What a year!

I've always been terrible at keeping up on writing. I was a terrible penpal. And now I'm a terrible blogger. I do have a good reason though - I'm BUSY! Hard to believe it's been nearly a year since I updated this blog. Ouch. My bad. It's been a very, very busy year.

Family News:

The babies are getting huge. Everyone is walking, semi-talking and getting into everything. My big baby is nearly fully potty trained, which is a huge accomplishment. She's very proud of herself and I think we're all relieved that she is no longer in diapers (she was getting a bit big for diapies...). Hubby is staying really, really ridiculously busy with the business and he's been great at keeping up with everything. It's looking like next year will be busier than this year as far as bookings go, so I don't know how that's going to go. This year was already extraordinarily busy, so I'll just have to become wonder woman on steroids to keep up with it all.

Oh, and the big news -

I'm pregnant again. And...IT'S A BOY!

Yup. Prego. With child. The first 4 months sucked big time. I was sicker than a dog. Not so much throwing up, but nausea. I think never-ending nausea is exponentially worse than throwing up all day. It finally subsided and since then I've felt pretty good, although I'm the size of a small planet already and losing stamina fast. I'm only 22 weeks. Yikes.

Let's see...

Farm News:

Not a whole lot is going on now, being colder than hell outside does that. We have about 8 inches of blanketed snow on the ground, icicles in abundance and temps dipping down into the negatives (or near negatives) at night routinely. It's supposed to get warmer this week, only to dip down into the single digits again at night. So, that means ICE. And a lot of it. I'd rather have snow. At least it stays warmer. I haven't been able to get a whole lot done this year because of babies and prengnacy, so things are a little helter skelter out there. We did manage to get a few garden things done, but it was not very productive. I  planted some tomato plants, squash, herbs, etc. but most of them died in the heat because our secondary water was very hard to access (and was very limited) this year. Sprinkler system died. All 0.84 acres of our property had to be hand watered with a sprinkler or hose and had time limits. It was miserable. Next year, we're trying something different and starting earlier!

Cow News:

We sold the cow. I still miss her, but it was for the best. Selling her was a chore, but she finally went to a family who planned to use her as a dairy cow and picked her up quickly. She's probably very pregnant right now and hopefully living high on alfalfa.

Out of everyone in the house, we have at least 3 kids who are a little dairy intolerant. They drink milk, but get upset tummies from it or constipated if they drink/eat too much of it. So far we've had success with sheep's milk and goat milk, but cow milk and products (specifically cheese and butter) not so much.

Chicken News:

Over the summer we lost 1 chicken. Not quite sure how, as we found her literally belly up without a mark on her. The theory is she was scared to death. She was otherwise a big, healthy Brahma chicken who was one of my better layers. Bummer. I had a close encounter with a skunk in the coop. One night I went out to close them up and there was a skunk hovering over the uncollected eggs. Scared the hell outta me. And the skunk! Since then we've been much, much better about collecting eggs and closing everyone in early. We had a skunk kill one of our birds the summer before, but didn't think we still had so many around. Guess we were wrong.

We were down to 9 chickens this year, including the rooster and I had plans to buy more chicks in the spring to bring our numbers back up to around 15 or so. However, our neighbor across the street came over the other day asking if we'd like to take her chickens. Her and her husband were moving to Rock Springs, WY and SLC, UT, respectively (I think they're divorcing, but I didn't ask) and they needed them gone in a hurry. I came over to look at them and decided to take them. They were so happy we took them that they even paid for a bag of feed and gave us some nest boxes. Score! They're younger birds, probably around a year or so, 6 hens and 3 roosters. One of the hens is terribly skinny, but bright eyed and otherwise healthy. She seems to be eating well and everything, so I think she was just not getting enough food. The flock of birds included: 2 RIR hens, 2 beautiful big Buff Orpington hens, 1 skinny partridge colored hen and 1 black/white speckled hen (a common breed, but I can't remember it right now). Of the roosters, we have a huge Buff Orpington boy I named Henry; a black and white speckled roo (handsome boy!), completely chill rooster I've named Wickham; and a cute, tiny little bantam Amerucana I've named Napoleon. Two of the roosters have frostbitten combs, which is pretty common in the area when we get a cold snap fast. The neighbors didn't put the heat lamp in the coop in time to prevent it, so we're treating one rooster for it. It got very, very cold here really fast so it took everyone by surprise. I'm hoping his comb will survive the winter, but we'll see. The frostbite wasn't terribly bad, so there's a chance it'll be ok. So, now we're up to 14 hens and 4 roosters. The Buff hens tend to be broody, so maybe we'll get some chicks in the spring!

