This past week... click photos to enlarge

I canned almost 45 quarts of milk this week! Jim and Pearl, our newest addition to the farm, have arrived. All 3,800 lbs. of them... They are Belgians, 17 years old.
some better heifer shots (we now have 26 of them). This photo was taken on a drizzly day.


the backs of them... They go and drink on command from a water trough 3 times a day and then return to their stall! We are learning alot from them.

homemade butter!

We also are up to 33 eggs today! woo hoo! Spring is here... If we made it through this winter, I think we can make it through just about anything... Only with God's help of course!

homemade butter!
Originally uploaded by Homemakerang

Buttercup, our jersey girl

Buttermilk, our jersey girl
Originally uploaded by Homemakerang

Houston, we have heifers!

our silos and feeding trough

some of the girls

"What color is your heifer?"

a round bale here and there...

just took delivery of 23 heifers today we are sharing with someone. We are officially heifer landlords. We get paid to do all the chores for them and they bring the feed. We get to learn so much and enjoy them as well! Sounds like a great plan to me!

UPDATE: PHOTOS

By request more on canned milk

Mother Earth news did it again by helping me out. She has never done me wrong J

Here is a great link to pressure canning milk and this is how I am doing it. I am putting up about 7 quarts a day now. Yes you can just put it on a shelf and it does not have to be chilled whatsoever as it is now canned. I will say that after milking we immediately filter the milk and then let it be chilled to about 50 degrees and then I can it, just like you should not can a fresh kill of meat immediately.

Hope this helps!

Xoxoxo

ang

Lots of milk!

As stated previously, we are getting tons of milk around here! I made butter this week and heavy whipping crème (the gentle giant did this one) for buckwheat pancakes and that great maple syrup we harvested last week. It finally dawned on me what to do with all that milk! Pressure can it! DUH! Now when we dry the cow up to freshen (she is pregnant) we will have lots of milk and it's even pasteurized. Plus 2 goats are due to freshen in May and June so the milk will be very abundant around here. I am so glad I remembered about pressure canning!

We have really cleaned up around here. We have all the apple trees and grape vines pruned. Raspberries ready to go. Garlic is in the ground and today we got 23 eggs! The gentle giant will be bringing eggs to work if you are interested in purchasing them. Some are small eggs as they are the first and some are already extra large, like no store bought egg size you have seen. The newbie eggs are actually about a medium size comparable store bought egg.

This week we are having a work bee with some of our friends. We are getting a farm ready for a new family to move here. It should be a great time. We will end the week Sunday with an old fashioned singing at our home on Sunday evening. A great way to end a busy week!

Oh yes, one more thing. Something kinda cool in these parts. Being we live around quite a few of Amish, antique and garage sales come to YOU! So pickers shop around and then come to you with things they think you may like. BIG TROUBLE really, very tempting. I took them up on some things this Saturday... Canning jars, a few antiques, farm boots and some hand knit gloves... They said they will be back ...

So much to say, so little time…

UGH! I do miss writing here. Life is simple here on the farm but as spring is making its debut here, life is picking up pace and I am increasing in SIZE J

Today I had the privilege to dry all 11 loads of laundry outside on the line and let me tell you, they are all dried and in lickity split timing! I just love the smell of fresh sheets at night and this aching body o'mine loves them more J

The Jersey cow is AMAZING and picking up pace in the milk department. 4 gallons a day is really too much and now she is giving more. That fat little puppy dog loves the milk as well! We may be starting a cow share program real soon. Does it interest any of you locals?

We are getting heifers here too! The team is coming shortly, the Belgians Jim and Pearl and we purchased a paint type pony for the kitty cats. Our original farm dog ran away… I think she has a boyfriend or something. We have searched high and low. One day she followed an Amish buggy on the road and it was history! I think she is aware of a lot of changes that will be happening around here and she took off J

Did I tell you we have our eye on a buggy horse?

We made butter and it is delish! Although, I am not drinking any raw milk right now due to pregnancy. I know its fine but I do not want to introduce anything new at this point.

The children have been helping with sugaring and yesterday had maple syrup hotdogs! Yummy! We have been eating a lot of pancake suppers as the syrup is so fresh and in exchange for working, we get syrup! Sounds like a great trade.

