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Hi Everyone,
Lions, and tigers, and bears O my! Well not exactly, but the week has been pretty crazy. We woke up Monday morning to a new calf on the farm. Miss Sally (short for Sallymander) gave birth to the cutest little bull calf that Papa named Tadpole. Sally gives around two gallons of milk a day—so milk production shall increase nicely. Tadpole got to hang around the farm and nurse his mommy until Saturday when a family came to pick him up and will raise him to be their next herd bull. I think that he shall add some great genetics to their herd. We kept Sally’s last year’s bull calf—Bullfrog, and if he grows big enough I hope to use him as our next herd bull (Sally is on the mini side, and Dijon—the daddy is on the big side). Saturday morning also brought us a surprise calf—America had given birth to a little bull. I named him Benji—short for Benjamin Franklin. We have had three calves born in the last ten days—two bulls and one heifer. More milk is here!
The Adventures of Buttercup
Have you ever wanted to give your two year old a piece of chocolate cake, and the rules were that he had to sit down at the table in order to eat it—but getting him to the table was no easy task? That is what it is like with Buttercup. Once we get her into the milking stall she is perfectly calm and lets you milk her and eats all her food—but getting her there is a different story. From Wednesday to Sunday the week before we had only managed to milk her one day—so come Monday we just had to milk her. Yet, when she got close to the milking stall she bolted through the wires and headed down field. Papa and I walked down and worked to separate her from the herd and get her into the panel pens so that we could get a rope hooked to her halter. Mom grabbed the golf-cart and some ropes and met us at the panel pens. We then hooked her rope up to the back of the golf-cart and proceeded to walk her round and round in one of the pastures. Papa walked along side of her in order to hold onto the rope so that she thought that he was leading her around. After about an hour we took her back to the milking parlor. Thankfully the middle section of the milking parlor just happens to be wide enough to drive the golf-cart right through it—which enables us to pull Buttercup right up to the milking stall and after some heave hoeing we finally got her into the stall and she settled down and ate her breakfast and calmly let Mom milk her. The next day Papa grabbed her rope and was able to walk her up to the milking stall---but we still had to pull her in. Wednesday was no better—and probably a little worse. A friend stopped by for a little bit and was amazed at how much trouble it can be to tame a cow. It took Papa, Mom and I pulling together to get Buttercup into the stall. Some days Papa is able to pull her in, and other days she escapes and we have to get the golf-cart and bring her back to the parlor. She makes no sense—for she is not a mean cow. She doesn’t kick or bite; you can kind of walk up to her in the pasture and pet her. Once she is in the stall you can milk her and brush her all over—and she is perfectly calm. She just absolutely hates going into the stall—but once in she is fine. Crazy cow is all that I can say!
When we got inside Monday afternoon—for it was afternoon by the time we finished milking, Mom said that she was exhausted. Papa laughingly said, “It was hard work to push the gas pedal.” Mom was the one who drove the golf-cart, but Papa was the one that did all the muscle work and leg work with Buttercup. We all had a good laugh. After lunch Steve and I headed to the garden and Papa and Mom headed out to separate and move the Murray Grey beef herd. For the next two or three hours Steve and I dug up elderberries and Mom and Papa chased cows. The raised bed where I usually grow cucumbers is also the ginger bed. To my dismay several elderberry trees were starting to grow in the middle of the ginger bed. I had to dig them out—but first we had to dig up all the elderberry roots that were growing under the mat in the walkway. Then I thought that we needed to pull up all the elderberry plants growing alongside the walkway mat. When we saw how easy they came up Steve and I decided to just pull up all the elderberry plants in the bed beside the walkway. Once all that was done we started on the ginger bed—but the ginger had to be harvested first. I was not planning on harvesting that ginger bed this year—but the elderberry forced me to. I was glad that I did though for it was the best ginger crop ever. The ginger roots were every bit as big as the ginger roots at the grocery stores. The clumps were bigger than my hand. It was going on 4:30 when Papa and Mom finished chasing cows and Mom came to tell us that is was time to quit for the day. We finished digging up the last bit of the elderberry in the ginger bed, and then we cleaned up our tools. Mom said that the ginger would be fine left on the ground until the next day. So come Tuesday I headed back to the garden and harvested the rest of the ginger, leveled out the bed, topped it with compost and then replanted some ginger. Then I topped the bed with leaves and had it all ready to plant some cucumber seeds on Thursday. When Thursday rolled around I planted some cucumber seeds down the edges of the ginger bed where we have a trellis on both sides of the bed. Then I prepped a bed in the East Tunnel and planted some zucchini and I prepped a bed in the West Tunnel and planted some cantaloupe. I found it fascinating that the garden seeds you plant in the spring all look alike (cucumber, squash, pumpkin, cantaloupe), and the seeds you plant in the fall all look alike (broccoli, collards, kale, bok choy, cauliflower, mustard).
