Heifer Diary 2008

January 1, 2008 New Year’s Day Tuesday:

The cows were cleaner this morning thanks to the shavings. My neighbor finished plowing me out from the last storm and now a new storm has come in. This one has a lot of wind behind it and there is drifting. I don’t know how many new inches we got. Probably five or six.

I kept busy in the kitchen preparing to feed DS Max, Mark and Martin tomorrow. They are coming up to kill my steer, Melvin. I loaded the dishwasher with two days of dishes and it has quit. It won’t fill. The line is definitely not frozen. I had to walk away from it. I lay down on the couch and read Christopher Lloyd on growing lettuce and endive at Great Dixter.

The boys are going to kill Melvin during tomorrow night so as to get him to the butcher before dawn, that being the only time he will take him.

Jasmine gave two gallons as usual. A new hen has started to lay. She lays a beautiful blue egg.

January 2, 2008 Wednesday:

The Melvin plan had to be cancelled. The small slaughterhouse where we were taking Melvin’s carcass called about 5pm to say that because of severe cold weather in the forecast he would not be able to operate his equipment. He has an unheated space that must be wide open. Fortunately Martin and Mark had not left yet to drive up here from Portland/Biddeford. Max was especially glad for the cancellation. He had a brutal extraction today of an abscessed molar that broke to pieces. Because he expected to have to drive over here he had taken very little pain meds. When I informed him of his reprieve he was practically euphoric. He went right in and took more pills plus a shot of some kind of liquor. I spoke with him an hour later and he was a new man.

An appointment is now set for Saturday which actually suits everybody better.

I did a lot of cooking that I need not have done. I made bread; Martin’s favorite hot cross buns that he believes belong to Christmas and braised brisket. I will freeze the buns. I just ate some of the brisket, the first I have had of the new meat from the steer we killed in early December. It was extraordinarily good.

Besides baking, the main thing I did today was wash dishes. Last night I had the dishwasher loaded with two days’ dishes and it refused to run. So today I took them all out and washed them by hand. Waa!

The thermometer is sinking fast and there is a lot of wind.

I spoke this morning with DD Marcia in Florida. SIL Jack is very weak. I guess they would send him home if there were a qualified visiting nurse to be found. We area all so very grieved.

January 3, 2008 Thursday:

It was bitterly cold and windy today, -7°. I left a light on in the beefer pen last night in case it would help the cows see better places to lie down. That, and the fact that all the pee and poops are immediately freezing, made for cleaner cows today. Helen took the best spot and was completely clean.

Touching metal with wet hands can be dangerous in case your skin freezes on. Don’t do it. Nobody told poor Willie. He likes to lick out Bagel’s dish in case Bagel missed something. I heard this awful shrieking behind me and turned around to see the dish hanging off of Willie’s tongue, stuck fast. It dropped off in about 10 long seconds, thank goodness, as my mind was not generating any good ideas for his rescue. I noticed later on he went up to Bagel’s dish and merely gave it a sniff.

For the first time since before Christmas I went to the supermarket. Not that the freezer isn’t stuffed with food, but eventually one does run out of certain things. I stopped at the thrift shop and found all sorts of treasures: a heavy glass platter beautifully etched with a Christmas design; a large white nylon tablecloth made in China or the Philippines with great deal of hand worked embroidery; a large cotton plaid tablecloth made in India and a flawless soft apricot hued sweater of mixed silk and cashmere fiber. All for $8.71.

Our dear Jack was moved to Hospice within the hospital at 12:30 (noon). He is getting a little morphine now but was able to whisper a few loving words to each family member. All of his children are now there (three from California), and of course DD Marcia and grandson Harper who has come from Alaska.

Thursday 10:30 pm – Grandson Harper has now called from Florida to tell me that Jack Boles passed away very peacefully, very gracefully, at 9:20EST with all the family present and laying on their hands.

January 4, 2008 Friday:

After getting Harper’s call I sat down and read through the Anglican Rite for death and burial. An excerpt: “Give courage and faith to those who are bereaved, that they may have the strength to meet the days ahead in the comfort of a reasonable and holy hope, in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those they love. Amen.” (p.481)

This morning was brutally cold, -17°. Neither my boots nor my gloves are engineered to withstand this degree of cold. Jasmine gave two gallons. The chickens are laying at least 10 eggs a day now.

DS Martin and DS Max came for supper. They are preparing to kill my steer Melvin early tomorrow morning (Saturday). He has a new appointment.

January 5, 2008 Saturday:

Max, Martin and I were up early. I made coffee and warmed up the hot cross buns I had frozen from last week. We easily separated the cows to their stanchions. Last night the guys had plowed and used the Kubota bucket to remove the mass of snow from in front of the big double doors to the beefer pen so that Melvin could walk through for his grain. Max dropped him with a gun he borrowed from his friend Tim. Using the Kubota bucket they hoisted him up and Max made the cuts to bleed him. They put the carcass onto Martin’s pickup and he was away from here by 7am. The butcher will only hang the carcass until Thursday, five days. That is my only disappointment.

Max stayed here long enough to help with chores and bring in lots of wood.

DD Marcia called from Florida. She has received many kind notes of condolence. She and son Harper visited her real estate agents today. It was a useful visit if only to learn the ways in which they are caught up in the widespread real estate troubles. However, Marcia’s place is exceptionally beautiful, especially her gardens. She was describing her bamboos to me today. I dearly love a bamboo grove.

January 6, 2008 Sunday – Epiphany:

It has warmed up to about 30°. It is amazing how one adapts. I am sweating in my coat and removing my hat in the barn.

There was inevitably quite a bit of blood on the snow from the Saturday killing of Melvin even though they caught most of it in a basin. The dogs keep going out there for a pink Sno-cone every chance they get.

DD Sally called me from Boston at 8:30pm. They temporarily lost her luggage forcing her to take a later bus. DS Martin is going to pick her up and keep her overnight in Biddeford and I will meet DIL Amy tomorrow in Auburn and bring her here. She has been traveling now for about 40 hours (from Alaska) without sleep; last night she had to sit on a bench in Seattle all night. They put her on a different flight. Our calls were very brief so I am only guessing what went wrong but I suspect the terrible weather in the northwest was to blame.

My sister Barby on Skyline Blvd near Woodside CA has been without electricity or phone for several days. Her cell phone does not function in the mountains where she lives. This morning she drove to the top of the mountain to call me and the utility companies (again). She has propane heat and a little Coleman stove and knows how to cope but like me, she lives alone and is pretty old for this kind of thing.

Jasmine gave over two gallons this morning. Oakley taped at 370 lbs last Friday. I forgot to enter that information.

It is a lot quieter and cleaner in the beefer pen without Melvin’s huge bulk. I don’t need to put out as much hay either. Water consumption has hardly fallen at all; he was not very thirsty, obviously. I kind of miss him though. I just wish he could have been a heifer. He would have been a fine good natured gal like Emily with beautiful Jersey markings.

I made a cream cheese pound cake today with yogurt cream cheese for Sally.

January 8, 2008 Tuesday:

On Monday I convened in Auburn with DIL Amy. DS Martin had picked Sally up last night at midnight and she spent the night with them. She looks as bouncy and healthy as ever, following a night’s sleep and a shower. Amy had baby Hannah along and we caravanned back up to Turner where we had lunch at Nezinscott Farm Store. This store is owned by Gloria Varney and her husband. They have a large and comprehensive farm with dairy cattle, sheep, goats, llamas and more. Her store includes a large bakery and she also serves lunches. Everything in the store is local and/or organic. You could live out of this store. There are all kinds of dairy products, meats and her farmstead cheeses. She also has coffee, tea, organic wines, cleaning products, books and woolens. She now has a web site: www.nezinscottfarm.com .

Last evening we separated Oakley so that Sally could milk Helen this morning. Helen gave 1 ½ gallons. Jasmine gave 1 ¾ gallons.

We are in the January thaw. Yesterday and today were in the 30’s and today was sunny. Sally went over and had a look at her little house across the river after which we all, including the dogs, went up to Weld to look at DD Marcia’s camp. Sorry to say, Willie, the West Highland terrier, was sick in the car but at least it was in the far back. The snow was too deep to drive past Martin and Amy’s camp. Sally broke trail and we walked down to the Boles’ camp. All appeared well although we did not go in. The snow is very deep.

We separated Oakley again tonight. He will be four months old on the 14th of this month.

January 9, 2008 Wednesday:

It is still warm and now a heavy mist hangs over the land. Oakley’s cow pragmatism has not quite kicked in and he is not eating much of the feed and water to be found in his comfortable overnight stall, formerly used by Peter, the horse. It has a tiny window just for a calf to be able to see his mommy and he spends much of his time looking through it.

Marlene, the lady who carries the mail, just dropped off a box of cheeses from DD Abby. We both had to sample the Humbolt Fog at once. Dear God in heaven, it is seductive. It reminded me of that 50 year old movie in French, The 7 Deadly Sins. In the Greed segment a young man traveling in the French countryside arranges to spend the night with a peasant couple and is served a superb cheese made by the luscious young wife. They retire three to a bed. The snorting pig of a husband falls asleep immediately and the young man begins whispering about his longing and desire. Wifey says “Go ahead, he’ll never notice.” So the young man creeps over to the table and eats more cheese. The scene ends with the wife rolling her eyes and pulling up the covers.

I can’t remember the famous director but it was in black and white. Probably Ingmar Bergman.

Here is some new research about vitamin D that I think is important.

Vitamin D Benefits from Sun Exposure Outshine Cancer Risk

By Crystal Phend, Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: January 08, 2008 Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

UPTON, N.Y., Jan. 8 — Overall health benefits from increased sun exposure may outweigh the risk of skin cancer, researchers here said.

Skin cancer rates rise with proximity to the equator among light-skinned populations, but the opposite is true for prognosis of many other cancer types, reported Richard B. Setlow, Ph.D., of Brookhaven National Laboratory, and colleagues, online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Although milk, cod liver oil, and supplements can supply vitamin D, solar radiation is still a main source for humans even at high latitudes, they said. Vitamin D seems to protect against cancers including breast, colon, kidney, and ovarian cancers. Studies have also linked vitamin D or sun exposure to benefits in overall mortality, prostate cancer, multiple sclerosis, bone health, as well as the occurrence of cardiovascular events in hypertensive patients. (See Related Articles below.)

A population-wide increase in sun exposure improves vitamin D status, but is controversial because it has been blamed for the high and increasing incidence rates of melanoma, they said. “These issues have health consequences far beyond those of cancer because a number of diseases are associated with inadequate vitamin D levels or low sun exposure: neurological, cardiovascular, metabolic, immune, and bone diseases,” they said. The researchers gathered age-adjusted incidence and death rates averaged over the years from 1987 through 1997 from the International Association for Research on Cancer database for six countries — Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway — with a primarily white population. They also looked at Norway’s age-adjusted incidence rates of cutaneous malignant melanoma from the Norwegian Cancer Registry from 1960 through 2003 and mortality rates from a World Health Organization database for the same period.

Vitamin D photosynthesis was calculated for the annual amount of vitamin D-generating solar radiation at different latitudes while the body was modeled as a horizontal cylinder, rather than the less realistic flat surface exposures used in previous models. Using this model, they found 3.4 and 4.8 times greater annual vitamin D-generating solar radiation doses at the equator than in Britain and Scandinavia. However, this north-south gradient was not matched by a similar gradient in vitamin D status by latitude. “It is surprising that mean population levels of vitamin D are similar in sunny regions like Florida, Australia, and Northern Europe,” the researchers said. Incidence of the three major skin cancer forms did increase from Norway to Australia as expected. The discrepancy could be because of patterns of sun exposure or vitamin D intake among populations, but is more likely because serum vitamin D measurements “are not standardized well enough for international or interlaboratorial comparisons,” they said.

For other, internal cancers, incidence rates varied widely by as much as a factor of 50 between countries without a consistent north-south gradient. Thus, “genetical, dietary, and environmental factors, other than sun exposure, play major roles and may completely mask the effects of vitamin D,” the researchers said. A more sensitive way to look at the effect on cancer is to look at prognosis, they said, which was crudely estimated in the study as the ratio of mortality to incidence rate. Among populations with a predominately similar skin, prognosis improved with decreasing latitude and thus with increasing ultraviolet radiation exposure, whereas cancer treatment was likely of similar qualities between the countries studied. Likewise, the research group had previously shown that cancer diagnosis in late summer and autumn when serum vitamin D status is optimal was associated with about a 20% advantage in relative risk of death. “These data argue for a positive role of sun-induced vitamin D in cancer prognosis or that a good vitamin D status is advantageous when in combination with standard cancer therapies,” they wrote. The net benefit may be greater than the adverse effects of moderately increased sun exposure, even for total cancer mortality, the investigators concluded. Although populations at-risk for vitamin D deficiency need to get this message, further study is needed, they said. “In view of the supposedly long latency times for cancer manifestation,” they wrote, “decades are needed for final evaluation of the impacts of the antisun campaigns with respect to melanoma incidence, cancer prognosis, and other possible positive or adverse health effects.” The study was supported by Sigval Bergesen D.Y. og hustru Nankis Foundation, the Research Foundation of the Norwegian Radiumhospital, and Helse-Sør Norway.

Primary source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Source reference: Moan J, et al “Addressing the health benefits and risks, involving vitamin D or skin cancer, of increased sun exposure”PNAS 2008; 105: 668-673.

Related Article(s): • Low Vitamin D Plus Hypertension May Worsen Cardiovascular Risks • Cancer Meta-Analyses Shine on Vitamin D • Vitamin D Linked to Decrease in All-Cause Mortality • Childhood Sun Exposure May Lower Multiple Sclerosis Risk

January 10, 2008 Thursday:

As predicted by the weatherman, the wind came up strongly. Very shortly after Chris called from Massachusetts about his steers being poisoned, the wind knocked out both our power and phone so I don’t think I was a lot of help. DD Sally did find a good poison site which I forwarded. I learned only this morning that his vet had come promptly and saved the animals. It appeared to be rhododendron poisoning. Every year in England there were reports of people dying from having eaten rhododendron honey.

The power returned at about 10:30pm but wind blew violently all last night. This morning I just happened to notice that it had blown in an attic window. Sally went up to the third floor and made a temporary repair.

Today was warm and sunny, 37° all day. I have been looking down longingly at my garden shed and veg garden area, not sure I wanted to plow through so much snow. This morning Sally broke trail down to it and I followed along without falling into a snow bank. Only the tops of a few things can be seen but I said hello to my young quince tree and pointed out the major branch that sprouted and bore ten apples on the tree she pruned.

As predicted, it took only three days for Helen and Jasmine to understand that when we bring Oakley in for the night it does not include them. Oakley runs right up the aisle but does not quite remember which stall door to turn in.

Helen gave 1 ¾ gallons. Jasmine gave 2 gallons. When I let Oakley back in with his mom he just diddled around and was slow to start nursing. He was by no means frantic. The overnight separation is certainly not going to be hard on Helen’s teats.

January 11, 2008 Friday:

It rained all day. The thermometer hung around 35°. School was called off because of icy conditions and I thought better of going to town. Everything can wait.

Sally instituted some changes at milking time designed to please Helen. Yesterday she held up her milk and it had only a half inch of cream on it today. Sally thinks that Helen does not like it when Jasmine is done first and I leave. And she clearly hates cats swarming around her legs. So she brought out pre warmed milk from the house for the cats and gave it to them in a distant spot. And I delayed putting the machine on Jasmine until Sally was about half way through milking Helen so they would both be done at the same time. Something worked because Helen gave 2 ½ gallons. Jasmine gave 2 ¼ . We had plenty of milk for everybody today.

Oakley came in quite well tonight and went into his stall. He is not to the point where it would be convenient for just one person to get him in. It still takes me touching him from behind with my wand and Sally heading him in the door.

January 12, 2008 Saturday:

DD Sally went over to look at her little house and big field and there was her brother playing with his giant kite that pulls him on skis. He often takes it out on the lake but today wisely decided to try the field instead. There has been warm weather just lately and the river is wide open. Meteorologists don’t trust the ice. Heavy snow covered it before it was deeply frozen.

Sally has stomped out a trail part way around her field. She likes to have a look at the trees in winter in the hedgerow. There is a beautiful variety. She also found where her son Rafael had laid out the mast to his boat. It is buried under the snow now.

Sally’s current indoor project is a large quilt made of squares cut from woolen garments. It will have wool batting inside it and some of the squares will be embroidered with appliqué. She is also working on the maternity dress for her daughter Rebecca given by Shawn from the KFC board. Since Rebecca’s baby is due in April in Alaska, Sally is making the sleeveless version so that the dress can be worn over a shirt. Sally also intends to line it for a bit of extra warmth. She has removed some beautiful white satin lining from one of the coats in her blanket project and plans to use this. Sally is a speedy worker so by this time next week I expect to announce that the dress is ready to send.

DIL Mitra and DS Max are rendering their lard today. They use their crock pot.

Oakley trotted right in tonight and went straight to his stall. Helen gave only 1 ½ gallons this morning as compared to 2 ½ gallons yesterday. It does not take a calf long to figure out that he had better tank up the minute one comes to the barn to separate it for the night so we think that is what happened. Tonight we had his stall already with his bit of grain and tasty hay waiting. We went quietly to the barn and swept him along before Helen even made it to her feet. It will be interesting to see if she has more milk tomorrow.

Sally and I entertained DS Martin and DIL Amy and baby Hannah last night for dinner. Here is how I fixed the chicken:

I cut up a selection of vegetables that were in the fridge, in this case rutabaga, leeks, potatoes, carrots, celery and garlic. I made them into sizes designed to all be cooked at about the same time. I made a 2” deep layer in the roasting pan and added salt, pepper, a few dried herbs and an inch of water. I put the pan on top of the stove and got the veggies simmering, then laid the chicken on top of the veg breast side down. The chicken was fully defrosted. I then put it into a 350° oven for an hour. Then I turned the chicken breast side up and roasted it another hour at which time it was beautifully brown, crispy and moistly tender. This was one of the Mitra’s home reared birds and looked to be about 5 lb.

This way of roasting poultry or pork was suggested by Julia Child in one of her books but I had not actually done it before. We all gave it high marks. Apart from whacking up the veg there was no work and the pan juices were delicious. Baby Hannah ate a lot. She also liked the whole wheat dinner rolls that Sally made to go with it.

Hannah is a highly verbal toddler now at 21 months. She is building vocabulary at practically the speed of light and speaks in short sentences using prepositions. Being half deaf I miss a lot but everybody tells me what she just said. She repeats new words to herself for practice. Little kids are such fun.

January 14, 2008 Monday:

The much heralded blizzard is upon us. So far it has not been bad. The snow began about 7am and has fallen all day with wind gusts perhaps up to 25mph. Mostly is has been falling quietly. I don’t think we have gotten more than four new inches.

Last fall on a trip to the town dump, I picked up a toy pony. I make him to be 4 ½ hands high. He is very well-constructed with a strong armature that will support a toddler. He is piebald tan and white. I guess he was thrown out because his stuffing was coming out in a couple of places. I rather imagine somebody saying, “Are you ever going to fix that thing or do I take it to the dump?” I brought him home and put him in the buttery. DD Sally carried him in, stood him on the table, made full repairs with her needle and thread and sewed on a cute bridle. He already had a saddle. He was wild eyed with white showing all around his pupils so as my contribution I took eye liner and gave him a tamer expression. Now he is wearing an Indian saddle blanket and has a teddy bear cowboy. I will have to get a picture.

On Sunday (yesterday) we had son Max and DIL Mitra here for lunch and after they left we gave lunch to son Martin and DIL Amy and baby Hannah. Lots of eating. I made a big meatloaf with a mixture of pork sausage and ground beef. I also made corn pudding. I guess corn pudding has gone out of fashion. I had to go to an early edition of the Joy of Cooking for a recipe, not that one really needs one. The Joy recipe has you make a roux with butter and flour, add a couple of cups of cream, incorporate two egg yolks and mix in the corn and chopped pimiento, for which I substituted canned roasted sweet red peppers. Lastly, beat the egg whites, fold them in and bake. Salt and pepper of course, and I grated on a bit of dried out cheese. It was a big hit.

DD Sally made a batch of feta according to the recipe posted by Homestead2.

We are averaging four gallons a day of milk now, two from Jasmine and two from Helen. Helen is being very good. The cows are cleaner now with Melvin gone and DD Sally on barn cleaning detail. I was falling behind on the cleaning.

January 15, 2008 Tuesday:

There was not enough snow from that storm to keep us from getting out of my driveway so Sally and I went shopping. We both had long lists. I bought three dozen cloth diapers for my granddaughter Rebecca (Sally’s oldest) who is expecting in April. Cloth diapers are my perennial baby gift, always hoping for a convert. In this case it appears Rebecca has already made up her mind in favor of cloth.

After we completed our other errands we still had enough stamina to visit the thrift shop. There we found a collection of beautiful embroidered linen dresser scarves. These had been made a long time ago by women in a family in Lithuania who grew and wove the flax on their own farm before younger family members moved to the United States. An old man in the family had brought in a stack of these linens to the thrift shop, many with lace work, others with openwork or embroidered flowers, saying none of the younger generation wanted them. Sally and I each bought several. They were priced from $3 to $6 dollars. I wished I could have bought them all. They were in perfect condition.

I made a big pot of beans which cooked all day and were ready for our dinner. Sally made cole slaw. I also made rice pudding.

January 16, 2008 Wednesday:

It was slightly colder today, around 18°, sunny and windy. Jasmine gave a bit over 2 gallons as did Helen. Sally does not think that Oakley is trying very hard to nurse and probably not nursing the bad quarter at all. She milked it out and only got about a cup. Either she is mistaken or else that quarter is spontaneously drying up; we are pretty sure it is the latter.

DD Sally is making rapid progress now on the maternity dress for Rebecca. The unassembled pieces were given her by forum member Shawn. It will be a lovely dress. It is a soft beigy plaid. Sal has lined the bodice with ivory satin from a coat that she has cut up for her quilt project. Sally thinks that if she can get the dress to Rebecca in time that she will take it along when she and Torsten go to Denmark for the 100th birthday celebration of Torsten’s grandmother. She is very spry. She has an Aussie boyfriend and they often travel (Perhaps there is still hope for me!). Rebecca has become fluent in Danish. Torsten’s father, Steen (sp?) Bentzen, has a large organic vegetable farm outside of Boston where he has many CSA customers.

January 17, 2008 Thursday:

As mentioned earlier, we are not sure how much if at all Oakley has been sucking Helen’s bad quarter. Sally milked out a cupful for me this morning to sample and by golly it was perfectly good milk. I guess that answers the question. It is unlikely to have recovered without regular emptying by Oakley.

Helen gave 1 ½ gallons this morning and Jasmine gave 2 ¼.

Sally made a cheese today in the press she bought for me last year. It is the first time she has had a chance to use it. My other press, Cheesy Press, will make a 3 gallon cheese. The new one, which is from Hoegger Supply, makes a 2 gallon cheese. This press is significantly easier to use. It does not wobble and threaten to spring apart and hurl its top bar at your teeth as does the Cheesy Press. I hope Sally will make lots of cheeses.

DS Max came over today and I was able to give him six gallons of milk. Sally made an apple crisp to serve him. The apples were Northern Spy, an excellent tasty variety and good keeper.

DIL Mitra reports having made another successful recipe from The Grassfed Gourmet. It was a pork roast that calls for a salt, sage and black pepper rub followed by a lemon juice (she substituted orange juice), olive oil and honey glaze applied before baking.

January 18, 2008 Friday:

We had another snowstorm that dropped about 4”. It was very beautiful while falling. It is about 20°, which is a perfectly endurable temperature. DD Sally now has a pair of snowshoes that Max brought yesterday. After the snow fall ended the sun came out and she put on the snowshoes and took the dogs for long walk around the fields. She did not report any wildlife sightings and the only tracks she saw were from mice. Poor little Willie, my West Highland terrier, has short legs and a lot of hair. Hopping through the snow is hard work for him and his underside builds up snowballs. He comes home and melts little puddles on the floor.

I reminded Sally that there will be no mail on Monday due to Martin Luther King Day. She worked an hour or more by hand to finish all details on the maternity dress so that she can get it into the mail tomorrow. She is in there now pressing it.

I got out one steak for Sally and me to share. I cooked it by the method advanced in Cook’s Magazine and which DS Martin recommended. You pre-warm the steak all the way through before grilling, or in this case frying it. I gave it an olive oil, garlic and mixed herb rub and warmed it for an hour in the Aga simmer oven. Sally and I agreed that it was a successful method which we will try again. This is Jersey beef. It is very adequately marbled and the flavor is superb.

Sally’s first cheese looks very promising. My last bucket of clabber had such good flavor that I did not want to give it to the chickens so I made a couple of pounds of Homestead2 style cottage cheese. It turned out pretty much the same as qvark this time and is very good.

When I make clabber I always pour the skim milk into a clean bucket and inoculate with good tasting clabber starter. Sometimes, especially in winter, it still does not end up with a good flavor but when it does I usually make at least part of it into cottage cheese.

Helen gave 1 ¾ gallons this morning and Jasmine gave 1 ¼ gallons.

January 19, 2008 Saturday:

DD Sally went around the fields on her snowshoes again today. She saw the tracks of three foxes, two running and one walking. I rather imagine they are socializing now. It is about their breeding season, I believe. If we were out at night more often we might hear them screeching. There is some animal gnawing holes in the barn floor. The holes are much too large to be a rat. With all the cats I have, I have not seen any evidence of rats in years. The dogs seem interested but don’t give me any clues that I can understand. I am not aware of having lost any chickens. At least I do not have 900 lb grizzly bears hanging about as Sally does.

Sally made a carrot cake today and we ate too much. Good, though.

I was browsing a little cheese pamphlet that has been among my cookbooks lo, these many years and found a recipe for teleme cheese. I used to love it when we lived in California. It is never available elsewhere, so far as I can tell, and I have never before seen a recipe. Now I can’t wait to try it. The recipe says it is made from sheep or goat’s milk but I am sure the kind I got in CA was not.

Helen gave 1 ¾ gallons and Jasmine gave 2 gallons.

January 20, 2008 Sunday:

Cold weather is closing in. I made my favorite recipe for African peanut butter soup for our dinner. We gave the cows extra hay.

Sally made Neufchatel cheese from the newly discovered pamphlet. It is delicious. She used the mini cylinder of the cheese press and it came out small and shapely. It is an instant gratification cheese. No waiting to eat it!

Jasmine gave 2 1/8 gallons and Helen gave 1 7/8.

Peanut Butter Soup

Sauté some vegetables in a little peanut oil, coconut oil or butter until they are limp but not browned.

½ cup chopped onion 1 large carrot peeled and sliced 1 large stalk celery, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced

Add 1 cup non-hydrogenated chunky or smooth peanut butter and stir (I prefer chunky) Add 6 to 8 cups chicken broth and bring to a simmer.

Add 1 or 2 potatoes, diced (I usually cook the potatoes separately for faster results and use some of the potato water in lieu of stock. If using raw chicken I poach it in with the potatoes.

Add ½ teaspoon cayenne (or if you have it, 2 teaspoons of Thai garlic chili)

Lastly add cooked chicken or turkey if desired.

Simmer about 15 minutes

Now add something acidic, either 3 Tablespoons wine vinegar or some chopped tomatoes. When I added the Thai chili the flavor balance was perfect without adding any tomato, vinegar or pepper. I like to serve it with a wedge of lime.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Other veg are also good such as red bell pepper.

I think you will be surprised how good this soup is.

January 21, 2008 Monday:

Oakley was attempting to mount Helen today. Except for some vague signs soon after she calved in September, this it her first noticeable heat. We saw no other activity but she was definitely giving us the hairy eyeball. We did not turn out backs on her.

Helen gave only 1.5 gallons. This could have been in consequence of her being in heat. But Sally, who hand milks her, thinks she does not like it when I get through with Jasmine, turn off the machine and leave. I am going to revise the job so that I finish milking Jasmine a bit later.

January 22, 2008 Tuesday:

DD Sally, accompanied by the dogs, makes an early pass at the barn to put down hay while her tea is brewing. It is still dark at that time. This morning some animal routed by Willie, made a great dash out the door. Sally could not tell what it was. When later I looked at the tracks they were so jumbled with Willie’s that I learned nothing. In the past when this has happened in the buttery or garage, which are open to each other, it has always turned out to be a feral cat. But a cat would not account for the hole chewed in the floor.

I did other little jobs in the barn until Sally was halfway through milking so that Helen and Jasmine would be finished about the same time. It will take a few more days before we feel able to establish a cause and effect. However, this morning Helen did give a full two gallons.

This evening when it was time to separate Oakley for the night, he was waiting with his nose at the door. He walked right in and around to his stall. In his pan he finds a cupful of grain. It is this which makes him want to march right in.

January 23, 2008 Wednesday:

The butcher called. My new meat is ready from the steer named Melvin. We killed and bled him here to avoid psychological trauma and took the carcass to Castonguay for cutting and wrapping. He was only willing to hang the carcass for one week. I don’t yet know the weight. I will find out on Friday when DS Max picks up the frozen meat, but the butchering is going to cost me $306.50.

Bad news on the dental front. Today while eating a pastry another of my front incisors broke off. It took me a minute to figure out what was happening in my mouth and I didn’t know whether to go spit everything out in the sink or swallow my mouthful of croissant. Not wishing to gross anybody out, I swallowed it. Bad decision. I think I must have swallowed the tooth; anyway it is gone. My dentist seems to be out of town.

It was a bit warmer today. It had been hanging around zero for some days but got up to 22°. Sally has pounded out a trail all the way around her field with her snowshoes. Down in the farthest corner she and the dogs found a big ladder lashed to a tree, presumably some trespasser’s hide. She freed the ladder and laid it down but it was too heavy to drag.

Helen gave 2 gallons this morning. Jasmine was mad at me for leaving her side while the machine was on. She flung her pan about and gave only 1 ¾ gallons. Tomorrow I will sit there and contemplate the universe as she prefers.

January 24, 2008 Thursday:

I had an eye exam today and the drops have not worn off. I can barely see. But the doc said he did not see any progression of my macular degeneration since my November visit. Now tomorrow I have to see the dentist.

Sally has been milking Helen’s formerly bad quarter vigorously and the milk supply is building. This morning when I let Oakley back in with Helen instead of nursing he went to the feeder and ate hay. This evening when I opened the door to let him in for his overnight in the stall, Helen led him outside instead. She went and stood out in the snowy field in the dark. Soon he came back in ahead of her and headed straight for his stall.

Helen gave a little under 2 gallons today, Jasmine a little over two.

January 25, 2008 Friday:

Could this be a sign of spring? This morning when I finished chicken chores one of the two large red roosters that lives with the layers marched quite purposefully out the door with me. There are two other red roosters of equal size that are part of the free rafter dwelling group. Before long one of these had stepped forward to challenge the new kid on the block. They looked exactly alike except that Rafter Boy has a frost bitten comb while Layer Group Boy, who lives in a warm room, has a perfect comb. I watched them for awhile doing their highly entertaining chicken fight moves but it was -20° this morning so I gave up and hustled my cold toes and fingers back to the house. Clearly, Rafter Boy had both the home territory advantage and the street smarts; Layer Group Boy was soon standing out in the middle of the driveway on a sheet of ice with feathers drooping. Sally and I went out and herded him back in with the hens.

I wonder how much Oakley is nursing now? I have never had a calf that simply chooses to wean at four months, but for three days now when I turn him back in with the cows he had headed for the hay rather than for Helen.

Max brought the new meat today from Castonguay. There were 11 boxes totaling 510 lbs. which cost me $306.50.

Mitra now has the flu. Both girls had it. Shireen just started back to school but Roshan is still coughing badly. Max is still OK. He brought us some blueberry bundt cake that Shireen made. It is perfect.

I had a dental appointment so had to race away and leave Max and Sally to stow the meat. Both big freezers are now full with lots of less critical stuff like pigs’ heads and fat back sitting in Nature’s Deepfreeze, my buttery.

When I got home I found that Sally had made delicious sour cream scones and a fruit pudding with frozen strawberries and black currants. I fried some of our extremely good beef liver enlivened with a bit of Chinese mushroom soy sauce.

My dental repair options are all expensive. I chose the cheapest. It still will require gum surgery. Sigh.

January 26, 2008 Saturday:

It got back up in the 20’s and the sun shone all day. DD Sally took the dogs for a long walk along the river. She could hear my spring line running somewhere under the snow. It is broken and spilling. She reports coyote tracks on the river. It is mostly frozen over and has snow on it.

I wanted to try the new beef but the freezers are so stuffed that I selected something off the top layer. I found a little package with two servings of short ribs and cooked them all day in the Aga simmer oven. The flavor was really excellent. I served them with home grown potatoes and cole slaw.

Jasmine and Helen were both down in production this morning, perhaps because the recent cold weather. Jasmine gave 1 7/8 gallons and Helen gave 1 ½ .

January 27, 2008 Sunday:

On days that are not stormy or too cold I leave the door to my chicken room open to their run even though it is deep with snow. They don’t choose to go out, that is until yesterday when my small Lakenvelder look-alike flew away. DD Sally found her around the far side of the barn scratching in the manure pile. At evening I could not find her. Sally makes an early morning pass at the barn to serve out hay and takes the dogs along. This morning she spotted Willie creeping up on something. Suddenly the “something” exploded out of a snowy corner. It was the little hen. She had spent the night outdoors. She again disappeared and neither of us saw her all day. Then this evening Sally spotted her perched on the half-door to the grain room. I have a pretty good way of catching hens by making a snatch for their legs. I had Sally turn out the lights to give me the advantage of darkness but I missed my snatch. The hen flew shrieking to a window ledge in the grain room and with the lights on I grabbed her. I put her back into a nesting box with the hens and hope she has enough sense to stay there. She has turned into a good layer.

On Saturday Sally cooked up a big pot of pig heads that got banished from the freezer in favor of the new beef. This morning she removed and chopped all the bits she liked the looks of (no snouts and eyeballs) and I made two big bread pans of scrapple. Tomorrow I will fry some for breakfast and give a report.

My granddaughter Rosemary, Sally’s daughter, has been acting as crew on their recently purchased boat, a diesel powered tender called Fox Island. With her husband Nathan and another man as crew they have been bringing her up from San Diego to Blaine near Bellingham, WA. They have been plagued with repairs and bad weather causing Sally a lot of worry, especially yesterday, knowing that the weather off the west coast was stormy. In fact they were forced into harbor at Newport, OR. We are not sure what they did today but most likely Rosie has had to leave the boat in order to meet her obligation to be in New Hampshire on February 1.

Jasmine gave 2 gallons this morning and Helen slightly less.

January 28, 2008 Monday:

It was a couple of degrees below zero this morning. We did not expect this or I would have put a jar of hot water into the outdoor fridge to stave off freezing. All the gallon jars had frozen cream. I brought some of them in and defrosted them. Sally skimmed enough so that together with what I had in the fridge she was able to make butter. This is the first time it has been possible to make butter since November. How I have missed it.

I went back to the dentist and then onward to buy groceries in Farmington. Dear Max met up with me and I gave him four gallons of milk. While I shopped he took my car and gassed it up. My old favorite full serve gas station had vanished. Where it had stood was bare earth being scraped by heavy equipment. I hate pumping my own gas and barely know how.

Meanwhile back at the farm, Sally took the dogs for a walk around her field wearing her snowshoes. The dogs chose to go home across the river ice leaving Sally with a dilemma: cross on the rather questionable ice or go the long way around leaving the dogs unsupervised at home where Willie had access to the road. She said “Am I a man or a mouse?” (I suggest she is neither) She crossed successfully and went back to the house and made a pumpkin pie. I whipped some of the frozen cream. It whipped OK but the texture was not quite right.

Helen gave a bit under 2 gallons today, Jasmine gave 2 gallons

January 30, 2008 Wednesday:

Yesterday and today both started out at -0- degrees but then warmed up to over 30°. Now we have an icy drizzle. Despite the cold and damp the air smells and feels great. Sally has taken the dogs out for several nice walks.

DD Sally says that Helen’s joints creak when she walks. I can’t seem to hear it. I guess I am too deaf. I will keep listening though.

I have been looking at seed catalogues. Seed prices are getting scary. I must get serious about seed saving.

I started a teleme (pronounced tella may) cheese today. I do so hope that it turns out to be good. One is supposed to use sheep’s milk but of course I am using cow.

We are going to increase Helen’s grain a bit to help support her production. Although Oakley does not nurse as avidly as formerly, he still nurses plenty. Jasmine must be dried off in the middle of February so Helen will be our only milker. Her current production hovers at 1 ½ to 2 gallons OAD. I could of course wean Oakley but I would just as soon keep on with over night separation and OAD milking. Helen will now get two scoops of organic pellets and one scoop of COB, a total of about 4 ½ lbs of grain.

Last night I made a tasty stew with the pint of canned caribou meat sent down by Sally’s daughter Rebecca. It is excellent meat. Becky pressure canned it herself. Her husband Torsten shot the caribou last fall.

Tonight I made Moussaka Chateau Neuf du Pape. The recipe is in my book Real Food, now out of print. It is a nice easy recipe with the unusual addition of mushrooms.

DS Max now has the flu, the last in his family to succumb. He says he does not have it as badly as Mitra and the girls. That must be true. He reports having fixed a surf and turf dinner with steak from this farm and said it was delicious.

Jasmine gave 2 gallons and Helen gave 1 ½ this morning.

Moussaka Chateau Neuf du Pape

Named for the village near Avignon, Vaucluse, where in a richer version, it was a specialty of the restaurant, La Mule du Pape.

1 onion, chopped 1/2 lb. mushrooms, chopped 2 large, ripe tomatoes (or a few canned plum tomatoes) 1 or 2 cloves garlic, chopped 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup or more of chicken stock (veal is really better in case you ever have some you can believe in) 1 tablespoon chopped parsley Large pinch of Herbs de Provence (or rosemary and thyme) A few fresh basil leaves or a large pinch of dried basil Salt and pepper to taste Diced, cooked lamb, several cups. Or saute and drain fat from ground lamb. 1 large eggplant Olive oil for frying 6 oz. shredded Swiss cheese or other interesting cheese

Saute the onion, mushrooms and tomatoes (if raw) and garlic in butter for a few minutes until limp. Add stock, salt, pepper and herbs and simmer until onion is almost tender. Add lamb and simmer ten minutes more.

Peel and slice eggplant (actually, I rarely do peel it). Fry the slices on both sides in olive oil until limp and no longer cottony; drain on paper.

Line an oiled baking dish with eggplant slices and spread the lamb mixture over them. Cover with shredded cheese and bake in a hot oven (375°) until browned and bubbly (15 to 20 minutes). Cool slightly before serving.

Tonight I spread sour cream over it for the last five minutes of cooking. Good idea.

This version of moussaka is a lot simpler than most and because it is assembled from ingredients already cooked on the stove top, it takes less fuel and is ready sooner. Also it does not call for a béchamel or cream sauce.

Most recipes call for salting, pressing, draining and rinsing eggplant, and for a good reason, for old or tired eggplant can be bitter. This nuisance is important only if the eggplant shows a lot of brown when cut. Try to find firm, glossy eggplant which is pale greenish white when cut; these require no salting.

January 31, 2008 Thursday:

With morning came the discovery that the Aga was out! This rarely happens. A couple of times they let me run out of propane. This time it is apparently because it needs its thermocouple replaced. It will take a few days to get it and I don’t know who will put it in but will confront that problem in due course. In the meantime we are doing rudimentary cooking in the fireplace and on the woodstove.

After waiting nearly three weeks for the dishwasher service man to come, he arrived and I learned that the cost of the repair will be prohibitive, at least $350. DS Martin says he will bring me one out of a house he owns. DD Sally is a great sport about doing the dishes and I am fortunate to have a deep stainless steel restaurant sink where everything can hide.

Sal took a walk along the river today and got a closer look at the place where the spring line is broken and spraying. She says it has formed a beautiful lacy ice sculpture resembling a Faberge egg.

Jasmine and Helen each gave close to two gallons, Jazzy a little over, Helen a little under.

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February 1, 2008 Friday:

Yesterday, being in the grip of despair, I did not mention that two more of my teeth broke off, this time two molars on the upper right. I already had an appointment today to get back my partial which was being retrofitted to replace the incisor that broke off last week. Today’s visit to the dentist went far better than I feared. There is a dentist in the area who manufactures his own dentures, making the cost a lot lower. And routing out the broken remains of my molars was fast and easy except for the roots, which will require oral surgery at some point. Sally came with me today and we went on into Farmington and had tea and went to the thrift shop.

Now here is something wonderful. DS Bret, who is Nutrition Specialist for USDA Extension in Alaska, was at scientific meetings that took place in Honolulu this week. He sent me the following report from one of the meetings.

“We had a speaker today that was going on endlessly about how dangerous raw milk was and that farmer’s markets were the source of many dangerous and potentially lethal foods. I asked if she was not disenfranchising a significant sector of the Extension audience. I also pointed out that listeria outbreaks occur in pasteurized milk products so the problem was not always with the point of production, and in fact, the poster child listeria story was due to a single case of a filthy barrio plant in LA where the woman in question was exposed to a huge dose of listeria. I lost about 25 friends of the 30 in the audience and the others came up to me privately and thanked me for saying something. Recent listeriosis cases are due to hotdogs and deli turkey. Apparently raw milk and single cow households are widespread practices in the Pacific region and the Islanders sort of nod their heads and show amazement at the dangers of raw milk and then go back to raising their families with their cow. This was shared by a Tongan physician who was a speaker and who was raised that way. I was amazed, I did not know Islanders had cows, other than Hawaii. He was living in New Caledonia, which I think has grazing land too. Maybe they have cows on Tonga?”

Sally and I are so proud of Bret for speaking up.

I am currently attempting to learn more about the relationship between cows and methane. Anti cow people are now condemning cows for contributing dangerous amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas, to the environment.

DS John, an oceanographer, knowing of my interest, wrote me the following this morning:

“A colleague of mine found methane seeps in the Timor and Arafura Seas that release massive amounts of methane. Great bubbles come to the surface. Nobody knows how much. I suspect thousands of times as much as cows eruct. Not to mention melting tundra.”

Tundra is a vast new source of free methane. It is melting at unprecedented speed and releasing methane which had been held for thousands of years. SIL Tom, DD Sally’s husband, works on the oil pipeline site in Prudhoe Bay, which is within the Arctic Circle. Last week they were unable to work because it was so warm that the tundra was all squishy and unable to support the vehicles. This is never known to have happened before in January.

Both cows gave the same as yesterday. A snow storm is moving in, very heavy wet snow of the sort likely to freeze onto trees. Sally filled an extra 5 gallon tank with water.

We are still cooking on the wood stove/space heater and the fire place.

February 2, 2008 Saturday:

The big news this morning is that there is no water running in the barn. We don’t know why. We have considered every possibility but are left to assume the most obvious thing which is that the pipe froze. Last week we had to put a different hose onto the tap that is inside the hot box. This hose must be unrolled when we fill the stock water. We were unable to get the new hose screwed on in such a way that it did not dribble and spray around the connection. Possibly this zapped the heat tape. In any case, the bottom line is that we are now taking water out to the barn in 5 gallon plastic cans. It sure gives you an idea of how much water a cow drinks.

DS Martin brought me a new dishwasher. It was in their former home. So tomorrow morning we will be loading it up. DD Sally has been a great sport with dishwashing. This will save her a lot of work.

Martin also studied the Aga for a long time. He took various things apart in an effort to understand it. He finally decided it was just like a barbecue and did not see why it should not just be lit, so he lit it. God willing, tomorrow morning it will be hot and Sally will get her tea without having to build a fire. We will have a lot of scrubbing to get soot off the pans. Cooking on an open fire is easy enough and I have a crane in the fireplace but it does get one sooty. The wood stove, which we have also been using, is really a Scandia space heater. It has a flat top but a pebbled surface so pans do not make good contact.

Martin also spent part of the day at camp. He took his kite out onto the lake and whizzed around for awhile.

DIL Mitra wrote me a nice letter telling me that she really wants a cow. This I knew. So I gave them Helen. They will have to modify their barn before she moves but this won’t take long. Martin thinks he may be able to borrow a horse trailer. Oakley will soon be four months old. He is plenty old enough to wean which will of course happen when his mom goes to New Sharon. They will surely get at least 3 ½ gallons from Helen as we are getting two with Oakley on her half the time. They will then have to give milk to me! Little Jasmine must soon be dried off.

February 3, 2008 Sunday:

Before I went to bed last night the Aga had gone out again. Such a disappointment. Max was here today for milk and he worked on it for over an hour. It seemed to be going nicely, the cook tops were heating. Then it went out. But Sally found my old plug-in electric burner and it still gets red hot. She will be able to boil the kettle for tea on that. I continue to cook over the fire. Today I made soup with two meaty shinbones and lots of vegetables. Delicious, but all my pans are black.

“And greasy Joan doth keel the pot”

The new dishwasher works fine.

DD Marcia sent about 15 pounds of Seville oranges from her garden in Florida. Sally squeezed the juice and sliced the rind on an antique marmalade cutter that I brought from England. The marmalade is now simmering on the wood stove.

The water to the barn still does not run. Sally continues to take 5 gallon containers out on the sled. It is hard to keep up with the cows.

It was very warm today, well over freezing. The sun was dazzling on the snow.

Jasmine gave a bit over two gallons, Helen a bit under.

Sally and I watched Miss Austen Regrets, the extremely hypothetical reenactment of the life of Jane Austen as presented by Masterpiece Theatre. I rather enjoyed it, Sally less so, as she has read all of Jane Austen’s surviving letters, thus has more facts at her command. We enjoyed ourselves by finding anachronisms. Sally was much offended by the backchat towards elders including the niece towards Jane. It was the norm to address elders, most especially parents or an aunt, very respectfully. Sally also says that the family was highly affectionate and almost worshipped Jane. The harsh attack on Jane by her mother was out of character, Sally says.

The main thing I noticed by way of anachronism was the herd of Holstein cows. Every county had its own breed. It would not have been much trouble to find at least a few survivors of the appropriate breed.

February 4, 2008 Monday:

It being bright and sunny, DD Sally thought it a good opportunity to bathe Willy. In front of the garage, she filled a 30 gallon plastic tub with warm water and set about shampooing him with the Dr. Bronner’s mint castile soap. He really needed this bath as I am afraid that his stubby conformation interferes with personal hygiene. I held him up by the tail while she trimmed away some of his fur. She also shortened the hair over his eyes. I hated to see it go as it makes him look so cute but Sally thinks it interferes with his vision.

The Aga is not yet fixed. Cooking on the fireplace is messy and cooking on the wood space heater requires firing it up to a heat which has me worried about safety. I have a small gas grill which unfortunately was left out on the deck where it got covered with two or three feet of snow. Half an hour of shoveling and I was able to roll it back to the buttery where Sally helped me to lift it inside. It worked fine tonight for heating the soup.

February 5, 2008 Tuesday:

We had another snowstorm today. There are about six new inches of heavy wet snow. I had to go out and shovel the mailbox clear. My neighbor Ted Flagg came and plowed me out. It would have been impossible to get the car out of the driveway.

While I worked on my current essay, Sally put on her snowshoes and took the dogs for a long walk. While standing quietly waiting for them to emerge from a patch of woods she saw a tall nearly black fox. The dogs chased him but came when she called. Perhaps it is he or his mate that has been in the barn.

Helen’s production is down quite a bit and Jasmine’s is down slightly. Helen gave 1 ½ gallons and Jasmine barely two. I assume this is because we can’t quite keep up with their water requirement. The barn water still is not running.

February 6, 2008 Wednesday:

Snow fell again all day. I have had to be plowed out twice. It is not cold, only in the 30’s. Sally dragged the stock tank back outside a day or two ago and set it under the eves of the barn. There has been enough dripping to fill it more than halfway. This has saved her a few trips with the water cans.

We have been climbing up on the hay bales to pull them down for convenience sake. Sally found a nest with about 20 eggs. Half were broken. I will hard boil the ones I saved, chop them up and feed them back to the chickens.

Thinking of something sustaining that I could cook without an oven, I made a big batch of chili. I had it cooking out on the gas grill but the propane ran out before it was done. I was able to finish it on the wood heater. We both ate a lot. Sally made a gelatin type cheesecake filling using quark that did not require cooking. She served it like ice cream with a scoop. That was good too.

Jasmine gave over 2 gallons this morning. Helen gave a full 2 gallons also. This increase may be attributable to the outdoor water tub.

February 7, 2008 Thursday:

The good news: DS Max came over and was able to replace the thermocouple in my Aga. My dear companion stove has returned to its duty. Sally has some bread dough rising for tomorrow morning. A week without baking was making us feel deeply deprived. There were no cookies for Max but I was able to give him a bowl of chili. It was even better today.

The replacement dishwasher is doing a good job.

The barn water is running again. I have been trying it every time I go to the barn and today I heard an encouraging gurgle followed by water. DD Sally no longer need fill 5 gallon cans, put them on the sled and fill the stock water three or four times a day.

The bad news: Another of my teeth appears to be breaking off. So tomorrow it is back to the dentist.

It snowed a few more inches today, enough so that I needed to have the driveway plowed again. Sally and I had to shovel out the mailbox. That was a big job. The berm is as high as my head and we cannot pitch snow over it.

Sally cut a bunch of willow withies and put them in a vase to root. We hope to establish them down by the river to help hold the bank.

Both cows gave over 2 gallons this morning.

February 8, 2008 Friday:

I postponed my dental appointment since the tooth is not painful. It snowed again all morning and the roads were deep in slush. I decided that I was too old to drive 45 minutes on bad roads to X-ray a cracked tooth. Later when the weather cleared Sally and I celebrated the restoration of all the domestic systems by going shopping. It had been over two weeks since I had been to Hannaford’s, our local supermarket chain. First we stopped at St. Theresa’s Free Store. It is a vast emporium featuring mostly clothes and you just take what you want and leave a donation. We both refreshed our wardrobes with sweaters, pants and shirts. Sally had a really big armload and will be able to send good shirts to her kids. We were so late getting home that the dogs missed their walk but we left them with nice bones. Willie constantly amuses us with his bone behavior. He keeps his favorite buried in a snowbank. When he sees us coming he quickly digs it up and carries it in his mouth in hopes he will be allowed to bring it into the house.

It is just one week until I begin to dry off Jasmine. She is such a steady producer that it won’t be easy. Wesley was born a year ago and the wee thing still gives 2 gallons a day. I have begun to warn my customers that there will soon be no milk for them to buy. We will still have Helen’s milk but that will only be enough for the family.

Both cows gave a tad under 2 gallons today.

February 9, 2008 Saturday:

We had such a delicious and jolly family dinner tonight. DS Martin’s friend who stayed at his camp last fall for the bird hunting, sent him three pheasants. He and Amy have been waiting for an opportunity to have me cook them. I roasted them this afternoon and also baked one of DS Max and Mitra’s hams. They joined us for dinner too, and Martin brought along his brother Mark and Mark’s daughter Hailey. Mark has just returned from his rotation in Pennsylvania where he did OB/Gyn. Now he has started the family practice rotation in Portland. Mark’s fiancée, Ann, couldn’t make it because of impending snow. She would have had to leave pretty early tomorrow anyway because she is on call. We put two tables together to seat everybody.

Martin especially wanted chutney so I made up a batch this afternoon with apple, onion, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, salt, sugar and vinegar and probably a few other things.

DD Sally made an apple crisp including some local cranberries and this too was a hit. DIL Lou and DS John in Australia called before dinner and we had a nice chat. It is Sunday morning for them.

A week ago I started a teleme cheese, my first. I adored teleme when we lived in California. It is not sold in the east so far as I can tell and until last week I never saw a recipe. Probably the reason it is not seen here is that it only ages for a week to 10 days and I doubt it would be much good made with anything but raw milk. I served it today and am just thrilled with it. Everyone said it reminded them of camembert.

It was back down to zero this morning. Jasmine gave 2 gallons. Helen was down to 1 ½ .

February 10, 2008 Sunday:

It was not so cold this morning. 20° seemed positively balmy. I even left the chicken door open so they could have a change of air. DS Mark and granddaughter Hailey, age 15, borrowed my car and Sally’s snowshoes and joined Martin and Amy at camp. They all climbed Center Hill. I assume this means just from the main road to the parking lot as through the woods to the rocky summit would have been out of the question. They did a 3 mile round trip they said. Martin carries Hannah, 22 months, and DIL Amy is 7 months pregnant so I guess they are all in good shape. The snow is very deep.

Amy is eating plenty of red meat. Her OB/Gyn says her iron level is better than most non pregnant women. Amy told her she is eating lots of red meat (from Coburn Farm). The doctor said “If there were one piece of advice I would like to impress on all my pregnant patients, it would be eat red meat.”

I sent plenty of tasty leftovers along for their lunch and cooked a pot of white beans for Sally and me. I soaked them Saturday night and simmered them today in chicken broth. We ate them topped with Sally’s feta marinated in herbs and olive oil with cole slaw on the side.

The cows are warm and cozy but it began snowing hard about 3:30pm and there is a high wind. I was sorry I opened that chicken door. The combination of wind and a shift in shape of my timber framed barn made it impossible to close the door. After 15 minutes of trying I resorted to a lash-up involving good old hay string.

Sally talks to people in Haines AK. Like much of AK, they are enduring unprecedented cold. Haines usually has a Seattle-type climate but is now -10° with lots of snow. Sally’s house sitters are suffering because they cannot get the house above 55° and the pipes have frozen. In an unprecedented move, the State ferry has been stopped due to excessive icing. Such icing could cause the ferry to flip.

Son Bret in Fairbanks where it is far colder reports that all his plumbing has frozen. Fortunately he never retired his outhouse.

Both cows gave a little under 2 gallons this morning.

February 11, 2008 Monday:

It snowed a lot more last night accompanied by violent wind. Great drifts formed. A drift shaped like the Matterhorn is outside my kitchen window. I have to stand on tiptoes in the kitchen to see over it. There was no need to call for plowing. The snow that fell on the front lawn and driveway all blew away. A large drift formed in front of the barn. I don’t believe I could have gotten into the barn at all, at least not without falling sidewise several times and making snow angels. Sally shoveled out a nice channel for me. My hay string on the chicken door was not entirely successful. The wind dragged it open a couple of inches and let in snow all over everything. We kept the cows shut in but snow crept under the door leaving a quarter of their room white. It was not as cold as some suffer in the Midwest and Canada, only 10F, but with the wind it seemed a lot colder. It is wonderful that the water is still running, we have not lost power (got to watch Pride and Prejudice last night!) and the Aga is running perfectly so we are getting along just fine. But it does seem like a long hard winter. The wind is still blowing. I did not even try to light fires until late in the day. Too much smoke puffs out into the room.

