Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Tuesday, April 09, 2013
This morning Mitra tripped while carrying two gallon jugs of milk and fell forward into a pile of broken glass, milk and blood.; her left wrist was slashed. "You never saw so much blood in your life" were her words spoken from the parking lot at RiteAid folowing an ambulance ride to the ER. Fortunately a friend was present who called 911. The tendon to Mitra's left index finger is cut along with various blood vessels. They stabilized her at the Farmington ER but tomorrow morning she has to go to the hand repair center in Portland to try to get her tendon re-attached and remove more glass.. Max is pretty upset. He just started back to work today in MT - arrived in Kalispell this morning.. We will of course help her in every way we can.
Sally has been fencing non stop and has almost completed repairs to the fence on North field. It is not yet sheep proof but is cow proof. She left the gate open for them. There is nothing but last year’s dead grass of course but they like to explore anyway.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Long hiatus due to my computer being at the repair shop. It had contracted a virus called Total Dysfunction (or some such thing) (Zero Access was its name) which apparently is transmitted via Adobe updates. Fortunately my sister Barby was here to keep up my spirits.
Shortly after she came we took her to Marcia’s house on Lake Webb for tea and to admire the lake. She and I spent as much time there as possible when we were small, at our grandparents” camp which is just a few houses down from Marcia’s. She has not seen Lake Webb with ice on it in many years.
Marcia has come here several times to get going on the vegetable garden. It’s been wonderful having her here. The plan is for her to raise vegetables in my main, lower garden, and Abby to raise the corn and squash in what we call the paddock garden, up by the barn. Besides all the flower borders around the house, we also have another garden we have been working on that is in the foundation of an old barn. We call that the walled garden.
On April 14th our Suffolk ewe named Suzie presented us with three lambs. We named them Winken, Blinken, and Nadia (the first two are males). Unfortunately Suzie didn’t seem able to care for so many and Nadia has ended up as a bottle lamb. However she seems to be taking the raw cow’s milk well and is getting stronger. We nearly lost her several times.
Mitra seems to be doing quite well. Her surgery to reattach the severed parts took three and a half hours; the surgeon said he couldn’t remember a worse cut on a wrist in his thirty years of surgery. Hard to imagine how he could put so many tiny bits back together. Go Mitra! Her mother Marie should be arriving tomorrow to help out. Until now her daughters and many wonderful friends have been keeping the place going. She is not allowed to use her hand at all for three months.

Friday, April 19, 2013
A warm and balmy wind blew today. Much garden work was done by Dally, mostly tree planting. She put in two mulberries and many willows.
The two male triplets, Wy nken and Blynken, are thriving but Nod is a little weaker than they. We had to separate her from the others because Susie will not let her nurse and she quit trying. Susie just butts her and now she has a bad limp in her right front leg. Abby and Sally are bottle feeding her. She is terribly cute and we think she will live, no doubt to be a great nuisance.

It is granddaughter Abby Rose’s birthday. She and Marcia and little Violet joined us for cake at lunch time

We are having an unexpected visit from my son Bret. He arrived in Boston to attend scientific meetings (Experimental Biology 2013) and give a poster but due to the tragic bombing events, today’s schedule was cancelled. Martin and Amy and family were in Boston visiting Aunt Anita and were confined indoors for many hours as a result of the generalized lockdown., Mitra’s mom, Marie arrived today to help Mitra. Mitra feels OK so long as she keeps up her pain pills. Her damaged nerves periodically are extremely painful along with the many incisions..

We ggave Bret a nice duck dinner. It was a duck that Martin shot last fall.

The cows and sheep eat hay in the morning before going out to try their luck with grazing of which there is really none but they keep hoping.

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Visit real-food.com to learn more about Joann or to purchase Keeping a Family Cow

Saturday, March 30, 2013

See www.real-food.com for the pictures!!!

Saturday, March 30, 2013

The milking machine worked like a champ this morning and Fern gave about 2 cups more than yesterday.

                The barn is filling  up with setting henss. Of those we can find, each had two eggs. No doubt there are more somewhere sitteing  on a rafat of eggs.