When Mom and Papa came in from chasing cows they were really exhausted—and their blood pressure was pretty high (or so they thought). Moving the beef cows is never an easy task. They needed to put the beef heifers in the Jersey (milk) heifer field, and the young bulls in with the Jersey bull and steer. There was two of each—and they actually managed to get both sets into their new fields—but they didn’t stay there. One heifer jumped the fence and one bull jumped the fence. They chased them this way and that and in the end the two renegades ended up back in the beef herd. They finally gave up and came inside. To Mom’s dismay their blood pressures where pretty high, so they were on “relaxing mode”—and after a few hours they still were not doing any better. Then Mom realized that the blood pressure cuff was put on wrong, and when they checked their blood pressure again it was only a little elevated. So Papa checked them out of “relaxing mode” and said that it was time to go back out and do the evening chores—starting with separating the Jersey calves for the night (which meant Mom had to go out and help him while I cooked dinner).
Thursday was pretty busy as we milked the cows first thing and then I headed to the garden to plant all the seeds. I started to weed a new bed in order to transplant some lettuce, but six feet in I decided to taste the lettuce first and found that it had already turned bitter. That saved me some time—but cost me a few weeks of salad eating. Thankfully the mini lettuces have not turned bitter yet. I am hoping that they will be in perfect condition come our Farm to Table dinner in May. Mom called me in for lunch around 1:30 and then at 2:00 we had an egg packaging party. Our helpers had vehicle problems on Tuesday and we had to postpone the egg party until Thursday. Mom didn’t get to help too much with the eggs, because she and Papa had to drive all over the place looking for two little calves. When Papa put the cows back that morning the cows went one way and the two newest calves went the other way. Papa sat around waiting for them to come back—but they didn’t. Then when he drove down the lane to round them back up they split up and took off in opposite directions. Papa was driving the tractor and he knew that he couldn’t round them up so he came on up to the house. When I came in from the garden Sally was mooing for her calf—so I drove down field to see if I could find them, but I couldn’t. So after lunch Papa and Mom headed out in the golf-cart to search the whole property looking for those little calves. It took an hour to find them and get them back to their mommas. When the eggs were done Mom and I headed over to a friend’s house to pick some mulberries. I had never picked mulberries before—and I found them very easy to pick. There were no thorns, and the berries have no seeds in them—and they are very sweet. You either picked them off the tree or you put a sheet under the tree and shook it. We managed to pick two gallons of berries—and I am hoping to turn them into gelato.
Friday afternoon a friend came over and we went down to Gainesville to an Organic garden nursery. I have wanted to go for months, but have been too busy to spend a whole afternoon away. We found some herbs, a mulberry tree, some tomato plants and of course a few roses. On our way out we saw that our partner was doing some work on our 1915 house so we stopped by to see the progress. All the paneling was being taken off the walls, the framing of the drop ceiling was pulled down, the sheet rock was removed, and the kitchen cabinets are now gone. It was nice to see some progress inside. The walls were stripped down to the studs and the outside siding. The person that built the house was no contractor—just a land owner who cut down some old pine trees and built himself a house. It is amazing to look at the construction and see how he built the house. May we say that nothing is square!
Saturday afternoon I harvested the first of the spring green beans. To have fresh green beans for dinner was so scrumptious. I may pickle some of the green beans. Never done it before—but I want to give them a try. Mom says that they taste good, so I shall take her word for it.
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare