Cow update

Buttercups milk is really yummy now. Doug has been milking her twice a day. We have had loads of icecream, the chickens have had some, we have made yogurt we cooked pork in milk. Then production seemed to drop off - this was explained when the neighbor came round one morning and let Doug know that he had seen one of the cows feeding from another.

Bluebell wasn't weaned until she came to us which was very late to do it - she was 18 months old. The previous owners were a bit hippy and didn't want to interfer with nature, but Jersey cows aren't very natural! We managed to stop her last year to allow Buttercup to dry up by putting a weaning clip on her nose (hurts her nose and spikes mum if she tries to suckle). It was a bit tricky as they are sized for 6 month olds... Now that Buttercup has milk again she has gone back to it, we tried the spiky thing again (Doug had to fight with her hungover after the neighbor kindly came round - looked like she was going to pull over the electricty pylon she was tied to) but she managed to work round it,  so we put in a bigger spikey thing (which was fun and games let me tell you)

As far as we can tell from the amount of milk Buttercup has left for us, she is still managing to suckle. So now we have moved Bif and Buttercup to a separate field for a while just to see if we get more milk - and to give Buttercup a chance to put on a bit of weight. Sadly we will probably have to sell Bluebell if we can't cure her of this. We feel annoyed with the previous owners that they didn't deal with it at the right age and it probably wouldn't have been so ingrained. They didn't teach her to lead either which is a bit of a problem with a 400+kg cow...

Bif has had a couple of episodes where he seems not to be able to breath. We think he may have breathed in milk, but have wormed him in case of lung worm and given antibiotics too.

He is in the grass somewhere in this photo. This is Buttercup super happy in her giant meadow full of grass for just her and Bif. You can see she is looking a bit thin. Jerseys always look skinny round the hips and bottom, but you can see more ribs than you should be able to.

The highlands have stayed with Bluebell to keep her company. We rather expect we may find them all back in the same field tomorrow. Bluebell is shouting like mad, this is the 1st time she has been away from her mum. Hopefully will calm down soon otherwise Doug will get no sleep!

Wedding Anniversay

It is our (7th) wedding anniversary this weekend so I have taken a long weekend. We haven't done anything particular. Been for a nice walk with the dog, done a tiny bit of gardening, played with the animals, made ice cream, bread and butter. Milked the cow and a few other useful things but mainly drunk and eaten nice food.

We started one of our new hams that have been curing since the winter. Delicious!

Buttercup's milk bit odd

We have left milking to Bif up until now. We milked her yesterday because we wanted to check how it was - and perhaps have white russians. Worryingly it had a bit of a funny taste and a watery consistency which didn't separate in to milk and cream. There are no lumps in it which is good as that would mean mastitis - but it could be the start of it.

We think it is because Bif is not managing to drink all she produces. So we have milked her out (ie all of it) twice today (on to the ground and given a bit to the dog who still seems to enjoy it) and it is tasting a bit more normal. We probably got a couple of litres each time although it was hard to say as we didn't keep it all.

We plan on doing that twice a day for a few days and if it has returned to normal then continuing to do it once a day for a while until Bif is a bit bigger and can manage it all.

First chicken of the year

We hatched ten chicks in April. Three of them escaped and died in the great June massacare (probably a fox) - that is better than last year when only one survived.

Now there are only six (4 females) as we decided to see how a cockeral would taste at around 3 months. The year before last we left them to reach a better size and let them grow to 6-9 months. At which point they were v tasty but had to be slow cooked in a covered dish with some liquid as they were quite tough.

This one I roasted 'normally' without the liquid and uncovered. He weighed 650g before cooking so I stuffed him to make sure he didn't dry out.

He was quite tender and tasty. With only 2 cockerals left we can't do a thorough taste test od them at different ages, but we will eat another in a month maybe.

Soap out the moulds

Needs to dry for a month now. We will see whether it gets yellow bits like the other stuff or not. It still works fine and smells nice though so doesn't really matter. I have read that the scented oils change the colour over time, sometimes quite dramatically. Next time we will try adding some dye. Could be some time though as there is a LOT of soap here.

Tree cutting

This is a better picture of the wood that Doug and Don cut in the couple of weeks before our holiday. It doesn't look as much in the photo as it does in real life. We think it is enough for a winter of heating (but hard to say at the moment as the insulation is not done nor the central heating)

This is where it came from. The Marie (like the council) sent us a letter saying we needed to clear our trees from the road - and when Doug went in to ask which trees they said the telephone line too. There is no before photo unfortunately, but that whole area in the foreground had trees before all hanging right over the road and the telephone wire. We thought it was the councils responsibility to cut them!

