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?!