Clover is growing up

Clover enjoying the warm weather and sunshine.
Clover was the first heifer born on our farm. Not the first calf mind you, but...the first little girl we were so excited to have born here. She is just over a year old now, it's hard to believe it was just a little over a year ago that she was born.




Clover with her Mom in the background.
She was born to Mabel (the cow in the background) but mostly raised by Daisy...although once we got Honey, she really had three Moms, cause they all claimed and protected her. Daisy was the most insistent about it though.




Clover as a young calf, being taught to lead.
Ever since she was born, she has been getting a little training here and there to be a working member of our family cow herd. She had lead training...maybe not as much as she should have, but she had some so she can be led on a rope. She has also had stanchion training, including having hands touching her udder area, so she gets used to being "milked" and hopefully won't be to hard to, once we are able to.




Clover standing up after her rest time.
A week or so ago DH informed me she needed to be bred, once she came into heat again because she was old enough. So this last weekend, when we saw the steers paying more attention to her than normal, we called up the AI tech we've been using who lives just a few miles away from us and scheduled an appointment for that evening.

This was her first time, and I didn't go out to the barn to watch, as it was suppertime, but DH told me she did pretty good. She came running in to the barn when he called her, even though she had just been in there for her evening feeding. She stood and maybe moved around a little bit, but not to bad, and even let DH show the guy that she will stand with him touching her udder. The AI tech was impressed with her, said she looked good and was a good size for her age. That's all good to hear, cause we are still kinda "new" at this cow thing, even if we have had them for a couple years now. She IS our first one to raise up for milking purposes, so we are still learning.

The AI tech even said her coloring isn't to odd for a Jersey. LOL I've always thought it strange she was so dark...course I was really hoping she would look like her Mom, cause I think her Mom is the prettiest of our cows, although I still prefer Daisy cause of her cute attitude. I'm kinda hoping the all dark body comes from Clover's Dad's side, so maybe we can bred Mabel again and get a lighter colored calf out of her...and hopefully another girl, since I'd love one that looked like Mabel to keep.

Anyway, all this to say, it appears like Clover is growing up nicely, is fairly well trained for being a milk cow, especially for us not knowing exactly what we should be doing, AND if we are lucky, will be giving us a calf in 9 months or so! I am praying she took anyway, won't know for sure for a while yet.

How cool it will be to have a 2nd generation baby born on our farm! Gotta love any of our farm babies, but I especially love them when we've raised their Mommas from birth. :-))

Seriously Spoiled

Peaches talked DH into picking her up when he was in his office at his computer yesterday...and then promtly rolled over and asked for a tummy rub. She adores her tummy rubs, and has been getting a LOT of them lately. LOL

It's funny how our fur babies can let us know what they want without saying a word. Peaches just rolls over, arches her back and wiggles a little bit, while looking at you with those big sad puppy dog eyes, and we fall in line and start rubbing her tummy. She has us wrapped around her paw, thats for sure. *giggle*

She is just to cute for her own good!!!! :-))

Stupid Kitchen Designer

Welcome to my messy freezer!
Whoever designed my kitchen was NOT very good. She obviously didn't know what she was doing when she put the side of the refrigerator against the wall. Hmmm, who that "stupid" kitchen designer was, I'll never tell, *snicker* but I do wish she had been smarter and made sure the kitchen was big enough so the fridge could have been turned differently so it wasn't against the wall. Since I have a side by side, it makes it hard to open the freezer door far enough to be able to pull out the baskets...which means when they jump the track it's a pain in the rear to get them back on again...and they do like to do that a LOT. *sigh* Guess I'll know next time I "design" a kitchen...if there is a next time.

Since we have lived here, I've learned that if I want to get the baskets pulled out very far I have to pull out the fridge, and turn it a little so there is room to open the door further. I have also learned that larger items live in my bigger freezers, not the little side by side, because even if they would fit on the shelves, they won't fit through the small space between the open door and the middle bar of the fridge.

