We are in the Milk Again

Jewel, the Jersey cow, calved once again and we will now be using her milk!  Here she is still in her ratty winter coat with new heifer baby;

Max wasn't sure about her milk so he brought me a dripping pint to test (I was out weeding).  I took a drink and  told him  it was perfect.  He must have lost his sense of taste because he kept telling me it wasn't good yet.  I will let it rest overnight in the extra fridge and then skim off the cream and bottle the rest for drinking.

While out near the pens, I took a few more  cow pictures because several had  come  down the lane and were standing in the lot.

This is either Jewel or Willow's two year old heifer who will calve before too long.  I will have a small herd of milk cows (won't be milking them though).
We will have her dehorned soon.

This is my usual view of Willow since she  heads for the back 40 when she sees me!

This Willow with her current offspring,  another heifer. 

This is a better view of  Willow's  daughter.

We are promised some rain and storms for this evening so I tried to do some weeding in the flower beds before it hits (so far the storm  has just brought some showers).  This is what I fight all summer long, henbit.

It is a slow job especially with the very dry soil.  Maybe we will get enough rains to help.

Cooking:

I gave in  to Max's pleading yesterday and  made a Long Island Cheese Squash pie.  I cheated and had some too. This is all that is left and it has his name on it.

The squash/pumpkin is very prolific and makes a very tasty pie.

It is still raining lightly.....

Mystery Varmint Identified and some flower pictures

Well, it is another wet day in the Ozarks.  We have had 1/2 inch of rain in the early hours and more is due this afternoon before a drier and much hotter spell.  Maybe the heat will dry out our swamps.  Tractors can't get into the fields  until some of this wet  goes away.

Mystery Varmint:

Mystery solved.  We got the beast out of the trap (after it was deceased) and I hosed it off.  Now you can see the rings around the tail and a faint white around the  eyes.  It is a raccoon that will catch no more of our chickens!

Water is now standing even deeper in the west yard.

This is the newly named Kerria Bed (for the kerria japonica pleniflora bush)

 I planted a few  white vinca at the edges, wish I had done more:

 Finally, for the first time a a few years, I planted zinnias which are just now opening:

 The next are some close-ups of the blooms:

 I even managed a second later planting hoping that the flowers would last longer:
Note the three small lavenders at the edges.  I think I have 5 or so planted at the edges of this bed.

 This is also the bed where I recently managed to get the clematis up on a small circle of green welded wire:
I forget the name of the variety but it is a Type 3 that you cut down each year.  I have another growing the an Alba Rose.

 This is the middle of the bed where you can see the ferny cosmos that will come on later.

 and of course, my old standby, self-seeded flowering tobacco, nicotiana sylvestris, that is everywhere!

The kerria is in a rebloom period now:

I have Max out taking pictures of Willow and her new baby (another Willow story coming) and the lane that is full of water now.

I think  I will make soap today.  We are getting low again.

First Week of September

Well, I did it again....got so busy  that I didn't take time to blog.
Weather-wise, the good news is we have had some very nice rains and things are greening up again.  Also we have had a few very cool days.

This is the strip between the house and the newly painted smokehouse after mowing and trimming.  I was almost dead before the rains.(clothes line across).

We have been so busy getting DH's mother moved that there wasn't much time for outside work or anything else.  She is settled and loving it.  The auction went better than we expected and once the closing is finished we can all breathe a sigh of relief.  I got her computer installed on the new stand we bought and she is enjoying her games again.

Speaking of stands, it actually went together easier than the recent shelving I did.  I made a change in the house shelving.....I  knew I would.  I moved the wooden ones to the back porch and put a black wire unit  in  its place in the kitchen.

The wooden ones fit well on the porch which is where I wanted them in the first place!  I have room for one more...if I can survive putting another set together.

I still have two plastic sets in the garage to do but they are simply a stacking job.  I want for the milk barn and DH needs another one for tools.

I hope to never have to put something together again!  It is never as simple as they make it sound.

We spent some time mowing yesterday afternoon but the tall grass in the orchard was too wet and will have to wait for a sunny day.  I did about an hour or more of weed whacking.  Now have the working area between the Milk Parlor and the east sheds where the gas tanks are done.  There is lots more to do. 


Farm
 
The milker wouldn't start this morning and I had to milk Willow by hand....wow, I am not up for that anymore.

I will put a call in for a technician in the morning.  I hope it is something simple (and cheap)!
I have my neighbor checking to find a calf to put on her....sure hope he can find one.  I understand they are now selling for $3-400 per calf.  That stunned me. 

Cows are Pregnant!

The heat continues.  We did get a 1/4 inch shower Tuesday evening.

The garden is pretty much history.  I finished canning tomatoes yesterday morning before the vet came to preg check the two milk cows.  My total is now 46 pints of canned tomatoes.  I am happy with that; it is the best from the current garden so far.

