100% Grassfed Holsteins

Papa and I have the only 100% grassfed dairy cows in our area, that we know of. Probably the only one in the northern half of our Province.  There was one about 6 hours from us several years ago but we aren't sure if it's still running. Most people don't believe that Holsteins can survive our winters without lots of grain and a barn (and we have neither!) and you'd be amazed at their reactions when they see our 'fat' holsteins. BTW we think Maggie is FAT, MOST farmers who see Isabel think she is the fattest Holstein they've ever seen... until they see Maggie :) In fact Maggie is so fat we think it might be hindering the AI attempts. I took these pictures this morning. 

Isabel, above,  is 6 months into her lactation. Her calf Ivan was born a few days before Christmas. She's giving about 12 gallons of milk a day average. Some days it's more. The pigs and chicks are loving the extra milk :) Until we got the chicks I made cheese almost every day for several weeks. The milk production went up with the arrival of green grass and we scrambled for a bit to find something to do with it, besides feed it to the 17 littler pigs who love it. (I say Littler because they are really not that little anymore! Most of them are around 175lbs with several of them 200lbs.) 

Maggie's calf Milton was a year in March so she's been milking for 15 months. She's still giving about 4, 4.5 gallons a day. We'll probably dry her up after chick butchering, IF the last AI attempt worked, until then her milk is going into the meat birds. 

The Kitchen June 2014

The kitchen is coming along :) The oven fan is in and works :) The cupboards insides are painted. The new to us stove is in, but needs a good cleaning. The cupboards need front face plates and doors/ drawers and I've got some more painting to do but it's coming along nicely! Oh and it needs quite a bit of trim. 

The side of the cupboards by the door.

The black tile which will be on either side of the stove :) 

A close up look at the little cupboard and our new silverware drawer :) It's about 2 1/3 feet across! 

The Pantry's New Look

The pantry got some stain :) My mom surprised me this week and came to help stain. Turns out I really didn't have a plan yet but knew I wanted the counter the dark stain so she did that. Papa and I spent some time thinking it over and this is what we've come up with so far. The face plates of the drawers will be the lighter stain. 

We are unsure what to do with the shelves on the left? Dark or light or white paint?? If you have ideas we'd love to hear them!! 

Floors are done :)

Finished floors :) SO much nicer to clean! Yay! 

Thankful Thursday/ Un Forgettable Fridays Post

Today you get two in one. Thankful Thursday post and a Un Forgettable Friday post. I want to remember yesterday and I'm thankful for it :) 

Swimming lessons,week one, went great. S loves the water. J3 did ok. Next week we will try and arrive early so he can play in the water a little bit before his lesson and remember how much he loved it this week. We swam for a bit afterwards and the bigger crew; J, L, E, R, went down the water slide, in life jackets, but without us. Bittersweet moment for sure. We did a bunch of shopping, grabbed some lunch and some Starbucks and made a day of it. It was fun. We didn't have any house decisions to make and very little stress and we did some normal family things that we haven't done in a while. 

When we got home Papa moved the new tool truck into place and we cleaned MOST of the tools out of the house! *happy dance* Now I can clean and finish the pantry and kitchen! Today's job is to finish painting the kitchen floor..then on to the cabinets! 

There is a young guy who's doing interviews with young farmers for his thesis and he came out last night for a farm tour and interview. It was interesting and fun to do. I think we relearned a few things about ourselves that we'd forgotten and it reinforced our whys and who's and what's importants. We sent him on his way with a whole chicken and what may have been the last package of our bacon for the year. I tried to give him a kitten but he declined :) So heads up I've got two male orange kittens to give away :) He may come back and help with farm work over the summer. He was quite impressed that Papa is a former Joel Salatin apprentice and I have a feeling he'll be here for chicken butchering to see how fast Papa can eviscerate a bird.   

Before bed we spent half an hour trying to figure out how the smallest pig kept escaping. We did eventually get it all fixed up and she's still in this morning so that's all good! 

Chicks are doing great! Didn't loose any last night so I beleive our total today is 406. They look fantastic and energetic. They are growing wing feathers so they are yellow puff balls with pure white wings. 