Doug is going to reroute the fence so that this new cut area is in the field so it will be kept grazed and clear.

Is Rosbif eating?

We don't know is the answer.

He had a big feed last night, but we have not seen him eat for himself since then and he refuses to suckle if we latch him on like we did last night (forced mouth open with fingers and rammed teat in there - like getting a bit in to a horses mouth). He has pretty sharp teeth and I am amazed Buttercup is being so good and standing still while he champs around at her teats. Painful!

He looks pretty skinny, but then he seems quite strong (hard to wrestle in to place). Time will tell I suppose. At least we know he got the colostrum last night which is very important.

Mum just ignores him a lot, but does seem to be staying reasonably near and is licking him a often, but he still keeps going off and trying to suckle off the other cows and we never see him trying on her. Strange! Worrying?!

Feeding Rosbif

We had a fun afternoon trying to get the calf to feed. We have called him Rosbif (or Biff for short).

Mums teats are huge and distended and he didn't seem to be able to tell what they were for. He gave all the other cows a go to suckle from. Then Buttercup moved everytime he got vaguely in the right area. We were getting worried when he was still looking skinny and unfed after 12 hours and Buttercups teats still had the bungs in the end.

We started off trying to move him and Buttercup closer to the house, but didn't have much luck with that, he weighs a tonne (well, maybe 35kg) and she doesn't lead very well. It was 30 degres in the shade and totally hotching with flys...

I went and bought a calf feeding bucket with a nipple from Point Vert as we knew we needed to get some colostrum down him even if he wouldn't feed from Buttercup. They need colostrum in th 1st 24 hours or so to get their immune system going and generally don't survive if they don't get it.

I milked Buttercup in to the bucket and we managed to get a little bit in to him. I had read that you should tickle their bottom to get them to suckle so Doug gave that a go, at which point he did a really sticky blackish poo. Nice. He did suckle though.

We then went back to milk more (we had to tie Buttercup up to grt her to stay still to be milked). The little bit Biff had had seemed to super charge him and he had th energy to totter over to where we were with Buttercup. She finally seemed to notice he existed and mooed at him. As he was so keen on suckling we decided to try him on Buttercup. Doug held him while I wedged one of Buttercups really huge teats in his mouth and he finally got the hang of it. He didn't seem able to latch on on his own, but we put him on all 4 teats and we could see his belly growing as he ate.

Meeting his herd mates. They all seemed nice and gentle with him, and very tolerant at being suckled.

We then left them too it. We will go back tomorrow morning to see if he has worked out the latching on yet. He seemed pretty motivated having got a taste of the delicious milk. 

We were absolutely knackered having spent ages chasing Buttercup around. It was all very stressful as we didn't know whether we were doing the right thing or just making it worse. So relieved when he managed to eat. Animals! Grr!

Horse ride

We haven't ridden the horses for AGES. Mainly time is the issue, but partially the weather and their feet.

We planned to go out this morning early before it got crazy hot, Then Rosbif was born. We spent some time looking at him then decided to go anyway, hoping that Buttercup and him would sort themselves out while we were gone.

We had a pleasant ride - although a bramble attacked me. Yes I put Summer Fly Cream on it which is yellow. It is apparently a soothing antiseptic which is meant to discourage fly strike. We use it on the animals, what is good enough for them is good enough for me!

There were quite a few trees still over the path from the winter snow storm that brought down loads of mature trees. We had to take the saddles off to get past this one

We just had to dismount past this one. Unfortunately there was another one just beyond it that we could not get past. But ok in the end as we took and interesting and new route hom through the trees.

The dog came too

The horses enjoyed a lovely cold shower when we got home

Yay the calf has arrived!!

Went down this morning and there he was! Not quite dry but all cleaned off.

We have left them too it for a few hours and will go back and check on them in a minute. We are not sure if he has fed. Her teats looked like bursting.

But we felt she knows what to do (having had maybe 4 calves before) and didn't want to interfer when they were resting from the effort of it all.

It is hard not to want a heifer as we love the cows so much and it would be nice to keep a calf we had bred, but it is just as well he is a boy as we are super keen to eat our own grass few beef.

Now we need to find out about when to get him steered (bollocks chopped off) and decide whether to disbud him (have the buds where the horns grow from removed - usually burnt out - bit traumatic for all involved but safer in the long run).

We are also looking for a foster calf so we don't hVe to milk Buttercup except when we want to because Doug is going to be busy with the house and I will be at work.

More soap

Thanks for the birthday present Kim (pink mould in photos below), it finally got me round to using the fat that has been sitting waiting for months! Will be interesting to see if I have managed to fill them properly and if I manage to get the soap out ok...

