Ducklings, An Albino Poult and Some Vegetables

I'm a bit late with Monday farm photos this week. There were lots of miserably hot farmers and I think I saw steam rising up off of the vegetables. For the most part, I chose to follow the boys to the animals instead - less stinky (though to be honest, I love the Farmer smell - I tell him that is why he is lucky to have me; it makes up for the fact that I am not Helga the invincible farmer). He has asked that I figure out how to get that smell out of the summer farm shirts. Is it vinegar in the rinse cycle? Is it oxyclean? Is it buying more thrift store t-shirts? What is the answer? He (and the other farmers) aren't as fond of that smell.

Back to the birds:

For the past several weeks or so the Bourbon Red Turkey sat on her own eggs! Most of the poults thus far have resulted from us placing the turkey's eggs under an unsuspecting brooding chicken. But this time, the turkey mama was ready for a long sit - must have been the heat. Gillen led me through wild brush to show me the hiding younguns, with their parents, in their new larger space. There are about eight new poults.Gillen calls this an albino poult (the other Bourbon Red poults are speckled brown and black). I call it the chicken egg that got placed under the turkey.
Just the other side of the compost pile, Jesse led me to a good view of the ducklings.

Though they still waddle around in a line behind their mamas, they are much more independent and soo much bigger. I couldn't resist following them around for awhile:
Gillen checked for more duck eggs in the coop that now belongs to the roosters. There have been so many that we have been eating them instead of letting them hatch.
Watermelon made us forget the heat.Here's what I brought back to my kitchen.I made eggplant parmegan for dinner. We grilled the red peppers.After cooling them in a covered bowl I peeled off the charred skin and seeded them in order to freeze them. Roasted red pepper for paella and pizzas in the winter.