Puppy love – isn’t there a song about it?
For us, it is evident whenever our corgi, Sophie, has puppies. They are so cute and lovable! With the litter born Aug. 4th, there are 3 tricolored males and 1 red female. They are now 21 days old and I will be putting an ad in the paper in the next week or two. My ad will read:
Corgi pups, AKC – parents are family pets. Born 8/4. Well socialized. $350. Call…..
Did you notice the “Well socialized” part? That really is important in a puppy’s development. Ask any pet psychiatrist!
Growing up in a family with children brings out their personality and develops their patience. Basically, teaching them skills needed throughout their lives – stomper truck racing and police boat driving (that little girl looks especially suspicious).
Our puppies have many socialization periods throughout the day – supervised of course! The difficult part comes when it is time to say goodbye. But, can you imagine our house if we kept them all?
No puppies were harmed during this or any other socialization period.
This has definitely been an exciting week around here with the flooding and now a new addition to the “family”! Buttercup, our family milk cow had a bull calf and thankfully, did it problem free. We knew she was close, in fact we thought she was overdue. In my zeal to keep our small house clutter free, I had thrown away last year’s calendar which had the dates of her heat cycle and the dates we took her to an Angus bull for mating! We were expecting a calf the first of June! But last year, the month after we had taken her to the bull, she broke out and found her way to a neighbors Angus bull! – she is such a social butterfly  So, when she did not deliver in June, we figured the neighbor’s bull was the father of the calf.
We could tell from her behavior that she was ready but since last year’s calving had taken quite a while, we went inside to eat supper. We have definitely relaxed – last year we were all outside in lawn chairs moving around the yard as Buttercup did, to watch her! We must have been quite a site! With such an attentive audience, no wonder it took her so long to calve!
While the kitchen was being cleaned up, our 10 yr old went outside to check on her and was the first to see “Brownie”. Thus named because he is a light brown color! He had the bone structure of an Angus rather than the jersey breed. As soon as he could stand and take a few steps, he was trying to follow us around like he was ready to play. Buttercup was not too thrilled about this but she sure liked all the praise we lauded upon her!
Last year, Buttercup had problems delivering the placenta. So, we planned to leave the calf on her for a few days hoping it would help in the delivery of the placenta. This time, however, she delivered it the same night. Since she delivered the placenta, Brownie was having trouble latching on, and Buttercup was frantic when taken in to be milked (even with John holding him at her head during milking) we decided to separate them the next day. This proved to be a wonderful move – Buttercup is calmer and now easy to milk.
After some work getting Brownie to suck, he now eagerly takes his milk bottle. He flicks his tail like a happy little puppy while he eats. Buttercup is doing well and is increasing in milk production. Last year when she freshened we were getting 8 gallons a day (4 in the morning and 4 in the evening). Although the break from milking was very nice, not having milk for over a month has made everyone excited about it again!
A wonderful book to read if you are interested in a milk cow is “Keeping a Family Cow” by Joann S. Grohman. This is my authority on cows and she warns owners to beware of letting the cow eat the placenta. Although it is suppose to be good for them, there is a chance of choking. This is exactly what happened with Buttercup. We thought she was going to die in front of our eyes! How would you do the Heimlich maneuver on a 900 + pound cow? Thankfully, she managed to save herself because I sure did no know what to do!
What does 5:00 mean to you? To our chickens it means, time to get out of the chicken yard and out into the open range!
Wow! Have we had a day of snow! It started this morning and has continued throughout the day. We have gotten at least 4 inches and as you can see from the pictures below, it has been met with mixed emotion. Everything is white and the roads are slick because it has not gotten above freezing all day! I am thankful for a warm house.
The children had a ball making a snowman! All helped but the others had gone inside by picture time. Only these diehards are left out in the cold and they are still smiling!
The dogs did not want to get off the porch even though it was wet and muddy from the children going in and out!
The chickens very carefully picked their way thru the white stuff. As cold as it has been today, we have still gotten plenty of eggs!.
Even Buttercup seemed in awe as she stands in the snow with it coming down around her. She has a “cow palace” to go into but she seems to enjoy the snow!
Yogurt is something our family really enjoys. Once I discovered how easy it is to make, our consumption definetly increased! Before we had Buttercup, to give us fresh milk, the most economical way to make yogurt was with powdered milk. When using powdered milk, I would mix the milk according to the package instructions and proceed with the recipe. I used store bought yogurt with active cultures as my starter. For larger batches, just remember to maintain the 1/2 c. starter per 1 gallon of milk ratio.
