The Little Brown Wagon Strikes Fear

If you saw my post from a couple days ago, you know that I put together a wagon for my own personal use on the farm.  Of course, I have gotten by for years without a wagon, but the child in me kept finding valid reasons why I should buy a wagon and since those reasons were so convincing, I did just that.  Rather than carry all my buckets, milker, hose, and other items  to the milking parlor, I can now put them all in my wagon and joyfully pull them up and down the hill. 

Feeling quite pleased with myself, I unloaded the wagon from it maiden voyage and set up the parlor for milking.  Mike was home early, as we were having guests for supper, and proceeded to help me move things along by bringing Midnight in to be milked. 

Or, shall I say, he attempted to bring Midnight in for milking.

Midnight came around the corner just as she always does, intent on reaching her goal of treats in the stanchion when all of a sudden she wheeled around and made a mad, frantic, fearful dash back from whence she came! 

"What the heck?  What's up with  Midnight?", I questioned Mike.

He thought that Lady, the big white dog must have scared her because he said he saw Lady jump up about the same time that Midnight became frightened.

We struggled for quite a while trying to get Midnight to come in but things just got progressively worse.  She tried to force herself through the latched gates.  She contemplated jumping over them.  She ran around with her ears indicating she was greatly distressed.  (Those of you with cattle know what I mean.)  Of course, all of this would happen on an evening when I needed to have supper on the table at a particular time. 

I remembered how cows do not like change, don't adapt well to new surroundings, and recalled the articles I had read by Temple Grandin.

"The single most important factor determining whether a new thing is more interesting than scary is whether the animal has control over whether to approach the object. Animals are terrified by forced novelty. They don't want new things shoved into their faces and people don't either. but if you give animals and people a new thing and let them voluntarily decide how to explore it, they will."  ANIMALS MAKE US HUMAN p. 147  (For more information see this previous post.)


 I suddenly decided that the little, brown wagon I was so proud of might just possible resemble a big, ugly monster to Midnight.  I quickly hid the "monster" out of site around the corner. 

Finally, we forced Midnight into a smaller area and managed to get the gate shut.  She hesitantly headed towards the stanchion but at the last minute bolted through un unsecure, human size gate that leads into a yard around the chicken pen.  (The chickens free range but the yard is to keep the calves out of the chicken's house.)  Now we have a huge Angus/Holstein cow who has gone wild running around in the chicken yard! 

By this time Mike and I have totally lost our cool, making things even worse.  (The best thing to do when you have a cow gone crazy, is to not go crazy yourself!)  Midnight jumped the electric netting fence around the chicken house and was now in the pasture with the last year's weaned calves.  The calves started going crazy feeding off of Midnight's energy and antics.  We got her separated from the calves and back into the original holding pen where once again we had to force her (with her having intent to kill at this point) back to the stanchion. 

Into the smaller area with the closed gate behind her, she finally fearfully walked past where the big, scary monster (little, brown wagon) had been sitting and made her way into the stanchion.  Once she was in the stanchion, she was fine. 

When she was realeased from the stanchion, she ran quickly past the gate where the little, brown wagon had once set. 

Fast forward to this morning.  I fill up my little, brown wagon and joyfully begin pulling it down the hill.  Midnight is standing at the gate waiting to be let into the holding area as she is ALWAYS the first to be milked now that Edy is not around.  She hears the wheels turning on the little, brown wagon.  She eyes the little, brown wagon making it's way down the hill.  Her ears start doing that "crazy cow thing" again.  Her eyes are wide.  She paces but doesn't leave the gate. 

This time, I decide to move the little, brown wagon before trying to get Midnight in.  I determine to remain calm no matter what.  I feed the goats and the calves and all is well.  Then, I let Midnight in the holding area.  All she has to do is walk through the holding area and past the gate where the little, brown wagon sat yeterday but no longer sits today.  I talk calmly to her and explain that "the big bad monster" is gone.  She is having none of it.

Again, she refuses to go in to be milked but this time Mike and I remain calm and I keep telling Mike I will be there as long as it takes because I don't want her to be frightened.  We went round and round a few times (nothing like last night) and she finally went into the stanchion.  We shall see what the evening milking brings.

Whoever knew that a little, brown wagon could cause so much trouble? 

Tuesday Review

Took this photo of Graham yesterday morning but most of our snow has melted now. 

Have decided to take a break from facebook for the Lenton Season and that means that I will strive harder to post regular updates here. 

