Piles of updates
As usual I have been neglecting the blog, mostly because I am exhausted, details on that to follow.
This’ll be a longer post but I’ll break it down into chapters of the last few weeks.
Frozen Wasteland
Ben and I ended up being home from work due to insanely cold temperatures for five days in two weeks. We are blessed to have jobs where we can do some work from home and if the roads are nasty we are told to just stay home.
This is what Ben would have encountered on his route to work.
Photo credit.
We fared alright overall. We strung up heat lamps, put down extra bedding, kept everyone inside.
Still despite our best efforts my dear sweet milk cow got frost bite on one of her teats. The tip of her back left quarter I noticed looked white and waxy. I continued to milk it and put balm on it twice a day. Still, a large portion of the area that turned white then turned brown. Over the course of a few days the brown scabbed (which made her milk shoot straight up instead of down) and that portion fell off. She milked fine for a few days out of it, but now another layer is scabbing and coming off, making the milking more difficult.
It was super sensitive for her and she wouldn’t let the calf suckle. Thankfully I was able to grip delicately above the damaged portion and still milk her out, which I did for a while twice a day instead of just once, to help deter any chance of mastitis.Â
During the last week or so I have noticed that the calf isn’t drinking as much. Typically when I turn the calf back out with her she goes straight to drinking. Yesterday morning she sniffed at her teats and was completely disinterested despite her mother’s moos of encouragement. So it seems that Beatrix might be weaning herself. Not surprising, considering she is 8 months old, and calves typically will naturally wean themselves between 8-10 months.Â
This isn’t really a big problem as we were planning to dry her down in March anyway (cows should have three months not milking before they have their new calf so they can put their energy into its development).Â
If the calf really is weaning though, we may be dried down a month-ish early. Ben and I are leaving for our honeymoon tomorrow and we have thankfully cobbled together a patchwork of friends to look after our farm for the week. A few of them have milked before but I don’t expect them to deal with that, nor do I think Juneberry would be receptive to five different inexperienced milkers having a go at her teats. A week of us not milking is more than enough for her to dry up. We’ll see though. Last night the calf definitely had been drinking some so we might continue on yet.
Farm Sitters
Several months ago we lined up an old friend of mine to come stay at our farm and take care of it for us. I offered to pay them, but they said they’d like to do it as a wedding present to us. Awesome.
Then last week my friend messages and says actually, I’m really hard up for cash. I’d like to be paid $400. Now this isn’t an unreasonable request and I told them so, but to pull that out less than two weeks before our trip, a trip we are barely affording as it is (we cut it a day shorter than originally planned, cancelled some outings, and are definitely still putting too much on credit), was just a crummy thing to do and way more than we can afford.
So I got on the phone and I called up friends and other neighbors, all farm types, and asked if they could stop out at our place once a day for two days and fill waters, make sure no one is dead, get eggs, and snuggle our cats for a minute. Thankfully, we are also blessed in our friends. No one even hesitated to say sure, no problem.Â
And so after this long hard ass winter, Ben and I are heading to Hawaii on Saturday. We’ll be there for one week. Honestly if I didn’t have the hope of warm weather and some sunshine to cling to I probably would have laid down in the driveway and let the snow and cold take me.
Worries for the Future
This biggest stresses I currently have farm wise are getting rid of our useless whether goat, who unfortunately has a cough. Second, we have to get our two ram lambs butchered and I adore one of them and I’m dreading it entirely. Finally, we have yet to secure a buck or ram for our ewes and does, which seriously needs to happen asap so we have babies at a somewhat decent point early this summer. I stress about that because it involves bringing someone’s animal to us or bringing ours to them, always a struggle. And with one goat who has a cough, I don’t want to get anyone else’s animals sick. So those things nag at the back of my mind pretty much all the time.
The animals aren’t pregnant but
Turns out I am! We found out back in early January that we are expecting our own baby in late September/early October. We haven’t made it completely public yet (except to all you strangers and a few close friends on the internet) but will in a few weeks once we hit the second trimester. Still, we are feeling somewhat confident as we had our first prenatal visit and they were able to find our baby’s heartbeat which they said drops the chance of miscarriage to 1%.Â
First trimesters royally suck. I’ve been nauseous pretty much all day every day for two months. I have to pee 1-2 times an hour at least. Food is a challenge. I either want all of it or can’t stand any of it. My emotions and moods range wider than a wolf pack, I get bloated randomly to the point I think I might pop, I’m absolutely exhausted, and another fun pregnancy problem, your bowels are freaking out because your digestion slows down and organs are shoved in different places thanks to a growing uterus so you can say goodbye to any normalcy you ever had in that department.
Between working a full time job, trying to maintain our home, trying to keep the farm up, managing my small balm and salve business, sort out our taxes, plan for our trip, puppy kindergarten classes, and being physically and emotionally beat by this pregnancy, I have never in my life been more ready for a vacation.
