Today

Well, nothing has died today and the milk machine ran great this morning.  I've got butter churning in the Bosch from the fresh cream.  All in all, an easier day.  We currently have our fifth uninvited visitor of the day though.  I am glad people feel welcome to stop by, but it is hard to get work done! 

Ups and Downs

On the up side, and it is a BIG up--Sweetheart got the machine running!  Three gallons of milk in record time.  At that point, the cow (Lucy?) broke out of the staunchen (again) and bolted.  I grabbed the machine off her and let her go.  I am NOT fighting a 900 lb. animal in an enclosed space.  We'll try again in the morning.

On the down side, when we went out to milk, Sweetheart found one of the big hens mostly dead.  No clue as to why.  She had been just fine running around all day.  Sweetheart put her out of her misery.  Not knowing why she died, she is not going to be dinner.

And we had an even bigger downer.  Within minutes of Sweetheart finding the hen, I found Buddy the Baby Bull really dead.  He had had scoures and I had giving him medicine as directed.  But for whatever reason, he did not make it.  I had tried to check on him a few times today, but did not find him and did not have time for a full on search.  I think that maybe for the best.  Though it makes me sad, reallllly sad, that he may have suffered, it would have been heart-breaking to have found him almost dead and having to decide what to do at that point.

Our sweet neighbor was doing her chores and came over to see how it was all going.  She is so kind.  In fact, while Sweetheart and I were milking the cow, she and her son put Buddy on their four-wheeler to take him up the mountain.  It was over and he was gone before I could say anything.

It has been a roller coaster kind of day.  I am thankful for many things, even though sad about others.

Hard Work

Yes.  This is hard.  It is hard physically and otherwise.  But you know what?  That's ok.  Hard work makes you stronger. 

I milked earlier and faster this morning.  I had two gallons done in two hours including prep work.  Prep work is getting the grain ready, get the teat washing stuff ready, getting the cow into the barn, getting her into the staunchen, tying her tail and hobbling her,  and whatever else happens before I can sit down and milk.

The first few days were absolutely miserable.  Totally.  But now I am sitting here with everything cleaned and ready for this evening, all the milk skimmed and frozen, and three quarts of cream to play with.  I think I'll make butter and freeze it as I still have boughten butter to use up. 

It will be ok.  It is not great right now, but it is getting better each time.  Plus, want to know the neatest thing?  I've gotten to hang out with my wonderful neighbor. 

She's come over the last three evenings and milked with me.  She was raised on a ranch and knows so much.  She really is great.  This is the first opportunity we have had to get to know each other because she travels a lot.  Plus, she has a project I can work on in exchange for her help.  That's nice.

The cow-who-still-is-nameless is a wonderful cow.  She has the sweetest temperament.  Not many cows would put up with how long this is taking.  Especially one used to being machine milked.

My mom has been a Godsend.  She has been watching the kiddos a lot.  I am sure she is as tired as I am!  We reeeeally appreciate her help.  The kids have LOVED  having her here. I just wish I could get to see her, too! 

Sweetheart was on milking duty with me from the get-go on Saturday and Sunday while Grandma was over.  However, he has been working on the milking machine side of things and has not been able to milk more.  He has had to make all day trips to get machines and parts and been working on putting it all together.  There were no fully ready machines available even all the way to Boise.  Plus, he is the one taking care of the kids while I am milking in the mornings.

The cow was putting out sixty pounds of milk for the dairy we bought her from since the calf was born on the 16th.  They milked her by machine and bottle-fed the calf.  We have since just turned them out to the pasture together and he drink at will. 

Why didn't we have a machine from the start?    Several reasons.  They are expensive.  I did not want a machine as I thought it might make the milking time a bit shorter, but add extensively to the clean up time.  I figured it would equal out and therefore not be worth it to me.  I thought that because I was used to milk the goats, I could handle this.  Plus, we have an excess of machines in our lives.  Need I say more?

