Christmas 2013
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Trip to the Ambulance Station
Mrs T has connections :) Her sister Sharon works as a ambulance attendant. So one day, over a month ago now, we all tramped to the station and had a tour of the station itself, the ambulance and got too meet another attendant and get some pretty cool coloring books that Sharon made up for us. Because Papa was working I had everyone and so I thought I'd have my hands full.. and left my camera at home. BAD mistake. We are planning on going back sometime for pictures. E had a bit of hesitation when we 1st got there but LOVED Sharon, and still talks about her, and soon warmed up and was climbing over everything with the rest of them. She's been in a ambulance and I think that's why she hesitated. Sharon was a great tour guide and let them listen to each others or their own heartbeats (though apparently J doesn't have one as he couldn't find his :), sit in the drivers seat, sit in the puzzle like emergency wheel chair, turned the lights and sirens on, showed them the boards, took the bed out to show them how it worked, gave them stickers and answered questions. She also showed us the station itself with it's kitchen, living room, girls and guys bedrooms and bathrooms and storage area. They work in pairs and so we got to meet her partner for the night as well. The kids enjoyed him and they enjoyed watching TV with him for a bit. After our tour we headed over to the local donut shop and got a quick treat before heading home :) Thanks Sharon and Mrs. T we had a great time!
A Little R 3 Year Old Birthday!
Making the cake. We were all at the table mixing and fetching this and putting that away and having fun and Baby J was fussing in the living room so we brought him over and sat him on the table. Instantly happy baby :)
We normally have a birthday girl ribbon for the girls to wear but it got a bit umm. TRASHED last time we used it and I forgot until the last minute so I took a washable marker and made this shirt up. She loved it :)
The cake. That little people girl is 'her favorite girl!'
It's a butterfly. Really it is :) Peach slices and gummy worms.. The green and orange things are flowers.
R with her cake. She really liked it. The list of things she wanted on it was VERY long so I picked a few of the things that kept popping up. She picked the candles herself.
Opening her card from Grandpa and Grandma Griggs.
Blowing out the candles. She cried last year. This year she really enjoyed being the center of attention.
Grandma feeding Baby his 1st taste of cake.
A Dilemma
The kids really want to have a hot dog roast. We were at some friends yesterday and saw another friend cutting wood on the side of his driveway for a hot dog roast that night. OH then the kids were SURE we HAD to have one too. So we were talking about it on the way home and I told them that we need to lose some more snow so before we have a hot dog roast. Then L pipes up with 'I got the spot mom' and proceeds to tell me where he thinks we should have a hot dog roast. Well after several rabbit trails about 'this trailer?? or that trailer? The one we live in or another one??' We finally figured out that L meant Grandpa's trailer in the middle of the yard by the two trees. I guess there is grass under the two trees and he was SURE that was the spot. So I explained we didn't want to burn the trees down so we couldn't have it under the trees. So then they had the inventive idea of MOVING THE TRAILER!! It's been there all winter and there is grass, dead, under it. So then I told them that the fire would make a hole in the grass if we had it there. E yells from behind me. "Then we would fall in!!" LOL. I laughed then explained that it would only be a hole in the grass and not in the dirt so you wouldn't fall in. J calls out that 'it's OK if there is one hole in the grass.' So I told him, jokingly, that Maggie might get terribly hungry if we burn up all her grass and then what would we feed her? He said that 'Maggie doesn't need that little piece of grass.. SHE has LOTS!!' I countered with 'but what if she eats all the rest and she's still hungry??' He was not convinced though and they still think that Maggie can do without that little piece of grass. I was telling Papa all this just this morning and while I was talking I had a great idea. One that will save the grass and give the kids their hot dog roast. We have a nice big driveway!! :) It's all covered in snow and you can walk on it. The snow off the driveway and paths is still very deep and even J has started to fall through at least 1 level of snow. Which makes walking very hard and a hot dog roast impossible.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Bacon.
Papa sliced up some of the bacon tonight and fried some up!! WOW!!! It's awesome! This is only his second time curing and smoking bacon and it's amazing!! He did a whole pan full and it only lasted a few minutes. J is already planning a breakfast.. waffles, eggs and BACON!!! LOL. He wanted it for tomorrow but Papa is the waffle king and he's working tomorrow so we kinda decided to make it Sunday Morning. What a wonderful thing to wake up too :)
A Long Few Days. Pig Butchering :)
We recently put one of our 1.5 year old sows in the freezer. She was a nice sized pig and we put 260lbs in the freezer, or cured to be smoked. I really wanted a picture of Papa standing beside her but the camera had been left in the truck overnight and was too cold to work. SO I got one of all of the pig on the table in the entrance, where we cut and wrapped her. You can't tell but the table is quite a ways away from the straw wall :) I wanted a picture of us making sausage too.. but totally forgot!!! It was a busy few days. We rendered the lard as well and burnt it a bit as we were just doing too many things all at once!
The kids were VERY keen to help so we set up a little table for them and they scrapped the chops off. Papa cut them on the meat saw and then put them on the table and J, L and E scrapped them off with canning lids. R put them in a clean tote to be wrapped. After the tote was full of meat to be wrapped I wrapped it. That's what you call a 'family affair.'
The kids were VERY keen to help so we set up a little table for them and they scrapped the chops off. Papa cut them on the meat saw and then put them on the table and J, L and E scrapped them off with canning lids. R put them in a clean tote to be wrapped. After the tote was full of meat to be wrapped I wrapped it. That's what you call a 'family affair.'
It looks like that is bacon and ribs on the table behind the kids. Ribs ready to wrap on the left.
R put them in a clean tote to be wrapped. After the tote was full of meat to be wrapped I wrapped it. That's what you call a 'family affair.'
Here is a cute picture Papa took after a couple of long days of putting this pig in the freezer. Yes that was Stub.. the wild and hormonal mama pig who kept escaping.
Baby J asleep on me. I was just about asleep too.. He played hard with the kids while Papa and I were busy deboning, wrapping, cutting, grinding, mixing and making sausage, but really needed some Mommy time by the end of the 2 days.. Papa smoked the sausage in our smoke house and we packaged up 18 bags of 12 hot dogs!! Weiner roast anyone?? :) We had almost as much Mennonite sausage and Mc. Griggers sausage. We mixed the pork with ground beef from our cow as her hamburger was a bit greasy. We thought she would be tough so we added all the fat we could find.. won't do that again! It's wonderful stuff. Papa also cured the bacon and a few hams/hocks himself and after curing it for a certain amount of time ( close to a month? I think?) he smoked it just yesterday. Boy are we ever looking forward to having our own bacon again.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Grade 2 Math and Other School News.