                 Little Hannah – well soon to be 7 – found a natural spring .  Maartin writes:

It's in the woods behind our house, maybe 5-600 yards away.  I haven't tried the water yet but I have a filter and will run it through and give it a try.  It runs beautifully.

Somebody just shot off their rifle several times down in the field below the river, out front.  What does one shoot at night?   Sally just walked by & told me how she and all the kids when they were very young, were walking up towards some little tiny lakelet near their house in Haines AK & shots were fired up through the trees at them.  She had the kids hide behind trees & went barreling down the hill screaming obscenities --  two guys & a small child were down there and froze with terror when they saw this She-Bear coming out of the trees, bawling in outrage at them --  Sally at her finest! (Written by Abby)

That’s my girl!

I went through some water damaged books today that were stored in thhe carriage house attic, looking for a missing volume. They were terribly moldy and it gave me quite a reaction. I am  not ordinarily especially sensitive to mold but these were baad.  My face got painful and Sally said I turned red. I am still walking around with handfuls of tissues.. 

Marcia and Barby were approaching Memphis TN at noon.

Monday, April 01, 2013

Yesterday was Easter. \We started the proceedings by getting the sheep sheared. Max has to leave soon for work in Montana. We took advantage of the only day both he and Mark Phillips, the shearer, could make it.They got started about 10:30 in the morning after eating hot cross buns that Sally made early in the morning.  He took around fifteen minutes per sheep and it all went very well, with the sheep being cooperative and then happy to pop out the back door into the sunshine.  Once they were sheared it was possible to see that at least two- the older females, Agnes and Susie, are definitely pregnant but we don’t think they will be ready to lamb for a few weeks yet.  We aren’t sure if the two younger ewes (now one year old) are expecting, but think they probably are. but they are well behind.

   It was a fine warm day, and all the sheep and cows went out to see if they could find some grazing.  Sally is working on the fences so that they will soon be able to go out into the North field which is usually the best in the early spring.

   We had an early Easter dinner, with Max’s family and Mark Phillips.  Mitra had brought ham and chicken from their own farm, which was delicious.  Abby cooked vegetable dishes including an outstanding corn pudding.  For dessert there was an apple pie Sally made using the last of some Northern Spy apples that I had bought last fall.They were still in nearly perfect shape.  They are a particularly delicious apple .

Today Sally and Abby took a load of stuff to camp. These are preliminary furnishings for Marcia to use while she awaits the arrival of her pod. We expect Marcia and Barby on Wednesday.

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

It has turned pretty cold again. The lasat several day have started out  in the low twenties and a howling wind. We have been keeping the shorn sheep in until noon at which  point they are mad to get out for some exersize. There are at least 2 dozen eggs every day  now. Only Fern is not doing too well. She is giving less than 1 ½ gallons. She will improve when we get some grazing. So far I have not seen one trace of new green.

            The travelers arrived about 6:30pm. They look very well indeed. I made chicken soup and Sally made a blueberry  pie. Abby made cookies and is taking great care of Marcia’s four chihuahuas. 

   Our two little families of baby chicks are doing fine.  We have another two or three hens who are about to hatch out more, if all goes well.  We think the sheep will wait another couple weeks before their babies appear.

Friday, April 5

It was twenty degrees in the morning and it felt colder.  We got about a gallon and a quarter of milk, and about a dozen and a half of eggs.   We think that the hens have found a place to hide their eggs.

  Fern was restless during milking; she waved her foot around and got it caught in the machine, kicking it off.  I got it put back ok but I think I got less milk because of it.

   We didn’t put the sheep out right away because of the cold.  They went out about noon.  We’ve been letting them run with the cows later in the day so they can go and see if there is anything to eat in the pasture.

   Sally has been working on the fences on the north field.  Abby has been doing a lot of housework.

   Martin and the kids came over about 7 pm.  He worked a long time on my computer.

Yesterday (Thursday) Marcia drove to Auburn and picked up her DD Abby Rose and baby Violet. They had been visiting friends and Abby Rose’  sister Caiti in VA./

My sister Barby and I took a stroll around the garden and she spotter the first tip of a daffodil poking up.Everything is still brown.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Fern gave a skimpy 1 ½ gallons. We have stopped counting the eggs, there are so many.