Here's what I didn't know.  First, that we'd have so much trouble just getting her in the barn.  Second, that they were telling the truth about how much milk she produces. ( I figured it was exaggerated based on the fact that every seller seems to exaggerate animal output.)  Third, that she is short, her bag hangs low, her teats are a lot shorter than a goats and that her bag is so big you cannot reach both sides at once without almost laying down. 

So, we'll machine milk her.  Soon.  I am praying that it will start tonight! 

Yes, there have been a lot of tears.  Yes, it is frustrating.  Yes, is has been really messy.  Yes, I am sore.  Yes, I have prayed for help and forgiveness a lot. 

Last night, was pretty bad.  She broke free from the staunchen, she got poop all over me, I spilled milk all over the kitchen and cried over it.

This morning, it went a lot better.  She got free again, but I got her under control all by myself and rigged it up to hold better.  Learning something new, seeing how strong I can be, and working hard all feel pretty good even when my forearms and fingers don't!

Love you all!  And please, please, come over and get some milk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  PS--What is fresh milk going for in your area?  The store milk here is  $4.00 a gallon.  I am not sure what to price it at.  PLEASE give ideas for prices.  And pray the machine works.

Got Milk?

I have spent six hours today on cow chores.  Most of those hours were spent milking.  And I am still not done.  Please pray we can get a milking machine up and running tomorrow.  Thank you.

Whining

my arms ache so bad from milking, i can hardly type.  just finished outside and still have more to clean up inside to be ready to milk again in the morning.  ugh.  i will be so strong. if i don't keel over firsttttttttttttt

Progress

I am a litltle proud and mostly just grateful.  I got the cow and calf up the ramp and into the barn all by myself this morning.  This is a huge improvement. 

My neighbor came over yesterday just as I was getting started with the evening milking.  She grew up on a ranch and loves cows.  She jumped right in and starting milking one side, giving me all sorts of ideas, as I milked the other.  As the morning milking yesterday took THREE hours, it was nice to have help.

When her son got home we got the cow in the barn all together for the first time.  It was hard.  But we did it!  They had great technique and a lot more strength.   Getting the cow in the first time was a huge hurdle.  (900 lb hurdle!)  It took some maneuvering this morning but it worked.

This should just get easier.  So much to share, but not enough time right now.  Just wanted you to know I was not buried under a cow.

Ugh.

I thought having the goats would make having a cow easy.  Hahahahahahhahahaha!  And that is all I have time to write. 

I am a Cowgirl

Yup. We just got back with Mama and Baby Cow.  Woohoo!

Farmgirl Friday

Huckleberry Muffins

Mooove over goats!  We are upgrading to a cow.  Bella and Eve have found a new home.  The jersey cow we've been working on buying calved last week.  She had a not-so-little boy.  I was even more grateful that he was born at their place and not ours.  We will find out for sure today when we will pick them up.  At this point we are planning for tomorrow.

Someone asked if I had cows growing up.  Hello.  I grew up in Phoenix.  We had dogs.  I don't think I even saw a cow close up until I was an adult.  I have lived in big cities almost all my life.  So, no, I don't really know what I am doing.

I have read a lot and the lady we are buying from is great at answering questions.  She also has an amazing gift for people in this area:  she'll tell you what you NEED to know without waiting to be asked.  Now, plenty of folks around here are happy to tell me all sorts of things I DON'T want to know, usually negative things about other people around here.  But most people don't seem to want to share helpful information, unless you specifically ask.  I think they believe in learning things the hard way.  (Hear that banging sound?  It's my head against the wall.)  Seriously people--help me out!!!  I quite regularly admit to being new to all of this.  I pray that when I am the old timer around here I will share a bit (!) more grace to the newcomers.

Anyway...back to the cows.  I am excited and honestly a bit scared.  I think that is wise.  I've never been responsible for any living thing this big.  The goats were our starter animals and we all survived that experience.  I milked twice a day, every still single day since we got them.  No break for almost six months is a good start, I think.  Sweetheart says he will help with milking her.  I hope so.  I know it will usually be my job, but it would be good to have an extra set of hands available.

The next step is to figure out what I will do with all the milk!  We will see how much we are getting and using and figure out what we have left to sell.  I have my butter churn, ice maker, and yogurt maker all on standby.  The cream separator is set up ready to crank.

