Yesterday the pigs got into the grain so we had to move the bin. Well then Tulip decided she was going to get in it but we thought we had stopped her. Tulip likes her routine. I milk her at 8am & put her to bed at 8pm - she & the babies are always there waiting for me. Well not last night - nowhere to be seen. I’m outside yelling for them when Michelle comes down & says they are eating the grain. Off I go with a lead rope to get her into the barn.

Now normally when she goes into the barn she goes into the milking bit to eat grain whilst I clean up all the poop. As she had already eaten grain last night she went to her hay rack & started munching there. I had just finished cleaning up, obviously with the door open so I could get the cart out when she runs out of the barn & disappears! Keep in mind that it is now dark. Not having a clue where she went I go up to the house & ask Michelle to check the calender as I knew she was coming into heat soon & was planning on breeding her to the Angus bull down in the field. When we first bought Tulip I was planning on AIing her but she has a very silent heat so trying to coordinate the vet, Tulip & me was not going to work. The I looked into purchasing a Dutch Belted bull but that didn’t work either so decided that instead of losing a year with no calf we would just let her breed with the Angus. Tulip is a big girl so would have no problems. Anyway the calendar told me that she was not in heat yet (yes animal heats are the dates written on my calender!) so off I go only to discover that she is back down by the spilled grain. Hauled her back into the barn. For those of you who are new to our blog you may not have read about my adventures with Bossy one morning - a morning I will never forget. To read about that head here. Needless to say I am rather wary around animals in heat as I would rather not have that experience again
Onto this morning ……. Tulip was a pain in the butt to milk - would not stand still so I didn’t get very much.

Fast forward to dinner time ….. As we were getting dinner I happened to look out the window & did a double take! Tulip was walking down the main field with what looked like a black calf following behind her. Of course it was not a calf, it was Cinco as a few seconds later the big bull comes on the scene & also starts following her.

How did Tulip get out? Where are her babies? Poor Rosie & Tulip were in their pasture yelling for mum who is completely ignoring them. It appears that Tulip jumped the fence. I so hope she hasn’t cut up her udder but I have no intention of getting between her & the bull to check. I put the babies away in the barn tonight by which time Cinco had gone back to the other cows & Tulip is being followed by the Angus. I guess we’ll know when she’s been bred as the Angus will go back to his harem & Tulip will decide to come back to her babies & us.

Thought you might enjoy these escapades from the last 24 hours.

Have a great evening,

Liz

Saturday was beautiful weather & Michael was up early to start digging holes for the fence posts. The neighbor came down to check on the cows in the pasture after the mountain lion. All was fine & Richard asked him if his tractor was around. It rarely is BUT he had it for four hours before it went off elsewhere What a blessing! He came down with his post hole digger & dug all the holes. That freed me up to go cut grass whilst Richard & Michael put all the posts in. Now we just have to put up the wire & wood - one step closer.

Daniel & I cut grass & were making good progress until we hit some wire hidden in the grass - UH OH! Now Richard has to take the mower deck off to get it off - very tangled.

No offense but if you are vegetarian or don’t like certain kinds of meat then skip this paragraph & move onto the next! In England/Europe you can buy Liver Pate from the deli counter. I LOVE that stuff but have never eaten it since being over here. When I was growing up we used to eat alot of liver & onions - my mum was a good cook but my parents didn’t always have a lot of money so liver, kidneys etc was cheap. Well I was tidying out the freezers the other day & found some liver which turned into a craving for pate. Found a recipe that needed brandy so had to wait for the liquor store to be open today - we only keep brandy here to make vanilla essence & I didn’t think that would go well in the pate! When Richard went to the Post Office he was supposed to go get the brandy. Guess what? Yes he forgot it! Thinking the liquor store would be shut we decided that sherry would work from the grocery store so off he goes again. In the meantime I started cooking the liver etc. Richard comes home empty handed - they don’t sell sherry! I’m like, “I’ve started cooking it now - got to use something!” So back he goes again & brings home Jacob’s Creek red wine which I LOVE to cook with it but think it is absolutely foul to drink - sorry all you Jacob Creek fans. Well there was a little liver left. I couldn’t leave it go to waste so I cooked up some onions in butter, liver, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar & red wine & put it over some fried rice. It was DELICIOUS! I haven’t eaten that in probably 13-14 years. I followed it by a bowl of fresh pineapple, strawberries, home made yoghurt, raisins & granola. Was the liver pate good? You betcha! Michael’s words were “It tastes like the real thing!” Guess what’s for breakfast for the next few days
Got my work out for the day first thing this morning. We have to keep a halter on Miss Lilly as we would never be able to catch her. Anyway she is down in the bottom pasture & it was time to loosen her halter. The cows are on very good grass so I guess she has put on some weight. SO I had left the bottom gate open hoping they would come through on their own accord - the only way to catch Lilly is to trap her in the barn. Lilly is way too smart - I saw them by the gate last evening so went down with some hay. Hazel & Sir Loin came through without any hesitation but you could see Lilly thinking, “I know this is a trap.” She eventually came through & I shut the gate.

