HEIFER DIARY 2008
Max, Martin and I were up early. I made coffee and warmed up the hot cross buns I had frozen from last week. We easily separated the cows to their stanchions. Last night the guys had plowed and used the Kubota bucket to remove the mass of snow from in front of the big double doors to the beefer pen so that Melvin could walk through for his grain. Max dropped him with a gun he borrowed from his friend Tim. Using the Kubota bucket they hoisted him up and Max made the cuts to bleed him. They put the carcass onto Martin’s pickup and he was away from here by 7am. The butcher will only hang the carcass until Thursday, five days. That is my only disappointment.
Max stayed here long enough to help with chores and bring in lots of wood.
DD Marcia called from Florida. She has received many kind notes of condolence. She and son Harper visited her real estate agents today. It was a useful visit if only to learn the ways in which they are caught up in the widespread real estate troubles. However, Marcia’s place is exceptionally beautiful, especially her gardens. She was describing her bamboos to me today. I dearly love a bamboo grove.
January 6, 2008 Sunday - Epiphany
It has warmed up to about 30˚. It is amazing how one adapts. I am sweating in my coat and removing my hat in the barn.
There was inevitably quite a bit of blood on the snow from the Saturday killing of Melvin even though they caught most of it in a basin. The dogs keep going out there for a pink Sno-cone every chance they get.
DD Sally called me from Boston at 8:30pm. They temporarily lost her luggage forcing her to take a later bus. DS Martin is going to pick her up and keep her overnight in Biddeford and I will meet DIL Amy tomorrow in Auburn and bring her here. She has been traveling now for about 40 hours (from Alaska) without sleep; last night she had to sit on a bench in Seattle all night. They put her on a different flight. Our calls were very brief so I am only guessing what went wrong but I suspect the terrible weather in the northwest was to blame.
My sister Barby on Skyline Blvd near Woodside CA has been without electricity or phone for several days. Her cell phone does not function in the mountains where she lives. This morning she drove to the top of the mountain to call me and the utility companies (again). She has propane heat and a little Coleman stove and knows how to cope but like me, she lives alone and is pretty old for this kind of thing.
Jasmine gave over two gallons this morning. Oakley taped at 370 lbs last Friday. I forgot to enter that information.
It is a lot quieter and cleaner in the beefer pen without Melvin’s huge bulk. I don’t need to put out as much hay either. Water consumption has hardly fallen at all; he was not very thirsty, obviously. I kind of miss him though. I just wish he could have been a heifer. He would have been a fine good natured gal like Emily with beautiful Jersey markings.
I made a cream cheese pound cake today with yogurt cream cheese for Sally.
January 8, 2008 Tuesday
On Monday I convened in Auburn with DIL Amy. DS Martin had picked Sally up last night at midnight and she spent the night with them. She looks as bouncy and healthy as ever, following a night’s sleep and a shower. Amy had baby Hannah along and we caravanned back up to Turner where we had lunch at Nezinscott Farm Store. This store is owned by Gloria Varney and her husband. They have a large and comprehensive farm with dairy cattle, sheep, goats, llamas and more. Her store includes a large bakery and she also serves lunches. Everything in the store is local and/or organic. You could live out of this store. There are all kinds of dairy products, meats and her farmstead cheeses. She also has coffee, tea, organic wines, cleaning products, books and woolens. She now has a web site: www.nezinscottfarm.com .
Last evening we separated Oakley so that Sally could milk Helen this morning. Helen gave 1 ½ gallons. Jasmine gave 1 ¾ gallons.
We are in the January thaw. Yesterday and today were in the 30’s and today was sunny. Sally went over and had a look at her little house across the river after which we all, including the dogs, went up to Weld to look at DD Marcia’s camp. Sorry to say, Willie, the West Highland terrier, was sick in the car but at least it was in the far back. The snow was too deep to drive past Martin and Amy’s camp. Sally broke trail and we walked down to the Boles’ camp. All appeared well although we did not go in. The snow is very deep.
We separated Oakley again tonight. He will be four months old on the 14th of this month.
January 9, 2008 Wednesday
It is still warm and now a heavy mist hangs over the land. Oakley’s cow pragmatism has not quite kicked in and he is not eating much of the feed and water to be found in his comfortable overnight stall, formerly used by Peter, the horse. It has a tiny window just for a calf to be able to see his mommy and he spends much of his time looking through it.
Marlene, the lady who carries the mail, just dropped off a box of cheeses from DD Abby. We both had to sample the Humbolt Fog at once. Dear God in heaven, it is seductive. It reminded me of that 50 year old movie in French, The 7 Deadly Sins. In the Greed segment a young man traveling in the French countryside arranges to spend the night with a peasant couple and is served a superb cheese made by the luscious young wife. They retire three to a bed. The snorting pig of a husband falls asleep immediately and the young man begins whispering about his longing and desire. Wifey says “Go ahead, he’ll never notice.” So the young man creeps over to the table and eats more cheese. The scene ends with the wife rolling her eyes and pulling up the covers.
I can’t remember the famous director but it was in black and white. Probably Ingmar Bergman.
Here is some new research about vitamin D that I think is important.
Vitamin D Benefits from Sun Exposure Outshine Cancer Risk
By Crystal Phend, Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: January 08, 2008 Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
UPTON, N.Y., Jan. 8 -- Overall health benefits from increased sun exposure may outweigh the risk of skin cancer, researchers here said.
Skin cancer rates rise with proximity to the equator among light-skinned populations, but the opposite is true for prognosis of many other cancer types, reported Richard B. Setlow, Ph.D., of Brookhaven National Laboratory, and colleagues, online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Although milk, cod liver oil, and supplements can supply vitamin D, solar radiation is still a main source for humans even at high latitudes, they said. Vitamin D seems to protect against cancers including breast, colon, kidney, and ovarian cancers. Studies have also linked vitamin D or sun exposure to benefits in overall mortality, prostate cancer, multiple sclerosis, bone health, as well as the occurrence of cardiovascular events in hypertensive patients. (See Related Articles below.)
A population-wide increase in sun exposure improves vitamin D status, but is controversial because it has been blamed for the high and increasing incidence rates of melanoma, they said. "These issues have health consequences far beyond those of cancer because a number of diseases are associated with inadequate vitamin D levels or low sun exposure: neurological, cardiovascular, metabolic, immune, and bone diseases," they said. The researchers gathered age-adjusted incidence and death rates averaged over the years from 1987 through 1997 from the International Association for Research on Cancer database for six countries -- Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway -- with a primarily white population. They also looked at Norway's age-adjusted incidence rates of cutaneous malignant melanoma from the Norwegian Cancer Registry from 1960 through 2003 and mortality rates from a World Health Organization database for the same period.
Vitamin D photosynthesis was calculated for the annual amount of vitamin D-generating solar radiation at different latitudes while the body was modeled as a horizontal cylinder, rather than the less realistic flat surface exposures used in previous models. Using this model, they found 3.4 and 4.8 times greater annual vitamin D-generating solar radiation doses at the equator than in Britain and Scandinavia. However, this north-south gradient was not matched by a similar gradient in vitamin D status by latitude. "It is surprising that mean population levels of vitamin D are similar in sunny regions like Florida, Australia, and Northern Europe," the researchers said. Incidence of the three major skin cancer forms did increase from Norway to Australia as expected. The discrepancy could be because of patterns of sun exposure or vitamin D intake among populations, but is more likely because serum vitamin D measurements "are not standardized well enough for international or interlaboratorial comparisons," they said.
For other, internal cancers, incidence rates varied widely by as much as a factor of 50 between countries without a consistent north-south gradient. Thus, "genetical, dietary, and environmental factors, other than sun exposure, play major roles and may completely mask the effects of vitamin D," the researchers said. A more sensitive way to look at the effect on cancer is to look at prognosis, they said, which was crudely estimated in the study as the ratio of mortality to incidence rate. Among populations with a predominately similar skin, prognosis improved with decreasing latitude and thus with increasing ultraviolet radiation exposure, whereas cancer treatment was likely of similar qualities between the countries studied. Likewise, the research group had previously shown that cancer diagnosis in late summer and autumn when serum vitamin D status is optimal was associated with about a 20% advantage in relative risk of death. "These data argue for a positive role of sun-induced vitamin D in cancer prognosis or that a good vitamin D status is advantageous when in combination with standard cancer therapies," they wrote. The net benefit may be greater than the adverse effects of moderately increased sun exposure, even for total cancer mortality, the investigators concluded. Although populations at-risk for vitamin D deficiency need to get this message, further study is needed, they said. "In view of the supposedly long latency times for cancer manifestation," they wrote, "decades are needed for final evaluation of the impacts of the antisun campaigns with respect to melanoma incidence, cancer prognosis, and other possible positive or adverse health effects." The study was supported by Sigval Bergesen D.Y. og hustru Nankis Foundation, the Research Foundation of the Norwegian Radiumhospital, and Helse-Sør Norway.
Primary source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Source reference: Moan J, et al "Addressing the health benefits and risks, involving vitamin D or skin cancer, of increased sun exposure"PNAS 2008; 105: 668-673.
Related Article(s): • Low Vitamin D Plus Hypertension May Worsen Cardiovascular Risks • Cancer Meta-Analyses Shine on Vitamin D • Vitamin D Linked to Decrease in All-Cause Mortality • Childhood Sun Exposure May Lower Multiple Sclerosis Risk
January 10, 2008 Thursday
As predicted by the weatherman, the wind came up strongly. Very shortly after Chris called from Massachusetts about his steers being poisoned, the wind knocked out both our power and phone so I don’t think I was a lot of help. DD Sally did find a good poison site which I forwarded. I learned only this morning that his vet had come promptly and saved the animals. It appeared to be rhododendron poisoning. Every year in England there were reports of people dying from having eaten rhododendron honey.
The power returned at about 10:30pm but wind blew violently all last night. This morning I just happened to notice that it had blown in an attic window. Sally went up to the third floor and made a temporary repair.
Today was warm and sunny, 37˚ all day. I have been looking down longingly at my garden shed and veg garden area, not sure I wanted to plow through so much snow. This morning Sally broke trail down to it and I followed along without falling into a snow bank. Only the tops of a few things can be seen but I said hello to my young quince tree and pointed out the major branch that sprouted and bore ten apples on the tree she pruned.
As predicted, it took only three days for Helen and Jasmine to understand that when we bring Oakley in for the night it does not include them. Oakley runs right up the aisle but does not quite remember which stall door to turn in.
Helen gave 1 ¾ gallons. Jasmine gave 2 gallons. When I let Oakley back in with his mom he just diddled around and was slow to start nursing. He was by no means frantic. The overnight separation is certainly not going to be hard on Helen’s teats.
January 11, 2008 Friday
It rained all day. The thermometer hung around 35˚. School was called off because of icy conditions and I thought better of going to town. Everything can wait.
Sally instituted some changes at milking time designed to please Helen. Yesterday she held up her milk and it had only a half inch of cream on it today. Sally thinks that Helen does not like it when Jasmine is done first and I leave. And she clearly hates cats swarming around her legs. So she brought out pre warmed milk from the house for the cats and gave it to them in a distant spot. And I delayed putting the machine on Jasmine until Sally was about half way through milking Helen so they would both be done at the same time. Something worked because Helen gave 2 ½ gallons. Jasmine gave 2 ¼ . We had plenty of milk for everybody today.
