Buttercup and Miss Petunia Sparkles

We've had a pretty busy spring/early summer.  I guess it mostly still feels like spring because it has been so unseasonably cool.  We were so dry for so long that now that it won't stop raining, I feel dirty for wishing it would dry out a little, but we are soaked through and through.  It has rained almost every day or every other day for nearly 2 weeks with rain in the forecast nearly every day of the next 7 days.  Anyway, here is some of the momentous things that have happened.

Our oldest daughter graduated 8th grade.  Yup, this is her entire class.  She's the short one, of course.  She won some faculty voted citizen award thingy.  I don't remember what it was, but I remember being very proud... 

This may not qualify as momentous, but I finally figured out how to grow asparagus. We have it in SPADES! Herself made a Cheesy Asparagus Tart.  It was amazing!  If that sounds weird to you, I get that; it sounded weird to me as well, but it was really good.  So cheesy, creamy, savory. She never ceases to amaze me with a wildly diverse and yet healthy menu... Who would think of such a thing?

This was truly momentous; Buttercup had her (and our) first calf!  She was born on 5-15-15 without any problems.  We voted on her name and came up with Miss Petunia Sparkles.

Miss Petunia Sparkles is typical in that, as a bottle calf, she is very friendly and endearing.  This is a shot of our second daughter brushing her.  Miss Petunia Sparkles doesn't give a toot about being brushed, she only thinks about getting fed.

Milking Buttercup has really proven to be a challenge for us.  In some ways, it seems a lot easier than I expected, and in other ways harder.  She has problems with one teat not producing that we haven't figured out, and are pretty worried about it.  But after growing up with beef cattle, her patience with me is just amazing!  She just lets me do my thing back there, and mostly waits compliantly until I am completely done before trying to move on.  She has been producing about 3.5 gallons, twice a day, and just out of 3 teats!  Herself has been experimenting with yogurt, cottage cheese, and pretty soon cheese. 

Is she not the cutest thing ever?  I was a little disappointed that she was a heifer, because now I'm tempted to keep her; if it was a steer, we would have butchered it once it got "of age."

Buttercup in the cover crop; I thought it was just too picturesque.

Sometimes we aren't able to drink the milk for various reasons, like if it gets contaminated with manure, etc, or we just can't drink it or use it fast enough.  We just turn it into bacon; the hogs don't mind if its a little "off", they go nuts!

Our second oldest is our farm-girl!  She loves this stuff, and she loves Miss Petunia Sparkles!  She feeds her almost exclusively, and I have even got scolded once for doing the morning milking without waking her up.

Sometimes farming is pretty dirty work, though.  Here is Oldest and I after Buttercup majorly  splattered us cow poo.  When that happens, you just got to grin and wear it!

On Halter-breaking Buttercup

Donkey vs. Cow: Donkey wins!

Buttercup is our Soon-To-Be milk cow.  She is kind of a "spaz".  She is really nice, and mostly gentle, but as is often the case in animals 10 times the size and weight of me, she goes where she wants to, when she wants to.  The solution? Tie her to something more determined than her, and even if the animal (a Donkey, in this case) weighs roughly half of Buttercup, apparently determination counts for more than weight does, because they go wherever that donkey decides to go! When the donkey is hungry, they go eat.  When the donkey is thirsty, they go drink.

I left them tied together for a week and I'll be darned if old Buttercup wasn't the most halter-broke cow ever after that.  Now the kids can lead her around!

I've decided that having large animal livestock is right up my alley.  "Breaking" an animal large enough to eat me (if they were inclined) or stomp me to death gives me just enough challenge to make it fun, and really rubs that itch inside of me to be a bully.  Its okay to be "mean" to a cow if you are halter breaking her; its just never okay to tie one of your kids or someone you dislike to a 800 lb donkey.  Or, recently I wanted to get so I could approach the Jack Donkey, so I tied him to a hedge tree (the only thing more stubborn than a donkey) for a week so that he could get used to me getting close to him.  Then I tied an concrete block to his halter and turned him loose.  It was just heavy enough to slow him down because he didn't like dragging around that thing.  I didn't keep it on too long, because it was really rubbing him across his nose, and my Inner Bully is not that strong...  Anyway, my thinking is, if I have these animals to be mean to, maybe my kids, my hired help, and Herself will be able to catch a break.