Sheep News:

We still have the sheep. I was planning on sending them to freezer camp, but decided to keep them around solely as grass eaters, at least until we can get the fences fixed. The plan right now is to get milk goats, but we can't do that until our fencing situation is fixed. The cow did a serious number on our already flimsy fences. The sheep are very, very easy to keep penned (they don't challenge fences AT ALL), so it's not a problem. They eat the grass and I don't have to mow it. They don't eat a ton of food or require much in the way of maintenance. Hard to justify butchering them when they are providing me a service. :)

Other News:

Also there's a slight problem of a big, gigantic freeway that the state is planning to build way too close for comfort. So, depending on what is decided on that, we may be moving sooner than we had planned.  Though it won't be going through our house, like they had initially planned, it will be going in 5 houses down and we may possibly have an on/off ramp literally right next to our house. The traffic on this little country road is already too heavy/fast for comfort, and adding another big road onto it will only increase the traffic. If that happens, we're definitely gone. The environmental studies are being held up right now by the Dept of Interior because of  environmentalist concerns over migratory birds (THANK YOU ENVIRONMENTALISTS!), so it may delay the road going in indefinitely. Though, there was a similar thing that happened on the Legacy Highway here and it just delayed the road by about 10 years. Bummer. I do like my little home and land. Having something like this happen puts a serious damper on any long term plans I may have for this place. I guess only time will tell.

Ok, that's all the highlights! Merry Christmas!

-Nat

Figures

Just when I think everything is going hunky-dory, and it's smooth sailing...what happens? Oh yeah, I've got at least 2 kids with some kind of milk allergy. Not a huge problem, not really. Ice cream socials and any processed food will be an issue, but not an unavoidable one. But it is a HUGE problem - like 800 lbs worth - when you have a DAIRY COW in the backyard. There's NO WAY we can use or drink 10-15 gallons A DAY of milk, and somehow explain to a cranky toddler and baby why everyone else can have it and NOT THEM. Friggin' a...So, now we're re-evaluating our farmyard strategy. We're gonna try raw milk again to see if they react at all (ANY pasteurized dairy causes severe rashes for at least a week, and inevitably leads to some kind of yeast infection after the week is up from the messed up gut), and if we can get by on no reactions with raw milk, we'll keep the cow. If not, she's getting sold. Ticks me off to no end, mostly because of the irony involved - we get a cow to have fresh milk and now the kids we bought the cow to get the milk for can't drink it. Irony at it's most ironic, if you ask me. I've got my feelers out for some dairy goats and I'm talking to a guy about trading our sheep for his trio of milkers. I'm picking up some goats milk again tomorrow from a local dairy to see if my toddler reacts (so far, so good) and to see if one of my babies can tolerate it. I made the mistake of not reading a box of crackers lastnight before giving him some. Today we're dealing with a raw rash and a massively cranky boy. Gotta nip this in the bud so we can have our happy babies back. Keep ya posted.

So here's the story...