Oakley came in quite well tonight and went into his stall. He is not to the point where it would be convenient for just one person to get him in. It still takes me touching him from behind with my wand and Sally heading him in the door.
DD Sally went over to look at her little house and big field and there was her brother playing with his giant kite that pulls him on skis. He often takes it out on the lake but today wisely decided to try the field instead. There has been warm weather just lately and the river is wide open. Meteorologists don’t trust the ice. Heavy snow covered it before it was deeply frozen.
Sally has stomped out a trail part way around her field. She likes to have a look at the trees in winter in the hedgerow. There is a beautiful variety. She also found where her son Rafael had laid out the mast to his boat. It is buried under the snow now.
Sally’s current indoor project is a large quilt made of squares cut from woolen garments. It will have wool batting inside it and some of the squares will be embroidered with appliqué. She is also working on the maternity dress for her daughter Rebecca given by Shawn from the KFC board. Since Rebecca’s baby is due in April in Alaska, Sally is making the sleeveless version so that the dress can be worn over a shirt. Sally also intends to line it for a bit of extra warmth. She has removed some beautiful white satin lining from one of the coats in her blanket project and plans to use this. Sally is a speedy worker so by this time next week I expect to announce that the dress is ready to send.
DIL Mitra and DS Max are rendering their lard today. They use their crock pot.
Oakley trotted right in tonight and went straight to his stall. Helen gave only 1 ½ gallons this morning as compared to 2 ½ gallons yesterday. It does not take a calf long to figure out that he had better tank up the minute one comes to the barn to separate it for the night so we think that is what happened. Tonight we had his stall already with his bit of grain and tasty hay waiting. We went quietly to the barn and swept him along before Helen even made it to her feet. It will be interesting to see if she has more milk tomorrow.
Sally and I entertained DS Martin and DIL Amy and baby Hannah last night for dinner. Here is how I fixed the chicken:
I cut up a selection of vegetables that were in the fridge, in this case rutabaga, leeks, potatoes, carrots, celery and garlic. I made them into sizes designed to all be cooked at about the same time. I made a 2” deep layer in the roasting pan and added salt, pepper, a few dried herbs and an inch of water. I put the pan on top of the stove and got the veggies simmering, then laid the chicken on top of the veg breast side down. The chicken was fully defrosted. I then put it into a 350˚ oven for an hour. Then I turned the chicken breast side up and roasted it another hour at which time it was beautifully brown, crispy and moistly tender. This was one of the Mitra's home reared birds and looked to be about 5 lb.
This way of roasting poultry or pork was suggested by Julia Child in one of her books but I had not actually done it before. We all gave it high marks. Apart from whacking up the veg there was no work and the pan juices were delicious. Baby Hannah ate a lot. She also liked the whole wheat dinner rolls that Sally made to go with it.
Hannah is a highly verbal toddler now at 21 months. She is building vocabulary at practically the speed of light and speaks in short sentences using prepositions. Being half deaf I miss a lot but everybody tells me what she just said. She repeats new words to herself for practice. Little kids are such fun.
January 14, 2008 Monday
The much heralded blizzard is upon us. So far it has not been bad. The snow began about 7am and has fallen all day with wind gusts perhaps up to 25mph. Mostly is has been falling quietly. I don’t think we have gotten more than four new inches.
Last fall on a trip to the town dump, I picked up a toy pony. I make him to be 4 ½ hands high. He is very well-constructed with a strong armature that will support a toddler. He is piebald tan and white. I guess he was thrown out because his stuffing was coming out in a couple of places. I rather imagine somebody saying, “Are you ever going to fix that thing or do I take it to the dump?” I brought him home and put him in the buttery. DD Sally carried him in, stood him on the table, made full repairs with her needle and thread and sewed on a cute bridle. He already had a saddle. He was wild eyed with white showing all around his pupils so as my contribution I took eye liner and gave him a tamer expression. Now he is wearing an Indian saddle blanket and has a teddy bear cowboy. I will have to get a picture.
On Sunday (yesterday) we had son Max and DIL Mitra here for lunch and after they left we gave lunch to son Martin and DIL Amy and baby Hannah. Lots of eating. I made a big meatloaf with a mixture of pork sausage and ground beef. I also made corn pudding. I guess corn pudding has gone out of fashion. I had to go to an early edition of the Joy of Cooking for a recipe, not that one really needs one. The Joy recipe has you make a roux with butter and flour, add a couple of cups of cream, incorporate two egg yolks and mix in the corn and chopped pimiento, for which I substituted canned roasted sweet red peppers. Lastly, beat the egg whites, fold them in and bake. Salt and pepper of course, and I grated on a bit of dried out cheese. It was a big hit.
DD Sally made a batch of feta according to the recipe posted by Homestead2.
We are averaging four gallons a day of milk now, two from Jasmine and two from Helen. Helen is being very good. The cows are cleaner now with Melvin gone and DD Sally on barn cleaning detail. I was falling behind on the cleaning.
January 15, 2008 Tuesday
There was not enough snow from that storm to keep us from getting out of my driveway so Sally and I went shopping. We both had long lists. I bought three dozen cloth diapers for my granddaughter Rebecca (Sally’s oldest) who is expecting in April. Cloth diapers are my perennial baby gift, always hoping for a convert. In this case it appears Rebecca has already made up her mind in favor of cloth.
After we completed our other errands we still had enough stamina to visit the thrift shop. There we found a collection of beautiful embroidered linen dresser scarves. These had been made a long time ago by women in a family in Lithuania who grew and wove the flax on their own farm before younger family members moved to the United States. An old man in the family had brought in a stack of these linens to the thrift shop, many with lace work, others with openwork or embroidered flowers, saying none of the younger generation wanted them. Sally and I each bought several. They were priced from $3 to $6 dollars. I wished I could have bought them all. They were in perfect condition.
I made a big pot of beans which cooked all day and were ready for our dinner. Sally made cole slaw. I also made rice pudding.
January 16, 2008 Wednesday
It was slightly colder today, around 18˚, sunny and windy. Jasmine gave a bit over 2 gallons as did Helen. Sally does not think that Oakley is trying very hard to nurse and probably not nursing the bad quarter at all. She milked it out and only got about a cup. Either she is mistaken or else that quarter is spontaneously drying up; we are pretty sure it is the latter.
DD Sally is making rapid progress now on the maternity dress for Rebecca. The unassembled pieces were given her by forum member Shawn. It will be a lovely dress. It is a soft beigy plaid. Sal has lined the bodice with ivory satin from a coat that she has cut up for her quilt project. Sally thinks that if she can get the dress to Rebecca in time that she will take it along when she and Torsten go to Denmark for the 100th birthday celebration of Torsten’s grandmother. She is very spry. She has an Aussie boyfriend and they often travel (Perhaps there is still hope for me!). Rebecca has become fluent in Danish. Torsten’s father, Steen (sp?) Bentzen, has a large organic vegetable farm outside of Boston where he has many CSA customers.
January 17, 2008 Thursday
As mentioned earlier, we are not sure how much if at all Oakley has been sucking Helen’s bad quarter. Sally milked out a cupful for me this morning to sample and by golly it was perfectly good milk. I guess that answers the question. It is unlikely to have recovered without regular emptying by Oakley.
Helen gave 1 ½ gallons this morning and Jasmine gave 2 ¼.
Sally made a cheese today in the press she bought for me last year. It is the first time she has had a chance to use it. My other press, Cheesy Press, will make a 3 gallon cheese. The new one, which is from Hoegger Supply, makes a 2 gallon cheese. This press is significantly easier to use. It does not wobble and threaten to spring apart and hurl its top bar at your teeth as does the Cheesy Press. I hope Sally will make lots of cheeses.
DS Max came over today and I was able to give him six gallons of milk. Sally made an apple crisp to serve him. The apples were Northern Spy, an excellent tasty variety and good keeper.
DIL Mitra reports having made another successful recipe from The Grassfed Gourmet. It was a pork roast that calls for a salt, sage and black pepper rub followed by a lemon juice (she substituted orange juice), olive oil and honey glaze applied before baking.
January 18, 2008 Friday
We had another snowstorm that dropped about 4”. It was very beautiful while falling. It is about 20˚, which is a perfectly endurable temperature. DD Sally now has a pair of snowshoes that Max brought yesterday. After the snow fall ended the sun came out and she put on the snowshoes and took the dogs for long walk around the fields. She did not report any wildlife sightings and the only tracks she saw were from mice. Poor little Willie, my West Highland terrier, has short legs and a lot of hair. Hopping through the snow is hard work for him and his underside builds up snowballs. He comes home and melts little puddles on the floor.
I reminded Sally that there will be no mail on Monday due to Martin Luther King Day. She worked an hour or more by hand to finish all details on the maternity dress so that she can get it into the mail tomorrow. She is in there now pressing it.
I got out one steak for Sally and me to share. I cooked it by the method advanced in Cook’s Magazine and which DS Martin recommended. You pre-warm the steak all the way through before grilling, or in this case frying it. I gave it an olive oil, garlic and mixed herb rub and warmed it for an hour in the Aga simmer oven. Sally and I agreed that it was a successful method which we will try again. This is Jersey beef. It is very adequately marbled and the flavor is superb.
Sally’s first cheese looks very promising. My last bucket of clabber had such good flavor that I did not want to give it to the chickens so I made a couple of pounds of Homestead2 style cottage cheese. It turned out pretty much the same as qvark this time and is very good.
When I make clabber I always pour the skim milk into a clean bucket and inoculate with good tasting clabber starter. Sometimes, especially in winter, it still does not end up with a good flavor but when it does I usually make at least part of it into cottage cheese.
Helen gave 1 ¾ gallons this morning and Jasmine gave 1 ¼ gallons.
DD Sally went around the fields on her snowshoes again today. She saw the tracks of three foxes, two running and one walking. I rather imagine they are socializing now. It is about their breeding season, I believe. If we were out at night more often we might hear them screeching. There is some animal gnawing holes in the barn floor. The holes are much too large to be a rat. With all the cats I have, I have not seen any evidence of rats in years. The dogs seem interested but don’t give me any clues that I can understand. I am not aware of having lost any chickens. At least I do not have 900 lb grizzly bears hanging about as Sally does.
Sally made a carrot cake today and we ate too much. Good, though.
I was browsing a little cheese pamphlet that has been among my cookbooks lo, these many years and found a recipe for teleme cheese. I used to love it when we lived in California. It is never available elsewhere, so far as I can tell, and I have never before seen a recipe. Now I can’t wait to try it. The recipe says it is made from sheep or goat’s milk but I am sure the kind I got in CA was not.
Helen gave 1 ¾ gallons and Jasmine gave 2 gallons.
January 20, 2008 Sunday
Cold weather is closing in. I made my favorite recipe for African peanut butter soup for our dinner. We gave the cows extra hay.
Sally made Neufchatel cheese from the newly discovered pamphlet. It is delicious. She used the mini cylinder of the cheese press and it came out small and shapely. It is an instant gratification cheese. No waiting to eat it!
