My milking adventure

So here is the 300.00 bottle that was broken by the cow thanks to me leaving the parlor door open enough for a couple of cows to get in. Tom and Charlie sealed the bottom of the bottle so it works for now, but a replacement bottle had to be ordered anyhow.

A while back I tried out the pink cane with my pink ball cap. A good look in the barn I think.

Today I got to try out milking. Tom needed some help and when I drove back from picking up Ben at school, Jo met me in her car and asked me to go over to the house, get Ben’s barn clothes and her barn boots, we were all heading back to the barn to get the milking started for Tom. Monday is Terry’s day off, so Tom is short handed and the cows are just starting to go back out to pasture. Bringing them back to the barn after a long winter takes some practice for everybody.

Working at a farm means that you need to be able to adjust quickly to the demands. I generally do the billing for the farm and for Jo’s web business. But when a kid needs to be picked up, errands done, sap lines rolled up, you just have to be flexible.

I was a bit of sissy with the milking though. The loud noise is unsettling for me. Some of the cows kick. I got my finger really pinched and a cow nearly peed on my head. Tom, Charlie and Jo all laughed watching me learning how to milk. There is a ton to learn.

First you get the cows in. Then you clean off the teats and give them each a squeeze to make sure there are no problems with the milk. Then wipe them down and apply the milking thing-a-dings that suck the milk out. It looks like a spider with 4 nozzles and a silver body in the middle. You have got to make sure the machine is turned on, or else it won’t attach to the teats. Sometimes the cow doesn’t like it and kicks it off. When the cow is done the machine shuts off the suction and the spider looking thing-a-ding drops off. The cows are then checked again, cleaned off and released. More cows come in to fill their place.

I don’t think I could be a dairy farmer. I don’t think I could milk sheep or goats twice a day either.

I am a spinner and a knitter. I like sheep and I like wool.

mowing the lawn

Saturday is the day to mow the lawn. The sound of mowers is in the air and everyone else’s lawn is looking good and groomed. Not ours. We took one of the net fences and made a small patch in the area next to the fenced pasture. . The land is too steep there to mow with a machine, plus what a pain.

The sheep love mixed salad. Young shrub leaves, clover, grasses, apple and maple tree leaves. They nearly cleaned it out today. I guess we should repeat this every couple of weeks keep the grass down enough so we don’t have to mow with the machine. There are two other patches that we have mowed in the past. It would be nice to dispense with having to mow the lawn on the weekends.

The area used to be fenced as part of the pasture, but when the llamas where here, the slope got eroded pretty quickly. The llamas were really huge and a bit too protective of the flock.

The llamas certainly had character, but would scare folks. It was difficult to have visitors come up and be with the sheep with the llamas running interference all of the time. So we found them a new home. We really enjoy having just the sheep and a couple of ducks.

We are now down to 4 females and 1 drake. Everybody is adjusting and I am enjoying the peace tonight.

Tomorrow the sheep will finish up the mowing job. Some might look at this as going green or having a low carbon foot print. All of which is true. But I am lazy. If the sheep can feed on an area that would just have to get mowed anyhow, not let them do the work.

Sorry, no pictures

A couple of weeks ago I didn’t close the sliding door to the milk parlor all the way.  I should have known better.   A two cows poked their noses in and pushed open the door.  Then they decided to go into the parlor.  The problem was that only one parlor door was open and the cows were close to the pit where Tom and Terry stand at milking.

Davis Hill Farm has a double 5, which means 5 milking stations per row, and 2 rows.   The cows are lead into the parlor and they line up, one after another.  There are gates at both ends of the lines.  The front gate is closed, the cows line up, the back gate closes behind them.

The milking machines are hooked up to each of the cows and the udders are at eye level with the milkers.  The pit is about 2 1/2 feet below the cows allowing for easier milking.  When the milking has finished, the front gate opens up and lets the cows go back out into the yard.  The gate also prevents the cows from falling into the pit below.

So when the two snoopy bovine went in,  the gate was in front of the line, leaving the pit exposed.   I was afraid one or both would fall in.  Which they did, but then got themselves out.   No harm to the cows, but in the process a milking glass was broken.   That is the glass tank that the milk goes into from the cow, before it goes into the bulk tank.   The replacement cost of one glass is 300.00.