Things have been crazy over the past few months. So much has happened I don't know where to begin. For one, the hubby has been crazy busy. Like 16-18 hour workday busy. And what happens when the hubby is away? The kids know. They can almost smell the moment that he walks out the door and...then all hell breaks loose. So mommy here has been going mildly insane and losing all of what's left of her hearing. Nothing big. Who needs to hear? I'll be thankful for this partial hearing loss when they're all toddlers. :)

Our hens decided to stop laying and went through a mini-moult. We couldn't figure out what was going on until one day the yard looked like a chicken exploded. Feathers EVERYWHERE! Since they had just started laying it made absolutely NO SENSE that they started a moult...I mean, come on, they were only BARELY 5 months old. Then, one night, I noticed we were one hen short. My favorite hen, to boot. The only Rhode Island Red who followed me around the yard and had a very lop-sided crop. The ONLY hen that was still consistently laying one egg a day. I noticed the rooster acting funny and all of the hens lingering around the coop after sunset - they never do that. Ever. They usually march into the coop one-by-one, settle in and it's lights out. So, when I saw that I had to investigate. After a head count I noticed who was missing and went looking. I found something I didn't want to - my poor girl drug into the middle of our pasture and literally eaten to the bone by some wild animal. I was sick to my stomach. My poor girl. Turns out skunks are more deadly (and prolific in this area) than we realized. The poor girls were scared into a moult. :( We have since moved them into a more secure spot, given them lots of TLC and extra lighting and we're now getting eggs again. And when I say eggs, I mean super JUMBO sized beauties. These babies are almost too big to fit in our egg cartons. I'm in egg heaven again. And they are spared the stew pot (when we didn't know what was going on we..or I had...contemplated making them dinner), at least for now.

The cow is being a stinker. I didn't ever understand why you'd see old TV shows where they nicknamed their cows "Bossy". I finally understand it. This cow has more gumption than any animal I've ever known. When Honey cow wants something, she gets it. If you're outside, you better watch it. If she's in heat, you're likely to get mounted. If she wants a scratch, you better not be otherwise occupied. She wants what she wants, and she wants it right NOW. Good grief.

She has taken to breaking into the hay room and helping herself. The other night I opened up the barn only to find her staring me down, followed by an enormous belch. Well, hello to you too...sheesh. Cows. I'm not complaining. I love the darn bovine to bits. I didn't think I'd love cows more than sheep. I always envisioned myself as a quiet, docile sheep person. The soft 'baaaing' was endearing, afterall. Who wouldn't love it? And the thought of lamb chops on the table regularly was also quite motivating too...But cows are just, well, addictive. Once you have a good one, you start thinking about getting another one. Unfortunately (or fortunately), we don't have enough land or $$$ to support another one on our small property, so we'll be a one cow farm. Maybe one day when we're moved onto 10+ acres in the boonies I can have my herd of ol' bossies, but for now she'll do.

The sheep are still...sheep. They're more like little ghosts. You don't really know they're there unless they sneak up on you. They are remarkably easy keepers because of their size and don't seem to get phased by much, including the cold, snowy weather we're having. As long as they have a dry place and some hay, they're happy. And they don't even need that much hay. Seriously, they are the perfect homestead animal. Now, if we could catch them they'd be even more perfect, but I'm not gonna get carried away here...

A tale of a silly cow

This morning started out thoroughly uneventful. Babies crying, toddler screaming, husband looking half comatose, my hair defying gravity in a few spots and one eyeball sort of sealed shut from being half asleep. You know, the usual. Then, just as I am sitting down to feed a famished baby, I see a disturbing sight out the window. Come to think of it, that window is pretty notorious for me seeing disturbing sights out it. Maybe I should just keep it shut. Anyway, there is the cow. Eating chicken feed. No, eating sounds too casual. There was the cow HOOVERING chicken feed, is more like it. I tell my husband what she's doing, who then asks me who was the last person to get in the chicken feed. We both shut the container religiously to keep a munchy cow and sly sheep out of it. If we don't, they know. Somehow, some way they KNOW. So, something was fishy. I put a baby down, get dressed and run outside to see how the heck the cow got in the chicken feed. Then I see it - one very busted, splintered feed storage container with a 500# cow eating as fast as she possibly could before I took away her loot. She knew what I was going to do. Cows are way smarter than people give them credit for, seriously. She was determined to get into that feed, pushed it over and rammed it with her head until it busted. Dang cow. The poor, splintered container is in the chicken coop and now I have a very put-out cow. The sheep tried to get in on the action, but she kept chasing them off. It was quite the sight. I'm sure I added to the specter with me wearing a pink floral bed jacket, gravity defying hair, one sealed eyeball, flipflops and capris. I hope my neighbors were inside with their blinds shut, 'cus that was one embarassing way to start the day.

