Spring

Spring is definitely here. Spring brings with it many ups and downs; snow and mud, gray skies and blue, warm and cold, bicycle rides and sledding. We've gotten more snow this spring than we did during the whole winter, I think. We had one snowfall of 18 inches, then another of about 6 or 7 inches. Most of the other snowfalls have only left an inch here and there. The wind keeps blowing it into drifts making some of them deep enough for me to sink up to my knees in and other areas bare. I must admit, this part of spring is bothersome. I look forward to the end part of spring where we mainly get sunshine, blue skies, and blossoms. It's just around the corner... I can almost smell it and definitely hear it - the birds are returning!

Here are a few pictures I've taken this month that I thought I would share with all of you:

A picture of spring; bicycling and snow.

Little man, Ethan shoveling paths through the snow.

Robbie interrupting school time.

My baby belly at 6 months along. I accidentally didn't get my head in this photo, but it was the best angle of the belly out of all of the photos I took recently.

Brad has returned and will be working from home, hopefully for a long while. I'm very happy to have him home, as are the children. Even the oxen seem glad to have him home! They get more attention from him than they do from me. :) I just don't tend to find the extra time and energy it takes to stand around scratching their chins, necks, and backs.

Well, that's it for now. I'll try to get an updated photo of Madeleine on here soon. I have a harder time getting a good one of her since she is always on the move! :) Have a great weekend!

An Overdue Update

It has been a long time since my last update and I apologize for that. It has been really busy around here for the past month or so. Brad has been away a lot since October due to work, which means I've had more responsibilities to tend to. With spring being here we've had a lot of birthing going on around here. We now have 11 lambs! There were 3-4 kid goats born as well, but they're no longer on the farm. One kid billy I gave to a friend to take care of because his mother didn't want to feed him. She would take care of him in every other way - lick his butt, cuddle with him, and protect him, but she just wouldn't feed him. I guess she is a pretty dumb goat. That nanny goat had had twins, but one died the day he was born. Then another goat had her kid/s, but we have no idea what happened to it/them. One day she was pregnant, the next she was searching for her kid/s acting like she had no idea what happened to them. I don't know if a neighborhood dog got it/them, if it was coyotes, or if they died of natural causes. Whatever it was I haven't found any sign of it/them anywhere.

With birthing goats comes milking time. I began milking both nanny goats each day for 7-10 days before deciding to let them go dry. My midwife told me I needed to figure out how to take it easier, because of signs of a possible premature labor, which I couldn't risk (of course!) The only thing in my everyday life at that point that I could afford to get rid of was the milking. Feeding and watering the animals is mandatory, obviously.

A couple of weeks ago a Black Welsh Mountain ewe died and Brad had told me if that happened to remove its liver, so that we could send it to a lab and figure out why a lot of our Black Welsh just keel over without any signs of something being wrong. So, when I found one of our Black Welsh ewes dead as a doornail in the pen one morning I knew exactly what I needed to do. I ran back to the house for a knife, then dragged the ewe out of the pen, and began gutting her. I had never done this sort of thing alone before, so of course I did the one thing you're not supposed to do for pleasant gutting - I punctured the stomach. Or at least one of them - sheep have four stomachs after all. It was a really gross job after that point (it would have been gross enough without puncturing the stomach), but I found the liver, rinsed it off, put it in a freezer zip lock baggie, and put it in the freezer. At some point we are going to send that off. We suspect that the Black Welsh have a copper deficiency, because Brad recently talked to someone else who has Black Welsh sheep and found out that most of her sheep had died before she figured out they need more copper than most other sheep. The problem with this, of course, is that too much copper would kill them and not enough kills them. So, we have to find the right amount to give our Black Welsh and give it to them in a form where the other sheep won't get it along with them. Also, before we assume it's a copper deficiency we're going to send that liver off and see what the test results reveal.

There have been several other "guy" jobs that have come up, but I won't bore you with all of them in detail. One of them was that our furnace ran out of heating oil and the fuel company couldn't come fill up my tank until the following day. Since it was a really cold day/night, I had to make sure the pipes in the house wouldn't freeze. To do that I had to deal with copper pipes, stinky fuel, and a bucket (that's a long story in short form). Another job: our huge hay stack had to be moved back for a hay delivery. I could have waited for Brad to do it on the weekend, but I hated the thought of him spending his weekend that way when I could help. So, I took it on myself to move that stack. Amazingly enough, even at nearly 6 months pregnant, I only got a minor backache. Each hay bale weighs 100 pounds and I had to move about 40-50 bales to make enough room for a hay delivery. I tried not to lift too many of them - mostly I rolled and scooted them until I had the pile the way I wanted it. I did get a bit scolded for that job. Not even Brad wanted me doing that! I thought that was sweet. Everyone was right; I shouldn't have done that. I also shouldn't have thrown straw bales over into every pen to make fresh bedding for the animals. The straw bales aren't 100 pounds... probably more like 75 pounds, but it was still an awkward, difficult job a pregnant lady shouldn't do.

