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.

Weeding - The Babies

I made a few changes in my daily plans.....I took care of Willow and the calves this morning. While they were nursing, I cut the weeds growing out of the concrete in the holding pen (calves home). When I turned her out, I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of them in the cool morning. They are shaded by the apricot tree. I took so many I decided to do a collage. If you look closely you can see the wet noses and them looking to their left watching Momma walk away.


Instead of coming straight in and starting the freezer drawer, I decided to get the mower and trailer out. I want to spray some fence rows and ditches so I loaded the 25-gallon sprayer and had DH load the battery so I could check it out before mixing the spray. All is running, so in the morning I will be ready to go early.

I always keep my tools ready in the trailer, so I grabbed the loppers and cut some tall weeds out of the Ramp bed. The clematis paniculata (yes, I know they don't call it that anymore, but I do!) is starting to open and it smells heavenly. It has received very little extra watering so it does very well in the heat and dry. I always have to cut it away from the gate. The Kieffer pear has a few but I don't know when to pick them. I know I do it while they are still hard and let them ripen inside, but when?



That is the calf pen in the background.

Cutting those weeds felt so good, I did an early attack on the poor bedraggled Driveway Bed. I haven't watered it once this year and you can certainly tell it.
I pulled most of the weeds here but did do some seedling trees and milk weed with the loppers. I am feeling very good about this. It is something I normally don't do until fall because things are still blooming.....not this year. I still have the west side of the bed to do.

Now I am inside and DH tells me he is out of chicken for the dog....and Tide! I need my Merle Norman makeup, so the freezer may have to wait.

I think I may be deliberately putting it off............

Here is another good drought plant and it comes up in lots of places all over the yard.