Catching up!

For the past few weeks I've been on an internet-free vacation. It got to the point that I finally had to cut the internet off, at least social networking and checking anything but the news, just so I could get things done. It's amazing how much time can be wasted on the internet just checking blogs or the news and most especially on facebook. Though I don't think I've gotten many projects done, I have been able to focus more on my kids which has been huge. The quadruplets are now rolling over and wanting more play-time, which means less sleepytime and more work for me! Add a 2 year old to the mix who is getting VERY jealous because her rival nemesis' are taking up more of mommy's precious attention.... and pretty much every hour of my day until they are all in bed is swamped. My husband is very literally amazed that I can keep my sanity. So am I!

As an update:

The cow is now completely feeling better. Cow patties abound. She kicks up her heels frequently and annoys the crap out of the sheep. She is pretty hilarious. Most of the day she spends out in the pasture either chewing her cud or eating the tall grass and conspicuously spying on the neighbors. Another thing I never knew before owning a cow - they are NOSY. Holy cow. Like nosy old lady who watches everyone out her front window kind of nosy. If ANYTHING and I mean ANYTHING is going on, she's got one eyeball trained on it. She's observant, surprisingly so actually. Whenever anyone goes out to the corral or barn she is the first one there hoping for A) grain or B) A scratch on the head - in that order. One of our neighbors came over and helped us fix the busted irrigation sprinklers so we can irrigate our pasture to lengthen the amount of time before we need to start digging into our new hay stores. Turns out he is a retired landscaper, so he has all the equipment for sprinklers, etc.! Score!

The pickled garlic was a huge success! For the first few days it bubbled like sauerkraut and had to be 'burped'. I basically sacrificed a canning lid and just poked a hole in it so I wouldn't have overflow onto the counter if I forgot to 'burp' it. The garlic is surprisingly good. Very mildy garlicky and salty/tangy at the same time. It'd be great in a vinaigrette  or put over a salad. I may make more. We still have a whole jar of it - a whole jar goes a long, LONG way. So be forewarned.

And finally...I am so ready for the fall. This hot weather is really kicking my trash. And I think the sheep and cow and chickens and dogs are all ready for it to be cooler too. If anything it'll cut way back on the fly and wasp population (I have a new found hatred for both of these annoying little wastes of carbon-based life), and allow more out-of-shelter time until the rain and snow come in. I say, bring it on!

Hay! Hay! Hay!

We finally found hay! After looking EVERYWHERE we found some a little ways down the road for $4/bale for a 70 lbs bale. Not too shabby, especially since most of the hay around here has been going for at least $7/bale...AT LEAST. Most of the local, non-out-of-state hay on KSL has been around $8/bale including delivery. I know that's not super high for some areas of the US, but for out here it's high. For us it's high given the number of bales we need to buy for this cow. After googling 'how much hay does a cow eat' I happened across a forum entry from a dairy farmer who used this figure for his cows: 31 lbs hay/cow x _______days. So using that figure we are getting A LOT of hay to not only feed her through the winter/early spring, but also our 3 little sheep. She probably won't be eating it all, and the sheep are very thrifty eaters, but better safe than sorry. The farmer is gonna deliver about 1/4 of our hay order to our barn this Friday and the rest when he bales his next crop, which should be in a couple of weeks. We ended up going with a red clover hay, which (from what I've researched) is just as nutritious as alfalfa hay for cows, but generally just not as popular or as widely available mostly because the stand of clover has to be reseeded every few years. The University of Wisconsin did a study on dairy cattle & red clover and found it was just as good as alfalfa at providing nutrients AND didn't affect the milk production levels at all. Honey is loving our clover patches all over both pastures, so I'm thinking it'll be a hit. Since it's not expensive to buy, I'm thinking we might stick with this hay if we can. It's cheap, will be good for our dairy cow and (hopefully!) this farmer will keep producing it!

