Man-Cow Battle

We've been at this self-sufficiency thing for a couple years and we've had cows for most of that, but I still feel cow stupid. 

Jerky, Christina's calf from last year, is giving us problems.  We switched cows in the fields and now jerky is on the side where we bring in hay.  As the girls were delivering hay, he started head-butting and jumping around.  When he was little that was no big deal, but he's good-sized now.  It was scarey.  My husband was going to have none of it and they got into a man-cow battle.  Ropes were thrown, noses were kicked, men were knocked into the poop pile.  Finally, my husband conquered, but not before my daughters and I were put through fits, first distressed about my husband and then about jerky. 

That steer has roamed too long.  At the time it seemed fine, but now we realize the trouble we're in.  It's not safe for the girls to go into the pasture with jerky until we get him docile again, and that's going to take a while. 

We took halters off jerky and beefy several weeks ago (or has it been several months?) when we realized they had outgrown them.  The first step in getting jerky safe is to get a halter on him and let him have a few epic battles with the post.  For now, we'll keep him in the other pasture, out of the way. 

In the end, after all that battling, jerky and my husband did some subdued hugging and petting.  I think he'll be okay, but I also think I'll let my husband get the halter on him.

Extremes

After the longest night of the year, we were greeted by 11ºF this morning.  Not pleasant.  I wanted to curl up in front of the fireplace, but Christina needed us, so out we went. 

This life we have chosen requires a commitment that no job has ever asked of me.  It means going out every morning and every evening, including Christmas Day.  Christina needs to be fed and milked.  The steers need to be fed and the shed cleaned.  The chickens need fed and eggs collected.  We confine these animals so we have a responsibility toward them.  And so we go, when it's cold, when it's hot, and when we'd rather not.

The misery of these cold morning milkings are abated by how pleasant Christina is.  She always seems happy to see us and so eager to please.  It's almost magical the way I just touch her hip and she straightens up in the stanchion.  And her udder is so warm in my cold hands.  She is such a nice cow.

As cold as it is outside, it is as warm and pleasant in front of the fire.  Our basement family room has become the center of the house.  Last week, most of the homeschooling migrated to this room.  This week we've been watching movies, reading, and playing games in the very same spot.

Over the holidays are we reading Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" aloud as a family.  I'm intimately familiar with the story, but have never read the book.  The writing is so much more engaging than I expected. 

These temperature extremes are reminders of the extremes in life, but I am being shown how God is in all of it.  God is in the warmth.  God is in the cold.  God cannot be confined to only the good things in life, but God brings life and love to all things and all times.

Homestead Christmas Candy

Some parts of living the homestead life require sacrifice, like store-bought candy at Christmas.  At least, that's what I thought.  As our candy-making skills have improved, my sense of loss has subsided.

Caramel is easy.  We've fine-tuned the recipe as we've figured out how to make it perfect every time.  Here is our recipe.

My ten-year old made some for her girl scout party.  As the girls were gobbling it up, she told them that it's made with cream that came out of a cow.  Americans really have internalized the idea that unless food comes from a factory there is something unsafe about it.  The girls hesitated, but then went right back to the caramel. 

We found a recipe for buttermints in my mother-in-law's 1950's cookbook.  They are much easier than we expected.  Mix one egg white, 2 teaspoons butter, 1/2 teaspoon mint oil, and 2 cups powdered sugar.  Shape into little balls, and set them out to dry.  My daughter made another batch that she rolled out on wax paper and then cut into tiny rectangles.  She liked those better.

Today we made our first batch of fudge.  Fudge has to be done right and I've had more failures than successes.  My friend showed me how last year and I wrote it down.  After cooking it, there is a stirring stage that can last a while and is *really* hard on your arms.  My husband and I took turns, waiting for it to turn from glossy to velvety.  One of us stirred and the other watched.  Finally, he called it and we poured.  It turned out absolutely perfect. The flavor is rich and the texture is smooth. 

Our next attempt will be almond rocca, but right now we're having trouble getting past the amazing candy we've already made.  Yeah, this is no sacrifice.

