The New Cow

I spoke too soon. She made it here after all. And just in time. As they were pulling the trailer out to leave it started pouring sleet. Now tomorrow........in ice, snow and cold.....we have TWO cows to milk. Am I insane or what???? I think I'm the only one that is excited but I'm also not heading out to milk in the morning.

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening????

I wish we had an open sleigh for the horse to pull. Maybe one day. Mattie headed out today to take Bullseye for a ride before the big snow storm hits. I thought this was a pretty shot of her from the back window of the house.

The cow did not make it here today as we had trailer trouble. Maybe tomorrow but then we are suppose to have a horrible winter storm including some ice so I don't know when she will be here.

Feet are doing much better. I think by Christmas I will be moving around a lot more. I know we will have a white Christmas. I just hope any storms hold off so that the kids will all be here that day. I have a wonderful meal planned but different than the traditional turkey. I am doing a cranberry pork loin in the crock pot which is a recipe I got from a southern cookbook. Will also make my famous bourbon pecan mashed sweet potatoes. The only thing missing that day will be my extended family. One day we will have Christmas together again.

Winter in Nebraska

Didn't I just post an Autumn post? What a difference a few weeks make! I've never seen temperatures this cold this early in the year. We usually don't see subzero temps until January at the earliest and then only for a night or two. We have had highs in the single digits for several days. I took the above picture from my chair in the living room. I'm stuck sitting in this chair for another week as my feet heal. It's driving me crazy! The only time it pays off is when they head out to milk and it's -10 degrees....and that is the actual temperature. We are talking about -30s for the windchill.

We made a deal last night on a new milk cow. Bitsy will be here today, God willing. We are having another ice storm today so we are hoping to get her moved before that hits. She is carrying a calf which will be born in March. We will trade her new calf and Annabelle for her. So bottom line is that I will have 2 milk cows much earlier than I imagined. We will be breeding Britney again in the next few weeks and Hazel sometime in the spring. So life is moving forward here on Terra Benedicta, despite the frigid weather.

The chickens are busy, busy, busy. I get around 3 dozen eggs a day and sometimes even close to 4 dozen. There are 45 laying hens at last count. This has become a very important staple food for us and one of the biggest incomes in our little store.





Hazel, the nut........so, yes, we call her Hazelnut. This is Jeffrey's heiffer that we are daily having to chase back into the pasture. She is slowly settling down.

Jeffrey milking Britney on a cold morning with Annabelle tied in the other stall.

Autumn in Nebraska

It's that time of year again. The leaves are gone. It took one weekend of those high Nebraska winds and all the leaves are gone leaving bare trees with gray skies, snow flurries, ice, and mushy ground. Winter is around the corner.

We have been busy lately getting the barn and animal houses winterized. We have had some hard freezes so we have gotten to see where we needed heat, boards, patches, etc. We are now in the process of stocking up on hay, alfalfa, and straw. We built a hay stall to hold all this winter grass and a second holding stall for the cows when it gets too cold.

Great news! We are using the neighbors back acreage which will allow us to expand up to 5 cows one day. It's also nice to know that we will not have to worry about running out of grass. We had a close call this summer with the lack of rain. We also were offered another milk cow this weekend in exchange for a calf. I absolutely LOVE bartering. It is the most simple and holy way of simple living and farming.

We have been getting 2 gallons of milk a day from Britney. We remove the calf from her each evening and milk her first thing in the morning. We give the calf a bottle while mom is being milked. This has led to some bonding with Annabelle, the calf. I was hoping to avoid becoming too attached to her but even I have fallen in love with her. We have to keep in mind that in a year or so she will be over 1,000 pounds and NOT something you want to come to you looking for love!

I had surgery on both feet so I am finished dealing with the animals for awhile. I miss them. I miss the smell of the barn in the cold morning. I miss hearing my roosters crow. Funny how the simple things in life add so much joy that we often take for granted. Above are a few photos from Terra Benedicta in the fall. Our first big snow storm is on the way this evening in which we will see our first sub zero temps. This is will be one time I'm glad that I can not go out to the barn!

How Do You Like the World So Far?

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Mom and baby are doing great! When I went out to check on them at noon Annabelle was walking and trying to nurse. Britney is talking to her in low soft moos which just melts the heart. Annabelle still has the fresh cord hanging and the children were able to get a good biology class out of it all. She is a beautiful light red color which will change as she grows into a registered full blooded Jersey! She is just learning to walk which made the children all stand around saying "awwwwww" over and over. This is exciting news at Terra Benedicta! It's our first calf born here at the house. So now we face the future with a milk cow and two heifers. If all goes according to plan I will be running my little dairy in the near future.

Annabelle

It's A.............

GIRL!!!!!!!! Or heifer if you want to be technical. Britney calved this morning. These are the first pictures. Baby girl is not even walking yet. The other heifer, Hazel, is very interested as she thinks this means milk for her too! Mom and baby are doing fine. Jeffrey milked Britney a little right after birth to give the baby a bottle and get it used to sucking. Updates to follow!