Sally made two loaves of bread. I made 10 pints of marmalade with Seville oranges that DD Marcia sent from her garden in Florida.

Jasmine gave a bit under 2 gallons, Helen gave 2 ½. Sally left her standing for a few minutes after milking and then came back to see if she could get some of that cream that Helen hates to part with.

February 12, 2008 Tuesday:

The day started at about 10°F with sun but a strong wind is continuing to drift the snow. I had a dental appointment but went by myself this time because Sally feels badly about leaving the dogs tied out in this weather. I met Max in Farmington and gave him 4 gallons of milk. I drove over on the more traveled road and it was perfectly clear. I returned home by the scenic route by Weld and the roads were very snowy and actually slippery at the height of land. I did not see another car for at least 5 miles.

Back home I found that Sally had created order in the laundry room with different furniture including a set of shelves for my teetering pile of sweaters. Lovely.

DD Sally’s daughter Rebecca wrote from Denmark where she and her husband have gone for his grandmother’s 100th birthday. How the Danes do love to party! She said they started at 9 am and were still going strong at 3am that night and that included the old folks too.

DD Abby sent this anecdote from her daughter Helena about Helena’s daughter Natalie, my great granddaughter, age 26 months who weighs about 24 pounds.

Natalie gets “time outs” when she smacks somebody now… Helena sends her to her room for a bit. She’s not real fond of being banished– but the other day (this is SO FUNNY) she smacked the 30-ish-year old girlfriend of one of Helena’s acquaintances for some infraction (I never heard why) and when Helena turned threateningly to her she said “Nat not sorry!! Time out!!”

I thought it was pretty funny too.

Today, February 12, was marked on my calendar for Helen’s heat. We saw nothing until this evening. When I went into the beefer pen, Helen came right up to me in a very friendly way and Jasmine was right behind her with her neck against Helen’s hip bone. Definitely heat. Jasmine would otherwise never invade Helen’s space like that.

February 13, 2008 Wednesday:

Today was mostly about weather. Snow fell very heavily all night and all day. The early morning temperature was 10°F but slowly rose all day eventually getting above 30°. At this point the snow turned to sleet but has not stopped. Much of the state is receiving rain and is flooding. Max and Mitra laughed this morning at 5am when they turned on local TV to learn if schools were closed. The crawler said, “Closed – Maine, State of”.

That did not include the Federal Gov’t. and USPS. Snow had covered the mailbox 6” above its top. The door hangs open, having been damaged a couple of weeks ago by the plow. The presence of the box was marked only by a small tunnel like opening into its dark interior. I shoveled for 15 minutes and then clamored onto the berm as the plow came by and filled in all my work. I shoveled another 15 minutes and another plow came by and repeated the performance. Then Sally came out and took over. But I got my mail, one telephone bill and a seed catalogue.

Most of the day I worked on my critique of the Mark Bittman piece from the NYT. It keeps getting longer but is about finished.

Sally and I had a wonderful dinner. I have had a hankering for a dish called Potiron de Arpajon. It is just a baked puree of white beans and pumpkin. It is one of the recipes in Real Food. A day or so ago I cooked a pound of Great Northern beans which are a white bean that cooks to a lovely creamy consistency. I cooked them in a combination of pork and chicken stock. This is the recipe.

1 quart of cooked white beans 1 quart of cooked and pureed pumpkin 1 ½ cup or so of minced mixed vegetables, celery, carrot and onion

Sautee the veg in butter until limp, then cover and steam until tender.

In a food processor or by hand, puree the beans and add the cooked veg and 2 eggs. Add the pumpkin and some herbs such as thyme. Salt and pepper to taste. Blend well. Then blend in 1 cup of heavy cream.

Place mixture in a flat buttered casserole type dish so that is about 2” deep. Bake for about an hour until the top resembles pumpkin pie.

I served this with Alaskan wild caught sockeye salmon. Sally made fresh coleslaw and I made fresh mayonnaise using lime juice and olive oil to put on the salmon.

February 14, 2008 Thursday:

Last night was cold and the heavy wet snow ending in sleet has frozen into a difficult situation in the driveway. I could not possibly have gotten my car out of the garage before I got plowed out at 5:30pm. I was very glad that Martin slipped those new creeper spikes onto my boots. Even highly independent Sally agreed to carry a ski pole to the barn. Despite Sally’s exertions the mail lady did not leave my mail.

I did not milk Jasmine this morning. I will milk tomorrow if she is engorged and perhaps every other day until her production is safely lowered.

DD Marcia in Florida told me what her koi did today. They had a heavy rain which overflowed the koi pond. She walked out and found the smaller fish playing around on the wet grass. When they saw her they slithered back into their pool. I never knew koi would do that.

DD Sally’s daughter Rosemary is currently studying at the McDowell Colony in Peterborough NH. She was walking down the street today wearing her boots when a young man driving past rolled down his window and shouted, “Extra-Toughs! You must be from Alaska!” Apparently those are the boots they all wear. She looked at him and recognized a man she knows from the little fishing village of Cordova where she and Nate keep their salmon boat. Rosemary attracts people. Remember the time she was in Croatia and a burly man came charging down the street and threw his arms around her? He too was an Alaskan fisherman part of the year and recognized her. She is unmistakable of course, very tiny with a mass of yellow hair and a purposeful stride.

February 15, 2008 Friday:

We had sun today until about 2pm and the thermometer got up to 20F. They clouds blew in and by 4pm was again snowing hard. The weatherman tells us that an Arctic front is on its way in and we should expect subzero temperatures with windchills down to -30F. We have had 17 snowstorms and over 100 inches of snow so far this winter.

I milked Jasmine this morning. She gave 3 ¾ gallons. When milk spends two days inside a cow like that its flavor is not so delicate but it is not undrinkable. I would not sell it.

That essay or article that I have been working on for well over a week is finally done. Sally is proof reading it for me and probably suggesting changes. Max or Mitra will soon post it on my web site. It is a critique of a NYT article by Mark Bittman.

Sally finished up making the second and last batch of marmalade. She said it was a good project for a stormy day.

February 16, 2008 Saturday:

It was cold this morning, -0-F as predicted. No problems in the barn. I skipped milking Jasmine. She is full but not suffering. Helen was down this morning, only 1 ¾ gallons.

I started another teleme cheese. It only has to be in the press a couple of hours, then goes into brine for 24 hours. Sally made a really world class blueberry pie with a lard crust (Max and Mitra’s rendered leaf lard). The blueberries came from a lady right here in Carthage.

It stayed cold all day, also blowy. Even though the sun was shining Sally did not attempt a walk. Her trails are all drifted in.

A large part of my day was devoted to electronic affairs, not my long suit. First an hour wrestling with trying to update an account that had to have all new sign-in stuff. Then the TV would not get my stations that I watch on Saturday morning, Simply Ming, Julia Child and Victory Garden. I finally solved that problem by paying my bill on line. That is another thing I am not fast at. DTV has never cut me off before no matter how late I was. I wonder if this is a sign of recession, lots of people are slow-pay and they are losing patience. At least I got my reception back in time for Victory Garden, my favorite program.

Mitra and the gals on my forum finally wore me down and I have ordered the Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook for Sally and me. Mitra posted pictures of some of my A+ homegrown grassfed Jersey steaks. I have not yet eaten one myself from this year’s meat.

February 18, 2008 Monday:

Sunday morning I got bad news when we strained the milk. Jasmine’s would not strain. The strainer was so clogged that I got tired of waiting for the last couple of quarts to go through and dumped it. The filter was slimy and had clumps on it. I taste the milk from each quarter daily and the right front is often faintly salty so that is where suspicion lies although there has been no slow straining nor clumps. The skipped milkings have given it a chance to fulminate. I went back out to the barn and rubbed lard on the suspect quarter and applied liberal handfuls of hot chili pepper. This does not hurt my hands or her udder but draws a faint heat to the area. I repeated the treatment twice more on Sunday.

Today, Monday, was a day when I would have skipped milking on my drying off program. Instead I took four pint jars to the barn and filled each one by hand, labeling the jars. The milk from the suspect quarter was only very slightly different in flavor. Not salty but a little flat and without the sweetness it should have, more like store-bought. It strained perfectly and there were no clumps on the filter. I applied the chili powder treatment three times today. Jasmine has no objection to the treatment. I did not have to bring her into her stanchion. I don’t deceive myself that the infection is gone.

I milked the three presumed healthy quarters by hand but not all the way out.

One rooster is missing. He is a smallish one that gets picked on and he lives by himself in the beefer pen. Yesterday he was crouched in the corner looking discouraged so Sally brought him some grain. This morning at 5:30 when Sally went to the barn the rafter birds were already running around which is unusual and were making a big fuss and the dogs were all excited. The lonely rooster was not to be found, neither were there any feathers on the floor. So the puzzle remains. Sally walked down to the woods where the fox has a den and did not see any feathers there either. It rained last night so she could not see any tracks.

Helen gave two gallons.

February 19, 2008 Tuesday:

I had hoped to be able to milk just the one quarter on Jasmine, that was assuming she didn’t let down all over the place. Of course she did so I put the machine on three quarters and milked one quarter by hand. That quarter produced about one quart of milk of pretty good flavor. It strained perfectly and there was nothing on the filter. Sally noticed that it was unusually creamy and said it was perfect in her tea. I am going to skip milking her tomorrow and see what I find on Thursday. She is getting about 10 grams of vitamin C on her little bit of grain. I have cut her way back to slow her down but she is not slowing much. Counting the quarter I milked by hand she gave 2 gallons this morning.

In hopes of evolving a way to machine milk Helen, I have ordered parts for an old deLaval type machine I have. I got it all assembled today. It is so long since I have used it that it about wore out my brain figuring out how it worked. The worst part was assembling the inflations and shells and putting together the air hoses. Even after immersing them in boiling water I could barely do it. DD Sally finally managed the inflations. I don’t know how Claire does it. I believe she has the machine washing set-up which is out of the question for me because my vacuum pump is in the barn and the hot water is in the kitchen. I will have to see what I can work out in my kitchen.

Sally and I took the assembled unit to the barn and put it on the vacuum pump. It sounds good. We will see what Helen thinks of it tomorrow.

Sally found the missing rooster wedged into a crevice among the hay bales. Two big arrogant roosters were patrolling the area to pounce on him should he dare emerge. Sally ran them off and gave him some grain.

I just learned that DS Bret is coming for a week’s visit starting March 13. He has scientific meetings in Washington DC which bring him east.

February 20, 2008 Wednesday:

It seems almost as though today never happened. My email provider closed up shop dumping us all. I spent so much of today doing something to which I am ill fitted, that is, floundering among computer issues, that I feel wrung out and headachy. There are still things not working right but some mail is flowing again.

What I really should be writing about is Helen’s new program. I got the revised deLaval milking machine going and used it on Helen this morning. She did not fight it but she only let down for about three minutes. The big element of success was that unlike the Surge, these inflations work fine on her teats. The unit has a clear hose so you can see the milk flowing. Her one quarter that used to have mastitis does not produce well so I had to take that teat cup off after about three minutes and that made everything fall off. This falling off of the claw is a far greater problem with the deLaval than with the Surge. I had stupidly failed to bring along the plugs that go into an unused cup so all the other cups kept falling off while I tried to deal with the issue by holding my hand over the top. I have used this type of machine before and was perfectly familiar with this problem. The whole shebang drops down into the sawdust when you lose vacuum anywhere. I’ll have better success tomorrow. Sally finished milking her by hand. For Sally she let down.

We left Oakley in his stall. Unless for some reason such as mastitis I am forced to reverse course, he is weaned. He is four months old and probably 450 lbs. He has been getting most of the cream. You can’t even see his backbone.

Sad to say, he and Helen are both bellowing and may keep it up all night.

There is a high wind and it is about 10°.

And Sally’s new trap line scored four mice the first night.

I did not milk Jasmine. Helen totaled about 1 ½ gallon.

February 21, 2008 Thursday:

The weather remains cold and sunny. The thermometer hovers around 10F.

Poor Oakley continues to mourn but Helen is relaxing. I was more skillful with the machine this morning so the claw did not fall off. Sally was only able to strip out about a quart. Even without access to Oakley she only gave 2 gallons so she must be holding up. After milking Helen, we poured the milk into a standby bucket and I put the machine on Jasmine and got another two gallons. There was no evidence of mastitis on the filter although the milk from her troubled quarter still does not taste perfect.

Sally made feta. I made yummy vegetable soup and an apple cake because I had the vet stop by to give rabies shots to the dogs and asked him for lunch. Both the apple cake and the feta were from recipes posted on my forum (Carrie and Heather).

DS Max came over for milk and afterwards went to look at the camps at Weld. There was a story on the front page of today’s paper telling us all about a professional burglar known to police as far away as Florida only as “Grumpy” who had been breaking into camps. Grumpy was actually apprehended by deputies in the tiny town of Weld. Two deputies were home sick and heard a description of a suspicious red pickup truck with Florida plates when what should drive by on their one lane road but that very truck. Perhaps the burglar was out that way scouting for more likely looking camps and had not realized it was a dead end. Anyway, he’s in the jailhouse now. The picture accompanying the article is of a very grumpy looking guy.

Max snow shoed in and is pleased to report that neither camp had been entered.

February 22, 2008 Friday:

It seems I have a few things to learn about the deLaval machine. Something was preventing it from maintaining vacuum. Sally ended up milking by hand. I took over from her after ten minutes. That is the point when her hands give out. That was one of my motivations in assembling the machine. The plan was to wean Oakley and start getting more milk to compensate for Jasmine and just as importantly, get the cream. Maybe tomorrow. So far there has been no new volume of milk to reflect Oakley’s separation but I could tell she was not letting down all the way for me. It was -10°, not a day to linger in the barn.

Back at the house I removed the pulsator from the lid and saw that I had not shoved it back fully on the conversion unit. The first day I used this machine I just said the heck with it and rinsed everything with the spray hose without taking it apart, since I am not selling milk and nothing goes sour in this weather anyway. Then yesterday I called Parts Department and had the guy walk me through disassembly so I could wash it properly. Good thing I had already had one day of it working right or I would have been awfully discouraged.

Mitra and Max do not expect to take Helen until April.

It is snowing again. It began about 11am and at 9pm has not stopped. It is falling on ice and in this cold weather, now up to 10° above, the snow is dry and fluffy. Over ice it is wicked slippery. Sally took a test run and reported that out on the fields the walking was fine without snow shoes so I accompanied her and the dogs on their walk to the river. It is frozen over again. We have been encouraging growth along the river as much as we can in hopes of holding the bank, now badly undercut after just a few years of clear cutting and chip removal. I have lost almost every one of the great noble maples and lindens that formerly grew along the river. Smaller growth is doing its best to fill in. There is a lot of witch hazel (Hammemelis) and hawthorne (Crataegus oxyacantha).

The dogs came along when we went out for evening chores. Helen was furious about this. She was watching her Oakley through the little viewing port I provided and switching her tail like a cat. You could almost hear her saying “Get those dogs outta here before they get in with my Oakley!” Actually Oakley is fond of sniffing noses with Willie if Sally opens the door a crack for them. Helen highly disapproves.

2 ½ gallons this morning from Helen. I did not milk Jasmine.

February 23, 2008 Saturday:

Another -10° morning but the sun came out brilliantly and it got up to about 27°. This was enough to stabilize the light fluffy snow on smooth ice that was so treacherous. It is now a little safer to walk on.

I managed to coordinate everything with the deLaval machine this morning and milked Helen with little trouble. It was not perfect though, because the vacuum pressure was low. Adjusting it requires tools that were up as the house. I went out later with Sally and adjusted it. Maybe tomorrow will go perfectly. Helen’s cream line is improving but she is still not letting down perfectly.

Sally took the dogs for a walk as usual, then went over to her little house and moved some lumber to make the place look nicer. She is fond of her little house.

Then this afternoon she dressed off one of the roosters that are filling up the barn. She killed the one that she said has “freezer burn”. Amazing how many extra roosters there are all the time. She put the innards out in the barnyard for the fox.

Oakley the calf has not been drinking his water very well and then I have to get ice out of the bucket. This morning I got smart and gave him warm molasses water and he drank it all.

The King Arthur flour catalogue had a recipe for hot cross buns that called for candied citrus peel. I made these today using some candied peel I made last month with that strange fruit called Buddha’s Hands. The buns were tasty but got too brown on top. Another time if I make them I will leave off the glaze.

I skipped milking Jasmine today, the first two-day skip. Helen gave 2 ½ gallons.

February 24, 2008 Sunday:

The machine worked OK this morning and Helen stood perfectly. However she still did not give much above 2 gallons. I also milked Jasmine. She had skipped two days and gave 2 ½ gallons.

I have a dental appointment tomorrow that requires me to leave here at 9am. There are a lot of chores for both of us in the morning and we would need to start an hour early to make a 9am departure with any grace whatsoever. So we are giving ourselves a day off by putting Oakley back with Helen. Sally moved him back over today.

We had nice visitors today. First our old neighbors Joe and Crystal Mills and young Devon, stopped in for a nice chat. Also Darlene and Bob Rottinghouse, DS Martin’s plant manager, stopped in on their way home from a weekend at Martin and Amy’s camp.

February 25, 2008 Monday:

Things worked smoothly this morning with no cows to milk. In fact Sally did everything and I did not go to the barn at all.

We drove to Skowhegan, an hour and a half on good roads with sunny weather. I had an appointment with a dentist who makes partials. He took lower impressions. He is a semi- retired gentleman who clearly has a vast experience of dentistry. While waiting, Sally walked down the street to the USDA Extension office and got a lot of information on riparian erosion control.

We stopped at Mitra’s on the way home. She gave us a delicious salad of romaine lettuce and cold sliced homegrown fried chicken. We then toured the barn and viewed the red pigs. Max and Mitra have noticed that Wesley, their steer (Jasmine’s last year’s calf) has not had much enthusiasm for his hay. Mitra sent a bale home with us to try on the cows.

Back home, we were greeted by happy dogs bouncing against the gate. This was not supposed to be. Sally had left them in the garage behind a heavy rolling door. But Bagel is both strong and clever and had scrabbled the door open. Fortunately Sally had gone back as we left and chained the outer gate so they were still in the dooryard.

Oakley appeared to have had a good day with mom. He marched right back into his box stall like a good boy.

Sally put the whole bale (from Mitra’s) into the feeder sans strings. The cows were suspicious of it for about 15 minutes. Helen used it to rub her chin on elaborately. Then they tore into it and in an hour and a half had eaten it all.

February 27, 2008 Wednesday:

Jasmine is finally backing off on milk production. The last time I milked her was Sunday. She is still getting her vitamin C every day. There is no hardness in her right front quarter.

Helen and Oakley’s day together on Monday led to a sad parting. Both have done a lot of bellowing ever since and yesterday Helen held up her milk. Today Helen relented and gave 2 ½ gallons.

It snowed all last night. We got about 8” of new wet snow. Sally shoveled a long time so that she could open the gate and liberate the mail box. Later when Ted came to plow, I had to move my car which I had left in the driveway because I knew I would not be able to get in or out of the garage. But darn it, the battery was dead. Ted had cables and was able to get me started. He found that the back hatch was not quite shut and the dome light had run down the battery. I hope the battery is not ruined.

February 28, 2008 Thursday:

All through this morning’s milking with Helen, Oakley bawled his head off. He must be very thirsty. He won’t touch his water. He thinks he should have milk I guess. I certainly will think twice or thrice about putting him and Helen back together. She could hear him bellowing of course and would barely let down. I doubt I got more than ¼ of the milk from her front left which was stuffed. The milk did not strain all that well either so I hope she has not given herself mastitis. Later I went out with warm molasses water for Oakley to tempt him to drink and he did drink his bucket down about 3”. Mostly he runs around looking agitated. It was so pleasant to be able to take a day off from milking but I surely am paying for it. It would be well and good if all I cared about was getting two or three quarts of low fat milk. Then there would be no issue. I could have that any day. What I want is a lot more cream.

The machine worked perfectly. That was not the problem. Nor did Helen lift her feet. I am recovering my skills with this type of machine. This type with the claw/cluster at the end of four foot hoses is advantageous for a cow like Helen with a pendulous udder under which there is no room for the Surge. It does take more skill and coordination to get the teat cups on and I find the plugs to be indispensable. All Helen’s quarters produce different amounts. Without the plugs if I were to take off a cup from a poor quarter it would sweep the floor and suck up shavings, lose vacuum, and the whole unit would fall off.

Also, disassembling the cluster for cleaning is much more demanding. Partly no doubt because all the rubber is new, it takes the strength of ten to pull it apart and there are more things to wash. Having washing facilities in the barn near the vacuum pump or having a second vacuum pump in the house, would permit one to take advantage of the self cleaning function of this design. You pour out the milk from the bucket and bottle it. Then you stick the cluster into cleaning solution and turn on the pump and pump water through it. Somebody on the forum once described how they had modified a vacuum cleaner so as to be able to create vacuum for clean-up in the kitchen. I must think about this.

February 29, 2008 Leap Day Friday:

It was 20 below zero this morning. The machine behaved just fine. I warm it on the Aga and take it to the barn wrapped in a towel. But the vacuum pump would not get above 8 lbs on the gauge. I assume it has ice somewhere. I ended up milking almost entirely by hand and only got 1 ½ gallons.

I set up a small heater with a blower next to the pump and ran it for several hours. Afterwards it behaved better but morning will tell if it is truly recovered.

Oakley continues to bellow a great deal. He just won’t quit. I keep him supplied with molasses water and he is drinking a lot better but mostly he is just not ready to accept the grim truth. He is weaned, this time with no turning back. Helen answers pretty often but I don’t think she is initiating the bellowing any more.

Helen’s milk continues to strain poorly. I am going to start her on vitamin C tomorrow and see if that helps. There are no clumps or slime on the filter and no off taste.

I did not milk Jasmine. Her bag is not real tight but she is not resorbing yet. She is very bouncy and cheerful.

I had a dental appointment today and Sally came along in hopes of shopping but it got too late for her real destination, the book store. We did get to the health food store, gourmet shop for tea and coffee and to the Farmer’s Union for salt. The cows had completely run out.

While we were gone DS Martin arrived. He called later from camp to tell me he had a present for each of the cows, something big and round. Round bales! They will be pleased to have some different hay.

A new storm is on the way. We are told to expect over a foot this time.

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March 1, 2008 Saturday:

The snow arrived as predicted. It snowed all day and it is still falling at 10pm. I don’t know if we got a foot but we got a lot. DS Martin walked up to his sister’s camp not far from his and reports that on her carriage house (garage) roof the snow is four feet deep. Walking on the crust, he just stepped over the garden gate.

Martin and his friend John arrived here at 8am. Martin brought two round bales of very good hay for the cows. They got all excited about it and spent the day hovering around it. There is nothing wrong with the hay they have but they enjoy a change. Martin has a round bale spike for the Kubota but could not use it because the tines are frozen onto the Kubota bucket. So the two guys rolled the bale in, after doing a great deal of digging so as to get the barn doors open.

It was not so cold today. The machine worked well at milking time and Helen let down well. Sorry to say there were some clumps on the filter. I started her on vitamin C.

Oakley was a little less noisy. He has decided he likes warm water with molasses and drank about 3 gallons of it today.

Martin, DIL Amy, baby Hannah and three of their friends came here for dinner. I served them a fresh ham (from Max and Mitra’s) which I brined according to the recipe in The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook. It made a big hit. Amy brought an elegant green salad and I also served baked beans and Israeli couscous cooked in stock from a Coburn Farm rooster that DD Sally dressed off last week. Sally made a chocolate cake using the sour dough recipe to be found in an older edition of the Joy of Cooking. It resembles Devils Food Cake. She used some superior chocolate that her daughter Rebecca sent me for Christmas.

As long as somebody will watch, baby Hannah, 22 months, endlessly dances around and sings Ring around a Rosie and falls down on pillows and similar games. She is endlessly cheerful. She and mom Amy had been to a baby shower earlier in the day where she played with other kids and ate cake but she showed no sign of wearing out.

Martin was in his plow truck and plowed out the driveway. The amount of snow seems almost unbelievable.

DS John called from Australia. He said a koala bear was in a eucalyptus tree right next to their deck.

March 2, 2008 Sunday:

The wind blew violently all day. Sally did not attempt to walk the dogs. DS Martin and his friends viewed things differently. They have big kites like sails which they took out onto the frozen lake and whizzed around. They reported the best kite sailing ever.

On their way back to town Martin and DIL Amy and baby Hannah stopped in and had a bite of supper, leftovers from last night’s pork roast, couscous and beans. They finished up all the leftovers except there is still plenty of pork, it having been a very large roast. They both agreed it was as good as any pork they could remember both in texture and flavor.

The cows continue to act pleased with their hay. They both lie down next to the big round bale in a proprietary manner to chew their cuds. Sally put up a wooden pallet to prevent excessive dilapidation of the bale.

Helen gave a bit over 2 gallons. There are still signs of mastitis.

March 3, 2008 Monday:

Today started out at zero but warmed up to 23° and we even had an hour or so of sun. Two more storms are predicted for this week, both to be a mix of snow, sleet and rain.

I used the machine again this morning on Helen but milked the quarter that I suspected of mastitis separately by hand. The other three quarters strained pretty well but still a little slowly, I thought. I am going to milk her completely by hand starting tomorrow until I am sure there is no more mastitis. I suspect that her relentless holding up for Oakley is the root cause. The problem is in the quarter that gave trouble before. She gave 2 ¼ gallons this morning.

The weight of snow has caused the roof over DD Sally’s son Rafe’s boat to collapse. The boat, a steel hulled sailboat about 35’long, is on struts over by Sally’s little unoccupied house. The boat itself does not appear to be threatened.

Some thoughtful anonymous friend has sent me a promising book by Paul Hawkin called Blessed Unrest. Thank you, whoever you are.

March 4, 2008 Tuesday:

We milked Helen by hand this morning. There was little sign of mastitis but I will keep on with hand milking for a few days anyway. Sally and I can share the task. Sally likes to milk but her hands get achy after one gallon. My hands hold out ok but I am slow. This morning we got 2 gallons not counting the affected quarter, which I milked out separately for the cats.

Sally got everything organized to whack another rooster, I even sharpened the little cleaver, but the roosters are still scared of her and she could not catch one. Maybe tomorrow.

A neighbor who had too many roosters brought us three beauties today. One is a large Barred Rock, the other two are Gold Lace Wyandotte crosses. I have them in separate quarters for the present. It will be good to have some new bloodlines.

Sally reports having seen a flight of ducks today. She estimated 15. Perhaps spring will come after all. It was in the 20’s today and felt downright balmy.

Helen was in heat today. I hope she does not wear out little Jasmine. On her next heat I will lock her outside. She can go into the lean-to.

We made six pounds of lard.

March 5, 2008 Wednesday:

As predicted, a new storm blew in last night. There is not much new snow. It was mostly wind and sleet. The crust is increased but walking is actually easier. The temperature ranged in the 20’s and 30’s which made for icing and slush on the roads. Most schools were called off. There are flood warnings out. It cleared enough by late afternoon for Sally to go out on snowshoes with the dogs. She heard but could not see a strange bird. She will take field glasses with her tomorrow in hopes of a glimpse.

Helen was out of heat this morning, no signs of it but persistent tail swishing. She gave 2 gallons. There was no sign of mastitis. I have been applying the hot pepper rub and feeding vitamin C.

The cows continue their devotion to the round bale. It is braced up in a corner and Sally has tied a wooden pallet in front of it. There has been very little waste. Oakley is eating his hay well. He also gets 4 cups/day of COB. I continue to take him warm water. He is drinking almost 3 gallons/day. I had to leave out the molasses today as I am out of what I had in the house. My supplier did not get it in for me as hoped.

For our dinner tonight I tried another recipe in The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook, this time is was Rebecca’s Coconut Curry Lamb. It was outstandingly good. I made some substitutions. It called for two cans of coconut milk and I had only one on hand so used partly cream. Her curry paste directions were for making it in a blender or food processor. I have what I think is a better way. Rather than using olive oil I use melted butter which is more authentic and besides I no longer trust olive oil and prefer to use a home grown product. I peel the garlic and mash it in the melted butter in a small frying pan. I add the dry curry powder or spice blend and fry it until it bubbles up. I used three tablespoons of mild curry powder and one tablespoon of hot Madras curry. This came out just to our taste, which is to say just spicy enough to eat without feeling the need to fan one’s tongue. A good accompaniment would be yogurt or a raita of cucumber and yogurt.

Now here is some lovely news. DD Marcia’s daughter Caiti, my granddaughter age 25, and her fiancé just told us that there is to be a baby next November. Of course we can’t help saying things like, “How will you manage?” But somehow we all do and the world keeps turning.

March 6, 2008 Thursday:

The sun came out and our snow covered world seemed almost like spring.

Helen exhibited no signs of mastitis.

DD Sally and I went shopping for food, books and to the Free Store. Sally found some very ancient and soft wool blankets.

DS Martin’s product, CorrectDeck, was mentioned in a feature in the Wall Street Journal. The article explored the costs and benefits of green construction.

March 7, 2008 Friday:

The weatherman led us to expect another sunny day but it turned out overcast. At least the bitter cold has not returned. It got into the 30’s and there was a lot of dripping from the eaves. A flight of ducks went over. The great drift outside the kitchen window that I have been on tiptoes to see over has settled down a few inches. A new storm is predicted for tonight. I looked at the hay again today and think it will last. The two round bales that DS Martin brought last week gave me confidence. The first bale lasted Helen and Jasmine one week exactly.

Helen gave 2 ¼ gallons this morning. She stood quietly and there was no sign of mastitis. We milked all four quarters into the bucket (Sorry, cats.).

The three new roosters have had three days in confinement but are able to see my birds through the wire. I left the door to their roomette open this morning thinking it might be time for them to commingle. They commingled all right. The two Lace Wyandottes (the Barred Rock stayed on his perch) and at least one of my rafter birds fought viciously. Blood was everywhere. Now one of the new roosters is in a private recovery coop, one is back in their roomette together with the one that stayed out of trouble, and my homeboy rooster crouched outside the door to this cage. Max was here for milk. When we opened their door to put in the water pan the crouching rooster hurled himself inside the cage and went berserkers for his enemy. Max grabbed him out and he retreated to the hay mow. This evening when Sally went up to serve out the hay she was able to grab him. She took him right into the beefer pen and whacked him with a cleaver we had on standby. She dressed him off immediately and he weighed 3 ½ pounds drawn. There is a lot of meat on him.

March 8, 2008 Saturday:

It has remained warm, well into the 30’s and there is even a whiff of spring. Certain little insects called springtails that appear on the snow are now hurrying along. Max says they contain natural antifreeze. Because another storm was predicted, Sally took her walk early. The crust has become punky making walking difficult even on snowshoes. She walked as far as the place where the spring line is broken and sprays water in the air. We call it the ice castle because it forms amazing crystal structures.

Later the rain started and has now come down heavily for hours. The dogs would not go out in it. Willie especially acted injured by the suggestion. He has short legs and a great mop of wavy fur.

At last I am working on my seed order. I am shocked at how much seed prices have risen. I am emphasizing vegetables that will survive winter storage. Supermarket vegetables are going out of sight.

Once again today we milked by hand. Helen gave 2 ¼ gallons. The filter was perfectly clear.

March 10, 2008 Monday:

The wind blew violently all day.

On Sunday I used the milking machine on Helen again. She made no objection but let down for it poorly. We ended up stripping almost three more quarts and concluded it was more trouble than it was worth. This morning Helen gave 2 ½ gallons easily. Sally milked the whole way while I worked on beefer pen clean-up.

A couple of days in the 30’s has meant a lot of melting. New ice sheets are forming in the dooryard. Sally says the river is up a foot. The water is flowing above the ice.

I made the apple cake that was posted on the forum by Carrie Cutie pie. I have made this cake now several times with great success. I use a little less sugar, whole wheat pastry flour and instead of oil I use melted butter.

March 11, 2008 Monday:

It started out at zero this morning but the days are longer and the sun shone. It got up into the 30’s before the day was over. The giant snow piles are compacting. Ice again covers my parking area. It is very dangerous and far too extensive to be able to salt or sand it. We just keep the front gate shut to discourage visitors from stopping by to break a leg. I drove to Skowhegan again today for a dental appointment. Back home, I was unable to back the car into the garage. Four wheel drive does not help when all four are on ice.

Sally did not come with me as planned. She coughed and struggled for breath all last night as a result of spinning alpaca yesterday. She stayed home to rest and run the vacuum in hopes of getting rid of the offending particles. It is lovely fleece. She hopes that by washing it she can remove whatever it is that is affecting her. She also made bread.

On my way home I stopped in at Max and Mitra’s and had a delicious bowl of beef and barley soup.

March 12, 2008 Wednesday:

Sally is feeling depleted so preferred that I use the machine this morning on Helen. I extracted about 1 ¾ gallon from her with the machine and then we stripped out another two quarts.

Sally now thinks she has a cold. She made some high powered chicken soup for lunch containing garlic and chili flakes, also rice and celery. I keep plenty of chicken stock frozen all the time so it was easy. The soup greatly resembled Vietnamese Pho and was delicious. Max came by as part of his mission to replace my troublesome kitchen sink tap and had a bowl. I had also made a baked custard.

Max brought me the 5 gallons of molasses I had ordered from his local all natural feed store. They bring it down from Canada.

I served liver for dinner as part of Sally’s health program. I have lots in the freezer from our two steers. To freeze it I slice the raw liver and lay it on waxed paper in a big flat pan. Then I add a double layer of waxed paper and another layer of liver and so on until the pan is full. This way the layers do no adhere to each other and I can take out as many or as few slices as I need. After it is frozen I take it out of the pan and put it into a big plastic bag.

The three new roosters are reasonably comfortable in their 5’ high cage. They have groomed away most traces of blood from their plumage. I suppose I will have to provide them with separate care in there until spring when they can have all outdoors to sort things out with the resident cocks of the walk.

March 13, 2008 Thursday:

Zero again this morning but it warmed up into the 30’s under a clear blue sky. People who are tapping maples should have had a good flow today. Cold nights followed by warm days make the sap flow.

A friend of mine with a little boy who just turned three reports the following conversation yesterday with her son:

Yesterday Will was in the tub doing a little self exploration, he suddenly looked up at me and whilst pointing ‘down there’ said “Mommy, there’s a marble in here and even another one.” I must have had a look on my face because he quickly said, “It’ s ok Mommy I didn’t choke when I swallowed them.”

I hope she put this into her journal. That little boy will never hear the end of this. Upon reflection, you begin to wonder how many marbles he did swallow.

We milked by hand again today and Helen gave 2 ½ gallons.

I got my seed order in. What a relief. I had it almost finished making out my order to Johnny’s when I became alarmed by the total I was spending. FEDCO seeds are less than half the price. I don’t enjoy ordering from them because their ordering procedure, although improved over a few years ago, is not customer friendly. Besides being awkward it is hedged about with rules and warnings. But I hurriedly went through their catalogue and made selections. I had wanted to order potatoes for planting but their immutable deadline is tomorrow so I could not make it. Maybe the Farmer’s Union will have potatoes. They are a lot of work, albeit fun work, but I feel the need to grow as many winter vegetables as possible. Prices for all vegetables in the market are becoming frightening.

Sally and the dogs walked to the bottom of pocket field where they were puzzled by the sight of a cluster of black animals. When they got closer they discovered that it was a cluster of our barn cats. What they were doing bunched up there on the snow far from the barn is a great puzzle. When Sally and the dogs got close the cats dispersed.

Sally is feeling a little better but still coughing. She is eating a lot of garlic in hopes of a cure. Besides its known antibiotic properties, an article in Science News reports that it is valuable for maintaining good lung function.

March 14, 2008 Friday:

In was in the 30’s today and slushy. We milked by hand and got 2 ½ gallons. Sally is still coughing and I don’t think the alpaca is to blame. It is true though that her lungs are highly sensitive to everything so perhaps the alpaca played a role. She and I kept busy doing things in preparation for the arrival of her brother, DS Bret. He has come out from Alaska for USDA Extension Service meetings in Wash. DC and has detoured up here for a week.

After he arrived and ate a big bowl of split pea soup he grabbed a shovel and removed two feet of snow from the deck. Now next time there is sun we can go out there and sit and pretend it is summer. Next he got out the Kubota and made a better lane to the barn. We have been walking on a path pounded into two feet of snow.

I fixed a really good dinner. I made cole slaw with golden raisins and cashews browned in butter. The dressing was just mayo with freshly squeezed orange juice. I made short grain brown rice cooked in duck stock. I roasted one of Max and Mitra’s chickens using the garlic oil rub from the Grassfed Gourmet. This was all delicious. For dessert Sally made a blueberry pie with some gooseberries added and I made vanilla ice cream according to the Sally Fallon recipe also included in the Grassfed book. The pie and ice cream were a great success. We all stuffed ourselves.

March 15, 2008 Saturday:

Even though she is not due until April 29, Jasmine is having daily shows of mucus. She is perfectly dried off now.

Sally and Bret and the dogs took a walk over to her property across the river. They report that the ice has gone out and the river is flowing clear. Sally thinks it is up about a foot from last week.

Bret went up to Weld and looked at his sister Marcia’s camp. Everything there looked fine. The snow is still so deep that he just stepped over the rail fence. From camp he called Marcia on her cell phone and caught her watching a horse show. Her horse Peter was being ridden by her trainer and it seems was covering himself with glory but Bret, not being especially horsey, does not recall any details. Perhaps Marcia will tell us in the morning.

Bret fixed dinner tonight. He made salmon curry using salmon I had in the freezer from my shipment last summer from Cordova AK. Sally’s daughter Rosemary and her husband have a salmon fishing boat and bring their catch into Cordova to be flash frozen.

Bret has devised the curry recipe. He skins the fillet and cuts it into cubes which he adds to the vegetable component during the last hour of cooking.

Helen gave 2 ¼ gallons. Sally milked by hand. She still does not feel well at all.

March 17, 2008 Monday:

On Sunday Sally and Bret moved my second and last round bale in with the cow and they have had their heads poked into it ever since.

Max and Mitra and the girls came over to join us for a midday meal. Max and Bret hauled my copy machine out of the house and got it into the pickup with the help of the Kubota. Bret had taken it apart and determined that it was beyond repair, darn it. Of course it was not exactly an ornament to my décor but so useful back when it worked.

For dinner we had pulled pork which Mitra prepared from one of their lovely fresh hams. She used the recipe in Grassfed Gourmet. Of course it was a great hit. I fixed a green salad, rice and baked squash.

For dessert I made another batch of ice cream. The previous batch was delicious but I would say that it is best all eaten the first day. I took a test bite on day two and it had started to form ice crystals, the bane of home made ice cream. I consulted with Bret, the family food scientist, and he suggested the inclusion of gelatin. The second (Sunday) batch was strawberry flavored. To make it I used some strawberry sauce made from frozen berries. It had a lot of juice to which I added Knox’s gelatin made according to package directions but using only about one cup of strawberry syrup. The mix was not quite pink enough so I added some raspberry syrup that was handy which gave it the right color. When the ice cream was nearly finished freezing I added a cupful of the berries that I had strained out. I used one tablespoon of vanilla instead of three and added a pinch of salt which I consider important for flavor to anything that has eggs in it. As expected, this ice cream was excellent when served but I was anxious to taste it today to see if ice crystals had formed. Ice crystals were nearly non existent but still detectable. This may have related to the presence of the fruit or it might be that if I used more gelatin no ice crystals would form. Next time I am going to try coffee ice cream which will be perfectly smooth so one confounder will be absent.

I would say that if one had a big enough family so that the entire quart (the amount this recipe makes) was served shortly after it was made that there would be no reason to fiddle around with gelatin. A quart often lasts a week around here so I would like to perfect it.

My machine is a Krups with the base unit that you keep in the freezer. It was highly touted at the time I bought it but later I read that some other brands are superior. It lost no time in getting a split in the dasher but it still works.

I got a surprise today. A young woman in the neighborhood stopped in to tell me about her cow. I had no idea there was anyone else around here interested in cows, never mind owning one. She has a recently calved Ayreshire Holstein cross first calf heifer and another to calve soon. She is doing fine and will, I hope, join the KFC forum.

March 18, 2008 Tuesday:

DS Bret spent the day at DS Max’s place helping him with wiring his barn. I look forward to hearing all about it. It will make such a difference next winter. Bret missed Dr. Cooper who was here today and had hoped to see him. I whipped together some pretty good spaghetti with meat balls made by mixing a pound of Coburn Farm ground beef with a pound of Max and Mitra’s chorizo. The spaghetti sauce was from scratch, no bottled product. Sally made excellent herb and parmesan buns.

Sally called Murray McMurray today and ordered forty heavy breed roosters to rear as meat birds. They will be sent to her home in Haines AK. She will be kept busy scrounging feed for that many. She asked the nice lady who took her order if McMurray was getting fewer customers due to the recession or more customers as a result of people wanting their own chickens. It turns out that McMurray is experiencing a boom in orders. They cannot even accept new orders for layer chicks for three months. So for whatever their reasons, people are raising chickens this year.

Helen only gave 2 gallons this morning. I used the machine and all four quarters are healthy.

March 19, 2008 Wednesday:

It began snowing today at dawn and didn’t stop. At about 3:30 the snow on the roof of the former carriage house that I call my garage had all it could take. The rafters began buckling and splintering with loud and dreadful cracking sounds. From 200 hundred years of habit the roof did not actually collapse, just sort of deformed. Dear Bret who has a lot of experience with post and beam construction explained what was happening and went down to the hardware store and picked up three cellar jacks. With these he was able to give it enough support so that some of the tenons could be popped back in and the building is not in danger of immediate collapse. Nonetheless we are parking the car and tractor outdoors.

Somehow I lost track of my roast and burned it. I was able to rescue enough meat to chop up and sprinkle over brown rice. We also had Brussels sprouts and some excellent quark. With a pinch of salt and some cream quark is a delicious side dish. This is Bret’s last evening and I felt badly that we did not have a better dinner.

Max and Mitra are very happy to have new lighting in their barn.

Sally is still coughing a lot. I try to keep her from doing much but she is hard to suppress.

Helen gave a bit over 2 gallons with the machine milking.

March 20, 2008 Thursday:

The garage ell was a horrible sight this morning. There is massive new collapse. I first saw darkly into the interior when I opened the kitchen door to let the dogs out. Further collapse of the ceiling had taken out the wiring, the cables of which are now the chief support of a major ceiling beam. It was still dark outdoors but as the morning light increased enabling me to see out the kitchen window to the front of the garage it was shockingly evident that the roof had collapsed onto the attic floor crushing the front exterior wall and popping out the upstairs window. It is all now a pile of broken wood upon which rain is falling. Amazingly, the window that popped out is sitting with one corner in a snow bank, unbroken.

I have filed an insurance claim. Just last week I raised my deductible from $500 to $1000. Bad timing.

DS Bret’s flight to Alaska is today and he should have started his drive to Boston by now but instead he is outside removing some of the massive snow berms so that we can get in and out through a customarily disused door. To get to the barn earlier this morning, since there was no going out through the garage, we detoured all the way around the house through very deep snow with the buckets. The snow is punky so that every third step I went down above my knee. Sally wore the snowshoes to break trail.

Helen gave 2 gallons.

Evening: DS Max came over and helped restore some amenities. Electrical service to the garage (carriage house) was torn out in the collapse The vagaries of my wiring is such that my basement freezers, dishwasher and TV are on the same circuit. Max was able to reconfigure connections using extension cords to all but the kitchen sink light, radio and (sigh) dishwasher.

Many well wishers have called but not the insurance adjuster.

DD Sally and I decided we needed comfort food so she made an apple pie. As always her pie was excellent.

March 21, 2008 Friday:

It was bitterly cold today, about 10° all day with a strong gusty wind. Sally is still coughing a lot and did not even attempt to go for a walk. We finished up our lovely pie and for dinner I fried liver as an aid to courage.

Allstate finally called and arranged to send an adjuster. I keep a careful phone log in cases like this and talked to seven different people. I was told that they are overwhelmed with winter related claims and are contracting outside people as adjusters.

A nice thing that DS Bret did while here was arrange for me to have a satellite connection for my computer. It is noticeably faster now and will play the little videos. It is still not as fast as broadband I am told.

One of the newly accessible videos was made by Sally’s friend Doug Fine, author of Not Really An Alaska Mountain Man, very humorous. He is often on NPR and has had many articles published. He is currently working on a new book called Farewell My Subaru. He and his wife now live in Mimbres, New Mexico on a little farm where he is totally off the grid. The video shows him going about displaying his many innovations. He runs his diesel truck on vegetable oil on which he declares it gives superior performance. Not being car people, Sally and I failed to note the make of the truck.

He also showed off his goats and chickens which appeared to be thriving.

It appeared that his solar power runs most of the usual things certainly including lights and computer.

DS Martin is on his way up here from Biddeford and plans to repair the wiring in the morning. It looks like before long life will be close to normal so long as I avert my eyes from the carriage house.

Helen gave a bit over 2 gallons this morning. They are finishing up the round bale today. This one lasted 5 days.

March 22, 2008 Saturday:

When DS Mark got here today he examined Sally and was much alarmed by her condition. He made an appointment with a doctor for Tuesday and this evening took her to the Rumford ER. She got a chest X-ray and some antibiotic and a nebulizer treatment. ER was crowded with flu cases. It took hours but she came home able to breathe much better and able to speak normally. She was grateful for being taken. I could never have persuaded her to go.

Martin worked all day on repairs here. The lights and dishwasher are once again working. He made A frame supports for some of the carriage house beams so that there is now no danger of the upper storey coming down any further. It is now safe to go to the woodpile, although of course we were bringing in wood anyway. The weather remains cold (10°F) with a bitter wind.

We had all been invited out to Martin and DIL Amy’s camp on the lake for dinner but only Mark’s daughter Hailey and I were able to go, since Mark and Sally were at the hospital. I brought a braised chuck roast which turned out very well. Martin said he could really get a sense of it being grassfed beef. I didn’t do a whole lot besides salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary, bay and red wine, cooked it slowly making sure it did not dry out. Amy made a lovely salad and Hailey made the mashed potatoes. I made gravy with the pan drippings. There was a big fire in the fireplace and the camp was cozy. Baby Hannah raced around playing with her toy train and her toy cook stove and generally making the most of every moment.

Amy has only three more weeks to go before their son is born. Her blood pressure is normal and she looks great. So far they have not agreed on a name.

March 23, 2008 Easter Sunday:

DS Martin did more work to secure the carriage house against further collapse and pried the door open enough to get through. Good job. About 2PM Martin’s family (Amy and little Hannah) and DS Max’s family (Mitra and the girls Shireen and Roshan) joined Sally and me and DS Mark and his daughter Hailey. The men hid eggs in the hay mow and all the kids large and small ran around with their baskets collecting them up. We then had a festive dinner of Alaskan wild salmon, Iranian rice prepared by Mitra and Brussels sprouts fixed by Amy. Everything was perfect. It still being the middle of the day we all drank milk rather than wine; the guests would all be driving.

After dinner and before dessert all the men and kids went out to the sloping field west of the barn and slid on snowboards and sleds. Martin was bad and sent Hannah down by herself and she ended up doing a face plant. “Hannah’s face in snow” she said. Fortunately she is a good sport but her face was red.

The sun shone brightly.

After sliding, all returned for dessert. I had made the 10 egg chiffon cake from the Joy of Cooking. It is always a hit. I served it with vanilla ice cream and frozen strawberries.

Helen gave 2 gallons today.

March 24, 2008 Monday:

The thermometer was back down to zero this morning. Is winter endless? I stood in the cut that Bret made to create a path through the berm to our current door to the house and could just reach up to the top.

Sally and I raced through the chores and ate a fast breakfast of Scotch oats cooked overnight in the Aga and then left for Skowhegan where I had another dental appointment. On the way home we stopped at Whitewater Farm Store in New Sharon where I picked up feed, potatoes, garlic, apples and a package of frozen turkey breast. Oh, and a pound of somebody’s butter. Everything Russ sells in his store is locally produced. Next we stopped at Rite Aid and picked up a prescription for Sally (She is somewhat better) but skipped the rest of the errands. We wanted to be home before the insurance adjuster arrived, in which we succeeded. We had just enough time to whirl through the house and tidy up; Sally is a whiz at the magical mystery clean-up. We wanted to make sure that if the adjuster had time to step in, she could not fail to see that here was a home with high standards! She did step in and was pleased to accept a quick tour.

A book Sally ordered arrived, Small-Scale Livestock Farming by Carol Ekarius. It is a wonderful book which I had not previously seen.

Helen gave 1 ¾ gallons.

March 25 Tuesday:

I drove Sally to an appointment with my doctor, Jean Antonucci, in Wilton. The doctor saw her for a full hour during which I read the above book on farming. I seldom get a free hour like that to read. It was wonderful. Dr. Antonucchi essentially confirmed the emergency room evaluation. Sally has asthma. She will need to keep an inhaler handy unless, like me, she gets over it.

We went on to do a bit of shopping, Sally to Reny’s, the discount department store and I to the Better Living Center health food store. We convened at the gourmet shop for tea, coffee and freshly sliced pound cake. It was a pleasant excursion.

Back at the farm who should meet us in the driveway but Bagel Dog. We had left him in the house. My heart sank. For years I have not left him in the house when I go out, I put him on his chain, because when I first got him he would become frantic and break screens or windows to get out. He came to me as a rescue dog and had this trait already. Now with the garage/carriage house crushed and melt water streaming down I could not leave him in there. Sigh. He had knocked out a pane in one of my downstairs 6 over 6 antique glass sashes and was prancing around with an unmistakably guilty look. Thank goodness Willie could not jump high enough to clear the sill or he would have been in the road. The gate was open.

Helen gave 2 gallons this morning.

March 26, 2008 Wednesday:

As Sally was dishing out the grain this morning she noticed some odd lumps in Jasmine’s pan. What could that be? It was the Brussels sprouts trimmings from Sunday that I had given her on Monday morning. It seems that Jasmine hates Brussels sprouts (Helen ate hers).

During milking Helen became progressively more nervous. She seemed to have Restless Leg Syndrome and even hit me twice with her tail. I thought “She cannot already be in heat again, can she? Yes! When Sally turned them loose she made a bee line for her and gave her a fright. But just then Jasmine emerged and Helen leapt on her instead. We followed them into the beefer pen and I called out “Let Helen go outside and stop Jasmine!” With Jasmine eight months pregnant I did not want Helen riding her all day and vice versa. Jasmine saw what was happening and absolutely ran to get outside with Helen before the door was closed but Sally was too quick for her. Fortunately it was in the 30’s today, even though it snowed another inch, and Helen had water and a run-in lean-to for her comfort. Not that she took advantage of these amenities. She never touched her hay. And what did I see when I walked out at 5 o’clock but Helen standing absurdly on top of the giant manure pile by the back door.

Max came over today. He killed one of the very large roosters I was given a couple of weeks ago, the Gold Wyandotte that got into such a fight. He had become increasingly aggressive, hurling himself at us when we come with the feed. Max has given up using the axe. He now puts the rooster into a feed bag with the corner cut out for its head and cuts its throat. The bird is much quieter and never knows what happened. Sally did all the rest of the job of dressing it off.

This morning Helen gave only 1 ¼ gallon.

March 27, 2008 Thursday:

Helen gave us back what she held up yesterday: 2 ½ gallons this morning.

The warming trend continues and the snow level is contracting. At one point only the top rail of Peter’s paddock was showing. Now two rails are clear of snow. BTW, DD Marcia will have Peter in training all summer in New Hampshire so it looks like he won’t require his paddock this year.

A pack of ice weighing perhaps 300 pounds slid off the roof of my house and right onto the path to the entrance we are currently using. It is mighty lucky no one was standing there. Also, the tree to which my clothesline pulley is attached fell down. There is no bare ground to be seen anywhere apart from a little patch of terrace behind the buttery. That is always first to clear and the first edible plant will be early shoots of chives poking up in that spot.

DD Sally and I still crave desserts. I used up some egg whites to make the angel cake from the Joy of Cooking. It is more of an engineering feat than proper food for angels or humans, being nothing much but egg whites, sugar and white flour but it made an impressive dessert with raspberry sauce and whipped cream.

Sally is still coughing but did some spinning today wearing a face mask.

She made two magnificent loaves of bread.

March 28, 2008 Friday:

It snowed most of the day, very wet snow which did not amount to more than an inch. Down in Peterborough NH where Sally’s daughter Rosemary has been for two months as a resident of the McDowell Colony, it snowed so much that the roads were closed. She was not able to leave quite as planned. We had expected to meet her in Auburn where she was to leave off her rental car and all go to lunch as Nezinscott Farm but she could not start driving until 1:00. Then when I went out to start the car for the trip to Auburn it was dead, not so much as a click in the ignition. I haven’t a clue why it was dead. So far as we could tell all doors were shut tight and no dome light was on. I called our neighbors at the little store called the Blue Moose and they were over here in no time to help but my car proved unresponsive to my cables. Bill Senior got out his big industrial strength cables and it started right up with these. What wonderful neighbors. I don’t know what we would have done if not for them. I had better buy heavier cables for future occasions.

I thought we would be late to meet Rosie but she was driving around in circles in what she described as the “geography of nowhere”, a common occurrence in Maine, so we ended up waiting for her.

Finally back home about 8pm, we took Sally’s yummy dinner out of the oven without delay. The only sad part of the story was that poor Bagel had to be tied outside in the snow. I don’t dare leave him in the house after what he did last time. His former comfortable position in the garage is a sodden mess.

The other animals all had a comfortable day in the barn with hay although I must complain about my hens. They are not laying well at all. I only got five eggs today.

Helen gave 1 ¾ gallon. DS Max tells me that the stanchion he is building for her is about finished and her stall is ready.

March 29, 2008 Saturday:

Very little sun today. It was harsh and blowy. Granddaughter Rosemary took the dogs for a couple of nice walks despite the weather. Sally dressed off another rooster. He was amazingly meaty. The thigh meat was deep red like beef. I made a big pot of beans. I used pea beans so that they would cook faster, soaked them last night and got them on to cook by 7am. They were done for lunch. Max brought me another pickup load of the wood that Bret arranged for me to have.