Pleasant Indoor Work

Our Arucaunas have started laying!  Their eggs are usually pale blue or green.  Yesterday, we got our first.  We thought maybe they had started but were pale pink, which isn't much different than our brown eggs.  When my daughter found it, she ran inside to show everybody.

This egg was one of 19 we yesterday.  It's been almost a month of getting 1-2 dozen eggs a day. You'd think we'd be overrun with eggs, but not so.  The kids are loving scrambled eggs every morning, hard boiled eggs for lunch, custard, pudding, and lots of baking.  Sooner or later we'll get tired of so many eggs, but it hasn't happened yet.

Pepper got some unscheduled time with his mama yesterday.  When we went out for evening milking, he was laying down in Christina's area.  We must have left the gate unlatched and he got it opened.  Our milk was almost a gallon less than normal so he had taken full advantage of the time together. 

Seed saving is new to me, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it.  I started with the easy ones like lettuce and marigold and grain corn.  This year I added pumpkin to my repertoire.  We just scooped the seeds out and let them dry.  I had put these in the other room a month ago and now they are nice and dry. 

I don't know what it's called when you pop the kernals off corn cobs, but we're doing a lot of it.  We finished the Anastasi corn.  It looks so beautiful in this jar and tastes even better in corn bread. 

I sort of miss being outside, but I am enjoying all this inside work.  Sitting in a comfy chair with the fire blazing pulling corn kernals off dry cobs is pretty pleasant.

Valuing What God Values

It hasn't quite been a month and pepper has grown so fast. I don't remember jerky growing this fast last year, but maybe he did.  We've already changed our milking routine because he was getting too rough.  First I milk out the front quarter and then we let pepper in for his back quarter while my husband finishes his side.

Pepper empties out his quarter so fast it can seem like he's not getting anything, but the milk froth that drips out his mouth tells us he's getting lots (that, and Christina's quarter going from firm and full to flabby and empty).

We put goldfish in the cow's water tank last summer.  They are keeping the water clear and don't seem to be having any trouble with this cold.  We were listing off all our animals, "cows, chickens, cat, and goldfish," when our 3-year-old said, "we have goldfish?!"  So out his big sisters trotted him to the cow tank.  He was a happy boy.

The chickens are really making themselves at home in the hay shed.  They have dug a tunnel that starts here between two bales.  We discovered that it winds quite a ways back, and they are laying eggs back there.  I think we'll have to block it off.  That's too hard to work to get eggs.

Monday was the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Not being Hispanic, the feast day has never meant much to me.  This year was different.  I had to go to the store anyway, so I got a dozen roses.  We set them on the table beside a Guadlupe candle somebody got us a while ago, and we told the story. It's new to our 3-year-old and he loved it.  My daughters slowly brought the pieces together, about how Mary appeared to Juan Diego, brown skinned and speaking his native Aztec, about Juan Diego going to the Bishop who demanded proof, about Mary telling Juan Diego to gather roses in December, and about everyone's surprise when Juan Diego's cloak opened to reveal Mary's image.  We talked about Mary coming to people in their oppression — looking like them, speaking their language, and telling them about a God who sacrificed himself for them rather than the Aztec custom of gods demanding human sacrifice.  So powerful. 

That is our Christianity, following the God who sacrifices himself for our salvation and then asks us to value was he/she values: 

• God values every human life, so I strive to. 
• God values the seasons, the land, and the animals, so I strive to.  
• God values justice, education, and art, so I strive to.  
• God values healthy food and sustainable work, so I strive to.  
• And God values me, so I strive to.

After sharing the story, my daughter added, "and then Mary went back to heaven and said, 'and that's how you convert a continent!'"

Winter Harvest

This is our first year we planted for a winter harvest and so far so good.  We grew a variety pack of carrots last summer and then covered them in leaves when the weather turned cold.  The other day, I moved the leaves aside and dug out a good bunch of them.  Since they were old, I expected them to be a little woody, but they are sweet and crisp.

While I was out there, I dug some parsips and kale.   The mornings have been in the low teens but the kale is still doing great.  It's not strong flavored, but I do prefer it mixed with lettuce.  However, I'm just so happy for some fresh green right now.

