Sabbath update

4/24/10

Been a looong week.

Dessy had her kids right on her due date, also. I had on the calendar, "18th or 19th" and they were born between midnight and one, officially on the 19th. We could tell she was close, so we put her in a stall by herself. The signs, for those interested, are a suddenly larger udder (this is quite variable among goats) and a softening of the ligaments alongside the tailbone. Any other time these ligaments are like pencils in size and firmness, but you can feel them softening within 24 hours of labor, softening within a few hours of labor to where you can't even feel them.

Farra and I hung hammocks in the barn to be close so we wouldn't miss this one. Atira and Seth wanted to be wakened. It was my first attempt to sleep in a hammock (which the rest of the family loves - just me and the baby, sometimes Royal, in the tent when we camp out) and was miserable, hard on my back. I would have been better stretched out in the straw. I loved being in the barn, though, with all it's sounds and smells (yes, smells! A well kept barn doesn't smell bad). I returned to the house around 11pm, Farra waking me just after midnight with the report that Dessy was bleating and restless.

Seth decided he'd rather sleep, but Atira supposed it'd be worth it so she joined us in the barn. Bobby, awakened by our commotion, couldn't get back to sleep so he came down after a bit. What a neat time... I'm so glad my family got to see this. We had sheep when I was a preteen, and I was there when Dessy had her first, so I wasn't totally new to it. (I remember even sleeping in SMSU's ag barn when my aunt was a student there, waiting for a mare to foal. It was fun, but she didn't deliver on our watch.)

We watched the whole thing and I'll share some photos in a minute. I don't think Dessy was pleased with the audience (I kept comparing it to my labor/births and how I would feel. I asked Bobby at one point, "Is this what my labors are like from the outside? Just waiting, wondering how long it's going to take? Gosh, I hope not!" He said no. I think I believe him). The twins are bucks and are the most beautiful goats born here so far. We were kind of disappointed when we came back in the morning and checked the sex, because we would keep a pretty doe. As it is, the males are destined for the table. Anyway, with the cow we won't really need any more female goats. As it is now we'll be milking two this year, three the next, and four after that.

My mom says they didn't keep goats long after they got their milk cow, a Jersey Angus mix (sold to them as a "black Jersey"). I was a baby, my brother was about seven. I can see the sense in that, but we want the goat meat, have property more suited to goats, have buyers for goat milk which fetches a high price around here (buyers for all our extra milk, actually), and have more children who are able to do the goat chores and who need that sort of responsibility. Also, I like goat milk, especially for infants (which, Yahweh willing, I will have more of), and although calves are cute, there is nothing like a pasture of kids! If we get sick of milking only two-teated critters we'll probably switch to strictly meat goats or sheep.

Oh yeah, don't forget the pictures...

just a few minutes later the second was born...

a few minutes after that, the first was up and trying to nurse...

Sunny took over the hammock...

Back out to check on them in the daylight...

a few days later...

He's got his momma's eyes...

(their ears stand up as they grow - there's no Nubian blood here, though I like Nubians.)

We thought we ought not to bother with official names for our table-goats. I was going to call them “buck one” and “buck two”... then, naturally, we added “Tim” in front of each and now have “Tim-buck-one” and “Tim-buck-two.” (Sorry, Tim, it just happened!) Farra came to me the other day saying that Tim-one had fallen into a hole and couldn’t get out. Honestly. And us without Lassie.

Been enjoying a nice spring storm system the last couple days. I was starting to wonder, the ground was becoming so dry! So dry it was less than ideal to dig in the garden. I mowed the other day and have never seen such dust in April! This rain is perfect. Slow, steady, not pouring down. The ground is just soaking it up and none of it’s running off. We finished the barn addition this week and organized everything, hung all the tools. I love having it all decent and I could just spend hours in there playing with our bottle-kids, watching the chicks, petting the dogs and cat and listening to the rain, or finding more improvements to make.

A day or two after the twin bucklings were born we received another call from the friend with the Kikos, asking if we wanted to adopt another newborn buck, which we did. Blue has adopted him, named him “Popcorn,” and I often find her spending time cuddling him in his stall. Farra, however, has again taken care of the middle of the night feedings, just for the first three nights. Since we were able to disbud this little guy, we’ll probably keep him instead of Siegfried, for a hornless herd buck.  Anyway, at least we have options.

Just after Popcorn came to us, less than 24 hours old...