Jasmine gave 2 1/8 gallons and Helen gave 1 7/8.
Peanut Butter Soup
Sauté some vegetables in a little peanut oil, coconut oil or butter until they are limp but not browned.
½ cup chopped onion 1 large carrot peeled and sliced 1 large stalk celery, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced
Add 1 cup non-hydrogenated chunky or smooth peanut butter and stir (I prefer chunky) Add 6 to 8 cups chicken broth and bring to a simmer.
Add 1 or 2 potatoes, diced (I usually cook the potatoes separately for faster results and use some of the potato water in lieu of stock. If using raw chicken I poach it in with the potatoes.
Add ½ teaspoon cayenne (or if you have it, 2 teaspoons of Thai garlic chili)
Lastly add cooked chicken or turkey if desired.
Simmer about 15 minutes
Now add something acidic, either 3 Tablespoons wine vinegar or some chopped tomatoes. When I added the Thai chili the flavor balance was perfect without adding any tomato, vinegar or pepper. I like to serve it with a wedge of lime.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Other veg are also good such as red bell pepper.
I think you will be surprised how good this soup is.
January 21, 2008 Monday
Oakley was attempting to mount Helen today. Except for some vague signs soon after she calved in September, this it her first noticeable heat. We saw no other activity but she was definitely giving us the hairy eyeball. We did not turn out backs on her.
Helen gave only 1.5 gallons. This could have been in consequence of her being in heat. But Sally, who hand milks her, thinks she does not like it when I get through with Jasmine, turn off the machine and leave. I am going to revise the job so that I finish milking Jasmine a bit later.
January 22, 2008 Tuesday
DD Sally, accompanied by the dogs, makes an early pass at the barn to put down hay while her tea is brewing. It is still dark at that time. This morning some animal routed by Willie, made a great dash out the door. Sally could not tell what it was. When later I looked at the tracks they were so jumbled with Willie’s that I learned nothing. In the past when this has happened in the buttery or garage, which are open to each other, it has always turned out to be a feral cat. But a cat would not account for the hole chewed in the floor.
I did other little jobs in the barn until Sally was halfway through milking so that Helen and Jasmine would be finished about the same time. It will take a few more days before we feel able to establish a cause and effect. However, this morning Helen did give a full two gallons.
This evening when it was time to separate Oakley for the night, he was waiting with his nose at the door. He walked right in and around to his stall. In his pan he finds a cupful of grain. It is this which makes him want to march right in.
January 23, 2008 Wednesday
The butcher called. My new meat is ready from the steer named Melvin. We killed and bled him here to avoid psychological trauma and took the carcass to Castonguay for cutting and wrapping. He was only willing to hang the carcass for one week. I don’t yet know the weight. I will find out on Friday when DS Max picks up the frozen meat, but the butchering is going to cost me $306.50.
Bad news on the dental front. Today while eating a pastry another of my front incisors broke off. It took me a minute to figure out what was happening in my mouth and I didn’t know whether to go spit everything out in the sink or swallow my mouthful of croissant. Not wishing to gross anybody out, I swallowed it. Bad decision. I think I must have swallowed the tooth; anyway it is gone. My dentist seems to be out of town.
It was a bit warmer today. It had been hanging around zero for some days but got up to 22˚. Sally has pounded out a trail all the way around her field with her snowshoes. Down in the farthest corner she and the dogs found a big ladder lashed to a tree, presumably some trespasser’s hide. She freed the ladder and laid it down but it was too heavy to drag.
Helen gave 2 gallons this morning. Jasmine was mad at me for leaving her side while the machine was on. She flung her pan about and gave only 1 ¾ gallons. Tomorrow I will sit there and contemplate the universe as she prefers.
January 24, 2008 Thursday
I had an eye exam today and the drops have not worn off. I can barely see. But the doc said he did not see any progression of my macular degeneration since my November visit. Now tomorrow I have to see the dentist.
Sally has been milking Helen’s formerly bad quarter vigorously and the milk supply is building. This morning when I let Oakley back in with Helen instead of nursing he went to the feeder and ate hay. This evening when I opened the door to let him in for his overnight in the stall, Helen led him outside instead. She went and stood out in the snowy field in the dark. Soon he came back in ahead of her and headed straight for his stall.
Helen gave a little under 2 gallons today, Jasmine a little over two.
January 25, 2008 Friday
Could this be a sign of spring? This morning when I finished chicken chores one of the two large red roosters that lives with the layers marched quite purposefully out the door with me. There are two other red roosters of equal size that are part of the free rafter dwelling group. Before long one of these had stepped forward to challenge the new kid on the block. They looked exactly alike except that Rafter Boy has a frost bitten comb while Layer Group Boy, who lives in a warm room, has a perfect comb. I watched them for awhile doing their highly entertaining chicken fight moves but it was -20˚ this morning so I gave up and hustled my cold toes and fingers back to the house. Clearly, Rafter Boy had both the home territory advantage and the street smarts; Layer Group Boy was soon standing out in the middle of the driveway on a sheet of ice with feathers drooping. Sally and I went out and herded him back in with the hens.
I wonder how much Oakley is nursing now? I have never had a calf that simply chooses to wean at four months, but for three days now when I turn him back in with the cows he had headed for the hay rather than for Helen.
Max brought the new meat today from Castonguay. There were 11 boxes totaling 510 lbs. which cost me $306.50.
Mitra now has the flu. Both girls had it. Shireen just started back to school but Roshan is still coughing badly. Max is still OK. He brought us some blueberry bundt cake that Shireen made. It is perfect.
I had a dental appointment so had to race away and leave Max and Sally to stow the meat. Both big freezers are now full with lots of less critical stuff like pigs’ heads and fat back sitting in Nature’s Deepfreeze, my buttery.
When I got home I found that Sally had made delicious sour cream scones and a fruit pudding with frozen strawberries and black currants. I fried some of our extremely good beef liver enlivened with a bit of Chinese mushroom soy sauce.
My dental repair options are all expensive. I chose the cheapest. It still will require gum surgery. Sigh.
It got back up in the 20’s and the sun shone all day. DD Sally took the dogs for a long walk along the river. She could hear my spring line running somewhere under the snow. It is broken and spilling. She reports coyote tracks on the river. It is mostly frozen over and has snow on it.
I wanted to try the new beef but the freezers are so stuffed that I selected something off the top layer. I found a little package with two servings of short ribs and cooked them all day in the Aga simmer oven. The flavor was really excellent. I served them with home grown potatoes and cole slaw.
Jasmine and Helen were both down in production this morning, perhaps because the recent cold weather. Jasmine gave 1 7/8 gallons and Helen gave 1 ½ .
January 27, 2008 Sunday
On days that are not stormy or too cold I leave the door to my chicken room open to their run even though it is deep with snow. They don’t choose to go out, that is until yesterday when my small Lakenvelder look-alike flew away. DD Sally found her around the far side of the barn scratching in the manure pile. At evening I could not find her. Sally makes an early morning pass at the barn to serve out hay and takes the dogs along. This morning she spotted Willie creeping up on something. Suddenly the “something” exploded out of a snowy corner. It was the little hen. She had spent the night outdoors. She again disappeared and neither of us saw her all day. Then this evening Sally spotted her perched on the half-door to the grain room. I have a pretty good way of catching hens by making a snatch for their legs. I had Sally turn out the lights to give me the advantage of darkness but I missed my snatch. The hen flew shrieking to a window ledge in the grain room and with the lights on I grabbed her. I put her back into a nesting box with the hens and hope she has enough sense to stay there. She has turned into a good layer.
On Saturday Sally cooked up a big pot of pig heads that got banished from the freezer in favor of the new beef. This morning she removed and chopped all the bits she liked the looks of (no snouts and eyeballs) and I made two big bread pans of scrapple. Tomorrow I will fry some for breakfast and give a report.
My granddaughter Rosemary, Sally’s daughter, has been acting as crew on their recently purchased boat, a diesel powered tender called Fox Island. With her husband Nathan and another man as crew they have been bringing her up from San Diego to Blaine near Bellingham, WA. They have been plagued with repairs and bad weather causing Sally a lot of worry, especially yesterday, knowing that the weather off the west coast was stormy. In fact they were forced into harbor at Newport, OR. We are not sure what they did today but most likely Rosie has had to leave the boat in order to meet her obligation to be in New Hampshire on February 1.
Jasmine gave 2 gallons this morning and Helen slightly less.
January 28, 2008 Monday
It was a couple of degrees below zero this morning. We did not expect this or I would have put a jar of hot water into the outdoor fridge to stave off freezing. All the gallon jars had frozen cream. I brought some of them in and defrosted them. Sally skimmed enough so that together with what I had in the fridge she was able to make butter. This is the first time it has been possible to make butter since November. How I have missed it.
I went back to the dentist and then onward to buy groceries in Farmington. Dear Max met up with me and I gave him four gallons of milk. While I shopped he took my car and gassed it up. My old favorite full serve gas station had vanished. Where it had stood was bare earth being scraped by heavy equipment. I hate pumping my own gas and barely know how.
Meanwhile back at the farm, Sally took the dogs for a walk around her field wearing her snowshoes. The dogs chose to go home across the river ice leaving Sally with a dilemma: cross on the rather questionable ice or go the long way around leaving the dogs unsupervised at home where Willie had access to the road. She said “Am I a man or a mouse?” (I suggest she is neither) She crossed successfully and went back to the house and made a pumpkin pie. I whipped some of the frozen cream. It whipped OK but the texture was not quite right.
Helen gave a bit under 2 gallons today, Jasmine gave 2 gallons
January 30, 2008 Wednesday
Yesterday and today both started out at -0- degrees but then warmed up to over 30˚. Now we have an icy drizzle. Despite the cold and damp the air smells and feels great. Sally has taken the dogs out for several nice walks.
DD Sally says that Helen’s joints creak when she walks. I can’t seem to hear it. I guess I am too deaf. I will keep listening though.
I have been looking at seed catalogues. Seed prices are getting scary. I must get serious about seed saving.
I started a teleme (pronounced tella may) cheese today. I do so hope that it turns out to be good. One is supposed to use sheep’s milk but of course I am using cow.
We are going to increase Helen’s grain a bit to help support her production. Although Oakley does not nurse as avidly as formerly, he still nurses plenty. Jasmine must be dried off in the middle of February so Helen will be our only milker. Her current production hovers at 1 ½ to 2 gallons OAD. I could of course wean Oakley but I would just as soon keep on with over night separation and OAD milking. Helen will now get two scoops of organic pellets and one scoop of COB, a total of about 4 ½ lbs of grain.
Last night I made a tasty stew with the pint of canned caribou meat sent down by Sally’s daughter Rebecca. It is excellent meat. Becky pressure canned it herself. Her husband Torsten shot the caribou last fall.
Tonight I made Moussaka Chateau Neuf du Pape. The recipe is in my book Real Food, now out of print. It is a nice easy recipe with the unusual addition of mushrooms.
DS Max now has the flu, the last in his family to succumb. He says he does not have it as badly as Mitra and the girls. That must be true. He reports having fixed a surf and turf dinner with steak from this farm and said it was delicious.