I am trying to get my chick starting gear in order and make the necessary purchases of items I do not have so that when my peeps arrive I will be ready and not making a last minute scramble to get things together!  It has been several years since I have started chicks and I have always started them in my bathroom at first.  Since I am getting such a large number (100), I decided I better get with the program and get a place set up for them out in one of the shelters. 

We had two calves born today in the beef herd giving us a total of four for the year so far.  The tally so far is 3 heifers and one bull calf.  I am hoping for those odds in the dairy herd, but not expecting it! 

Some Days Require No Narrative

Princess' Second Pregnancy

Princess should be my first cow to calve this spring and her udder is starting to fill in.  She is due March the 8th.  Last year when she gave us a bull calf, she was completely miserable for the last four weeks of her pregnancy and carried the baby differently than she is carrying this calf.  Perhaps it is another bull calf only smaller this year or just maybe she will give us an  heifer!  (Once can always dream, right?)

Princess was the first heifer born here to our dairy herd after a run of six bulls in a row.  She has always been completely spoiled and doesn't realize that she is not at least part human.  I have plans to let her retire right here on the farm when she is too old to produce babies anymore.  She is registered as a Foundation Pure Miniature and is 40 inches tall. 

Random

Reeses is 3/4 Mini Jersey (100% Jersey) and oh so cute!

Random information from a blogger who post randomly posts!  That pretty much describes my blog over the last year or more.  It's not that I don't love blogging because the truth is, I love to write.  I have just found myself either too busy or too tired in the past year to keep up with my blog as I would like.  I also find that since I am actively updating our farming Facebook page, to post the same information here seems redundant.  In addition, I have not bee able to give time to keeping up with the blogs of others and I think that this might be true for a lot of folks.  I sometimes wonder if blogging will go the way of the annual Christmas Letter.  There was a time when I looked forward to receiving Christmas Letters and sending one of my own.  Now I find that because of email, facebook and other means of instant communication, the Christmas Letter seems kind of archaic.  Yet, I feel drawn to continue on with the blog even though it might be sporadic and the topics might be so random that they discourage followers.  I enjoy looking back at the stats on my blog and seeing that many people are still discovering and using my Cottage Cheese recipe among others.  I also enjoy it when the stats show a high volume of traffic to one of my informational posts about the animals that we are raising.  If nothing else, I guess the blog will serve as some sort of journal for my daughter someday and she can look back and read about our farming and other ventures even after we are gone. 

Just a random update on what is going on here on the farm and in our lives:

The winter has been very mild and pleasant for the most part.  The warmer temps mean that we have had rain rather than snow and this had left us with a lot of mud to deal with.  For the first time ever, I have had to deal with chronic mastitis in a cow and that has not been fun.  I think the mud and the fact she insists on laying in the slop rather than the clean shelter has something to do with it.  We did everything we could think of to remedy the situation.  We had her milk cultured and it did not show anything terrible (like staph).  We changed inflations, changed vacuum pumps, made sure our equipment was thoroughly cleaned after each milking and began hand stripping.  We would get her cleared up and it would come back again.  Very frustrating and also meant that we were dumping milk making things tight around here on the milk supply.  Thankfully, she seems to be cleared up now and we are hoping she stays that way but are not holding our breath.  Should she come back with mastitis again, we are going to dry her off and put her in with the beef herd. 

In addition to the mastitis issues, we also had a cow that either has not bred back or slipped a calf.  Tori is a Mini Jersey and she slipped her first calf at seven months gestation.  We thought she was bred back and due in February only to find she is open.  I have had her vet checked and blood work run and there does not seem to be any known reason why she is not able to conceive/carry a calf.   We are going to give her about a year and if she doesn't conceive, then we will just have to butcher her.  It's heartbreaking and a big financial loss but it is part of farming. 

Upcoming news includes the fact that we should be receiving 100 Speckled Sussex chicks at the end of this coming week or beginning of next week.  After having a variety of birds over the years, I have finally settled on the Speckled Sussex as being my favorite.  I love their size, their productivity and their temperament.  I am ordering 25 roosters to fatten and butcher and the rest will be hens.  I need to totally replace my flock as all my other birds are between 2-5 years of age. 

It looks like all my goat does are bred to our new buck (who has a very nice temperament) and we should be having kids in May.  I know a lot of folks like to have their goats kid earlier but I am looking forward to having kids when the weather is warm and I don't have to worry about bringing them inside or keeping them warm. 

