The Maternity Ward...

Oh my.  It's been a busy week or two in the maternity ward!

In the past two weeks we've had nine fresh cows, and ten new babies.  Six of them were heifers, so all of a sudden our hutches are full of calves, and the babies have overflowed into the box pens.  These are the oldest four, who claimed their place in the outside hutches.  Can you tell that they know who feeds them?  :)

Someone needs a napkin...

This calf is just being weaned from a bottle to a bucket.  To teach her, I stick my fingers in her mouth and then put my hand down into the bucket.  Some learn quickly, and some don't.  Thankfully she was a quick learner!

Apparently this one was still hungry...

These two were that last ones born...twin heifers born on Friday afternoon...

We were suspicious that the mom might have twins.  She is a twin herself, had twin bulls last year, and was early.  Jim kept a close eye on her and helped her with the first calf.  He then had to leave for a short time, so I helped her with the second calf, while the cousins who had just arrived got to watch the birth.  Both calves are doing great!  As soon as they see their bottles coming, they jump up and run over to the gate.  Now whoever feeds can hold both bottles at one time as they drink side by side.  It sure saves a lot of time! Sometime this week I'll try weaning them to a bucket.

It takes a lot longer to get the feeding done now, but we're glad for the fresh cows, and glad for healthy calves.  Isn't it nice that they've come over Christmas break...while my chief calf feeder is home to help?!

Random Five Friday...

Here it is already...only five days before Christmas.  How did that happen?

How about some random thoughts from our week...

1.  This year...for the first time in twenty years, we didn't do Christmas cards. This is as close as we got...a picture on the porch a few days ago after the Amish School Christmas Party, but we're missing a couple of important family members, so I guess we just won't send any.  Somehow I just don't like that, but there's only so much we can do...

2.  I was invited to two cookie swaps in the past couple of weeks, and I'm wondering where all the cookies went?!

3.  I began some gift baking today.  The house smells really good with fresh from the oven Cranberry Nut Bread, and there's some Buckeye Bark cooling in the fridge.  No calories included.  I found these fun little bread bakers at a craft store for $1.00 each, and I think they'll make nice gifts!

Here's the recipe...

Cranberry Nut Bread

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Sift together in bowl and mix thoroughly

1 egg, well beaten
3/4 cup orange juice
1 Tbsp grated orange rind
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Combine, then stir into flour mixture just until moistened

1 cup chopped cranberries
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Fold in

Pour into a greased 9 x 5 loaf pan and bake at 350 * for 45- 50 minutes


4.  It's been a regular maternity ward around here this past week.  We've had six cows/heifers freshen in the past ten days, with two more expected any day.

5.  The weather is no longer frightful.  We went from snow on the ground and temps in the teens over nights, to several days above freezing, with possible record highs this weekend, and rain. Sounds like our Christmas might be more muddy than white.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Linking to Random Five Friday

Amish School Christmas Program...

What a special treat we had today!

Our Amish neighbors invited us to their childrens' school Christmas program this afternoon.  This is the second time we've been able to attend...but this time at a different school.  There are Amish schools every few miles in our area, and we see the children walking to and from school every morning and afternoon. The school that is closest to our house is full, so some of the neighbor children ride the public school bus to another one about a mile away, and that is where we went today.

I wish so badly that I could have taken pictures inside...the children were so very cute...the boys wore black hats, bow ties and of course their suspenders for one of their funny songs, and even though we couldn't understand it (it was sung in PA Dutch) it was hilarious!  The little girls would come out and recite their poems as quickly as they could, often turning and walking off stage as they finished their lines.  The singing was nice...one of the children would start singing a verse and the others would follow.

Every available space was filled and the windows began to inch open as the hour went on.  Even though it's below freezing outside, if you pile over 100 people in a one room school, it gets a bit warm!

This is the progam they gave us...

This is the schoolhouse as we drove in the lane.  The van parked there is an Amish taxi, probably bringing several families who didn't want to hitch up their teams...or maybe Grandparents who didn't live close...

Yes, we see them every day, but there's something beautiful about Amish buggies in the snow.  The team is tied to the back stop that they use when they play baseball at recess...

This wagon brought the students from another school to the program.  We saw them go by as we were getting ready to go...

It was a privilege to be invited, and we are so glad we went.  The innocence of little children, and the sense of community is something to be held close.

First Snow...

It started on Sunday afternoon...the first snow of the season!

Lots of people had to be flexible, as several Christmas concerts were cancelled and treacherous roads caused a slimmer-than-expected crowd for the Youthgroup's Christmas Tea.  However...the kids were glad for a two hour delay for school on Monday morning.

By last evening, roads were just wet, but just as predicted...at daybreak today...the snow started again.  No school!

It's a pretty snow...we probably have about 4" so far,and it's still snowing. Jim and I got the barn work done early this morning and then took a little break.  The kids were able to sleep in and have a hot breakfast for once. Now they've been put to work..out shoveling.  (A nice perk for us on snow days!)

I took my camera for a walk, and here are a few of the pictures...

A dusting of snow that blew onto the porch adds a nice touch to the Christmas decorations...