This morning they were up by the barn so I left the door open after I had milked Tulip & hid behind the corner. Then I saw Michelle out feeding the chickens so called for her. We waited patiently & after a few minutes she went in the barn. I crept around & shut the door. Loosened her halter which wasn’t that tight - she’s just grown a flabby chin! The Michelle & I led her & Hazel with SirLoin back to the bottom pasture. Once you get Lilly on a lead rope she is pretty good.

Rained again here & my kids love it. the muddier they are the better, in their opinion. Here is a classic mud picture of Hannah after “swimming”:

Have a great week,

Liz

Hi friends!
For us to have green grass at this time of year is VERY unusual. In fact I have never seen it until now. Normally everything is dried up & brown but we have had some good rain so it is looking like spring again which keeps the animals happy & us happy as we don’t have to feed hay.

Last week I spent a lot of time sat at this computer converting images. By Thursday afternoon my shoulders & body were aching & it was time for a break. The front pastures here were looking really scraggly & I knew with the rain that there was fresh grass underneath so Daniel & I went out & started cutting them. I’ve only done 2 so have 2 more to do. They’re not huge but there is alot of sagebrush which is like a weed so does need to be controlled. It looks so much tidier now & the green grass can grow up uninhibited.
Richard has been really sick - poor guy. He got a nasty stomach bug a couple weeks back, just got back on his feet when it hit him again on Friday night. He spent most of the weekend in bed. Needless to say I have been sleeping on the couch. Yesterday he was up & about so I decided to actually go to bed last night. Hah! After being woken up several times, by 5:30am I headed for the couch again to try & get some sleep. He’s still not too good but says it seems to be settling down. I’m not risking it so the couch will have my company again tonight! LOL!
Earlier tonight we got a call from our neigbors. Their place is higher up than ours & they can see right over our bottom pasture - fabulous view. Anyway she called to let us know that they had just seen a mountain lion! Yes at first they weren’t sure but got out the binoculars & there was no mistaking it. To say I’m not best pleased is an understatement - that is way too close for my liking. We do shut most of our animals in at night but the goats & sheep stay out. The goats sleep under the barn light & the sheep have taken to sleeping outside Michelle’s bedroom window. Maybe it’s time to get one of Dawn Lusk’s llamas! We don’t shut the dogs in so they would hopefully make a ruckus if it came up close to the house. The other two critters that will not go in are these two:

Yes two of our older turkeys have decided that the roof of their pen is where they want to sleep & no amount of persuading will bring them down. It’s kinda funny. If you remember the first lot of turkeys we had this year did not do well at all. In fact we lost 35 out of 40. Well this last lot, we bought 50 - a friend took 15 & we were left with 35. We have a different set up this time & they are doing really well. We haven’t lost any. They are so funny to watch.