Cow trots (and I don't mean the walking kind)

You've never experienced anything until you've had a cow with an upset stomach - Think copious, squirty poo. The regular stuff is bad enough! When we bought Honey a couple of weeks ago I noticed she had some 'crud' stuck to her tail. Not thinking much of it, I brushed it off as nothing. Boy, was that a mistake. Being the big greenhorn that I am, I didn't even think to ask the rancher - 'Hey, dude, what's with the poo on the cow?'. As far as I knew, cows all had poo on their derrieres. But, after nearly 1.5 weeks of non-stop poo from this cow, and none of it in the classical 'cow pie' form - even after giving her probiotics, baking soda, ACV-  enough was enough - I called the vet. After her little jaunt with the steers next door her condition got worse and absolutely nothing we did was helping like it was before. Long story short - the vet  tells me she probably has coccidiosis after I tell him her condition, history & level of poopy symptoms and she needs to go on a coccidiostat I can buy at the feed store ASAP. Wonderful. I have no idea what the heck that is or what a coccidiostat is for that matter. Did I mention we're completely green to cattle? Give me a rabbit or even a sheep now, I'm good. I can diagnose, treat and name body parts, cuts and even color patterns to specific breeds (I medaled in breed id in 4-H, not to toot my own horn or anything...but I do have a couple of trophies & plaques). Large, no, gigantic! hoofed bovines baffle me simply because I've never had them before.
*Mental note: buy a dang book on cattle husbandry already.*

So, the cow has been on this coccidiostat for the past 4 days and she's starting to feel good.  Her energy level is noticeably up from what it had been, she's chasing the sheep, running around the chickens, bucking and kicking up her heels. But the poo is still not normal. Not being patient whatsoever, I started getting concerned after a few days and not seeing much improvement. Today I talked to the vet and he assured me this stuff will work, but it takes time - like up to 2 weeks for the coccidiostat to clear the infection, and another 1-2 weeks for her stomach to repair and physical condition to improve. Poor girl. Her poor stomach has basically been ravaged by a protozoan parasite that eats up her intestinal lining, kinda like what happens to someone with cholera or giardia. Not fun. But, she is doing much, much better. And she could have had it much, much worse from what I've read of symptoms and what happens when high parasite levels are present. As uncomfortable and poopy as she is, it could have been a lot worse. Scary thought. But now I am an expert on coccidiosis in cattle. Hopefully I never have to be again.

 Next up for Honey (once her tummy is finally settled) - A BATH!

Natural Flying Insect Repellent ala Cow

 Anyone who owns a cow quickly finds out that flies REALLY like cows. They sorta go together like peanut butter and jelly, or manure and..uh...flies. We don't really like using non-organic type solutions around our farm. No round-up (straight vinegar works wonders on sidewalk weeds), no commercial pesticides if we can help it and no chemical insecticides on our livestock or pets unless it's a very last resort. SO, once Honey was delivered to our farm I realized we needed a fly repellent badly. She had been kept on a big, dry pasture with a bunch of other cattle since the rancher bought her from a dairy. So, you can imagine how she looked. And how many flies hitched a ride with her up to our place. On Keeping a Family Cow forum I found a thread on Flying Insect Spray for Cows and tried it with what I had on hand. It's really easy to make, and works GREAT. Our poor cow was not used to being handled, but even she held still so I could spray her down with this stuff once she realized the flies had stopped biting!

From the Keeping a Family Cow  Forum
Organic Flying Insect Spray

3/4 Vegetable Oil (I've used Grapeseed oil for mine)
1/4 cup organic Apple Cider Vinegar
Squirt of liquid dish soap
40 drops citronella essential oil
30 drops lemongrass essential oil
20 drops camphor essential oil
20 drops cedarwood essential oil
15 drops clove essential oil
Water
Fills a 32 oz bottle. Apply 2X a day, morning and evening

 My recipe using what I had on hand

3/4 cup Grapeseed Oil
1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar or White Vinegar
40 drops Tea Tree essential oil
40 drops Peppermint essential oil
20 drops Lemon essential oil
Water
Makes 28 oz. Apply 2X per day to resident Bovine.