Homemade Yogurt
1 gallon whole or skim milk
1/2 c cultured plain yogurt starter*
Heat milk over medium heat to 180F. Allow milk to cool to 115F – 120F. I place the pot of milk into a sink of cold water to speed the cooling process.
Once the milk has cooled, add starter and stir well.
Pour into steralized jars. I steralize my jars by placing 1/2″ of water in each jar and microwave until the water boils. The steam from the boiling water steralizes the jar. When removing jars from the microwave, be careful, they are hot!
Wrap the jars in a bath towel and place in a warm, out of the way place for 6 – 12 hours. I wrap the jars, place them in an insulated cooler and leave overnight.
Unwrap the jars and refrigerate. The yogurt will separate if not chilled before using.
Save 1/2 c. to start your next batch.
* Starter can be store bought yogurt as long as it states “contains active yogurt cultures” on the label. Starter may also be purchased from The New England Cheese Making Supply. I have used both successfully.
** After several batches, the culture may not be as strong and the consistency of the finished product may not be as thick. When this occurs, I simply start with a new culture.
I have not introduced you to Sophie yet. She was a bit embarrassed about her “condition”. But, that is all taken care of now and we have 3, beautiful tri-colored welsh pembroke corgi puppies. She had two males and one female last Saturday night very late. Needless to say, everyone here is so excited.
Corgis were originally bred to be cattle dogs for herding. We do not have enough cows to “herd” but she sure gets a workout with the children!
The proud papa (actually, he could care less) is Scruggs. He is a red and white corgi.
They were with us in Alabama and have made the transition to west Texas easily. In Alabama, they were completely inside dogs. Here in Texas, they love walking over to the vineyard anytime someone is going and will stay as long as we do! They are still our beloved family pets, they are just outside more with a greater amount of exercise.
You may have met Buttercup in an earlier post, but in order not to offend any of the other backyard animals – here are our chickens.
Another large expenditure I noticed in the “Food” category of my budget book was eggs. I was buying at least one of the big boxes of eggs (15 dozen) at Sam’s Club a month. That is 180 eggs per month, 6 eggs per day! The obvious question was, “would having our own chickens be more economical?”.
Like Buttercup’s milk and the freshly prepared dairy products it yields, yard eggs would be healthy but would they be cheaper than store bought? The answer, as you may have guessed since we have chickens, was “yes”. After comparing the initial cost of the chicks and their daily feed, they are less than half the cost of store bought eggs.
We have Buff Orphingtons and ISA Browns. Only the Buffs are laying at the moment, or better, should be laying! They have decreased from ~12 to only ~5 eggs per day. I think they know that their replacements are in the hen house and they have gotten lazy! As soon as the ISA’s begin laying, chicken (Buff chicken that is) will be on the menu!
They are funny creatures. Most of the day they are kept in a large fenced area. But at the evening milking time, we let them out to scratch in the yard. They help control the fly population by spreading Buttercup’s “fertilizer” around.
 We have a couple that stand out from the rest. Pequenna (which means “small” in Spanish) is slightly smaller that the other chickens. Because her crown flops to the side, she looks as if her hat is perched sideways on of her head. She also lays the only white egg of the bunch so she in actually not a pure Buff Orphington.
Ruffles would always walk around with her feathers ruffled, seemingly to dissuade our younger children from picking her up. Actually, she is very tame, easy to pick-up and seems to enjoy the attention.
Not only are we saving money having the farm animals, it has also provided wonderful new experiences. We have learned about the animals’ habits, the care they require and most importantly our working together in different circumstances. For most of you, we have probably stretched our lives far beyond what you think is normal, possible or desirable. But, by keeping our own farm animals to lower expenses, we have also increased the quantity and quality of our poultry and dairy products.
If you have any interest in chickens, check out the Backyard Chicken. It is a great forum to find answers to “all things chickens”.
Gone are the days of milking by hand – hopefully forever. Although when we first got Buttercup, it was exciting and pioneering to milk by hand. Everybody did it – even down to our 3 yr old! Some were much faster, while others claimed their hands were too big – Yeah! Anyway, usually two people milked her (my daughters, daughter-in-law and I), for safety and to have a fresh set of hands to finish her off. But after she calved in June (her 3rd, but our 1st), she topped out at 8 gal. a day. That was 4 gal. per milking, each taking 40 min. which, needless to say, for us was tiring.
