Please note changes to Fire and Smoke Cook Off: After reading through the information on our Fire and Smoke competition, a professional competitor strongly encouraged us to change a few points in our original guidelines. No Sampling: At least for our first year, attendees will not be sampling the barbecue. Categories:The categories are now Ribs-baby back or spare ribs. Chicken-any part of a mix. Thighs are the standard. We have added an Open Category: Chef’s Choice or Appetizers. Schedule:Chicken will be turned in at 1pm. Open Category 2pm. Ribs 3pm. Awards shortly after 4pm. No propane grills are allowed.
Prizes and Awards:We have added Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion. All teams must turn in all categories to qualify for Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion. First Place $75 Second Place $50 Third place $25, along with titles and trophies. Grand Champion $125 and Reserve Grand Champion $100 over all. Winners will be announced at the Fair. Each team will also be highlighted in the Democrat News and on the Madison County Fair website, which we hope to have up this month.
Country Mart in Fredericktown is generously offering discounts on Baby Back ribs, Spare ribs, and Chicken to contestants of our Madison County Fair's Fire and Smoke Barbecue Cook Off. Town and Country Market has been serving our community for over 40 years. It employs 54 people from our community and is 100% employee owned. The store has a pharmacy, bakery, deli, and video rentals.
Poultry, Water Fowl, and Rabbits Showcase & Competition
On Saturday October 5that 9:00 am-12:30 pm our fair’s Poultry, Water Fowl, and Rabbits Showcase & Competition, hosted by Joyce Rehkop and judged byJohn Brewen and Amanda Moorewill take place at the Poultry Arena next to the Livestock Arena in Wanda Priest Park. This great one-day exhibition of poultry, water fowl, and rabbits provides valuable learning experiences and fun for everyone while building cooperation, responsibility, and showmanship skills. Open to all ages. Animals must be in pens by 8:00 am. To register, pick up your Madison County Livestock Show entry form books from Madison County Farm Supply, Wards Farm Center, and other local businesses. Joyce Rehkop andJohn Brewenhave been involved with the Fair for many years.
Exactly How Long Does It Take to Put up 38 Ducks and Geese?
When friends begin to tell you that they think of you every night, not because they are longing for your company, but out of sympathy, knowing that you are spending nearly an hour rounding up your ducks and geese—you know it is time to find a solution.
It all began right after acquiring the farm when I realized we could have roosters that crow, chickens that cluck, ducks that quack, and geese that honk. And then there was Jon’s longing for our own eggs.
Not knowing much about chickens or what varieties were available, I began poring over Murray McMurray’s descriptions of each breed. Acclamations such as great egg layers; both good egg layers and meat birds; broody hens; watchdogs for intruders; heirloom varieties; and those that weeded strawberry and corn patches; all appealed to my inner sense of practicality. After deliberating over the different qualities and temperaments, I highlighted my choices, marked desired quantities, picked up the phone and began placing my order.
Right away, I identified myself to the company’s representative as a novice that needed some assistance. When I told her that I wanted to order 100 chickens, but wondered if that was a bit much for a novice, she suggested that I might want to consider ordering less. I deferred to her judgment and complied.
After quickly surveying my order to determine where I needed to decrease numbers without eliminating any particular breed, I asked, “Do you think 65 would be fine?” She responded, “Sixty-five? Yes, that would be fine.” Upon reflection, I wonder why 65 was better than 100. Could I have ordered 80 and still received her stamp of approval?
At the time, she did not know I was also ordering ducks, geese, and turkeys, which might have induced her to suggest even less chickens, but it was too late and we proceeded. The guineas and bobwhite would come later.
My First Introduction to Chickens
The closest I ever came to raising chickens was holding three colored chicks my aunt purchased for me at Easter—a ridiculous gift considering we lived on the third story of my parents’ pharmacy, gift shop, and doctors’ offices with no grass in either our upstairs roof garden or our patio just outside the back door of our pharmacy. Pavement is all we possessed. Hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Therefore, the bathtub was the only logical place to put three dirty chickens. Not a good gift at all. But considering my father’s relationship with his sister, I realized later in life that those chicks, and the poodle that followed, was her way of needling him.