Jasmine gave 2 gallons and Helen gave 1 ½ this morning.
Moussaka Chateau Neuf du Pape
Named for the village near Avignon, Vaucluse, where in a richer version, it was a specialty of the restaurant, La Mule du Pape.
1 onion, chopped 1/2 lb. mushrooms, chopped 2 large, ripe tomatoes (or a few canned plum tomatoes) 1 or 2 cloves garlic, chopped 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup or more of chicken stock (veal is really better in case you ever have some you can believe in) 1 tablespoon chopped parsley Large pinch of Herbs de Provence (or rosemary and thyme) A few fresh basil leaves or a large pinch of dried basil Salt and pepper to taste Diced, cooked lamb, several cups. Or saute and drain fat from ground lamb. 1 large eggplant Olive oil for frying 6 oz. shredded Swiss cheese or other interesting cheese
Saute the onion, mushrooms and tomatoes (if raw) and garlic in butter for a few minutes until limp. Add stock, salt, pepper and herbs and simmer until onion is almost tender. Add lamb and simmer ten minutes more.
Peel and slice eggplant (actually, I rarely do peel it). Fry the slices on both sides in olive oil until limp and no longer cottony; drain on paper.
Line an oiled baking dish with eggplant slices and spread the lamb mixture over them. Cover with shredded cheese and bake in a hot oven (375˚) until browned and bubbly (15 to 20 minutes). Cool slightly before serving.
Tonight I spread sour cream over it for the last five minutes of cooking. Good idea.
This version of moussaka is a lot simpler than most and because it is assembled from ingredients already cooked on the stove top, it takes less fuel and is ready sooner. Also it does not call for a béchamel or cream sauce.
Most recipes call for salting, pressing, draining and rinsing eggplant, and for a good reason, for old or tired eggplant can be bitter. This nuisance is important only if the eggplant shows a lot of brown when cut. Try to find firm, glossy eggplant which is pale greenish white when cut; these require no salting.
January 31, 2008 Thursday
With morning came the discovery that the Aga was out! This rarely happens. A couple of times they let me run out of propane. This time it is apparently because it needs its thermocouple replaced. It will take a few days to get it and I don’t know who will put it in but will confront that problem in due course. In the meantime we are doing rudimentary cooking in the fireplace and on the woodstove.
After waiting nearly three weeks for the dishwasher service man to come, he arrived and I learned that the cost of the repair will be prohibitive, at least $350. DS Martin says he will bring me one out of a house he owns. DD Sally is a great sport about doing the dishes and I am fortunate to have a deep stainless steel restaurant sink where everything can hide.
Sal took a walk along the river today and got a closer look at the place where the spring line is broken and spraying. She says it has formed a beautiful lacy ice sculpture resembling a Faberge egg.
Jasmine and Helen each gave close to two gallons, Jazzy a little over, Helen a little under.
February 1, 2008 Friday
Yesterday, being in the grip of despair, I did not mention that two more of my teeth broke off, this time two molars on the upper right. I already had an appointment today to get back my partial which was being retrofitted to replace the incisor that broke off last week. Today’s visit to the dentist went far better than I feared. There is a dentist in the area who manufactures his own dentures, making the cost a lot lower. And routing out the broken remains of my molars was fast and easy except for the roots, which will require oral surgery at some point. Sally came with me today and we went on into Farmington and had tea and went to the thrift shop.
Now here is something wonderful. DS Bret, who is Nutrition Specialist for USDA Extension in Alaska, was at scientific meetings that took place in Honolulu this week. He sent me the following report from one of the meetings.
"We had a speaker today that was going on endlessly about how dangerous raw milk was and that farmer’s markets were the source of many dangerous and potentially lethal foods. I asked if she was not disenfranchising a significant sector of the Extension audience. I also pointed out that listeria outbreaks occur in pasteurized milk products so the problem was not always with the point of production, and in fact, the poster child listeria story was due to a single case of a filthy barrio plant in LA where the woman in question was exposed to a huge dose of listeria. I lost about 25 friends of the 30 in the audience and the others came up to me privately and thanked me for saying something. Recent listeriosis cases are due to hotdogs and deli turkey. Apparently raw milk and single cow households are widespread practices in the Pacific region and the Islanders sort of nod their heads and show amazement at the dangers of raw milk and then go back to raising their families with their cow. This was shared by a Tongan physician who was a speaker and who was raised that way. I was amazed, I did not know Islanders had cows, other than Hawaii. He was living in New Caledonia, which I think has grazing land too. Maybe they have cows on Tonga?”
Sally and I are so proud of Bret for speaking up.
I am currently attempting to learn more about the relationship between cows and methane. Anti cow people are now condemning cows for contributing dangerous amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas, to the environment.
DS John, an oceanographer, knowing of my interest, wrote me the following this morning:
"A colleague of mine found methane seeps in the Timor and Arafura Seas that release massive amounts of methane. Great bubbles come to the surface. Nobody knows how much. I suspect thousands of times as much as cows eruct. Not to mention melting tundra.”
Tundra is a vast new source of free methane. It is melting at unprecedented speed and releasing methane which had been held for thousands of years. SIL Tom, DD Sally’s husband, works on the oil pipeline site in Prudhoe Bay, which is within the Arctic Circle. Last week they were unable to work because it was so warm that the tundra was all squishy and unable to support the vehicles. This is never known to have happened before in January.
Both cows gave the same as yesterday. A snow storm is moving in, very heavy wet snow of the sort likely to freeze onto trees. Sally filled an extra 5 gallon tank with water.
We are still cooking on the wood stove/space heater and the fire place.
The big news this morning is that there is no water running in the barn. We don’t know why. We have considered every possibility but are left to assume the most obvious thing which is that the pipe froze. Last week we had to put a different hose onto the tap that is inside the hot box. This hose must be unrolled when we fill the stock water. We were unable to get the new hose screwed on in such a way that it did not dribble and spray around the connection. Possibly this zapped the heat tape. In any case, the bottom line is that we are now taking water out to the barn in 5 gallon plastic cans. It sure gives you an idea of how much water a cow drinks.
DS Martin brought me a new dishwasher. It was in their former home. So tomorrow morning we will be loading it up. DD Sally has been a great sport with dishwashing. This will save her a lot of work.
Martin also studied the Aga for a long time. He took various things apart in an effort to understand it. He finally decided it was just like a barbecue and did not see why it should not just be lit, so he lit it. God willing, tomorrow morning it will be hot and Sally will get her tea without having to build a fire. We will have a lot of scrubbing to get soot off the pans. Cooking on an open fire is easy enough and I have a crane in the fireplace but it does get one sooty. The wood stove, which we have also been using, is really a Scandia space heater. It has a flat top but a pebbled surface so pans do not make good contact.
Martin also spent part of the day at camp. He took his kite out onto the lake and whizzed around for awhile.
DIL Mitra wrote me a nice letter telling me that she really wants a cow. This I knew. So I gave them Helen. They will have to modify their barn before she moves but this won’t take long. Martin thinks he may be able to borrow a horse trailer. Oakley will soon be four months old. He is plenty old enough to wean which will of course happen when his mom goes to New Sharon. They will surely get at least 3 ½ gallons from Helen as we are getting two with Oakley on her half the time. They will then have to give milk to me! Little Jasmine must soon be dried off.
February 3, 2008 Sunday
Before I went to bed last night the Aga had gone out again. Such a disappointment. Max was here today for milk and he worked on it for over an hour. It seemed to be going nicely, the cook tops were heating. Then it went out. But Sally found my old plug-in electric burner and it still gets red hot. She will be able to boil the kettle for tea on that. I continue to cook over the fire. Today I made soup with two meaty shinbones and lots of vegetables. Delicious, but all my pans are black.
“And greasy Joan doth keel the pot”
The new dishwasher works fine.
DD Marcia sent about 15 pounds of Seville oranges from her garden in Florida. Sally squeezed the juice and sliced the rind on an antique marmalade cutter that I brought from England. The marmalade is now simmering on the wood stove.
The water to the barn still does not run. Sally continues to take 5 gallon containers out on the sled. It is hard to keep up with the cows.
It was very warm today, well over freezing. The sun was dazzling on the snow.
Jasmine gave a bit over two gallons, Helen a bit under.
Sally and I watched Miss Austen Regrets, the extremely hypothetical reenactment of the life of Jane Austen as presented by Masterpiece Theatre. I rather enjoyed it, Sally less so, as she has read all of Jane Austen’s surviving letters, thus has more facts at her command. We enjoyed ourselves by finding anachronisms. Sally was much offended by the backchat towards elders including the niece towards Jane. It was the norm to address elders, most especially parents or an aunt, very respectfully. Sally also says that the family was highly affectionate and almost worshipped Jane. The harsh attack on Jane by her mother was out of character, Sally says.
The main thing I noticed by way of anachronism was the herd of Holstein cows. Every county had its own breed. It would not have been much trouble to find at least a few survivors of the appropriate breed.
February 4, 2008 Monday
It being bright and sunny, DD Sally thought it a good opportunity to bathe Willy. In front of the garage, she filled a 30 gallon plastic tub with warm water and set about shampooing him with the Dr. Bronner’s mint castile soap. He really needed this bath as I am afraid that his stubby conformation interferes with personal hygiene. I held him up by the tail while she trimmed away some of his fur. She also shortened the hair over his eyes. I hated to see it go as it makes him look so cute but Sally thinks it interferes with his vision.
The Aga is not yet fixed. Cooking on the fireplace is messy and cooking on the wood space heater requires firing it up to a heat which has me worried about safety. I have a small gas grill which unfortunately was left out on the deck where it got covered with two or three feet of snow. Half an hour of shoveling and I was able to roll it back to the buttery where Sally helped me to lift it inside. It worked fine tonight for heating the soup.
February 5, 2008 Tuesday We had another snowstorm today. There are about six new inches of heavy wet snow. I had to go out and shovel the mailbox clear. My neighbor Ted Flagg came and plowed me out. It would have been impossible to get the car out of the driveway.
While I worked on my current essay, Sally put on her snowshoes and took the dogs for a long walk. While standing quietly waiting for them to emerge from a patch of woods she saw a tall nearly black fox. The dogs chased him but came when she called. Perhaps it is he or his mate that has been in the barn.
Helen’s production is down quite a bit and Jasmine’s is down slightly. Helen gave 1 ½ gallons and Jasmine barely two. I assume this is because we can’t quite keep up with their water requirement. The barn water still is not running.
February 6, 2008 Wednesday
Snow fell again all day. I have had to be plowed out twice. It is not cold, only in the 30’s. Sally dragged the stock tank back outside a day or two ago and set it under the eves of the barn. There has been enough dripping to fill it more than halfway. This has saved her a few trips with the water cans.
We have been climbing up on the hay bales to pull them down for convenience sake. Sally found a nest with about 20 eggs. Half were broken. I will hard boil the ones I saved, chop them up and feed them back to the chickens.
Thinking of something sustaining that I could cook without an oven, I made a big batch of chili. I had it cooking out on the gas grill but the propane ran out before it was done. I was able to finish it on the wood heater. We both ate a lot. Sally made a gelatin type cheesecake filling using quark that did not require cooking. She served it like ice cream with a scoop. That was good too.
