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Hog Island sheep keep a curious eye on Park Ranger Dick Lahey as he grabs feed for the oxen at George Washington Birthplace, on Popes Creek in the Northern Neck.
Volunteer Fred Bright feeds a group of Ossabaw Island pigs at George Washington Birthplace. Descended from Spanish pigs from the Old World, the pigs are among several kinds of heirloom animals at the national monument in Westmoreland.
This Devon ox is one of several heirloom breeds at the first president's birthplace. Rangers are trying to stock the national monument with livestock breeds that were favored in the period when George Washington and his family lived there. |
DICK LAHEY had a killer toothache, but the little bun- dles of energy scampering around his feet in the enclosed pen were so cute he couldn't help but smile.
"It would be nice to have that much energy," he said as the passel of red, black and white Ossabaw Island piglets chased their mother about the swine yard at George Washington Birthplace National Monument. "They're already getting bigger."
Lahey, farm manager at Washington Birthplace in Westmoreland County, isn't excited about the piglets just because they will generate interest for visitors to the historic attraction.
He knows they're just part of a program to reintroduce a range of heirloom and historic breeds to the birthplace.
With the help of partners as varied as Mount Vernon and a group of energetic 4-H students from the Northern Neck, the park will get piglets, turkeys, chickens, cows and other animals typical of the farm animals during Washington's era.
"It's impossible to know what sort of breeds would have been here during that time," said Lahey, noting that clear delineation of animal breeds didn't start until well after Washington's day.
But Lahey, who this year and next will take delivery of several Narragansett turkeys, said he and others on the staff have worked hard with all available sources to bring in animals as much like those of Washington's era as possible.
Take the turkeys, a cross of wild, American birds and turkeys brought to this country by English and European settlers.
Lahey and Washington Birthplace wanted to increase their poultry flock on the farm. But they don't have the manpower or the facilities to raise either turkeys or chickens from a young age.
That's where the partnership between the Birthplace and 4-H students in Northumberland and Lancaster County came into play.
The Virginia Tech Extension agent there, Wendy Herdman, said members of the local 4-H Bills and Beaks Poultry Club worked hard raising dozens of Dorking and Red Cap chickens and a handful of the Narragansetts over the past two years.
A select group of those were promised to the Birthplace to help establish the old-breed animals there.
While the partnership between the 4-H students and the Birthplace farm made perfect sense, another factor helped the project along.
Lahey and Herdman just happen to be married.
"When I heard Dick say he wanted to re-establish the poultry flocks, I knew it would be a perfect project for the students," said Herdman. "They've worked hard at it."
Frances Tucker, a 17-year-old member of the 4-H group, said the chickens were easier to raise, because the turkeys want to fly off as they get older. Pens needed netting atop them to keep that from happening.
Tucker had to weather an attack by a pack of wild dogs last year that decimated her chickens, and start over again this year with other animals.
She and others in the club have taken top honors at poultry shows with the birds, and have gotten to be pretty savvy about handling them.
"Turkeys will get a little excited when you pick them up, especially males," said Herdman, who has raised chickens herself, for eggs. "But Frances has such a way with the birds that they'd almost go to sleep in her hands."
"They would lay their heads on my chest and settle down," said Tucker, who recently delivered birds named George and Wilbur to the Birthplace.
Lahey noted that the Ossabaw hogs, raised originally on an island off the coast of Georgia, were like the animals that would have been used for meat, shortening and so much more on the Washington farm.
He noted that the Ossabaw sow that delivered 10 piglets had been obtained from Mount Vernon, the same Washington-related site that in recent years lent the Birthplace a bull to restore a historic breed of cattle.
Lahey said he really appreciates the efforts of the 4-H students in providing young chicks and turkeys, and is looking forward to some of those students volunteering on the farm come spring.
Tucker is as well.
Partly for the experience.
And partly for the chance to reconnect with George and Wilbur, who will probably be too big to pick up by then.
To reach ROB HEDELT: 540/374-5415 rhedelt@freelancestar.com