J started Grade 2 Math this last week. So far it's mostly review and he seems to be enjoying it. One thing I've noticed is different is that the paces are longer. Instead of 27 pages they are 35. Which makes me wonder if the paces get longer with every grade? Not having done ACE I have no idea. I've also noticed that the writing is smaller and there are more questions per page. That makes good sense to me as the grade 1 paces did have large early reader writing and larger numbers so the kids could see them better. So instead of finishing a pace a week I expect it will take 2 weeks. Which is fine as we are in no hurry and I'm just trying to keep him busy :) He is like his Papa. Got to keep that mind busy or else!
On that note we've also started a Responsibly for Boys a Biblical based book and Raz-Kids . He LOVES the Raz-Kids and has already gone up 2 levels. He really enjoys reading the books, doing the test and then letting the website read the book to him and his siblings. They all really enjoy it and L and E are both waiting impatiently for next year when they can do it too! We've only done a little of the 'Boys' book but I like it because it's within his reading level and he seems to enjoy reading about the boy in the book who's name is Ben.
I also got him a couple of creationist Dinosaur activity books and both him and L enjoy them.
Mrs. T gave us a mini book on Canada last fall and now that we are doing Canada in Social Studies we brought it out and colored it and made a book out of it. J thought it was REALLY COOL that anyone could make a book! He then read it to his siblings who were also in awe of the little book. Note to self : Next year make a few little books with the kids. They love them! We also got a "All about Canada, Exploring Canada Series" book locally and we've done some reading and fill in the blanks in it. J learned the Canadian Anthem at Awana but we read the words over a couple of times and refined it a bit!! Part of the Canada unit is learning the capital of Canada. He can now recognize all most all the provinces ( at least the ones closest to us.) and territories and some of their capitals and where they are. As far as I know he doesn't need to know this all yet so we're just doing it for fun! Though if I remember correctly I think it might be in the last 2 SS Paces.
J is still trying to read 15 minutes a day and it evens out. Some days he reads for 30 minutes or an hour and the next day no time at all. Yesterday he read "A Bugs Life" and it took him an hour. He's going to do his book report on it this week.
We are still doing Mind Benders and actually are almost finished the book. I got another book "Think A Minutes' of this type by a different company with pictures as well as words and we're going to start that one after MB. This new book is actually for grades 2 and 3 but it was the only one they had in stock when I ordered and if it turns out to be too much for him we'll just keep it for next winter.
We also have about 6 'extra' projects that his teacher assigned and we are slowly working through them. One is the book report, another is a science project which Papa is going to do with J. We have some fun stuff to do too. We get to make some clay critters and some marshmallow and toothpick creations (What fun Art and Math can be!!). We both enjoy doing these extra's and they break up the Pace work nicely.
One of the things I really love about homeschooling is that it takes only a couple of hours a day! So there is always time for fun! Now that the weather is warming up and it's actually melting outside the kids have been spending a lot more time outside. The water is starting to run on the yard and the other day I found J making rivers and helping the puddles drain off. He did a great job and the puddle completely drained. I can't wait till the whole yard is running with little rivers. We love to play in the rivers and train them to go this way and that. Blocking some and draining others! We've recently gotten some Gears Gears Gears after borrowing T's and loving them. The kids love to make robots and cars and pizza (R) with them. They are great fun! We also recently got some more play food so we dug around in the kids room and found all the Kitchen stuff and the kids have been having a great time playing chef and customer, Ice Age 3, and numerous other things with it. With the kitchen and the dinosaurs bag it's amazing what they come up with!
L and E will be starting Grade 1 this year and so I've been giving them little assignments as a start to schooling. Kinda like a mini kindergarten program that I'm making up as I go along. E learned to write and spell her name (verbal) and do dot to dots and learning to draw critters and things as well as counting the teens. She also started playing Jumpstart Preschool which she LOVES and can't get enough off. L is more prepared as he's already been playing school games for quite a while and has a real short name and learned to write it awhile ago. So he is practicing the ACE songs and sounds and coloring pictures and following directions. They are both learning to recognize letters and numbers though L has a lot of them down already. I only decided to put them both in Grade 1 together in the last couple of months and E has a bit to learn before I do. I think she'll be fine though. She's determined and is a very fast learner.. another one just like Papa. She took to the Jumpstart (we also have the grade 1 game) game like a duck to water and has an amazing memory. She already knows all the songs for the program and now it will just be matching the sounds and songs with the letters. R has NO interest in school except to sing a few of the songs, she doesn't even really like to color! She knows her full name and can count to 10 and all her colors and that's good enough for 3 years old. The other day I heard her singing the last part of the Old Testament song... so she's learning without even trying and that's how it should be at her age!
Oh and Thanks Sarah from Scott School for showing me how to link on a word!! :)
On that note we've also started a Responsibly for Boys a Biblical based book and Raz-Kids . He LOVES the Raz-Kids and has already gone up 2 levels. He really enjoys reading the books, doing the test and then letting the website read the book to him and his siblings. They all really enjoy it and L and E are both waiting impatiently for next year when they can do it too! We've only done a little of the 'Boys' book but I like it because it's within his reading level and he seems to enjoy reading about the boy in the book who's name is Ben.
I also got him a couple of creationist Dinosaur activity books and both him and L enjoy them.
Mrs. T gave us a mini book on Canada last fall and now that we are doing Canada in Social Studies we brought it out and colored it and made a book out of it. J thought it was REALLY COOL that anyone could make a book! He then read it to his siblings who were also in awe of the little book. Note to self : Next year make a few little books with the kids. They love them! We also got a "All about Canada, Exploring Canada Series" book locally and we've done some reading and fill in the blanks in it. J learned the Canadian Anthem at Awana but we read the words over a couple of times and refined it a bit!! Part of the Canada unit is learning the capital of Canada. He can now recognize all most all the provinces ( at least the ones closest to us.) and territories and some of their capitals and where they are. As far as I know he doesn't need to know this all yet so we're just doing it for fun! Though if I remember correctly I think it might be in the last 2 SS Paces.
J is still trying to read 15 minutes a day and it evens out. Some days he reads for 30 minutes or an hour and the next day no time at all. Yesterday he read "A Bugs Life" and it took him an hour. He's going to do his book report on it this week.
We are still doing Mind Benders and actually are almost finished the book. I got another book "Think A Minutes' of this type by a different company with pictures as well as words and we're going to start that one after MB. This new book is actually for grades 2 and 3 but it was the only one they had in stock when I ordered and if it turns out to be too much for him we'll just keep it for next winter.
We also have about 6 'extra' projects that his teacher assigned and we are slowly working through them. One is the book report, another is a science project which Papa is going to do with J. We have some fun stuff to do too. We get to make some clay critters and some marshmallow and toothpick creations (What fun Art and Math can be!!). We both enjoy doing these extra's and they break up the Pace work nicely.
