Saturday November 2, 2013

Saturday November 2, 2013

 

Sally made raspberry with locally grown raspberries, cooked and strained and set with Knox’s gelatin.  There was a custard layer on top and then whipped cream.  We had these for lunch with Marcia.  Then I did a telephone interview with Aaron Zober for a program called  “The Appropriate Omnivore”  originating in Pasadena, California.  We talked for an hour on themes from my Nourishing Traditions talk.

   The weather was pretty good today, Sally and Willie walked around the fields and fixed gates.  We put a new bell on Fern as her old one had lost its clapper, and also gave her some orange flagging tape on her collar as it is hunting season.  We also got a bell on another sheep so they will be safer too. 

   Sally carried on coaching me on my talk.  I got to have a nice long chat with grandson Harper, who told me all the good things he was cooking from his Fergus Henderson book, “Nose to Tail Eating”. 

 

Monday November 3

 

   It was twenty degrees this morning. 

   Marcia hosted a superb lunch for Mitra, Sally and me today.  She made a Brussels sprout and squash tart with an outstanding pastry crust to accompany boneless steaks from our new beef.  Sally made apple cake which we had with Mitra’s whipped cream.  The lake was beautifully calm and the weather perfectly clear.  It was lots of highly entertaining conversation as we caught up on each other’s adventures. 

   Max has provided some terrific drawings to accompany my powerpoint talk

   Fern looks the same today as yesterday and we hope she holds out with her calf till we get back from Atlanta. 

 

Tuesday Nov. 5

 

Twenty degrees again this morning, bright and clear.   All the animals went right out to graze as usual.  Fern is bagging up a little more.

   We continue to work hard on my talk.  Martin has the pictures about ready.

    Sally and Willie went over to her field and had a fine walk around it.  It was quite warm and sunny by that time, and they found many little apples still up in the trees.  They avoided the end of the field in case a deer hunter was down there; the season started on Saturday.  It is posted but you never know.

   Marcia came over after lunch helped me with my paperwork and the barn chores.  I gave her some meat from the freezer.  Sally worked on making the drag under the front gate better since Marcia’s little dogs have been slipping under it and out into the road.

   Starting tomorrow, Fern will be confined up near the barn.  This is to prevent her calving some distance away and will help keep her safe from hunters and coyotes.   The sheep will be in their own paddock with hay until we return from Atlanta.

 

Monday, November 11, 2013, Veteran’s Day

 

Sally and I, ds Mark and granddaughter Hailey all went to the Nourishing Traditions in Atlanta, GA.  We all got a lot out of it and had fun.  My talk was very well received.  The people in Georgia are all charmingly polite, friendly and helpful.   It is many years since I have been in the South, not since I was a little child.  I had a window seat on the airplane both ways and could make out patches of farmland almost the entire distance from Boston to Atlanta.  Nothing forested, just one little pasture parcel with homes on the access roads the whole way.  I couldn’t make out any livestock at 3500 feet but there is grass for millions of cows.

   We all met a variety of very interesting people.  It seemed to me that they all had in common a deep desire to be of help to others, in this case through the agency of better nutrition.

   Little Willie got along all right without us, with Marcia’s help, but he was mighty glad to see us.  He seems to have done a good job of guarding the homestead.

   This morning, two days after her due date,  Fern went into labor.  Thinking Martin was still at camp,  we allowed Fern to go out and graze for awhile since she was so mad about being shut in while we were gone.  We figured that if she had the calf out in the field, Martin would be available to carry it in.  She made a beeline for the Pocket Field which is our most distant field with the greatest privacy, but we had closed the gate.  She was willing to settle for a little copse of willow and she stood there several hours with our lead ewe Agnes standing close to her, being her doula.  However when we learned that Martin wasn’t around after all, we had to bring her in as we knew we couldn’t carry the calf.  Marcia came and helped and it all went very well, but she had to leave before the calf was actually born, which took place at 5:45.  The calf was large and a great strain for Fern.  When its nose finally appeared and two feet were showing Sally and I each grabbed one ankle with the towel and helped pull the calf down.  He is large, dark brown (almost black) and quite vigorous.  He has now sucked.  We are both very tired.

   While waiting for Fern to finish licking the calf, and while he was learning to stand up, I began bringing Fern one-gallon buckets of warm molasses water, each containing one cup of molasses.   She drank a total of four gallons of this mixture as fast as she could drink. 

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[Hey - don't forget we still have a few copies of the old version of the book to clear out of the basement - pick one up here).  Or get the new one, with lots of new information including Joann's review of A1 & A2 genetics, on Amazon].