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Hi Everyone,
You never know what a day may bring forth . . . and today was one of those days! It all began as a normal Sunday morning—we awoke at 5:00 so that we could get the morning chores and milking done before we had to leave for church at 8:45. To our grand delight it was not raining like the forecast said it would be—a positive for doing chores in the rain isn’t exactly what one would like to do before going to church on a Sunday morning. Papa got the hay put out to those that needed it, all the chickens were fed and their doors were opened so that they could eat weeds and scratch for bugs, and the dogs were given their morning petting’s and their breakfast cereal. Milking the cows went very smoothly—even though about five or more cows decided to poop in the milking parlor. I finished milking the last cow at 7:30, and Mom and I got the milk poured into the glass jars to make kefir, into the pot to make yogurt, and into some gallon jugs. It was then going on 8:00 and as we headed inside to get ready for church and to fix breakfast, Moises showed up to wash up all the milking equipment. That is when normal stopped, for just after we finished eating Mom was standing at the kitchen sink and noticed out the window that our milk cow, Gracy, was in labor. I knew nothing about it as I was in the back getting ready for church. It was going on 9:00 and I was ready to head out the door to leave for church, but when I came out to the living room Mom was in the front window with the binoculars. She had just seen our new dog, Yasha, pick up something white and drop it. A black sheep had just given birth to a set of twins—a black one and a white one. Yasha was sitting a good distance away respectfully watching. Then the mama ewe started to leave, and the black lamb followed her—they left the white one behind. Yasha followed after the mama trying to get her to come back to the white lamb, but the ewe just kept stomping her foot at Yasha and continuing on. So Yasha headed back to the white lamb and picked it up to take it to the mama ewe—but that must have been a little challenging for Yasha quickly dropped the little white lamb back to the ground and headed back to the mama ewe to try to get her to go get her lamb. At that point, Yasha decided to go check on all the other sheep and lambs—for they had multiplied overnight. Mom and Papa decided to go down field to see what was going on. As Mom walked out the door she told me to keep an eye on Gracy—that was the first that I had heard about Gracy. I first grabbed the binoculars and looked out the front window watching Yasha as she went from lamb to lamb and sheep to sheep checking on everyone. Then I headed to the kitchen and decided to do the dishes since we were not leaving for church right away. The kitchen window is in the back of the house overlooking the milk herd of Jersey cows. So while I did dishes I was able to keep an eye on Gracy—who was progressing nicely with her delivery. Out front Mom and Papa were able to reunite the white lamb with her mama and sibling—and they also found a little brown lamb that had lost its mama. Once the mama was found they headed back to the house. When they got back to the house it was decided that Papa and I would head to church, and Mom would stay home and keep an eye on Gracy—since she is twelve years old. Mom headed out to help Gracy and Papa and I were heading to the van. I quickly stepped on the back porch to tell Mom good-bye and I noticed that the feet of the little calf were on their way out. Since it was only about 9:25, and since we had already missed Sunday school, I told Mom that if we waited another 20 minutes then she should be able to go to church with us. So I asked Papa if we could wait about 15 more minutes, and he agreed and I headed out to pasture with Mom where we watched Gracy give birth to a little bull calf. Once the calf was on the ground we cleaned up, loaded up in the van and headed to church where I played the piano, we sang hymns, and the preacher taught a sermon on the importance of obedience—especially to God and His will for our lives.
We arrived home from church around 2:30, and were delighted that it had been raining—a much needed rain with the freezing temperatures that are to arrive tomorrow. While Papa took a nap, Mom and I cooked lunch. At little after 4:00 Papa had to leave to go back to church for Men’s Prayer Meeting. When the dishes were done, and the Larder email was sent, Mom and I headed outside to do the evening chores. Before we made it out the door we realized that the water pressure was very weak. We checked all over the farm and cannot find a leak—and by the time we came back in from chores, we had no water. Papa will not be home until late, and then he will need to lock up the chickens, give the dogs their bedtime cookies, and find out why we do not have any water.
Mom and I did the evening chores and the first thing we did was take some alfalfa pellets to the heifer calves in the back field. We have nine heifers in there that are in their teenage years—too old to nurse, and too young to be bred by the bull. It is nice to be able to raise your own milk cows. It is a good thing too, for tonight we were looking at the paperwork on how old our milk cows are, and over half of them are 8 to 12 years old and still going strong. We have one cow, Amy, who is going to have a calf any day now—and she is fourteen years old. Grass-fed cows have a much longer lifespan, and are productive for many years, because they are not fed tons of grain and pushed to produce more milk than is normal. The average lifespan of a conventional dairy cow is about six years, for after three or four years of intense and stressful milk production, the females are sent to slaughter. Some of those cows are only good milkers for about two years. Back to our chores tonight--once we finished feeding the heifers, I headed down to the sheep barn to put some alfalfa pellets in a trough and some hay in the hay rack, while Mom walked out into the cow field to separate the calves from their mama’s. We lock them up in the sheep barn at night—for the sheep are not using their barn right now. We haven’t decided though if we will be separating the calves the next two nights as the temperatures drop into the 20’s. We do not know if they will be warmer in the barn, or warmer nursing on mommy. When the calves were locked up we headed on down the lane to feed our old bull Flag some alfalfa, and the dogs Yasha and Jill their dinner. The sheep needed some hay, and while we drove back to their hay rack, we drove slowly through the field making sure that all the lambs had a mommy. All but one did—the little white one whose mommy evidently rejected her at birth. So our first Orphan Annie of the year has arrived. Now we need a child—for they never tire of bottle feeding lambs. Believe it or not, lambs are the best babysitters. You will never lose your child if you have a lamb—for the child will always find a reason to be hanging out with the lamb. With our lamb in tow, we headed up to check on the beef cows and to see if there were any leaky pipes up there. Then we gathered the eggs, fed Sheba her dog food, and came inside to get a bottle for our new orphan Annie. So as you see, our day has started off interesting, and is finishing interesting—since this is the first day of the week, I hope that this is no sign of what the week shall behold. I know that it will have its trials because the temperatures are supposed to be in the low 20’s—now that is COLD!!