It's been a major pain, but...I do what I have to do. I live with dumpster cabinets, so I don't have to go into debt to have nice matching ones till we can afford them, so guess I can live with my poor pathetic badly designed, for my fridge, kitchen too...least as long as I have to, I can...although not without complaining about it from time to time. *snicker*

However...we may have found a fix for this problem now. An expensive one, but one that I think will work...and no it's not finally redoing our kitchen with nice cabinets...we can't afford that yet, as it would cost more than our expensive fix. LOL

I've been wanting a 2nd fridge for some time now, I was hoping it could be dedicated for aging cheese, but yet I also knew we could use one especially in the summer so we could have room for more milk and still have room for all that yummy summer fruit. We've had to be sparing with the fruit in the past couple years cause we didn't have room for it in our fridge.

Since our taxes are done for the year, and it turns out we have a little extra money to spend, we decided a refrigerator was one thing we were going to get. Our ice maker had just died on us, so we figured it was a good time to get one, and let our old one be our 2nd refrigerator, instead of finding a used one somewhere to have more fridge space, after all our old one has got to be getting close to 10 years old now if not a little more, and they don't last like they should anymore.

DH was in the market for a new table saw also, since his old one had died on him, and I had some things I need him to make for me...thankfully we had enough for both a saw and a refrigerator.

We went looking for saws this last week, and I looked at refrigerators while we were at it. I had been going to wait two or three months, but wanted to look at them so I knew what there was out there and how much money we were talking.

Refrigerators have changed a LOT since we got our last one. Least I don't remember them having the french door ones with the freezer on the bottom. We both fell in love with them, cause the freezer pulls out, which means it wouldn't be a problem any more, and the top is one big open space, so even though one of the doors would open against the wall, it would still be easy enough to get in and out of, cause if nothing else we could open the one beside it if we needed to. Who knew that getting another refrigerator would be a way to fix our problem...I just wanted it so we had more room at first...but once I saw the french door refrigerators I wanted one of THEM so we didn't have to fight the wall as much! :)

I keep walking away from the french doors, not knowing if I should spend the big bucks for one, and DH kept telling me I should...guess he is really tired of the freezer problem too. *giggle*

I told him I thought maybe we should wait a little bit, he asked "why?".

So...we finally settled on one last week, and ordered it. (They didn't have white in stock, and that's what I wanted so we have to wait for it...sounds like it could take almost a month to get here, don't know why so long, but it was on sale, and may have been out of stock, not sure.) We won't talk about the price though...I'm still in sticker shock...and it was on sale!!

Anyway, (when I can forget about the price) I'm so excited, and can't WAIT to get it! I did pay for delivery, cause DH is recovering from his back surgery, but isn't THAT recovered, that I want him wrestling a refrigerator off the truck and into the house, and there is no way I could do it myself.

Now we wait...and dream of summer fruit!

Can we say....watermelon? I've missed having it a lot in the summer, we had a few but not like we would have if we had had more room.

So much for a 2nd refrigerator being a dedicated cheese refrigerator. I may have to try aging it in cooler temps, and see if it will work that way...cause I guess I want more regular fridge space, more than lots of aged cheeses, least at this time.

Now we just have to figure out where to put our old one...think we are running out of room for large items, so it could be interesting figuring this all out. LOL

So...do any of you have a french door refrigerator already and if so how do you like it? I'm hoping we love it a lot, and don't regret paying the price!

Just remember, don't be like me...if you are designing your kitchen space, make SURE you don't put the fridge so the side is against a wall...unless it's a short stub wall that doesn't come out past the fridge.

Course I realize most of you probably figured that out long ago, I've always been a little on the slow side. *giggle*

Attention Digital Scrapbookers!

For all of you Digital Scrapbookers out there, we are starting a new year of digital scrapbooking challenges on the Blush ~n~ Dusty yahoo group now, so if you are interested come join us! We got a late start, but it's good to take time off from challenges now and then, so that's ok.

Because the group owners are wanting to push publishing your Layouts into books for posterity, they are giving the designer of the winning layout $10.00 so hurry in to the Blush ~n~ Dusty group and find out how to join us!

You have till the end of February to get this first layout in before we do our first poll. :)

Sour Dough Starter

Wow...can you believe it? I have what looks like sour dough starter! Amazing!!!

