Saturday, February 02, 2013

Saturday, February 02, 2013
One dozen eggs and a gallon and a half of milk. I called Nate, my AI tcck again this morning and he was already on his way. He arrived while I was still in my bathrobe. Sally had gone off to see the workmen at her house and I saw him wandering around the driveway. I was soon into barn clothes over my pajamas. He came in and suggested a different bull, Epic, an A2A2 bull with a good reputation for fertility. Sally came back and we put Fern into her stanchion. Nate said that she was in perfect condition for breeding. He had a lot less trouble inserting the straw than his colleague who came last time.
Then we heard that Martin would be over in an hour or two to drop off the kids so we raced around cleaning up and then took the opportunity to watch the last episode of Pride and Prejudice, which was wonderful. (Of course it’s the BBC filming with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehel.) Martin never showed up till nearly five and we thought he had surely fallen through the ice.
During the afternoon I was thrilled to get a phone call from Mark saying that he had gotten a wonderful job offer from CMMC (Central Maine Medical Center) in Lewiston.
At five people showed up for a nice family dinner: Max, Mitra, Roshan and Shireen, as well as Martin and his kids. Amy stayed home this weekend. We had braised shoulder of lamb, brown rice pilaf, salad and homegrown Brussels sprouts. Abby made a delicious banana cream pie. Martin brought the wine. We all had a great time. We raised a toast to Mark.

Sunday, February 03, 2013

We got eleven eggs today and about a gallon and a half of milk. It was back down to zero this morning.
We figure that most likely this time Fern has settled but I am thinking that her due date will be right on top of my trip to Atlanta next November. I guess we’ll figure something out.
Sally and Willie went for a walk around the fields. Most of the snow is gone thanks to all the rain and thaw we had last week. The low places in the fields are frozen ponds from the rain. Martin came over about noon. He had wanted to ice skate but we ladies were otherwise inclined and he’d already taken the kids out at the lake skating this morning. Martin kindly carried on with helpful repairs and problem solving with the various computers here (mine, Sally’s and Abby’s) that keep up linked to the world.
Abby made another batch of cookies, chocolate chip that resemble Florentines.
Sally made bread. She ground flour for it from the wheat I raised last summer. She had threshed just enough recently using the plastic blade on my Cuisinart. It was perfect bread. What a thrill. I have never grown wheat before.

Wednesday, February 06, 2013
It’s 8:30pm and a very cold. A violent wind has come up and Abby has volunteered to go out to the barn and close the outer door to the beefer pen to prevent too I helped her to find a cold-proof coat and other gear. Our motion lights are working week so her path is lit.
Yesterday was taken up by a trip to Lewiston to see my eye doctor, Dr. Hamzavi. Abby drove me and all went well. But I didn’t get another darned thing done all day despite closeting myself while the others watched Downton Abbey.
This morning started out with quiet weather and Ally and Willie took a walk all the way to the brook. Sally reported beaver work.
The cold has crept in again behind the dishwasher and frozen the pipes. Sally and Abby have insulated and hung blankets and set up heaters so far to no avail.

Thursday, February 07, 2013
Abby did not go to bed last night until she had the dishwasher going again. Hurrah!
It was right around zero again this morning. I had failed to bring my boots into the kitchen last night so had to stick my feet into freezing boots. This was a poor start to chores but everything else went well thanks to Fern being a very good little cow and DD Sally doing all the watering and feeding. In the very cold weather it is difficult to get the teat cups on since the little rubber hoses on the machine are so stiff. Sally goes around to the far side of Fern and puts the two on that side on, and then holds them in position until I get the other two in place. Fern gave 1 ½ gallons which seems to be the best she can do as a first calf heifer in her 14th month of lactation. This is not quite enough for family needs if I want to make any dairy products.
DS Max came over and brought feed from White Water Farm. I try to get all my feed there because he sells only non GM feeds. We were nearly out of firewood and he split us a lot. We were able to give him some of the good blueberry and apple pie that Abby made last night.
We also had our semi-annual visit from the piano tuner, Gordon Large. He recommended we use the humidifier. He’s going to repair the felts in a place where a mouse had taken up residence.

Thursday, February 8th
We got a gallon and a half of milk today and a dozen eggs. It was pretty cold again today (10F) and the hoses on the milking machine were again very stiff. Sally again helped with getting the teat cups on Fern .She then filled lots of containers with water as we are supposed to be getting a big snowstorm and may lose power.
We’ve been putting molasses onto the hay in the feeder for the cows and sheep, mostly just for fun. I’m giving Fern about two pounds of grain (COB) each morning and putting wheat germ oil on it, about a quarter of a cup. I also add a handful of kelp and a handful of diatomaceous earth (DE). She also gets about a pint of grain in the evening. She is in good condition. Milton also gets about a pint of COB in the morning and another at night. He’s looking good too.
Abby filled lots of containers in the house too just in case. She also brought in a lot of firewood and made Snickerdoodle cookies from nephew Roger’s recipe.
Sally finished the seed order and worked on an order for floating row cover. These are from Fedco Seeds. We had a lot of seed left from last year and only needed corn and squash. We are hoping the corn seed comes as it is in very short supply nationwide due to the draught.
I made a Swiss steak, a popular back in the 50’s. We had it with mashed potatoes and a tasty cabbage fry that Abby made, and ate in front of the TV where we watched Downton Abbey reruns.




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