Adventures with Alice, Part 3

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

I haven't done very well with pictures lately, as I have no pictures of Alice being milked yet, or of her cute calf who is growing quite quickly. But here is an update on some typical experiences. First off, of course, she got mastitis. That sounds about right, doesn't it?! In my limited farming experience, something always happens to keep everything from going smoothly. For example, lambing last year started with eight dead sheep--six lambs and two ewes--before we had any lambs live. It's going better this year. Of seven births, we have five living lambs (no, Tom, the little one we had Sunday didn't survive). But that's just the way farming goes. So, she got mastitis before she was done with colostrum and we had to give her antibiotics which made the milk unfit for human consumption for several days. Fortunately, Alan recognized the signs quickly so she didn't get a bad case. Eventually, however, we were able to benefit from her milk. We've been getting 4-5 gallons per day after feeding the calf. Briana and I are having fun skimming the cream off the top of the milk. I think that's a nice amount to get from a gallon of milk! We made a little bit of butter from it the really old-fashioned way--by shaking it! We plan to make more butter today using my Grandma's electric butter churn (thanks to all those who let me use it and worked together to get it to me! My cousin Deanna, my aunt Marlene, and my mom!) I know all my past posts show my daughter as a sweet, proper young lady. She really is all those things--from the heart out. But she's a bit of a goofball too! I don't know where she gets that! ha, ha I don't think she really thought I would take the picture while she was goofing off--but she gave me permission to post it! The butter sure tastes mmmm. . . .mmmm good! I took Deanna's suggestion and checked out the Country Living Encyclopedia from the library and we've been having fun reading it and getting ideas of what to do with all the milk/cream/buttermilk. I think I'm going to have to buy my own copy so the library's copy will sometimes be available to other patrons! There is a ton of info in this book! Alan is even enjoying reading it.