Finally....A calf !

Well today when we went out to do morning chores and milking we went to check on Corin and the calf was coming. She needed some help again though. We have a large stall they can calf in and even if she could push this one out herself she had her butt jammed right up against the bar so it would of never come out. It was a big one my husband said it must weigh between 110 -115 lbs. I told her she baked it to long. Of course it is a bull and this time I didn't have the camera with me. He is all black I will have to get a picture after he is dry and all licked off. Well at least I don't have to do the checks anymore but I see we have 2 more bagging up but they should deliver fine by themselves.

While I am sitting here on the computer on the table next to me is the soap I made about 2 weeks ago drying. It is the first time I have ever made homemade soap and it smells so nice I can't wait till I can try it. The next batch I think I will make some with milk. I can't wait till spring till our Nubian goat has her baby so I can try some goat milk soap.

These are our first goats so I hope I do OK with them. Right now we just have one male and one female but if all goes well this spring I hope to get a couple more females. Baby goats are just so cute so it will be fun when they come.

A snowy day

Well it has been a snowy couple of days. When it was all over we had about a foot but the wind was bad and we had some big drifts. Trying to drag myself and 5 gallon buckets full of feed and water through them wore me out. My husband had it all plowed out for me by afternoon chores though and he even made me a nice wide path to the chicken coop.

I decided to go out today and get some snow pictures. The cow is Titan our lineback steer. He must like the snow cause he was pretty covered and was out in it everytime I went by him. He posed very nice for his picture too. It is funny sometimes when friends are with me when I am over there feeding his group they say aren't you worried about the horns but I tell them when you get close to him the thing you have to watch out for is his tongue. If he can he will lick you all over and on cold cheeks it is rough. Of course he is trying to get some pets and his ears scratched. He is such a big softy but still we do watch the horns, wouldn't want him to stick us just playing.

Since I was out and had the camera I figured I might as well go check on the calf status again. Well my son was up there helping his dad clean the barn and before I even made it all the way to the barn he told me there was no calf so I got a picture of him instead. He was soaked I think when he wasn't busy he was jumping in the snow piles.

Today I got some butter made. With the snow it ended up to be a good day to do it. I used to make a small batch almost everyday after I skimmed the cream off the milk. I used to go around shaking it in a mason jar while I was getting my son up for school. Well I don't know why it never dawned on me before but I got smart and now I go out in the morning before the bulk tank is disturbed and skim about of gallon of just cream off the top and make a big batch using my kitchen aid. So much easier and I get a couple of pounds of butter so I don't have to make it so often. Now I have to decide what I want to make with the buttermilk.

The ducks like the snow

Here are our ducks out in the snow, they won't come out of it. They are actually walking away from me here but you can't see their feet when they walk so it looked like they were swimming on the snow. This is when we only had 3-4 inches but it has been coming down and no plans on stopping till tomorrow. 10-20 inches is the predictions for when it is over. The wind is terrible glad I am not one of the ducks but they can get out of it if they wanted. In fact I saw them sleeping in it all covered with snow and that was the picture I was trying to get but they heard me coming and started swimming(ha ha) away. Hope they come out of it later.

Update on Corin - Still nothing! My husband keeps telling me that it will happen tonight though. Well I have heard that a few times now. I think she is just keeping it squeezed in and won't let it out. Maybe she likes the side of the barn she is on now better then the side she will be going to after she has it. This means another trek up to the barn tonight in the wind and the snow- BURRR!!!!

