Saturday, January 12, 2013

Saturday, January 12, 2013
When I turned on the radio at 5am the first thing I heard was “Watch out for freezing sleet and icy roads everywhere.” Martin is here to drive Rebecca and the boys to Biddeford where they were picking up Martin’s family. They had found they were all on the same flight to Phoenix and so were traveling together. This way the little cousins will have more time together.
Sally made an apple pie for breakfast and we had some primo jowl bacon from the new pork. . They all left a bit early because of the roads but in fact did not report any trouble.
Sally has severe laryngitis but says she feels quite well. So far I am fine.
This evening after an extremely simple dinner we started the salt cure on the two pork bellies. It will take 4 days.
Martin cleaned and dried out the intake valve on my milking machine vacuum pump and it ran well this morning. I got 1 ½ gallons of milk, also 14 eggs. I did not milk until the folks left at 9:30 but Fern forgave me for being late and was on her best behavior apart from making a cow flop when I was all done..

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Over a gallon and a half, thirteen eggs.
It was overcast and damp most of the day, about 32F. Martin’s dog Milo is staying with us this week and he is doing his best to be cooperative. Martin set up an electronic fence around the periphery so he can go in and out but not run away. He likes to play with Willie.
We heard that my grandson Roger, fourteen year old son of DS Bret in Fairbanks, became lost yesterday when he was downhill skiing and went down the wrong side of a hill. He became disoriented trying to figure out how to get back to base and went the wrong way. He became lost in a vast swampy area. It was dark and he had to abandon his skiis when he got stuck in a raspberry thicket. He finally came out on a powerline but then turned the wrong direction. He kept walking on the powerline and finally came to a musher’s cabin with a musher in it who had a cell phone. We don’t know the whole story but he was gone many hours. It was about 11 pm when he finally called. Meanwhile there was a considerable search going on for him with snow machines, volunteers and search and rescue dogs, but they were hampered by darkness and he turned out to be miles outside the search area.

Monday, January 14, 2013
Bret writes:
Roger was lost for 6.5hrs in the dark hiking in downhill ski boots. Popped out at a musher's house on Murphy Dome road and called me on a cell phone from there.
I spent the day today retrieving his skis. He is one tough kid. It took my almost 4 hours to get his skis back, my knee is inflamed and my hip hurts. Wet boots from breaking through overflow. Two search and rescue guys with a dog tracked him through the swamps. I talked to one on the phone today, who had gps coordinates to his skis, and he said Roger was 'truckin'' through that black spruce and swamp. They had to go around stuff that he went right through. I followed his tracks for a while, and I tell you, I would not want to keep that up for long!

Over a gallon and a half of milk but only four eggs as I didn’t have my light with me to check upstairs. But the weather is warm so the eggs should be ok.
The weather was so warm (over 40) that Sally opened the gate from the barn yard so the animals could go out. A bunch of bare patches had appeared in the pasture and the animals wanted to go and try grazing. They seemed to be having a fine time. The sheep were frisking around.
We took a little walk down to the vegetable garden and looked at the fruit trees. Soon it will be time to prune them.
We drove over to Rumford so I could get my flu shot.
Sally talked to her son Raphael who is in the California desert working on the tortoise project again. He said it was pretty boring.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Fourteen eggs, over a gallon and a half of milk.
Seemed like there might be a sheep in heat again.
Sallyused the leaf fat fat to make lard today and made about six pounds. This is the pork fat from around the kidneys. It makes the finest lard. Maybe tomorrow we’ll make up the rest. That will be the back fat. I finished up the dry cure of the bacon; after three days I decided it was plenty ready. We had a little test piece and it tasted pretty good.
The weather was warm again today and Sally and Willie took a walk. They reported that the snow was only a few inches deep over most of the fields. Later on when it was time to bring the sheep in, Sally got a bit mixed up with them and Willie had to be particularly heroic in his sheepherding. Sally told him what a good little dog he was.
Max said that he was looking out his upstairs window and noticed that his cow wasn’t drinking her water, she was just sniffing it. The water was perfectly still and undisturbed; they hadn’t drunk any at all. He went down and realized that there must be electrical current in the water. He had dumped it that morning and scrubbed it out and thinks he must have damaged the heating element. He swapped it out with another tub that they have and Nellie came back and took a big drink but the heifer still wouldn’t risk it.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

About a gallon and a half and eight eggs. It was just starting to snow when Sally went out for the early pass, giving the animals their breakfast. By day’s end it had snowed about three inches or so, and stayed about twenty degrees.
We’re still eating leftovers from when Rebecca and the kids were here. Today it was leftover bits of lamb made into a soup with potato and green onion.
Sally caught and dressed off another rooster but there’s still quite a few there.
Speaking of roosters, I was mistaken last week when I said Bertie Wooster was a Seabright. Marcia tells me he is an Auracana Summerhill. Next time he flew at her face she caught him and gave him the seinging aaround treatmenet. Now when he sees her he goees the other way.
Ted Flagg showed up around eight o’clock to plow the driveway. It’s always fun to see him.

Friday, January 18, 2013
At daybreak it was -6F and at nightfall was 7F above. There was bright sun. Martin’s dog Milo, doesn’t like the cold. I opened the door for him to go out and halfway out when the cold hit him he doubled back in.
Fern thought it was too cold for milking and I was inclined to agree as by the time I had the stiff cold machine on her my fingers were in pain. She kept edging away and pooped and peed to express her disapproval. She gave less than 1 ½ gallon.
I am getting plenty of eggs.
Max came today and brought me a big round bale and more milk from their cow so I don’t run out. We had a nice visit.
Sally worked on the wheat she planted last spring that we had stored up in the carriage house attic. She beats the stalks in an old pillowcase to get most of the grain off the stalk and then whirrs them in the Cuisinart using the plastic blade. This beats off the chaff. Then she soaks it very briefly in a bowl of water so that the chaff floats and is skimmed off, leaving the good grain at the bottom. Then that is drained and dried. It looks great.
She also made more lard.

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