The kids learned a valuable lesson today

My husband, @goatgarden, and I have been trying to teach our kids to work together when doing chores. Work smart, not hard. Team work is important!

This week we've been really working hard to cut the lolly gagging during chore time. The kids have even set a record of 25 minutes! That's down from two hours last week. However, this morning they failed to communicate with each other on who is doing what, and they failed to think through the tasks. We almost had a catastrophe on our hands.

Yesterday we were gifted a female turkey from some great friends.

Now our Tom has a gal pal! But we were told she knows she can fly and she likes to roost in trees. She's been a free ranger all the time at her former home, but here at Garden of the Goats we cannot free range. Yet. So we put her in a pen by herself over night, and today's plan was to keep the outdoor coop door that leads to the chicken yard shut. The birds will still have access to the indoor and outdoor coops. But then put the new turkey in with the chickens and Tom. We'll keep them all together and on lock down for a few days or so, so the new gal can learn this is home, and hopefully won't fly the coop and disappear. Hopefully she'll find her new home appealing and will want to stay.

This morning I gave my older son specific instructions pertaining to the plan. He was to coordinate with my daughter. He did not. They just raced outside for chores. My 9 year old daughter is an animal lover. She is not afraid to be outside or try new things. She kind of adopted the new turkey as her own yesterday. She knew the general plan from our discussion last night, but she didn't know specifics. And she does not have enough experience yet to be able to think through all of the steps to safely carry out the plan.

So when my son started getting buckets of water, my daughter raced to the turkey. Thankfully I was on the deck (on my date with Cup-O-Joe). My son uses a dump cart hitched to a riding lawn mower to haul water to the animals. He had driven over to the water pump and shut off the engine when loud sounds- bad sounds started coming from the barn. My daughter was yelling at the dog. The dog was going nuts, and the turkey was going nuts.

My son took off running to help, and so did I. By the time I got there, the turkey had landed on the gate of the barn. Thank goodness she is a nice bird, or she was just exhausted. I don't know which. But I was able to gently pick her up without a fight. Thank goodness she hadn't escaped over the gate! My son got ahold of the dog, and I walked the turkey down the hall to the chicken coop. My daughter opened the door of the coop, and I let the turkey in. She ran over to a corner and laid down, and didn't budge from her spot.

I asked my daughter what happened. She said she wanted to move the turkey herself. She had opened the door of the pen, went in, and shut the door behind her. (But the door doesn't latch. We use carabiners to latch the doors on the outside.) Somehow Ozzy got in. He started chasing the turkey, who went ballistic and was trying to fly. But she was in a small pen! Then she got out, and that's when my son was able to get Ozzy, and the turkey landed on the gate.

After everyone was settled down, we had a long talk about communication and thinking through each step of a plan before executing it. It's called team work.

It would have been better to wait, even though Nikki the 9 year old, was excited, until Ozzy had been taken out to his spot with the goats, so he wouldn't be a threat. And the gates of the barn should have been closed so it would have been harder for the turkey to land on or possibly fly over and escape. Then my son could have been standing at the chicken door, ready to open it and let the turkey in, then close it promptly.

We need to walk through the plan and address any obstacles, and figure out solutions.

My daughter was sorry she jumped the gun, but she learned a valuable lesson today. She was very grateful neither she, nor the turkey were hurt. When we walked past the small turkey pen, we saw she had lost a lot of feathers when trying to get away from the dog.
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Luckily it was just feathers and not a leg!

My son hopefully learned when I give him information that pertains to him and his sister, he had better pass that information along pronto. He is 12 years old and very capable of doing so.

The morals of the story:
Communication is essential in teamwork so others don't get hurt.
And
Having a thorough plan is necessary to get a job done.