Rosemary made a glorious fish soup for supper, something like bouillabaisse.

March 30, 2008 Sunday:

Beautiful sun, temperature in the 30’s. A perfect January day only it is March. Most of the snow is off the roof but a major ice dam remains. Sally and I took a walk along the river all the way to the Ice Palace, the edifice formed by the spraying leak from the spring line. It looks different every time. Right now it resembles a six foot high beer stein with rounded bands like the Michelin Man. From inside the tinkling of water is heard. The sun was so brilliant that Sally and I both wore our dark glasses. Rosemary had already taken the dogs for a long walk and Bagel was so tired that he just sat in the buttery door and watched as we left. After awhile he couldn’t stand it and joined us down by the ice palace.

We all did cooking projects. Rosemary made gingerbread and oatmeal cookies for her trip. She must leave tomorrow. Sally is reheating the pork loin casserole from Friday night and adding a crust. She also made a blueberry apple crisp. I made cole slaw. We need a big dinner because grandson Rafe’s friend Tony and two more friends will be here for dinner. In fact they arrived about 3pm and went right over to see what can be done to protect Rafe’s boat from the elements. About the time my carriage house collapsed the pole and tarp lean-to that was keeping snow off of the boat also collapsed.

Tony is a post and beam carpenter and will perhaps add his estimate to others for carriage house repair.

Later: The collapse of the lean-to placed a great weight of building materials and snow on the hull (the mast is not stepped of course). The hull is supported by a rather unconvincing set of tripods which to me resemble music stands and Sally was rightfully worried about stability. Tony and his friend James, who works in a boatyard in Bar Harbor, bravely chain sawed away the rafters and shoveled off 1000 lbs of snow. They then put a new tarp over the deck and hatch but more needs to be done.

Tony looked at my carriage house, making notes and taking measurements. He says that most of the components are in ruins and little can be saved.

One of our guests was Lara who is chief gardener at College of the Pacific’s farm in Bar Harbor. We discussed how I may best open new ground for planting grain. As I suspected, plowing and disking are pretty much my only options unless I can lay on thick mulch to rot the turf and wait a year.

Sally’s pork loin dinner with added gravy and crust topping was very good. Pretty much everything was eaten.

March 31, 2008 Monday:

My goodness, winter is hanging on. The weather was quiet this morning, temperature about 20°, then it started to snow and kept up something half way between snow and rain all day and into the evening..

A builder came first thing this morning and took a good look at the carriage house. He will work up a bid for me.

Tony who was here yesterday has arranged for someone whose work is removing collapsed buildings to come tomorrow to have a look at the mess tomorrow. I must at least get the roof taken off, if not the whole wreckage.

Sally and I drove Rosemary to the bus in Lewiston. The dogs will miss her dreadfully, especially Willie who now has more energy than Bagel who is getting a bit stiff and old. Willie clearly thought he had found a person who understands how to take a walk. On our way to Lewiston we stopped at Nezinscott Farm in Turner and had a bowl of chili. Rosemary had never visited the store before and was delighted with it as who could fail to be. We got her to the bus in plenty of time. Too bad she could not stay longer but it was a treat to have her for two days. Some new friends from the McDowell Colony were meeting her in Boston. She has an awkward connection and needs to stay over night.

Back at the farm, while eating a piece of toast, another of my teeth broke off. It was a crown and does not hurt. The pain is psychic.

All the animals seem in fine shape except one hen that died of unknown causes.

Helen gave 2 gallons.

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April 1, 2008 Tuesday:

A young man arrived at 9am to survey the carriage house damage and make an estimate on removal of the broken pieces. He seemed to think little or nothing could be salvaged and also did not think it feasible to remove the roof alone.

Sally went with me to Skowhegan to the dentist. He removed the roots of two broken off molars and gave me my new partials, an upper and lower. The lower one feels fine but I hate the upper. I would take it out of my mouth but it fits over the site of the extractions and he said I should leave it in to help control swelling. I can hardly eat with all this hardware in my mouth. I will have to go back and get some modifications but cannot until I go to my other dentist to see if the crown that fell out yesterday can be cemented back in. My mouth is a graveyard.

While I was seeing the dentist Sally walked around town and found a wonderful plant nursery with a greenhouse. She bought me a dear little pink mini rose said to be hardy in Maine. We also stopped at Hall’s Dairy and Maple Syrup Farm in East Dixfield where Sally bought a quart of syrup for her friend on the same name in Alaska.

We stopped at White Water farm for locally produced apples, potatoes and lamb, then onward to see DIL Mitra. She had perfectly delicious warm hamburgers ready for us made with their own loose chorizo sausage. I borrowed boots and we all went on a farm tour. We saw the new stall and stanchion where Helen will live. She will be able to touch noses with Wesley, Jasmine’s calf from a year ago. Wesley is a fine looking fellow, though small. Her chickens were all out and about despite the snow. There are various manure piles for them to visit. Her two Tamworth pigs are a fine glossy red and perfectly friendly. Max is away working this week in Savannah GA and Roshan, 9, is helping out with animal chores before school. Mitra says she is on fine terms with the pigs. The weather continues to be a daily topic. Driving was difficult due to rain and fog but the road surface was good and I took it slow. Our animals were all fine although Bagel had to be chained outdoors because of his breaking a window to get out last time we left him indoors. Sally gave him a rug to sit on in the snow.

April 2, 2008 Wednesday:

Another nice fellow came today to look at the carriage house. He has done a number of similar projects and was able to leave an estimate.

The temperature continues to be in the 20’s but felt much colder today due to a violent wind. Power was out last night.

My gums did not bother me as much as I expected last night but I still feel hammered.

I made Rebeccah’s Coconut Curry Lamb from The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook. I used cut up lamb and coconut oil rather than olive oil and chicken stock rather than water. It was excellent.

DD Sally wants me to remind the world that Helen has been a perfect cow now for months. She has only messed up while in her stanchion when she was in heat. She has not kicked once all winter Although she does step around a bit during milking she tries to avoid stepping on the clean feed bag I lay down under the machine. She does exactly as told so long as she understands the command.

Of course Jasmine is also very good. She has taken to plopping while she is in the stanchion but I don’t say anything to her. I would just as soon be able to keep track of the appearance of her manure and she gives me a daily opportunity. She comes in every day along with Helen. She gets 2 ½ scoops of grain: 1 ½ of 16% organic dairy feed and 1 of non GMO COB. That is about 2 ½ lbs. of grain once a day. She is about the right fatness and I plan to maintain this level until calving. Tomorrow we will start adding a little cod liver oil. Her vulva is beginning to look puffy.

Helen gave a bit under 2 gallons today.

April 3, 2008 Thursday:

It was sunny today but still windy. We are getting a lot of melting now but the snow piles are still massive. The outer door of the chicken room that leads to their yard has a ramp to the ground which is 3 feet below the door. Last week Max took an axe and chopped away the snow and ice that was preventing me from opening their door. I now open it every day but there is no step down. I step out onto a table land that is still 3 feet deep.

I went to another dental appointment to see if the crown that fell out Sunday night could be cemented back but he said it was impossible. Sally consoled me for tooth gloom by baking another of her fine apple pies. This time she used Cortlands. Of course it was a lard crust.

Oakley, my 5 month old Jersey steer, eats an astonishing amount of hay. A bale scarcely lasst him three days. I must remember to tape him. He is getting fat on hay although he does get one scoop a day of COB.

Helen gave 2 gallons.

April 4, 2008 Friday:

You’ll never guess… It snowed again today. It started at 11am and is still at it at 8pm, heavy wet flakes. The only good part is that were it rain it might lead to flooding. The temperature was in the mid 30’s all day and there was some melting. The ice dam I have been worrying about has shrunk slightly. It has also moved downward about a foot so its hold on the roof must be weakening. It is still heavy enough to be dangerous.

Sally and I went to Rumford today on errands. She picked up photos she had taken of the carriage house damage and mailed them to son Rafe who may be available to work on the repairs.

The young cat, Stanley that was recently returned to us wandered quite a distance over to the neighbors. They called me up and I went over and brought him home. Later, Sally interrupted him in the barn trying to kill a sparrow. The sparrow escaped.

A few birds have made it back among them a sharp shinned hawk. It has been shrieking around in the cedar tree next to the house.

Helen gave a bit under 2 gallons today.

Jasmine is bagging up just a little.

April 5, 2008 Saturday:

If you can believe it, it snowed again much of the day but it turned to rain and there was significant melting. DD Sally, always optimistic, said the air was lovely and soft. It definitely was above freezing. The ice and snow has melted off about 30 feet of the driveway. Sally does not feel very well but walked with the dogs as far as the river. She had made a path with the snow shoes. She reports that the river is rising.

Sally and I did a lot of cleaning. She worked in the buttery and I vacuumed most of the house and washed the bathroom and washed a lot of throw rugs. We have to go in and out through snow and patches of ice on which we throw ashes. This makes the floors hard to defend.

Sally has planted some seeds for me. Red and green broccoli is up and some cherry tomatoes.

Sally made fruit cakes from my Victoria Fruitcake recipe. It is an easy fruitcake that calls for only moderate amounts of butter and eggs and a lot of applesauce. It makes good travel food. Sally leaves on the 12th.

A couple of pullets have started laying. I am getting very few eggs, only five to seven a day.

A group of starlings showed up today. They are not popular with me.

April 7, 2008 Monday:

Sunshine all day! There was significant melting of snow. I walked on mud rather than ice all the way to the barn and on dead grass halfway around the house. Snow is still deep across the front yard.

Helen has a flare-up of her mastitis. Not bad really, just slow straining. I have given her my lard and cayenne treatment a couple of times. Today I decided to let Oakley back out just in case he is not in fact weaned. There is nothing like a calf sucking to clear up mastitis. And if he is weaned then he no longer needs to be in solitary confinement. This will relieve me of carrying feed and water to him.

I was not here when Sally let him out, having had to go back to the dentist. She reported that he raced around in the beefer pen but was stopped by the sight of the wooden pallet that had held the round bale. This he had not seen before and it stopped him in his tracks. “Hey, this is different”, he seemed to say.

By this evening when I checked I saw no evidence of his having sucked. I gave Helen another lard and cayenne application.

Last week I put a new air hose onto the milking machine. I had been using the old one for several years. It had no evidence of wear. I was just replacing it on principle. Using the new hose made an immediate difference in the speed of the pulsator. It had been going at less than 60 pulses per minute. It has sped up to over 60.

On my way home from the dentist in Skowhegan I stopped at Whitewater for feed and bought a 50# bag of local potatoes for $13.75. I gave them to Mitra. She gave me lunch, some lovely chicken tortilla soup.

For supper DD Sally made fish chowder, also delicious. So I didn’t have to challenge my chewing skills today. Last night I made really lovely short ribs and could not eat them.

April 8, 2008 Tuesday:

Helen’s milk strained just fine this morning. The filter went in the trash before I got to see it but I guess could not have been too bad. She only gave 1 ½ gallons. There was no evidence that Oakley had sucked but he still might start up. They are still together.

Jasmine’s manure was quite runny this morning. She seems just fine otherwise.

At last we had a warm sunny day. I do hope the trend continues especially for Sally’s sake as she has only a few more days here. I went back to Skowhegan for my partial. Everywhere I went people were exclaiming over the weather, “Sunshine at last!” “Maybe winter is finally over!” These words were on everybody’s lips. A young workman in the dentist’s office was even wearing a tank top.

April 9, 2008 Wednesday:

Helen’s milk strained perfectly this morning. There was one tiny fleck on the filter. She gave a bit under 2 gallons. Jasmine’ manure was normal.

Sally went to town and bought a couple of rolls of fine mesh chicken wire to make the front yard and driveway area secure not just for Willie but also for DD Marcia’s Chihuahuas. I expect her next week with her twin sister Abby.

Grandson Harper in Alaska had a dinner party last week and told me he was making Tres Leches Cake, a Mexican favorite. I have a recipe and decided to make it for Sally. I made the dulce de leche, an important ingredient, by simmering a can of condensed milk in the Aga for a couple of hours. The cake itself is a sponge cake similar to chiffon cake but baked in a 9×13” pan. You are supposed to drench the cake with a mixture of cream, dulce de leche and canned milk which seemed like overkill to me. I sprinkled on Triple Sec and folded the dulce de leche into whipped cream. It is not possible to make much of a case for this cake nutritionally but it made a big hit.

I also served steaks fried according to the recipe in The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook called Herbed Steaks with Bourbon Sauce. That recipe had rave reviews from DS Max and DIL Mitra. It was indeed excellent. I had bought a bottle of Jim Beam specifically to have on hand for this recipe. Max likes bourbon better than I do. He can have an occasional snort when he comes over.

Thanks to my teeth, this is the first steak I have had from the two steers that went into my freezer this past fall. My gums are still a bit painful but by taking Ibuprofen before dinner and cutting the steak up into baby bites I was able to eat some. It is of superb quality. It is grassfed Jersey. Anyone who considers Jersey beef to be of inferior quality must have been quite unlucky in their purchase or something went wrong during its rearing.

April 10, 2008 Thursday:

Only one gallon of milk this morning and no mastitis. Oakley has remembered about nursing. No use having to wash the machine for this amount. I milked by hand. I put him back in his stall for the overnight.

These few days in the high 30’s and low 40’s have melted a lot of snow. The fields are still white but around the edges it is brown. Sally has been rooting willow withies and was able to set them out on the river bank. She was going to be very disappointed if she could not accomplish this goal before leaving. I don’t think she trusts me to get it done and with good reason.

Sally was beginning to worry that Fedco would not send my tree order before her departure. She was just going out to open the gate in case UPS should show up when just then the truck arrived. I had ordered a rose bush (Rambling Red), rhubarb roots of what sounds like a superior variety (McDonald), a butterfly bush (Bicolor), a mate for my plum tree in hopes of giving it some encouragement (American plum), Red flowering quince, and Russian sage. There was one disappointment. They were all out of hardy mulberry trees. I was so charmed by Claire’s description of mulberries falling into the chicken yard and feeding the chickens that I wanted one here. Maybe next year.

Sally finished dog proofing the periphery fencing so at least Willie and DD Marcia’s Chihuahuas should be safe. Bagel of course soars over anything.

Then there was another surprise. Martin wrote that he had bought a tiller to go on the Kubota. This is so exciting. Now I can hope to put in some kind of grain or possibly corn. I must research the possibilities.

For dinner I made saffron shrimp and a salad including tomato. I popped for a few tomatoes now being produced locally in a big greenhouse operation. The flavor is only so-so but Sally never ever gets tomatoes in Haines AK. I thought she ought to have a taste.

April 11, 2008 Friday:

An amazing amount of melting has occurred in the last three days. Soon I will be able to walk all the way around the house on dead grass. The berms piled up from plowing the driveway are still 4 ft. high but even they are collapsing.

Mitra came over to say goodbye to Sally and a neighbor, Ronnie, who recently got cows, also stopped by. We all had a good visit while comparing cow notes.

Sally decided to change her ticket. The thousands of cancelled flights on American Airlines with which she is flying caused her to call and see what it would cost. It turned out to be $300. She wrote and told her house sitter, who knew she was considering a postponement, that the cost of the change was prohibitive. The house sitter was going to have to move to a tent because her own house is having work done and insists on paying the $300 so that she can stay a little longer. So now Sally will stay here until April 21. DD’s Abby and Marcia, Sally’s twin sisters, will be up from Florida before she leaves. Everyone is pleased at the way things are working out.

Sally’s house sitter, Cindy, has damaged lungs as a result of having lived near a chemical plant and now is exquisitely sensitive to chemicals. Most houses give her a bad reaction. Sally’s house is all plain wood with plain hardwood floors and no curtains and is situated next to an inlet of the sea so Cindy has been able to breathe. We do worry that Sally’s ewe may lamb before Sally gets home. Cindy has no animal experience apart from what she has gained this winter taking care of Sally’s animals.

Sally and I took a walk this afternoon over to her house across the river where no one lives. Her little trees are emerging from the snow and all look well except for her mulberry tree which has been nibbled by deer so that it is not much more than a twig.

The red winged blackbirds are now crowding the feeder and there is a flock of robins on the lawn.

Helen gave almost 2 gallons this morning. No evidence of mastitis.

April 12, 2008 Saturday:

The weather today was like the last few except there was some rain and drizzle. The thermometer hovers between 20° and 40°. The snow is melting gradually but not enough to cause flooding so far. Correction: there is about an inch of flooding in my cellar. It trickles down the granite foundation. Around the lawn as the snow melts I see how many shingles blew off my roof. They are everywhere. Now that at last the snow is off the daffodils they are frantic to bloom. Ordinarily you don’t see any buds until the leaves are up six or seven inches. Now yellow buds are showing among 4” leaves.

DS Max came over today to help with a few things. He killed the two roosters that have been living in a caged area in the barn. I’m afraid that it broke up a romantic attachment. One little black hen that has been mated for a couple of months with a small blonde rooster, the one that Sally saved from being beaten to death by the bigger rafter roosters, fell in love with one of the caged birds. She has spent all of every day for two weeks flirting with him through the wire and he with her. Her mate, now well recovered and strong, marched up and down behind her in impotent rage crowing back and forth with the one in the cage, a Gold Laced Wyandotte. I tried earlier releasing the two in the cage and my rafter boys nearly killed them. It was an impasse which only death could resolve, I’m afraid. Now both caged birds are plucked and aging in the fridge.

We all ate a world class blueberry pie that Sally made.

After leaving here, Max went up to his sister Marcia’s camp at Weld to turn on the heat. He took along his chainsaw to cut away two trees that were across her access road. Little Roshan was along too and they found the walk into camp to still be very difficult, step step plunge, step step plunge, into slushy snow nearly 2 ft.deep. Max was able to turn on the heat but could do nothing about a third tree that is broken and leaning on the electric and phone lines. There was still power and phone service in the camp but it could go at any time. There is no chance of Central Maine Power getting down that road until the snow melts. Marcia and her twin sister Abby expect to leave Florida tomorrow and be here by the end of the week. Maybe they will stay here for a bit.

Sally and I walked to the river, also difficult walking but not as far. The water has risen a couple of feet since yesterday and is moving fast.

April 13, 2008 Sunday:

This morning started out quite lovely but soon turned cloudy and windy. We got through with barn chores a little earlier than usual because of our plan to go to Weld and visit DD Marcia’s camp. We caught a call from her as she and Abby were about to leave her place in Florida. Everything of value has been packed up and stored or stowed in her horse trailer. They will most likely be here by Thursday.

Sally and I wore snowshoes so were able to walk into camp more easily than Max and Roshan. We could see their tracks where they had repeatedly plunged through the crust. Even with snowshoes I sank pretty often. Some of the road is indeed still under 2 ft of snow but most is only 1 ft. The tree that is hung up in the electric service wires must certainly be taken out but it does not appear to be putting its full weight on it. Unless there is another storm I think it will hold. Inside the house all was well. She had left it in beautiful order. There is less water in her cellar than in mine here at the farm. She had heard that some people’s propane heater vents were blocked by snow but hers were clear.

I made the recipe in Grassfed Gourmet for vanilla ice cream. I modified the recipe to include gelatin. I am anxious to devise a recipe that does not turn gritty with ice crystal by the next day. It certainly was delicious when freshly made.

My latest Cook’s Magazine has the results of taste testing to compare porterhouse steaks from mail order houses specializing in dry aged beef. All were around $40/lb(!) except one that was over $100/lb. The test kitchen wished to find out if the beef was really that much better. They compared it with $19/lb supermarket porterhouse. All testers were in agreement that the dry aged beef was very much more delicious although the most expensive one did not come in first. They said that after tasting the dry aged beef the supermarket steak tasted flat and two dimensional. I guess I was not surprised by the results but what a shock those prices are.

April 14, 2008 Monday:

Sally is going to tell about saving yellow old dog Bagel today:

Poor Bagel had a bit of a hard time today. I went down to the river with dogs, shovel and rooted willow cuttings to plant along the bank there. It’s still snowy but the bank is clear and mostly melted. The river is very high and fast. We were down near the brook where the bank is very steep and about four feet above the water level when I heard a splash. Bagel had thought that a mat of vegetation caught in some branches was actual solid land and had jumped down onto it, and couldn’t get back up. He was hanging on by his toenails and whining. I dropped my things and ran to him, and already by the time I got there his whine had become very frantic, almost a shriek, he was very scared. There wasn’t anything to hold on to so I just threw myself down full- length to get what purchase I could, reached down and grabbed the scruff of his neck – I could just reach. All’s well that ends well, but boy did he high-tail it for home, poor guy.

Sally is pretty strong. Bagel is a big dog.

In other news, Sally and I went to town and did errands. I finally had three estimates from contractors on repairs to my collapsed carriage house and was able to FAX them to Allstate. The wreckage is a depressing sight to greet my eyes each morning, all wet and blackened from melting snow and rain, broken clapboards sticking out all over it.

April 15, 2008 Tuesday:

Lots got accomplished today. Sally and I walked the fence line on the north field. Where it runs along the road, it is badly mashed by the snowplow throwing snow its way. Where it runs along the woods there are a lot of trees and branches down on it. We will have to deny the cows access until somebody can work on it.

Enough bare brown pasture was exposed today to encourage the cows to explore for grass. Of course they did not find any. Helen was so ready to use her grazing skills that she ate last year’s dead grass for quite awhile.

I saw my first flower today. A little blue scilla is blooming by the kitchen door. It looks like the daphne may open tomorrow. It has fat purple buds. Sally planted some the things I ordered from Fedco. The climbing red rose is out by the barn. The small plum tree is next to the old one. The red Japanese quince is out near the front gate.

Sally got worried about the heaters at Marcia’s camp in case they might be too hot. She went back up there by herself and checked on everything again. This gave the dogs a walk. After yesterday she does not feel like taking them or herself along the river.

I think that adding gelatin to the ice cream has been successful in preventing ice crystal formation. Last night we tried it for the second time and gave it a thumbs up. Tonight after a three day challenge it is still smooth. I shall write in my cookbook that 2 teaspoons of gelatin incorporated into the three cups of cream according the standard procedure as printed on the box results in fully stabilized ice cream.

April 16, 2008 Wednesday:

We had a surprise visit from DS Martin. He let me know last evening that he would take a quick day trip if DIL Amy was not in labor today. She was not so he did. Amy is getting very nervous because her due date was yesterday or today and she wants a VBAC. Her medical team is dancing around her anxious to do a C-section of course. Her mom is with her this week.

Martin brought the new tiller for the Kubota. It is very big and orange.

What fun it will be to till some new ground. Martin also chainsawed out a segment of the ruin so that we can get in and out of what is left of the carriage house without hopping over a beam. The end of the carriage house where we enter the breezeway to the buttery and kitchen is intact but entry has been blocked. We have been using a side door that is not at all convenient and causes us to track through the house.

Martin also repaired and reattached my mailbox. It was vandalized last night and I thought it was utterly destroyed. I am so glad I did not have to replace is. I have the large size box that costs the earth.

Helen was in heat today. I made her stay outside all day with her calf Oakley and kept Jasmine locked in the barn. Jasmine is only two weeks away from calving. Not a good time for horsing around. We had fine sun all day which Helen and Oakley enjoyed but Jasmine had to miss.

Sally did more planting of shrubs and pruned a vast pile of old blackberry canes. She scarcely came into the house all day.

April 17, 2008 Thursday:

Helen gave 2 ¼ gallons today. The weather was warm and fair. Sally wore herself out pruning out a massive number of blackberry canes.

And here is Mitra and the girls’ red pig adventure in case anyone missed seeing it on the forum. She claims that she still loves her pigs.

Sophie and Charlotte went walk-about again today and it took us 4 hours to get them back into their piggy area. My daughters and I are EXHAUSTED and covered in mud. I haven’t done so much running since I was the captain of my soccer team 25 years ago!

It was a gorgeous day today, in the 60’s! At 3:30p.m. here came both girls down the still snowy trail from the pig area, past the barn to the driveway. When they got to the driveway they stopped briefly to rototill the edge of lawn that is showing. They proceeded to trot all the way down the driveway with me, DD Roshan, and dog Lulu in tow.

Roshan had fallen at school on the tar and skidded. She had road-rash on her elbows and knees, and blood on her skirt and shirt. She had gotten off the bus only to see two pigs walking down the driveway and me in hot pursuit. There was no deterring them from their mission. We have a long driveway and the house can’t be seen from the road. They continued until they got to the road. Roshan was tired and very hungry. She fell to pieces when they stood in the road and she started blubbering. She was worried they weren’t coming back.

They stood around with us pushing and coaxing and then went all the way across the road to the neighbors’ property where there is a creek close to the road. They flopped about in the creek and a truck came by and the man rolled down his window and said, “Would you like some help?” I said, “Sure, but I don’t think we can convince them to come out of the creek. ”

By this time the neighbor whose property they were on, came out to see what was going on and he just laughed and went back into his house. My other neighbors, who the piglets visited when they ran away in the first 24 hours I had them, came out to see what the commotion was. They said, “OMG – are those the red piglets?!” I said, “Yes, give or take 250 pounds!”

When they were done in the creek, they decided on their own to cross the street and trot back down the driveway toward the house. Relief! But there were still three hours of pig herding left!

BTW, pigs can’t be herded. We just had to keep them on the property – that was the only goal we had in mind. They went deep into the woods and we had to follow. They were having a grand time. We were not. Both Roshan and I kept stepping in deep snow that went over the tops of our boots. Under the snow were huge ponds of water so we both had boots full of snow and ice water. By then I was ready to start blubbering too. I was also stressed because my older daughter needed to be picked up from Choir practice at 4:45 and it was already after 5:00 p.m. I told Roshan to hold down the fort, not try to herd them but just keep an eye on their whereabouts. By this time they were concentrating all their rototilling efforts on any exposed lawn they could find. I was so glad DH was out of town! He would have gotten pretty angry at their lawn art. I wasn’t pleased either but I was just glad they were on the property.

I left and went down the hill to get Shireen. When we got back, she kindly told us to go inside and she’d take over “herding”. I told her it wouldn’t work but went inside because we needed a break. After a half hour break and feeding Roshan, we both came back out with new resolve. I also had prepared a masterpiece pig bucket with mini bagels, cottage cheese, pullet eggs, excess orange frosting Shireen had made for a cake, and anything else I could find that pigs might think was appetizing.

I went to Sophie and let her put her snout in the bucket….yummmmmmm Sophie……I gave her a mini bagel and her happy grunt made Charlotte run over to see what she had. I popped a mini bagel in her mouth too and let her sniff the contents of the bucket. Then I just started walking to the pig area and they BOTH politely followed! My girls and Lulu walked behind them. For the first time in 4 months, I was able to open their gate which had been buried and frozen in snow and ice. They followed me right in and I emptied the pig bucket into their tub. After they finished eating, they staggered to their shed and fell fast asleep. Their faces were so peaceful and they looked so contented. Roshan got in their with them and laid on top of Sophie and said, “Mom, how can you not love them when they look like this?” It’s very easy to love them when they look like that AND they are in their shed. While they snoozed in exhausted bliss, the girls and I fortified the spot they’d gotten out from with pallets and plywood.

I need to set up the electric fence. It is time! I do love those pigs but I am a tired “farm girl”. I forgot to mention – both pigs are in heat!

Our adventures around Coburn Farm were not nearly so exciting, thank goodness. I visited my vegetable garden as I do each day to see if anything has come u p. Chives are up 2” and wherever the snow has retreated the ground is thawed. I started digging a row for peas. Come to think of it I did have one adventure. The kitchen sink stopped up. I had to bail it out, then stand on a chair so as to get enough force to apply the bathroom plunger. This opened the drain. I had no Drano so poured down a kettle of boiling water. So far it has stayed fixed.

I heard from DD Marcia and DD Abby that they expect to make it to Northampton tonight and will perhaps be here tomorrow by early afternoon.

April 18, 2008 Friday:

First thing this morning my neighbor Leonard arrived with the first of two round bales of hay I had arranged for. They are huge bales but badly weathered. He put one bale inside the beefer pen for the cows but so far they show no interest. I guess we will have to peel off another layer.

Mitra came over for milk and to have a last visit with Sally who leaves Monday. We made plans for dinner here tomorrow.

DD Marcia and twin sister Abby arrived about 4pm. They stayed only briefly to walk the dogs and unhitch the horse trailer which was laden with contents from her house in Florida. They drove on up to camp and left off the dogs before returning here for pot roast, mashed potatoes, cole slaw and bread pudding. I figured they needed comfort food. They then unloaded the 5 or 6 cats from the horse trailer and have taken these up to camp. It must be beautiful there tonight. It is clear and the moon will make a path on the lake.

April 19, 2008 Saturday:

Sally just asked me to come out in the dark to find out if she was hearing spring peepers. Yes! The first night this year we have heard them.

Yesterday I dug and prepared a 14 ft. row for a few peas and today I planted them. My garlic is up a couple of inches, so are the chives and I was able to pick little sprouts of lovage. I lifted and divided one patch of iris. Sally has undertaken the massive project of whacking out the raspberry vines and honeysuckle that have invaded the south facing border below the granite wall. She has created great stacks of prunings.

DS John in Australia has come home to Adelaide from another voyage doing scientific measurements of off coast currents. The men sometimes fish off the boat and this time John caught three bluefin tuna. Even after dividing with the ship’s party he was able to bring home about 15 pounds of primo tuna. He also brought home all the heads and spines which others would have discarded. His frugal Philipina wife knows many good things to do with these portions.

DS Mark came today bringing granddaughter Hailey, 15. Hailey does so love sports especially soccer and track. A year ago she badly injured her knee and had to have orthopedic surgery. Just this week she finally had permission from the doc to return to track. Going over a hurdle she injured the same knee again. We were all terribly disappointed for her because it sounded as though the repair had failed. But the good news is that the repair held. This is a new sprained tendon. She is back on crutches and icing her knee. She is being a good sport.

DD’s Marcia and Abby came down from camp to join us for a lovely family dinner. Mitra brought her pork roast (recipe from The Grassfed Gourmet – Honey-Glazed Pork Rib Roast with Apple-Walnut Stuffing) and scalloped potatoes. I made gingered carrots and Sally made a chocolate bundt cake.

After dinner we sat on the deck and for the first time I saw Jasmine grazing. As recently as yesterday the grass was too short to graze. I am glad she is getting a little green grass before she calves. The new round bales so far are not a hit with the cows. A great deal is moldy.

April 20, 2008 Sunday:

Jasmine spent about an hour today trying to graze the 2” grass before she gave up and went in and ate hay. We managed to peel off enough of the outside layers of the round bale to reveal something they like. Jasmine is very hungry. She has a constant string of mucus now and her udder is rounder every day.

Mark and Hailey left about 10:30am. Mark had to get back and study Crohn’s disease. He is doing a rotation in pediatrics. Hailey said her knee did not hurt very much. She avoids her crutches whenever she can. Before leaving, Mark dug around the drain pipe that is meant to lead water away from the low place on the lawn in front of the barn which I call Lake Coburn. A section of the pipe is broken and furthermore there is still ice in it. So Lake Coburn must remain dammed up for the present.

Sally and I drove up to Marcia’s camp and had coffee on the porch with her and Abby. It was lovely looking over the lake. It is still covered with ice except for a 30’ band of open water along the shore. Marcia heard a loon this morning so there must be open water up by East Brook.

This is DD Sally’s last day. All four of us are going to drive her to Portland tomorrow to catch the bus for Logan Airport in Boston. Then it is Seattle, Juneau and a short flight on a Cessna to reach Haines.

April 21, 2008 Monday:

It’s another balmy spring day, so very welcome. The first daffodils opened. The cows went straight out to graze, short though the grass is and still growing only in small patches. Clearly they also prefer water from the vernal ponds. They are ignoring their indoor tub.

This was the day we had to say goodbye to DD Sally. Marcia drove her car and Abby and I came along for the ride and we all took Sally to the bus depot in Portland. It is a huge new complex where you can also board Amtrak. It will be a rigorous trip for Sally. She has 11 hours in Seattle, 9pm to 8am and intends to sit it out in the airport. If she took a motel room in reality she would only get to use it for about 6 hours. At least she flies straight to Juneau without stopping in Anchorage and in Juneau has booked a flight on the Cessna that flies to Haines. She is carrying a lot of cash because she cannot use her credit card. It was compromised in the great Hannaford supermarket security breech.

On our way home we stopped at Nezinscott Farm store, the all organic/Biodynamic old fashioned mixed dairy farm in Turner where we picked up bags of goodies. Before leaving this morning I had put chicken soup in the Aga to have ready when we got home. It turned out very well indeed.

All the animals were in good shape.

April 22, 2008 Tuesday:

Sally called from Seattle and Juneau. I have not heard from her following the last leg of her journey, the light airplane flight to Haines, but no doubt she is now back home. Her ewe and chickens were under the care of her house sitter but her goat was boarded out with people who were eager to have her but completely inexperienced. A mutual friend said the people were getting no more than a quart of milk but Sally hopes to be able to work production back up. Raw milk is just as important to Sally as it is to me.

I got up at 5:30 before the moon had set. With Sally gone I need more time. Rain was predicted, although we did not get it, and I wanted to cover the new round bale that is outdoors. I put a 10 ft. square of plastic over it which I pinned on by stabbing in old metal electric fence stakes.

Helen and Jasmine spent much of today grazing on the broadening bands of short green grass. They still don’t get much but love trying. I did my usual good inspection of Jasmine at morning milking time and she looked very pregnant. Her udder was large but not tight. By this evening her udder was noticeably larger and firmer, her tailhead was lots more wobbly and her vulva was greatly puffed. There are dirty strings of mucus all the time. She is very friendly.

It seems to me that Oakley is not sucking at all. I did not separate him tonight. This probably means I will have to take a walk to fetch the cows in the morning. Helen spends the night in the barn and does not leave without Oakley. She likes to keep an eye on him through her little viewing window, a hole in the wall about 8 inches square.

Marcia and I did some digging in the veg garden. This is very satisfying. My soil is beautiful fluffy loam as deep as the fork goes, thanks to more than 30 years of adding composted cow manure. Last fall instead of cow manure Marcia added skimmings from her horse stall that we called Peter’s Peerless Product and today we dug that in and added lime as I do every year. I planted a row of spinach and have two more rows ready to plant. I dug three beautiful white over wintered parsnips which was my entire crop last year. Hardly any of the seed germinated even though it was new. A lot of chard has over wintered. I doubt I will need to plant any.

Tomorrow DS Bret in Alaska is addressing a group of people on organic food. This is to be an Extension Service event. He is doing crash preparation.

April 24, 2008 Thursday:

I did not write HD last night because the power was out. I sat here making phone calls on my land line by kerosene lamplight.

Tuesday night the peepers were a wall of sound. Last night I could not hear a single one. There was something heavy about the weather. A thunderstorm was predicted. I heard no thunder nor did I see lightening but my computer screen did a lot of wild flashing before going dark. I crept around on the floor to turn off the master switch on the power panel. We did get about 1/3 inch of rain.

I now have lettuce, spinach and carrots planted.

Tuesday night, Willie’s second night without Sally, he slept in her favorite chair and pulled the stuffing out of one of the cushions. Wednesday morning the chair and floor were covered with great white wads of wool. Sally set up a dog house for him made of a big wooden box. He sits on top of it like Snoopy.

Today DD Marcia and I went to Farmington on errands. DD Abby was not feeling well. Her weeks of hard work helping Marcia to move may be catching up with her. I brought her my last container of colostrum. With any kind of luck the supply will be renewed by Jasmine very soon.

While in Farmington we stopped briefly to visit Mitra. She gave us each a glass of excellent raw milk from Sandy River Farm, an organic dairy near her. They charge $5/gal. Maine is more civil than most states in not having suppressed the sale of raw milk.

No news today from DIL Amy.

April 25, 2008 Friday:

Late last evening I heard from DS Martin that they had made an appointment for a C-section. They were to be at the hospital at 6am. Of course I was awake early thinking about them. Before going to the barn at 6am I stood on the deck with my tea and saw Helen and Oakley grazing on the knoll. No Jasmine. I did not keep them shut in last night because I thought Jasmine would go another day. Yes, mucus strings and very puffy vulva but her tailhead was not as wobbly as I would have expected. I prepared myself to do some hiking to find her but she was standing in the lean-to looking perky and next to her stood a wee calf, four days early and still wet. I lost no time in checking its sex. It’s a bull, no room for doubt. Jasmine stood unmoving while I worked for 45 minutes to get the boy sucking. He is a frisky guy and did not fall over as they so often do but he was slow getting the hang of it. By the time he had a good feed with foam around his mouth I was getting distinctly tired and anxious to check for a phone message from Martin. But first I took Jasmine a bucket of molasses water. Not a sign of milk fever.

I named the calf Jeremiah.

There was indeed a message from Martin. The baby was born at 8:15. He weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and is 20” long. Still no name selected but Martin thinks he might have red hair.

Then I milked Helen. She gave close to 2 gallons. Last night I had gotten all organized to make a teleme cheese this morning and carried on with that, plus the washing up, before returning to the barn at close to 11am. Jasmine was lying down with her head wrapped around in the typical milk fever posture. As soon as she saw me she stood up and immediately fell over on her side before staggering again to her feet. I went straight back in to get my canisters of Calcium magnesium glucose gel and to call Dr. Cooper. Marcia and Abby arrived from camp and helped me get two canisters into Jasmine although I doubt that more than half of each went down. Dr. Cooper was only about 20 minutes away and he gave her a bottle of calcium etc IV. Her ears were cold but she had plenty of gumption to fight the treatment and he used his nose clamp. Afterwards I gave him a hot meatloaf sandwich.

Jasmine remained perky. Abby assisted Jeremiah to get another good feed. She also helped me to milk out a little colostrum to relieve some of the pressure on Jasmine. We took 2 ½ quarts.

While running back and forth to the barn I noted that there was no water in Willie’s dish. I had left him on his cable run. When I finally brought his water there was no Willie. I just couldn’t believe it. He had vanished, the lead rope from the cable was missing and the gate was open because of the vet. But good fortune prevailed. He was under Marcia’s horse trailer and had gone twice around the rear wheels which caused the cable, still attached to his collar, to snag. The plastic pulley had broken away leaving the lead wire attached to his collar like a leash.

Marcia dug in the garden for about an hour and I joined her for 20 minutes. We made frequent checks on Jasmine and assisted Jeremiah to feed four or five times. As of 8pm she was still perky, eating well and had warm ears. Abby offered to sleep in the barn and supervise her but I think she will make it until morning.

Sally called and I gave her all the news. The goat she had boarded out during her absence has pneumonia and is pretty sick. The folks where it was staying were not aware of the importance of hay and were feeding mostly grain. The goat tucked right into the hay when Sally got it home which made her a little more optimistic about its chances.

Sally has learned that her friend Doug Fine, a writer who is sometimes heard on NPR, has dedicated his new book, Goodbye My Subaru, to her because it was she who introduced him to goats and persuaded him of the key importance of dairy animals to self sufficiency. Fine’s book is about his experiences living off the grid.

Martin and Amy have named their son Henry Coburn Grohman. This is Coburn Farm.

April 26, 2008 Saturday:

At 5:30 this morning Jasmine was down with her head curled around, had cold ears and judging by the pile of dung behind her had not moved for about four hours. I called my vet as soon as I figured he was awake. Jasmine refused molasses water. Daughters Abby and Marcia were here by 7am. We were about to give Jasmine a tube of Ca when Dr. Cooper arrived. I had already given her a partial tube but did not get more than half of it down her. Dr. Cooper gave Jasmine a bottle of Ca IV and another bottle SubQ. Abby and Marcia are both fighting fatigue. After the vet left and I milked Helen, they helped me with the post-milking chores. I then encouraged them to go back to camp as they are still fighting fatigue following many weeks in Florida packing up the contents of Marcia’s house followed by driving a large trailer to Maine.

Jasmine did not stand up until a half hour later.

DS Max is now back home and generously came over to give me some badly needed help. He fixed up a train of hoses down to the veg garden. We have been toting sprinkling cans from the house. DD Sally will be especially pleased when she learns that he got out the front end loader and removed the vast pile of manure, most of which Sally had personally forked out in a pile about 5’high and 40’ long. Roshan (9) was with him. We two worked on digging in the veg garden. The weather was perfect.

I had Max pick up supplies for me so that I can now give Jasmine SubQ or IV Ca if I have to.

Jasmine’s udder is so huge it is scary. I tried to get her to leave the beefer pen where I have her living and go into her stanchion. She simply would not, even though Jeremiah was perfectly willing to follow. However she stood like a statue when I brought my bucket and stool and milked out two quarts of colostrum. Is there a special saint in charge of cow/calf interaction? The teat on Jasmine’s left rear quarter is so far effaced that it reminds me of the port on a soccer ball. I doubt I got ¼ cup out of it. Against all odds I got Jeremiah to suck that teat. There is nothing wrong with that boy.

Neither is there anything wrong with my new grandson, Henry, born yesterday. He seems to have met with universal approval.

April 27, 2008 Sunday:

Jasmine had cold ears several times today but got over it. I let her and Jeremiah out with Helen and Oakley. She simply hated having to stay in and spent all her free time with her nose to the crack in the door. I kept them all close up in the barnyard with the gate open to the 1 acre sheep paddock. They were able to do a little grazing.

I milked Jasmine this morning, what I thought was halfway. Her udder was so swollen that I feared it would be damaged or that she might develop mastitis. I put the machine on her for about 3 to 4 minutes until each quarter was noticeably softened. I could hardly lift the bucket. When I poured the colostrum it came to 3 ½ gallons! Poor little cow.

Jeremiah now knows how to march up to mom and latch on efficiently. He is small but lively.

Not much word today about my new grandson, except his dad says he was having a little trouble with his “latch”.

We had light rain much of the day. I dug in the garden for a half hour or so.

DD Sally reports that her goat is a little better and giving about 1 quart a day.

April 28, 2008 Monday:

DD Marcia called a few minutes ago. My granddaughter Abby Rose had just called her mom from Los Angeles. She had been in a traffic accident, every parent’s nightmare, but her injuries are apparently not life threatening. Another driver had broadsided her new (used) Volvo shoving Abby Rose right over into the passenger seat. Abby Rose was still at the scene of the accident and Marcia could hear an EMT saying there was blood on her feet. It sounded as though no arms or legs were broken but her body was in pain so perhaps some ribs are broken. I hope we hear more soon.

In rained most of the day here. Marcia and Abby and I contrived a gate on the lean-to so that I could confine Jeremiah where Jasmine could see him. I wanted her to be able to go out and graze without him. I was afraid that if he went along with her she would hide him or that he might fall into the river. It is high and fast. After a period of milling around Jasmine did graze for about an hour. It started to rain and they all came in.

I milked her both morning and evening, neither time completely. I got a total of 4.5 gallons of colostrum, now beginning to change to milk. She seems well.

Marcia did a lot more work in my veg garden. I dug for about 20 minutes.

April 30, 2008 Wednesday:

It rained all day again yesterday and was cold. Water pours on one’s head going in and out through the collapsed but braced breezeway. It is very disagreeable and there is nowhere to tie the dogs out of the rain. Wind blew violently all night. Today was clear but cold, highs in the 40’s. The prediction is for it to be in the 20’s tonight. But I am too busy with cows to garden anyway.

I milked Helen by hand this morning. I kept the milk from the rear quarters separate and got 1.5 gallons. One front quarter that had persistent mastitis last fall now is OK but gives only a pint. The mastitis is in the left front quarter. The milk from that quarter tastes faintly “off”, one would hardly take exception to it of not paying attention, but will not strain. I ended up giving it to the dogs.

Jasmine gave 3.5 gallons TAD milking. She is nervous about her calf and not letting down well but I am not worrying about anything else with her. That is plenty of milk for now. Jeremiah is a skittish extremely active and strong little guy. DD Abby was here today helping me with everything. But I shall have to devote some time to calf training using Midge’s method.

DD Sally called from Haines AK. She now has a land line phone for the first time in her life and we had a good chat. The goat she had boarded out that came home with pneumonia and giving a scant quart of milk is now much better. In just two weeks Sally has gotten her production up to two quarts. Sally brings her willow branches every day for the salicylic acid and feeds her ad lib with every good thing she can find. Sal is so pleased.

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May 1, 2008 Thursday:

The thermometer said 20F this morning and the same is predicted for tomorrow. The rain has stopped but it really feels cold. I had a fire in the fireplace all day. During the three days of rain the grass grew an inch or more and the cows are beginning to find it rewarding. This afternoon I let Jeremiah out into the big pasture with Jasmine and the others. They all behaved well and came back in nicely at 5pm except for Oakley. Somehow Oakley, 7 months, got himself on the wrong side of the fence and got Helen, his mother, upset by running up and down the fence line, bawling. Getting the two cows and calf into the barn and into their stanchions required a lot of running on my part although, really, all three were very good. Of course Jeremiah has a tendency to get to the door and then turn tail and run but I did get them all in and lined up. When I went out to help Oakley through the gate he ran way out into the pasture and began attacking a large but otherwise unoffending clump of manure with his head. After he had it well flattened and pawed aside he saw me with my pan of grain and trotted back to the gate. I can’t imagine how people who totally avoid grain manage to call in reluctant animals. Maybe they all have trained dogs.

My peas are up just a little bit but nothing else. I can’t say for sure if they are holding out for warmer weather or the rain washed them away. There is no sign of asparagus yet either. But the rhubarb is trying its best.

Max came today and took six gallons of milk and three gallons of clabber. The refrigerator is still stuffed. Jasmine only gave 4 ½ gallons today TAD milking. Helen gave 1 ½ gallons from her two rear quarters. I milked the front ones separately and got less than half a gallon which did not strain well.

DD Abby has been packing to leave but has now decided to wait a bit longer. I hope we can soon show her some apple blossoms.

May 2, 2008 Friday:

The big excitement today was moving Helen to her new home with Max and Mitra. I milked as usual this morning. Jasmine gave 4 ¼ gallons, Helen picked up a bit from the last few days and gave 1 ¾ . The milk strained almost perfectly, the filter looked OK and there was no off flavor. Changing to hand milking seems to have done the trick although I also put about 10 grams of vitamin C on her food every day.

Shortly before Marcia, Abby and Max and Roshan arrived to help get her into the trailer, I finessed Helen into a tie-up near the loading door and got her halter on. Maria hitched up her big trailer and backed it into position with her usual skill. Helen would have marched right aboard to get the bucket of grain had I not had too many fail-safe ropes attached to her. Fortunately Max was able to undo them before she changed her mind. She traveled without being tied and did not even poop. She lay down on her bed of shavings. Max followed the girls in his van and reported seeing pee leak out the back of the trailer a couple of times.

They had a little trouble getting her from the trailer to the Luick barn. I understand that Max got somewhat trampled but gamely held onto the lead. She settled right into her hay once they got her into her new stall. But first she greeted Wesley, Jasmine’s yearling steer who is in the adjacent stall. He was so glad to see her that he ran in circles doing the happy dance. Later in the evening, Max reported a lot of angry bellowing.

Helen was not the only occupant of the trailer. Marcia also brought her piano from Florida and made a gift of it to the Luick’s. It rode in the space next to Helen in the two horse trailer. Max had borrowed a dolly and ramp from a place in town to facilitate unloading it. Upon arrival at their home it was discovered that somehow Helen had leaned against a front leg of the piano and broken it. This did not make it any easier to unload but Max dragged it up the ramp while the girls pushed. Abby said she had no idea Max was so strong. They rolled the piano into position in the living room and Roshan sat down to play. The piano is a Baldwin, reputedly able to survive anything.

May 3, 2008 Saturday:

Jasmine came in perfectly this morning but without Jeremiah. I assumed she had left him napping somewhere. About halfway though milking Jasmine got restless and began pooping. As I directed the manure out the window onto the pile I saw that Jerry was standing out there by himself, which meant he had squeezed through the gate and was on the wrong side of the fence. Obviously Jasmine had detected that he was out there despite the noise of the machine. After milking I was able to catch him easily. So far he remains easy to catch.

The report from Max and Mitra is that Helen cooperated perfectly this morning. They have gone to twice a day milking (TAD). This evening she walked directly from her stall to her stanchion.

It drizzled most of the day. Marcia came and dug in the garden and created several more lovely fluffy rows ready to plant. I planted one packet of beets.

Most members of the family reported watching the Kentucky Derby. I had to miss a lot of the lead-up material because of evening chores and milking but it was an exciting race won by Big Brown. It was marred by the tragic loss of the filly, Eight Belles, who came in second. Both of her front ankles went as soon as she crossed the finish line and the vet put her down. Marcia said she felt shocked before the race when she saw that Eight Belles was 17 hands at 3 years old. That tells of very rapid growth. Big Brown is strikingly beautiful with great depth of chest and won by a good four lengths.

May 5, 2008 Monday:

All day Sunday it rained and did not get above 40F. DD Marcia and I met in Weld and attended church. Not many were present. The minister, Robert Edgerton, is provided by Bangor Theological Seminary and is good.

Every evening there is a herd of five deer down in Pocket Field munching any apparent inhibitions. I guess they are making do with grass until my garden vegetables come up. Marcia has been preparing more beds for me faster than I can get them planted. They are beautiful beds. Today I planted celeriac. Very little of what I have already planted is up, no doubt because it has been so cold. I just hope all the rain has not washed away the seeds. I did see tiny lettuce and spinach seedlings today. No asparagus is up. We are all looking forward to it.

May 6, 2008 Tuesday:

Such a fine fair day, at least until evening when it rained again. Marcia worked a long time in my veg garden creating yet more beautifully dug over areas. I did not spend much time with her because of talking on the phone to Allstate which has so far failed to send me any money for repairs to my collapsed building. Something is always “on somebody’s desk” and he “expects to have it tomorrow”. Jam yesterday, jam tomorrow, but never jam today. I did put in seeds for broccoli, celeriac and cutting celery. I have had good luck in the past with the cutting celery. It has a lot of flavor and some wintered over.

Yeterday and today I made wonderful butter, the first from the new milk supply. I fill the churn with 3 quarts of cream in the evening and add a half cup of very well flavored clabber that I now have, turning the churn on briefly. In the morning as soon as I get up I turn on the churn and before I go to the barn I have butter. I finish the operation later. The buttermilk is delicious.

Jasmine seems a bit disoriented without Helen. She comes when called a great deal better than Helen ever did and Jeremiah bounds right along with her, Oakley following too. She does not seem quite clear that she is boss cow and I notice deferred to Oakley going through the door. Besides feeding her calf, she is giving 4.5 gallons or more/day. I am giving her, I am guessing, 5 lbs/day of grain, several flakes of good hay which she eats (won’t touch the not-so-good hay) and now all the grass she can find. The grass is still not thick and tall enough to totally satisfy her.

DD Sally told me a pathetic story. The folks where she boarded her milk goat this past winter are well meaning people but have no experience with animals. Her goat was returned to her very ill with pneumonia. It had been in with a smaller companion goat. They are Oberhauslis. After Sally’s goat left the companion exhibited signs of pneumonia and seemed depressed. Rather than keep her isolated, the owners decided that perhaps she was lonely and put her in with some other goats that they have. These goats killed her.

May 7, 2008 Wednesday:

I made doughnuts according to my Grammie’s recipe. I think it has been about two years since I have made them. We all love them. DD Marcia and DS Max were both here and I sent them each home with a bagful.

While here, Max went down and repaired my spring line so that once again I have springwater flowing into the kitchen. It flows into a granite cistern and is truly delicious water. How I miss it in winter!

Marcia planted some strawberry plants that she ordered. The variety is Seascape.

My sister Barby called from California with the very sad news that her little dog, Susie, died this morning. Susie was panting hard so that Barby thought it best to take her to the vet. There she died, apparently of congestive heart failure. Susie was a small, black dog with a short curly coat of a breed called Skipperke. She had a little pointed fox like nose and black eyes. Barby was much devoted to Susie. Susie had many close shaves in her life. She considered it her duty to get rid of rattlesnakes and was twice bitten. Barby had then to race her twenty-five miles to the vet for the antivenin.

May 8, 2008 Thursday:

This was a fine sunny day, most of which I spent in the car doing errands. I stopped at Wal-Mart where I picked up some plants. I was surprised to still find .69/lb chicken legs and thighs. I bought a large bloody slimy looking bag of them for the dogs.

I spent about an hour in the garden. I put in a 5 ft row of black Spanish radish as part of my program to grow winter veg. These grow about the size of turnips and can be kept for some months in the fridge. I hand watered all the rows with the sprinkling can.

All my young fruit trees have wintered well including the quince. I was worried when Marcia pulled off the newspaper mulch and found mouse or vole tunnels. I was afraid they might have eaten the roots or girdled it. When I planted the quince I considered it a temporary location until somebody would dig me a hole in a wetter spot but that never happened and so far it is thriving.

DD Sally worked hard whacking back the spirea, a true garden thug. I am rewarded by the emergence of a goodly collection of Oriental poppies beneath it that must have been waiting for their big chance.

Jasmine is giving not less than 4 ½ gallons of milk every day plus feeding Jeremiah. I am giving her about 8 lb of grain and watching her weight carefully. A cow like Jasmine in early lactation would “milk off her back” if I reduced her grain and also risk ketosis. Better to keep up her calories and find uses for the milk. I am still putting out a few flakes of good hay morning and night.

A cow that is “milking off her back” is not losing only fat. Her muscle mass is also diminishing to serve her protein requirement.

Jasmine showed faint signs of heat yesterday. I might have doubted what I saw but this evening I noticed bleed-out.

May 9, 2008 Friday:

I got to meet my new grandson Henry this evening. He is 8 lbs now but seems so tiny. He was two weeks old yesterday and strong. He holds his head right up and looks around with at least brief interest in his surrounding between feeds. Nursing is his main business in life and he takes it seriously. It appears that he may have red hair. Henry’s parents are up at camp for the weekend and had supper with me.

Jasmine outdid herself today, giving over 5 gallons. That despite the fact that she did not let down very well tonight. Some of my customers have come back. I might need to put out a sign.

The grass is tall enough now to cover the old brown dead stuff. A view across the pasture looks truly green and all the trees have at least a haze of green.

Willie was barking so I looked out and saw a group of 6 or 7 people walking fast along the river over on Sally’s side. I expect they were over there helping themselves to the fiddlehead patch. I wish they would at least ask permission.

May 10, 2008 Saturday:

A friend and I went down in the woods to the confluence of the river and brook and picked fiddleheads. She picked lots more than I did as she likes to can some. The ferns were well up but there were still plenty and will be for two or three more days. My friend gave me a lovely mess of smelts. I fried a plateful for my supper. My, they were good.