Anyway Friday is upon us :) Lots to do today to get ready for the weekend and projects that need doing. Have a great day all and enjoy the sunshine :) 

 

Kid Chick Pictures

S loved the chicks! 

Sunny pictures outside :) S was asleep. 

He and the chick have the same look on their faces. 

Chick wrangler J! 

S was surprisingly gentle and didn't even try to pick it up by the head as most little kids do.

Beautiful girls and cute chicks. 

J3 was so excited and proud to hold his chick! 

I love this picture. Her face is priceless..you would think it was a snake or something, not a harmless chick.  She was scared of them last year too..too close mom! 

Ok I'm good with it on my boot! That's far enough away to enjoy it apparently. 

The chicks are a week old today. We've lost 9 so far :) So there are 405 left! 

Very Random Sunday Ramble

I decided to try a Sunday walkabout this week as I can't seem to get blog posts together these days!

Here is parts and pieces of our week in no particular order :) 

Kids love chicks!

414! They are doing really well and we have only lost 3 so far. Super quiet and active. It looks like a great batch this year! 

Isabel and Maggie enjoying a new patch of grass! They have really remembered that moving = new grass and act like fresh calves when ever anyone starts pounding on a fence post! 

The vanity arrived this week! Here is the bottom right out of the box! 

And here it is all placed together in the bathroom it goes in! Yay! I also got the tub drain in this week! (My first plumbing job :) ) 

The pantry floor got painted and so did some rocks...

E's painted rocks. 

J's. 

L's. 

R's. 

And mine, the monster was for J3 and the rabbit for G. 

The kids got the frames off the cement! 

Three little boys got their ears lowered. 

I tried to get a smiley S picture right before bed one night and he just would not hold still! Lol. 

J got a movie of a surprise can blowing up in a fire which I can't seem to add at the moment. I got to go out to a fundraiser with some friends and Papa chose to stay home with the kids. They had a hotdog roast with the M twins!  It was a fun night topped off by a great preformance of the Drill Team! Glow in the dark! Very very cool! 

In house news Papa got the upper cabinets in the kitchen and most of the last little cabinet built! We are slowly getting stuff together and making the house livable. This week we should be able to concentrate a little more on house and a little less on farming as the chicks are well set up and settled. 

In other farming news.  We lost a pig out of the blue last night and have no idea why. A little pig thankfully and not a sow. The calves are still out back and haven't come up to whine at the cows in at least a week. The raised beds are doing great and I didn't lose anything to frost this week! The flowers I planted even all survived! As are the raspberries and lilics! 

Papa has been driving Jack to work without a top on him! He bundles up in the morning so he doesn't freeze before he gets there! He took the kids for a ride too. 

I got this picture of a very rare two headed cow :) and this super cute kitten, who is as of yet still nameless...

Tame little male. He's super happy to get a scratch as you walk by. 

Here is a kitchen teaser :) 

Thanks for looking at our week! Have a wonderful Sunday :) 

Riding With The Top Down

Papa came home from work yesterday please as punch with himself. He'd taken a little time after work to take the top off the Scout. He says it's quieter with out it. Lol. (I didn't find it quieter but I did find if you could get it up to 3rd you sort of out ran the noise.)  I took it for a spin while he BBQed up some pork chops. I went around to see if I could see the calves, I couldn't, but I'm pretty sure the three trucks I met on the road found me entertaining, putt putt-ing along hanging on to the steering wheel for dear life over the bumpy road and laughing every time I went to shift!  

Looks pretty cool hey? Jack, as we named him, is a 1963 International Scout and those of you who live around us may have noticed Papa has been driving him to work as Jack is replacing the little black car as his work rig. Rides like a bumpy farm truck but the wind in your hair and the view make it worth it. The challenging shifting pattern; reverse is where 1st normally is, 1st is where 2nd should be and 3rd is where 2nd should be, and that's all the gears, makes shifting interesting. I still couldn't get him to shift from 3rd to 2nd! (It was only my second time driving him and I WILL conquer it yet!) 

Came home to this: 

And boy oh boy! They were good :)