It is still nice weather here, high's in the 80's; lows, 50's. Still no rain.
Since I blogged last, I visited my Sis in the Nursing Home which is enough to make you want to go into a dark room and shut the door for several days. Nothing to be done about the situation though.
Farm Life
I took a break from some spot mowing a couple of days ago to snap a few pictures of the cows in the West Lot who had come to the fence to watch me.
The first is Annabelle, Willow's (the milk cow) calf that we bought when we bought her. She has already calved and the calf has been sold.
This is the young bull we bought a year or so ago.
The sun caused some flare out but I like how it shows his muscling so I kept it.
Milking
I milk in a unique way; I stand up and bend over. Our old dairy barn is the platform style where the cows walk up an outside ramp and the milker stands on the floor where you attach the milking unit. Since I don't use the milker I am not in a good position to milk by hand standing up because I have to hold my arms up....which is very tiring after about 15 minutes. I stand on a stool and bend over her, works very well and also puts my head way out of danger range. It works for me.
DH was taking my camera to the field to take pics of the cows and snapped this on his way.
and this is how Grandma fed her chickens corn.
Note: Grandma never had a double chin and she never ever wore jeans! She did wear an apron daily and so do I! We would go out behind the barn to her corn crib, she would gather up the corners of her apron and fill it with 3-4 ears of corn and then we would go to the chicken yard which was her entire yard, but there was some bare ground near the chicken house door. Then she would take an ear at a time and shell the whole kernels onto the ground and they would come running.
I raised some Reid's Yellow Dent corn two years ago and never stored it properly and this spring I saw it was filled with weevils. So I decided to try Grandma's method and it works like a charm. DH had fed chops the night before so they weren't quite as thrilled with corn this morning.
I thought it might be hard to shell, but it was not.
Nice to put a face to the author!! Sorry about your sister but like you said, nothing can be done, will come to us all eventually and I am not looking forward to it!!
ReplyDeleteLove the different colors of your chickens-neat photo of them clustered together. Annabelle is colored up very nicely-pretty.
Loving the cool, nice weather. Went to flea markets with my oldest daughter and my sister yesterday. Stopped and visited with my older brother for awhile-nice day.
I like the photo of the bull too. When I milked cows they all had "parlors" like that. The largest I ever worked was 4 on each side. An Amish girl and I milked 75 head in the mornings starting at 4am. They had another crew milk at night. Of course they had the automatic milking system. Good Times.
ReplyDeleteDH asked me what I wanted for X-mas the other day. I asked for an apron ;)
Dear Glenda ~ I just love those shots of you doing your farming chores. I feel like I'm right there, with you, your cows, your chickens and wonderful flower beds.
ReplyDeleteI wear colorful tops like yours, they are what I look for at thrift stores. Pants are either blue jeans or khaki or long skirts, in plain colors.
I am sorry about your sister.
Thank you for the wonderful little walk around the farm. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Hugs ~ FlowerLady
I went throught the same thing with my sister and was always depressed for days after visiting.
ReplyDeleteThat's the way we always fed the chickens when we lived on the farm. We always had a corn crib and we'd grab a few ears to feed the chickens.
Sorry to hear about your sister.
ReplyDeleteGlad you were able to enjoy some of the cooler weather we've been having....too bad there was still no rain with it though. It's dusty, dry and crunchy here. Horrible Summer.
And I agree; it's nice to put a face to the blogger! Especially in the middle of barn chores....so now we know you REALLY do all those things & just aren't making stuff up! ;)
That's some cheesecake pose Annabelle is in! Was the bull watching? Heh.
ReplyDeleteSorry about your sis. Try to think of her when she was herself. I hope that's how people will think of me when I start losin' it. Sometimes I can't get my memory to work very well and that scares me a little.
I never saw anyone milk like that. Mom always sat on a stool, leaned forward, put her forehead on the cow's side and talked to the cow, or sang, while she milked. It seemed to form a bond between her and the cow.
You are skinnier than me. Just so ya know.
Loved this post Glenda! Out of all the blogs I go to... yours' is the one that gives me the 'warm fuzzies!' I talk about 'Glenda' so much, my husband knows who you are too!! We are at that stage of our lives that going to nursing homes is part of our life, my Mom and now Jerry's Dad. Hard-hard, but they need the care only a nursing facility can provide. Interesting that you milk like that, but the platform kind of dictates the way you have to milk. I would think a low stool would be harder for me anyways. My grandparents grew corn for the chicken too. Give it a few weeks and when the first cold night hits, they will come running for some corn! Have a good day Glenda...
ReplyDeleteYou have my sympathies, too, regarding your Sis.
ReplyDeleteHey, DH did pretty good capturing the 'real you', Glenda. And that is -- at work! Wow. Great to see you AND Willow in the same pic. Loved seeing your flock of hens. I also saw (in the background) that things aren't very green there and your trees seem to have lost a lot of leaves. I hope the weather turns for you soon. Wish I could send some of these clouds your way.
I'm sorry about your sister.
ReplyDeleteYour post brings back memories that I'd almost forgotten. I used to feed the chickens by shucking corn when I was growing up on the farm. Love your farm stories and photos!