Lots of Helpers

Cows

August 24, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We’ve had some interesting experiences with cows the last two months. First, some background information. Here in New Zealand, dairying is seasonal. Cows are all dried off in May and they calve in August, for the most part. During their dry period, in the winter, they are generally trucked to an area away from their home farm, to give the paddocks there a rest. Our landlord boards dairy cows from a couple of farms near Culverden, and he says it’s very good pay. He had 700-800 cows on his home farm, and around 100 on this farm. The beginning of July, one of the cows at his place “slipped her calf”–it was born dead about a month early. She bagged up, so he brought her over here for us to milk. She was here for three weeks, and we had a few circuses with her (she wasn’t used to being handled), but she was tame as a kitten compared with a couple of others we tried to milk!

The second week of August, one of the cows here calved. She had an enormous udder, so he said we could milk her. We spent two hours one Sunday afternoon, trying to tie her up! She jumped three fences before we could get a rope around her neck, and then it still took an hour to tie her tight enough to milk. During that time, she sent me flying once with her head, and by the end of that ordeal she was charging anyone who came close, and pawing hay up over her back like a bull when anyone so much as looked at her! She stayed tied up in a shed here for nearly a week till our landlord’s son was able to figure out how to untie her and get her back out with the mob.

Several days after that circus, our landlord asked me if I’d like to come over to their place to milk a cow whose calf had died. He has a headgate there, so we figured it wouldn’t be too hard to milk her. He put a rope on her hind foot so she couldn’t kick–but she did anyway! Soon, she was seemingly trying to kill herself and us! They put a strap around her belly to hold her up to the side of the chute she was in, but she laid down anyway. So much for that cow–after I left and the landlord let her go she was charging at him!

By now, I’ve had it with Friesiens. I’ve really been enjoying my sweet, gentle Jersey! I can walk up to her and lead her around by her halter anywhere I want to and she can be tied with a light string and stay put!

Yesterday, our landlord offered us another cow. This one has been in a paddock by herself close to his house for three months, ever since she hurt her foot on the truck coming over here from the dairy farm. Her leg is in such bad shape that when the last of the cows were loaded up and sent back yesterday her owner said to shoot her. She had calved the day before and had so much milk that our landlord decided to keep her, and kept back another bull calf that had been born there to put on her. He offered her to us to milk, and brought her and two calves over today. Her leg was so bad that she couldn’t get on the horse float, so they used this makeshift platform to bring her. She fell down on the way here, and I’m guessing she hurt her udder; there is blood in the milk. Hope that clears up soon.

Beach and Playground

August 18, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Yesterday the sun shone! We’ve had several weeks of mostly rainy days, so when it was nice yesterday I challenged the children to finish their schoolwork by 11:00. Everyone was done by 11:30, so we went to the beach for a little while. We wanted to be home by 1:00 to be around when our landlord’s son came over to work with a wild cow that was here, but the beach is less than 15-minute’s drive away so we can go for just a short time.

A cold wind was blowing off the Pacific, so we didn’t stay out there very long. I told the boys to see who could find the most interesting item washed up along the high-tide line, and they came up with some good ones. There was part of a horse mussel shell with barnacles on it, a sponge attached to a shell, and a clump of several different seaweeds with various shells through it. The 2-year-old collected a lot of sponges. (When his Daddy came home from work, he wanted to show him his “seahorses”!)

The trail that goes up and over a small bluff to the beach.

Off on the search for treasure!

The clump of seaweed and shells.I carried baby, in his wrap, and the sponges that 2-year-old collected.

After spending awhile on the beach, we went to the playground on the other side of the bluff. There is just enough of a rise of land to break the wind, and it was lovely and warm there. Some of the boys just climbed around, but most of them spent time one time or another figuring out how to balance the seesaw with their various weights. A seesaw, by the way, is a great way to learn how a balance scale works, and how you can use your weight on a lever in different ways!

Balanced! Baby woke up and enjoyed the bright day, too! On our way home, we drove through the Cheviot Domain–an area of public land–to admire the daffodils.

Goat in the House

August 16, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

No, we don’t normally have goats in the house. But, this morning, as we were nearing the end of the day’s school (thankfully!) the boy who had finished first came running in, telling his sister that she had a present in the barn. Of course, we knew immediately what he meant, since when she checked the goats this morning she came in saying that Cocoa was getting pretty close. Sure enough, when we went out a pretty little doe kid was being cleaned off. Soon, a buck kid joined little Spice, but the mama didn’t seem interested in him. We brought Spice in the house to try to get mama to clean the second kid, and after awhile went back out to milk her to feed the kids. The mama doesn’t seem very interested in the babies, which is all right with us, as we were planning to bottle feed them anyway so we get a little more milk. The buck does have Esther a bit concerned, though–he won’t eat much. Spice is eating plenty, though–nothing wrong with her. The children named the buck Captain Cook, since he was exploring around the barn as soon as he was on his feet.