Another ruckus this morning was when Daniel came running into the house shouting “Rattle snake! Rattle Snake!” After his encounter last year we have drummed it into him over & over again that if he sees a snake he is to run away. Well of course this set us all running as Hannah was also outside fascinated with the excitement. There was the snake by the truck wheel. Thankfully it was only a small bull snake so Michael picked it up & put it over in the barn out of harms way. Bull snakes are good mousers. We were very proud of Daniel & thankful that our instruction had gone in.
With Richard being sick we have not done so much on our fencing as we should. Everything is torn down now - it was amazing how much stuff we had put up for the goats. We have started to put new posts in but it is a slow job. As we live close to a railway line the cheapest & strongest corner posts to use are railroad ties. Once these are in they last for years & do not budge. BUT of course the hole has to be dug first. Hopefully Richard will be better by this weekend so we can get more done. The weather is really warm right now but the leaves are starting to turn.

Hope your week is going well.

Liz

Two to three weeks ago a “stray” chicken turned up in the top chicken pasture here by the house. She was “stray” in the fact that she certainly didn’t belong there, in fact the other chickens were chasing her off but she must have been one of ours or so we think from the bottom pen although we didn’t recognize her. Anyway she disappeared again & the guys thought we were seeing things - in fact Richard thought I had seen a pheasant - yeah right as if I don’t know the difference We never thought anything more about her until today.

Michelle came running down to the cow barn shouting, “The chicken is back & she has chicks!” Well darn me if she wasn’t sat just inside the garden gate with 7 adorable chicks.

No idea where she has been hiding - the chicks are young, only a couple days old - six yellow & 1 black but it was as if she wanted to show us how clever she had been. She is keeping them in the garden which as you all know is very overgrown this year so a perfect hiding place.

A wonderful surprise to start the day.

Hope your week is going well. Gorgeous weather here. Sunny & in the low 70’s - just perfect.

Take care,

Liz

You didn’t realize I was so good at Math did you?! LOL! Well as you can see there are only 2 black kittens left. (I don’t think the large ginger cat is mum to any of them.) That is the danger of making them people friendly - they are then fearless of the dogs BUT then 3 more joined them who are older PLUS now there are 3 more since I took the photo - another older set so we’re not lacking. The local vet is going to take the two black kittens as they know someone who just lost their friendly barn cat & they will not survive here once they get wandering around. Roxie & Bella spend most of their day sat outside the barn just waiting for a kitten to show its head. One afternoon last week they caught one of the older ones but it knew to fight & fight it did until I got down there & rescued it. And yet they leave Puss ‘N Boots alone. He lives inside but comes & goes as he pleases & Bella & him will play together - very weird.
So how was your Labor Day? It was wet & dreary here. Didn’t get above 43F but no complaints as we had a hard work day out in the sun on Saturday. Taking our old coral down plus a pile of other old fence. When we moved here the fences were in an awful state but because we had the goats we had to just put wire over it to try keep them in. Never worked & so now we have torn a lot of it down. We had also put in some fence posts where we were planning on putting in turkey pens but soon realized that that was way too close to fox territory so never got the fence up. Just had poles sticking up out of the ground for 4 years! Well no more. Richard got them up on Saturday. Of course that created a problem of what to fill the holes up with - couldn’t leave them for an animal to trip in. As I started working on the first hole, I was wracking my brain as to what to use to fill them up - no loose soil anywhere. Then the light went on - cow manure & hay. I had a whole cartload waiting for the pigs so I went & got it - PERFECT! Maybe I should write a book on the 101 uses of cow manure :0) Do you think it would be a best seller?

SO today was fine by us. Richard & I worked on images this afternoon & then when we were done I canned 60lbs of nectarines that had just arrived. We have 20lbs left to eat. They are DELICIOUS! Ready to eat. Yum! Yum!

Finally had to go to the vet last week & get something stronger for Tulip’s teats. Regular bag balm was not cutting it - poor girl. Thankfully the vet was sat at the desk when I walked in so he mixed me up a special “potion” which is now doing the job. I put it on at night when the calves are not on her then after they have drunk in the morning we have to go catch Tulip again & put it on her then. They are definitely healing up but still have a ways to go.

Last week we ate our first apple! No, I don’t mean that we had never eaten an apple before but this one was the first off of the trees we planted last year so pretty special!

Well that’s all my news - I think it is time for bed.

Sleep well,

Liz