I have been making this recipe up by the gallon and found the spray lasts a whole 24 hours after you apply it at keeping flies at bay. It works great, can be made up in bulk, is CHEAP, completely non-toxic and keeps the flies off my Honey! How can ya beat that?

Whoever said catching a greased pig was hard never tried catching a cow...

What does a big dumb dog, a busted fence, a sunburn and a cow have in common? I'll tell ya. Today started out with a bang. I woke up to a screaming set of babies. Nothing unusual about that at all. It happens every morning like clockwork at the same time every single day. I walked past the bedroom window, just as I do every morning, on my way to heat up some bottles and I saw something much different than the usual pastoral scene in my front pasture. Nothing. I saw nothing. Nothing is quite unusual. Normally there's birds or grazing sheep or SOMETHING in my pasture. This morning...not a thing except for a panting, very out of breath old, dumb St. Bernard who broke into the pasture overnight. I panicked. He isn't supposed to be back there. I had visions of mauled sheep and injured cow. So there I am, half asleep, half dressed, hair all skiwompy running outside to find out HOW this big, dumb dog managed to get into the pasture. What I found was a soggy mess from the irrigation being left on all night, 2 soaked, panicked dogs, 3 out-of-sorts sheep and...NO COW. I then panicked. Where did she go? I checked the barn - no cow. I checked everywhere in the front pasture - no cow. Then I go into the back pasture...

The fencing for the back pasture was completely mangled. I could see the scene in my head of how the entire situation this morning had panned out, and how our poor cow, Honey, had, in a panic, repeatedly tried to bust through the fence to escape her new canine friend. In 3 places the fence has 'cow' indentations on it, and in one spot the field fencing AND electrical line was completely broken. I guess 500 lbs of panicked bovine being nipped at by a dumb, old dog can do that to a fence. No amount of fencing could have kept her in at that point.

We spent the entire morning and afternoon trying to catch her. My poor husband at one point did get close enough to put a rope around her neck...then she drug him through a patch of brambles and thistles, and followed it up with him getting stuck in a mucky swampy puddle up to his knees. Sounds like fun, huh?  *Mental note - we need to halter train her FAST* By time we realized we needed help all 3 of us (my dad was helping) were fly bitten, sunburned and itching from grass allergies. Fortunately, our neighbor has cows and had the time to help us later in the afternoon. It took all of 20 minutes to catch her with him helping...boy, did we feel like greenhorns. We learned the hard way that you don't chase a cow. You have to act like you're not trying to catch a cow to catch a cow. Who knew? By the time we wrangled her back into our property, the poor thing was dehydrated and sick from her jaunt with the boys next door. She isn't exactly tough stuff. Her reward was being locked in her stall with a big pile of alfalfa, some electrolytes, water and grain. She's a happy camper now, but I think the whole thing today kinda traumatized her a bit. She's not too keen on leaving the barn AT ALL now. She'll come outside for maybe 10 minutes, then book it back to her stall.

This is what I learned today:


1) Cows are hard impossible to catch if they don't want to be caught.

2) Dogs and thunderstorms don't mix. Ever. We had a freak thunderstorm this morning that sent them reeling. 400 lbs of dog and a flimsy gate don't really go together...soooo, we're gonna get them penned up too. It's for their protection. Hoof in face isn't a good look for a dog...

3) Whoever said a greased pig was hard to catch, obviously never tried to catch a 500 lbs heifer on the run.

4) I hate grass.

Troughs, barn boots & hay, oh my!