The weather is stuck in a holding pattern around 25 to 35 F with some sun.

                Last night I went with Martin and family joined by Max and family to hear the Franklin County Fiddlers, a high school age group that Max’s girls are in.  They performed at the Grange Hall in Weld with about 200 people present.  They did a rousing job with mostly Cape Breton style fiddling.  Roshann and Shireen play viola and cello.  Afterwards we stopped over at Martin and Amy’s camp and walked around on the frozen lake under a brilliant moon.  The stars were vexceptionally clear and you could see every one, I think.  Orion was right in front of us.

   Before going to the concert  Martin and family joined us for a chicken and rabbit casserole..  I made it with a rabbit that Martin shot (not a cottontail) and a farm chicken.  Everybody seemed to like it.

   Abby and Sally separated the two rams from the pregnant ewes as lambing is coming up.  They have the rams in a little side pen in with the cows, next to the ewes’ room.  There was a lot of complaining but eventually everyone settled down.

Monday, March 25, 2013

    We only got about a gallon and a quarter of milk,  and about 20 eggs.   We have three or four setting hens now, each with two eggs.  The young chicks are doing well.

   When Sally went to the barn the rams had escaped their pen in the beefer pen and were standing on the cow hay.   She managed to get them into the sheep yard but later when we put the ewes out the rams squeezed out the gate and rejoined the flock.  They are starting to try to butt everyone who comes near and are generally so annoying as to have caused us to decide that we will have to make terminal arrangements.  It is sad as we are really very fond of them, alas. They are terribly cute.

   Martin and Amy came to lunch.  They said they went yesterday to Bowley Brook Maple Syrup Farm.   Bowley Brook makes particularly fine maple syrup.   Abby cooked them a nice lunch of hamburgers  and then they left for Biddeford.  We had our hamburgers for dinner later on, and found them excellent.

   It was a very fine grey sort of day, well above freezing.  The snow is disappearing fast.

    My daughter Marcia is moving back from California, we are excited to report.  She and my sister Barby started driving today.  She will be opening up her camp at Weld.  We think they may arrive in a week or so.

  Son Bret sent a picture of his daughter Maia in her prom gown.  She is the prom queen.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Yesterday Abby and Sally went to Rumford her eye appointment but it turned out that her insurance had not kecked in. Abby had already dropped her off and driven away when she discovered this but she knew where Abby was shopping and pelted down the hill for several blocks and caught her. She was at the What Not Shop (thrift store) and they both found treasures..

Fern’s production is dropping and I know one reason is the inflations on the milking machine need replacing. I will do that before I go to bed tonight.

Sally and Abby took a carload of stuff to Marcia’s camp today so that she and Abby Rose and little Violet won’t be sitting on the floor until their stuff arrives. They drove through New Mexico today.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Yesterday’s milking was a struggle. I could hear a whistling air leak somewhere. We put   in new inflations but it was worse than ever.  I found a couple of little apertures in the central casting of the claw and got it to function be holding my fingers over them, Afterwards we discovered that the metal     loop by which the claw hangs when not in use had fallen off leaving these little holes. Clearly, it had been getting loose for a while. Sally jammed it back together. We’ll see how I  t goes tomorrow.  It it still leaks I will cover the holes with duct tape.

The weather today was moderately warm and very moist.

Abby and Sally assembled items to furnish camp and Abby did a lot more cleaning. Sally checked fences. A man called Sally to see if he might access the river across her field so that he could trap beavers. She said no. They aren’t doing much harm.

                Marcia and Barby have passed Amarillo TX.

Friday, March 29, 2013

Fern gave less than 1 ¼ gallons this morning.  I held the hanging loop in position to prevent vacuum loss. Sally was hoping this would do it so that we don’t have to relinquish thee loop but tomorrow I am going to tape it over. I will contrive a loop from wire or cord. When we get green grass her production will rise but that is at least 6 weeks away.

                I made a grand garden tour and admired all the manuring Sally has done around the fruit trees and berry bushes. She was not able to do all of them because so much of the snow has melted that she can’t use the sled.

   Abby has been spending many hours doing spring cleaning.  Today she made a banana cream pie which was a big success.