All suggestions and advice is welcome at this point.  We are also thinking about names:  #902 just isn't a great name.  Still no name for the farm yet either.  We've been too busy to really decide.

Other other fronts, I have been rushing around trying to finish up some projects before the cows arrive.  Yes, it is a bit like waiting for a baby.  I have been working on preserving food and sewing.  I finished my kitchen curtains and hung the last part up last night at about midnight.

It was then that I discovered that I used the WRONG piece of fabric for the valance.  I had cut a foot wide piece from the fabric that I had intended to use.  However, when I picked up the beautiful fabric to sew it all together, I inadvertently grabbed the remnant piece which was two feet wide. Not paying attention, I sewed all the edges and other fabric pieces to it and attached it all the way I wanted it.  I was so proud of myself as sewing is a newish thing to me.  Pride comes before a fall.

Now, I have to decide what to do with it.  I can leave it as is, but the proportions are all wrong.  I can try to modify is and sort of foof and balloon it up.  Or I can rip apart all those little seams that for once are really straight and nicely done and start alllll over again.  Did I mention we are getting a cow tomorrow?  Ugh.

Which also means I have no more time to write!  Do leave a comment with cow wisdom, name suggestions and tips for what to do in 10 minutes for less with my curtains.  Much obliged.   -Kimberly

I am linking up to Farmgirl Friday.  Stop on over for a visit.

Autumn's Arrival

It's here.  It arrived the other evening in a brief, but full rainstorm.  The next morning we awakened to Autumn.  The light has changed, the temperature dropped.

I went that morning to the forest up the road.  I wanted to pick some flowers for Cupcake's birthday.  I took my mug full of oatmeal with me.  I sat on a rock in a sunbeam next to the creek and listened and worshiped and ate oatmeal.  The sublime and the pedestrian all in one moment.  But isn't that Life?

I breathed in the freshness of the rain with the scent of rain still clinging.  I marveled at spiderwebs glistening in the raindrops wake.  And I ate oatmeal and laughed out loud.  Inhaling the wonder of it all and living in the moment.  Trying to capture and distill these precious gifts and to try to figure out to to keep that sense of wonder and delight when not alone in the woods.

I walked around a bit gathering flowers and pictures, sights and smells and sounds.  I rinsed my mug out in the creek admiring the rocks under the water.  I found a wild apple tree and picked two apples.  I filled my jar with bits of Queen Anne's Lace, yarrow, golden flowers and ferns.  After just a few minutes, I decided to drive on and still what I might discover up the road.

I only drove a mile or two.  Then I bit into one of the apples.  I turned around and went back to where I had been.  I grabbed a bagged and went to gather more apples.  And then I saw them.  More and more apple trees.  I had been so focused on the flowers at my feet I missed the fruit just above my head.  A good problem to have, if you think about it.

I filled my bag with apples from two trees and plan to take everyone back, maybe tomorrow to gather more.  While our little orchard's trees are filled with bugs these wild trees are growing good fruit and so full of flavor I may never be able to buy an apple again!

Now I am sitting here taking a quick break.  I have been shucking free sweet corn I picked this morning.  The house is filled with the smell of the steaming elderberries I found growing along the corn field.  I had also seen some elderberry bushes in the woods that morning.  So when we all go to gather apples, we will pick them as well.

I was told you should pick the elderberries after the first frost, but read that once they have a white bloom to them you can pick them.  We've not had a frost yet, but they are whitish and quite juicy.  Anyone have any thoughts on this?

We had company over for dinner last night.  I made grilled chicken and steak, a giant salad, steamed brown rice and made the most wonderful Curry Quinoa recipe I found in this month's MaryJane Magazine.  Do try it if you can.  I will write out the recipe if anyone is interested.  For dessert I made an Autumn Fruit Crisp full of the wild apples and our pears.  Layered with brown sugar, oats, cinnamon and fresh-grated nutmeg and served with a bit of vanilla ice cream, it was the entire wonderful season on your spoon.  Wish I could share a bowlful with each of you!