To help cover the cost of the replacement glass, I told Tom that I would work it off.  So today I helped the boys in the sugar bush by rolling up the lines.  I am soooooo tired tonight.  The farm has about 1100 taps.  The lines zig-zag through the woods.  Tom and Charlie would unhitch the tap and would wash it out by sucking water into it.  There is a vacuum at the sugarhouse that pulls the sap though the lines and when you wash them out, you place the tap line in a bucket of water and the water is  sucked though the lines, cleaning them out.

My job was to go behind the boys them role the lines up for storage.   It took about 3 and a half hours and we got about 1/2 of it done.

While in the woods I was wishing I had my camera.  It was so beautiful.  The flowers, Trillium and Monkshood were just coming up and the forest floor had tiny little white woods flowers all around.  Ferns were just beginning to uncurl and we talked about the evidence left by bear, deer and racoons.   The bugs were pretty terrible and the lines were awkward and heavy, but the view was certainly worth it.

Next week we will finish up and I will try and remember my camera.

Head ewe Wu

Madame Wu has become the head ewe.  Cory held that title, but with her departure, Wu has stepped up.

Every flock has a dominant ewe and if there are several rams, one of them will be the top boss.  There is order to that system.  It works well for the flock.  Tiny and Madame Wu are about the same age, but with Tiny’s troubles this past winter, she lost status.  Wu would routinely challenge Cory by head butting,  and if Cory had stayed here then perhaps in a few years the status might have changed.

With Cory’s departure, Wu stepped right up.  Good for her.  She is a great sheep.  5 lambs, all ewes, all with color.  2 sets of twins.  Yup a good sheep.   We will keep her.

4 brothers gotta go

When the sheep head up to the pasture Brutus the cat, Jigger the dog and the ducks go too. It is a daily event.

Three ducks have been around for a couple of years. The female in the front is the mother of the bad gang of six. born last August. She had a tough time of it. Had a clutch, then one by one all of the ducklings vanished. We discovered a weasel. She then laid a second clutch and had about a dozen. Mostly males we later found out, so over the winter we had a couple for dinner.

We slacked off and have 6 of last years ducks left, 2 females and 4 brothers. They have matured and one female is on the nest most of the time with her own batch of eggs. We expect ducklings any time now.

One of the changes is that the younger ducks have been picking on our original 3. They have run them off to the neighbor’s pond. The original three are friendly and we miss seeing them around the house.

Tonight as I brought the flock up to pasture, the males from younger group began chasing off the three older ones. Time to put an end to this. Too many males. The 4 brothers gotta go. There really isn’t a market for mature males.

This weekend we will add the 4 drakes to the dinner menu. The females will remain and any ducklings will hopefully be sold at our local farm store. A buck a duck. Seems like a fair price.

Ducks are used here at the farm for parasite management. They hang out with the sheep and eat a ton of bugs that would otherwise cause harm to the flock. But a large group of young males is loud. I have been closing the window at night. The males make a horrible noise of aggressive quacking, normally at first light around 4:30 am.

On a different note, tonight is the first night that the sheep will be up in the pasture all night and back down in the morning. We have been easing them onto pasture. Most have done well, except for Ohio Dawn who is the most tummy sensitive sheep I have. She is getting a bit better now, but the new grass didn’t agree with her too well at first.

The fence is made electric by a solar run battery. We bought it last summer and it was swell. I stored it over the winter and it hasn’t charged up correctly this spring. So back to the company that made it and hopefully it will come back fixed quickly.

The first few times the sheep head up to the pasture in the spring, I would keep the fence off so that babies who don’t quite get the gate opening are able to get in without being zapped. Sheep will mind a fence if there is plenty of grass, so for the most part, an electric fence is not breeched. The lambies only need one zapping to stay away.

Merinos have such dense wool that they can brush up against an electric fence without being zapped, unless it is wet or the contact is on an ear, nose or nibbled. Then watch out, the zap is audible and the whole flock jumps.

I am taking a gamble on having the sheep up there all night without the fence being on. I am not worried about predators, only that the sheep may not stay put and will breech the fence and come home on their own.

The ducks will most likely stay up there as well. If there is trouble I will hear it, first from them. It is a bit of irony that the noisy ducks need their numbers thinned. Afterwards the three older ducks will hopefully come back to stay here with the flock. One male and 4 females total. A much better balance.