These parsnips are over a foot long.  They'll be great in soup or roasted.  Today we put one of our chickens in the crock pot.  I'll bet these would be great thrown in to cook with it.

With Christmas coming, the caramel season is upon us.  My ten-year-old daughter made a batch of caramel and then arranged it on her favorite pretty plate.  They are were a round success at her girl scout party.  This is all we have left.

Winter Work

With the wood insert, we now have to split wood. We could have used the ax, but neither my husband nor I were excited about the work, and we were nervous about someone getting hurt.  We found this hand-powered hydraulic tool that makes splitting easy.

So far I've successfully avoided using it myself, but sooner or later my husband is going to wise up.

Our winter evenings are full of finishing up garden harvest.  I've read about people a century ago spending all winter by the fire working on nuts, corn, and beans. Now I get it.  One of us reads aloud while everybody else works.

Here we worked on the dry beans.  Even our three year old helped.  He kept saying, "I'm doing my work," while dropping beans into his bowl.

When the beans are done, we have three kinds of corn that still need to be popped off the cobs.

Eggs!

After suffering no eggs for several weeks, the new girls have started laying, but they're not laying in the nesting boxes so much.  They seem to prefer the hay storage in the cow shed.  They get into the straw, dig themselves a little nest and share it amongst themselves.  They've got three nests going.

At first this bothered me, but now I've changed my mind. The coop is pretty full with each nesting box often sleeping 2-3 chickens.  That night time occupation yields a fair amount of chicken poop.  The nesting box straw has gotten pretty icky.  The eggs laid in this nice clean straw are much cleaner. 

My ten year old twins are goofy for the chickens.  They love climbing around in the shed looking for eggs and they love hugging their chickens.  With so much holding, the chickens seems to enjoy the hugs too.  Here is our White Crested Polish rooster, Meryfeather.

We looked forward to the chickens cleaning up the cow pies when we let them into the pasture.  While milking this morning, we watched a group of chickens descend into a still-steaming cow pie.  They scratched through it, pecked at it, and within ten minutes, it was gone.  It's a little gross but the chickens seem content.

We got through our egg desert with ground flax seed as an egg substitute, but it's nice to have egg abundance again.  My children love nothing better than scrambled eggs for breakfast.  It's pretty easy to tell which of these eggs were laid in the clean straw and which weren't.

Last winter with our 14 hens we got 0-2 eggs each day.  This winter we have more hens and they are younger.  Yesterday we got ten eggs.  Chickens lay based on day length and we are at the lowest day length of the entire year right now.  I'm remembering our egg production going from two a day up to ten a day when the day lengthened.  If we follow that pattern we'll be getting 40+ eggs per day this summer.  Hmmm...... we might be selling eggs.

First Again

Today we made our first cheese since Christina freshened.  We haven't had milk coming in the house two days and we already had so much that something had to be done with it.  So into the cheese press it went!

I made a colby.  It's not my favorite, but it's good and it's faster than cheddar.

We used to do this all the time, every day managing the milk, figuring out what to make, planning ahead.  It was improved choreography.  Right now I feel more like I'm stumbling than dancing.

With no other thought than, "sour cream," I got a batch of culture going.  Afterward it occurred to me that culture would nice for cheese too.  Culture is good for lots of things!

Warm and Well Fed

We have a new fireplace insert!  What a joyous Thanksgiving — good food, wonderful family, and a roasty toasty house. 

This insert was the highest efficiency (88%) and the lowest air emissions (2.6g) that fit in our fireplace spot.  We debated installing it ourselves, but my husband begged out.  They installed it quickly and we aren't worrying about burning the house down by having installed it wrong.

Because our furnace is electric, we live with a pretty cool house in the winter to save energy.  I've read that wood heat is one of the most carbon neutral because the trees absorb carbon as they grow and burning doesn't release any more carbon than if they were to decompose.  So, we loaded the fireplace up and warmed the house.  We all love it.

Now that we know Christina was pregnant, I'm beginning to notice where she was showing.  Cows' rumens are so big, that it's not easy to tell.  But now I see a big roundness to her belly, especially toward the back.  Here a shot of her last week before pepper was born.

