September 8, 2009

Right now we are all about our heifer.  Dear Raspberry is going to become a mom.  We think she is due in late December.  But her udder is bagging up.  Perhaps she was bred earlier than we thought?  That would be a welcome surprise.  (In one way.)  Though, I suspect she is just getting ready for her December baby.   Coming off the summer fields, she was a bit thin.  So now we are giving her daily grain (sweet feed) every morning, supplemented with cod liver oil, vitamin E, and black oil sunflower seeds.  At the end of this week we will resume bringing her in at night for a flake of alfalfa and to sleep in the barn.  Hopefully, her calf will be born in the barn.  In any case, its a good routine to establish for milking.  

Today we made udder salve to clear up a fungus Raspberry got this summer.  It felt especially gratifying to make salve, from picking out the herbs in the market to labeling the warm jar, in front of the kids.  Sometimes, when you need medicine, you can just make it.  Sometimes.  A good thing to know.   We chose nettles for their astringency, golden seal for its anti microbial and anti bacterial properties, pelleted bees wax for quick melting, and dried rosebuds....for love and pink energy.  I don't know why pink energy.  Maybe for the baby?  Maybe because her name is Raspberry?  Maybe because I'm silly enough to be pleased that way?  But these days I follow my intuition and it said to add rosebuds so we did.   All cooked up in an olive oil base.  I'll be curious to see if our potion has had any effect by tomorrow.

Nothing feels better than swaggering around the feed store in cowgirl boots and being led to a semi out back filled with the greenest brightest sweetest looking hay you've ever seen.  I gasped,  Oooooh how beautiful! when I first saw it.  The feed woman laughed and said it took her a long time to get used to people who get excited about hay bales.  She didn't know what she didn't know.  Frankly, until recently, neither did I.  But we knew enough to buy as much as we could afford.

This morning the woman ringing up our groceries asked us if we owned a cow.   How did she know?  Was it our smell?  (Likely.)  Was it the fact we all had on boots?   Was it because we were buying a load of groceries with absolutely NO dairy products of any kind?   Or, was it just that special cow glow?  Hard to say.  But we bonded over family milk cows in about ten seconds.  She grew up milking a Jersey every morning, a cow who lived 27 years.   I asked why she didn't have a cow now.  She said she didn't have enough time. 

Ah, time.  So that's where all my time is going these days.  But people don't realize how much wealth is in a cow.  They are time consuming and expensive - sort of.   Look what they can do.  A good dexter cow can give you a calf every year to raise for beef,  enough milk to raise the calf, your family, and other critters, and tons of manure for garden compost.   You might get as much as 3 gallons of milk a day while she's fresh, a few cups of that in cream.  And she'll do that for years.  And she can love you.   Instead of going to the grocery store, we have a love relationship.   When I call from the barn door, Raspberry comes up.  She comes up from where ever she is on the farm.  She loves us.  And the feeling is completely mutual.

4 comments:

rae said...

I just asked for an update, clicked over, and Voila! Instant gratification.

Oh, and I'm sure it was the boots...

Muah!

MOM #1 said...

What a sweet little cow. I can remember when y'all got her. She's going to be a Mom already? Boy . . . everything grows up so fast, it seems.

SabrinaT said...

How wonderful. Hope all goes well for the new addition...

Anonymous said...

Rosebuds in the medicine? What could be more perfect? love, V