There may be a few more tomatoes but basically the garden is finished.  I am too!

I froze almost a bushel of sweet peppers.

These were not all flat like the cheese peppers I have grown before.  Don't know why.  I just washed, dried and bagged most of them.

Cows

The vet came to check Willow and Jewel.  He didn't even bother with Willow since she has started bagging up almost overnight.  He says around the first of October.  Time will tell.

Jewell is 75 days bred.  If I go from when I saw her in heat on June l, she should calve between March l and ll.  That is based on a 283 day gestation table.  Smaller breed can deliver l0 days earlier.

Farm

We  had a short power outage after the shower yesterday evening and the generator did not kick on!  I have a call for a serviceman this morning.  Somehow we must squeeze in a trip to town to see MIL who is moving this Friday.  I know she will need something done.  Friday will be reserved for overseeing the move.

House

We finally got the new shelving unit  put together and up.  It is the Swedish shelving sold by Williams Sonoma and was just as I expected.  I had intended to put it on the back porch but that required unloading and removing two very heavy pieces and we had MIL's situation to deal with, so "line of least resistance" and here is where I put it:

From House

Here is a close up: 

I could use another one of these....on the back porch this time (and I may have to move this one when my daughter gets a look at it in the kitchen!)  Between her and my "older" sis in Iowa, they don't let me get away with much........

I have already moved things around once and will probably do it a few more times before I get it the way I want it:

From House

Win a Few/ Loose a Few or Life on the Farm

Today is a warmish but very windy day.  Storms are supposed to move in bringing rain and some very cold weather for a couple of days. 

Willow has outsmarted me again.  I milked this morning and she did not let down.  I got l gallon instead of three.  I did not let her have the calves either!  I will show her.  I will probably milk again this evening late.

Perseverance pays off!  My Echo trimmer wouldn't start.  I replace the plug, put new gas in and then loaded the string.....nada.  I decided I had not used the proper gas/oil mix.  So this morning, I drained all gas out; mixed a new gallon with only a little over 2 oz. of oil (50:1).  Refilled tank, shot a squirt of starter fluid on the breather.  Pulled about l0 times and at last it fired up.  I trimmed  about an hour; killed it and it restarted beautifully.  I hope that issue is behind me.

I trimmed a couple of clematis and put fresh straw in the chicken nests.  They were singing happily.  I found a bed of chickweed and pulled a 5-gallon bucket for them.  They seemed to enjoy that; I already had 4 eggs in one nest but I just left them.  Maybe it will encourage the other girls to lay.

Last fall I ordered The Works daffodils from White Flower Farm and they are finally blooming.  I seem to have an over balance of small and exotics rather than the large flowered ones.  Next year I will just order individual varieties that I want.

I was going to take pictures in situ but the winds made it impossible so I picked a bouquet and brought in.

One of the  lilacs, Isabella, is in bloom next to a seedling redbud I planted a few years ago.

They are not fully open, but the lilac is scenting the front yard,

Calves out!

Friday, March 7, 2014

This is not something you want to look out the window and see first thing in the morning (unlike yesterday's turkeys).

From march 2014 blog

I am bringing up the rear as usual. Don't they look innocent; like what have we done?

They took the long way back to the calf lot, around the garden, under the downed Elm tree and along the back fence that is lined with five and six foot saplings.(chain saw required).

We found where they broke through a weak spot in the fence that will require some serious patch work.

I decided to go ahead and milk even though I knew Willow would be down in her milk because of all the excitement. She was, but just a quart.  Here  she is coming up the ramp into the milk parlor.

Back in the house I did a minimal amount of house tidying (bed and kitchen). I got out a loaf of bread and a chicken breast to thaw. I am making Ilene'schicken-fried rice for lunch.

Since I have extra milk now I set up a half gallon of yogurt. My Dannon starter was getting old but was frozen so I risked it.  I really only milk two or three times a week for normal use.....more if making something requiring extra. 

It is drizzling rain out so no outside work for me. I may go back to the barn......then I may not.

Daily Doings and Update on the Barn Babies

February 26, 2014

This was a long put off shopping day.  I am proud of us; I think we have gone almost a month without visiting Walmart!  That is my goal.  We also stopped  by our local market, Murfins, because I will not buy some  fresh things from Walmart (such as eggs).

February 27, 2014
 
Today is 'milk' day.  I am not out but since we will have company soon, I want to get some ahead.  .  All the grands, but especially our son's kids, absolutely love our whole, raw milk,  If they come when Willow is dry they  let me know  how disappointed  they are.  I have taught them a little farm animal biology about her having to be dry 60 days and then having to wait 3-5 days to use her milk.  They may start timing their visits accordingly!

I plan to be like the Administrator of the Family Cow Forum who is in her late 80's and still milks daily.  I don't even have to do that, only when we want and need milk.

Do you read food labels?  If not, please start doing it now!  I thought I was being very conscientious about that since becoming a nut about real  food (not processed, home cooked and grown if possible) but now and then something slips past me.  For instance since DH started eating a yogurt daily and I was too lazy to milk more often  to make  yogurt, I have just been buying him a week's worth with blueberries.  He likes Dannon's Orikos Greek brand. I finally read the label.....they use cornstarch to thicken it.  Now that is not horrible since cornstarch is a food product and not a chemical, but it annoys me  and seems  like cheating to thicken it that way.  It could possibly be even more nutritious since they aren't draining the whey to keep it thick.  I need to be open minded.  However, there are more things added.  Mine has only whole milk, and a  starter that is just a little natural yogurt.

Another product that jumped to my attention  was vanilla.  I have made my own for a couple of years now and even got my son and ex-DIL making it.  Gave my Sis l0 beans too.  She told me she thought it didn't have a vanilla taste!  Well she ordered two bottles of Mexican Vanilla and brought one to me the last time she was down.  It was a full quart so I thought I would just use mine up and then use hers.

Here are the ingredients:  Vanilla bean, Extract in Purified Water, Vanillin (Artificial Flavor), Alcohol, Corn Syrup, Natural Dark Color.

Mine would be:  Vanilla beans, alcohol.

You can't take pure, natural, or any of those other terms for granted.  You have to read the label!

BTW, the older my vanilla got, the sweeter it got.....and the smell was wonderful. 

UPDATE ON CALVES
These two are of  Willow's calf, a bull.  He will become a future herd sire in 2015 as a 2 year old.



This is the calf we  bought to put on Willow  so I wouldn't  have to milk daily,

That is Jewel's rear you can see.  This isn't a prime animal; he has too much Jersey in him and probably some Holstein. He comes from what is called a rainbow dairy herd. (I won't share my opinion of those dairies which are mostly grass based!)



and this is Jewel's first calf, a heifer.  I love her beautiful brown color



RANDOM  CAT PICTURE

There would have been several more cats enjoying the morning sun but my 'assistant' decided to drive
 Willow past the door into the field and the cats scattered.

The Cat and the Mouse (and Thanksgiving and catchup .... again

 

The cold front arrived last night but so far is showing 28° on my thermometer. We are north of I-44 so could miss the entire precipitation thing....time will tell.

The Thanksgiving holiday is over and I have been in a resting up mode since the last left on Sunday.

All the family was here which was wonderful; it is rare that both can come at the same time. Our granddaughter stayed with us the whole week (her BF lives nearby.......) She may join us over winter break (for the same reason).

DH has been busy getting ready for the possible storm by putting out bales of hay and moving the cows to the field with the in ground waterer that doesn't freeze. He also put a bale of straw in the hen house and filled the nest boxes (I have still been inside in rest mode). I did make oatmeal bread yesterday. I was not happy with the recipe so will keep experimenting until I find one I do like...may go back to some original Hogsdon Mills ones that I began with.

I had a mini disaster in the kitchen yesterday. I was getting something off a pantry shelf when the overloaded shelf slipped off one of the little shelf brackets and dropped down on one side to the shelf below! Nothing broke but some oil spilled. DH came to my rescue and we unloaded everything from that shelving section.

I took advantage of this to get rid of some very old jars of pickles that had gone bad. Now I have the counter top covered with clean canning jars that need to be transported out to the Milk Parlor (I knew I should have bought another shelf!). I had three dishwasher loads of jars.

This clean-up led to redoing the entire wall of cabinets...I have more to do this morning. I also redid a section of the cabinets where we keep coffee, tea and cereals. Be interesting to see how we like this new arrangement.

Next is organizing the freezer portion of the new refrigerator which is already a mess. Having all the company didn't help. I found a bowl I use daily at the top of the pantry.....bet my nice son-in-law did that. He was in the kitchen helping a lot. He and our daughter were both a tremendous help in after-dinner cleanup. The grands were attached to their phones................except the older one and she was studying almost the entire time here. I couldn't believe the amount of homework assigned over the break.

I made DH a half-gallon batch of yogurt. He has now become addicted to a dish a day with fruit, mostly blueberries. This is a man who a year ago wouldn't even taste it! I am guessing he saw or read something about the health benefits. I had been buying it for him when I finally decided I could save tons of money doing it myself. I have made yogurt before. I think my last batches haven't been as thick as I would like. I need to research that. He is happy with it though. I will also make my own fruit for it. I bought a jar of Duncan Hines blueberry topping and it is 80% thickened juice with just a bit of whole fruit. I can do better.