Alas, it is time to get back to the corn.  Luckily, dinner tonight will be leftovers from our dinner last night.  I have a tendency to overcook when company comes.  I would hate to run out of food!

I hope you each have a wonderful evening wherever you are. 

cupcake

it is my birthday today.  it's been an amazing year.  look how much i've grown!

End of Summer

I have been wanting to sit and write for awhile now. It seems though as each time I try, something immediately comes up and I can't.  Life.  I know.

Well, we have had Dumpling's Birthday, our first day of school and are planning for Cupcake's Birthday on Friday.  I between I have processed gallons of produce in various forms.  All of which becomes ripe at the exact same moment and goes from ripe to rot in a flash.  

I have not posted pictures from Dumpling's Birthday, or my Dad's visit in August, or done more than a cursory bit on schooling on one other day.  Life.  I know.

We have gotten rid of the goats. (Yippee!) The cow has been delayed as she is due on Thursday.  The chicks are (almost) all growing big and strong.  Except the ones that have died.  Three were DOA, two didn't last through the next day, and two more are dead by no apparent reason.  Daisy died after her intestines became out-testines, an experience I hope to never repeat.  Ever.  Life.  Death.  I know.

All the fruit trees are ripening.  The plums, the only bug-free fruit, are so plentiful that I just cannot imagine what I would do with them all even if I could pick them all in time.  They are mostly very small, think a large cherry, but with pits one cannot remove.  We have all eaten too many.  I have steamer juiced several gallons worth and frozen oodles more.  The juice tastes great and is so pretty.  I have decided to freeze what we are not drinking quickly and know that I will enjoy making jelly from the juice when it is not 95 degrees in my kitchen with the lovely windows that do not open for any ventilation.

The pears are beautiful and also filled with mush spots and buggies.  I have spent hours cutting out the good parts, juicing them, and eating them fresh.  I have baskets of green ones ripening on the windowsills and so many in the tree.  The truly rotten ones are a mess in spite of my trying to keep them picked up under the tree.  In the morning, I will send the bug chicks over for breakfast.  Between the flies, hornets and fruit they should be in heaven.  

Let's see...the boys are having a blast, in spite of not doing school every single day like they wish we would.  They are quite taken with our Art Afternoons though.  This basically means they spend the late afternoons painting.  Paper, rocks, leaves, sticks, themselves, the table (ahem!) are all fair game to them.  I have some watercolours to introduce.  Someday.  

Pumpkin will love them I know.  He is quite fond of Miss Potter.  Yesterday afternoon he took his Nature Sketchbook outside and drew a labeled a delightful picture of a BUNE.  (Bunnie)  I am sure his name was Benjamin or Peter.  He is also enjoying copying The Masters from various art books I have from the Library.  His Mona Lisa is a hoot.

Dumpling would rather dig in the dirt than anything else.  Except eat.  He enjoys that.  But wow, he eats.so.slow....He is four and wanting to be BIG.  Except when he'd rather just throw a temper tantrum, which he is quite good at.  He does not get what he wants from the tantrums, just so you know.  One would think he would give up by now.  One would wish he would give up by now.

Cupcake makes me smile just thinking about her.  She has a grin that makes everyone stop and smile.  She's got lots of personality and a lot to say.  A family trait, I believe.  (roll eyes here)  She mostly says, "No."  and "No, no, no (her name)."  She's crawling everywhere and pulling up on occasion, mostly to try and just get something of her brothers that she shouldn't have.

  She hung out in her swing outside this morning while Daddy built more housing for chickens, I picked pears and hung laundry out to dry and the boys played in the dirt.  She was quite content watching everyone and talking to us all.  She has decided that she no longer wishes to retire in the mornings.  This was something I should have taken into account when planning school, but forgot about.  It is a big change for all of us. Alas, we will all adjust.

I am still happily reading about education and loving it all.  Though it comes in little bits and spurts throughout the days.  Those moments add up.  I am almost done with the Charlotte Mason original writings.  So wonderful!  And yes, I know, she thought the best thing the boys could be doing right now is exactly what they are doing--playing outdoors.  Lessons can wait.  And will. Though, I am looking forward to setting up a microscope this week for them.  I think they will enjoy "science" don't you?