We had our very first beef calf of the year born today and should have many more in the coming weeks and months.  Four of our Jersey girls will be calving in March and I will have my hands full with new babies and mommas who will be back in production and need to be milked twice a day. 

Mike is gearing up to plant the garden and looking forward to that as gardening is his passion.  (I prefer to take care of the animals.)

I think that news pretty much gets us up to date and I would love to be able to promise that I will make frequent updates here to my blog, but as much as I want to do that, the truth is the posts will probably continue to be sporadic.............................and random. 

Rosie turned a year old this month.  I will be breeding her later in the summer.  She is a Foundation Pure Miniature and well under 40 inches. 

Project Guatemala

A mother and her children at Hope of Life feeding center near Zacapa, Guatemala.

Having been able to reach the goals of providing a deep water well to provide clean water for the village of Manzanotal in 2011 and money for cleft palate surgeries for Rosie in 2012 due to the generous support of so many, I don't feel that we can stop there.  After recently returning from my second trip to Guatemala, my heart burns with a desire to help these people further and I know that funding projects will become a life long venture for me.  I hope that others will share the passion to help the beautiful people of Guatemala and join me in these projects.  With or without the support of others, I will push forward to do what I can do.  In keeping with these broader  and long term goals, I have changed the name of my other blog to Joshua's Well & Project Guatemala.  Please join me on that blog where I will attempt to post a photo a day to share information about the people I came in contact with while visiting Guatemala.  I hope to share not only the needs but also the stories of success, life and hope. 

Helping does not necessarily mean that one has to provide money for projects.  There are many ways to help.  The most helpful act of all is to pray.  Maybe a photo will touch your heart and you will feel drawn to a particular baby, child, or adult.  Maybe an elderly person's photo will grab your heart.  You may not know their name, but you can pray for them just the same by thinking of them and asking God to somehow intervene in their lives.  You can also help by sharing the information that is presented on the blog and directing others to the site.  As we network, there are people who want to help but just need to know of the needs.  You never know what might happen when you share with a friend who shares with another.  Raising awareness is as important as actually donating money.  In addition to the revamped blog site, I have also changed my Rosie FaceBook page to make it Project Guatemala so that I can continue to share projects over time.  Please like this page and share it with your FaceBook friends!  Facebook can be a valuable tool for sharing information and reaching well beyond your scope of friends as people share the stories, photos and needs.    Keeping the people of Guatemala in your heart, thoughts and prayers and sharing the needs with others as well as donating to specific projects if you feel led and have the means are ways that we can make a difference in the lives of others. 

Thanks to all who have already made a difference. 

CrockPot Chicken and Dumplings (Reviewed and Updated September 24, 2023)

For me, homemade chicken and dumplings begin with pastured chicken.  I happen to have some pastured chicken in the freezer that was raised by our friends, Brian and Coleen, over at Poplar Ridge Farm. Perhaps you raise your own meat birds and that's fantastic.  We have raised them on occasion, but I find it is something I am happy to pay someone else to do.  

I thaw my bird and then let it cook with salt, pepper, and any other seasonings I like for at least 12 hours (sometimes longer) in the CrockPot until it completely falls apart.  The bone broth from a bird that has been cooked for such a long time is especially nutritious!  

I then make at least two meals out of the bird.  I use the beautiful, white, breast meat to make one meal, such as the  Chicken Casserole recipe found at this link.   Or, we will sometimes use the breast meat for sandwiches or chicken salad.

I use the dark meat that I pull away from the bone with the hearty broth for either chicken and dumplings or chicken noodle soup.

To make the chicken and dumplings, I do the following:

After deboning, put the chicken and the broth back in the crock pot.  While the broth is coming back up to temperature, make the dumplings.  Use a spoon to drop them into the hot broth or roll them between your hands to make a uniform-sized dumpling for a prettier presentation.

Put the lid on the CrockPot and leave the dumplings to cook.  (I usually add the dumplings a couple of hours before we are ready to eat.)  A few minutes before it's time to eat, remove the lid to the CrockPot and let the dumplings dry a little on top. 

I use the following recipe for my dumplings:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/3 cup lard

2/3 cup milk

This recipe can also be made in a regular stock pot.  After you have dropped your dumplings into the broth, cover and let cook on low for about 30 minutes.  Remove the lid for the last 5-10 minutes to let the dumplings dry a bit on top if you like.  

Enjoy!