Sunday, February 17, 2013

There is supposed to be a picture of me. Martin said he would send it otomorrow.
Sunday, February 17, 2013


Yesterday was cloudy and about 20 degrees, not as sunny as the day before. Sally and Willie walked down by the river and saw the first pair of mallards. They flew off. Sally decided to gather seeds from some Northern Spy apples to plant down there, just for fun. The seeds came from Northern Spys that I bought in the fall as they are particularly good pie apples.
Sally and Abby got the big hay ring loose and the waste hay spread around. They also put hay, a few flakes at a time, out the back window of the hay mow to keep Fern happy while she was shut outside. They allowed the sheep to come out and mingle so they could have fun too.
Today Fern gave over a gallon and a half of milk (perhaps reflecting my adding alfalfa pellets to her diet) and about fifteen eggs. The weather today was cold and blowy and snowy and generally bleak. Abby spent a long time splitting firewood and hauling it up to the house. I managed to get in a couple of hours of editing.
My granddaughter Maia Luick (age 16) in Fairbanks did well at the Academic Decathlon, for which she has been studying with her team ever since August. She won four medals and her team won the State championship. We also heard that my grandson Eli Simmons (age 14), also from Fairbanks, won an Insight award in robotics.

Monday, February 18, 2013
About a gallon and a half of milk and a dozen eggs. It blew violently all last night and all of today, and it was quite cold too. It was zero when we got up and never got above twenty.
We had an annoying time with the milking machine today. It had pressure but refused to pulsate. We worked on it a long time before figuring out that the pulsator wasn’t seated properly. We had tried to seat it numerous times but somehow hadn’t succeeded. Whenever it won’t work I panic. Thhe problemt invariably turns out to be something stupidly simple.
Sally and Abby worked for a long time taking pictures of me. Here is a sample:


Later, Max came over with alfalfa pellets and cow minerals. He helped us to solve a couple of my current computer dilemmas.
We heard from granddaughter Caiti that her daughter Lily is very ill. The doctor thinks it’s a Norovirus.
When Sally went to bring the sheep in, one ram had a very bloody head. She thinks he had knocked off his little spur of horn. He didn’t seem to mind it.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

It was about ten degrees above when we got up and later warmed twentyfive degrees thanks to bright sun. The injured ram appears fine. Two of the ewes seem certainly to be pregnant and we are hopeful about the other two as well.
It was so nice that Sally and Willie went for a walk around the fields. Willie showed great interest in the groundhog hole down in the Pocket Field. Later on they went down again and sprinkled apple seeds around outside the fence of the main field. She dug little holes in the snow and dropped them in. An older resident stopped to chat and was glad to hear what she was doing. He said people aren’t taking care of their apple trees. He also spoke well of the apple tree by the river which he said was a Yellow Transparent. We hope it’s still there as it was very close to the water.
We are cautiously optimistic that Fern’s production will go up in response to the alfalfa pellets. She is getting two quarts a day. So far it hasn’t gone up much but at least it’s stopped going down.
It was so sunny and cheerful outside that Abby and Sally were able to clean out in the buttery and the carriage house. Sally also made another blueberry pie using blueberries that I bought from a neighbor last summer. Abby took another gallon of clabber to the hens who are responding very well- we got about eighteen eggs today.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Wegot a pint more milk this morning, about one and three fourths gallons. Abby collected the eggs at midday as usual and got about eighteen. Sally killed another two roosters.
It was about thirty degrees in the morning and got up to around forty, under a full sun but a bit of wind. I took a walk around the garden and the snow was very slushy. Sally and Willie walked around in the field but had to come back because it was very hard for Willie to walk He kept breaking through the crust.
Dr. Cooper stopped by for lunch. We didn’t get to talk much though because my son Martin was on a talk show on the radio. The subject was the climate for business startups in Maine. The panelists all agreed that Maine was the best place in the country to do a startup.
Abby has a new job as a live-in caregiver in Belgrade, Maine. She will be caring for an elderly doctor who has had a stroke. She starts next Monday. There go all our cookies.
Yesterday Sally and Abby were thrilled to get Season Two of Downton Abbey in the mail, a gift from Mitra. They were particularly pleased to get it since Abby has to leave and they wanted to watch it before she goes. We’ll also be able to watch the last episode of the third season together on Sunday night. I’m not watching Season Two which I have already seen- I close the door and do my editing.

Friday, February 22, 2013
Sixteen eggs and a gallon and a half of milk. We were alert for signs of heat from Fern as it is three weeks since she was bred, but so far nothing except that Milton was bellowing while I was milking.
One of the setting hens was off her nest today so we checked and her eggs had disappeared down a crack in the haybales. Since she had clearly given up we dismantled the nest. She’d been setting a long time and must have gotten discouraged. The others are doing fine. Also, Sally got word today that her housesitter in Alaska found new baby chicks in her henhouse. She is quite excited.
Martin came to breakfast with his kids Hannah and Henry. They ate up all their scrambled eggs and cheese that their Auntie Abby made them and a lot of milk and toast and jelly as well. They are very nice little kids and have good appetites. We are planning a big family dinner today for them and a friend of theirs. I have an eggplant and corn casserole in the oven, and baked pork chops, all from the farm.
It has been a lovely sunny day. Martin and the kids worked outside on the woodpile, and Sally walked around the fields and found a chrysalis on an apple tree twig. She brought it back with its twig for Abby to identify- she’s very good at that- and then will take it back and tie it to its tree again tomorrow.
Mitra and the girls have gone on a tour of colleges. Sounds like a lot of fun. Max is running the farm by himself. He has not used thhe milking machine before.

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