by Farmer Melanie | Farm Life Blog
Adventures in Milking
I’ll start by filling you in on our adventures in milking. We are only milking 2 cows at the moment. It is quite a challenge but we are tough farmers and up to the task.
One of a total of 6 cows did not conceive. Three others birthed calves with no issues. The two we are milking lost their calves. This spring has been a very trying experience for us. We have never lost any calves from seasoned mothers. But nature is in charge and lets us know it at her leisure.
One lost calf was huge. We had to call the vet for that one. It was quite the ordeal and fortunately turned out well for the mother cow. The calf was simply too big to be born. The other cow we are milking had a stillborn calf. It happens sometimes. While understanding nature is what it is, losing animals remains a somber event.
Milking
It has been a long, drawn-out process to get to the point where we are able to actually milk these two cows with relative ease. We have built the herd over the past 5 years but still don’t have the milking barn and creamery completed. So as all farmers do, we shoot from the hip and make it happen with what we have.
There is a temporary “barn” where we can work out of the rain. We milked by hand for several weeks while we got them used to the milking area and the process. In other words, we had to spend quite a bit of time training them. There are still a few issues but I consider these quite minor compared to the first day we milked.
Eventually, more than a month later that seemed like a year to my hands, we were able to start milking using a portable milker. This is a small vacuum pump with appropriate hoses that we can wheel around. It makes a mechanical noise, so we ran it while milking by hand so they could get used to the sound. Like I said, it was a long and drawn-out process. It was very hard on my hands. They are still healing but will be fine.
In the beginning we started at 9:00 a.m. and were finished with all milk-related tasks at 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon. Those were very long days. To be sure, there were contributing circumstances. We rotate our livestock through 14 paddocks. In the beginning the cows were at the farthest reaches of our property. That added a very long time to the routine for walking back-n-forth. I was walking a half mile each morning. It was uphill both ways. Just kidding but not really. It was uphill — but also down hill. . . . and then up hill and down again . . . and again. My health has improved dramatically.
I set a goal to be done with “chores” before noon. We reached that goal and now we start at 8:00 and I am back inside pouring up milk and washing up the containers by 9:00. It is still much slower than we would like but I’m pleased with our progress. We have come so far. Again, pasture rotation is contributing to that success. They are currently keeping these two cows in the paddocks closest to where we milk.
Soon we will start doing this twice a day. We will continue that routine through October or November.
Scott and I are quite a team. Just ask dad.
A Day In The Life
Thankfully, things have finally calmed down somewhat over the past couple of weeks. I get a lot more done each day than just surviving milking. Tasks I have completed today include:
- Bottle feeding Punky, the orphan lamb (The other two needing special attention from last blog are out in the field and doing excellent.)
- Milking cows — pouring up milk, cleaning all the equipment
- Clean all cabinet faces and bleach all counter tops
- Empty dishwasher, refill with breakfast dishes (Scott cooked this morning.)
- Prep beef brisket to be cooked for dinner
- Make ice cream
- Set up waxing operation for cheese
- Turn all cheeses in aging frigs
- Quick check of garden and pull a few pieces of grass (It looks great: More on this later.)
- Check email and note 19 reminders for tasks to be completed (I’m a little behind schedule.)
- Catch up on news reports online (I check Drudge Report daily for headlines.)
- Get started on Farm Blog post (to be completed soon.)
It’s about 1:00 p.m.. Now on to the 2nd half of my day. Complete this post. Record and publish a Village Wisdom Podcast episode. Somewhere in there I’ll get that brisket in the oven and wax a few cheeses.
That’s only half of what is going on today. Scott is out there somewhere sweating and working and working at a dozen other tasks. (He’ll edit this post and perhaps add his own list.)
Okay, then from Scott
My tasks aftering milking:
Used the “clean-in-place” method of a triple wash to clean and sanitize the bucket milker machine including all of its hoses- Cleaned and washed down the milking barn floor
- Got the cows back in the paddock while keeping the goats out of the milking barn. And of course, it is very muddy from all the recent rain.
- Made breakfast or brunch for us
- Checked the weather forecast, email and facebook
- Got back to burying the “barn” electrical supply line.
A few weeks ago I had quickly snaked this required line across drives and through the woods to the barn to be able to use the milking machine or anything other electrical need. The milking machine saved our hands and has saved some time, but I had left that electric line on top of the ground where possible. Exceptions were driveways: The heavy electric wire is inside a PVC pipe as it goes under the driveway. Due to the farm layout, the line crosses the driveway four times over the nearly 400′ length.
The wire on top of the ground went through the woods. It needed to be buried a couple inches at least. Wow, there are so many roots and rocks in the top couple of inches! I do not want to trip over it, snag it with the tractor or break it since it was not cheap. I did not get the entire woods areas under the dirt and roots but did get a nice bit done.
- Moved on to chopping down the tall grasses, small bushes and trees that were in the path to the “barn.”
- Although the creamery building site had about 45 trees removed in a basic large way (think bulldozer), there were still lots of limbs, brush and roots to remove before work on the creamery could begin.
