Saturday, December 08, 2012

Saturday, December 08, 2012
No eggs, a gallon and over a half of milk. While I was busy milking, Sally stapled plastic over the window where the chick had got stuck the other day. Then she had fun pitching hay down into the feeder while missing the ram that was standing in it. She has been working on keeping the area very free of cow poops so at least the sheep have clean feet while standing on their breakfast.
It was overcast and drizzly most of the day. Sally made a cake out of some over ripe bananas. She had a good time studying about six of my cookbooks looking for the perfect banana cake recipe. Then she and Willie walked over to her field and all around it. She brought me some fluffy reindeer with which I hope to repair a Christmas wreath.
DD Martin arrived about four o’clock. He had been hunting over in Sally’s field with Milo and saw a grouse but didn’t get a shot. He said there was an active beaver down at the end of the field. Sally is looking forward to going to look for it.
We had a nice dinner of reheated black beans and chili rellenos that Sally made. I had found some nice shiny Poblano peppers at the store last Tuesday. Martin did a lot of repairs while here and brought us some treats for our breakfast from The Bread Shack in Auburn.


Sunday, December 09, 2012
1 2/3 gallons milk and 3 eggs.
We all had a productive day. Martin got the truck going and took a big load to the dump, hurrah. He and his friends the Schifrin’s sawed up an ash tree that had fallen across the access road up by his camp. They sawed it up for firewood. He also split wood for us.
Sally and Willie worked on fixing the electric fence again in the North Field. The sheep had pulled it all apart and it was off a lot of stakes. Most parts of the sheep are immune to electric fencing, being insulated by their wool so they get caught in it a lot. Sally then walked the rest of the fence and had fun saying hello to the cows who came down to check on Willie. They don’t care for dogs in the pasture.
Martin returned to Biddeford after lunch. Sally pursued her project in the barn. She put down some grain to encourage the hens to go scratch around in there and loosen the pack.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Just 1 ½ gallon today from Fern. Three eggs.
It was 26 to 32F all day with some icy drizzle but no wind so not as miserable as it might have been. The animals spent most of the day outside when not eating hay. Sally put up Christmas lights all around the house. We wen t together to her place across the river and tramped around in the crunchy snow until we found a nice little spruce tree to cut. I hope I will be able to remember what I did with the clever arrangement I had last year for standing it up in water.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
We now have about a 3” snow cover with a crusty surface. Today was sunny and I took a stroll around the lawn. Near my little ornamental pond I noticed tracks of a fairly large canid of some sort. I am not aware of any stray dogs in the neighborhood. This animal made a circuit of the pond, where it stopped to drink from the unfrozen edge. Sally joined me and we followed the tracks along most of the perimeter fence. We couldn’t find out where it came into or left the yard but we think it had been here before because the tracks from the main lawn down to the goldfish pond were so direct and purposeful, like it knew where the water was. Sally said she had seen similar tracks outside the fence a few days before. We think it might have been a coyote. We lost two cats this fall and wonder if it might have been responsible. We hope the sheep are all right.
Sally is trying a new invention for keeping the sheep out of the hay ring. She wound a hose around it eight or ten inches below the top rung, tied tightly to the struts so as to make it difficult for them to jump in. One did jump in right away but it seems to be slowing them down anyhow. Besides that she cleans up the cow poops as soon as she sees them so that the sheep at least have clean feet. Also she’s trying to finish cleaning out the sheep room so we can get them back in there where they are safer. Right now they are spending their nights with the cows in the beefer pen where the door is always open
We got Christmas lights up and the tree in. It’s a spruce about four feet tall.
DD Marcia in California has found a new source of Jersey milk. Her health food store has started carrying fresh local milk in glass bottles which is “vat pasteurized” at 140F. She says it is delicious.
Three eggs and about one and two-thirds gallons of milk.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Today Fern gave a gallon and a half of milk. We got ten eggs. Chickens must think it’s spring already.
No more strange tracks that we could see but there wasn’t any fresh snow either. The sheep are fine. Sally is closer to being ready to let them back into their room.
My two granddaughters Roshann and Shireen both got highest honors in their high school’s first quarter reports.
Very pretty weather today, fairly warm, over 20. The ground was quite icy though. The cows and sheep are still getting a lot of grazing.
Sally made a shepherd’s pie out of some smoked salmon that she had made and brought from Alaska. It was just sautéed vegetables and salmon with a creamed sauce and biscuit crust. Awesome.
We had to go to town and buy four bags of grain for a total cost of sixty dollars. The chickens better appreciate it. They are eating so much more feed that it makes you realize how many bugs they were eating before things froze.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Six eggs, one and a half gallons of milk.
One of the young rams is starting to give us the hairy eyeball. He was stamping his feet and leaning his weight backward so as to charge, but didn’t.
They’re all still going out to pasture every day and seem to be finding things to eat. There isn’t much snow on the fields.
We went to Weld to mail packages and buy cheese. The TV was on in the General Store and we saw the first reports of the school shooting in Connecticut. Now the nation is in mourning.
DD Marcia in CA went mushrooming with her neighbor who in an avid mushroom hunter and Marcia found some rare mushrooms that are much valued by her neighbor. Her neighbor is a fiber artist specializing in felting and values these mushrooms for their incredible red dye. Marcia sent us a picture of some edible mushrooms that she picked.
Pictured also are some bears that are frequently seen near DD Sally’s house in Haines AK. The mother in the picture is wearing a tracking collar. She is very old with her front teeth completely worn away. This is her fourth set of triplets. Nearly all her previous babies have been shot; one of these cubs was illegally shot shortly after the picture was taken.
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Location:Carthage Maine