Still nothing

Here is Corin with baby on board still but doesn't that look just say - Look lady I want it out of me more than you do!! This is going to be her third time calving and usually we don't worry about the "old timers" too much but her last time she needed a little help and her very first calf did not make it so this is why we keep on a checking. This time when I went to check on her I decided to take the camera so that pretty much killed the thought of seeing a calf when I got up there. Probably 10 minutes after I left the barn she probably spit it out. Hubby is up there now cleaning the barn so he is on watch for awhile. The milk cows on the other side of the barn are probably hope she keeps it in there forever. She tends to think she is the queen with other cows and tries to rule the roost. We have a few queens and they are battle for the crown at times. It is funny the different personalities, the queens, then the ones that just don't have a bother in the world the come in get milked and go about their business like same as always. Then my babies (which my husband says is about all of them but I am the calf lady and I raised them). Some of them won't leave the barn till I scratch and pet them. We have a holstein named Cookie and I have to literally push out of the barn so I can get her out of the way to let the others in. Then the ones that when you unhook them they are outta ther in a flash, some times when you just want to get done you really appreciate those ones but we don't have to many of them. We have 3 that are usually in the last bunch to get milked and they keep coming back in you can't get rid of them. I have learned to keep them hooked in till everything else is done so they don't keep bothering me. My father in law helps milk and he gets a kick out of how many have to stop to see me on the way out.

Well I have to go make biscuits before I go milk the cows because dinner tonight is chicken and biscuits- my favorite- Yum!!! Cross your fingers for a calf so I don't have to trudge up there tonight, I will leave the camera in the house and then there is sure to be a calf. After all this I hope it is a girl!

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The chicken coop

Like I said I am not very good at this computer stuff so I wanted to try to add a picture. It really wasn't that hard but with dial up( blah) it took a little while. I added a picture of the chicken coop cause I said I was going to clean this out today since it was going to be sorta nice out. Well it didn't happen. It was windy today and I didn't want to lock the girls out and if they wanted to get out of a little gust they couldn't, I wouldn't want to ruffle there feathers too bad. Will try again next nice day which from the forecast might not happen too soon looks like some snow might be coming again.

But because it was so sunny out I did not want to stay in the house so I cleaned some calf pens out instead. The calves are probably happy for the wind. We are still waiting for our one cow ( Corin) to have her calf and wanted a nice clean spot for it. Her bag looks like she could of had it 2-3 days ago. Hopefully tonight before the lows start to drop.

The sun is shining

The sun is out and it is so nice. The chickens even got to get let out to get some sun. Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer then today and it might be the day I have to get the coop cleaned. I have to have a nice day when I can shoo them all out to get it cleaned. In that coop we have about 75 chickens with a total of about 100.

All this sun just makes me want for spring so badly. I have started getting my seeds and can't wait to get them started. This year we are going to double our garden so hopefully I will be super busy when it comes to canning. We also are getting a couple pear trees, some blackberry bushes and some strawberries. My son says he wants a lot more canned pears cause we ran out to soon. Of course it will be awhile before they come from our trees. We have decided to add some more each year so hopefully we don't have to purchase much of the things to can. I also am putting in some rhubard this year

The dinner last night was delicious!! The guys did a great job and I never needed the frozen pizza. My husband even suprised us and had ordered a cake for dessert. It was nice to be able to just sit and chat while someone else was doing the cooking.

Just checking

When I come back to my blog I don't see the first post so I am just writing this to see if I can see this one. See I said I wasn't very good at this computer stuff.

Just Starting

I love reading farm and homesteading blogs, an addiction really, so I decided to make one of my own. Being the female part of our dairy operation( me, the hubby and my son) I seem to always get called the milk maid so it seemed fitting to name it that. I love the nicknames that I gain. A neighbor that I never had met stopped to see if she could get manure for her garden which of course we have ample supply so she came several times for it. Well she saw me out once and told her friend with her that there was her manure lady and she had to come to talk to me. She does know my name now and she is such a nice person but I figured manure lady shouldn't be the title.
Well I am not the greatest at the computer so I hope I don't do to awful at this. I am mostly on here to read e-mails, get recipes and of course now feed my addiction to blogs. Now I will probably want to upgrade my digital camera won't the hubby love that. Well he encourage me to start my own blog so it will be really his fault if I do .
I guess for now that will be it, we have a cow that is expecting anytime so I had better go check on her and we are having company tonight for dinner so I have to get the inside stuff done so I can get to my outside chores earlier. One good thing though the men said we get a break and they are cooking tonight ( I have a frozen pizza on stand-by just in case).
I hope this goes well, toodles for now!!!