Max and I conferred several times on the phone while he was at the Farmer’s Union trying to buy seed corn. The seed for corn intended for livestock is $90 for 50#! They do not break up the bags either. You are supposed to order it in the fall but they will have a few bags in extra but at that price I will pass. Instead Max bought seed for sweet corn. It costs just as much but you only have to buy what you need. It does have some feed value and the stalks make good fodder. I asked him to get enough to plant a half acre. Martin was planning to come today to try out the new tiller but he was too busy with domestic obligations. He and Max plan to come in the morning to work on fence repair.

DD Marcia returned from two nights away visiting her horse, Peter. He is in training in New Hampshire. She said he was bigger. I said how is that possible? She said he has more muscles.

Jasmine gave 4 ½ gallons today. Jeremiah taped at 95 lbs. He is just past 2 weeks old.

May 11, 2008 Sunday:

What a perfect day it was! Well, except for the fact that this morning my car would not start. DD Marcia had to race all the way down from Weld to get me thus making us a little late for church.

Sons Martin and Max came over and worked for several hours on the fence around my North Field. Now I will be able to open it up for grazing, not that they don’t have plenty now on the River Pasture. The weather was beautiful all day.

At 2 o’clock Max and his family, Martin and his family, Marcia, Abby and I convened for dinner at Marcia’s camp. The men and granddaughters Shireen and Roshan paddled around on a float and in kayaks and had a grand time. It is still far too cold to swim. Two year old Hannah dabbled at the edge of the lake and DIL Amy cuddled baby Henry. He is very cute and pink and I heard barely a whimper from him. Nursing and sleeping kept him busy.

Marcia made a world class gumbo with chicken, shrimp and sausage. Mitra made a beautiful salad and Abby made a pineapple upside-down cake with fresh pineapple. All I contributed was the whipping cream. We ate outside on the porch with a fine view of the lake.

Abby reported having taken the canoe and several dogs up towards East Brook yesterday where she encountered a beaver. It swam back and forth in front of her repeatedly slapping its tail. I have never seen one behave like that. It must have objected to the dogs.

Jasmine put 5 ½ gallons in the bucket today. I don’t suppose she will keep this up. I have increased her grain a little. I don’t want her to lose too much weight. She eats hay for an hour before morning milking. In the evening she comes in with a full rumen from grazing and eats more hay afterwards. She likes her hay surprisingly well considering how good the grass is. I expect she craves the more concentrated energy.

May 13, 2008 Tuesday:

We have had two fine days in a row. It means hand watering the garden but that is a pleasure. DD Marcia came over and got out my riding mower for the first time this year. She mowed the entire lawn. I think she spent about four hours on the project. It looks lovely except that I was not able to do any weed whacking. My battery model has become separated from its charge unit, darn it. I have a gasoline model but it is very tiring to operate. Maybe dear Max will trim a bit when he comes over tomorrow for clabber. Every time he comes I pounce on him for little jobs. He is always a good sport about it.

He reported today that Stage 1 of their cattle fencing project is completed and they re able to let out Helen and Wesley. He said they were joyful, especially Wesley who is young and bouncy.

They saw a fox this morning. He was waiting in the wings for Mitra to let out the chickens and immediately grabbed one. Lulu, the Lab, was on him at once and made him drop the hen but she has an injured wing.

Yesterday I started a two gallon cheese and today I took it out of the press. It looks promising.

May 14, 2008 Wednesday:

Another day of superb weather. As so many have said before, I just with I could bottle it and save it. For the first time Jasmine ignored her hay. For the last few days she and the others have not been in the Beefer Pen waiting for their hay in the early morning. They are out grazing and I have to fetch them in. She does not answer my call until we make eye contact. This may be 200 yards away. Then she turns briskly and walks to the barn and the others follow, Jeremiah skipping along. Healthy young animals following their mothers are so full of joy.

No trees are yet in bloom except the shadblow. The only gardening I did today was to set out some pansies.

Marcia came down and did some gardening and made a special lunch . It was a recreation of something she had at a restaurant recently. It contained mushrooms, little pieces of sirloin tips, sautéed onion, the pan deglazed with dry vermouth and then everything bound with cream. It was served folded into broad sheets of lasagna pasta. What a treat! She also fried bananas, a family favorite.

Later Max came by and did some quick chores including weed whipping and carrying some heavy potted plants. I sent him home with another 5 gallons of clabber.

May 15, 2008 Thursday:

This was another fine clear day. It was not at all hot. I doubt it exceeded 65F even at noon. I did some digging in the garden and planted my rutabaga seed. Nearly everything is up but these are all cool weather vegetables. It is not nearly warm enough to plant beans or squash. I am thinking of starting squash in a box.

I started another teleme cheese.

Marcia also worked in the garden. She has all the edges of the lawn around it trimmed and all the rows neatly hilled. I must get a picture. I also must get going on electric fencing to keep out deer. I have already found droppings on the lawn around the garden.

Abby and Mrcia invited me out to camp for supper. Abby cooked one of Max and Mitra’s chickens and made a cake. We sat out on the porch with our plates and drank in the wonderful view across the lake. Many birds were flitting around. There was a piliated woodpecker on a tree not 50 ft away.

Jasmine was good as usual. She did not touch her hay. She finds the grass adequate. She gave 5 gallons today.

May 16, 2008 Friday:

Fine weather again today. We love the sun but are beginning to need rain. Marcia or I water the garden every day. Today it was I who did it. The peas are looking healthy. I need to find them some support.

Marcia went to Portland to pick up Abby Rose, my granddaughter who is visiting from California.

I hardly did anything today that was not milk related. I don’t have many customers so I skim most of it and make butter. Then I clabber the skim milk and give it to Max and Mitra for their pigs. I also give one gallon a day to my chickens.

Jasmine outdid herself today. She gave six gallons. I did not even feel as though she let it all down. What a cow. I don’t know how much Jeremiah drinks but he is growing fast. His behavior is more bullish than most bull calves I have known and less shy. Only three weeks old and he tried pushing me with his head. I don’t encourage this.

Maybe it is the season. A couple of days ago I let out those two big roosters that I had been caring for in a small enclosure. I thought they would have to battle for their lives like that last pair, but no, they were very timid. Timid until yesterday, that is. One of them went for me and gave my leg an annoying pinch. I whapped him with the broom. Today when he began sidling up I threw my bucket of water at him. I may have to introduce him to Max.

May 17, 2008 Saturday:

Today was beyond busy. I galloped through morning chores, then drove to Weld to meet Marcia. We went together to Farmington to the Garden Club plant sale. Plants had been potted up and donated by members. I brought three 4” pots of Ambrosia seedlings. So far I have not found the Latin name for it but it has a scented leaf. Marcia and I each bought six or seven plants. I got a couple of iris and a hydrangea.

Back at the farm, DD Abby had washed up all my milking stuff which I had merely rinsed. That was a blessing. I made raspberry sauce to take along and at 2pm we convened at camp with Max and Mitra for a very fine spaghetti feed prepared by Marcia. Everything was exceptionally good from the salad to the bread. Abby picked up ice cream for dessert. We topped it with my raspberry sauce. We were eight at table, including granddaughter Abby Rose, Marcia’s daughter visiting from California. Max and Mitra’s daughters Shireen and Roshan helped with everything. We ate on the porch, much to the consternation of a dear little Eastern Wood Peewee that wanted to get back on her nest in the rafters. (Bird ID supplied by DD Abby, the bird expert. She also reports a pair of Spotted Sandpipers.)

I got home just in time for chores. Max and Mitra stopped in to pick up 5 gallons of clabber. I had hoped to watch the Preakness but Jasmine had come up to the barn for milking and since I want to encourage this practice, I skipped the race and went straight to the barn. I usually have to toddle way down into the pasture to fetch her. She gave a total of 6 ½ gallons today. Due to being gone so much I was behind on skimming and butter making and did not finish up with my dairy tasks until 9pm.

May 18, 2008 Sunday:

I started another cheese and set out lettuce plants. Apart from that, I did little but skim and wash milking stuff. It seemed to take all day.

Marcia came by to help. She bundled an avalanche of feed bags for the dump and watered the garden and pressed the butter. We lunched on leftover spaghetti which she thoughtfully brought.

The barn swallows have returned to my broken carriage house and found their rafter. At the current rate of progress on repairs they will bring off their clutch without disturbance.

Apple trees and lilacs are bursting into bloom. My young plum tree is blooming for the first time but my ancient crabapple tree has virtually no blooms this year.

Jasmine again gave about 6 ½ gallons.

May 19, 2008 Monday:

The day started out with intermittent sun but soon a strong wind came up to shake the darling buds of May. It was violent at times with bits of rain. Marcia and I both worked for a while in the garden, digging and watering. Later DS Max came by for clabber to take to their pigs. While here he moved some gravel onto the back ramp from the beefer pen, the room in the barn where the cows come in to loaf. The ramp was falling to pieces. The gravel will be a temporary repair.

Young Jeremiah is the most aggressive calf I ever remember having. Today when I made him go in a direction that he did not wish to go he deliberately rammed his head into me and ground it around in a gesture that made me glad he is only three weeks old and has no horns. At two weeks old he taped at 93 lbs. Today, 9 days later, he taped at 122.

When he was two weeks old Jasmine taped at 900 lbs. Today she taped at 810 lbs. I can’t believe she has lost that much weight. She does not look bad. But it does give an indication as to how hard it is to keep weight on a fresh cow. I have her up to about 16 lbs of grain but think I had better increase it more. Today she gave more than 6 ½ gallons.

DD Sally called from Alaska. The people where she boarded her goat this past winter, where she brought it home with pneumonia and giving only 1 pint of milk, and now she is up to a quart, were in the local news yesterday. Their remaining goat was eaten by a grizzly bear. It came right into the shed in broad daylight, dragged the goat out and ate it in their dooryard while the wife and children watched from a window. The mom had never learned to load and shoot their gun. She called her husband at work but it took him 20 minutes to get home and the bear had carried the carcass into the woods and disappeared. The mom has now learned how to load and shoot.

May 20, 2008 Tuesday:

The weatherman predicted another cold, dark day but he was mistaken. It didn’t get very warm, maybe 60F, but there was lots of sun and little fluffy clouds. I hurried through chores and wash-up, finishing by 10:30. There is a lot of inescapable dairy work to be done, skimming and butter making. I gathered my wits and a box of books to be mailed and went to Rumford on errands.

After I got home the dogs and I took a lovely walk. The pasture is beautifully green with dense drifts of purple violets and many wild strawberries in bloom. Closer to the river the violets are mostly yellow. In shady places along the river this is mayapple. Where Sally fenced off the riverbank a couple of years ago there are many blueberry plants in bloom. Everywhere that is not fenced, the cows have eaten the blueberry bushes.

When our walk brought us near the bridge Bagel managed to escape my eye and sloped off to see his friends across the river. Willie rolled in something that turned him a dreadful grey-green. The only thing I saw him roll in was patches of violets. He does not smell bad so maybe the violets dyed him.

The lawn around the house is dense with dandelions. I am fond of them. We don’t mow until they have gone by.

A friend of mine, Ruth Snell, popped in to help with evening barn chores and bottling the milk. She went home with milk, buttermilk and eggs. She is a vigorous outdoorswoman who was raised on a local farm, one of 11 children. They all live around here. Ruth is a year younger than I am, so insisted on doing the lifting!

Jasmine continues to amaze me. She gave at least 6 ½ gallons today. She takes her grazing very seriously and can be seen munching grass when ever I glance her way.

May 22, 2008 Thursday:

The thermometer can’t seem to get above 55F this week but today was sunny and lovely all the same. All the apple trees and lilacs are in bloom. It has happened in each of the last three years that the weather at apple blossom time is not conducive to the working of pollinators. It is too cold for honeybees in case there are any left around. They require temperatures above 60°. Perhaps some other insects will work the trees.

The grass is truly lush. I have about 20 acres of superb grass and just one little cow, a 6 month steer and a wee calf to graze it. Jasmine’s production is scary. For the last three days she has given over 6 ½ gallons. She usually comes in when I call her at milking time and she always stands in a quiet and ladylike manner. She does lift her tail though, in case there is the least ripple in the routine.

As I watched from the back door of the barn, three Canada geese swooped past and settled in a marshy part of the pasture. They stayed a couple of hours, apparently eating frogs, until Willie noticed them and began barking.

A pair of goldfinches were on the feeder. They are such an improbably brilliant yellow in the New England birdscape.

I dug over part of my rock terrace this afternoon. I hope to pop in some new plants tomorrow.

May 23, 2008 Friday:

Apart from brief showers, fine weather today. For a while it seems the showers would all pass us by so I watered the garden. Everything should be happy now. I replanted my carrots. The seed I saved from last year germinated very poorly. I also put in a row of cucumbers. I thought the soil would still be too cold (no night has been above 40°) but my neighbor Ruth Snell said hers were up so I am taking a chance on a few. I believe her place must be ahead of me. She said she was picking rhubarb and mine will not be ready for another week. Ruth stopped in for more milk and buttermilk.

Jasmine is missing her bell which makes her hard to find if she does not come when called, which this morning she did not. I had a lovely walk through the trees by the river and heard the wood thrushes but found no cows. She finally emerged from some bushes in another part of her domain. At both milkings I could tell that Jeremiah had recently fed. Her production today was just 5 gallons, Glory be.

DD Abby will be leaving tomorrow for Pennsylvania. I loaded her up with dairy products.

DS Martin and his family including his father-in-law, Ken, from Arizona, stopped in for supper on their way to camp. I made shrimp Creole using the recipe shared by Kim in VA. I extended it with sausage and chicken and rich chicken stock. It was very tasty. I went pretty easy on the chili powder for the sake of 2 year old Hannah and she ate a lot.

Hannah also drank a lot of milk. Martin said the milk has a flavor that reminds him of lobster. I drink it every day and have not noticed a thing. No doubt it is something Jasmine is eating. I said I hoped Ruth Snell was not offended by it. But Martin said she had already told him that things like that don’t bother her at all, she accepts it as natural.

Martin and Amy’s new son, Henry, is doing well. He has reached 9 pounds. He nurses well but then spits up and cries, a common behavior. Amy thinks it is because her let down is so prolific.

May 24, 2008 Saturday:

That crazy little cow, Jasmine, gave a bit over 7 gallons today. Just imagine how our ancestors would have rejoiced at such production. Instead I am shuffling bottles of milk and wondering what to do with it all. This is if course entirely a result of the campaign against raw milk and animal fat which has savaged the demand, greatly to the detriment of general health and happiness.

DS Martin came down and attached the new tiller to the Kubota and tilled a nice swathe in the horse corral. He hopes to be back tomorrow to continue.

DS Mark and daughter Hailey visited today along with Mark’s fiancée Ann. We had a nice lunch of Coburn Farm hamburgers. They took a walk around the pasture and petted the cows.

May 25, 2008 Sunday:

The family convened at DS Martin and Amy’s camp on Lake Webb for a memorable dinner to which all contributed. Mitra brought macaroni and cheese, good as always. DD Marcia brought a composed salad garnished with caramelized walnuts. I cooked a great many pork spare ribs from DS Max and Mitra’s pigs using the method in The Grassfed Gourmet (very successful) and also a Black Forest chocolate cake with chocolate sauce and raspberry sauce because it was Amy’s birthday. Everything was delicious. I just hope I did not send anybody over the edge into diabetes.

While waiting for dinner, sons Max and Martin and granddaughters Shireen and Roshan went in the kayaks up to East Brook. They all saw a big new beaver lodge. Then the girls and Hannah, who was 2 in April, waded and played on the lovely little strip of beach below the camp. After getting her to repeat it a few times, DIL Amy figured out what Hannah was calling the kayak paddle: “Water shovel”. Probably now we will all be calling the paddle “water shovel” long after Hannah has grown up.

After dinner I raced home to milk. Jasmine gave almost 7 gallons today. Unbelievable. I was really, really tired but it was still sunny and I went down to visit the garden so as not to completely miss a spring day in the garden. I watered a few things and picked a few spears of asparagus before coming in to finish making butter and taking care of the excess milk. Forgot to mention, Max came by this morning with my feed and to pick up 10 gallons of clabber.

May 26, 2008 Monday:

DD Marci and I went together to the cemetery today (I could not go yesterday) and took lilacs to Grammie’s grave.

Marcia and I and DIL Amy and her dad all went to the heirloom tomato place, Amy LeBlanc’s White Hill Farm, and picked up plants. Amy’s dad is visiting from Arizona where he is active in a group that conserves Native American seed species.

Martin now has my plot tilled and manured and tilled again for corn and potatoes. It looks very inviting. I can’t wait to get at it. I am no good at guessing dimensions. Tomorrow I will pace it out.

Marcia mowed my lawn again. That was a treat too. She also staked the peas.

I made bean and pumpkin soup. You cook and puree white beans and combine with pureed pumpkin. First I sautéed a large sweet onion, then added everything else and then blended it with my stick blender. I have not yet served it to anyone else but had a bowlful myself topped with chopped green garlic leaves and crème fraiche. I thought it was great. I cooked the beans in chicken stock and used some in the soup too.

May 28, 2008 Wednesday:

I put in a row of potatoes in the newly tilled garden spot. It is 90’X 45’. I put in a 90’ row running east and west. The row looked a mile long when I stared but I made a trench and just kept on dropping in potatoes until I reached the end, then covered them up. I fully expect them to thrive. Perhaps the potato bugs won’t notice them. I also worked on digging in a couple of more flower beds.

Neighbor Leonard borrowed the tractor and tiller, as prearranged with Martin. He is putting in a garden at his parent’s place. They live only a half mile from him but he says that days go by when he does not see them. Having the garden there will take him up there often, he says. Plus, of course, putting in a garden is a wise thing to do.

Max came over for clabber and to get things set up for Wesley. They are moving him back so that Helen can have all of their limited grass. We hope he will add 200 lbs by winter.

While he was arranging some hoses in the barn, Max was attacked by my Annoying Rooster. He wanted to know if he should dress it off immediately. I reminded him that it had attacked me a week or so ago and I don’t turn my back on it. So he lost no time in dispatching it. He plucked it and I eviscerated it. It had plenty of meat but seems likely to be tough. It took all my strength to draw the entrails. I have stewed up the neck, gizzard and feet for the dogs’ breakfast.

The weather has not warmed up, although it is fine and sunny. There is even talk of frost tonight.

May 29, 2008 Thursday:

We did not get frost and probably won’t. However we did get high wind. The steer, Wesley, Jasmine’s bull calf from February ‘07, that I gave to Max and Mitra, returned here today. Marcia kindly brought him in her horse trailer. They don’t have enough grass for two animals and I have more than I need. Max fixed up the small paddock behind the house, the Sheep Paddock, for him and Oakley. They remembered each other and settled right down to grazing.

No one currently has access to the large North Field so I was astonished to see Jeremiah racing around in it and through an open gate into my new tilled area. He was running by himself in great looping circles. By the time I got my shoes on and ran out there he had returned to the area where Jasmine is. I was not able to see either how he got out or how he got back in. He is a very clever boy.

DD Sally tells me that her daughter, Rosemary, has received a Rasmussen grant to take a canoe trip through parts of ANWR, the threatened nature reserve in Alaska. Her husband cannot go with her because he is running their fishing boat so her dad will accompany her. Presumably she will later write about her adventures and give us her observations.. The Rasmussen Foundation funds good works in Alaska.

May 30, 2008 Friday:

We had another fine but cool sunny day. Lack of rain is beginning to worry us farmers and gardeners.

I did all the morning chores and made butter, then went to Farmington to meet Mitra and two forum member, Janet (2nd Chance) and Carole, two lovely and interesting people. They took me to lunch and we worked out some topics for me to discuss at their June Grange meeting.

The drive to Farmington was beautiful. The countryside is all shades of refreshing green and flowers are everywhere, many flowering trees and lovely flower gardens all along the way.

When I got home I had just time to do a little watering of my garden. I have been disappointed that my young quince tree has not bloomed but now I see pink and white buds all over it, a happy sight. It is just later than everybody else.

I am hoping that the steers don’t get out. They are running the fence and Jasmine is staring at them. I had Thursday marked on the calendar for her heat and did see some subtle signs but this evening it looks more serious.

May 31, 2008, Saturday:

I awoke to steady hard rain which continued until evening. We certainly needed it although it pounded so hard at times that I feared for the plants. After the rain let up I looked at the garden and saw that my cucumbers are up. I harvested enough greens for my dinner.

This morning I gave a milking “seminar” to my friend Kelly and her two daughters. She will soon be getting a cow that sounds very much like Jasmine. I hear many little “straw in the wind” accounts that give clues to a burgeoning interest in cows. Kelly told me that whereas stainless steel buckets are easy to find, lids are back ordered every where she tried on the net and locally. There are few uses for a stainless steel bucket with a lid except as a milk bucket.

My vet was in the neighborhood and stopped by for lunch. DD Marcia came down from her camp and helped me get lunch together. We had tuna steaks that Marcia bought on Thursday from the vendor truck called Flamingo Foods. We also had a composed salad with artichoke hearts and toasted pine nuts and balsamic vinegar dressing.

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June 01, 2008, Sunday:

Marcia and I met at church in Weld. There are more people attending now, about 25 today. I prayed for divine intervention to permit me to sing again. I used to love singing, know most hymns and can sight read the rest but now I scarcely dare to open my mouth for fear of my voice breaking like a teenage boy. So far no miracle. Sigh.

After church Marcia and I had coffee on her porch overlooking the lake. She gave me a tour of her house and garden. She is still unpacking boxes but has lots of new pictures up and ornamental statuary both indoors and out. She has rarely been here early enough to see her bulbs in bloom. She has quite a show.

I have a show too, especially of lilacs. This is an especially good year for them. I have about 20 bushes that are all 15 feet high and just a sea of lilac. A few are white. The scent is everywhere both day and night. They are interspersed with honesuckle bushes that are also huge. These are a disorderly weedy bush except right now when they are in bloom.

I planted parsnips.

Jasmine gave only 5 ½ gallons. For no reason I could tell, she was holding up.

June 02, 2008, Monday:

It was mostly sunny and bright today, lovely weather to be outdoors. I went to Dixfield to mail books and ordered chicken wire to put around the new garden in Peter’s paddock.

Marcia made us a nice lunch of stir-fry and chorizo. While I was in town Marcia made two 90’ trenches in the new garden and I planted more potatoes and a row of shell beans.

My neighbor Ruth Snell came over to participate at milking time. When she arrived she noticed that the two steers, Wesley and Oakley, were snorting around the lawn. Fortunately the front gate was shut. I ignored them until after milking, and then ran them into the barn and into Peter’s box stall. (Peter is not here this year. He is in training in New Hampshire). I have discovered where they got out. Marcia will come in the morning and help me to string up some electric fence to keep them away from that section. Until then they can stay in the barn.

Even with company present, Jasmine made it to 7 gallons today. She spent the day in the North Field for the first time.

June 03, 2008, Tuesday:

First, my announcement:

I have been commissioned to tell the world that DD Sally’s daughter, Rebecca Leah McGuire Bentzen, was delivered of a son about 6am June 3 in her home on Happy Road in Fairbanks, Alaska. In attendance were her husband, Torsten Bentzen and two midwives. Baby Bentzen weighed 8 lbs 12 oz and does not yet have a name.

All went very well with the birth. Their cabin is at the top of a hill and they do not have running water. Torsten carried 5 gallon cans of water up and poured them into a kiddy pool. He heated the water with something from his brother-in-law Nate’s beer making equipment so that Rebecca could labor in a warm bath. Labor was 9 hours.

DD Marcia came down and we spent most of the morning constructing an electric fence across a portion of the area where Wesley and Oakley, the two steers, now live. They got out again while we were working but we got them right back in. I gave all my electric fencing stuff to DS Max last year so this bit of fence looks mighty tacky. Marcia was able to contribute a charger. Oakley is naïve to electric fence but Wesley knows all about them. As soon as he heard the charger ticking he lost all interest in going near the wire.

Deer were in my veg garden last night. They did not appear to have eaten anything, just stepped on a few things. I suppose they are waiting for the lettuce and spinach to be a little bigger. I don’t have electric fencing yet to set up down there. I had a 30 ft roll of Remay that I tied between two bean poles. It flaps and waves in a ghostly way that I hope holds them off for a few more days.

Marcia spent an hour weeding the asparagus bed. She found about a pound of asparagus hiding in the grass. I gave them to her for her supper.

I put in more cucumber seeds and zucchini.

Jasmine gave about 7 gallons again. I make butter virtually every day now, usually a pound and a half at a time.

June 04, 2008, Wednesday:

All the animals behaved perfectly. It rained all day, not hard but steadily, but they continued grazing happily.

My ghostly sheets in the veg garden were wet and sticking to the ground this morning. I saw no new deer tracks.

Allstate finally settled on the collapsed carriage house. I took the checks to the bank today. A new set of issues confronts me now. Allstate stipulates that the work must be completed within 180 days of issuance. They took so long settling that those who estimated are now booked until fall.

I got a few plants in. I set out a flat of tatsoi and dug out a patch of comfrey to make space for some new rhubarb plants. My old rhubarb is doing better this year so probably I did not need to buy more plants. In fact I picked rhubarb for the first time this year and made sauce.

What with dairy work and gardening my writing projects are getting short shrift. I scarcely stop all day. Last night at 10 o’clock I was eating dinner, hot milk and peanut butter out of the jar.

Jasmine gave 6 ½ gallons.

June 06, 2008, Friday:

We had rain again all day today, not hard but steady. We have definitely had enough.

DD Sally called to say that my new great grandson is named Torlief. It rhymes with “life” and means “Son of Torsten”.

Just before I went to the barn this morning, Willie, who was on his chain, went into a veritable tantrum of furious barking such as I never hear. He was looking in the direction of the barn but I could not see anything wrong. The fence is supposed to be intact so I let him off his chain to go investigate. He ran like a shot, hurled himself at the fence and went right under it and raced around behind the chicken yard. He cast back and forth looking for a scent, then bolted for the woods. Of course he paid no attention to my calls and disappeared into the woods. I was confident he was not chasing a dog. He always likes other dogs. I think it must have been a fox. I will have to keep a good lookout. My hens are ranging widely.

He came home by himself about 20 minutes later.

Watching Willie run is highly entertaining. He is a West Highland Terrier, short legged and covered with a heavy coat of white dreadlocks. He looks like a fuzzy bouncing ball but goes very fast. He has vast energy.

I have cut back Jasmine’s grain by one third. I figure she is metabolically stabilized post calving enough to handle it. She has been giving 6 ½ to 7 gallons/day. I hope to get her down to five. I don’t have many customers and am running out of containers for skim milk.

June 07, 2008 Saturday:

When I went to find Jasmine this morning instead I found Oakley (8 mo. steer) in the veg garden. He had destroyed a section of fence in order to get at they comfrey which is now more than 2 ft tall and very lush. He also marched around in the garden making great big footprints on baby plants. He was cooperative about leaving through the gate into the pasture. This put him in with Jasmine although it took him a long time to find her.

I had trouble finding her myself. I had left everything open for her to walk into her stanchion and when I finally gave up and returned to the barn there she was finishing up her grain. DD Marcia came down later and helped me get Oakley back into the paddock with Wesley (16 mo. steer) and together we repaired the fence.

Marcia and I planted two rows of corn. One row is Silver Queen, the other is Peaches and Cream. I could not get seed for feed corn but I figure the family can eat some of the sweet corn and the cows will not object to it. The first row of potatoes is up. Down in the veg garden Marcia weeded the rutabagas and I set out some of my tomato plants. She then left to visit her friend Louise in New Gloucester. I went out to collect the eggs and there was that darned Oakley in the barn. He had escaped from his paddock, this time as I learned later by destroying a new section of fence which put him on my lawn. He then had only to walk around the house and into the barn through the front door, which I leave open during the day. Fortunately I had the front gate on the road closed. This time I had to let him stay with Jasmine. The sorting was more trouble than it was worth. So now Wesley is alone and the world is hearing about it.

I made some very successful cottage cheese last night. We had it for lunch with cantaloupe.

Jasmine gave 6 ½ gallons again today despite my having reduced her grain by one third. But I milked her 1 ½ hours late because I was watching Big Brown lose in the Belmont. This may have made a difference.

My granddaughter Rebecca wrote (with one hand) to tell me that my new great grandson Torlief now has a middle name: it is Ask. Becky says this is Danish for ash as in ash tree and also in Norse mythology means “first man”, like Adam. Torlief means descendent of Thor, Norse god of thunder and also protector of the world. So I would say this is quite a strong name.

This was our first really hot day. It was over 80°.

June 08, 2008 Sunday:

DD Marcia and I met at church in Weld. A lady at church urged me to stop in and pick rhubarb, which I did. She gave me a huge armload. I went home to the farm and waited for DS Max. It was in the high 80’s today with lots of humidity. I don’t do well in heat and am wrung out. Max came and took away the accumulation of clabber. I had 30 gallons for their pigs. Later we all met at DD Marcia’s camp on Lake Webb and watched the kids having their first swim of the year. Marcia made world class chicken cacciatore. On each plate she put a layer of polenta cooked in chicken stock. Then a layer of tomato sauce made from scratch with onions and peppers. On top she set a piece of crusty fried chicken. This was one of Max and Mitra’s home reared fryers. She also served red cabbage slaw.

The only thing I got done in the garden was to plant my pole beans. I also made butter. The house is a mess. Max carried out the last of the house plants and set them on the deck for me. They trailed organic material all through the house and I have not even swept it up.

Jasmine seemed to appreciate having the fan turned on during milking. She only gave 5 gallons today, praise the Lord. The heat, Jeremiah’s appetite and reduced grain are having an effect.

June 09, 2008 Monday:

The Japanese iris opened today. Great clumps appeared like magic. I set out eight more tomato plants and planted my second circle of pole beans, Kentucky Wonder. Then DD Marcia came down and together we planted six more rows of corn. I left the final row for 12 hills of squash but got only six planted. Marcia filled six large pots with super topsoil from the chicken yard and put them out on the deck for me. I plan to put my eggplant and peppers there to see if they will do better than in the garden.

Jasmine taped at 792 lbs. Three weeks ago she was 810 lbs. So she is still losing. Today she gave 5 ¾ gallons. The calf, Jeremiah, taped at 190 lbs.

June 10, 2008 Tuesday:

Jasmine has begun to come in for milking lately with one or two quarters empty. She only gave 5 gallons today but it seems evident that the reason I am getting less is not due to my having cut down her grain. It is because Jeremiah is drinking so much milk. I will give it a few more days before taping her again but if she has lost any more weight I will return her to her earlier grain ration. It was 2 scoops of organic 16% dairy feed and 1 scoop of COB, a total of about 5 lbs twice a day. Could be a bit less. My barn scale is not very accurate. I recently cut out one scoop of dairy feed. She has not gotten over being mad about this and lets me know it with peeing and pooping.

DS Martin organized a work bee here today to clear things out of the wrecked carriage house. He and DS Max arrived at noon. DD Marcia was already here mowing the lawn. They all worked all afternoon. They set up a temporary plastic and steel pipe building which resembles a nifty white wall tent. Before the day was over a violent storm came up with massive thunder, lightening, wind and rain. It was pretty scary. The building or tent or whatever it is stood up to the weather. So far it has the lawn equipment in it.

Martin bought another piece of farm equipment, a lime spreader that goes on the Kubota. He wants to buy haying equipment too.

I had one remaining round bale that I wanted to get off the lawn where it had been set down. Martin put it on his heavy pickup truck and lent the truck overnight to Max so he could take the bale home to Helen. It is badly weathered and mostly mulch but there should be some decent hay in the middle. DD Sally and I each bought one from our haymaking neighbor early this spring but I was disappointed with the quality.

The storm knocked out the power for a couple of hours but lucky me, I had finished milking. We ate dinner by the light of my 7-branched candelabra. I made a nice dinner of meatloaf, baked squash and asparagus. For dessert I made a big pan of scones baked on top of stewed apple rhubarb sauce. Had there been power I would have made whipped cream. We had plain cream.

Martin modified the fence of the paddock where the steers Wesley and Oakley have been living. They had eaten the grass down pretty well just leaving buttercups and burdock. He cut a gate in the fence. Now they have access to about 7 acres of the River Field. Jasmine and Oakley have the North Field which has about 10 acres of good grass. I prefer to have them separated because otherwise they will all come into the Beefer Pen to loaf and it will get too messy for me to keep up with. Also both steers will want to come in with Jasmine at milking time and it would be a twice a day rodeo getting her and Jeremiah in without them. It is not that I don’t know how to sort cattle. But both steers know exactly where they want to get whereas Jasmine is a bit timid. If I am bounding around with my sorting stick it will make her decide to leave. If the new plan with the two groups separate does not work I will just go ahead and do the sorting. Three days of nuisance and I can have them trained. But I would still have the messy loafing area.

The mosquitoes this year are fierce. Also, everybody is noticing far more ticks than ever seen before.

The storm cleared before the sun went down leaving a wet and shining world. The 80° heat and humidity were gone and all was delightful (except for the mosquitoes).

June 11, 2008 Wednesday:

By 9PM the storm had returned in force. Max, Martin and Marcia had all gone home so it was just me and the dogs. With throbbing repetition, lightening bursts sheeted the Western sky behind the storm clouds. Each clap of thunder was different with some being very loud indeed. It was scary thinking of the cows being out in this but there was nothing I could do about it. Ordinarily the dogs sleep in the kitchen or living room but I allowed them to sleep in my room. They settled down and stayed quiet. The storm continued much of the night.

At 6 AM I went out to the barn to let out the chickens and check on the cows. Jasmine and Jeremiah were lying down peacefully chewing their cuds. Wesley and Oakley were in their new area looking across the gate. An hour later Oakley had remembered a place in the woods where he could go down a gulley and get around the end of the fence and he had joined Jasmine. Wesley is now by himself and looking mournful but is consoling himself with steady grazing.

The crew came back and carried on with clearing out the stored residue of time from the carriage house. They were in a mood to lighten ship. In fact I quipped that they were lightening the farm so much that it was in danger of floating away. I had to rescue a few things from the junk pile. Guys don’t always see the use of things that grandma does. For instance, why discard four umbrellas for the crime of redundancy and dustiness? I picture myself passing them out to the grandchildren in summer so they can run around in the rain. The umbrellas are back up now on top of the fridge.

I picked enough lettuce for the first garden salad.

The lovely Japanese iris is badly flattened by the storm.

I finished planting the last row in the paddock garden with several kinds of squash and cucumbers.

Jasmine gave 5 ¼ gallons.

June 12, 2008 Thursday:

The weather today was perfect as only a day in June can be. Marcia and I both spent time in the garden. She whacked out comfrey from the raspberry bushes and I caged and staked some of the tomatoes.

We both got a hankering to make pizza. I found a good King Arthur crust and she piled on the goodies. I happened to have some good chorizo on hand and rehydrated dried tomatoes. The Aga does not run at 500 F but is plenty hot. We pigged out on one pizza and I froze a second one for another day.

Many of my roses are now open including a nice spray of the one Sally thinks may be Double Cream. It nearly died out last year but it now coming back. It must be the sweetest rose in the world. My first peony opened today.

I read an article today by Allan Nation in Stockman Grass Farmer entitled Ancient Agriculture. He and his wife recently traveled in the high Andes of Peru. In a paragraph headed “Sustainable agriculture revolves around a ruminant centerpiece, he says, “I guarantee you will not be able to farm the same ground for 2500 years without the healing power of grass and animal manure.”

The world really needs to “get” this. There really is no free lunch. Combining small farms into big holdings may look efficient but in the end the claims that this approach feeds more people don’t hold up.

June 13, 2008 Friday:

DD Marcia and I went to Farmington. We visited the farmer’s market but didn’t buy much. The fact is, I already have pretty much everything. I bought a six pack of orchid pink ruffled petunias but then left them in Marcia’s car.

We met DIL Mitra for lunch at a new burrito place. The burritos were pretty good. Mitra worked out an arrangement to get food scraps for her pigs, since everything on his simple menu is suitable for pigs.

Of course back home I was way behind on everything so had to break into a canter. Since I still don’t have good deer deterrence I am trying a soapy water trick I thought of. We learned last fall that Irish Spring soap is anathema to deer. Marcia hung her little apple tree with many small pieces of it in cheese cloth. These remained hung on it like Xmas ornaments all winter and there was no deer damage. So I have put a cake of it into my watering can and run around giving a light sprinkle to the lettuce and other things that deer like. It doesn’t seem to hurt the plants but I hope does not affect the flavor. I did this again this evening. I can see why deer dislike this soap. It smells like the chemical in a public latrine.

Just since yesterday my first row of corn has come up. It sprang up about 3 inches. This is Silver Queen.

Jasmine came in this morning with both left quarters empty and the other two stuffed. From theses two she gave 3 gallons. Obviously she is making as much milk as ever and you-know-who is having it. I increased her grain again tonight back to 3 scoops. She gave a total of 5 gallons for the day.

June 14, 2008 Saturday:

This was another fine day although with some cloudiness. DS Mark, his daughter Hailey and her friend Sarah came for the weekend. DS Martin and family are here too. Max and Mitra and the girls and I all convened at DD Marcia’s house for a 40th birthday party for Martin. My baby is 40; how can this be? I bought him a watering can and another for wee Hannah who likes to help. DIL Amy brought sausages from a shop in Biddeford that makes them. Amy and her dad made a big salad, Marcia made roasted potato salad, Mitra brought two dips, Turkish pomegranate walnut dip and yellow roasted bell pepper hummus. She makes great dips and we had them with crackers made by Gloria at Nezinscott Farm. I made the Black Forest Cake that was a hit for Amy’s birthday. It had a fudgy frosting and was accompanied by raspberry sauce and ice cream.

We all took turns holding Martin and Amy’s baby Henry and no crying was heard.

The lake is now warm enough for the girls to stay in the water for a long time. There is a bouncy inflatable float and a large wooden raft that is anchored in place for diving. They also paddled the kayaks up to East Brook.

Max and I left before the others so as to get our animal chores done. Jasmine did not complain about my being an hour late. She gave 5 gallons today. Jeremiah is now about 7 weeks old. He is big and well developed. You can’t even see any backbone. I let out his collar about every week.

June 15, 2008 Sunday:

Although it rained nearly all day, Mark and the two girls climbed Tumbledown. Max and his two girls also climbed. When they got back, they were is such a hurry to get home on time that they could not even stop to eat the beans I had ready so I don’t know much about the expedition. All had bare legs so I expected to see them covered with bites but there were no complaints and seemed happy as could be. The climb is about three hours up and back.

I took an umbrella and did a garden tour. It looks like the crows have pulled up a lot of my beans. I will have to replant. I must also cover the strawberries, still green, before they steal them. Jasmine was out grazing in the rain while Oakley and Jeremiah chewed their cuds comfortably inside the beefer pen lying on clean hay. Jasmine gave 5 ½ gallons today. Jasmine has a big job eating for three (herself, Jeremiah and me).

June 17, 2008 Tuesday:

It rained most of yesterday and again today although the sun was out for a bit. It makes for good transplanting weather and I did transplant eight lettuces but we are all now ready for some sunshine. Nearly everything it up now in my big paddock garden. Marcia came by and worked in the first veg garden where all the lettuce and other greens are planted and the strawberries. There is a plague of slugs this year. She made some slug traps and also covered the strawberries with floating row cover to discourage birds. In a week there should be a lot of berries if we are able to win the battle with slugs and birds.

Marcia and I fixed tuna steaks for lunch. She fixed them by a method I like. I roll them in sesame seeds and sauté them in coconut oil, then serve them with soy sauce and wasabi mustard. We had a salad entirely of garden greens. Max stopped in later and finished up the leftovers. He picked up the skim milk and took some hay for Helen. He also cut out a big dead branch from my rowan tree and carried some buckets of topsoil for the spot I intend for my scarlet runner beans, which I regret to say are not yet planted. Perhaps we will have a long hot fall so some of the hot weather veggies can reach maturity.

There was a purple finch on the bird feeder today.

June 18, 2008 Wednesday:

Today was marked on my calendar for Jasmine to be in heat. She showed no signs at all except that instead of waiting at the barn this evening as the good little thing usually does, she was at the farthest point in the pasture grazing in hard rain and ignored my calling for ten minutes. Then once into her stanchion and just as I was putting on the machine she let loose with a big soupy mess that must have had a volume of at least two gallons. I had the usual shovelful of shavings behind her but it was overwhelmed. This stuff splashed six feet. I leapt up and shrieked at her and whacked her with the dandy brush. She knew she was bad. For the rest of the session she stood as steady as a stump but it took all my rags and half a roll of paper towels to clear her up again and wipe off the milking machine. As for myself, I was splashed mightily and so was the milking stool, a fact which I failed to note until I sat down on it. Then, not surprisingly, she did not let down and I ended up with less than 1 ½ gallons in the bucket.

DD Marcia came down and staked up my poor drooping raspberry canes. She has been having trouble with her phone and had to leave right after lunch to be home for the repair man. Near her lane she saw the repair crew up a pole and stopped to ask if they had found the trouble. Answer was yes. The box at the top of the pole contained a bat’s nest. Sorry to report the lineman was merciless with the bats but Marcia’s phone line is once again clear.

June 19, 2008 Thursday:

Once again it rained last night and much of the day. There is frequent thunder and lightening. This storm system is stuck over New England and has dropped many inches of rain. A lot of my beans that have not come up probably rotted in the ground. I worked in the garden for over an hour during a break when the sun came out but then had to quit when the rain began again. I am safe on high ground but many Maine streams are flooding and the lake is way up.

Mitra reports a tragedy amongst the hens. A fox got a mother hen that had seven chicks. She was able to rescue six chicks. They were about three weeks old and outside with their mother.

Last fall I had a huge great kale plant that the deer ate before I got a bit. It was 5 feet tall and had produced seeds. Now hundreds of baby kale plants are all over my garden. I mowed off a lot of them to cook.

DS Max is up at Marcia’s camp with the girls. He is dog sitting while Marcia is in Vermont visiting her horse Peter who is to be in a show tomorrow. Then tomorrow evening he will come here and milk Jasmine while I go address the Grange in Vienna, Maine. (Edited by Mitra to add: Vienna is pronounced Vi (rhymes with eye) – enna)

Jasmine exhibited no signs of heat today that I observed. She gave 5 gallons today.

June 20, 2008 Friday:

Son Max came over from Marcia’s camp where he is dog sitting and milked Jasmine. He milked by hand and got 3 gallons. He reports that she stood perfectly. Meanwhile Mitra and I and the two girls attended a meeting at the Vienna, Grange where I spoke about the family cow. There were over 50 people present and a lot of enthusiasm. Most of them were as old as I and not likely to get a cow anytime soon but many had grown up with cows and were pleased to report having drunk their own farm milk as children. But there were a few who asked about how much space they would need for grazing. All were interested to hear what I had to say about the safety of raw milk and the wholesomeness of cream. I had printed out a few Weston A Price “Soy Alert” pamphlets and gave one to a women who said she drinks soy milk.

Carole and Janet (2nd Chance) had arranged for me to speak. They made nice flyers and posted them around several towns. The “event” was also listed in the local paper. When DS Max went to pick up feed, the feed store owner said, “I hear your Mom is talking at the Vienna Grange.”

I also met another forum member, Laura, of Flying Pond Farm.

When we first arrived tables were set for the pot luck supper. After supper was over, the men cleared the tables from the room and set up chairs for my talk. For about twenty minutes while things were being arranged, the oldest member, a 90 pound woman aged 100 years, slid onto the piano stool and played hymns. Then just as we were ready to begin the program, she broke into lively stride piano. I would have liked to ask her if she got her start on raw milk but she was quite deaf.

June 21, 2008 Saturday:

For the first time in what seems like weeks it did not rain today. It did rain last night.

Damn! The deer were in the garden. I have been doing things such as draping floating row cover around and hanging up bags of Irish Spring soap. Not sufficient deterrents. Their choice of what to eat was odd. They ate the tops half off of some young tomato plants. These are ruined. Also they ate the heading tops off of a clump of chard that wintered over. They did not eat my dear little lettuces and beans. Marcia and I hope to buy some electric fence tape tomorrow. I will have to remove the charger that is now keeping Wesley out of a sensitive area and put him in with Jasmine. That should make him happy.

As night fell I ran around with the watering can infused with soap and sprinkled everything.

One bit of really good news from my little orchard. Mt standard plum is fruiting for the first time ever. It is more than ten years old and has scarcely even had even a blossom on it until this year. It was badly wounded by an incredibly stupid thing I did. I left the little wire tag on it when I planted it. This grew into the trunk and nearly killed it. I think it has finally overcome this and was further encouraged by DD Sally cutting away a lot of the blackberry canes that were crowding it. I can no longer even remember what kind of plum it was so the tag was of no use anyway.

I wish everyone could see my roses and peonies. Even though hammered by days of rain they are lovely.

I made two loaves of raisin bread today.

June 22, 2008 Sunday:

Possibly due to my watering with soapy water or perhaps because the deer were off eating my neighbor’s garden, I found nothing eaten this morning in the garden. It rained again in the night so it was hard to be sure how fresh their tracks were but I think there were some new ones. This would suggest that they decided not to eat soapy plants.

Marcia and I went down to Dixfield and I bought electric fencing supplies. We ran out of time to work on setting it up and besides it was raining. I made some 50% whole wheat hamburger buns and we each ate one for lunch, just with butter as I had not taken any ground meat out of the freezer. I was able to pick enough strawberries for us each to have a generous strawberry shortcake, with whipped cream of course.

In preparation for the coming electric fence, I opened up the gate and let Wesley in with the other cows. I got out of his way while he bounced around happily for some minutes. At evening chores he was all snuggled up with the others in the lean-to. I could not see them in there and was hollering my head off for Jasmine to come in. When I walked around the back of the barn and spotted them Jasmine gave me the funniest look, like ”Why were you shouting? Can’t you see I’m right here?”

DD Marcia had an awful start to her day although for the dogs it was worse. While I was drinking morning tea at 6:30 she rang to tell me two of the dogs, the Jack Russell and the Samoyed, had encountered a porcupine during the night. She had been working on them with pliers for an hour and sounded quite shattered. The kitchen was covered with blood and neither she nor the dogs could handle any more. I told her it was a veterinary emergency and she should call Doctor Cooper. She called back a little later to say she had waked the poor man up and couldn’t make out what he wanted her to do. Forty minutes later he was at the door and of course sedated the dogs and removed a lot more quills. There were hundreds.

June 23, 2008 Monday:

Roxie, the Jack Russell and Sam, the Samoyed, are still feeling pretty sick, especially Roxie. They don’t want to eat. Marcia is tempting them with various treats.

It rained last night and most of the morning. I took my umbrella and inspected the garden. The deer did not appear to have eaten any vegetables but they had half denuded a beautiful young pear tree. It will be set back a full season. Because of the weather I didn’t think Marcia would be down today to work on the electric fence but she came and even brought excellent spaghetti for our lunch. After lunch she started fencing by herself because I was busy with a teleme cheese and mailing books. By the time I joined her she had all the posts set and the tape stretched so I organized three long extension cords to the charger. She got zapped on the tummy while reaching across it so we know it is live.

I chose to set the fence about 3 ft. outside the existing woven wire pasture fence on the theory that they can’t jump over both fences at once but the space between the electric and wire fence is too small to jump into without getting shocked. I hope I am right. We shall see.

June 24, 2008 Tuesday:

Here are some new pictures from Alaska from Granddaughter Rebecca.

June 26, 2008 Thursday:

So far as I can tell the deer have not gotten into the garden but I see a place where I need to raise the tape up higher. I am so terribly busy. A new job has been added to my daily to-do list: potato bug patrol. They have found the crop in the new paddock garden. I picked off about 20 today and destroyed some egg clusters. This is a task I quite enjoy. It brings out my inner Diana I guess and is a chance to be outdoors. Most of my time is spent indoors no matter how good the weather.

My vet was here today. He gave Marcia some more meds for Roxie who still has not got her health back following the porcupine incident. She barely eats. Very likely there is one still in her throat. Dr. Cooper joined us for lunch. I had already planned lamb shanks for Marcia and me. We wanted some lamb to go with mint chutney that I made yesterday from an Australian cookbook. I also made yogurt and accompanied the lamb with simmered wheat berries that I just happened to have made the other day. The whole thing was very good, so everyone said.

We also had strawberries and cream. My little patch of strawberries is producing remarkably well.

I never saw a recipe before like this one for mint chutney. I have masses of mint right now so took the opportunity. In the food processor you grind up equal quantities of mint leaves and raisins. In a saucepan you boil up a half and half (by volume) mixture of vinegar and sugar, equal to about the volume of the mint leaves. So in this case it would be 1 cup of raisins, 1 cup of densely packed mint leaves, ½ cup of apple cider vinegar and ½ cup of sugar. Add a little salt and ½ teaspoon cayenne. Boil a couple of minutes and add to the food processor. I also added a little golden syrup as it seemed to need a bit more sweetening and a bit more juice. This chutney made a hit. I think it would be good made with honey.

Golden syrup is like sorghum syrup.

It has not rained for two days.

One of my black hens is setting.

I forgot to write about the man from the USDA department of conservation who came Tuesday. Sally had spoken to them last March about looking at my river bank which is badly eroded. I showed him a long stretch of bank. It was a lovely walk and he seemed to agree that control would be desirable but said there was no way to get equipment near enough to do anything. He said it would help to keep the cows away from the bank but they already are fenced away and have been for years.

June 27, 2008 Friday:

My recollection of all the good things that happened today has been wiped out by the fact that my kitchen sink is stopped up. All the usual interventions have failed and I can’t get it apart either. The nylon collar just turns and turns. Hmm. Martin just wrote that it may be a job for Max’s Sawzall (sp?) Also something is popping breakers. I washed the milking equipment in the bathtub.

It was hot today. I did not get the butter made until 9pm and it was too soft to press properly and I don’t care. I just put it into the fridge.

Things to be thankful for: my fridge ; running water in the bathroom; the fact that I had to go out to the car for something after dark and noticed the dome light was on. My car’s battery cannot deal with stress.

June 28, 2008 Saturday:

Oops… June 28. All day I have been marking the milk bottles 6/29. I’ve gained a day.

DS Max came over with Roshan, 9. He worked on my outfall line for about 3 hours and got very dirty and greasy. The problem proved to be worse than I had imagined and in fact was one I have had before. The PVC pipe was clogged with milkfat and milk solids. You can’t actually take apart modern PVC plumbing. You have to enter through the cleanouts or else resect a piece and put in a collar. The local hardware store does not carry my size of pipe so Max worked with my very long plumber’s snake to clean about 30 ft of pipe.. He finally triumphed and water now flows properly from the sink.

DS Bret in Alaska was also helpful. He wrote as follows:

It looks like blocked drains from grease are pretty common, and even occur at the municipal level. The only thing to be done is to physically remove the block. Sounds like Max is doing that. They say use a snake. Various methods are used to slow down blockage.

There is a thing called a grease trap, which is basically a tank that allows the water to cool and the grease congeals on baffles while the cleaned overflow goes off down the drain. Grease traps have to be cleaned periodically. You’d think with the dishwasher running often, that plenty of hot water was going down the line.

One prevention method called for running a kettle of boiling water down the drain each night. But I think you are getting plenty of hot water down there.

Probably the pipes could be wrapped so that they stay warm, but that means the biggest cooling will occur where the line goes out of the house. So there would need to be an outdoor cleanout. I wonder if Skidgell put one in. There should be a cleanout by the house just where the line leaves the basement. I don’t recall one. Anyway, this just moves the grease to the septic tank where it is most certainly accumulating.

I’d say the real answer is to have the tank pumped, steam out the lines and install a grease trap. But maybe a snake will do the job for now.

Bret also researched some advice from a dairy specialist on ways to forestall a recurrence of the problem, as follows:

Typically, hot 140°F water and a caustic type of cleanser would be used in a dairy. The caustic does just as you suggest (dissolves grease) – but in addition some of the newer cleansers actually incorporate an emulsifier to help keep the fat in suspension. Seems to work.

I am writing about this in some detail because it can be a baffling problem to cow owners and also to plumbers who have not worked in a dairy. One of the best, and simplest, ways to prevent deposition and buildup of milkfat and milk solids is to have a grey water outfall line to carry the kitchen waste water directly outside where is can have a useful future on the land.

I am in the habit of pre rinsing milk jars and doing them in the dishwasher. I never put any milk slops down the sink; these go to the animals. Furthermore I use boiling water on the milking equipment on a daily basis. The clogging was due entirely to rinsings. I will now study up on dairy milkline cleaners.

On a more charming subject, after the plumbing was repaired we went up to DD Marcia’s camp where Marcia and DIL Mitra had prepared an incredible feast of Mexican fare. We started with a perfectly delicious avocado dip made by Mitra. Marcia passed around sangria made from scratch. When we sat down she passed out cups of soup made with fresh vegetables and avocado in chicken broth. We then had chili rellenos that would get praise anywhere. Mitra made soft tacos filled with tomatoes, onion, and cilantro and superb roasted home grown pork that she had cooked all night at 180°. We had several choices of salsa including one Marcia made with roasted pineapple and banana. I don’t suppose we really needed the dessert I brought. This was a flan with strawberries and whipped cream. The flan turned out exactly right.

The weather today was cool and damp. Jasmine gave a bit under 5 gallons. Max also tidied up the beefer pen for me. The steers were grabbing the driest most comfortable spots leaving Jasmine to lie down where it is not so clean. As a result, tonight she came in perfectly clean.

June 29, 2008 Sunday:

I have a new milk customer, a woman with a darling four-month-old breastfed baby whose cow is dry. She came at 7am in the rain. Then an antique dealer showed up at 7:30 am, still in the rain. This was before I had milked. I just made it to church without so much as a piece of toast. There I met Marcia. After church she brought some of yesterday’s leftovers down for our lunch. She gamely took a whole truckload of my trash to the dump. The rain stopped and I worked in the garden for an hour and a half. So far the deer have not jumped the electric fence. However, slugs are getting the strawberries.

This evening I made gingerbread using fresh grated ginger. The original recipe is from the Tassajara Cookbook. It calls for 3 tablespoons of grated ginger and also a bit of black pepper, dry mustard and cayenne plus the usual cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. It has got a bit of a kick to it but I found it delicious and ate three pieces with buttermilk and called it my dinner.