And here is a shot of her this morning when we milked.  Doesn't she look down right skinny?! 

Our Thanksgiving dinner was largely grown at home food, with a healthy helping of Idaho grown food, and just a touch of out-of-state things (like cranberries and sugar).  It is glorious to eat on my grandma's beautiful china, sitting at table with the people I love most in this world, eating food that God hand fed us.  There is much to be grateful for.

Turning the Corner

Christina standing out in the pasture — it's a beautiful sight.  It's been a day and a half since we gave her calcium and we are calling the milk fever over.  Milking is beginning to fall into a normal pattern but we're still re-remembering every habit.  Pretty soon we're hoping to make it to the cow shed with *all* the things we need instead of just most of them.

As I was worried that Christina wasn't really pregnant (= no milk), we've also been dealing with no eggs.  Over two weeks ago we butchered and we haven't seen an egg since.  We've gotten by with flax seed in baking and frozen eggs, but I'd like some eggs from our almost 40 hens who are eating well.  Today we found an egg.  Praise God!  Maybe they're finally getting started.

Waiting four days after antibiotics means our first fresh milk will be Thursday.  Our eggs are coming on.  Our time of scarcity has turned into abundance!  It's a reminder that God's abundance is never farther than right around the corner.

Up and Down

It's been an up and down day.  Christina went down yesterday about 5pm.  We gave her medicine and she got up but half an hour later she was down again.  We left her alone to see if her would get better on her own, but after an hour, she wasn't recovering.

We had one dose of drench left and gave it go her.  We called the wonderful people we bought her from and asked advice.  They said that if she wasn't eating enthusiastically we should give her another bottle of calcium under the skin.  In we went to get everything ready but when we came back out, Christina was standing up looking at us.  Well, you can't poke a cow in the neck whose got some gumption in her.  She continued doing well until 10pm, our last check of the night.  Then she was laying down, her ears felt pretty cool, and her nose was dry.  We had one dose of calcium gel left and she took it. 

In the cold dark night, we hung out with her for a while, but her nose stayed dry and she was still laying down.  Back in for the needle and calcium.  We got everything ready, Brian pulled her skin up and began to set the needle when she lept to her feet and walked off.  Well OK!  Any cow who can run away must be doing okay.

This morning we found her standing and eating.  Her ears feel downright warm.  She may be through this challenge.

Her milk is really starting to come in; as we washed her to get ready for milking, all four quarters just streamed out.  Pepper was able to be very helpful with milking.  He cleaned out one quarter and worked on another. He's still such a baby; we have to lead him to the teet and help him find it when he pops off. 

Now we have a new problem.  A CMT test of her milk showed two quarters with some infection.  I've heard that mastitis is really common after milk fever so now we deal with that.  After shoving needles through her skin, slipping these little tubes into her teets was easy and smooth.

When we were finally done, we let pepper out to play.  Jerky reached through the fence to kiss his little brother. 

Last year milk fever was so terrifying for me.  This year I felt like we knew what to do and had to stuff to do it.  We were attentive but I wasn't consumed with the fear and stress that marked last year's experience.  God has graced us with experience.

Christina is Down

After a really good day, Christina went down.  Our bout with milk fever last year made us nervous so we've been watching her closely.  She'd been doing good all day until this afternoon. My husband was out with her when she got wobbly and went right down.  We gave her some drench and then got out the calcium.  He ran the needle under her skin and I held the bottle.  It's not as bad as last year, but still scarey.

As the bottle was almost finished, she stood up and we lept out of the way.  She's still wobbly.  We'll give her some time and see how she does.  We really need to milk her tonight to prevent mastitis and to feed pepper.  Ugh.  I hope she's doing lots better by then.

This morning we got pepper started on his first milking.  He's a little goofy so we had to guide his little head over to the teets.  After he found the good stuff, he seemed pretty enthusiastic.

He is such a cute little calf.  He's up and walking and cuddling with the girls.  I just love this newborn stage.

Now we just need to get through the next day, maybe two, until Christina's systems are up and running.

New Life!

