Homestead Chore #2 Manure Management

Manure. If you have a dairy cow, you have a lot of it and it has to be dealt with daily. Every day after the evening milking, the cow pen has to be *mucked out.* Each cleaning gets a wheel barrow full of old hay mixed in with manure. It's an average sized wheel barrow. This gets done every day. Rain or shine, heat or cold. Life or no life ;- )

I'm sure your asking, "Where does all of that *stuff* go?" Well, during the winter it gets dumped into the garden. The garden is HUGE. When the spring weather starts coming on, Hubby then tills it all into the garden. Does it ever make a garden grow!!! Best natural fertilizer there ever was ;- )

During the summer months we kind of scatter it throughout the 5 acres we live on. (Most of it goes into the woods.) Believe it or not, the smell is just about nonexistent. Once it has been in the sun for a few days it all dries out.

As you can see from the above pictures of *the girls* they LOVE it when a new pile gets dumped into the garden or woods. They will make a run for it once they are let out of the coop. They pick and scratch through it looking for bugs and grain. They are sort of our little composting machines. They know what they do are are really good at it ;- )

Farm chores and manure control, they go hand in hand when you own a dairy cow ;- )

Amanda

Matthew 6:33

Homestead Chore #1- Reality (Keeping A Dairy Cow)

 Yep, AnnaBelle, ALWAYS the cow in every one's business. Anyway, long time no post again. So much to write but not a lot of time. Farm life along with life in general just keeps ya busy.

I thought I'd start the day by telling you what my daily farm chores are. I would hate to think that anyone would look at my blog and romanticize farm life. It's a lot of hard work yet rewarding as well. I'll start with keeping a dairy cow. Keeping a dairy cow can be downright disgusting at times. Yet, that is the way it is with animals.

Here we go:

Milking starts at 8:00 in the morning and again at 5:00 in the afternoon (winter schedule.) Rain or shine. HOT or cold. Life or no life ;- )

The mornings milk goes to the pig and the chickens as well as the cat. The evenings milk is used for butter making and milk use in general. That is as long as AnnaBelle is having a good day and doesn't decide to *release* her bodily fluids during the milking. (That is the most irritating thing that she does.) If she does decide to do that, the milk then goes to the animals again. No, I am not giving my other animals the milk with urine in it. I have gotten quite good at *sensing* when she is about to *go* and jump up really fast with the milk pail to get it out of the stream (more like a flood.)

When that does happen, I have to stop milking, go get several buckets of water to wash away her mess and then wash her teats and udder down again. Then the milking continues.

Once the milking is completed (morning) I put away the dirty dairy rags and sweep floor of the barn. At this time the *barn* is a four sided structure with a tarp placed over the top to keep me dry if it rains. It has no sides and does not keep out the elements. (Still working on it.) I am not going to complain though, as long as I don't get rained on while milking ;- )

Milk is then taken to the pig and chickens. The new Buffs absolutely LOVE AnnaBelle's milk. It has also been great for making their egg shells hard. So hard that it it really takes a *whack* on the side of the bowl to crack them ;-)

After all of that is done, I go and make sure that all of the animals have plenty of fresh water. In the winter time, such as yesterday, you sometimes have to break the ice to get to the water in their bowls. And yes, some of the water pumps freeze and you have to find one that is not frozen through and use it to haul water back to the cows. I mean LOTS of water and is it ever cold.

That's the morning milking schedule......

The evening is pretty much the same except I take the milk and strain it and then chill for our consumption. It's usually a gallon.

The cows have to have their water checked at least 4 times a day more during the summer months. You could get one of those self watering bowls, but I prefer not to spend money on something that can be done on my own.

Tomorrow's farm chore post - managing the manure. Romantic ain't it?

Amanda

Matthew 6:33

Eggs and Autumn Activities

 

Yes, its autumn and not spring. Yet here I am dyeing eggs. Why? Well we had a Fall Fest at church last night and  Angel needed some colored eggs for a game. Now this is NOT the time of year one can find egg dye. So Angel went online and found a home made concoction that worked beautifully. Only the red eggs looked more orange but the blue were so beautiful.

 

Did you notice the azalea in the glass? I picked that off the bush in the front yard the same morning. Still not sure why it was there. It was a one of a kind so I picked it to enjoy and it just happened to go with the egg coloring. Strange I know, since we only see azaleas blooming in the spring.

 

 

Now this is what it is really like outside. So absolutely beautiful. We had a lot of leaves fall off through the night due to some bad wet weather. It just made the scenery that much more beautiful.

 

 

Angel was in charge of the face painting at the church fall fest last night. Richard even got his face painted. A southern flag of all things ;- )

 

 

Father and son. I love them all so much and am so blessed!

 

 

Grace was Queen Esther and Noah went as Shamgar for the fall fest. Who is Shamgar you ask? HE was a judge in the book of Judges who slayed 600 rebellious Phillistines with an ox goad. Interesting character ;- )

 

 

And last, but not least, Angel and Justin went as Ruth and Boaz. An awesome biblical couple I might add ;- )

 

Well, I need to get off here and get a roast put into the pot for tonights and tomorrows dinner. We will be having Pot Roast with carrots

Cheese Taters and Broccoli with biscuits and an apple cobbler.

 

Have a blessed LORD's Day tomorrow!

 

Amanda

I Corinthians 5:7

 

 

 

 

Starting Again

 

 

 

We are at my favorite time of the year once again, beautiful autumn. Cool refreshing autumn. A time to relax after the hard HOT summer. A time to enjoy GOD's beauty.

 

I went out the other day to get some pansies for my fence line. I was expecting to see the usual yellow and purple. I found beautiful orange pansies instead. I have never seen orange pansies before but immediately fell in love with them. They fit in so lovely with the fall landscape. So I lined the fence with them and are they ever beautiful.

 

Well, here are some pictures of the farm. We are all still here and doing much better after the HOT summer.

 

What's a farm without an orange tabby cat? Meet Harold, Carlos or Kitty Kitty (depending on whoever is calling him.) He showed up in August as a kitten and made his way into our hearts.

 

 

The new flock we got back in April. They are starting to lay (FINALLY.) Only gettin' 2 eggs a day now but its a start ;- )

 

 

Happy Dance! We're gettin' eggs again!

 

 

AnnaBelle. We thought we were going to lose her after she calved but praise GOD she came through and is doing just fine now. Getting about 3 gallons a day from her.

 

 

AnnaBelle's calf, Juliet. She'll be 5 months on the 1st of November. Sweet and sassy!

 

 

Last but not least, PIG aka sausage, bacon bbq & porkchops. YUMMY! Due to go to the processor very soon ;- )

 

Well, that's just a small update for now. There's so much more to share. GOD is so good and ever to be praised!

 

Amanda

I Corinthians 5 :7