June 30, 2008 Monday:

All last night we were entertained by thunder and lightening, accompanied by wind and rain. I got up at 5am. There did not seem to be much point in staying in bed. I did a bit of yesterday’s leftover housework before going to the barn earlier than usual. I have been planning to write about how dependably Jasmine has been coming to the barn every day but today she let me down. I called to all points of the compass but got no response. The rain had stopped but the pasture and woods were dripping wet. I decided to wait her out.

I went to check the potatoes for beetles and found half the row flooded. There was a huge amount of rain last night. All the pans and buckets by which I gauge precipitation were overflowing. About this time a truck pulled up outside the front gate and a nice man called out, “Are these your cows?” My heart plunged into my socks. There were Wesley and Oakley outside the gate milling around. A second man in a truck pulled up and both tried to help. It took about 5 minutes to get them to go through the gate during which time they pranced around in the road stopping traffic. No sign of Jasmine and Jeremiah. One man walked back down towards the bridge and reported that Jazzie and the calf were in the pasture like good little cows. I thanked the man and began the task of rounding up the two escapees and getting them into the barn. I’m afraid that Willie, my West Highland terrier, was not as much help as he hoped to be. I had to tie him up. The steers had a grand old time tearing up divots in the sodden lawn, circling everywhere and kicking up their heels. Of course I finally got them in. I then closed off the South pasture pending a search for where the fence was down. Jasmine arrived at the barn with Jeremiah from wherever she was.

After milking an hour late I tracked the steers’ progress. They had come along the road from behind the guard rail that leads from the bridge. From there I tracked them along and behind the fence that keeps them away from the river. It is amazing they did not fall in. the river is very high with very little bank available. When I reached a point about 100 feet downstream I saw how they got out. During the night a large branch had fallen and crushed the fence. What a blessing that Jasmine did not go with them. She would have dragged through barbed wire. But she is not in the habit of following them, she being the leader.

At noon DD Marcia came over and we went to Rumford to finish out errands. The rain started up again so that we could hardly see. I bought a pair of shoes at Wal-Mart and Marcia found me some replacement tomato plants. They had thousands of unsold flowers and ornamentals going very cheap, $4 for hanging baskets.

Back home, Marcia and I repaired the fence, which was easy because the ground is so soft that Marcia was able to pound in a metal post with a hammer. We had the dogs with us and they had a grand old time. The field is incredibly beautiful, just a sea of wild flowers. There is pink and white clover, daisies, buttercups, Indian paintbrush, cinquefoil, milkweed, purple vetch and more. The Timothy is heading up. All this adds up to a field in need of mowing and no doubt many other interventions but it is a lovely sight. One of Marcia’s Chihuahuas got lost. She was about to despair because the grass and flowers were far taller than he. “Whiskey, Whiskey”, we shouted. (His name is Whiskey, you understand.) Finally Whiskey found his way back to the house unaided.

I have another broody hen. I gave her six eggs.

My butter turned out less than perfect. I could not keep my focus on it. First the cream was too warm, then I overly chilled it, then I over-churned it. By this time it was again too warm so I put the whole thing into the fridge and it became impossible to wash properly. I will just label it C+.

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July 02, 2008 Wednesday:

There were more thunderstorms yesterday and the potatoes remain flooded.

This morning I got up at 4:30 because I couldn’t sleep. There had been more rain in the night but we had sun all morning. I worked in the garden which was fun except for the mosquitoes. I don’t ever remember them this bad. Everything that is green and leafy is thriving. It seems to me that my trick of keeping a bar of Irish Springs soap in the watering can is keeping the slugs out of the lettuces. Despite the wet weather I frequently sprinkle all the lettuce with soapy water.

Marcia came over this afternoon and mowed the lawn again for me. What a treat. Max came too for his clabber and stayed more than three hours helping me with important tasks. He ran the weed whacker along under the electric fence to knock down the grass that was about to short it out. He also trimmed around my granite steps and cut down the dense perennial goldenrod in the chicken run (not that they stay in there). I have lost a few hens and Max thought that those weeds were giving too much cover to the fox. He also trimmed the tall grass all around my Paddock Garden. It was 14” tall and full of wild flowers like the pasture. But grass like that is a staging ground for predatory bugs in the garden.

According to the National Weather Service, rivers and small streams all over this part of Maine are flooding. My river, the Webb River, is not over its banks but it’s close.

At 4:30 the air turned green and yellow and another major electrical storm hit. Marcia raced home because of her dogs and cats. Max finished up some indoor projects including cleaning the Beefer Pen for me and left at 5:30 while the storm raged. Marble sized hail fell. I took my machine to the barn mentally prepared to milk by hand but the power stayed on. Jasmine did not seem too fazed by the storm but I could tell it was bothering Jeremiah. He dragged his rope way around behind his mom and wanted me to rub his chin. Two of her quarters were empty. He is definitely drinking more but always leaves at least one quarter packed full. This prevents me from switching to OAD milking. Her total for today was 3 ½ gallons, down quite a bit, but this may be partly due to the weather.

July 03, 2008 Thursday:

My spring sink has stopped running. I assume the part of the line that is exposed on the river bank had become entangled with some floating flotsam and been torn apart at one of its many repair sites. The world is very wet and I did not feel like walking down there. Martin says he will see what he can do on Saturday. He and his family and father-in-law, Ken, are on their way up here from Biddeford, in fact I have been holding dinner for them. They are pretty late. I roasted one of Max and Mitra’s chickens, made baked potatoes, cooked a lot of baby kale with garlic scapes in chicken stock, made a quick yeast bread and rhubarb sauce with whipped cream.

Later: We ate about 8:30 Baby Henry is looking good. Amy fed him before dinner and he stayed quiet while we ate, then tuned up a bit. Hannah, now 2 ½ , ate a lot of everything. She especially liked the fresh peas that I had in a bowl on the table for people to shell and eat raw. Hannah is a very cute and cheerful little towhead. During dinner she regaled us with her repertoire of nursery songs such as Baa Baa black sheep and Humpty Dumpty and others. She said she wanted to stay here with grandma. Of course then I thought she was even cuter.

We got another rain storm but no lightening. It cleared and the sunset was awesome.

July 04, 2008 Independence Day Friday:

This morning the sun was shining. I was able to hang out the flag without fear of it getting wet. Jasmine was in the North Field engrossed with a patch of clover and ignored my call. Like all pasture gates, this area gets muddy but not usually as bad as now. I had to go find a board to cross over the mud; or else I would have lost my boots. The Northern Red Top is heading up giving the field a haze of dusty rose. The cows don’t graze much on the seed heads. The under storey of herbage is mostly clover.

The family convened for a cookout at DD Marcia’s camp. I made buns this morning for the home raised beef patties and the hand made sausages brought by DIL Amy. DIL Mitra brought potato salad and pasta salad and also made the green salad with lettuce from my garden. Marcia made a perfect blueberry pie.

Sons Martin and Max raised the sail on Marcia’s Hobie Cat and took turns giving sailboat rides. Granddaughters Shireen and Roshan gave us demonstrations of their swimming teamwork with a unison back flip from which they leap up holding hands.

Marcia’s dock nearly floated away yesterday. The lake is unseasonably high and lapping over it. It is one of those long docks with a platform and furniture at the far end and urns of potted plants. These items all have their toes in the water.

I skipped milking tonight. I am not announcing OAD milking until after tomorrow morning when I see how Jasmine gets along. She has dropped below four gallons now for three days. Her evening production has been higher than the morning lately, which is unusual so from her standpoint it would be easier to drop the morning milking. That doesn’t work for me, so I hope she can adapt.

July 05, 2008 Saturday:

Another beautiful day without rain. This is a blessing. After two days of not being able to get near my potatoes, this morning I was able to reach about 2/3 of the row. A lot of bugs had hatched. The grubs are nasty to remove but I got a lot of them. I fear the plants in the middle part of the rows are drowned. They appear to be in a swoon.

Last night just at dusk I stood on the deck and saw that my cows were in Pocket Field, my farthest field from which I had them shut out. They seemed to be grazing quietly and there is surface water there to drink. My only real worry was that the neighboring dogs would get in with them. I have not seen the dogs for some time and I know the folks try to control them so I turned the matter over to St. Francis. This morning Jasmine had found her way back up towards the barn but the others were still in Pocket Field. Max came over today and I asked him to go ahead and open the gate so they can come and go as they choose. I will have to go down and walk that fence line, though.

Last night I did not milk. This morning one quarter was pretty tight but she was not mooing or showing any signs of distress. I am very much hoping that this does not lead to mastitis, but am not optimistic. I had a great sense of freedom in not having to milk this evening. Jasmine gave 3 gallons this morning which is plenty. When she falls below 2 gallons I will separate Jeremiah at night.

Max repaired my spring line. There is a place where it crosses a brook and a sweeper had come through in the high water and broken the pipe. He also spliced new pipe into a 100ft section that has had many repairs. Once again I have spring water to the kitchen.

Max also replaced the screen on my front door where Bagel had ripped it trying to get out a couple of weeks ago. I think we are about to get some real heat so it will be nice to have a screen door again. I can’t leave Bagel alone in the house or he goes nuts trying to get out. Such a nuisance. He was a rescue dog at about one year of age so maybe he had childhood trauma. He is now about 10. Hopefully, he will soon be old enough to prefer napping.

I forgot to mention in describing our 4th of July menu that I served my most recent teleme cheese. It had aged 10 days in the brine, which is the recommended time. I thought this one was the best yet. The recipe says to heat the curd to 100° but I did not heat it above 90°.

July 07, 2008 Monday:

This was a hot one, well into the 80’s and muggy.

DS’s Martin and Max went on their planned kayak trip down the Webb River on Sunday. Most of the time the river has a lot of riffles over its bed of stones. The water now is high with a lot of standing waves and because it is due to summer rain, not snow melt, it is not painfully cold. Neither of them had spray skirts and they frequently shipped water and they had a number of spills but other than that the trip was uneventful. They reported that since the last time they came down some years ago, the river is much cleaner. The many camps on the river are tidy. The run to Coburn Farm is about 10 miles.

DD Marcia’s two dogs that got into a porcupine have both recovered. She despaired of Roxie, the Jack Russell, for a few days, but after eating the pound of liver I donated to the cause she perked up and now seems almost 100%. Another quill emerged from her nose on Sunday. She lost a lot of blood. Sam, the Samoyed, although older and arthritic, recovered faster. Maybe due to his thick coat he got fewer quills into him.

Jasmine is adapting to OAD well so far. Each morning she had had one quarter that is tight as a soccer ball but there are no clots at all.

Max started bushhogging the North Field today. The two steers, Wesley and Oakley, and Jeremiah, the 2 ½ month bull calf, were thrilled with the tractor on their field and raced around and around throwing their feet in the air. Jasmine greatly disapproved and tried to call them away but they ignored her and kept hopping. Finally she walked right over into their midst and got them to leave the area. One could almost hear her saying “How many times do I have to call to get you to listen?”

July 08, 2008 Tuesday:

Even hotter today, well into the 90’s with high humidity. My potatoes are in big trouble. The ones that survived drowning are being devoured by potatoes beetle grubs. I sprinkled them with DE today although I have not had much luck with it in the past on those critters. Tomorrow I will try Bt.

DD Marcia and I went to Rumford on errands. On the way we stopped at a new café in Dixfield. We had excellent sandwiches. On the way home we tried their Italian gelato. It too was excellent.

By the time we got home I was wilted by the heat. The only gardening I did was to pick the strawberries and race around to the broccoli and lettuce with my Irish Spring soap treatment, which does seem to be working. My dear little Buttercrunch lettuces are perfect rosettes.

At 7:30 as I was winding down the domestic chores and drying off from a shower the phone rang: “Your cows are out. They are running towards Judkins road. If you leave immediately you can see them before they turn the corner.” The roads all have new 911 names and I don’t know where Judkins Road is. Also I was not dressed for leaving immediately. But I did the best I could, put both dogs in the house, left the gate open in case the cows came home, and drove off in what proved to be the wrong direction. As I came back towards the farm, having gone up the dirt road and seen no tracks, there was a car parked by my driveway and a family spread out over the road and the cows milling around. It was just the three boys. Jasmine stayed home like a good girl. Like the previous time, I was able to get Oakley and Jeremiah to run in the front door of the barn but Wesley would not. The family of neighbors stayed to help herd the cows, an offer I usually decline as most people just make things worse, but these folks were quiet and accepted directions so were a big help. I finally got Wesley in through another gate and have them enclosed in the barnyard with access to the beefer pen. There was a cloudburst and everybody got wet. I put down a bale of hay, in which they have no interest and implored St. Francis to again keep them out of mischief. When he ran into the barn, Oakley knocked down my basket of eggs that was hanging on the wall and broke every one. Then instead of going into the stall where the door was open he ran down the passageway to the beefer pen and busted open the door. I now have it tied shut with hay string. When I say “keep them out of mischief” I am thinking of this door because if they were to get it open and go into the main aisle there is only a half door to keep them out of the grain room. The broken door will have to be repaired right away.

July 09, 2008 Wednesday:

This was another steaming hot day, about 90° with extremely high humidity. The Governor issued ozone warnings and advised staying indoors. Hah! (as Janene would say). DS Max kindly came over and worked on fencing until he was wringing wet with sweat. Max has little patience for animals that break down fences. He muttered a lot about making a date with the butcher. He put electric fence all around the inner periphery of the Sheep Paddock and then we put the two steers, Wesley and Oakley, in there. For some reason this distressed Jasmine and she mooed a lot.

There were no cow break-ins last night but this morning Jasmine gave only ¾ gallons instead of her usual 3 and it did not strain well. I milked a second time today because of mastitis worry. She definitely has mastitis in her right rear quarter. In the morning I will milk it separately. Tonight she gave 1 ½ gallons.

Jasmine now has access only to North Field, the one Max just bushhogged. Max repaired some fence along the woods where the young fellows were getting out. We cannot trust them in there now but Jasmine has shown no interest in challenging fences.

I had black beans cooking yesterday while Marcia and I were shopping and I served them today with rice and biscuits and peas. I did not shell the peas, just put a bowl of them on the table for people to shell as they wished. Max brought along Shireen and Roshan. They helped with everything including making biscuits. Marcia came and brought local strawberries and we all had a good a lunch. I sent the rest of the beans up to DS Martin and DIL Amy at their camp.

DS Martin stopped in to repair the broken door to the Beefer Pen and also took a big load to the dump.

July 10, 2008 Thursday:

Jasmine hung out all day in the Beefer pen. I don’t know why she would not go out to graze. I put down hay for her but she did not eat much of it. She has a touch of mastitis in her RR quarter but is chewing her cud and does not act sick and she scarfed her grain. Last night and tonight I thought it best to milk but she did not give much. I think that staying inside prompts Jeremiah to nurse more often and he is not leaving much. Tonight I put him in Marcia’s horse Peter’s old stall. We’ll see what Jasmine’s udder looks like in the morning.

My potatoes are being ravaged by potato beetle grubs. There were too many to pick off. After my back gave out I went along and just knocked them onto the ground so they could spend the day climbing back up and hopefully die of fatigue. DD Marcia brought me a rotenone pyrethrum mixture and this evening I mixed up a watering can full and sprinkled them with it.

July 11. 2008 Friday:

This morning I could not be sure if the rotenone slowed down the bugs. I had only time to go down half the row this morning with a fresh application. I was gone all day and this evening I am pretty sure that they look sick.

Jasmine was mooing this morning to be milked. She gave 3 ¾ gallons. Mastitis was undetectable. I milked again this evening. Jeremiah was with her all day and this evening she had only one quart and that was in the quarter that had mastitis. Again, no sign of it.

DS Martin drove us ladies, DD Marcia, DIL Amy and me and the two babies, Hannah and Henry, to Farmington where we met Mitra. Martin took the babies up to visit with DS Max while we lunched at open air tables. The weather was just right and the food was good. I had lovely fresh flounder in a crusty coating. Mitra had her car and we all hopped in and went up to her house and saw all the animals. My old cow Helen still knows me. Max has set up a cage in his truck for transporting their meat birds tomorrow. They are now 8 weeks and a good five pounds each. So far they have not lost any of their original 50 birds although a couple of them are crippled and Max has to lift them over to the food. The pigs look sleek and happy. In fact their entire farmette is charming.

Back at Coburn Farm I discovered that the neighbor who cuts wood had delivered a huge truckload of tree length logs. They were tidily stacked on the lawn. It is two years supply of wood for sure. I also got a call from my neighbor who makes hay. He expects to bale tomorrow and wants to deliver a big load.

I found where the electric fence was shorting out and fixed that.

I am down to 16 hens (from 23). All evidence points to a fox but I have not seen him. Of course they always take the best birds.

July 12, 2008 Saturday:

Big day! DS Martin and DS Max organized to pick up hay from neighbor Leonard and now I have 253 bales in the barn. Martin had two fine friends visiting at the lake and they helped too. They were all wonderfully efficient. They did it all without my help. What a crew.

DD Marcia and I got hay strings set up for the pole beans. I ran strings from the top of the poles down to little “tent pegs”. These are arrayed around like a may pole. I have high hopes for a crop this year, unlike last year when the deer came in the night before they were ready to pick and ate not only the beans but the vines.

I’m sitting here listening to something chewing inside the wall behind me. Now this is scary. What are all these cats good for?

Jasmine gave 3 ½ gallons this morning of perfect milk. I got her in to milk this evening but Jeremiah drank almost all her milk when he saw it was milking time. Calves will do this. I just milked the dregs by hand and got less than a quart. This is working out pretty well since what she gives in the morning is plenty.

July 13, 2008 Sunday:

Today I saw the fox. As I suspected, he approaches from a direction which is shielded from my sight by the barn. Neither can Willie see from where he is chained but somehow he knows when the fox is coming. He has a special bark which I now recognize. When I heard it this morning I went out and let him loose and he hurtled as fast as his short legs could carry him straight out and around the barn. The fox stayed well ahead of him and in fact did not dive straight into the woods but loped along the fence for about 12 feet before disappearing. Obviously it knew it could outrun him. It did not have a chicken. Willie dove into the woods after it and came home panting about 10 minutes later. I told him he was a good dog.

One of my setting hens was surrounded by chicks this morning. There is still one egg to hatch. If it has not hatched by tomorrow I will have to take it away so she will leave the nest. I will give them clabber in the morning. It protects the chicks against gut disease especially coccidiosis.

Most of the family convened at DD Marcia’s this afternoon for another fine dinner. Mitra made paprika chicken. Max usually makes it but this time Mitra made it with equal success. Marcia made a salad using lettuce from my garden and included pickled chiogga beets and green beans with almonds. I brought a rhubarb upside down cake. The girls swam while we old folks watched from the porch and got gnawed by mosquitoes. They are awful this year.

July 15, 2008 Tuesday:

Late last evening there was a mighty ruckus in the buttery (summer kitchen). Willie was out there fighting with something. It was dark and I would have had to go out there to turn on the light. I did not dare open the door more than a crack for fear whatever it was would come into the house. By the time I got a flashlight and poked it through the door the invader was gone but not before it knocked down one of my precious gallon milk jars sending glass everywhere. I am not sure if it was a raccoon or a feral cat.

Perfect weather again today. A neighbor, Donny Houghton, is bushhogging the fields. Max did one of them last week but now has gone out of town to work and has much to do on his own farm anyway. Donny has done these fields many times.

Martin came by and brought me a float valve for the stock tank. It is years since I have had one. It is an added convenience.

My little black hen with the new chicks has five. One chick died half out of the egg and one egg did not hatch. I put it under another hen that is due but I suspect it is a dud. But I have not forgotten the time that I threw out an egg that I thought was a dud only to come back later in the day and hear peeping from the trash bin. The mother hen is one of my rafter birds not used to confinement. I have given her and her chicks the run of the grain room with grain on the floor, clabber in a pie plate and a watering fountain, so called, one of those things that has a ring of water around the bottom.

I was busy just about every minute today. I got Jasmine in at 5:30 PM as I have been doing. Jeremiah comes in behind her and has learned to go politely into his stall for the night. I put Jasmine into her stanchion to make sure her udder is in good shape and that she does not need milking. But she has virtually no milk after a day with Jeremiah. He and his mom can touch noses through the special little window Max made in the wall. She does not like to leave the beefer pen, which is next to him, so I put down hay.

DS Martin and his family and I joined Marcia for dinner at her camp. She made the entire meal. We had lettuce and broccoli from my garden, oven roasted cut up potatoes, and pork chops from Max and Mitra. The chops were exceptional. Marcia fixed them according to a recipe in Cook’s Magazine which she read in her dentist’s office. You spread both sides of the chops generously with mayonnaise and roll them in Panko bread crumbs, then fry them on the stove. For dessert we had carrot cake and some very good grapefruit gelato from a café in Dixfield.

Before dinner Martin and Hannah, 18 months, went swimming while the rest of us sat on the dock drinking wine and admiring them having fun. Hannah was skinny dipping. She stood on the edge of the dock crouching for a leap into her father’s arms. She is not quite ready to make the jump without his hands around her but is almost there.

July 16, 2008 Wednesday:

Little Jasmine gave over 4 gallons this morning. From the looks of it this evening it is still skimpy on cream. She is getting plenty to eat but may still be losing weight. I must remember to tape her again. Her coat looks very good.

My cousins Holly and Richard from Michigan stopped by this morning. They winter in Michigan and summer in Maine. We had a jolly visit. I gave them lentil soup and bread for lunch. We toured the garden and they picked the first black currants. They brought me an awesome gift, a gallon of honey from their bees. Their camp is closer to Max and Mitra than to me so they are going to start getting Helen’s milk, famous for its cream.

Donny Houghton finished bushhogging my fields. The grass is now laid down everywhere in tidy rows like corduroy.

July 17, 2008 Thursday:

Another very warm day, sunny with high humidity. After morning chores (Jasmine gave 3 ½ gallons) I went to Weld and joined DIL Amy for blueberry picking on Center Hill. Mitra brought her girls over to help. We picked on Center Hill. Hannah loves picking blueberries and had a grand time with Roshan and Shireen running around among the blueberries but she began to need her lunch and nap so we did not stay a great while. I suppose we got a total of 2 quarts. There was a light breeze and no mosquitoes. What a blessing that was. Around my place the mosquitoes are terrible.

This evening I made three chocolate pies, two for the Historical Society and one for us. I used the ricotta recipe. It takes gelatin and no eggs.

July 18, 2008 Friday:

This morning at 7:45 just when I was trundling my gear out to the barn, Willie started doing his “fox bark”. Bagel is only moderately interested in the fox but Willie really cares. I had reinforced his escape holes in the fence so had to trot over and open a gate. After all my bumbling around I did not expect to be able to see the fox but there was the cheeky little devil sticking his ears up in the middle of the field. Both dogs shot out after him but of course he got away. I called the dogs repeatedly, a great waste of time of course, and went ahead and milked Jasmine, who gave four gallons.

Donny Houghton arrived as I was starting back to the house. He lives across the bridge in the opposite direction from the fox hunt. Bagel had already sloped off over there, his favorite areas for socializing, and followed Donny’s van home to the farm. Willie was gone longer but showed up from the bottom of the pasture. So far as I can tell, the fox has not taken another hen for four days. The count of remaining hens still stands at 16. Perhaps the daily chase is causing him to hunt in another direction. Later this morning I met DD Marcia and Shireen and Roshan who had spent the night with her and we went to Farmington to meet DIL Mitra for shopping and lunch. We ate at The Granary, a halfway decent restaurant where we went last week. Last week the service was acceptable but we have all had numerous experiences of infuriatingly slow service and today was an example; from the time we sat down it was an hour until we were fed. We all intend to fill out complaint cards.

Marcia and I brought home a carload of supplies for the family reunion/Memorial service that begins next Wednesday. Both her house and mine will have every bed filled. Because of the way Jasmine is holding up her cream and the incursions on the henhouse by the fox we are going to have to buy in both cream and eggs. There goes my reputation.

The chocolate ricotta pies were a success. I needed two for the bean supper but made three so as to have a “control” (really so we could eat some). Last night I was unimpressed by the flavor of the filling but today it had somehow improved and I was very pleased. Marcia especially liked the cookie crust.

An electrical storm began about 5PM and knocked out the power for several hours. I have not been bothering to take the milking machine to the barn at night because Jeremiah leaves little or no milk. Tonight he made an exception and left two nearly full quarters. Because the power was out the machine would not have helped anyway. I milked over a gallon by hand. I expect to feel this tomorrow. I became quite aware of how out of practice I have become.

July 19, 2008 Saturday:

Hot! All the rain has made the farm lush and beautiful. The view from my back deck is heartbreakingly beautiful, especially when the evening sun gilds everything and the hills are silhouetted by mist.

Because of heat and mosquitoes I didn’t spend much time in the garden, just long enough to set out a few basil plants, pick some lettuce and strawberries and sprinkle Bt on the potatoes. I guess it is a hopeless effort though. Maybe as many as 10% of the plants even have leaves, the rest are exfoliated, yet still covered by clinging grubs. I often think what it must have been like and is still like in some parts of the world when a plague like this hits a family’s only food crop.

Some better news; I was thrilled to find 3” zucchinis on my plants.

Jasmine gave 3 ½ gallons this morning. Like last night, she came in for her grain needing milking. I hand milked 3 quarts. Jeremiah just isn’t taking it all.

I made 3 loaves of bread today

July 22, 2008 Tuesday:

I must have gremlins in this system. One strange thing after another besets my computer and phone. My screen just froze and ate up all I had written here. How will I ever remember it all? I had better go eat a bowl of raspberries and cream and see if that will help.

The raspberries are a bit watery this year, no doubt because of all the rain. Sunday night it rained torrentially. All the docks are floating again and this year’s mosquitoes are the stuff of legends. The flies are a similar story although the fact that I have two steers grazing behind the house and loafing under the buttery adds to the domestic population. I find that the reputation of tansy as a fly deterrent has foundation in fact. I have a big clump of tansy by the barn and have stood a large bouquet of it on either side of the kitchen door. The flies are steering clear of it.

It is raining again right now.

DD Sally called to tell me she has pressure canned 87 pint jars of salmon and 17 half pint jars of smoked salmon and her canner is still running. She also had her son Rafe and his GF SallyB save all the salmon guts, heads and backbones which she has put in freezer bags to feed her chickens this winter.

Chickens, of course, I nearly forgot. I have two hens with five chicks each. One family is in the grain room, the other is in a small stall. The hens dislike sharing territory. All are doing fine on clabber, water and chicken grain. It is wonderful how busy and dedicated the hens are to scratching up bits for the chicks and clucking to them to come and try them.

Today is my 80th birthday. DS Martin has organized a wonderful party for me for Friday so today was quiet but I have many cards from my family including my KFC family members old and new. How very nice it is.

July 23, 2008 Wednesday:

DS Bret arrived at noon today with my grandchildren Maia and Roger. Martin’s FIL Ken brought them from the airport. I had lunch ready. We were joined by my vet, Dr. Cooper. I made meatloaf, green salad with lettuce from my garden, and a cold salad of Maine grown wheat berries that I had cooked overnight in chicken stock. Bret seasoned them for us with lime juice and the buds of garlic scapes. I also made fast yeast bread called Blitz bread. For dessert we had fresh raspberries with wild blueberries and cream.

Dr. Cooper sedated my cat, Lemur, who is deaf and blind, and trimmed her badly overgrown claws.

Jasmine gave 4 gallons this morning. This evening I hand milked ¾ gallon. Her teats are getting scored up by Jeremiah. I have started adding about ¼ cup of ACV to her feed. This is supposed to favor her conceiving a heifer, not that she has been coming into heat. She probably will not until her production drops.

Mitra reports that now that Helen’s feet are trimmed and her abscess is cured she spends more time grazing. Her mastitis is also cured. Mitra applied lard and cayenne and milked her three times a day. Cousins Holly and Richard visited and bought a gallon of Helen’s milk.

July 24, 2008 Thursday:

Bret and his kids, Roger and Maia, borrowed my car and went to the birthday party for Roger at DIL Mitra’s house. All the other local cousins and their parents also attended. I sent along a chocolate cake that I made last night, also gifts for Roger which Bret forgot to give him. Bad Bret. It was an indoor party due to more torrential rain.

In the meantime Marcia’s son Harper arrived with their two kids. His wife Jen was brought by DS Max. Jen and Harper were on separate flights. They are staying with DD Marcia at the lake. Back home after the party Mitra’s, Marcia discovered that the lake had risen so much that her lovely dock was floating away again. This time the lake is even deeper than before. Her great stone urns on the dock, full of plants, were about to take a dive. DS Martin showed up to help rescue things such as the HobieCat which was dragging its anchor. Harper had to work in his under shorts because the airline lost all his luggage. Marcia expects her urns will have sunk by morning and parts of the dock will have floated away but she is being Zen about it. DS Martin said he would come back in the morning and chase down whatever has floated away.

On his way home from the party Bret and his kids encountered barriers across the road a couple of miles from my farm where a culvert was overwhelmed and the road was flooded. He got out and inspected the situation and decided he could easily drive through so he removed the barriers, drove through, and replaced them. Other cars turned back, opting for a 40 mile detour.

Jasmine grazed most of the day despite the rain. It does knock down the flies. She came in tonight with so little milk that I did not bother with it.

I fixed everybody a late spaghetti supper using the leftover meatloaf.

My granddaughter Helena arrived with her kids, Natalie, 2 ½ and Logan, 1 year. They were charming and lively despite a two day trip from Pennsylvania. They ran around helping to swat flies. We are all spending a lot of time here swatting flies and sweeping up. Flies and mosquitoes have organized a surge.

My computer has been giving me the fantods. Quite apart from meteorological assaults such as electrical storms and resultant power outages, it has been refusing to boot and puts up sinister messages such as “Cannot find hard drive.” Dear Bret did a full backup this morning but it looks like elective surgery may be required here. I have scarcely been able to get on the forum at all.

July 25, 2008 Friday:

Marcia’s brothers Max and Martin and her son Harper spent the morning up to their necks in the lake securing her dock. Martin recovered the raft (diving float) and amongst them they set the cement urns back up. They also cleaned up the myriad branches which had landed on Marcia’s flowers beds upon which she has brought to such perfection.

My flowers were also hard hit. As I walked around to access the damage I noticed that a pail that I had left empty in the garden had a good 10” of water in it. That would be from two days. My vegetables are badly damaged and many are destroyed. The baby zucchinis have mysteriously vanished. I have no explanation for this. The currants are decimated. It cannot have been a bird raid in this weather, surely, so perhaps they were just knocked off by the rain. My big paddock garden with its promising stand of corn looks to have been hit by a microburst. Every bit of it is flattened. The potatoes are in ruins. They are in squishy potato-rotting mud with their tops covered in potato bugs. And then the final affront: a nice little 12’ row of beets that were just ready to thin for a big mess of beet tops is gone. The deer have discovered the garden and eaten all the tops down to 1” stubs.

Some things look healthy. My garlic is ok, the rutabagas look promising and the pole beans are climbing their strings.

But then the fun part! DS Martin and DIL Amy organized a fantastic party for me at Kawanhee Inn. It was so amazing. I lost count of the number present, perhaps 50, mostly my children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and spouses. It was an elegant meal in a classic lakeside setting. It seemed everyone had a fine time chatting and eating. There was a choice of entrees: hanger steak or halibut. I had the steak because it is something I had heard of but never eaten. The numerous children and babies were cheerful and drew favorable comment for their good behavior.

I left Jeremiah with Jasmine tonight. When I got home from dinner I visited her and felt her udder. She had milk in all four quarters but none had been neglected. I brought her grain to her in a bucket. Although this means less milk for the humans, I hope to play lazy milker and repeat this management for two more days during which we have large family gatherings planned. Tomorrow Marcia is hosting a feast for all the gathered clan. This is to honor her husband Jack who passed away last January. On Sunday we will have a graveside service of interment for his urn. Then later in the day there is to be a baby shower for her older daughter Caiti who expects in November. Caiti can only be here briefly so events must be compressed.

July 26, 2008 Saturday:

Jasmine had ¾ of a gallon for me this morning despite spending the night with Jeremiah. But first I had to call her for a long time. When her calf is with her she lacks the motivation to come in. While waiting for her to honor me with her presence I picked the lettuce for dinner. This will be about the last as it is all bolting.

Our memorial dinner for DD Marcia’s husband Jack was another wonderful occasion. Marcia had her son Harper and his wife Jen to help her, both highly effective in the kitchen, and everything was perfectly timed and beautifully presented. First we had Mitra’s famous pomegranate walnut dip and a hummus dip and one of my cheeses. The menu included ham (from Max and Mitra’s pigs), turkey, 3-bean salad, green salad, and my baked beans (black beans with ham hock and chorizo). There was bread for those preferring to compile sandwiches. She served carrot cake for dessert. Thoughtful tributes were offered by Marcia and her son Harper reminding us of Jack’s generosity. Then DS Bret read a letter from my oldest son John in Australia offering examples of Jack’s sensitive literary dimension through quotes from the Alexandria Quartet.

It didn’t rain and a breeze sufficient to blow away mosquitoes favored us all day. What a blessing! After dinner a great collection of my descendents began hopping in and out of the water. Daddies were in the water “swimming” toddlers and urging them to jump to daddy’s arms. I could not tell which was which from my chair under the pines so occupied myself with the grandmotherly task of suggesting “Shouldn’t you dry off and put on your sweatshirt?” The fellows took out the Hobie Cat for numerous short sails so everyone got a chance and others took out the kayaks; even Marcia took a spin in her kayak accompanied by two of her Chihuahuas.

Back home I found Jasmine about half full of milk but did not milk. Hopefully, Jeremiah will snack all night.

July 27, 2008 Sunday:

My day got off to an exciting start. I let my little Westie, Willie, out at 6am and he started right in barking, very annoying dog behavior when you have sleeping guests a couple of whom are toddlers. But he was not peering down the driveway telling us about the Sunday paper. He was looking back into the cavernous ruined carriage house. There standing next to the open trap door used for feeding and watering the steers stood Oakley, still as a deer. First I chained up Willie, not requiring any more of his help. Then I trotted to the barn and opened the front door. Then I came back and scratched Oakley’s ears reassuringly and pulled a bit on his collar. He followed me to the barn like a dog. I think he was pleased to be rescued. I really had no time to do anything but coax him into the big box stall where I usually put Jeremiah and give him hay and water. I had to get on with chores and helping the family to get fed because we were all going to church. Most are not in the habit but this was the day of the graveside service and Jack would be remembered in Bob Edgerton’s morning service. I had no time to look for the breach in the fence. Wesley was still in the paddock and showed no tendency to escape. I went ahead and milked Jasmine but only got ¾ gallon. I might as well have skipped it.

After church Bret found where Oakley had gotten out by mashing a part of his fence where we did not run electric wire. Bret repaired it strongly but tomorrow he will complete electrification of that section with supplies from Max and Mitra.

We all convened at beautiful Mountain View Cemetery where Marcia has bought a plot and has placed a beautiful black granite headstone. There were 25 of us. The day was glorious with a nice breeze sufficient to spare us from mosquitoes. Bob Edgerton gave us a lovely collection of prayers and readings. Jack’s assembled children placed the urn. Then we all went back to Marcia’s camp where the young folks swam and we women welcomed a new generation with a baby shower for Marcia’s daughter Caiti. We had a light supper of turkey soup made by Marcia’s son Harper. He is a great cook.

Helena and her two wee ones and I came home at 7:30 but now at 10:30 the others are still up at the lake with their campfire, toasting marshmallows and swimming in the dark.

July 29, 2008 Tuesday:

Yesterday we had one last large family dinner, barbequed chicken prepared by grandson Harper and lots of other good things including my well received upside-down cake with rhubarb, apple and gooseberries. The cousins all came back here to spend the night. This morning Bret and Harper organized the kids to pick black and red currants and gooseberries. The black currants were not gone after all, as I wrote last week. The heavy boughs had been flattened by the rain and were buried in the grass. Bret went around standing them up so they could dry out and not mold.

Now after another day of swimming and boating they have all gone to DS Max and Mitra’s for the night. DS Bret made dinner for the two of us, a nice curry. He could see that I was hot, tired and frazzled. All I had managed to accomplish toward dinner was to defrost a pound of ground meat. I had set out to make us a nice custard, even though I am short on eggs. The fourth egg that I broke into the bowl proved to be disgustingly rotten and I had to throw them all out. I am puzzled as to how a bad egg could have gotten into my basket. I am particular to only pick up eggs from active nests. Oh well, better it happened to me than to somebody else. No dessert tonight.

Jasmine was stuffed with 3 ½ gallons of milk this morning. She mooed for an hour before I got to the barn at 7:30. Despite having Jeremiah with her all day she gave another 1 ¾ gallon this evening.

Donny Houghton worked all day with the front end loader cleaning out the barn. He was not able to finish and will be back tomorrow. I think this year’s manure pile is the biggest ever.

A bit of good garden news: my corn was able to stand itself back up and looks none the worse for wear. Hurrah!

July 30, 2008 Wednesday:

It was hot today and muggy. DS Bret did a lot of wonderful mowing including around the black currant bushes so that picking is a lot easier. Then he picked another basketful. He and I walked the perimeter of the River Field so that he could see what needs doing to the fence before I can put the steers in there. I think he was somewhat discouraged. DS Martin wants to try putting up electric tape without a charge, to which they are apparently now trained, in hopes that this will hold them. I guess I am willing to give it a try. They are really out of grazing now in their paddock. I am so sick of dealing with flies in the house as a result of their use of the run-in below the carriage house that I am ready for desperate measures. The run-in is essentially under the kitchen entry.

Donny Houghton finished up the beefer pen clean-out.

My cousins Holly and Richard stopped by and picked about 7 quarts of currants. I am so glad to have them used.

I cooked two pork loin roasts today (from Max and Mitra’s pigs) in the Aga simmer oven. They cooked about 8 hours. Granddaughter Helena made up the Moroccan Spice Rub for them from the Grassfed Gourmet. It was a big hit. We ate at DD Marcia’s camp. I also contributed my last jar of Elderberry Game Sauce which was also well received.

I had a big garden thrill today. My paddock garden, site of the ruined potatoes, has a partial row of string beans I planted just to fill out a row. I walked through the garden this afternoon and was totally surprised to see a nice crop of string beans ready to pick. I had no idea they were ready. I planted them about two weeks later than the pole beans in my other garden and the pole beans have barely started blooming. The bush beans are Provider from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. At the same time I put in seeds for a summer squash that is yellow with a green end. To my amazement I was able to pick four of them each 6” or 7” long. I love when the squash starts.

July 31, 2008 Thursday:

Jasmine came in perfectly this morning and gave 3 ½ gallons. She had very little milk this evening and all four quarters were evenly empty so I did not milk. Bret and Max together with the Kubota got the hay feeder back inside the beefer pen and Bret spread fresh shavings. Jasmine and Jeremiah got all excited about the shavings. Jeremiah danced around, kicked up his heals and rubbed his face in them. Only part of the floor is covered and I dearly hope that is where Jasmine chooses to sleep.

I made three loaves of bread and a pan of scones. Helena made a double batch of oatmeal cookies. There was another thunderstorm with heavy rain so nothing could be done outdoors.

We all convened again at Marcia’s place for dinner. Harper roasted a couple of Max and Mitra’s chickens, excellent of course. Marcia made sweet and sour red cabbage, roasted potatoes and a green salad. Helena’s Logan, 13 months, and Martin and Amy’s Hannah, 2 1/2 , sat in highchairs, Helena’s Natalie, 2 ½ , ate buffet style with her cousins in by the TV (They were watching Grease). Everyone had a lovely time. The kids were inside most of the day due to rain. They had a good time looking at old photographs and home videos. Tonight after dinner, Bret’s son Roger and Harper’s son, Eli, my great-grandson, went fishing off the dock. They catch and release. It was not easy to get them to quit when it was time to go.

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August 01, 2008 Friday:

Little Jasmine gave four gallons this morning. She had too little milk to bother with this evening. I was pleased not to need to milk because I was doing the cooking tonight.

DS Bret is getting organized to set up a new paddock for the steers using electric fence. It will be a great relief to all concerned when I can move them out from under the buttery and spread lime.

We have had more rain. Most of the garden vegetables are doing well. Of course the weeds are doing even better. In my “old” vegetable garden where I have gardened for years, coriander and kale are coming up everywhere. I was worried about the garlic. The leaf tips are yellow and I feared it might have the garlic plague I read about; the bulb gets covered in mold. I pulled up a few and they were all perfect. Perhaps the rain is leaching the soil of something they need.

I picked more beans in my new garden I call the Paddock Garden (we plowed up the horse paddock). Most of the corn is now higher than my head and tasseling.

This was the last day for grandson Harper, wife Jen and son Eli and daughter Amara. They fly back to Fairbanks AK tomorrow. In three days Harper is off to the Bering Sea to join a research vessel. He is an oceanographer.

For dinner I made beef teriyaki using slivered up round steak that marinated all day in olive oil, Chinese mushroom soy sauce, red wine, garlic, coriander, grated ginger and a little balsamic glaze. I also brought green beans, broccoli and summer squash from my garden which Harper, an accomplished cook, made into a stir fry. We had an excellent salad composed of lettuce and tomatoes from Max and Mitra’s garden and brown rice. For dessert I made a cobbler with a cake top. The fruit was gooseberries, apple and blueberries. Everybody wanted seconds.

Present were DD Marcia, Harper and family, Max and Mitra and their girls, Helena and myself. DS John in Adelaide, Australia, joined us by phone. DS Martin and his family had to return to Biddeford. They left me with an exciting belated birthday gift. I am not quite sure what it is called but it is a Brother printer/FAX/copier/scanner. I think all of the above. Martin was disappointed that it arrived too late for him to install but DS Bret says he will install it tomorrow. It sounds like I will be mastering some new skills. If successful, I should soon be adding pictures. No more excuses, Joann. Watch this space.

August 02, 2008 Saturday:

Bret spent hours today making a new paddock for the steers. First he bushhogged the perimeter, then set up electric fence. He then set up a water tank. They have shelter in the trees along the river. He made a corridor for them to walk to their new area. Wesley, 18 months, walked down it nicely but Oakley, 11 months, spent hours worrying about it. Finally I went down and coaxed him along with Bret and the kids walking behind. He trusts me.

I heard a great cacophony in the sky late this afternoon and looked up to see a large raptor being harried by a flock of about 10 crows. The bird settled in a tall pine at the edge of the north field while his tormentors continued to circle the tree. Quite far in the distance I could see a considerable flock of birds flying rapidly this way. The fascinating thing was that they were obviously responding to the calls of the flock already circling the hawk. Suddenly a flock of possibly 50 additional crows arrived all together like “here comes the cavalry” to join in harassing the hawk. I continue to lose chickens. Perhaps this hawk is responsible for some of the losses. I remember even as a child being angry with a cousin who owned a chicken farm because he shot hawks, even though my Grammie pointed out that Sherb’s flock of hens was his livelihood. Of course now I better understand his perspective but would still be unable to shoot one.

Jasmine gave 3 ½ gallons this morning.

August 03, 2008 Sunday:

Jasmine gave 3 ½ gallons again this morning.

I met Marcia at church. When I got home I found DS Bret using the Kubota to clean out as much as he could reach from under the carriage house run-in. He was able to scrape out the front 4 feet of a layer about a foot deep. He spread a bag of lime in there. He said there were no maggots and few flies so the flies that have been plaguing us must have just been riding in on the steers. There are fewer already and less smell. I think when it dries out all smell will be gone. The steers seem happy in their new pasture.

Today is DS Max’s birthday. Bret made excellent pizza. Once again we gathered at Marcia’s camp. His daughter Shireen 12, made a very nice cake. We gave him useful items. I gave him a new wheelbarrow. We chatted for a long time with DS John in Australia on Skype. What fun. He too is an oceanographer and like Harper was about to go out on their research vessel out of Adelaide. While we talked he got a call postponing the trip due to stormy weather. Good thing too. On their last attempt at a trip, the sea tore off the stabilizers, breaking heavy stainless steel chain that costs $600/meter.

During the afternoon DS Max and Roshan, 9, paddled kayaks up towards East Brook and saw a cow moose with a calf. They were careful not to get too close.

We had a few hours of sun today but also more heavy rain. I did not get into the garden at all.

August 04, 2008 Monday:

Jasmine gave a full 4 gallons this morning but there is pitifully little cream. Bret cut down a Balm of Gilead tree near my veg garden. It was getting huge. They are a lovely tree but can be hard to control. Like cottonwood, they propagate by sending out long roots and will take over the neighborhood.

Granddaughter Helena spent at least an hour this morning with tech support trying to figure out why Outlook is having so much trouble sending. This has been making my life a misery. It was finally determined that the fault lay with them. That made me feel somewhat better.

I have hired a young man to work on sawing up my wood. He came after work and worked for a couple of hours and got quite a lot done. The woodpile is a 9 cord load of tree length logs. He was hopping all around on it sawing off the ends of the logs.

We got together at DD Marcia’s place for dinner as usual, just Bret, Helena, Marcia and me and the children. Marcia baked the last of my Alaska salmon from ’07 fished by my granddaughter Rosie and her husband Nate. They were not able to send any this year, sad to say. Marcia sautéed the first of the zucchini and made a salad with the first of the first of the cukes.

There were two more rain storms today. It fell torrentially when I tried to work in the garden. Marcia arrived to help weed but that proved impossible. Instead we drank tea.

August 05, 2008 Tuesday:

An entire day without Rain! But it did rain last night. My corn is well tasseled and today I see that lots of slim young ears are showing silk. So exciting! I picked a peck or more of green beans, 10 summer squash and another half a dozen cucumbers. Soon there will be more than anybody can eat. Bret made 3 loaves of bread. I made a blueberry cake.

Bret took his kids to the lake to swim and while there he helped Marcia’s friends with their sailboat. It is moored at Marcia’s camp. The friends bought this sailboat with a motor without knowing anything about either motoring or sailing and have been teaching themselves. Bret is experienced at both and went out with them for a boating seminar. I could hear his professorial tone across the water, it being very calm. Bret made spaghetti for our family dinner. It was really good. I made sure everyone also ate lots of beans and cucumber salad.

Helena worked down here for a long time organizing the buttery (summer kitchen). She also set up my new Brother fax/printer/scanner. It is not yet quite at the point of operating which is just as well because before I use it I need to get rid of my brain cramps. Jasmine gave 3 ½ gallons this morning. Here is my recipe for blueberry cake. I just re-wrote it. I hope there are no mistakes. Blueberry Lemon Cake Modified from All Maine Cooking (I make it in a bundt pan)

1\2 cup soft butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, large

½ cup sour milk or clabber

1 teaspoon soda

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups blueberries (include a few black currants if possible)

Grated rind of one lemon

Juice of 1 lemon (optional, but can substitute for part of the clabber)

Cream butter and sugar and add grated lemon peel Add eggs one at a time Combine dry ingredients (except soda) thoroughly with a whisk. Add soda to sour milk (or milk/lemon mixture) Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the liquid mixture. Bake in buttered floured bundt pan about 45 minutes at 350°. Allow pan to sit 5 minutes before inverting onto a rack. If using frozen blueberries, spread on plate to defrost before adding. Include any juice. My sister Barby reports cake soggy in center in 9” x 9” pan. Flawless in bundt pan. Hint: Get everything else organized before adding soda to sour milk. It foams up and you want to get that reaction into the batter as soon as possible.

August 06, 2008 Wednesday:

I can’t believe this rain. It came down hard all day. I think we got another 4”. Thankfully, I am on high ground but it is scary for people near the rivers. Even in good soil, many of my vegetables are looking chlorotic.

Well, I have another good dinner to report. Mitra’s parents from California joined us at DD Marcia’s for her superb gumbo. Also with us tonight is DS Mark the medical student. He is to be married to a classmate, Ann M., on August 17. DS Mark drove me home. Just before my driveway Mr. Fox crossed the road. Fortunately my chickens were shut in for the night.

August 7, 2008 Thursday:

Rainy again. DD Marcia and I went together to the dermatologist. She goes a couple of times a year but I had never been. I had her look at a spot on my back that I can barely see but can reach with my fingers. It has been there about 5 years. I have found that if I dab it daily with a few drops of raw milk directly from the cow it goes away but it always comes back. The doc gave me a shot of Novocain and scraped it off. She is sending some in for a biopsy. If as Dr. Ravi thinks, it is a non metastasizing basal cell carcinoma then I won’t hear from her and will return in a year. If the report is of a more unsettling nature I will hear from her in two weeks.

On the way home we stopped at Nezinscott Farm for sandwiches. They always have a comprehensive selection of farm products and bakery goods and locally made craft items. It is a great inspiration to visit their shop. I bought a couple of earthenware dishes for DS Bret. We chatted with Mr. Varney of Nezinscott’s. Like most farmers in Maine, he was depressed about the weather. Now the whole state is not only sodden but getting chilly. Last time we were there Gloria Varney asked my opinion about treatment for a downer cow, a first calf heifer that had just delivered a large calf and was unable to stand. In this circumstance there may be crushed nerves in the spine or pelvic damage. I suggested comfrey and use of a lift. Gloria reports that the cow was on her feet again in less than three days. Besides comfrey and arnica and a homeopathic prep meant for nerve damage that I failed to write down, they also hoisted the heifer every half hour to an hour for two days. I rather think that this consistent hoisting was the key to the heifer’s quick recovery. A downer cow puts so much weight on her hind legs that she gets numb and loses control. Then even a cow with a courageous attitude may lose coordination and become discouraged.

We also stopped at This Ol’ Farm, a long established farm stand that had a sign out for blueberries. The farmer there grows acres of corn and other veg. He was unable to rake his own lowbush berries because when wet they go to mush before they can be sold. He had brought in highbush berries from a neighbor. He was alarmingly dejected about the state of affairs not only with the weather but with the impact of gas and fertilizer costs. Maine officials have been speaking strongly in support of local food production but I think will have to find ways to help small farmers offset these crushing costs, literally put the money where their mouth is, if farmers are to stay in business.

August 08, 2008 Friday:

Bret worked on the vacuum pump to my milking machine. It was getting progressively weaker and yesterday morning actually fell off of Jasmine. I consequently left about a gallon behind for the calf. This morning it was much improved but I still need to adjust the volume. Jasmine gave over 4 gallons. I am keeping hay in her feeder in case she gets fed up with the rain but so long as there is not too much wind the cattle seem perfectly willing to keep grazing. The rain knocks down the flies. It is the people who are fed up with the rain. The river is up to the top of its bank. We got another 7” both yesterday and today.

DS Mark and his fiancée Ann joined us this afternoon. For dinner we feasted on braised brisket. There is no more flavorful cut and when it comes from home reared beef it is beef at its best. I cooked it in the Aga. DS Martin and Amy and the babies and Amy’s dad, Ken, were all there at Marcia’s for dinner. The menu included mashed potatoes with sour cream and scallions, sautéed summer squash, buttered carrots, namasu (one-day pickle), crusty French bread that Mark and Ann brought from Portland’s Standard Baking Company, and blackberry cake. The kids picked lots of blackberries today and I put them into a cake but I didn’t think it was as good as when made with blueberries.

My granddaughter Rosemary and her dad, SIL Tom McGuire, set out today on a canoe trip on the Kongakut River in ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Reserve). They flew to Kuktovic near Prudhoe Bay and then flew to the headwaters of the Kongakut. It flows north to the Beaufort Sea. Rosie has a grant to make observations in the area.

August 9, 2008 Saturday:

The rain let up this morning and DS Mark and Max took the opportunity to climb Tumbledown. This is a stiff climb involving clambering over a lot of wet granite causing me to worry about sprained ankles but there were no injuries. Tumbledown is a rewarding climb. I don’t know if I will ever attempt it again, but have been up it a great many times and it always took me about an hour and a half. Some of the mountain goats in the family make it in 45 minutes.

I picked squash and beans and walked down my corn rows. The corn is now way over my head. The squash is doing pretty well. The beans are at the edge of the part of the garden that flooded, resulting in the final ruin of my potato bug ravaged potatoes. My feet sunk in the mud while picking the beans but they appear to be surviving. I picked fast. The mosquitoes are terrible.

Everyone but me left during the afternoon. When it was time to get Jasmine in I found her and Jeremiah in the small paddock from which the steers were recently evicted. Max had gotten them out of there once already earlier in the day. We did not know how they got in so he merely shut the big gate after running them out. Now it was up to me to get them back out by myself. This meant floundering through a lot of boot sucking mud just to get to the run-in where the worst mud is and where of course they chose to go. I went in after them as far as I could but they were way back up in the slimiest corner and I could not get close enough to even prod them with a stick without going up to my knees. The only safe place to stand under there without risking sinking in and becoming a bog person was in the old feed pan. So I floundered back out and began my best wheedling calls, pretending I was in love with Jasmine, a total lie, as I wished she were on the other side of the world. I am able to report that good old Jasmine fell for it and came on out followed by Jeremiah. The cloven hoof has no difficulty in mud which is what makes oxen such a good choice on wet ground.

Bret found and repaired the aperture in the fence.

Marcia, Bret and I and his kids had a nice supper of potato soup up at camp. There were fireworks down on the public beach. We conjectured that people were celebrating a day without rain. We saw the moon for the first time in over a month.

Jasmine gave 4 ½ gallons this morning.

August 10, 2008 Sunday:

We raced around doing morning chores. I skipped church partly, I admit, because there was to be no music, and mostly because we were all invited to Max and Mitra’s for an Iranian feast. The occasion was Roshan’s 10th birthday. I lost count of the family members (it was all family) but with all the chatting and Max’s CD’s playing and lots of happy children it sounded like a major party. Mitra has provided a list of menu items:

The appetizers were feta, fresh basil and mint, and lavash bread. The two main dishes were Loobia Polo – Rice with green beans (rice, tomatoes, chicken and green beans with dried limes, cinnamon, cardamom and rose water.) and Koreshteh Kadu – Squash stew made with chicken and summer squash over basmati rice.

Mitra’s rice turned out classically perfect, a giant mound with a tan crust. Everything was delicious and everything got eaten. DS Bret’s kids, Maia and Roger, stayed the night for a last opportunity for cousin bonding.

Granddaughter Helena and little Natalie and Logan left for their home in Carlisle, PA. She will take two days for the 10 hour drive. Everyone enjoyed her visit.

It was mostly clear today until about 5pm when thunderheads arose and we had rain and an electrical storm lasting about 2 hours.

Jasmine gave 4 gallons this morning. She was waiting to come in this evening like a good girl. I always give her some grain and then turn her back out, but keep Jeremiah in for the night.