We've been watching Christina, thinking that her udder was getting bigger, but not sure, and checking on her every few hours. I went out about 4pm to check on her to take a picture of her udder.  There was a calf!  It looked pretty wet and not standing so I figure it wasn't too old.
I took this picture before running in to tell everyone.

We are haunted by Christina getting milk fever last year so we were ready to spring into action.  Milk fever is a severe drop in blood calcium that can kill a cow.  I ran into the house to get Brian.  We got cow clothes on and headed out with calcium drench.  The idea is to put a tube in the side of Christina's mouth so she'll drink up this calcium liquid.  Christina thought it was a bad idea.  We struggled and struggled with her and we think we got at least half of it in her.

I checked into between those little baby legs and we think this is a boy calf.   We'll call him pepper, short for pepperoni.

Then it was time to worry about the calf.  The colostrum the calf gets in its first day will affect its entire life.  We were supposed to milk 3 quarts of colostrum and give it to the baby.  We started milking but only got 2 quarts.  He sucked away on the bottle, but he didn't quite finish it.  I think his little tummy got full.  So 2 quarts is probably enough for now.

He stood up with us for the first time, but he falls over really easily.

After milking we got things set up for the night. A heat lamp and a pile of straw in the milk parlor will be the baby's home.  Christina was moved out to her shed.  She can lick him, but not nurse him.

Then we did a final milk fever check.  Her ears felt warm (that's good).  She ate up her candy with enthusiasm when we milked her (that's good).  And she let go a big wet poop just before we left (that's good too!).

Today I began the day out at the prison protesting an execution.  Without knowing it was time, we had all silently, spontaneously, moved over toward the fence, facing the prison and the rising sun as he was killed.  At that moment, a few flakes of snow fell and then the sun shot out over a cloud, brightening the day.  My day started with death.

And I ended the day with God's blessing of new life.  The calf seems healthy.  Christina seems healthy.  My day ends with life.  God's grace is all around us.

Maybe...

With Christina's due date passing yesterday, the twins ask regularly, "can we go count cows?"  Then they run out to check her.

I went out and she didn't even come over to say "hi." She just finished her drink and walked away, slowly and heavily.  She looks really round and fat to me.

Her udder seems like it's swelling too.  I looked back at some old pictures to make sure that I'm not seeing things, and it really does seem rounder (she also seems a little swollen and red under the tail).  Maybe she really is pregnant!  Maybe she feels just like I did before I went into labor — heavy and tired.

In hopeful optimism, we are washing the milk buckets, getting an area ready for the little calf, and keeping a close eye on her.  I think I'll go read the chapter on calving again.

Still Nothing

Today was Christina's due date.  Still no calf.

Is This Cow Pregnant?

We are nearing the end our milking vacation, we hope.  Christina is due to calve in two days.  Last year she calved two days early and her udder got huge before she calved.  But this time we haven't seen much udder swelling and now I'm wondering. 

We did the AI and left beefy with her for several months.  We don't think she went into heat again, but we didn't do a Vet check to confirm she was pregnant.   What if she never was pregnant or what if she miscarried?  That means we'd have to get her pregnant now and wait another 9.5 months until she calves before we see any milk.  She would become a very expensive pet at that point! 

Ugh.  So I'm nervous.  My daughters think her udder is beginning to swell, but it could be the way she is standing.  I sent my husband out to look at her.  Maybe she looks different to him.  While he was out there he swears he saw a calf move inside her.  Well, that's hopeful.

My daughter said that I should assume she's not pregnant and she'll be an expensive pet and then when the calf comes I'll be so happy.  She's probably right.  I should just not worry about it.  Nothing I can do about anything now.  It's just between God and Christina if and when the calf comes.

Living by the Weather

Beginning this evening, it's predicted to rain and snow for the foreseeable future, which means everything that would suffer from being wet has to come in.

We picked the dry beans but they look more like soggy beans.  They probably should have been picked way earlier than mid-November.  This doesn't seem like very many to me; I think we still have a lot to learn.

Keeping seeds is an important part of the sustainable lifestyle.  I'm still learning a lot about keeping seeds, but things like marigold and lettuce are easy.  You just shake them out into a bucket and them store them in paper envelopes.