One of the things I really love about homeschooling is that it takes only a couple of hours a day! So there is always time for fun! Now that the weather is warming up and it's actually melting outside the kids have been spending a lot more time outside. The water is starting to run on the yard and the other day I found J making rivers and helping the puddles drain off. He did a great job and the puddle completely drained. I can't wait till the whole yard is running with little rivers. We love to play in the rivers and train them to go this way and that. Blocking some and draining others! We've recently gotten some Gears Gears Gears after borrowing T's and loving them. The kids love to make robots and cars and pizza (R) with them. They are great fun! We also recently got some more play food so we dug around in the kids room and found all the Kitchen stuff and the kids have been having a great time playing chef and customer, Ice Age 3, and numerous other things with it. With the kitchen and the dinosaurs bag it's amazing what they come up with!
L and E will be starting Grade 1 this year and so I've been giving them little assignments as a start to schooling. Kinda like a mini kindergarten program that I'm making up as I go along. E learned to write and spell her name (verbal) and do dot to dots and learning to draw critters and things as well as counting the teens. She also started playing Jumpstart Preschool which she LOVES and can't get enough off. L is more prepared as he's already been playing school games for quite a while and has a real short name and learned to write it awhile ago. So he is practicing the ACE songs and sounds and coloring pictures and following directions. They are both learning to recognize letters and numbers though L has a lot of them down already. I only decided to put them both in Grade 1 together in the last couple of months and E has a bit to learn before I do. I think she'll be fine though. She's determined and is a very fast learner.. another one just like Papa. She took to the Jumpstart (we also have the grade 1 game) game like a duck to water and has an amazing memory. She already knows all the songs for the program and now it will just be matching the sounds and songs with the letters. R has NO interest in school except to sing a few of the songs, she doesn't even really like to color! She knows her full name and can count to 10 and all her colors and that's good enough for 3 years old. The other day I heard her singing the last part of the Old Testament song... so she's learning without even trying and that's how it should be at her age!
Oh and Thanks Sarah from Scott School for showing me how to link on a word!! :)
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Baby J Crawling :)
It's just a short movie. He doesn't normally make this much noise while crawling but he wasn't super happy that he wasn't allowed to pull R's blanket off her, she's sleeping on the couch behind him, again. :)
Hmm lets see. I'm standing!! Wonderful!! Now what kind of trouble can I get into.. Oh LOOK there is R sleeping. If I grab this maybe.. OPPS!!!
Ka plunk! Ta da.. I meant to do that honest!!
The Machine..
I've been meaning to write this blog for OH about a year now.. Tonight seemed like a good time to do it.
We bought our milking machine in several pieces. The compressor we got from an old milker in the area and turned out to be one that my uncle's dad had a long time ago! We bought the compressor with a milking machine, but never used that machine. Bindy, the cow we were milking then did not have enough clearance to hang the machine off her back, in front of the udder. And as she was something of a problem cow we never tried it. Instead Papa called the local dairy supply place and ordered a bunch of supplies. SO now we have a state of the art milking system run off an old compressor and for the most part we love it. We've got milking and washing down to a fine art and it takes less then 20 minutes from start to finish. And the system is sealed so we have VERY little of anything get into the milk. A far cry from milking a cow by hand into a open bucket.
So for those interested I'm going to break the system down for you. The hows, why and whatyoumacallets :)
Here are some explanations. The claw sounds like the evil game in Toy Story but in this case it's really just a plastic clear cup that has attachments for the 4 cups and the 4 smaller hoses that feed the pulsater. It's sort of like the body of a spider, in fact the whole thing put together is called a spider. The cups are metal rubber lined 'mouths.' The suction makes the rubber suck the milk out and the pulsater gives the teat that 2 second relax time between squirts. Make sense? If not look it up on Wiki. That's as much as I know :) The pulsater is explained later.
Ok We are milking a 2.5 year old Holstein named Maggie at the moment. We get about 5 to 6 gallons of milk a day. This depends a little on when milking gets done, where she is in her cycle, and how much stress she's under. Let me just say we try and minimize stress as much as possible but on a farm things happen. For instance the last time one of our pigs went into heat she broke out of her pen and chased Maggie around for quite a while. Maggie was very upset and did not give hardly any milk for 3 days!! Life happens, we just have to minimize it. That pig is now in the freezer and I must say she is delicious!! :)
Step 1. I know what your thinking.. DUH... put the cow in the stanchion.. Well your wrong. :) Step 1 is actually to get the milking claw together, the bucket over turned and the strainer/bucket ready and the jars out of the cupboard with lids on them and to the milking table. This is all done inside in the 'clean' area.
Step 2. Go outside and call Maggie while getting a small 1ish gallon bucket of our special non grain mixture that she loves and dump it in her box at the head of the stanchion. By the time it's dumped Maggie is drooling by the gate and trying to walk through the gate.. don't let her.. she'll hurt herself.
Step3. Open the gate and get OUT OF THE WAY!! Maggie is on the move! She's never actually run anyone over but the way I see it.. better safe then sorry! Maggie REALLY loves her sweet non grain mix!! So does Steerseye, Meatloaf and every other cow we've ever had on the place!
Step 4. Close the stanchion. She never notices that she's locked in until she's done her sweet mix.
Step 5. Grab the 'cow' towel and check out her bag. Maggie is a young cow so her bag is tight to her body and therefore stays quite clean. Rarely does she come in covered with **** like Bindy, the beast, used to do twice daily! Have a mentioned we love Maggie?? Maggie normally just gets a dry rub with a clean towel and a check over. If there is anything more then a little dust we go back inside and grab a bucket of warm soapy water and wash her down good and proper. Keep in mind the milker is completely sealed. The milk comes out of the bottom of the teat and goes right into the claw.. it never touches the teat.
Step 6. Turn the compressor on as you walk by to go into the house. It takes about a minute for it to get to the right PSI to milk. Too much and you damage the cow, too little and the cups fall off! It's set automatically. I just turn it on and wait for it and it's the perfect PSI every time!
Step 7. Close at least one board on the gate where Maggie came in. Steerseye is out there and as previously stated he too loves this sweet non grain mixture and has been known to go to great lenghts to get it.
Step 8. Go inside and get the claw, bucket and related hoses. These are all stored clean so they need no prep except to put them together which we already did.
Step 9. Put the bucket down close to the front of the cow. The short clear hose has to reach the suction nipple that runs over Maggie's head and down to thigh level. This clear hose brings suction to the claw.
Step 10. Slide the clear hose onto the suction nipple and turn the handle on the nipple to ON. Suction can now reach the bucket. Place the lid on the bucket and turn the black hoses ON/OFF valve off so no air can get to the claw. In seconds the bucket is sealed. The lid is now stuck on the bucket and will not come off unless you turn off the compressor or turn the black hoses ON/Off valve to ON.