August 12, 2008 Tuesday:

I had to say goodbye to Bret and the kids today, Maia and Roger. We had a wonderful three week visit. The kids played every day with their cousins and as always, Bret did a myriad of projects besides doing a lot of the cooking and bread baking. Marcia took them to Portland to catch the bus for Boston and their flight to Fairbanks, AK.

The mosquitoes are worse than I have ever known them. I put on a long sleeved shirt and tucked my pants into my socks, sprayed bug dope on my exposed skin and wore a hat in order to pick beans and squash. They still got me. They bit right through my pants when I leaned over. I picked as fast as I could and got a big basket of beans and squash. I am now at the point of giving away squash to anybody who shows the least indecision.

The rain today held off until I got out of the garden but then continued until 9PM. Jeremiah did not come in with Jasmine, in fact he ran the opposite direction down to the river, and then ran back and forth foolishly. He paid no attention to my calls. By the time I got him in I was soaked through. Calves can be very dim witted.

After dropping off Bret and the kids, Marcia continued on to New Hampshire to see her horse, Peter and his trainer. However, her camp is not empty. Max and Mitra’s brother David and DS Mark and Shireen and Roshan are all there house-sitting the dogs and cats. Mitra and her mom and dad bought Chinese food and invited me and we all convened at camp for an unexpected treat. The sky cleared and the moon came out. I do so hope we now get some dry weather.

August 13, 2008 Wednesday:

We had sunny weather today, no rain at all. I had it on my important to-do list to start on the cakes I am baking for Mark and Ann’s wedding on Sunday. Instead I did laundry, defrosted and cleaned one refrigerator and made 3 lbs of lard with pork fat that was stored in its freezer. I decided I was going to hate myself next winter if I did not get into the garden for at least a little while. “A little while” turned into an hour. My lower garden, the original one, has been impossible to tend due to rain. It is hard to even find some of the vegetables thanks to an overgrowth not just of weeds but of self seeded kale, dill and coriander. The zucchini plants have nearly succumbed to mildew but one has bravely started new growth and managed a single 7” zuke. The pole beans are blooming and may bear. The rutabagas and parsnips look promising. The tomatoes have been unable to ripen. I picked my one ripe tomato, brought it up to the kitchen and ate it. In truth it was a bit watery and did not taste noticeably better than store bought but ‘twas mine own.

Jasmine and Jeremiah both behaved in perfectly orderly fashion today and Jas gave 3 ¾ gallons of milk. She marched right in when I called her followed by Jeremiah.

Several of my children and grandchildren are in boats. Grandson Harper is about to return from a week on an oceanic research vessel on the Beaufort Sea, Grandson Rafe and his GF SallyB are off canoeing on a branch of the same river where his sister Rosemary and her dad are also canoeing, and my son John who works for SARDI (South Australia Research and Development Institute) has left for Papua New Guinea where he will do a feasibility study relating to undersea mining.

Grandson Gabe is studying in Kazakhstan and has sent some pictures of interest to the dairy minded. The pictures were not accompanied by much text but are largely self explanatory: Milking a mare, milking a cow that is marked like a Guernsey and open air cheesemaking. They are mostly from near the city of Taraz, on the border with Kyrgyzstan. Gabe is an anthropologist.

August 14, 2008 Thursday:

Two whole days in a row without rain! I am alone in the house now. I fixed myself a fry-up for supper with some ham scraps and lots of different garden veg and sat out on the deck watching the sunset as I ate.

Mitra, Marcia, Amy and I are making cakes for DS Mark’s wedding on Sunday 17 August. I plan to make four. Today I made two blueberry lemon bundt cakes. Next week I hope to have wedding pictures to show.

I have not mentioned my chicks lately. There are two hens each with five chicks. They are in separate rooms. I let one group out today to explore. They ran back into their home at dusk. I have not fed them very imaginatively, just layer mix augmented with clabber plus fresh water. They seem to be doing well.

My dermatologist’s office called to say that the lesion she removed from my back on August 7 was a basal cell carcinoma, a non threatening form. The gal sounded so happy. I guess it is hard for her when she has to give bad news.

Jasmine again behaved perfectly. She gave over 4 gallons. I wonder how much Jeremiah is taking. She usually has a fairly rounded udder in the evening even though they have been together all day. By morning it is soccer ball tight.

August 15, 2008 Friday:

Three days in a row without rain! My fly situation is improved. I still have to have the fly swatter handy any time I am in the kitchen but they are no longer in plague numbers. I guess it still smells pretty bad at times in the entry way from when the steers were down below in the run-in. I seem to have stopped noticing it but Marcia and Mark both remarked on it today. Dear Mark drove all the way from Portland to mow my lawn. Marcia was here briefly and picked a couple of quarts of black currants. She is making some cordial. We also started a wild cherry (choke cherry) cordial with cherries she picked. It will be good next winter if DD Sally has a cough. All I do is fill a Mason jar with cherries, pour on about a cup of sugar and top it up with vodka. Then wait a few months.

The mosquitoes are worse than ever, the worst anybody can remember. It really takes the joy out of going into the garden. This afternoon I put on long pants and rubber boots and a head net and sprayed myself heavily but I still felt desperate by the time I had picked about half a peck of string beans and a shopping bag of squash. I was shocked to find three giant zucchini I had over looked. These were on plants in the paddock garden where squash is thriving. The plants in the older garden are too mildewed to produce. I had thought maybe I would not be able to make relish this year but I can use these big ones. I left them in the grass next to the garden and will hope to remember them tomorrow.

My friend Ruth Snell popped in this morning with 7 more quarts of blueberries. Hers are the best. We can count on plenty of pies now.

I made two Black Forest chocolate bundt cakes today and now have four cakes ready for Mark and Ann’s wedding. I am not frosting them as it makes them to messy to transport. I plan to take along confectioner’s sugar and a strainer to the wedding and give them an ornamental dusting on site.

DD Sally sent this bear report from Haines AK:

I came home (from a zoning meeting) to watch yet more bears, we have zillions!!! Do you know how much people are willing to pay to watch them, and I just sit on my porch? Last night I watched a really charming exchange, two half-grown bears ran into each other- they look about Jasmine’s size- and sort of circled around half worried (not quite sure if it really was who they thought it was) and half pleased, and then played and hung out together. I think it must have been separated twins- you know, after awhile they wander apart.

Jasmine was waiting for me morning and evening. She gave 4 ¾ gallons this morning. She loves when I turn the fan on.

August 17, 2008 Sunday:

Today was Mark’s big day, his wedding day. I got the morning chores done expeditiously. Jasmine gave 4 gallons. Marcia picked me up at 11 am which gave us quite a bit of extra time for the drive to Portland. We drove down in her Tahoe which uses a scary amount of gas but is a comfortable ride, I must admit. The weather was very fine. We were so early that we popped down to Standard Baking Company for a couple of loaves of their artisanal bread. Portland is a delightful city with old cobblestone streets and innumerable little shops. We found the Old Mariner’s Church and a parking garage with no trouble and were just in time to encounter DIL Amy Grohman arriving with boxes of bars she had baked and the coolers that Mitra had delivered the previous day with cheese cakes, my four cakes, and Marcia’s carrot cake cupcakes.

There were about 85 guests including quite a lot of children and teenagers, all of whom were delightful. It was a great treat to meet so many old friends and relatives that I had not seen for a long time and all the new people on Ann’s side including her parents, Ed and Kathy Magner and her sister and brother. Another brother is career military and could not be with us. They are a handsome family. Ed is an accomplished bagpipe player and favored us with several tunes, all dressed in full regalia, not typically Scotch so perhaps Irish. I must inquire.

Ann wore a street length white satin sheath dress with an Empire style cummerbund and pearls and carried a bouquet of white roses. Mark’s daughter Hailey read verses from Philippians, the part beginning, “Rejoice in the Lord always…” They exchanged rings and each read moving vows they had written. Long time friend Tom Dyhrberg, JP, was the officient.

There was a fine spread of hors d’ouevres. Following grace offered by Ann’s cousin Jim (Rev. James Morris), we were served a nice dinner followed by a self-serve dessert table with all the cakes, pastries and cheesecakes baked by Mitra, Marcia, Amy and me. Mitra’s New York style cheesecake with blueberry topping was a particular hit.

I got home about 9pm. As planned, I left Jeremiah out with Jasmine. I would have been hard put to do otherwise as they were out in the pasture somewhere under the full moon. There was a message on my machine saying that Bagel had gotten into a fight with another dog over at the store and bitten it. This was a downer! He has never been in a fight or bitten anything before so this is puzzling. It was too late to call back.

August 18, 2008 Monday:

Jasmine had Jeremiah with her all night. This morning she gave 3 quarts which I appreciated because I had a milk customer who wanted a half gallon this morning. I did not get to bed until 11 pm last night and this morning I was plenty stiff due to dancing and riding in the car. It took me half the morning to feel functional.

I called my neighbor who had reported Bagel’s transgression. She knows Bagel well and found the report equally puzzling. Conjecture centered on his sore ears possibly making him irritable. I thought his ears were pretty well recovered. He has scabs from fly strike. I kept both him and Willy chained all day.

Marcia came over and picked beans and weeded in the old garden. She worked a couple of hours and generated an enormous pile of weeds which I heaped onto the compost pile. I picked about a pint of the ever-bearing strawberries. They are gorgeous and well flavored. My neighbor, Ruth also stopped by with 6 freshly picked quarts of blueberries.

Max and the girls were here. He came to pick up 10 gallons of clabber and to repair the electric fence and a bad section of barnyard fence. First he spent a long time trying to figure out where the electric fence was shorted, Come to find out that someone had disconnected it at an intermediate point. Sigh. Meanwhile the girls and I picked about a gallon of blackberries in scarcely 15 minutes. They are super ripe and hanging like shining black shawls but the mosquitoes were so bad we had to flee. I sent a couple of quarts to Mitra. Their firewood got delivered right on top of their blackberry patch, destroying their crop for this year.

The weather today was hot and sunny about which I am not complaining, but I had hoped to accept Marcia’s invitation to come out to the lake and cool off. Then I got a phone call from a man who had my name as a person looking for cow hoof trimming. He wanted to come right away. I could not refuse an opportunity like this to restore poor Jasmine’s balance so told him to come on over. Happily, Jas and Jer were in the beefer pen already and I was able to run Jas right in to her stanchion. This was about 5 pm. The trimmer, Karl Greenman, arrived about 5:30. He had the hydraulic cattle crush and lift, pulled by his truck. I got a halter on Jas and Karl and I were able to walk her right out, nervous though she was.

I was amazed how little trouble we had getting her into the crush. It sits on the grass so there is no strange surface to step on and it is open in front. It reminded me of the gates on a race track. As soon as she walked in he slammed the gate in front of her and I slammed the one behind her. He ran two wide straps under her belly and ran the hydraulic lift until she was on her side with her feet sticking out at eye level. Four cuffs went on her feet. First he lopped off the overgrowth at the front of her hooves, and then worked on her with a hoof knife and a grindstone. The whole operation took about twenty minutes and cost $90. I brought him into the kitchen where he graciously admired the Aga. He cooks as a volunteer for big public suppers for charitable organizations. His next dinner will be for Make a Wish foundation. He also admired my painting – he also paints. Then he saw KFC on the table and bought a copy. I gave him one of my boxes of blueberries. So we were both happy as I am sure Jasmine will be soon. I rather imagine her feet will feel tender for a day at least.

Of my two hens with five chicks each, one has lost her chicks. I did not see her last night when I closed things up late and did not see them all day. The hen came in tonight alone.

It was so hot in the house that since it was too late to go to the lake I made myself a vodka tonic.

August 19, 2008 Tuesday:

Early this morning I saw all five of the missing chicks out on the manure pile without their mother. Foolish bird evidently flew back into the grain room without them and just abandoned them outdoors. I threw grain out the window to them. They scattered, but perhaps they came back and found it. They acted pretty worried. I caught the mom and chucked her out into the vicinity of her chicks but they never joined up. She ate the grain without making the clucking noises that would have summoned her chicks.

Jasmine gave 4 gallons this morning. She is walking confidently, twinkling right along.

DD Sally called from Alaska. She said she was off by herself picking blueberries in a tall thicket in perfect peace, everything totally quiet. It was so still that she did not like to make a sound so omitted to say “Hi, Bear”, every minute or two as one ought to. She then heard the minutest little sound so said, “Hi, Bear”. There instantly followed a huge bursting crash from the other side of the bushes. They both departed in opposite directions. She said the funny thing was that she is sure they both had the same expression on their faces: “What the **** was that? I thought I was alone here!” She said the incident reminded her of the Robert McCloskey book, Blueberries for Sal, but featuring a rather larger bear.

My vet was here today. DD Marcia arranged for some meds for her dogs. I fixed him lunch as I always do if he is not in a rush. For the veg course I made a successful medley with fresh garlic, green beans, zucchini squash and tiny tomatoes, all from the garden. The tomatoes are growing in a pot on the deck and are my only tomatoes that are bearing with any enthusiasm.

August 20, 2008 Wednesday:

Jasmine gave only 3 ½ gallons this morning and there were clots on the filter. Her right rear quarter was just a bit salty and not as sweet tasting. There is no hardness or heat. This evening when I was ready to bring her in Jeremiah was nursing so I waited for him to get done, this being about the best way to treat mastitis. In her stanchion I was able to milk out just enough to taste. Had I not been looking for trouble I could not have tasted anything wrong but the flavor was still a bit flat. I used no treatment. We’ll see what morning brings.

We got together today for an afternoon dinner at DD Marcia’s with DS Max’s family, Mitra’s parents, and my cousins, Holly and Richard. I provided all of the vegetables and cottage cheese and butter. Marcia did the cooking. It really was a lovely occasion. Marcia is a great cook. She cooked some kind of white fish, haddock I think. She poured polenta on each plate, then set the fish on this with a topping of diced mango and red onion etc. On the side she had sautéed yellow crookneck squash with cheese and cucumbers in a light vinegar dressing. The squash was enhanced by plenty of fresh garlic from my new crop. I am pleased with the flavor and size of my garlic this year. Because of the rain the bulbs stopped growing before they got very large but the individual cloves are big and crisp. We also had hot chunks of the bread Marcia bought last Sunday (she must have had it frozen) with the fresh butter. My cottage cheese was well received. Lots of times I bring it and nobody eats any. For dessert we had one of the leftover cheesecakes (excellent!) with raspberry sauce. Shireen helped a lot with dinner prep.

August 21, 2008 Thursday:

Jasmine’s milk from all four quarters tasted fine this morning, only a slight flatness to the flavor of the right rear. Nonetheless she was down a gallon (to 3 gallons) and it strained poorly and there were some clots so I did not put it into the fridge from which I sell. Her udder feels fine, no heat or hard spots. I strongly suspect this mastitis is something to do with stress from being hoisted up on her side for her pedicure.

I woke up feeling tired and a little dizzy. Marcia and I went on errands and she drove. I kept going all day same as usual. At 4 o’clock Dr. Cooper stopped by with the meds Marcia had ordered for her dogs. I gave him a cup of tea. By this time I was fully revived and made myself a soup that I have been contemplating. I made up the recipe. Very simple and I have to say, delicious. It uses over ripe cucumbers, of which I have many. I used ones that had turned yellow.

Cucumber Soup:

Peel and cut in half lengthwise a few large over ripe cukes and scoop out the seeds. Dice the solid part.

Peel and dice an entire bulb of garlic. I had about a tablespoon or more.

Sautee (without browning) the cucumber and garlic in some kind of fat (I used duck fat but chicken fat would be ideal)

Add 1 teaspoon of crushed chili pepper seeds.

When the cucumber is translucent, pour on chicken stock. I used 3 cups on my 3 chopped cukes. Simmer this for a few minutes.

This made two servings and tasted a lot like Chinese Hot and Sour Soup.

While I was making this soup, DS John called from Adelaide. He speedily looked up a cucumber soup on the web. It was from Singapore. It contained pork, dried scallops and cuttlefish and several vegetables and cooked for a long time. It was said to be very Yin (cooling).

The weather today was very fine.

August 22, 2008 Friday:

Jasmine appears to be over her mastitis. The milk strained perfectly but she only gave 3 gallons + 1 quart. It was quite hot today and she spent a lot of time inside. I put down some hay. I also gave her some new dairy mineral that I bought from White Water Farm where I get my feed. Previously I have ordered it from Countryside in VA. Max said that when he offered some to Helen she went for it but so far Jasmine is not interested. I can’t tell if she does not like the flavor or if she has no appetite for it at the moment.

Jasmine and Jeremiah managed to break the string to the gate that was keeping them out of the paddock behind the house and they both went under the carriage house where they love to go. It is cool, dark and not buggy. Sorry, guys. I can’t allow it. Max was here and he crawled under and roused them out. Jasmine moved with great reluctance.

Max did a lot of weed whacking for me today and Marcia mowed the lawn. I picked some of my wild apples and made sauce.

DS Martin hauled the final elements to our hay making project here to the farm, an International side delivery rake which he got for $100. It is missing a few teeth. And wunderbar, he bought a hay elevator. I sold mine about 20 years ago and have always regretted it. This one is electric and fairly new. He plans to make hay cooperatively with two friends in Weld.

August 23, 2008 Saturday:

Fine weather today and Jasmine’s health continues fine. No evidence of mastitis. I keep Jeremiah in at night in a stall adjacent to the beefer pen, their run-in. It has a small window through which they can touch noses. She goes out to graze at night but is always waiting near his stall in the morning. Until today. For the first time she was off somewhere. I could not see her and I had to call her. Several times in the evening when they are out grazing together I have had to call a long time or even go fetch her. She wears a bell but it has a defective clapper and seldom rings. Today I put a shiny brass bell on her that DD Marcia brought me from Switzerland. It has an extremely bright tone with overtones. I hope it does not annoy her or damage her hearing. I put a patch of duct tape on it to dampen it slightly.

DD Marcia made chili today and elegant banana splits. Max and Mitra and the girls and DS Martin gathered for a midday meal on the porch of her camp on Lake Webb. My only contribution was a sliced cucumber salad and whipping cream and some of my everbearing strawberries for the banana splits. (I couldn’t finish mine.). Martin came up without his family to bring a side delivery hay rake and his wood splitter.

Martin arrived from his camp “by sea” bringing a paddle boat he had bought somewhere, the sort of thing two people sit in and power with foot pedals. I went out in it with him before lunch. It was a lot of fun. After lunch he took me for a sail in the Hobie Cat. A fresh breeze was up and we bounded right along at an estimated 6 knots. We went right across the lake and back.

August 24, 2008 Sunday:

Jasmine gave 1 ½ gallons this morning. It strained fine but there were clots on the filter. I cut comfrey for her supper, all I could stuff into a milk crate, and she ate every bit. Maybe that will help her.

I was an hour late milking. I had a sore throat all night and then overslept. Now I have a streaming cold. I defrosted some colostrum to try its health giving properties.

A couple of weeks ago I was really complaining about flies and mosquitoes. The flies are not as bad in the kitchen as they were but I still have to keep the fly swatter handy. This is a terrible year for mosquitoes. They are as fierce now as in June. It takes courage and preparation to go into the garden. This morning I found three more enormous zucchinis and I hope that is all there are. They have caused the vines to totally stall out on new small ones.

My corn patch looks good from a distance. Areas of it are at least 9’ high but the ears are not swelling. We had torrential pounding rain during the time they were tassseling and showing first silk. According to Ken, DIL Amy’s dad who is an expert on corn, the tassels drop pollen for only three days. It is airborne. I guess I will have a lot of corn stalks for my cow.

DD Marcia came over and worked hard to rationalize my disorderly buttery. She put a lot of stuff in the cellar and temporary tool house, a big plastic tent. The demolition of my carriage house is to start very soon.

There was a marauding critter in the grain room last night. The room has a half door over which a raccoon could easily climb and I assume that is what it was. Chicken scratch was thrown around and there is a pile of scat on top of the bag.

August 25, 2008 Monday:

Jasmine gave under 3 gallons today. The milk from the right rear quarter tasted a bit salty but there was no trouble straining. I gave her comfrey again tonight and milked a couple of cups from that quarter. There was nothing wrong with it that I could detect.

I saw Jeremiah trying hard to get Jasmine to play. He kept running at her and bumping heads. She wasn’t having any of it. He did not give up for a long time. He intermittently ran in circles. It was cooler today. Perhaps that set him off.

Marcia worked on the buttery (the summer kitchen where we need to be able to put everything from the carriage house including a refrigerator) for a couple of hours and removed all kinds of clutter. Some is junk, the rest has gone to the cellar. What a lot of new space!

DS Martin arrived this morning to spend the day readying his haying equipment. It is now waiting on the field for tomorrow. He will start as soon as the dew is off. He will be haying Stowell’s fields, the lovely farm at the head of the lake.

We had dinner here with Marcia. Martin prepared steaks for us using a method from Cook’s Illustrated. The steak must be pre warmed. I had defrosted top sirloin, not ordinarily a particularly tender cut, but they were very good. We had a tomato and cuke salad from my garden, baked potatoes, steak, and I made Blitz Bread, a KA recipe that is done in the mixer w /o kneading. It is halfway between foccacia and a thick pizza dough. It was good.

I didn’t get much done today. I am not much good at multitasking at the best of times and when my primary task is holding a paper towel over my streaming nose it makes me useless. Everybody kept telling me to go lie down.

August 26, 2008 Tuesday:

The weather continues fine.

Jasmine gave 4 gallons this morning and the milk strained perfectly. I did see some flecks on the filter but they cannot mean a whole lot. I gave her another bushel of comfrey for supper. She eats every scrap so perhaps it is beneficial. I milked a couple of cups out of the LR quarter again tonight. It tasted fine.

The (presumed) raccoon was in the feed room again last night. It left another pile of scat on the same feedbag but did not rip open or spill anything. There was still some corn on the floor from its last visit. It finished that off.

My cold is better. I don’t know if the colostrum helped or if it is a mild virus. My favorite cold preventive is kissing my cow so that she makes antibodies for me but I have been irregular about this. It used to be easy with Helen because her stanchion was by the door and she would always bend her head around and sniff me. Jasmine’s stanchion is almost inaccessible. I have to make an effort to kiss her. My cold has merged into sinusitis now.

I did not get a lot done today. I made one pound of butter using some rather questionable cream that had gone sour in the fridge. I canned two pints and a quart of a blueberry blackberry mixture. I picked a basin of green beans and a lot of cucumbers. Marcia came down and also picked. Then we all went to her place for supper. She made very good chicken and dumplings. Little Hannah loved them. We also had purchased corn, braised kale and a bean salad.

August 28, 2008 Thursday:

Yesterday and today were all about making hay. Martin and his friend have been operating their recently acquired equipment. We have been blessed with perfect haying weather. Today Martin and Max with the help of cousins Holly and Richard, who showed up as spirits were flagging, put over 100 bales of hay in the barn. It may not seem like a lot to some but to me it seems a triumph. It is a giant step towards hay independence. There is another trailer load of prime hay waiting on the field to bring down tomorrow.

Last night 12 of us, including Mitra’s folks and even DS Mark and Ann, met for dinner at Marcia’s. DIL Amy’s dad made chili rellenos with poblano peppers he grew. Tonight we were fewer in number. We had beef teriyaki made with round steak from my beef. Mighty good it was, and one of the easiest meat dishes there is.

We did not have a lot of time for meal preparation because Marcia accompanied me to Lewiston for a long eye appointment. For the last 10 days I have been well aware that the sight in my left eye was in bad trouble. The doctor confirmed that the macular degeneration in that eye has converted from dry to wet. My central vision is gone. Next week I will begin a series of shots that are said to be helpful in preventing further degeneration, if not reversal of symptoms. My driving vision is not impaired but now I can read nothing with my left eye.

Tonight while tidying the kitchen I noticed that Willie, my West Highland terrier, kept sniffing the red bucket I take to the barn with my milking supplies. I discovered there was an extremely small mouse in it. I have been having a persistent mouse problem but this one looked so pathetic that I took it outside and tipped it out of the bucket. I hope it decides it prefers life outdoors.

August 29, 2008 Friday:

Jasmine’s manger was full of new hay from broken bales. I guess she likes it; she was right there munching this morning and again tonight. She gave 3 ½ gallons this morning. The filter was totally clear.

I taped Jeremiah tonight at 350 lbs.

I was not home much today because of a dental appointment. As usual the hygienist deplored my teeth, the few remaining in my head. She did something called gross debridement that involved a lot of scraping and mumbling. My teeth have never been much good. Oh well, I have a few left, ha ha. In fact tonight I ate a superb ear of corn from my own patch. It looks like there will be a crop after all.

After the dentist Marcia and I proceeded to Farmington and met Mitra and her mom, Marie, for lunch. We were a jolly group. Marie and Alex must soon return to California and will not be back before spring. Alex is in a lot of pain with his back.

When I got home I had the thrill of finding another 100 bales of hay in the barn, thanks to my boys. It is especially good “Sunday dinner” hay for Jasmine this winter.

Late this afternoon I picked cucumbers and strawberries. My little patch of everbearing strawberries, no bigger than an army cot, just yielded another quart.

Marcia’s son Harper and DD Sally’s son Rafe, both live in Alaska and this week they went caribou hunting. Rafe has hunted all his life but Harper rarely if ever. This year, perhaps prompted by high meat prices or poor quality in the store, he asked Rafe to go with him to try for caribou. Harper had a wonderful time, I’m sure they both did. Rafe got the shot and they came home with a nice one. They were hunting on McComb Plateau.

Rafe, the sled for hauling the caribou, and Harper

Yesterday on the way to my eye appointment we stopped at Nezinscott Farm in Turner, Gloria Varney’s marvelous farm store. Out back she had a fine patch of corn closely resembling my own. Everyone has been asking me how I proposed to harvest mine. I think they have rather feared that I would be expecting them to carry large bundles to the barn on their backs like Peruvian Indians. There was Gloria behind the counter canning tomatoes between customers and it occurred to my to ask her what she planned to do. The answer was so blindingly obvious that I am still laughing. She just strings electric wire around the patch and puts her cows in. This will be the perfect November grazing program. The paddock where my corn is growing already has a fine fence and a gate to the pasture. An added bonus is that I will not have to worry about the cows during hunting season. They will be right next to the barn eating corn.

I should add that Gloria’s corn is her patch grown for cornmeal so is a field variety. She harvests her supply to be ground before letting in the cows. “Leave them there until they eat it all” was her advice.

August 30, 2008 Saturday:

Jasmine’s milk continues clear. She gave 3 ½ gallons this morning. It varies partly due to how full she is in the evening when I separate her and Jeremiah. I gave her a big bundle of comfrey for breakfast. I set it next to her grain and I noticed she ate it first.

It showered last night but no hay was on the field. All day was sunny. We picked over a dozen ears of corn. That was fun. Also brought in a lot of cucumbers and squash. I should have picked beans but ran out of time. I did pick our very small crop of elderberries. I put them in a jar with brandy. There was only one quart.

I made butter, only one pound. I also started a large crock of dill pickles and prepared all the veggies for zucchini relish. I shredded 6 quarts of zucchini plus 13 onions and 3 red bell peppers. Fortunately I have a Kitchenaid attachment but it is still a big job. The mixture has to stand overnight with salt.

Marcia was here for hours weeding my garden. She found more cucumbers and squash that I missed.

I forgot to explain last week about Ed Magner’s unusual kilt. It was not plaid but a solid golden tan wool flannel. This is called a saffron kilt. Traditionally they are dyed with the saffron crocus. The design antedates the plaid quilt. Ed is Irish and does not have a plaid.

August 31, 2008 Sunday:

It is 9:30 pm and I just finished bottling 12 pints of zucchini relish. I hope it lasts for I doubt I will get around to making more unless I get a volunteer. I still have zucchini in case somebody wants to do some shredding.

The weather today was fine and fair with a hint of fall in the air. I picked a basket of little red crab apples from the tree I planted two years ago. I think they will make good jelly. It is a lovely little tree. DD Marcia came over and prepared a spot for transplanting Brussel sprouts. We could never get around to thinning or transplanting them, mostly because of the July rain. I think if we keep them watered they may still bear. Typically they do most of their growing in the fall. She pulled out some of my dud tomato plants to make room for them.

The five chicks whose mother abandoned them are still staying together and staying alive. The ones the same age that have their mother are a little bigger. The five orphans have moved out of their crack in the outside wall of the barn and moved into the layer room tonight. Good for them. They will be much safer.

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September 01, 2008 Monday, Labor Day:

Jasmine gave 4 gallons this morning. Max picked corn for our family cook-out at Marcia’s camp. I provided the ground beef and sausages. Mitra made a potato salad that included a lot of my green beans. The meal also included watermelon and an apple pie made by Max. The apples were from a tree in the parking lot of a convenience store in Wilton where he got permission yesterday to pick up fallen apples. The flavor of the apples was excellent.

I took along a pint of my new relish and it was nearly all eaten.

While we ate we watched a cormorant basking on the diving float. Later a group of six or seven loons gathered not very far out. They seemed to be holding a meeting. After about 20 minutes they swam away in a group all making their typical loon call together. It was amazingly loud, the very definition of cacophony.

September 02, 2008 Tuesday:

What a shock when I looked at my watch this morning. A quarter to eight! I never sleep that late. And this was that day I was to go to my dear cousins Holly and Richard for lunch but first had to mail five books. I got out to the barn as fast as I could. Then a new shock. The milking machine would not work. I have the modern type o f pulsator on my Surge that one does not disassemble and clean. Nothing is supposed to go wrong. The vacuum pump was behaving, just no pulsation was happening. This was not the day to spend an hour hand milking. I turned Jasmine out with Jeremiah hoping he would not drown himself with her 4 gallons of milk and went in the house and called Parts Department where I bought the pulsator to see if she could give me a clue. She did not have any idea, so obviously it was up to me to solve the problem. Back in the kitchen where there is a better light I discovered that the lip on one of the teat cups was displaced thus preventing proper vacuum. Sigh. I took the machine back to the barn and brought Jasmine back in, by now of course mostly drained by Jeremiah, and put the machine back on her. She was remarkably gracious about all this. I only got 3 quarts.

I brought Jasmine back in to milk again this evening which I am not in the habit of doing, but I doubted that greedy though he is, Jeremiah could have drunk it all. He had left only 3 quarts again. His back end was a bit smeared, the first time I have ever seen him soiled so I hope he did not make himself ill.

My lunch with Holly and Richard was a lovely occasion as always. They made clam chowder and Richard made his signature blueberry buckle. Their camp on Wilson Pond was built long before there were set-back regulations. The screen porch where we ate looks right down on the water.

When I got home, DD Marcia was hard at work in my garden weeding and watering. I picked more strawberries and made a pint of jam.

September 03, 2008 Wednesday:

Jeremiah was not the least ill. He looks sleeker than ever. Before I went to bed I made butter and cottage cheese.

September 04, 2008 Thursday:

Today was the day for the shot into my left eyeball with a drug which it is hoped will dry up the damaged capillaries that are leaking. Left untreated they will eventually cause complete blindness, not just the central vision smudge that I now have. That is bad enough as it makes reading impossible with that eye, besides raising the specter of a similar occurrence in my right eye. I see why Dr. Hamzavi was slightly diffident about the necessity to return every month for a shot. It is a distinctly disagreeable experience, though of course a small price to pay if it restores vision. DD Marcia drove me. In case anybody else has to do this, I will say it would have been very difficult to drive myself home straight from the treatment because my left eye was dilated and painful from being sluiced with Betadyne. Were one to wait for an hour it would be possible to drive.

Meanwhile back at the ranch.…… The moment we reached the gate we knew something was up. The gate was closed and chained; we had left it open. There was Wesley, the steer (Jasmine’s 19 month old son), standing in the front yard. He looked worried and abashed, like if he could he would have been sucking his thumb. We spied the other steer, Oakley, Helen’s 12 month old son, out in the pasture with Jasmine and Jeremiah. We easily got Wesley to follow us right through the gate into the pasture. But the first thing one must do in a case like this, if there is daylight, is to figure out how the buggers escaped. The electric fence was not down. I changed my clothes and began to walk the line.

I found that they have been going down to the river from a low place on the bank which was not a problem when Bret put up the fence because the river was then too high to make it conceivable that they would do anything but come back up the way they went down. The river is now quite low. I tracked them back to the bridge where they climbed up along the abutment, then toddled along by the guard rail until they arrived at my open front gate. It appears that Oakley came on in but Wesley’s tracks went all the way up the road to the next property. Some kind soul must have either driven him back or found him loose in the yard and closed the gate. By this time I had walked about half a mile.

So how did Oakley get back into the pasture? I had inspected the fence as far as any tracks went and it was not breeched. The mystery was solved when I brought Jasmine in for her evening meal. Oakley had forced the steel hook on the door into the Beefer Pen, their run-in. The hook was bent right out straight. If instead of Jasmine’s company he had chosen to attack the grain room door no doubt he could have broken it. It was properly shut and he did not try it.

While looking for something with which to jerry-rig a Beefer Pen closure, I plugged in the trouble light and discovered a nest with 14 eggs. Aha! I left six in the nest. I am sure that it is that dumb hen that abandoned her five chicks. They are surviving OK. They have now learned to come in with the layers at night. However for last two nights I have only been able to count four.

September 05, 2008 Friday:

Off I went this morning to my local ophthalmologist to have my eye inspected. Dr. Hamzavi wanted a follow-up to ensure no infection is occurring. I am using antibiotic drops. My eye is fine, except that most of the day it continued to feel as though I had run into a doorknob. It is better this evening.

The drug the doc injected into my eye is one that was originally used to slow prostate cancer. About three years ago a doctor in Florida developed a theory that it might stop the capillary leaking that causes blindness in so-called wet macular degeneration. This drug is called Avastin, I believe. Apparently it frequently is effective and in case the bleeding is not too bad, one’s body may sweep up the bloody debris, in which case vision improves.

Marcia came over today as usual and gardened like crazy. I joined her for awhile to harvest more cucumbers and strawberries. Such fun. DS Max also came and extended the fence for the steers. After one happy day of socializing they are back in their field. I will sleep better at night knowing they are confined. I don’t trust the fence along the North Field.

We will be getting together tomorrow at Marcia’s camp. I have started beans and plan also to serve beef ribs in some still undecided format.

Martin tells me that the demolition crew will be here next Wednesday to get rid of the remains of my poor old carriage house, hideously collapsed last winter under 3 feet of snow.

September 06, 2008 Saturday:

Every symptom of mastitis is now gone from Jasmine’s milk and she was back up over 4 gallons today. The only treatment I used was piles of comfrey. At first I gave her comfrey three days in a row, then missed a couple of times and there were flecks again on the filter. Now 3 days in a row with a great bundle of comfrey for supper and more in the morning and she appears totally cured. I will continue with the comfrey a bit longer. She loves it, it does not flavor the milk and I have a huge patch. DD Marcia is wondering what we could do with it to make some money.

Max and Mitra and the two girls and I joined Marcia at camp tonight for dinner. I made baked black turtle beans that were a hit and also beef ribs. These were atypical beef ribs. When grandson Rafe butchered last winter (it was the first steer he had done) he cut out some ribs and wrapped them individually as 14” long pieces with a lot of meat. I took one while still frozen and cut it into 2” pieces on the bandsaw. I put a rub on them last night while still frozen and this morning at 7am I added a few things such as red wine and a lot of garlic and rosemary and roasted them at about 225° all day, covered. The meat was tender and delicious.

It is raining tonight, the first rain we have had since DS Bret left on August 12. We have been doing a lot of watering.

September 07, 2008 Sunday:

It rained more than 2” last night and I slept right through it.

About noon I noticed Jeremiah jumping Jasmine. This is the first sign of heat for a couple of months. I watched for awhile and then called the AI tech. This evening there was slight puffiness around her vulva and after dark we heard some mooing so I am hopeful.

Marcia worked in the veg garden for hours clearing weeds from around the leeks. She harvested all the garlic. The bulbs did not get nearly as big this year due to the wet July weather but the individual cloves are good size. Everyone raves about the flavor.

DS Martin arrived in time for supper. I made rice to accompany more of last night’s black beans, made a ratatouille and a cross between a liver pate and meatloaf. Everything was well received. The pate was based on the recipe in The Grassfed Gourmet. I also made a flan.

Martin is up here to do more haying and to help with preparations for the demolition of the carriage house, reputedly beginning on Wednesday.

September 08, 2008 Monday:

Cool and fair today. There were only the most subtle signs of heat this morning from Jasmine. Jeremiah did a little sniffing. While in the stanchion this morning she held her tail slightly elevated. I almost called the AI tech to cancel. I did not want to waste one of my precious Private Pyle straws. But then the phone rang and it was the substitute tech only five miles away and asking for directions. Before taking out the straw from his tank, he reached in and did a pre-check for me and said he thought she was in good shape so I told him to go ahead. I have been doing the vinegar-on-her-grain thing for about a month so let’s hope it works to make a heifer.

Martin worked all day moving refrigerators and otherwise helping to set up for the demolition crew. He and Marcia joined me here for supper. I gave them salmon, Israeli couscous cooked in chicken stock, green beans and braised summer squash.

Martin brought some tonic water that does not contain high fructose corn syrup so we had vodka tonics. The flavor of things without HFCS is noticeably superior.

September 09, 2008 Tuesday:

The timing will be so perfect for a calf in case Jasmine is bred. She would calve in early June ’09. She did not want to come in tonight. There was lots going on here all day with men (sons Martin and Max) doing big projects. The demolition team dropped off their giant excavator. Martin went down and ran her up from the riverbank. She got as far as the door to the beefer pen and turned around and ran back. Jeremiah thought this was very exciting and thundered around like crazy. Of course she finally came in. I have to get out there super early tomorrow morning so I can be through using the milking machine before the demolition work begins. The guys will be turning off the electricity.

Martin and Max climbed up on the collapsed roof which was wet from a day of rain (glad I was not watching) and rescued the lightening rods. Mostly we carried on with removing more items from the carriage house. Martin was on the stepladder checking along the beams and found items that had been hidden there long ago including a handsome pipe. Some long ago smoker must have kept it there as his guilty secret.

Max dug up a small apple tree that I feared would be crushed by the demolition crew. It would have been a heartbreak to see it rolled flat.

I was very busy all day. I just had to start doing something with the green beans Marcia picked so I made four pints of dilly beans. I fed the guys twice. Lunch was leftovers. For dinner we had excellent fresh corn from my corn patch, cucumber and tomato salad, Israeli couscous (again, as it was such a hit yesterday) and flank steak prepared according to a method Martin calls Goucho Style. It comes out tough but highly flavorful. We are told that the gauchos disdain flabby grain fed beef, preferring flavor over tenderness. Actually the meat is tender enough in among the stringy bits.

Max brought over some more peaches from their amazing tree and requested a cobbler. I included some almond paste in the topping. It was sooo good.

DD Marcia is gone for the week. She will be watching her horse Peter compete in New York. Max is staying at her camp to care for her cats and two large dogs. She took her Chihuahuas with her.

September 10, 2008 Wednesday:

Off I went early to the barn so as to be all through with electricity use before 8am. Jasmine is always right there in the morning because Jeremiah is in the barn. It is a different story at night. The minute I start calling her he runs to nurse and it takes forever to get her in. She gave only 3 gallons plus a quart this morning. I don’t know if that was because I milked an hour earlier than usual or a symptom that she is bred; that is one of the signs.

The Pratt Boys were here by 8am as was George Brown, the contractor. The Pratt’s excavator has a big clamshell that tweaks the building apart. They were as careful as was compatible with keeping the job moving. They took the beams worthy of salvage to a pile in the field. Max and Martin were both here and carried the lesser boards as they became available. Of the furniture that was stored in the attic, only two items survived, a chair and my grandmother’s solid cherry table. The table had been dismantled and was standing on edge. It has water damage of course. Surprisingly, all the storm sashes survived. They too were standing on edge near a wall. The job is far from complete. A great heap of rubble remains. After everyone left I walked around on it and picked up a few small oddments. It is sad to see part of one’s beloved old house lying in a rotting heap.

I picked beans and strawberries. Max mowed the lawn. Martin left after lunch to go to Weld to mow hay. It was a fine day for mowing, bright and breezy. It is chilly this evening. Frost is predicted for some areas, perhaps here. Martin covered a few things with sheets for me.

Martin’s wife Amy, the two babies and her dad, Ken, arrived to join us for dinner. I made soup with beef bones, Ken brought lovely salad fixings from his garden and we had corn again.

September 12, 2008 Friday:

The demolition and clean-up was completed at 3:30pm on Thursday. The men did a tidy job. Nothing remains of the carriage house except for the granite foundation and an elevated section of plank floor. Where it stood for 200 years there is now a view of the farmland.

On Thursday night DIL Amy made dinner up at camp. I contributed a chuck steak and a round steak for Martin to try gaucho style again for everyone.

Rain threatened but Martin, Max and Ted managed to make 80 bales. Martin drove them over to New Sharon for Max and Mitra. Cousins Holly and Richard joined me for lunch and then followed the haymakers and helped unload and stack. Rain threatened all day and they just made it.

We got together again tonight at Martin and Amy’s camp for spaghetti. Both last night and tonight it was chilly enough for a fire in the fireplace.

Jasmine gave 4 gallons yesterday, 3 ½ today. For several days now she has not showed up at the barn in the evening and ignored my calling. Clumping all the way down to the river to drive her back to the barn takes me an extra half hour. It is nice to know that her grazing trumps coming in for grain but if I don’t bring her in I won’t get Jeremiah in to separate him for the night. Tomorrow I am going to keep him in and just put them together at supper time so he can nurse. She will probably come in better when she knows he is in the barn.

September 13, 2008 Saturday:

Today was fine, cool and sunny. Thoughts of our KFC friends in Texas dominated everyone’s thoughts. We won’t rest easy until we hear good news.

I kept Jeremiah in the barn all day and then put him and Jasmine together for a half hour for his dinner. Then I put him back in his stall. There was some complaining but it was not from me this time; they did some mooing. And as I knew would happen, Jasmine was handy to the barn and came at once when I called her. She gave 3 ½ gallons today.

DS Martin and DS Max were here for awhile today doing little jobs and picking corn for their families. Martin built some steps and a handrail for me to get onto the platform part that is left of the carriage house. We walk across this to get into the kitchen.

I made a gallon of applesauce from wild apples that Max and Martin gathered on Thursday. I did not get it canned, though. As soon as I do I will direct my attention to freezing some corn. It is still very good. I am quite proud of my corn patch.

I thought I was missing one of my orphaned chicks but all five are still alive. They are a beautiful assortment of little birds but so fearful that I see very little of them. If I leave the hen room door open until dark they slip inside after all the other birds are on their perches. The other five that have a mama are doing fine. She now brings them inside the hen room at night.

September 14, 2008 Sunday:

It rained off and on all day. I once again confined Jeremiah so tat I would not need to chase in my cow. The downside of this is that she hangs around near the barn and lies down in muck. I hope she grazes tonight in the rain and gets herself cleaned up by morning. She was an awful sight tonight.

Max came by and dressed off a rooster for me. It was a Barred Rock that was one of two given me about three months ago. The other, a Lace Wyandotte, went into the freezer fast as he was aggressive. This one had become increasingly annoying. He spent all his time indoors expecting me to throw out scratch for him on the barn floor. He would never go outside and exert himself looking for bugs. He was aggressive towards the hens and selfish. A proper rooster finds a mate and lets her feed first. I think he must have been raised in close confinement. He had no idea how to be a rooster and recently began chasing me.

I made butter today and more applesauce.

Mitra and Roshan went to the Franklin County Fair. It is a real old fashioned fair with canned foods and fresh vegetables. Mitra was very sorry she had not gotten around to entering her cauliflower. She says hers was way better than the one that got the prize. There were lots of 4H kids with beautiful animals including perfectly trained pairs of oxen that were mere calves. She couldn’t say enough about the Jerseys and Guernseys.

A few weeks back my grandson Gabriel who is studying in Kazakhstan sent a series of photographs without captions. I wrote for clarification but he had gone out into the countryside far from the Internet and only got my query today. Here he describes some of the activities:

The one that looks like outdoor cheese making is actually someone boiling up a sort of porridge to be used as dog food. They basically take and add low grade flour to hot water, then mix it together with whatever stale bread and leftover food they have, and feed that to the dogs. The picture was taken at a sheep camp in the mountains. People drive their herds up into the high mountain pastures for June and July, to take advantage of the lusher grass, and also because they say the desert is really too hot for baby lambs at that time of season.

That said, people do make cheese here. Basically, they make the cheese, then hang it for a week or so to drain the whey (at night, in the day it must be taken in as the weather is too hot). Then, the cheese curd is rolled into little balls (about the size of a ping pong ball, or smaller), and these are similarly hung to dry until they are rock hard. The result is called “kurt,” and people suck on them and use them as a snack with beer. It takes a couple hours to finish one, actually. Supposedly, in the old days they would pound these cheese balls up into powder, mix them with water, and make a sort of milk for use in the winter months. I’ve never seen this done, myself. The family I am living with gives all of the kurt they make as gifts to city relatives. They can afford to do this as they are comparatively rich (400-800 sheep, depending on the time of year), but other people sell kurt.

The picture with the cow and the picture with the horse both show outdoor milking. In the case of the horse, the young girl has tied one foot forward to keep it from kicking. Horses need to be milked about five times in the course of a day, and give about one to two liters of milk. This then gets poured into a milk churn, and over the course of about two weeks slowly ferments into a mildly alcoholic yoghurt. Kazakhs are convinced this yoghurt is a cure for practically every disease under the sun. It sells for a fair amount of money–three or four dollars for a liter, I believe. That said, I myself prefer it before it is fully fermented. The finished product has an extremely sour, smoky taste (they char the inside of the milk churn to give it that flavor), but when it is newly fermented it has a very delicate, slightly sweet flavor.

September 15, 2008 Monday:

According to the weather prediction, this was to be our last warm summer day so I let Jeremiah back out to spend the day with Jasmine on the pasture. Keeping him in is not saving me any time anyway because Jasmine spends more time in the beefer pen messing it up and comes in dirtier.

I canned more applesauce and picked more cucumbers and giant zucchinis. I hope Mitra wants some.

DD Marcia arrived home from Saugerties NY where she was attending the New England Dressage Association horse show finals. Her horse, Donnerhit (Peter), took a first and a second in Fourth Level and was awarded a bridle with a silver name plate. Marcia was away for a week.

September 16, 2008 Tuesday:

It is definitely cooler today. Cousins Holly and Richard picked me up at lunch time and we went up to Marcia’s camp to perform a modest memorial service. We went out in a canoe and scattered the ashes of my dear Cousin Nan, Holly’s aunt. Nan and I were childhood playmates during our summers on Lake Webb. Nan loved to swim and sail. She was a highly creative person who did fine photography and paintings and had a wonderfully positive attitude during many years of struggle with RA.

All of us including Marcia then enjoyed delicious moussaka made by Richard.

Dear little Jasmine perhaps got the point that I expect her to come in at supper time. At any rate, she and Jeremiah were waiting at the barn.

My friend Kelly in MA called to tell me that her naughty cow, Shasta, ran away today while Kelly was changing the electric fence. She was in heat. Kelly had to chase her 2 miles to a dairy farm! She was able to lead her home and called for AI.

Max and Mitra report that today was the day that Helen was due to come into heat again and she didn’t. So we are cautiously optimistic that she has settled.

September 17, 2008 Wednesday:

We had another day of beautiful weather, cool and clear. I did not get into the garden because I had a lot of things to do in the kitchen, food preservation that could not wait. One thing I did was make juice from the little red crabapples from my new young tree. It turned out an amazing red color. It is so beautiful that I think I will have to take a step stool to the garden so I can pick the ones above my reach. The tree is too small to support a ladder.

Friends of Marcia’s from Massachusetts are visiting. They stopped in here for tea and farm viewing. They are very interested in farming. We ate dinner at Marcia’s place. She made beef ribs and we had corn, cucumber salad, and artisanal focaccia that one of her friends brought from MA. We had a lot of fun chatting about common interests such as cows, goats, chickens and the huge growth of urban enthusiasm for local food.

September 18, 2008 Thursday:

Another fine New England day with blue skies and puffy clouds, but it is getting cooler. We are told to expect a hard frost so with help from Max I brought in all my potted plants. My basil did little this year but I potted up one of the Holy Basil plants. Perhaps it will do better in the kitchen. I also harvested all the squash I could find. They do hide under the leaves so if the frost kills all the leaves I will find them tomorrow. Max carried them all into the buttery. Marcia came by and worked in the garden for about three hours. I fixed us some supper. Although my potato patch in the paddock garden was a failure there were a few volunteer plants down in the old garden. Marcia found one super russet which I baked for dinner. What a treat! I had to showcase my “one potato crop”. We also had lamb shoulder chops.

Jasmine gave 3 ½ gallons.

September 19, 2008 Friday:

We got a pretty good frost last night. I was glad we picked all the squash and cucumbers yesterday. I walked about among the vines to see what the wilted leaves might reveal and did find a few more cukes. The sky was clear and blue again with fluffy clouds here and there.

DD Marcia connected up her horse trailer yesterday and had it ready to drive to Max and Mitra’s to be parked. The plan is to entrap one of their Tamworth gilts, Charlotte, for transport to her new home. Marcia, who is an impressive backer of trailers, wove it back among the buildings and fences and left it. Marcia and I and Mitra then adjourned to the Homestead Bakery and restaurant for lunch while Max applied himself to making a fence that will funnel the pigs back into the trailer where they will find their dinner.

Jasmine gave 3 ½ gallons

September 20, 2008 Saturday:

It has been another perfect fall day. The dogs and I took a walk down along the river. It is lovely in the fall. I always hope to spy mushrooms but rarely find anything but bracket mushrooms. Those are everywhere. I did find something I have never previously encountered . I have dozens of hawthorn trees and for the first time they are simply loaded with deep red fruit. I believe Crataegous oxyacanthus is the Latin name, close anyway. The farther I walked the more trees I found. I had along a plastic bag along for mushrooms and picked about two pounds of hawthorn fruits. I will try for some jelly or syrup with them. They are noted for their antioxidant properties and they taste pretty good.

The dogs stayed with me nicely until we reached the north border, then they disappeared into the woods and were gone for an hour. They came back wet and panting and not looking especially contrite just as I was heading for the car to go to DD Marcia’s for a late lunch.

Marcia had fixed an interesting meal based on a Food Network program. She made a three-bean soup with lamb meat balls and dumplings. For dessert we had tiramisu. It was just the two of us. The other guests, Max and family (Ahem!) forgot the invitation. We toasted “Absent friends”.

Here are a couple more pictures from Martin of the demolition of the carriage house on September 10th:

Back to the 20th…..

While Jasmine was in munching her dinner I went out to the paddock to fetch her some ears of corn as a treat. I thought I had better take another pass through the squash patch to check for ones overlooked. Wow! I don’t know if it was the evening light or what but I found more and more. Many runners had gone through the fence and into the roadside ditch. I squeezed through the fence where I could see some hiding, parting my hair several times on the barbed wire, and found two more huge Jarrahdale (which my Australian son tells me are called Queensland Blue or maybe he said Grey) and six massive zucchini which will have to go to the pigs and a lot more cucumbers. I could not begin to carry them all so hope we don’t get frost tonight. I lined them up and told them, “From now on stay home and behave yourselves.”

Jasmine gave 3 ½ gallons this morning.

September 21, 2008 Sunday:

DD Marcia brought over tuna steaks and Israeli couscous for our lunch. I pan fried the tuna with a sesame seed crust using coconut oil and deglazed the pan with Chinese mushroom flavored soy sauce. I also served green beans, pretty nearly the last we will get. After lunch we took my wagon to the paddock garden and hauled in a big load of squash, all the ones I did not carry last night and more.

Max and Mitra reported some difficulty convincing the gilt, Charlotte, to get into the trailer. Now I hear that they have her in and Marcia has left for New Sharon to transport her to her new home at Flying Pond Farm. I can hardly wait to hear how it was all accomplished. Both these Tamworth pigs are superb animals. They have glowing copper colored coats and cheerful faces.

I am working on creating some kind of relish or chutney using some of my bushel of huge cucumbers. I hate to see them go to waste.

Jasmine ignored my calls tonight so I had to walk down to the river to bring her in. Jeremiah did not come. He is often reluctant to come with her now that he is such a big boy, over 400 pounds. He longs to be in with the two steers, Wesley and Oakley, and spends a lot of time staring over the fence at them. I had to make a second trip down to fetch him in. Then Bagel disappeared. I had a leash on him and dropped it. He was gone about a half hour and showed up here without the leash. That is a puzzle.

All summer Jasmine ignored her dairy cow minerals. About three weeks ago she started eating them like mad. I have refilled the box twice and again tonight I noticed it was empty. I refilled it and when I let her back out after her supper she went straight to it. Interesting.

September 22, 2008 Monday:

When I let Jeremiah back with his mom this morning he headed to the mineral box before nursing. He only ate mineral for a minute but I thought this was pretty interesting. Jas gave 3 ½ gallons this morning. She came in tonight with a rather full udder. If this continues I will have to revise my management.

DD Marcia came over and helped me freeze corn. I put 16 one pound packages in the freezer. I would love to do a lot more but this is a good start. There is plenty more corn in the patch but by the time you pick it, shuck it, boil it and cut it off the cob you have spent a couple of hours. The weather was perfect for working outside on the deck. The mosquitoes are gone and nearly all the flies.

DD Sally in AK has been visiting her daughter Rebecca in Tok AK. With the help of Rebecca’s husband Torstein and SIL Tom they butchered an enormous moose. Just one hind quarter weighed 150 lbs and took two men to carry. Rebecca says they processed that moose down to the last scrap. Sally cooked up three cauldrons of “moose paste” for the chickens. This is something she scrapes together from bits that nobody wants and cans. It provides protein for the chickens in winter. This moose was unusually fat. Torsten and his buddy shot the moose up river somewhere and brought it down in their canoe. They said there was barely an inch of freeboard.

DIL Mitra says that Charlotte the pig is happy in her new digs at Flying Pond. Sophie, who was left behind, misses her sister.

September 23, 2008 Tuesday:

Today was clear but I think did not break 60°. This is fine weather with hardly any bugs yet plenty of grazing remaining. I hate to admit it, but we actually need a little rain. Marcia came over and mowed my lawn. What a treat! She also brought Saturday’s leftovers, soup with lamb meatballs. She picked a big bag of corn and took it home to process at her house. All I did was housekeeping and canning up my curried cucumber. I got five pints.