Jasmine gave over 2 gallons this morning. Helen gave a full 2 gallons also. This increase may be attributable to the outdoor water tub.
February 7, 2008 Thursday
The good news: DS Max came over and was able to replace the thermocouple in my Aga. My dear companion stove has returned to its duty. Sally has some bread dough rising for tomorrow morning. A week without baking was making us feel deeply deprived. There were no cookies for Max but I was able to give him a bowl of chili. It was even better today.
The replacement dishwasher is doing a good job.
The barn water is running again. I have been trying it every time I go to the barn and today I heard an encouraging gurgle followed by water. DD Sally no longer need fill 5 gallon cans, put them on the sled and fill the stock water three or four times a day.
The bad news: Another of my teeth appears to be breaking off. So tomorrow it is back to the dentist.
It snowed a few more inches today, enough so that I needed to have the driveway plowed again. Sally and I had to shovel out the mailbox. That was a big job. The berm is as high as my head and we cannot pitch snow over it.
Sally cut a bunch of willow withies and put them in a vase to root. We hope to establish them down by the river to help hold the bank.
Both cows gave over 2 gallons this morning.
February 8, 2008 Friday
I postponed my dental appointment since the tooth is not painful. It snowed again all morning and the roads were deep in slush. I decided that I was too old to drive 45 minutes on bad roads to X-ray a cracked tooth. Later when the weather cleared Sally and I celebrated the restoration of all the domestic systems by going shopping. It had been over two weeks since I had been to Hannaford’s, our local supermarket chain. First we stopped at St. Theresa’s Free Store. It is a vast emporium featuring mostly clothes and you just take what you want and leave a donation. We both refreshed our wardrobes with sweaters, pants and shirts. Sally had a really big armload and will be able to send good shirts to her kids. We were so late getting home that the dogs missed their walk but we left them with nice bones. Willie constantly amuses us with his bone behavior. He keeps his favorite buried in a snowbank. When he sees us coming he quickly digs it up and carries it in his mouth in hopes he will be allowed to bring it into the house.
It is just one week until I begin to dry off Jasmine. She is such a steady producer that it won’t be easy. Wesley was born a year ago and the wee thing still gives 2 gallons a day. I have begun to warn my customers that there will soon be no milk for them to buy. We will still have Helen’s milk but that will only be enough for the family.
Both cows gave a tad under 2 gallons today.
We had such a delicious and jolly family dinner tonight. DS Martin’s friend who stayed at his camp last fall for the bird hunting, sent him three pheasants. He and Amy have been waiting for an opportunity to have me cook them. I roasted them this afternoon and also baked one of DS Max and Mitra’s hams. They joined us for dinner too, and Martin brought along his brother Mark and Mark’s daughter Hailey. Mark has just returned from his rotation in Pennsylvania where he did OB/Gyn. Now he has started the family practice rotation in Portland. Mark’s fiancée, Ann, couldn’t make it because of impending snow. She would have had to leave pretty early tomorrow anyway because she is on call. We put two tables together to seat everybody.
Martin especially wanted chutney so I made up a batch this afternoon with apple, onion, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, salt, sugar and vinegar and probably a few other things.
DD Sally made an apple crisp including some local cranberries and this too was a hit. DIL Lou and DS John in Australia called before dinner and we had a nice chat. It is Sunday morning for them.
A week ago I started a teleme cheese, my first. I adored teleme when we lived in California. It is not sold in the east so far as I can tell and until last week I never saw a recipe. Probably the reason it is not seen here is that it only ages for a week to 10 days and I doubt it would be much good made with anything but raw milk. I served it today and am just thrilled with it. Everyone said it reminded them of camembert.
It was back down to zero this morning. Jasmine gave 2 gallons. Helen was down to 1 ½ .
February 10, 2008 Sunday
It was not so cold this morning. 20˚ seemed positively balmy. I even left the chicken door open so they could have a change of air. DS Mark and granddaughter Hailey, age 15, borrowed my car and Sally’s snowshoes and joined Martin and Amy at camp. They all climbed Center Hill. I assume this means just from the main road to the parking lot as through the woods to the rocky summit would have been out of the question. They did a 3 mile round trip they said. Martin carries Hannah, 22 months, and DIL Amy is 7 months pregnant so I guess they are all in good shape. The snow is very deep.
Amy is eating plenty of red meat. Her OB/Gyn says her iron level is better than most non pregnant women. Amy told her she is eating lots of red meat (from Coburn Farm). The doctor said “If there were one piece of advice I would like to impress on all my pregnant patients, it would be eat red meat.”
I sent plenty of tasty leftovers along for their lunch and cooked a pot of white beans for Sally and me. I soaked them Saturday night and simmered them today in chicken broth. We ate them topped with Sally’s feta marinated in herbs and olive oil with cole slaw on the side.
The cows are warm and cozy but it began snowing hard about 3:30pm and there is a high wind. I was sorry I opened that chicken door. The combination of wind and a shift in shape of my timber framed barn made it impossible to close the door. After 15 minutes of trying I resorted to a lash-up involving good old hay string.
Sally talks to people in Haines AK. Like much of AK, they are enduring unprecedented cold. Haines usually has a Seattle-type climate but is now -10˚ with lots of snow. Sally’s house sitters are suffering because they cannot get the house above 55˚ and the pipes have frozen. In an unprecedented move, the State ferry has been stopped due to excessive icing. Such icing could cause the ferry to flip.
Son Bret in Fairbanks where it is far colder reports that all his plumbing has frozen. Fortunately he never retired his outhouse.
Both cows gave a little under 2 gallons this morning.
February 11, 2008 Monday
It snowed a lot more last night accompanied by violent wind. Great drifts formed. A drift shaped like the Matterhorn is outside my kitchen window. I have to stand on tiptoes in the kitchen to see over it. There was no need to call for plowing. The snow that fell on the front lawn and driveway all blew away. A large drift formed in front of the barn. I don’t believe I could have gotten into the barn at all, at least not without falling sidewise several times and making snow angels. Sally shoveled out a nice channel for me. My hay string on the chicken door was not entirely successful. The wind dragged it open a couple of inches and let in snow all over everything. We kept the cows shut in but snow crept under the door leaving a quarter of their room white. It was not as cold as some suffer in the Midwest and Canada, only 10F, but with the wind it seemed a lot colder. It is wonderful that the water is still running, we have not lost power (got to watch Pride and Prejudice last night!) and the Aga is running perfectly so we are getting along just fine. But it does seem like a long hard winter. The wind is still blowing. I did not even try to light fires until late in the day. Too much smoke puffs out into the room.
Sally made two loaves of bread. I made 10 pints of marmalade with Seville oranges that DD Marcia sent from her garden in Florida.
Jasmine gave a bit under 2 gallons, Helen gave 2 ½. Sally left her standing for a few minutes after milking and then came back to see if she could get some of that cream that Helen hates to part with.
February 12, 2008 Tuesday
The day started at about 10˚F with sun but a strong wind is continuing to drift the snow. I had a dental appointment but went by myself this time because Sally feels badly about leaving the dogs tied out in this weather. I met Max in Farmington and gave him 4 gallons of milk. I drove over on the more traveled road and it was perfectly clear. I returned home by the scenic route by Weld and the roads were very snowy and actually slippery at the height of land. I did not see another car for at least 5 miles.
Back home I found that Sally had created order in the laundry room with different furniture including a set of shelves for my teetering pile of sweaters. Lovely.
DD Sally’s daughter Rebecca wrote from Denmark where she and her husband have gone for his grandmother’s 100th birthday. How the Danes do love to party! She said they started at 9 am and were still going strong at 3am that night and that included the old folks too.
DD Abby sent this anecdote from her daughter Helena about Helena’s daughter Natalie, my great granddaughter, age 26 months who weighs about 24 pounds.
Natalie gets "time outs" when she smacks somebody now... Helena sends her to her room for a bit. She's not real fond of being banished-- but the other day (this is SO FUNNY) she smacked the 30-ish-year old girlfriend of one of Helena's acquaintances for some infraction (I never heard why) and when Helena turned threateningly to her she said "Nat not sorry!! Time out!!"
I thought it was pretty funny too.
Today, February 12, was marked on my calendar for Helen’s heat. We saw nothing until this evening. When I went into the beefer pen, Helen came right up to me in a very friendly way and Jasmine was right behind her with her neck against Helen’s hip bone. Definitely heat. Jasmine would otherwise never invade Helen’s space like that.
February 13, 2008 Wednesday
Today was mostly about weather. Snow fell very heavily all night and all day. The early morning temperature was 10˚F but slowly rose all day eventually getting above 30˚. At this point the snow turned to sleet but has not stopped. Much of the state is receiving rain and is flooding. Max and Mitra laughed this morning at 5am when they turned on local TV to learn if schools were closed. The crawler said, “Closed – Maine, State of”.
That did not include the Federal Gov’t. and USPS. Snow had covered the mailbox 6” above its top. The door hangs open, having been damaged a couple of weeks ago by the plow. The presence of the box was marked only by a small tunnel like opening into its dark interior. I shoveled for 15 minutes and then clamored onto the berm as the plow came by and filled in all my work. I shoveled another 15 minutes and another plow came by and repeated the performance. Then Sally came out and took over. But I got my mail, one telephone bill and a seed catalogue.
Most of the day I worked on my critique of the Mark Bittman piece from the NYT. It keeps getting longer but is about finished.
Sally and I had a wonderful dinner. I have had a hankering for a dish called Potiron de Arpajon. It is just a baked puree of white beans and pumpkin. It is one of the recipes in Real Food. A day or so ago I cooked a pound of Great Northern beans which are a white bean that cooks to a lovely creamy consistency. I cooked them in a combination of pork and chicken stock. This is the recipe.
1 quart of cooked white beans 1 quart of cooked and pureed pumpkin 1 ½ cup or so of minced mixed vegetables, celery, carrot and onion
Sautee the veg in butter until limp, then cover and steam until tender.
In a food processor or by hand, puree the beans and add the cooked veg and 2 eggs. Add the pumpkin and some herbs such as thyme. Salt and pepper to taste. Blend well. Then blend in 1 cup of heavy cream.
Place mixture in a flat buttered casserole type dish so that is about 2” deep. Bake for about an hour until the top resembles pumpkin pie.
I served this with Alaskan wild caught sockeye salmon. Sally made fresh coleslaw and I made fresh mayonnaise using lime juice and olive oil to put on the salmon.
February 14, 2008 Thursday
Last night was cold and the heavy wet snow ending in sleet has frozen into a difficult situation in the driveway. I could not possibly have gotten my car out of the garage before I got plowed out at 5:30pm. I was very glad that Martin slipped those new creeper spikes onto my boots. Even highly independent Sally agreed to carry a ski pole to the barn. Despite Sally’s exertions the mail lady did not leave my mail.
I did not milk Jasmine this morning. I will milk tomorrow if she is engorged and perhaps every other day until her production is safely lowered.
DD Marcia in Florida told me what her koi did today. They had a heavy rain which overflowed the koi pond. She walked out and found the smaller fish playing around on the wet grass. When they saw her they slithered back into their pool. I never knew koi would do that.