We’re getting enough milk from the two does for all the kids, but none for us, so we have switched the oldest two of the three bottle kids over to milk replacer (partially - I mix it half & half with milk). We’ll keep buying milk from our other friend until the oldest is weaned, then we should be balanced out. Our family needs the milk, too! (I’ve started buying Farra calcium supplements and giving her an extra milk ration to help with her growing pains.) But, we’re considering it an investment in meat, which we will enjoy in the fall. Actually, we may sell one of the bucklings to a family in St. Louis who wants the meat and the butchering experience. We’ll raise it for them, they’ll help with the processing and take it home in paper packages. A nice situation.

This week in the garden... harvesting lettuce - yum! I had such a hard time getting the seed to germinate in the house that I ended up sowing it too heavily in the garden, but the thinnings are tasty. We made it through the winter with a variety of sprouts for fresh eating, so it’s nice to have something else (along with all the wild edibles this time of year!). 40 pounds of potatoes are all up and looking great. Sowed half our 8’x8’ plot of carrots (we’ll reseed once or twice for late summer and fall harvests), an onion bed the same size is in, nearly 60 tomato plants are in, though some are pretty puny and I’m not sure they’ll make it. I also found time to get some herbs and flowers in. They go in among the veggies, to add interest and attract beneficial insects.

My style this year is a combination of intensive raised beds and companion gardening and what I’m learning in Steve Solomon’s book, “Gardening When It Counts,” which is very anti-intensive. In particular we’re using Solomon’s recipe for Complete Organic Fertilizer. So, part of my time is in mixing that up and spreading it, digging up every last shovelful of compost from the last three years and spreading it (not much with goats). Had to actually buy some sacked compost this year. If I do things right, with a cow, I shouldn’t ever have to do that again! Also, I bought the most expensive garden tool I’ve had - a decent hoe. What a difference! Solomon also explains how to keep tools sharp and that has been wonderful. Why did I never think to sharpen a spade?

Did some yard clean up and stacked yet more firewood. Bobby helped some in the evenings. He has been big help with the cow and he and she are getting to be pretty good buddies. I miss him (more than she does) when he’s working away from home, but am grateful for the income. This week turned into an extra special blessing, as he helped an old employer remodel his kitchen. Kelly ended up paying him half again as much as he said he would and also gave him some very expensive tools. Kelly ran his own business for awhile and I guess is now scaling down. I get a kick out of this - nearly all of his tools are black and yellow. Company colors. So he buys mostly DeWalt and Stanely. If it’s blue or green, he doesn’t want it. Whatever blows your hair back, eh? Anyway, he is a very kind and generous man. He also gave us a couple bags of clothes that his little girl had grown out of - perfect for Blue’s birthday today! She’s tickled pink. And dressed in it. HalleluYah, my provider. His wife was my ob/gyn... we didn’t get along well and she hated our home birthing, but she was there if I needed anything. They’re moving to another area of the state now. Kinda wonder what we’ll do if we have another baby? Speaking of (goodnight! I’m really rabbit trailing), not I, but my sister is expecting again. I’m excited for them.

Little Brook playing dress up in some of the clothes...

I fell in love with our good mooly cow when we first got her, then the reality that we had bought an animal that hadn't been handled much set in. I would say that getting kicked helped it set in rather quickly. With any new addition to the family, there are some adjustments. More so when that new addition is a new species.
 When I hurt my back again I was soooo frustrated and asked Bobby if maybe we should sell her. It's hard enough to handle the goats when my back hurts, but at least the children can do all the goat things if I absolutely can't. I know the older children will be able to tackle the cow eventually, but at least not this first year. And if I can't do it, that leaves Bobby. We had a serious talk about it and he assured me that he thought she was still worth the trouble and that he would do anything I was unable to do with her. So far, he has and it's very comforting. You should have heard all the things this guy said he wouldn't do when we moved to the country! Now look at him.

Now that we've gotten used to each other, the cow and I (Bobby's another story entirely), it's much easier. She has settled down into the routine of being tied out in the morning and coming to the barn at night and I realize that when she's frisky it's because she wants to play, not hurt me! That only makes it slightly more reassuring and I certainly don't intend to romp around with an 830 pound T-bone on hooves, but I haven't the fear that she's out to get me. She can be ornery upon occasion, but time has made her easier to read and although she's tried two or three times, she hasn't kicked me again. She definitely resents being made to wait to go out to graze.