Step 11. Get the claw ready. I normally hold it upside down with all 4 cups hanging upside down. This way I can turn the black hoses ON/Off valve ON and make sure that the pulsater is working before actually trying to put them on Maggie's teats. The pulsater is made of a couple little pieces that you put in the yellow cup like thing. It's got a spring, a seal, and a little tiny thing that turns. I know the spring causes the cups to pulse and therefore MILK the cow and the seal keeps it from leaking air into the system and flooding it therefore making the cups fall off. But I have NO idea why the little thing goes round!! But it does and if you don't have them all 'just so' it simply will not work. The cow will not get milked, the cups will fall and get dirty and you start all over again and feed the milk to the pigs. Just so you know!
Step 12. The pulsater works and the little thing makes a THUNG THUNG THUNG noise about every 2 seconds. Perfect!
Step 13. I normally make some soothing noise to Maggie just to get her out of 'sweet feed lala land' and into 'milking you and touching you now' mode. She normally gives me a back handed look and I take that as permission to attach the cups to her teats.
Step 14. Keep the whole claw system well away from the ground. Pick a starting teat and lift and pinch off the hose that goes to the claw from the cup. The cup is now NOT sucking. Then you place the cup under the teat while lifting/unblocking the flow of suction and the cup SUCKS itself up onto the teat. Repeat 4 times. Maggie will shift her legs at least once while you do this. She doesn't kick.. no matter how much you flinch. She is a good cow!! Bindy would kick!
Step 15. Make sure milk is flowing nicely into the bucket and pulsater is still going THUNK THUNK THUNK. If all is well proceed to Step 16. If not recheck cups and pulsater and adjust if necessary.
Step 16. Go inside, making sure to close the white human gate as you do. See step 7. Yes.. he really will get out by the hay bales run around the house and sneak in to the milking area for a few lousy bites of this sweet stuff.
Step 17. Check email, get a drink, unload the dishwasher, stock the fire, play a card game, nurse the baby.. what ever you find to do.. do it. For about 12ish minutes. Check on Maggie if you hear anything strange but for the most part your free for 10 to 15 minutes.
Step 18. Go to the back door and look out the window at the milk bucket. The milk will be visible.. check level. Take a look at the claw.. if still white with milk go back and do some more of step 17 for a few more minutes. If clear of milk go to Step 19. (I have to admit I had no idea there would be that many steps.. I think I must do all these things on autopilot!)
Step 19. Open the white gate and say "Hi' to Maggie. She will be vigorously licking her box free of molasses and talking to her is like giving your kids a five minute warning before bed. She needs this time to adjust to being locked out of the milking area until the next milking time. Seriously.
Step 20 Grab a hold of the bottom of the claw with one hand and turn the ON/OFF valve to OFF on the black hose. This can be tricky. ALWAYS do the black hose first or you will loose the seal!
Step 21. Turn the clear hoses ON/OFF valve to the OFF position. Now the milk is seal inside the clean bucket!! YAY!
Step 22. Turn off the suction nipple and pull the clear hose off. You are now able to move the bucket. It is no longer attached to the system or the cow and it is still sealed.
Step 23. Place the sealed bucket on the bottom step and balance the hoses on the lid. Easy after a bit of practice. Turn off the compressor switch.
Step 24. The noisy compressor stops and you notice that Maggie is still licking feverishly at her box. Note: If Maggie is not licking feverishly at her box something is likely wrong. OR she is plotting a plan to get to the wheel barrow full of sweet non grain mix so watch her closely when you let her out!!
Step 25. Open Maggie's gate that takes her back to her pen. 2 boards. Chase Steerseye away from the gate if he's nearby. A stupid sweets loving steer and a drooling sweet loving milk cow in a small milking area with a wheel barrow full of said sweet mix is NOT, I repeat, NOT amusing. Things can get broken. Tempers can be lost. Cows and steers will learn that humans know best and NO they can't eat all the sweet mix all at once! Actually this is almost never a problem any more. Steerseye rarely comes and visits while we are milking. He did more when he was still Bullseye but he's calmed considerably since then.
Step 26. Close the white human gate most of the way. You want her to not think about going through that way but you also don't really want to be locked in there with her if she's going to be a pain. Just for the record. Maggie has NEVER gone for this gate.. this is something I learned from Bindy and old habits die hard.
Step 27. Go to Maggie and un hook the stanchion bars at the top. I'm a bit short and it's a bit of a reach. Be aware if she thinks it's open she will try and yank her head out (Note this as well.. often means she is impatient to get started hatching her 'get the sweet mix' plan!) and that metal bar is right at forehead level. I've only gotten hit once. She does not like to be left in the stanchion while your nursing your sore head. She normally holds very still while you undo this bar. So all in all I guess the trick here is get it done fast, get it done right and get it done the 1st time.
Step 28. As SOON as you let her out she's going to back up a step, swing her head around and go for the wheel barrow. It NEVER fails. Anticipate her. I take two quick steps backwards and stand beside the wheel barrow. She will usually stick her nose that direction while looking at me with her body already moving towards her gate. This is good. Pay attention. The 1st time you don't or your a bit too slow with the backwards steps she'll have planted her feet, stuck her nose in the wonderful wheelbarrow and MAN is she hard to get moving then! It's really best to just not let her get that far. If this does happen once you'll have to 're-train' her for the next several times you milk. She'll be fine with Papa but she'll push you every chance you get until you win a few times. Then she'll sigh deeply and move on out!
Step 29. Wait until she has moved her whole body out of the milking area.. she gets SLOWER AND SLOWER the farther she gets from the 'good stuff' and often I close the board gate only inches from her rear! She is less then motivated at this point. As soon as the gate is closed she find her 'go to' again, but until that last board is shut she must have hopes for more yummy sweet stuff. Now if you want you can do step 30 or you can skip it and go right to step 31.
Step 30. Watch through the fence as Maggie takes a running two steps towards the water tub and SMASHES Steerseye with her head. I have NO idea why she does this. He's normally waiting for her so I don't know if he enjoys it or he's really just that stupid. Anyway sometimes they stand there and smash at each other for several minutes. I rarely watch. Then she'll saunter over and play in the water for a bit. Yeah I know. Cows are strange!
Step 31. Close the white gate on the way out and grab the sealed bucket of milk and head into the house. The bucket holds about 6 gallons but even empty is not super light. J can lift it empty, but L can't. So I stagger a little as I go up the steps and through the door.
Step 32. Kick the door shut and heave the bucket on to the table by the sink. Place the claw into the sink. Make sure sink is empty or water will get sucked into the milk when you open the ON/OFF valves.
Step 33. Take your boots, jacket, gloves, hat ect. off. Other then taking the jars of milk outside to the fridge ( We keep the milk fridge at a lower temp then our inside fridge so the milk cools fast) your done outside. And your going to be washing up so you might as well be comfy.
Step 34. Open the ON/Off valve on the black hose slowly. This unseals the bucket. I always do the black hose as that's the one I wash first and I dislike getting sprayed in the face with water when I forget. Then place the lid and all the hoses into the sink with the claw.