Sadly, those chicks died shortly after their arrival. Of course, I never saw them actually keel over; I just woke up one morning and found them gone. At the time, I never suspected my father as responsible for their demise because I was only three or four; nor did I ask him later in life because I did not want to make him feel badly. No father wants to admit responsibility for his daughter’s dismay. However, I suspect he was responsible for their disposal. After all, we had no place to put the chicks when we bathed, so they really had to go.
You may wonder at this point if it was those birds that inspired my order last year? Absolutely not! Even then I did not think that blue, pink, and yellow chicks were normal, let alone raising them in a bathtub. On the contrary, my love affair with chickens, particularly the roosters that praise God for another day, came on a lovely summer day when I walked in the barn lot of the farmer across the road from where we live now. But that is another story for another time.
What You Don’t Know Can’t Hurt You
The saying that what you don’t know can’t hurt you is absolutely a lie. What you don’t know can hurt you and most likely will! Now I cannot say that I regret my purchase of so many fowl because I don’t. But I wish I had been better informed about the ducks and geese. For one thing, they are very messy. In fact, it took us around two hours in the morning and the evening to clean the chicken house because we had to remove and replace all the wet bedding caused by the ducklings and goslings slinging water all over the floor—during and after drinking from the waterers.
Unlike other fowl that go to the waterer solely to quench their thirst, ducks and geese must have water while they eat, while they play, and just about any time of the day and night. After all, they are waterfowl. To my chagrin, I wonder why I didn’t think of that!
Being outdoors makes this absolutely fine, but in confinement, creates an inescapable mess. Donned with shovels to scoop up the waterlogged pine shavings and bags upon bags of pine shavings to replace the bedding, we shoveled and spread a lot those first several months. Nevertheless, we loved these creatures and sat for hours each week just watching their adorable antics.
Egg Mobile
Shortly after we purchased the birds, the boys began building an 8’ by 20’ egg mobile on a truck chassis to house our chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys. Essentially it was to serve as the birds’ night time quarters after grazing all day. Jedidiah also constructed 116 nesting boxes, each sized appropriately for chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys so they could also lay their eggs during the day.
At about 12 weeks all the birds were transferred from the chicken house to the egg mobile, including the waterfowl, which for them meant that they could frolic in their swimming pool and sling as much water over the pasture as they desired, liberating us from hours of housekeeping in the chicken house each day so we could turn our energies to other endeavors for those four hours. Little did we know that we would soon be spending hours each week doing something entirely different with these feathered creatures.
On the first day of their arrival to their new home, just before nightfall, we returned to the egg mobile to herd in the chickens, ducks, and geese. We knew it would take a few nights of training, but after that we were confident the birds would know to go back to the interior of the egg mobile for safe sleeping just by walking up the ramp and roosting on the perches, or snuggling down in deep bedding on the floor, depending on the individual breeds.
Contrary to what people say about chickens being dumb, this is not true in my book because in just three days the chickens were in their egg mobile before dark. With very little prompting they learned to climb the ramp and ascend their perches in record time, consistently, night after night, just before sundown. Even the turkeys, which I have also heard touted as stupid, knew enough to fly to the peak of the egg mobile to avoid attacks by night marauders.
Not so for the ducks and geese! They were a different matter entirely, as we found them lying on the ground each night, night after night, not under the egg mobile, but out in the open, seemingly oblivious to the possibility of annihilation from all manner of carnivorous hunters. Surrounded by hundreds of acres of national forest, filled with all manner of predators—coyotes, fox, raccoons, opossum, and mountain lions—meant nothing to them.
Hmm? When I placed my order, I had not considered that geese and ducks might not climb up the ramp upon which they descended each morning. If I had, I would not have ordered so many. For no matter how many times we tried to herd them onto the ramp, they refused to climb it. Even if we picked them up and started them on the runway, they would veer off course and flop to the ground. Consequently, we resorted to the only other solution we could think of at that time.
Pandemonium
Three to five of us chasing first the ducks and then the geese into the corner of the fencing and then trying to capture a few and placing them one by one into the egg mobile was not very effective as the remainder of the flock slipped by and then had to be herded in the corner again. Besides, none of the ducks or geese complied with being caught. It was not like they sat still for us to pick them up. Instead we had to pick one out of the bunch that we thought was close enough to outrun. Even the dogs that watched from the perimeter of the fencing each night seemed to understand the scope of the pandemonium and realized that their masters did not have things under control.