DD Sally’s daughter Rosemary is currently studying at the McDowell Colony in Peterborough NH. She was walking down the street today wearing her boots when a young man driving past rolled down his window and shouted, “Extra-Toughs! You must be from Alaska!” Apparently those are the boots they all wear. She looked at him and recognized a man she knows from the little fishing village of Cordova where she and Nate keep their salmon boat. Rosemary attracts people. Remember the time she was in Croatia and a burly man came charging down the street and threw his arms around her? He too was an Alaskan fisherman part of the year and recognized her. She is unmistakable of course, very tiny with a mass of yellow hair and a purposeful stride.
February 15, 2008 Friday
We had sun today until about 2pm and the thermometer got up to 20F. They clouds blew in and by 4pm was again snowing hard. The weatherman tells us that an Arctic front is on its way in and we should expect subzero temperatures with windchills down to -30F. We have had 17 snowstorms and over 100 inches of snow so far this winter.
I milked Jasmine this morning. She gave 3 ¾ gallons. When milk spends two days inside a cow like that its flavor is not so delicate but it is not undrinkable. I would not sell it.
That essay or article that I have been working on for well over a week is finally done. Sally is proof reading it for me and probably suggesting changes. Max or Mitra will soon post it on my web site. It is a critique of a NYT article by Mark Bittman.
Sally finished up making the second and last batch of marmalade. She said it was a good project for a stormy day.
It was cold this morning, -0-F as predicted. No problems in the barn. I skipped milking Jasmine. She is full but not suffering. Helen was down this morning, only 1 ¾ gallons.
I started another teleme cheese. It only has to be in the press a couple of hours, then goes into brine for 24 hours. Sally made a really world class blueberry pie with a lard crust (Max and Mitra's rendered leaf lard). The blueberries came from a lady right here in Carthage.
It stayed cold all day, also blowy. Even though the sun was shining Sally did not attempt a walk. Her trails are all drifted in.
A large part of my day was devoted to electronic affairs, not my long suit. First an hour wrestling with trying to update an account that had to have all new sign-in stuff. Then the TV would not get my stations that I watch on Saturday morning, Simply Ming, Julia Child and Victory Garden. I finally solved that problem by paying my bill on line. That is another thing I am not fast at. DTV has never cut me off before no matter how late I was. I wonder if this is a sign of recession, lots of people are slow-pay and they are losing patience. At least I got my reception back in time for Victory Garden, my favorite program.
Mitra and the gals on my forum finally wore me down and I have ordered the Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook for Sally and me. Mitra posted pictures of some of my A+ homegrown grassfed Jersey steaks. I have not yet eaten one myself from this year’s meat.
February 18, 2008 Monday
Sunday morning I got bad news when we strained the milk. Jasmine’s would not strain. The strainer was so clogged that I got tired of waiting for the last couple of quarts to go through and dumped it. The filter was slimy and had clumps on it. I taste the milk from each quarter daily and the right front is often faintly salty so that is where suspicion lies although there has been no slow straining nor clumps. The skipped milkings have given it a chance to fulminate. I went back out to the barn and rubbed lard on the suspect quarter and applied liberal handfuls of hot chili pepper. This does not hurt my hands or her udder but draws a faint heat to the area. I repeated the treatment twice more on Sunday.
Today, Monday, was a day when I would have skipped milking on my drying off program. Instead I took four pint jars to the barn and filled each one by hand, labeling the jars. The milk from the suspect quarter was only very slightly different in flavor. Not salty but a little flat and without the sweetness it should have, more like store-bought. It strained perfectly and there were no clumps on the filter. I applied the chili powder treatment three times today. Jasmine has no objection to the treatment. I did not have to bring her into her stanchion. I don’t deceive myself that the infection is gone.
I milked the three presumed healthy quarters by hand but not all the way out.
One rooster is missing. He is a smallish one that gets picked on and he lives by himself in the beefer pen. Yesterday he was crouched in the corner looking discouraged so Sally brought him some grain. This morning at 5:30 when Sally went to the barn the rafter birds were already running around which is unusual and were making a big fuss and the dogs were all excited. The lonely rooster was not to be found, neither were there any feathers on the floor. So the puzzle remains. Sally walked down to the woods where the fox has a den and did not see any feathers there either. It rained last night so she could not see any tracks.
Helen gave two gallons.
February 19, 2008 Tuesday
I had hoped to be able to milk just the one quarter on Jasmine, that was assuming she didn’t let down all over the place. Of course she did so I put the machine on three quarters and milked one quarter by hand. That quarter produced about one quart of milk of pretty good flavor. It strained perfectly and there was nothing on the filter. Sally noticed that it was unusually creamy and said it was perfect in her tea. I am going to skip milking her tomorrow and see what I find on Thursday. She is getting about 10 grams of vitamin C on her little bit of grain. I have cut her way back to slow her down but she is not slowing much. Counting the quarter I milked by hand she gave 2 gallons this morning.
In hopes of evolving a way to machine milk Helen, I have ordered parts for an old deLaval type machine I have. I got it all assembled today. It is so long since I have used it that it about wore out my brain figuring out how it worked. The worst part was assembling the inflations and shells and putting together the air hoses. Even after immersing them in boiling water I could barely do it. DD Sally finally managed the inflations. I don’t know how Claire does it. I believe she has the machine washing set-up which is out of the question for me because my vacuum pump is in the barn and the hot water is in the kitchen. I will have to see what I can work out in my kitchen.
Sally and I took the assembled unit to the barn and put it on the vacuum pump. It sounds good. We will see what Helen thinks of it tomorrow.
Sally found the missing rooster wedged into a crevice among the hay bales. Two big arrogant roosters were patrolling the area to pounce on him should he dare emerge. Sally ran them off and gave him some grain.
I just learned that DS Bret is coming for a week’s visit starting March 13. He has scientific meetings in Washington DC which bring him east.
February 20, 2008 Wednesday
It seems almost as though today never happened. My email provider closed up shop dumping us all. I spent so much of today doing something to which I am ill fitted, that is, floundering among computer issues, that I feel wrung out and headachy. There are still things not working right but some mail is flowing again.
What I really should be writing about is Helen’s new program. I got the revised deLaval milking machine going and used it on Helen this morning. She did not fight it but she only let down for about three minutes. The big element of success was that unlike the Surge, these inflations work fine on her teats. The unit has a clear hose so you can see the milk flowing. Her one quarter that used to have mastitis does not produce well so I had to take that teat cup off after about three minutes and that made everything fall off. This falling off of the claw is a far greater problem with the deLaval than with the Surge. I had stupidly failed to bring along the plugs that go into an unused cup so all the other cups kept falling off while I tried to deal with the issue by holding my hand over the top. I have used this type of machine before and was perfectly familiar with this problem. The whole shebang drops down into the sawdust when you lose vacuum anywhere. I’ll have better success tomorrow. Sally finished milking her by hand. For Sally she let down.
We left Oakley in his stall. Unless for some reason such as mastitis I am forced to reverse course, he is weaned. He is four months old and probably 450 lbs. He has been getting most of the cream. You can’t even see his backbone.
Sad to say, he and Helen are both bellowing and may keep it up all night.
There is a high wind and it is about 10˚.
And Sally’s new trap line scored four mice the first night.
I did not milk Jasmine. Helen totaled about 1 ½ gallon.
February 21, 2008 Thursday
The weather remains cold and sunny. The thermometer hovers around 10F.
Poor Oakley continues to mourn but Helen is relaxing. I was more skillful with the machine this morning so the claw did not fall off. Sally was only able to strip out about a quart. Even without access to Oakley she only gave 2 gallons so she must be holding up. After milking Helen, we poured the milk into a standby bucket and I put the machine on Jasmine and got another two gallons. There was no evidence of mastitis on the filter although the milk from her troubled quarter still does not taste perfect.
Sally made feta. I made yummy vegetable soup and an apple cake because I had the vet stop by to give rabies shots to the dogs and asked him for lunch. Both the apple cake and the feta were from recipes posted on my forum (Carrie and Heather).
DS Max came over for milk and afterwards went to look at the camps at Weld. There was a story on the front page of today’s paper telling us all about a professional burglar known to police as far away as Florida only as “Grumpy” who had been breaking into camps. Grumpy was actually apprehended by deputies in the tiny town of Weld. Two deputies were home sick and heard a description of a suspicious red pickup truck with Florida plates when what should drive by on their one lane road but that very truck. Perhaps the burglar was out that way scouting for more likely looking camps and had not realized it was a dead end. Anyway, he’s in the jailhouse now. The picture accompanying the article is of a very grumpy looking guy.
Max snow shoed in and is pleased to report that neither camp had been entered.
February 22, 2008 Friday
It seems I have a few things to learn about the deLaval machine. Something was preventing it from maintaining vacuum. Sally ended up milking by hand. I took over from her after ten minutes. That is the point when her hands give out. That was one of my motivations in assembling the machine. The plan was to wean Oakley and start getting more milk to compensate for Jasmine and just as importantly, get the cream. Maybe tomorrow. So far there has been no new volume of milk to reflect Oakley’s separation but I could tell she was not letting down all the way for me. It was -10˚, not a day to linger in the barn.
Back at the house I removed the pulsator from the lid and saw that I had not shoved it back fully on the conversion unit. The first day I used this machine I just said the heck with it and rinsed everything with the spray hose without taking it apart, since I am not selling milk and nothing goes sour in this weather anyway. Then yesterday I called Parts Department and had the guy walk me through disassembly so I could wash it properly. Good thing I had already had one day of it working right or I would have been awfully discouraged.
Mitra and Max do not expect to take Helen until April.
It is snowing again. It began about 11am and at 9pm has not stopped. It is falling on ice and in this cold weather, now up to 10˚ above, the snow is dry and fluffy. Over ice it is wicked slippery. Sally took a test run and reported that out on the fields the walking was fine without snow shoes so I accompanied her and the dogs on their walk to the river. It is frozen over again. We have been encouraging growth along the river as much as we can in hopes of holding the bank, now badly undercut after just a few years of clear cutting and chip removal. I have lost almost every one of the great noble maples and lindens that formerly grew along the river. Smaller growth is doing its best to fill in. There is a lot of witch hazel (Hammemelis) and hawthorne (Crataegus oxyacantha).
The dogs came along when we went out for evening chores. Helen was furious about this. She was watching her Oakley through the little viewing port I provided and switching her tail like a cat. You could almost hear her saying “Get those dogs outta here before they get in with my Oakley!” Actually Oakley is fond of sniffing noses with Willie if Sally opens the door a crack for them. Helen highly disapproves.
2 ½ gallons this morning from Helen. I did not milk Jasmine.
Another -10˚ morning but the sun came out brilliantly and it got up to about 27˚. This was enough to stabilize the light fluffy snow on smooth ice that was so treacherous. It is now a little safer to walk on.
I managed to coordinate everything with the deLaval machine this morning and milked Helen with little trouble. It was not perfect though, because the vacuum pressure was low. Adjusting it requires tools that were up as the house. I went out later with Sally and adjusted it. Maybe tomorrow will go perfectly. Helen’s cream line is improving but she is still not letting down perfectly.