My sister, Mariah came and stayed with me for 2 1/2 weeks, which was great. I don't know how I would have kept up with housecleaning without her. She was here during the time I was milking goats, which was good. It was hard catching those goats! Our older nannies are trained to get up into the milk stand by themselves, but these younger ones have to be chased. That's where having two people to do the job came in handy. Also, it was nice having someone to play games with, craft with, watch movies with, and just take my mind off of missing Brad.

Well, I guess that's enough of an update for now. I hope everyone is doing well!

Farm Update

Last Saturday my family and I went to a "winterfest" (basically a winter fair) to hang out with our oxen, Little Bill and Curly Sue. They were on display in the petting farm barn mostly for the sake of experience. It's good for them to get used to crowds of people, different noises, etc. Here are some pictures I took while there:

One thing we don't have on our farm, pigs. This sow had 9 piglets in her litter. Pigs can run up to 15 miles per hour. There have been reported cases of pigs actually eating human children! In one of the stories I read a child fell into the pig pen and the pigs killed/ate the child. I wouldn't want these things on my farm. Plus, my family doesn't eat pork, so there is really no good reason for us to have them.

Here is a Scottish Highland steer who isn't ours. He is 13 years old and about 2-3 times bigger than Little Bill and Curly Sue. I guess they just keep growing and growing! This big guy's horns were amazing!

Ethan watching other children in the crowd while petting some miniature donkeys.

Curly Sue wanted a nap, but Little Bill didn't. This is what happens if we leave them yoked and tied up for 10 minutes or so. Usually only one of them gets tired for some reason! We decided to unyoke them at this point since Curly Sue was getting tired and Little Bill wouldn't lay down with him. It just looks so uncomfortable when they do that to each other!

Curly Sue scratching himself on the yoke after it was off.

Robby trying to feed our oxen.

It was kind of funny, anytime Brad would walk away from the oxen while we were at the fair they would start mooing for him. First softly, then they would do what we call, "The Cow Alarm" - that's where they moo loudly over and over again several times. They didn't like being alone for long at all, which was cute.

Brad and I both talked to dozens of people coming through about Scottish Highland cattle and oxen. By the end of the day both Brad and I were worn out. Not only from talking to so many people and standing all day, but from getting up early (Brad got up in the 5 o'clock hour), driving 1 1/2 hours to get there, and I was carrying Robby on my hip most of the day. It was a good day - tiring, but good. One thing that seemed to surprise many people were that the oxen could not only feel with their horns, but that they were warm as well. For those of you who don't know, the reason for that is horns contain both nerve and blood vessels.

Anyway, with the fair over Brad left on another business trip (one that will last at least two weeks). Wally (the rancher we bought our calves from) brought Curly Sue and Little Bill home from the fair on Monday and picked up one of the little brindle calves we bought from him. That brindle calf had an awful attitude that wouldn't be trained out of him. He was very aggressive - he would try to butt everyone (including our children through a fence) and would do this thing where he would quickly turn and try to kick us with his hind legs. You just don't want to mess around with a calf who weighs a little over 400 pounds doing that. We tried for several days to gentle him, but he simply hated people. So, Wally brought a replacement and took that naughty calf. Here's the new guy:

He is pretty jumpy around people still, but is getting better with each passing day. He comes up to eat the hay as I'm feeding it to the cattle, so that's good. He wouldn't even come that close the first couple of days! That's pretty normal behavior for a calf just weaned from its mother and taken from a field where it hasn't ever been around humans. I'm hoping that Brad has an easy time gentling him when he comes home. As for the other three calves we bought at the same time as the one with a bad attitude...

they're doing great! They all allow me to pet them and will eat hay out of my hands. We finally named the black ones. The black one on the left is Bert and the one on the right is Ernie. The brindle calf in the picture above has been worked with the most out of the three so far (taught commands, pet more, etc.) and he is super sweet. If Brad leans down anywhere near him he licks Brad's hat and forehead over and over. It's kind of cute. He is a very affectionate calf. He also licks me when I'm around - not my forehead, but my arms. I don't mind as long as I'm wearing my farm jacket (I have a jacket I use just for farm work).