- Used those all those trees to add into the bottom of the raised garden beds. See this post on hugelcultur
Gathered up and reorganized both small and large outside hand tools, gloves and work buckets to reduce clutter and rust. - Reassembled the pond overflow drain pipe, 40′ and fittings which I had borrowed to drain the cheese making water and whey. Last week I had installed the floor sink to handle this cheese make drain water in a better way.
- Finally, it was time to catch up with refilling the farm fuel supply.
That’s how our day went. How about you? Long days and pleasant nights.
by Farmer Melanie | Farm Life Blog
Farm Animals Update
We are responsible for quite a few farm animals – cows, sheep, goats and donkeys. Sometimes they require lots of extra assistance and attention especially around birthing time. We provide protection and care to the best of our ability. Sometimes farm life is stressful.
Punky, the orphaned bottle lamb, is slowly getting stronger and stronger. I did break down yesterday and bring her inside right before a really, really bad storm. I know, I know, she has to eventually learn to be out in the weather, but I just wanted to make sure she stayed strong. We had a good time holding her while watching a movie during the downpour. After the movie, she returned to the outdoor world for the night. She still follows me around right at my heels as if I was her mom when we go for walks. But she is getting better at being a sheep and hanging with the flock.
Punky has come a long, long way. We thought we would lose her when she was only a few days old. Now she is nearly a month old and still hanging in there. Sometimes it takes a lot of extra effort to make sure they are healthy. But it is worth it in the long run. It is always hard to lose even one. And we lost Punky’s two siblings as well as another complete set of triplets. We are happy to have intervened in her time line and have succeeded.
Then there was this little guy, a goat kid. They only weigh about 4 pounds at birth. At two days old he got really weak, too weak to hold up his head. We brought him inside for a bit to warm him up. Soon we gathered up his Mom as we realized he would need help for days. She is better at feeding him than we are.
Scott’s dad (named Jack) wanted to call him ‘Jack’ but we decided that would be too confusing. Scott decided on ‘Billy Jack’ since it is a ‘billy goat’. Dad got to hold him while visiting and gave him lots of love; you can see a picture of this on the farm’s Facebook page. At night he stayed with his mom right outside the front door in a covered pen. That went on for about a week as we treated him. It was a challenge, but we knew he would do better with his Mom close by.
We dosed him with some of my herbal concoctions. We also supplemented his diet with selenium-laced goat feed. He is now bounding around in the field with the whole goat herd good as new and growing fast.
Another lamb, Cupcake, went sort of lame a day or so after we picked up Billy Jack. He didn’t seem to be too bad off so we left him in the field with his Mom. We dosed him with some garlic just to be sure and kept a close watch on him. The biggest problem for him was to keep up with his mom with a painful back leg. That’s important – keeping up with your Mom. They need lots of nourishment in their early days. They are born with seemingly just some skin over some bones. It is important for them to put on weight very quickly and stay warm.
He’s still out in the field with Mom and she is very attentive. And while he is still a little slow, he seems to be keeping up with her and the rest of the flock. His limp has greatly improved. He will do well, I think.
Now we are very closely watching Claire, our matriarch milk cow. We milk her and her sister every day. Claire appears to have mildly injured her left ankle or foot, probably slipped in the mud. Sighhhh. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Yet Claire’s limping walk is improving. Taking care of our farm animals is rewarding even if busy and worrisome at times like these.
Well, that’s it for now. Gotta go give Punky another bottle of milk. She is staying with two ‘big girls’ to reintegrate into her sheep’s life.
by Farmer Melanie | Farm Life Blog
Farm Life Blog
The purpose of this blog going forward is to keep you updated on our progress with the farm and creamery. We want you to get to know us and we look forward to hearing from you in the comments section so that we may get to know you as well.
We hope to entertain you with anecdotes about the daily farm life. Somewhere along the way we will include educational topics on farming, cheese and life in general.
Today’s post is an anecdote about life on the farm — and life in general. There are lots of details to fill in, but the gist of the story is that I fell in the mud this morning and bruised my knee. Thank goodness nothing was broken or damaged too badly. Here are some details.
Front pond is flooded
For the past month we have had rain and rain and more rain. Rain is good for farmers but it makes a lot of mud when you have large animals churning it up all the time. We have 6 milk cows and 4 steers in our herd as of this writing. That’s a lot of hooves making pudding-like mud out of the dirt areas.
Coincidentally, last week I did my regularly scheduled Village Wisdom Podcast (you can find it here). I just happened to use an analogy that involved slipping and falling in the mud during the podcast. That day, and for many days after, I was always extremely careful where and how I placed my feet. I didn’t want it to be a self-fulfilling analogy.
The day before yesterday we separated the two cows that we are milking from the rest of the herd. We did this to try and minimize the mud that is getting deeper and deeper due to the heavy rains combined with the heavy animals. Thankfully, now there are only two animals slogging through the mud with us on a daily basis.
Hand Milking
Another advantage of this arrangement was that we could keep them close to the barn, which is really only a make-shift shed to keep off the rain. We didn’t have to walk nearly as far. Some of our pastures are perhaps a quarter mile or more distant from the corral area where the “barn” currently exists.