Sally took the dogs for a walk as usual, then went over to her little house and moved some lumber to make the place look nicer. She is fond of her little house.
Then this afternoon she dressed off one of the roosters that are filling up the barn. She killed the one that she said has “freezer burn”. Amazing how many extra roosters there are all the time. She put the innards out in the barnyard for the fox.
Oakley the calf has not been drinking his water very well and then I have to get ice out of the bucket. This morning I got smart and gave him warm molasses water and he drank it all.
The King Arthur flour catalogue had a recipe for hot cross buns that called for candied citrus peel. I made these today using some candied peel I made last month with that strange fruit called Buddha’s Hands. The buns were tasty but got too brown on top. Another time if I make them I will leave off the glaze.
I skipped milking Jasmine today, the first two-day skip. Helen gave 2 ½ gallons.
February 24, 2008 Sunday
The machine worked OK this morning and Helen stood perfectly. However she still did not give much above 2 gallons. I also milked Jasmine. She had skipped two days and gave 2 ½ gallons.
I have a dental appointment tomorrow that requires me to leave here at 9am. There are a lot of chores for both of us in the morning and we would need to start an hour early to make a 9am departure with any grace whatsoever. So we are giving ourselves a day off by putting Oakley back with Helen. Sally moved him back over today.
We had nice visitors today. First our old neighbors Joe and Crystal Mills and young Devon, stopped in for a nice chat. Also Darlene and Bob Rottinghouse, DS Martin’s plant manager, stopped in on their way home from a weekend at Martin and Amy’s camp.
February 25, 2008 Monday Things worked smoothly this morning with no cows to milk. In fact Sally did everything and I did not go to the barn at all.
We drove to Skowhegan, an hour and a half on good roads with sunny weather. I had an appointment with a dentist who makes partials. He took lower impressions. He is a semi- retired gentleman who clearly has a vast experience of dentistry. While waiting, Sally walked down the street to the USDA Extension office and got a lot of information on riparian erosion control.
We stopped at Mitra’s on the way home. She gave us a delicious salad of romaine lettuce and cold sliced homegrown fried chicken. We then toured the barn and viewed the red pigs. Max and Mitra have noticed that Wesley, their steer (Jasmine’s last year’s calf) has not had much enthusiasm for his hay. Mitra sent a bale home with us to try on the cows.
Back home, we were greeted by happy dogs bouncing against the gate. This was not supposed to be. Sally had left them in the garage behind a heavy rolling door. But Bagel is both strong and clever and had scrabbled the door open. Fortunately Sally had gone back as we left and chained the outer gate so they were still in the dooryard.
Oakley appeared to have had a good day with mom. He marched right back into his box stall like a good boy.
Sally put the whole bale (from Mitra's) into the feeder sans strings. The cows were suspicious of it for about 15 minutes. Helen used it to rub her chin on elaborately. Then they tore into it and in an hour and a half had eaten it all.
February 27, 2008 Wednesday
Jasmine is finally backing off on milk production. The last time I milked her was Sunday. She is still getting her vitamin C every day. There is no hardness in her right front quarter.
Helen and Oakley’s day together on Monday led to a sad parting. Both have done a lot of bellowing ever since and yesterday Helen held up her milk. Today Helen relented and gave 2 ½ gallons.
It snowed all last night. We got about 8” of new wet snow. Sally shoveled a long time so that she could open the gate and liberate the mail box. Later when Ted came to plow, I had to move my car which I had left in the driveway because I knew I would not be able to get in or out of the garage. But darn it, the battery was dead. Ted had cables and was able to get me started. He found that the back hatch was not quite shut and the dome light had run down the battery. I hope the battery is not ruined.
February 28, 2008 Thursday
All through this morning’s milking with Helen, Oakley bawled his head off. He must be very thirsty. He won’t touch his water. He thinks he should have milk I guess. I certainly will think twice or thrice about putting him and Helen back together. She could hear him bellowing of course and would barely let down. I doubt I got more than ¼ of the milk from her front left which was stuffed. The milk did not strain all that well either so I hope she has not given herself mastitis. Later I went out with warm molasses water for Oakley to tempt him to drink and he did drink his bucket down about 3”. Mostly he runs around looking agitated. It was so pleasant to be able to take a day off from milking but I surely am paying for it. It would be well and good if all I cared about was getting two or three quarts of low fat milk. Then there would be no issue. I could have that any day. What I want is a lot more cream.
The machine worked perfectly. That was not the problem. Nor did Helen lift her feet. I am recovering my skills with this type of machine. This type with the claw/cluster at the end of four foot hoses is advantageous for a cow like Helen with a pendulous udder under which there is no room for the Surge. It does take more skill and coordination to get the teat cups on and I find the plugs to be indispensable. All Helen’s quarters produce different amounts. Without the plugs if I were to take off a cup from a poor quarter it would sweep the floor and suck up shavings, lose vacuum, and the whole unit would fall off.
Also, disassembling the cluster for cleaning is much more demanding. Partly no doubt because all the rubber is new, it takes the strength of ten to pull it apart and there are more things to wash. Having washing facilities in the barn near the vacuum pump or having a second vacuum pump in the house, would permit one to take advantage of the self cleaning function of this design. You pour out the milk from the bucket and bottle it. Then you stick the cluster into cleaning solution and turn on the pump and pump water through it. Somebody on the forum once described how they had modified a vacuum cleaner so as to be able to create vacuum for clean-up in the kitchen. I must think about this.
February 29, 2008 Leap Day Friday
It was 20 below zero this morning. The machine behaved just fine. I warm it on the Aga and take it to the barn wrapped in a towel. But the vacuum pump would not get above 8 lbs on the gauge. I assume it has ice somewhere. I ended up milking almost entirely by hand and only got 1 ½ gallons.
I set up a small heater with a blower next to the pump and ran it for several hours. Afterwards it behaved better but morning will tell if it is truly recovered.
Oakley continues to bellow a great deal. He just won’t quit. I keep him supplied with molasses water and he is drinking a lot better but mostly he is just not ready to accept the grim truth. He is weaned, this time with no turning back. Helen answers pretty often but I don’t think she is initiating the bellowing any more.
Helen’s milk continues to strain poorly. I am going to start her on vitamin C tomorrow and see if that helps. There are no clumps or slime on the filter and no off taste.
I did not milk Jasmine. Her bag is not real tight but she is not resorbing yet. She is very bouncy and cheerful.
I had a dental appointment today and Sally came along in hopes of shopping but it got too late for her real destination, the book store. We did get to the health food store, gourmet shop for tea and coffee and to the Farmer’s Union for salt. The cows had completely run out.
While we were gone DS Martin arrived. He called later from camp to tell me he had a present for each of the cows, something big and round. Round bales! They will be pleased to have some different hay.
A new storm is on the way. We are told to expect over a foot this time.
The snow arrived as predicted. It snowed all day and it is still falling at 10pm. I don’t know if we got a foot but we got a lot. DS Martin walked up to his sister’s camp not far from his and reports that on her carriage house (garage) roof the snow is four feet deep. Walking on the crust, he just stepped over the garden gate.
Martin and his friend John arrived here at 8am. Martin brought two round bales of very good hay for the cows. They got all excited about it and spent the day hovering around it. There is nothing wrong with the hay they have but they enjoy a change. Martin has a round bale spike for the Kubota but could not use it because the tines are frozen onto the Kubota bucket. So the two guys rolled the bale in, after doing a great deal of digging so as to get the barn doors open.
It was not so cold today. The machine worked well at milking time and Helen let down well. Sorry to say there were some clumps on the filter. I started her on vitamin C.
Oakley was a little less noisy. He has decided he likes warm water with molasses and drank about 3 gallons of it today.
Martin, DIL Amy, baby Hannah and three of their friends came here for dinner. I served them a fresh ham (from Max and Mitra’s) which I brined according to the recipe in The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook. It made a big hit. Amy brought an elegant green salad and I also served baked beans and Israeli couscous cooked in stock from a Coburn Farm rooster that DD Sally dressed off last week. Sally made a chocolate cake using the sour dough recipe to be found in an older edition of the Joy of Cooking. It resembles Devils Food Cake. She used some superior chocolate that her daughter Rebecca sent me for Christmas.
As long as somebody will watch, baby Hannah, 22 months, endlessly dances around and sings Ring around a Rosie and falls down on pillows and similar games. She is endlessly cheerful. She and mom Amy had been to a baby shower earlier in the day where she played with other kids and ate cake but she showed no sign of wearing out.
Martin was in his plow truck and plowed out the driveway. The amount of snow seems almost unbelievable.
DS John called from Australia. He said a koala bear was in a eucalyptus tree right next to their deck.
March 2, 2008 Sunday
The wind blew violently all day. Sally did not attempt to walk the dogs. DS Martin and his friends viewed things differently. They have big kites like sails which they took out onto the frozen lake and whizzed around. They reported the best kite sailing ever.
On their way back to town Martin and DIL Amy and baby Hannah stopped in and had a bite of supper, leftovers from last night’s pork roast, couscous and beans. They finished up all the leftovers except there is still plenty of pork, it having been a very large roast. They both agreed it was as good as any pork they could remember both in texture and flavor.
The cows continue to act pleased with their hay. They both lie down next to the big round bale in a proprietary manner to chew their cuds. Sally put up a wooden pallet to prevent excessive dilapidation of the bale.
Helen gave a bit over 2 gallons. There are still signs of mastitis.
March 3, 2008 Monday
Today started out at zero but warmed up to 23˚ and we even had an hour or so of sun. Two more storms are predicted for this week, both to be a mix of snow, sleet and rain.
I used the machine again this morning on Helen but milked the quarter that I suspected of mastitis separately by hand. The other three quarters strained pretty well but still a little slowly, I thought. I am going to milk her completely by hand starting tomorrow until I am sure there is no more mastitis. I suspect that her relentless holding up for Oakley is the root cause. The problem is in the quarter that gave trouble before. She gave 2 ¼ gallons this morning.
The weight of snow has caused the roof over DD Sally’s son Rafe’s boat to collapse. The boat, a steel hulled sailboat about 35’long, is on struts over by Sally’s little unoccupied house. The boat itself does not appear to be threatened.
Some thoughtful anonymous friend has sent me a promising book by Paul Hawkin called Blessed Unrest. Thank you, whoever you are.
March 4, 2008 Tuesday
We milked Helen by hand this morning. There was little sign of mastitis but I will keep on with hand milking for a few days anyway. Sally and I can share the task. Sally likes to milk but her hands get achy after one gallon. My hands hold out ok but I am slow. This morning we got 2 gallons not counting the affected quarter, which I milked out separately for the cats.
Sally got everything organized to whack another rooster, I even sharpened the little cleaver, but the roosters are still scared of her and she could not catch one. Maybe tomorrow.
A neighbor who had too many roosters brought us three beauties today. One is a large Barred Rock, the other two are Gold Lace Wyandotte crosses. I have them in separate quarters for the present. It will be good to have some new bloodlines.
Sally reports having seen a flight of ducks today. She estimated 15. Perhaps spring will come after all. It was in the 20’s today and felt downright balmy.
