Saturday, November 24, 2012

Saturday, November 24, 2012

   Two eggs; one and a half gallons of milk. 

The weather turned drizzly and later turned cold and sleety and windy.   We had a nice visit from Kelly and her family; they were up visiting her mother Nancy.  She showed us pictures of her beautiful new Irish Jerseys, they are tiny and very charming.  She has a bred heifer and a six  month old bull calf.  She is hoping the bull will grow fast so as to breed her cow Annabelle who hasn’t settled with AI.   Her older daughter Sarah told us about the rabbits she is raising, some for pets and some for meat.  The ones called “Lops” are apparently enormous.  Kelly had very high praise for both the personality and meat qualities of her Bourbon Red turkeys.

   The animals were all up at the barn by 4:30 since they didn’t like the weather.  They all came in and ate hay hungrily.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

   Three eggs plus two frozen in a new nest in the sheep manger.  Fern gave a gallon and a half.   She was in heat yesterday, Nov. 26, and didn’t get much eating done.  They seem to be drinking from the indoor system just fine now and we have to refill several times a day.  We’ve had to keep the gate to the North Field and the Pasture Field shut because Sally found the electric fence had been breached in a couple of places and didn’t have time to fix it today.

   We went to town and bought all the ingredients for fruitcake which we like to make every year.  This year I plan to make two kinds, light and dark.  When in Rumford we visited an antique/used bookstore which was a lot of fun.   Sally bought several fine books including a nice copy of Anne Frank’s book with a picture on the cover of that dear lost child.

   My son John and grandson Harper narrowly missed each other in Dubai on Sunday.    They were both travelling to scientific meetings and hadn’t compared schedules.

   We’re still helping poor Willie to fight fleas.  We bought more flea shampoo and an herbal flea collar.   Sally gave him another bath this evening. 

   It was sixteen degrees this morning but warmed up to freezing by the end of the day.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

    Ten degrees this morning but warmed up fairly fast.  About 1 ¾ gallons of milk and three eggs, plus ten from a new nest that Sally found high up at the far end of the haymow.

   Right after milking as I was watching the cows I thought it  odd the way Milton was sniffing around Fern’s udder.  Then I saw her kick him.  Then I saw him trying to suck and I’m pretty sure I did see him suck.  Sally went out and stood next to them inspecting and confirmed our worst fears.  If there’s no milk tomorrow he’ll have to live by himself in the sheep paddock or perhaps we can use the cow bra.  Or he might have to go to freezer camp.

   Sally and Willie went down to the river again and worked on stabilizing the bank with old fencing wire.  I made a fruitcake plus a little fruitcake cupcake so we were able to sample it for quality control. 

I was able to work on my revisions for a good while.

November 30, 2012,

Five eggs, a gallon and a half of milk.  We did not discover any evidence of Milton stealing milk, fortunately for all of us, Milton included.

   Just after coming in from milking Dr. Cooper, my vet,  called and said he would be by about lunchtime, so we had lunch together.  He dropped off worm medicine for Willie.

   Sally modified the hay ring with an inner circle of heavy wire fencing to try to discourage the sheep from getting inside it.  However, they climbed right in.  Later she worked on cleaning out the sheep room. She tries to remove a few more cart loads each day. DD Marcia called fromCalifornia and told us about the torrential rain and about her rabbits.  She and her family are learning to dress off chickens and rabbits.  DS John also called from Australia; he was back from a successful trip to Dubai and Singapore.  While he was gone his wife Lou painfully crushed one of her pinky fingers while working in her rock garden. Sally sympathizes. She too has a rock garden and knows how irresistible it is to rearrange rocks and how unforgiving they can be.