Now, all I need is some friends.  Not that I would have time to see them.  But I would sure like to try.  And yes, I have made friends here.  All but two are over the age of 60 and most appear to be in the 70-80 range, but age is hard to tell here.  Life has been harder for the women out here, and it shows.  Kinda freeing on the other hand.

But, oh, what I would give for a dinner out with Terri, another Starbucks visit with Wendy and Alyssa, tea time with Roisin, to go to the farm with Janna, to sit and visit anywhere with Joanne & Kay, another evening of Bunco with the ladies I love.  And on and on.  

Life.  

I know.

On the Windowsill

1 Timothy 6:11 (The Message)

I love this verse.

Hello

Remembering Donald McArthur Young

Just a week shy of his 42nd birthday, Chief of Naval Operations Information Systems Technician Donald McArthur Young was working in the Pentagon on the morning of September 11, 2001. He had served our country in the Navy for 21 years spending most of that time off shore.

During his time of service he received many medals and awards. From Atlantic Fleet Sailor of the Year to three Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medals, this Persian Gulf War veteran embodied many of the attributes we honor in our service men and women.


Beyond his life of service to our great country, he was a dedicated husband, son, and brother. He was known for both his hard work as well as his compassion. Considered quiet, he was the type of leader that put others before himself whether it was his family, teammates, or other members of the military who served with him.

He is buried in Arlington Cemetery. His wife, Felicia Young, wife is quoted as saying, "He died doing what he loved.”

Donald McArthur Young, you are not forgotten. Thank you.

(For more September 11th Tributes, visit HERE.)

Month Eleven

She is amazing.

So wonderfully curious. 

 

And fiercely determined. 

 And has excellent taste in Literature.

A Taste of Fall

moss on gate

Last night I stepped out to close the chickens in for the night and noticed the cool breeze.  It is as though Summer just slipped away.  It has been quite mild until the last few weeks where it has been an intense heat both day and night.  This breeze was quite welcome.  

This morning I went to the coffee shop with my office-in-a-basket.  It includes my netbook, tablet, notebooks, regular books and a jar of pen & markers.  I can go and work anywhere with this set up.  I am still intensely planning and learning and getting ready to launch our school year.  I thought September 1st would be it, but since that is today and it's Thursday that's not going to work.  Looks like Tuesday will probably be the day.  

Tuesday is also Dumpling's 4th birthday.  Amazing.  He has asked for a monster truck cake and some flowers.  He is one unique little boy.  

The coffee shop has a conference room attached where anyone can have a meeting, or just sit and work like I am doing right now.  It has a nice big table I can spread out on and still enjoy the murmur of others visiting, but still concentrate on what I am working on.  

The guys were all talking this morning a one mentioned "A Taste of Fall".  I have no idea what they were talking about, but that snippet caught in my mind.  I am enjoying this taste. Savoring it in fact.  It is our first one here, so I am excited to see what it holds.  

This is actually my second trip in here this morning.  My first trip lasted about 10 minutes as I got a call that our chicks had arrived at the Post Office.  I packed up and dashed on over to get them.  Sadly, four of the forty were already gone.  My, they are (the live ones) cutie pies!!  We got them all set up with their special home, heat, water and snacks.

It was still early so Sweetheart suggested I head back on out.  On my way back to town I stopped at a neighbor's I had not met yet.  It's a widow in her 90's.  I had my camera on me a stopped to ask if I might take some pictures of her gardens.  She was thrilled and we visited for quite a bit.  I love hearing peoples' stories.  So fun!

I took quite a few pictures that I'll be posting over the next few posts as I am able.  All my flowers are done for the year, so it was nice to see some still in bloom.  Next year, I am planning to plant oodles of flowers, herbs and veggies.  Our little veggie garden went in so late this year and the weather has been so odd this year that we don't have much.  We're enjoying it as much as we can, but there is not enough of anything to can.

Well, I'd best get back to work.  Hope you are all enjoying your week.  

Love,

Kimberly