Chip!

Well it all started with a old school friend who visited us a bit this summer. Sonya and David came over a couple of times for supper and a farm tour. She even tried to come help butcher chickens but ended up coming the next day to help clean up instead as we were too fast and got them all done in 1 day while we had wisely left 2 open. The couple was only here for the summer as they both are in school. She worked with the school's lawn/clean up services and he worked as a firefighter. We really enjoyed getting to know them a bit this summer. Anyway after we returned from our trip we had them over one last time to say goodbye as they were going back to school (about 9 hours from here.) So they arrive and Sonya is super excited. SUPER!! And not about school so much as her parents black lab just had 2 puppies. A male and a female. This was Sunday and they'd been born on Wednesday. OH we just HAD to take the kids to go see, they would be the PERFECT dog for you!! She really does speak in capitals :) So we gave him a week or 2 to grow and called them up one Sunday afternoon. No he wasn't taken and yes we could go see him. So we piled in the Travelall and headed out. They live about 20 minutes from us so we had a nice little drive and since I'd only been there once a very long time ago and Papa not at all, we looked for a bit but found the place. The puppies were about 2.5 weeks old and SUPER CUTE!!! The female had already been spoken for that same morning which was fine with us as we really wanted a male dog. The kids pet and talked to the older dogs, throwing sticks and playing with them and all around having a great time. E, who is quite scared of dogs even relaxed enough to pet the puppy and said several times in a very surprised voice. "I DO like dogs!! I DO." J and L quickly got bored with the puppies, at that age they really don't DO much, and went to play with the big dogs. They had a female with the same parentage that was 18 months old. Nice dog with nice fur instead of the thin lab hair. His dogs stay outside unless it is VERY cold. She was a nice size as well. The mother is a black lab and the father is a St. Bernard. So size was a issue. We didn't want a dog that would be too big but she was perfect size! And from the sounds of it the other pups these two dogs had together were about the same size. The man also told us that so far none of them drooled.. which was my worry. YUCK!! After about 20 minutes both Papa and I knew this was the dog for us. So we chatted with the them a bit and Papa asked how much they wanted for the puppy. The man stared at him for a minute and said. You can HAVE him!! For Free!!! WAHOO. We thanked him and told him that we would take him!! After saying good bye we headed out and took a fun Sunday drive. Up the mountain! As we drove along we talked about the responsibility a puppy is with the kids and names for the puppy. L wanted to name him 'puppywupy' 'cause he's a puppy Momma! Then when we told him he'd grow up into a dog it was 'doggywoggy'. J didn't really know and neither did E. But a name had been sneaking around in my head, very much like Maggie's did later, and I said. Chip! Papa looked at me and said Yes. Chip it is. And for some reason it fits him. Or it did. Hopefully it still will when we pick him up in 2 weeks.

Maggie Update!!

We've had Maggie for 2 weeks now and she is doing well. All things considering. LOL. She spent 2 days in our milking parlor settling in and was so very UN COW like that we were shocked. We called her our 'machine milker' as she has very little COW about her. She walked on dirt like it was a rolling ship deck. She wanted IN TO the house so badly that she broke a cracked window into the living room. She tried to crawl right into the house!! We ended up making a fence across the bottom under the window so that she could not come inside but could still look in. I had a frustrating afternoon the day she broke the window and ended up calling Papa at work just to see what I could do with HER!!! I took everything out of the pen that she could possibly stand on at first ( she had no respect for things like our other cows and walked on the pallets that were on top of the grain bag of sweet stuff) and when that didn't work (she is VERY tall) I made a 2x4 fence to keep her out which lasted less then an hour!! I ended up getting her in the stanchion and putting a halter on her. She likes people up close if she has no choice and she didn't fight the halter at all. Shook her head once and that was that. She did not like the halter pieces jangling as I walked up to her with the halter and tried to KICK me. That is that only time we've seen her kick! When I finally got up her her (holding the jangling pieces still) she turned her head away from me for quite a long time. Finally I got the halter around her neck and pulled her towards me. Then Maggie did something I've NEVER seen a cow do. I think it was because she was SO lonely those first few days. She turned her head into my arms and snuggled with me!! She closed her eyes and just hugged me. It was strange! She finally opened her eyes and I put the halter on and after that she settled down a lot. By that time Papa was due home in an hour so I left her in the stanchion and he milked as soon as he got home.