It has been hard to keep count of those half grown chickens, five with a mother hen, five on their own. They come inside now at night and this morning when I let out the chickens I was happy to see that all ten are there. They are now intermingled and go about together avoiding the adult hens.

Jasmine is very friendly lately. She has been coming in for her dinner a little better now that I have been giving her a pile of corn and corn husks. She loves them and since I plant to turn her into the corn paddock in November I want to give her digestion a chance to adjust to corn.

Jeremiah also comes pretty well most of the time although not without first running in great circles.

September 24, 2008 Wednesday:

Marcia took home a bag of corn last night. This morning she came back with eight 1 lb bags ready to freeze. Then she mowed the rest of my vast lawn. The area around the veg garden and baby orchard had not been mowed for over a month. While mowing the orchard she discovered that one apple tree had a dozen beautiful apples on it. I can’t remember what I planted. The tree is one of three that I nearly killed by leaving the nursery tag on. How stupid I was. All should be warned that even a wire not much thicker than a hair will eat into a tree and in the end it will break off at that point or will be stunted and wounded. These three all broke off a couple of feet above the ground and survived by sending up new leaders. I am just thrilled that this tree finally managed some apples.

I made Qvark cheesecake today. It turned out very well. I also made butter, which I do every two or three days.

Jasmine gave under three gallons today.

September 25, 2008 Thursday:

Another day without rain or frost, a perfect fall day. The foliage is coloring fast. Jeremiah continues to check out the minerals each morning before starting to nurse. Jasmine seems very happy but is holding up for him more, not less. I really should wean him and get the cream but so far I am choosing to avoid the extra work. I would have to return to TAD milking at least for a while.

I saw my dentist today. He says the broken off roots that are still in my gums are infected and scary and persuaded me to take penicillin. It has been so long since I have had a prescription for anything that I was not in their system. I had to wait quite a while for my prescription so bought the Wall Street Journal so as to catch up on the bad news.

My vet popped in for lunch. He is about to be away for a month. DD Marcia came down for supper and we ate the leftovers. She especially appreciated the qvark cheesecake.

September 26, 2008 Friday:

My granddaughter Rebecca (seen in moose cutting picture) has driven from Tok up to Fairbanks to visit her sister Rosemary (who was away all of August on a canoe trip). Rosemary has a good oven and Rebecca is making a wedding cake for a friend. She is using my set of four pans that makes a four-tiered cake. She is using the Martha Stewart recipe that is found in Baking with Julia. It calls for a lot of almond paste. She made the bottom layer first and forgot to put in the sugar. She rescued the cake by cutting the layer up into little pieces, dribbled them with icing and called them petit fours. I gather that they ate these right away.

Once again this evening Jasmine had quite a lot of milk when I brought her in. I decided to go ahead and put the machine on her. She made no objection except that she did not let down. I got about 1 ½ cups of milk. Cows sure don’t like novelty. I guess she has decided she likes OAD.

It is raining today. I went up to Weld and joined DD Marcia for supper. She had bought a nice slice of local ham from Whitewater. There are little frogs all over the wet road. I tried my best to avoid running over them.

My dear old cat, Sissypuss, has gone missing. She has been living in the buttery all summer and is always there first thing in the morning mewing for her breakfast. She is nearly 15 and no longer hunts. She is, or as I fear, was, a very beautiful long haired calico cat who had many litters of beautiful kittens before she was spayed.

September 27, 2008 Saturday:

Still no Sissypuss. I know now I will never see her again. At least we had no disagreement the last time I saw her. I put out her feed and a dish of milk which she seemed to want.

It has rained all day but is warm. During a break I spent some time in the garden and saw a honeybee visiting the flowers on my broccoli. It has to be over 60° for them to work, I believe. I have seen almost none this year so watched her for a couple of minutes to be sure.

I picked another pint of strawberries.

Marcia made supper last night and served an excellent slice of ham she bought at Whitewater Farm. I wonder where it came from. Russ, the owner, sells only local food.

Marcia came over today and raked the whole area in front of the former carriage house and then used the rolling magnet on it. It got covered with over 100 nails that shook out of the broken wood.

We ate Ginger-O’s with our tea in memory of Paul Newman. He was a great guy.

September 28, 2008 Sunday:

DS Max told me today he will not be using Luce’s, the abattoir where several of us have experienced difficulty. Max and Mitra are scrambling to find new appointments for their pigs.

Tomorrow is the day I have marked on my calendar for Jasmine to come in heat if she is not bred. Fingers crossed! After four attempts to milk her in the evening I have decided not to bother. She does not choose to let down and I really don’t need the milk. She does not show up quite as packed with milk in the morning as formerly. Her production is easing off. This morning not only did Jeremiah check out the mineral box before starting to nurse, he made a feeble attempt to jump her. Of course I did not like the looks of that!

Marcia and I had a nice lunch here of chorizo sausage and steamed kale. My garden is bursting with self seeded kale. I made a nice galette, otherwise known as tart, with a fruit medley I had in the freezer: apple, rhubarb and gooseberries. I made the crust entirely with coconut oil. This turned out very well. Then for supper I made the leftover kale into a cream soup which was also quite nice.

Max and Mitra are pondering the idea of doing their own pig slaughter and cutting. I am offering every encouragement.

September 29, 2008 Monday:

Not a sign of heat from Jasmine but I won’t feel confidence until we get through tomorrow. Sometimes she is late.

Max came over to fetch my clabber supply. I keep it in buckets for their pigs. I gave him a taste of the hawthorn fruit jam that I made the other day and he wanted to go pick some for himself. We took the dogs and a basket and went down to find the tree. I held the branches down while he picked a nice basketful. I also sent him home with a few squashes. They are so beautiful and sculptural looking.

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October 01, 2008 Wednesday:

Monday and Tuesday, no signs of heat from Jasmine, hurray! Unless I were to send in a blood sample I would not be totally confident, though. She has been a silent heater most of the times since she calved In April. This is no doubt due to her high production.

On a whim, I decided to go with DD Marcia today to Farmington where she had an appointment. I visited the Doaks and Devaney book store and visited the new thrift shop where I bought a pair of barn pants. Marcia and I then met for lunch at the Homestead Bakery. Mitra could not join us because of pressure of work.

It rained all day. Willie, my Westie, has a dog house and I left Bagel where he could go in and out of the buttery but I think they both thought they had a dull day.

This evening I made maple ice cream with a wee bit of espresso coffee powder. It was pretty good.

My computer is behaving erratically. I fear it is dying. This morning it took me more than an hour to get it to boot up. I was trying to imagine life without it. It felt like a black hole.

October 02, 2008 Thursday:

Jasmine did some mooing before milking this morning and again during milking which made me suspicious but when I put her back out I saw no signs of heat. When Marcia arrived about 11 am she reported a lot of jumping. “Oh no”, I thought. I called my AI tech but a substitute told me she had gone to the fair and taken her tank, which contained my Private Pyle semen, with her. There was no way for me to get Jazzie bred today unless I used standard Jersey semen. I am not quite ready to try that. Such a disappointment.

Marcia worked for a long time pruning the currant bushes. She found a cocoon of a Luna moth. I did not see a single Luna this year. I did not see a Cecropia either. They have both become extremely rare. I will never forgot the time years ago that a guest of Marcia’s at camp told her in shocked horror of this huge dreadful bug she had found in her room – and killed. It was a Cecropia.

Marcia noticed that the electric fence charger was not ticking. We spent at least an hour going all over it and did indeed repair a lot of questionable connections. But the problem proved to be in the box under the buttery where it plugs in. I had to add it to a complex tree of wires outside my kitchen door that we fixed up to plug in the milk refrigerator that used to sit in the carriage house.

It was a lot colder today.

Jasmine’s production was actually up this morning, 3 ½ gallons.

October 03, 2008 Friday:

All day I felt as though I had fallen into a Black Hole. I have been having a great deal of trouble with having my computer to boot up. DS John in Australia made the winning suggestion: take off the cover and vacuum it out. Voila! I am writing again. I have a feeling that problems remain but I am greatly encouraged.

DS Martin and his family, Amy, Hannah (2 ½ ), Henry, 5 months (born same day as Jeremiah) and Amy’s dad, Ken were here for supper. I made a big pot of vegetable soup and whole wheat buttermilk biscuits. Hannah ate a lot of both. Wee Henry was crazy for the soup. He ate mostly broth. His chief dietary source is mother’s milk.

Jasmine gave 3 gallons.

October 04, 2008 Saturday:

After milking this morning I opened the gate so that the steers, Wesley and Oakley, could merge with Jasmine and Jeremiah. I needed to do this so that I can have them settled down by Tuesday morning when Wesley has a date with destiny. They were all quite pleased to be together again, I believe.

DS Max and DS Martin met here around noon (beautiful day) to go for a ride on their mountain bikes. They were about to set out when Marcia ran out to tell us that two pit bulls were in the pasture menacing the cattle. They drove the group into a corner of the electric fence and Jasmine, who was very frightened, broke it down. Marcia yelled at them and they ran away but were soon back. By this time Max had gone for my gun but I am sorry to say I was out of bird shot, all I had were slugs, so he did not shoot. Martin jogged down into the pasture to see if he could catch one dog and read its tags. They were not aggressive towards him but did not hang around to get caught. Needless to say I was extremely alarmed. I had never seen these dogs before and could easily imagine their coming in the night or when I am gone on Monday to my eye appointment. I can’t help wondering if they killed Sissypuss.

Marcia left shortly thereafter and on her way home stopped at the local store for vanilla ice cream. The owner was leaving hastily. It seems they are his dogs and someone else had reported them on the loose. Marcia had just time to tell him about the dogs worrying my cattle. He said his grandchildren had let them out. At least now I know where they live. I could not help thinking of DanMA and the attacks his heifer suffered from dogs that kept being inadvertently let out.

Martin and his family and Max and his family all met for dinner at Marcia’s place. It was a wonderful meal. We had grilled haddock fillets, sweet potatoes, grilled pineapple, salad, French bread, an assortment of other goodies and a pie made by DIL Amy’s dad, Ken. It was ground cherry pie from the vast plant in his garden. At the beginning of summer he planted a little thing about 4” high and it grew 10’ in every direction. The fruit is very sweet and reminiscent of pineapple. It has a husk like a tomatillo.

Jasmine gave 2 ½ gallons.

October 05, 2008 Sunday:

No further sign of the dogs. We had a frost last night. Martin came by and swapped out my monitor for one I borrowed from Marcia. That has solved at least part of my computer problem. My spirit has soared.

All the critters seem pretty happy. The weather is cool and bright and the bugs are gone. I went up and had supper with Marcia, just the two of us, and we listened to Ira Glass’ program of interviews with financial experts. They sort of agreed with the necessity for the bail-out but remain deeply gloomy. They explained in detail the manner in which the line between banking, investing, lending money, speculation and gambling has become profoundly blurred.

October 06, 2008 Monday:

I raced through the chores this morning so as to get everything done before Marcia came to pick me up for my eye appointment. The weather was fine although cold (32°) and the cows were cooperative. Jasmine gave 3 gallons.

On the way to Lewiston we stopped in Turner at Nezinscott Farm and had some lunch. That is always a pleasure. My eye appointment was less fun. My vision shows no sign of recovering but does not appear worse. I could tell the doctor and technicians were disappointed. There is to be one more shot in this series. At least the sight in my right eye is 20/20 thanks to the marvels of cataract surgery and a lens implant.

Max arrived at the farm shortly after I got home. DS Martin had told him where to find a neglected apple tree laden with apples. The landowner told him to take all he wanted but warned him they were no good, they had worms. They are in fact superb apples, many are 4” in diameter and hardly any have worms. It just blows our minds in this family when people let fruit like this go to waste for fear of the occasional worm. Max filled a great big plastic tub. I fried some for our dessert.

For dinner I gave him flank steak that I had left in a low oven all day. It was mighty good with Israeli couscous and a cucumber salad using some of my remaining cukes.

We have to get up at 3:30am to kill the steer, Wesley. DD Marcia gave Max the Winchester lever action 30/30 that belonged to her husband. He will use that.

My grandson Gabe in Kazakhstan sent me a little more information about the dog food that villagers make. I had asked him if they add any fat to the mixture of flour and water that is the basis of the dog food. Here is his answer:

Incidentally, when I was last in the village, I asked your question about fat in the dog food. It turns out they do sometimes add it. The Kazakhs national dish, besparmak, is made by slowly boiling sheep meat for about 2 to five hours, then using the resulting broth to cook noodles in. They then place the noodles on a large platter, and put the meat and cooked onions on top, and drink the leftover broth with the meal. Anyway, while the meat is boiling, the fatty scum is skimmed off the top to make a nice clear broth, and the skimmings are typically added to the dog food. How much fat this contributes depends on how often they eat this dish, but most families do so about once a week or more.

October 07, 2008 Tuesday:

Today was so long its feels like two days.

Max and I were up at 3:30. I sorted the cattle so that Wesley was alone in the beefer pen. The whole event did not take long. Max hoisted the carcass with the front end loader on the Kubota and he bled for about 20 minutes. Max was away by 4:45. I caught a basin of blood for black pudding. Last time I made it (a first for me) I got it too salty so this time I was careful. I used some variations on Rose Tripleh’s recipe. I had the cooked barley ready and this morning ground the pork fat and cooked the onion. I fried up a bit and decided it needed something besides salt, pepper and sage, although that would probably be fine with pork blood, for which the recipe is written. I added a half cup of chili powder. It needed more thickening so I added about a cup of couscous. There was enough of the mixture to fill a large lasagna pan. I don’t have casings so made it like a giant meatloaf. Tomorrow I plan to cut it into cubes and freeze it. I am too tired tonight to do anything else. My eye is still bothering me. It is very red like conjunctivitis. This did not happen last time.

DD Marcia joined me for supper. Earlier in the afternoon she worked some more on the currant bushes and has the whole patch looking spiffy. She also washed a lot of my dishes. It seemed like I washed dishes for hours today but there they were again. For supper we had some beautiful sea scallops I had bought frozen. I sautéed them in brown butter with paprika, deglazed with white wine. We also had mashed potatoes, broccoli and gingerbread. Everything went together fast and turned out perfectly.

October 09, 2008 Thursday:

There were some cloudy spells but mostly today was a perfect fall day. Jasmine gave 2 ¾ gallons this morning. Oakley, the 1 year old steer, son of Helen, has always especially hated to be alone. In the evening while I bring in Jasmine for her supper and put Jeremiah in a box stall, he has to wait outside by himself. He bellows the whole time.

Marcia was here and did some more work on the currant patch. She moved the gooseberry bushes from the veg garden area over to line up with the black currants. The whole area has been transformed.

The economic news is uniformly bad, as we all know. There is, however, one investment in which we may remain confident. Our pastured cows rely on a stable currency, the sun. It powers the grass which powers our cows and is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Community vegetable gardens are a very fine thing but until animals are included in these efforts, their effect on human health will remain limited. I see them as a toe-in-the-water introduction to real local food production. With the cow, and to a somewhat lesser degree with goats, sheep, pigs and chickens, you can have the whole circle of sustainability. The cow is capable of supporting growth and reproduction indefinitely. Plant foods cannot do this.

Those who would attempt to eliminate cows and other animals from local food production whether from health concerns or from a belief that they cause global warming are profoundly misguided.

October 10, 2008 Friday:

I have been plagued with mice for months now. Lately they have gotten worse. I suppose they view Coburn Farm as an ideal venue and heaven knows there are enough handy cracks for getting in. On Wednesday I did an especially thorough countertop cleanup ending with Clorox. Thursday morning there were mouse droppings anew. Eeew! Last night I put out poison and set traps. This morning I checked my trap line and found two exceptionally large fat mice. Tonight I have again laid out the traps. This is war. Judging by the persistence of mice through the centuries, complete victory is never attained.

This was another perfect fall day in Maine. The colors are at their peak. Marcia had to take her glass fire screen door to Farmington to replace the glass. I went along just for fun. Marcia takes a scenic rural bypass where we get to see many charming yards and gardens. We ate lunch as usual at Homestead Bakery where as usual the service was good but the food mediocre. Mitra could not join us for lunch but she came down for a quick chat. She told us about a new acquaintance who understands pig slaughter and cutting. He is a French/Mediterranean chef, although not currently employed as such. He is glad to assist with butchering in return for getting to keep all the bits that Americans routinely discard. Such a deal. He is going to help Max and Mitra with their pig. I hope to be present myself to meet the gentleman and pick up some tips.

This evening I made butter and applesauce.

October 11, 2008 Saturday:

DD Marcia had an adventure today. A couple of days ago she had a tall pine taken down. We used to know these as Norway pine but I believe the correct name is Canadian red pine. The woodsman cut it down with extraordinary skill so that it fell exactly as planned and struck no other tree, of which there are many. Today, he came back with his team of Belgian horses and dragged the tree sections out of the woods. Marcia said it was amazing how perfectly and instantly the horses responded to every command, Gee, haw, whoa, etc., so that they delicately skirted between the peonies in her flower bed. When their work was finished they hopped right into their trailer. Marcia said they were a joy to watch. Then another man showed up with a portable mill and milled the sections of trunk into very beautiful boards.

Late this afternoon Marcia went down to the local fish store and she treated us to lobsters. I had not had one for a year. We had a delicious lobster dinner up at camp. She accompanied it with baked potato, scarlet runner beans from her plants, and melted Coburn Farm butter for dipping the lobster. We finished the meal with ice cream and some of my new applesauce.

Tonight I did not separate Jasmine and Jeremiah. Lately when I let him out to join her in the morning he has not taken much interest in nursing. He wanders around snuffling with Oakley or tasting the minerals before nursing. This morning by the time they had all gone out into the barnyard and Jasmine was starting to graze he still had not nursed even though she stood still and waited for him. So I will see how much milk there is in the morning.

October 12, 2008 Sunday:

It was another superb autumn day with a clear blue sky and the mountains blanketed with brilliant color. Jasmine came in nicely but I got only ½ gallon of milk. Yesterday there was an off flavor to the milk from the quarter that has had mastitis a few times but this morning it was perfect. I cut a pile of comfrey for her breakfast as a precaution.

After lunch I went up to Weld and Marcia and I drove out to the cemetery and put a chrysanthemum on the grave of Jack, my late SIL. It is a very beautiful cemetery especially at this season. No one else was visiting.

On the way there we stopped at the Weld town dump where they maintain the civilized practice of allowing people to set out unwanted items for others to take. We loaded up her pickup with about a dozen window sashes of varying dimensions. I also brought home a food processor but have not had time to test drive it.

I fixed dinner for the two of us here. I slow roasted a center cut of leg of lamb that Marcia had bought. First I browned it in a cast iron skillet* with garlic and rosemary. Then I added a mixture of chicken stock, wine and a tablespoon of tomato paste and salt and pepper, covered it, and put it in the Aga simmer oven for a couple of hours until it was fork tender. I then put the meat on plates and reduced the liquid in the pan until I had about 1 ½ cup and added a ½ cup of cream. Marcia made me dictate my method before I forgot what I did.

I also served parsnips sautéed with leeks, and baked a butternut squash, all from the garden. I served a cheap white wine that turned out to be pretty good: Golden Gate pinot grigio/chardonnay blend.

*I browned the meat in fat rendered from the rind of a smoked ham. I never use ordinary vegetable oil for browning because along with its other shortcomings, it has zero flavor.

October 13, 2008 Monday:

Jasmine outdid herself today. I am not sure in what way it might relate to the 24 hours she spent with Jeremiah, if at all. She was ready and waiting this morning and gave four gallons of milk! Most days lately she does not exceed three.

Marcia came over to work in the garden and she restored the electric fence around the garden. I have had the fence unplugged ever since Wesley went. Jasmine has figured out that it is off and has been challenging the wire fence in order to eat the comfrey.

I believe she has now eaten all within reach and her next move will likely be to drag her vulnerable parts through the barbed wire. In addition, I don’t want the deer to get in. Since that electric fence has been up, no deer have entered the garden. It is set up about a yard outside of the wire fence. This makes it too far for the deer to jump both fences at once, yet if they jump only the electric fence they end with their hind ends touching the hot wire. At least this is my theory and it seems to be working.

Max reports another fox incident:

The fox killed another hen today. There was a ruckus and Mitra saw the fox while she was hanging out clothes. He was at the edge of the woods with the chicken in his mouth. She screamed bloody murder for me to let the dog out. The fox was unsure what to make of the screaming and couldn’t seem to tell where it was coming from. It stood there for a few seconds and then decided to drop the chicken.

By this time Lulu was out the door. You can tell a dog is dead serious when they run full throttle very low to the ground and don’t bark at all. I think that fox had to skeedadle pretty fast. I did not hear any barking for a long time and then it was far off in the woods. She came back about ten minutes later all wet and very pleased with herself. We told her what a good dog she was and gave her a treat. She takes this whole fox chasing thing very seriously.

Unfortunately, the hen he caught and let go died shortly thereafter of apparent internal injuries. I wish I could have got a shot at him, but there is no way I could have got out there with a loaded gun in time to have made a difference. It was all Lulu. (Update by Mitra: The fox took another hen yesterday, October 17th, 2008)

Lulu is a rather small black Lab mix.

Marcia has been longing for filled cookies. Nezinscott Farm has nice raisin filled ones but she wanted a date filling. I made some today from The Joy of Cooking. Oddly, none of my wall of other cookbooks has a recipe for filled cookies, even The Cookie Book, a great thick thing.

A huge patch of mushrooms has come up behind the house. I think I have identified them as Flammula (Collybia) Velutipes.

October 15, 2008 Wednesday:

Yesterday Marcia brought all of my rutabagas up from the garden and lined them up outside the buttery. There were 20 of them, many of them 8” in diameter. The ones I have cut into have been remarkably clear of root maggot compared to some years. Marcia also prepared the ground for garlic.

Dear Max and Mitra agreed to take two of Marcia’s cats, Frizzle and Milo. We took them over to their new home today, stopping on the way for a vet appointment for updating their shots. Max and Mitra have their basement organized for cat happiness. It has a large cage for the new arrivals to stay in until they become accustomed to the change. Then they will be able to go in and out at will through the cat door.

Mitra’s meat birds are seven weeks old today. They look good. I saw no missing feathers or lameness. They are getting a lot of clabber. Helen was very friendly and seemed glad to see me. She is very furry compared to Jasmine. M&M gave us a nice lunch of lamb curry, brown rice pilaf, yogurt and applesauce. Max made the applesauce with the falls he picked up in Weld.

While we were there, Shireen’s school rang up to say that everybody was being sent home immediately, no explanation. A friend’s mom delivered Shireen home before we left. She told us it was a bomb scare perpetrated by a 7th grade boy, via e-mail, whom she saw sobbing. The Farmington schools have an active counseling service for troubled students so there is sure to be immediate intervention. It is so scary and sad when these things occur. (Update by Mitra: The boy was expelled.)

Besides visiting the Luick’s, we went to Amy LeBlanc’s White Hill Farm, Tomato Lover’s Paradise, where I bought some of her nice garlic for fall planting.

Jasmine gave 3 gallons today. She was waiting near the barn both morning and evening ready to come in. I told her she was a good girl. I am always relieved when I don’t have to walk to the bottom of the field and chase them home.

October 16, 2008 Thursday:

I opened up the gate from the pasture to the paddock planted with corn but the cows did not go back there today and did not notice. It rained steadily all day which made them less adventurous. Because of the rain I did not get my garlic planted. It was a warm soft steady rain. I did laundry and hung it in the playroom, an insulated attic above the kitchen. Because of my Aga it is always warm and dry up there. The chimney goes through it. I was actually glad to have an undemanding day, as I was awake last night with a toothache. It feels like and abscess. All day I kept the area between lip and gum packed with slightly chewed comfrey. Sounds gross but by the end of the day all pain was gone. I plan to keep the Ibuprofen handy in case it kicks up during the night but I was impressed by my comfrey idea.

Max had a moonlight adventure. A five month old rooster developed the habit of roosting in a tree close to the house and crowing at 2am. Last night in the bright moonlight, he was particularly raucous. Max got mad and went out with the flashlight to see what he could do about it. It was on a branch above his reach so he stood up on a rickety lawn chair and pulled the branch down to bring the rooster closer. Just as he was 2 inches from reaching its legs the chair broke, the rooster flapped off, and Max was hanging by one hand. Now he was even madder and he ran after the rooster with the flashlight. Bad idea. He fell over a metal cage and made a bloody hole in his shin. Now he was really pissed. He confused the rooster by dancing the flashlight around and succeeded in catching it. The cage in which he had meant to put it was badly damaged by its encounter with his shin so he popped it into Mitra’s hen maternity ward, currently unoccupied.

Later in the day when he and Mitra were moving the chicken tractor (a movable cage) he mashed one of their 6 weeks old Cornish Cross meat birds and it leg was broken. He dressed off both the tree rooster and the Cornish. The Cornish at 6 weeks was almost double the weight of the free range rooster at 5 months of age. It was all leg and looked like the Road Runner.

October 17, 2008 Friday:

Jasmine gave only 2 gallons this morning. I don’t know why her production is dropping but the weather is getting colder and the grass is not what it was.

I worked all day with scarcely a break but don’t feel I got much done. I often feel this way. I did get about half of my garlic planted in the beds Marcia prepared so beautifully. The weather was a little chilly but lovely and it was fun being in the garden.

Max came over for clabber and to collect up things they will need for pig slaughter. I collected up my knives, meat saw, butcher paper, electric grinder, folding table and a lot of other items but we could not find the gambrel. Max was disappointed about this and so was I. So many things have had to be moved around lately.

It took us so long to collect up everything Max needed that Jasmine, who has been showing up sweetly at the barn at 5pm, got fed up and left. Max went down and brought in the cows for me. They were not pleased to see him. The last time he was here Wesley disappeared.

October 18, 2008 Saturday:

Jasmine finally went around to the North Field and noticed the gate open into the corn patch. They all spent the afternoon in there. One end of the paddock is just grass which was mowed once or twice during the summer but not grazed since Marcia’s horse, Peter, had the paddock last year. Jas was more interested in the grass than in the corn. Jeremiah spent most of his time exploring and Oakley crashed around among the cornstalks. I visited them several times to check for bloat. Jas was well stuffed this evening but no signs of bloat that I could see. I have been giving her ears of corn every day for at least three weeks to get her rumen adjusted. Hope that did the trick. The two boys have not been interested in the corn at all.

We got together for our last meal at camp with DD Marcia this year, DS Max, DIL Mitra, and granddaughters Shireen, Roshan and I. Marcia leaves next weekend for Florida. I brought a big pan of braised short ribs and an apple and gooseberry pie. I did not eat much because my tooth is bothering me. After dinner we all stood around on the wharf for awhile soaking in the view. The wharf will be taken in this week. I think summer is officially over.

October 19, 2008 Sunday:

Jasmine tired of waiting for me this morning. As I arrived late to the barn she was walking purposefully towards the corn patch but turned back when I called her. She gave a little shy of 3 gallon. After milking she immediately led the parade back to the corn although it is clear that she is equally fond of the grass. She stayed in there all day. At some point during the afternoon Jeremiah left the paddock and as I discovered later, the gate swung shut, so he did not nurse. She came in this evening needing to be milked so I went and got the machine. She did not let down enthusiastically for this unscheduled milking but I got over a gallon.

DD Marcia was here today and I gave her lunch. She brought along yesterday’s beef rib leftovers with plenty of sauce which I mixed with some cooked potatoes and fried onions; very yummy hash. Max stopped in with Roshan on their way to pick up a freezer from my cousin Steve and shared our lunch. With all their beef, shortly to be followed by pork and chickens, they were about to run out of freezer space.

My sister Barby in CA sent me a box of six quinces from her tree. They give the kitchen a heavenly scent. I baked a couple of them for our lunch and served them with cream. This is food for the gods.

Marcia offered to bathe Willie, my West Highland terrier, and I accepted without the loss of a moment. He is once again white and fluffy, although doing his best to get dirty again. She did not find any evidence of fleas.

My toothache is in remission.

October 21, 2008 Tuesday:

It rained all day long, not hard but hard enough to keep me out of the garden. I still have garlic to plant.

I noticed that Jasmine did not go to feed in the paddock until mid afternoon. There is still plenty to eat in there. They stayed until I moved them into the barn at 5pm.

For three nights now I have done an evening milking, getting a gallon or more. Tonight I went out with the machine but Jeremiah had sucked her dry.

DD Marcia joined me for supper. I baked a quarter of a ham. We also had broccoli, squash, parsnips and a flan. We may not have another opportunity for a meal this week. She is terribly busy getting ready to leave and I am inhibited by my car being in the shop and I will lose all day Thursday with my dental appointment for extractions.

There are pictures of Marcia’s camp on Heifer Diary for last week. It is among the trees behind the horses.

October 23, 2008 Thursday:

We had fine clear weather but it was down to 20° again last night and I don’t think it reached 50° today.

I have been keeping a close watch on Jasmine for signs of heat. I am pretty well forced to the conclusion that either she settled six weeks ago but had another heat anyway … or Wee Jeremiah is a high jumper. I have not been worrying about him as he is under 500 pounds and under six months old. He’s frisky, though. I had made the decision to post pone her breeding so as to avoid a fall calf. Hmm.

DS John in Adelaide AU called and told me all about his son Tommy’s new job. It is at a dairy that has over 1000 cows. The cows are milked on a rotating floor a la Walker Gordon. It is a pretty good job that pays $15/hr and includes a nice little apartment. Tommy will be 18 on November 3. John used to help with the milking at our dairy in England. We agree it is good to see another generation taking an interest in cows.

Most of today I was away getting two teeth pulled. These were broken off roots in my upper jaw. The dentist is an old guy. He has a low tech office but is highly skilled. His shots were essentially painless including two into my hard palate; those are usually pretty awful. I have virtually no pain or swelling and was able to eat most of my dinner wearing my partial.

On the way home I stopped off to see Mitra and beg a cup of tea – I had gone off and left my “care package” on the kitchen counter. Stopping there gave me a chance to see all the butchering preparations. Max has built an impressive tripod for hoisting the carcass and dipping it in hot water.

DS Martin is up at camp with two bird hunting friends. Each has a pair of pointers.

October 24, 2008 Friday:

Today was beautiful again, although we have a storm warning and I really should have finished planting my garlic but I was a bit “energy challenged”, no doubt because of the extractions yesterday. DD Marcia postponed her departure until tomorrow. She had too much to do. It is a big place to get ready for winter and she has never had to do it alone before. I fixed dinner here again. I made a savory bread pudding of which she is fond. We call it Sage Pudding. It is basically bread with a mixture of eggs, milk, cream, shredded cheese and herbs poured over it. It puffs like a soufflé and is a welcome supper dish. I figured she could take along a container of it to heat up in her motel room. She will be pulling a large two horse trailer with things for the bungalow she has rented in Florida and has her two Chihuahuas. Inside the trailer she mounted a hanging rail for her 6 potted ferns.

I also made 3 ½ pints of something halfway between sweet pickle and chutney. I cubed up some of the overgrown cucumbers and took it from there. I think Martin will love it.

October 26, 2008 Sunday:

Saturday was so chock full of events that by the time 9 pm rolled around, the time when I usually write HD, and my computer would not work properly, instead of fixing it I went to bed. The main events of yesterday were, in no particular order, Jasmine’s mastitis was worse, she was in raging heat, and I was in the kitchen all day cooking up a storm for DS Martin and his hunting friends.

I treated Jasmine with one extra milking, 10 grams of vitamin C (pure crystalline ascorbic acid) on her feed plus molasses, and applications of lard rubbed into the afflicted quarter and cayenne pepper rubbed into the lard. I did that again this morning and tonight. I milked tonight and the quarter was completely soft. There were two little flecks on the filter and only the faintest barely detectable flat taste to the milk. But I don’t trust it not to flare up again.

Jeremiah chased her all day Saturday and jumped repeatedly. He did not appear to be connecting but I could well be wrong. I put him in his stall last night as usual and kept him in all day. Jasmine had more slime than I ever remember seeing before. There was a great deal of bellowing from both of them. Jasmine gave only 1 ½ gallons yesterday but today was back up to 2 ½ . I milked again this evening and got an additional 1 ½ . I was surprised to get that much considering that she spent all say hanging about the barn complaining.

DD Marcia left yesterday for Florida. It was an awful job for her to get ready all by herself. Now she has the drive all by herself pulling her horse trailer. She says it pulls smoothly and she never has any problems with backing up. She has three dogs and two cats with her and a very good attitude despite exhaustion.

For Martin and his friends I cooked two pheasants, two chukkas and two partridge (grouse). They brought the pheasants and chukkas from Virginia and shot the partridge locally. I have about 75 cookbooks and the only one that has instructions for cooking game birds was The Joy of Cooking. I was certainly glad I studied the instructions. I would not otherwise have understood how important it is not to overcook the partridge. They were deliciously moist and flavorful. One of the pheasants was an older bird and I braised it. They also brought couple of pounds of moose meat that I stewed and served with a sauce enhanced with cream. I also made a pot of black beans and a big pan of roasted root vegetables, all of which were from my garden. Everybody said it was a good dinner.

Martin reported seeing a bald eagle on a tree at the river bend by my farm. Look out chickens.

Today, Sunday, after morning chores I went over to Max and Mitra’s house to join in with those gathered to slaughter their pig. Four chefs were present, one a lovely lady named Krista, her chef husband Erik, his sous chef Mitch, and Paul Drowns who was instrumental in getting everyone together. There were a couple of other gentlemen as well as Laura and her family from Flying Pond Farm and our friend Janet. Max was Field Marshall for the occasion and had everything set up and ready. Mitra made lots and lots of hamburgers from their new ground beef. She served them on Laura’s home made buns.

October 27, 2008 Monday:

The morning started out foggy. Jeremiah spent the night with Jasmine so she was not up at the barn. They were all somewhere out in the fog. I could not even hear Jasmine’s bell so I delayed milking until they showed up. When I finally got her in, she had saved me only ½ gallon but there was no remaining hint of mastitis.

After the fog lifted, the day was perfect. I did some last things in the garden and was actually too hot. The dogs played around in the pasture and down by the river while I planted the rest of the garlic, dug the remaining carrots and beets and lifted the last dozen leeks. My ever bearing strawberries are still coming along.

I have not yet ordered myself a grain mill so have not tried the wheat sent me from Kansas by Laurie. I haven’t ground my own wheat for about 10 years since my last mill quit and have been impatient to grind again. I do have a small milling attachment for my KitchenAid. It will only do a coarse grind and is slow but I assembled it and ground four cups which I put to soak for tomorrow.

Mitra gave me an account of the remaining events of their day of hog butchering. It was prolonged and filled with set-backs but I guess everyone ended up happy. She will post a full account on the forum. Paul, whose assistance brought the group together, will return on Wednesday to help complete the cutting, sausage making and curing.

October 28, 2008 Tuesday:

Last week my car failed inspection. I got the work done and went back to VIP this morning only to be told that the new inspection must be done by the same guy and he was too busy. Sigh. Now I have to waste another day going back again.

I made bread today with my Kansas red wheat. I made a simple peasant loaf with only the four basic ingredients, flour, water, salt and yeast, so as to get a clear sense of the flavor. I thought it was very nice indeed and ate two slices with Coburn Farm cultured cream butter.

It has rained all day. We are told to expect worse tomorrow, probably with rain turning to snow. It would be a perfect time to do more work on the computer but when the weather is bad I have no connectivity.

Marcia called. She expects to reach Charlottesville, NC tomorrow, home of her daughter Caiti. She had just spoken with her. Caiti is expecting her first baby in less than three weeks and is semi dilated. She went in for a check-up this morning and was told that the practice was dumping all patients with her form of Medicaid and she needed to go find another doctor who would take her. She burst into tears as this news and they relented and said she could stay on with them until the baby is born. I don’t much like the sound of Charlottesville. Caiti inquired as to the rate of C-sections at the hospital and was told it was 50%. Our medical system is sick sick sick.

October 29, 2008 Wednesday:

All day a cold wind blew and it was mostly overcast. We had been warned to expect snow and colder temperatures than actually occurred so I did not complain. The cows ate about a bale of hay. They did not much enjoy being outside. The hens are looking disappointed. I made them a big pot of rice cooked in some soup that I was tired of eating.

I’m enjoying playing with my Kansas wheat. I ground some and have it soaking for muffins in the morning.

I finally got my car inspection sticker today. It took three trips to the inspection place, a lot of costly work and two additional trips to VIP. This time I had an appointment so as to be sure to have the same inspector. Ha! I was watching and the original mechanic was nowhere to be seen. Somebody else looked at it. But they gave me a sticker, that’s the main thing.

October 30, 2008 Thursday:

My muffins turned out very well, I thought. I added chopped figs soaked overnight in cider. Another time I believe I will add ½ teaspoon of yeast along with soaking and see if they can skip the baking powder.

I observed that Jeremiah’s collar was getting tight so I brought him in to his tie-up tonight. Or rather, I tried. He came in nicely but it’s been a few weeks since I had him in there and he kept going into the wrong bay or trying to crowd in with Jasmine. I jabbed him in the shoulder with my thumb to get him out of Jasmine’s way and he next crammed himself into the section where I sit to milk and where the vacuum pump is fixed to the side wall. Acting like a bull in a china shop, he crammed himself up against the pressure gauge which is in line with the pipe off the front of the pump and broke the entire unit off. The pipe leading out of the pump is threaded and the broken off end will have to be somehow gotten out. Looks like I’ll be milking by hand in the morning.

Once he got it through his head where he was supposed to stand he stood like a rock in the way I have trained him. I clipped the rope to his collar, put the new collar on, removed the old collar and he was good to go. Well, not quite that easy. Both collars were hard and stiff. I had to call on angelic strength to bend them enough to unbuckle and buckle them.

My son John in Adelaide, Australia, called. He is about to set off for a 10 day series of meetings in Papua New Guinea (PNG). John is a physical oceanographer and researches the physics of ocean currents, especially those near land. He is a sought after consultant on matters concerning the paths taken by streams of mine tailings that are dumped into the sea. A mining company wishes to take off a mountain top and drain tailings down a stream and then pipe them out to sea. He told me something I had not known. For a single gold ring, an average of four tons of overburden (three to five tons) must be removed and processed with water. That is a dump truck load. He said the numbers are the same for the mining of all metals, silver, copper, etc.

DD Sally in Haines, Alaska, told me a sad little story today. She observes the bears very closely. They frequent the beach in front of her house. This morning she noticed a little black animal staggering along at the water’s edge and realized it was a baby bear. She went quite near it and realized it was one of a pair of twins she had seen with their mother all summer. Now it was weak and starving and barely able to walk. She knew at once its mother must be dead. She made a lot of phone calls to the relevant authorities but nobody would do anything. They said nature must take its course. I asked her if there was nothing she could give it to eat but she said that to feed it is a death warrant for any bear, just a matter of time until it becomes a nuisance bear and is shot, and besides it is highly illegal. She said that someone must have shot this little bear’s mother. The tourists are forever crowding the bears and then brag about shooting them. It is so tragic. The bears and fishermen are both after the salmon. The tourists just want photo ops.

I planted hyacinths today out front by the white rugosas.

October 31, 2008 Friday:

Well, of course I milked by hand. I got three quarts before my hands, unaccustomed to milking, went numb. Jasmine stood absolutely perfectly. I brought her in again at supper time and had my bucket along but Jeremiah had left nothing. I left them together for the night so there is unlikely to be anything in the morning either.

Martin called this evening to assure me that the vacuum system would be an easy repair, would not take five minutes. I felt rather like Dylan Thomas in A Child’s Christmas in Wales assembling his mechanical toy: “Easy for Leonardo!”

It was down to 20° this morning and my spring sink was frozen up. This is my constantly running sink carved from granite. It is gravity fed from a distant spring but erosion along the river has exposed the line for about 150’ which makes it subject to freezing. The sun came out today and by 4pm it had thawed but I was reminded to fill some jars so as to extend my access to this wonderful water. I have a drilled well but its water tastes flat.

Tonight being Halloween, I made two kinds of cookies. I get very few kids here, some years none, but I would hate to disappoint any that showed up. With my carriage house gone I have no porch light but I lit my kerosene ship’s light and set it out with a pumpkin next to it. One family came. It was Ronnie, the other woman in town who has a cow. She has three beautiful children. One little girl has started piano lessons so I brought them in to try my seldom touched piano. She played her scales and a hymn.

Martin said wee Hannah (2 ½ ) and Henry (6 mo) were dressed as a bumblebee and a duckling. They live in a suburban cul de sac and get trick-or-treaters by the hundreds.

Ronnie says she believes her cow is bred.

Sally called again. She told me that several people have reported seeing the little bear snuffling along looking for something to eat. It is so heartbreaking.

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November 01, 2008 Saturday:

I fixed my milking machine vacuum pump!

This morning I milked by hand again and got 3 quarts. Jasmine had perfect manners. After I watched my favorite program, Victory Garden, I detached the pump from the wall; Martin had created an easy mounting system. I loaded it into the car and took it down to Towle’s Hardware. It was much too heavy to carry into the store, I just barely got it to the car. I asked Ed to come out to the car and tell me what I needed to buy to repair it. He sold me a device called a screw extractor that I needed to stick into the broken off piece of copper tube to back it out. He also sold me a replacement for it called a nipple that screws into the vacuum pump. I did not attempt to remount the jar that catches dirt, the in-line pressure gauge or the stopcock, I just jammed the hose directly onto the nipple and it ran the pulsator just fine.

All week I have been eating leftovers and boiled eggs and decided to fix something nice tonight. Out in the corn patch I found one last overlooked pumpkin exposed by the cows who have been eating the cornstalks. For a month I assumed that these big green dirigibles were overgrown zucchinis and gave a bunch to Max for the pigs. Then they started to turn orange and I began to suspect that they were the odd shaped heirloom pumpkins. I cut this one open and it was indeed a nice orange pumpkin. I made pumpkin soup for my dinner.

The soup: I cut up a bunch of 2” pieces of peeled pumpkin, tossed them in warm coconut oil, and baked them until they were soft, then pureed them with the stick blender. I sautéed a leek, deglazed the pan with about 2 cups of lovely pheasant stock I had from the bird I braised last Saturday for Martin and his friends, and added about 2 cups of pumpkin. This is exceptionally smooth rich flavored pumpkin, especially after baking. Then I sautéed four large scallops from a bag I had in the freezer and set them in the middle of my plate of soup. I got this idea from a magazine. The only seasoning I used was salt and pepper. This made a delicious supper.

After supper I canned 8 pints of applesauce that I have been working on.

November 02, 2008 Sunday:

The weather was cold but fair. We are in a stretch of good late fall weather. I expect hunters hope the weather holds. I let the dogs run for awhile as Maine does not have Sunday hunting.

My dogs killed a kitten today. They didn’t mean to do it. They carried it around until it was exhausted. I saw them and took it away, still alive, but barely. It was covered with spit but not damaged visibly. I brought it in on the couch and stroked it but it was too far gone. Both dogs like the cats. Willie is great friends with Stanley. He lies down and stretches blissfully while Willie gives him a nibble massage along his spine. Both dogs knew I was disgusted with them and hung their heads all afternoon.

DD Sally called from Alaska. She and Gretchen, the little dog she is keeping for her son Rafe and his GF, were about to go for a walk and see if they could see anything of the baby bear. She has decided that if she finds it she is going to give it a chicken, never mind the rules.

I’m getting my cows trained to come in for hay around 4pm so that I don’t have to go after them. Starting three days ago I got them in and they found the hay. Today they came in by themselves. This will save me a daily chore that tends to be at an inconvenient time. After they come in I shut the door so they don’t wander away and I can bring Jasmine in for her dinner at my convenience.

My milking machine worked fine this morning but Jasmine only gave 1 ½ gallons.

November 05, 2008 Wednesday:

Two days just disappeared out of my life. Yesterday I had another appointment to treat my WMD with the Avastin variant that has been successful in turning the disease around in some people. It does not seem to be doing that for me. Well, I did tell myself that there was some improvement in my vision this month but the tests did not bear this out. As soon as the topical anesthetic wore off my eye hurt like the very devil. I think the gal did not adequately wash out the Betadyne. And something scratched my cornea. Ibuprofen didn’t touch the pain. Today I am still not fully recovered. Things look blurry and my eye still burns. I feel mighty flinchy about going back next month. DS Max drove me. It was dark coming home and I was grateful that I didn’t have to drive.

Yesterday Jasmine gave 2 ½ gallons and today she gave 2. It is Indian summer. It got nearly up to 60° today.

George Brown delivered 50 hemlock posts for the post and beam reconstruction of my carriage house. They smell lovely.

Max came over and split wood and filled my big indoor wood rack.

We have a new President Elect: Barack Obama. I heard a lot of moving statements in interviews with very old African Americans who believe that their grandchildren will now have expanded opportunities because they can picture success.

November 06, 2008 Thursday:

I spent virtually all of today looking for a missing invoice. I now have a much tidier office and no more slithery piles on my kitchen table but did not find it. Of course I did find a few other things including my reading glasses. My traumatized eye is pretty well recovered and I am looking forward to being able to read some more of my current book. I am still working on Smelling Land by David Sanborn Scott. I hope to grasp his concepts well enough to write a review.

At 5 o’clock I abandoned searching and went to visit my veg garden. It still has Brussels sprouts, arugula and a lot of kale. A light Scotch mist was falling but it was not cold. I sat in my lawn chair and thanked the garden spirits for another season of dedication. Then I went to the barn to commune with my nice warm fuzzy cow, bull calf and steer, Jasmine, Jeremiah and Oakley. They were waiting in the barn like good cattle.

Back in the kitchen, I made myself cream of pumpkin soup which I garnished with arugula and black walnuts from a dear forum member, Kendra. I sautéed them in pumpkin seed oil using only about 1 tablespoon of oil as it is a rare product.

Jasmine gave 2 gallons this morning.

November 07, 2008 Friday:

It was drizzly and foggy all day but warm. Fifty F now seems very warm. Jasmine has a cut on her teat, probably caused by Jeremiah. I washed it this evening and dressed it with a medicated salve. The teat is a bit puffy. I noticed it this morning but did not apply any meds as I thought it best not to discourage Jeremiah from that teat. I sure hope she sleeps in a clean spot. She always sleeps indoors and with this rain it is never very clean and dry even though I make her a clean bed, in fact several clean spots lined with hay in case Oakley takes the best one.

I have some money from my Allstate claim that is in danger of expiring if not spent. I know this sounds absurd and I had never encountered it before either, but they only gave me a down payment on the claim and won’t send the balance until I spend the first increment. Since a grinder was among the items crushed in my carriage house collapse, I decided to make good on the situation by ordering the Wondermill wheat grinder. There is a place in the next state, New Hampshire, that has it and today they had free shipping, So I expect to soon be able to report on its functionality. It is many years since I have had a grain mill except for the small KitchenAid attachment. The one I used to have was incredibly noisy and sent flour dust everywhere so I hope Wondermill lives up to its claim for being quiet and clean.

DD Sally saw the tracks of the baby bear together with those of a grown bear. She is very much hoping that it has either found its mother or been adopted.

Exciting news: Caiti, daughter of DD Marcia, is in labor with my sixth great grandchild. She is in Charleston, NC. A girl is expected, to be named Lillian.

November 08, 2008 Saturday:

Lillian Skye Mulvey was born about 1AM today by C-sec. She was 7lb 11 oz and is strong and healthy. DD Marcia will drive up Monday to stay a few days. Everybody seems to be happy.

Here is my Granddaughter Caiti and my new great grandaughter Lillian

DD Sally’s daughter Rosemary, my world traveling granddaughter, is going to Kazakhstan on Monday to visit her brother Gabriel. She plans to stay until after New Year’s Day and cook his Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.

Sally says no one has reported seeing the baby bear for a couple of days. If it found its mother they will be denning. We are all hoping.

I soaked freshly ground flour last night and made two nice loaves of bread today.

The cuts on Jasmine’s right front teat looked better this morning. I covered them with vitamin E and this evening there was no more wet tissue showing. She gave less than 2 gallons this morning. It rained steadily but lightly all day. It was about 50° and the cows mostly grazed. I believe we are to expect several more days like this. I am so grateful that it is not snowing.

A neighbor gave me some pig parts that their family did not want, the head, tongue, liver and fat. I simmered half of the head most of the day. I expect to have some good stock. Max and Mitra’s new chef friends had them brown their pig parts in the oven before making stock so I did that. I have not previously browned pork intended for stock, only beef.

DS Max and Mitra’s older daughter, Shireen, is having her 13th birthday party tonight. She invited 20 of her closest friends. I expect they are all having a wonderful time. Shireen is rejoicing in being a teenager at last.

November 09, 2008 Sunday:

It was still raining this morning. There were only 7 or 9 in church and last night’s Harvest Supper was not well attended. After the service, pie and coffee were encouraged. I was kinda glad to see these things as getting the milking done in time was touch and go with no time to eat.

A couple of weeks ago my sister Barby sent me some quinces from her tree. Today I finally got them made in to a lovely rose colored conserve.

Max wrote me all about Shireen’s birthday party:

Shireen had a large birthday party bash here last night that went until about 10:30 pm. There were about 30 kids here including a lot of boys. Mitra set up a massive taco production line with all the condiments one might expect. It was very popular, especially with the boys. One kid ate seven. They ran around and screamed in the dark. I don’t know what else may have gone on, but I was outside most of the time. So, hopefully that kept the groping to a dull roar. I had a little campfire out in the driveway with hip-hop music blaring out of the back of the van.

There were several opportunities to torture Shireen. The music from the van was of my choice, and I was told it would not be what was playing when her friends got here. However, her friends really liked it, so I kept it on. I did a lot of dancing to the beat around my little fire, which was a source of great embarrassment to poor Shireen. I was rockin out to one of these music mixes from Uncle Dave the DJ and I heard Shireen yell at me several times to “Please STOP!” Two of her friends told me I was the coolest dad ever. Shireen accused them of being completely weird.

Also in the food department there was come-uppance. Mitra had made a perfect cheesecake, as is her specialty. Shireen told her, “Mom, NOBODY is going to want cheesecake!” It turned out to be much more popular than the birthday cake (from the supermarket).

We don’t plan to let her live any of this down very soon. She did have a really good time and I think her friends did also. Roshan had a friend over to deflect any potential snittyness. A girl slipped in one of Helen’s plops wearing shoes that although stylish, were not up to the challenge. Those shoes may never be worn in public again.

Both girls are sleeping in. I gotta go milk my cow.

Max

On NPR American Routes they are playing Freddy Fender. I love Freddy Fender.

November 10, 2008 Monday:

Jasmine was fine this morning but gave only 1 ½ gallons.

Before I even had the washing up done I heard loud, meaningful barking from Willie, my Westie. A young man whom I often see walking along the road was hailing from the gate with that dreaded news: “You have a cow on the road!” He kindly offered to get it back through the fence. I got my shoes and a lead rope and followed along more slowly. It was Oakley, and I could see from a distance that this young man lacked the knack for herding a cow. Oakley was starting up the road towards town. Then a car stopped and a woman with puffy blond hair got out and immediately herded Oakley back through where the fence was down. I arrived in time to say “I guess you’re a cowgirl”. She said, “Not really, but my mother has three.” I don’t know who she was but am grateful. It could have been awful. I drove the three critters back to the barnyard and closed the gate to the North Field. Max has promised to repair the fence when he comes over tomorrow.

This afternoon I made a small apple pie with some lovely apples that needed to be used.right away. As I like to do, I tossed them with ½ cup of cider concentrate made from simmering down cider. This makes an awesome difference in the flavor of the pie so I try to keep it on hand. One can also use undiluted frozen apple juice concentrate.

November 11, 2008 Tuesday:

My contractor arrived at 8am with a crew of two. They got straight to work laying the foundation beams. These have to be notched in various ways necessary to post and beam construction. They also must lie perfectly level. They have a laser level that looks quite serious. Most of their time today was spent working on the beams which were on high saw horses. They worked with wood chisels; however George said he has ordered a power tool which will speed the job. Willie and Bagel assumed a supervisory role which they seemed to take seriously.

Speaking of Bagel, he has been having some trouble with his bowels and last night, worried, I suppose, that he might offend, wanted to sleep in the buttery, the unheated room between the kitchen and carriage house (when it existed). I guess at some point he decided he had to get outside and he gnawed and clawed the corner of the door until he squeezed out. I marvel that he was able to squeeze through the resulting narrow crack but there he was this morning on the front lawn while the door was surrounded by wood chips.

It stayed about 32° all day. I did some belated digging in the south facing border by the barn in hopes that the ground remains open a couple of more days. I really want to plant the Angelique tulip bulbs DD Marcia left for me. I was wearing gloves but my fingers got so cold that when I came in I had to run my hands under the hot tap to recover their use.

DS Max came over with Roshan to help with various tasks such as dumping the 50 gallon stock tank that was too heavy for me even though it had only 4” of water in it. He went out into the North Field with fencing supplies but decided the fence was too badly trashed for a quick fix. Maybe he and Martin can work on it this weekend.

They ate a lot of apple pie.

After they left, Mitra called in hopes they would soon be home. One of her missing black hens emerged with a pile of little peeps and she needed help moving the family. I found out that there are seven chicks.

DD Marcia in now on her way from Florida to Charlotte to help with the new baby. I told her to make sure that Caiti knows to ignore anybody who tells her it is OK to let the baby cry. I said she should carry it around or lie down with it on her chest and be there for it even if she can’t figure out how to stop the crying. I forgot to tell her about tight swaddling. When she calls I will tell her. Caiti says that her nipples are sore but Lillian is nursing well

Jasmine gave 1 ½ gallons again this morning. I must watch her closely now for signs of heat.

November 13, 2008 Thursday:

Last night I abandoned duty and turned on the TV to see the program about Queen Elizabeth. I don’t know how long it continued but I watched for two hours. It followed Her Majesty through a succession of state dinners. One saw numerous fine interiors such as Windsor Castle, Colonial Williamsburg, and the British Embassy in Washington and also the White House. The Queen dressed in a succession of pink, green or mauve gowns with her matching iconic hats. Her calm unflagging charm draws one in. After fifty some years of never losing it she has become an enormously convincing figure. I can’t imagine anyone like her ever happening again.

The Queen has a lively step and healthy appearance. Bear in mind that she is never far from her herd of Royal Jerseys. Her household has always had raw milk, cream and butter.

My crew of carpenters worked all day in threatening weather which finally collected itself into sleety rain about quitting time. They erected a third corner post but don’t plan to return tomorrow. The rain may turn to snow in the night.