Anyway, it was a new system and the cows were hesitant and slightly uncooperative during the previous day’s milking due to being separated from the rest of the herd. We managed, but there were delays while we waited for them to become accustomed to the new arrangement. Today, they were still having issues. Buttercup was particularly flighty and Claire was just belligerent.
As I entered the area to help Scott get them moving in the proper direction, I was very focused on how I was going to get Buttercup to cross the road. She had stopped running around and was just not moving at all. There is a trick to getting a cow to move when they normally are being stubborn and refuse to budge. You simply walk by them in the opposite direction to the desired move. They will compulsively move away from you and, if you set it up correctly, in the direction you desire and parallel to your motion. It’s sort of like two ships passing in the night.
So as I entered the pasture from the driveway, I was very focused, very focused indeed. Just not focused on where my body was in relation to the mud. I was focused 85 feet ahead of my feet. I could clearly see myself walking briskly past her. I could clearly see her move in the direction from which I had just embarked moving just as briskly. And then reality set in.
I planted my left foot into the pasture and it promptly slid another 8″ throwing me off balance in an instant. Then, as luck would have it, my right foot caught on a tree limb. We had put it there for some reason I can’t remember right now. I went sprawling. Down I went into the mud. But the worst part wasn’t getting myself wet and soggy with mud. It was hitting my knee somewhere along the way. I screamed very, very loudly.
Then I kept on screaming loudly because it hurt like the dickens. I just laid there clutching my knee and yelling as I waited for the pain to subside. I can’t remember exactly what I was yelling. Maybe Scott remembers. He was running over to assist. Claire calmly walked over with natural cow curiosity to investigate the scene then promptly went right into the barn area. Buttercup, on the other hand, was quite startled and suspicious, frozen in place; she kept her distance. I don’t think she liked all that noise and unusual commotion.
Long story short, after a few minutes the pain eased off and I was able to get up with Scott’s assistance. My right hip and side were covered with mud. Good thing the phone was in the other hip pocket else it could have been muddied and smashed beyond use. I could walk with a slight limp and powered on with milking.
Claire had plodded on into her stanchion while I was still down so I hurried (carefully) to lock her in place before she finished eating her treat. Her curiosity could draw her back to the scene of the incident. Buttercup arrived shortly thereafter with Scott just behind. She looked only a little unsettled from the scare.
Portable Milker
We finished up milking and all the while I was steadily getting better. The pain eased off and I could walk easier. I carried the milk to the house with only a slight limp. At the kitchen sink, before pouring up the milk, I loaded up with Ibuprofen and Tylenol. Scott continued his part of the morning chores which includes cleaning up the milking equipment and checking on the rest of the animals. He then gave me a physical exam and proclaimed me only bruised and scraped. We’ll see how it goes in the morning.
All’s well that ends well but it was a scary moment. Initially, the pain was excruciating. I could tell I hadn’t broken any bones but was concerned about ligaments and tendons and such. Those take forever to heal. And as we age, that time span can be longer and longer with the very real possibility of never regaining full function. Keeping our health is an important blessing that cannot be taken too much for granted.
Today I was blessed.
I hope you enjoyed that little story. I look forward to writing more of our adventures in the coming days, weeks, months and years as we build our farmstead business.
Long days and pleasant nights and may peace be with you always.
by Farmer Scott | Farm Life Blog
Gardening in this old way is new to many. The older ideas of using nature’s way to self-feed plant roots with wood decomposing under your soil.
Combine that example with raised beds which reduce back strain from leaning over, lessen weed problems when the walkways are covered, and improves watering issues.
It does take time to learn & grow plants but it does not have to be expensive or elaborate to start. Develop the garden soil that supports your belly! Nourish your soul by getting your hands in the dirt. Work with Nature.
Hugelkultur or similar raised bed methods give several advantages to us. Wood (& other yard / woods carbon material) that would become waste or scrap, compost & aged manure in there, topsoil over that – together provide nutrients to roots and microbes in the soil.
We are building this 4th or maybe 5th version of a annual vegetable garden: we have adjusted size, methods and varieties of plants by combining these new and old methods. Two foot high bed surface, drip irrigation, decaying wood underneath, heavy tarp with hardwood mulch covering the walkways and a more gentle draining slope are built together in our space.
Keep in mind, we are really grass farmers (the animals eat the grass or we eat a crop). But the microbes make the plants thrive, not merely the dirt. Feed the microbes, they feed the plants, plants feed your animals & you.! 
Our new garden is shown in the pictures and videos on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PeacefulHeartFarm/
Creating gardens is an evolution to answer the need to eat well: We develop skill, apply resources and enjoy time spent in Nature. We will reap Nature’s abundance as nutritious plant food of a wide variety. Crop rotation of plant types for extra benefit is easy and can be planned ahead.
Bio-intensive plant spacing will be used also to maximize production without taxing the soil.
Learning how to grow your own food is & will be very important. This should be obvious to many by now. Buy common variety open pollinated seeds and grow the food in your space – small, medium or large space – just do it to become then good at it so you can depend on the produce.