This is pretty much the same as the last batch except bigger and with sandlewood instead of lavendar. I also strained the fat through a tea towel as the last lot have got orangy lumps in which I think is where there is a little lump of fat from the rendering process (maybe it is the tissue that holds the fat in place that you melt the fat out of rather than fat itself)

2250g pig fat

300g lye

855g water

50ml sandlewood oil

Be very careful with the lye as it is highly caustic. Wear gloves and goggles and long sleeves.

Add lye to water (not the other way round) and stir. Wait for temp to drop below 50 C (but above 35C). I found it heats a bit above 50 when you add the lye to the water.

Add to melted fat (around same temperature) and blend with stick blender until you get trace (ie dribbles of the mixture will sit on top when placed there)

Add scent and stir in.

Put in to moulds - but tricky to get filled right, I used a ladle and then a spatular to smooth the tops

http://offbeatandinspired.com/2012/09/14/cold-process-soap-making-for-beginners/

Now we just have to wait and see how it comes out - hopefully well as this must be several years worth of soap!

New drinker for chicks

The little chickies are locked in prison this year after last years ones got gotten by something (fox) which was made easier as they were small enough to slip between the wires of the electric fence.

They like to poo all over their water drinker which makes changing their water pretty gross.

We are experimenting with a new system that they can't get on top of, and it doesn't have to be taken out to be filled up. We just pore water in to the bucket hung on the tree.

We are worried it is a bit over complicated as it has a lot parts, took us some time to work out how to put it together!

Together they let water flow in from the bucket through the two little spout things until the weight of the water stops the flow. 

There is a problem if it hangs sideways as the water would flow out and the weight would never stop the flow. We shall see, but so far working well.

Chickens taken by something

A few weeks ago the new ginger chickens and some of the black ones disappeared over two days. We have some wooden eggs in the nest box to encourage the chickens to lay there and they disappeared at the same time. We are quite baffled. For the chicken we assume a fox, but it seems unlikely it would go in the house and take wooden eggs. Maybe a pine martin? We have no idea, so we have set the wildlife camera up to try to catch the culprit. So far the three remaining chickens and the cockeral are still there and we haven't caught whatever did it.

Similar time last year we lost all the little chicks to something that we think was the fox. Maybe it is the time of year that they are super hungry with cubs.

Dog walk and still no calf

Poppy with Gemma and Ruby (who sometimes find her a bit much)

With Maggie who is high energy like she is

Looking cool

Today was a bit cooler and we went for a nice walk by the Col de Beyrede

And a swim in the lake (for some doggies) afterwards

We came back to find the Buttercup looking pretty much the same - ie no calf.

Udder maybe a bit bigger. Pins look the same to me, but more expert people tell me they are going...

Still a big bump (she is not really leaning over at an angle - just the way I took the photo)

I think I can feel a bony bit of the calf (despite suggestions of twins I think she is just big with 1 baby - based on no experience - but she is pretty round normally) when I press where I am pointing with my foot. Also think I can feel it moving although it could just be Buttercup twitching with the flies!

I think she is waiting to Sunday evening when I have to leave to go back to work...

Making beer

Although it was a million degrees in the sun, we decided to light the super powerful gas burner to make beer to heat us up just a little more...

We haven't made a brew since May last year (!)and have been meaning too for AGES. It will be fermenting for maybe a week in this temperature and be ready in a couple of weeks after that (just letting you know so you can time your visit). It is a Three Crops or 'Quaffing beer' which is a nice light summer ale, with maize, rice and bittering hops which are boiled but non added later for aroma.

We need to stock up on some beer kits which are easier/quicker to make so we can fit it in with working and the renovation.

Heatwave

It sounds like it is even hotter in the UK, but whatever, it is toooo hot here to do stuff in the heat of the day.

It was 29.7 yesterday and not quite that today. Humid too.

Still no calf

We went out to speak to some people about the hemp lime insulation we want to do on the walls in the house. As we drove up the drive we could see Buttercup with her tail stretched out straining. This can be what they look like in labour, but it is also what they look like having a wee. As she hasn't repeated it (I stared at her four HOURS) I presume it was not labour

Udder seems bigger again (did I mention it looked smaller yesterday?).

Bump is still huge.

She seemed extra friendly and as I was feeling her udder stood still with her head down like she did to be milked - which she hasn't since being dried off, she is always friendly and likes being scratched, but there was a special way she stood to be milked. Her teats feel like they have liquid in which they have not up until now.

Bigger udder again

Still a huge bump

Pins not gone?