Since we butchered last Friday, we haven't had a single egg.  These chickens look full grown and they are old enough to be laying, but still nothing.  Today we'll search the pasture to see if they're laying in funny places.

Christina's due to calve next Wednesday.  We've already started watching her a little closer. Her udder still looks pretty small and loose so we figure it isn't imminent.  I'm not very happy that it's projected to rain for the next few weeks, which means we'll be dealing with a calf in crummy weather.  Praise God for their dry, clean shed.

The steers came over to say hi while I was out visiting.  Look at the size of these boys!  Beefy is about 18 months old and jerky will be a year old next Wednesday on Christina's due date.

I didn't want to work hard outside today.  I'm busy with other things, but the storm is coming, so we work.  Part of me resists and part of me is happy that God is setting the pace rather than the calendar.

Back to Plants, Thank God!

We are back to plant matter, thank God!  Butcher day was hard on all of us. 

We've had several hard frosts and it's time for the winter squash to come in.  The first step is to let them dry well.  We filled two tables.  Now they'll sit in the sun for several days.

This year our winter squash harvest was probably half of last year's.  I might have planted less, but I also think the plants are really feeling the lack of fertilizer.  Skipping a year of adding manure was a *bad* idea.

Those tomatoes we picked over two weeks ago are ripening up nicely.  Tonight we get to enjoy a whole bowl of "fresh" tomatoes.  If we had put them in the root cellar, they'd ripen even slower and then we could have had "fresh" tomatoes at Christmas.  Maybe next year.

I'm watching this class on food and one of the topics was what makes a diet nutritious.  Many studies disagree, but all seems to concur that vegetables are good.  In an effort to increase our vegetable intact, we started eating dinner in courses.  First we eat veggies, fresh and cooked, and then we eat everything else.  So far it's working.

It's November and we are still working hard on the garden.  There are more things to harvest and seeds to collect and beds to protect, but it's cold and I just as soon sit in a comfy chair under a blanket.  Once I get out there, I enjoy myself, but I sure do procrastinate getting out there. 

Cold & Crying

Butcher day is never easy, but today was especially hard because we butchered the flock that has been with us for over two years.  To prepare, we went through the coops and pulled out all the old chickens, then all the roosters that had gotten through the last cull, and finally we had to decide about the hens.  We have a lot of hens left, but we figured that we had enough for today and we'd keep all the hens and see how it goes.

We got all set up and started the process about 9:30am.  One of my twins sat in the pen with the chickens to help catch them.  Over behind the barn, we could hear her sobbing and weeping.  First we did the young roosters.  I could tell when my husband got the first old hen because the weeping increased dramatically. 

After a while, I grew concerned that all that wailing was upsetting the chickens and not doing my daughter any good.  The other twin, who had been helping and handling everything very matter-of-factly, traded places with her.  Once in the pen, she started crying too. 

And then it started to snow and rain on us.  It was 36ºF and windy.  My feet were somewhere between frozen and numb.  I comforted myself that at least I didn't have to worry about the chicken meat getting too warm.

We did 26 birds.  Of the 13 hens, only 4 had developing eggs inside them.  The others were probably molting or had just stopped laying.  That made me feel better about culling them.  Now we don't have to feed those girls who weren't doing much. 

Now that the day is over, we are all exhausted and still not fully warmed up.   My feet have that tingle from being too cold for too long.  After crying so incessantly this morning, my twins are giddy and smiling.  They got all sorrow of the event out of them, and some extra it seems!

We have over 30 hens left.  We may do another butcher day, or we may just keep them for laying.  Right now I'm leaning toward keeping them (which is really the do nothing option).

Tomorrow

We'll be doing another chicken butcher day tomorrow, but this one is a little more poignant.  We'll be butchering the old flock, the chickens who have been with us for over two years.

My daughters are especially sad about Bennie, the rooster, going behind the barn.  They were so afraid of him, but they've made friends and spent today giving him hugs.  At dinner, one of them said, "thank you God that we could give the chickens a good life."

After he was released from the hugs, Bennie spent the rest of the day strutting among his hens. 

First thing in the morning we'll get started.  It's forecast to be 35ºF and raining.  Ugh.