I know, this picture is very much like the one above, but in this one you can see Ernie's face better (the black one on the right). Also, you'll notice Curly Sue isn't looking over the fence in this one. :)

This morning the other white Rambouillet ewe we have (you may remember in my Busy December post we had to butcher a Rambouillet ewe since she didn't labor correctly and was dying - the one with a rotten lamb in her) was looking about the same way as the first. I took her to the vet and found out the problem she has and the one who died had is called a prolapsed vagina. There is really nothing you can do about it in the long run. You either cull the animal or keep it from breeding. For short term the vet put a thing that holds it up/in, which should help for when she goes into labor. It's really too bad the two friendliest ewes on our farm have had this problem. Maybe their mothers rejected them for a reason (both of these ewes were bottle babies).

Me (5 months pregnant) loading that ewe in and out of our SUV (twice) would be a whole other story and this entry has already gotten a bit too long! :) Anyway, that's about all that's new down on the farm. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Coming to a Town Near You...

I'm saddened to see thrift stores I myself have shopped at tossing out perfectly good children's clothing, toys, books, etc. What a terrible time to put a law like this into effect - when we're in the worst recession of my lifetime (thus far). How are all families around this country going to afford buying all new clothing for their children? The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 is ridiculous! What a waste.

I'll write more later about calves, fairs, and things. :)

Part 2: Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008

Remember when I wrote about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008? Well, I found out the other day that it also includes all children's books published before 1985. You can read more about it here.

A Piece of Cake

Yesterday evening I noticed that the bunch of bananas I had left were finally looking perfectly ripe and that it was time to try a recipe I have had my eye on for awhile. The recipe, "Banana-Caramel Cake" calls for 6 ripe bananas, so it worked out perfectly that my bunch had 6 left in it. I worked on dinner (chicken enchiladas) at the same time as the cake and by dinner time both were ready. It had been the first time I had made my own caramel sauce, caramelized bananas, or worked with mascarpone cheese (the cake has "Mascarpone Frosting" on it), so I was quite happy when the cake turned out beautiful and tasty even by my own definition! An artist or cook is usually her/his worst critic and I definitely tend to be that. I didn't actually eat any of the cake until this morning and before having a bite I decided to take a picture to share with my blog readers:


The frosting wasn't too sweet and even after being refrigerated all night it was very smooth and creamy. The caramel sauce that was drizzled on top complimented the frosting with it's amber sweetness. The caramelized bananas in between the layers of cake were delicious. I would say this cake is, in fact, a success! :)

This Beautiful Week

It has been another full week of living! Last Sunday we went on a lovely, 8-hour-long drive in gorgeous low 40's weather. I was amazed to see bits of green grass coming up and small buds on trees in some areas of the countryside we drove through. In the area we live now we won't get to see that until May (normally) - I almost wonder if this year might be different. We've had a warm February for this area - mostly high 30's/low 4o's, although a few days even hit the low 50's! I'm thankful to be getting more daylight hours each day and plenty of warm sunshine to enjoy!

On Wednesday we kept real busy. I have been borrowing a van from a friend when Brad is away on business trips and we wanted to begin making it up to her by buying her a new windshield, so we had to take that into the town that is about 30 miles from here to get that done. It was supposed to take the glass shop half of a day to do the job. We knew we didn't have 6-hours-worth of things to do in town, so after doing our main grocery shopping we headed back home where Brad had to check up on some work related things and I needed to put the groceries away. Once we were done with that we headed out again to a town about 20 miles from here to get new tires on our new (used) vehicle (we decided a couple of weeks ago it was time for a second vehicle - one that would sit our family after the baby is born). After that errand was done we went back home where I had a few hours to get things done around the house while Brad worked. We were all kind of tired by the time we had to go back to pick up the van. Robby fell to sleep in his car seat on the way, in fact. So, when we got to the glass shop it was decided that I would pick up the van, go buy myself a new mop at the cleaning and restaurant supply place, then get the few things we needed from the grocery store (a different one from the one we had shopped at that morning). That ended up leading to my first two hours alone since Robby was born! I must admit, it was quite energizing. By the time I got back home I had enough energy to feel happy while getting all of my evening chores done. It was great!

The rest of the week was filled with just regular activities around here; schooling, cooking, baking, cleaning, etc.

I've been enjoying some of my favorite types of views this week - sunshine shining in a beautiful, wide open blue sky against the snowy white peaks of the nearby mountains. With the warmer temperatures we've been getting this month Ethan, Madeleine, and Robby have been spending several hours of each day outside playing (their idea, of course). I'm often surprised at how much they find to do out there! Also, Brad has been able to work with the new calves quite a bit as well as our big guys, Curly Sue and Little Bill. We'll be taking the big guys to a winter fair next week, which should be interesting (hopefully, I'll can get some good pictures to share!)