We did have a interesting few days as she was VERY used to a strict routine and we didn't know what it was!! All they told us was hay in the evening and silage in the morning. She was very much not used to eating while being milked. But after milking she BAWLED and BAWLED. We've since figured out that they gave her grain after milking and now that she's getting grain while milking she's happy. The leg lifting has slowed down to between 3 and 10 times a milking instead of constantly. She stands very nicely even when her food is gone.

The 1st time she went up a hill she crow hopped up it!! She's likely never seen a hill before! She doesn't know what ice in her water is and doesn't break it with her nose like Bindy does. She didn't like our grain free sweet feed Papa mixes up and so she's on a mixture of half grain and half ours in an attempt to get her used to it. She won't eat the grass in the mornings when it's got a frost on it so we are feeding hay already. She is very lonely and loves to watch the house. We are bringing Bindy home in about 2 or 3 weeks which will be nice for both of them.

She still is not halter trained or electric wire trained and so far has only jumped the eclectic netting fence once!! We did buy a cow chain to attach to her halter so training can be done now. We've instinctively grabbed her halter a few times and she panics so it will be stressful for her and so we've been letting her get used to everything first. Papa has this weekend off again and we might do it then. The 1st few days were challenging for Papa and I as we had a heck of a time getting her to put her head in the stanchion. But now that we are giving her the grain mixture she goes in and eats and we can walk up and close it on her head. Before there was a rope on the head gate and we'd wait til she was in and pull the rope (from a long ways away) and hope we got her. She's also learning that she likes to be scratched but is still head shy.

As you can see in the pictures she is VERY skinny and we are still trying to fatten her up. You can count every back bone and ribs and her hips stick out like wings on a airplane!! Her feet were pink and sore, cracked and bleeding when we got her (Papa says from walking thru 6 inches of cow poop all the time) and have since healed nicely. She walks better now and has even ran a few steps. She still does not chase chickens but will push them off the fence with her nose!! And mostly tolerates them being around her and under her and every where. Maggie learned her name VERY fast and comes when called. She loves to be around people just not too close which is nice.

They shaved her bag but thankfully the hair is growing back quickly. She is very thin and doesn't have much for hair cover so we are trying to keep her warmer then we normally would. We are building a new cow barn soon and there will be the 2 milk cows and a 2 year old steer here this winter so we are hoping they'll help keep her warm. If all else fails we might end up making or buying her a blanket. Like a horse blanket just to keep her warm!!

Another strange thing that we have had to get used to with Maggie is how very tall she is and how we milk her. With Bindy we got our bucket, sat on a 6 inch stool, dug a hole under her bag with a foot, stretched our legs out and milked normally with our hands hitting the top of the bucket. Just because Bindy is so short. With Maggie we sit on a 5 gallon bucket (and I've been tempted to double the buckets up and make it a bit taller!!), put the bucket on a 3 gallon bucket and AIM to hit the bucket!! Our hands don't hit the bucket at all unless she picks up a foot :) and our knees are at a nice angle to the ground. Papa actually holds the bucket between his knees and milks that way without the 3 gallon bucket but I'm too short and I can't do it.

All and all we really like Maggie and are enjoying having milk around the place again. We've made ice cream, butter, 4 batches of cheese, and some other milk treats that we've not had in ages like cream gravy, biscuits, moos (pronounced mouse; a German cooked thick milk that we eat with fruit), and cream sauce to go on pasta!! I find it amazing how much our diet changes with just that one addition of MILK!! The 1st days milk went to the pigs because it had brown cream. YUCK!! We think it was a mixture of what they were feeding her and her habit of picking her foot up that caused it to be brown.We had even double strained it. Which is actually 4 times as we strain it 2 times normally. But every jar full is a bit more sweeter and the cream has tripled since that 1st day. She's still giving just over 4 gallons a day which is plenty!! We've truly been blessed!! God is good!!