After seeing the ducks and geese laying on the tarp we had attached to the egg mobile for the purpose of providing shade during the day, we decided upon a different approach. Namely, herding the ducks, and then the geese onto the tarp, quickly folding up the tarp to trap them into a nice tight grouping, and then taking turns picking them up one by one—all 38 of them, I must add—and depositing them into the egg mobile.
Placing 38 fowl into the egg mobile should logically take 38 trips, or so we thought. If we had contemplated otherwise, we would have begun with two bird dogs to help us keep these birds in line. Although ducks and geese can become relatively friendly, they are for the most part wild. The reality of their innate fear of man meant that they possessed a flight instinct that was not overcome by gratitude for our tender loving care for the past several months. In fact, all 38 birds were skilled escape artists who would come out of the egg mobile as fast as we put them in, vastly increasing the amount of trips we made from the tarp to the front door of their home. Depending on the amount that escaped, this ritual took us 45 minutes to an hour each night—night meaning in the dark with flapping and quacking and honking with feathers flying through the air. That was bad enough, but many of them bit us during transportation.
After this ritual occurred over a period of months, you would think that the birds would catch on and want to be the first one to pick out their spot for the night. On the contrary, it seemed that they would rather be caught by lurking predators than by their compassionate owners who were just trying to save their lives. If you think that farm life’s routine might be boring, think again, as these nightly episodes made for very interesting nights. City dwellers often say that they live in the city for the excitement it affords them. Take it from a past city dweller that lived a pretty exciting life: if you want real excitement in your life, move to a farm!
Did I mention that it was each night of the week, for weeks on end, that we herded them onto a tarp, folded up the sides, and one by one picked them up and put them in? Enough weeks, in fact, that quite a few of our friends had time to see the chaos in progress.
Here were their leaders who had faithfully nurtured thousands of homeschoolers, hosted thousands of meetings and events, presented hundreds of workshops, written hundreds of newsletters, published a book and magazine, and yet could not control just 38 birds—just 38!
To make matters worse, the tarp that served as an awning for shade from the sunlight by day became a sagging mess covered with fowl droppings by night. Through the years I have shoveled a lot of horse manure out of our barn and did not mind a bit because it is not wet, runny or messy like ducks and geese. Consequently, by the end of the evening’s ordeal, the herders, trappers, and haulers were covered with muck, as well. No wearing those clothes a second day! Mine were so dirty that I actually dropped them off in front of the washer each night before I climbed the stairs for a shower.
All I can say at this point is if we had possessed any other disposition than one of great thankfulness for the farm and our new-feathered friends, each of us would have spit, stomped the ground and espoused a few choice expletives before shooting the silly things. But as God would have it, we laughed at the irony of the situation. Who knew that we would be rounding up fowl each night instead of enjoying a leisurely evening eating dinner, talking, and playing games? Yes, we still do these things—occasionally—when we aren’t too tired from ending our day.
You Poor Things
Since we have had the farm, friends continually call and invite themselves for visits. We love that our friends feel close enough to invite themselves. And we love the opportunities it affords us for more intimate times of fellowship. After all you really get much closer to people while sharing chores. Of course, we did not have friends help us with the fowl task each evening, except to hold a flashlight so we could see. At least only those who sincerely wanted to participate in this messy job, instead of watching and laughing from a safe distance, were accepted as helpers.
Can you imagine watching three to five grownups poking long sticks under a huge egg mobile and attached tractor to expel excited birds from cover to herd a flock of ducks, and then a flock of geese, onto a tarp, and then racing to pull up the corners before any escape so that they could be scooped up one by one to be taken to the coop while squawking and hissing and flapping, only to have a few escape, which meant repeating the process all over again? Besides the deafening noise from these birds, our family could be heard calling to one another, “Hurry, they are coming around. Quick, quick pull up the corners! That one is escaping, hold your end up higher.”
Well, I can tell you that friends began ending their subsequent calls, notes, and emails to us with: “Although we always pray for your family each night, we now think of you at sundown, putting up your ducks and geese—you, poor things.” It was almost as if they had all discussed the situation and decided upon their message to us, for each sentiment was the same, ending with an emphasis on “you, poor things.”