Step 35. Take the bucket of milk and pour it through the strainer (double strainer) and into the bucket. Try to do this without spilling. When all the milk is in the strainer, lift the strainer so the bucket fills and the strainer empties. When the strainer is empty place it on the top of the bucket. It will drip and make a mess if you don't.
Step 36. Take the bucket of nice clean warm milk and pour it into jars. We use 1 gallon jars that actually hold a gallon and a quart. We fill them all the way. This takes up 2.5 gallons of the 3ish she gives a milking. Put lids on the jars and put them outside in the fridge. Feed the dog. :) He often gets the last little bit of milk out of the bucket into his own bucket which he suppose to share with the cats. I believe he rarely does.. if his rounded self is any clue. Don't feel too sorry for the cats then just as often get the left over milk on the back porch and they NEVER share with Chip unless I make them.
Step 37. Rinise all the milking stuff with warm water. Buckets, hoses, strainer, claw, cups. Best to get the milk out as soon as possible. The milk rarely touches any of this milking stuff for more then 20 minutes 2 times a day. But cleaner is always best.
Step 38. Use soap and scrub, take apart the claw, cups, pulsater, turn the clear hoses valve to on or you'll get wet. Wash the lid, cups, hoses, buckets, strainer all with soap.
Step 39. Rinse everything really well. Hold up the ends of the hoses and drain them before storing. Rinse the pulsater cup and place it and the strainer, and buckets upside down on an angle to dry properly.
Step 40. Turn off the light and rinse the sink to get the soap bubbles out. Dry your hands and go play on your computer for a while. Maybe blog about cow milking.
Step 41. Hear that?? Go and check it out. Turn the outside light on and watch Steerseye JUMP as you catch him licking out Maggie's already licked to splinters box. Yes he got out on the other side of the house, ran over here ( I've watched him, he's quite funny about it), and is making a lot of noise licking out a box that has already been licked out and licked out and well.. really well licked. I could go chase him off.. but really what harm is he doing. Soon it will be spring and his hairy body will ground out on the electric fence again and he'll stay in. No more licking the yummy box. Oh this is also a GREAT time to pat yourself on the back for completing Step 31. Or kick yourself for forgetting the 1st part of it. Because if you did forget you have to get your boots and jacket back on, and gloves if it's cold enough, and go out and chase a stubborn steer out of that yummy wheel barrow!
We bought our milking machine in several pieces. The compressor we got from an old milker in the area and turned out to be one that my uncle's dad had a long time ago! We bought the compressor with a milking machine, but never used that machine. Bindy, the cow we were milking then did not have enough clearance to hang the machine off her back, in front of the udder. And as she was something of a problem cow we never tried it. Instead Papa called the local dairy supply place and ordered a bunch of supplies. SO now we have a state of the art milking system run off an old compressor and for the most part we love it. We've got milking and washing down to a fine art and it takes less then 20 minutes from start to finish. And the system is sealed so we have VERY little of anything get into the milk. A far cry from milking a cow by hand into a open bucket.
So for those interested I'm going to break the system down for you. The hows, why and whatyoumacallets :)
Here are some explanations. The claw sounds like the evil game in Toy Story but in this case it's really just a plastic clear cup that has attachments for the 4 cups and the 4 smaller hoses that feed the pulsater. It's sort of like the body of a spider, in fact the whole thing put together is called a spider. The cups are metal rubber lined 'mouths.' The suction makes the rubber suck the milk out and the pulsater gives the teat that 2 second relax time between squirts. Make sense? If not look it up on Wiki. That's as much as I know :) The pulsater is explained later.
Ok We are milking a 2.5 year old Holstein named Maggie at the moment. We get about 5 to 6 gallons of milk a day. This depends a little on when milking gets done, where she is in her cycle, and how much stress she's under. Let me just say we try and minimize stress as much as possible but on a farm things happen. For instance the last time one of our pigs went into heat she broke out of her pen and chased Maggie around for quite a while. Maggie was very upset and did not give hardly any milk for 3 days!! Life happens, we just have to minimize it. That pig is now in the freezer and I must say she is delicious!! :)
Step 1. I know what your thinking.. DUH... put the cow in the stanchion.. Well your wrong. :) Step 1 is actually to get the milking claw together, the bucket over turned and the strainer/bucket ready and the jars out of the cupboard with lids on them and to the milking table. This is all done inside in the 'clean' area.
Step 2. Go outside and call Maggie while getting a small 1ish gallon bucket of our special non grain mixture that she loves and dump it in her box at the head of the stanchion. By the time it's dumped Maggie is drooling by the gate and trying to walk through the gate.. don't let her.. she'll hurt herself.
Step3. Open the gate and get OUT OF THE WAY!! Maggie is on the move! She's never actually run anyone over but the way I see it.. better safe then sorry! Maggie REALLY loves her sweet non grain mix!! So does Steerseye, Meatloaf and every other cow we've ever had on the place!
Step 4. Close the stanchion. She never notices that she's locked in until she's done her sweet mix.
Step 5. Grab the 'cow' towel and check out her bag. Maggie is a young cow so her bag is tight to her body and therefore stays quite clean. Rarely does she come in covered with **** like Bindy, the beast, used to do twice daily! Have a mentioned we love Maggie?? Maggie normally just gets a dry rub with a clean towel and a check over. If there is anything more then a little dust we go back inside and grab a bucket of warm soapy water and wash her down good and proper. Keep in mind the milker is completely sealed. The milk comes out of the bottom of the teat and goes right into the claw.. it never touches the teat.
Step 6. Turn the compressor on as you walk by to go into the house. It takes about a minute for it to get to the right PSI to milk. Too much and you damage the cow, too little and the cups fall off! It's set automatically. I just turn it on and wait for it and it's the perfect PSI every time!
Step 7. Close at least one board on the gate where Maggie came in. Steerseye is out there and as previously stated he too loves this sweet non grain mixture and has been known to go to great lenghts to get it.
Step 8. Go inside and get the claw, bucket and related hoses. These are all stored clean so they need no prep except to put them together which we already did.
Step 9. Put the bucket down close to the front of the cow. The short clear hose has to reach the suction nipple that runs over Maggie's head and down to thigh level. This clear hose brings suction to the claw.
Step 10. Slide the clear hose onto the suction nipple and turn the handle on the nipple to ON. Suction can now reach the bucket. Place the lid on the bucket and turn the black hoses ON/OFF valve off so no air can get to the claw. In seconds the bucket is sealed. The lid is now stuck on the bucket and will not come off unless you turn off the compressor or turn the black hoses ON/Off valve to ON.