Only a few short weeks ago, the trees were still full of leaves.  What a difference now...

Where are the chickens?

Inside of course!  They hate snow.  It can be raining hard, and they'll be outside, but in the snow, they all hang out inside their shed.  I had to take them some extra straw this morning, since the mud from yesterday's melting snow...and chickens in close quarters...make for a messy pen.  They've been happily scratching around in it, looking for treats...

Our rooster seems to be quite happy, crowing away from his perch on the fence...

I think winter is officially here!

A Cow and a Calf...

It wasn't hard to find something to go with the letter "C" tonight...

We had a cow freshen during milking time tonight.  We knew she was close, and Jenna's job was to keep an eye on her while we finished up milking.  She needed a little help, but had a healthy heifer calf around 6:30 pm.  That clean, dry bedding got a little messy with the birth, but she's doing a great job of cleaning her off...

Here she is at about thirty minutes old.  All cleaned off and in a fresh bed of clean, dry straw.  I think she's pretty...but I'm partial to black calves.  She will be #378 when she gets her jewelry...

We left the cow and calf alone for a little while, and then milked the cow and fed the calf two quarts of colostrum...the first milk.  It looks a little different than what you usually see, doesn't it?

All gone...I don't think I've ever fed a calf so young, that drank so well the first time!

Mom and baby are now settled for the night...and so are we.

Linking to Alphabe Thursday

Memories of Grandma...

If any of you are lucky enough to have known my Grandma Herr, you probably have lots of warm memories of her!  Maybe you even tasted her cookies...or her baked chicken...or her lima beans served with milk and butter.

For the first twenty three years of my life, I was lucky enough to live next door to this wonderful lady...my Mom's mom...

Grandma had a way of making each one of her twelve grandchildren feel like we were the most special. When we walked into her kitchen, she dropped everything just to talk to us.  If she was baking cookies, we got to taste them fresh out of the oven, and of course she left us eat more than Mom would have!  :)

A year or so ago, I noticed that my sister had a recipe for her Snickerdoodles.  I commented on how special it was to have it written in Grandma's own shaky handwriting.

Well...yesterday at our family Thanksgiving dinner, Mary handed each of us sisters and Mom, a bag.  Inside was a pack of Snickerdoodles..and something rolled up and tied with a ribbon.  As soon as I began unrolling mine, I noticed that shaky handwriting.  This is what it was...

Here's a close up...

(Yes, maybe I should have ironed it before taking the picture, but that's ok...)

Grandma passed away on December 31, 2000, at the age of...101 years! She was a very special lady...and you can bet that I won't be using this tea towel.  It will be framed and hanging in my kitchen some day soon!

Thanks Mary!

Brrr...Time for the Barriers...

Brrr...I think winter's here....at least if cold and wind are any indication!

Over the weekend, we said goodbye to our mild fall, and began to batten down the hatches.  Jim cleaned out the outside pen and wooden pen one more time, and put up the plywood barriers between the outside pen and wooden pen.

The pen, which is on the cold west side of the barn, opens to the south and in the winter it acts like a channel for all the cold winds to blow right into the barn.  Water pipes can freeze...and it's a mess when that happens.

We usually wait as long as possible to put up the barriers, because the barn is better ventilated without them. When it's closed up too tightly, the heifers can pass around respiratory viruses (just like a room full of school kids!)   However...the cold weather won out this time...

The outside pen heifers can still get inside for shelter, but those barriers keep out the worst of the cold. There's also a door to the left that we pull shut to block off the entry way.  When it gets really cold, we drain the water line and fill water tubs several times a day for the outside pen heifers.  Luckily it's not nearly that cold yet!

It's just below freezing right now on this beautiful Thanksgiving day.  The sun is shining, and we'll be spending the next several days with family...eating way too much of course...but enjoying time together.  The gourmet potatoes are in the oven, and we're working up our appetites for a feast.

Wherever you are...and however cold...or warm...you are, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Linking to Alphabe-Thursday

Apple Snitz Pie...

A week or so ago, on a Saturday afternoon, we were just getting ready to head out to the barn for milking, when Jake came strolling across the yard.

Jake is one of our Amish neighbors...and he didn't come empty handed...

Before you wonder...no...he didn't bring us a half eaten pie!  It just didn't take us long to devour eat it.

This is an Apple Snitz pie...usually just referred to as a Snitz pie around here. It's a pie that the Amish make often, and this one came our way because Jake's son was hosting Church at his house the next day.  When you host Church, you also provide lunch, and this is a staple at this meal.

I've never made one of these, but they're quite good.  The filling tastes kind of like apple butter.  Here's a recipe that I found...

APPLE SNITZ PIE

2 cups dried apples (snitz)
1 1/2  cups warm water
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves

Soak apples in water overnight.
Cook apples in the water they were soaked in.
When soft, mash the apples and add the sugar, cinnamon and cloves
Pour mixture into an unbaked pie shell.
Cover with second crust and seal edges, cutting several slits in top crust to allow steam to escape.
Bake at 425 * for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat and bake at 370 * for 35 more minutes.

Makes one 9" pie

Have you ever tasted one of these?


I'm trying something new...and linking to Alphabe-Thursday.

