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.