Chicken Fried

This is what happens when you give homeschooled children a camera and tell them to make a movie for creative writing class! Hope you enjoy it and find it as funny as we did! And yes, it's our children, our acreage, our barn, our poor chicken.......I am NOT responsible for my son's wardrobe!!!!

http://s292.photobucket.com/albums/mm24/cloisteredhousewife/Chicken%20Fried/?action=view&current=ChickenFried_0001.flv

Mid September

..and things are getting cranked up! We have a new member of Terra Benedicta. This is not Britney's calf but the heifer that Jeffrey worked for this summer. She is newly weaned and in the barn bawling for her momma. She will be ready to breed in April so by next fall we will have another milk cow.

We have not decided yet what to name this one. I was thinking of something cute like May Belle.

Our deligent horse trainer is doing wonders with Bullseye. He is saddle broke and giving rides to the more experienced riders. The next thing for him is to be gelded. We are waiting for the cooler weather and the flies to disappear.

The girls got matching dresses for church from Mrs. Patti. They are so pretty and warm! The cooler weather will be here soon.

Sorry for the lack up updates. There is not much to report. The cow is not giving milk now since she is due to calf next month. We have been enjoying a vacation so to speak without having to worry about milking and school. One thing we did was go to the zoo which is where the photo above was taken. We have also had a lot of company the last month or two. We had friends from Arkansas come up and we have someone here now from Texas. She is a young lady that is breaking the horse for us. I will post photos soon.

We finally got some much needed rain. The garden slowed down so much due to the lack of rain and heat. We have actually seen some night in the 30s here the last week. Things are slowly getting back to normal so there will be more updates now. I will certainly update when we have a new calf! Exciting days ahead, no doubt.

Here is one of our favorite shots from the zoo. You know why, right???? GEAUX TIGERS!!!!!!!!

House Is Almost Finished

The house is finally almost finished. We are waiting for all new gutters and downspouts, painting the doors, a white screen door for the second door (behind screen), and painting the bricks on foundation/basement. But it looks great so far. Here is a before and after shot.

Roof was changed to a soft brown, siding is a light green called "Cactus" and all brown trim is white. The pictures don't show the true color.

Here is the backside after the storm and now. We have to paint the basement bricks and cover where the old shutters were. We also have a new sliding glass door in the basement. I have not decided if I should put shutters back on or not. I would welcome your advice on that.

Butter and Chicks

I've been making butter everyday. I use cream from several days ago that has been refrigerated. I take it out in the morning when we do milking and let is sit all day. After supper each evening it's put in a big jar and I shake it until I have butter! This is as it looks in the jar with the buttermilk before washing and working.

And here it is cleaned and worked. A little salt is added and worked in and then I store in freezer. I probably have a couple pounds always on hand.

We got 18 chicks from someone for free. They are all Leghorn roosters. They were shipped as warming chicks for the ones she ordered. These will be stew birds, no doubt. I don't need any more roosters. They are so cute when they are little, aren't they?

The Heat Is On

We have been very busy the last couple of days trying to get as much done before the hot, hot, hot weeks of Nebraska summer hit us full force. Today was the first bad one with temperatures over 100 degrees! The children have found a great way to stay cool!

We have our new roof on and they should be finished with the siding tomorrow or soon after. It will be nice to get the equipment out of the yard. The chicken coop is finished and a batch of chicks will be here tomorrow. It turned out as planned but I think it's a little heavier than I wanted. We will try a different plan for the next one we build.

Bullseye escaped twice yesterday. We found where he was knocking the fence down. He discovered which fence was hot and which one was not. So we put him in the back pasture next to the cow. And we are picking the last of the cherries. We had mulberry cherry pancakes tonight! The apples are looking nice and soon I will be doing apple butter.

My cherry pickers!

Our First Milking Day

Britney Has Arrived

We finally have the new milk cow! In case you did not hear, we did not get the original cow, Scarlet, as we were having trouble breeding her. So we got her sister, Britney, who will calf in October! And here she is..............................


Just like her sister, she is pure Jersey and organic. If she has a heifer calf we will do a trade on it for Scarlet and by spring we could have two milk cows. If she has a male calf we will raise it for beef.

Here is Britney's proud milker. He worked hard getting everything ready for her. He has learned a lot about dairy farming at only 15 years of age. We are as proud of him as he is of Britney.

New Barn Stall

We got the milking stall built but being that the cow is not here yet Bullseye has made it his home. We will build a second stall for him to use in the winter and eventually cement this one for milking.

We also completed one of the movable chicken coops. It does not have the tarp on it yet but no need for that until we have the chicks. We will build a few of them and have all the meat birds in different ones including a pen of turkeys.

The proud builders of the coop! They worked hard. They should be proud!

We have decided to get a different cow than the one we were going to get. Scarlet was not getting bred so we decided to take her sister, Britney, instead. She is going to calf in October and if it's a heifer calf we will trade her for Scarlet or another milk cow. So bottom line is by spring we could have 2 milk cows. It was just a better option for us. The bad thing is that Britney is only giving us a gallon a day and will soon give us nothing. We will have about 2 months of no milk. But by November we will have LOTS of fresh raw milk!

Our New Addition

Everyone...meet Bullseye. We finally have a horse! He is a paint horse that we bought from someone that is moving. She had to get rid of him quickly so we got him for $50 which our son has more than earned (we paid for the gas!!!). The children named him Bullseye from the horse on Toy Story. He is in the winter pasture for now but will follow behind the cow eating the grass that she does not eat. He is not gelded and is not saddle broken but he is only 2 years old which gives us plenty of time to work with him. He is very well mannered, is easily led, and has had a saddle blanket on so he should be easy to break.