The End of a Season...

I've been thinking of ideas for blog posts lately...and tossed this idea around for a while.

Why?

It's not exactly farm blog material...except for the fact that it involves the farm kids!

Ever since mid August, our schedules have been (or at least had been until lately) pretty much dominated by the cross country season.

Eric has been running ever since 7th grade...

 ...and this year, Jenna joined the cross country team as well...

They both had great seasons!  They had a great coach, and made some good friends as well.  Both qualified to run in the League and District races.  Eric placed 20th in the League Championship meet, and was selected by the League's coaches to be a "Second Team All Star", which is an honor!

At the Cross Country Honors Banquet, there were also five seniors who received Scholar Athlete Awards. Coach is in the middle in this picture, and Eric on the far right...

Now that the season is over, life has relaxed a little for both kids, and for us too.  We enjoyed going to the meets when we could, but unfortunately, they were usually close to milking time.  We also have our evening barn helpers back, which is great!  (for us, but maybe not so much for them!)  :)

We're proud of them both!  What a great way to stay in shape and make good friends at the same time!

Leaves, Leaves, and More Leaves...

It's a beautiful day today.  Breezy and cold...a little too cold for my liking, but after all, it is November!

The leaves this year have been just gorgeous!  They've been hanging on the trees longer than usual, and the colors have been brilliant. Today though, they've been falling...and piling up...faster than we can get them raked.

This Maple tree is right outside our kitchen door.  The leaves were so thick this morning that I could hardly rake them...

I had some company.  Can you see who's hiding in this picture?

...and this one...

Banja and James loved burying themselves in the pile and then jumping out again...

Jim pulled up the manure spreader, and we filled it to the brim.  Then he climbed in and stomped down the leaves so we could pile it even higher...

After a while we switched places, and I stomped on the leaves as he raked. It's the only time of year that I take a ride in the manure spreader!  :)

The leaves will be spread out on the fields.  I wish I could chop them all, and spread them on my garden, but there are way too many...and they'd mostly blow away.  Bummer, because leaves make wonderful compost!

The cats couldn't stay away.  Of course, tractors and PTO shafts are meant to be climbed on...didn't you know that?

Here's that same tree, three hours or so later.  There are still a lot of leaves left for another day's raking, but so many fell already!

It's sad to see the leaves disappearing.  It's inevitable, I know...but it means that winter really...and truly...is just around the corner.  The boiler is already cooking away, and the cast iron radiators are throwing off the heat, trying to take the chill away.

What is fall like in your neck of the woods?

A Beautiful Fall Morning...

This morning as we were finishing up milking, I saw a beautiful sight.

I happened to glance towards the east as I carried the last milker to the milk house, just in time to see the sun at the exact moment that it was peeking over the horizon.  The colors weren't especially beautiful...no brilliant reds or oranges...but the sun light that streamed across the fields was breath taking.

As usually happens, by the time you grab your camera, the magic is gone. And...the camera never quite captures the images quite as beautiful as they are in real life, but I tried anyway...

This picture looking to the west, of the Amish neighbors' barn peeking over the hill, is probably one of the most photographed shots that I've taken over the years, in all seasons.  You should see it at sunset!

I think the hydrangeas are especially beautiful this time of year, and the sun only made them prettier this morning... 

The golf course across the road always gives us a show of beautiful leaves as well...

The leaves are late here this year...and we're enjoying them as long as we can.  It makes the fall more enjoyable, and at least makes me imagine that winter is still a long way off!

Linking to Rurality Blog Hop today.

21 Bpm....

What is 21 bpm?

Well...it's like this...

When you've been unloading corn fodder for four hours straight with your friends...and you get a little bored (and tired)...you have a contest.  How many bales can you get from the wagon to the hay mow (stacked) in one minute?

Eric and his friends tried it.  They started out at 8...then 13...and then finally, their record...21 bales per minute.

There you have it!  Bpm...

To keep things interesting, you can also decorate the ladder with loose bale ropes...

...and crush your soda cans...

...and best of all, you go out for pizza afterwards!

A lot of fodder got unloaded and stacked the past few days.  Thanks guys!

Fall Grazing 2013

The corn and bean harvest is finished...

Rye grass has been seeded where the corn was chopped for silage, and is growing nicely...

So now it's time to let the cows out on the fields of rye grass and alfalfa for some fall grazing...

I think this will keep them happy for a while, what do you think?

Combining At Sunset...

On Monday afternoon, I posted about how we were anticipating the combine arriving to harvest the soybeans and corn.  The guys rolled in over milking time, and our neighbor captured these pictures, which he was kind enough to share with us!

Here they are, combining the beans... (photo credits...Steve Emerson)

I love those pictures of the combine in the sunset!  Thanks Steve!

By the time they got to the fields at our farm, it was dark.  I snapped this one of Jim and our Amish neighbor man watching them combining behind the barn...

When they were finished with the beans, they switched headers on the combine and started on the corn. They ran until 11:00 on Monday night, and then came back and finished on Tuesday.  The beans yielded great...no official numbers yet on bushels per acre, but we were pleased!

One more thing is checked off the list!