highly contagious, it is usual to isolate the infected horse and quarantine the yard for 3 weeks or so, a serious inconvenience for many yards where horse owners like to get out and compete. So unfortunately, it is one of those infections which is hushed up and unspoken most of the time. Keeping our horses together as we do, it seemed daft to us to separate Rupert, so we opted to allow the process to take it's natural course and if the whole herd got it, perhaps that would increase their immunity. As it turned out, Rupert was the most colourful, Jazz and Jones had slight coughs, Spirit was most dramatic as his face blew up like a balloon before the vet came and lanced the abscess under his chin, and the others seem to have waved it off without incident. Again, we used a homoeopathic remedy - pulsatilla - in the drinking water, or dropped onto treats twice a day for 2 weeks. We also added the strangles nosode to the water to assist moving it through the horses. It seems to have passed and left each of the horses looking better than they have done for a while, resplendent in their mud coats!

I guess the big journey of this month was that with the turkeys. Those of you who have been reading my monthly ramblings will know that we have found these winged ones a most delightful contribution to the farm. We knew when we bought them, back in June, they were all destined for Christmas dinner tables and we had a full order book, however, I found the reality of the process rather daunting and spent many a while with them pondering how best to dispatch them. It would have been so easy to evade responsibility for this part of the process and pack the birds into crates, send them off to the local butcher and have him deal with them, but that just didn't seem right by the turkeys so we decided to take it on ourselves. We had weighed them a couple of times during the preceeding months and learned that if you hang them upside down by their legs they just relax and hang here, wings open and heads bent round to see what's going on. But where to do it and how best? The moral and spiritual dilemas seemed to flood us at times. Should we say prayers, play music, chant, light candles, say blessings, use special tools or wear special clothes... the imagination can be quite creative. In the end, we decided that their house was the place they were most familiar with, and whilst they mainly roosted on the roof, they were comfortable with being herded two by two inside.

It may have been that in the hands of someone more experienced their death would have been quicker, as it turned out they were calm, in a place familiar to them and with people who loved them and who they knew. We did our best to ensure that their passage was a quick and smooth as possible. I can't say it is a job I will look forward to next year, but I do know that we did the best we could and thanked each one as they drew their last breath. We celebrated in the glorious softness of their feathers and packaged each one with love, a big red bow and a christmas card.

Dan Chisholm of BBC Radio Wiltshire phoned to talk with us about this process. He asked how we could possibly eat one of these turkeys that we'd obviously had such an enjoyable time with them and appreciated them so much when they were alive. I responded saying, "Why would we want to choose to eat a turkey about which we know nothing, that may have been reared who knows where, that may not have played and flapped and bathed in the moonlight, and died who knows how. We have celebrated these beings in life, they have given us their flesh and I hope that everyone will do as we will on Christmas Day and honour that winged one for it's gift."

As I write, we have received many phone calls from our customers with appreciation for "the best turkey I've ever tasted" and "turkey as it used to be". We're already taking orders for next year!

Thank you turkeys. If you would like to meet the turkeys please do come and visit. Next years birds will be arriving at Vowley Farm sometime in June.

As the year turns, it only remains for us to wish you well during the coming 12 months. We are grateful for our lives here, for the teachings of the animals and the land, for the journey shared with so many people around the world and the gifts of friendship, love and learning with which we are continually blessed.

Namaste.