My ultimate goal is to never have to mow. It's so wasteful!

I'm relieved to have the barn set up for her now. We'll get into a good routine before she calves. She is going to work out very well for us, I think. She doesn't mind the dogs at all, the children, the chickens pecking around her feet, the goats. From very near the beginning she has never shied from us, just stood waiting for us to approach, sometimes coming to us. This is good - the rest of her herd definitely had that flight distance thing going on. I can walk up to her when she's tied out, pet her all over, mess with her udder, and she doesn't mind. I don't think we'll have too much of a problem milking her. Except my hands and arms might give out! I loathe having to milk a first timer... their teats start off so small! Takes a lot of work and a lot of time to milk those tiny things. I hope it's not as bad with cows as with goats.

Now, if we can just get some fencing up for her and the soon-to-be calf...

Anyway, you can see I’ve been busy this week. On top of everything, it’s co-op week, with cheese and butter from one, bulk grains and other dry goods from another, frozen organic veggies from yet another. I’m so thankful for my options. My garden is large, but not remotely big enough to feed my family. I wonder if we’ll ever be able to provide even half of our own food? Maybe, but I imagine we’d all lose some weight. Ha. Think I’ll just be thankful for what I have.

Now, although most of our days have gone smoothly as the children and I work side by side to accomplish various tasks, I’m going to be honest and tell you that I have worked myself too hard and not spent enough time focused on more important things. Within fifteen minutes of getting out of bed I was milking goats, and I wouldn’t stop working until bedtime. Milking, feeding kid goats, then making breakfast, tying the cow out, organizing the children into a house-cleaning crew, then a gardening crew, a cow watering-crew, lunch crew, dish crew, laundry crew, garden crew, barn crew, dinner crew, dish crew, bed crew... It’s a lot to do, but it’s really not too much unless your attitude is off. If I let any little thing get to me, it snowballs rapidly with all there is to do. Yesterday I reached my breaking point and around lunchtime found myself up the hill, sitting on a rock by the creek, weeping violently. Just ten minutes with my Father and I came back down the hill a new momma, free and unburdened, ready for the tasks of the day. When will I learn to walk in this freedom every minute of the day? At least there's been progress over the years.

Have you ever read the parable of the sower and thought about which seed you are? I have all to often seen myself as the seed sown among thorns, choked by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. I guess only Yahweh knows. Maybe the fact that I am aware of this and constantly battle it is a good sign?

Here’s something else I’ve been chewing on...

It’s difficult, sometimes, to have beliefs that are so different from the people around us. If these doctrinal differences are ever discussed, you can end up feeling very defensive. You can focus too much on the doctrine instead of on your relationship with Yahweh. I’m all for good doctrine, but to be in a position to constantly defend yours is very tiring and distracting! And the enemy knows it and exploits this weakness. This is why it’s just EASIER to be around people you agree with, the walls are down and you can help each other with heart issues. Alas, easy isn’t always what Yahweh wants for us.

This is the work Yahweh is doing in my heart at this time. I believe I have it in me to overcome, to climb the walls of doctrinal differences (not necessarily change doctrine) and to learn and grow with anyone He puts in my path. To forgive, not to judge... to let love cover a multitude of sins. I believe this is what he wants of me at this time. Maybe he wants it of all of us. I don’t know what it looks like. I just believe the path doesn’t have to be so strife-ridden.

He is softening my heart and also showing me that I don’t have to make this happen, I'm just to trust him. This really hit me today when as I was struggling with the pain of knowing that not everyone on the path feels this way. Some would rather push us away than try to understand us or walk with us. I have been feeling like this was all my fault, that if I had just done this or thought that or could make this point... that I haven't been "pious" enough to make it work... but I feel a freedom from this today. For one, I’m not the only person involved, for another, it might not be Yahweh’s timing or his plan to begin with. The important thing is that each person is examining their hearts and are open to Yahweh’s leading, walking as our brother and king, Yahshua, walked. I just want to be close to Yahweh and yield to his spirit, not hard in my heart and whining over my hurts, like I have been.