Sally called from Haines, AK. Her DD Rebecca lives about six hours away in Tok where she and her husband have moved to some country acres. Sally is bagging up all her chicken and goat manure to take to Rebecca as a housewarming gift. She thought my readers would find this entertaining.

Marcia reports that baby Lillian is a wonderful nurser and Caiti’s nipples are recovering. Caiti’s feet and ankles are swelling but she has no other symptoms. She has no back pain, headache or fever so I said to elevate her feet and stay that way until tomorrow. But maybe I should have said to exercise. Her C-sec incision remains painful so I guess exercise is out of the question for the present. Caiti’s husband is a chef and makes them wonderful dinners.

I went grocery shopping today and in the evening made butter. It took forever to churn. First it whipped even though it was the right temperature and then when my back was turned it burbled out all over the counter. I scooped it up with a spatula and told it to get back into the churn where it belonged. It then took that persistent grainy form that is so annoying. When it does that I squeeze it by hand. In the end it was OK but the flavor of the buttermilk is unappealing.

Jasmine gave over two gallons this morning but there were clots on the filter. I can think of no reason why her mastitis should be returning. The milk from that quarter has a slightly metallic taste. Tonight I added about 10 grams of vitamin C to her feed along with molasses and gave her a lard and cayenne rub. She exhibited no signs of heat today but she seems to have a 23 day cycle so I will continue to watch very closely.

November 14, 2008 Friday:

The flavor of the milk from Jasmine’s right rear quarter was nearly perfect this morning. The filter revealed only a few very tiny clots and it strained fine. She showed no signs of heat.

It rained all day. I did not see the cows outside grazing at all. The hose I use for cattle watering blew itself out and I did not get around to replacing it until evening by which time the cows had drunk every drop. They could have gone outside and drunk from some clean grassy puddles but I guess they did not think of that.

In the late afternoon the son of a neighbor, Leonard, came to the door asking to take his 4-wheeler down into the field by the bridge to attend to a buck he had shot up at his dad’s place. He said it had fallen into the river and floated down to my place. He was agitated and puffed clouds of cigarette smoke in my face. He said it was his first buck so I expect that explains his nervousness. I told him how to get through the various gates to get where he wanted to go without getting stuck in the marsh. He and others who had reached the deer on foot were down there about 45 minutes. I assume they were field dressing the deer. When I saw the lights of his 4-wheeler returning toward my house I went out to speak with him. He swept past within four feet of me without seeing me – it was pretty dark. He was driving standing up. I suppose he was still feeling high. I guess he is about 18 years old.

A young woman from Weld who used to help me came back this morning to put up the plastic on my windows. She worked all morning and did a good job. Every year it gets harder for me to climb around on chairs and operate the staple gun. She is a tall and solidly built person and seemed to have no difficulty.

I made a sour cream lime cake to use up some sour cream but I doubt I will have any visitors this weekend. DS Martin and Amy were planning to come but this cold rain discouraged them. My building crew couldn’t work.

One of my cheeses sat too long uneaten in the fridge and got moldy and sort of damp and unappealing. I couldn’t bear to put it into the chicken bucket so made an experiment. I trimmed out most of the mold and put the remainder into a small casserole and poured sour cream over it. I put it into the Aga simmer oven for an hour or so. It all melted together to the consistency of a good dip. It was amazingly good. I can warm it up again and serve it without apology.

There is news today on the radio of a destructive fire in Montecito, CA, a beautiful hilly oceanside community. The story mentioned that the fire is nearly uncontrollable because the hills are covered with chaparral, a greasy shrub. From time immemorial those hills were open grassland with live oak in the gullies. Cattle and sheep grazed the hills. About 30 years ago Californians decided that livestock, especially cattle, were a blight on civilization and must be banned. Without livestock, the hills have grown up to chaparral. They put the last of the cowboys, Jimmy Rapley, into a cowboy museum. Reporters visited him in his nursing home where at 100 years old he kept his salty wit to embellish tales of his boyhood cattle drives.

These hills were never forested. Four hundred years ago Sir Francis Drake extolled their beauty glowing with the native California poppies. I don’t know what kept them open then, perhaps deer and antelope.

November 15, 2008 Saturday:

One of my pullets laid her first egg today! It rained almost constantly. The river is way up. During a period of lesser rain I dug a bit more ground for bulbs. I think I have about two days until the ground freezes. There is still a lot to eat in the vegetable garden. I picked Brussels sprouts, arugula, cilantro, chervil, mustard and kale.

No signs of heat in Jasmine and no mastitis. She gave 1 ½ gallons today.

November 16, 2008 Sunday:

Horrible weather today! It rained last night and most of the day. Actually, it was not very cold, just wet and windy. Martin and Max had a “wood splitting for Mom” day planned, rain or shine, and Martin was already here when I got home from church about 10:30. Max and Roshan arrived soon thereafter. I kept busy finding things for them to eat. I made a big pot of chicken soup. The power went out twice, each time for over an hour.

Besides splitting a lot of wood, the guys rolled up my electric fence. What a break that was for me. It was a big job. Roshan helped with the wood stacking, then sat at the table and created an appliqué picture of a house and garden. The light was very dim thanks to the storm and no electricity but she has young eyes and was able to see.

When everyone left at 4:30 I lit candles and took a nap until 6pm. I figured that without light it would be difficult and possibly dangerous to try to sort out the cows and get Jeremiah into his stall for the night. I went out to the barn wearing my headlamp to size things up and at least throw down hay. Lo and behold, as I opened the door to look in on the cows all the lights came on. They came on just in time to see Jeremiah making a manful leap onto Jasmine. She has a 23 day cycle and tonight was the end of Day 23. They both headed for the door and I let them through, closing it on Oakley, even though I had not yet served out Jasmine’s dinner. Despite his friskiness, Jeremiah proved easy to separate and went into his stall politely. Hurray! I believe I forestalled breeding. Jeremiah leaves nothing in doubt and there was no sign of heat earlier in the day. I will keep him penned for two days to make sure.

Last night I measured Jeremiah’s height. As close as I could tell it is 44”. He definitely weighs at least 500 lbs. I have him advertised for $1500. (I now find that that height must be inaccurate. He cannot be that high.)

My sister called from California. I asked her how the California hills stayed grassy and treeless during the centuries before Western settlement and cattle grazing. She said the Indians burned them. For some reason I did not think of that, even though I know fire has been a fact of life in land management in many parts of the world. The California Native Americans were primarily hunter gatherers. The live oak trees that fill the ravines produced acorns which they ground into meal. Barby found a grinding site on her property. Hunting would have been far easier with the chaparral controlled. You cannot walk through it even on a horse and it harbors a lot of rattlesnakes. Nothing eats it except possibly goats, which are in any case a recent introduction.

November 17, 2008 Monday:

Of course I kept Jeremiah in today. There were many piteous moos from both him and Jasmine. She hung about in the beefer pen all day rather than grazing, although the sun was shining. Oakley went out alone for awhile, but he hates that. Jasmine gave 2 ½ gallons this morning and another 1 ½ this evening. There were clots on the filter. Maybe it is stress related.

Last week I ordered a jar called the Picklemeister. It is just a glass gallon jar with an airlock fitting on top. It was not very expensive. It arrived today and I see that it is something a person could contrive using items from a wine making shop. I am going to fill it with veggies and try to make kim chee. I cut off the tops from a lot of my non performing Brussels sprouts. That is the nearest thing I have to cabbage. I hope to be able to make the kim chee entirely from the remains of my garden plus some root veg already stored. I hope to work on the kim chee tomorrow. The sprouts tops are standing in a basin of water. They look like a fall centerpiece.

DD Marcia left me bags and bags of spring bulbs that she did not have time to plant. I put in some of the tulips called Angelique and narcissus called Thalia in the plot I have been working on by the south wall of the barn. Then I went out by the front gate and started a new bed for more hyacinths. Out there it is very hard digging. The top layer of the soil is a tangle of crabgrass and ground ivy. Underneath are bittersweet roots trying to take over the world. I prepared enough ground for a dozen bulbs and got them in. Then I quit for fear of getting a sore back, but it was fun.

November 18, 2008 Tuesday:

Jasmine only gave 1 ½ gallons this morning. She is holding up her milk. The milk from her troubled quarter had a faint off flavor. The filter showed a few extremely small flecks. I have decided to keep Jeremiah separated until the several cuts on her teats are completely healed, or he is sold, or I make some other plan for him. I plan to keep him on the market for three weeks. I must now milk TAD at least until Jasmine stops holding up, which she is certainly doing. This evening she gave 1 gallon.

When cleaning my teeth last night, one of my crowns fell off so I had to see my dentist. It is tooth #12 and the crown cannot be reset. Sigh.

Before racing off to the dentist I grabbed my spading fork and headed for the veg garden with the rest of the spring bulbs, 60 of them. It is turning colder and the ground is freezing. This might be the last day I can stick in a fork. There were flurries and I had to break up frozen clumps. The untilled ground is already frozen I first dug up the broccoli and a row of Brussels sprouts and popped all the bulbs into the ground in a double row. I really should mulch them to prevent frost heaves as I did not put them in quite as deeply as I should have.

When I got home from the dentist, UPS had delivered my Wonder Mill. I was too busy to even open the box until 8 o’clock. The instructions seemed quite exacting, so as much as I hate reading those little booklets, I lay down and studied it. It turned out to be well within my skill level so I ground some of Laurie’s wheat. The resulting flour is of superb quality and it is indeed quieter than other mills I have known and less messy. So I started some dough for tomorrow.

Also started cottage cheese.

November 20, 2008 Thursday:

The weather is staying cold. There was less wind today and the sun came out for awhile. The cows went out briefly to graze. I am using about 3 bales of hay a day. These are small bales. I am continuing to keep Jeremiah in his stall. He seldom complains. He can see the others through his little viewing window. The others are in the next room. It is a large comfortable stall formerly used by DD Marcia’s 17 hand horse, Peter. But of course he would prefer to be right with the others.

I am starting to see a much deeper cream line on the jars of milk. There are still nicks and scratches not fully healed on Jasmine’s teats. I put vitamin E on them every day. Jeremiah will have to stay weaned.

DS Martin sent me this quote from Hannah, 2 ½ .

Hannah really likes Jasmine, and Jasmine milk. I was getting her ready for bed last night and Nick Spitzer came on the radio, talking about jazzman John Coltrane. Hannah said, “Does that guy on the radio have a Jasmine too?”

DD Sally’s son Gabriel is living in Kazakhstan and sent these pictures of the men in his village. Here is his commentary:

“The photos are all from a month or so ago, from the village I was staying in. They show a local game, rather like rugby except played on horseback and with a dead goat instead of a rugby ball. To be honest, I never did figure out how they scored it–the goal seems to be to gallop as far and as fast as you can before inevitably dropping the carcass. The man in the first picture has just dropped it. In the second, they are milling around while someone tries to pick it up.”

DD Sally wrote that her little dog, Gretchen, a buhund (something like a small husky) noticed wolf tracks. She was frozen in horror. The next day when they looked up towards her hillside garden they saw a grey wolf. This is only the second time in 20 years she has seen a wolf around her place. She is not alarmed for herself but they do eat dogs and of course goats. Her animals are well penned with electric fence in addition to high wire. The electric fence stops bears.

My crew of carpenters is making pretty fair progress with the rebuilding of my carriage house. There are six posts up with a connecting beam at the second floor level. This is the front elevation and part of the far end. Their work has been speeded by a mortising device made by Makita. It clamps onto a beam that is sitting on sawhorses and it lowers down like a drill press except rather than a drill it has a skinny little chainsaw that routs the mortise.

November 21, 2008 Friday:

The temperature continues to drop. It was about 15° this morning. The men working on the carriage house are pretty well bundled up. They are making steady progress. However Max pointed out that they have set one of the cement pills for a central interior post right in the way of where I park my car. I will have to ask them to move that.

Jasmine is pretty well adjusted to being separated from Jeremiah. I am now getting lots of cream and made butter today. There was no sign of mastitis. However I will carry on milking TAD at least until Thanksgiving (when it will be inconvenient). I can’t really trust it not to return. She seems contented and is well covered with flesh and winter coat. Oakley looks great. He is so friendly too. I keep hay in front of them all the time and have their electrically heated water tub plugged in. I have not had any response to my ads for Jeremiah.

I made a big pot of vegetable soup with sausage for lunch today for my vet. He usually stops for lunch when in the neighborhood. I did not have time to make the pumpkin pie I had planned but made it later in the day. Max was over this way to winterize the water system in DS Martin and Amy’s camp. I fed him soup and pie with whipped cream.

I still have not made my kim chee. DS John called from Adelaide. They are boarding two teenage Korean sisters who are attending school there. The girls say that their mother makes kim chee every day.

November 23, 2008 Sunday:

Our weather continues cold and windy. George, the contractor, sent a workman down on Saturday to nail up a cross brace to reinforce one of the posts that isn’t yet connected up to its beam.

The dogs and I took a walk along the river. They were well behaved. We started out by making a pass through the veg garden and I picked half a dozen last little Brussels sprouts. The river is high, about halfway up its 12’ bank. All the leaves have fallen except from the oaks and beeches. These cling most of the winter. I walked around to where my old dog Muffin is buried to see if the wind chime is still intact. It is, except for some clappers. I guess that is why I have not been hearing it much.

The animals all seem contented but Jasmine is only giving about 3 gallons a day. The cream line is now 4” deep. I have the churn filled again for tomorrow.

I was getting tired of eating last Friday’s soup at every meal so made a lamb and rice casserole this afternoon. It was really good. I will probably freeze most of it for future guests.

My grandson Harper invited me to join Facebook so that I can keep abreast of his activities. He sent me a link. I tried for a good long time but kept getting “Page cannot be displayed” and finally gave up feeling defeated. Sigh.

November 24, 2008 Monday:

The weather today was much improved. It was warmer (about 18°) but there was no wind. Jasmine and Oakley grazed for an hour or so on the meager pasture. Then she stood in the sun and chewed her cud. She gave 2 gallons this morning, 1 gallon this evening.

Three weeks ago when DD Marcia left for Florida I gave her a pound of Coburn Farm butter. She made it last through yesterday, then had to switch today to ordinary store-bought. At breakfast her Chihuahua, Chiquita, sits in her lap and waits for the dab of butter she expects. Today when it turned out to be store-bought she refused it. Now there’s loyalty.

DD Sally sent me her latest adventure from Haines, Alaska. Any of you JW’s out there cover your eyes. There will be blood.

I had an hilarious thing happen two days ago- anyway I thought it was funny, the other people didn’t, I think…. I decided my dear ram Fred was going to have to go to Sheep Heaven– I sent him up the highway to visit the female sheep that live up there, and then they butchered him… we shared the meat, but I said I wanted the fleece. I got the fleece ok, but it was attached to the skin still, so I warmed it up in the house for a couple days (it’s cold up the highway) and then put down newspapers, spread it out and got going with the clippers. Godawful job incidentally– do not try this at home. And it turned out that I guess they had cut the skin a bit, so as I kneeled on it to try to hold it down, the blood (it was still bloody, I guess because of being frozen) kept seeping up and getting all over things. Sigh. However I eventually finished and rolled up the bloody leftovers, stuffed them in the bloody bag and threw them down the front steps to deal with later… I mean, what the heck, nobody ever comes and knocks, right? So of course that was the time that a couple of dressed-to-the-nines Jehovah’s Witnesses decided to stop in. They’d gotten past the bag but having me open the door covered with blood was a bit much for them I think. Eyes staring, they assured me they didn’t need to come in at all, just leave off the pamphlets, no problem. I had no idea what I looked like till after they left when I happened to catch sight of myself- like I say, simply covered- including the knees of my pants were soaked where I’d been kneeling in blood. I guess I should have explained to them I was shearing a dead sheep in the middle of the living room.

November 27, 2008 Thursday – Thanksgiving:

Tuesday I awoke to a white world. It was snowing hard. By late morning it had turned to rain which continued bucketing down all day. There was a high wind behind it and it was almost scary. I was deeply thankful that it was not snow. The river came way up and flooded part of my pasture. Many thousands in Maine lost power but I did not. Of course no work could be done on the barn. On Wednesday the sky dawned clear. DS Martin drove up from Biddeford and spent the day doing useful things for me such as replacing the hinges on the bulkhead and replacing the sash on the chicken room window. He also helped the carpenters. They set two more posts and put in the diagonal bracing. They were aided by scaffolding, blocks and tackle, and a come-along but it still required a lot of strong shoulders and Martin was able to help with that. I cannot imagine how Bret built a big two storey post and beam house by himself.

This morning I found one of the gates frozen into the ground in an open position over a lingering rain puddle and I had to pour hot water on the ground to thaw it enough to close.

Mitra and Max cooked Thanksgiving dinner and it was fantastic. For pre dinner snacking, Mitra made sausage balls and pomegranate walnut dip. The locally grown turkey was moist and juicy. There was also a rare chuck roast with great flavor cooked the long slow way, an onion pie, memorable stuffing, lots of roasted root vegetables lovingly cubed by young Roshan, mashed potatoes, gravy and salad. I think friend Paul Drowns made the gravy. I know he brought a lot of lovely French, Spanish and Portuguese wine. Mitra made a pumpkin cheesecake and Max made an apple rhubarb pie. Mitra sent me home with leftovers and now, seven hours later, I am about ready to eat again and have them warming up.

The sausage balls and the stuffing were made with recipes posted to my forum. The turkey, chuck steak and onion pie were made with recipes from The Grassfed Gourmet.

Poor Shireen has the flu and was quarantined in her bedroom.

DS Mark and wife Ann and granddaughter Hailey picked me up at the farm and drove me to New Sharon for our dinner. Mark and Ann are both medical students and I seldom get to see them so this was a treat. They are both planning on doing primary care medicine and are currently interviewing for positions. Hailey will be 16 next week. I’m not ready for this! She will be getting her driver’s license.

Max kindly brought me home. Poor Willie dog had to be tied all day but all was well here at the farm. Of course I am still playing catch-up on my chores.

November 28, 2008 Friday:

It snowed most of the day and the weather was bleak. DS Martin and his family came up to camp. I took a pot of pumpkin soup up for a rather late dinner. They had a cozy fire going. Baby Henry had gone to sleep but when he heard us socializing he couldn’t stand it and had to join the party. He sat in his little seat eating bread and was perfectly happy. Hannah ate her soup too, and regaled us with an account of her day.

When I got home I finished making the butter I had started earlier. Or rather I tried to finish it. The butter had that persistent grainy consistency that is nearly impossible to press. I finally gave up and put a bowl over it. Butter is so mysterious. The last batch of cream broke in three minutes and was easy to press. The new lot took 45 minutes in the electric churn and is altogether frustrating.

My granddaughter Rosemary is visiting her brother Gabe in Kazakhstan and sent this account of their visit to the village where Gabe has been spending time.

Gabe and I got back from the village a few hours ago. It was neat trip, although somewhat exhausting. We stayed with two different families, so as not to give offense to anyone. They each killed a sheep for us, which meant a great deal of competitive eating–I counted seven major sheep-based meals in 36 hours. This was an honor, and we appreciated it, but I may not eat again for several weeks. 🙂 The sheep’s head is considered the best part, as Gabe may have told you. The older men pass it (cooked) around the table, gouging pieces off and handing them to guests as special treats. I scored two eyeballs and an ear. As I say, this was meant extremely kindly, and was taken as such. That said, I think ear in particular is an acquired taste. We also got a chance to go out in the desert to see the sheep herd owned by one of his families. They looked quite plump to me, and the weather was lovely. There was a small house there where the herder lives with his wife, and where we had tea before going for a walk. We are back in Almaty now, until tomorrow (Gabe teaches in the morning.) We had a small Thanksgiving of our own here–very small. We just bought a roasted chicken, some fresh bread, yogurt, honey and persimmons on the way back from the train station…It was all we thought we could manage.

Tomorrow, I think I will go hiking up in the hills.

November 29, 2008 Saturday:

DS Max and Mitra and their girls, DS Martin and Amy and their babies, convened here for another feast. Max and Mitra brought one of their homemade hams and I cooked a duck. Both were a treat. The ham is called jambon blanc. It is made by brining a boned out fresh ham for ten days, then rolling, tying and simmering it. I followed the recipe in The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook for Asian Duck. It is brushed with a soy sauce and honey mixture and oven roasted. We had a nice collection of side dishes including the kim chee that I made last Wednesday. It looked right and tasted right but the Brussels sprout leaves that I substituted for Napa cabbage remained too tough for me. Those with more and better teeth did not complain. Perhaps longer fermentation would soften it but I guess that next time I see a large Napa Cabbage in the market I will buy it and repeat the experiment with the authentic vegetable.

The weather was settled with a few sunny intervals but mostly overcast. After dinner Martin took the dogs for a walk including Max and Mitra’s dog, Lulu. Down by the river Lulu began horsing around and knocked my West Highland Terrier, Willie into the river, which is very high. Willie did not yelp or panic, he just began gamely trying to swim against the current. Martin threw himself flat on the bank and was able to grab him by the scruff. We dried him out by the fire. He took a long nap.

November 30, 2008 Sunday:

This morning there was not a hint of mastitis in Jasmine, milk flavor fine, straining fine, total volume consistent with what I have been getting which is a bit under two gallons. This evening the troubled quarter was swollen and hard. It was still pretty firm after milking and stripping was not very productive. The flavor remained normal, perhaps a little flat, and it strained well. There were a few small lumps on the filter but her total volume was again consistent with what I have been getting in the evening, 1 ¼ gallons. I slathered her quarter with the lard and cayenne combo. I make up clean nests for her to lie in three times a day. It is impossible to keep the entire beefer pen dry and clean in this weather. It is above freezing in there but the weather outside is mostly bleak, often rainy and windy, and there is virtually no grazing left. Consequently they stay in all day messing up and the manure is not freezing. She always comes in dirty at present.

I had a quiet day. I picked a little kale that has not succumbed to frost and a last small stalk of Brussels sprouts. I took the dogs with me to the garden. Willie usually runs out into the field and towards the river but today he only went outside the fence and snuffled along the edge of the garden. Bagel stayed right with me. Highly unusual!

I’m about caught up with the kitchen clean-up from yesterday. I am making myself some soup with stuffing and chicken stock. If I don’t like it I don’t have to eat it! The chickens love my failures.

Last night DS Martin and a friend from Weld, Brett Shiffrin, climbed Tumbledown in the dark wearing headlamps. What crazy guys. They each took along a beer which they drank while sitting in the lee of a rock next to the mountaintop lake. The sky was clear with no moon and the stars were brilliant. There was a high wind so they did not linger long.

Today DS Max helped Martin get his dock out of the lake. I expect that took some doing. They both wore hip waders. Martin had his own and Max borrowed the pair from his sister Marcia’s camp. Max thinks this was probably the last possible day they could have gotten it out. Ice is forming on the lake. A storm is blowing in right now and it is snowing hard. I think I will curl up with a seed catalogue. Last year I put off ordering until very late, just could not get into the mood. I missed all the specials and some seed was sold out.

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December 02, 2008 Tuesday:

Last night when I came in from the barn I was so tired I could only wash up the equipment and put away perishables before sinking down on the couch where I remained until 10 pm. I call it the Giant Hand effect, like a giant hand is holding me down. I did not feel sick but have been on the alert for signs of a malady which has struck down several family members. It seems to hit without warning and make one violently ill with flu-like symptoms for about a day and a half. At 10 o’clock I tottered up to bed and slept all night. Today I still felt tired out of proportion to any work I had done and had no appetite but am otherwise fine. I drank an extra 8 oz. of milk straight from Jasmine.

Jasmine was a bit of a pill tonight. She hit me twice with her tail and pooped twice. I told her that if she hit me again with her tail I was tying it across to a nail with a piece of hay string. I could not find any further signs of mastitis but can’t trust it.

Today I tried again on butter and once again it behaved oddly. First, the entire churnful of cream whipped even though it was warm. It oozed out all over the counter. I scraped up most of it with the bench scraper and put it into the chicken bucket. Then I let the churn sit until it calmed down. When I turned it back on it eventually turned to butter but once again was gravelly and resisted pressing. It had a pasty consistency. This time I gave up and told it, “OK, you are going to be made into ghee”. I have the new cookbook by Jennifer McLagan called Fat and she includes a number of recipes calling for ghee.

My granddaughter Rosemary wrote again today, another interesting letter. Gabe is her brother.

I had a version of sheep’s head soup! It was really very good–it had homemade noodles together with chunks of cooked meat and sheepfat in a rich broth. I wish I could have stayed in the village longer, honestly, but Gabe had to come back to teach. He’s also been invited to talk to a conference of Peace Corps people about how to fit in in village life. Apparently, the Peace Corps volunteers keep getting beaten up by people who mistake them for Russians, and they want to know how to avoid this. 🙂 We’ve been having a good time back in Almaty, though. Today, we went to the bazaar and bought a lot of freshly dried fruits, nuts and raw milk. Gabe has made friends with one of the older ladies in the bazaar–when she sees us coming, she pours a bowl of camel’s milk and holds it out to us. I don’t know what she says, but I think today she was trying to explain how best to make borscht (I was carrying a cabbage). Anyhow, I like her. 🙂

I am leaving Almaty again tomorrow, though. I had hoped to travel around the region more, but the passes are closing with snow already. Instead, I’m going on to Delhi and Nepal. 🙂 I’ll let you know how it all works out.

I hope all’s well there.

Love, R

ps – Gabe adds that he thinks maybe the problem with the Peace Corps people is that they are vegetarian. This is a major cultural fault line, he says.

Perhaps they need to try Sheep’s Head Soup. (Ed.)

December 04, 2008 Thursday:

For the second day in a row I had to drive to Skowhegan 1 ¾ hours away, to my dentist. This time it was to have the roots of a broken tooth removed and get back my partial, retrofitted with a replacement tooth. It took Dr. Berry only 15 minutes including the time for the anesthetic shots. He is pretty old and knows what he is doing. One result is a great deal less trauma from which to recover. His office is simple and old fashioned, very low overhead. His prices are correspondingly low. Still, I hope not to have to return too soon.

Back here at the farm, the carpenters are making steady progress. I can’t say rapid because that is not the nature of post and beam. All the periphery posts are now in place and tied together at the top with beams. They are starting on the interior support posts.

One carpenter, Mike, brought me a big stalk of broccoli from his garden. I ate some for supper. They were delicious. I also ate a big chunk of black pudding and it too was very good. Not being equipped for sausage stuffing, I made it in a lasagna pan, then baked it and cut it into squares which I froze.

This evening I made butter and started bread. I am keeping my Wonder Mill (Whisper Mill) on the counter for greater convenience and the better to admire it. It really is amazing. Just pour in the grain and voila, 15 seconds later, three cups of flour, smooth and fluffy.

For several milkings now there has been nothing to report in the way of mastitis. Tonight I forgot to put the pin in Jasmine’s stanchion. She was very cute. When she decided I had done enough stripping she just tiptoed away.

December 05, 2008 Friday:

It was colder today, about 20F, but sunny with no wind. The cows went outside for awhile to check for grass along the fence line. Jasmine’s production has gone up a little. I am throwing down an awful lot of hay. But I have never shorted them. I also increased her grain a little. She is getting about 6 lbs/day.

My hens have quit laying almost completely.

New great granddaughter, Lillian, with Dad Marc.

Martin came up with a wonderful load of Correct Deck siding for the carriage house. I made baked beans for his dinner. I also made bread with freshly ground wheat.

Rosemary wrote from Delhi. She says, “Delhi is fairly overwhelming. Fascinating, but dizzying to a small-town girl. The temples and gardens are oases, though. And the food, of course, is wonderful…”

Tomorrow she is going to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, then on to Nepal.

December 6, 2008 Saturday:

It was colder this morning, down to 8F. I went to the barn well bundled. Jasmine does not mind the cold. Her production has risen to 3 ½ gallons/day. It had dropped to about 2 ½.

I am still trying to catch up after being gone all day Wednesday and Thursday to the dentist and getting a root extracted that was broken in half. I am probably still not 100% over it. I stewed a rooster all day in the Aga. It was slow to relent. At 10pm it is just about edible but I dipped off several cups of good broth as the hours passed.

DD Marcia is spending the winter in Deland, FL where she has rented a little bungalow. She is able to walk to a highly rewarding farmer’s market. Every day she tells me of the fruits and vegetables she has bought. Now she has also found an Asian market with a huge variety of goods.

My granddaughter Rosemary wrote again today.

I just got back from my day trip to the Taj. I went in a car supplied by the hotel, together with another of the guests. The drive was very long, along roads crowded with everything from trucks to camels, but the Taj was more than worth it. I had thought it might disappoint, after all the effort and hype, but it was astonishingly beautiful. I spent the afternoon walking around it, then went briefly into an adjacent fort. Time for bed, now. It’s nearly midnight here. I am going on to Kathmandu tomorrow afternoon, by air. It is time for me to go–Delhi is interesting but very exhausting. But the family that runs the hotel I’m staying at here is Nepalese, and has told me a great deal about how to navigate Kathmandu. I think they’re homesick for it. 🙂

December 8, 2008 Monday:

This morning Rosie wrote from Kathmandu to tell me she had safely arrived. Her hopes of finding a friend to accompany her fell through. She has hired a sherpa guide. One of these days I hope to be able to provide a picture of Rosie. She is very small and has long blond hair and large china blue eyes.

It was down to zero this morning, in fact a bit below and a strong wind blew all day. The carpenters did not work. It will probably be colder tomorrow. Doing the barn chores was painful. My fingers get nearly useless and my toes are vying for attention too. “Take us back in the house”, they say. I am mighty grateful for the warming cabinet that grandson Rafe made last year to house my hose bib and hose. It has a light bulb in it that keeps my water supply from freezing unless I lose power. Before leaving the barn I made the decision to go OAD starting today. Unless mastitis starts again I will keep it up. I have way too much milk and just lost one of my customers, reason unknown. That milk is delivered by a third party and I have never actually met the customer.

DS Max made into the paper while he worked in Vermont over the weekend.

December 9, 2008 Wednesday:

It stared out cold today but warmed up to 20F and started to snow. It made for slippery conditions. I walked around with a ski pole. The carpenters worked all day despite the snow. There was no wind.

I am getting hardly any eggs, about one every other day. It seems to me the chickens have every amenity and have no excuse. I have noticed that circumstances can discourage laying very rapidly but restoration of laying when conditions improve is a slow process. They stopped a couple of weeks ago when we had rain, which is very hard on them because the barn roof leaks.

Jasmine gave 3 gallons this morning, a loss of ½ gallon over the 24 hour period. Apart from that she seemed unaffected by not having been milked last night.

Jasmine showed no trace of heat activity this cycle that I could see. Does this mean that Jeremiah made good use of his brief window of opportunity? It seems likely. Her last three heats have been impossible to overlook.

And from Kathmandu: I’m still in Kathmandu tonight. Today I climbed up to a Buddhist temple to look out over the city–very pretty, with prayer flags draped on the trees. There were a lot of monkeys there, going about their monkey business. Also monks and whatnot…

In the afternoon I went into the city and finished buying a few things for the trek–books and so forth. I am leaving tomorrow at the crack of dawn, and won’t be back for a couple weeks. I’m not sure what the internet possibilities will be en route (it seems everywhere has internet now, but maybe not there). Anyhow, I’ll check in if I can.

It’s a moonlit night here–they turn off the electricity every evening, and Kathmandu becomes a city of shadows, and candlelit shops. At the guesthouse where I’m staying, they build a fire in the garden each night so that the guests have somewhere to gather once the lights go out.

Love, Rosemary

December 10, 2008 Wednesday:

It warmed up today to above freezing. The day started with snow which turned to sleet and then rain. It has made an ice sheet of my front yard but the roads are clear. The carpenters did not work. A new storm, a proper nor’easter, is predicted for tomorrow so I took the occasion to do errands. It was necessary for me to go to Wal-Mart for some items. I don’t shop there for food but if in the store I pick up cleaning supplies and paper goods. More than ever, or perhaps because I shop there so seldom, I was struck by the scary quality of the food. There are almost no ingredients for cooking from scratch. Instead there are thousands of prepared foods. I saw literally dozens of packets of sliced and shredded cheese and only two choices of cheese in little blocks. In the meat section I saw chuck roasts wrapped together with pre-cut potatoes and carrots. There are hundreds of feet of aisle of frozen and otherwise ready to heat and eat foods. I don’t know how Americans stay alive. It is a tribute to the survival power of the human body, although I have to say, a lot of the shoppers looked sickly. It is so sad to think of people wasting their shrinking dollars on prepared foods when it is so much cheaper to cook from scratch, and isn’t difficult. As usual, I am preaching to the choir.

December 11, 2008 Thursday:

Jasmine did finally come in heat today. She seems to have a 26 day cycle going. I pondered putting Jeremiah back in with her but in the end, did not. I would just as soon carry on milking even if she drops way low and not have a fall or winter calf. A fall calf would mean she would be dry in the summer when lots of family are visiting, which would be a disappointment to those looking forward to fresh milk. And in this climate a winter calf is no fun for anybody.

The carpenters worked today. A major storm is predicted, an ice storm in fact. Snow started coming down in earnest about 3pm but they kept working until their usual quitting time of 4pm. It is now coming down hard and fast. So far there is no wind and the temp is 26F, hardly cold at all. The temperature only needs to rise a little for it to start icing. I brought a sled load of wood up near the house and am in good shape. The only thing to fear is a power outage because then I risk loss of water in the barn.

It came to me that the kim chee I recently made that tasted great but was too chewy might be the perfect foundation for borscht. I cooked up some beets, cooked it all together with some stock from the Thanksgiving duck, and Voila! Excellent borscht. I even had some sour cream. The only thing that would have improved it was dill. I forgot to add dill.

I also made gingerbread to use up some butter that was getting strong, and so that I would have something to eat besides bread. I used the Sticky Gingerbread recipe from one of the Aga cookbooks. It calls for golden syrup besides molasses (treacle). It turned out just right, not burned. I have burned several things lately.

Rich Sticky Gingerbread (Aga Recipe)

½ pint milk (This means 10 oz) 2 t. soda 12 oz. plain flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour) 2 t .ground. ginger 2 t. ground cinnamon ½ teaspoon salt 8 oz. butter 8 oz. soft brown sugar 4 oz. golden syrup* 4 oz treacle (molasses) 2 eggs 6 balls crystallized ginger, finely chopped**

Prepare the pan (9×12). Measure the milk into a jug and add the soda, stand on the back of the Aga. Sieve the flour, ginger, cinnamon and salt into a large bowl. Put the butter, sugar, golden syrup and treacle in a saucepan and stand on the simmer plate. Heat and stir till the butter has melted. Remove from the heat and pour into the flour and spice. Mix together well and then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Next, stir in the warmed milk followed by the crystallized ginger. Pour the gingerbread batter into the prepared tin. Bake near the bottom of the baking oven for 30-40 minutes until risen and a fine skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool and store in the tin.

* No golden syrup? Replace with molasses. **Not knowing what a ball of ginger is I used a bit more that ½ cup of chopped candied ginger. t = teaspoon

December 12, 2008 Friday:

The snow continued to fall overnight. This morning it was a white world. Then it started to rain and it was a world of slush. Most of the State of Maine and much of New England lost power but we did not. I hopped out of bed early just in case it was about to go as I prefer to be able to use my milking machine. Jasmine gave 2 ½ gallons with no evidence of mastitis, nor of heat for that matter.

Of course the carpenters could not work but the foreman came down and scraped away the snow and slush from the beams. Deep cold is predicted to follow. I thought I was rather clever to think of opening the front gate before it could freeze shut. I worked on my seed order some more.

Useful information to keep handy: DS Bret wrote to tell me that in case of fire, wrap up in a wool blanket and run out through the weakest flames. Wool is a good fire retardant. Cotton is next best. Man made fabrics are to be avoided as they are deadly. When they melt they are basically napalm. The US Navy allows only natural fibers on our ships. I plan to keep some wool blankets on the upstairs landing.

December 14, 2008 Sunday:

Here it is Sunday and I can’t remember what happened to Saturday at all. Except that I did get the first half of my seed order into the mail. I ordered from Fedco. I am going to order a few more things there but there were some “snooze, you lose” seeds in short supply that I am hoping to score this year. Fedco has simplified their ordering system. Formerly it was so cumbersome that I gave up on them for a decade.

My hens are not laying, even with clabber. I have changed feed to see if that will help.

Jasmine is doing fine. She gave almost 3 gallons this morning.

I made two loaves of whole wheat bread and also made yogurt cream cheese.

The weather has turned cold. The last two days have started out about 9F and peaked at 20F. So far the milking equipment is behaving.

Max stopped by this evening on the way to a job in Massachusetts. He has to cross to an island called Cuttyhunk in the sea taxi, a smallish launch, so I hope the weather is not too bad.

I put up Xmas lights today.

December 16, 2008 Tuesday:

My screen froze and lost today’s entry. I hate that. I’ll try again. Max got home earlier than expected from his monitoring job on Cuttyhunk Island. He kindly drove me to my eye appointment. Dr. Hamzavi says that I have permanent scarring as a result of the bleed into my macula. The central vision of my left eye will not return, he says. But maybe he is wrong.

On the way home we stopped at Gloria Varney’s Nezinscott Farm store. It is such fun to go there. She has an amazing array of home grown and locally grown meats, vegetables and dairy products and dozens of bakery items, cards and gifts too. They also have all the usual dear farm animals plus llamas and Haflinger horses.

All day it grew colder and darker. The carpenters worked just the same although I noticed they folded their tents a trifle early. They have now finished all the posts and beams and say that weather permitting, tomorrow they will start to put on the upstairs floor. It may snow.

December 18, 2008 Thursday:

On Wednesday the crew worked all day with snow falling. It was about 20F, not very cold, and no wind. They got the joists/stringers for the second floor up on half of the structure. Progress is now going to be rapid.

The snow fell on very icy conditions which are now especially treacherous. The snow makes the ice more slippery than ever and it balls up under my feet so that cleats are useless. So far no one has fallen.

DD Sally’s older daughter Rebecca, lives in Tok, Alaska. Here is what she wrote yesterday. Torlief must be about six months old now.

I took a lovely walk today with Torleif. It was about -15F and so he rode in my coat. The sun only reaches the tops of the mountains now so we were down in the shadow. We are having a peak snowshoe hare year so there are tracks everywhere. We went down to the lake and onto the ice and back home. We saw wolves on the lake one time but I know that 5 of the pack have already been killed this year and I suspect the rest will not be back. We live in an ‘intensive management area’ which means aerial wolf control so that urban hunters from Anchorage and Wasilla can have a better chance at killing a moose.

Jasmine gave 2 ¾ gallons of milk. Only one egg! Drat those hens. Ted Flagg plowed the driveway and yard.

December 18, 2008 Thursday:

The weather today was about like yesterday except that we had nice periods of sunshine interspersed with show showers. My whole driveway and yard are still treacherous.

I went to a luncheon at the Carthage Union Church. It was especially for people who live alone. Most of us were over 70. I am rarely in a group where there is anyone older than myself but Dot Mason is 89 and very spiffy looking. We all gave autobiographical snippets. Many of the guests were born at home right in this village.

One more morning of work and the men will have all the floor joists in. A really big storm is predicted for tomorrow so they may be unable to work.

December 19, 2008 Friday:

I can hardly believe it is Friday again. I am so, so behind on Xmas. Sigh. At least all the animals are well and happy. I top up their water three or four times a day. I don’t know what I will do if I lose power and the pump won’t work. I just read Kip’s account of his disaster, so much worse than I had imagined.

The carpenters worked today until three. They were short one man but completed the joists. A huge and amazing boom truck came and delivered a load of Avantech plywood for the upstairs floor. The boom was to enable placing the plywood right up on the floor area where it will be laid.

Before three o’clock a new snowstorm began. I was out shopping and gassing the car “just in case”. Now at 10pm it is still snowing hard and not likely to stop soon. I forgot to go open the front gate. Now it will be snowed shut and I will have to shovel. Drat. But I am not going out now!

Jasmine gave over 3 gallons this morning. She was pretty clean. She sleeps in the bed I make her unless Oakley gets it first. Actually, I always make two beds but still somehow she does not always get a clean spot. It is down to 6F now so the manure is frozen and less messy. That is the one advantage to freezing weather that I can think of.

December 21, 2008 Sunday:

It dropped to -10° last night. I spent a lot of time assembling an outfit that offered some hope of keeping me above freezing in the barn and finally settled on wool longies with heavy cotton culottes, a silk turtleneck topped with a large but lightweight cashmere turtleneck sweater and lastly, a corduroy jumper and a heavy coat. People don’t often realize how warm skirts can be and they give you more freedom of action. DD Sally made herself a vast woolen jumper. I wish I had something like that. Skirts trap heat that comes off your legs and body. I guess if you are a guy you can get much the same benefit from a long coat down to boot level as worn by a Russian sentry. I happen to own such a coat made of bearskin but it is too heavy to walk around in. The Inuit garment called a kuspuk is a sort of dress. Men going out on the ice wear a long one piece parka that comes almost to the knees.

I could not run water this morning in the barn. This was not due to a failure of my warming cupboard. The hose is one of those cheap jobs that crimps and folds and a folded bit was touching the floor of the box. Heat in the box is provided by a light bulb up closer to the top and the floor was cold enough to freeze the bent hose. I re-coiled it and it thawed in a couple of hours. Max is going to pick me up a high quality hose, which I must have.

I did not see anyone yesterday or today. Neither did I accomplish much beyond keeping the fire going. I don’t expect to see anyone tomorrow either as I am snowed in. It has snowed hard all day and is still at it with some blowing. So far I would say we have a new foot of snow on top of the 6” we got Friday. Traffic is still moving but the few cars are going very slowly.

December 22, 2008 Monday:

It snowed all through the night with a howling wind, a blizzard in other words. I was barely able to open the outside door because of the snow piled against it. It is hard to be sure because of the drifting but it appears we got two feet. It was enough to bury Willie. He walked behind me when we went to the barn, not his style at all. Bagel leapt ahead. His “track” was a series of basins where he took successive leaps forward. At one point I tipped over into the snow and it was really hard to find my feet again. My barn has many cracks in it. The siding is set with a half inch between each board for some reason. Blowing snow came in to coat the inside of the barn white, the floor too of course. Jasmine thought it looked weird. She didn’t want to come into the milking room. I had to reassure her by leading her by the collar and she took little fairy steps. She gave three gallons, though.

Getting the sled with the machine to the barn was very difficult. It kept tipping over. Getting it back in full of milk was right on the edge of impossible. It took me about 25 minutes. I began to question my own sanity. Tonight my back and shoulder muscles are in a state of rebellion. I took two Advils.

I was completely snowbound until dear Martin arrived with his snowplow truck. He drove up from Biddeford, about 2 hours away. He plowed the whole area nice and clean, although the wind is still blowing so drifting continues. Then he went up to his camp to plow the road there but a nice neighbor had already done it. He was glad he went because he discovered that one of his windows that was not latched properly, had blown in. He was able to fix it.

I made a dish called Bobotie for our dinner. The recipe was in the new Martha Stewart mag that just came. My sister sent in a card a couple of months ago that offered a free sub to someone of her choice and I was the lucky one. Bobotie is a North African dish. Ground lamb is fried up with a lot of onions and spices. A casserole dish is lined with bread soaked in milk, the ground lamb on top of that, then a custard mixture of milk and eggs is poured over it. It is baked until the custard sets. It resembles moussaka but the seasoning is entirely different. Martin liked it a lot. I also made a blueberry pie.

December 23, 2008 Tuesday:

With iron self discipline, I tell myself that I will not look at the forum until I have written Heifer Diary. Then, tonight for instance, will power fails me and of course it gets way late, like now, 10 pm and I have neither written HD nor eaten. But I did learn about Isabelle, Claire’s cow, having settled.

I have decided to leave Jasmine open for a few months until I can breed for a spring calf. She is giving close to 3 gallons/day and I have few customers. Mostly I skim, make butter, and then make clabber for Max and Mitra with the skim. Yesterday’s Winter Wonderland experience left me questioning my sanity. But grandson Rafe and his gf Sally B will be here this weekend for a little visit. Then I expect DD Sally on January 7. She will be here for about three months. They love making feta. That should use up some milk. Just for myself and the cats, I don’t care if Jasmine drops down to half a gallon.

There was violent wind all last night. Actually, I gave it my deaf ear and didn’t hear a thing but others to whom I spoke said they lay awake worrying about major damage. But today was bright and clear. It even got up to 20°. The builders worked all day laying the Avantech and I think covered the whole floor. I was busy in the house because my vet stopped by for lunch. Fortunately I had plenty of Bobotie and blueberry pie left. All I needed to do was make a vegetable medley with some of my stored root vegetables and cook a pot of rice.

DD Sally and SIL Tom have gone to their daughter Rebecca’s house in Tok, AK for Christmas. It is -30° there right now. Sally is dog sitting Gretchen, Rafe and Sally B’s dog, and it has come into heat. They will have a lively time of it keeping Gretchen apart from Bjarke (sp?) Rebecca and Torsten’s huge intact Malemute.

December 25, 2008 Thursday, Christmas Day:

Last night we again had violent wind. It continued most of the day. When first I looked out at the tent tool shed one whole side was flapping. Later when I went to the barn it had hardly any sides left. By the time I came in with the milk nothing was left but the metal frame. The old gun cabinet, a free standing closet, now stands alone. When Martin was here Monday he carried the chainsaws and some other perishable items into my already crowded buttery (summer kitchen) but there is still a lot out there exposed to the weather. George expects to start on the roof structure next week. I felt fortunate that the power had not gone out. I was able to use my milking machine and fill the water tank for the cows. This situation was not to continue.

Soon after I got back in the house the power went out. Enough pressure remains in the system after an electrical outage to run a couple of gallons of water. I was able to give the milking equipment a quick rinse. The sun was shining and it was not cold, right about 32°, and the eaves were dripping. I set out buckets along the drip line just in case the situation should become serious. I got through the day just fine albeit with some modification of plans. DS Mark and Max’s family were coming for dinner. What with all the extra time so many things take without power, I scrapped the idea of baking, even though with the Aga, cooking is never compromised.

We convened in the mid afternoon. Mitra brought two delicious roasted pork loins (from the pig they butchered at home) which she prepared using the recipe in The Grassfed Gourmet with a Moroccan spice rub and apple-raisin chutney. It was mighty fine. I contributed baked squash from my garden and mashed Maine potatoes. For dessert I served the last of my fruitcake with ice cream. It had quite a bit of brandy on it and resembled and English pudding. The girls just ate ice cream. But one of the best parts was that just before we sat down, the power returned. It would have been hard for me to digest my dinner knowing the animals were going to have to go to bed thirsty.

December 26, 2008 Friday:

Most of today was spent playing catch-up. My day is so full of fixed obligations (of a cow and dairy related sort) that any further activities inevitably knock something else off of the calendar. All fun though, in this case. The weather cooperated by not snowing or being very cold. I left the chickens shut in another day and they hate that even though they don’t go out into the snow. I have feed pans set around the room so that the smaller birds have a better chance at a meal. I am still lucky to get one or two eggs a day.

Jasmine gave 2 ¾ gallons.

DS Martin and his family, DIL Amy, little Hannah and baby Henry, came by on their way to camp. Later we went together over to New Sharon to DS Max and Mitra’s place for a turkey dinner. We were joined by DS Mark and his wife Ann and Mark’s daughter Hailey. Mark’s next rotation is in orthopedic surgery (nearby) and Ann’s will be in family medicine in North Carolina.

For the turkey, Mitra followed directions in The Grassfed Gourmet for cooking the locally grown free range turkey. It was totally juicy and tender. Everyone had a jolly time. Hanna, 2 ½ , is tiny but is a great eater, not easily distracted from her plate. Henry, 7 months, now eats as much as he can of everything, some by the handful, some from a spoon. He has no teeth but that doesn’t slow him down much.

After dinner we opened more gifts. Max and Mitra’s girls played the viola and cello. They are still on simple tones like Ode to Joy but have good tone production and intonation.

Martin and Amy gave me a copy of the cookbook Nose to Tail Eating by Fergus Henderson. After I finally got to bed I read it until midnight. It must contain 500 recipes, many exotic, like Pig’s Ear Salad. I will report further as occasion provides material.

December 27, 2008 Saturday:

Dark, gloomy weather today but not at all cold. Yesterday morning there were clots on the filter. I would have done an evening milking but for the family dinner at Max and Mitra’s. I put vitamin C and cod liver oil on her evening feed, hoping it might do her some good. It is a low grade infection. There is no heat or tenderness. This morning the milk was slow to filter but there were no clots. DS Martin and DIL Amy invited me to join them for dinner at camp so I once again just piled vitamins on her feed. Depending on her udder health, I will most likely bring her in tomorrow night and at least strip that quarter.

Some nice person sent me the book, HEAT, by Bill Buford. What a thoughtful surprise. It is in large print. I have not tried large print so this will be a good experiment.

Martin came here to do some little jobs including felling a good sized wild cherry that needs to come out because it is in the way of the carriage house roof work. That did not work out too well. It fell on my satellite dish so now I can’t get on the web or do email.

Martin drove me home from their place this evening. There was freezing rain but he got me home safely. I had him call when he got home, too. We were a little worried because he has studded tires and the car still drifted.

This email came this morning from my granddaughter Rosemary:

I got back to Kathmandu yesterday, after a very fine trip into the mountains. The trail lead through the cloud forest of the lower Himalayas, up over a 17,000 foot pass and across part of the Tibetan plateau before descending again. It took about 18 days of hard walking–less than anticipated, but we were moving fast because of the threat of snow. (“We” was my Sherpa guide, Ram, and myself…he was a very nice older man who looked exactly like a movie elf…we got to be pretty good friends, and I was glad he was there.) Along the way I saw wild blue sheep, monkeys and falcons, but no snow leopard, alas. During the last days of the trek we passed many pack trains carrying goods up into the mountains before the passes closed, and also herders bringing their yaks and ponies down from the high fields. It was a fine sight…Though I am glad to be back in the lower altitudes, too. Partly because there was something of a food shortage in the higher villages–people are generous, but don’t have much extra in winter. We were living on buckwheat, potatoes, barley and imported rice. Also, of course, butter tea. There were some “Western” foods available for trekkers, but they were mostly pretty grim–stale knock-off packaged cookies from China, etc. So now I’m going to spend a couple days here eating and looking at the flowers…Ram took me around the city today, for a goodbye–we went to the burning ghats, and to his favorite temples (his choice). He is going to stay here, although I am going trekking again on Monday–this time up the lower slopes of Everest. This is a well-defined trail with no high passes, so there is no real need for a guide. Mostly, I’m getting ready to come home, though. I’m hoping to leave here around Jan 10th, and meet up with Nate in Seattle….I’ll let you know what travel plans transpire, though.. Anyhow, Merry Christmas again, and Happy New Year. I miss you all. Love, Rosemary

December 28, 2008 Sunday:

I remembered that I had hung up a bunch of comfrey in the hay mow last summer to dry. Last night and this morning I put handfuls of it on Jasmine’s feed. I also put about 10 grams of vitamin C and a good glug of CLO. I am still out of vitamin E. I hope to be able to shop tomorrow and restock. There was no off flavor. The milk strained almost perfectly this morning but there were flecks on the filter.

It was warm today. It felt like April at 40°. I did not attempt church, the roads being icy, and did not see anybody all day. I made a batch of English muffins. After baking two pans full I got tired of standing there and made a load of bread out of the remaining dough. They cook on the top of the stove. I used a sourdough recipe. I used homemade raw milk starter. They rose well and I thought looked as good as Thomas’s.

December 30, 2008 Tuesday:

Jasmine and I have done something which I was not sure could be done. I have apparently gotten her over her mastitis flare-up with nutritional support alone, no meds and no extra milkings. She is on OAD. Of course I don’t doubt that it could return in case she has some stress. I will continue adding vitamin E, vitamin C and CLO. Yesterday and today I gave her dried comfrey too. For the first few days I applied the lard and cayenne combo to the upper part of her quarter. This morning the milk strained perfectly. There was one extremely small fleck on the filter. The flavor of the milk from her right rear quarter (the one affected) was perfectly drinkable but not the equal in flavor of the left front which has always tasted the best. I am doubtful that a florid case of mastitis would be treatable this way. The fact that I taste the milk separately from each quarter gives me an early warning of trouble. If all I had to go on was the straining of the pooled milk there would be no way of knowing which quarter was in trouble until the infection got bad enough for the quarter to be hot and swollen or producing great big clots. I know it was not painful. She never even swished her tail while I massaged her quarter.

If I can lay hands on the homeopathic remedies perhaps next time I will use those instead.

I was glad to find that bundle of dried comfrey in the hay mow. I hope that next summer I can manage to dry a lot more. It is just a question of making bundles and hanging them up the way I have seen pictures of drying tobacco.

I have figured out that along with whatever other excuses my chickens have for not laying, now they suffer from the problem Mitra recently described. Those cockerels have reached maturity and that makes six roosters in with the hens. The old hens don’t seem unduly troubled but the younger ones are reluctant to come down off their perches because they don’t want to run the gauntlet of all those roosters. My grandson Rafe has postponed his arrival so probably will not have time to dress off any birds but DD Sally says that when she comes she will oblige. She says she has worked out an easy method.

The carpenters had to quit early today because an evil cold wind came up. They were working totally exposed on the upper level. They stuck it out for several hours until the wind became downright dangerous.

December 31, 2008 Wednesday, New Year’s Eve:

I’m alone here spending the evening in the usual way, making butter and playing catch-up with domestic tasks. I don’t mind a bit.

The milk continues to strain perfectly.

Grandson Rafe and his GF SallyB again postponed their visit, this time due to heavy snow. Down in Northfield and as far north as Biddeford, Maine where Martin is, they reported heavy snow. So far we have gotten none but it was about 12° with a truly disagreeable icy wind. It was the sort of wind I remember from childhood in Cleveland, OH. It blew in off of Lake Erie, icy and penetrating as I stood on some street corner waiting for a bus to take me to the Cleveland Music School Settlement.

The carpenters have built a fine set of stairs to the second level. It is inspiring to be up there admiring the view. They have completed the knee wall.

I am very much enjoying my new cookbook, Nose to Tail Eating by Fergus Henderson. It is a remarkable book. The great majority of the recipes have universal appeal so long as one is not fat or meat averse. It also includes appealing vegetable, dessert and condiment recipes.

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