Well, spring is finally here! There are days that I wonder if it will really stick around as the mornings can be very cool but we are seeing 70 degree days! And I have things popping up in the garden. We extended the garden a lot this year and even have some separate rows of corn.

The white is shredded paper on top of our potatoes.

The cows are doing fine. Britney, the milk cow, is now giving us almost 2 gallons of milk a day but she is not happy with the fact that her baby is roaming the yard and not with her. The baby, Annabelle, is weaned and is like a pet to everyone. She is really beautiful. We will keep her and breed her so that we will have 2 milking cows. Here she is under the crabapple tree.

The second milk cow we had gotten this winter did not last but about 2 weeks here. She was very hard to handle and would not let us milk by hand. Jeffrey still has his cow, Hazel, but will be selling her soon.

The chickens are giving us 3 dozen eggs a day. I sell them at the dairy and to church members. Not sure if I'll replace any of these this year but I will be buying meat birds soon and this will keep us busy most of the summer. We are adding guineas and ducks to our order this year.

And in celebration of the warmer weather we have started going to the lake again with and without the kids. We took them Sunday to ride bikes, roller blade and scooter. Joe will receive First Holy Communion this weekend. He is very anxious for this! Well, that is all the "terra" news. As to the other personal family news, email me! It would be too much to try to post here. Busy days ahead. Hopefully I will keep the blog updated now!

Christmastide

We have been enjoying a most blessed Christmas! Hope that yours has been as blessed and joyful.

We did not keep the cow. She was just too stubborn to milk. She was a dairy cow that had never been milked by hand. I was not comfortable keeping her here with the children out in the barn around the milk stall. So we gave her back to her owner and the deal was called off. Besides, we are all so attached to Annabelle. She is a good calf. She is gentle and trusting like her mother, Britney. So we will have two cows in the future that we know we can work with.

The winter seems to be over. I know this is too good to be true but it sure seems that we saw the worst for a few weeks in December and now it's over. We have not dipped into those subzero temps since before Christmas. Most of the snow has melted and there is not much in the forecast for the next week. Really strange for January. I kind of miss not having snow, sledding and building snowmen at this time of year.

We had our church Christmas play on January 4th. It turned out just as it always does....chaotic and hilarious. I think that my children were the cutest, of course. The girls were angels, and the boys a wise man and a sheep. My little sheep was the cutest of all. He came out on stage waving and dancing. He had all laughing. Here are a few pictures from that most memorable event!

Little angels.....are you sure??????

A wiseman....or a madman?

My little lamb....and I mean that one!

Now that Epiphany is over we are trying to get back into the swing of things like school. I'm getting around much better and realize that I have so much to catch up on. I wonder if I will ever be able to do it. Volunteers???? Anyone???? And with that I end saying, "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

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!