Goats n' such

 As per usual, when there's a lot to blog about, there's little time to do so.  Nothing says spring like baby goats, and we now have three of them.  Farra's goat, April (Dessy's first), had her first baby the day before the Thompson's wedding in TN.  We knew she was close and Farra camped out in the barn, but nothing happened.  Later that Sabbath, after lunch, I think, I looked out the window and saw April standing there nursing her new baby.  Man, we missed it!  Maybe next time.  Anyway, she had a little doe kid which Farra named Ahava, which she tells me is Hebrew for beloved.   We are now locking Ahava up at night and milking in the morning.  The first milk always seems to taste off (even past the colostrum stage), but there's plenty of it.  Ahh... wonderful raw milk!

         A week or more before this blessed event, however, we adopted two bottle-fed kids.  A friend called on behalf of a friend of theirs whose Kikos (meat goats) are having triplets that they can't support - would we like to adopt a day old buckling?  Well, of course we would!  So what if I'm flat on my back in pain and we're paying $6.50 a gallon for fresh goat milk that is barely enough for our family while we wait for our does to freshen...   We called our milk lady who graciously sold us extra milk for the little guy and since we were keen on bottle feeding offered us a three week old LaMancha buckling.  Well, why not?

          So, the Kiko is Siegfried and follows us around everywhere, as he's sure he's a human and not one of those other things in the pasture.  We plan to keep him to breed our does to in the future.  His owner says Kiko bucks don't stink as much as diary bucks, and besides, our neighbor sold their buck, which we usually use.  With the cow due in June, we'll have plenty of milk and won't be increasing our goat herd for milk, just for meat, so they might as well be meatier kids.
           The LaMancha is Oscar and will probably be on our table in the fall, unless someone offers us money for him.  He's a sweetie, huge for his age, but sure is goofy looking with no ears!
            Now we're waiting on Dessy to freshen... any day now!  I'm hoping for something other than WHITE babies, which the other three are, because I find white goats incredibly boring.  =)
           

Now, the only goat I haven't mentioned is Dessy's doe kid from last year, named Daisy.  She's Atira's goat.  A few weeks ago, while we were working on the barn addition (maybe we'll finish tomorrow?), we witnessed something I have personally never seen or heard of... which isn't saying a lot, but my Mom hadn't either, and she's been around animals off and on her whole life.  Our 1yr old tom cat, Sunny, and this 1yr old doe were playing together.  Really playing together.  They ran up and down and all around this fallen tree, teasing and chasing each other.  We were in stitches.  We watched for about ten minutes before Atira fetched the camera.  Sunny was plum worn out by that time, but the following video is still something special...

Here's a shot of Siegfried (yes, from All Creatures Great And Small) the afternoon we got him

Here he is yesterday, I think

We intended to disbud him, but our neighbors couldn't find their disbudding tool and by the time I ordered one at the feed store and received it, it was too late.  I'd rather have natural horns than scurs (messed up, partial horns) and so it is.

Guess we haven't got any of Oscar, yet...

Territorial female dog

Our doggie went a little nutzo after we had her spayed a couple months ago. She rarely attacks her sister Flo now.

Miss Molly Moo

Now that my camera batteries are recharged, here's a couple more pics of Molly.

Trying to taste the camera...  I wonder if I'll always think this is adorable?

Visible Signs of Spring

Brought home our spring batch of pullets (female chicks).  Two dozen (I hope to sell eggs later this summer). Mostly Barred Rocks, some Rhode Island Reds, Black Autstralorps and Buff Orpingtons.  (As a side note, we kept a Buff Orp. rooster last year out of our batch of straight runs because I'd heard they were gentle.  We have had no problems with this guy.  He is not agressive at all!)  An old laundry basket by the woodstove works good for the first day or two while I get their main box set up.  They're now on my sewing desk in a back room, in an old dryer box from the local furniture store (moving soon to a frig box).   

I like the fun colored eggs (we also get white), but the Arucanas are so anti-social!  They stay far away from people and they only lay in the coop if I keep them locked up, which doesn't work with my free range approach.  I'll probably sell them when the others start laying.  The one Barred Rock hen that I got last spring is my favorite - so personable!  That's why I opted for more.

After the May 8th storm ("derecho") took down my clotheslines last year (well, the storm took down trees which took down the clotheslines), and I was so busy cleaning with everything else, I don't think I hung any laundry out.  They're up now and here's my first bit o' laundry hanging in the breeze.  Behind that  you'll see part of the garden, freshly tilled.  Look past the garden and you'll see a couple goats.  We're expecting kids mid-April.  That's always the crowning moment of spring around here!

Babies running around outside in cloth diapers surely means spring...

Some other recent shots...

Little Brook munching a homemade (is there another kind?), whole wheat choc. chip cookie.

Seth washing dishes...

Royal and Atira hammin' it up...

The Good Moolly Cow

I'm going to tell you about our new cow and our well earned Sabbath.

Been talking about getting a family milk cow for a few months. I checked newspapers, craigslist, and asked around and there wasn't much out there. I'd located one little Jersey heifer for sale (I'm now buying goat milk from this lady - mine have one more month to go), but, sweet as she was, she was just a little too expensive for a heifer that can't even be bred until this summer (add $300 if you want to wait and buy her bred). We had pretty much decided it would be more sensible to hold off until next year and invest this year in improving the barn and running some more fence.

Wait three days... When have we ever done the sensible thing when it comes to homesteading?

Wednesday night I was unwinding after dinner and decided to hop on the "farm & garden" section of craigslist to see what I might find, cow or otherwise. (I don't do this often, usually only when I'm looking for a particular item, and can only attribute my random bouts of classified "window shopping" to my dear dad who must have passed the habit on. Is it learned or is it in the blood, I wonder?) Lo and behold, there was an ad for two Jersey heifers, bred to calve in June. No price. Three hours away.

(Wouldn't it be easier if I just told you, "Hey, we bought a cow. I'm very excited." Do I really have to tell you ALL the details?)

I called. Same price as the expensive heifer listed above (the "buy now" price, not the bred price), but being bred already to a Jersey bull made her a much better deal for the price. We could have milk this summer. And, the family runs a dairy farm and we had six heifers to choose from. The downside, as it turns out, is an animal that's not quite as well-handled and used to people as the spoiled little thing my milk lady has.

I talked to Bobby. I played with our finances to see if we had enough "extra" from our tax return (aside from what we set aside for bills) to do this. We did. Just enough, plus some for gas to get down there. It means we don't get a new water heater, the extra fencing will have to wait, and Bobby has to zip right back to work. I read some more of my cow books before bed. I dreamt cow dreams. I woke up very excited and begged my husband to make a decision. "I'm counting on you to make the final decision," I told him. "I admit I'm too excited to see this situation clearly. If you think it would be wiser to wait, I will accept that. I can tell you we have the money, we have a place to put one, we have food to feed one, and barring tragical accidents we will make our money out of one, and last but not least, I really want one!"

Bobby is not a very talkative or expressive fellow, so I can't tell you anything interesting about his response. He seemed reluctant to take the responsibility for the final decision and after the first shrug and disinterested, "I don't know," and my gentle prodding for an answer, he gave me the go-ahead. '"You'd better call the guy." Wahoo! A decided answer from my phlegmatic spouse is a rare and much sought after item around here!

We told the guy we were coming later in the day (if not that day, we wouldn't have a chance until the middle of next week and we wanted first pick). Now, how are we going to bring this thing home? Thank Yah for friends with cattle trailers! After some arranging, picking up the trailer, listening to our sweet cattle friend tell us that Jerseys are the meanest cows in the world and that if we want a good milk cow we should get a Holstein (though he's had much experience with all sorts of animals, he's a beef guy, bless his heart.  I love him so!), we were on our way. It was lunch time. Kind of a late start.

The three hour drive took four, hauling the trailer. We were racing darkness. We were surprised by the sheer number of cows packed onto this backwoods dairy farm. We were sad when the owner lady said, "they're a little on the scrawny side because we haven't had the money for grain." Oh dear. Interestingly, on the phone, her husband told me they feed mostly hay and grass, not much grain, because they don't like to "push" their girls.

I'll rabbit trail just for a minute because I've been painfully aware the last few months of the state of modern farming and dairying, and the source of our food is a subject dear to my heart. This woman had called me after I talked to her husband to tell me that they needed to be paid with a cashier's check because they had a lien on the cows that her husband had forgotten about. She said they'd had a really hard winter and had to "hawk" their cows to make it through. "We used to be able to just sell whatever we wanted and now we have to talk to the loan officer first." I told her we had intended to pay cash anyway and she said that was fine, they just couldn't take a personal check.

I think their dairy is probably a good picture of what's going on across America. The dairy, like I said, was small and packed. They milk (by machine) only about forty cows. You can tell they cared about the cows, but that the driving force behind everything they did was to make money. And not money to excess, but money just to stay afloat. And failing at that. The milk man was coming to pick up their milk just as we were leaving. I had asked her who they sell their milk to (a company on the MO/AR line I was unfamiliar with) and she explained how they pay not only by butterfat content but also by protein content, unlike most companies. I thought that was interesting. I didn't ask what they were paid for their milk. I'm probably better off not knowing.

I have a lot of thoughts on large-scale dairying, but if you're interested in that sort of thing you've already read it all elsewhere. Dairying on a small scale, providing untreated milk and milk products for our family, selling extra to friends and family.... now, that's what I'm talking about!

Where was I? Oh, the six heifers. One was smaller and the owner wanted to keep her after all. One was bred later than the rest and bred with an Angus bull, and although cheaper we ruled her out because we wanted milk sooner (and the possibility of a purebred heifer we could sell). So really it was only a choice of four nearly identical heifers. Thankfully, the heifer decided for us. Curious as cats, the lot of them, the one we picked left the others and came to the gate to check us out. She was a little wary of being touched, but not afraid of us.

I should speed this up a bit because the really interesting part happened much later, as my facebook friends are aware! It was tricky to get her in the trailer, but we succeeded. She was totally freaked out the whole way home. I can't praise Bobby enough for his careful driving! He drove as if his own children were in that trailer. The three-turned-four hour drive turned into a five hour drive. We got home just after 10pm. Ugh. I guess there is something to be said about buying local. I definitely was thinking about my milk-lady's heifer on the way home! I still felt like this was a good deal and would work out.

All the kids got a good look at her before we went into the house. Royal commented that she was a "huvvy one" (all my kids have said "huvvy" for heavy and I think it's so dear). I agreed and said she was very strong (they're suppose to be twice as strong as a horse the same size) and that someday we'd teach her to pull a cart. He laughed like this was a most absurd idea and told me, "She can't pull a cart! She doesn't have arms!"

I thought it would be best to let the cow settle down in the trailer overnight. We could deal with her in the morning. I still wasn't sure if we should put her in the barn in a stall (which she wouldn't be used to) or if she should go in our little pasture (we'd put the goats in the barn). I had some reservations about our lazy fencing... anyway, I just didn't want to think about it, I was so tired! Everyone but Bobby was in bed by 10:30. I left Bobby with a cow book opened to instructions for making a rope halter. That might have been a mistake.

Around 12:30am Bobby walks into the bedroom, waking me from a dead sleep, saying, "So, is there any reason she can't go into the pasture tonight?" I grumbled something about it being better to wait until morning and he said, "because she's already in there." I wasn't very happy about it, still didn't think it was a good idea, but I guess I just couldn't clear the sleepy fog from my head to think it through and since he seemed confident and happy with what he'd done, I promptly fell back asleep. That might have been a mistake, too. (The words "homesteading" and "mistake" are commonly used together.)

I woke up around 5:30am and Bobby still hadn't come to bed. Not unusual for him, but I never rest well when he's up so I got up to see what he was about. He walked in the front door as I came out of the bedroom and informed me with an incredibly exasperated, discouraged look on his face, "The cow is gone."

Around 2:30, as he was doing some bible study at the dining table, he heard our outside dog barking (Pyr outside, Dane inside). (Me, gently: "You left the dogs out? Don't you remember me reading to you how cows don't like dogs?" This was my only "you should have" comment the whole time - this poor guy knew his mistakes and was suffering terribly without any help from me!) He went out to see what was up and poor moolly cow had gone AWOL. Our saggy fence was sagging a little lower in one place where she had gone over and her tracks were in the mud just outside of it. Unfortunately, we found NO other tracks, the whole time we searched for her, in spite of the mud!

I quietly returned to bed and began praying fervently. Prayer definitely made the difference for me yesterday as there just wasn't much I could do. I wanted to fret, but the more I prayed the more confident I became that whatever happened, things would be okay. I had peace. Because I turned to Yahweh, I was an encouragement to my family instead of an emotional drain. Bobby was more discouraged as each hour passed without any news or clue. He was also feeling the effects of not having slept. My parents came out as well as my sister and her husband (with their baby and his two older kids that were visiting). I held the fort and went about my usual Sabbath preparations (doubling just about everything I was preparing in order to feed the search crew). I was already a little behind because we'd spent the previous day picking up this cow. It hurt physically (back's still whacky), but was good to be busy.

It was rainy and cold. The guys and older kids searched the woods all around our place. They talked to the nearest neighbors. One neighbor offered his 4-wheeler (we declined, as it wouldn't be much good in the thick woods) and said that if we still hadn't found her he'd saddle his horses the next day (today) and help us search. We've only met this guy once (though is wife happened to be the Hospice nurse with my grandpa when he died). He's so nice! I love the sense of community here.

It was afternoon, my parents and sister and her kids had gone home. Vince stuck around and helped Bobby, who was nearing the point of dysfunction from stress and sleep debt. They drove off to talk to some more neighbors and saw our heifer in a field with some beef cattle almost two miles from here. (Remember the Sesame Street song, "One of these things just doesn't belong here, one of these things just isn't the same"?) They stopped the truck, called the call she was familiar with (I had asked when we bought her) and she came trotting up to the fence, with the Herefords following her. They pulled into the drive and Bobby hopped the fence and got her haltered. They ended up contacting the owner of the field, who explained how she showed up that morning. He stuck her in with his before he went to work (good neighbors will do this, instead of leaving the stock to wander). He said he'd help them get her after work. That gave us just enough time for a nap.  =)

I have rarely seen a man so relieved as Bobby looked when he came home and announced that our moolly cow had been found. I was very, very glad, but I think I was the least surprised of the lot. When you're confident in what your heavenly Father can do, it pleases you but doesn't surprise you when he does it!

Bobby walked her home. It was still raining.

We tied her in the big stall in the barn (she makes our goat barn look kinda small). She wasn't too fond of that, but we felt better knowing she couldn't get away. She calmed down and got used to the barn noises (guineas will freak anyone out!) and I went out several times to obsess over check on her. She lets me love on her a little more each time I go out. This morning I got a chest measurement (not to fit her for a bra, but to estimate her weight - she is a little scrawny and I want to keep track of her gain) and she didn't mind me poking around.

We decided (unanimously) that her name should be Molly (as we already have a Royal Payne). This was derived from "moolly." I'd been calling her moolly cow since the moment we met, because of a poem in one of the kid's books.

         The Good Moolly Cow

by Eliza Lee Follen (1787 - 1860)

Come! supper is ready
Come! boys and girls now,
For here is fresh milk
From the good moolly cow.

Have done with your fife
And your row de dow dow,
And taste this sweet milk
From the good moolly cow.

Whoever is fretting
Must clear up his brow,
Or he'll have no milk
From the good moolly cow.

And here is Miss Pussy;
She means by mee ow,
Give me too some milk
From the good moolly cow.

When the children are hungry
Oh who can tell how
They love the fresh milk
From the good moolly cow.

So when you meet moolly
Please say with a bow,
"Thank you for your milk,
Mrs. Good Moolly Cow."

(There's another about a mooly cow - with one L - from the same time period, called "The Cow-Boy's Song.)

I have always liked my goats (and they have their pros over cows), but when I started reading about keeping a family milk cow, and talking with people who have kept both goats and cows, I began to think a cow was definitely the critter for me (I'm talking about personality, but let's not leave out my fondness for butter). I especially thought so when I met a milk cow face to face. Mom (who has kept both) and I were comparing them one day to cats and dogs. My impression of a Jersey cow, and she confirmed this, was that she was like a really big dog. Goats seem to have that independent, "I could just as easily get along without you" nature that cats have. They have minds of their own and seem harder to get close to. Some people (cat people) like this about them and treasure their relationships with goats. I like my goats, like I said, but I think I'd like them a lot less if they didn't give milk! A cow (a Jersey, anyway) seems to me much more affectionate and personable. I understand they become one of the family and I can definitely see this happening here at Make-It-Do Farm. The fresh milk, butter, cream, yogurt, cheese, and yearly calf are side benefits.

(A side note about our farm name.  We painted this on our 12 passenger van.  One day while at the feed store, Bobby was waiting for me to come out and he overheard a boy of about 10 or 11 reading the van.  It sounded like this.  "Make...  take away ... it... take away... do... farm."   Are we the only ones who found this hilarious?)

We plan to continue keeping goats. The meat is fantastic, the milk is great for babies and they're a nice size for the children. When we start milking the cow we might sell our only horned goat, however. She came to us with horns and although she's a great goat in every other respect and our main producer, she does toss her head around and hurts the littler children. We've disbudded all our kids so our other two does are horn-free and the children love them.

Enough about our cow adventures... 
For now.