Sunday, December 23, 2012

Coburn Farm Gothic



Coburn Farm Varsity Sledding Team

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Eight or ten eggs today, one and nearly 1 ¾ gallons of milk.
Had an exciting start to the day. As I was trying to drink my early morning tea we both heard an ominous rumbling. It turned out to be a chimney fire. No flames were coming out the chimney but plenty of black smoke, and the fire was suddenly going crazy. We weren’t sure why it decided to burn as the fire was quite low. Sally threw the burning wood out into the snow and we shook a whole box of baking soda on the fire. Sally kept spraying it with water but it kept roaring in the chimney for about 20 minutes.
Yesterday morning Sally started to do the last fifteen minutes of her long-running manure project, only to discover that there were two heavy rubber barn mats buried under another ten inches or so of manure. They had been left behind and forgotten after DD Marcia’s horse Peter left. With the rubber bottom, this was of course the heaviest, wettest manure yet and nearly caused her to break down. They were completely impossible for one person to move but she managed to remove the overburden so that DS Martin, who was expected later on, could help. Just as she finished and crawled out of the barn, exhausted and filthy, Martin arrived with an invitation to the Franklin County Fiddlers group in which Roshan and Shireen play. She said that nothing else on God’s green earth would have gotten her out of the house.
Meanwhile I cooked a satisfying dinner of beef short ribs and rice, with homemade sauerkraut. It was well received.
The performance was at a local venue. Skye Theatre, which is about 20 minutes away. We had never been there and were most impressed both with it and with the performance. It turned out to be a benefit for the Sandy Hook music department and they made $1700.00.
Today Martin came again and helped move the barn mats, which weigh over a hundred pounds apiece. We are going to really appreciate them in the grain room and the milking parlor. Then Sally was able to finish up her project, putting in two bales of shavings and a bale of hay. Then the sheep came in and seemed to really like it.
Martin split wood and did various other things. He brought me an interesting new chair for my computer. It’s a chair you sort of sit on with a knee brace and is wonderfully comfortable. It doesn’t really look like a chair and neither Sally nor I could figure out what it was at first.
Twenty-one degrees this morning and blowing in an unpleasant manner. Even Sally was hard put to it to find anything positive to say about the weather.

Monday, December 24, 2012 Christmas Eve
Five eggs today and a gallon and a half of milk. We were lucky to get even that because Fern locked her knees and rolled her eyes and refused to walk on to her nice new mat. We encouraged her for quite awhile before she consented to come for some grain. As I milked, she kept edging back end way off to the side so her feet would be on the old wooden floor. She looked quite funny, poor little cow.
It was quite cold and dangerously icy. Our various visitors were definitely worried about the ice.


We tidied the house, wrapped packages and put up some more decorations. Sally made a pumpkin pie from one of our Winter Luxury pumpkins (this will be the first time we get to try one as a pie because the first one we tried, Sally left in the Aga overnight!). This one looks fine though. She also started the batter for Saffron Rolls for Christmas morning.
I made a Yugoslavian eggplant and red bell pepper sauce called Akvar. It was very successful and we both loved it. We had some on our dinner which was sirloin steaks and baked potatoes.




Thursday, December 27, 2012

Four eggs today, a gallon and a half of milk.
Christmas Day and the day after (Boxing Day) passed in a blur of activity. There was lots of wonderful food and socializing with the family.
Today was Fern’s third day of having to stand on the new mat. Third time is the charm with cows and sure enough she went in with just a little pulling.
The big storm that has been pummeling the Midwest and East Coast hit during the night. There were forty mile an hour gusts and light powdery snow which was very slippery on top of the ice on our driveway. However the temperature was only in the low twenties. The animals all seemed warm and cozy in the barn.
Martin and his family stayed at their place at the lake. On their way home they stopped in for turkey sandwiches. We sent along leftovers for their dinner.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Six eggs, just a little over a gallon and a half of milk.
Last night we were sitting and chatting when we heard a strange noise outside making us think of prowlers, only no prowler could have gotten in through that snow. It turned out to be Ted Flagg plowing our driveway. Afterwards he came in and chatted awhile as he always does. It’s always nice to catch up on local news.
Now that Christmas has passed, Sally was able to get working on her weaving which she greatly enjoyed. She’s making a lightweight blanket. I worked on baffling editing problems.
Always wonderful to get to chat with DS John who calls each Friday. He said his boys are back from Tasmania but he hasn’t gotten to chat with them. We are hoping to soon see pictures of their future farm.
Sally caught a rooster who had been trapped in the milking room. He was already nervous before he met his fate. He was a fine large rooster. She also made the leftover turkey into soup, including some of our frozen zucchini mix from last summer.

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Location:carthage, maine