On my list of things we desperately needed, like, yesterday:

Barn boots - for all of us. Poop on the shoes is never a good look for anyone, man or beast.
A water big mother of a water trough - our Honey gets thirsty!
A cow halter - an animal that's gonna get to be 1500+ lbs needs it and the training that goes with it. Seriously.
A salt lick. Self explanatory.
About 100 lbs of C.O.B. - for the uninitiated that stands for Corn, Oats & Barley mix. It's like sheep/cow crack.
A measured scoop and bin for said 100 lbs of C.O.B. Did I mention it's like sheep/cow crack? They try to get into it like it's crack too.
And 5 tons of hay in my barn, delivered, stacked and fitted in there like neat little tetris pieces.

Yep, that's it. 

I never thought I'd seriously be needing barn boots. Welcome to country life!

Honey & her Boyfriends!

Miss Honey wasn't on the farm for more than a few hours before she attracted the attention of the 6 resident steers next doors. If they're by the fence they moo until she comes over. If she's by the fence, she moos until they come over. It's totally cute. They're such nice boys. And such little beefcakes too! Gotta say, this girl works it!

Of cows and little sheep

This photo just makes me giggle. Prancer & Honey have this thing going where they annoy eachother. Prancer was left behind by mom & aunt and didn't realize it. Honey came between her and the sheep...she books it. Cow looks at her like 'Dude, what's up?' and begins chasing her a second after this was taken. Life on a farm. It's entertaining.

Now presenting, Miss Honey Cow!

After much heated conversation, Dorothy's name won out over Ethel, Clementine and Alice. Ok, actually, the hubby's name had won first, but no one was calling her Ethel. It just wasn't rolling off the tongue. And Dorothy was calling her Honey cow, so guess what her name is? Yep, she's Honey. Though I think her new name fits her much better than Ethel. She is pretty sweet, just like Honey. :)

A cow by any other name...

Ok, our big ol' holstein heifer needs a name. The criteria for the name are as follows:

1) Something that won't sound ridiculous when I'm calling her name in the middle of our pasture to get her into the barn
2) Something cute
3) Something the kids can pronounce and say, even with a lisp, that won't sound ridiculous, awful or lewd.

So, with that criteria here's what we came up with:

Me: Clementine
Hubby: Ethel
Dorothy: Honey
Nana: Alice

What does she look like to you?

How now Black & White cow?

So we've been trying to figure out if we should add a cow or more sheep to our little piece of paradise. Our three little Soay sheep aren't exactly knocking down the grass and clover as fast as we'd like, so I've been thinking maybe we need a few more sheep. Hubby was thinking a cow. It's been a pretty tough decision since we don't have a lot of space to work with, and basically need to make every square inch of this place count. On KSL Classifieds a few weeks ago I happened across a farm in Montana that had Cotswold sheep. Black cotswold sheep! Yeah, I began drooling over the idea of 20+ lbs of black, silky gorgeous wool, called up the lady and put a verbal reserve on 3 of her sheep at $250 a head. But then I still had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that it just wasn't right. Generally, I follow that hunch, but I was still lusting over the 60 lbs of wool I'd be getting every shearing. My husband put an end to my lusting when he said 'Nope, we need to make it count. What will they contribute?'. When all I could think of was eating our pasture down and making wool, well, it couldn't be justified. So...that knocked me off my wool-lust and back to reality. Cow it was. We'd just keep our little stinker Soay Sheep as pasture companions and get a dairy cow. Finding one was a little harder...

Do you have any idea how much a cow costs? Or even how hard it is to find a decent milking quality heifer (a heifer is a female how that has not yet given birth aka virgin cow)? It's difficult. And expensive. We could get 4 sheep for the price of one mature, in-milk, dairy cow. After much looking, and even less success after multiple inquiries on listed ads I found a couple of 7 month old heifers listed by a man in Elberta, Utah...more than 1 1/2 hours away from us. Since we lack a stock trailer (it's on the list of BIG things we need to get...) I figured it was a long shot that he'd even deliver, or it'd be so much that I'd have to say no to the cow. But...SUCCESS! He said he'd bring her up this Saturday and DA DA DA DAAAHHH!! for FREE. HOT DIGGITY!

Now the hard part...naming her.