What did I learn from my cleaning pantry project? I will never can pickles again....just tomatoes and . maybe salsa and ketchup. DH has been telling me for a few years that I should stop. I will be working on my garden plans accordingly this winter. I am the only one to eat pickles; Vlasic can surely work for me.

I will be milking this morning. My steady girl, Willow (the milk cow) returned to a very vocal heat yesterday and we turned her to the field and saw her bred by one of the senior Angus bulls. The Jersey heifer, Jewel, still hasn't calved. I am sure she is waiting for the zero night due in a few days.

Random Cat Picture

 Prince come down with our granddaughter.  It was time for his surgery.  He paid his way while here!

I was up early again, 3:30 AM, so I am trying to get back in my old  routine of up early, enjoy DH's coffee (he brings it to me at the computer, I have to brag a little...these are some of the blessings of retirement!) while I do my thing on the computer.  Maybe I  can begin  posting a little more.

It is still quite cool.  We are loving it and so do the cows.

Speaking of the cows, I have been wracking my brain about when Willow is due and wondering about my new girl, Jewel.  I could vaguely recall thinking I would give Willow a rest from her usual August calving.  She is getting pretty old.  I also didn't want them calving at  the same time either.

Well if I wrote it down, I haven't found it.  DH found in his drawer where he keeps all things he wants to remember written down on various things (even though I have bought him several notebooks for this) that we turned the bull in February 22 and I finally found by using search on the blog where Jewel has her first heat April 3. So if she settled then we should be looking for a January 10 calving.  Willow is so sneaky, I haven't a clue but she will be fine on her own out with the other cows.  Jewel is still up close to the house.

and here she is looking very fit these days,



I  took this the same day, This is the field east of the house, called the East 20,



Note the bull in the background along the fence; he is on the move early because the neighbor's bull is across the road talking to him,



Random Cat Picture

GD took these when she was down, I think she has a very good eye for photography.





This is probably the pond on the old farm, I think we have seven ponds....



I like this because of the color of the old grass and Sugar.  Her tongue is hanging about because she ran along side of the ATV the entire time they were out,

Baking Again

It got pretty cold here again last night, 19° so we still have our layer of icy stuff.  Today should melt some and tomorrow in the 50's should take care of the rest....

I vowed not to feed the birds from the porch again because of the mess, but with ice on everything I knew they needed to be fed.  I finally caught a few of them but with everything in gray shades it is hard to pick them out.  There are 6 here.



Cooking

I made the new cookies from the recipe my Sis sent me.  It was from Williams-Sonoma.  It is a keeper.

Cookies-Williams Sonoma Coconut Butterscotch Chip (equally good with chocolate chip)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare a parchment lined cookie sheet.

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour

½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. Salt (I would use only ¼ next time)

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup light brown sugar, packed

½ tsp. pure vanilla

1 egg

1 ¾ cups sweetened, dried flaked coconut

1 1/2 cups chocolate or butterscotch chips ( I used chocolate)

½ cups finely chopped pecans (recipe didn’t call for nuts but I added them anyway)

Sift flour baking powder, soda and salt together in a bowl or on a sheet of waxed paper.

Cream butter on high speed until light yellow and fluffy. Add sugars and continue beating until no longer grainy to the touch. (I just creamed them well. Add vanilla and egg and beat until well mixed then on low speed, stir in flour mixture. Lastly add nuts and chips and continue stirring until well blended. Drop on prepared cooky sheet with rounded Tablespoon or with dampened hands shape into 1 inch balls. (I used my scoop which is about a rounded T., the shaping was going to take longer than I wanted to mess around with. The scoop worked fine.) Bake for about 15-17 min. until the edges are barely golden. Don't over cook.

I baked these one day and then the next, yesterday, I made  my first loaf of Challah.  I wasn't really too worried about making it....I have been making bread for several years.  Well, darlings, this was a bit of a challenge for me!  Not making it, that was very normal.  Then came the braiding.  First I thought this would be a simple thing so I opted for the 4 braid....after several sweaty attempts to do this one, I lobbed the dough back together and kneaded it into one ball.  Divided it into three ropes and began

  again.  Even this was not an easy task. First thing I know I did wrong was  the first of the braid wasn't tight enough.  It came out OK but is not very professional looking.  I will do better next time (I hope).  

I will be making it again.  It is a wonderful, rich and soft bread and we are loving it.

I used the recipe in Williams-Sonoma once again and I hope this link works.  http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/challah.html?cm_src=RECIPESEARCH


and this is a slice that I hope shows the fine texture,


DH was very impressed; he really likes a soft, moist bread.  It toasted nicely for breakfast.





Farm Notes:  February 22, turned bull into lot with Jewel and Willow. Random Dog Picture

I think I will use the small heater in the background for her pictures so we can guage her growing,  My Sis likes updates and it is hard to measure her.