The Newest Member of the Family... Meet Sassafras!

We finally have a milk cow! Sassafras is a three year old Jersey/Brown Swiss. After I inquired about her, I realized that she belonged to the friends we buy milk from. They spent an hour and a half showing me the ropes and helping milk her last night. She is a sweetie and is already used to horses and other critters. Most modern milk cows need lots of grain to produce, but Sassie is used to eating grass as cows were meant to. The first milking by myself took five hours! It might take a while for my hands to get used to it!

 

It was such a blessing to get a really nice cow from someone we know at a good price. Yesterday I was excitedly rushing around getting things ready for her. When I came in the house, our dog, Kirby Bear, had his tail caught in the door, so I just left it open. I danced into the kitchen and mixed my words all up as I told Nick that "Kirby Bear's door is caught in the table." He asked if I was excited or something. :)

 

 

The Herd

I've started training Snickers to pull a cart, but with everything else that needs to be done this time of year, I probably won't get serious about it until fall. Migdalah is small for a two-year-old, but she has long legs so I think she is just growing slowly, maybe because she doesn't get grain. She is definitely turning out to be a looker! I'm doing light ground work with her now and will do a lot more this fall. Depending on how fast she grows, I'll start her under saddle this winter or next spring.

Miggie always wants to help, including with weeding

Goofy Phillip

This little show-off always does her best to steal the show and I end up with three times as many pictures of her than of anyone else. She is pretty, though!

"We stopped at the river to get us a drink, he waded right in while I stayed on the brink, he came to the bank with his teeth full of gold, this horse has more sense than his boss I've been told." Migdalah hasn't found any gold yet, but she always wades right into the water while everyone else stays on the brink.

Rodeo time!

More Chickens

Miss Friendly's second batch of chicks this year. This is my first hen that has hatched two sets in one year and yikes is she protective! You don't want to mess with her babies! It's encouraging to see hens that still have the mothering instinct.

Aren't they adorable? A Barred Rock and Orpington/Americauna just hatched today.

Blue Andalusian pullet

Blue Andalusian cock (3 1/2 months old)

Silver Spangled Hamburg pullet

 When Nick was fly-fishing and tying flies, he and I came up with the idea to cross Barred Rocks with Phoenix for a super hackle bird. The cross is sex-linked, meaning that from day one you can tell a hen from a rooster by its color. A male Silver Phoenix and female Barred Rock make barred males and black females. It took us two years to finally get the cross we wanted and we (I?) ended up with the stunning young rooster below.

 

In the meantime, I practiced harvesting hackle from purebred Phoenix and figured out how to preserve a nice skin. Alas, Nick now only fishes with lures and no longer ties flies.

 

My handy dandy pluckers (Josh and Nick) said that they had had enough after we finished butchering last year. The told me that they would not pluck one more bird, so we bought a chicken plucker from a friend.

Garden Volunteers and July Harvesting

Our last frost was in early May, a month earlier than last year, which has given the garden a much better start. We are enjoying fresh lettuce, kale, snow and snap peas, baby beets, broccoli, string beans, garlic, new potatoes and a variety of herbs. My strawberry plants have finally started producing and the apple trees are both looking promising. The first of the zucchini are almost ready! We've been drying big baskets and boxes of herbs - peppermint, catnip, oregano, plantain, dandelion root, red clover, yarrow and wormwood.

 

I've discovered that saving my own seeds leads to quite a few volunteers! Parsnips, garlic, potatoes, lettuce, catnip, orach, kale and radishes are some that have gone wild. They grow in the paths and mixed in with the other crops I plant, making for a messy looking but productive garden.

 



The wormwood I planted seems to be keeping the deer out of the garden. This is the third year that they have left it alone as long as the wormwood is green.

 

 



Catnip




Yarrow