Step 11. Get the claw ready. I normally hold it upside down with all 4 cups hanging upside down. This way I can turn the black hoses ON/Off valve ON and make sure that the pulsater is working before actually trying to put them on Maggie's teats. The pulsater is made of a couple little pieces that you put in the yellow cup like thing. It's got a spring, a seal, and a little tiny thing that turns. I know the spring causes the cups to pulse and therefore MILK the cow and the seal keeps it from leaking air into the system and flooding it therefore making the cups fall off. But I have NO idea why the little thing goes round!! But it does and if you don't have them all 'just so' it simply will not work. The cow will not get milked, the cups will fall and get dirty and you start all over again and feed the milk to the pigs. Just so you know!
Step 12. The pulsater works and the little thing makes a THUNG THUNG THUNG noise about every 2 seconds. Perfect!
Step 13. I normally make some soothing noise to Maggie just to get her out of 'sweet feed lala land' and into 'milking you and touching you now' mode. She normally gives me a back handed look and I take that as permission to attach the cups to her teats.
Step 14. Keep the whole claw system well away from the ground. Pick a starting teat and lift and pinch off the hose that goes to the claw from the cup. The cup is now NOT sucking. Then you place the cup under the teat while lifting/unblocking the flow of suction and the cup SUCKS itself up onto the teat. Repeat 4 times. Maggie will shift her legs at least once while you do this. She doesn't kick.. no matter how much you flinch. She is a good cow!! Bindy would kick!
Step 15. Make sure milk is flowing nicely into the bucket and pulsater is still going THUNK THUNK THUNK. If all is well proceed to Step 16. If not recheck cups and pulsater and adjust if necessary.
Step 16. Go inside, making sure to close the white human gate as you do. See step 7. Yes.. he really will get out by the hay bales run around the house and sneak in to the milking area for a few lousy bites of this sweet stuff.
Step 17. Check email, get a drink, unload the dishwasher, stock the fire, play a card game, nurse the baby.. what ever you find to do.. do it. For about 12ish minutes. Check on Maggie if you hear anything strange but for the most part your free for 10 to 15 minutes.
Step 18. Go to the back door and look out the window at the milk bucket. The milk will be visible.. check level. Take a look at the claw.. if still white with milk go back and do some more of step 17 for a few more minutes. If clear of milk go to Step 19. (I have to admit I had no idea there would be that many steps.. I think I must do all these things on autopilot!)
Step 19. Open the white gate and say "Hi' to Maggie. She will be vigorously licking her box free of molasses and talking to her is like giving your kids a five minute warning before bed. She needs this time to adjust to being locked out of the milking area until the next milking time. Seriously.
Step 20 Grab a hold of the bottom of the claw with one hand and turn the ON/OFF valve to OFF on the black hose. This can be tricky. ALWAYS do the black hose first or you will loose the seal!
Step 21. Turn the clear hoses ON/OFF valve to the OFF position. Now the milk is seal inside the clean bucket!! YAY!
Step 22. Turn off the suction nipple and pull the clear hose off. You are now able to move the bucket. It is no longer attached to the system or the cow and it is still sealed.
The brand new milking stuff. The white lids are for storing milk in the buckets which we've never done. The pulsater is the yellow thing on the top of the spider (the whole piece is called the spider. The claw is the clear thing the pulsater sits on.) on the top of the bucket. The black lids to the right are the ones we use with the hoses attached.
Step 23. Place the sealed bucket on the bottom step and balance the hoses on the lid. Easy after a bit of practice. Turn off the compressor switch.
Step 24. The noisy compressor stops and you notice that Maggie is still licking feverishly at her box. Note: If Maggie is not licking feverishly at her box something is likely wrong. OR she is plotting a plan to get to the wheel barrow full of sweet non grain mix so watch her closely when you let her out!!
Step 25. Open Maggie's gate that takes her back to her pen. 2 boards. Chase Steerseye away from the gate if he's nearby. A stupid sweets loving steer and a drooling sweet loving milk cow in a small milking area with a wheel barrow full of said sweet mix is NOT, I repeat, NOT amusing. Things can get broken. Tempers can be lost. Cows and steers will learn that humans know best and NO they can't eat all the sweet mix all at once! Actually this is almost never a problem any more. Steerseye rarely comes and visits while we are milking. He did more when he was still Bullseye but he's calmed considerably since then.
Step 26. Close the white human gate most of the way. You want her to not think about going through that way but you also don't really want to be locked in there with her if she's going to be a pain. Just for the record. Maggie has NEVER gone for this gate.. this is something I learned from Bindy and old habits die hard.
Step 27. Go to Maggie and un hook the stanchion bars at the top. I'm a bit short and it's a bit of a reach. Be aware if she thinks it's open she will try and yank her head out (Note this as well.. often means she is impatient to get started hatching her 'get the sweet mix' plan!) and that metal bar is right at forehead level. I've only gotten hit once. She does not like to be left in the stanchion while your nursing your sore head. She normally holds very still while you undo this bar. So all in all I guess the trick here is get it done fast, get it done right and get it done the 1st time.
Step 28. As SOON as you let her out she's going to back up a step, swing her head around and go for the wheel barrow. It NEVER fails. Anticipate her. I take two quick steps backwards and stand beside the wheel barrow. She will usually stick her nose that direction while looking at me with her body already moving towards her gate. This is good. Pay attention. The 1st time you don't or your a bit too slow with the backwards steps she'll have planted her feet, stuck her nose in the wonderful wheelbarrow and MAN is she hard to get moving then! It's really best to just not let her get that far. If this does happen once you'll have to 're-train' her for the next several times you milk. She'll be fine with Papa but she'll push you every chance you get until you win a few times. Then she'll sigh deeply and move on out!
Step 29. Wait until she has moved her whole body out of the milking area.. she gets SLOWER AND SLOWER the farther she gets from the 'good stuff' and often I close the board gate only inches from her rear! She is less then motivated at this point. As soon as the gate is closed she find her 'go to' again, but until that last board is shut she must have hopes for more yummy sweet stuff. Now if you want you can do step 30 or you can skip it and go right to step 31.
Step 30. Watch through the fence as Maggie takes a running two steps towards the water tub and SMASHES Steerseye with her head. I have NO idea why she does this. He's normally waiting for her so I don't know if he enjoys it or he's really just that stupid. Anyway sometimes they stand there and smash at each other for several minutes. I rarely watch. Then she'll saunter over and play in the water for a bit. Yeah I know. Cows are strange!
Step 31. Close the white gate on the way out and grab the sealed bucket of milk and head into the house. The bucket holds about 6 gallons but even empty is not super light. J can lift it empty, but L can't. So I stagger a little as I go up the steps and through the door.
Step 32. Kick the door shut and heave the bucket on to the table by the sink. Place the claw into the sink. Make sure sink is empty or water will get sucked into the milk when you open the ON/OFF valves.
Step 33. Take your boots, jacket, gloves, hat ect. off. Other then taking the jars of milk outside to the fridge ( We keep the milk fridge at a lower temp then our inside fridge so the milk cools fast) your done outside. And your going to be washing up so you might as well be comfy.