Well it is for me, since it took me FOREVER to be able to get milk to clabber in my house. I thought for sure this was going to be another one of those things that would bug me for months, before I managed to get it to work for me...but it surprised me! Just a week or so after I started trying to grow my own starter, it's growing and filling the jar now, between feedings! Yippee!!!

Course, just because it looks right, doesn't mean it is...to me it kinda smells odd, but I don't really know what sour dough starter is suppose to smell like, as I've never had any before (or sour dough bread for that matter) but hopefully as it grows it will start smelling better to me...either cause it is smelling better, or cause I get used to the smell. LOL

I'll keep feeding it for a little longer, before trying to make anything with it...to give it a chance to get a little stronger...and hopefully smell better. :)

Least I may be on the right track to be able to start learning to make sour dough items...DH should be happy about that, cause he is the one who first mentioned that it would be neat if I could make some sour dough bread. Not going to try that first, but there are other things that I can try, that are suppose to be easier to make. Then, once I learn them...I'll try some of that bread he wants. :)

I even found a good use for my fancy (for me) cell phone! I use the alarm to remind me to give the starter, it's evening feeding. I usually remember the morning one, cause I'm in the kitchen, but was having trouble with the evening one, so now my phone tells me to go feed it. Knew that fancy new thing would be good for something! *giggle*

I just think it's so cool that I got the starter looking like I've heard it's suppose to. If I'm lucky I won't kill it...like I do a lot of plants I've had over the years. *giggle*

A new chicken dish.

I'm always on the lookout for new recipes I can try, especially if they are super easy and use ingredients that I've been learning to make from scratch myself like the chicken broth and cream cheese that is used in the following recipe.

When I saw this recipe I saw that it looked easy and used two of the ingredients I've been enjoying making lately, so thought I'd give it a try. It was an instant hit, both for me AND my hubby and is now my favorite chicken dish...least till I get tired of it. LOL

Hope you like it too!

Chicken & Rice with pan sauce
Printable recipe

Two Chicken Breasts
Oil for cooking the chicken
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
8 oz cream cheese
1 tab chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Cut up chicken and fry it in ghee (or your favorite oil) till browned and cooked through.

Add the broth and cream cheese and cook, stirring till sauce reduces and thickens.

Add parsley if you have it, and stir in. Serve over brown rice.

I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure it would be yummy with some vegetables in it too...or just serve them on the side like I did. :)

A super easy yet tasty way to use up that homemade chicken or turkey broth you made, as well as the homemade cream cheese. :-))

Adapted from a recipe I found from Kraft.

Post links to: Fat Tuesday, Traditional Tuesday

The big Five O

My hubby will be turning 50 on Sunday. This photo is one I took yesterday with him wearing a shirt my parents sent him for his birthday. He's been wanting a "Farmall" shirt kinda like his Dad had years ago, when his Dad worked for Farmall in the 60's before he died, so finally someone (my parents) took pity on him and got him one. LOL

It's hard to believe Hubby will be 50 this year...course it's hard to believe it's already Friday...this week went by FAST, and I have no blog posts to show for it! LOL

Anyway, we had a Dr appointment on Wed, for a "back" checkup for hubby, and got good news! DH's back is starting to fuse together now, AND...he can lift whatever, as long as it doesn't hurt his back!!! He was just told, if it hurts, don't do it, otherwise go for it! :-))

Course, he is still mending, and still can't lift as much as he used to yet...but he is also getting better daily I think. Just a week or so ago he came to me all excited, cause he could put his jeans on standing up, without leaning on the wall! I told him, dang, I can't even manage that...I'm not graceful enough...so he is doing better than I am! (I think I'd end up falling on my face if I tried to do it myself. *giggle*)

Actually he had been able to do one leg into his jeans for a little while, without leaning...but not the other, so he was really happy to see yet another improvement, even now 5 and a half months after his surgery. :-))

I'm so glad he is doing so well, it's just such an improvement from before surgery...actually from several YEARS before surgery! God willing he will continue to improve and enjoy life more in the years ahead!

Happy (early) Birthday to the love of my life!! I LOVE you Galen and consider myself the luckiest woman alive to be spending my life with you!! :-))