Our 2^nd daughter came in Saturday morning after milking and yelled, "MOM" I was so startled as this momma was lying here in her bed yet and sat right up and she said, "MOM, thank you for moving us here! I just can't say thanks enough! I just saw the geese by our pond and I am hearing the birds and milking the cow and feeding the goats in the big old barn and I just LOVE IT here… just think if we never moved here!".

I know I say that quite a bit, but you must see that we really just love this life. It is unexplainable really. Life still has its problems but they just don't seem so big sometimes... It is a lot of hard work, but WE LOVE IT. As I have said, the children love it too!

Today as I was hanging the clothes on the line I looked up and 20 acres away saw our Jersey and looked the other way and saw open farm land and I will say I am blessed. This run down farm house has never stopped amazing me yet...

Animal menagerie updates

I took some great Sunday morning barn shots BUT after uploading them to my laptop the battery died so I can only use The Gentle Giants laptop but photos are on the other. I will post them at a later date. It was amazing going out in the barn this morning. The smell of fresh hay, cow and goat noises and more. I just can't wait until I can really dig in around here. It has been warmer here as well. I am happy for that.

Any ways... Lots of new things here on the farm! As you can see from the header we took delivery of our milking cow, a Jersey. Her name is Buttermilk we think... Not to original but it sure seems to fit her well.

We have gotten about 4 gallons since she has been here, just 24 hours. Pretty good I would say with being trailered here and her first time leaving her original farm in her entire life. I know she will produce even more as we go but I am actually hoping not to much more as 4 gallons a day is A LOT. We may have to start a cow share milk program or something... At any rate we will LOVE having our own butter now and fresh creme!

Daddy also came home with this adorable boarder colllie to help round up the team... Mom was not as thrilled with the puppy but it sure is cute I would say! A pony is on the way as well. The children are thrilled. We have 2 birthday's this month to celebrate.

I am slowing down now quite a bit in these last 6-9 weeks... We are so blessed to have this opportunity to have new life again. I just can't wait!

Animal menagerie updates…

I have had lots of questions about why the cow was a dud. She was the first one we looked at so we wanted to be wise. She had bad teats for milking and that's why they were selling her, as well as a few other problems.

But, we are happy to report that we DID purchase a different Jersey Cow last evening! YES! We will be picking her up in the next few days. She is supposedly pregnant as well. Did I mention we have 2 goats pregnant and due around the middle of May? We will have lots of milk around here! We wanted the cow's milk to make our own butter and feed any extra to us as well as the animals. 2 goats would have been plenty for our family for milk. Who knows, maybe we will sell one of our milking goats in May, stay tuned… I say supposedly on the pregnant part because it is so hard to tell if animals really are pregnant until the end.

Guess what??? Our chickens are all ready laying eggs! We purchased Golden Comet Pullets for only $5- a piece (45 of them) and they have already laid eggs in the 3 days of living here! They are small eggs as they are just starting but we are so excited. We even had 1 double yoker! We have standing egg orders for 30 dozen a week. We have chicks on the way as well to really kick in the production in September. We know NOT to mix the two groups though and throw everything off. Des beeplind will arrive the 2^nd week of April. We purchased some Arucana's to put 1 green egg in each box for our trademark.

And, drum roll………….. We are fairly certain we purchased a team of Belgians last eve. 16 years old and dead broke! Big Jim and Pearl are their names. We have not exchanged any money on the team yet but we are fairly certain we will be getting them to pull our 1 bottom plow and many other farm implements. We purchased a wagon to pull all of our wares and fresh produce to the local farmer's market/flea market this spring/summer. Will we see you there?

We may even do sleigh rides this winter on the property. (at least for our own family J) We want to plant just an acre (that would be tons actually) of Blue Spruce trees for Christmas trees in the way future. We will see about that part. It would be fun to have a sleigh ride to the back of the property and pick out a tree with hot chocolate waiting wouldn't it?

Lots of things going on at the farm! Stay tuned.

I cannot believe it has been only 5 months since we have lived here. It seems like much longer to me. I can't imagine life if we did not move here. I do not want to even think of what we would have missed and never known…