Last week was really just a laid back easy week—we weeded; packaged seven full five gallon buckets of eggs; made kombucha, yogurt and kefir; delivered our goods to Jacksonville and Gainesville; visited with customers; cleaned the kitchen—now there’s a story! That day started out normal too, but at breakfast I dropped some paperwork off the side of the fridge and it fell behind the fridge. Papa tried to pull the fridge out—but it wouldn’t budge. So he used a yardstick—the mission was accomplished, but some over sized bunnies came out with the paper. Therefore that afternoon Mom and I spent cleaning under and around the fridge. Mom also found out that one of the feet was on the ground instead of the wheel, so that was why Papa couldn’t move the fridge—it is a big one. Mom screwed up the foot, and then we could easily pull out the fridge to clean behind it. Once the fridge was pronounced clean, Mom decided to tackle the oven. Then we vacuumed the floors—have you ever noticed that one floor in your house is always attached to another. I have the hardest time just vacuuming one room—for the dirt from the next room might get tracked into the one room and so forth. It was nice to be using the vacuum cleaner for “dust” instead of “ants”. Most of the week it has spent a good 30 to 60 minutes a day vacuuming ants out of my bedroom window. Between noon and 3:00 every day they were swarming. The last few days they have slowed down—which is nice. I just fear that they have set up housekeeping in the walls around my window. Mom put peppermint oil on a Q-tip and poked it in my window—and they really didn’t like it. Not too sure that I want to spill a whole bottle of peppermint oil down my window though.
There was one other thing that we did all week that was normal in and of its self—but it had some very interesting twists. Every day we milk the cows. We have a routine—at least my side of the parlor has a consistent routine. After I set up the milking equipment, I feed Dijon (the bull), Sally, America, and Amy—they all just get fed. While they eat I run inside and do a little laundry, and get ready to go milk. Once Mom is done with the dishes and I with the laundry then we head outside to milk the cows. Well, one day Penelope was in heat and Dijon didn’t want to leave her in order to come in and eat. So when Mom arrived to milk the cows, off and on she would try to get Dijon to come in—but he was only interested in Penelope. Then it was Penelope’s turn to be milked—and she had no problem leaving the bull behind. Dijon stood on the other side of the hot wire just looking at us. Since Penelope was in the only stall that Dijon comes in to eat, Mom decided to bring in Analee to milk on the other side and Dijon would just have to wait—or so she thought. When Moises opened the hot wire gate to let Analee in, Dijon just boldly walked in with her. There was no stopping him. He tried to go in the stall with Penelope—for he was ready to eat. Since he couldn’t fit, he tried the other stall—but it was full too. So, he headed into the middle stall—which isn’t a stall, it is where Mom sits to milk! Mom tried hitting the bull on the head with the plastic feed bucket, but he just kept coming. Mom knew not to climb into the feed room—for there is no escape once in there. So she climbed up, and stood over Analee—who was only interested in eating. As soon as Dijon realized that he couldn’t get to the food from there either, he backed up and left. The funny part was that he was not wild or mean, just consistently calm and pushy. We all breathed a sigh of relief when he left though—poor guy, he never did get any breakfast that morning.
Trouble has been the name of the game in the milking parlor lately, for as I said I have a routine. When I come back out to milk I bring in Sunshine and Rosepetal on my side, and Mom takes whoever is available on her side. For the past month though, Sunshine has been very rude—she is impatient. When I go to open the hot wire to let in the first four cows—she barges in. Sometimes she even pushes her way through the wire and sends it flying—once it hit Moises in the head. Years ago I had it wrap around my neck—talk about being glad that the hot wire only zaps you every four seconds! Mom told us to start using a stick to keep Sunshine back—but she just closes her eyes and comes anyway. Life was getting dangerous, so change had to take place. I hate change—but I knew that we needed a different routine. I prayed that the Lord would give us guidance and He did. One morning I went inside before I fed the feeders, and when I came outside I was going to do the same order—but Sunshine barged in. I had Amy in one stall, and instead of America, I had Sunshine. I was really beginning to hate this sweet, but impatient (dangerous) cow. I went ahead and milked her, then I brought in America—who takes a good twenty minutes to eat her alfalfa. During that time I was able to milk Rosepetal and Ellie Mae in the other stall. Then when America is done eating I can bring in Decci to milk her, while Sally comes into eat on the other side. It worked out perfectly—and since Sunshine is the first cow to be milked, we can let her in first instead of trying to keep her back. Sometimes the worst thing about change is thinking about it—once the change happens you find the new way is better than the old way.
Well that was the adventures for last week—and as to tonight’s water adventure . . . well, Papa got home around 8:30 and when he went to check out the well, he found that a roach had been fried between the two points. If the metal points do not make a clean connection, no electricity goes to the water pump and no water can be pumped out of the ground. That was thankfully fixed quickly —now I can go get ready for bed. I hope that everyone stays warm this week!
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare