Shirley The Jersey. A Christmas Story.

Some friends of ours wanted to go on a trip, but they had a cow they needed taking care of . Papa said sure and told me later, but I was fine with that. They brought her over the 22nd of December. Her name is Shirley and she reminds me of a large happy dog. She is inquisitive and alert. She walked right over the wire fence to explore the pigs and right back in again when Papa put the fence down. She is easy to catch and lead and she seems to be, very much, a people cow. You know; instead of a people person? She's a people cow. Shirley is a purebred jersey cow with a rough coat. I'd never seen a Jersey with a rough coat. Looks neat. I knew she was in labour the night she got here so I put her in our new calf pen with Ivan, Isabel's calf, and watched her for a bit. Until 1am actually when my feet were frozen and my eyes kept closing all by themselves. I went inside to bed but resolved to wake up in a couple hours to check on her. I must have been tired because the next hour I saw was 8am!! I thought, for sure, there would be a calf but no! While I was still scratching my head over that she lay down and gave a little push and I saw feet!! I ran inside and woke up the kids, made them get jackets on and boots and we all went out to stare at the cow! Then we went back inside as nothing was happening..that friendly cow kept saying 'good morning' to everyone and wouldn't lay down again to push the calf out!!   I stayed outside and watched her and when she was down again and staying down I called the kids and they all came out and watched the calf being born! Papa stayed inside with S but the other 6 were all there. Wonderful experience! Shirley did so good and after the calf was out and she was up she shared the love and licked Ivan all over just the same as she did her calf! A Christmas Eve calf! What a wonderful reminder of life and love and Jesus! 

L hand milking Shirley. Norman is the red calf, Ivan the black calf. 

 What a busy day it was. A friend and two of her children came for breakfast, a wonderful lady dropped off a quilt, a couple of guys showed up to pick up a freezer full of old meat for bait (a very big pig that died a couple years ago in the bush that we were going to feed to the dogs and never did as it smelled so bad!), Papa took the oldest 4 kids skating with church family for two hours while I cleaned house and napped littles,  R and her 6 kids came to see the calf and have a quick visit. C's and their 4 boys stopped in to see their cow Shirley and name the new calf Norman (city slickers anyone?). At one point there were 17 children in the house! Papa and Mr. C went to pick up some hay. Everyone was visiting and having a great time! I totally forgot it was Christmas Eve! The dog barked, the kids yelled, Grandma and Grandpa are here! The families were introduced, the calves seen again, the snowsuits, gloves, hats and children packed up, hugs given, good byes said, Papa and Mr. C arrived. R and her children left, C's packed up their boys, checked and double checked for mittens and jackets and oh don't forget the babies boots! Than a moment of silence. Ahh. 

Children chattering excitedly, Christmas Eve! We've remembered! Gingerbread houses and snack night and Grandma and Grandpa and excitement reined! I remember Papa hugged me and I smiled at him and we went into the kitchen to set up for the gingerbread house decorating. We decorated, we chatted and ate, we even opened gifts and hugged and laughed and then we were saying good bye again to Grandpa and Grandma and yelling MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Then again the house had a moment of silence before the little excited voices. Reminding us. Another Tradition. A wonderful Tradition, the annual watching of 'The Nativity Story.'  

Later that night after the kids were in bed Papa and I took a couple deep breaths and finished a few surprises for the next days giving. When the house was ready for bed I went out once again in the dark cold night to check the calves and Shirley and marvel. Every birth is a gift but God becoming man, being birthed into this human world to save us from sin is the greatest gift of all! What a personal reminder of the magic of life, the God thing that opened my eyes and quiets my heart. Thank you Jesus! 

*Disclaimer. Our children close their eyes for several minutes several times in the movie 'The Nativity Story' we also fast forward the first part and both births. 

Visitors Part 2! :)

M from our home church family!! I love her smile!! She loves my baby :) 

M is going to be an amazing mom when she grows up!! 

J loves babies too!! 

As does her mom D, a great friend of mine from Oz. 

And little bro N loved to hold him too.. big bro B declined but he did come take a look! 

Neighbor S stopped by for a cuddle.

Grandpa meets S for the first time!! 

Grandma meeting S the night he was born!!

R didn't know about this baby holding idea.. but she soon caught on :) 

J loved to cuddle him too.. Yay for internet friends who become real live friends :) 

C likes holding babies.. honest!! *Husband S tells us 'to take pictures of C holding babies.. '

like it's a rare thing... but I think she likes it!! 

J, B and E came to see him too.. We've really enjoyed getting to know them recently! 

Some friends from down the road.. I love the look on little C's face! 

Mr. M loves little babies and came for a visit! 

A likes holding babies too.. and she's really good at it too!! 

Uncle D and a sleepy S. 

Auntie A enjoying a baby snuggle. 

Uncle K came to take a look see :) 

L cuddled and cuddled him.. he was just the same size as her B and she relived some memories that night! 

R and son W check him out. R was our AMAZING BABY SITTER when S was born.. 

some day I WILL blog about that!! 

R loves babies, birth and all things involving those two things..

hubby K had just one thing to say about that...

:) HEY Put that thing DOWN!! :) 

But K? I saw you last Sunday.. checking out baby S when you thought I wasn't looking.. :) 

Visitors Part 1.

Some of the visitors who came to visit S and I in the hospital.

Thank you all SO MUCH for coming!! 

My niece K. 

Her friend who really loved babies!! 

The only picture I got of my sister M who also loves babies. 

"Imagine that it's a tiny little human!!' 

My sister A and S checking each other out. 

My niece M, proud as punch! 

My cousins son C who totally loved holding him!! 

Oh and B!! C asked if his eyes were opened yet!! :) 

My niece C. 

My good friend R stopped in with her two little people W and R. 

                                       M and S some friends of ours stopped in to say hello too.

And there is more... for another post on another day!! 

Thanks so much for coming to celebrate S's birth with us!! 

Good Bye Norma Jean

Well it's that time of year again.. when the big game guides come down from northern country and back into life with humans ;) Their hunting stories all brand new and their bodies worn from 3 months of hard work, little sleep and almost no 'days off.' They come back and shower and sleep for a week :) Well maybe not a week but several days anyway. Our favorite big game guides say they shower, needed or not, every day  for the next 6 months.. just because they can. This year is a year of changes for them and we wish them well but we miss them terribly. Love you guys!!

ANYWAY!! I'm sure we'll get into all that in a later post. The title of this post is GOOD BYE NORMA JEAN!!

Remember Norma Jean?? She's a Holstein cow we were 'cow sitting' for some friends of ours. Besides being one of the DIRTIEST cows we've ever seen she fit right into our little place for the 3 months she was here. After that 1st week of training her to the stanchion and electric fence she did really well on the homestead..she upped her milk production right off and gave 6 gallons a day which Star, our Holstein heifer, really enjoyed and the piglets and laying hens did too :)  Until last week that is when she stopped eating, started squirting junk out a back teat and spent a lot of time laying down doing nothing. Now if you know much about cows you know they chew their cud. Constantly. She stopped chewing hers. She also stopped coming in to be milked which resulted in several frustrating days of chasing her in morning and night to be taken care of. Turns out she had a kind of mastitis that affects their whole body. We'd already babied her through most of it when we found out and she was already recovering nicely when we found out how bad it COULD have been.. and we are forever thankful. Thursday is when she got sick. Sunday she was already much better and by this morning she was giving 2 gallons and perky as ever when they came to pick her up. We did a little farm tour; the house building we've been doing, the weaner pigs (Their little boy really seemed to like them! :), and finally the cows. Norma Jean seemed to know she was under scrutiny and stared at us as we stared at her. When the Mr. of the two fetched a lead rope and went to catch her she turned her head away and I commiserated with him.. she doesn't like me much either.. In the end Papa put some of our sweet cow candy in her stanchion and she walked right in allowing herself to be caught and lead to the trailer. She trailers better then most horses I've seen. Too bad I left my camera on the our truck!!! (The camera is fine as the truck was parked, but I forgot to take a picture!) Anyway both the Mr. and Mrs. said she looked great. Papa and I couldn't see the changes too much as you tend not too when you see them daily but we did notice that she no longer had ribs showing. Her hips and front shoulders looked bony, as they should, but not thin. I'm hoping to get a picture of her in her new barn from the Mrs soon and I'll be sure and share it with you! They are excited to have her back and as they left were talking about cheese and butter and all things dairy. If I know those two they'll be eating ice cream tomorrow night :) YUM!! Good luck Norma Jean.. I doubt we'll missing your dirty bag and your stinging wet tail, but I'm glad we made your acquittance. Tonight at milking I almost missed your big brown eyes... almost but not quite :)

I have to add that the kids were very sad to see her go even though they knew she would leave when she came. They loved her. She would let them pet her and Isabel will not. Apparently every time they'd walk through the cow pen Norma Jean would come over for a pet and they loved her for it!

A Busy Night *Butchering #1

The pictures kinda bad but it gives you the general idea. 

 Papa and I recently sold a pig, butchered but not skinned, to a man from the coast who called us up then came by one morning and took a look at the pigs. He really liked what he saw.. said we respected our animals and it showed. He then paid for a pig while trading us some wonderful salmon for the $50 butchering fee Papa charges to kill, gut and skin. He then enjoyed a cup of coffee with us and left.. a few days later Papa killed and gutted the pig, (He also burned all the hair off, scraped it a little and then gave it a wash off.. super stinky!!) and let it set cool overnight. I'm still kicking myself because I forgot to take a picture of the finished cleaned up pig.. looked really neat!  The next afternoon we got a call from a refrigerated truck company's driver that the man had set up to pick up the pig and he stopped by on his way to the coast and Papa loaded the plastic wrapped pig into his refer truck with the skid steer.. to keep cool for the 6 hour drive until it reached this man!!  

The man told us he was going to roast it. Apparently he roasts two pigs a year, he has a marinade, and all kinds of tips and tricks.. *DROOL*

I'm such a foodie!! 

Man OH Man would I have loved to sit in on that feast!! 

No pun intended ;)

Papa getting ready to gut the pig while our crew and some friends look on. 

The friends are another home school family.. who also happen to have 6 kids :)..

that we have sort of reconnected with recently. 

We are really enjoying their visits and the amazing amount of JOY this family brings with it where ever it goes. 

Our Church Family!!

Pretty much the whole crew!! As it were :) Missing Molly B and K&D and Thunder. 

Just the kids :) Oldest is 16, youngest is Joel at 4 months :) 

A couple of neat facts.. 

All the families with school age kids home school. 

There are only 3 adults in the picture who were raised, all or partly, in the area we now all live in the rest moved here as adults.

Our oldest person just turned 56 and his son is our youngest at 5 months.

In this picture there are 3 babies all 4 months apart :) 

There are 8 small boys 3 and under! 

Two sets of twins. 

Two families with 6 kids in the family.

Two families with 3 kids in the family.

Three families with 2 kids in the family. 

One family is missing a girl in the picture.

There are 4 three year olds.. all boys :) 

 I BELIEVE there is a child for every age from 1 to14, 15 is skipped and then 16.

There are 23 children in the picture, only 7 girls, and 13 adults. 

There are two pregnant ladies in the picture.. no I'm not one of them ;) 

Three families own and milk a cow at this time :) and a forth has done in the past.

Four families are activity house building. 

We are: farmers, truck drivers, mechanic, animal massage therapist, teachers, homesteaders, carpenters, bakers, cheese makers, musicians, nurse,cowboys, bankers, small business owners, 

seamstresses, builders, ropers, students, 

crafters, writers, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, Parents! and people extraordinaire.

These pictures were taken as a good bye gift to Hales as they have been called away from this area for this time and so have the B's who still visit sometimes from their new home 2 hours away. The rest of us still meet weekly as a group and in Bible studies. We are truly enjoying this group and are VERY Thankful that God led us to them :) We love you guys!! 

Pretties ~ Flowers~

Mrs B and I got together one day early this spring and she helped me plan these flower planters for the front of the house. It took them a little bit but they have finally taken off. The little pots of flowers in between the big ones are the bachelor buttons the kids planted. They survived and are blooming. If you know me at all you know I have a fairly black thumb. Papa's is worse! Papa is quite impressed that I've yet to kill these pretty flowers. I guess I can learn new tricks. 

I don't know what it is about marigolds but I love them.. I try and keep some around every summer.. they just seem so cheerful even if they smell funny :) 

A Merry Night

The Food!!! 

Mr. B had been gone guiding and came home for a short few days to visit with his wife and he brought back a 15lbs salmon!!
The Friends
Mrs. B called us up and asked if Mr. B could make us supper.. 

OH YEAH!! 

Then she asked if they could bring Mr. B's younger brother Scott..
I had to think about that one :) . 

Scott's been off traveling the world for the last several months so we hadn't seen him for quite a while. 

He's my cousin you see.

The kids love him.

So I said yes :) 

No really Scott it was really nice to see you :) 

Finishing supper.. BBQ'd salmon, flayed by Scott, cooked by Papa and Mr. B, rice, corn on the cob, salad, with ice cream cake for dessert. YUM!!! A meal for a king!! 

J3 and his cheese ball grin :) 

What was left of the 15lbs salmon after roughly 30 minutes of feasting.. They sliced up lemons and onions and laid them on top of the fish. It was AMAZING!!!! Papa took this last piece to work and he said it was just as good the second day. Which is amazing for fish! 

The Fun!
After supper there was the usual sword fighting :) 

Apparently Scott and E were the two champs and here they are dueling it out.

E won!! Scott said she was amazing! 

This is not just mindless sword play.

 There are rules.

 If you are mortally wounded you die. (Often dramatically) 

When the last person is standing, you can come alive again and play again.

 Certain areas are off limits for attack. 

This picture pretty much sums up a night with Mr. B and Scott over.. or just Mr. and Mrs B. 

Fun Craziness

Baby G and Baby J :)

WOW there is a baby here!

And WHO is that over there??  :) 

They are 4 months apart :) 

Super Cute. 

~Strawberry Jam Night~

My wonderful friend Mrs. B and I made strawberry jam together last week. 

The kids helped and we had a blast! 

Strawberries rinsed and the tops cut off. Lucky worms :) 

Smashed up strawberries in my food processor.. 

Chopped up strawberries waiting to have the pectin and some sugar added in before cooking.

Wonderful Mrs B who stirred both large batches of jam! 

A closer look! You can see it is boiling :) 

The very yummy strawberry foam. 

We got to this point and I found out that Mrs B had never ever canned or made jam or anything like this before!!  She was amazing! I told Papa later it was like working with myself :) Like as in TWO of me! We worked very well in sync together! And we got 8 pint jars and 6.5 quart jars full of jam!

Putting it into jars! Clean hot jars, wiping the rims, putting lids and rings on and placing each jar upside down to heat the seal.

Mrs. B's finished 8 pint jars with 3 of my quart jars! Good Stuff! 

A few days later I made 6.5 more quarts for a total of 13 quarts of jam.. should last us for a bit anyway! 

Oh and if you are wondering about a recipe? 

It's easy.. 

You buy a box of pectin from the store and follow the instructions :) 

We both bought lite pectin which uses less sugar and then both used less sugar then they said..

which makes the jam a little runny but really easy for kids to spread :) 

SUPER EASY!!! 

I love easy :)