Helen was in heat today. I hope she does not wear out little Jasmine. On her next heat I will lock her outside. She can go into the lean-to.
We made six pounds of lard.
March 5, 2008 Wednesday
As predicted, a new storm blew in last night. There is not much new snow. It was mostly wind and sleet. The crust is increased but walking is actually easier. The temperature ranged in the 20’s and 30’s which made for icing and slush on the roads. Most schools were called off. There are flood warnings out. It cleared enough by late afternoon for Sally to go out on snowshoes with the dogs. She heard but could not see a strange bird. She will take field glasses with her tomorrow in hopes of a glimpse.
Helen was out of heat this morning, no signs of it but persistent tail swishing. She gave 2 gallons. There was no sign of mastitis. I have been applying the hot pepper rub and feeding vitamin C.
The cows continue their devotion to the round bale. It is braced up in a corner and Sally has tied a wooden pallet in front of it. There has been very little waste. Oakley is eating his hay well. He also gets 4 cups/day of COB. I continue to take him warm water. He is drinking almost 3 gallons/day. I had to leave out the molasses today as I am out of what I had in the house. My supplier did not get it in for me as hoped.
For our dinner tonight I tried another recipe in The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook, this time is was Rebecca’s Coconut Curry Lamb. It was outstandingly good. I made some substitutions. It called for two cans of coconut milk and I had only one on hand so used partly cream. Her curry paste directions were for making it in a blender or food processor. I have what I think is a better way. Rather than using olive oil I use melted butter which is more authentic and besides I no longer trust olive oil and prefer to use a home grown product. I peel the garlic and mash it in the melted butter in a small frying pan. I add the dry curry powder or spice blend and fry it until it bubbles up. I used three tablespoons of mild curry powder and one tablespoon of hot Madras curry. This came out just to our taste, which is to say just spicy enough to eat without feeling the need to fan one’s tongue. A good accompaniment would be yogurt or a raita of cucumber and yogurt.
Now here is some lovely news. DD Marcia’s daughter Caiti, my granddaughter age 25, and her fiancé just told us that there is to be a baby next November. Of course we can’t help saying things like, “How will you manage?” But somehow we all do and the world keeps turning.
March 6, 2008 Thursday
The sun came out and our snow covered world seemed almost like spring.
Helen exhibited no signs of mastitis.
DD Sally and I went shopping for food, books and to the Free Store. Sally found some very ancient and soft wool blankets.
DS Martin’s product, CorrectDeck, was mentioned in a feature in the Wall Street Journal. The article explored the costs and benefits of green construction.
March 7, 2008 Friday
The weatherman led us to expect another sunny day but it turned out overcast. At least the bitter cold has not returned. It got into the 30’s and there was a lot of dripping from the eaves. A flight of ducks went over. The great drift outside the kitchen window that I have been on tiptoes to see over has settled down a few inches. A new storm is predicted for tonight. I looked at the hay again today and think it will last. The two round bales that DS Martin brought last week gave me confidence. The first bale lasted Helen and Jasmine one week exactly.
Helen gave 2 ¼ gallons this morning. She stood quietly and there was no sign of mastitis. We milked all four quarters into the bucket (Sorry, cats.).
The three new roosters have had three days in confinement but are able to see my birds through the wire. I left the door to their roomette open this morning thinking it might be time for them to commingle. They commingled all right. The two Lace Wyandottes (the Barred Rock stayed on his perch) and at least one of my rafter birds fought viciously. Blood was everywhere. Now one of the new roosters is in a private recovery coop, one is back in their roomette together with the one that stayed out of trouble, and my homeboy rooster crouched outside the door to this cage. Max was here for milk. When we opened their door to put in the water pan the crouching rooster hurled himself inside the cage and went berserkers for his enemy. Max grabbed him out and he retreated to the hay mow. This evening when Sally went up to serve out the hay she was able to grab him. She took him right into the beefer pen and whacked him with a cleaver we had on standby. She dressed him off immediately and he weighed 3 ½ pounds drawn. There is a lot of meat on him.
It has remained warm, well into the 30’s and there is even a whiff of spring. Certain little insects called springtails that appear on the snow are now hurrying along. Max says they contain natural antifreeze. Because another storm was predicted, Sally took her walk early. The crust has become punky making walking difficult even on snowshoes. She walked as far as the place where the spring line is broken and sprays water in the air. We call it the ice castle because it forms amazing crystal structures.
Later the rain started and has now come down heavily for hours. The dogs would not go out in it. Willie especially acted injured by the suggestion. He has short legs and a great mop of wavy fur.
At last I am working on my seed order. I am shocked at how much seed prices have risen. I am emphasizing vegetables that will survive winter storage. Supermarket vegetables are going out of sight.
Once again today we milked by hand. Helen gave 2 ¼ gallons. The filter was perfectly clear.
March 10, 2008 Monday
The wind blew violently all day.
On Sunday I used the milking machine on Helen again. She made no objection but let down for it poorly. We ended up stripping almost three more quarts and concluded it was more trouble than it was worth. This morning Helen gave 2 ½ gallons easily. Sally milked the whole way while I worked on beefer pen clean-up.
A couple of days in the 30’s has meant a lot of melting. New ice sheets are forming in the dooryard. Sally says the river is up a foot. The water is flowing above the ice.
I made the apple cake that was posted on the forum by Carrie Cutie pie. I have made this cake now several times with great success. I use a little less sugar, whole wheat pastry flour and instead of oil I use melted butter.
March 11, 2008 Monday
It started out at zero this morning but the days are longer and the sun shone. It got up into the 30’s before the day was over. The giant snow piles are compacting. Ice again covers my parking area. It is very dangerous and far too extensive to be able to salt or sand it. We just keep the front gate shut to discourage visitors from stopping by to break a leg. I drove to Skowhegan again today for a dental appointment. Back home, I was unable to back the car into the garage. Four wheel drive does not help when all four are on ice.
Sally did not come with me as planned. She coughed and struggled for breath all last night as a result of spinning alpaca yesterday. She stayed home to rest and run the vacuum in hopes of getting rid of the offending particles. It is lovely fleece. She hopes that by washing it she can remove whatever it is that is affecting her. She also made bread.
On my way home I stopped in at Max and Mitra’s and had a delicious bowl of beef and barley soup.
March 12, 2008 Wednesday
Sally is feeling depleted so preferred that I use the machine this morning on Helen. I extracted about 1 ¾ gallon from her with the machine and then we stripped out another two quarts.
Sally now thinks she has a cold. She made some high powered chicken soup for lunch containing garlic and chili flakes, also rice and celery. I keep plenty of chicken stock frozen all the time so it was easy. The soup greatly resembled Vietnamese Pho and was delicious. Max came by as part of his mission to replace my troublesome kitchen sink tap and had a bowl. I had also made a baked custard.
Max brought me the 5 gallons of molasses I had ordered from his local all natural feed store. They bring it down from Canada.
I served liver for dinner as part of Sally’s health program. I have lots in the freezer from our two steers. To freeze it I slice the raw liver and lay it on waxed paper in a big flat pan. Then I add a double layer of waxed paper and another layer of liver and so on until the pan is full. This way the layers do no adhere to each other and I can take out as many or as few slices as I need. After it is frozen I take it out of the pan and put it into a big plastic bag.
The three new roosters are reasonably comfortable in their 5’ high cage. They have groomed away most traces of blood from their plumage. I suppose I will have to provide them with separate care in there until spring when they can have all outdoors to sort things out with the resident cocks of the walk.
March 13, 2008 Thursday
Zero again this morning but it warmed up into the 30’s under a clear blue sky. People who are tapping maples should have had a good flow today. Cold nights followed by warm days make the sap flow.
A friend of mine with a little boy who just turned three reports the following conversation yesterday with her son:
Yesterday Will was in the tub doing a little self exploration, he suddenly looked up at me and whilst pointing 'down there' said "Mommy, there's a marble in here and even another one." I must have had a look on my face because he quickly said, "It' s ok Mommy I didn't choke when I swallowed them."
I hope she put this into her journal. That little boy will never hear the end of this. Upon reflection, you begin to wonder how many marbles he did swallow.
We milked by hand again today and Helen gave 2 ½ gallons.
I got my seed order in. What a relief. I had it almost finished making out my order to Johnny’s when I became alarmed by the total I was spending. FEDCO seeds are less than half the price. I don’t enjoy ordering from them because their ordering procedure, although improved over a few years ago, is not customer friendly. Besides being awkward it is hedged about with rules and warnings. But I hurriedly went through their catalogue and made selections. I had wanted to order potatoes for planting but their immutable deadline is tomorrow so I could not make it. Maybe the Farmer’s Union will have potatoes. They are a lot of work, albeit fun work, but I feel the need to grow as many winter vegetables as possible. Prices for all vegetables in the market are becoming frightening.
Sally and the dogs walked to the bottom of pocket field where they were puzzled by the sight of a cluster of black animals. When they got closer they discovered that it was a cluster of our barn cats. What they were doing bunched up there on the snow far from the barn is a great puzzle. When Sally and the dogs got close the cats dispersed.
Sally is feeling a little better but still coughing. She is eating a lot of garlic in hopes of a cure. Besides its known antibiotic properties, an article in Science News reports that it is valuable for maintaining good lung function.
March 14, 2008 Friday
In was in the 30’s today and slushy. We milked by hand and got 2 ½ gallons. Sally is still coughing and I don’t think the alpaca is to blame. It is true though that her lungs are highly sensitive to everything so perhaps the alpaca played a role. She and I kept busy doing things in preparation for the arrival of her brother, DS Bret. He has come out from Alaska for USDA Extension Service meetings in Wash. DC and has detoured up here for a week.
After he arrived and ate a big bowl of split pea soup he grabbed a shovel and removed two feet of snow from the deck. Now next time there is sun we can go out there and sit and pretend it is summer. Next he got out the Kubota and made a better lane to the barn. We have been walking on a path pounded into two feet of snow.
I fixed a really good dinner. I made cole slaw with golden raisins and cashews browned in butter. The dressing was just mayo with freshly squeezed orange juice. I made short grain brown rice cooked in duck stock. I roasted one of Max and Mitra’s chickens using the garlic oil rub from the Grassfed Gourmet. This was all delicious. For dessert Sally made a blueberry pie with some gooseberries added and I made vanilla ice cream according to the Sally Fallon recipe also included in the Grassfed book. The pie and ice cream were a great success. We all stuffed ourselves.
Even though she is not due until April 29, Jasmine is having daily shows of mucus. She is perfectly dried off now.
Sally and Bret and the dogs took a walk over to her property across the river. They report that the ice has gone out and the river is flowing clear. Sally thinks it is up about a foot from last week.
Bret went up to Weld and looked at his sister Marcia’s camp. Everything there looked fine. The snow is still so deep that he just stepped over the rail fence. From camp he called Marcia on her cell phone and caught her watching a horse show. Her horse Peter was being ridden by her trainer and it seems was covering himself with glory but Bret, not being especially horsey, does not recall any details. Perhaps Marcia will tell us in the morning.
Bret fixed dinner tonight. He made salmon curry using salmon I had in the freezer from my shipment last summer from Cordova AK. Sally’s da