Saturday, December 29, 2012

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Eleven eggs today, and a gallon and a half of milk. All went pretty well as usual in the milking room except for an untimely manure drop., But Fern is touchy on off front teat. It seems to be a bit sore and scabby and I am concerned that Milton may be trying to suck again. Later in the baranyard I saw her rest her head on him in a way that looked friendly but then she butted him hard and chased him around .
Willie and Sally walked over to her little house; she said all seemed well. She then walked around the field a bit. She said that there had been a deer through recently, and they saw two grouse. One was sitting by Willie unobserved for some time but then lost its nerve and thundered off, startling him.
We have had several chickadees on our birdfeeder and one or two redpolls. Today the redpolls came back bringing all their friends; there were probably a couple dozen. There is also a downy woodpecker and some we think were starlings.
It was an evening like a Japanese print, all grey, white and black.

Sunday, December 30, 2012
Seven eggs; a gallon and a half of milk. Fern walked into her stanchion nicely and wasn’t antsy but did keep shifting over to the side to get her hind feet off the mat. Her left front teat is still scabby and touchy.
There was a huge windstorm that blew snow all around and caused whiteout conditions. It was at its worst when Sally was giving the animals their lunch. She could hardly see to return from the barn. It had obliterated her tracks just made going out. It also caused huge drafts from two of the windows in the kitchen revealling that those windows had not had their storm panes pulled down.
When Sally was checking her daily online paper called “Alaska Digest”, she noticed that a huge cyclone was hitting Anchorage and Kodiak with winds up to one hundred miles an hour. She said she doesn’t ever before remember hearing of a cyclone in Alaska. There were reports of a big drill rig being towed from Alaska down to Seattle which was threatening to run aground on Kodiak Island. The tug had lost power in all four of its engines in huge seas. The Coast Guard was on scene trying to rescue both the boat and the crew and has apparently been successful. The tow ropes parted several times during the rescue because the winds and seas were so extreme.

Monday, December 31, 2012
Eighteen eggs (found another new nest) and over a gallon and a half of milk. The animals seem to be eating a lot of hay. We are still sprinkling molasses water on the hay along the inside of the hay ring to encourage them to clean up before their new bale arrives; this seems to be effective.
The saga of the Alaskan drill rig continued. The tow ropes are made of steel and nylon and are about ten inches in diameter, but even with two huge tugs towing at once, the tow ropes have snapped several times in the huge seas.
Sally’s daughter Rosemary was travelling home to Cordova AK as the cyclone approached and she said she had a rough trip but got there safely. She didn’t spend the night on her boat though as it had gotten pretty cold.
We both attempted to read James Howard Kunstler’s 2013 predictions for the world and US economy. It was long and highly detailed, not encouraging, and I haven’t finished. It certainly renews one’s focus on sustainable living.
It was about ten degrees this morning and still very windy, but as the day went on the wind died and it became sunny and pleasant. The ice on the kitchen windows melted and that enabled us to properly close the storm windows. It immediately became much warmer in the kitchen.

Thursday, January 03, 2013
We got eleven eggs today and just over a gallon and a half of milk.
Yesterday Mark and Annie came and took me to the optometrist in Rumford because my vision has been deteriorating rapidly. He gazed into my eyeballs and said I needed to see the specialist, Dr. Hamzavi. I got an emergency appointment for today.
While I was at the optometrist,, Sally’s daughter Rebecca, husband Torsten and small sons Halfdan and Torlief arrived for a visit. They are to stay ten days except that Torsten had to leave today to go back to work. Halfdan has a cold and was not able to enjoy our fine dinner of lamb rib roast, but we enjoyed it for him. Sally made another blackberry pie.
This morning was minus five degrees and the water was frozen up in the barn. Milking was slow and painful and it seemed to take hours to get the water running again. Later today Max came and took me to the Hamzavi appointment in Lewiston. They ran a great many tests on my eyes, shining lights in them and taking pictures and said my right eye was going the way of my left eye with wet macular degeneration. He gave me a shot in my eye of Lucentis. I have another appointment for another shot in one month.
Max and I stopped at the Bread Shack on the way home and got a snack. Meanwhile back at the farm Rebecca made a lovely spaghetti and Max stayed to have some. He also fixed the sink drain which has been giving us awful troubles, running out on the cellar floor.

Friday, January 04, 2013
About a dozen eggs and a gallon and a half of milk. It was eight degrees this morning but it warmed up to nearly thirty over the day. Rebeccae and Sally and the kids walked around the garden and field in the morning. Sally showed her all the different apple and cherry trees. The snow in the field was a little deep for Torlief but he did very well. (He’s not yet five and Halfdan is about a year and a half.)
I cooked a brisket for dinner and started a new batch of cream cheese. Rebecca made chocolate chip cookies. At chore time they all came out to the barn and looked for eggsl throughour the barn. We all got to watch Willie enthusiastically helping to herd the sheep into their room. Afterwards Rebecca pulled the boys around in the wheeled cart on the plowed driveway. Willie wanted to ride too, so she put him in and he loved riding with the boys
After cooking all day the brisket was still tough so we put it back into the simmer oven for tomorrow. Mostly we had mashed potatoes, cole slaw, and strawberries and cream for dessert.
I’m pretty tired from my two days of eye appointments and didn’t try to use my eyes much today.




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