 So when we had the chance to switch to a milking machine, everyone wanted to take it. The “machine” actually consists of the “claw” (four pulsating suction cups), the 8 gal., vacuum rated, stainless steel milk can, connecting hoses and an electric vacuum pump (not shown). Sanitizing the milking machine does not take much more time than the 2 gal. pails we were using. And, cleaning Buttercup’s udder is no differnent either (water, a few drops of liquid soap and white vinegar). But now the actual milking process takes less than 10 min.! When we are done, the milk is poured into sterilized 1/2 gallon jars. Previously we filtered the milk as we transferred from the open pails to the jars. If there were any flies, straw or hair, they were removed by filtering. If we saw other undesirable matter, we ended up tossing out that pail’s contents = dog food. Even at that, we occasionally had some milk spoil = more dog food. But now, with the closed milking machine in use since July, we have not had any milk spoil – even when some got left in the frig for over 3 wks!
I love the age of technology!
Is that Buttercup (our family milk cow) eating what is left of my tomatoes? LET HER HAVE THEM!
Does she look a little sad? Only because she loves the ripe tomatoes and has nearly stripped the vines of them now. (We had 168 tomato plants in our garden.) As you can see from the picture, she has left the green ones and has not even touched the actual vines yet.
We had a freeze last week and the tomatoes that were left do not have much flavor. Believe me, my husband kept trying them since they looked ripe and tasty. But, even he admitted they are not good anymore. That settled it – Buttercup gets them!
We figure that after she cleans off every last red tomato, she’ll mooove on to the green ones. Mooing is what she does when my husband lets her in them each morning. As they cross the lawn she remembers what’s ahead and starts galloping! My husband has to run with her to keep up! He leads her with a halter but sometimes it is difficult to tell who is leading who!
When you think table scraps, do you normally think of a feeding them to a cow? I would think of a dog or a pig first! But, Buttercup loves leftover food from the table! While we do not normally have much food that is leftover from a family our size, when we do it gets divided between the dogs and Buttercup.
Do you know the one thing that we have found that she will not eat (and about the only thing)? Tumbleweed. Imagine, her not liking tumbleweed. After all, it is so dry, prickly and delectable! Actually, tumbleweed is also called Russian Thistle and was originally imported to the Dakota’s as an alternative cattle feed!
SHE sure does! I would like to introduce you all to our family milk cow, Buttercup. She is 3/4 Jersey and 1/4 Holstein. You may be thinking as you look at her….hamburgers, steaks, roast… But not Buttercup! She represents milk, yogurt, keifer, cheese, ice cream….
I posted earlier about analizing expenditures in my budget book. I realized that I was spending about $130 per month on dairy products. We do not eat much meat and dairy products count as a large source of our protein. I began wondering if having our own cow might not be more economical. Naturally, this fits right into my love of cows (acquired during our time in Switzerland). Sure enough, after doing the math, we now have our own cow which yields us more dairy products and of better quality than before. She costs us less than $100 per month. That includes her initial purchase price (depreciated over 3 yrs), grain, alfalfa, hay, and vet bills.
You may notice the bell that she is wearing. It is an authentic Swiss cow bell. Brought back from our travels. It is so nice to hear her tinkling (the bell that is) around the house.
We milk her twice daily (morning and evening). Newly freshened (when her milk comes in after calving), she gives about 8 gallons/day. After about 60-90 days, she tapers down to 5-6 gallons/day. Once bred again, she further drops to giving 3-4 gallons/day. I must add that her milk is 20-25% cream – that’s real whole milk!
I would never have imagined that a cow could have such personality. Not only is she stubborn as can be, she is also very personable. If we are outside, she comes like a puppy (a BIG 900 lb. one) just to be in our presence. She comes when called at milking time and waits eagerly for her grain. She obeys and is responsive to commands, especially if it is something she wants to do anyway.
Buttercup has an all-you-can eat buffet; our lawn grass and hay, accented with spoils from our garden, kitchen scraps and SCOBY’s. In return, she gives wonderful milk from which we enjoy making cheese, other dairy products and just drinking.
A very good book to read is Keeping A Family Cow by JoAnn S.Grohman. She is also the founder of the Keeping A Family Cow Forum which is filled with knowledgeable people and interesting topics.
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