Step 34. Open the ON/Off valve on the black hose slowly. This unseals the bucket. I always do the black hose as that's the one I wash first and I dislike getting sprayed in the face with water when I forget. Then place the lid and all the hoses into the sink with the claw.
Step 35. Take the bucket of milk and pour it through the strainer (double strainer) and into the bucket. Try to do this without spilling. When all the milk is in the strainer, lift the strainer so the bucket fills and the strainer empties. When the strainer is empty place it on the top of the bucket. It will drip and make a mess if you don't.
Step 36. Take the bucket of nice clean warm milk and pour it into jars. We use 1 gallon jars that actually hold a gallon and a quart. We fill them all the way. This takes up 2.5 gallons of the 3ish she gives a milking. Put lids on the jars and put them outside in the fridge. Feed the dog. :) He often gets the last little bit of milk out of the bucket into his own bucket which he suppose to share with the cats. I believe he rarely does.. if his rounded self is any clue. Don't feel too sorry for the cats then just as often get the left over milk on the back porch and they NEVER share with Chip unless I make them.
Step 37. Rinise all the milking stuff with warm water. Buckets, hoses, strainer, claw, cups. Best to get the milk out as soon as possible. The milk rarely touches any of this milking stuff for more then 20 minutes 2 times a day. But cleaner is always best.
Step 38. Use soap and scrub, take apart the claw, cups, pulsater, turn the clear hoses valve to on or you'll get wet. Wash the lid, cups, hoses, buckets, strainer all with soap.
Step 39. Rinse everything really well. Hold up the ends of the hoses and drain them before storing. Rinse the pulsater cup and place it and the strainer, and buckets upside down on an angle to dry properly.
Step 40. Turn off the light and rinse the sink to get the soap bubbles out. Dry your hands and go play on your computer for a while. Maybe blog about cow milking.
Step 41. Hear that?? Go and check it out. Turn the outside light on and watch Steerseye JUMP as you catch him licking out Maggie's already licked to splinters box. Yes he got out on the other side of the house, ran over here ( I've watched him, he's quite funny about it), and is making a lot of noise licking out a box that has already been licked out and licked out and well.. really well licked. I could go chase him off.. but really what harm is he doing. Soon it will be spring and his hairy body will ground out on the electric fence again and he'll stay in. No more licking the yummy box. Oh this is also a GREAT time to pat yourself on the back for completing Step 31. Or kick yourself for forgetting the 1st part of it. Because if you did forget you have to get your boots and jacket back on, and gloves if it's cold enough, and go out and chase a stubborn steer out of that yummy wheel barrow!
This is the milk area before we built the new addition. The blue thing on the right is the compressor. Maggie is on the right and Bindy is on the left. This is one of the great things about this system. It can milk two cows at the same time with very little extra work. The wheel barrow full of 'good stuff' sits where Bindy used to milk. That's Papa there milking.
Friday, March 11, 2011
FYI~ Internet.
Papa and I recently upped our Internet plan and now I will NOT have to worry about going over our usage and having to pay through the nose :) Why am I telling you this?? Because it means MORE movies, more pictures, More POSTS and more fun stuff :) I'm looking forward to trying to use up 5 GB's :) And I hope you will enjoy my efforts!
Gears Gears Gears
The T family lent us this tote of GEARS GEARS GEARS and BOY do the kids ever love them. In fact they love them so much we ordered some :) We used these as a school project and made a few cool things! Here is J with the Carnival set! I had to help him once with the big wheel (It would NOT stay on there) and other then that he did the whole thing himself. Following the instruction sheet! This set comes with a motor and here is a little video of the Carnival in ACTION!! :)
Snow Boarding Dude!!
J loves to snow board at T's house. Little Mr. T got the snow board for Christmas and they love snow boarding down their hill. Oh for a hill :) J is very good at it and rarely wipes out except when he hits the bottom of the hill. Little Mr. T is really good too!! I'm already imagining trips to the ski hill with a load full of teenagers :) Oh and he's only broken his glasses once and all we had to do was put the lens back in :) They are wearing helmets.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Our Little Builder :)
L LOVES to build things.. just about anything. Here is a tunnel he created in the living room the other day! Resourceful too he 'nabbed' most of the stuff from different places and used them for various things.
The entrance. L used the couch on one side as a wall and the stuff you see above as the other wall. J's new tackle box and Baby J's bumbo chair and the kitchen stuff, which they have out at the moment, and a couple of toy boxes. The green lid tote is our craft box and the white bucket under it is the crayon bucket. Pillows make the roof. They had a blast playing in it.
Baby J Is SO Close...
This is how we often see him these days. Backed into a corner. He can actually get on his hands and knees and crawl backwards but just can't figure out forwards!! He will be 8 months old tomorrow. Wow how time does fly!! Oh and that's a 18 month sleeper on him in both pictures.. BIG boy. He now outweighs R.
UPDATE!!! Just minutes after I posted this Baby J CRAWLED FORWARDS!!! We all saw him and when we called him he came towards us!!! YAY!!!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Springs Coming.. But She Ain't Here Yet!
Ever since we've had kids we've always told them the season of their births. E is fall, J is winter, R and L are spring and Baby J is summer. Well R's birthday is coming up soon and for some reason the kids think that spring weather is going to MAGICALLY appear on the day after R's party. Umm NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. We've, or so I've been told, gotten about 50 cm of snow in the past 30 days. It's been snowing for the last, Oh at least 3 days. Spring isn't going to pop her face in anytime too soon! We've not even got spring like temps. If anything it feels like January out there. Windy and NASTY and COLD. Last night it hit -25 again! Our 3 days of 'the last cold spell for the winter' has lasted almost 10 days. And shows no signs of stopping.
L was so excited today he came running into the bedroom to tell me that the day after R's birthday they were going to get the horns they got for their bikes for Christmas and put them on their bikes and I just stared at him bug eyed as my brain tried to find a way to tell my 5 almost 6 year old that season called spring.. Isn't springing this year... She's really oozing. Nothing 'springy' about her. I have to admit I knew not what I was going to say until it came out of my mouth. (Thank goodness it wasn't what I was thinking.. I'm not sure 'what are you NUTS.. SPRING IS NEVER COMING!!' would have helped the situation.) But I found myself telling him that Spring only STARTS by R's Birthday and that, if we're lucky!, we'll be able to put the horns on the bikes by the time HIS birthday comes around. It's about a month after R's and hopefully by then some of this snow will be melting instead of being added too and we'll at least be able to see dirt! Thank you Lord for small things like just the right words to say. This actually CHEERED him and he bounced off merrily. I'm still a bit flabbergasted.
We watched a Franklin Movie yesterday entitled 'Franklin and the Green Knight.' It is a cute little movie about the coming of spring and the coming of changes. We love it. We mostly love the songs. One of them goes...
"Spring WHERE ARE YOU!! Come on Spring! Lets have some fun!!'
L was so excited today he came running into the bedroom to tell me that the day after R's birthday they were going to get the horns they got for their bikes for Christmas and put them on their bikes and I just stared at him bug eyed as my brain tried to find a way to tell my 5 almost 6 year old that season called spring.. Isn't springing this year... She's really oozing. Nothing 'springy' about her. I have to admit I knew not what I was going to say until it came out of my mouth. (Thank goodness it wasn't what I was thinking.. I'm not sure 'what are you NUTS.. SPRING IS NEVER COMING!!' would have helped the situation.) But I found myself telling him that Spring only STARTS by R's Birthday and that, if we're lucky!, we'll be able to put the horns on the bikes by the time HIS birthday comes around. It's about a month after R's and hopefully by then some of this snow will be melting instead of being added too and we'll at least be able to see dirt! Thank you Lord for small things like just the right words to say. This actually CHEERED him and he bounced off merrily. I'm still a bit flabbergasted.
We watched a Franklin Movie yesterday entitled 'Franklin and the Green Knight.' It is a cute little movie about the coming of spring and the coming of changes. We love it. We mostly love the songs. One of them goes...
"Spring WHERE ARE YOU!! Come on Spring! Lets have some fun!!'
And just for the record.. we're all doing fine. Taking a lot of breaks for 'just plain fun', keeping warm and mostly staying home. Taking our vitamins and rejoicing in and thanking God for our family. I am, frankly enjoying the slower season and taking some much needed time for things that I've been putting off for almost too long. Some sewing, lots of James Harriot :), some reading: some heavy, some light, baking and fun school projects. My house is starting to feel 'taken care' of again what will a good chunk of it gone through and sorted and re organized. It's amazing how stuff breeds when your not looking!! I'm also taking time to go through the kids clothes and make needs/wants/too small/ too big, lists and piles. Never boring around here!
A Moose Sighting.
Yesterday evening as I walked by the front door I happened to glance out the front window. At first, what I saw, reminded me of our calf 'Steerseye.' But something wasn't quite right and I went and took a longer look. I'm glad I did. It was a cow moose. They really look nothing like cows even in the early evening light, but the way she was standing at the end of the driveway made her into just a dark shape in a darkening world. I was quite grateful it was not Steerseye as I would have had to walk through very deep snow to get in front of him to push him back into the yard as he spooks easily and I really didn't want him on the road.
I love moose. We used to have a cow moose and her, that years, calf come and visit us while I was growing up. She always went right for the garden spot and Mom says she went right to the broccoli and cauliflower plants and ate them as quickly as possible. If I remember right the calf didn't get much.. it was chased off. Perhaps this garden treat was similar to chocolate for women :)
As this was only the 2nd moose to be seen on our place I was super excited! I hollered for the kids and they came running. I placed them all around the window and we OHHHH'd and AHHHHhhhed over her. She was alone which surprised me as the one that lives in our lease had a calf this fall. So there are either two, which is doubtful, or she's lost her calf sometime between then and now. The cow Papa had seen earlier this year in the hay had not had a calf with her either. I suspect this moose came through our yard and wandered out the driveway as Maggie was hiding by the milking area and bawling. The kids were SUPER excited too and we stood there and watched her for about 2 minutes when J and I had the same idea. I was already heading to find the camera when he said. "MOM GET THE CAMERA!! TAKE A PICTURE!!!' It was all very exciting :) I did get the camera and I did take several pictures but NO good ones as the light was terrible and it being -22 outside I really didn't want to stay out long. Oh and the fact that I was so far way.. NOT that I was going to go closer.. Well... I MIGHT have if it hadn't been so cold. She browsed on the little willow at the end of the driveway then wandered on to the road and stood there by the end of the driveway and scratched her back! No kidding!! Just like Maggie does.. one leg at a funny angle and her teeth on her back. After she was on the road she slowly wandered her way past our middle hole in the trees on the way down the road. (That's when I would have gone closer.. even if she'd been mad I could have easily made it inside before she fought her way through all that snow in between us or gone around back on the driveway!) Chip either didn't notice her at all or just didn't care as he made no mention of her passing at all. After she'd gone on down the road we smiled at each other and went back to our doings. I wonder if some day the kids will remember the excitement of the moose in the coming dark on our very own driveway!
Oh and for those of you in warmer climates.. Yes these pictures really were taken on February 28th. 2011. This is truly what our yard looks like at the moment. :)
I love moose. We used to have a cow moose and her, that years, calf come and visit us while I was growing up. She always went right for the garden spot and Mom says she went right to the broccoli and cauliflower plants and ate them as quickly as possible. If I remember right the calf didn't get much.. it was chased off. Perhaps this garden treat was similar to chocolate for women :)
Mrs. Moose in our driveway.. chewing on the willow. She doesn't look very big here but that willow is twice as tall as I am :) In the bottom picture she's scratching her back. That LUMP of snow right in front of her is our Toyota Corolla Station wagon.. or at least the snow covering said car. These are the best two pictures of the bunch! BTW anyone who is looking for said car is welcome to her. She's white.. she has problems that aren't too bad and she's cluttering up the place. Oh and we totally outgrew her :)
As this was only the 2nd moose to be seen on our place I was super excited! I hollered for the kids and they came running. I placed them all around the window and we OHHHH'd and AHHHHhhhed over her. She was alone which surprised me as the one that lives in our lease had a calf this fall. So there are either two, which is doubtful, or she's lost her calf sometime between then and now. The cow Papa had seen earlier this year in the hay had not had a calf with her either. I suspect this moose came through our yard and wandered out the driveway as Maggie was hiding by the milking area and bawling. The kids were SUPER excited too and we stood there and watched her for about 2 minutes when J and I had the same idea. I was already heading to find the camera when he said. "MOM GET THE CAMERA!! TAKE A PICTURE!!!' It was all very exciting :) I did get the camera and I did take several pictures but NO good ones as the light was terrible and it being -22 outside I really didn't want to stay out long. Oh and the fact that I was so far way.. NOT that I was going to go closer.. Well... I MIGHT have if it hadn't been so cold. She browsed on the little willow at the end of the driveway then wandered on to the road and stood there by the end of the driveway and scratched her back! No kidding!! Just like Maggie does.. one leg at a funny angle and her teeth on her back. After she was on the road she slowly wandered her way past our middle hole in the trees on the way down the road. (That's when I would have gone closer.. even if she'd been mad I could have easily made it inside before she fought her way through all that snow in between us or gone around back on the driveway!) Chip either didn't notice her at all or just didn't care as he made no mention of her passing at all. After she'd gone on down the road we smiled at each other and went back to our doings. I wonder if some day the kids will remember the excitement of the moose in the coming dark on our very own driveway!
Oh and for those of you in warmer climates.. Yes these pictures really were taken on February 28th. 2011. This is truly what our yard looks like at the moment. :)
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