Their sentiments were genuine in their dismay at our dilemma, which we truly appreciated, but it is one thing for friends to pray for us each night because of our ministry, and quite another to feel sympathy for us—night after night—struggling with our flock. Although we had been contemplating possible solutions to our dilemma, our friends’ reaction to our quandary prompted us to remedy this preposterous situation immediately.
A New Approach
Jon, being the one who did not want this many birds in the first place, suggested butchering a few. Horrified, I quickly began thinking of another alternative.
At first I thought maybe these web-footed creatures felt as if they might slip on the ramp, which led me to wonder if they just needed little toeholds. So Jedidiah placed crosspieces all the way down the ramp. Sadly, it did not make any difference.
Next I thought if the ramp were a bit wider, the birds might feel safer. So Jedidiah made it wider. Obviously not wide enough for the birds’ liking, so I thought, “If only it was wider.” So Josiah made it even wider. After completing the three ramps, none of which worked, I considered that maybe sides would give my beauties the security they needed to ascend their traveling palace. So Josiah constructed sides similar to the sides of a stock trailer and then added shorter sides to the end of the ramp to help funnel the birds up the ramp.
Would it work, some wondered? While I was confident that the sides would indeed resolve our problem, the boys’ skepticism, at this time, made them think that nothing short of building their own enclosure on the ground would resolve our predicament. Sonia, on the other hand, who did not want birds at all, thought we should get rid of all the birds and just purchase our eggs and chickens from the farmer who had been supplying them to us for the past several years. Jon, of course, was still holding on to the prospect of drastically reducing our numbers by butchering a good many of them. Not his favorite brown ones that he picks up, strokes, and calls by names; just the noisy, aggressive, squawking white ones that hiss and bite. Even after reminding him that this was the nature God gave them to protect the flock, he remained unmoved in his remedy to the ensuing problem.
Was I holding my breath to see if the newest addition would be successful? I never hold my breath because I know that there is always another day and another way that has yet to be discovered. Always seeing the glass half full, I am always hopeful that all will work out in the end. This time, it was just a matter of when the end would come to pass.
Hurrah, It Worked!
The time for testing the elaborate ramp had arrived. The sides were in place, sticks were in hands, and so we began slowly herding the ducks towards the entrance. Upon arrival, the ducks kept right on moving, waddling one right after the next, up, up, up into their home. Excited, we all applauded the success of Josiah’s ingenious sides.
Knowing the geese as we did by then, we definitely knew it would be a bit trickier to get them to use the ramp, especially the feisty, indignant white ones. However, with the ducks ascending as easily as they did the very first time, everyone hoped that the geese would follow suit, even if it took a few tries.
As suspected, we herded the geese around the egg mobile past the ramp a few times before they got the idea of our determination to have them use the ramp. About the third time around, we bunched them up a little tighter and gently pushed the more docile ones in the general direction. Reluctantly, those ascended. Around again we went setting in motion a few more towards the ramp until finally all ascended, in record time, I might add.
Excited about our success, we called friends who had put up the ducks and geese for us one night while we were in Branson negotiating our 2016 FCM contract, and sang to them our fowl version of My Fair Lady’s “You Did It” lyrics. Here is what they heard: They did it! They did it! We thought they would not do it, but indeed they did. We thought that we would rue it; we doubted they could do it. But now we must admit it, that succeeded they did!
Rawhide
Which now brings to mind another song, which I loved as a child.
Remember Rawhide’s theme song?
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
Keep movin’, movin’, movin’
Though they’re disapprovin’
Keep them doggies movin’
Rawhide!
Don’t try to understand ‘em
Just rope and throw and brand ‘em
Move ‘em on, head ‘em up
Head ‘em up, move ‘em on
Move ‘em on, head ‘em up
Rawhide!
Cut ‘em out, ride ‘em in
Ride ‘em in, let ‘em out
Cut ‘em out, ride ‘em in
Rawhide!
Well, I loved that song and dreamed of one day sitting in the saddle herding my own cattle, never dreaming that I would be on foot with sticks in my hands herding ducks and geese instead. Not exactly what I had in mind.
My cows, on the other hand, actually come when called. Who would have guessed?
Always learning; always laughing; always having fun—farm life is the life for me!