Candle

August 16, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One thing I love about homeschooling is the creativity the children get the opportunity to exercise. For his birthday last week, Simon wanted candle wicks–his current interest (at least, one of his current interests!) is making candles. The wicks came today, and he wanted to try out an oil lamp, like people used in Bible times. I gave a tiny bit of direction–and permission–and he did the work. He used a large mussel shell, filled it with cooking oil, and submerged a wick in it. It works! I wasn’t sure what would happen when he lit it, so made him try it outside on a metal pan, and had a tub of baking soda close. No problem–it burned perfectly and safely.

Update: Several minutes after I posted this, someone went outside and noticed the cats lapping up the oil! So, if you try this, don’t leave it where your cats can reach it.

When Your House is Full of Boys…

August 14, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

…you may hear conversations about topics such as butchering our heifer and what we’re going to do with the hide (I’ll spare you the details of how to work on it). Yes, we do plan to butcher the heifer (she is not going to calve, after all), and the boys are anxious to do the killing, gutting and skinning ourselves–they can’t stand it that Daddy hasn’t made the decision yet. Part of the conversation included chewing hides to soften them, as the Eskimos do, and eating raw meat, as the Indians do. Boys! I hope the rain stops soon for awhile so they can get outside again–this cabin fever is going to drive me crazy!

Slow Down!

August 12, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I’m not ready for this–my baby is starting to get around already! A couple of days ago he started getting up on his knees and lunging forward to grab things that he wants. In my opinion, four months is too early for this–but he doesn’t care what I think.

Black Chicken

August 9, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I was putting a chicken and a duck in the crockpot this morning to roast for supper, and told the boy who happened to be in the kitchen, “I’m cooking a purple chicken and a wild duck!” He laughed and reminded me about a Mexican who once bought some chickens from us. When we lived in Michigan we sold a lot of old laying hens to Mexicans–they liked them better than fryers and bought a lot from us live to butcher themselves. This particular man wanted a white chicken, and we happened to have one that was covered with white feathers. Now, it so happens that some white chickens (I think Silkie bantams) happen to have purplish skin, and the meat and even the organs are quite dark. This man took the chicken home and killed and plucked it, but the next day he was back complaining about the “black chicken.” His exact words were, “We eat cat, and we eat dog, but we don’t eat black chicken!” I think we gave him a different chicken, and we’ve been chuckling about it ever since.

By the way, this is a great way to use a tougher chicken, like an old laying hen. My sister-in-law discovered this method by accident, and I now do it a lot. Simply put one or two chickens in the crockpot with no water and turn on high for 6-10 hours, till they are fully cooked. Delicious and tender! I take off the breast meat when we’re ready to eat, and the drumsticks and thighs, then add water to the pot and cook again to make broth from what’s left.

Times Have Changed!

August 5, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Yesterday when we were cleaning I saw some notebooks I used to keep a journal in for the older children when they were young. I tried to write something once a week for each of them. I actually kept that up for about four or five years before life got too busy! I brought out the book I wrote for our oldest, and read her a few excerpts. She enjoyed that so much that she copied some things into her blog, and scanned a few pictures from the photo album I made her when she was small. I was reading that book and looking at pictures from back when we had a 3-year-old, a 2-year-old, and a baby. How times have changed! Back then, if something needed doing, I did it. Now, I can assign it to be done. Then, I was working with babies all day, with no adult conversation–no wonder I liked talking on the phone! Now, I can converse intelligently with my nearly-grown daughter, and the boys are even old enough to really talk to. And, they can do so much by themselves. For example, yesterday afternoon the 8-year-old wanted some play dough. He had come across a recipe in one of our science books. I told him to make it himself. He did, with only a little coaching while I was working nearby, and then he taught two of his brothers (10 and 6) how to, also! He also made dinner rolls, but was confused about Tablespoons and teaspoons and used the wrong one to measure the salt! Oops. Now we know what happens to yeast when too much salt is put with it. He made the rolls into tortillas instead and I’ll use them for a casserole that needs salt.

Notice the tabletop. So many blogs I read have pictures of immaculate kitchens. They always seem a bit unreal to me. This is very real life in our house! The ingredients for a meal or two are sitting there waiting to be used!

He’s a Distraction!

August 4, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

No, I haven’t been on here much lately. For one thing, there hasn’t been anything real exciting happening–just daily life. For another, we have a major distraction–this was yesterday during school: